That week, Sevina did not attend any house shows, nor did she appear on the taping of SmackDown and was conspicuous by her absence. Her lack of appearance, had the fans asking where she was and what was going on. Matt and Jeff both appeared but said nothing about their absent friend. The confusion and curiosity built and built over her absence. The following week, the crowd fell silent as Jeff walked to the ring. He was dressed in a plain, grey shirt and a pair of casual jeans. He stood in the centre of the ring and looked out over the audience, before lifting his mic. "You all saw what happened here two weeks ago. You all know what was revealed. For those who don't, let me fill you in. Two weeks ago, it came out that Sevina, is the younger sister of Kane and The Undertaker. I know, this came as a shock. I know that none of you know what to think. Sevina hasn't been seen since. My brother Matt and myself were released and neither of us have seen or heard from her. I am here tonight to appeal to you, as her fans and the people she lives to entertain. I believe that she is worried about what you will all think of her, so I am here to ask you not to judge her too harshly. You may feel betrayed because she kept this secret, but I hope that you are able to see the reasons why. Kane and The Undertaker are mindless, vicious monsters, who stop at nothing to get what they want. Sevina is not like that. She's-" He was cut off as the Bad Romance suddenly hit and Sevina's video played.
Jeff frowned and turned towards the ramp. Sevina walked out, amidst loud cheers, but it was instantly clear that this was not the Sevina they knew. She was dressed in a pair of black leather pants, a black satin corset, with scarlet stitching and laces. Her hair was pure black, but for a single streak of scarlet running through the front, at the right. Even her make-up was different. She wore thick, black eyeliner, surrounded by a dark, blood red. Her lips had no colour at all, blending into the rest of her skin. She looked at Jeff and he looked back at her, confusion on his face. Sevina turned her gaze on the crowd. She did not head towards the ring, but rather stayed at the top of the ramp. When her eyes finally landed back on Jeff, she lifted her microphone and began to speak. Her voice was dead of all emotion. "Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate your reasons for coming out here, for speaking up for me, but it's not necessary. Since I was here last, I've done a lot of thinking and I've come to some decisions. I wronged my brothers by denying them, by shutting them out of my life. Family comes first, you taught me that. So, it's them I'll be supporting from now on. I don't expect you to understand. I don't particularly care. I want nothing more to do with you."
Shock rippled through the fans as they turned to Jeff. His face was drawn, shocked and disbelieving. "Sevina, you don't have to do this…"
"Yes, I do. I want to. My time with you was fun, but it was a joke. It was a lie. I am sick and tired of pretending to be something I'm not."
"You're not like them!"
"Yes, I am!" Sevina glared at Jeff with cold fury in her eyes. She then turned and walked away. The cameras turned to Jeff, who waited a few moments, before taking off after her. The cameras followed Sevina as she walked back to her dressing room. She walked inside and shut the door, revealing Kane and The Undertaker, waiting for her. She looked at them and Kane grinned as he approached her. "Very good, little sister." He reached out to touch her face, but she slapped his hand away, glaring at him. "I hate you." He just laughed and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him. "Careful. They're only safe, as long as you stay with us." The cameras cut out after that and Glen released Sevina's face, smiling apologetically. "Did I hurt you?" Sevina rolled her eyes at him, smiled and shook her head. "You ask me that every time. No. You didn't." She patted his arm, received a swift, one-armed hug from Mark and then left as they'd known she would. She never seemed to stay in one place for very long anymore.
She bumped into Matt as she left, swearing as she all but bounced off him. He put his hand on her arm to steady her. "You okay, Kid?" Sevina nodded and shrugged. Matt frowned at her a little and tilted his head. "Have you seen Jeff?" Sevina fixed him with a hard look, then shook her head, before excusing herself and walking away. She wanted to just get back to the hotel, go to the gym for an hour and then immerse herself in answering her fan mail. The good thing about getting so many letters was that, no matter how long she spent doing it, there was always more to do. It was one of the more certain ways she had of keeping herself distracted.
Matt watched her go, still frowning. She was getting worse. Anyone could see it. She wasn't even bothering to try and hide it anymore. She didn't talk to anyone, she didn't even try and be normal. She worked and she slept. That was it. This was getting too much. If it carried on much longer she really was going to burn out. A person's mind is only built to withstand so much stress. Sevina may not have realised it, but her behaviour was putting her career in serious jeopardy. Matt had spoken to Vince that night on the phone and been asked to intervene on Sevina's behalf because if she dropped ten more pounds in weight, she would not be allowed to wrestle. Matt would bet anything that she didn't even realise her weight had dropped that far.
He sighed and shook his head, wandering off to try and find his brother. At the moment, he wasn't sure which of them was worse. They both seemed to be wrapped up in a perpetual cloud of depression. Jeff had always been popular amongst the other superstars, his charisma and strong work ethic made people automatically drawn to him, but now everyone seemed to be avoiding him. Not because they disliked him, but because he just seemed to give off the kind of vibe that told people he didn't want company. Jeff wasn't normally anti-social, he had always had times when he would shut himself off and he was terrible for brooding, but he had always made an effort to interact with people.
Matt could easily remember when that had started happening. Jeff was naturally introverted when it came to his personal life. He had a select group of friends who saw him as he was, but with everyone else he was different. Not shy, but cautious. Jeff's mind would weave out the most intricate theories, always second guessing himself and everyone else. This made it hard for him to trust people, to get close to them. He'd changed one day, as if he'd woken up and a light bulb had gone off in his head. It was difficult for him to interact, but that was no reason that he shouldn't do it. He began pushing himself, testing his limits, making himself talk to people that he would normally have avoided. He dropped his barriers and that was the turning point for him. That was when he had started to figure out who he was, who he wanted to be.
It was one of the things that Matt admired most about his brother; the sheer strength of his resolve. His determination to not be the person that some kind of weird nature had dictated he should be. Jeff had always been the kind of person to fight the establishment, to fight the norm, but most of the time, he was simply fighting himself.
Sevina was similar, but at the same time completely different. She had been suppressed most of her life, taught that what she wanted, should never be voiced because it would get her into trouble. When Matt had met her, she'd been a really angry kid. Probably the angriest sixteen year old he'd ever met, but she had a kind of raw talent, a possibility, just waiting to be moulded into something more. He wouldn't let her take part in matches, but she hung around until he agreed to let her practise at Omega. He'd watched her closely. She was volatile, prone to outbursts of irrational anger. More than once she had lost it and actually hurt someone, not badly, but caused a few concussions and one broken leg. Still, there was something magnetic about her, something that made you want to stick up for her, to give her what she needed to reach the potential she was capable of. When he'd first met her, Matt had often wondered what would become of her, if she had been nurtured, instead of having her dreams pressed down,
Back then, he had honestly not thought she would make it. She was too unpredictable and had poor control of her temper. It had been quite sad to watch because she worked hard, probably harder than any of the others, but watching her then, was to feel a certain sense of resignation. To recognise a talent that would go to waste because she would never be able to handle the pressure of professional wrestling. What neither Matt or anyone, could have anticipated, was what would happen when Sevina met Jeff. It was like, something had opened up inside of her and let out a whole other side to her character that none of them had ever realised was there. She was still volatile, but she had hilarious bouts of mischief and she and Jeff were usually dragging one another into trouble. She stopped walking away when she'd done something wrong and started putting her hands up, facing it and apologising. She learned more in those first few months of friendship with Jeff, than she had in the two years Matt had known her previously.
Matt frowned at the thought. Her behaviour now, her outbursts, running alongside her self-imposed isolation were so similar to how they had been before she'd met Jeff. That incarnation of Sevina was never going to be able to handle life in the WWE. So what would happen if she went back to that? Would the inevitable burn-out occur? Would everything she'd worked so hard for, fall apart? He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
He found Jeff, sitting on a crate, listening to his ipod. Matt watched him for a moment. He was leaning back, his eyes closed and his head tilted back. His fingers were moving absently, as if itching it play along to the music on his guitar. Matt walked over and grabbed the wire, yanking it lightly to pull the earbuds out. "Hey." Jeff jumped a little, then turned the ipod off and looked at his brother. "Hey, man."
Matt moved to sit on the grate next to him, folding his arms loosely. "You alright?" Jeff nodded, slowly wrapping the earphones around the ipod, concentrating on it like it was the most important and delicate task in the world. "Wanna talk about it?" Jeff shook his head in response this time, slipping the ipod into his pocket before looking at Matt. He smiled in a slightly self mocking way. "Nothing to talk about." Matt rolled his eyes, but he wasn't about to have this argument with Jeff again.
"Come on. Let's go back to the hotel." Jeff didn't argue and followed his brother's lead as he stood up. He felt bad, not giving Matt much by way of reassurance, but he just couldn't find the words to explain how he was feeling, or what was going on in his head. His mind had always been busy, always over thinking everything, but it was just chaos at the moment. Nothing made much sense. He couldn't tell Matt even if he wanted to because he honestly didn't know. He kept getting the weird sensation that he'd forgotten something important, or lost something that he needed. He'd find himself looking around, searching, before realising that he had no idea what he was looking for.