The wire
Have you ever had to do something that went against your moral code? Yet it really was for the good of everyone and everything? Could you look past the personal cost and possible pain associated with the actions? Johanna had been in hell for the last week. A moral question hanging over her head, she had barely slept, her heart stayed down in the pit of her stomach. She paced back and forth looking at her phone over and over again to check the time. Gustav and some of the others said to meet them here.
What she was about to do felt wrong. It was going to help Gustav and herself, it was going to help the investigation but at the same time, this could ruin her father, her families legacy, her family as a whole. All of it could come crashing down. But what else was at stake? Gustavs life, reputation and his daughter. And what's worse, she loved him. She had realised it when she heard his predicament. Her first instinct wasn’t anger, it wasn’t to lash out or even defend her father. It was concern. Concern for him, his daughter and his life. She put him and his feelings over her own, and her fathers.
It was a spark and a lightbulb in her mind knowing how she felt and why.
But was it leading her to do the wrong thing for the right reasons? Or the right thing for the wrong reasons? She didn’t know, and thats what hurt and frustrated her. For years she had always been so sure of everything she had done and everything she wanted to do. But this was different.
She paced back and forth, dressed in black jeans, converse and a black hoodie with the hood pulled up over her head. She waited in the cold, each minute feeling like ten as time slowly went by. She sighed heavily and looked up as she saw lights, a van, it drove slowly down the side ally and came to a stop, Johanna moved down and behind a wall, waiting to see who it was. But, in the front seat she saw him. Gustav. He gave her a small nod and Johanna moved from the alleyway, the door opened and she got in the back to find two young rookies. She was startled as she looked at Gustav with a furrowed brow.
”Why are they here?” She didn’t mean to sound cold or arrogant. But she was just surprised, out of everyone in the office, everyone they worked with, it was two young kids he chose.
Gustav sighed and shook his head driving up and around the corner coming to a stop. ”We needed help with the equipment, and they are too new to have been corrupted.” Johanna sighed heavily and shook her head again. She pulled her hoodie off and lifted her shift letting them tape a wire to her, moving the microphone near her tattoos and pulling the cable down to the battery pack strapped to her lower back. She pulled her shirt down and she sat sadly in the back.”You know what you need to do Jo?”
She groaned and snarled ”I know, doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. She folded her arms over her chest.
”I understand. I’m also very grateful that you’re doing this.” Johanna nodded slowly and gave him a small smile. She understood, she did. But right now she didn’t feel it. They came to a stop outside Johannas parents next door neighbours. ”We’ll be listening….thanks Jo.” The door opened, she smiled weakly and slide out to the sidewalk looking over to her parents home.
She moved around closer. Stopping in front of her parents' front door knocking. It opened and Johannas father raised an eyebrow ”Jo? What are you doing here?”
She stepped in and put her hands in her pockets leaning back against a wall and smiling. ”I just needed to see you Dad.” He shook his head and turned into the living room sitting down. Johanna walked in and smiled putting on a mask. ”How have you been?. He shrugged and started writing down information in a book.
”Well, now I’m back at work it’s stressful.” He sighed and closed the book getting to his feet.
Her heart beat faster, she turned and sat down across from him. ”I could help you with that.” Her father tilted his head. ”You asked me, if I could help. I may have information on Gustav.” His eyes lit up, he leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. ”You still need it?...cause if you don’t...forget I said anything.”
She went to stand up, her father put his hands out. ”Wait...I….I meant it when I asked you for help….Gustav needs to be silenced Jo….” She swallowed hard and sat down. He clasped his hands together. ”I know you have never felt good about this. But, it really is for the good of the force and area Jo. And Gustav is fucking that all up. He needs to be stopped….I have already started with him..”
He slid a piece of paper towards Johanna, she picked it up, a surveillance photo of Gustav and his daughter, a file watermark, her fathers officer number. This was the evidence she needed. She swallowed and put it back down, she needed to take it but had to stay calm. ”What do you need from me?”
”I need you to deliver this photo to him...remind him of what we can accomplish if he would back off…” She bit her lip and nodded. He hand moving over to it sliding it towards her. ”Just show him...then bring it back to me.” Johanna gave him a nod and got to her feet turning to the door. She had what she needed, but could she give it to him?
Such a waste
Johanna opened her eyes, a smile coming across her face as she moved back and forth, excited about her match, her future and actually being booked.
”I’m back bitches.”
It was a simple statement. The smile still on her face as she paced back and forth and her hands in a triangle.
”Did you miss me?. It’s been a while. The last time any of you saw me I had a one on one match with Myra Rivers for the Internet title. I failed. This happens. In life and wrestling sometimes you take a loss and you need to learn from it. I didn’t want to take time off, I didn’t even need to. But the fact is the company decided it needed to happen. I needed to take some time off. So, I did. And the last month I have trained, I have been calm, I have rebuilt. And I can admit, Myra was the better woman that night. She did everything she could and came out victorious. She should be celebrated for that.”
“Celebrated for her accomplishments and accolades. She had been an incredible champion and I wish I could have been good enough to unseat her. I feel like I would have been a great champion and could have kept the standard set.”
“But, now I’m back and SCW seem to be ready to let me fly. To let me grow. Cause right now, I feel like I’ve been handcuffed.”
“All of my past victories. The roulette wins, the mixed tag title ones and me facing and beating former Bombshells champions seem to be forgotten. All of it. And instead I’m looked at as just a name on a list. Just shuffled in with people like Courtney Pierce, Jesse Salco and others. Instead of me being allowed to shine. But that has changed. With this coming Climax Control. I’m back and I’m ready to show you the Johanna Krieger you all deserve and that I deserve. And I get to do it against another former Bombshells champion. Keira Fischer Johnson.”
Johanna smiles, her teeth almost resemble fangs as they shine out from their black lipstick frame.
”What can I say about Keira? The feelgood fairytale story of 2020. In a year that was horrible for most she got to have a bright shiny end to it. She finally got to become the SCW Bombshells champion. Beating my fellow Wolfslair member and three time champion Alicia Lukas. And as that show came to an end and she had her tearful moment in the sun the question was asked, just how high could this new Keira go? How long would her reign be and how many challengers could she put down?”
“Well, the answer was disappointing wasn’t it Keira? In fact the only reason your title reign was that long is because of the break SCW has around the holiday season. All that talk, all that bluster and all that confidence, flushed down the toilet because you couldn’t keep it up.”
“I have been locked in the Chaos of the roulette division, losing a match to a joke in a mask, but you Keira. You lost the Bombshells title to a woman who had fallen even further than you. And when you were presented with an opportunity to make it right, when you had a chance to be in a match to literally insert yourself back into that title picture, well, you turned it down. The queen for a day match was a huge opportunity, one I didn’t even get a look in for, and you turned it down and walked away. Because you’re a quitter Keira. You’re a quitter and you don’t deserve to be looked at as one of the best.”
“You deserve to have your head kicked in.”
She snarls, clearly in anger.
”Women like you set the women's side of professional wrestling back years with your actions or attitude. Not that you aren’t horrible in the ring Keira, because you’re not, you’re, average. And you have been able to rise up above your station, congratulations. But, the focus is never really on your professional wrestling career is it? The problem I have with you is that soon, in a few months, the fact you were a bombshells champion will be forgotten. It will fade away into someone's memory and it will be one of those strange facts people randomly bring up and are met with slow wondering stares before people whip out their smart phones and goggle it.”
“See what most people know you for is your relationship. And I get it, it’s a common complaint and you’ll no doubt roll your eyes and flutter it away with the tired old “So unoriginal” tag. But here’s the problem Keira. You, and your bonehead wife, do not do anything to change it. A look at your promos, segments and social media show us all we need to know.”
“Oh look they’re a same sex couple with a child and they love each other so much but flirt with literally everyone else aren’t they so cute? Oh hey look thot pics and pictures of them together at varying ages despite the fact they haven’t been together for as long as people think….”
“Oh they also wrestle...occasionally…”
“What do people know about me Keira? What do people see when they look at me? They see a woman who has friends in the wrestling business. They have no idea about my personal life, but they know I wrestle for SCW, I’m a member of Wolfslair, I am a two time roulette champion and a mixed tag team champion. They know I’m a wrestler, and one look in the past shows I have beaten your wife one on one, I have beaten other former bombshells champions and I am the future of SCW. That’s what they know, thats what they feel. It has never been about my personal life, it’s about my wrestling life. And the saddest part is, I get why you do it.”
“When your wrestling life is filled with failures like your SCW Bombshells title run, you need to take your wins in other places. But against me Keira, there is no hiding, there is no shuffling the wrestling under the rug in place of family bliss….I’m going to get in the ring with you...and kick your fucking head in.”
