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(OFF CAMERA)
Success was crossing with panic in the mind of Devin Brando. Recovering from the first loss was important, and it seemed as if he and Lyza were beginning to blend as a team. For each blessing he counted, there seemed to be something to dig the truth of his life deeper in his psyche. He was a man with a tattered past, and the ragged pieces were coming for him. The noose was tightening around his neck, and he was unsure how to be rid of it.
Devin checked around many corners, making sure that there wasn’t an assailant there. In his moments of peace, he was wondering why exactly he was a loose end. In many of Sirena’s projects, he served as a mercenary, and nothing more. He didn’t advise the woman or her affiliates with what they should do. Whatever he could do to stay clear of his former boss’s activities always proved to be better than anything else. He was beginning to come to a new understanding.
Whoever was coming after him knew him personally, and wanted to be rid of him. If the stalker wasn’t, then Devin would have been another name on a list.
Paradise is a good way to stave off the dark thoughts, though.
Hawaii was the perfect move, Devin told himself. It was more familiar than the Caribbean. The slight amount of isolation did better to settle his restless mind. He didn’t bother to reach out for a hotel room, as he usually would. Instead, he decided to call an old friend, who he hadn’t spoken to in many moons.
Derek Mulqueeny was a former member of the Bloodstain Menagerie. He was also someone who once carried a wound in his back from Devin’s actions. Though he was one of the few people that Devin considered a proper partner, for better or worse. Derek had long since retired, content with his new life as a househusband. He had property out in Hawaii, a vacation home, and the request to use it only made the man laugh.
“You’re actually taking a vacation, Dev?” Derek scoffed playfully. “I thought you ripped that word out of your mind.”
“My tag team partner and I will be there for a show, so I thought I would ask. Better than a stuffy hotel room.”
“Yeah, sure, it’s all yours for as long as you need it. Just no bonfires.”
Derek didn’t let Devin fully off-the-hook. A text message later indicated that he investigated who Devin’s new tag team partner was.
Mulqueeny [TEXT]: It’s good to see you’re moving on.
It was both heartfelt and irritating. Closing the text app, which only served to frustrate him, Devin wandered out of his room into the kitchen. He noted that the door to the patio was open, letting it a nice ocean breeze. Lyza had gotten up at some point, and began to explore. The corner of his mouth tugged downward, knowing that he was due to spend time with her beyond what he has been allowing.
“It’s okay to be human, Devin,” words from a broken memory whispered to him.
Back-to-back wins gave Lyza the confidence she needed to further continue her wrestling career alongside Devin. She would need to send their mutual friend, Nina Stokes, a token of gratitude such as a dozen fancy cupcakes or something that would bring a smile to her face. Maybe she was getting ahead of herself, but feeling the energy of the fans in Cuba hit differently. Whatever it was, she wouldn’t want to ruin it.
In order to keep things fine and dandy, she’d have to gain a better understanding of her tag partner. What made him tick? Did he have any triggers? For the sake of not stepping on any toes, she refrained from most ice-breakers and wanted things to happen organically. With previous tag team endeavors, she was able to connect with her partners through a bond and felt comfortable. If anything, they were connecting well in the ring which was most important from a business perspective.
Staying in a shared space in Hawaii presented an interesting opportunity to know more about one another. Although Devin was reserved, Lyza could alternate between being reserved or outgoing, depending on the environment. She took it as a positive to receive an invitation from Mr. Brando to feel more at home, while also having a better space for training before their upcoming bout.
More than ever, meditation has been incorporated in Lyza’s self-care routine. She made herself comfortable in a corner of the living room, away from the television and anything else that could be distracting. She lets out one heavy breath before rising to her feet. To her surprise, Devin is standing several meters away. She makes her way to the middle of the living room to greet him.
“He lives!” Lyza says, gasping. “I hope you don’t mind me meditating out here. This side of the house gets a great amount of natural light. Good vitamin d levels strengthen the immune system, or so I heard.”
“Or so you’ve heard. I believe there’s some validity there,” Devin humors Lyza before heading over to the coffee maker. He let out a low sigh, unamused by the machine. “I would guess you slept wonderfully.”
Devin pauses and decides to offer up a joke. “I thought I heard you snoring at some point.”
Lyza lets out a chuckle, somewhat caught off guard. “You’re most likely thinking of the vaporizer I had on, which aided me in my slumber!”
She walks over to the counter, spotting the most recent newspaper, flipping through the pages for any articles that would pique her interest. Perhaps she’d spot a dumb criminals story to keep maintain the humorous vibe or maybe some wholesome content from the locals would come up.
“Looks like the usual with the depressing numbers and a local trying to assault the police with a coconut,” Lyza says, skipping through the pages until she reaches a crossword puzzle and comics. She looks around for something to write with, grabbing a pen next to some of Devin’s personal belongings.
Upon closer inspection of the pen, she notices the logo that states “Stolzen Pharmaceuticals,” immediately making her uncomfortable. “Oh, my freaking -“ Lyza says to herself, setting the pen down in its original spot. She turns to the patio, thinking about how to rationalize the finding. Was Devin also familiar with Glen and his comrades? She was beginning to question her decision to accept his invite at the vacation home they were currently at.
The tonal shift in the room wasn’t lost on Devin. When he turns back around, having put a copious amount of creamer into his coffee. He tilts his head at his tag team partner, approaching her with her cup. “Uh, what made that reaction?” he asks. The sound of a pen literally dropping brought his attention to it, and there he sees his answer.
“Oh,” he quietly says.
He puts down both cups of coffee with a heavy sigh. The tension of his body informs Lyza that he was ready for anything, including combat at this point. “You know what Stolzen is? And by your reaction, you know a bit more about it than most people.”
Devin squints. “And that’s a bit of a problem.”
Coffee was the last thing Lyza needed as she felt her heart starting to race a bit. She tries to ease the tension, knowing she’s been in unsafe scenarios in the past. The difference here is not knowing Devin’s intentions.
“I’m not going to b.s. you and tell you I had lost money when they went public at Wall Street. My relationship with Stolzen is complicated. Let’s just say, if you’re in need of extra income, you’re better off getting a second job or taking surveys online. Or if you’re really lucky, you’ll always end up in the placebo group in a clinical trial.”
“Lyza, does it really look like I need any extra income?” he asks, narrowing his eyes. “I take it by your reaction that you don’t have a nice relationship with my former employers.”
She shakes her head “no.”
Realizing this, Devin goes to sit outside. When he’s out there, he basks in the sunlight and releases all manners of stress with a long breath. There were memories of yoga and medication in his mind, but then he returns his attention back to Lyza. “So it’s now a matter of what you’re trying to do. What’s your story, Ms. Reyes?”
“What makes it complicated? Because honestly, my relationship with them is just as much.”
“I’m trying to get out,” she says, standing near the doorway of the patio. “My relationship with them started in an unethical way as it wasn’t your classic broke college student that signed up for a program to cover tuition.”
She looks ahead into the distance, briefly admiring the ocean views before continuing.
“It’s complicated because they’re not letting me go as long as there’s another round I need to go through,” she says, sighing. “So I take it you worked in a different department or never came across my chart?”
“Probably not. I did a lot of cleanup for them in every sense of the word. I wanted out after some--” Devin stops himself, unsure if he wanted to go on. He decides to anyway, unable to resist any longer. “After some personal developments in my life, I didn’t want to be Sirena’s attack dog anymore.”
“If you’re due for another round, then that means you’re not who I thought you were for a second,” the tension in his body starts to relax as he too looks out to the calm ocean. He sits down on one of the uncomfortable chairs out there.
With a humorless expression, Devin speaks again. “Small world, huh?”
Despite the risk of sharing more information than what she’s accustomed to, she feels a weight being lifted from her shoulders. He wasn’t a sadistic mad scientist or the one calling the shots in her case. Even then, she couldn’t get too comfortable. Maybe following his distant lead was for the best.
“Too small, in all honesty,” she adds, nodding. Curious at what he said in his previous statement, she follows up immediately asking, “Who did you think I was?”
It wasn’t a nice thing to say, but Devin had to say it without holding back. With his bright eyes settling on Lyza, he relieves all emotion from his voice.
“I thought for a moment that you were here to kill me.”
Lyza looks at him incredulously, responding with, “me? Kill…you?” A laugh escapes her at the thought as she wasn’t the type to keep her enemies close as the saying suggests. “It’s not the case here, but I’ll admit it’s not the first time I hear that.”
Devin’s demeanor doesn’t change. “You never know these days. Former co-workers of mine have been found dead in the safest places. Sometimes, you never know what will happen to you when you’re unsure of the people around you. It makes sense that you’re not.”
“Forgive me for thinking that for a moment.”
Lyza nods in acceptance and understanding of his point of view. He had all the reason to be guarded and uncertain of a stranger despite having a mutual friend.
One of his eyebrows quirked. “With that said, I’m now curious. What were you doing with them?”
“Business. I had a soap-making side business and I guess people want to make up something outrageous about someone to humanize them in a way. Take you for example - you can be standoffish at times, but how do I know you’re not the Rhino on the Masked Singer?” She eyes him up and down, looking at him suspiciously.
Despite the seriousness of his being, Devin couldn’t help but tilt his head at the statement. “Rhino on the Masked--” he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, there are two simple reasons. One is a lot more positive, and the other is a lot grimmer.”
“I’ll start with the less than favorable one.”
Devin closes the gap between him and Lyza. “If Sirena wanted me to do anything to you, it would have been done by now,” he then pauses, awkwardly looking off to the ceiling. It was an attempt to belittle his own words and neutralize the tension in the room. “The much more positive one is that I happen to like you, so that’s more important.”
After admitting that, he walks past Lyza to the coffee mugs on the countertop. He takes his cup and chugs it all. When he slams it on the table, it plays the role of exerting all his bound-up energy. “I’m standoffish?” he asks, a little irritated.
“You’d be doing me a favor if that were the case,” Lyza says, comparing her current situation to his grim possibility. “Never-mind that.” The turn that was taken in this interaction was sufficient to maintain a working relationship. She watches him empty his cup of coffee with her eyes slightly widened at how quickly he finished it.
“Maybe that’s not the best way to describe it. We meet a lot of interesting characters in this business, and sometimes certain qualities are seen outside of the ring. You’re different in the sense that you’re not ‘extra’ - sans the former throne,” she says, smirking.
“I don’t have the patience to be extra anymore,” his words bring a torrent of memories in his mind. Each flash shows him doing something ostentatious, something to upset the people around him. He still hears the echoes of his maniacal laughter. “Nor do I try to keep myself available.”
“Doing you a favor, though?” Lyza’s words steal him away from any of the other underlying memories--the ones that still sting. He instinctively looks down at his left ring finger with a slight twinge of anguish on his face. “Is it that bad?”
Sirena, Stolzen, and anyone she brings into the fold will stop at nothing to achieve their goals--even it means tormenting the entire world. Devin hates to think about those ends, and how he may have influenced them. Turning around to lean on the countertop, Devin crosses his arms. “If you want, we can play a game of secrets. Or we can be candid with one another. I think for the sake of our team and our mental states, it’d be beneficial.”
“It’s bad when your freedom is compromised. Is peace of mind really a thing?” She asks, rhetorically. Being controlled by an unknown source was the cause of the occasional sleepless night or destructive behavior in her early 20s.
She would bounce between different mindsets; whether it was riding it out until she came up with her escape plan, or not caring. The reality is, she had so much to lose if she were to be reckless.
“Team-building, I’m with you on that,” she says, going for her cup of coffee. “It’d be nice not having to come up with an explanation for things every waking moment.”
Devin gives her a little room, but not the immense amount he would have prior. Perhaps he decided to pull the wall down a little--to let some light in. He remains quiet for a good amount of time, and when the silence fills the room, it’s not exactly awkward. With another breathy release, he raises his head to speak.
“Yeah,” he begins, “I think if we treat this like that, we can steal some peace of mind for ourselves.”
✸
(ON CAMERA)
From the vacation home in Hawaii, Lyza and Devin are seen sitting outside on the patio. There’s a table in the middle with a pitcher of sangria and tapas. They seem relaxed while taking in the fresh air as the sun begins to set. With the cameraman giving them a thumbs up, Devin is first to address the fans and anyone else with access to the stream.
“At the end of everything, it’s a wonder that Lyza and I will be facing the saddest team in the tournament. Avery and Santos came into this tournament like everyone else, wondering if they had their chance to shine in one of the most brilliant lights in the wrestling world. When they look at the spotlight, they see people like Pina Coladas. Those two competitors have made a spectacle out of this competition. Just outside the cusp of it, they see Seduction, and they see Lyza and me. Each round, the distance between them and the limelight gets farther away. It’s to the point where they can’t even fathom anything but the obscurity they’re in.”
“I don’t have to recount the facts of my experiences in the business. I know what it is like to be at the bottom of a tournament bracket, and I know how it is to be on the other end. I know that when you’re at the bottom, and there’s no way to go up, you begin to lose it. You take pride in what little you can do, and you become figures of destructive intent. And you aim at Lyza and me for whatever reason. If you couldn’t win, then you could very well ruin the rest of the tournament.”
“That’s the definition of a sore loser.”
“That’s the definition of an idiot to me. I don’t waste time wondering about the mechanizations of the foolish. Because when you spend time analyzing them, you understand that they all reach the same conclusion.”
Devin pauses.
“They all die.”
The gravity of death settles among Devin’s words and the vacation home.
“I will commend you for keeping your distance. That means there’s an iota of common sense in your minds. So I can spare you both another piece of advice. You have nothing to gain other than a fragile boost to your ego coming to this match. In return, you pay for that little sliver with every degree of pain that I will deal to you. Because anyone who sees this competition as a means to a vacation or as a way to spit on the hard work that others put in where you didn’t? That’s deserving of any hardship you will carry on your way out.”
“Though, you can stay home, or rather, you can spend time on the lovely beaches of this beautiful state. You can sip on fancy drinks. You can watch gorgeous people enjoy themselves, and satisfy yourself with them if you’re clever enough. Sacrifice your last chance to prove yourself and spare yourself the heartache. Because no matter how you visualize this dream, I can promise you that there are only nightmares waiting for you here.”
“As this is the last round, Lyza and I will have to show our opponents in the finals what truly waits for them.”
“And with that, I’ll lend a meticulous, patient hand to all the dreams that I have.”
He raises one of his hands and closes it with purpose. His eyes that often reflect anger shows glimmers of something more righteous.
“Of making you pay for even thinking of hurting Lyza and me.”
Lyza looks over at her partner, impressed by his conviction, feeling inspired as they get closer to reaching the finals.
“Preservation is still key here as we near the finals. Your best bet is to show us what you’re made of in a responsible manner. Respectfully raise hell if you must and nobody ‘dies’ here,” she says, shaking her head.
“That’s all I ask, though one cannot expect these two to oblige. Try any funny business, and I’ll be happy to take you guys to the side of the Space Age nobody wants to be on. Again, this is another courtesy from us, with love.”
She makes a heart with her hands and before the scene fades she whispers, “Ultra.”
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