The setting sun blinking through the small spaces between the rocks make everything take on a sparkling orange glow, including the happy faces of the couple in the picture in Effie's hand. A professionally framed picture that Effie had ordered back in February when they had returned from her birthday trip to Cancun. What was even more interesting was that these people were looking at each other, hands clasped. Sin was in a tropical shirt and Khakis while Effie was in an airy looking dress of white. Even to the untrained eye, it was easy to see that this was a wedding photo.
Which was why a very pissed off Ty West was now standing in front of her with his arms crossed over his massive chest.
“Tell me that's not what I think it is...”
He tries to egg her on but in his anger he forgets that Effie is not a woman that can be easily intimidated.
“Ok.” she coughs, residual from her just recovering from pneumonia. “It's not what you...”
“Stop. Why didn't you tell us you were going to Mexico to elope?!”
He interrupts her and she knew that eventually she was going to have to tell him. She didn't expect that Ty would have been at her house the day it was delivered by the frame guy.
“If it's any consolation, I was supposed to be home alone when he came by. You really gotta stop coming unannounced.”
Once again, this nonchalance was not helping her case. It was bad enough that Ty was in one of his ‘I gotta earn my shit again’ funks after losing again to Sin, but to learn about her getting married... a month ago, was probably not helping matters.
“Why wouldn't you just tell me when you came home?”
She sets the frame down, leaning it against the wall and makes eye contact with her friend.
“It was a crazy split second decision. We thought it might be a way for Sin to protect me because his crazy god cult can't unjustly hurt it's members and by getting married I was an honorary member. Besides I did say I had something to tell you... didn't I?”
Ty raises an eyebrow.
“So it's not even for love?”
Effie sighs. “Well... I wouldn't say that exactly. I don't regret it and I'm not divorcing him. We're just... struggling right now. Sin is different. He saw me...”
She remembers the pain of not being able to breath as water was poured over her mouth and face.
“Saw you what Eff? Why won't you tell me what happened to both of you? You come back hacking like a 90 year old chain smoker and Sin looks like he's been living in a third world country without clean water and food...”
Effie nods. “You aren't far off... look, Ty, I get it. You wanna play protective big brother but this...”
Bits and pieces float into her mind. Once the rage had taken over, she doesn't remember much but seeing the archpriest slumbed in a corner with his arm broken at the elbow. The bone was jutting from his skin in a bad horror movie kinda way. And the man breathing shallowly on the interrogation table had a lot of defensive wounds on his arms.
“I don't want to get you involved in this too. I almost died, Ty. Sin almost died. But we got out. And we're here and no one is coming for us anymore.”
She feels a dry, hard lump in her throat. Yes they had escaped but a piece of each of their souls had died in the compound that night. She had no idea if either her or Sin would ever be remotely close to the same.
Ty pulls Effie into his arms and for the first time, Effie feels comfortable enough with the big blonde hero to cry into his shirt. It was so incredibly tough to be well... tough. Showing vulnerability to anyone was weakness to her, but now she realizes that she had been so close to never seeing him again and it hurt way more than she expected it to.
“It just feels so surreal...” he muses. “Like straight out of a movie script.”
Effie would normally take offense, especially if it were anybody else but Ty was her best friend and he also didn't understand the magnitude of her and Sin's ordeals. She wanted to keep it that way. The last thing she wanted was to defile her friend's good natured spirit with the thoughts that she had actually been tortured and because of Sin. She didn't want him to think differently of either of them.
This whole experience had actually softened her yet also hardened her at the same time. She now cherished those close to her more than ever but there was so much unexplored darkness inside her that she was scared of it. What she did to those men when she lost control... it was...
Sin had tried to justify her actions with the situation but as much as she carried herself as a badass, actually murdering people was not something she expected to ever have to do and she would never be able to unsee what it looked like to see the light of life leave the eyes of a man as he took his last breath.
“I wish it was all just a movie Ty. I really do. And I'm sorry. We should have told you about getting married.”
“I get it but please, don't keep me in the dark thinking you are protecting me. You mean the world to me and I was scared half to death when you stopped tweeting cryptic emoji.”
She can't help chuckling as she pulls back from his arms.
“I didn't have a whole lot of choices, they don't exactly make emoji for saying you are going undercover as a nun to rescue your husband from a band of religious zealots than mean to purge the world of non believers...”
She stops. “Hmm... I gotta remember to modify that if I ever go on a rant about scientology and how it's the ultimate pyramid scheme...”
Ty seems relieved that Effie hadn't lost herself completely but there was a certain haunted look in her eyes that he couldn't comprehend.
“Once you and Sin are up for it, we should celebrate somehow. My treat of course.”
Although Effie is unsure of if there will be anything to celebrate if Sin continued to avoid her most of the time but she smiles and agrees. Ty leaves shortly afterwards, leaving Effie to get ready for her flight to Edmonton.
She couldn't help worrying though, had this just opened the door for something dark inside her to escape?
***
***
“So it's been a while, fuckers.”
Effie Bingham cackles in front of the camera. She's perched on the bottom steps of a curved staircase. They look to be in need of repair.
“I'm going to give it to you straight, because that's what I do. I hate the partner I was given. I mean I don't hate him on a personal level, I mean who has time for that shit. I mean, I hate that out of everyone that signed up for this God Damn Tournament I get saddled with the one guy likely to choke. I would have rathered do this shit alone, then a guy that has more losses then I have money in my bank account. And trust me. There's a lot of money in there.”
“Usually I could care fucking less about winning. As I have explained in the past, I wrestle for something else, however, one does not enter a tournament such as this without designs. You see the last time I graced the main show of SCW, I not only lost, but the women treated me like garbage and that is not something I will sit back idly and allow so I have been waiting for my opportunity. I promised them all I would find a way to make them regret it, and now I had my chance to swoop in and take the most precious thing to all those sniffling brats, the women's championship. And the best part is that I don't even want it like they do. I just want an opportunity to gloat.”
“But that is now a pipe dream since I'm pretty sure that Joshie-poo is going to be face down on the matt as they count to three. I can't even beat the shit out of him because of the segregation of the divisions. So somehow, I gotta keep him from getting in the ring at all and carry this team. I rarely have goals. So I intend to see this one through.”
“But enough about my bad luck. Let's talk about the bad luck of team “Cabbage Head“ at having to start with me. I am not some typical rich girl without a brain. *cough* Angel Kash *cough* sorry, dry throat.”
“In fact, my parents treated me worse then they treated the staff. At least they got acknowledged by my parents that they existed. I was the extra surprise kid that was unlucky to be born with all my dangly bits inside my body. Dear Dad only wanted boys because in his mind girls were only good for one thing...”
“Well look at me now, huh? I can count on one hand the amount of times I have lost a match. You may not like what I have to say, or the actions I take but you can't bloody well deny that I know what I'm doing in that ring. It doesn't matter that I'm not well known. Doesn't matter that Christian offered up my contract on a platter to Tad the moment he could. Those are inconsequential tidbits. Oh and I know everyone that comes up against me is going to talk shit about how I'm nobody and write me off, a more recent example is how current champ Alicia went out of her way to say I'm not a challenge. Huh... funny that, If I wasn't worth her thinking about, why bother responding to it? She thinks that she's intimidating because she talks shit on twitter. That’s because she holds the title she thinks she's invincible. She's not made of titanium and has already lost that title twice. Once, technically when her and Dani fought to unify honor & SCW and then again to Selena. And I guarantee that whomever wins this tournament is going to bust her face... I mean their ass...”
She smirks
“To beat her. Plus, she was so confident she was winning this title match but yet she still entered BFTP. I dunno about you, but if I was as confident as she plays up to be, I wouldn't be thinking I had to go into a sixteen team tournament to get another opportunity. Just sayin.”
“And who do I get to open up with but beauty and the beast. There is no doubt that Kale is a beautiful man and Brittany Williams, the whiny beast of a girl that is lucky to have him as a partner, because if this was one-on-one her ass would be grass. Yeah I know she was a champion once upon a time, but that was a LONG time ago. Since then she has whined about what she deserved and won on the backs of others. Not to mention milking an injury to try and get sympathy. Let's not also forget that she flip-flops with her allegiances. She's untrustworthy when her designs are so selfish, but then again, aren't we all?”
“I fully admit that I would turn on Joshua in a heartbeat. One win doesn't prove anything. And being a tag champion in the past, as I explained a second ago, does not prove anything to me. I look at recent actions. And recently, only Kale and myself have been impressive. Good thing he seems strong enough to carry that nitwit, which will probably be what happens. Kale will get the best of Joshua and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.”
“But, on the bright side, I will enjoy kicking Brittany's ass. That skinny little dipshit is owed a beat down and I do it on behalf of everyone that would like nothing better than to snap her in half. If we lose because Josh gets pinned, that is not on me and although technically a loss, I will not be the one that lost it for us. If Grampa Josh taps out, the only regret I'll have is not being able to stop it.”
“I am no stranger to getting a fucking shitty hand, I mean I had to go to Mexico to rescue my monk from death and well, shit went down, I got sick but I still got in that fucking ring and won. I may not want a title, but I am the fucking boss queen of this shit. I am also not saying stupid crap on the tweet machine like ‘do you know who I am?’ like having SCW's current joke as a mother is something to be proud of. I know what it's like to have a cunt for a parent, but the difference is, I didn't become the mirror image of mine. I would not be proud to be the daughter of someone that would take down their own partner for a fucking title. That's just really pathetic.”
“I find it hard to say anything mean about Kale. At least wrestling wise. He's strong, fast and capable. Unfortunately he seems to be... naive... yeah... let's say that. Although half the time I dunno if he's serious, seemingly the SCW's version of Hodor, the lovable nitwit or if he is trolling us all for his own amusement. Either way, sizing him up to my own unfortunate last pick, it's looking like it's actually going to be beauty before age. I really hope that Joshua surprises me. Prove me wrong, nothing right now would make me happier than to see Joshua to actually come out guns blazing. I sincerely hope my criticism lights a fire under his ass, but not light him on fire, cuz one: Burns on your ass hurt like hell and two: we all know how frail and paperlike the skin of the elderly is, I don't hate the guy, don't want to see him go up like a California forrest.”
“But anywhoo, I've talked long enough and frankly I'm getting bored. Caio!”
***
“There was a time when I thought I would never have friends. There was a time I thought I'd never find love. There was a time when I felt unworthy of love. That all changed so suddenly that I would fight for it. It was worth far more than any amount of money. It was worth dying for.”
***
“No. Soul’s Demise is too good for him. Especially after what he did to you...”
Effie bites her bottom lip. Once again her mind floats back to how it felt not being able to breathe. She had no idea that drowning was so painful, like her lungs were going to burst from her chest. And even though the Archpriest hadn't poured that bucket of water over her head himself, he had ordered his men to do it for him. Sin believed that he might as well have been the one doing it. But she had the chance to kill him. With that anger circulating through her she could have easily snapped his neck or plunged his own dagger through his eye but then, everyone would think him a hero, instead of a sadistic and cruel leader who used the order as his own personal stash of little black army men. Like a child playing at war in his own backyard.
He never got his own hands dirty and maybe that was the worst part about it all.
“I'm fine...”
The flight had been a quiet one. She found herself drifting off but like every night since their narrow escape, she replayed the events of that night. And just like all the other nights she awoke to Sin hugging her close to his body, breathing heavy and knowing exactly what her thrashing and whimpering was the result of. It was a horror she wouldn't soon forget and one that surpassed all the other horrible events she had experienced until that point. But she wasn't ready to talk about it. Not with anyone. No one deserved to experience those events, not even herself and especially not Sin. He hadn't talked much about having to watch the soldiers waterboard her but she knew if the roles had been reversed her guilt and anger would probably be on par with Sin's and justify his current mood. But she worried, what if killing the archpriest only made it worse? What if it killed that human part of the man she had fallen ridiculously head over heels for. She suddenly felt guilty for her compassion. Not killing that dirty bastard might now be the worst decision she ever made if it meant that she would never again have the Sin she fell for back in her arms, but instead the shell of that man.
She had decided long ago that if she ever found love, which she had believed until meeting Sin, was a fairy tale made up by hallmark and perpetuated by Harlequin Romance novelists, she would never let it go. That she would fight for it. And that was what she was going to do. Even if it meant finding a way to kill the archpriest herself.
