Finale
She didn’t want to do this. Sneak around, spy, it felt dishonest. It felt wrong. But is this something that she needed to do. After everything that has happened, being pushed to watch everything and record everything, being forced to spy on her father, her partner and boyfriend, this is what her life had become. She had done it for so many other reasons but now it was the one simple one. She needed to do it for herself.
Johanna moved along the street, past the familiar bars and clothing shops, past restaurants and cafes. This was her home it was a place that she had always loved and felt safe. Getting into the police force was never just about a family lineage, it was about protecting this place. It was about protecting the people that she had growing up with, the shopkeepers that had always been kind to her when she was a child, the barristers who had learnt how to make her favourite coffee. And as she got older the bar owners who would talk her ear off as she sat there and enjoy the cold beer.
This was her home. And she wanted to make it as safe as possible.
However, the cancer that had buried its way side the city had grown, no amount of medicine could make it shrink, no amount of hard work could kill it and cut it out. It had broken her heart, every night she went to sleep feeling it weighing down on her shoulders and chest. And it was there every morning when she woke up.
Johanna Krieger was a good person.
And she was getting punished for it.
She knew where Frederick was going, he was going to go and see her father. But she didn’t understand why. She had heard him on the phone, describing where to meet and why. Grout in the manila envelope containing the photographs and filed before he left. He thought she was asleep, after a long night she had crashed. But Johanna was a light sleeper. And she followed. Almost as if she had taken the words her father told her when all of this started to heart.
Don’t.Trust. Anyone.
She turned and stopped outside, shaking her head knowing exactly where this was. It was the bar that they hadn’t met him for. We have father threatened him, told him that he needed to get Johanna off the case. It seems that they weren’t very original in their meeting places or what they decided to do. We humans are a creature of habit. And this showed it.
She moved in through the front door, sliding across to the side and moving towards the booth at the back wish you could see them. The hood on her black jacket pulled up over her head she turned and sat at the bar next to them. ”Whiskey, double, no ice” The bartender obliged, put in the small crystal glass in front of her. She turned moving her ear towards her father and Frederick.
”So that’s it then. We use it to get them out of the way. You retire, they go on to run their guns and do their business. I look the other way?” she swallowed, placing her hands on the ball to stop herself from turning around right now. She needed more, she needed exactly what they were doing. ”And Johanna?” at least it seems like you cared.
Her father stopped for a moment, opening his mouth is it to speed but instead taking a little time to get over. Took a sharp breath and move his hands over in front of his place and then on the table. ”Take her with you. She loves you. You love her. Walk away. Transfer. Get her to leave the force. Anything.” her heart burn, pumped blood through her body, it felt like lava moving through her veins. She growled reaching out and grabbing a glass taking the double whiskey down. It didn’t even burn, it didn’t cause her to flinch. That was how angry Johanna was.
She was hoping and praying Frederick would tell her father know. Hoping that he would get up from the table and take the file with him, that they would go about their business and bring everything crashing down around the corrupt and the criminal.
But, that is definitely not what happened.
”I’ll do all I can…:I want to ma-“ decide to put up his hand shaking his head. He didn’t want to hear what Frederick had to say. He took a deep breath and sleep the envelope towards the father, his hand reaching out to snatch it as fast as he could. That was it she had had enough. Her hands raising and slamming down against the bar she turned around flipping the hood back from her face.
Frederick and her father both startled as they looked over at her. Fredricks jaw dropping open, her father keeping his emotions in check. ”This is what we’ve come to? Sneaking? Quitting?” She pushes the words through the teeth, gritting them together while holding her jaw shut.
Her father just stayed quiet. His hand on the file. Frederick moved and slid to his feet. Straight out from the booth right in front of Johanna ”This Is our way out Jo. Our way for a future. A life.” his eyes lit up, as if he actually believed it. ”I love you.”
Johanna swallowed. It dropped straight to her stomach. She closed her eyes and shook her head pulling her hands away as he reached out for her. ”Im done. I’m done with you, I’m done with you….I’m done with all of this. Do whatever the fuck you want.” she turned and moved out of the car. Stomping her feet along the wooden floor as she moved out back to the street. She thought one of them would follow her, one of the more care. But no one dead. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and that is when she knew she had to leave.
The Failed Wolf
”Being a failure is a new feeling to me. And it is one that I do not like. It’s one that is very slowly eating me alive from the inside out.”
Johanna shakes her head and fold her arms over her chest. There is sadness in her eyes and pain in her body language. Even her voice seems to be softer and not as aggressive as it normally is.
”I know what you are all thinking. How exactly can I be a failure? To roulette championship reigns and one mixed tag team championship run with the current world champion as my partner. Wins over some of the best in this company and former world champions. A year and a half of terrorising the women’s division. So, I can understand why many of you would ask how I could be a failure and why I feel this way. But let me explain something to all of you. Something that some of you will never understand because you do not live in the same world with the same rules and expectations.”
“In Wolfslair, we breed world champions. Alex is the current world champion, Austin is a former world champion, Alicia is a three time world champion. And while other members of the gym haven’t been so lucky, like Miles, I am part of the group. I am part of the original for who came into sin city wrestling and have laid waste to its divisions.”
“I started off slow. Teaming with Alex while we destroyed every team put in front of us. Then I broke out on my own and won the roulette championship twice but while I was able to win that championship I never really made my own. You see some people might be content with just winning championships but in Wolfslair we have a motto. Leave a championship better than you found it. It means that you win a championship and you have to be better than the person you want it off. Sometimes, that is easy. Other times? Not so much.”
“But, it is something that we believe in. And I’m not sure I was able to accomplish that with the roulette championship. And since then, all this year, I have been up and down. Winning and losing like I’m on a rollercoaster. And while losses do happen this is simply unacceptable for me.”
She closes her eyes, a moment of reflection and honesty with herself making her heart hurt. This is all she has ever wanted, she just didn’t know it when she was younger.
”It is difficult. Being a part of something great. And it is amazing to me how many people in this company have tried to drag our group and the gym down all out of jealousy. I train with former and current world champions every single day. I watch them reach down to the younger talents and pull them up to that level. I watch as experience to talents have been in this business for much longer than I have reignite their love and passion for professional wrestling through the gym.”
“And I watch people get better I should’ve always realise their potential. Like Sierra Williams who was a failure in sin city wrestling after she and her husband stop teaming together become a world champion.“
“It makes me wonder. Should I leave this company and go somewhere else to try and reignite my passion and become a champion somewhere else? Am I not cut out to be a star in this company?”
“I might have to.”
“Not today though. Not now. Because unfortunately I do have unfinished business here. And I am not a quitter. I am not someone who simply walk away because things get hard and because I face hardship. I am still one of the best talents this company has and I should still be feared but instead of being feared and respected all I get is ridiculous comments and stupidity. Mercedes virus should not have beaten me. I should be the Internet champion right now making that championship mean something but instead I am being forced to sit around and wait for the scraps at this company decides to give me.”
The bass and anger in her voice returns. Her German accent becoming even stronger as she seems to get angrier and angrier and her blood starts to boil. This is the Johanna Krieger that we know.
”And this week’s scrap from the table? Violet Amelia Holt. A name that many people no one have seen in this company for a long time now. But her name that seems to just keep failing and failing and for you everything she does. It’s good for me to at least be able to turn around and know that I am facing someone who has been a big failure than I have through the entire career in this company. Someone that unlike me cannot turn around and have a look at her failures and shortcomings and try and push past them and make herself something greater.”
“Someone who has had one small bright spark on her record when she was also the roulette champion. It’s just too bad that she has never been able to capitalise on it and actually make herself anything more than a trivia question. He small name on a list that most people throw out there when they want to show how dominating they can be.”
“And as I said. She never learns.”
“You were a part of that triple threat match for the roulette championship with Royal purple and Krystal Wolfe. The match that kicked off Krystals incredible title reign.”
She pauses and shakes her head sliding her hands into the front pockets of her tight fitting black jeans.
”You made all of these promises about winning that championship. That you were going to take it and it was going to mean something. But where did that go? Tell me violet where did it go and what has happened? Because right after that, right after you lost instead of stepping back and looking at yourself and your failures and trying to overcome them all you did is run your mouth.”
“You wanted to face candy and after you failed you disappeared. He decided to go on, what was it? A self-imposed vacation? Only to return and spout off the same bullshit you do every single week that you actually have to show up to work. Your ego starts your mouth moving and you can’t stop.”
“Bella beat you, but, I don’t think we are going to hear anything about that are we? Last time you and I faced each other and instead of examining why you lost against me you are just going to mention it and then brush it under the rug like it means nothing.”
“You have not won a singles match in over a year and I’m sure you are sitting there wondering why? It is because of actions like that violet. Because those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it and that is exactly what is going to happen at climax control. History is going to repeat itself, lightning is going to strike twice, and Johanna Krieger is going to destroy violet Amelio halt. I will learn from everything, I will learn from this win as much as I would a loss. And maybe, you’ll take yourself into permanent vacation.”
