(Disclaimers: See Chapter 1)
Chapter 7: Now Let Me See You 1, 2 Step
Hotel. Morning:
Jay Reso a.k.a. Christian knocks on the door of Adam's room. Last night was just surreal. Matt's back AND on Raw. But what the hell is up with the electric dog collar? Either Matt's a good actor or this was really electrocuting him! He didn't look pleased either.
The door opens to a awake and eerily perky Adam.
"Hey man!" Adam greets with a smile. "Come on in."
Jay looks warily at his best friend as he steps into the hotel room.
"Dude I have to ask. Did you know that was going to happen?" he asks as he takes a seat on the couch.
"Did I know what would happen?" Adam asks slightly confused at that question.
Jay gasps softly in disbelief. " In the ring? Matt showing up in a dog collar?"
"Ohhh that." Adam says then shrugs. " Didn't know he would be hired back.'
"You had no clue?"
"No man." Adam confirms. " I was standing there in the ring in shock. I wonder who's idea it was to come up with the collar?"
"Dude…don't you think you might want to be a little upset?"
"Why? I'm not the one wearing the collar."
Jay gets up and walks over to his friend. "They're using someone's personal issues in a story line. Issues that you and Amy are a part of."
Adam just gives Jay a blank stare. Jay runs his fingers through his cropped blonde locks.
"Don't look at me like that!" he tells him. "You might want to talk to Matt. This involves you and I don't want it coming back to bite you in the ass."
"Okay. I will." Adam agrees. "I have a few things to take care of, so I'll meet you downstairs."
"Yeah ok."
As Jay leaves the room, he doesn't notice the smile etched on his best friend's face.
Same hotel. Different floor. Matt's room
Amy stares at the room number on the door: 401. Matt looked awful on Monday! She tried to see him then but he had already left. She tried his cell but he hasn't returned her calls.
She takes a deep breath then knocks on the door. A short time later, Matt answers. Today he's dressed nicely in a dark blue casual dress shirt, black pants and black Kenneth Coles. His black hair is gathered into a ponytail. Around his neck however is the metal collar. Chocolate eyes, hard and cold, look right at her. Almost through her.
"Matt…." Amy forces herself to look at his face. "I…I came to see how you were doing."
A cynical laugh is heard. "What do you think?" Matt shoots at her harshly.
Amy cringes inward at the laugh. She knows that she kind of deserves that after what she did. She still cares for him.
"They make you wear this outside the ring?" She reaches up to touch the collar, but Matt quickly steps away. His cold stare never leaves her.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" he asks.
"Matt please-"
"Please what? You still care? Yeah, that's rich! If it wasn't for you and Adam fucking behind my back I wouldn't have to wear this thing!"
"I'm sorry…"
"You got that right."
Matt slams the door shut in Amy's face. He takes a deep, shaky breath as he sits down at the end of his bed. He lays his face into the palms of his hands. The last thing he needs right now is to drag another person down with him.
The corners of Amy's eyes tingle as tears start to form.
"I'm sorry." she whispers.
Amy looks away just in time to see Raw's newest tag team, The Heart Throbs, approaching the door. Both Romeo and Antonio look like they stepped off a Dolce and Gabbana run way, and also reek of the D&G cologne as well. She doesn't say anything. She just pushes her way past them then down the hall. She glances over her shoulder at them wondering what they were doing at Matt's door.
Limo to arena:
(on his Cell)
Johnny Ace: Mr. McMahon, I'm glad you called.
Vince: Do you mind explaining to me what the hell was that on my show?
Ace: We needed to defuse the problem, so I found a way.
Vince: (yells) By hiring Hardy back? That's not solving the problem! That's giving in! And putting him in an electric dog collar? You're running a S&M show!
Ace: (still in his nauseating calm voice) It may look like that Mr. McMahon. We hold the cards. The fans are sheep. They can be manipulated to do what we want. Especially Matt's fans. We show them what their chants will accomplish and we get our show back. Problem resolved.
Vince:…Alright. You better be right, Laurinaitis.
Ace: Thank you for your trust, Mr. McMahon.
(end call)
"Vince didn't sound too convincing."
"As long as Vince is making money, he'll be alright." Ace tells his companion. "Now we're were we? Oh that's right! We were planning your future World Heavyweight Title reign."
Edge's smile could have lit up the universe after hearing that.
Autograph signing. Later that day:
"This is the line that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friends…"
"You are a bonafide nut."
It's been a hour since the session started and the line is still growing, but not moving any faster. members, Daughter and dariachick, easily spotted one another there at the session. Both wore V1 shirts and orange wristbands with "TMHcom" on them. Both also found out from the site that Matt had been added to the signings and had tickets to tonight's Raw show.
"I can't help it!" dariachick says laughing. "This line is way too long and I want to see Matt now!"
"Me too." Daughter admits. "But you know? What can you do. So does everybody else." She points to the line in front and in back of them.
"MATT HARDY'S A LOSER!" some random person shouts out.
"You know, people like that are destined to be hit with bricks." dariachick mumbles.
Daughter does a quick peek at the troublemaker.
"Ew! Too late."
At the signing table:
Matt is on automatic pilot. He's not feeling the autograph signing like he usually does. The signatures, the fans, their questions all run together like a messed up dream. He doesn't even look up to see who he's signing the autograph for. Seeing Amy earlier hurt him to the core, but not as worse as what happened later. He's still seeing dots in his vision. His hatred toward the collar grows everyday. But he knows he has to this to protect the ones he care about.
An orange wristband with written on it comes into his line of sight. He slowly raises his head up to look into the face of the owner.
"Hi Matt!" Daughter says smiling.
She must be a member from my site, he thinks. I remember reading about those wristbands. He sees that the woman beside her also wears an orange wristband.
"Hi." he says returning the smile. "You're both members of my site I see."
" Yeah!" dariachick exclaims excitedly. She quickly covers her mouth and blushes when she realizes that she said that a bit too loud.
"What are your names on the board?" Matt asks.
"My real name is Kelly, but on the M-Board I'm 'Daughter'." Daughter replies.
Dariachick also replies. "I'm dariachick."
"You okay Matt? If you don't mind me saying….I mean you look tired. Are you getting enough sleep?" Daughter questions.
Dariachick now really notices Matt. He's dressed nice and put together, but there's something about him that's well…off. Not quite right.
If only he could say something! Anything! He glances over to The Heart Throbs who were also at the table signing autographs before looking down at the table to sign the promo pic.
"I'll be okay. You're right I'm just tired. Thank you for your concern."
Matt finishes with the promo pics then gives them to the girls. As they walk away they peek back at him occasionally with obvious worried expressions. While working on another autograph, a note is slipped to him. He unfolds the white paper to read it.
Remember what the boss said. Keep your mouth shut!
Matt sighs in defeat as he crumples up the note then goes back to signing autographs.
Monday Night Raw:
More members of the site are in attendance. WhiteBuddha, Sandy, and The Excellence, met one another while in line waiting to be seated. All three were wearing the orange wristbands. They join in with the crowd with boring chants at The Heart Throbs.
Backstage:
"Hey Shane, I found it."
"Good."
Shane "Hurricane' Helms and Rosey have located the secret location of Matt Hardy's dressing room. Shane is disturbed at how his good friend is being treated. Matt's strange behavior has a lot of people worried. He's usually people friendly, but since returning, he avoids people like the plague. Well not everybody. Earlier he came in with the Heart Throbs. Why would anyone willing want to hand with those losers is a mystery in itself. And he wears that collar 24/7! He's heard of getting into your character, but that taking it a bit too far. Jeff called him explaining the situation at Matt's house and even the phone call. He asked him to check on his brother and to have him call. So together with Rosey that's what he's going to do.
With Rosey as look out, Shane enters the dressing room.
"Matt?"
"Shane!" Matt gasps and then jumps from his seat when he sees his friend. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm trying to find out what's going on with you!" Shane replies as he walks over to him. Matt takes a step back almost falling over the chair in the process.
"I'm okay. I got my job back so everything's fine." Matt tells him while putting on a fake smile.
"Matt we've been friends for way too long. I know when you're b.s.-ing." He takes another step toward Matt and again he takes one back. "Damn, chill! I ain't got cooties!"
"Shhhh! They might hear you!"
Shane looks warily at his friend. "Uh…dude, who are they? Is that thing around your neck too tight or something? And why are you wearing it all the time? Isn't it just a prop? And why are you socializing with losers like Antonio and Romeo? Why did-"
Matt grabs Shane and clamps his hand over his mouth. Shane's so shocked that he instantly shuts up and doesn't move.
"I wish I could tell you more but I can't!" he whispers harshly. "Now you have to leave!"
He leads Shane to the door. Just before ushering him out he tells him to tell Jeff that he's okay. He made sure this time to lock the door so that he had no more surprises.
Later on in the ring:
"Metalingus" by Alter Bridge fills the air. The stage at the top of the ramp fills with fog. A few moments later, Edge comes through the fog, sans the briefcase but carrying a microphone. The crowd makes good on showing its distain for the Raw superstar.
"Oh how the misguided shall fall." he ponders as he makes way to the ring and slides in. As soon as his music ended he and the TV audience could hear the "You screwed Matt!" and "We want Matt!" chants.
"Go ahead!" he yells into the mic. "Keep chanting for your god you mindless sheep!"
And the crowd complies. Mixed in with some cheers and a lot of boos were the chants. Matt's fans are relentless and will never let them forget. Especially not Edge. His attitude toward the whole thing just seems to fuel the flames of hatred between him and the majority of the MF'ers.
"You think you know everything about what happened because of what Matt told you. He painted himself to be the victim and me the devil incarnate. I can assure you, Matt Hardy ain't no saint. Oh no…he's far from it. You people make me sick! Why don't you think for yourselves?"
"YOU SCREWED MATT! YOU SCREWED MATT! YOU SCREWED MATT!"
Edge's maniacal laugh echoes through the arena.
"I may have screwed Matt, but you people will be the death of him."
At that moment a picture appears on the Titan tron. It's backstage in a utility room. Matt is on his knees. His hair is unbound, falling away from his face because his head is bowed and he is leaning forward. He wears no shirt or shoes but is wearing a pair black pants. A dark clad figure is on each side him holding an arm in a tight grip.
"Hold his head up! I want them to see how pathetic he looks." Edge says into the mic.
A hand grabs Matt by the hair and yank his head up so that his face would be shown. The crowd becomes almost silent at the scene. Matt's eyes are half opened and his lips slightly parted. Some of his hair sticks to his sweat drenched face. The metal dog collar can be seen. The blue light blinks back at the camera.
While the arena is distracted, Edge pulls out a small back remote from the pocket of his leather coat.
"How about this Matt-fact. The Sensei of Mattitude was finally destroyed by Edge with the help of his MF'ers." he says just before pushing the red button on the remote.
The collar turns a bright blue and again sends electric currents through Matt. He yells and howls. The figures beside him are having a hard time holding him as he violently squirms around.
The crowd in the arena is in a near panic. More security had to be rushed in as a few members of the crowd actually tried to climb the barricade to get to Edge.
"STOP IT! PLEASE DON'T HURT MATT!" a female's plea carries itself into the ring and to Edge's ears. He can only laugh at the hysteria he caused. He climbs out of the ring and calmly walks up the ramp. About midway up, he turns off the power to the collar. On the screen, Matt's body calms down. The dark clad figures that were holding him let his arms go. Matt's body falls to the floor silently. The scene holds for a moment before fading away.