October 6
Orlando, Florida
When the call came to his phone, Lachlan was in the middle of a class at the Wolfslair Orlando facility, running through lockup drills with the newest crop of students that had signed up to the training school. It wasn’t until he felt a tap on his ankle and he looked down to see his wife Sierra standing outside the ring with a concerned look on her face and his phone in her hand that he paused the class and exited the ring.
“Everything OK?” he asked, his eyes immediately darting to her stomach.
“With me, fine. But your sister has been blowing up your phone for five minutes straight,” she said, holding it out to him.
One eyebrow cocked over his blue eyes as he took it from her and glanced at the screen. Just as she said, he saw that he had four missed calls and about a dozen texts from his younger sister Alanah. Immediately, his heart started racing and his mind began thinking of every worst-case scenario possible as he tapped the screen and brought the phone up to his ear, walking quickly to one of the back offices with Sierra walking along beside him.
She answered immediately after the first ring. “Lachy, thank God.” She sounded close to tears, and the anxiety rose higher in him.
“Lanah, what’s wrong? Are you OK?”
“It’s…it’s Jack.” She took a shaky breath, and he could hear the crack in her voice as she struggled to hold back her tears. “He got jumped at the Russow Academy…he’s in intensive care right now.”
The blood thundering in his veins turned icy cold in an instant. He was silent, his eyes wide and mouth hanging agape as Sierra gave him a curious look. After a moment, he brought a hand up and ran it down his face, letting out a long, slow breath. “Jesus Christ. What the hell happened?”
A sob that shattered his heart came over the line, and there was nothing more he wished in the world than to be able to hug his baby sister in that moment. “He went to do some training with Levi, but Jesse and Slappy showed up instead. They…it was awful, Lach. What they did to him…” She sniffled as another sob escaped her.
“Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me Slappy did this to him?” He shook his head vehemently. “No, there’s no way…”
“Lach, he’s not the same person anymore. He doesn’t even go by that name anymore. It’s something like Slaps McKill. Jesse has been in his ear, filling his head with so much garbage…I don’t even know why.”
He paced the floor a few times, running his hand through his hair. “Are you safe? Where are the twins? They’re not going to come after you, are they?”
“I don’t think so. The twins are with Mal and Bella right now.” He could hear a voice in the background, and Alanah lowered the phone to answer and he couldn’t hear what was being said. After a moment she came back on the line. “Sorry, that was just the nurse coming to check his vitals. Anyways, I don’t think they’re going to come after any of us. They did this to send some kind of sick, twisted message.”
“Do you need me to come up there? I can get a flight first thing in the morning.”
“No, we’re OK. You’ve got SCW and PWE on your plate right now, not to mention Sierra. I don’t want to distract you from your own life.”
“Alanah, my brother-in-law was just brutally attacked to the point where he is in the ICU. Do you really think my wrestling career is top priority right now?”
“Lachlan, we’re fine,” she insisted. “I just wanted to let you know before you see some of the horrific things Jesse has been saying on Twitter.” Another voice could be heard in the background. “Jack’s starting to wake up. I’ll call you back later, OK?”
“Alright. Keep me updated?”
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you more.” He lowered the phone and tapped the screen to end the call, looking up to see Sierra staring at him expectantly.
“Well, what the hell was all that about?”
“Jack got attacked by Jesse and Slappy, bad enough that he’s in the ICU.”
Sierra’s green eyes widened in shock. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah.” He let out a long breath, resting his hands on his hips. It was quiet for a moment before he let out a yell and swung a fist towards a standing punching bag that was being stored in the empty office, hitting it with enough force that it crashed to the floor.
Startled by his sudden outburst, Sierra was immediately at his side and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Lachy…”
“It never fuckin’ fails. Just when it seems our lives get back to some semblance of normalcy, another round of bullshit rises up. I should be up there. I should be protecting them…What if they do go after Alanah and the twins? Or Mal and Bella?” He ran both hands through his hair, pulling slightly out of frustration. “I feel so helpless down here.”
“I’m sure the situation is more than handled. As much as I love how protective you are of your family, you can’t be everywhere at once.” She rubbed his back soothingly. “You just have to trust that the situation will be dealt with.”
The tension he had been holding in his body melted away as he turned towards his wife, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “You’re right, of course.” He wrapped her in his arms, holding her close to him for a moment. “Thank you for being the voice of reason.”
“It’s what I’m here for.”
—------
The scene opened up inside of a darkened boardroom, with a long wooden table running the length of the room in the centre surrounded on both sides with high back leather armchairs. One chair sat at the head of the table, more ornate than the rest and directly under the lone spotlight that shone down from the ceiling. A door could be heard opening off-screen before it shut softly and a figure moved into the room and sat at the head of the table. With his signature boyish grin gracing his face, Lachlan Kane kicked his feet up to rest on the table as he adjusted his Internet title draped across his shoulder.
“I gotta say, I’m getting used to this winning thing. Been a while since I’ve been on such a hot streak, and right now it feels pretty damn amazing. Makes it feel like everything I’ve gone through in my 10-year career so far has mattered. Back then, when I was just starting out in the business, I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined just where the road would take me. And I couldn’t be happier with the way things have gone.”
A faraway look came into his eyes as he stared at a point just off-camera. “I came from nothing. Dropped out of school at 15 to work and support my family. At 16, I was getting my ass beat in underground fight clubs for extra money. But no matter how many times I got my face bashed or my ribs caved in, I always came back for more. Once I started wrestling at 18, I clawed my way through Europe, Japan and then the US to make my name. And finally, after all the years of paying my dues, taking my lumps and struggling to get ahead…” He looked down fondly at the title draped across his shoulder. “It’s all come together in the best way possible. Not only with this little baby right here, but the friendships I’ve made along the way as well. In my journey to get to this point in my career, I was offered a place in one of the most prestigious groups in wrestling today. And I can honestly say that if it weren’t for their support and encouragement, I probably would not be sitting here as the SCW Internet champion right now.” The fond look faded from his face, replaced with a faint scowl as his eyes hardened. “And that’s why I have a bit of a problem with a certain Alexander Raven who’s decided to take aim at us.”
He dropped his feet to the floor and leaned forward in the chair, pressing his hands to the top of the table. “You think I’m just going to stand by and let you run your mouth about Wolfslair? I have to admit, you certainly do have a set on you. After all, you’ve already been beaten for the Roulette title by Miles - speaking of which, I saw you paying lip service to him afterwards, don’t think you’re being sneaky - and then when you kept on poking the hornet’s nest, you got a taste of the brutality of Austin James Mercer. And believe me, that was just a taste. If he wanted to, he could have ended your entire career just like that.” He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers to emphasize his point. “Just because he can. I’m not entirely convinced he’s not going to try again at some point. If I were you, I’d keep my head on a swivel. Now, I don’t want you to take that as some kind of veiled threat, because it isn’t. I won’t need any assistance from my Wolfslair compatriots to defeat you on Sunday…but I can’t really be held responsible for what they do outside of the bounds of the match, however.” He gave a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
“At the end of the day, all the fancy words you spout off don’t mean jack. This isn’t a debate, and words don’t win matches. Actions do. And I’ve proven time and time and time again that I am one of the most driven, relentless and toughest competitors on this roster. Add to the fact that I now have this shiny piece of hardware, something I’ve been chasing for four years now in this company…well, let’s just say that if I were a betting man, I would not like your odds, Alexander. It took me four years of dedication, sacrifice and good old-fashioned ass-kicking to finally lay claim to my first singles title in SCW. Do you really think I’m about to let some condescending holier-than-thou shitstain with a messiah complex just waltz right in and entertain his delusions of grandeur? By the time I’m done with you on Sunday, you’ll be lucky to remember your own name. The SCW faithful don’t want some pretentious twat that spews nonsensical drivel at them in an attempt to appear ‘enlightened’.” A sinister little smirk came across Lachlan’s face, something slightly out of character for the normally good-tempered Irish fighter. “It’s going to be quite the spectacle when I pull you down off that high horse you ride and stomp you right into the ground.”
He rose up from the chair to a standing position and adjusted the title higher on his shoulder as he glared down the camera lens, his blue eyes flashing with determination and grit. “People can scoff and sneer at this title all they want. They can look down their noses at me, they can think of me as an inferior champion. I couldn’t care less. Because just as I’ve done with all the other titles I’ve held, I will elevate the Internet title to new heights. I will bring prestige and honour to this championship with every successful defense I make. And it starts on Sunday night when I pluck the feathers from the Raven and bring him crashing down.”
He raised his right hand with his index finger and thumb extended, pointing down the camera lens before he turned to exit the boardroom, and as the door closed with a click, the camera cut right to black.
