The guttural scream that Rebel heard didn't sound like it was something a human could produce, let alone something she herself was capable of making.
"NOOOO!" She found herself repeating it over and over, each yell getting less and less as she repeatedly howled. Footsteps came running towards her she heard them but didn't know or care who they belonged to. Her friend was gone. Tori was supposed to be coming on holiday to see her, and now Rebel would be traveling home for her funeral. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair. She wanted to curl up in a ball and sob, but a voice broke through her grief.
"Rebel? Rebel what happened?" She looked up to see the last person she wanted to see, Randy Orton. And just as suddenly, her grief became anger.
"YOU!" she yelled, scrambling to her feet and taking the man by surprise. "IF it wasn't for you, she'd have been here already!" She swung for him and ended up driving him back towards the corridor wall. His hands came up in front of him out of instinct to protect himself.
"Wait, what?" Randy was justifiably confused.
"Your stupid vendetta against me! If you'd just...left me alone, Tori wouldn't have had to change her holiday dates!" She swung again, Randy deflected it easily. Anger left the attempts to hurt him less focused but still able to cause harm and as an experienced wrestler he knew it.
"IF you could have just let me be, Tori would have still been alive! She'd be out here!" Another swing and a miss, a fist rained blows down on Randy's chest. He caught both arms as she tried to join in with her other arm.
"What are you talking about, Wild?" he asked, in a sharper voice than perhaps intended. It was clear she was grief-stricken about something. This was not the time for his grudge.
"Tori. My best friend is DEAD. She's dead because of YOU, your stupid issues with me! If you didn't have such a problem with me, she wouldn't have had to change her dates cause I had to be at Money in the Bank! She would never have been hit with a car, and she would never have been in hospital. Because of you, she's dead! SHES'S DEAD AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" Rebel could hold herself up no longer as she collapsed in sobs. She found herself staying up however; as Randy enveloped her in his arms and let her sob on his shoulder.
"Fuck…I'm so sorry Bel." He held her as she cried, his t-shirt becoming soaked with her tears as she let her grief out. Had she been less wracked by her pain she would perhaps have wondered why he wasn't kicking her while she was down. Why he'd used her nickname that every one of her friends used instead of her real name. The feel of a gentle kiss on her forehead made her look up with a frown.
"Why…why aren't you…"
"Ripping you apart? You think I'm that far gone I'd destroy you when you're like this?" He asked. "I do have a tiny but of decency left in me, you know. But I'm not the person you need right now. Where's the boys?" Rebel vaguely remembered telling him, and being escorted to where they were. She somewhat remembered telling her friends what had happened, and that just this once Randy wasn't to blame. It was the last real thing she remembered, the next thing she knew she was on a plane heading back to the UK.
When she got there, she didn't even check in to her hotel. She went straight to Tori's parents house. Angela opened the door, her red face matching the look on Rebel's own.
"I'm so sorry Angela." Rebel managed, enveloping the woman in a hug.
"My goodness, Rebel, what are you doing here? Tori would be furious with you." She returned the hug along with a small chuckle.
"And if she were here, I'd have told her to stuff it." Rebel replied, getting another laugh from the grieving parent. She was walked in to the living room which was festooned with pictures of Tori, and now also sympathy cards and flowers. As she gave Tori's father Chris a hug in greeting, Rebel spotted a set of pictures from the previous year's Wrestlemania. They were stood at the bottom of the walkway, arms out gesturing to the massive Wrestlemania signs behind them. Another had Tori stood on a turnbuckle pretending to be about to jump on Rebel who was below. A third had Tori with Rebel in a headlock. Rebel couldn't help but smile as she saw it.
"She always said she felt like a berk doing those." Rebel said with a laugh, gesturing to the picture as fresh tears began to fall. Chris walked over to the picture frame, and lifted it from the wall. He handed it to Rebel, who immediately protested.
"I won't hear another word. Take them." He insisted, as Angela nodded.
"Tori always insisted you were the sister she never had. You weren't just her best friend; you were so much more to her. If it wasn't for leaving us behind she'd have moved to the USA with you." Angela said with a knowing smile.
"She always said she'd never leave you two behind." Rebel managed as she looked in to her friends smiling face. Rebel found herself sat down with Tori's parents, and plied with tea. After the initial cup, Rebel insisted that as the grieving parents, they should be the ones with tea being made for them, and did so. They talked for hours about Tori, about how the pair were such good friends growing up. All the messes they got in to, some of which not even Tori's parents knew about. Soon enough conversation came round to Rebel. Tori had told her parents what Rebel's mother had done it seemed as they asked if she had heard from her since.
"Not a word. And I don't know if she knows if I'm in the country. I hope not." Rebel said as she gathered the cups for another round of tea. She admitted privately to herself however, that there was a damn good chance her mother would figure it out once she knew of Tori's passing, and hoped she would at least have the decency not to act up until after Tori had been laid to rest.
As it happened, Rebel was granted this small mercy, although it wasn't by much. She had literally just left the graveside service, and was heading back to her hire car when her mother decided to make an appearance. She came from out of thin air between two cars and made her way over to Rebel quickly as she spoke. Her footsteps on the gravel of the car park were what made her look up and spot the woman before she started talking.
"Oh Rebel, I am so sorry sweetie." The sympathy was there in words, but not in tone as she grabbed Rebels arm and walked with her.
"Stay the fuck away from me, woman." Rebel shook off the claw that gripped her arm and kept walking towards her car.
"It's ok honey. I'm here to support you in this hard time." Rebel still didn't look at her mother, but carried on towards her car.
"Like fuck are you. You're here to see how you can make this about yourself." The younger woman snorted in disgust at the protests that her mother was only there because she cared, she wanted to see if her daughter was ok, etc. After being told none too politely to go fornicate solo, her mother changed tack.
"Now dear, you're grieving, it's ok. You know you wouldn't normally talk to your mother that way. Now let's try getting your mind off this, hmm? I've made an appointment for you tomorrow…" She smiled at Rebel as the woman turned and looked at her incredulously.
"An appointment? What? Why the hell would you be making any kind of appointment for me?" She managed.
"Oh it's for an estate agent. We're going to need a bigger house, now you're home." How she didn't land a knuckle sandwich on her mother right at that moment was beyond Rebel. Later reflection made her assume it was because she was still at Tori's funeral and it wouldn't have been the right thing to do.
"What part of my ripping you a new asshole did you not understand the previous two times?" she asked with a voice that would make lesser men and women cower in fear. She clocked more people leaving the graveside, including Tori's parents. "You are going to leave. You're going to leave now, and I NEVER want to see you again, do I make myself clear?"
"No, let me make MYSELF clear, Rebel Wild. I am your mother. I gave birth to you, I raised you. I OWN you. You are going to come home with me, right this instant. You owe me grandchildren, and I WILL have them. I have a young man set ready to meet you and you are going to marry him." There it was that psychotic gleam in her eye. Rebel took a few steps back.
"I'm doing nothing of the sort. I mean, how messed up and insane are you? I don't want anything to do with you. In fact, I wish I was fucking adopted! I will never give you grandchildren, I will never return to your home. Stay the fuck away from me already!" Rebel stepped back a few more steps, the car was close now but she didn't want to turn her back on her mother. Everything screamed she needed to get away, and it turned out to be the correct instinct as her mother seemed to finally snap. Time slowed to glacial speeds it seemed, as from her mother's coat pocket she pulled a small switch blade, and leapt at Rebel. She managed to knock her to the floor and with screams that if Rebel wouldn't do as she was told, she was useless and might as well die her mother proceeded to try and drive the blade in to her heart. Rebel fought to hold the blade away, yelling for help as she did so. Arms came around her mother's shoulders, a hand managed to take the knife away. This cannot be happening, not today of all days she told herself as she rolled over to get to her feet. The sound of someone calling the police came to her ears and as Rebel sat up on her knees, swiftly followed the resounding smack of skin meeting skin with quite a large amount of velocity. She glanced up to see Tori's mum with a look that would no doubt kill and her own mother with a red handprint on her cheek being berated by the woman for doing this at her daughters funeral. As Rebel glanced upwards in relief, she saw something even better. A pole with CCTV cameras attached like the jewels on a crown. Her mother was well and truly screwed.
Her return to the states was followed by a swift meeting with Hunter, who was in disbelief at what had happened.
"Let me get this straight. She tried to kill you, at your best friends funeral, because you wouldn't do as she requested, stay home and give her grandkids?" He asked amazed. They sat in his office for the evening at the Money in the Bank pay per view. While emotions and tensions were riding high, Rebel felt it was best to speak to Hunter and update him on everything that had happened.
"Yeah, that's about the size of it." Rebel said with a small smile. "I've probably got to go back for a trial at some point soon. Then again they might not need me to, there's a lot of evidence, what with it being caught on TV. Oh, and the diary stating her intentions at her house." Rebel shook her head. "What my dad saw in that nutter I will never know."
"I take it he's no longer around?" asked Hunter as he handed her a coffee. Rebel took the steaming mug as she shook her head, grateful for something to hold with her hands.
"He died when I was ten. Mum and Dad were divorcing, and I'm told the stress killed him. He was always working to keep a roof over our heads, so he didn't know the half of what she did. By that age, when he died, I was making my own lunches for school, not because I wanted to, but because if I didn't, I'd never get fed. My own dinners. Jeez the amount of pasta I used to eat, because it was quick, easy, and didn't need much doing to it to cook it. I got out of there the day I finished school. Tori's parents took me in." Rebel smiled fondly at the memory of her move in. Pizza, chocolate and fizz were the order of the day.
"But weren't you sending money back to her?" Hunter asked confused. Rebel sighed and nodded.
"Yeah. The old saying about catching flies with honey instead of vinegar. She was so nice for a while, I assumed she'd changed. Then about four years ago, just after I hit main roster, my elder brother died and well, the mask slipped. She'd been being so damn nice to me to get at my money. When I realised she'd used it to go on three holidays…cruises at that…in one year I cut her off. She went berserk. You should have heard the voicemails. They were awful. My uncle David, Dad's brother-"
"The gentleman I met?" Hunter asked.
"Yes, that's him. He kept her in check best he could at Louis's funeral, and Dad's funeral. Turned out Dad had willed his funds straight to me and Louis. And Louis was sharp enough to will his assets to me, with something tiny like a tenner for mum. And it was laid out exactly why, Dad was pretty damn harsh. And Louis…his will reading was like watching someone be skinned alive. Mum was livid. What they left me helped me get a new apartment here. Anyways, she should, gods willing, be locked up for a while at least. Then I can find a new place to live and…oh, didn't I tell you?" Rebel looked at her boss and laughed as he looked surprised about her wanting a new place to live. She told him the real reason she returned, about her comment about needing to hit people and this being the only way she would get away with it meant her mother. Hunter shook his head and muttered a few choice swear words. He offered to get the company legal team to help out, and Rebel thanked him, but assured him that everything was being handled back in England, and she should be fine now.
Her friends response to her almost having a blade through her heart was predictably less calm.
"She tried to kill you, and you're walking around calm as you like?!" Roman exclaimed with disbelieving laughter. They were stood together in catering waiting for the time to tick ever closer to show time.
"She didn't win." Rebel replied with half a smile. There were several remarks of how she was damn lucky, and that the three men would gladly pay a little visit. Rebel reminded them that country hopping to commit murder was a little bit risky to say the least, and way too much effort. As they talked, Randy Orton came past the group. He had almost passed them, when he stopped and came over. Everyone was instantly on alert. Not just the group, but those around them too.
"Listen…I just…I wanted to say I'm sorry about Tori." The words took them all by surprise. "You can not believe me, you can ignore me, but I just wanted to say it." He hadn't looked away from Rebel as he spoke, something she noticed.
"Thank you." If he was genuine, the least she could do was accept it. At worst, it was an attempt to get inside her head before the event that evening. He said no more, but nodded, and walked off.
"That…that was weird." Seth said after a moments silence, voicing the thought going through all of their heads.
"You're not kidding." Rebel replied, thinking back to when she had found out about Tori's death. But that…that was weirder she told herself as she now remembered being kissed on the forehead. What was he up to? Was this the reason he wanted to fight so much? OR was he now trying emotional warfare as well as in the ring?