Date July 9th 2018 / Time Unknown / Status Not Recording
Location Chaos 58 at the Carnage Arena – Baltimore, Maryland

“Jack!”

Between the crowds cheering and the blank look in his eyes, I’m not sure if Jacks hearing anything right now. He’s standing in the middle of the ring, holding James’ head between his legs, ready to hit him with yet another Last Blast. I was hoping that he’d come to his senses as I watched him backstage just a few moments ago, but after watching him take Jeff, Sam, Avenger, and Boy out…

I realized there was no reasoning with him right now.

At least not for them.

I look down for a moment, watching Ceno’s blood dripping from his nose and mouth, soaking into the mat below him. As much as I’d like to personally kill the fucker myself for what he did to me yesterday… I know it’s partially my fault that Jacks in the mindset that he’s in right now. If I wouldn’t have let my anger get the best of me, if I wouldn’t have gone to meet James yesterday, if I wouldn’t have been such a God damned idiot… I wouldn’t be looking up into the cold, blank, expressionless eyes of a man who’s lost it.

“Jack, baby… Put him down.”

Jack turns his head, staring into my eyes. I shake my head as I get closer.

“He’s not worth it, Jack. I’m okay. I’m fine… See?”

I reach out, placing my hand gently on his cheek, ignoring the blood that’s flowing down from above his eye. I run my thumb softly over his cheek.

“Let him go.. Everything is okay.”

Finally, he begins letting James go, letting him fall down to the mat below us. Good. Now I just need to get him out of here. I let go of his face, instead reaching for his arm, trying to pull him towards the ring ropes.

“Come on, baby. Let’s go.”

He doesn’t move right away, which worries me initially – until he once again looks into my eyes. I can’t quite describe what I’m seeing, but I know that whatever he’s feeling is deep. I guess I can only imagine what it feels like to see someone you care about in distress… If I were fighting someone who took my daughter and I had to see her tied up where I couldn’t get to her, I’m guessing I’d be feeling the same set of emotions that Jack is right now.

After a few seconds, he allows me to lead him towards the ropes and he steps through, hopping down to the floor and heading back up the ramp with me in close pursuit. Well, after I stopped and looked back at the carnage Jack left behind in the ring, the centerpiece being an unconscious James Ceno, bleeding all over the place.. Alone.

He may have won the fight.

He may have gotten exactly what he told me he wanted yesterday…

But I’m not sure he’s going to see it as entirely worth is when he finally wakes up. He should be thanking me. If I didn’t come out here, Jack would still be slamming him into the mat over and over… No end in sight. I don’t doubt that. Hell, I don’t even know if Jack realizes what he’s done at this point.

And who knows how he’s going to feel once he calms down and realizes.

We get backstage a few minutes later and I get him to his locker room as quickly as possible, avoiding all the judgemental stares and the under-their-breath mumblings of people who obviously have never lost their shit about anything.

I no longer get Jack through the doorway before I hear an all-too-familiar, and all-too-unwelcome voice echoing down the hall.

“I want to talk to Michaels, NOW!”

I turn around, pulling the locker room door closed behind me just as Jason Bridges storms up to me with steam practically rolling out of his ears. If I weren’t so worried about Jack right now, I’d actually laugh in Jason’s red, bloated face.

“Not possible, Jason.”

“And who the hell do you think you are? Get out of my way..”

He yells in my face, trying to slip past me and grab the doorknob to Jack’s locker room but I’m not about to let him get in there and brow beat an already unstable Jack Michaels. Watching Jack beat Jason’s ass would be pretty amazing, I won’t lie.. But the results of such an assault would be much less so.

I pull his grubby little hand off of the knob and move my body directly in front of him, much to his chagrin.

“It’s still a no, Jason. He needs to chill out before–”

“Before what? Before I fire his ass?”

I shake my head.

“You’re not going to fire him, Jason. He’s too important to Carnage.”

Bridges scoffs and steps away from me momentarily, only to step right back up into my face. I sure hope he’s not honestly thinking that I feel at all threatened by his little show of what I’m guessing he would call manliness, or whatever.

“Too important? Too important? After the stunt he just pulled?! After he attacked his opponent after the match?! After he laid his hands on a referee? Our timekeeper? EMT’s? No, he’s lucky I haven’t called the police to drag his ass out of here!”

No one can deny that Jack made a couple of mistakes here tonight, no one more than himself, I’m sure. Something that Bridges forgets, though is that each one of us.. Referees, the commentators, timekeepers, even the EMT’s.. They know what business they’re in and they know that shit like this happens. Doesn’t make it okay. Doesn’t mean that Jack isn’t gonna have to face the consequences of his actions…

But he’s not going to be facing them right now.

“I’ll talk to them, Jason. But you’re not getting in there. Not right now.”

Bridges stomps his foot.

“You don’t have the authority to keep me out of–”

“I SAID NO, JASON!”

Finally, I raise my voice and step towards him, forcing him to take a step back.

“Leave Jack the FUCK alone for right now! Go back to your fucking office, do whatever you feel like you need to fucking do.. But leave. Us. Alone!”

His eyes widen momentarily before he clenches his jaw, turns and walks away.

“You’re going to pay for that Ms. Johnson.”

I roll my eyes and turn around, opening the door to the locker room.

“Yeah, yeah.. Suck a dick, Jason.”

I say, stepping into the room to see Jack sitting across the room with his head down in his hands. I close the door softly and approach him carefully, unsure of how he’s feeling right now. I lay my hand gently on his back as I move around in front of him, getting down on my knees and looking up at his covered face.

“Hey…”

I whisper, moving my hand up to the side of his head. He doesn’t move right away, but when he does, he looks up into my eyes and I can see pure exhaustion.

“You didn’t have to do that…”

He finally says, sighing deeply. I shrug my shoulders and move in a little closer, moving my hands down in order to take his. I don’t sense any anger coming from him. I feel concern more than anything. Concern for me? That doesn’t make sense.

I chuckle softly.

“Hell, I was worried about you. I didn’t want anything to happen to you out there… I knew there was a chance that I might have gotten myself knocked on my ass, but that wouldn’t be the first time that would have happened either.”

I don’t think I’ve ever been with someone who hasn’t laid their hands on me in some way that wasn’t to show affection so I guess one could say I was almost expecting that to happen when I went out there to get Jack to stop.

“Besides..”

“I couldn’t hurt you like that Kyra, I love you.”

I look up from his hands, mine, and the blood dripping from his face onto both of them – totally taken by surprise by what he just said. My eyes widen, my eyebrows raise and for a moment, I’m absolutely speechless. I pull one of my hands away, tucking my hair behind my ear but before I can Jack reaches out and grabs my hand, a panicked look in his eyes.

“Why are you bleeding? Are you–”

“No, no… You’re bleeding baby… I’m fine.”

He relaxes slightly, giving me the chance to reach behind me and grab a towel off of the other chair, pressing it onto the wound near his eye.

“I guess.. I guess I didn’t notice.”

He says, pulling his hand up to hold the towel there as I get up to find some water while my mind tries to comprehend what he literally just said to me like it was just a passing thing. No big deal. Just hey, I couldn’t hurt you because I love you.

Like that’s it.

Wow.

I turn around and look at him from behind for a few moments, my stomach turning in knots as I think about it. It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve ever heard that before… But it is the first time I’ve ever heard it and it wasn’t accompanied by pain or heartache. The first time that I’ve actually felt that the person saying it wasn’t just saying it out of convenience or pity… But because he really does…

“That’s okay. You were momentarily blinded by my beauty…”

I reply sarcastically as I turn around and reach into the refrigerator, grabbing a bottle of water and bringing it back over to him.

“I was.”

He says so matter of factly as I sit down behind him, rubbing his back while he takes a drink and continues holding that towel over his face. I stay quiet for a little while, letting him calm down and relax before finally speaking up.

“We need to get you to the doctor though, that cut looks pretty deep and I need to go talk to Jeff and Boy, maybe I can–”

He shakes his head, pulling the towel off of his face and turning around to look at me.

“No. I’ll take care of it.”

“I don’t mind.. I did own the place at one point, after all.”

He nods his head but I can tell that he’s not buying what I’m selling.

“I know, but I’m going to take care of it. You worry about your match with Amy Jo coming up and winning that tournament. I’ll take care of the rest.”

 

Date July 10th 2018 / Time 12:19AM / Status Not Recording
Location The Carnage Arena – Baltimore, Maryland

It’s hard to think two weeks into the future, especially when there’s so much going on around you. So much that garners your complete attention, especially when someone you… care about is hurting and in need of your help.

At least I think he needs my help.

I mean, I got him to medical, got him stitched up and got him on his way back to my place.. All before Bridges could intercept us and force me to knock him on his ass just like Jack did to everyone in the arena earlier. And now? I know I should have just left with him, should have made sure he made it there okay but he told me that it was fine and to take care of what I needed to take care of.

But what is that exactly?

I don’t know but I have a bad feeling about something. Something is off, something doesn’t feel right as I walk down the (nearly) empty halls of the Carnage Arena, trying to figure out what I’m going to do in two weeks against Amy Jo.

Finally, I get to my own locker room and I push the door open to find the lights are already on.

“What the..”

My stomach drops in my gut as I step forward carefully, wondering who in the fuck could be in here.. Wondering if Ceno woke up and decided he wanted to fuck with me some more.

“I swear to god.. I’ll finish what Jack started you son of a Bitch…”

All too quickly though, I realize that no one’s in here. I sigh and run my blood stained hands through my hair, trying to let my blood pressure come back down before I pass out. After something happens like the shit that Ceno pulled the other day, it’s hard not to walk around every corner wondering if someone is going to get the best of you again.

It’s not my first rodeo with that after all. The entire thing brings back terrible memories, brings back a terrible time in my life where a stalker ex boyfriend and the threat of being kidnapped were real life things that forced themselves into my life.

I sit down on the bench and shake my head. Fuck no, I’m not thinking about that shit now. Not when I’ve got much bigger fish to fry…

And then it catches my attention.

A small piece of paper with my name written haphazardly on the front. Whomever wrote it must have been in a hurry. I reach out and pick it up, unfolding the note slowly, almost wondering if I even wanted to know what was in it.

I have to leave. Don’t bother trying to find out where.  I’ll find you all if and when the time comes. Bye.

Take care of Jack for me.

Don’t hurt him.

-Amber

Wow.

I fold the paper and shove it into my pocket, wondering if Jack knows… Wondering if he knows that apparently his tag team partner has decided to disappear into thin air without so much as an explanation or a location.

I thought things were going well.

I thought things were actually settling out.

What’s Jack going to do now? How’s he going to take this? Christ… I don’t even know.

I pull out my phone and dial his number, putting the phone to my ear as my stomach begins doing somersaults inside my body.

“Jack?  Something’s happened.  I’ll be home in a few minutes…”

 

Here we are.

The match that I’ve been waiting for.

The match that I’ve been hoping for.

Amy Jo Smyth.

The woman to beat in this tournament, at least from what I’ve heard this go around. Hell, who am I kidding, that’s what I heard last year too, except as we all know.. Last year I didn’t have the privilege of being able to compete.

But then again, last year you and I had our issues too, didn’t we Amy Jo?

I mean it wasn’t anything that would have made the front pages of Newsweek or anything like that, but I know that you and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. I guess that’s what happens when two strong-willed women occupy the same space for any amount of time. To be fair, I’ve always respected you and what you can do inside of that ring.

I’ve always respected your toughness, your tenacity and your will to go on. I watched you go through the Avenger, La Cucaracha and Jason Ingalls last year in the Monarchy of Anarchy Tournament. No easy feat.

I also saw how frustrated and upset you were after you lost to Amber Ryan in the finals.

I guess I would have been upset too if I were you. To get so far, only to miss out on the big prize. I can only guess that that’s why you’re back again this year. Actually, I don’t really have to guess.. You’ve mentioned it on quite a few occasions that ‘you’re here to rectify what happened last year’ or something to that effect, and you’re well on your way to doing just that. Just a few more hurdles to get over before you’re right back where you were last year.. In the finals.. Within reach of that trophy and that title..

The Queen of Anarchy.. Or whatever you’d wanna call yourself.

It’s just… unfortunate that I happen to be one of those ‘hurdles’ that you need to hop before your goal can become a reality.

Now, I could be a total sour-puss and assume that you were so hell-bent on me making it this far in the tournament because you felt like you had the greatest chance of making it past me and getting into the semi-finals. But I don’t think that’s the kind of woman you are. I don’t think so, because that’s not the kind of woman that I am either.

I won’t lie, there was a part of me that wanted to make it this far to face Jay Mora for a spot in the Semifinals, but I honestly feel like that would have been a waste of a match. It had to be this way, Amy Jo. It had to be you and me.

It had to be us. Two of the toughest bitches that Carnage Wrestling has ever seen, going head head in what will most certainly go down in history as one of the most brutal and savage tournament matches that the Carnage Legion has ever been witness to. I come into this match knowing that you and I are going to put one another through hell in order to propel ourselves into one of those final four spots… And I welcome it.

Hell, this shit is what I live for.

And that’s why I cannot let you get past me.

That’s why I’m going to be the one that shows everyone what you’ve already shown them, time and time again… that you can make it, that your will is stronger than just about anyone else on this roster, that you don’t take ‘no’ for an answer… Well that is until I give you no choice. Until I shove ‘no’ down your throat and pin you, one, two, three and show everyone in the crowd, everyone backstage.. Hell, everyone in the entire God damned world that I am that bitch.

That Bitch that shut Amy Jo down before she was ready.

I know that must open a wound that you don’t want reopened. I know that loss to Amber stung big time because she was better than you on that night. She did what you couldn’t and she became the first Monarchy of Anarchy winner. She went on to win the Carnage World title while you went on to lose your Ultraviolent title shot against Lucas Silva. If I were a betting woman, I’d say that even though you went on to win the Carnage World Championship… the loss of the MOA tournament and your subsequent loss to Silva still hurt worse than the jubilation that you must have felt upon beating Amber for that World title a few months later.

I know that’s how I’d feel.

Can never see the good we do, can we? We only focus on our failures. It’s a disease. It’s a problem. It’s something that I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of. It’s always, ’I could have done better.’ or, ’I should have done this, instead of that..’.

Maybe that’s why we wanted to face each other so badly, Amy Jo. Because we know each other. We get each other. Our minds work the same way and our bodies, well they’re just as fucking stubborn as our minds.. If not moreso. But your body isn’t going to be able to tough this one out, Amy Jo. Your mind is going to want to, no, your mind is going to be begging your body to keep going – But I won’t let it.

Not because of anything other than the fact that I want this more than you do.

I’m going to bloody you. I’m going to hurt you. And when it’s all said and done, I’m going to move on and I’m going to do what you couldn’t last year. I’m going to win this entire fucking thing and prove that Kyra Johnson isn’t the fucking loser that everyone has always thought she was.

Don’t think I don’t know what everyone already says about me… I’ve heard it moreover this last year than I ever wanted to.

‘Kyra can’t keep her personal life out of her business life’

‘She’s a loose cannon. She deserved to lose Carnage Wrestling.’

‘She’s incapable of respecting anyone besides herself.’

At the end of the day, I am what I am. Who am I to deny the shit these people have spewed about me? I did let my marital issues get in the way of running Carnage Wrestling. I did let my personal shit lose me this company. I do have issues respecting people who aren’t me. I’m a human fucking being, I’m not perfect.. No matter how much I sit alone at night wishing I was.

So I fully expect you to bring up my past. I fully expect you to call me out on my bullshit Amy Jo, because I’ve called you out on yours. All’s fair in love and war, sweetie and I want you to bring your worst because it’ll feel that much fucking sweeter when I come out on top at Chaos on Monday. I want you to make me relive my past failures, even more than I already do. I want you to make me doubt myself heading into Chaos fifty nine.

Why?

Because that’s the only way I can get stronger. That’s the only way I can show that I’m not the person that I was a year ago. That I’m not the woman who pissed away her dream of owning a wrestling company. Because contrary to popular belief, I’m not that woman anymore. Sure, I fuck up sometimes. I take a couple steps back… who doesn’t?

But I’m about to take a couple of big ass steps forward, Amy Jo and that comes with beating you. That comes with whooping the ass of someone who I’ve watched for a long time, wondering if I would ever have what it takes to beat someone like you… And the more I talk about it, the more I compare you and I.. I realize that I’ve got everything it takes to fuck up your chances of making it to the finals of the tournament and honey, I’m going to make that worst case scenario in your mind a harsh fucking reality.

It’s nothing personal though.

Really, I’d love to be able to shake your hand at the end of this – regardless of the outcome because after beating the fuck out of one another, I feel like it would be the best thing for both of us.. Knowing how badly we both want to make it to the semifinals to face either Magdalena or Harry. But if you’re not feeling it, by the time all things are said and done, I won’t hold it against you because I know disappointment can be a real bitch, huh?

I’d apologize for wishing that disappointment on you but I know deep down in my heart that you’re wishing the very same thing for me come Monday night. It’s just the business we’re in, I get it. Two people can respect one another yet wish for them to fail in the same breath.

Except.. I’m not so much wishing for your failure, Amy Jo, as I am hoping and praying for my own success.

Hope you understand.

See you Monday.

 

OOC: Jack Michaels, Jason Bridges & Amber Ryan used with permission.