February 29
Malone’s Irish Bar
Glasgow, Scotland
Figures I’d come across the one Irish pub in the middle of Scotland, Malachi thought with a laugh to himself. The pub was buzzing with activity, even this early in the afternoon, but he had managed to snag a table near the window. He stared out at the street, drumming his fingers on the tabletop impatiently. Soon, the chime of the door drew his attention, and he looked up to see his younger sister Alanah come through the door. She spotted him almost immediately but instead of heading for him, she walked up to the bar to order herself a drink. Mal noticed the cold glare she gave him, and he sighed. Still mad at me then.
Soon, she was sitting across from him with her glass of red wine, folding her hands together on the table. “You and Bella settled in at the hotel OK?”
“Yeah, got a room with a great view,” he said, taking a drink of his beer. “Things are all good with you and Jack now?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Good. Glad to hear it.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, before Alanah spoke up. “Well, you were the one that wanted to meet up. I can’t imagine it was just to sit in a pub and drink all afternoon.”
Mal gave a half-hearted shrug. “Just feel like we haven’t been spending a lot of time together. Your time seems pretty precious these days, now that Jack’s here in SCW and you’ve been trailing after him like a lovesick puppy.”
She paused mid-sip, giving Mal a pointed look over the rim of her wine glass. “What is your problem?” she demanded, rather harshly. “Why do you hate Jack so much? He’s been trying so hard to get along with you, even after all the stuff you did.”
Mal let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t hate him,” he admitted. “Maybe ‘strongly dislike’ is a better term.”
“Mal…” Alanah said warningly.
“Look, it’s not him I hate...it’s what he’s doing.”
“And what is that, exactly?”
Mal hesitated for a moment, before he reached over and grabbed his sister’s hand. “I just feel…” he paused, letting out a sigh. “I feel like he’s taking you away.”
Alanah blinked her large brown eyes in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Well, after Da died, all three of us were close as could be. Then Lach went off to Japan...and after you came here to go to school, and then you met Jack...” He stared down into his mug, seeing his reflection on the surface of his drink. “I just felt like I got left behind.”
Her face softened as she moved to sit beside him, putting a comforting arm around his shoulders. “Mal, we didn’t leave you behind,” she said. “We just grew up. We went out to live our lives. But no matter what we do, or where we all end up, nothing will ever change the fact that we’re family. Yes, I may be in love with Jack...but a girl will always need her big brothers, no matter what.”
Mal was quiet for a moment, before he grinned a little and put his arm around her, pulling her in tight to his side. “Well, when you put it that way...I suppose I can stay around to annoy you for a while longer.”
Alanah rolled her eyes, but wrapped her arms around him to return the hug.
-------
March 1
New Douglas Park
Hamilton, Scotland
“Come on.”
“Bells-”
“You promised, now get your ass up.”
“But Bells-”
“Malachi. Ass out of that chair. Now.”
With a stifled groan, Malachi raised himself from the chair he had been sitting on, sliding his phone into the pocket of his jeans. Despite the fact he didn’t have a match on this card, he still came over to Scotland to support Bella as she participated in the Blast from the Past tournament. But right now, they were on their way to see Jack Russow, who just won a grueling match against Caleb Storms.
“Pretty sure he’s gonna punch me straight in the face when he sees me,” Mal commented dryly, before a cocky smirk came over his face. “Well, he’ll try, at least.”
Bella stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at him, hands on her hips and an annoyed look on her face. “Look, you need to bury this shit already. Do you not realize what this is doing to poor Alanah?”
That gave Mal pause. “What do you mean?”
“Do you know how many times she’s called me and Mattie crying her eyes out because you and Jack are acting like stubborn assholes? She already had to go through this shit once when you and Lach were at each other’s throats, and it absolutely broke her heart. Do you really want to put her through that again?”
Mal was speechless for a minute, before he let out a defeated sigh and ran a hand down his face. “Fuck, I really have buggered this all up, haven’t I?”
Bella’s face softened, and she took Mal’s hands in hers. “Look, I think we all know by now that you and Jack are never going to be best friends, and we’ve accepted that. But please...at least make an effort to be civil to him? For Alanah’s sake?”
“....alright, fine.”
She smiled and leaned in to give him a kiss. “That’s my man.” They continued down the hallway hand in hand, until they rounded a corner near the gorilla position and spotted Jack and Alanah together. They both had big smiles on their faces as Alanah wiped at Jack’s sweaty brow with a towel in between them exchanging sweet kisses. But when Jack looked up and saw Mal and Bella approaching, his face immediately hardened into a look of pure anger. Alanah noticed this, and turned to greet them with a worried expression on her face.
“Don’t worry, we come in peace,” Bella said, throwing up double peace signs with her hands. “We just wanted to come and congratulate Jack on the win tonight. It was a hell of a match. You were amazing out there. You keep proving just why everyone’s calling you the future of this company.”
Alanah smiled, a bit cautiously, but Jack still had a doubtful look on his face as he eyed them both. Bella looked over at Mal, and promptly swatted him on the arm. Mal jumped and glared at her, but she just glared right back at him until he sighed in defeat.
“Yeah, it was….something,” he muttered under his breath.
Bella cleared her throat pointedly, and Mal rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright, fine!” He looked up at Jack. “It was a….good match,” he finally said through gritted teeth. “Congrats.”
Alanah’s smile reached from ear to ear, and she leaned over to hug him tightly. Jack raised an eyebrow, but gave a short nod of his head.
“How about we all go out after the show?” Alanah suggested. “Grab some drinks, unwind a bit? Goodness knows we deserve it after these last few days!”
Mal gave her a sideways look with his eyes narrowed. “Let’s not push our luck, alright?”
The girls looked at each other, with a shrug and a sigh. “Well, we tried,” Bella admitted.
-----
Friday night
York, England
“Like leading a poor little lamb to the slaughter, isn’t it?”
Reclining in a plush armchair in his hotel room, Malachi smirked arrogantly at the camera. The brash Irishman was dressed in a royal blue button-up shirt, dark pants, and black leather shoes shined to perfection. His steely blue eyes glinted dangerously as he stared down the camera lens in front of him.
“I mean, do you really think I’m going to let some weasel-faced little shit with a rat’s nest growing out of his head waltz on up to the big leagues and make a name for himself at my expense?
Not.
Fucking.
Likely.
I haven’t really decided yet if I want to be merciful and end this charade of a match quickly….or drag it out, make the little shitheel suffer and use him as the example that if you’re even thinking about trying to make the leap from the Underground to the big time...you should really reconsider. Do yourself a favour, and stay down there on the inferior show. You won’t be doing your career any favours by trying to climb the ladder, so you’d be best to play it safe and not cross my path.”
He laced his fingers together in his lap, his face hardening into a look of utter disdain as his lip curled up into a sneer. “Unfortunately, it’s too late for Alex Rush, as he gets the unfortunate lot of facing me, and trust me when I say that he is extremely unfortunate in this. See, I’m in a particularly foul mood this week, and the only thing I’ve found that makes me feel better is beating the absolute holy hell out of whatever poor sod that gets placed across the ring from me at any given time. And you just happen to be the lucky contestant this week. Or unlucky, depending on your view of the situation. I know you make yourself out to be some zany, off-the-wall oddball, and I sincerely don’t know if you use it as some kind of smokescreen to mask your wrestling ability. But I want to make something very, very clear to you.” He leaned forward in the chair, his face going dangerously sinister. “I am not in the habit of suffering fools. I take what I do between those ropes extremely seriously. So if you show up to this match thinking you’re going to have a fuckin’ giggle mate...I will not hesitate to break every single bone in your skinny little body and leave you lying in a bloody, battered heap in the middle of that ring. So if I were you, I would think long and hard about what your strategy is going to be walking into this match on Sunday. Your career...hell, your very livelihood could depend upon it.”
On that cryptic note, Malachi stood up from the chair and abruptly walked out of the shot, as the camera faded out to black.
