She was alone, or as alone as she could be with guards outside the doors. Still, inside the house, there was no one with her. Hunter should have been back soon. Maybe she would just let him answer it. Whomever it was never left a message on the voice mail. Not a sound was made when Hunter answered the phone. The noise only came when she picked up.
The night of her father's funeral and she was still staying with Hunter. Even though she knew that her father had been to his house many times, it still seemed easier than going back to her own home. At least at Hunter's, she didn't have memories of Ric pretending she was a little girl again and tucking her into bed after a hard day at the office. There were no personal memories there at all.
Though, she still wasn't sure she liked being an imposition. She had offered to go to a hotel more than once, and Hunter threatened to tie her down if she tried it. He said that it was because she was safer at his place, but Stacy wasn't all too sure she bought that. She could have guards at a hotel, too. But, then again, she wasn't sure there was a hotel in town that would willingly take her knowing she'd have people standing outside of her door whenever she was in. She guessed it was okay, since Hunter said she wasn't a bother, but it still felt odd.
The phone stopped ringing and Stacy sighed. Her body went to jelly and she practically collapsed into the large leather chair behind her. She didn't want to hear it anymore. The sounds, the voices... it was something that she didn't need to hear and it only served to crack the strong wall that circled her. She had built up her reserves tight following Ric's death, and she knew that if she got one little crack, the entire thing would crumble around her.
Something was going on, though. She knew it. Everyone was whispering around her, as if there were things going on that they didn't want her to know about. She didn't think anything could be as bad as finding her father's body, but maybe they did. She wanted to be upset that they were all treating her like a child, but when it all came down to it, she didn't think she really wanted to know, anyway. She didn't know if she could handle it, and the last thing she wanted to do was end up halfway to basket case.
Like Trish...
Stacy felt bad for her. She'd never seen the blonde dancer in such a state. Trish had always been strong and confidant. Now, she was swearing that she saw dead people and acting more paranoid than Hunter. She had tried to tell Randy to leave Trish at home for the funeral, the woman didn't need to go to another one, but Trish had insisted. Stacy thought that after her hallucination, she'd think twice about attending funerals again. And hopefully, she wouldn't have to even think about it.
The phone rang again and Stacy jumped. She sat up, her back straight, and stared at the phone. It could have been Hunter, though he wouldn't have called would he? He knew she was fearful every time it rang and he had told her not to answer it anyway. If Hunter called, he'd have called her cell, where he already had a ringer set. She had given him the theme from The Godfather, the one that had previously been reserved for Ric.
But, then again... it could have been someone important.
Taking a deep breath, Stacy stood up and slowly walked to the phone. Her hand trembled as she laid it against the handset and slowly raised it to her ear. "H-Hello?" Her voice shook as she waited, praying to hear Hunter's voice or even Dave or Randy's. Anything but what she usually heard when she answered the phone.
"There will be no Evolution, Ric. They're all going to fall. I'm going to finish off Orton and... by now..."
"...Helmsley and Batista should be incinerated. No one left to care but poor little Stacy. Gorgeous little Stacy of the long legs. Maybe I'll let her dance for me in a cage."
"You touch her and I swear to God, I will kill you."
"It'll have to be as a ghost Ric because..."
"...you won't be alive to do anything else."
Stacy screamed and dropped the phone to the floor. It was always different. The words, but not the place. Each time she answered, she heard different parts of what she knew to be the same conversation. The first time, had just been Ric's scream. Beneath the agonizing yell, she could swear she heard the knife cutting into his flesh.
She whirled around and before her hands could cover her face, she saw the guards charging through the front door. Hunter was on their heels, racing in. She looked up at him and had the oddest thought. He looks terrible in light gray. It was the most ridiculous thing to cross her mind at that moment in time, but it was something a lot less traumatizing than what she had just heard.
"What's going on?" Hunter rushed forward, then stopped as he saw the phone on the floor beside her. "Stacy..."
"I know," she said, trying to fight the tears that came rushing out of her eyes. Her entire body shook and from her viewpoint, it seemed as though the entire room was moving. "I thought it might have been somebody else and... it's the first time I answered it all day. I..."
Hunter went around her and picked up the phone. "Listen to me, you son of a bitch! When I get a hold of you, you'll wish all I did was stick a knife if your gut! They'll be talkin' about your fuckin' death for years! They'll use it to scare little chldren, you sick fuck!" Laughter sounded in his ear, then there was nothing but a dial tone. "Fucker!" He threw the phone across the room and watched it slam against the wall, breaking into pieces.
Hunter turned around and Stacy stared at him. She realized that in the time he spoke on the phone, she had taken a few steps backward. She was actually afraid of him. In all the years she had known Hunter, she had never been afraid. Sure, he did some things that were less than legal, and everybody had been "mad enough to kill" at least once in their lives, but Hunter's words over the phone... Stacy knew that he meant every single word.
"Stace..." Hunter noted her fear and forced the angry tension to leave his body. He sighed and reached out to her. "Stacy, you shouldn't have heard that. I..."
She shook her head and reached out to take his hand. "It's alright. You... you're mad. I just... I always had these thoughts... about you all and now..." She let Hunter pull him towards her and wrap his arms around her waist. She pressed her head against his chest and whispered, "You guys aren't the big teddy bears with fake mean faces I always thought you were."
"Yeah, we are," he said, stroking her hair. "Just not to everybody. Some people don't deserve it and that son of a bitch..."
"He doesn't deserve it." She let Hunter hold her and tried to refill the cracks in her metaphysical fortress. Her strength and resolve was slipping out and there was no way she could survive without it. But Hunter was there, and she thought that maybe he could help fill it. The holes were made by the loss of her only real family, after all, and he had stepped in to take Ric's place. She just needed something familial to be strong. She just never thought until then that Hunter Hearst Helmsley would have ever been familial. She thought, I always wondered what a real older brother would have been like, anyway.
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