Post by Jaime | Anastacia on Jun 26, 2018 19:10:39 GMT -5
Soundtrack...
Electricity, eye to eye
Hey, don't I know you
I can't speak
Stripped my senses
On the spot
Jaime Alejandro sits to himself on a large rock. He looks toward the sun setting in the sky. Everything has fallen into his lap lately, and it seems that nothing makes sense to him anymore. The girls needing to be helped. His lone student became two students. His house became full of life again. From just he and Anastacia, to a house full of damaged people. They aren’t damaged as in the sense of needing to be locked away.
The damage is in the sense of heartbreak, disappointment, fear, and distrust. Lives were uplifted in an instant by circumstance. He took solace in teaching young Betsy Granger the art of the game. But this solace was only temporary. It seems his reputation as the guardian of the broken was becoming true. However, it also ate away at his shell. The shell of reality that he’s been keeping back.
He looks over at the unopened bottle of tequila by his side. The temptation is there once again. He doesn’t know what to say now that someone is back in his life after a long absence. At a moment’s notice, he rescued two young girls who were on the opposite side of he and his friends. One would become a student, yes. Danielle Anderson. The other, however, was too broken to speak. Maricela Reyes. A girl from his younger days. Someone that he had taken care of long ago. He was a younger and crass man in those days.
Now… He’s a man who doesn’t know which direction to head. The other factor in his life now. A star-crossed love. Something that he never could fathom. The one that got away, as they say. Chelsea Pryce, she had to get away. He and she were too similar. They would become the typical pills and booze couple that would have ended in violence. He loved her too much to do that to her.
I've never been defenseless
I can't even make sense of this
You speak and I don't hear a word
Xaria Linette… He knew her from the days of Jackson Ford. A man that he had no love for. Someone who made sure to taunt the proverbial bear each and every time. The one time Jaime did get his hands on him… Jaime made sure the world saw him maul the life out of the arrogant man. He didn’t do this out of joy. It was pure hatred for him. Hatred of the man who possessed what he wanted.
However, Jaime was a practical man. He knew the violent man he was… She could not love him. Who would love a man who made a living out of hurting people?
“So, here we are…”
He looks down at the bottle and sighs to himself. He had been sober for a good while. Like all people that have fought this demon, he also has moments where he can falter. This is one of those moments. The memories flood in for him. The moment he had three-year-old Pénélope Linette snuggled against him. He remembered something he missed. Love.
Love is a cruel mistress.
Xaria Linette doesn’t want to feel love. She doesn’t want to feel at all. The most recent events within her beautiful three-story house in Manhattan have shaken her to her very core.
She was making dinner for her family. Grilled boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced over a bed of whole grain rice, with a side of freshly steamed mixed vegetables. As co-owner of two restaurants, one in Paris, one in Manhattan, she was taught by professional chefs how to prepare and cook healthy and delicious meals for the family. She’s made great progress since the kitchen fire incident five years ago.
How did someone burn water?
Pénélope was being a good little helper and setting the dining table for her when suddenly, both of them overheard Martin screaming. Xaria adjusted the burners on the lowest setting to keep the food warm and she made her way upstairs. What she saw shocked her very existence. Her oldest twin son Christian curled up on his bed, sobbing and tightly hugging a pillow. Martin glaring at him as if…
“You’re HIS demon child. You must be purified of your sins.”
...he was demonic. Then Jacques screamed “Don’t hurt my brother!” and moved defensively in front of Christian. Their protective mother wasn’t going to allow this to progress.
“Martin!”
Calling out her husband's name caused him to break out of his fixation and Martin looked towards his wife. He saw the anger and fear in her eyes as her protective motherly nature took over. She was quick to move in front of her sons and look him in the eye. That look. It was rare, but it was one no one wanted to see.
Shaking her head of the flashback, Xaria breathes slowly and makes her way outside of the ranch. She sees Jaime sitting on that rock and slowly approaches him. How many times has this happened where they meet when it's quiet? She's well aware of the bond they share and how it's held steady for several years. When he resurfaced in the wrestling industry through New Generation Wrestling, she realized those feelings have never left. However, she's been weakened by the events within her beautiful house.
“It always leads back here.”
Her bright green eyes gaze out towards the setting sun before she exhales and folds her hands behind her back. The flowery skirt she wears is steady, not a breeze in the atmosphere. She brushes at her simple pink short sleeve blouse and takes a deep breath.
“What do we call this?”
What would happen if we kissed
Would your tongue slip past my lips
Would you run away, would you stay
Or would I melt into you
Mouth to mouth, lust to lust
Spontaneously combust
“Shakespeare had a term for this. Star-crossed. Every time you were there, you weren’t there. This is how it always went. Then, I went away. I would go away for a while. Retreat within myself. It’s the vicious cycle. Maybe find another woman.”
Jaime looks towards the bottle and sighs again. He picks up the bottle and tries to open it, but her slender hand grips down on it. Her soft expression turning stern and severe. She’s seen this demon before. It’s the same demon she’s lost him to before.
“Don’t you dare.”
Her bright green eyes stare straight into his eyes. Hers are full of a quelling rage that’s unable to be contained after the dramatic events.
“You’re going to that chienne yet again? That awful temptress has done terrible things to you! It has caused horrors for me! Years ago, it poisoned my first ex-husband’s mind and drove him to FORCE HIMSELF ON ME! Frank tried to rape me in his drunken stupor!!”
Relieving THAT memory doesn’t sit well with the petite Frenchwoman. Nearly ripping the bottle of tequila away from Jaime’s grasp, Xaria violently throws it against the old mesquite tree, the impact instantaneous as the bottle shattered into pieces. The fluid spills all across the tree and Xaria sharply turns towards Jaime with tears in her rage-filled eyes.
“Enough! No more! Not another drop of alcohol! You’re better than that, Monsieur Jaime! You can’t just… drink your problems away! That doesn’t make them go away. Ever. You were a soldier. A hero. You were supposed to rescue me after Jackson. I waited for you for months... But you left me in the darkness for the monster to claim me.”
“...rescue you. Xaria. I couldn’t even rescue myself after Jackson Ford. I had a drug addiction that was worse than anyone could imagine. I overdosed before a show. I tried to kill myself. But the others found me. So, I drank myself down into the bottom of a bottle. I couldn’t save any fucking body. I was doing so good killing my life and my own marriage. I would have become the same demon that would have hurt you again. I would rather have died than to ever hurt someone as beautiful as you...”
The room is spinning out of control
Act like you didn't notice
Brushed my hand
He took a slow breath and saw the look on her face. This wasn’t a look of anger. She had a look of pity and pure sadness. The breaking of the bottle dissipated her rage. The screaming, the venting. She recollects herself as she slowly moves closer to him, falling down on her knees on the sparse grass. The tears spill down her eyes as she reaches out and takes his left hand… The hand with a golden ring around his left ring finger.
“...but you have your wife, Madame Tanya. You can’t say such cruel things…”
Forbidden fruit
Ring on my finger
You're such a moral, moral man
You throw it away, no question
Will I pretend I'm innocent
She feels him reluctantly pull his hand away from hers. He looks at the gold ring on his finger for a moment and takes it off. With a tinge of bitterness…
“She left, Xaria… and she’s not coming back this time. Anastacia never mentioned it, because she worried about my mental health. Maybe it’s the biggest mistake in the world to marry a rival in business. There were many things good about the marriage. I’m not going to lie to you. There’s also secrets that were hidden. Secrets that I can’t exactly let out opening about myself. Are you so comfortable letting the boys and Penelope around a tueur. Martin was right about me. I’m not without a few thousand sins.”
The mother of three wonderful children, Christian, Jacques, and Pénélope, shakes her head slowly. Xaria presses her lips together in a thin line, breathing in through her nose despite the urge to sob, and she looks into his eyes. Finally, there is real emotion. Jaime’s always been so strong to hide everything. He was trained to do this. But with her, he can’t hide the raw emotion he feels and she understands this. It’s her empathic personality. Reaching up, she places her small hands over the sides of his face and caresses his cheeks with her thumbs.
“...You are not a killer… not one who would ever harm the innocent…”
She breathes deeply and sighs softly.
“You think I am without my sins? I am a terrible human being… Dieu saw my rainbow-colored angel feathers turn black when I became the Avenging Angel. I did it for selfish reasons, even if I was trying to protect my children. I was shunned for my sins… I’ve had family and friends keep their distance from me. Fans who were loyal hate me… and I deserve to be hated, especially by Danielle and Maricela.”
Those poor women. She should have never hurt them. Shaking her head slowly, she looks up to Jaime yet again, unmoving in her kneeling position.
“...what will you do?”
I struggle with myself again
Quickly the walls are crumbling
Don't know if I can turn away
“No more pretending anymore. My marriage will end up annulled. Almost like it didn’t happen in the eyes of the Church. I don’t know exactly what happened, Xaria… I really don’t know what the hell happened. All I know is that...”
At that moment, she sees something that nobody has ever seen, except for his late mother. Tears stream down his face in pure emotional defeat. Actual tears covering his chiseled face. The same face that’s always been a sign of pure strength and security… This is what makes her move. The petite woman places her hands on the sparse grass and she pushes herself to stand. Being so close, she wraps her arms around him, her hands gently cradling his head as she bends him a little lower. She buries his head against her chest and softly whispers to him.
“Mon héros... tout ira bien…”
‘My hero… everything is going to be alright…’
