4: Ring Around the World

Edge and Christian had less than a stellar time at the fashion show. 'Taker could hear Bradshaw and Farooq laughing their asses off when the blondes returned. Closing his bedroom door behind him –he didn't want Stephanie to wake up- he stepped out into the main room of their suite. He was not surprised in the least to find Edge and Christian tearing off their dresses and bodysuits. "How'd it go, ladies?"

"NEVER AGAIN!" Edge shrieked, not caring who he was shrieking at, using the dress to begin wiping make-up off his face. "That was the most humiliating experience of my life!"

'Taker merely arched an eyebrow.

"I would rather be whipped a BILLION times than EVER do something like that again!" Christian added, clearly just as upset as his 'brother' and whirled to punch Bradshaw when the man wouldn't stop laughing.

That just made Bradshaw laugh even harder.

~!~

Sine had a morning routine when she was away from home. She would get up, ring for coffee and then go to use the restroom. If she was home, depending on which home, she would either start the coffee herself or call for a maid, then hit the restroom. The routine rarely changed.

Today was no exception. After waking up sufficiently enough to order some coffee –with plenty of creamer and sugar of course-, she made her way to the bathroom, her eyes still half closed. The party Monique had forced her to attend last night after the show had been… interesting, and had cut in on her sleep.

It was after washing her hands and face that she seen it. She had looked up into the mirror and blanched, staring at the word ANYTIME scrawled across the pane in deep red. Fighting back tremors, she looked down at the counter and noticed a tube of her lipstick sitting neatly just behind the faucet. With a shaking hand, she reached for it and twisted the top off, not surprised when she seen exactly what she expected.

Deep red lipstick, damaged lipstick.

Twenty minutes later she was pacing the main room of the suite, throwing looks towards the open bathroom door where police were now dusting for fingerprints. She knew most like they would only find hers. She knew exactly who had done this. She knew exactly who had somehow gotten into her hotel room while she was sleeping.

"Sine, calm down…" Monique pleaded, shrinking back when Sine whirled to glare at her. "Please?"

"This fils de salaud has a lot of nerve!" Sine shrieked, her hair flouncing about her shoulders with each sharp turn she made. "He followed me across the world! THE WORLD, MONIQUE!"

Monique cringed.

"Book me on the next flight to England!"

~!~

London, England was not a place Sine was overly fond of but it was just a brief stop. She was there for one night only and remained holed up in her hotel room. From there, she placed a call to Shane McMahon and confirmed what she already knew.

Calaway wasn't anywhere to be found.

She skipped informing Shane she had a rather good idea of where he had been last and instead just wished him luck in finding Stephanie. After the brief and rather unenlightening call, she settled down behind the desk in her suite's den and began mapping out her forced vacation.

She settled on Vienna, knowing returning home to France would be overly obvious as well as idiotic if by chance he continued pursuing her.

~!~

Just like Sine Reneire, 'Taker was relatively wealthy and did not consider money to be an object, especially since he was now having such a good time following her. He left her alone in London and followed her to Vienna, sending Paul and the Ministry back stateside. This worked out rather well for him as it meant he could relieve the 'babysitter' he had hired to watch over precious Stephanie and have his men handle the little Princess.

In Vienna, he followed her through the streets. He observed what she did, aware that she was constantly looking over her shoulder but still going through the motions of normalcy. When a few nights passed and nothing had happened, he watched as she relaxed and began enjoying herself.

On the third night, when she disappeared into the Theater an der Wien, he stole himself a playbill. She had gone to see Don Giovanni, an opera, and that didn't surprise him either. The woman he had met, who wore sports bras and cutoff denims was showing him another side. A more cultured, worldly person that contrasted greatly with his initial impression. That was alright, he could be multifaceted as well.

That was the night he broke into her hotel room for a second time. He noted the decanter of bourbon on the bedside table, arching an eyebrow. She was also a drinker, which would explain the sound sleeping. Of course, there was always that chance she was drinking because of him.

Sine was laying sprawled on top of the blankets, wearing a pale blue nightgown that had ridden up her creamy thighs and he was tempted to crawl into bed with her. But that would definitely end the game, and his fun, too soon for his liking.

Sneering, he passed by her only to halt, arching an eyebrow. Hanging directly above her bed was a large mirror…

~!~

Anywhere Sine went, he followed and she did not always make it easy for him. From Vienna she went to Madrid, then onto Rome, Budapest, Moscow and when she tired of Europe, she led him on a merry chase throughout Asia. They quite literally circled the world before she finally settled in Egypt.

At every place she had stopped, he left her a message. Whether it was a word or phrase scrawled on a mirror –or even a wall, he was getting tired of mirrors, or even something delightfully nasty sent to her in the guise of a gift. Sometimes he would even let her hear him when he followed her, purposefully making his footsteps deliberately loud, or chuckling from behind her only to disappear when she spun around.

He loved the way she adopted a different style everywhere they went, though she always wore sunglasses, as if that would somehow throw him off the scent. When she went as far as dying that chocolate brown hair, he had intruded upon her, waking her up from the middle of a sound, bourbon induced sleep in order to heap insults upon her.

He had left her after only minutes, her gray eyes wide and terrified, and her mouth open in a silent scream. But the next time he had seen her, her hair had been back to its natural color.

~!~

This had long passed the stage of irritating and nerve wracking. It was when he had woken her up to bitch her out for dying her hair that Sine realized he wasn't a good old fashioned psychopath but an entirely new breed. He was enjoying this little cat and mouse game he had initiated and he had taken her dye job too personally.

Sine was getting exhausted, he was burning her out and even after hiring on a bodyguard –which 'Taker seemed to find even more amusing and yet insulting at the same time, he had sent her a card with a simple message of 'he can't help you' and a scrawled suggestion that she fire the man immediately. Which she did not.

A particularly memorable, and recent moment, had been waking up to find local beetles swarming over her things, not pleasant.

"I'll be returning soon, I promise." She was currently in a booth in the hotel lobby, wearing white cotton slacks and a matching tank top, a wide brimmed hat over her head. She had just come inside from the blistering heat and was fairly certain she had brought sand back with her. "So far, he's just interesting in scaring me. He's bound to get bored eventually, yes?"

Monique's hesitation was obvious even through their horrible connection. "Maybe Sine… why don't you come back to Manhattan? You can stay with me."

"We'll see."

"Manhattan, hmm?"

Sine dropped the phone and whirled around, automatically pressing herself as far back into the booth as she possibly could.

'Taker leaned over her, his green eyes sparkling with evil intentions as he reached forward to pick up the receiver. Ignoring Monique's cries for Sine, he hung it up, moving his face so it was directly against hers, their noses brushing. "Are you tiring of our game?"

Before she could say anything, he was backing away, leaving her there to try calming herself.

~!~

That right there cemented her decision to return home, home as in her stateside residence and not Manhattan. If she was going to be terrorized, then it would at least occur on grounds she was one hundred percent familiar with.

The only problem with returning home was that as soon as she walked into the house, she was greeted to the sight of Midnight lying near the basement door. He had been slit from throat to pelvis, blood dried beneath his stiff body.

Biting down on her knuckles, Sine dropped her bag and approached her beloved feline, now wishing she had taken him with her instead of leaving him under Mrs. Meade and Tommy's care as she had done many times before. Midnight had never required much attention, just regular feedings and cat box changings… her eyes narrowed when she seen Welcome Home scrawled on the door leading down to her workshop. Scrawled in Midnight's blood.

~!~

Paul remembered asking 'Taker if he thought he might have taken it a bit too far, what with killing the cat and then using its blood as finger paint. He had simply gotten a 'look' and shut his mouth, knowing it would never go too far, not for 'Taker. The man had taken being clocked by a woman with a Singer a bit… personally, and had discovered he enjoyed terrorizing her.

Personally, Paul thought that chasing her around the world had been enough, more than enough. His protégé wasn't inclined to agree.

He was woken up to the scent of smoke, instantly alert. Muttering under his breath, he tossed back his covers and then blinked, waking up even more. "TAKER!" He squealed, seeing his bedroom walls were on fire.

~!~

Sine was standing across the street with the rest of the neighborhood, watching as the house burnt. How on earth it had happened was BEYOND her, she had been visiting Mrs. Meade when it happened, lamenting the loss of Midnight.

Her gray eyes narrowed as she watched 'Taker and the overly large man stumbling out of the house, coming home to finding her cat dead had been the final straw. She offered a concerned, totally fake, look when 'Taker stared across the street, directly at her.

Of course her house had gone up in flames as well but since she had already vacated everything of importance earlier in the day, she wasn't too concerned.

"I told you he was bad news." Mrs. Meade sniffed, patting Sine on the shoulder sympathetically. "I am sorry about your house, my dear."

~!~

Within days, Sine had relocated to a penthouse in New York. Thus far, she had been left alone which was great as it gave her time to properly settle in and reopen business. Of course, it also gave her time to be thoroughly harassed by Monique who was overly thrilled to have her so close.

"Reneire's." She greeted when her new phone rang, having changed her number and had all her business calls redirected. It was a hassle, but… such was the price of avoiding a lunatic. A lunatic who had murdered her cat… a lunatic she had made homeless.

"How about we go get some coffee?"

"Damn it, Momo, business calls only!" She hung up on her annoying friend, shaking her head.

When the phone rang again seconds later, she nearly threw it through the open window, tempted to go to Monique's just to harm her. Sine's face went blank when she simply heard laughter, dark laughter.

The game was back on. No matter how many times she changed her number, he seemed to always get it. Eventually, Sine had to finally go underground in terms of business, letting her agent and Monique handle everything.

She contemplated getting a new cat but wasn't ready to replace Midnight just yet. So instead, she got a dog. A Great Dane to be exact and he went wherever she did, just in case.

~!~

It took a while, but 'Taker finally got Sine's personal number. "Are you sorry yet?" He demanded when she picked up on the third ring, hearing her inhale sharply. "The games are over, Sine." He didn't give her time to stammer out a response, instead hung up, leaving her to brew over that thought.

He knew she was in New York, that much was obvious. She had an actual boutique there, though he had yet to see hide or hair of her in the store. He spotted her annoying assistant from Milan, Mo something, but that was about it.

His next break came when he heard where Sine had gone too for help, chuckling darkly as Paul told him the news. Sine Reneire had finally broken down and sought out the McMahons. This was simply too good.