Sooo….I "destroyed" ppl, hm? Thank you and you're welcome. (wink, wink). I will be writing a Rey X Batista slashfic in the very near future. I've already started on several naughty parts. LOL. If you have any suggestions for a title, let me know, but I will warn you it will be graphic (the good stuff, no abuse or anything) and angsty (oh the tragedy!). So don't let small children read over your shoulder or anything.
But, thank you for your comments, everyone! They're all very awesome, and I'm glad that people are laughing and that people loved the daydreaming segment, which is probably my favorite part in the entire story. Batista just seems like a bit of a pervert to me, sorry to say, but at least he's a secret one and not a full-on creep like HBK. I love him, though, as a screw-up.
alethea293, your comment was one of the best I've ever read, thank you so much for letting me know your opinion on each of the characters, it lets me know that I'm writing them the way I think of them.
milady2222, I'm glad that you've warmed up to C.M. Punk, he's one of my favorites.
Diathawwedevil, I take it as a HUGE compliment that you thought enough of my story to have it in mind in your everyday life and incorporate the haunted house into your literature class. I think that's awesome. I have to tell you though, I made that place up; it's not real. Sorry if that ruins your dreams of ever wanting to visit a place called Sassafras, Massachusetts because I made it up off the top of my head. I hope it wasn't like a serious real-life history-related assignment; I wouldn't want you to get a bad grade because I like to fabricate my locations to add kind of a fantasy element in.
Any new (and returning, too, I still love you) readers, THANK YOU!!! PLEASE COMMENT!!!
Chapter 18: Dead or Alive
Day Six at the Haunted House
Moments later a cascade of happy wrestlers burst upward from the stairs and Sylvia ran and hid behind Batista, who smiled awkwardly at her.
John Cena scooped Rey up as though he were weightless.
He nearly suffocated the cruiserweight in his arms. "OOoh, what would I do without my Rey-Rey? I couldn't spend another day without you, man!"
"Okay, okay! Enough love! Put me down now, Cena!"
Batista cleared his throat, hinting that he'd enforce Rey's order by crossing his big, beefy arms.
Cena set Rey down reluctantly and Rey caught his breath only to be rushed by Randy, Edge and Jericho. He hugged all of them and laughed happily.
Batista smiled at the beautiful grin stretched across Rey's face.
Then Punk walked up with the tenth and final member of their escapade.
"Jeff!" Rey shouted and raced over to the Hardy brother.
Jeff looked at Rey with his little cat-like smile.
Everyone watched as the two men watched each other and there was a silent exchange of joy as they met each other's eyes.
Batista tried not to tear up at the sight of the two stepping closer and then throwing their arms around each other.
Rey squeezed his friend, so grateful to see him safe and sound.
"I missed you, Rey," Jeff said, hugging the little guy.
He whispered something into his ear and Rey looked at him, surprised.
"Really?"
Jeff nodded proudly.
Rey beamed at him. "That's great!"
"Oh my God, Sylvia is such a sweetheart, Rey! She helped us! We couldn't escape or else her dad would get mad, but she snuck us food last night," Randy explained, rushing up to the luchador.
So that's where everyone's food had disappeared to.
"How did she get food to you?" Rey asked, frowning. "Wasn't the door solid?"
"There's like this doggy door or something there on the bottom of it that Sylvia would drop things through."
Rey looked over at the ghost girl, smiling. He'd wondered where she went sometimes.
"So that's where you were at, baby girl! Come here. I'm very proud of you," Rey said.
Sylvia ran into Rey's leg and he smoothed over her hair. He beamed down at her.
"God, you'd adopt her if you could, wouldn't you?" Shawn asked him.
Rey shrugged. "Maybe I would."
He sighed, exhausted. "Sylvia's still here."
She looked up at him questioningly.
"Why won't you rest, sweetheart?" Rey asked her sadly.
She bit her lip and just hugged his leg harder.
"But we know how you died. Once people find out how a ghost dies, doesn't that pacify them?" Rey said, talking half to Sylvia and half to Punk.
Punk shrugged. "A little. But Sylvia's not at peace. We have two days left to find out what will put her to rest."
"So the clock's ticking now?" Batista asked.
"Yeah, I guess so."
Rey sighed again. "Well, whatever we're doing, Everyone needs to stick together from now on."
"Okay," they all said.
Everyone decided to eat lunch and Sylvia looked to Jeff Hardy and mouthed a sentence.
"What did she say?" Rey asked him.
"She said she needs to rest and that she'll see you later."
"All right. I'll see you at our usual spot at ten, okay?"
Sylvia nodded and walked down the hall.
Rey turned around. He didn't like to see her vanish; it gave him chills. But he heard her footsteps fade.
"Rey, you just got finished saying that you wanted everybody to stick together. And now you're gonna go off by yourself to see Sylvia tonight?" Punk asked concernedly.
Rey looked to Dave. "Could you come with me?"
Everyone thought about it. So far the ghost hadn't managed to get either Rey or Batista, especially not when they were together.
Batista exhaled. He never could say no to Rey. "Of course, buddy. I'll come with you."
Rey smiled at everyone. "There. I won't be alone. I'll have a bodyguard."
"Now let's go eat lunch," Shawn said grumpily. "I'm starving."
"You think you're hungry? You should try getting your ass possessed sometime," Rey sighed.
"Are you seriously that hungry right now?" C.M. Punk asked curiously.
"I could eat a whale," Rey said honestly.
Batista snorted. "I always feel that way at lunchtime."
"That's why you're fat, Dave," Rey teased.
Batista rolled his eyes. Then he saw Rey was walking a bit oddly.
"Are you limping?" he asked the luchador.
"No, no. I just…Dios, don't ever get possessed. I forget how to work my feet. I feel like I was asleep for a week, I'm all pins and needles right now."
"You need me to carry you, or-?" Batista asked him, moving closer to Rey.
"No, Dave. I think I know how to be careful with my own body, thank you very much."
They walked downstairs and Rey made a point of smacking his palm down onto the railing to show Batista that he was using it and to stop staring at his every move.
They all ate lunch and things seemed much louder and definitely much happier now that half of the group had returned.
John Cena alone made the sounds and the jokes and the talking much crazier and much more carefree.
Batista looked at Rey and knew that even though they weren't out of the woods yet, the luchador appeared to be feeling much better.
After lunch Rey took out the photograph of Michelle McCool and the Divas.
"Dave, remember when we talked about this the night I was sick?" Rey asked Batista.
Batista swallowed. He remembered that night very vividly and would think of it often for years to come. He wasn't so sure Rey remembered it so well, he'd been so upset and so cold.
"Yeah, I remember."
"I want to go back to the attic and compare the photographs. I think…" Rey frowned. "I feel like something will click in my head if I compare the two of them."
Batista nodded. "Let's go, then." He took a flashlight along just in case they were gone longer than he thought.
Punk and the others waved goodbye.
They stepped up all the flights of stairs and Rey went first into the attic. Batista had never been up there; when the guys had searched it days ago he hadn't gone. It had been Shawn and Jeff because they were lighter and the attic was so small that it could only hold two people anyway.
It was dark in there.
Batista squinted. He saw Rey's shape but couldn't make out his eyes or his face.
"Dave, could you click on the flashlight? I can't see very well."
Batista obliged.
His eyes widened in awe. "My God…it's like…everything's covered in…"
"It's dust."
"Really? It looks like frost, almost."
Rey smiled. "I like it up here. Do you?"
Batista looked around and saw the hand painted wooden rocking horse, the wooden crates, the dried herbs. The ancient furniture.
"This seems like…like walking into a time capsule or something. It's incredible. It's like another world."
Rey nodded. "Yeah."
He stepped carefully. "Dave, could you shine the light over here? I think Sylvia's stuff is this way."
Batista lifted the light ahead of them where Rey was pointing and they saw a tiny, shock white shape.
Rey knelt down beside it and looked through the pile, selecting the photograph.
"Good. It's still here."
"Rey, what is that thing?" Batista asked a little fearfully.
"What's what?"
"That white thing. What is that?"
Rey grinned and motioned for Batista to sit down. He did, cross legged. He laid down the flashlight a foot behind and in between them so that they could use it as a lamp.
Batista noticed suddenly how tired Rey looked when he didn't think anyone was watching him. He had such a youthful face and such a sweet disposition that he could usually fool everyone that he was feeling well even when he was the farthest thing from it.
Rey picked up the oddly shaped white object and held it out to Batista, who was hesitant to take it.
"What is it?"
"You tell me," Rey said vaguely with a smile. He wanted to see if Dave knew what it was.
Batista looked at the object on all sides. "It's a skull."
"From what?" Rey coaxed. Batista heard from the tone that Rey was testing him.
"Uh…some kind of bird."
Rey chuckled. "It's a starling, Dave."
"How the hell did Sylvia find a bird skull like this?"
"The owls eat the starlings and cough their bones up into pellets."
Batista stared at his friend. "You think this creepy little skull is cool, don't you?"
Rey laughed. "It's not that creepy, Dave, come on. Look at it."
Batista stared down at the thing doubtfully. "I don't know. I've never had a thing for the body parts of dead things."
Rey shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because it's a skull it makes me think of Día de los Muertos or something. But it's so smooth and perfect and the beak is curved like…just so slightly, it's amazing. And it's so white it could be a pearl without the shininess, you know?"
Batista looked at the skull again and saw it through Rey's eyes. The huge eye sockets gazed up at him with a kind of beautiful loneliness that had a magic to it.
"I like the eyes," Batista said slowly. "Or the spaces where they were, anyway."
Rey smiled and a spark of joy lit his irises at Batista seeing the value in it.
He took it gingerly and set it back into the pile.
"I think I had marbles when I was a kid," Batista said conversationally when he saw the felt bag of marbles.
"Okay, Dave, enough toys and things. Let's get down to business here. What do you see?"
Batista looked at the two photographs. He pointed to the one of Michelle.
"That one is a mean, mean lady and that one…" he pointed to the one of Sylvia and her mother. "Is a nice little girl."
Rey sighed, exasperated.
"Fine, I'll figure it out. Just don't hurt Sylvia's stuff when you're playing with it."
Batista grinned. "I was never very observant anyway, Rey. I could look but I wouldn't be able to tell you anything."
Rey shooed him away. "Let me think, then."
He covered his mouth in thought and looked back between the photographs for a long time. Every now and then Batista made a clinking sound with the marbles or another trinket.
Rey's brain hurt after a while. He struggled to see too much of a resemblance between Michelle and Sylvia except that they were both blondes. Rey didn't even think Michelle was a natural blonde like the girl was. He'd never asked her that; he thought it would be rude to. But if she wasn't really blonde, then that could be important. Because then she wouldn't have been blonde as a child. And Sylvia wouldn't have reminded her of her childhood in that case. If blonde wasn't Michelle's natural color then that would rule out their other theory, too, that Sylvia might look like Michelle's daughter if Michelle ever had one.
Rey sighed, frustrated. Why was it that there was a bond between Michelle and Sylvia? And why did his mind keep telling him that that was the key to helping Sylvia rest?
Rey rubbed his eyes and looked over at Batista, who had put marbles into the eye sockets of the starling skull. Rey looked at him with his mouth in a disapprovingly straight line.
Batista quickly removed the marbles with an apologetic grin on his face.
"What?"
"You don't have any shame. You never have. You always mess with other people's stuff. For the love of God that belongs to a dead girl and you still don't have any respect for it."
Batista sighed.
"Rey, I wasn't hurting it, I was just messing around. Stop acting like you're my mother."
Rey's eyes widened in epiphany. "Say that again."
Batista frowned. "Why? Are you gonna slap me for saying that?"
Rey shook his head. "No, Dave, something about mothers. Mothers…"
He snatched up the flashlight and looked back at the photographs.
"Dave," Rey said quietly. "Look at this."
"What is it, Rey?"
"Michelle doesn't look like Sylvia," Rey said, pointing at the picture of the smiling Diva. "We were looking at the wrong person." Rey pointed to the old photo of Sylvia.
"Michelle looks like her mother."
Batista stared from one photo to the next and his eyes widened in awe.
"That was the connection between them…" Batista whispered.
"Yeah."
"Why is that important?" Batista asked his friend awkwardly.
"Because, Dave. I told you. No one knows where her mother went. Her mother vanished."
"So…?" Batista asked.
"Dave, the woman on the stairs was blonde, right? And tall and pretty?"
Rey held up the older photo. "You're sure it was Sylvia's mother?"
Batista scrutinized the image of the woman for a moment.
"Yeah, I'm positive that that was her."
Rey nodded. "Then she was pushed down the stairs. And since the brochure says she 'vanished' then that must mean someone hid her body. Which means she was murdered."
"Wait, wait, how do you know it wasn't a suicide?"
"Dave, why wouldn't her husband report to the authorities that he'd found the body of his wife?" Rey asked him.
Batista understood then. "Yeah, you're right. He must have had something to do with it. He may not have pushed her down the stairs, but he did hide her body. Isn't that a crime somehow?"
Rey bit his lip. "I'm not sure. But I don't think the reason why Sylvia's haunting her house is because she wants her father to be punished. Because he's dead now, too. Me, Punk, Jeff, Randy, John, Edge and Jericho all saw that her father is dead. There's nothing left to do to punish him now that he's dead. I don't think she wants her father punished, Dave. I think she wants to find her mother."
Batista nodded. "I think so too."