Post by Craven on Nov 19, 2014 19:09:53 GMT -6
Stepping from his car, Craven walks up to the front door of his home and pauses. He takes a deep breath, turns the knob and opens the door, glancing around as he does so. He steps in, closing the door behind him and walks into the living room, looking for his family.
Craven: Sky? Anybody home?
Skylar’s voice rings out.
Skylar Hansen: Yep I'm in the kitchen, Love.
Craven nods and heads towards the kitchen.
Craven: How's the leg?
Skylar Hansen: Getting there.
Craven walks up to her and kisses her cheek.
Craven: Better than the alternative...
He smiles lovingly.
Craven: You sexy thing, you!
Skylar smiles.
Skylar Hansen: Much better than the alternative, and thank you... you're not so bad yourself.
She pokes her tongue out at him playfully as she turns back to the pot of the stove, stirring it. Just then, Sin and Rocket com walking into the room.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: Mmm... somethin' smells goooood...
Skylar Hansen: Dinner, I'm making butter chicken and rice.
Smiling, Sin walks up to Skylar and hugs her.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Mmmm... the good stuff?
Jeszika: Of course.
Sin steps away, clapping excitedly.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Yay!!!
Skylar grins at the reaction, nodding happily as she goes back to paying attention to the pot before her while everyone else finds a seat near the table.
Skylar Hansen: Thought you'd like it.
Craven can’t help but smile playfully.
Craven: Someone likes your cookin', Mama.
Skylar grins at him.
Skylar Hansen: She always has. Who do you think fed us for the last decade?
Craven smiles, nodding acknowledgingly.
Craven: I know.
Rocket laughs.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: Gotta be better than Dub's Spam Ramen Surprise.
Craven shakes his head.
Craven: That was ONE time, man!
Hearing the tone in his voice, Skylar and Sin can’t help but be intrigued.
Skylar Hansen: Oh do tell?
Craven groans, knowing this is gonna happen whether he wants it to or not.
Craven: Do we have to?
Everyone else laughs as Rocket nods.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: He tried to make a casserole out of spam, ramen noodles and a packet of taco mix...
Skylar laughs.
Skylar Hansen: Now that would be an interesting casserole... I guess some people weren’t meant to be in a kitchen.
She kisses him in the cheek. Craven shrugs while Rocket shakes his head.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: He was just drunk and mad that night is all.
Sin frowns.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Why?
Rocket hesitates but Craven raises a hand.
Craven: I'd just paid a visit to certain frat house in Georgia.
Skylar Hansen: Oh...
Skylar looks down.
Skylar Hansen: I see...
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: We ordered a pizza, everything was cool after...
Skylar Hansen: Yeah... I guess it was...
She looks uncomfortable, searching in her head for a subject change. As the four of them stand there, Sin's phone rings.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Hello?
She frowns.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Brittany?
She looks up and then nods.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Yeah, of course you can come over...
The call ends abruptly and worry washes over Sin’s face. Seeing this, Skylar turns to face her young ward.
Skylar Hansen: Everything ok?
Sin shrugs.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: I don't know, she was supposed to go to the doctor today.
Skylar Hansen: Oh I see, maybe its bad news...
As this thought simmers along with their dinner, Craven throws his head back and sighs heavily.
Craven: Shit.
Rocket frowns.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: What more could she possibly hear?
Having nothing but a feeling to really base anything on, Skylar shrugs.
Skylar Hansen: I'm sure there's something...
Sin sits back down, sighing as she puts her phone away.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Man...
Skylar Hansen: What is it?
Sin shakes her head.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Nothing... I just don't know how much more she can take.
Skylar Hansen: Yeah, theres only so much one person can take...
As they all sit there wondering in awkward silence, a knock on the door comes. Craven stands up and makes his way to the front door. A second later, he returns with Brittany in tow, her arms folded, her head bowed.
Skylar Hansen: Everything ok Brit?
Brittany can't make herself look up.
Brittany Conway: He said he doesn't think he can fix my face...
Skylar Hansen: Fix it how? Looks like it’s healing well so far...
Then the penny drops and realization crosses her eyes.
Skylar Hansen: Oh... You mean scarring?
Brittany nods.
Brittany Conway: How... how am I gonna go back to work? No one is ever gonna want me...
Skylar Hansen: Don't say that, Brit... some men like scars...
Brittany starts to answer but bursts into tears. Skylar goes over and hugs her.
Skylar Hansen: Brit... its ok...
Brittany Conway: What's Baron gonna say? He's gonna be so...
As she trails off, Craven's phone goes off and he quickly looks at it.
Craven: Speak of the devil, there's baron looking for an update now.
Brittany's eyes go wide in fear.
Craven: He just wants to know how you're doing.
Skylar tries to smile reassuringly for her.
Skylar Hansen: It'll be ok, Brit. Do you want me to talk to him first?
Brittany tries to shake her head but nothing happens.
Brittany Conway: I... I don't know...
Brittany manages to look up.
Brittany Conway: What if I can't... what am I gonna do? I'll just be a useless, worthless ex-whore who can't even sell herself right!
Skylar Hansen: Don't talk like that, Brit... I know of a stripper who was in a car accident and had a large chunk of her face taken off. but she picked herself up and once her face was fix she kept fighting and people love her.
Brittany Conway: But it's true... who's going to want me in any way? Who is ever going to love me?
Skylar Hansen: Someone will, Brit... People love Nikki and she's scarred. They'll love you too, I know it.
Craven, Sin and Rocket move in for a family hug.
Craven: You'll always have us...
Six hours later, Craven sits in his car as he watches Rocket walking Sin into the Pleasure Dome for work. As they disappear inside, Craven casually pops a pill and then reaches up to switch on his voice recorder. As he leans back, he starts singing in a slow, low volume voice.
Craven: Bang, bang from the closet walls, the schoolhouse halls, the shotgun's loaded. Push me and I'll push back. I'm done asking, I demand.
He sits up and glances towards the entrance door, still slowly singing.
Craven: From a nation under God, I feel its love like a cattle prod. Born free, but still they hate. Born me, no I can't change.
Lying back against the seat, he quietly allows the pill to start taking effect before he resumes singing.
Craven: It's always darkest just before the dawn. So stay awake with me, let's prove them wrong.
He sits up and nods to the recorder as he sings his final line.
Craven: Make it stop...
Glancing over towards the door again, he sighs heavily.
Craven: A lot of people say that, don’t they? “Make it stop,” becomes a mantra for some while those they chant it to just dismiss it as overreaction or melodrama that doesn’t really mean anything. “Make It Stop” doesn’t mean anything to them because they’ve never had to worry about looking back to see how close that edge is behind them.
Two less than classy gentlemen walk passed the car, heading towards the Dome. Craven quickly punches a couple of buttons on his phone to alert security working the door to keep an eye on them.
Craven: Bad dreams, that feeling that if you don’t concentrate until you break you’ll start shaking and you don’t really know why, that pain that starts in one place and rampages across your body until you just want to curl into a ball and scream but you can’t because it’ll make it hurt more...
He pauses as he watches four guys in matching suits walking towards the same door. Again, he punches a couple of buttons to make sure things are taken care of.
Craven: That feeling in the pit of your stomach that says if you have one more, it’s coming back up but you know if you don’t, you’ll have to face something much worse...
He shakes his head as a few get ejected from the building before leaning back against his seat.
Craven: “Make It Stop” becomes a plea, a curse…
He nods slightly as he lets his eyes fall closed.
Craven: People who say things like, “a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” just don’t understand “Make It Stop.” If they did, they wouldn’t say that and they wouldn’t ask why the person who had been screaming, pleading, begging, scratching and clawing for so long that they finally broke and fell over the edge into the abyss had done such a thing.
He lets out a big sigh and nods again.
Craven: You understand “Make It Stop” better than almost everyone else, don’t you, Brody? You know how it feels, how it looks, smells, tastes and sounds and you know how it keeps going and going and going…
His eyes open as somebody inadvertently knocks on his car on the way towards the Pleasure Dome entrance.
Craven: You fight it every day and you fight for other people’s versions knowing it’s a fight you probably will never actually win, but you fight because, really, what’s the alternative?
Shrugging, he makes a mental note about the guy who just tapped his car.
Craven: And as much as it fills your life, it also hacks away at your soul. The pain, the hate, the anguish and anxiety is always there and always growing and it’s all you can do to even try to keep it at bay. That’s why you fight the way you do and it’s why you wrestle the way you do…
He nods acknowledgingly.
Craven: Me too...
Annoyance starts to enter his voice.
Craven: And that’s why you feel Joshua McBride and Aerynn Donnelly need to pay. Because they think it’s their universally appointed right to spread, “Make It Stop.” They figure if they have to be a miserable fucking bastard then everyone else should to. But even more than that, they felt the need to spread it to you! They both went out of their way to make sure you knew, “Make It Stop,” the same way they did and now you want…
He pauses, shaking his head.
Craven: No…
He almost laughs.
Craven: You NEED to make them pay for doing that and I can understand that because I’ve spent the better part of my life making people pay for spreading that vile disease, which would bring me to you...
Resentment replaces annoyance.
Craven: Kyle Travis…
Anger starts to filter in next to the resentment.
Craven: You ARE one miserable sonofabitch, aren’t you? You just can’t stand that you aren’t being treated like the cock of the walk anymore. Hell, you can’t understand why everybody treats you as the spare child on sitcom. Chuck Cunningham on “Happy Days,” Judy Winslow on “Family Matters,” Laurie Forman on “That 70’s Show,” Shelley Marsh on “South Park” or Meg Griffin on “Family Guy,” that’s basically what you complain about feeling like, right?
His anger rising, Craven pops another pill.
Craven: Because it’s obvious you should be treated better than that even though you actually have been and just choose to act as if you have not. You were handed things in this company that no one else was, given more championship opportunities than anyone else and effectively handed the golden ticket to ride and all you’ve done is tear it up, throw it in the air and then stamped your feet like a spoiled brat because you don’t want to admit that some people are just better than you. You bring up the past ad nauseum even though all that does is show us how good you supposedly used to be and then act like it entitles you to special treatment that somehow, you never got.
His eyes close and his fists do the same on the steering wheel.
Craven: I don’t care what you did before or who you think you are now. I don’t care if you have a championship now, if you think you’re entitled to one or what you think you are trying to prove because to me, all you are and all you will ever be, is the whiny bastard that forced someone close to me to start screaming “Make It Stop” at the top of her lungs for absolutely no reason aside from, you could. You decided all on your own, while blaming everyone else for your own shortcomings, to lure her to a motel room and make her suffer because you needed someone else to feel your pain. there was no altruistic meaning behind it, no one else forced you to, you just thought it sounded like a great idea and now she has to live with it.
He shakes his head in disgust.
Craven: Because you wanted people to think you a monster rather than what you really are...
He pauses to stare at his pill bottle and consider another.
Craven: You’re not a monster, Kyle, you’re a sad and pathetic over the hill old man clinging on to his glory days because he’s afraid that without them, he’s nothing. Well, I’m here to tell you Kyle, you had better be looking over your shoulder because that car that just cut you off in traffic, that asshole that got in your way at the grocery store, the douchebag that got in the way of your wife while getting your family a treat…
He nods slowly as the rage in his voice grows even as the volume stays the same.
Craven: Someday, somewhere… that’s gonna be me. I’m gonna be two steps behind you, two steps behind your wife, hell, I might even be two steps behind the door at your kids’ school and I’m gonna make sure you think twice before making anyone else scream out, “Make It Stop!”
He pauses for a cruel chuckle.
Craven: Who knows, maybe the next person to say that… will be someone close to you…
Craven: Sky? Anybody home?
Skylar’s voice rings out.
Skylar Hansen: Yep I'm in the kitchen, Love.
Craven nods and heads towards the kitchen.
Craven: How's the leg?
Skylar Hansen: Getting there.
Craven walks up to her and kisses her cheek.
Craven: Better than the alternative...
He smiles lovingly.
Craven: You sexy thing, you!
Skylar smiles.
Skylar Hansen: Much better than the alternative, and thank you... you're not so bad yourself.
She pokes her tongue out at him playfully as she turns back to the pot of the stove, stirring it. Just then, Sin and Rocket com walking into the room.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: Mmm... somethin' smells goooood...
Skylar Hansen: Dinner, I'm making butter chicken and rice.
Smiling, Sin walks up to Skylar and hugs her.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Mmmm... the good stuff?
Jeszika: Of course.
Sin steps away, clapping excitedly.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Yay!!!
Skylar grins at the reaction, nodding happily as she goes back to paying attention to the pot before her while everyone else finds a seat near the table.
Skylar Hansen: Thought you'd like it.
Craven can’t help but smile playfully.
Craven: Someone likes your cookin', Mama.
Skylar grins at him.
Skylar Hansen: She always has. Who do you think fed us for the last decade?
Craven smiles, nodding acknowledgingly.
Craven: I know.
Rocket laughs.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: Gotta be better than Dub's Spam Ramen Surprise.
Craven shakes his head.
Craven: That was ONE time, man!
Hearing the tone in his voice, Skylar and Sin can’t help but be intrigued.
Skylar Hansen: Oh do tell?
Craven groans, knowing this is gonna happen whether he wants it to or not.
Craven: Do we have to?
Everyone else laughs as Rocket nods.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: He tried to make a casserole out of spam, ramen noodles and a packet of taco mix...
Skylar laughs.
Skylar Hansen: Now that would be an interesting casserole... I guess some people weren’t meant to be in a kitchen.
She kisses him in the cheek. Craven shrugs while Rocket shakes his head.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: He was just drunk and mad that night is all.
Sin frowns.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Why?
Rocket hesitates but Craven raises a hand.
Craven: I'd just paid a visit to certain frat house in Georgia.
Skylar Hansen: Oh...
Skylar looks down.
Skylar Hansen: I see...
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: We ordered a pizza, everything was cool after...
Skylar Hansen: Yeah... I guess it was...
She looks uncomfortable, searching in her head for a subject change. As the four of them stand there, Sin's phone rings.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Hello?
She frowns.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Brittany?
She looks up and then nods.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Yeah, of course you can come over...
The call ends abruptly and worry washes over Sin’s face. Seeing this, Skylar turns to face her young ward.
Skylar Hansen: Everything ok?
Sin shrugs.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: I don't know, she was supposed to go to the doctor today.
Skylar Hansen: Oh I see, maybe its bad news...
As this thought simmers along with their dinner, Craven throws his head back and sighs heavily.
Craven: Shit.
Rocket frowns.
Merlyn "Rocket" Harper: What more could she possibly hear?
Having nothing but a feeling to really base anything on, Skylar shrugs.
Skylar Hansen: I'm sure there's something...
Sin sits back down, sighing as she puts her phone away.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Man...
Skylar Hansen: What is it?
Sin shakes her head.
Cynthia "Sin" Conway: Nothing... I just don't know how much more she can take.
Skylar Hansen: Yeah, theres only so much one person can take...
As they all sit there wondering in awkward silence, a knock on the door comes. Craven stands up and makes his way to the front door. A second later, he returns with Brittany in tow, her arms folded, her head bowed.
Skylar Hansen: Everything ok Brit?
Brittany can't make herself look up.
Brittany Conway: He said he doesn't think he can fix my face...
Skylar Hansen: Fix it how? Looks like it’s healing well so far...
Then the penny drops and realization crosses her eyes.
Skylar Hansen: Oh... You mean scarring?
Brittany nods.
Brittany Conway: How... how am I gonna go back to work? No one is ever gonna want me...
Skylar Hansen: Don't say that, Brit... some men like scars...
Brittany starts to answer but bursts into tears. Skylar goes over and hugs her.
Skylar Hansen: Brit... its ok...
Brittany Conway: What's Baron gonna say? He's gonna be so...
As she trails off, Craven's phone goes off and he quickly looks at it.
Craven: Speak of the devil, there's baron looking for an update now.
Brittany's eyes go wide in fear.
Craven: He just wants to know how you're doing.
Skylar tries to smile reassuringly for her.
Skylar Hansen: It'll be ok, Brit. Do you want me to talk to him first?
Brittany tries to shake her head but nothing happens.
Brittany Conway: I... I don't know...
Brittany manages to look up.
Brittany Conway: What if I can't... what am I gonna do? I'll just be a useless, worthless ex-whore who can't even sell herself right!
Skylar Hansen: Don't talk like that, Brit... I know of a stripper who was in a car accident and had a large chunk of her face taken off. but she picked herself up and once her face was fix she kept fighting and people love her.
Brittany Conway: But it's true... who's going to want me in any way? Who is ever going to love me?
Skylar Hansen: Someone will, Brit... People love Nikki and she's scarred. They'll love you too, I know it.
Craven, Sin and Rocket move in for a family hug.
Craven: You'll always have us...
Six hours later, Craven sits in his car as he watches Rocket walking Sin into the Pleasure Dome for work. As they disappear inside, Craven casually pops a pill and then reaches up to switch on his voice recorder. As he leans back, he starts singing in a slow, low volume voice.
Craven: Bang, bang from the closet walls, the schoolhouse halls, the shotgun's loaded. Push me and I'll push back. I'm done asking, I demand.
He sits up and glances towards the entrance door, still slowly singing.
Craven: From a nation under God, I feel its love like a cattle prod. Born free, but still they hate. Born me, no I can't change.
Lying back against the seat, he quietly allows the pill to start taking effect before he resumes singing.
Craven: It's always darkest just before the dawn. So stay awake with me, let's prove them wrong.
He sits up and nods to the recorder as he sings his final line.
Craven: Make it stop...
Glancing over towards the door again, he sighs heavily.
Craven: A lot of people say that, don’t they? “Make it stop,” becomes a mantra for some while those they chant it to just dismiss it as overreaction or melodrama that doesn’t really mean anything. “Make It Stop” doesn’t mean anything to them because they’ve never had to worry about looking back to see how close that edge is behind them.
Two less than classy gentlemen walk passed the car, heading towards the Dome. Craven quickly punches a couple of buttons on his phone to alert security working the door to keep an eye on them.
Craven: Bad dreams, that feeling that if you don’t concentrate until you break you’ll start shaking and you don’t really know why, that pain that starts in one place and rampages across your body until you just want to curl into a ball and scream but you can’t because it’ll make it hurt more...
He pauses as he watches four guys in matching suits walking towards the same door. Again, he punches a couple of buttons to make sure things are taken care of.
Craven: That feeling in the pit of your stomach that says if you have one more, it’s coming back up but you know if you don’t, you’ll have to face something much worse...
He shakes his head as a few get ejected from the building before leaning back against his seat.
Craven: “Make It Stop” becomes a plea, a curse…
He nods slightly as he lets his eyes fall closed.
Craven: People who say things like, “a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” just don’t understand “Make It Stop.” If they did, they wouldn’t say that and they wouldn’t ask why the person who had been screaming, pleading, begging, scratching and clawing for so long that they finally broke and fell over the edge into the abyss had done such a thing.
He lets out a big sigh and nods again.
Craven: You understand “Make It Stop” better than almost everyone else, don’t you, Brody? You know how it feels, how it looks, smells, tastes and sounds and you know how it keeps going and going and going…
His eyes open as somebody inadvertently knocks on his car on the way towards the Pleasure Dome entrance.
Craven: You fight it every day and you fight for other people’s versions knowing it’s a fight you probably will never actually win, but you fight because, really, what’s the alternative?
Shrugging, he makes a mental note about the guy who just tapped his car.
Craven: And as much as it fills your life, it also hacks away at your soul. The pain, the hate, the anguish and anxiety is always there and always growing and it’s all you can do to even try to keep it at bay. That’s why you fight the way you do and it’s why you wrestle the way you do…
He nods acknowledgingly.
Craven: Me too...
Annoyance starts to enter his voice.
Craven: And that’s why you feel Joshua McBride and Aerynn Donnelly need to pay. Because they think it’s their universally appointed right to spread, “Make It Stop.” They figure if they have to be a miserable fucking bastard then everyone else should to. But even more than that, they felt the need to spread it to you! They both went out of their way to make sure you knew, “Make It Stop,” the same way they did and now you want…
He pauses, shaking his head.
Craven: No…
He almost laughs.
Craven: You NEED to make them pay for doing that and I can understand that because I’ve spent the better part of my life making people pay for spreading that vile disease, which would bring me to you...
Resentment replaces annoyance.
Craven: Kyle Travis…
Anger starts to filter in next to the resentment.
Craven: You ARE one miserable sonofabitch, aren’t you? You just can’t stand that you aren’t being treated like the cock of the walk anymore. Hell, you can’t understand why everybody treats you as the spare child on sitcom. Chuck Cunningham on “Happy Days,” Judy Winslow on “Family Matters,” Laurie Forman on “That 70’s Show,” Shelley Marsh on “South Park” or Meg Griffin on “Family Guy,” that’s basically what you complain about feeling like, right?
His anger rising, Craven pops another pill.
Craven: Because it’s obvious you should be treated better than that even though you actually have been and just choose to act as if you have not. You were handed things in this company that no one else was, given more championship opportunities than anyone else and effectively handed the golden ticket to ride and all you’ve done is tear it up, throw it in the air and then stamped your feet like a spoiled brat because you don’t want to admit that some people are just better than you. You bring up the past ad nauseum even though all that does is show us how good you supposedly used to be and then act like it entitles you to special treatment that somehow, you never got.
His eyes close and his fists do the same on the steering wheel.
Craven: I don’t care what you did before or who you think you are now. I don’t care if you have a championship now, if you think you’re entitled to one or what you think you are trying to prove because to me, all you are and all you will ever be, is the whiny bastard that forced someone close to me to start screaming “Make It Stop” at the top of her lungs for absolutely no reason aside from, you could. You decided all on your own, while blaming everyone else for your own shortcomings, to lure her to a motel room and make her suffer because you needed someone else to feel your pain. there was no altruistic meaning behind it, no one else forced you to, you just thought it sounded like a great idea and now she has to live with it.
He shakes his head in disgust.
Craven: Because you wanted people to think you a monster rather than what you really are...
He pauses to stare at his pill bottle and consider another.
Craven: You’re not a monster, Kyle, you’re a sad and pathetic over the hill old man clinging on to his glory days because he’s afraid that without them, he’s nothing. Well, I’m here to tell you Kyle, you had better be looking over your shoulder because that car that just cut you off in traffic, that asshole that got in your way at the grocery store, the douchebag that got in the way of your wife while getting your family a treat…
He nods slowly as the rage in his voice grows even as the volume stays the same.
Craven: Someday, somewhere… that’s gonna be me. I’m gonna be two steps behind you, two steps behind your wife, hell, I might even be two steps behind the door at your kids’ school and I’m gonna make sure you think twice before making anyone else scream out, “Make It Stop!”
He pauses for a cruel chuckle.
Craven: Who knows, maybe the next person to say that… will be someone close to you…
