The Disappearance: Chapter 2

The Disappearance: Chapter 2

The sky growled with discontent as a sheet of lightning light up the sky, being the only light that could possibly be provided in this dark and gloomy night. Humidity was a great sensation in the late night air, providing a very moist yet dry environment. A chromed black Lincoln Navigator, which is barely visible in the dark night's sky, came driving along the curved valley. Destination unknown the vehicle smoothly glides along the black pavement roads, the headlights being the only thing to help guide it in direction through the ever so dark night.

Another huge flash of lightning flickers among the sky, as the view of the Lincoln Navigator is much closer now. The driver can be identified after the short ray of bright light. It's Pat Dwyer, Core Tag Team Champion, and newly rising star, seemingly very focused on the task at hand, his eyes narrowly viewing the road ahead of him.

"What's the matter Pat? Why are you so focused on what you're doing? It seems as if you don't feel like talking or something?" A voice muttered softly. The voice came from the unidentified individual in the passenger seat, but sounded oddly familiar to anyone that'd know Dwyer.

Another flick of lightning fills the sky, this time revealing the passenger, whom in the dark night is still hard to see, Chris Coe. A look of confusion is among his face, unsure of what's going through the mind of his client, who seems enhanced by the task at hand, driving the navigator through the dark and stormy night. Not replying to the questions being fired at him by Chris, he continues looking forward out the front window, with the wipers frantically trying to keep the view clear from the enormous amounts of water

"Come on man, something has to be up with you?" Chris questions once again, aggravated from the lack of reply he'd gotten from the last comment made. "Don't be like that with me. I know when something's up, why don't you just spill it?"

It's been well over a month since Chris has had an opportunity to speak to his client, the whole other month he'd had to deal with other clients, being before Christmas and such it was difficult for him to keep track of everyone. Always being one to care for the emotional and physical problems of his stars, that's why Chris was trying his best at this moment to find out what's bugging Dwyer.

"Don't worry about it,” Dwyer quickly replies, not taking a second away from focusing on the road ahead, seeing the same view for miles, rain and the yellow lines of the road to follow.

"Why you gotta be like that?" Chris snaps back, not satisfied with the answers that he's getting from his client. Getting stressed from this, he leans his right arm on the side of the window, running his left hand through his thick curly hair, trying to keep himself calm and reasonable.

"Be like what?" Dwyer exclaims, playing stupid with his agent. He takes quick glance over at Chris, noticing the position he's now taken after the ignorance he's experienced from Dwyer's replies. "I'm just having a tough time, my holidays weren't quite as merry as I'd hoped."

Dwyer now starting to lunge himself in the conversation, Chris looks up with hope appearing among his face. He now sits up, much more comfortable with where the situation is going. Easing himself into the arm rests; Chris takes another look of at Dwyer, whom seems a lot less focused on the road, and more or less willing to possibly converse.

"Why is that? Have another fight with the girlfriend of something?" Coe fires back at Dwyer, unaware of the current happenings in his life. "Or was it a bad family dinner?"

Dwyer pushes a lever next to his seat, lying it back somewhat, and leaning back into it, as if he's trying to find some comfort. Knowing that Chris hasn't talked to him in awhile; the conversation is going to be fairly back and forth, also involving many explanations from Dwyer.

"Hmm…where to start?" He lightly said under his breath, as if he's attempting to disguise this marvelous wonder from his agent, keeping the personal matters to himself.

"I'd say the best place to start would be the beginning!" Chris states the obvious answer, frustrated that he's attempting to stall on informing his agent of this newly found information.

"Well, let's just start off by saying that you've missed a hell of a lot since you've been absent from my life. Not only as an agent, but a best friend!" Dwyer notes to Coe, as if he's trying to hint something towards him.

"What? You expect me to drop my career to help you any time you need it?" Chris also getting frustrated, not close to satisfied with the hinted cheap shot by his best friend.

Upon this comment, Dwyer also has his own tantrum of anger, immediately turning away from the conversation and pulling all of his attention back to the road way, which is starting to get brutally flooded from the rain that's been falling for the past few hours.

"All right, since you're going to be like that, how about I'll judge that once I know what happened?" He insists, taking back the cheap shot that had just been distributed out.

"Okay, first off, sometime near the end of December, Kristen kind of…what shall I call it…got taken away from me?" Dwyer starts off recapping the first event that comes to mind to impact his life emotionally.

"She what?" Coe quickly responds, already puzzled by the occurrence brought up. "That's a huge surprise to hear of the starting line to the reasons why you seem so upset. How'd this happen? Did some guy come along or something? Or we talking kidnapping? Because I haven't seen the news lately…so maybe I wouldn't have heard about it!"

Returning to all of the thoughts that have went through his mind since that had occurred, he realizes that there is much more to tell to Chris.

"Basically we got in a huge fight, I can't remember if I told you or not. Well, to me it wasn't much of a fight, but when she was telling her mother about it, they kind of got into it themselves. Her father had heard about this little argument between the two of us, and him being the man that'd never approved of me much throughout the two years we were close and together, decided to take things into his own hands. I returned from the road after defeating Zodiac in my debut match for Core, triumphant about the win that just occurred. And you know what I came home to?" Dwyer leaves his friend wondering, having to pause in these moments of intense trauma being relived.

"No idea…do I even want to find out?" Chris' curiosities overcoming him, the end result seems like one that wouldn't want to be shared to even he the best friend.

"She was gone! All I was left to was a note! Do you know how far down in the gutter I got dragged down into when I saw that note? I went from feeling like I was on top of the world to the status of what an ant would feel next to the world, I felt like I was nothing!" Dwyer begins rising his voice, the emotional part of him starting to be drawn out through foretelling the story.

"So she left you a note? Let me follow this, her dad just drove on down to Toronto and snagged her from your Toronto condo? What'd you do after that?" Chris confusedly wonders, being drawn towards Dwyer, now facing him and attempting to hang onto every word that's said.

"Exactly, you got it. Not only did she just leave a note; the contents were slightly disturbing at first, which I've already explained to you. After that, I did the only thing I could, which was call her cell phone, hoping I could get a hold of her…"

"Good idea, that means things were starting to work out for you?" Chris interrupts, excitedly insisting that something this great had happened to Dwyer.

"I wish! I've called it twice now, both times I had an on phone confrontation with her dad. To say the least, it isn't the most pleasant of conversations you've ever been involved in, especially when you're being called things such as a 'no good wrestler' and him telling you that you've mistreated his daughter in the time you'd been with her. Also went on to tell me that he knew that someday we'd split up, and he always said he'd be there to protect her if it was necessary." With all the explaining, Pat is having a tough time continuing on. His eyes are red and full of tears, but as tough and stubborn as he always tries to be, he'll never let one hit his cheek.

"WHAT!" Chris shouts, the echo of his vocals being loud in the ear of Dwyer, followed by a burst of sheet lightning, forcing him to sway the car back and forth, losing control from the distraction of the loud noises. "Come on Pat, keep a hold on that wheel! Kind of hard to though I imagine, damn, maybe it has been a tough few weeks for you guy! Sorry that I haven't been here for you, but I am now."

"Of course I had to head out on the road after that, winning the Core Tag Team Championships, but even that could brighten my mood after having the love of my life stolen from me by her father, basically out of spite." Dwyer says reassured by the confidence of his friend.

"After you were on the road then? I know you too well Pat! There's something inside of me saying that you didn't just give up, there's more to this then that." Chris assumes, still not able to contain himself from getting more into the story, which Dwyer seems very hesitant to tell.

There is a brief pause, with Dwyer just on looking ahead, in the terrific storm that is still at it at making the night a living hell. On their way to Louisiana, Kentucky for this week's PRIDE, the weather hasn’t' exactly been a factor to help contribute their safe arrival. Noticing that there is no response out of Pat, Coe is under the assumption that there's something being held back from him, something that isn't being told.

"What…are you saying…that you did nothing?" He replied to his own question, realizing that that just may be the case. Studying Dwyer for an answer, all he gets out of him is a simple nod of the head, followed by him ignoring the fact that Chris is still in the same car as he. "How could you ever do something like that? To me that's a very uncharacteristic thing coming from you, to me you've always been one to take charge, not be pushed around…what happened to that initiative?"

Dwyer still is looking uncertain to if he's going to respond to this verbal curiosity displayed by Chris, whom won't let the story go, and keeps digging for more information, which was a common characteristic of him. Never being able to let things go once being partially informed, Chris continues to gaze on towards his client/best friend, hoping that the next words out of his mouth will satisfy his thirst for information.

"Nothing…you're right…I did nothing! You know why? Because the last message she sent to me, which was via text, said why did you tell him? She got in trouble, ways that are still uncertain to me, for leaving me a note on what had occurred that very day she was taken from me. Without knowing what the punishment was, I don't feel I should inflict any further pain on her, the emotional bit she's been going through I can only imagine would be like for her, for me it's been hard enough. I'm best off to just forget about her...that way we'll both be left at peace…it's been working fine so far, so might as well keep it that way!" He looks over at Chris, right into his eyes, displaying the seriousness behind the message he's trying to portray to him.

"AH!" Chris erupts, angered by the disappointing explanation given to him from his client. "See, giving up, that's just a sign of weakness…"

"LEAVE IT!" Dwyer yells, an unsuspecting thing to come out of him while his friend is trying to offer him advice. Usually he's one to easily accept advice, especially for someone he can trust the opinion of, but this time he just can't stand to take in his opinion.

Chris simply turns to his window, after seeing the display of anger on the face, deciding that maybe both need a period of cooling down before discussing the matter again. To the relief of the pair, they find the Holiday Inn just off the Interstate which they've been following this entire time. Pulling into the entranceway, and parking at the front door, Chris reaches for the handle of his door, launching himself out at a fast speed.

"I'll check us in!" He mumbles, a comment barely heard or recognized by Dwyer.

From this whole conversation he comes over in a gaze, his mind wandering back to a painful remembrance from the holidays, one that would hopefully be forgotten, but from the ongoing topic discussion, was re-ignited and burned into his mind.

[Flashback]

With the bright lights of the Christmas tree lighting the room up brilliantly with green and red, the holiday season being highly evident in the rather large Toronto condominium. Through the front door, an often-returning traveler of the household, Pat Dwyer, walks into the doorway, routinely brushing the snow off of him before entering. It's Christmas Day, and he's just returned from his flight from Denver, which is where he'd won the Tag Team Titles just this week. Entering the house, a sigh of relief had overcome him, but as he walked into the living room, there was something he hadn't noticed before.

"When did this happen?" He wondered to himself, as he entered the room. Among the Christmas Tree that brightly lit the room on the early Christmas morning, just before dawn has struck.

Instead of the empty room he expected, something that went unnoticed last time was now sticking out to him in his mind like a sore thumb. Underneath the tree, many presents, all wrapped in different Christmas wrapping paper were scattered in the room. The last time which he'd taken a look around the condo he hadn't noticed, but now feelings of happiness and glee had suddenly defeated the feelings of awful sadness which he's been experiencing the past week or so.

As the room continues to seem even brighter to him, now his day being made, tears come to the eyes of Dwyer. But this time, instead of tears of sadness and heavy emotion, they were tears of joy, something that he hasn't experienced throughout this entire emotional roller coaster.

[End Flashback]

Dwyer, still sitting behind the wheel, is now feeling the same emotions he felt that day, the warmth bringing up his mood from the current conversation that had just been disbanded. And with that, Chris had returned from check-out, also not seeming so upset.

"We're in!