Chapter Two

Snow White Queen

There was an image I was dreaming about, a recurring image that only I had seen and was unable to describe to anyone else. It was a curse really. It was torturing my insides, throbbing as heavy as my heart was beating. Thump-THUMP. Thump-THUMP.

"Kaylin." A voice whispered. It was a voice that was not my own, or of anyone that I cared for. The voice was chilling, it'd given me goosebumps and a tingle down the length of my spine. "Wake up!"

DAVID?!

I jerked awake, and my head was throbbing, pounding with my heart beating practically out of my chest. I sat there, panting a bit, my eyes blinking over and over to try and focus my vision on whoever was surrounding me. Two personages came into view, and to my dismay…

"Good morning."

Pushing myself upwards, my eyes came into focus and I found myself lying on the bed in the faux E-Med room. There were only a couple of people in the room but it was going to take a few seconds to shake the dizziness off and figure out who exactly had accompanied me here. "Mm… Yeah. Morning. God, I feel like my head is the ring and there's twenty zillion Rikishi's dancing on it."

To my surprise, it was Trish and Andrew. Well, if it isn't the lovely couple that's been hiding around with things? Man, now was not the time. My head throbbed harder, just thinking about an interrogation.

"Haha, well I don't know what can cure that –" Andrew had brought himself down to my eye level and asked politely: "but did you need anything?"

Slowly, I brought myself up and rubbed my temples, "Yeah…I'm gonna go get me some water. My throat is dry as hell."

Trish had already retrieved one and was beginning to offer it to me. "Are you sure? Cause I can just go grab one –"

"Yeah, I'm cool. No worries." Raising my hand, I politely rejected her offer and coldly turned and started to walk out of the room. "Thanks, though." Limping a bit, I'd made it out of the E-Med office and walked slowly through the hall. I needed to get out of that place. Just thinking about the three of us confined to a room was giving me a headache. Sure, I was being comforted by my significant other (although I wasn't really allowed to call him that?) and my good friend, who raised my suspicions – I had to start moving and get the blood flowing. My head was thumping heavily, the blood pumping back into it after that hard hit. As stubborn as I was to will away the pain, I'd only taken a few steps out before I found Sean pacing worriedly. "Hey Sean…"

He jumped at the sound of my voice, "Hey kid! Are you alright? I know that kick was kind of unexpected. You ok?" Sean looked like he was inspecting me for bugs; he was lookin' at my face and body up and down, checking for bruises or something.

"Unexpected, kinda!" I laughed. "But really, no hard feelings. I'm fine."

He shook his head. "Well, Brian and Terri were worried. After you were spin kicked, your dad carried you off, and I was all: Shit, I hope she's okay! It sure as hell looked great on camera. The crowd ate it up, you're really improvin' there, superstar. Take after your old man."

"That's sweet of you Sean, to think of the fans before my well-being," I joked, "I'm sure I'll heal up in no time." I smiled and he nodded, not letting the fact that he acknowledged me as a superstar slip past me. It made me stop and think for a moment how far I'd come. Being the young tagalong backstage to the girl who did it the fair way and trained to get to where she was today. There was only one other girl who I knew that could relate to my situation, and that was Mercy. No doubt, she'd been around a bit longer than I have, which always gave me the incentive to ask her for advice if I ever needed it.

Sean patted me on the shoulder one last time as we peeled away from each other and he headed for his room. I continued my way to the refreshment table, when I saw Amy Dumas stumbling into the locker room. I narrowed my eyes but gave a friendly wave at Mercy who was furiously rubbing her head. Eeep, I realized. Bad timing as per usual! She was unhappy, storming away from her main squeeze, Matt. I had a feeling she didn't see me since she didn't wave back, but this was no time to be emo about someone not returning a greeting; the situation looked bad. I was kind of afraid to say anything to her, especially if she was in one of those bad moods again.

"Uh-oh." I muttered under my breath. I walked over to Jeff who seemed to be leaning against a wall in a daze. "Hey dude. Is she okay?"

Knowingly, the younger Hardy threw me a water bottle and took a long drink of his, gurgling some of it and it poured onto his black mesh shirt. "Hah. That's Matty for you. Not good with his women. Mercy's pissed because of Amy's cheap shot I saw it – and I know that bitch meant every piece of that throw."

"Hey, if I know Amy--that was definitely a damn cheap shot." I added. "And I wasn't even watching the match." Damn. I should've, but I probably would've ended up going down in an unscripted run-in to save Mercy from that bitch.

"I know." Jeff laughed and nodded. He looked at me for a moment which was kind of awkward, seeing that we didn't really talk and his gazes of deep concentration kind of scared me. I never knew what he was thinking. "Oh, hey--what hotel are you at this time?? Embassy Suites? Radisson? Some fancy one, I bet." He asked me, nudging me a bit as a smug grin curled on his face.

True, I'd been staying at the classier hotels for a while now, but I had a very good reason: I didn't have that many friends. As long as I'd been acquainted with those backstage, and as long as I'd considered them my big brothers and sisters, I hadn't really gotten to know a lot of people like I did back home when I had friends I could just lounge around with. But there was no room for laziness here, not in the Federation.

"Ha ha...for the record – my dad and the guys were staying there and asked if I wanted to go, so I had no choice. But, you're in luck. I'm pretty sure I'm at yours this time." I replied. I could see where his curiosity and teasing was piqued; I always got to stay at the premier hotels because I ran with the "uppers". This time should be interesting though…lighter atmosphere, younger crowd. My definition of fun!

"That's cool. Then we better hang out! Or else." He gave me a faux doomsday glare before nudging me, "Well, I'll see you later I have to go see Mel." With a salute, the younger Hardy left my side and there I was, alone at the refreshment table.

I gave him a small wave goodbye, and took note of the main event which was posted on a techies' paper on the wall. Triple H vs. the Big Show vs. The Rock. Man, what a match. The crowd roared in delight at each of the superstars as they made their entrances. Face fans booed and heel fans cheered at "Hunter", neutral cheers and applause of appreciation were made for "Show" and the arena nearly blew its top as "Rock" strolled in. It was quite impressive, the mark they'd made for themselves. The match began after the ring bell gave a cry into the air.

I watched a couple of exchanges between the three titans and decided to call it quits. The locker room was nearby, and hopefully Trish and Andrew weren't sneaking around in there. Mercy and Amy were sure to be in there anyway. I sighed. What the hell was going on and why wasn't she saying anything? She hadn't been in the company for very long and we were almost immediate friends…and now, the moment of silence. Tossing the empty water-bottle to the trash bin, I began my trek back down the halls to start packing, in hopes to engage in conversation with one of the friendlier divas in the federation.

To my surprise, Mercy was in here, alone.

I wasn't quite sure how to handle her. Saying one word was going to be like hot potato, surely, a quip here, a response, another comment, a response – it was only a matter of time before she exploded and I didn't want to be her unfortunate target, an innocent bystander.

I cleared my throat.

"You ok, Merce?" I inquired of her well-being, vividly recalling the nasty spill I'd seen in the hallway. "I heard about what happened out there and that sucks. Looked like a nasty hit." I couldn't help but notice the glare we were getting from Amy. Man, if I wasn't under contract –

Mercy shrugged. She was as steely as ever. "I'm fine. I just wanna get out of here, I guess."

Of the two Reso siblings, she by far, was the colder one. Darker hair, dark eyes: but she and her brother did share quite the personality, which was a good thing. Now, however, wasn't a good exhibit of her lighter side…I couldn't blame her, I guess – she'd just been swung at, out of script, by one of the snootier of the ladies here in the company. I hadn't gotten to know either of them, unfortunately, and I was hoping to get to know them soon or my head would explode. Man, I needed friends closer to my age.

"I hear that. It's been one of those shitty nights." I nervously laughed. It was all small talk. It was better than silence, I always thought. "You guys at Holiday Inn tonight? Or…" My voice trailed off into the obliterating silence that cut through anything that feared it. No echo, no nothing. A gulp followed.

I could hear her inhale with her mouth open, a signal she was actually going to speak: "Yeah. You roomin' there too?" Mercy asked, not looking up from where she was multi-tasking: packing up her belongings as far as make-up, clothing and footwear went and icing her neck which was sore from the relentless craning and from the cheap shot, no doubt.

"Yeah." I nodded, mad-dogging Amy and waiting for her to make some sort of comment about what went down.

Alas. Nothing.

The fair-skinned Reso just nodded and shrugged with a deep sigh. She was like a snow white queen, chilling everyone to the bone with her gaze; she sure as hell was making me uncomfy. "Well that's cool. We can hang out there. I guess I'll just see you there then." Swinging the strap of the bag over her shoulder, Mercy gave a devilish hawk-eyed glare at the fiery haired diva before making her exit.

I turned, looking up at Trish before my gaze set on Mercy. "Are you sure you're alright?"

She nodded. "I'll live."