January 2nd, 2021 –  1:24PM  –  Not Recording  –  The Springfield Hospital Complex in Sykesville, Maryland

“God, if this place isn’t in the middle of bumfuck nowhere…”

I mutter to myself, looking up at the entrance to the Springfield Psychiatric hospital here in lovely Sykesville, Maryland. Hell, I’d never even remembered Sykesville existed before I got that phone call almost two months ago, yet here I am.

Why the fuck am I here?

I stop at the bottom of the steps, closing my eyes. I know why I’m here. Because good old Lucy Johnson can’t not do the ‘right’ thing. Or maybe it’s out of morbid curiosity because in fact, it would have been so easy – Too easy – to block the hospital’s phone number and move on with my life – Forgetting that this place, or my mother exist.

Actually, now that I think about it, there’s quite a bit I’d love to forget.

“Shit.”

I feel that all too familiar anger bubbling up in my gut and I try to shake it off before I head inside. I came here today trying to let go of everything I feel about well, everything before I go in and see my mother. I didn’t want to come in here already upset – But it’s hard.

It’s so God damned hard.

Joe offered to come with me, and there’s a part of me that thinks I should have taken him up on his offer.  But something told me I needed to come here alone.  Something told me that I needed to do this on my own.  There’s no use in dragging him into yet another situation.  

Whatever the situation is this time around. 

God only knows anymore.

It’s always something with me.  I can’t seemingly live a ‘normal’ life without something or someone coming along to fuck it all up.  The kicker is that the common thread in everything that’s happened over the last few years?  It’s me.  It’s always fucking me.

Finally, I sigh and trudge up the steps – Might as well get this over with so I can get the fuck out of here and process what’s about to happen.

“Lucky me…”

 

“I need to talk to Lucille!”

A soft but insistent voice comes from behind the door to the visitation room I was ushered into shortly after my arrival. A chill runs up my spine, hearing my mother’s voice for the first time since.. How long ago did she kill my father? How long ago did I drop in for the only mothers day that I’d ever come here for?

Long time.

Too long of a time to be still dealing with either of them.

I guess I could have come here sooner, heard what she had to say, and have moved on with my life by now – but I just wanted to try to enjoy the holidays. I just wanted to have a few weeks to myself, just a little time to stop and reflect on myself and what the hell I’m doing with my life.

And then Maggie challenged me to an exhibition match. Yeah, what an exhibition that ended up being. Those few hours in a cold, unforgiving warehouse in Baltimore fucked me up more than I could have ever imagined.

I close my eyes and shake my head. I can’t keep doing this to myself. I’m here to find out what the hell my mother wants. Not worry about anything else. Not now. There’s plenty of time to worry about that. The holidays were fine. Just fucking fine. Joe and I had a nice time and no one noticed my complete lack of interest behind the lipstick painted smile on my face.

“I need to talk to her!”

“I know Christine.. I kn–”

I roll my eyes and lean back in the chair. I’m assuming that they’ve got a reason for keeping her outside instead of just showing her that I’m actually here, but I can’t figure it out for the life of me.

“I WANT TO SEE LUCILLE!”

She shouts as she apparently bangs on the wall, the door – I don’t know. All I do know is that whatever this is.. Whatever she’s gotta talk to me about, it had better be worth the time.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Christine. She’s–”

“HERE?!”

Silence. I can only assume the doctor or the nurse, whoever is escorting her over here, nodded their head in response. Finally, I hear the doorknob turning and I look up to see the face of an exasperated woman first, asking me with her eyes if I’m ready to see my mother.

No, I came all the way down here to listen to you try to talk to a crazy person for ten fucking minutes.

I nod my head and in an instant, the woman is pushed to the side and I see her..

“Lucille..”

I almost can’t respond as I’m too busy taking in the sight of her. From her disheveled hair, to her tattered clothes – Looking to have been bitten at the seams.. Jesus. Upon further inspection, I see scabbed over bite marks on her hands and wrists.

I pull my eyes away as she says my name again and I nod my head.

“Yeah.”

I manage to say, watching her as she enters the room and the woman who escorted her watches for a few moments, making sure my mother sits down before closing the door – leaving us painfully alone.

“You came.”

I shrug my shoulders.

“They wouldn’t stop calling me until I did.”

“They wouldn’t stop… Calling me.”

She repeats, softly rocking in her chair – her eyes shifting away from me and across the room at the wall. I can’t help but think this is going to take all God damned day at this point.

“So.. You wanted to tell me something?”

I finally say, breaking the silence and suddenly making her stop rocking in place, murmuring the same words over and over.

“You wanted to tell me something…”

She repeats again and I can’t stop myself from clenching my fists.

“No.. You wanted to tell me something.”

I reply as nicely as possible while wanting nothing more than to get up and leave, only to ignore any further calls until I get the inevitable voicemail one day telling me that she’s died. It’ll probably be my responsibility to bury her too, I think to myself, eyeing her up with resentment.

The two of them did nothing to take care of Kyra or myself our entire lives, but yep.. Leave it to me to toss their corpses into a deep hole and let them rot. It should be some fucked up kind of catharsis but instead, it’s damned annoying.

Fucks sake.

Again, she mouths my words to herself – Her rocking intensifying until I’ve finally had enough.

“Well, this has been fun. Glad I wasted a day coming down her–”

She reaches out and catches my arm just as I’m beginning to stand up, and for the first time, I finally see something other than madness in her eyes.

“It’s Michael.”

My eyebrows arch. Who in the fuck is Michael?

I open my mouth to ask just that, but she shakes her head.

“He wants you.. Your sister.”

Her eyes begin filling with tears while I stare at her, awestruck.

“Sorry.  So sorry Lucille.”

“Chr– Mom. Who is Michael? What are you sorry for?  What’s–”

She shakes her head violently.

“I.. I’m SORRY.. Michael.. Michael – He’s COMING for Lucille.  He’s COMING for Kyra.”

She begins, reaching up and gripping her hair in her fists – the lucidity I saw in her eyes mere moments ago fading away.

“Mom, mom – Who is Michael? Mom?”

“Mom… Mom…”

She coo’s to herself. I let myself fall back into the chair, staring at her as my heart races. Should I take her seriously? She is here for a reason. But she also needed to speak to me this badly for a reason too. Am I to believe this is just the ramblings of a crazy person or am I to believe there’s someone out there looking for me and Kyra?

“You have something to tell me…”

I shake my head and lean forward, placing my head in my hands. I came here for answers but there are only more questions.  More questions that I don’t know how I’m going to answer.  Jesus, I need to talk to Kyra but what the hell am I going to tell her?  

‘Sorry sis, but our parents are fucking everything up again and now there’s possibly someone looking for us.  Not that we’re hard to find.. But I wouldn’t let anyone know where you live, you know.. Just in case our nutcase mother isn’t making shit up.’

“I have to talk to Lucille before it’s too late!”

I bring my gaze up to see her across the table, looking around the room as if she’s searching for something.  Me, apparently.  

“Mom, I’m right here.”

She turns her attention back to me, her eyes looking me over as if she were trying to remember what I looked like.  Finally, it’s like a light bulb goes off in her brain and her eyes widen. 

“You came.”

I sigh and nod my head.  This isn’t going to go anywhere.  

“Yeah.  I came.”

 

January 9th, 2021 –  8:46PM  –  Recording  –  Homewood Suites by Hilton in Chicago, Illinois

It’s a chilly Chicago night, but Lucy Wylde sits outside nonetheless – her jacket open as she looks out past the camera and out over the city of Chicago, the lights reflecting on her face, creating an eerie glow.

Finally, she looks towards the lens, her eyes almost as cold as the air around her.

“What, is this the three hundredth time that you and I are sharing the ring lately, Konrad? Don’t you wonder why they keep putting us together, whether it be in a team or facing off one on one? I know I am.”

She sighs and rolls her eyes.

“The way I figure it, either they’re trying to get me an easy win, or they’re trying to get you an easy win. It could go either way in my mind. That, or they’re at a loss for what to do with us at the moment, you know with the ’almighty’ Global Challenge going on and all.”

She finishes, an unfamiliar look of bitterness covering her face as she turns her head and glances out over the city once more as she continues.

“I’d wonder why you didn’t enter, but to be fair, I don’t much give a shit. I didn’t enter because quite frankly, I don’t need to dick sling with the rest of em, fighting over who gets some God-forsaken key at the end of it.”

She gives the camera an annoyed look.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure it’s great, and I’m sure the person with the biggest cock will end up triumphant in the end because that’s how things go around here, right?  The best, most deserving fucks always end up on top…”

Another exaggerated sigh as she grabs a bottle of water and takes a sip.

“Anyway.  I’ve said it before, enough times that it puts a bad taste in my mouth each time that I do – That I respect you as a competitor, Konrad. You’ve accomplished some awesome things here. But that’s where it ends. You might know how to wrestle, and hell, people around here might actually believe that you’re an honest to God threat. I don’t know, maybe you are and I’m just staring at you through some ‘ice blue’ glasses… But I don’t get the hype.”

She shrugs her shoulders.

“I just don’t get the fucking hype around you, Konrad. I’ve been where you are, you know? I’ve been the good guy, doing the right thing, no matter the consequences. I’ve been the nice person, smiling in the face of those who’ve slapped me over and over. I’ve been the unbreakable Lucy Wylde, standing up in the face of those who told me I could never lace up their boots, that I couldn’t dream of being as great and mighty as them.”

“Where’d it get me?”

She lets out a humorless chuckle.

“Yeah, Konrad.. Where the fuck did it get me? But wait, before you even bother trying to lift my spirits – Let me tell you what you’re gonna say. Let me know how close I am to the truth, huh?”

She shakes her head and leans in towards the camera.

“Oh, Lucy – You shouldn’t be so down on yourself. Sure, you’ve lost a lot of matches to end out 2020, but you’re still one of the most respected and talented fighters in UGWC. You’re going to get back to the title pictures, I just know it. Blah, blah blah… We all know how it ends, Konrad and it makes most of us want to puke, listening to your sugary sweet bullshit.”

“But that’s not the case is it? Konrad’s starting to embrace his angry side, huh? I saw what you said to Dave and Phrixus. And it kinda shocked me, I’m not gonna lie. Such language, Konrad.. Your mother would be ashamed. Dave Rydell isn’t a piece of shit… He’s THE piece of shit. It’s okay, you’ll get better at expressing yourself – No one gets it right on their first go.”

Lucy rolls her eyes again.

“But you’re trying.  That’s the important part I suppose.  You’re giving it the old college try.  It’s just… Well, it comes off flat.  Boring.  Kinda like everything I see you do.  You’re about as convincing as Donovan is when he’s telling everyone he’s not a fucking joke.   A joke that did what he said he was going to do at Horizons.”

Lucy looks down and clenches her fists. 

“God damnit.”

She pauses for a few moments, staring down at the bottle of water in her hands, no doubt wishing it were something just a bit stronger.  After a little while, she looks back up into the lens and shrugs once more. 

“So what gives me the right to look you right in your eye sockets and tell you that you’re boring, right?  Who the fuck am I?  That’s a good question actually, although I could ask you the same thing, bud.  Who the fuck are you, Konrad Raab?  The brother of Lord Raab, resident ‘Monster’ of Carnage Wrestling.  He who hasn’t won a match in God knows how long yet still acts like he can compete with the rest of the roster on ANY fucking level.”   

She scoffs. 

“Former Cross-Hemisphere Champion, Konrad Raab, who’s looking at himself like he’s not as good as he thought he was after losing the belt.”

“Mr. ‘Afraid of showing any little semblance of anger because people might mistake me for a bad person’ Raab.”  

Lucy raises an eyebrow and smirks. 

“Or are you ‘The Iceman‘…”

She pauses once more, eyeing the camera up as if she’s waiting for a real-time response from her opponent.  She leans back in the chair and crosses her legs and her arms over her chest. 

“Which one is it?  Who ARE you?  Are you the marginally better brother?  Are you Mr. Lack of confidence?  Are you Mr. Afraid of your shadow or are you the fucking Iceman that you claim to be?”

A flash of anger crosses her face as she leans forward. 

“When I hear the name ‘Iceman‘, I certainly don’t think of you, Konrad.  I think of someone with ice in their veins, someone who’s unshakeable, someone who’s cold and calculating.  Someone who everyone here in UGWC should be afraid to fuck with.   You?  You’re just a bitch.  But look whos’ talking right?  She who’s not done anything of note since winning Wrestlestock last year.  I know, I know.  I’m riding awful high on my horse right now, and it would be a damn shame if someone knocked me off of it and sent me crashing into the cold, hard ground of reality.”

For a moment, Lucy’s eyes look like she’s in some far off land as she looks off into the skyline, like she’s thinking about something – Or a few ‘somethings’.  She eventually looks back into the lens, her eyes looking tired, worn out – but the same chilly demeanor remains as she begins speaking again, her voice flat and emotionless. 

“I don’t know, Konrad. I feel like we’re at an empass. You’re trying to stay on your old tired path, worn down into the earth – Trying to still be a decent son of a bitch in these indecent times. Me? I honestly don’t know where I am. I don’t know what I want and I sure as hell don’t know how I’m gonna get there. What I do know is that I might be an ungodly bitch for saying all this shit to you. I might be talking an awful big game for someone who doesn’t have much to show for it lately.. But I take solace in the fact that even on my worst days, I’m still far superior to whatever it is that you are, Konrad – And I’m not leaving Synergy on Monday without beating your ass and starting 2021 off the way 2020 should have ended. And if that means I’ve gotta steamroll your ass in order to do it…”

She pauses for a moment, letting her final words fly out of her mouth like flaming barbs, burning anyone who’d get close enough to hear them.

“So be it.”

With that, the picture fades to black as the sounds of the Chicago streets below continues for a few moments, before they too fade out.