You’re at the wheel of your McLaren, typically a joyous affair given your love for high-performance vehicles and the chance to get behind the wheel of one. The sound of the engine floods your eardrums with (to you at least) the sound of angels while the aggressive down and upshifts course through your back like jolts of lightning.
But not right now.
The phone call from your wife 15, maybe 20 minutes ago now; it’s got you on edge. Tunnel vision is perhaps a generous term to describe what you’re experiencing right now. You have little concept of what else is around you, you’re ignorant of the music that muted itself to allow you to take the incoming call, now back to its original volume since the call ended, frankly, you’re in a trance.
It’s taken every fiber of your being to not run red light after red light in the quest to get home, but here you are, at last, pulling into the street.
Up ahead, the taillights of a car you don’t recognise turns off the side street and onto the main trunk road snaking through the wider neighborhood.
Your eyes follow it as it roars off down the street, too far away to tell what make or model beyond that it’s an older muscle car.
Turning back to face the road, you’re then turning the wheel to the right so as to enter your driveway, the trigger within your McLaren’s electronics already linking to the wireless receiver within the mechanism that pulls the large door to one side.
Greeted by darkness, barring the illumination from your McLaren’s headlights, you can’t help but glance to your side, soon realizing that the curtains and slats have all been closed up.
Cutting the engine as soon as possible, you exit your car, glancing behind you to ensure no one is taking the chance to get up the driveway with the door open. Seeing it close with a satisfying ‘clunk’ you make haste into the home.
Vanessa is in your arms practically as soon as you’re through the door, the warmth from her body radiating into your chest like you were sat at a fireside, her perfume filling your nostrils and mingling with the scents from the shampoo she uses.
She’s as intoxicating as she was the day you first met her.
Her embrace is calming your heart rate, she’s safe.
Just as quickly, your blood is boiling again at the thought of Erica having the nerve to show her face anywhere near here.
Visions of you having locked in your ‘Walls of Berlin’ at Havoc fill your mind.
I shouldn’t have let go so quickly…
You're almost involuntarily drawing in your wife closer for a fraction of a second before you snap out of it, hearing her voice as you come to your senses.
(Vanessa) … believe she would come around here! And they couldn’t do anything?
A muffled scream comes from her, emanating out into your chest.
Your right hand snakes up, cradling the back of her head, her red hair cascading down around it.
(Hans): They couldn’t do anything?
What? Your mind reels.
Surely not?
Vanessa’s nodding as you release her. She looks to be both on the verge of tears and ready to erupt with anger.
(Vanessa): She was on public property… standing on the sidewalk, just leering at me and… and f*cking loving it, that b*tch!
You’re taking this in, trying to make sense.
(Hans): Did she say anything to you?
(Vanessa): No! Just stood there like a god damn statue, hopefully giving herself cancer though with the amount of cigarettes she was chain smoking…
Vanessa’s turning around, gesturing out towards the gate to their home, newly installed in light of the arson attack.
(Vanessa): She could be stood right outside it…
Holding her left hand up, thumb and index finger a fraction apart at this point.
(Vanessa): … ‘this’ close, and they can’t do anything, nothing, because it’s public property.
She’s running her hands through her hair now, a stress reflex.
(Vanessa): I’m about to fly off the handle honey… that, that b*tch…
You’re taking her back in your arms, planting a kiss on her forehead as she slumps into you.
Her voice, muffled once more from resting against your chest is quiet.
(Vanessa): Why can’t she just f*ck off and leave us alone?
You can’t help it, you laugh.
Looking up at you with confused eyes, her raised eyebrows say it wordlessly.
You take a moment, exhaling gently followed by another kiss to her forehead.
(Hans): If only your mutti could hear you now…
There. The dramatic roll of her eyes, but the tension is somewhat out of the air, for both of you. Well, for now at least.
(Hans): But, mein schatz, seriously, they couldn’t do anything?
(Vanessa): No babe, no… they couldn’t do much else besides encourage her to move on… even then, she took her time doing that… she only left just before you came in…
So that muscle car then…
Things fall into place.
You purse your lips for a second, eyes glancing out towards the gate and the street beyond and then back to your wife.
(Hans): Tomorrow, we speak to the lawyers and sergeant…
(Vanessa): Rhodes.
(Hans): Jah, sergeant Rhodes. We speak to them unt we get a restraining order against her. I don’t want her near you, I don’t want her near this house unt I don’t want her near Maria either.
You can hear the bustling about from your housekeeper several rooms along the hall. She absolutely did not deserve to be caught up in any more of this nonsense.
(Vanessa): That won’t stop her honey.
(Hans): Jah, but it means next time she ist dumm genug to do this, she leaves in the backseat of a police cruiser and not behind the wheel of her own car.
It makes sense, it’s logical, it’s very ‘you’.
As is what you say next, at least for the first two thirds. The latter is more your father in law speaking.
(Hans): Unt then we go to the range, it’s been too long since we last went und ich glaube… dass vielleicht, maybe, I can beat you this time.
Your attempt to draw out a lighter side to the proceedings is clearly appreciated by your better half, even if she can see right through it.
Much like the target your wife had shot at last time out. Yours, well, not so much.
(Vanessa): Mister, that won’t happen.
There it is, you’ve drawn the competitive side out. You were both ludicrously competitive at times with one another and this would be a matter of pride for her that she showed you up.
It almost stung already knowing how much she’d lord it over you tomorrow afternoon.
She’s looking up at you again.
(Vanessa): I don’t want it to come to that though, y’know…
(Hans): Meine geliebte, ich weiß… I know…
You stare into her eyes.
(Hans): That’s why I’m going to draw all her attention onto me this week. Her, Herr Chaos unt all his little personalities, anyone that could possibly be on her side come Havoc. They’ll see red, they won’t be able to look at anyone else but me.
You kiss her.
(Hans): Unt that’s where I want them.
The scene fades out to black.
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