We are failing in crisis mode
Mutually assured destruction
Love the proxy and burn the bones
So I smile in the snare of devotion
I hope you find what you’re fighting for
I am happier when I hurt you
Your medicine is the coldest war
Chapter One: The Story so far…..
Every story has a beginning, and an end. Cliche but true. That is what most cliches are, just obnoxiously obvious truths. Ones that are always front and center right in front of your face. But what happens when the location of the story changes? What happens when the story is cut shirt, interrupted and forced in a change for a predominantly new audience? Do we go back and retread the same ground? That is one way but that also stops people from getting the full picture of what makes someone tick and where they came from. Then there’s the other option…
Restart the story. Go back to the beginning and put it back out there for fresh eyes. But, that too comes with it’s own drawbacks and problems. So, what about a third option?
A quick recap.
Kayla Richards started off life the way so many others do. Born into a family that was middle class. A father who worked, a mother who stayed home and took odd jobs in between having children and raising them. But, at five years old, she finally started to realise there was something very wrong with her family. A bruise here and there on her mother, a look of burning hatred at her father from her older brother. The fact Jaxon left them alone, and Kayla watched her father get so angry he put holes in the walls.
He was not worried about his teenage first born son disappearing, he was angry. Even at a young age that made little sense to Kayla. And as the time went by, she saw her older sister Amber putting herself in front of her for their fathers attention. At the time Kayla didn’t understand, her jealousy boiled over, until she realised...Amber was protecting her. Putting herself there in between them to take his anger, his aggression and the abusive beatings.
But...Amber couldn’t protect Kayla forever. And eventually she felt the vicious sting of his belt, the hard smack from the back of his hand.
However, while Jaxon ran away and Amber became closed off and searched for father figures in the men she dated, and in the man who trained her. Kayla used her looks to get what she wanted, when she wanted it. She became unfeeling, uncaring and hardened to the world around her that she always felt was cold. She matches the temperature she felt, the numb nature of the world around her. Until she decided she wanted to follow in her older siblings footsteps. Watching as Amber became a star and cast off their lower-middle class english upbringing.
She packed up when her father died, leaving her young sister Tasmin with their mother to travel to the states, training with the same man that trained her older sister. But, there was the problem. Amber had made enemies. She had wronged a woman named Ana Valentine, and she had her sights set on destroying Amber and using Kayla to do it. It broke Kayla, the last feelings of humanity and morality she had stored away inside her slowly crumbled and turned to dust, and no matter how hard Kayla tried to clutch it….it just slipped through her fingers like the finest grains of sand,
Alone for the first time in her life, she pushed away everyone who cared about her. Whether that was her sisters, her brother, friends, significant others. Kayla just stopped caring.
This led her to a relationship with Matt Shields, a narcissistic asshole. A man with delusions of grandeur who believed himself to be a king. She became a world champion, she was a queen in the world of wrestling. But then, it all fell down. She let herself feel for Matt, she let herself think maybe he could be her other half. Until he betrayed her trust, betrayed their agreement, and threw it all away. But that is where we left off, the story so far,,,,
Chapter 17: Enter the G.O.A.T
Following the break up of her relationship with Matt Shields, the destruction and closure of NGW and the re-emergence of her older brother in her life Kayla Richards seemed lost again. From the top of the wrestling world, to unemployed and questioning her future. Kayla sat at home, the small apartment in downtown New York, living close to her sisters but seeming to not really see them. Then her phone went off, her eyes moved over the table to it and raised a curious eyebrow. A message from a number she had never seen before. A few simple words.
Hey, what are you upto?
Normally Kayla would ignore the message, one from a number she didn’t know or recognise. But, for some odd reason she decided to find out who was messaging her, and more importantly, how the fuck did they get her number? She simply sent back a message. Five words.
Who the fuck is this?
Out of everyone it could be, of all people, it was Billy Danielson.
Billy was someone who was in NGW with Kayla. Someone who had stood over the opposite side of the ring from her. He had been a member of the Dogs of War, facing off against Matt and Kayla’s group. They had said horrible things to each other, done horrible things to each other. Kayla trying to end Billy’s career with a few stiff kicks to the head. But, now NGW was gone, the company closed up and buried under a pile of red tape and stupid decisions from management. Kayla turned her nose up at her phone, shaking her head from side to side.
Why are you messaging me? And how the fuck did you get my number?
She slammed her phone down. She was furious. Of all people to be messaging her why an arrogant, self righteous meathead? She got to her feet moving around to the kitchen grabbing out a glass, pouring herself some scotch. Her hand wrapped tightly around the glass as heer phone went off again. She tilted her head reading the message with a look of disbelief and annoyance. He wanted to meet up. She threw her arms up, putting her phone back down and pouring herself another scotch, a double. It went down smooth, a third scotch, her second double. Down even faster.
The cogs started to turn. It had been a while. And Billy was tall, strong, good looking even if he wasn’t usually her type. She didn’t go for the jock type guys. She downed another scotcxh and gave a nod. He was in the area. She tilted her head looking over her phone before reaching out and picking it up with a small smirk.
My place. 20 minutes. Don’t be late.
Promo: Hail to the Queen.
“Kayla...what the fuck are you doing?”
The voice of Finn Whelan breaks the silence. Kayla Richards gives him a small smirk, her eyes covered by a pair of black rimmed sunglasses as the sun beats down on the patio balcony of Finns apartment.
“Recording my promo” It was said with a light tone. Almost happy.
“At..my place?...why?”
Kayla chuckled and gave a small shrug. “Nicer than Billys”
Finn gave a small nod and shrugged sitting back and going back to looking through his tattoo magazine, his slender fingers flipping the page as Kayla continued.
“The second time you people are being privileged enough to see me. The second time I am needing to state my intentions for Pro Wrestling Excellence. After the introductory show, where we all had the chance to introduce ourselves and to tell the world what we needed and wanted out of our careers and indeed this company, it is now time to really get down to business. The tournament was announced, everyone put in their place and the countdown is on.”
Her eyes flutter, a look of amusement plastered on her made up face. Her red painted lips turning upwards into one of the most arrogant smirks you will ever see.
“Four six person matches. The only way to win is outlast the other five as they get thrown over the top rope to the floor. Winner go on to a one on one match, the winners from that face in a final. And, after all is said and done, that person gets to proclaim to the world that they are the first ever PWE Excellence champion. The best in the company and their name etched in the record books. You only get ONE chance to be the first of something. And all any of you have to do, is stop me.”
“Easier said than done.”
“The winner of my match faced the winner of match four. And what a great group of…”talented” people in my match. Lachlan Kane, Nathaniel Cartwright, Xaria Linette, Ciela Luiz and Ashley Whitmore. Wow, I am so intimidated and worried about my first match. One past her prime former champions, two bitched no one knows about, inducing one that looks like the physical representation of syphilis, and two guys who look more like underwear models than professional wrestlers.”
“Wow.”
“Tell me, Lachlan. How is it cold there? You know, standing in your wife’s shadow? And believe me, I understand if you’ve heard it before but is it any coincidence that while you and her became tag team champions, the second you two went on your separate ways in the ring she has flourished and become a world champion while you have failed at every turn and spiraled down the drain of mediocrity? But, here you are now away from her in a brand new company hoping and begging for a shot at relevancy. Praying that you can cast aside the label that has been slapped on you. This redemption story, this search for relevance and meaning is just going to end bad for you. So, being the lovely human being I am-”
Kayla pauses as she hears a small snicker from behind her, she turns and looks at Finn, his eyes looking up from the magazine before clearing his throat and taking a sip of his coffee and putting it back down with a shrug.
“Ahem, being the LOVELY FUCKING PERSON I AM, I have decided to give you some advice. Give it up. Walk away. Go home and be a father to those two little girls you adopted and decided to take responsibility for since you wife seems to have made the same choices in men that I did. Go home, be happy, be a house husband and leave the professional wrestling up to people who are actually good at it. But then again, I should be giving that advice to alot of people, including Nathanial Cartwright, a guy whose entire persona and background is...bearded guy from Iceland..”
She pauses for a moment and shakes her head.
“Riveting…”
“I’ll tell you what Nathanial. I still have a little bit of money from actually being good at my job and holding championships everywhere I've been so out of the goodness of my heart I’m going to write you a check, and I want you to take that money, and go buy yourself a personality. A better one than the one you have now, it shouldn’t be that hard so, I guess, what, twenty bucks should cover it?”
“But, hey atleast Nathanial has a chance to surprise us with who and what he is. Xaria doesn’t have that chance and if I’m being honest, Xaria is probably the biggest threat to me in this match. Cause unlike the beta male double pack, Ciela the syphilis girl and Ashley Whitemore, Xaria has a proven track record of success. She’s held championships, she’s been to the top and she had proved that she has the killer instinct to do what needs to be done in this business to get ahead. And just because I know you, just because I respect what you have done in this business doesn’t mean I’m intimidated one bit. Hell you should know who I am and what I’m capable of, you saw me in Hybrid, your boyfriend sure as hell knows who I am and while you spent time being dicked down by the devil himself you have to come to one stark realisation…”
“Evil has a much -prettier face than him and her name is Kayla Richards…”
Finn looks up from his magazine with an impressed nod, Kayla however continues.
“Something the other two should know damn well. It’s rather impressive that Ciela is somehow about to have a name that resembles a mans erectile dysfunction medication while looking like the type of woman who would cause it. Bad hair colour and tattoos that look like they were lifted from a Rob Ross paint by numbers book and slammed on by the finest prison artist. And this is supposed to be the best of the best that agreed to sign to PWE? Honey, you were trash in Kingdom, you’re going to be trash here and like trash I am going to personally dump your ass over the top rope to the floor and watch you keep going, walk your way out of the building and this company so they can sign someone who might actually be a challenge to me..”
“And now, of course we come to the part where I have to talk about Ashley Whitmore since she is the final member of my first match and there are even more people who probably think I may even be “nice” to her since she was trained by Crystal Zdunich and Crystal and I are old friends.”
“It’s just to bad Ashley, that there are no friends in professional wrestling and Crystal should have taught you that.”
“You want to call yourself the perfect score and try and make yourself mean something by signing to PWE but the truth is that riding on Crystals coat tails and name dropping her won’t get you far since Crystals name means a lot less than it used to in this business. And that is coming from me, someone who actually likes Crystal and cares about her. But you being trained by her means nothing and your name means less so I cannot let you get lucky in this match and even get a sniff at the PWE title because the last thing this company needs is someone like you holding it.”
She spits her words like venom before folding her arms over her, ample chest.
“Now, the winner of this match gets to face the winner of match four. And trust me when I say there are names in that match that I recognise as talents and threats the truth is that I am most intimidated by the fucking cat, cause he could give me a stuffy nose and cat scratched itch, but the rest of them are very hit and miss. Much like the rest of the company so I’m not going to sit here and go through the entire field because there is no point. With some notable exceptions, see I am hoping and praying that Ross Hansen or his walking, talking wizard sleeve Chelsea Skye don’t get close to that title because on the one hand we have an alcoholic moron who should be at home taking care of his kid, and we have an idiot who he’s been dating for two weeks who already thinks she should be referring to the kid as her stepson…”
“That isn’t the kind of rampant stupidity we want in the ring, out of the ring or in anyone's personal lives in this company. I see that kind of nonsensical bullshit and I wonder...do wrestlers know how relationships work? I guess not…”
“And then, there’s the final person who actually has my attention…”
“Betsy Granger.”
“See, Betsy and I have a strange past. In this business we seem to constantly be passing each other and never getting to face one another. Yet she and my little sister are friends and we have seen each other. And I heard you Betsy, I heard what you had to say and we both had each others names on our lips and part of me hopes and prays you win both your matches, part of me hopes you will be standing across the ring from me in the final….”
“But, there’s another part of me Betsy that hopes you fail miserably, and I simply do, what Kayla Richards does..”
“Win.”
