The Undertaker's Brides

The full moon lent an eerie, otherworld like light to everything in sight. The mist on the ground was swirling about as though it possesed a life of it's own. Stubbing out her cigerette, Judy was pleased with the way tonight had went.

***********
The Brides had finally decided that they would return the urn to it's owner. As luck would have it, the WWF was holding a house show in that very town this evening. This was important because it meant that Paul bearer and the urn would be in town. They were quickly able to find out which hotel Paul was staying at and Jean bribed the hotel clerk to get the key to the room.

"It got us into the room, didn't it?" she thought to herself. Lighting up another cigarette, Judy began to pace the floor waiting for the phone to ring. When the phone finally rang, it sounded very loud in the silent room. "Hello," Judy said while holding the reciever in a death grip. "Yes, I'll be right over." she said to the caller. Grabbing her purse and keys, Judy was out the door in record time. She was pleased that the drive across town didn't take long because of the good weather and the late hour."Hey ya'll, what's up?" Judy said to the other Brides who were already there when she arrived. Jean, who had taken over possesion of the urn asked the Brides, "Are we ready to give this back to the proper owner?" "Absolutely!!" Judy said. "Well then, if you are all ready, gather around." jean said motioning them to join her at the table."Wait a minute, ya'll. Maybe we should join hands." Judy suggested. "Good idea" Nikki said shaking her head in agreement.

As soon as the Brides joined hands, the lights flickered and went out. A faint purple mist invaded the room, casting a strange glow over everything. The Undertaker's presence was immediatly felt. "He better apprecaite this" Nikki mumbled to no one in particular.

"Ladies, Good Evening. You all have summoned me here?" His green eyes glowed with a fire of their own. His dark auburn hair hung loose past his massive shoulders. Tight black jeans and a leather vest hugged his body like a second skin.

"We wanted to return this to you" Jean said as she picked up the urn and handed it to The Lord of Darkness.

"How did you get it away from Paul?" he asked.

"Nikki and Judy stole it from his room earlier this evening." Jean said. As the two mentioned felt his warm gaze settle upon them, he said "I thank you both." He walked over to them, took Judy's hand and then Nikki's and brought them to his lips. With this, Judy fell over in a dead faint, while startled amazement settled over his handsome features.

For the first time in weeks, a smile crept across Kaliegh's lips and then turned into laughter. With confusion in his beautiful green eyes, he looked at Kaliegh and said, "I don't understand." After she was able to control her laughter, she said to him, "Your heart will reveal it to you in time."

The door to the room opened slowly and chubby paw belonging to Paul Bearer reached into the room to turn on the lights. The portly manager slipped inside the room and his lumbering son followed him into the room. Paul Bearer's eyes darted about a bit before he relaxed. He'd had an awful feeling that the Undertaker was in the stadium but nothing had happened all evening. With that fact nagging him during the return to the room, the rotund little maggot of a man was certain that an ambush had been awaiting him here.

It took several minutes for the missing urn to be noticed, but the wail he was overcome by brought his son racing out of the connecting room his father had gotten him. On his knees before the case he kept the stolen urn in, Paul Bearer babbled and wailed a few moments, his pasty jowls flapping. "No! No! He mustn't get the urn back! No!" He pulled himself up using Kane and stared into the brutalized eyes of his son. "You must reclaim the urn, Kane! If we reclaim it before the full moon, he won't be able to harness the powers of the urn. With the urn and the creatures of the night, we won't be able to continue to punish him for hurting you and murdering your mother." Paul Bearer and Kane searched the small room for clues and found only one thing ... the extra room key used to get into the room by the thief. The Undertaker would not have needed a key to get into the room and he could not have reclaimed the urn himself.

The former friend of the Undertaker turned the key over in his hands and closed his hate-filled eyes. Yes, Paul Bearer is a student of the Arts ... Arts of the blackest sort ... A single word flooded his mind ... the emotion behind the theft was so strong he could taste the word as he spoke it ... "The Brides" he whispered and Kane heard ... and knew what to do.

******

In the dark hallways of the Morgue, Kiri sat before her desk working on the more mundane chores of managing a funeral parlor and morgue. Her computer rested beside her with it's screen saver of a haunted house running. The tank top she wore was old and a bit stained from years of use, but it was comfortable. She tugged at the bottom which had an annoying habit of rolling up. "Hmmm ... diet time again" she mumbled as she re-added the column of figures. She very much wanted to log on and see if her four rather silent friends were talking yet. After the strange post on the message board and the usual silence of four of the more active Brides, she was worried that something was wrong. She'd spoken to Cyn and Kiowa via e-mail and they too were worried ... All of the Brides were. And that worry was all consuming. She couldn't concentrate on her duties. In fact, the column she was totaling came out to $4,629.97 which was fine except that her last three efforts had yielded $4,649.74, $4,621.54, and $4,712.97. With a growl she flung the pen across the room where it slammed into the far heavy double doors and spun in a crazy circle on the dark wooden floor.

"I'll never get this work done," she groaned as she buried her hands into her untamed hair and tried to force it out of her face. "Maybe I should hire an assistant?" She mumbled to herself. Then she heard it ... the guard dogs began to howl and yelp and snarl at someone ... "or thing" she thought as she rose and drew a protective glyph in the air before her.

Being a mortal and not able to resist her fear, she opened a lower drawer on her desk and pulled out a thin blade in a sheath. It had been a gift from an admirer, now it was her emergency plan. The knife disappeared into her clothing and she moved towards the double doors.

"I'd prefer not to be caught in here. It's my sanctuary," she thought as she reached a trembling hand for the door handle. It was not there when her hand came down for it. She backstepped quickly, glanced about her darkened room for another weapon hoping the blade wouldn't be necessary and finding none merely retreated backwards deeper into her office.

The door opened slowly ... and a single black gloved hand and red clad arm appeared.

"Kane" She whispered in shock and genuine horror as the evil half-brother of her beloved Undertaker entered her Parlor ...

She felt her blood run cold as the monster entered her private lair. His wet hair hung over his masked face hiding his evil pale eyes as he stepped past the door and left it ajar. Her mind actually tried to think of a way to get past the beast and out to the safety of her graveyard, then wisdom returned and she realized he done that intentionally.

She stood as tall as her 5'8" frame would allow her to, unwilling to continue cowering before him and feeling dwarfed as he approached. It wasn't until his cold black-gloved hand came down on her bare shoulder with an iron grip that her false courage abandoned her and she slipped into the peace of unconsciousness.

After The Lord of Darkness had left to put the urn safely away, The Brides lingered on talking amongst themselves, Unknowing of the evil that their dear friend Kiri had fallen into. "Well, we should be be able to get back to our normal lives now" Nikki said, leaving out that she had become quite fond of the Undertaker and his unusual requests. Jean and Judy looked at each other and laughed. "I'm not so sure I want to leave" Judy said, remembering handsome the Lord of Darkness had looked tonight. "I'm not so sure he is going to let us leave" Kaliegh stated. Nikki rolled her eyes at her and said, "Girl, he has really gotten to you, hasn't he?" Kaliegh looked at her for a moment then stood up to leave. "The urn is an important piece in the puzzle, but there are still a great many pieces missing. You must take this seriously. If you would all just open your hearts, you will understand that he still needs us. He will ALWAYS need us, and we will ALWAYS need him" Kaliegh said, addressing the group of Brides. Before they could comment, she was gone.

***********

Kaliegh was standing out on the terrace that was located directly off of her bedroom. As the leaves began to rustle in the still night, she knew that the Lord of Darkness was not far away. As she felt his presence coming closer, she turned around. The look of sadness on his face was one that she had seen on her own face many times before. It made her sad to think of this beautiful man being so unhappy. With a heavy sigh he began to speak, "How can I convince the other Brides just how important this really is? If they would just open their hearts and believe...." Kaliegh looked at him with caring in her eyes and said, "I think they are just a little upset that they were yanked out of their lives without any kind of warning. Judy and Jean do realize the importance of this, but they are afraid to admitt it. And Nikki, well, she knows deep in her heart....." she stopped, not being able to find the right words and realizing that there were tears welling up in her eyes and in The Undertaker's. "As long as they know that I am always with them..." The Lord of Darkness was unable to continue.

As he stood up to leave, the room suddenly became very hot. Kaliegh looked over at the Undertaker and saw that that his expression was that of one who was on Hell. "Quickly, you must find the others and go into the secret passage way." Puzzled by what was happening, she asked him, "WHERE??" "Kaliegh," he yelled at her, "GO NOW!! You will know the way." Feeling very frightened, she asked him one more question, What is happening?" "Kane, he is HERE!!" he yelled, looking very irritated and upset by her question. "GO NOW!!!!---Get the others....." As the light went out, Kaliegh felt two massive arms wrap themselves around her body and carry her off. She was taken to a room that was blessedly cool after being in that inferno that was until a few minutes ago, her room. The Undertaker lit a candle and started towards her. Kaliegh looked up at him with wide eyes, and remembering what she had heard about his short temper, shrank into the corner. "What is wrong with you?" he questioned her. "You could have been killed back there. When I say go now, I mean RIGHT NOW!!!" Kaliegh could tell by the look in his eyes that he was quite upset with her. "I must go now to find the others and bring them to safety. DO NOT even think about leaving this room---You will be safe here." As he was leaving, he turned to her, rolled his eyes up in his head and mumbled something that Kaliegh couldn't quite understand and then was gone. Kaliegh felt terrible for upsetting the Undertaker so much. After all the kind words he had said to her.....Now she had made him angry. Saying a prayer that the rest of the Brides would be brought to safety, she fell into a restless sleep.

Storm awoke in the hotel room with a jolt, gasping for air. She'd had that dream again..the dream where Kane's brother came to her, holding out his hand and whispering her name. Each time she would try to go to him, but then Kane would appear on the opposite side of her, and hold his hand out to her as well, calling to her. She always ended up looking from one to the other in confusion as their opposing voices swirled and whispered in her head until she fell to her knees, covering her ears from the onslaught. She wouldn't dare tell Kane or Paul Bearer about the dream, that would be nothing but trouble. With the hatred Paul Bearer had for the Undertaker, he would accuse her of all kinds of nonsense. Bearer already had a dislike for her anyway, feeling she was a "bad influence" on his baby son. Just because she tried to keep him from being just an unfeeling, uncaring "monster" willing to do his daddy's bidding. It was a wonder Bearer hadn't "taken her out" already. If it hadn't been for Kane's affection for her, she was sure he would have. So, instead she kept the nightly invasion a secret, pondering what it could all mean whenever she had some time alone to think. Her beloved Kane seemed so tormented sometimes about being estranged from his brother, but she knew that Paul Bearer did all he could to keep the hatred brewing, filling poor Kane's head with lie after lie.

******************

Storm squinted and tried to adjust her eyes to the dark. She couldn't see or hear a thing except the soothing sounds of the air conditioner.

Rolling over to put an arm around Kane, she was startled to find that he wasn't there. This made her sit bolt upright. What was that idiot Bearer doing with him *now*? Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she groped around until she found the lamp switch, grabbed her robe off the chair and headed for the door that connected their room with Paul's. She yanked on the door, but it was locked, so she started pounding on it.

"Paul! Paul, open the door. Where is Kane?" There was no answer, so she put an ear up to the door and listened. Finally, she heard the bed squeak and the sound of footsteps. Paul Bearer opened the door and sighed loudly. "What do you want, woman?"

She threw him a dirty look before answering. "Where the hell is Kane? "Bearer's expression turned stormy. "My son is off on an...errand. Not that it's any of your business."

Storm rolled her eyes, grabbed the doorknob away from him and shut the door. She knew she could reach Kane if she closed her eyes and concentrated just like he taught her. He could teleport her to wherever he was, and she'd see just what this "errand" was. Remembering she was still wearing only a robe, she grabbed one of the suitcases and rummaged around for something to wear. She found a long, black, sleeveless cotton dress and some sandals and quickly put them on.

Finally, she stood in the center of the room and closed her eyes, calling to Kane with all her will. Soon she was bathed in a red mist, and transported into the middle of chaos. She fell to the ground with dizziness as she appeared. This was only the second time she'd ever tried it, and it still made her dizzy as heck. She looked up from the floor, trying to make the room come into focus and saw Kane struggling with the Undertaker. They appeared to be trying to choke each other, stumbling around the room. Storm jumped to her feet and rushed over to Kane.

"Kane, stop it!" She tried to get between the brothers as best she could, but a 5'4" woman was no match for two 7 foot brothers. She was thrown to the ground with the force of their movements. "Damn it!" She screamed in frustration. She had always done her best to try and make Kane see that Paul Bearer was poisoning his mind, but it seemed she hadn't done the job well enough. She knew in her heart that the Undertaker was not the one responsible for the fire that killed their parents, and she had a hunch that little toad Paul Bearer would prove to be the culprit. If only she could make Kane see her logic. She looked around the room desperately for a way to distract them, and her eyes rested upon what had to be the reason Paul Bearer had sent Kane here.

The urn..it sat upon the mantle of the fireplace across the room. Storm crawled on her hands and knees as quickly as she could and pulled herself up next to the fireplace, snatching the urn from the shelf.

"Hey boys" She waved the urn around in front of her to get their attention. Kane dropped his choke hold on 'Taker and whipped his head around to face her. The Lord of Darkness slowly turned to face her, his eyes burning with anger. "That..belongs..to..me" He said between clenched teeth, stalking towards her.

Storm's face grew warm as she backed away from his fierce green gaze, still clutching the urn as he advanced menacingly toward her. She wasn't too sure about what he was going to do - it had recently become known in certain circles that Kane's older brother had one hell of a temper. Even though she was afraid of his anger and whatever might happen next, she refused to look away. She stared right back at him even as she felt her back bump up against the wall.

It was the loud crash of the door slamming into the wall that saved her from his anger.

*******

"Well, well...what have we here?" Nikki said sarcastically as the Brides quickly moved into the room. "Looks to me like the WWF's biggest mimic and his darling daddy are up to their old tricks again. Did you really think you'd be able to keep us out of this?" She smiled and tapped her head to suggest the Brides' psychic link with the Undertaker - the other Brides took their places. Judy moved to stand behind Kane, a threatening grin on her face; Kiri and Jean positioned themselves between Storm and the now calmed-down Lord of Darkness. Kaliegh closed the door to keep the curious from witnessing the confrontation, then walked over to quietly stand at the Dark One's side.

Storm gaped at the four women, unable to fathom how they had known about the current battle between the brothers. Her eyes widened further as she glanced at each of them - maybe she was still experiencing the aftereffects of her teleportation and its resulting dizziness, but if asked, she would have sworn that they were all familiar. Risking a glance over at Kane, she saw that his head was tilted to the side; he was as baffled as she was as to the identity of the women and how they had found out about Bearer's little "errand". The mere thought of the evil scheme Paul had roped his son into was enough to make her hackles rise and give her the courage to find out just what in the hell was happening here. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at Nikki and grated, "Who are you?" "Don't worry about it, hon. We'll explain it to y'all later, when it'll all make more sense."

Kane had been watching Storm the whole time, and he was none too pleased with the recent turn of events. He took offense at the Brides'gestures of friendship towards his lady, and he stalked over to grab her arm and pull her away. Nikki glared at him and took Storm's other arm, preventing him from further involving her by forcing her to choose sides. The Brides had all seen Storm in their dreams, and they knew she was doing everything in her power to help wean Kane out from Paul Bearer's ghastly influence; they were hardly going to stand by and watch her become a pawn in the repulsive little fiend's demented game. Whether she knew it or not, she, too, was a Bride, and the Brides protected their own.

"Let go of her, Kane. Your father is responsible for this, not Storm. It's not fair of you to decide her opinion for her." Jean spoke as evenly and as calmly as she could, in the hopes that the violence would be kept to a minimum. However, this hope proved to be futile when Kane yanked Storm's arm roughly, causing her to cry out in pain. Nikki and Kaliegh snarled at him and tried to pry his fingers off her rapidly reddening skin, but couldn't budge his grip. It was similar to untangling a kitten's claws from a sweater - just when you believe you've removed them all, one more digs in.

It was at this point that the previously quiet Taker went ballistic.

"Let her alone, little brother, or face the consequences. I've been lenient with you up until this point, but if you hurt any one of my Brides, you WILL face my wrath." The Lord of Darkness folded his arms and fixed his fiery green gaze on the other man, the threat he had just issued evident in his stance.

Kane threw down Storm's arm, and Kiri went to her, speaking soothingly as she led her to safety in the corner of the room. Nikki and Kaliegh backed up to lean against the wall behind the two giants, not relishing the thought that one or the other of them could spill the other's blood. Jean and Judy scooted back toward the room's single bed, siitting on it and propping themselves against its headboard to take in the impending showdown. The two faced one another, each man's eyes barely masking his resentment of the other as Taker grabbed Kane's think neck in a chokehold. Kane swung a large fist at the Undertaker, catching the corner of his eye and cutting the delicate flesh.

The Lord of Darkness retaliated by smashing the side of Kane's head into the wall, and the thud was so loud that it shook the walls as it reverberated throughout the room. Kane growled and lunged at Taker, and the two began to grapple in earnest.

It was Kaliegh whose shriek split the air wide open.

"Holy shit, the URN!!!"

Book Three of The Undertaker's Brides

© 1998 by The Brides of Darkness

**This story cannot be used in any way without written permission