Post by Evan De Parker on Feb 27, 2013 21:59:36 GMT -4
”Well, last week didn’t go exactly as I’d planned... What can I say? I got trumped. I got duped. The number one contender to Terry Marvin’s Undisputed Championship beat me at my own game, and I have only myself to blame. It’s one of those things that I should’ve seen coming.
“I didn’t though.
“You can blame that on inexperience, or you could go ahead and blame that on my head being too far up my own ass. I’ve heard that before, and it makes me laugh every time-- to know that people confuse my confidence and my knowledge for arrogance. And I say ‘knowledge’ because, I know that I’m the best there is. I know it.
“It’s just that...
“Even the best had to start somewhere...
“Gates got the better of me, and it’s something that I’m gonna have to deal with. It’s something that I’m gonna have to learn from... Because I’ll be damned if the already-corrupted youth of this nation is allowed to go another day thinking that the most inconsistent man in a World Title picture this side of Phil Atken, is somehow better than me.
“It’s not that simple though, now is it? I mean... Look at what I’m up against here. His partner is the Undisputed Champion himself. Terry; the man that’s betrayed me and stabbed me in the back more times than I care to count. Hell, he’s made a career out of it.
“I mean, we could look at it the logical way, and we could assume that the two are gonna have some sort of spat. They’ll bump heads and they’ll fall apart, and-- and-- and that’s when I swoop in. That’s when I pick up the victory and I-- I either redeem myself by defeating CJ Gates in the middle of that ring... Or I solidify a victory from two weeks ago, and I do the same to Terry Marvin. That’s the idea here.
“And then reality sets in and I realize that my tag team partner is probably the most spiteful son of a bitch I’ve ever met.
“My partner... Is the world’s worst businessman, Mr. Mark Mania, and he’s denied me... Of something that belongs to me... For far too long.
“And that’s completely okay, you know? I know that sooner or later, I’ll get exactly what I deserve. And if there’s anything I’ve learned from one of our opponents this week, Terry Marvin, it’s that if you want to send a message, you have to shock people. You have to hurt people. So that’s what I’m gonna do.
“Not to you, Terry.
“Not to you, CJ.
“...By the time you see this video, I’ll have already hurt Mark Mania.”
There is just darkness, for the longest time, but we can recognize the sounds for what they are, for the most part. We’re in a vehicle-- a truck, judging by the roar of the motor. Somebody is coughing... It’s hard to distinguish who.
There is a clicking, and after a few moments, a sustained whistling sound; a lighter. There is a brilliant flash of red accompanying the blaze of the flame from the lighter, but we still see no actual image. Merely a dark screen.
”According to this, we should be... Like... Four miles from the Chateau Saint John.”
”Know her room number?”
”What?”
”Her-- the room number. Mark’s room number. Do you know it?”
”No. Why the fuck would I know it? That’s what you two are for.”
”Ah. Right. Jeremy, do you have it?”
”Yeah... 902. They have the very top floor. It’s not exactly easy to get lost going up there-- there are only four rooms on the whole level.”
”So we have to be careful.”
”My ass. I’m Evan Envi. I’ll walk right in there and demand a key to the room, and handle business. Watch.”
We blink into color where Evan Envi stands-- or rather leans-- across from an attractive, young receptionist at the Chateau Saint John’s front desk. She grins up at Evan with her fiery red hair pulled back behind her hair in a tight bun, gazing up at him with green eyes behind her rectangular frames.
”Mmmmm... Nope. Sorry, dear. You’re not in the system.”
”Well. Clearly there’s some sort of mistake. I mean-- you didn’t even check the computer.”
The receptionist, who (if her name badge doesn’t make a liar of her) is named Carol, smiles up at Evan with the same indistinguishable leer that she’d been wearing since she first appeared. Evan groans and stands upright, looking down at her with a narrowed stare void of all amusement.
”Do you know who I am?”
”Mhm. I know exactly who you are. That’s how I know you’re not in the system.”
”Carol. I’m a personal friend of Mr. Mania’s. Please.”
Evan leans down so his eyes are just inches from Carol’s, and her smile brightens, but she doesn’t appear to be making any sort of movement to retrieve the keys.
”Darling, if you were such great and personal friends, wouldn’t you already have a key?”
”Not if I surrounded myself with incompetent friends.”
”Hey.”
”I... I resent that.”
Evan shoots a look over his shoulder at Jeremy and Jenny, but quickly turns his attention back toward Carol, who sighs and turns her attention back toward the computer monitor, typing something on the monitor with a focused look in her eye.
”Is that you getting me a key?”
”No... This is me Tweeting about how Evan Envi is attempting to get me to commit a crime in the middle of a Tuesday, at my job in a New Brunswick hotel, flanked by two children.”
”She just called us children, didn’t she?”
”I’m twenty. We’re... Twenty.”
”They’re not-- you know what. Fine. I see what kind of establishment you’re running.”
”A safe one?”
”A racist one.”
”Wha-- a r...”
She stops, mid-sentence and simply opts to stare at Evan in mild shock, her mouth hanging slightly agape. Evan folds his arms, defiantly and nods. For a few seconds, he doesn’t offer Carol much more than a short grunt.
”You are so cruel. Do you treat all your Americans this way?”
”Just the crazy celebrities.”
”CUH-RAAAAAAAAAAAZY CELEBRITIES. Did you hear that, Jeremy?! Jenny?!”
”I h--”
”Speak up.”
”I heard her call you crazy.”
”Which seems accurate, at the moment.”
Carol sighs behind the desk and wheels over toward her phone, reaching to pull the receiver up to her lips.
”Security?”
Dark.
We blink into color again, where Evan Envi is reclined in the third row of a Dodge Durango, which was being driven by Jeremy Knite, who is seated in the driver’s seat, carefully extracting each and every single brown M&M from a large bag, chucking each out the window as he comes across one.
Jenny lies across the middle row of seats, strumming her finger across the screen of her iPad. It’s unclear to both us and Evan Envi what she’s actually doing, but nobody argues, as it provides a faint and gentle music that distracts Evan from Jeremy’s obnoxious choice in country music, and distracts Jeremy from Evan’s obnoxious silence.
”I have a question.”
Evan sits up and looks at Jeremy, expectantly. He had known that if anybody was going to be the first to speak, it’d be him. Kid was just too awkward to sit still, if you were to ask Envi...
”We rented a hotel about two miles down the road, right?”
”We did.”
Jeremy throws a handful of M&Ms into his mouth and arches his eyebrow at Evan, prepared to ask him the inevitable.
”Then why have we been sitting outside of the Chateau Saint John for six hours? We don’t know if they’re coming in, or going out of that hotel. We don’t know how often he and Rosa travel together. And it’s like eight o’clock in the evening! People are coming home from dinner. People are just getting back into their rooms... You’re just-- just gonna bust in there and interrogate Rosa?”
Evan leans up farther so his face is completely visible from the back seat.
”No! God no!”
He looks at Jeremy in bewilderment.
”I’m not gonna just force my way into someone’s hotel room.”
Jeremy sighs in relief and places a hand over his rapidly-pounding heart.
”Oh, thank goodness.”
”You guys are.”
”...I beg your pardon?”
Jenny finally lowers her iPad and sits upright to look at her twin brother, giving him a stern nod.
”We went over the plan during the plane ride. Don’t act like you don’t remember.”
”Wha-- I was asleep!”
”An unfortunate time for a nap, too.”
”Jenny, we can’t just--!”
”Yo. Relax.”
”Seriously. Follow my lead, and we’ll be fine.”
Jeremy sighs and places his forehead on the steering wheel. He doesn’t look back at the other two occupants of the vehicle for a moment. He sits up, as if prepared to say something, but stops and shakes his head, resting his head against the wheel again. Defeat.
Dark.
We blink into color and we can see on the clock that an hour has elapsed since we were last seen in the Durango with our three “heroes.”
Evan has already started to fall asleep. Jeremy remains in the front seat, but has turned the radio up slightly by this point to occupy himself, prompting nothing short of audible minor whines and groans from the self-proclaimed MegaMegaStar. Jenny is the only one that seems to be completely focused on the task at this point, which as far as we know, includes watching Mark Mania’s hotel room window from afar. Her eyes remain focuses on that single yellow orb from the lamp that rests behind curtain.
”I’m gonna go inside for a bit. I need to use the bathroom.”
Jeremy unbuckles his seatbelt and thrusts the driver’s door open. He turns and extends his own pair of binoculars out toward his sister.
”Want these?”
”Definitely. Be quick.”
She accepts the binoculars from him, giving him a nod as he exits the car and power-walks across the Chateau Saint John parking lot, toward the rotating door that leads into the front lobby.
Jenny stares up at Mania’s window from behind the false eyes of the binocular, watching with intent for the slightest flicker or distortion of the light; anything to let them know that some sort of life is taking place in that room. She spares a quick glance over her shoulder toward Evan, who is stirring from his brief slumber in the third-row seating.
”How are you guys supposed to work together?”
Evan yawns and pushes himself up to a normal seated position, giving Jenny a small smirk.
”Mark and I?”
”Yeah...”
Evan shrugs, moving over to the side of the vehicle that Jenny’s on, looking up at the window as well, resting on that ball of light that rests behind the window pane on the very top floor. He quickly averts his eyes, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to see as well as Jenny regardless.
”It’s not gonna be easy. I mean...”
Evan’s gaze remains pointed to the floor for a little while as he searches his brain for the words to describe the situation, but he simply laughs and gives Jenny a small shrug.
”He’s not gonna want to work by my side. There’s no... There’s no tangible goal in sight with this match. I mean-- I guess-- I guess if I were to win us the match, beating Gates or Terry out there in the ring, it would mean something, in theory. It would be impressive. It would turn the right eyes in my direction.
“That’s the theory.”
He laughs again, but he sounds more exhausted than legitimately amused by anything.
”But I know that no matter what I do, or how well I perform, Mania will still look for an excuse to not give me a shot at his Overdrive Title. No matter what... I’ll never really deserve anything that I earn here. Usually, the argument is because I came from Meltdown-- but I don’t even know what Mania’s reasoning is. He’s not even creative with his excuse. According to him, I’m just flat-out not impressive.
“Beating Kurt Noble, Biggs, Terry Marvin, and retiring John Dionysus, all in the course of two months, and that’s not impressive.
“Hell, last week, I lost a match for the first time since Thanksgiving, and it was by count-out to the number one contender to the Undisputed Championship.
“But I’m not impressive. I don’t deserve it.”
Jenny offers him her best attempt at a warm smile once he’s finished with his tirade.
”If you keep winning, how can they keep denying you?”
Evan chuckles and throws his hands up, illustrating his inability to logically retort.
”Because I’m just that damn good. The more they deny me this match, the more the fans itch and beg to see it. The more they pull that golden opportunity away, the more money Mark Mania vs Evan Envi at Rasslemania for the Overdrive Championship is worth. It’s only a matter of time. I know it. Rebel knows it.
“Mark knows it.
“And this week, he’s gotta keep me close. He’s gonna need my help if he wants to pull out a win over Terry Marvin and CJ Gates. And maybe-- maybe he doesn’t even care about that. Y’know? Maybe he’ll care more about getting his hands on me, and around my neck after tonight. Maybe he’ll...”
Evan mouths the rest of his sentence, silently, but seems to fade off into a small smile. He laughs lightly and surveys Jenny.
”You think we can do it, right?”
Jenny looks at Evan for a long time, unresponsive, but finally voices a response after a moment.
”I know you can.”
He smirks.
”Damn good answer...”
She turns, looking out the window toward Mania’s room for a moment, gazing at the light with her binoculars. Without turning away from the window, she addresses Evan.
”What went wrong with Gates last week?”
He doesn’t turn to look at her. He climbs into the second row, leaning against the far window, his eyes closed.
”Got cocky. Took him outside... Roughed him up... Part of me thought that it was a good way to slow him down, and a part of me thought that-- maybe it was a chance to repeat history and embarrass him like I embarrassed Terry the week before.”
Evan opens his eyes, looking at Jenny, though she continues to stare up at Mania’s window behind binoculars.
”Gates is smarter than I think I’ve given him credit for.”
”So you were wrong about him.”
Evan playfully raises his foot to aim a light kick to her thigh. It earns a chuckle from the girl recruited as Evan’s agent, and she finally lowers the binoculars to turn and face him.
”I wasn’t wrong. He’s still inconsistent when it comes to performing in the ring. He’s still a pig, playing a hero. He’s still... The same old, CJ Gates. He said himself this week that he has no-- no fire.
“Throughout everything that Terry has done to the place that made CJ a household name... From the lies, and the backstabbing, and the blatant disrespect, and the-- the neanderthalic name-calling and assaults, he has no fire. He has no reason to go into Rasslemania fighting any harder, any differently, or any more cunning than he does on any ordinary night...
“He’s boring.”
Jenny arches an eyebrow in amusement. ”Boring? He’s a half of the Rasslemania main event, and you think he’s--”
”I think that if CJ was going to be different from everyone else, and he was going to beat Terry Marvin, he would’ve shown that killer instinct by now.
“But do you know who has the limelight, and the attention of the nation instead? People like Rex Evans... Diamond Legend... Talon-fuckin’-Wilkinson. Not CJ Gates. He’s successfully become an afterthought in the Undisputed Title picture and he’s okay with it. And do you know why?”
Jenny, legitimately intrigued, hangs off of Evan’s every word, eyes flickering with excitement, lips curved into a tight smile.
”Why?”
”Because... At least he’s there. That’s half the battle, right?”
Suddenly, the driver’s door is flung open. Evan and Jenny jolt, suddenly alert, as Jeremy springs into the driver’s seat, looking back at the two of them with wide eyes.
”I was walking out to the parking lot-- and I saw him! I saw Mark, without Rosa!”
Evan smirks as Jenny falls into position, shoving her camcorder into her handbag and clutching it to her side. She leans past Jeremy to adjust her hair in the rearview mirror before sliding out of the vehicle. Evan pushes himself out as well, leaning in once more to address Jeremy.
”Keep your phone closeby.”
He starts to close the door...
...But stops as Jeremy hurriedly, and nervously croaks out one more question.
”You’re-- you’re not gonna hurt anybody, are you?”
Evan looks at Jeremy with his eyes just as wide, and full of just as much “nervousness”, though it becomes apparent after a few seconds that Evan’s is sarcastic; goading.
”Jeremy, please! Who do you take me for?”
Evan slams the door of the Durango and turns, keeping one pace ahead of Jenny as they approach the hotel.
Dark.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Jenny stands patiently outside of room 902 in the Chateau Saint John. She takes a few steps back from the door, allowing the occupant to view her from the peephole. For a few seconds, there’s no hustle... No ruckus-- no apparent move from the inside of Room 902 indicating that anybody was ready to answer the door.
After nearly thirty seconds pass, Jenny nervously shoots a look around her, over each shoulder. She shifts her weight, awkwardly from foot to foot, bouncing on her heels, and even begins to whistle a tune to herself before she raises a fist, prepared to knock again--
But then the door opens.
There she stands. Rosa looks at Jenny, inquisitively.
”Oh--?”
The two stare at each other as Rosa registers Jenny’s face. Jenny gazes across the doorway at her, warmly and pleasantly...
...And Rosa shrieks as Evan maneuvers around the corner, throwing a single hand over her lips, pushing her back into the suite. Jenny follows the two inside quickly, closing and locking the door behind her. She hurriedly removes the camcorder from her handbag as Evan pushes Rosa backwards, onto the sofa and stands back, his arms folded.
”Make him give me the match.”
”You’re-- fucking insane. Get out of the room! Mark’s gonna be back any minute.”
”Really?”
Evan nods toward Jenny, who looks up at Rosa over the camcorder afterward. Rosa and Jenny make eye contact for a brief second before Jenny averts her gaze and backs against the door, continuing to film Rosa and Evan. Evan smirks and turns back to Rosa, lowering himself next to her on the sofa. He angles himself to her to look right into her eyes, but Rosa looks toward the window, biting her lip.
”Then I guess I’ll just stick around until he gets here, eh?”
”I can’t make him give you a match--”
”Oh, yes. Yes, you can.”
”I can’t--”
”Shut up.”
”I--”
”Shut up.”
Evan glares at Rosa behind dark and impatient eyes.
”Mark and I have some important business to tend to this week. You know that. Now-- I don’t want whatever happens here between us to affect his performance in this tag team match, y’know? See where I’m coming from?”
Rosa doesn’t answer. She looks at the ground, her hands folded between her knees. Evan smirks and reaches down to take a hold of her wrist.
”It’s important that we beat Terry this week. And CJ. And I know that Mark and I are more than capable of pulling something like that off. I mean-- I mean, Rosa, you SAW it. Terry Marvin can be broken. CJ Gates is a man that has been broken many times and Mark and I just can’t dick around and lose a match like this, y’know? Not when our Rasslemania match is right around the corner!”
Rosa shifts uncomfortably. She tries, just once, to pull free from Evan’s grasp, but quickly halts her efforts when she realizes how solid his grip remains.
”You can imagine that hype... People would probably call it an upset, wouldn’t they? Old Marky and I, pulling off a win like that, haha... Right? Right?”
Again, no response.
”And after everything that Terry has done to terrorize APW, this is our chance to THWART all of the great evils in this business! MARK MANIA AND EVAN ENVI UNITE to destroy Satan himself.”
He mouths the words to himself quietly and smiles at the prospect.
”And that-- that’s where you come in, Rosa! We beat CJ and Terry this week, one way or another, and then we have all the hype and all the press heading into Rasslemania. The only thing that’ll be on everyone’s mind is the Overdrive Championship! The--!”
”He’s not giving you that match.”
She screams.
SMASH!
Rosa cowers against the wall, having knocked the lamp from the table as she leaps to her feet to avoid the quick-moving Evan. Evan holds a hand, inches from her head, pressing himself close to her as he glares into her eyes.
”I know everything about you.”
”I beg your pardon?”
Evan doesn’t move away from her-- doesn’t look away, but simply cries ”Jenny!”, prompting Jenny to look up from the camcorder and retort.
”We have information on your mother, father, brother, and both maternal grandparents, if absolutely necessary. All of it was legally obtained. Perfectly able to be found on the internet with some clever search-work and patience.”
”And I don’t wanna step on any toes, Rosa, but if I have to go over your head to get my Overdrive Title match, then I’m more than willing to take that step. Know what I mean?”
”You--”
”I don’t wanna hurt anybody, Rosa. I think that gig is really tired. Y’know? I don’t wanna have to come in here and...”
He sighs, running his knuckles alongside Rosa’s cheek and jawline.
”...And feel that I’m threatening you. I just want you to make some things happen for me. I mean, that’s really all. Then we can be friends, right?”
Rosa takes a deep breath.
”Leave my family alone. I-- we have nothing to do with any of this, Evan.”
Jenny continues to film, nervously from the door as Evan grins and leans closer to Rosa, speaking softer.
”Sooner or later, one way or another, I always get what I want.
"I want you to remember that and hold onto it. Okay?
"And I want you to know that if I have to come back a week from now and ask you why my Overdrive Title match isn’t booked, I will probably do something really drastic. Perhaps erratic. Perhaps violent-- I don’t really know. I haven’t decided yet.
“But beforehand, just remember... We’re facing the Rasslemania main event this week. I don’t want this to interfere with that, Rosa. I want the best for Mark. I want the best for the Overdrive Title.
“Rosa... I want the best for Overdrive. Don’t let this get fucked up.”
He pushes himself away from her and sighs, turning to Jenny. He motions for her to end filming, and after a few seconds of a frame frozen on his still, cold fade, we fade to dark one final time.
“I didn’t though.
“You can blame that on inexperience, or you could go ahead and blame that on my head being too far up my own ass. I’ve heard that before, and it makes me laugh every time-- to know that people confuse my confidence and my knowledge for arrogance. And I say ‘knowledge’ because, I know that I’m the best there is. I know it.
“It’s just that...
“Even the best had to start somewhere...
“Gates got the better of me, and it’s something that I’m gonna have to deal with. It’s something that I’m gonna have to learn from... Because I’ll be damned if the already-corrupted youth of this nation is allowed to go another day thinking that the most inconsistent man in a World Title picture this side of Phil Atken, is somehow better than me.
“It’s not that simple though, now is it? I mean... Look at what I’m up against here. His partner is the Undisputed Champion himself. Terry; the man that’s betrayed me and stabbed me in the back more times than I care to count. Hell, he’s made a career out of it.
“I mean, we could look at it the logical way, and we could assume that the two are gonna have some sort of spat. They’ll bump heads and they’ll fall apart, and-- and-- and that’s when I swoop in. That’s when I pick up the victory and I-- I either redeem myself by defeating CJ Gates in the middle of that ring... Or I solidify a victory from two weeks ago, and I do the same to Terry Marvin. That’s the idea here.
“And then reality sets in and I realize that my tag team partner is probably the most spiteful son of a bitch I’ve ever met.
“My partner... Is the world’s worst businessman, Mr. Mark Mania, and he’s denied me... Of something that belongs to me... For far too long.
“And that’s completely okay, you know? I know that sooner or later, I’ll get exactly what I deserve. And if there’s anything I’ve learned from one of our opponents this week, Terry Marvin, it’s that if you want to send a message, you have to shock people. You have to hurt people. So that’s what I’m gonna do.
“Not to you, Terry.
“Not to you, CJ.
“...By the time you see this video, I’ll have already hurt Mark Mania.”
*****
There is just darkness, for the longest time, but we can recognize the sounds for what they are, for the most part. We’re in a vehicle-- a truck, judging by the roar of the motor. Somebody is coughing... It’s hard to distinguish who.
There is a clicking, and after a few moments, a sustained whistling sound; a lighter. There is a brilliant flash of red accompanying the blaze of the flame from the lighter, but we still see no actual image. Merely a dark screen.
”According to this, we should be... Like... Four miles from the Chateau Saint John.”
”Know her room number?”
”What?”
”Her-- the room number. Mark’s room number. Do you know it?”
”No. Why the fuck would I know it? That’s what you two are for.”
”Ah. Right. Jeremy, do you have it?”
”Yeah... 902. They have the very top floor. It’s not exactly easy to get lost going up there-- there are only four rooms on the whole level.”
”So we have to be careful.”
”My ass. I’m Evan Envi. I’ll walk right in there and demand a key to the room, and handle business. Watch.”
*****
We blink into color where Evan Envi stands-- or rather leans-- across from an attractive, young receptionist at the Chateau Saint John’s front desk. She grins up at Evan with her fiery red hair pulled back behind her hair in a tight bun, gazing up at him with green eyes behind her rectangular frames.
”Mmmmm... Nope. Sorry, dear. You’re not in the system.”
”Well. Clearly there’s some sort of mistake. I mean-- you didn’t even check the computer.”
The receptionist, who (if her name badge doesn’t make a liar of her) is named Carol, smiles up at Evan with the same indistinguishable leer that she’d been wearing since she first appeared. Evan groans and stands upright, looking down at her with a narrowed stare void of all amusement.
”Do you know who I am?”
”Mhm. I know exactly who you are. That’s how I know you’re not in the system.”
”Carol. I’m a personal friend of Mr. Mania’s. Please.”
Evan leans down so his eyes are just inches from Carol’s, and her smile brightens, but she doesn’t appear to be making any sort of movement to retrieve the keys.
”Darling, if you were such great and personal friends, wouldn’t you already have a key?”
”Not if I surrounded myself with incompetent friends.”
”Hey.”
”I... I resent that.”
Evan shoots a look over his shoulder at Jeremy and Jenny, but quickly turns his attention back toward Carol, who sighs and turns her attention back toward the computer monitor, typing something on the monitor with a focused look in her eye.
”Is that you getting me a key?”
”No... This is me Tweeting about how Evan Envi is attempting to get me to commit a crime in the middle of a Tuesday, at my job in a New Brunswick hotel, flanked by two children.”
”She just called us children, didn’t she?”
”I’m twenty. We’re... Twenty.”
”They’re not-- you know what. Fine. I see what kind of establishment you’re running.”
”A safe one?”
”A racist one.”
”Wha-- a r...”
She stops, mid-sentence and simply opts to stare at Evan in mild shock, her mouth hanging slightly agape. Evan folds his arms, defiantly and nods. For a few seconds, he doesn’t offer Carol much more than a short grunt.
”You are so cruel. Do you treat all your Americans this way?”
”Just the crazy celebrities.”
”CUH-RAAAAAAAAAAAZY CELEBRITIES. Did you hear that, Jeremy?! Jenny?!”
”I h--”
”Speak up.”
”I heard her call you crazy.”
”Which seems accurate, at the moment.”
Carol sighs behind the desk and wheels over toward her phone, reaching to pull the receiver up to her lips.
”Security?”
Dark.
*****
We blink into color again, where Evan Envi is reclined in the third row of a Dodge Durango, which was being driven by Jeremy Knite, who is seated in the driver’s seat, carefully extracting each and every single brown M&M from a large bag, chucking each out the window as he comes across one.
Jenny lies across the middle row of seats, strumming her finger across the screen of her iPad. It’s unclear to both us and Evan Envi what she’s actually doing, but nobody argues, as it provides a faint and gentle music that distracts Evan from Jeremy’s obnoxious choice in country music, and distracts Jeremy from Evan’s obnoxious silence.
”I have a question.”
Evan sits up and looks at Jeremy, expectantly. He had known that if anybody was going to be the first to speak, it’d be him. Kid was just too awkward to sit still, if you were to ask Envi...
”We rented a hotel about two miles down the road, right?”
”We did.”
Jeremy throws a handful of M&Ms into his mouth and arches his eyebrow at Evan, prepared to ask him the inevitable.
”Then why have we been sitting outside of the Chateau Saint John for six hours? We don’t know if they’re coming in, or going out of that hotel. We don’t know how often he and Rosa travel together. And it’s like eight o’clock in the evening! People are coming home from dinner. People are just getting back into their rooms... You’re just-- just gonna bust in there and interrogate Rosa?”
Evan leans up farther so his face is completely visible from the back seat.
”No! God no!”
He looks at Jeremy in bewilderment.
”I’m not gonna just force my way into someone’s hotel room.”
Jeremy sighs in relief and places a hand over his rapidly-pounding heart.
”Oh, thank goodness.”
”You guys are.”
”...I beg your pardon?”
Jenny finally lowers her iPad and sits upright to look at her twin brother, giving him a stern nod.
”We went over the plan during the plane ride. Don’t act like you don’t remember.”
”Wha-- I was asleep!”
”An unfortunate time for a nap, too.”
”Jenny, we can’t just--!”
”Yo. Relax.”
”Seriously. Follow my lead, and we’ll be fine.”
Jeremy sighs and places his forehead on the steering wheel. He doesn’t look back at the other two occupants of the vehicle for a moment. He sits up, as if prepared to say something, but stops and shakes his head, resting his head against the wheel again. Defeat.
Dark.
*****
We blink into color and we can see on the clock that an hour has elapsed since we were last seen in the Durango with our three “heroes.”
Evan has already started to fall asleep. Jeremy remains in the front seat, but has turned the radio up slightly by this point to occupy himself, prompting nothing short of audible minor whines and groans from the self-proclaimed MegaMegaStar. Jenny is the only one that seems to be completely focused on the task at this point, which as far as we know, includes watching Mark Mania’s hotel room window from afar. Her eyes remain focuses on that single yellow orb from the lamp that rests behind curtain.
”I’m gonna go inside for a bit. I need to use the bathroom.”
Jeremy unbuckles his seatbelt and thrusts the driver’s door open. He turns and extends his own pair of binoculars out toward his sister.
”Want these?”
”Definitely. Be quick.”
She accepts the binoculars from him, giving him a nod as he exits the car and power-walks across the Chateau Saint John parking lot, toward the rotating door that leads into the front lobby.
Jenny stares up at Mania’s window from behind the false eyes of the binocular, watching with intent for the slightest flicker or distortion of the light; anything to let them know that some sort of life is taking place in that room. She spares a quick glance over her shoulder toward Evan, who is stirring from his brief slumber in the third-row seating.
”How are you guys supposed to work together?”
Evan yawns and pushes himself up to a normal seated position, giving Jenny a small smirk.
”Mark and I?”
”Yeah...”
Evan shrugs, moving over to the side of the vehicle that Jenny’s on, looking up at the window as well, resting on that ball of light that rests behind the window pane on the very top floor. He quickly averts his eyes, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to see as well as Jenny regardless.
”It’s not gonna be easy. I mean...”
Evan’s gaze remains pointed to the floor for a little while as he searches his brain for the words to describe the situation, but he simply laughs and gives Jenny a small shrug.
”He’s not gonna want to work by my side. There’s no... There’s no tangible goal in sight with this match. I mean-- I guess-- I guess if I were to win us the match, beating Gates or Terry out there in the ring, it would mean something, in theory. It would be impressive. It would turn the right eyes in my direction.
“That’s the theory.”
He laughs again, but he sounds more exhausted than legitimately amused by anything.
”But I know that no matter what I do, or how well I perform, Mania will still look for an excuse to not give me a shot at his Overdrive Title. No matter what... I’ll never really deserve anything that I earn here. Usually, the argument is because I came from Meltdown-- but I don’t even know what Mania’s reasoning is. He’s not even creative with his excuse. According to him, I’m just flat-out not impressive.
“Beating Kurt Noble, Biggs, Terry Marvin, and retiring John Dionysus, all in the course of two months, and that’s not impressive.
“Hell, last week, I lost a match for the first time since Thanksgiving, and it was by count-out to the number one contender to the Undisputed Championship.
“But I’m not impressive. I don’t deserve it.”
Jenny offers him her best attempt at a warm smile once he’s finished with his tirade.
”If you keep winning, how can they keep denying you?”
Evan chuckles and throws his hands up, illustrating his inability to logically retort.
”Because I’m just that damn good. The more they deny me this match, the more the fans itch and beg to see it. The more they pull that golden opportunity away, the more money Mark Mania vs Evan Envi at Rasslemania for the Overdrive Championship is worth. It’s only a matter of time. I know it. Rebel knows it.
“Mark knows it.
“And this week, he’s gotta keep me close. He’s gonna need my help if he wants to pull out a win over Terry Marvin and CJ Gates. And maybe-- maybe he doesn’t even care about that. Y’know? Maybe he’ll care more about getting his hands on me, and around my neck after tonight. Maybe he’ll...”
Evan mouths the rest of his sentence, silently, but seems to fade off into a small smile. He laughs lightly and surveys Jenny.
”You think we can do it, right?”
Jenny looks at Evan for a long time, unresponsive, but finally voices a response after a moment.
”I know you can.”
He smirks.
”Damn good answer...”
She turns, looking out the window toward Mania’s room for a moment, gazing at the light with her binoculars. Without turning away from the window, she addresses Evan.
”What went wrong with Gates last week?”
He doesn’t turn to look at her. He climbs into the second row, leaning against the far window, his eyes closed.
”Got cocky. Took him outside... Roughed him up... Part of me thought that it was a good way to slow him down, and a part of me thought that-- maybe it was a chance to repeat history and embarrass him like I embarrassed Terry the week before.”
Evan opens his eyes, looking at Jenny, though she continues to stare up at Mania’s window behind binoculars.
”Gates is smarter than I think I’ve given him credit for.”
”So you were wrong about him.”
Evan playfully raises his foot to aim a light kick to her thigh. It earns a chuckle from the girl recruited as Evan’s agent, and she finally lowers the binoculars to turn and face him.
”I wasn’t wrong. He’s still inconsistent when it comes to performing in the ring. He’s still a pig, playing a hero. He’s still... The same old, CJ Gates. He said himself this week that he has no-- no fire.
“Throughout everything that Terry has done to the place that made CJ a household name... From the lies, and the backstabbing, and the blatant disrespect, and the-- the neanderthalic name-calling and assaults, he has no fire. He has no reason to go into Rasslemania fighting any harder, any differently, or any more cunning than he does on any ordinary night...
“He’s boring.”
Jenny arches an eyebrow in amusement. ”Boring? He’s a half of the Rasslemania main event, and you think he’s--”
”I think that if CJ was going to be different from everyone else, and he was going to beat Terry Marvin, he would’ve shown that killer instinct by now.
“But do you know who has the limelight, and the attention of the nation instead? People like Rex Evans... Diamond Legend... Talon-fuckin’-Wilkinson. Not CJ Gates. He’s successfully become an afterthought in the Undisputed Title picture and he’s okay with it. And do you know why?”
Jenny, legitimately intrigued, hangs off of Evan’s every word, eyes flickering with excitement, lips curved into a tight smile.
”Why?”
”Because... At least he’s there. That’s half the battle, right?”
Suddenly, the driver’s door is flung open. Evan and Jenny jolt, suddenly alert, as Jeremy springs into the driver’s seat, looking back at the two of them with wide eyes.
”I was walking out to the parking lot-- and I saw him! I saw Mark, without Rosa!”
Evan smirks as Jenny falls into position, shoving her camcorder into her handbag and clutching it to her side. She leans past Jeremy to adjust her hair in the rearview mirror before sliding out of the vehicle. Evan pushes himself out as well, leaning in once more to address Jeremy.
”Keep your phone closeby.”
He starts to close the door...
...But stops as Jeremy hurriedly, and nervously croaks out one more question.
”You’re-- you’re not gonna hurt anybody, are you?”
Evan looks at Jeremy with his eyes just as wide, and full of just as much “nervousness”, though it becomes apparent after a few seconds that Evan’s is sarcastic; goading.
”Jeremy, please! Who do you take me for?”
Evan slams the door of the Durango and turns, keeping one pace ahead of Jenny as they approach the hotel.
Dark.
*****
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Jenny stands patiently outside of room 902 in the Chateau Saint John. She takes a few steps back from the door, allowing the occupant to view her from the peephole. For a few seconds, there’s no hustle... No ruckus-- no apparent move from the inside of Room 902 indicating that anybody was ready to answer the door.
After nearly thirty seconds pass, Jenny nervously shoots a look around her, over each shoulder. She shifts her weight, awkwardly from foot to foot, bouncing on her heels, and even begins to whistle a tune to herself before she raises a fist, prepared to knock again--
But then the door opens.
There she stands. Rosa looks at Jenny, inquisitively.
”Oh--?”
The two stare at each other as Rosa registers Jenny’s face. Jenny gazes across the doorway at her, warmly and pleasantly...
...And Rosa shrieks as Evan maneuvers around the corner, throwing a single hand over her lips, pushing her back into the suite. Jenny follows the two inside quickly, closing and locking the door behind her. She hurriedly removes the camcorder from her handbag as Evan pushes Rosa backwards, onto the sofa and stands back, his arms folded.
”Make him give me the match.”
”You’re-- fucking insane. Get out of the room! Mark’s gonna be back any minute.”
”Really?”
Evan nods toward Jenny, who looks up at Rosa over the camcorder afterward. Rosa and Jenny make eye contact for a brief second before Jenny averts her gaze and backs against the door, continuing to film Rosa and Evan. Evan smirks and turns back to Rosa, lowering himself next to her on the sofa. He angles himself to her to look right into her eyes, but Rosa looks toward the window, biting her lip.
”Then I guess I’ll just stick around until he gets here, eh?”
”I can’t make him give you a match--”
”Oh, yes. Yes, you can.”
”I can’t--”
”Shut up.”
”I--”
”Shut up.”
Evan glares at Rosa behind dark and impatient eyes.
”Mark and I have some important business to tend to this week. You know that. Now-- I don’t want whatever happens here between us to affect his performance in this tag team match, y’know? See where I’m coming from?”
Rosa doesn’t answer. She looks at the ground, her hands folded between her knees. Evan smirks and reaches down to take a hold of her wrist.
”It’s important that we beat Terry this week. And CJ. And I know that Mark and I are more than capable of pulling something like that off. I mean-- I mean, Rosa, you SAW it. Terry Marvin can be broken. CJ Gates is a man that has been broken many times and Mark and I just can’t dick around and lose a match like this, y’know? Not when our Rasslemania match is right around the corner!”
Rosa shifts uncomfortably. She tries, just once, to pull free from Evan’s grasp, but quickly halts her efforts when she realizes how solid his grip remains.
”You can imagine that hype... People would probably call it an upset, wouldn’t they? Old Marky and I, pulling off a win like that, haha... Right? Right?”
Again, no response.
”And after everything that Terry has done to terrorize APW, this is our chance to THWART all of the great evils in this business! MARK MANIA AND EVAN ENVI UNITE to destroy Satan himself.”
He mouths the words to himself quietly and smiles at the prospect.
”And that-- that’s where you come in, Rosa! We beat CJ and Terry this week, one way or another, and then we have all the hype and all the press heading into Rasslemania. The only thing that’ll be on everyone’s mind is the Overdrive Championship! The--!”
”He’s not giving you that match.”
She screams.
SMASH!
Rosa cowers against the wall, having knocked the lamp from the table as she leaps to her feet to avoid the quick-moving Evan. Evan holds a hand, inches from her head, pressing himself close to her as he glares into her eyes.
”I know everything about you.”
”I beg your pardon?”
Evan doesn’t move away from her-- doesn’t look away, but simply cries ”Jenny!”, prompting Jenny to look up from the camcorder and retort.
”We have information on your mother, father, brother, and both maternal grandparents, if absolutely necessary. All of it was legally obtained. Perfectly able to be found on the internet with some clever search-work and patience.”
”And I don’t wanna step on any toes, Rosa, but if I have to go over your head to get my Overdrive Title match, then I’m more than willing to take that step. Know what I mean?”
”You--”
”I don’t wanna hurt anybody, Rosa. I think that gig is really tired. Y’know? I don’t wanna have to come in here and...”
He sighs, running his knuckles alongside Rosa’s cheek and jawline.
”...And feel that I’m threatening you. I just want you to make some things happen for me. I mean, that’s really all. Then we can be friends, right?”
Rosa takes a deep breath.
”Leave my family alone. I-- we have nothing to do with any of this, Evan.”
Jenny continues to film, nervously from the door as Evan grins and leans closer to Rosa, speaking softer.
”Sooner or later, one way or another, I always get what I want.
"I want you to remember that and hold onto it. Okay?
"And I want you to know that if I have to come back a week from now and ask you why my Overdrive Title match isn’t booked, I will probably do something really drastic. Perhaps erratic. Perhaps violent-- I don’t really know. I haven’t decided yet.
“But beforehand, just remember... We’re facing the Rasslemania main event this week. I don’t want this to interfere with that, Rosa. I want the best for Mark. I want the best for the Overdrive Title.
“Rosa... I want the best for Overdrive. Don’t let this get fucked up.”
He pushes himself away from her and sighs, turning to Jenny. He motions for her to end filming, and after a few seconds of a frame frozen on his still, cold fade, we fade to dark one final time.
