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Nine days...

She had been enduring hell on earth for nine days... Nine days she'd been locked in the maniac's basement, nine days spent away from the open air and sun, nine days away from all of her friends and co-workers...

Her eyes had gotten so used to the dank dimness of that damp basement that they'd hurt once they'd rescued her and gotten her out of there.

Now, as she lay curled up on her right side in a tight fetal position on a hospital bed in St. John's Hospital in Elmhurst, New York - not far from the Elk's Lodge, from what she understood. An assorment of visitors kept coming to see her - ECW people. Usually, she was in a near-catatonic state, but when Rob Van Dam and Dawn Marie Psaltis, her two best friends in the company, were there, she was somewhat alert and responsive.

The doctors and nurses talked about what they knew had happened to her. She squeezed her eyes shut and wished she were at least momentarily struck deaf when she heard the word 'rape.' The sick son of a bitch had done it only once, but the horrible memory of the attack would stay with her and haunt her for the rest of her days.

She lay there on the bed, unseeing though her eyes were open, staring ahead at nothing. Nothing registered in her brain as the machine connecting an IV to her arm blipped monotonously. She wouldn't eat, didn't even move a muscle to accept a drink of water. She'd grown lifeless, basically a shell of what she'd once been.

The young woman didn't flinch or even so much as blink an eye when her boss, Paul Heyman, came to visit. The portly man spoke to her, his voice calm and soothing. The only words her brain absorbed - the only ones it allowed her to actually catch were the ones he issued mere moments before he left her to her solitude: 'They're gonna catch the bastard who did this to you...'

She didn't move a muscle other than her eyes, which blinked a few times. Her weary body remained in its curled up position. Because of that, she failed to notice the sly, evil smile that spread across Paul Heyman's face.

A moment later, the heavyset man was gone. And a single tear escaped one of her eyes and ran down her cheek.

*

Chris Jericho wasn't sure what had woken him up from his sound sleep at first. After a few seconds, he became aware that the bed he was in seemed to be shaking slightly.

The blond man bolted up as he recalled that he was not the only person in his hotel bed... Amy - the redhead had come to the room he and Jay had been sharing. She'd been near tears, explaining that she and Adam had had a fight and asked if she could stay with them for the night.

Despite doubts that there'd really been a fight, Chris had immediately agreed to let her stay. What with all of the poor kid's troubles, he was not about to say no.

"Jeez, what's going on?" Jay asked, sitting up in his own bed a few feet away. He reached over for the lamp on the nearby nightstand, flipping it on and putting them in brightness.

Chris was desperately trying to calm the redhead down. She was thrashing a bit on his bed, small whimpers coming from her.

"Oh, no..." the Toronto native said, his blue eyes instantly adjusting to the light as concern flooded through him.

"Amy, come on..." Jericho said softly but firmly as he gripped the diva by the shoulders. She was lost in some horror-filled nightmare-memory, and he was desperate to get her out of it.

Jay pushed back his blanket to join his friend in his quest to awaken and calm down the distraught woman. The moment he laid a hand on Amy, the redhead began to thrash even more violently, and in fact caught Jay in the face with one hand in the throes.

"Ow!" the blond man cried, tears of pain stinging his eyes for a moment. "How the hell does Adam deal with this on a nightly basis?!"

Chris shot him a furious look.

"Damn it, Jay... How can you be so insensitive?"

"I didn't mean it that way!"

The two blond men attempted to calm Amy, who continued to thrash in the bed - until she suddenly bolted awake.

"Jesus..." Jericho breathed as he took in the redhead's fright, her eyes wide, breathing hard and heavy. In seconds, she seemed to be hyperventilating. "I'm gonna go get Adam! You stay here with her - I'll be right back with him!"