Chapter Twenty-One: Golden Opportunity
OR
The Power of Five
A.N: Look at zat! The pattern changed again. Mankind & Tara and Kane & Raven now share chapters while Daffney gets one all to herself. I've also moved the date of a certain wedding backwards in time a little bit as it's now September, 2010. Enjoy the insanity!
MANKIND'S POV
Daffney, Raven and Kane leave the bar just as a few of the cops start to stir. The one who let Kane and the others leave raises her head and looks at me, her eyes glaring at me. Then she turns and leaves with the rest of them.
"My business sucks," Tara says and I look at her, my eyebrow raised. She sighs and explains. "This is the third time this week cops have come in here but this time it wasn't a raid. I'm soaked."
"That sucks."
"I have nowhere to go, either. So I'm out on my ass with a wad of cash and a mean taste for blood." Tara pouts and looks at me. "Damnit."
An idea strikes me and I take her hand, holding her palm between my thumb and forefinger.
"Come with us," I say quietly and she blinks.
"What?"
"You said it yourself; you've got nowhere to go. And Daffney could use a gal-pal right about now. You can cause all the bloodshed you like too."
She seems to consider it for a moment before she smiles knowingly at me, flicking a strand of blood red hair from her eyes. "I'll do it."
By the time we catch up to the two dingbats and Daffney, they're standing in front of an electronics shop. Daffney is jumping up and down trying to jump up and see over Kane's shoulder but she can't so she jumps onto Raven's back and clings to him. On the TV inside the shop is an episode of the new WWE show, WWE NXT. And on that screen is someone I KNOW Kane hates more than Stevie, more than Mark, hell, even more the James and Mindy.
Dustin Rhodes AKA Goldust.
I look up at Kane and see his eyes darken. He's hated Dustin for a hell of a long time. Ever since that big fight they had just before Raven was put into the asylum. Dustin had called Raven a butt-fucking suck-monkey, which had set the little psycho off and Kane had somehow gotten involved. It had ended when Kane and Raven had to run because of the cops. But since then, Kane had vowed vengeance.
And I think I know what he's going to do.
~X~
TARA'S POV
Now that I'm thinking about it, hanging around these guys is probably a really good idea. I mean sure, they're professional serial killers out for blood but who isn't? They're just more open about it.
As we walk towards an arena where WWE NXT is in the middle of broadcasting its Tuesday night live show, Poison, my pet Tarantula, puts his two front legs on the glass of his lantern. He seems to enjoy the pain.
Raven and Daffney lure the two guards away so we can get in and Mick climbs over the fence first, dropping to the ground with a muffled thud. Kane drops next to him and picks up a crowbar from the inside of the security box, ready to pry open the gate so Raven and Daffney can come back in.
I clip Poison to my belt and start climbing. When I was a kid, my Dad used to take me and my sister, Mia, with him on camping trips up to the mountains so climbing has always been a second nature to me. But I'm nervous about what Kane has planned so my hands are all sweaty and I lose my grip of the fence, dropping down.
Two strong arms catch me and I look into the masked face of Mick as he smiles at me.
"Watch it," he says with a cheeky grin and I smile back, feeling my cheeks heat up as he puts me back on the ground. I look down at Poison and see him upside down, his legs waving in the air. Aww, my poor baby.
Kane breaks the chain on the fence so Raven and Daffney can come in. They do and I step back a little, noticing the blood trailing down their faces like bizarre make-up.
These people are oddly bizarre in a refreshing sort of way. I have… had to deal with fucking models and plastic people coming into the bar every single night and it pissed me right the fuck off. I mean, my older sister, Amelia, owned the bar before me but she gave me the ownership papers when I was eighteen. I'm twenty now but during the past two years, the steady flow of peroxide and other bleaching chemicals was just enough to drive me mad.
Which is when the murders started.
Last year, a blonde girl and her dumbass boyfriend came into the bar and asked if they could use a back room. With a suggestive bob of the eyebrow, she smirked at me and tugged on her boyfriend's tie and I waved them off towards the back. I handed the glass and rag I was holding to one of the other bartenders and followed them into the storage room where he was busy biting at her neck as she pulled his t-shirt over his head. I picked up a hammer from the wall (a sledgehammer we keep with us in case of emergency) and slammed it on the guy's hand, effectively breaking three of his fingers.
More bone breakage followed before I finally caved and flattened his head with the hammer and impaled the girl to a wall with a butcher knife before dumping their bodies in a dumpster outside and dousing them with gasoline and setting them on fire. Creative, no? Anyway, that was the first of many murders to come. Peroxide Divas and their boyfriends tended to avoid the bar after the eleventh or twelfth murder which was fine with me. After that, gangster's and mafia bosses and hookers started coming in so my murdering days kind of stopped. Then I read in the paper that Kane had escaped and the police were looking for him so I knew it wouldn't be too long until I saw The Big Red Machine and his friends at Kane's favourite haunt.
Mick and I follow behind Kane and Raven as Daffney brings up the rear and we walk down the concrete path towards the big double doors of the arena. The guards at the door step forward to stop us but Kane practically decapitates them with his axe.
"That had to hurt," I say, stepping over their bodies as they twitch in agony. A sadistic grin spreads across Kane's jaw and he kicks the doors open, startling the spectators inside. We go off in search of an entrance to the arena inside.
~X~
MANKIND'S POV
Eventually we find an entrance but its far back in the stands and we have to walk down heaps of steps just to get to ringside. Daffney takes the switchblade knife she found on the way in to one of the security guards while Raven leans over the barricade and grabs a camera wire and strangles another. Kane stands back with his axe over his shoulder while Tara and I stand next to him and watch the mayhem as it goes on. A spark of electricity shoots through my hand and I look down to see the smaller woman holding my hand, her fingers laced with mine. I feel myself smile. This is a new feeling I've never felt before… kinda nice.
Raven jumps over the barricade and instantly climbs under the ring-turned-wedding chapel. Dustin and his bride, whose name is French and hard to pronounce, are standing in the middle of the ring, in the middle of their wedding ceremony. Cody and Dusty Rhodes, Dustin's brother and father, are standing beside him while Ted DiBiase Senior does the priest thing.
"If there are any objections, please speak now or forever hold your peace," Says Ted and the arena is silent for a second until Kane's voice echoes out of a microphone he stole.
"Yeah, I got an objection."
He climbs the ring steps and leans on the rope while Daffney jumps onto the turnbuckle and sits there. Dustin, in his gold and black face paint and ring-gear, blinks at him before Kane smirks and I see his Adam's apple bob in his throat. He's scared.
Tara and I sit on the barricade and watch as Raven climbs out from under the ring with a kendo stick and barbed wire in his hands. He grabs the bride's legs and yanks her off her feet, making her hit the canvas with a loud shriek and a thud. Dustin's eyes bug out as Raven grabs her from the ring and wraps the barbed wire around her neck, looking up at him.
"You thought I wasn't gonna hold up my end of the deal?" Kane says to Dustin and the golden boy looks at him like he's gonna die. "You have a choice to make. We either kill Aksana"-oh, that's how you say her name-"or we kill you. Up to you, Goldie. But you got ten seconds to decide."
Dustin pales and Aksana screams in Raven's gasp so Daffney jumps from the turnbuckle and pulls a roll of duct tape from under the ring, ripping off a large piece. Aksana screams in pain when Raven pulls tighter on the wire and hands it to Tara who is sitting beside me. She yanks on it a little and Aksana gags before Daffney puts the tape on her mouth.
"Why do the blondes always scream the loudest?" She asks and gives me a sadistic grin, the first smile she's given me in days. Since Chris died the only person she's ever smiled at, to my knowledge, was Cam, but he's off now in a day care centre. I should remind Kane to pick him up WITHOUT killing anybody there when we finish this.
"Because they have a lot of air in their chest," Tara says before I can answer and both Raven and I laugh to ourselves. Daffney on the other hand, falls over laughing. Literally.
Ten seconds must be up because Kane raises the mic to his lips and looks at Dustin.
"Ten seconds are up, Golden-rod. What's your decision?"
Dustin confers with his father and brother before looking at Kane, walking slowly up to him and speaking into the mic.
"Kill me."
"As you wish," Kane says quietly and looks over at Raven who takes the wire from Tara and crosses the two ends over behind her head, effectively cutting off the oxygen flow through our blonde captive's body. Aksana twitches and struggles violently so Tara grabs one end of the wire and pulls while Raven pulls on the other side.
In the ring, Kane has his arm wrapped tightly around Dustin's neck and he's making him watch as we kill his new bride. The purest and most horrendous form of torture is making someone watch as their loved one is brutally murdered before being murdered yourself. It's harsh and mean and… what we're known for.
"I thought you said you were gonna kill me!"
Kane smirks evilly and holds tighter to Dustin. "We are. Isn't this killing you, Goldust? Isn't this destroying your insides?"
Dustin starts to cry as Aksana stops moving and flops to the ground, her skin enhanced by a slight blue tinge. She's dead. I look over at Tara who smiles and rests her head on my shoulder. Again with me liking this.
Daffney slips into the ring and hands Kane her pocket knife, grinning evilly as he flips it open and rams it into Dustin's throat, dropping him and watching as the bizarre one bleeds to death. Then the Scream Queen jumps onto Cody and snaps his neck in a single swipe, which is amazing because his neck is… was… made of muscle like most pro wrestlers and Daffney is tiny.
Tara's head jerks up from my shoulder and she looks scared out of her mind. She clutches my shirt and burries her nose in my shoulder, whimpering.
"Tara, what's-?"
"I don't wanna go to jail or be put in the nut house," she says, looking up at me and pointing up towards the stage. I follow her finger and my blood instantly curdles.
Standing on the stage is what looks like an army of police officers, including Morgan who doesn't look all that happy to be here, standing behind two very familiar doctors. The one with long dark hair and tattoos is Doctor Phillip Brooks, the doctor Daffney stabbed in the back, and standing beside him is…
Dr Stevie.
Oooh, look who I brought back from the dead. Stevie just doesn't wanna die XD But there's a reason for that (SPOILER ALERT!): He's in the sequel as well. Oh, and we're four chapters away from the end of EtA and then we jump to 2013 where more killings with the same MO as these ones start showing up in the City of Angels. Yep, that's right! Our favourite psychos move to Los Angeles to start more bloodshed and terror. Look out for the sequel, coming soon! It's called Sweet Revenge and then after that, look out for Come Undone and Familiar taste of Poison, my cross-over fics with Skillet's Lady Goddess. WATCH THIS SPACE!