I did something I should've done long ago...change the rating to Mature. LOL. I stayed up all late to write this out and am SO hoping I don't pay for it when I try to wake up in less than 6 hours haha. Enjoy! It's mostly just filler! Currently, s**t hits the fan in ch. 27. But, since the conclusion of the stalker stuff happens over 3 chapters, I'm thinking of not having another filler chapter and instead just fast-forwarding time by about a week, summarizing and jumping right to it. As it's currently written out, this will end at ch 31. If I skip having the next chapter totally just be filler, it'll end at ch. 30. I'll let you guys mull it over, while I sleep on it :-D
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Hunter juggled their duffel bags and suitcases while Stephanie reached under the welcome mat, retrieved the key and unlocked the door to the spacious, one-story house. He'd called up their old real estate agent and had him use his connections to get them into this place on such short notice.
He had no idea how long they would need to be here. But, as of now they were leasing it on a weekly basis. The house had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It was more than enough space for the two of them.
They'd taken Vince's plane to Ontario, California. Really, they could have taken it all the way to Washington. But quite frankly Hunter trusted absolutely nobody except Stephanie with their final whereabouts. And even she didn't know that they would be taking a strange route. She thought the corporate jet was taking them straight to Washington.
Vince had previously been known to put his daughter's well-being on the line for his own personal gain. And Hunter wasn't about to take that chance. Especially not while she was pregnant.
So upon reaching Ontario literally a few minutes after their talk, Hunter had them ride around town in a taxi, with no exact destination for nearly half an hour. Finally, he spotted what he was looking for. A car with a dollar amount and phone number written on it. Stephanie had been utterly confused as to what the hell he was doing and why. But, he wouldn't tell her anything. All he would say was that it was necessary.
The asking price of the vehicle was only a thousand dollars. Hunter paid double the amount simply to avoid a myriad of paperwork. For some reason, he didn't want there to be a record of the transaction. They'd loaded the trunk and backseat with their things and hit the freeway around 7:30 p.m.
Stephanie had no clue what in the hell was going on or why he was being so secretive. But, she also knew that asking wouldn't get her anywhere. Except into a fight with him. So, she'd simply crossed her arms over her chest and stared out at the uninteresting scenery for the four hour drive into Las Vegas.
It wasn't until they hit Barstow and Vegas advertisements became more frequent that she even realized where they were going. She tried not to get her hopes up. After all, this was the city that they'd married in. She was nostalgic and thought that it was a good sign that when they were trying to mend what was broken between them, he'd come here.
Wisely, she'd kept her thoughts to herself. It turned out that she'd been wrong. They arrived at the Las Vegas International Airport and attempted to set off for Seattle, Washington. She was so confused she could hardly think straight. And if she was being honest, she was the slightest bit bitter that they hadn't dropped by the chapel where they'd married. And that he hadn't so much as mentioned what this city was for them.
Earlier, on her family's jet that she assumed was taking them to Washington, they'd come to the agreement that they definitely still loved each other and were going to try to make it work. They weren't together officially.
But, it was a step in the right direction. Emotionally, her guard had gone down just a little bit. But, Hunter's need for secrecy apparently hadn't wavered in the slightest.
They had missed the last flight out by about an hour. Only red-eye flights to the East coast were available. Plus, their connecting flight would be in Salt Lake City, Utah whose last departing flight was at ten. They'd grabbed a hotel, caught a few hours sleep and headed out to Seattle later that morning.
Once their last plane had landed and they'd grabbed their bags, they'd taken a shuttle to the long-term parking lot. She'd eyeballed him speculatively while he stalked around a burgundy, 2002 Toyota 4Runner. It looked like he was stealing the damn thing.
Instead, he'd smiled triumphantly when he found a set of keys stashed on the side of the front, left tire. When she asked how the hell he knew where to find them, he'd shrugged and claimed he had connections.
He programmed the in-dash GPS for an address she wasn't aware of and he followed the highway until it ended. It looked like they were in the middle of nowhere. There were houses and establishments around. But, they were scattered and each was at least half a mile apart from anything else. He pulled onto a dirt road and a few minutes later he stopped in front of a house that was totally unfamiliar to her.
Having arrived safely, he decided to quell her curiosity a little bit. Their previous realtor had found this house for them and arranged for the vehicle.
After Hunter and all of their belongings were in the house, she shut the door behind them and locked it.
She stayed by the door and placed her hands on her hips, tapping her right foot impatiently.
Hunter turned around and asked, "Yes?"
"Are you going to tell me why we took a limo to a private airport...passing up a major airport along the way...to fly into suburban Southern California, buy a random car and drive to Las Vegas just so we could fly to the middle of freaking nowhere Washington?"
"I told you already," he sighed. "It's not safe for you to be around the business right now."
"We could've gone back to Greenwich," she squeaked out angrily. "We could've gone anywhere, Hunter. I feel like I'm on some super secret spy mission or something."
Hunter rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Stop being so dramatic. It's not that bad."
"Not that bad?" She asked in disbelief. Her eyes widened and she yanked back one of the curtains and gestured to their surroundings. "There is no civilization in sight. The stores are far, the neighbors aren't close. And there's a damn forest behind us! You bought a random car and ditched it in Vegas. And you had a random truck waiting for us at the airport in Seattle. You obviously put some thought into this and I can't figure out why. I don't know why you won't tell me why."
"It's for your own good, Steph. I'll tell you what you need to know."
Stephanie narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not a child! Whatever it is, I can handle it. Don't treat me like I'm some fragile object."
"Is it so bad that I just want to look out for you?" He asked tiredly. "That I want you to be protected and don't trust anybody else to do it?"
She sucked her teeth and threw an arm up in the air in defeat before walking over to take her bags from him. "Goddamn it," she hissed under her breath. She had no comeback argument for that. It meant a lot that he cared about her enough to do this. But, she knew there was more to his strange, secretive behavior. There was a reason he had gone through all this trouble.
To her, it was clear that they'd gone into hiding. Deep hiding. He purposely picked this obscure location, rather than someplace more scenic or exciting. While she would probably enjoy spending time with him once she'd calmed down, she just wished she knew what the hell brought this about. She didn't like being left in the dark. Especially when she would be living in some tree and dirt-covered town in some house she'd never been to, for God knows how long.
Thursday, May 16, 2002
Shit. Hunter had disappeared. The man had bailed on his own main event match on Monday. The lie Vince used to cover for him was that he'd been struck down with a case of food poisoning.
That would've been believable if it wasn't for two very important facts.
The first was that no illness or injury could keep the guy away from his matches. He'd proven that time and time again.
The second was that Stephanie had also disappeared.
It was far too coincidental. So, he'd taken it upon himself to verify their whereabouts. They had each checked out of their respective hotel rooms. But, they weren't in Greenwich. He'd staked out the house all day on Tuesday and hadn't spotted any signs of life from inside the mansion.
They were in hiding. And he had no idea where to begin searching for them. Raw had been held in Los Angeles, California. There were many transportation options in the area. Most of which were located at the Los Angeles International Airport. Yet, that's not where they had headed. All he knew was that the Corporate jet had taken them from a small, private airport in Santa Monica, California to the international airport in Ontario, California.
It wasn't all speculation. Money could buy information. Especially if the seller thought that what they were providing was harmless.
And maybe the information was harmless. With or without it, he still had no idea where the hell Hunter and Stephanie had ultimately gone. It was pretty obvious that they'd likely taken the jet simply so they could get to a major, non-local airport quickly. One or both of them had figured out that LAX would be the first place anyone would look for them. The jet would be back to the private airport in Santa Monica with more than enough time to scoop up the remaining McMahon's after the show.
Fuck, he didn't mean for this to happen. Yes, he had wanted both Vince and Hunter to know that he had been tracking the Princess' movements often. He wanted to strike fear into both of their hearts at the fact that he could've ended her life already if he had wanted to.
But it didn't cross his mind that they'd immediately stash her in some unknown place. That was a miscalculation. Frankly, both men had such big egos that he assumed neither of them would admit that they weren't adequately prepared to deal with a threat to her safety.
Any fool could see that Hunter and Stephanie were still very much in love with each other. But, their situation was complicated. He hadn't anticipated that the man would take it upon himself to see that she was out of harm's way.
So, he'd underestimated what some people would do for love. Even complicated love.
That was stupid of him. He knew exactly what love could make you do. When you lost it, it made you kill. It made you lash out and want to inflict the same type of pain on everyone who deserved it.
He had loved her immensely. Now she and their unborn child were gone thanks to Vince, Hunter and Stephanie. And it was up to him to make things square.
Vince would lose a child and a grandchild.
Hunter would lose his wife and child. There was nothing more fair or appropriate than that. He'd been following her around since the beginning of February and was always aware of what Chris Jericho had done.
Stephanie would lose her child first. He'd make sure of it. Then she'd lose her life, just as his wife did.
He didn't expect to get away with this. Not by a long shot. Quite frankly, it was hard to live with himself, knowing what he had done. These days, he lived for the prolonged torture he was inflicting on the McMahon-Helmsley family. Once that was over, it didn't really matter what happened to him. A part of him hoped that the cops would take him down in some sort of violent, epic shootout. It would be a poetic way to end it all.
When his wife lost their child...it killed him. He hadn't even known she was pregnant. And it was his fault that the baby was gone. He'd lost his temper in another one of their numerous fights. He'd roughed her up a bit.
He swallowed back the bile in his throat and rubbed his hands over his face. Fuck, he was falling apart just thinking about it.
But he had to. He had to remind himself of why he was doing what he was doing. He couldn't lose focus. Couldn't lose sight of the goal.
His wife's no good family had disowned her for being with him. They thought he wasn't worthy of her. Wasn't worthy of being a part of their family. He was just some dumb jock. After wrestling he'd have no future.
That's why her body hadn't been found yet, he was sure. To his knowledge, at the time of her death she hadn't been in contact with anybody from her past. There was no one to notice that she'd gone missing.
No one to rightfully accuse him of being the one who'd made her disappear.
It's not like he remembered what the hell happened. He had shown up at her new residence in an attempt to reconcile with her. He'd given her a bouquet of her favorite flowers. She'd slapped at them and made petals fly into his face. They'd argued loudly on her doorstep. But, she was in a somewhat secluded neighborhood and no one was around to hear or intervene.
The last thing he remembered was grabbing her arm in an attempt to make her understand that she was everything to him. He wouldn't live without her.
When he came to, they were in her spacious backyard. His t-shirt was a mess of blood – her blood – and dirt. She was already halfway buried. There was nothing for him to do but throw his shirt into the medium-sized grave and finish up her resting place. He sat the ruined flowers atop the mound, left and never returned.
He'd grieved in his own way about it on the drive back to his home; the one they used to share. He'd thought long and hard about how things had got to this point.
Eventually, he'd reached the conclusion that Vince, Hunter and Stephanie needed to pay for this. It was their fault that the wedge had been driven between he and his wife. If not for them and their behavior, the hundreds of arguments wouldn't have been started. Therefore, he wouldn't have lost his cool and knocked her around that one time. It was all a domino effect that began with those three.
But, revenge would be all the more sweet if the payment was slower. See, his wife and baby had been taken from him suddenly. There was no time to process what was coming. In the blink of an eye it was all over. The pain was quick.
His plan was to drive the two men into an absolute frenzy, right before he made the woman vanish forever. It was all planned out in his head. He had a nice spot picked out for her in his backyard. In fact, he had two more packages of pictures to send, right before he would have taken her away.
Now, the plan needed to be modified. As soon as he found her, he would strike. He didn't need any more unpredicted complications.