This day could be the worst one yet
I just won't relax I can't catch my breath
Because I'm sick and tired of you'll be fine
Well how do you know, can you read minds
(Pre Chorus)
So take while you can so you can meet demands
My insanity is what you thrive on
So rip it from my soul, so everyone will know in the end
We were never friends

(Chorus)
Have you ever felt lost inside so unloved within that you almost die
Have you ever stepped out of the light and realized there's a stranger inside

Don't push your ignorance on me
I'm not unrehearsed to your jealousy
And I know you think I don't see the signs
Well how do you know, do I look blind

(2nd Pre Chorus)
So take it while you can so you can meet demands
My breakdown is what you thrive on
So rip it from my soul so everyone will know in the end
I'm the break you're the bend

(Chorus)

(Bridge)

Stranger inside

(Chorus out)


Dave sat in his locker room listening to Hunter go on and on about how his match that night with Jericho was a good thing acting as if it had been his idea acting as if everything was ok. He was tired. He was tired to the bottom of his soul and he wasn't sure he was going to make it out of this exhaustion. Sleep hadn't been quick coming for the last week. His mind was like a VCR that wouldn't shut off. Memory after endless memory played over and over of Randy and Hunter and Evolution and a dozen other things until he thought he was going to go mad from the noise in his brain.

He felt a pat on his shoulder and looked up to see Ric standing there. "Relax man everything will be fine! You're a sure win!" Dave couldn't stop the involuntary growl that came out and didn't regret the nervous look that passed over Ric's face. He couldn't figure out which side the older man was on and at that moment didn't give a shit. Standing he knocked over the bench, but didn't even pause to look back at it as he left the locker room.

Stomping out and down the hall he could feel people's eyes on him. He knew none of them knew what to think. Hell he didn't know what to think anymore. He wasn't even sure that he knew himself anymore. When he looked at himself in the mirror he didn't recognize the eyes that looked back at him. He'd stopped taping Raw because he couldn't stand to look at the thing he had become. He tried to remember a time before Evolution when he didn't feel like the monster he played on TV, but his brain couldn't locate the memory any longer.

He was so tired of the mind games that Hunter played with his head and yet at the same time he couldn't even figure out what was real and what was the game anymore. Even the people that had known him before Evolution didn't trust him anymore buying into the creature that he had let Flair and Hunter turn him into. He so desperately needed this to be over so he could find himself again and show everyone that he wasn't really Hunter's buddy. That Hunter had never been anything but a means to an end and the end had come and gone long ago. What was once useful was now just a hindrance and a headache.

Feeling as if he had finally run out of energy, Dave put his hands over his eyes and turning touched his back to the wall and sank down not aware of where he was or caring. He could take physical pain all day long, but this emotional pain that seemed to be eating away at him was just simply more that he could bear any longer. "Dave?" He heard and for a moment wasn't sure that it was real or just another hallucination. Opening his eyes he blinked and looking up into the overhead lights vaguely made out Randy's concerned gaze.

Randy frowned and knelt down looking around and wondered why Dave was sitting on the floor outside his dressing room. From the look on his face Randy wondered if the other man even knew where he was. "Dave?" He called again and reached out touching the bigger man's cheek. He watched as Dave opened his mouth to speak and saw the blanket of pain veiling his gaze as he fought to speak. When Dave's face broke and his eyes became cloudy and wet Randy bit his lip trying to hold back his own tears. When Dave lost his control finally sobbing Randy gave up his struggle pulling the bigger man into his arms.

"Randy, Randy, Randy Randy," Dave cried over and over trying to form a coherent sentence but unable to wrap his fragile mind around anything but Randy's name. He didn't hear the locker room door open or see Chris and Jason come out. When Randy urged him to stand he did so blindly following him into the small room with the aid of Chris but when he was pushed down onto a bench refused to let go of Randy as he clung to him still trying to apologize.

Randy took a deep breath and looked around to see Chris and Jason watching him concerned. "Damn, Hunter's really done a job this time hasn't he?" Jason asked and Randy nodded resting his cheek on the top of Dave's head hoping that after the match that night with Jericho Dave would see that he didn't need Hunter anymore and they could get on with healing their tattered relationship.

The End… but more to come I promise

Read Story #5 Taking Over Me