Date June 21st 2017 / Time 8:29AM / Status Not Recording
Location The Wylde Residence – Western Maryland

“Well… Wow. What the hell is going on?”

“Like I said, I’ve got a lot of shit going on too…”

“Like what?”

I ask my sister, my own anger stifling a bit as I hear the defeat in her voice.  It’s not like Kyra to give up so easily, especially in an argument.

“Like… The Network bought me out of Carnage Wrestling.”

“What exactly does that mean Kyra?”

I’ve never owned a promotion, nor would I ever want to.  I’ve seen the headaches that Kyra’s put up with over the last year or so – I’ve seen the frustration and the bullshit that everyone has placed upon her shoulders… her husband the biggest culprit of them all.

“It means that as of the next Chaos, I’ll no longer be the owner of Carnage Wrestling.  The network wasn’t very appreciative of the shit I’ve pulled since all this happened with John.”

I sigh and roll my eyes.  Leave it JD to mess everything up for Kyra all over again.  But then again… I guess it wasn’t really all his fault, now was it?  She’s a big girl, with a kid and a family.  She knew what she was doing when she did what she did on their network.  But what her husband did.. it certainly didn’t help.

“Wow.  Does JD know?”

“Of course he knows, Lucy.  I told him after he told me who gave him the drugs.”

My jaw drops.

“He actually told you?”

“He knows better than to keep that from me.”

“Didn’t stop him before.”

“True.  But trust me… He and I have an understanding.  Besides, where’s he at without me?  Honestly.”

I open my mouth to debate that point, but she’s right.  JD Mohr is up shits creek without Kyra.  He strays for a while, he goes off on his own little tangents – but he always ends up back with her.  Those two are destined to do this forever, I feel.

“You make a good point, but what are you guys going to do now that you’re not running Carnage?”

She doesn’t respond right away; maybe she doesn’t know… or maybe she doesn’t want to tell me what their plans are.

“We’ll figure something out.. We always do.”

Her voice sounds strained; like she had to force the words from her lips.

“Are you okay?  You sound upset.”

“Of course I’m upset.  My stupidity got me booted from my own federation.  I could have rejected their offer to buy me out… I could’ve said fuck them and took CW back to the stone age.  No network, no nice paychecks.. but they wouldn’t have been happy.”

“The wrestlers?”

“The fans.  The Wrestlers.  The people who hate me day in and day out.  The people who think that I’m just this selfish bitch who lets her personal life ruin her company.  Yeah, I let what happened with John cloud my judgement a little.  Shit, you showed up to OWF in a mask to take out vengeance on CJ…”

I cringe.

“Not my best moment.”

“Exactly.  But my point is that we all fuck up and now I’ve lost my business.  The business that John gave me.  But I gave it up because Carnage can go further without me, they can go further with the network and the global platform than I could ever take it.  So there it is.”

I’m stunned.  It’s not everyday that I hear Kyra like this.  Clear headed.  Like she’s got some damn sense about her.

“In other words… You’ve grown up.”

“Oh shut the fuck up, will you?”

A laugh erupts from my mouth.

“Oh, nevermind.  Didn’t last long.”

She returns my laugh with a chuckle of her own.

“Besides… I think John and I are going to be moving back to Alabama.”

“I thought you hated that place.”

She sighs.

“I do.  But he loves it.  It’s his home.  He needs to be somewhere where he can keep up his recovery.”

“So are you two…”

“I don’t know.  I wouldn’t go that far yet.  But I am sticking around for Adina.  She deserves to have her father in her life.”

I nod my head in agreement.

“As long as he keeps his head about him, I presume?”

“As long as he doesn’t fuck with me anymore.  Those are our terms.”

With Kyra, that’s honestly as close to reconciliation as anyone can truly expect.  Especially after all the bullshit that JD’s put her though.  It does make me wonder though.. .

“Obviously… But who gave him the drugs?  You said he told you…”

She sucks in a hard breath.

“Oh yeah.. He did.  But I don’t know if I should tell you.”

“What?  Why?  Is it someone I know?”

In my head, I start going through the list of people that I know that could have possibly been stupid enough to supply JD Mohr with Human Growth Hormone.  True, they’re not really drugs.. but after seeing what he did to Kyra in their match a few months ago, they should honestly be classified as such.  My sister is a formidable fighter.  I’ve seen her take shots that I don’t even know if I could take.  I’ve seen her fight a man that she once loved – No, not JD.. but another man – and I’ve seen her rip his knee from the socket with no so much as a thought.  So to see JD manhandle her the way he did back at Carnage Wrestling’s Isolation…

It was mind boggling to say the least.

“Yeah, Luce.”

“Well who?”

She sighs again.

“Matt.”

At first the name doesn’t really ring a bell.  Matt?  Do I really know a Matt?  But then I look up and see CJ walking into the room where I’m sitting… and it dawns on me.

Matt Wylde…. CJ’s brother.  My brother in law….

“Kyra.. You’ve got to be shitting me.”

CJ’s eyes make contact with mine, and immediately his face fills with confusion at my reaction to whatever Kyra is saying.

“I’m not.  That bastard sold JD those drugs.  I can’t believe I just hired him… from CJ’s recommendation alone.  Did you know he was a drug dealer Lucy?”

“N-No.. I didn’t.  I don’t think he did either…”

CJ sits down across from me in his recliner and listens to my reaction intently.  I don’t really know what to make of this.  I never knew that Matt was into such things, and I don’t think CJ would have recommended him to Kyra as an employee if he’d of known that his brother was doing things like that.

“Well… He’s going to get what’s coming to him.”

My eyes widen.

“Kyra… what does that mean?”

“You know damn well what that means, Lucy.  You’re not stupid.  I–“

I hear a cry in the background, and another sigh from Kyra.

“Adina is awake.  I have to go.  If you want to know what happens, then watch Chaos in a few days.”

“Kyra!”

But the only answer I get is the empty sound of a phone that’s not connected anymore.  I close my eyes and toss my phone to the side.  I feel CJ’s eyes on me, I can sense him analyzing me, trying to figure out what’s got me frustrated before he tries to ask me.  I lift my head up and glance over at him, shaking my head.

“Just ask, Ceej.  You’re not going to figure this one out.”

He doesn’t respond right away, just stares into my eyes as I look across the room at him.

“Kyra’s going to do something stupid.”

I nod my head.

“Incredibly stupid.”

“And I–“

I sit up and slide closer to him, resting my elbows on my knees as I lean towards him from the couch.

“Did you know that Matt was a drug dealer?”

There’s a deafening silence between us as we stare into each other’s eyes.  It feels like all the air has been sucked out of this room, as soon as the question left my lips.  He sets his jaw; a telltale sign that he’s angry – and he nods his head.

“You did?  Oh my God CJ… And you got Kyra to hire him… knowing that?!”

“He told me he’d stopped.  He needed to get his life back on track… and I thought going back to something he already knew was good for–“

“Well he didn’t CJ.”

 

Maybe I was wrong about you, Zane. 

It has happened before, and it more than likely will happen again.  As I sit here and think about our upcoming match at Wrestle Stock, I can’t help but to reminisce about what got us to this point.   Our match at Seven Deadly Sins – Where our little ‘Fling’ started.  Where I got a little butt hurt because you targeted my money makers.  Where I took your attacks personally, and I set out on this crusade to teach you a lesson… Didn’t do a very good job, did I?

I mean come on.. We had a match at the next synergy, didn’t we?  Me versus you… to determine the number one contender for the Cross Hemisphere title.  A match I went into fully fucking confident that I was going to give you a lesson in what real skill, real talent… real wrestling looked like.. but you damn well got me again, didn’t you?  You knocked me clear the fuck out of the running to face Gabriel at Massive Melee.  Not only that, but you knocked me out of competition with a nasty knee injury.

Truth be told, I shouldn’t have been fighting you at that next Synergy.  Not after what you did to me at Seven Deadly Sins.  But I was stupid and I let my ego take over.  I didn’t want to admit that you got one over on me, so I opened myself up and let you get another one over on me.

So.  If you’re keeping score at home, Kiddies… that’s 2 for Zane and 0 for Lucy.

You fucked me up good too.  Didn’t you?  I bet you went home and fondled yourself after you fucked that knee up even harder.  Tell me, how’d your cock feel in your hand as you thought about the pain in my face, the tears streaming down my face as you beat my knee with that chair?  I bet it felt silky smooth and hard as a rock.  But after you cleaned yourself up with the nearest sock; I bet you still felt empty.  I bet you still felt like something was missing in your life.

The Cross-Hemisphere Championship.  That’s gotta be what you’re missing.  There’s the missing piece to the Zane Scott puzzle, it was so simple to figure out.

So you went to the Melee.. and much to my surprise, you actually beat Gabriel.  But even more shocking; you didn’t even see me coming.  That’s because you honestly couldn’t comprehend that you’d actually beaten someone was talented as Gabriel Baal.  I think I saw you asking the referee if he was sure that you’d pinned the champion.. I’m just kidding.  Of course you didn’t do that.  You didn’t get the chance, because there I was – reminding you that you always have to keep one eye on the prize, and one eye over your shoulder.

Twice.

It was very rude of me, wasn’t it?  But you see, I had to even the score between us.  It would have ruined this little game if I were to let you get too far ahead of me so early on.

Zane – 2, Lucy – 2.

Scratch that… Zane – 3, Lucy – 2.   Can’t forget that you got me eliminated from the Melee, right?  I mean it was a smart move, Zane.  If you’re going to go anyway, then why not take me with you?  Keep this little ‘unspoken thing’ we’ve got together, going for as long as possible.  I mean this has got to be the most attention that anyone has given you for a very long time.  I really don’t blame you for trying to keep me to yourself.  You’re desperate.

You’re absolutely and utterly desperate for any attention you can get.  I’m sorry that Eden ‘surpassed’ you and left you in the dust.  I say surpassed lightly, because she’s about to be rudely awakened by a certain friend of mine… But that’s a discussion for another day, Darling.  Honestly though, did you really think that Eden would continue to drag you along when her own career had so much more promise than yours?  You’re dead weight to her, Zane – and don’t let her tell you any differently.  Sure you and her worked together in our little tag match the other week.  Sure you guys had fun, it was a great little blast from the past… the former tag champions teaming up one more time for old times sake.  But you see where she is now, right?  She’s not worried about you.  Just like she’s not worried about anyone but herself.

You’re an afterthought.  You were a means to an end, Zane.  Except you both lost.  But you couldn’t handle that now could you?  Right back to the knee you went.  It’s like you’re a CD, stuck on the same song, over and over.   I get it, you’re a sore loser and whether or not you want to admit it… you’re fucking terrified of me.  You’re scared of what I can do in that ring, and you damn well know that if you don’t keep targeting that leg that I’m going to beat you every single fucking time.  You say that it’s smart, you say that you’re a visionary, that you’re always one step ahead of me and that slowing me down and keeping me on the ground was all a part of your master plan.

Some might agree with you.

But they’re just as dumb as you are.

Just admit it, pussy.  Admit that that’s the only possible way that you could have EVER beaten me.

Zane – 4, Lucy – 2. 

 

Date June 21st 2017 / Time 8:51AM / Status Not Recording
Location The Wylde Residence – Western Maryland

“God damnit.”

He replies, running his hand over his head.  This obviously wasn’t the news that CJ was expecting, or the news he wanted to hear at all.

“So you knew.”

“He was getting me the Prednisolone I was taking before I found out that I have Sarcoidosis.”

I clear my throat and pry my eyes away from his face, not wanting him to see the obvious anger that’s building there.

“Let me get this straight, Charles… Your brother was your drug dealer.”

“Oh come on, don’t pull out the ‘Charles’ on me Luce.  That was a long time ago, before you and I got back together.”

I pull a deep breath into my lungs and nod my head.

“You’re right.”

I pause for a moment and look back into his eyes.

“But CJ! Oh my GOD!”

He groans and gets up from the chair, turning away and heading towards the foyer.  But I’m firm on his heels, there’s no way he’s getting out of this conversation right now.  There are things that I need to know.  Things that I need to hear from him.

“You were getting it from him when you still thought you had cancer?”

I walk along behind him as he moves into the kitchen and straight to the cabinet that holds their liquor.  He pulls out a bottle of his favorite rum, Captain Morgan Private Stock and takes a swig directly from the bottle.  No need for shot glasses in this house, apparently.  I hop up on the counter in front of him and motion for the bottle.  He hands it to me and I take a healthy swig myself, closing my eyes as the liquid burns its way down into my stomach.

CJ puts the cap back on the bottle and lays it on the counter beside me before placing his hands down on either side of it.  He sighs and shakes his head.

“It wasn’t my proudest moment, Luce.  Nothing about that time in our relationship was my proudest moment.  I was desperate for some kind of relief, but I was even more desperate to not go see the doctor.  Matt had the hook up and I took advantage of it.”

Part of me wants to smack him upside his head.  Part of me wants to pull him in and hold him.  Neither of us like to think about that time in our lives.  Back when we both thought he was dying, when he pushed me away just so that I wouldn’t have to feel the pain of his death… It all left us both with a lot of regrets, and a lot of lessons learned – not to mention a better understanding of each other.

“Ceej…”

He looks over and up into my eyes.

“Yeah, Luce?”

I lean over and kiss him lightly on the lips, placing my hand on the side of his face.  Now isn’t the time to belittle him or argue with him for the sake of arguing.  He did something, he’s not proud of it.  I’ve done things too in these last few years that I’m not proud of too.  I feel him relax at the touch of my hand and I pull my face away from his, kissing his nose before I speak.

“It’s okay.”

“I should have told Kyra about his past.”

I nod my head, never pulling my hand away from the side of his face.

“You should have, but you can’t beat yourself up about that now.  Your brother is his own person, and the choices were his too.  You can’t place the entirety of blame on yourself.”

“Can’t I?”

“No.  Your brother made a choice, you said he was getting his life together and that he had stopped.  You had no reason to distrust him. But now… he’s…”

My voice trails off as I realize what Kyra was talking about earlier.

“He’s what?”

“He’s gone and done something that’s going to get him hurt…”

I let my hand slide off of the side of his face.

“I never told you this, but that night that I went to meet Shaun for dinner?  JD called me with an emergency, so I canceled my dinner plans and went to find out what was wrong.  JD asked me for a hook up to get HGH.”

Those auburn eyes could’ve shot daggers if they were so equipped.

“So that’s what he was on… and since I know you didn’t give him a ‘hook up’… he found Matt.”

I nod my head.

“And Kyra knows that it was him.”

“And she’s going to hurt him.”

“Are we going to warn him?”

CJ turns and walks towards the back door, looking out at the backyard in the morning light.

“No.  To hell with him.”

 

I bet you’re feeling pretty good about yourself right now, huh?  You’re high as a kite, on top of the world as I recount all of these events, because you come out smelling like a bouquet of roses, don’t you, and I look like a fucking idiot.  Which honestly suits me fine.  Yeah, you got me.  Yeah I’m coming into Wrestle Stock down two points to you Zane… but when we step into that ring together, one on one… those points aren’t going to matter anymore.  You might have won the game to this point, but I’m walking out of Wrestle Stock with my belt.

The belt you costed me at Seven Deadly Sins.

The belt that I should have never lost.

By any means necessary. 

By all means, Zane – bring your chair.  Bring your weapons, because it’s fairly obvious that you can’t beat me without them.  I never used to be a woman who enjoyed the hardcore aspect of our sport.  My sister was always the one who enjoyed bleeding and hurting.  But you’ve brought out a darker side of me, Zane.  I want you to bring anything you think will keep me down.  I want you to hurt me, I want you to bloody me.  Taste my blood, Zane.  Feel my hurt.  Bask in it, I beg you – Because CJ’s done worse to me with a pair of shackles and some chain I can assure you.  And he’s better at it too.

You may beat me up, you might even keep me down.. but you’ll never kill me.  You’ll never kill my spirit or my hatred.

I want you Zane.

I want to be the one who kicks your head off your body.

I want to bathe in your blood as I pin you and take back what is rightfully mine.

I want to be there when you wake up.

I want to lick the tears off of your face after you realize that not only have I taken back the Cross-Hemisphere Championship, but I’ve also taken away your relevancy and your self worth.

Winning that belt made you feel less empty about your pitiful existence.  I can’t really blame you.  It’s just… I don’t need a title belt to justify myself.  But I’m going to take it from you anyway.  Just like I did to Killian and I’m going to love every single solitary second of it.  Just accept your fate, because it’s coming like a freight train, and trust me baby… you ain’t getting out of the way this time.

 

CJ Wylde used with permission.