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Messages - Frankie Holliday

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I suppose people are actually starting to listen to me when I speak.
At least I hope so.

The fact that now I’m being spoken about with a cautious respect is indeed flattering. I’ve heard some of the greats now utter my name as their equal. They understand the threat that I am and I have become in 4 simple matches. There is no dismissing me at this point. Even our champion knows that now. The doubting whispers have quieted and the fearful ones have begun.

Everything I have said I would do, I have done. By hook or by crook. At the end, I have what I earned, and I am going to get what I want very soon.

I wish everything was this easy.

But if you think that I’m not ready to make the tough choices, if I’m not ready for the responsibility of what I’m aiming for, you just haven’t understood my story.

Don’t worry, this is where school is out.

And I made the toughest choice of all.

Let me tell you a story…







Junior year and what I did with my senior year felt like it went by in a flash. I spent almost all of my time with Eddie. Trying to hang out and talk to Eddie. Get him to do stuff. I just needed Eddie around and everything was great.

Mostly because the rest of school wasn’t fun. I almost enjoyed U.S. history, but unfortunately, it was the case I mentioned before. All the good shit is in other books. You miss out on so much because you just have to speed through everything. You’re talking about, in 9 months, trying to do 200 years plus of American history. You just don’t have the time to really learn the important and more interesting stuff. Math will always suck, and English was more of the same “write a report on this book and what you took out of it and it had better match the teacher’s interpretation otherwise you clearly didn’t get it.

 Even Science, the subject I loved the most, took a hit because it was Chemistry my junior year. Chemistry can get fun, but my teacher, Dr. Crews wasn’t a very good teacher. He would read out of the textbook, word for word, and then at the end of a sentence or long paragraph, look up and say “Okay?” as if we all understood what was just said. Maybe some people did actually understand, but I was certainly not one of them. And of course, because high school is about being cool and really this happens after as well, people don’t want to look uncool so after that “Okay?” There was silence. And Dr. Crews took that as a sign that everyone, in fact, understood. When the exact opposite was true. And because nobody wanted to look dumb or uncool, it just went on like this.

My parents of course, never really paid enough attention to actually care about my grades. As long as the school didn’t call to say I wasn’t there or I was failing, they were fine with it. Chemistry I did struggle and ended up with a B+ at the end of the year, but I got through it. But it was so unpleasant to even be there. It felt like a job. A job I really wasn’t interested in doing. I did it because I was supposed to, but it wasn’t the same. I was now more interested in other things.

Mainly Eddie.

Eddie was a year ahead of me, and so I was able to see what the future held, and Physics at least looked interesting. Another U.S. history course, which… again… nothing good. Pre-calculus looked abysmal and I would be more interested in reading Shakespeare for English if it didn’t feel like I had to. More of the same.

When Eddie and I were first dating, we had that weird phase where we had to get to know each other. First dates in high school are some cringe shit. Imagine seeing your Tinder date 5 days a week and you aren’t even getting laid. Just a lot of work. Eddie always had the impish grin and sexy smirk. He tried to play it cool with everything. Again, it was the tattoos. They were everything.

Anyway, Eddie wasn’t book smart, per say. Eddie could do the work, and he most of the time did, but Eddie would fail classes and just do the summer school route to get to the next grade. He really didn’t care. He was interested in school, clearly, but he was interested in me. Maybe as much as I was.

“So, like… what do you like to do?” He asked me when this was happening.

“I don’t know… I like… to read, listen to music, and I like science stuff.” I replied with a shrug. Those were the extent of my hobbies, outside of one other thing.

“You don’t like… watch TV? Or movies?

“I mean… I do, but… you’ll think it’s stupid.” I said, opening myself to the follow up question for no reason. All I had to say there was “yes” and I could have listed movies or shows on TV in 2017, even if I hadn’t watched them.

“No, I won’t. What is it?” He said, holding his hands up in mock surrender. He even crossed his heart to emphasize the point.

“Yes, you will.” I shot back.

“No. I won’t. I promise. You just saw me cross my heart.”

This moment could have made or broken the relationship. I wasn’t really prepared for this to come already, we hadn’t even gotten anywhere and we’d already hit our first hurdle.

“ I like… wrestling.” As soon it escaped my lips it felt like a mistake. It was out there now, hanging nauseously in the air.

Without skipping a beat, Eddie shrugged.

“Cool.”

And just like that, the moment passed. I wasn’t being judged. I… no we got past it. Okay. Cool.

Eddie did not dig deeper into that and then looked at me.

“What kind of music do you like?”

“Oh, like… all kinds. Mostly just rock music.”

“Cool. Who is your favorite band?”

I didn’t have one. The reality was my music knowledge really came from Spencer and he was mostly into ‘80’s and 90’s bands. I only heard some other songs on the radio or in a movie that maybe caught my interest.

“Uh… I don’t know. Stone Sour, I guess.”

“Cool.”

“What do you like to listen to?” I asked, hoping to get off of me and onto him.

“Punk.” He said confidently.

“Oh, you mean like Green Day or The Offspring?”

Eddie looked at me like I had 3 heads. Then he laughed.

“You think that’s punk?” He said, almost incredulous.

“I don’t know, I don’t listen to Punk really.”

“No, no, I will have to have you listen to real punk music.

“Oh, okay.”

As we got closer, Eddie got himself a car. A 2012 Chevy Camaro. Eddie would come and pick me up for school, so I no longer had to ride the bus. He loved working on cars, which is one of the reasons he didn’t care about school. He loved working on cars and did it in his spare time and got a job after finishing school at a garage. He took extra special care of that car. He loved it.

And it was sexy.

Black with red stripes on the hood. It had a soft top and looked even better with the top down. I learned to drive in that car. The only thing that I didn’t like was that it was a stick shift but Eddie was patient and taught me how to drive it. I loved that car, and Eddie promised that when I graduated, if there was one around, he’d fix one up for me.

I had a goal headed into my senior year.

But, that’s when it all fell apart.

When I was 14, Charlie had begun taking an interest in me again. He all of a sudden wanted to be a dad after basically 13 years of nothing. Now he was interested in things I was doing. He didn’t really care, but he pretended to. I had Eddie meet him once and only once, and Charlie wasn’t sober enough to even remember this. He was borderline passed out when I did.

“Dad, this is Eddie, he’s my boyfriend.”

“Pleased to meet you, sir.” Eddie said, extending his hand.

Charlie stared for a long time. He said nothing, he did nothing. It was like he didn’t hear it at all. Eddie kept his hand extended for an embarrassingly long time before retracting it. Charlie finally looked up.

“Just remember to wear a rubber.”

I was mortified. That was my dad. That’s what he said the first time meeting my boyfriend. I was just completely done.

“Uh.. yeah… sure will.” Eddie stumbled out with.

“Let’s go.” I said to Eddie, as Charlie seemed to doze off to sleep.

We walked out and I was apologizing profusely. I had never been so embarrassed in my life. I was nearly in tears.

“Hey, it’s cool. Your dad is… uh… yeah, he’s whatever. It’s not your fault.”

Eddie and I grew closer after that and maybe in some weird way Charlie helped with that. I don’t know. I don’t want to give him too much credit.

But that’s when Charlie began to request I accompany him after work to bars. I was shown off to his co-workers like I was some kind of prize. I didn’t want to be there, but Charlie kept insisting that I needed to mingle with people. I was 14 when it started so being in a bar felt uncomfortable anyway, and then it was a bunch of drunk, lonely men who were now eyeing me like this.

I was 18 now, and it became increasingly uncomfortable because I had known these men who were in their ‘40’s and 50’s and now it was like… they were giving me gifts and hitting on me.

And with Eddie out of school and working full time, there wasn’t a way out of this on my own. I had to endure it and my school work began to suffer as a result. Senior year was a slog because I was exhausted all the time being out til 2am some nights and having school at 7am. I was so smothered and trapped and I just didn’t want to do this anymore.

Eddie finally came back around in April 2018. He would come by occasionally, but he wasn’t going to stop Charlie from doing anything. So I was trapped with him as long as he wanted it to be. But Eddie was the one to finally get me to face my enemy. We sat in his car late one night, and we had that talk.

“Listen, Frankie… It’s been so long since I saw you and I think you… I think you need to get out of that house.” He said, serious as a heart attack.

“What?”

“Listen, Jelly, this is getting out of hand.” He said shaking his head before stroking my cheek.

“I can’t just leave, Eddie.” I shot back.

“Yes. You can. I’m just worried about what might happen to you.”

“I still have so much to do, Eddie. I don’t want to pick up and start over.”

“You should, before you can’t.” He said, staring me dead in the face. “It’s not too early to start over.”

I looked at him and he saw the tears rolling down my face.

“My mom was 18 when she made that mistake. I don’t want to make the same one.”

“This is different, Jelly. You NEED to get out of there. This is toxic.”

This went on for a long time, but the more he talked, the more I listened, and the more I knew he was right. I needed to leave. But how do I do this?

Eddie accompanied me into the house where Charlie was asleep in his chair, several beer cans taking their usual spot around him. My mother was of course asleep upstairs on her pills.

“Dad?” I said.

No response, as usual.

“Sir. I think we need to talk.”

Eddie’s voice was unfamiliar to Charlie, who stirred from sleep, and when his eyes focused, he didn’t recognize Eddie, and in his drunken stupor, didn’t recognize me. He reached down and pulled a pistol from under his chair and aimed it straight at us.

“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

There was a moment, I thought that maybe, just maybe, my dad would snap out of it and see that it was his daughter that he was pointing a gun at...

but he did not. The gun was aimed, shaking and waving back and forth.

“Let me get my stuff and we’ll go.” I whispered. Eddie turned and left the house as I walked away to my room. I grabbed only a few things, like toiletries and a few changes of clothes. I found a few plastic bags and put them in. I grabbed my laptop and other essential electronics, chargers, batteries and the like. I didn’t really know what to pack or bring with me because I wasn’t planning on coming back.

I grabbed what I felt I needed and walked past my mother’s room. I didn’t know what to think of this woman at this point. Or how she would react or even notice. I stood there for a moment, and then… that was it. Charlie was already passed out again and I threw the stuff into the backseat of Eddie’s car. I got it, and I had no choice but to accept it.

“Let’s go” I said, staring straight ahead.

“Alright.”

And just like that… I left the chains of love behind.

And got different ones.




Are we good now?

Any more “Queens” hanging around the roster? Can we move on from that? Please let that be the end of it.
And now we get everyone’s favorite.

Two people having a one on one match soon become a tag team! Yay! Are you excited to see how Kayla and I get along before we fight each other? Do you care? Not really, and it’s against two charity cases to boot. Oh boy!

Fine, if you wish, that’s what will happen. Not that it will matter. We’ve got this match in the bag, folks.

Because I am teaming with the Bombshell’s world champion and she’s better than everybody! That’s right, I’m not worried about anything because Kayla Richards is leading the team! I’m set!

Well aye-aye captain! Why don’t you just go ahead and show me how good of a leader you are. I mean, clearly you don’t need me to do much of anything because you are so good and they are so very bad. This should be a piece of cake with you leading the charge, right? You really shouldn’t need me at all. You’re the best in the world at this stuff, right?

Oh, I’m just fucking with ya, Kayla. I know you probably after hearing that expect me to stand on the apron and not tag in and let you do all the work in some devious attempt to wear you down before Summer XXXtreme. It’s classic, it’s how it would normally go too. I mean, if I was going to do something like that, this is the best opportunity to do it. I could sit on the steps and not even watch. Because I mean, you should be able to handle this by yourself anyway.

But I wouldn’t do that to you. No, no, that’d be too easy. Then you’d have an excuse to fall back on. No, no, I am 100% committed to this team. You and I in this one match are going to make them wish they never retired the bombshell’s tag team titles! That’s how great of a team we can be! I will be there, hand outstretched for the tag should you need me. I mean, you shouldn’t… but if you do, I will be there.

But let’s not act like there’s going be an anchor tied to your ass either.

I know full well you can walk out on me, just as easily as I can walk out on you. But let’s be honest, we both just want to get this match over with, and an unnecessary loss over something like that is conduct unbecoming of a champion and number one contender. We should be better than that. And for those few precious minutes that we have to team, we will be.

But let’s just move on here.

Seleana Zdunich and Diamond Caldwell.

Well let’s just state the obvious here and congratulate both of them for remembering to do their interviews and promos for this match in the first place. I know, first time jitters got me too, but this is kind of our job, so it’s nice to hear from you when the time is at hand.

Well, no, I’d rather not hear from either of you at this point considering that you two are literally connected by Crystal both-of-your-last-names. Think about that for a second ladies. Why are you even still pretending like Crystal gives a flying fuck about either of you?

Especially you, Seleana. Crystal has stomped on your heart right in front of your face and laughed afterwards she’s caused you so much emotional damage. And you, just stand there and take it. I know the feeling of feeling like you should stand up for yourself, but when I needed to, I did it. You on the other hand, continue to drown in your own Crystal related swamp.

And at this point, I’m tired of hearing about it, or seeing it written on your face each and every time you have to come on screen. Why would you continue to do this to yourself? I guess maybe that somewhere deep down, you still “love” her, but it’s pretty clear to me that you need to drop that and move on with your life because your career has suffered the entire time since.

You are such a strange case, because despite being a former Bombshell’s world champion, you are viewed as a joke. I don’t know if we can class you as an underachiever or an overachiever. Because you’ve somehow managed to be both at the same time. Wrestling fans and internet trolls alike are all wondering if you being a world champion is a complete fluke, or a hint of what you are capable of. Of course that was like 3 or 4 years ago and I’m here to render the verdict.

Seleana Zdunich, you’re just… there.

You’re neither over or under achieving. You exist and that’s about as good as you can hope for at this point. Part of me wishes that when I’ve changed everything around here that I could do something with you, but at this point, it’s like a potted plant on the steps. I could keep it, I could remove it, but will anyone actually notice? So many people have tried so hard to get you to do more than you do, and it’s unfortunate the stench of Crystal just permeates through you. No one would want to touch you. She has made you toxic.

And so, you will continue to simply be here. Show up, do your duty and fight for the lost cause of your love life instead of yourself, and you will continue to be just… one of the bombshells hanging on the roster. I don’t know if there’s anything I can really do with you to make you stand out. You had the chance to do that so many times that it’s a waste of my time and frankly your time to even bother.

I would say I’m sorry Seleana, but I can’t be when you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Diamond, you on the other hand, you have potential.

There’s still time for you to also get away from that toxicity. You have the chance before it’s too late. You see what happened two weeks ago, you thought perhaps Crystal would protect you or make your landing in a new place easy. But that didn’t happen, did it? She watched you fall flat on your face right out of the gate and did nothing to help you. The only thing she was concerned with was then getting the name correct for your next huge embarrassing failure.

She’s not coaching you up, preparing you anything is she? And you are married to this woman? Why on earth would you do something so dumb? Was this like a pity thing? You still have the chance to start over, and be your own person, Diamond. You can be a diamond, but hey, you hear your own wife talk don’t you? You hear and see how your own wife is now more concerned with teaming with another person, a champion, instead of you? Why is SHE not in this match, Diamond? Why is your wife not teaming with you?  Why is she sticking you with her baggage? You have seen what Crystal has done to Seleana, so you have to be aware that the same fate awaits you, right?

I just want you to pay attention and understand the obvious. And if you do, and you make the correct move, when I change this place, you will be ready to take the spot that you should have that Crystal is occupying. You know that as long as she’s around, she’s going to put herself first. She’s going to rob you of all your opportunities and throw you to the wolves every chance she gets. You can do yourself and the world a favor and just take her out of the picture, and stand on your own.

You know you want to.

You would instantly be a hero around here. Instantly. You can make that choice, Diamond.

Or, you can choose to be exactly like your partner and suffer greatly for it.

Let’s face it, you’re cannon fodder again this week. If you don’t make the move after this, if you don’t consider this a wake-up call, you’re going to be doomed to the level of mediocrity that Seleana has fallen to and that Crystal has fallen to. She’s going to bring you down with her if you continue to stand with her. You still have the chance to make a true name for yourself, other than Crystal’s “other wife.”

And no, I don’t really care how your relationship works, I just know you clearly have a terrible person as the connection between you.

And this is coming from me. I know I’m a terrible person. I’m actively trying to break up three people in a dead-end relationship. I’ve told people to do some horrible things, said and done horrible things. I am a piece of shit person. But you are married to far worse person.

The only person who doesn’t see it, is you.

So, Seleana and Diamond, I have laid out the truth in front of you both.

You two are just not going to win this match, but there’s at least a good thing, a positive thing you can take from it.

Remove the cancer from your lives and maybe you can enjoy what’s out there.

It’s a pretty easy choice to make if you ask me.

But, I know you won’t listen to me, you think I’m just fucking with you to drive a wedge between you. You think I’m just talking shit to get in your head.

I don’t need to. Not this week, I have the champ on my team. I’m good.

I’m just giving you information. Just telling you the truth. A choice you can make to make your life better.
Everyone else who has failed to listen to me has lost.
it will be much easier if you listen.

Trust me.

2
I told you to believe me.
I told you I would do exactly what I said I would.
I am the Blast From the Past winner.

Boy it’s really quiet all of a sudden. I was a pretender. I wasn’t ready. I was manufactured chaos. I was all bark and no bite. I was just a rookie.

Where did all that noise go?

Because I didn’t just sneak out a win, I didn’t roll someone up from behind, I didn’t steal a pin after someone else did the damage. Oh. no. I dropped Mikah with the Ode to Amber Ryan, and gave Laura the Black River Falls and pinned Laura in the middle of the ring. No excuses, no ifs ands or buts.

And now, I have a date at Summer XXXtreme on a cruise ship. A dance partner for that evening. Kayla Richards.

But, that comes in due time.

Because I have some pointless busy work to do until then.

Just like my high school days.

Oh yes, we’re just getting started on my journey.

Shall I continue?

You’ll love this next part.



The worst part about High school is that it just doesn’t end.

It all starts there. A life-long stigma can be attached to you there. You are judged there, labeled there. And it just keeps going. Long after you graduate or leave school, people remember you. We don’t do middle school or elementary school reunions, we do high school ones. Why? There’s no difference, except for literally pettiness. Do you really care about people from your high school? No. No you don’t.

And why?

Because no matter who you are, or where you went to school, you meet and have to deal with the same like 8 people from high school all through life.

I like to label people.

The One-upper. You know, that person that when you tell a story, they have to top your story for no reason? They always have to do one better?
The Two-face. The ones that smile in your face and the moment you are out of sight, they shit on you to everyone in earshot.
The Brown-noser.
The person who never mentally leaves high school.

The list goes on and on. The names, faces, and sometimes genders of these people swap. But… they never go away. You just become more perceptive of them in high school. They persist throughout your life.

Forget the whole thing with the classes being even worse. Because I don’t know about you, but pre-calculus can suck a dick. And I’m never going to write anything and use feminine lens. Why? Because it’s just busy work. It’s impractical. Useless. All the while, you are dealing with the drama of high school classmates whose brains don’t understand risk/reward. This is why we are fucking lunatics as teenagers.

That's because, by design, the teenage brain is built in such a way that impressing other people is more or less the prime imperative, and when you combine this with the thrill of risk-taking, their brains are flooded with excitement. They literally get high off it. In general, this is a good thing for the continuation of the species since, you know, otherwise kids would never move out of their parents' basements and into the real world full of STDs and paperwork.

Know the right people, get ahead in life. Nothing else, just know them. And occasionally, do something ridiculous to get ahead.

And it just goes on like this. High School never ends.
It’s why I didn’t finish it until I understood that lesson.





When Middle school ended, The school was still in mourning over Spencer. He even got a memorial with his class picture on it outside the school.

I had to walk by it everyday. It sucked to have to look at his smiling face and know that, perhaps I had something to do with why he wasn’t here anymore, but I certainly didn’t need a reminder of it.

From all the stories I read about things on Reddit about terrible high school first days and all these awful things that would happen to a freshman, I expected the worst to hit me and I was going to be bullied and shoved in a locker and have my lunch money taken and stuff like that.

None of it happened.

Nobody cared that I was in the high school building. Nobody even noticed me. Those who were sophomores or higher paid me little to no attention. I did have a bit of a reputation as being smart, or a “nerd” but… this was a charter school that called itself an “Academy of Science” So, pretentiousness was already running pretty rampant here anyway.

No, most days went off without any issues. It was the same people from before who knew me, but now we were in the high school building. I just did the things I always did. As anxious as I was about high school, my freshman year was a breeze. I never really had trouble with any class, other than staying awake because most of the shit was boring.

But I also encountered teachers who really… they really stopped giving a shit. Elementary and middle school had teachers who were bright eyed and bushy-tailed about teaching and helping students and relating to them. The teachers in the high school building really just stopped caring, mostly because, I mean, this is 2015, everybody has a phone and people just up and quit the school because they can make money on Youtube and not have to do anything. Anything you really needed to know, you could just look up anyway.  We’re in the era where “Google that shit” became a rational answer to asking a question.

We destroyed knowledge.

So why would the teachers care?

I got my taste of that when I sat down in my freshman Global history class. My teacher, Ms. Stevens, who shared that fake smile that so many people share. The one where we’re polite to the person we dislike until they are out of earshot. It was snarky. It was sassy.

The bell rang, she closed the door and sat down.

Good afternoon class, this is Global history 1. I’m Ms. Stevens. We’re going to be more in depth on the early civilizations and we’re going to cover a wide range of history across the world.” She had clearly given the speech a time or twenty.

"This course is broken into 10 units. The stone and bronze age, the iron age, post-classical and middle ages, the crusades, the ottoman empire, the ming dynasty, the transformations of Europe, Africa, the pre-1600 US, and global conflict. There will be a unit test at the end covering the important topics.”

The indifference from most hit hard.

“I will be honest with you, the information in this class will only interest a few of you. While it is important, it’s not relevant to most of you. In fact, it would not surprise me if most of you skipped this class. And I honestly wouldn’t blame you.” She said with a shrug.

“You have to pass the class, so I suggest showing up and trying. But, if you skip, it’s no skin off my back.” she added.

There she was, actively encouraging skipping the class like it wasn’t a big deal. But in a way, she was giving everyone the option and telling them the truth. History can be fun, but it isn’t until you get to the holy wars and explorers and how batshit crazy was in medieval times that it gets that way. And it takes a long time to get there.

So, it was a trek through for like 5 months until it got actually interesting.

Math was Algebra and some Geometry. Nobody likes algebra. It just isn’t fun and is just a huge pain in the ass. Nobody enjoys adding and subtracting fucking fractions. The less said about it, the better.

English class suffers the most in the school system. You really don’t get a lot out of it. Book reports, interpreting the same way a teacher interprets it or you are wrong. Everybody reads “To Kill A Mockingbird”, “1984” or “Lord of the Flies”, but there isn’t much in the way of discussion and actively going over the important things and knowing why things happen. It makes us, as people, not want to read.

Even if your school assigns a hilarious and subversive book like Catch-22, it's going to be hard for you to really fall in love with it, because you're not thinking, "Let's check out this book!" You're thinking, "Shit, I have to read three chapters by Wednesday and there's gonna be a quiz about it." School puts reading three chapters of an amazing book in the same mental category of memorizing history dates and trying to crack calculus problems.

And that’s really because school, and high school especially, makes everything feel like you need it. “You don’t need to understand it, you just need to know the answers to this quiz.”

The one saving grace I had was science. Biology was fun. Labs were interesting.

I remember being in Biology and learning about human anatomy and how things evolve and it was super interesting. Labs were always fun, playing with bunsen burners always drew my excitement. I mean, I got to look at bacteria and learn how antibiotics work. I got to learn how to figure out a person’s blood type. The shit was interesting to me. It made me want to learn more.

And then, our lab was dissecting a frog.

Pop culture always has this one, and yes, I did it.

I remember that day well.

My lab partner for all these was a girl named Jennifer Jolie and she was kind of a stoner. She really didn’t contribute much in any way and many times wasn’t even there. But I was there. I was ready for it.

My teacher, Mr. Riley, was quirky. He was older and spent many, many classes talking about his Military service and how he didn’t like it. He was a hippie at heart and hated wearing a dress shirt and tie, but he did it, because that was his job.

“Oh, but the way, I know some of you may be adverse to doing this. So, this is entirely voluntary. There will be another lab next week that will count as this lab. And if you are doing this lab and still want to do the lab next week, it will be extra credit.”

He passed out the frogs in our lab with a smile.

This was one of the days I worked alone. I looked at my frog as we began. Step by step, I cut up that frog and I was maybe enjoying it too much. I wanted to see everything inside of the frog. I wanted to go ahead of the steps. I wanted to just go to town and cut this frog up, but there was a process. I followed along and before I knew it, I was pulling the skin off and cutting through the abdomen and finding all the organs and muscles and it just hooked me.

Little did I know just how much it would be with me in the future.

But yeah, freshman year was a breeze.

Sophomore year was where I encountered my first real hiccup when it came to learning.

Maybe it’s because I don’t like math, but all of a sudden radicals and exponential forms confused me. I could not understand this, and my general disdain for math clearly was affecting how I went about trying to figure it out. It was one of those things that I knew I had to learn, but didn’t want to. But the trouble was annoying.

I went to my teacher, Mr. Hodder after a class.

“I’m just not getting this.” I said, pointing at the paper with the homework questions on it.

Mr. Hodder would assign homework and give you 5 questions. He would then ask at the beginning of class each day if anyone had any questions about any of the problems as he wrote the answers on the chalkboard. Most students would simply take advantage of this and write his answers before handing their homework in. Mr. Hodder appeared to not really care.

“You know, you can just copy my answers.” He said with a completely deadpan reaction.

“Yes, I could, but I don’t learn anything that way.” I answered.

Mr. Hodder looked at me for a second, and then laughed. Like, full out loud belly laugh. He thought I was joking. He stopped after I stared at him in disbelief.

“You know you don’t really need to know this stuff, right?” He said, again dead serious.

I continued to stare at this man who was my teacher, just so done with everything. I walked away and from that moment, I really stopped giving a shit about school outside of science. English was lame, Math sucked, and I found out when it came to History classes that the best shit was in all the books that weren’t my history book.

I became interested in other things, and finally, my hormones really kicked into high gear and I got my boobs to grow. Without my mother being able to help me, I again turned to the internet to figure out the development stages of life. I developed an interest in boys, though as I observed most high school relationships were strained at best and cringe-worthy at worst.

Until I found myself attracted to a boy.

He was tall, but not too tall. He had long hair and tattoos. I think that’s what did it for me, the tattoos. It made him look cool, and dangerous. He was a junior. I was smitten.

His name was Eddie.

The only problem was, Eddie had a girlfriend. Missy Egan. They seemed to be in love and care for each other. I saw them over and over walking the hallways, holding hands, and even kissing. It made me very upset. I don’t know why I was like this, I knew only that this wasn’t going to do. No, this wouldn’t do at all.

I came up with a plan to break them up. I got Missy’s socials, and created multiple fake accounts, all following each other to create a network of people. I created fake screenshots of DM’s displaying Eddie messaging other girls and trying to hook up with them. I sent them to Missy and I backed myself up with all my accounts.

And then they broke up.

Eddie was caught off guard because Missy brought these screenshots to school, and confronted him in front of everyone. Crying and acting hysterical. Eddie got angry, constantly denying the accusations, and they got into a huge fight. Everything went according to plan. Eddie was angry and hurt, and Missy went on slandering his name to everyone, making Eddie a pariah.

And that’s when I made my move.

I found Eddie outside the school at lunch, smoking in a corner where there was no camera. I sat near him as he paid me no mind. I looked over at him and smiled.

“I don’t think you’re a bad guy. I think Missy is crazy.”

He looked at me, unsure if I was serious, but perked up when he say I was.

“Yeah, thanks I guess.”

“I’m Frankie.”

“I’m Eddie.”

I love it when a plan comes together.




You know, I should be on top of the world right now.
But instead, I just feel like this is more busy work.

Victoria Lyons.

I thought this was over and done with?

Why are we still doing this whole “queen” thing?

It’s like a terrible video game where you only have a set amount of archetypes to choose from. Is “Queen” like the default one? Or it is "Crazy"? Why are people still on this? Do you have a crown too Victoria? Jesus Christ, Is this just like some kind of sick joke that I’m just not in on? I don’t understand this. At all.

So, Victoria, you were queen or you are queen and that’s just dumb. You are dumb. I still can't believe that this is a thing still. How many more queens do I have to go through before this just ends? I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointing this is.

This is just like a DLC or something, because you also fancy yourself crazy? You also talk to yourself, and weirdly call your brother “dear brother”. You are just a mis-mash of things hoping that something somewhere makes somebody pay attention to you. But hey, you do you, I guess. Not that it will matter in a few weeks time anyway.

Yes, Victoria, at the end of all this, I’m going to change you too. I will slap you so hard upside the head that maybe the voices will come back in your head, but the only voice you really need to listen to is mine. You do understand that no matter what you have accomplished, or will accomplish, what you represent, is failure. The Lyon’s Den will always just be a group of people, trying to prop up something that doesn’t even deserve to be propped up. You understand that no one really takes the Lyon’s den seriously, right?

I mean, I’ve only been in Sin City Wrestling for like a month, and I have heard so many people mocking the Lyon’s Den, and some of them will even do it to your face. At the end of the day, the Lyon’s Den is a lost cause and if you were smart, you would leave it all behind. You would stand on your own and make your own name instead of trying to build up this failing entity.

The only successful members are you, and Eddie. You two could stand alone and still be the Lyon’s Den, because the rest of them are dragging you down. That’s the real issue. Everything you do, it’s all in the name of the group. But I mean, it looks like nobody else is pulling their weight. This is why you should leave. Get away from that group and maybe, just maybe someone might care. You know that you’re giving these people every opportunity you can, and they have given you zero in Sin City Wrestling. They are taking up space when you are on camera. The focus becomes whatever the hell your brother is talking about because you give him that power. You give him that space.

Too bad he sucks too.

Anyway, You, Victoria, should be able to stand on your own and be somebody. But instead, you’re just… part of the Lyon’s den.

It’s supposed to be all for one and one for all or something, isn’t it? Instead it just feels like it’s you, dragging this failed group as far as you can, and it’s weighing you down. You need to be set free, Victoria.

But if you want to hang around with losers, you will be labeled a loser.

Oh, I know, I know, you are the Roulette champion. You’ve been champion for almost a year! You should be respected! I should respect you!

News flash: I don’t respect many people. Especially if they are standing across from me in the ring and trying to stop me from doing what needs to be done.

But more importantly, that should garner respect. It is an accomplishment worth talking about. It is something you should be proud of and people should be acknowledging. You would be correct in assuming all of those things, because they are true. No one has done what you have done and no one has been able to take that  title off you. You should be a big deal.

But nobody cares.

You’re just the chick in the Lyon’s den who thinks she’s a queen and might be crazy and some other stuff.

Weren’t you supposed to be leading a “new generation” of people and “waking up the masses”? What happened to that? I mean, if you just wanted to win a championship and call that “leading” that leaves a lot to be desired. No one is “waking up” to Lyon's Den, Victoria. They just don’t care.

I mean, I walked into this company a month ago, and beat champions, hall of farmers and legends. I hold victories over 7 people in 3 different matches. I came in and rose straight to the top. I am the winner of the Blast from the Past. In 3 matches, I am further along than you. I have a guaranteed world Bombshell’s championship match at Summer XXXtreme, and you will probably be in some match where you’re dangling over a pool to keep your title, if you still have it by then.

We are not the same, Victoria.

And you know why that is? Because I stand on my own, and you have several anchors tied to your ass dragging you down.

The Lyon’s Den is a joke. You should walk away before you turn into a total caricature of a person.

Which isn't far off from what I’ve seen.

You’re going around thinking you’re a queen and have total authority over people.
You had a throne and everything.
People openly defied this, because they didn’t take you seriously.
And you are… upset about it. Like really mad that someone broke your throne which is a decoration at best.

This is just me, with my own eyes, observing you. Most queens, or kings, if they know what they’re doing, rule with an iron fist. You haven’t. Nobody respects your fictitious authority. No matter how long you have held or will hold the Roulette championship. And they never will.

Now, this is where I could have stepped in and helped you. In fact, I am helping you right now! I’m opening your eyes to the truth. You need to stand alone and ditch the Lyon’s den before it ruins everything more than it has.

Of course, why would you listen to me, right? What do I know?

I could be just filling your head with nonsense to distract you.

But am I?

You seem distracted as it is.

The mere fact that you have some weird obsession with the whole queen thing to the point where you think I’m some kind of mercenary working for Alexandra Callaway is laughable at best. I don’t work for anybody. I wasn’t going to really bother with you, but the fact that you think this way has now changed the whole dynamic. Now I’m actually glad I was picked for this match. Now you aren’t the pointless busy work that I thought. You are now just lucky that this isn’t a championship match. Because I would be taking the Roulette title from you. Alexandra made the match, and made it a street fight, allowing me the freedom to beat you with whatever I see fit. Alexandra just knows I’m going to do so and would very much like to see you in pain, which I find quite humorous.

You see how doing this made you so many enemies, Victoria? And who from the Lyon’s Den is going to help you in this match? None of them. You can say all you want that you don’t need them, because you’re going to “kill my momentum” all by yourself, right?

The truth is… you can’t.

All a win does for you is give you a check mark in a column. It means zero to the overall picture. You can’t take away my championship match with Kayla. You can’t stop anything besides an undefeated record of 3-0. And really, that’s not all that impressive. What I have earned, you cannot take away. But that part is irrelevant anyway, because I'm going to beat you, just like I beat Mikah, Just like I beat Julianna, just like I did Lilith and Laura. You are no different. Another person to move out of the way.

In the grand scheme of things I’m just, really another piece on the table in your game with Alexandra. But I’m not a knight, bishop or rook on this chessboard. I’m just a pawn.

But you see, the pawn can become any piece it wants to be, provided it makes it to the other side of the board. And I’m only a couple of moves away from it. And there’s nothing you can do to stop that. I will make that next move and become a more powerful piece. You just have to watch as it’s done. You're a queen piece and you are in danger. You didn’t see the move that’s going to take you off the board because you were too busy looking to see what you could take.

A classic mistake.

And so, on Sunday, I will make the move and take you off the board. Because that’s how this works, Victoria. You will be removed, no longer a threat to me, and I will leave you to wonder what happened. And the reality is, I’m doing you a favor by doing so. You wanted to lead a new generation and wake up the masses, right? It’s safe to say that you failed at that, and you need to be replaced.

And that’s what I’m here to do.

I’m going to change you, and free you of that burden. You are no longer fit to lead anything. This is my job. It’s my mission. It’s what I’m doing. That’s the truth. I am the leader. You have shown you can’t lead. You are much better off being a follower. And who better to follow than me! I am the future!

I have a plan. I’m changing this whole place and at the end of the day, I will re-shape you and everyone else to how I see fit. You will no longer have to worry about any of it, because it is clearly too much for you to handle. You can’t even be queen correctly. Leading everyone is not the task for you. It will be better this way.

And then I will relieve you of the burden of your group. You can freely leave the Lyon’s Den ship before it sinks, and stand on your own. Because the alternative is not an option you really want to explore. Because it will just make you a victim of repeating history.

Kings and Queens who don’t rule with an iron fist, and ensure they are in charge and have all their bases covered? Eventually, revolution happens and those in authority are deposed. They are overthrown and then exiled. Or… they are executed. Happens all the time. Consider this your show trail, Victoria. You’re already guilty of the crimes committed, and we will all go through the motions, and then… you will be dealt with.

Is that what you want, Victoria? I don’t think it is. You have options. But I know, your pride will cause you to be a fool and try and stop me.

You can’t stop a revolution. You can’t stop evolution.

And Sunday, that point will be made painfully clear to you.

Just think about what I said. Think about what you could be.
Or don’t. And suffer the consequences. I don’t mind a little blood on my hands. It wouldn’t be the first time.

The choice is yours. It’s not hard. It will be better if you just listen.

Trust me.

3
Stockholm, Denmark, and now… Paris.

Not the three places I would have expected to wrestle for my debut, but here we are.

Beating Melissa, Lilith Locke and Julianna DiMaria? Also not on the people I would have expected to face and beat to get to the finals. But here we are.

Beating Mikah and Laura Phoenix to win the whole fucking thing? Unexpected, for sure.

But I am the unknown. I am the unexpected.

I am full of surprises.

Ready for more?

Paris is going to be something else.

I am going to win the blast from the past tournament.

A change is coming, and sacrifices will be made.

But it will all be worth it.



Trust me.





My morning routine had been quite extensive once my mother lost her license. She was relegated to the house, and it made her very claustrophobic. I had to get myself up and ensure my mother was first, alive, and then awake. I ensured she took her Zofolt, the upper to get her day started along with coffee. Without those two things, I don’t know if she could function. All before getting myself ready and at the bus stop on time.

Charlie would occasionally be awake when I left the house. It all depended on if he had some job to do. But no matter what, it was up to me to get myself ready and prepared for school. It became like a job. More like an internship or volunteering thing, because it wasn’t like I was getting paid. The point being that my mother basically became a non-factor in my development. Things were happening to me and I didn’t understand them and there was no one to teach me. But when I think about it, what could my mother teach me? She was plucked away from her life before she understood it either.

So, you know, when blood started coming out of my vagina, it was a strange and scary experience. I mean, I was 13, and now, I’m just bleeding. Luckily, I had the internet to show me what the hell was going on with my body. My mother was in no condition to actually help me. I got through it, but it’s a bit much to bleed for 5 days without explanation.

The point is, I was the head of my house when I was 13. I did these things because they needed to be done, and no one else was going to do them. But when I needed help? There was no person to guide me. Only strangers on the internet.

But rather than fold, I just kept going.

And that made me better than most of the other children.

I spent most of 7th grade really trying to find some method to get revenge on Melissa for something she hadn’t done yet and never would. And all she ever did was be nice to me. I hated it. I hated her. Like, I spent way too much time really thinking about how I didn’t like her. I could have done a number of things, but all of them seemed too risky. Although people fought all the time in middle school. For the smallest, dumbest things. I could’ve just thrown food on her, or something like this. Claimed it was an accident. These were my real thoughts at the time.

Then, I just sort of dropped it, because of a boy.

Not a boyfriend or anything, because middle school relationships are weird. But just… a friend. Kind of.

His name was Spencer. I had art class with him. Spencer was a talented artist. He could draw landscapes like Bob Ross. He could draw people, places, animals, anything he wanted. He was also quiet and rarely said anything. I don’t know why I got this connection, but I felt it. I was just infatuated with him. I wanted to know about him.

Then I saw him in the cafeteria. For some reason, I was nervous and I walked over to where he was sitting. No one else was there, just him. I sat down and Spencer was drawing something and looked up at me. He seemed confused as to why I would be sitting there, but he didn’t say anything. I had my ear buds in and sat there, watching him draw, and eating. He was meticulous in his work. After a few minutes, he looked up again and we made eye contact.

“Hey.” I said, pulling my ear buds out.

It took him a second, but he finally spoke up. “Hey.”

It felt like forever again, but I finally spoke again “I like your drawing. You’re really good at it.”

He just nodded. I figured that was the end of the conversation, but he looked back at me, and gestured to my phone.

“What are you listening to?” He asked.

“Oh, just some music.” I said. Yeah, of course I was. That was a stupid answer.

“I know. What music?”

“Oh. Um… Stone Sour.” I finally came back.

“Cool.” He answered, before returning to his drawing.

And that was the end of the conversation.

It went on for a few days, I would come and sit with him, he was always alone and always drawing. But gradually, we started having longer conversations. But the ice was broken and we both saw that the one wasn’t out to get the other.

There was a point where we both ended up staying after school. It was late, so Charlie, if he wasn’t hammered by then, would have to pick me up. But I would have to wait. Spencer saw me and we sat on this little school bench.

“Why did you stay after school?” he asked, sitting down

“I had an extra science lab I volunteered to do.” I said.

“Oh.” He replied. Then a beat. “Do you like it here?”

“I… guess.” I said, not really knowing how to answer the question.

“I hate it here.” He said sharply. “Everybody just sucks.”

“Yeah, some people are really shitty.”

“You mean you like the people too?” He questioned.

“I mean, they aren’t all bad.”

“There has to be someone you don’t like.” He said, now genuinely curious.

“I.. I don’t like Melissa.” I answered.

“Really? Why?”

“ I… I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I just… don’t like her. That’s really it. What about you? You said you don’t like anybody.”

“Because they pick on me.” He said. His tone was lowering and sounding morose.

“Oh. Yeah, that sucks.”

“Does Melissa pick on you?”

“No. She’s actually really nice.” I answered with a shrug.

“Then, why do you hate her?” He was extremely confused.

“I don’t know. I just do.”

“Oh.”

He pulled out his sketch pad and started doodling.

“You said everybody sucks. Do… do I suck?” I asked.

He looked up at me and shrugged.

“No. I think you’re cool, actually. You don’t judge me.”

The reason why anybody judged Spencer was because he looked like he rolled out of bed with his clothes on everyday. He wore glasses and ratty shoes. When we were sharing our miserable life stories, he told me his parents were divorced and  his mom was on disability. He wasn’t really poor but he wasn’t doing well from that standpoint. He also had pretty bad acne when I met him. But he was in a pretty shitty situation, just like me.

I felt a sense of pride that Spencer didn’t think I sucked. We had a pretty nice thing going from art class and lunch. We would talk all the time and eventually, I found out that Spencer only lived like a mile away from me. So, we started foregoing the bus and walking home together. We didn’t really talk unless we were alone, or at lunch. In which, nobody sat with us anyway, so we could talk about anything.

We started talking about music, pop culture, and the music we liked. We stopped walking one day and he pulled out a big black booklet from his backpack. It contained CD’s which I thought weren’t even a thing anymore. Any music I found was on the internet.

We found a bench and he handed me the booklet.

“This is the music I like.” He said, pretty proud of himself.

Most of the music was older than I was. Stuff from the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. Some early 2000’s stuff was there too. I pulled out my phone and used the notes feature to write the names of bands and songs that Spencer found to be good. As he had often critiqued my music style.

“I will give some of these a listen.” I said.

“Cool. I know you will like it.” He said, still very proud of himself.

I went home, and began searching up the bands, firing up youtube and my eyes were opened to so many actually good bands and songs. The only real music was what my mom listened to on the radio when she would sit and read. But all of a sudden, I was hearing Nirvana, Alice in Chains, & The Smashing Pumpkins. But also Metallica, Anthrax, Pantera & Cannibal Corpse. Like my mind exploded with these new avenues of music.

I began listening and getting as much as I could. And things progressed and Spencer and I were talking music, movies and art all the time. It… it was nice.

In 8th grade, Spencer was in some of my main classes, but we kept our little secret of not talking to each other in front of people. We both went about our business until we were alone.

But then, something else started to happen, where people started just… talking to me after a couple of years of saying nothing. I was still killing classes and tests, even though it was just getting less and less interesting except for science, which started to talk about life sciences and physical sciences, and that was interesting to me. But the kids started talking to me, asking me things, being friendly to me. People genuinely started to like me.

At first I didn’t know how to take it. It felt weird and sudden that these kids, who were popular, all of sudden found me interesting enough to talk to and hang out with. I was just included in conversations before school and in the hallways. I had forgotten all about not liking Melissa because she wasn’t around and these new kids were and they seemed to raise me up on some kind of pedestal.

Suddenly I was popular.

And I liked it.

They needed me. They relied on me. I was like a god-king to them because I was so intelligent. My superiority complex reared its head again and I was on top of the world.

Spencer was not so fortunate.

I was spending less and less time with him, but we still walked home together. But I could tell he was distant. It wasn’t the same as it once was. I had to say something.

“You got any new… or… old music still? Do you have that booklet?”

He stopped, and stared at me.

“No.”

“Oh. Okay.”

We kept walking and I didn’t know what to say to him. He was obviously mad that I wasn’t talking to him as much. I realized that how upset he was and I needed to say something to smooth things over, but what?

“So…” I started “Do you need any help with the homework and stuff?”

“No.”

Again. Sharp, and cold.

“I bet your other friends do though!” He said with another sharp bite.

“You are my friend too though, Spencer.” I said, trying to think of something.

“Yeah, but you like them more than me, Frankie! You are always talking to them and not me!” 

He was right, but our thing was different.

“We never talk in class, we always talk at lunch or like we are now though. That’s our thing.”

He stopped again, looking at me and trying to still be mad at me. But I was right, this was our thing. I talked to him at lunch, and I talked to him walking home, but we rarely if ever spoke in class. But the truth was, even lunch wasn’t the same, I had to almost find an excuse to go and sit with him, as he was almost always alone at his table. And even then, it was only for a few minutes. It wasn’t fair to him. I know that now.

But middle school is a confusing time for us all, and my confusion led to a choice.

Spencer would get picked on, but he usually just moved on and ignored it. But there was a day that it persisted. I had finished gym and was headed to our last class of the day, Science. I was with some of my other classmates who were asking me about the upcoming test and how to do certain math problems, But there was a commotion and there were a large number of kids all crowded around a spot. I walked towards it, the others not really wanting to get close, parted ways with me.

And there he was.

Spencer was on the ground, kids were laughing and three boys were keeping him there. Shouting at him that he was a loser and had no friends. He looked around and he spotted me. I had been looking long enough to know it was him, but I turned away before he saw me. 

“FRANKIE!”

He shouted at the top of his lungs. He screamed it as loud as humanly possible.

It felt like all the heads and eyes turned to me at that point. I could feel them. I had to make a choice.

I acted like I didn’t hear it, and when someone asked if I heard it, I said no. I acted like I couldn't hear through my ear buds.

I marched right out of his sight, ignoring his cries for help.

Sacrifices have to be made when you are a leader.

He confronted me after school on our walk home. I acted shocked and surprised when I saw his face and how torn his clothes were.

“What happened?”

“You saw it! I saw you!” He said, pointing his finger, extremely angry.

“What? Where? I didn’t see anything happen to you. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I lied.

“I. SAW. YOU.”

“I’m telling you Spencer, I didn’t see you. If I did I would have helped.”

“I YELLED YOUR NAME!”

“I didn’t hear you. I must have had my earbuds in maybe. I swear, I don’t know what happened!”

Spencer was silent as we walked home. His pace was far quicker than mine. I nearly had to run to keep up with him. When we reached the spot we would normally split and say good-bye, he just turned. He power walked away, and I sighed and continued on my way home.

Then, after a few days of silence and not talking at all despite my efforts to continue as if nothing happened…

Spencer stopped coming to school. I had his number and I texted him, but the messages remained on sent.

Then we all got the news that Spencer was reported missing. And after 3 weeks, they found him.

Spencer had taken his own life in the woods near his home.

The police interviewed me after they searched his home and found his sketch pad. He drew a number of drawings, and some were of me. He regarded me as a friend. I was his only friend. He wrote it in a journal. He very much enjoyed that I didn’t judge him, and I was there. Because he didn’t have anybody else. Until that day. Though he never mentioned it in his journal. Perhaps he accepted my excuse of not seeing him.

I don’t know, and I’ll never know now.

All I could do was move on.




I must ask this question of you Mikah.
 Actually, several.

Did you really buy yourself a crown?
Did you really put that crown on your head like you were a queen or deserving of wearing a crown?
Did you think this was a cool thing? Like a physical metaphor?
Did you not think that was silly?
Do you use that crown for other things? Is it like a costume party thing?

I mean, obviously you thought it was cool, and made you look like a badass. You’re the queen! You wear the crown because nobody else can wear it!

That is… really the most insecure thing I may have ever seen.

I just want you to stop and think for a second and understand that you went out of your way to buy a crown to wear to talk to people. Like, you really did that. You are really trying to live up to how good you think you are when you know it’s not true. I respect the determination to go with the whole “If I say if enough, people will believe me” thing. Right on.

You piss and moan about being forgotten one week, and then the next you throw on an actual crown like you, after beating Cassie Wolf mind you, have accomplished the goal of being back. How does that work? What makes a person worthy of wearing a crown? You clearly don’t have any royal blood in you, and hold no authority. So, it was symbolism, but again, there just aren’t many people who put you in the list of great bombshells, and even less that would put you at top. In fact, the only person who would, is you.

I for one, was howling with laughter when you put that thing on your head. “I’m the queen, I’m the mountain. I am the crown”  It was a laugh riot to hear you exclaim these things and be so confidently wrong. And what’s even more hilarious is that you don’t even believe the words when you say them. You put an actual crown on your head and said out loud you were the crown. You know that’s so stupid, right? But that’s right, you didn’t come back to chase glory, even though that’s… literally what you are doing, but no, you came back to dominate!

I understand you have to convince yourself of that, and you need a very wide and loose definition of “dominate” in order to do so. You just aren't convincing, Mikah.

If you were truly secure in your legacy, truly able to let it stand on its own, you wouldn’t need to be entering this tournament in the first place. You want to make people your name because you get pushed aside because, let’s face it, others have more important, and more impressive legacies than you do. And we know this, because you keep calling Amber Ryan back to team with you. You really want to just rub elbows with people who outclassed you. T

If Amber Ryan did as you have practically begged her to do, and returned to Sin City Wrestling, what on earth would she need you for? Why would she team with you? There’s no Bombshell’s tag titles anymore, so what’s the point of teaming with you? She can easily win any title she wants. Having you there makes little to no difference. You would be entirely useless to her if she came back.

Amber Ryan does not need you. You need her.

Besides, she likes me more than you, anyway.

She would get no benefit from propping you up, and dragging you along in this nostalgia act. Why do you think she just humors you by politely telling you she’s busy but she’s watching. It’s like you are a child who needs the approval of their mother. Yes Mikah, she’s watching you, you slide down that slide! Good for you!

Wait… do you… do you really think Amber is your friend? Wait… no seriously, you want to have a friend?! Oh my god that’s so precious! Mikah needs a friend. Holy shit.

This fits you a “T” anyway. A desperate, attention whore, who is all “I don’t need anybody’s approval and I’m a bad bitch…” And so on so forth, you know, you say these things all the time. Yet, you continue to need Mark Ward’s approval. You need Amber’s approval. You need Simon Jones’s approval. I mean, you sat there and tried to say that everybody’s attention was on you when it was announced that you were participating in this tournament. But if this were true, you wouldn’t need to reserve your name. This would be something like I would do. I did that, in fact. Because who the hell would know or care about me? You are Mikah, right? You’re supposed to be able to come in and dominate. I mean, if you were that badass, everybody would have just flaked out and canceled and you would have been the automatic winner. But… they didn’t. You hid your entry to try and draw interest when your name was called.

I certainly didn’t see anybody go “Oh no, Mikah is in this!”  It was more “Oh, Mikah’s in this? I thought she was retired?”

No one is afraid of you, or your name anymore. If this was 2016? Maybe. But no matter how bad you want it, it’s just not happening anymore.

On the contrary, it is you, who doesn’t seem to know me. It is you who is afraid of me.

I would assume this is why you threw out wild random ass accusations hoping that one sticks.

I am afraid of you?
I am seeking redemption?
I want to go viral?

What are you even blathering about? Why would I be afraid of you? I’ve studied you for a long time, I have no reason to fear you. You wore a crown on camera like it meant something. Stop it.

Also, I can assure you, I don’t ask, or seek redemption. I am terrible and I know that, and I embrace that. Trust me, you will find that out very soon.

I want to go viral? I don’t even know what you’re on about. I tweet some things I find entertaining for fucks sake, I guess I’m wrong for that?

No, Mikah, I don’t think you know me at all.

So when this is all over, and you lose, I will remind you that this will be your biggest failure. You’re Mikah, you’re supposed to dominate and be the end all be all and that happy horseshit, but at the end of this, you will be an “also took part.” You will be another name I came straight out of the gate and beat. I will be at the top, right away, and I will have the right to say I beat Mikah and exposed her for the fraud she really is. I will snatch her stupid crown from her hands, and I will toss it away.

No, Mikah, I don’t seek redemption.

I seek revolution.

And for any revolution to work, sacrifices have to be made. And you will be one of them.

I am the future.

And I will make you believe.

Trust me.

Moving on to Laura…

Laura, I just want you to understand that this isn’t personal.

It probably felt that way since, you know, I said what I said about Bella and all, but it’s not personal. I don’t really care if you hate my guts now because I said those things, what matters is I am after a prize, and you stand in my way. And I don’t intend on losing to you or Mikah as part of a feel-good storybook ending for you, or whatever Mikah wants to call her nostalgia run. This isn’t about you, or her. It’s about me.

I was simply demonstrating that I will go to any depths, and say the things I need to say to ensure I get the best out of you. And right now, you’re kind of failing in that department. I need you focused, I need you motivated, because I don’t want any excuses from either of you when I win. I want you at your best, because I want you to realize that even at your best, it wasn’t good enough.

The things I said about you and Bella? They were the truth, and I hope they upset you. I hoped they made you mad. I wanted to start a fire in you, I want it to consume you. And just to plant a little bit of fear in you. Because when that fear grows, when it takes hold, I’ll know it. I’ll look into your eyes and then when you look back at me, you will know that I know.

Because I want to think about something here, Laura: If I am willing to slag you, your legacy, and your family, just to get a rise out of you, what am I willing to do in order to beat you in the ring? That’s the truly scary part, isn’t it? You don’t know. And you’ll always fear what you don’t know. The unknown. And truthfully, I don’t even know. And that’s half the fun of this Laura. I just want you to know, I’m willing to stoop to depths that are pretty goddamn low. 

Because I have a job to do. A mission to accomplish. And it means beating you and beating Mikah. You two have to be the sacrifices, so that the goal can be reached. The only good part for you, is that once this is over, you don’t have to take part in what’s coming. You and Mikah can stay on the sidelines and watch. And breathe a sigh of relief that it’s where you are, and it’s where you’re going to stay.

The same cannot be said for your daughter, but that’s just how this has to work.

I know you may be worried or nervous about my takeover, but trust me, it’s for the best. I am remaking this company in my image and you, and Mikah are the last couple of pawns that need to be sacrificed. It’s just that simple. Had you not decided for one last run and really, not decided to try and call me “kid” and give me the verbal condescending pat on the back you did, this wouldn’t be happening to you.

You will just have to live with the fact that you helped cause all this.

But again, you could have been anybody. Had you not beaten Sam Marlowe, this would have been the same speech I gave here. Because you both are interchangeable. You and Mikah are just different sides of the same coin, the only difference really is the fact that she’s living in denial and you have accepted this as one last run.

But the run is over in Paris.

It all comes to crashing down and it ends in utter failure. But hey, you had fun right? You enjoyed that last look in the spotlight. I know, you’ll want to deny it, but that’s the first step, you know? You didn’t know what would happen. Now you’re feeling guilt, which you certainly should feel. And then we hit anger and bargaining. Depression and loneliness, so on and so forth.

I am going to cure your addiction to the spotlight and ensure that you do not want to come back. Then you can sit at home, and enjoy life. I will take good care of Bella, you don’t need to worry about that. Just understand that you could have prevented this, but you weren’t strong enough. Your time is over, and my time is now.

This is a revolution Laura, and when the old stand in the way of the future, they have to be removed from the picture. You standing across from me, is the worst place you can be, because as the leader of this revolution, I will have to personally see to it that you aren’t in the way anymore. I don’t want to hear the argument in Paris, Laura. It’s too late now. You had a chance to not be the example, but you chose to enter this tournament. You made a mistake, and for that, you have to be punished. I don’t make the rules.

I mean, I will eventually, but at this moment I do not. So I’m following the rules set forth. You have to be put down, and if necessary, I will make you stay down. It’s not that I want to do that to you, Laura, but you’re making me do this. You’re making this harder on me then it should be. All you have to do is stay down Laura, I’m giving you the option right here and now. It’s not hard, don’t make it hard.

But, then again, I know you will do the opposite. Older generations always go for the hardest path. “Builds character” they say. The reality is, it’s a losing battle and you’re not built for it. But yet, you will try. I know you will. You would rather die on your shield as they say, rather than do things the easiest and least painful way. Fine, I can’t stop you, but I want you to remember this whole thing when it’s over.

I want you to remember that I gave you the chance and opportunity to do the right thing. So, when it’s all said and done, and you lose, it will be all your fault. You will have no one to blame but yourself. Because by hook, or by crook, I’m going to win this tournament. I will do anything and everything to do so.

Just remember I gave you fair warning.

Revolution requires sacrifice.

Through your pain, will come what needs to happen.

It’s for the best.

Trust me.

4
Here we are.

Actually, here I am.

I will tell you, I don’t belong here. I’m not supposed to be here.

The blast from the past tournament was not meant for someone like me to win is it?

Think about it. I’m having my third match in my life in two weeks. In my first match, I had to win a triple threat match, the only one of this tournament. Then I had to beat a former world champion.

And I did both of those things. You may not like how I did it. You may think it was cheap and taking the shortcut. And you’d be correct. But there’s never been a person who didn’t take a shortcut or cut a corner or two. This is results based. It doesn’t matter “how” you get there, just that you do. And I have.

And now, the deck is now stacked against me like never before. Two “legends” seek to take what they believe is already theirs anyway. They both have done it all in wrestling multiple times over and I have… a couple of wins to my name. They are multi-time champions, hall of farmers. I’m just getting started. They are greats! I… am just… here.

No man, I don’t belong here at all.

But my goal is to shake things up. It’s too static around here. Too familiar. I have to change things.

Winning this when no one truly believes that I can? That’s a good spark. And it all takes one spark.

And then it all burns.

You will believe.

Trust me.







Middle school might just be the worst of all three phases.

Hormones take over and they mess with our brains. The standards of everything changes. All of a sudden you are tasked with being responsible, while also having to deal with your peers who now judge you even harsher than usual.

And let’s face it, pre-teens, and teens in general, are assholes. I was, you were, everyone is an asshole when they’re 12-14. We do things that are just out of nowhere random, and cruel. We fight over dumb shit. We decide that we need to pull the fire alarm for no good reason when it’s cold as fuck outside. Just because we can. We start judging the fuck out of others for what they wear, because if you don’t have the latest fashions, you’re obviously a poor. And man, the fashions of the 2010’s were weird as fuck.

Everyone had those stupid skinny jeans. Everyone was wearing button up shirts with suspenders and bowties? And the goddamn handlebar mustache came back for no discernible reason?

But, I digress.

And to top it all off, you then have to learn a bunch of boring, uninteresting shit, and then you can be scolded and told by your teachers that the shit is actually useful. Do you spend your days dealing with converting decimals into fractions or mixed numbers? No. No you don’t.  Unless you’re an engineer I suppose. But, if you’re an engineer and you’re watching this… well… right on. But I’m sure you don’t enjoy converting decimals into mixed numbers.

The point is, most of middle school is spent with the students being given an oddly large amount of responsibility. There is no more hand-holding for the most part. All the while, you’re experiencing the changes in your mind and body and you have to just deal with that shit. It’s a confusing time, and it causes people to lash out in anger because we’re all fucking lost.

And it doesn’t get any better from here.




1:36am

*Bangbangbangbangbangbang*

I could hear it, and it stirred me from sleep. What the hell is making that noise? I rubbed the sleep from my eyes as it came again.

*Bangbangbangbangbangbang*

I sat up. It was coming from downstairs. I looked over at the clock and I saw it’s 1:36am. I was now awake as I was unsure of what in the world was happening. Once again it happened.

*Bangbangbangbangbangbang*

I was now fully aware of what’s going on, and it was someone knocking on the door. Who the hell is knocking in the door at this hour? Why hadn’t my mom or Charlie answered it? What is going on?

I got up out of bed and staggered my way downstairs. Once again, before I get there.

*Bangbangbangbangbangbang*

“Who is it?” I call out. Obviously, you don’t open the door for strangers. But as I round the bend to see the door, through the curtains I can see a police officer. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere than here. Which wasn’t great. I cautiously opened the door.

“Hello sweetheart, my name is Officer Pappas. Is your dad home?” He said, his tone was polite but firm.

“Yeah.”  I answered.

“Could you get him for me?”

“What’s going on?” I asked, since it was odd that the cops would be at the door this early in the morning.

He sighed and pointed behind him, where there were more cops and they had my mother in handcuffs, sitting on the ground.


“Is that your mom?” He asked.

“Yeah.” I answered.

“Your mom was driving under the influence.” He explained. “We need to talk to your dad.”

“Okay.” I said with a shrug and marched away. I went up the stairs to my parents bedroom where Charlie was still sound asleep. Another day where he drank himself to this point.

I walked into the room and tugged at his arm.


“Dad. The cops are here.”

No response. He was laying on his back, and after seeing his stomach go up and down, I knew he was alive. I tugged and pulled a little harder to try and stir him as gently as possible.

“Dad. Wake up.”

Still nothing.

Finally, I walked into the bathroom and got a small cup and filled it with water. It was my only recourse. I went back into their room and flung the light switch and lit up the room, before splashing the water on him. His eyes flung open and he groaned, taking a minute to collect himself and obviously he was pissed about being woken up.


“WHAT THE FUCK!”  He shouted.

“Dad. The cops are here.”

Charlie looked down for a moment, internalizing what I said to him.

“Why?” He finally asked. “Did you do something?”

“No. It’s mom.”

He sighed, leaning over and putting his feet on the floor, before rubbing his face and eyes.

“Fuck.” He mumbled to himself before getting up, and stomping down the stairs to the door. I followed him and kept a safe distance.

“This better be good, assholes.” He said, still very angry.

“Sir, my name is officer Pappas and I’m with the Milwaukee police department. Is that your wife?” The officer again pointed at my mom, handcuffed and sitting on the ground.

“Yes.” Charlie replied, now sobering up.

“We found her on route 18 a few blocks from here, she was driving and swerving all over the road. We pulled her over and she was slurring her words and passed out in the car before we finished questioning her. ”

“Shit.” was Charlie’s only response.

“Do you know if your wife drinks?”

“No. It must be the pills.” Charlie replied.

“Pills?”

“She took a pill for sleeping. It’s.. shit…"

“It’s Ambien, dad.” I helped answer.

“Yeah, that’s it. Ambien.”

“Okay, well, just so you know, she’s going to be placed under arrest for DUI and she’s gonna spend the night in jail. She’ll be at the district 2 station. We’ve gone ahead and called for a tow of the car, and it’s going to be impounded. Is it in your name, sir?”

“Yeah.. Fuck.”

“Okay, So, once we get all the particulars and everything, she’ll be free to go, and we’ll give you a call to come get her, and the car, and we’ll go from there.”

“Fine.”

Charlie and officer Pappas exchanged information, and just like that, my mother was taken to jail. Once they drove off, Charlie was more annoyed than anything. He didn’t say anything to my mom, he just sat at the dinner table, and began going through papers which had the car’s information. He laid it out, and then turned to me.

“You can go back to bed.” He just coldly stated without any hint of feeling. There was no comfort in his voice.

I went back to bed shortly thereafter.

Luckily this was the summertime, so I didn’t have school.

Following this, my mother’s license was suspended and she could no longer drive me to school. Charlie wasn’t happy about that at all. His resentment towards my mother only grew. I don’t know if he ever cared at all that she could have died that day. Or that she needed serious help.

My mom ended up filing the paperwork so that I could then catch the bus to school instead.

It was 6th grade. Sheila was gone, and Mark wasn’t really even talking to me anymore. My life was a mess.

I was alone. The only things I had were music and the internet.

I remember that first bus ride and seeing all the kids and feeling…dirty. There was something just less accommodating about riding the bus like this. This is middle school, but there’s still small children on the bus, since MAS is one big school. It’s just separated into different parts. But the bus was awful. I could smell the people going through puberty. I remember kids trying to mask their funk with anything. One kid I had to sit next to smelled like peppermint so much I wanted to gag. I didn’t want this. At all. This was just the beginning of my middle school journey too. Ugh.

I had a lot of advantages in school, and one was the fact that I was a year older than most in my grades, because the cutoff for registration is September 1st. So therefore, because I was born on the 11th, I had to wait a whole other year. So I had a year of extra preparation. That came in handy. I was already learning so much, so for me, most of school from a difficulty standpoint was non-existent.

The real problem for me was that everything was boring. Everything but science, that was at least somewhat interesting. I did everything else, but a great deal of the time I was off somewhere else. I’d daydream a lot. I was just so far ahead that I really just stopped caring. I didn’t really need to apply myself at this point. It took a minimal amount of effort for me to ace most tests, quizzes and exams. I just wasn’t interested in anything other than science. Because it was practical.

Sure, I could talk about plural pronouns or ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia, but it’s really not that serious.

My new classes were filled with the kids from the other classes I would see in the hallway from time to time, but I didn’t know any of them, nor did I care to. I was still pretty upset that Sheila was gone. I just tried to move through this section of school as quickly and painlessly as possible. Just get it over with.

But pain is inevitable in middle school.

I started to get stares as I walked through the hallway. Boys were checking me out. Girls would mutter under their breath. Because I didn’t feel the need to talk to anyone, nor did I have a boyfriend, or girlfriend… Again, at the age of 12, I was an outcast. I was weird. I was a loser. But, I just did my work. The one person I could stand being around, was gone. I didn’t want to deal with any of it. It was all pain.

The body grows and changes. I, like any other adolescent, experienced these changes. All of a sudden, I had to get bras and hair was growing in strange places. I had zits and sometimes they were massive and stuck out like a sore thumb. My voice would crack  I also developed this strange sensation. I don’t know why, but I began to just automatically dislike other girls. Like, seething, burning hatred for no reason. I have heard and read that this is something women do. And I know it’s true because I ended up really disliking this one girl.

Melissa Paur.

Even saying her name now makes me annoyed.

Melissa didn’t really ever do anything to me. She was just in my class for the four main subjects and gym. I got away from her in home economics, which was nice, and art. But for some reason, I didn’t like her. She rubbed me the wrong way. I wasn’t jealous or envious of her. I just… didn’t like her. She was normal looking I guess. But she was overly cheery, and she was popular.

And I hated her guts.

Every day I saw her, I hated her more. It drove me crazy. I was in this weird competition with her and she didn’t even know it. I wanted to beat her at everything. I was smarter than her, prettier than her, I was better than her. Melissa was always nice to me as well. Even though I was the “quiet girl” in the classes. She would see me getting my stuff and just say “Hi Franchesca” to me.

And I hated it.

“Shut up!”
“Don’t talk to me, you don’t know me!”
“Who the hell do you think you are!”
“You are not the future, I am! I will be the president! I will be an astronaut! Not you!”
“You’re not even smart! Or pretty!”


These were things I shouted to her in my head.

I needed to do something about her. And I didn’t even know why.

Yeah… middle school started just so terribly from a social standpoint.

My parents had their own issues, and I had no one to help me understand these changes, and curb the angst.

Until I did, oddly enough in 7th grade art class.

And then I messed that up too…




Let’s get started, shall we? Let’s spark a little fire.

Laura Phoenix.

What in the world is going on with these old folks trying to reclaim their old glory?

Laura, what are you doing?
Laura, it’s not worth it.
Laura, you had your time. It has passed.
Laura, stop trying to steal the spotlight from your own family.
Laura, your daughter is literally a champion in Sin City Wrestling. Why aren’t you supporting her?
Laura, why are you doing this to your daughter?

You do realize that even participating in this just overshadows your daughter, because she could never reach the heights you set? Why would you do that? You set this bar for your daughter, and now, you’re just trying to make it more and more difficult for her to clear it. Why hurt your daughter in such a way?

Look at the card for Into the Void, Laura, you, you are higher on the card than your own daughter. Why steal her shine like that?

Greed? Envy? Jealousy?

Or, maybe you just didn’t think about it. Maybe you’re just selfish. Or, perhaps you are an addict. Yes. that’s it. You have all the telltale signs.

You crave the spotlight, just like Mikah does. You want so bad to hear your name called just one more time. One more run. One last dance with the big time. And you let it get into your head. That’s why you entered, isn’t it? That’s why you did this to poor Bella. Because you lack the willpower and self-control to stop yourself. You’re probably not even aware you are doing it until now, huh? You are hurting your daughter and you don’t even realize it.

It’s how addicts work. They can’t see past the next fix.

You beat Sam Marlowe and the first thing you do is pat yourself on the back. You want it from everyone else don’t you? So, here, let me say, congratulations. Keep up the good work. Keep pushing your daughter’s career aside for your own moment. I for one, am all for it. I just wonder how she feels about it? I’m sure on the outside, she’s happy for you and wanting you to have one last day in the sun. But you?  You just made her an afterthought and you don’t even care.

“She’s doing her own thing” you’ll say in defense. But… she’s still always trying to live up to your standards, you are her mother, after all. And I think the best irony of the whole thing is, you won on Mother’s day. Just a little extra knife twist into her back there. I love it. That’s a really great touch I didn’t see coming, but hey, life is full of surprises isn’t it?

Bella can do her own thing, but it’s not the level you achieved, is it? You’re a multi-time champion, a hall of famer, and now, out to prove you still got it. The fact is, Bella will always be compared to you, and every time you step between the ropes, you do her more harm than good, and you magnify just how far behind you she is. I mean, that’s a cruel thing to do to somebody. Especially your own daughter.

But you know, I kind of dig it. I didn’t think you had that kind of thing in you, Laura!
You’ve got full “fuck them kids” with this and I’m here for it. 

But, again, you can’t help it. You need this. Retirement can and should be permanent. Just sit back, relax and enjoy life. Live vicariously through your daughter. But no, you selfishly parade yourself out here, yet again, when it is completely unnecessary. Because you need a fix, Laura. You’re a junkie, hooked on the rush of adrenaline. You need it hooked into your veins. You crave the spotlight, you would cast anyone and everyone aside to get it.

And the sad truth is, most addicts don’t know what they’re doing, because they are only focused on what they need. It isn’t until they are told, and given an intervention that they can finally come to terms with it. Consider this our intervention, Laura.

You are hurting your daughter, Laura.
She doesn’t need you doing this to her, Laura.
It is time to STOP, Laura.

I know you haven’t liked what you have heard. You’re insulted and offended that I said the things I’ve said. Good. That’s the point. Because deep down, as you think about it, you’ll realize I’m correct and you need to make a change.

Because as much as greedy junkie Laura works for me as an observer, it doesn’t work for anyone else. If it was up to me, I’d love for you to move on after I win this match, and you would actually face Bella for her title and then take it from her. I mean, that would just be the ultimate. Show that kid how it’s done! Show your daughter what a real champion looks like!

Oh, that would be a dream.

But, no. I have bigger ambitions other than helping you get some perspective. I have an entire company to change, and well… I don’t have the time to focus on you enough. You’re temporary. Part-time. I don’t need you around and you are not in the long-term plans I have.  So you, along with Mikah, will be brushed aside to make room for those that are required for this to work.

You cannot stand in the way of progress, Ms. Phoenix. The machine will roll on. But, I will in fact do you a huge favor and actually show Bella the respect she deserves and not rob her of her just due like you have done. I will put you on the other side of the barricade where you should have stayed. We all will be must better off when this is accomplished. Obviously, it will benefit Bella the most, since she won’t have to deal with her mother stealing the spotlight from her ever again.

Think of it in terms of quitting cold turkey. You’ll be in the ring one more time at Into the Void, and then… you just won’t be anymore. Just like that. Done. Finished. And you get back to exactly where you should be considering all you have waiting for you.

Of course, you could not heed my warning. You can, and you will, rush headlong, angry at me for days like today. And then, you will find out that it’s a fight you aren’t going to win. And then, when you return home, crushed and a failure, you can look at yourself in the mirror and realize just how right I was.

In the immortal words of Kevin O’Shea:

“You’ll thank me tomorrow.”

And you will.

Trust me.


Now let’s turn up the heat, and really light things up!

The great Mikah.

After all the time spent on this build up, I expected more, and I must say: I find myself unimpressed.

Yes, I don’t think you are that good. At all.

I know, what do I know, right? I’m just some child and you are the great Mikah and you’re all like “Look at me, I’m Mikah, I think everyone else should bend the knee and recognize my greatness…” and  oh my god I’m already bored of this. Yadda yadda yadda, you think you’re good. I nailed that impression by the way.

Again, what is it with “legends” of this company who refuse to get out of the way and let the future take hold like it’s supposed to? Why do people like you always feel the need to come back and try and take the spotlight in this desperate attempt to reclaim former glory? It is maddening to see this. And also very sad. You had your time and that time is now over. You’re not going to bring it back. And really, you shouldn’t want to.

Think about it for a second. When you, the great Mikah, when you were at the height of your abilities, your prime if you will, you still couldn’t and didn’t dominate like you think you did. You had a respectable run and now, it’s all been eclipsed. 3 time champion? Eclipsed. Longest reigning champion? Eclipsed. And let’s just be real, the people you beat for the title? Raynin? Mercedes Vargas? Crystal whatever-her-last-name-is-this-week? Bombshells of a bygone era. And the same Crystal beat you as well. I don’t know about anyone else here, but that doesn’t scream domination. The people you beat during that historic reign? Rayin again, Amanda Cortez? Mercedes and Crystal? Melanie Gabriele? The proverbial “‘member berries”

Come on now, Mikah, you can’t seriously think this is good. Like, you just can’t.

What I found interesting is that you hand-picked Samantha Marlowe and then she ended that historic reign. So, whoops that doesn’t scream domination either. It screams “I was very fortunate, and I’m parlaying that into a legacy of being great. You’re great by default from where I stand. You were a champion when the champions weren’t around.

Luckily for you, Sam didn’t make the finals. That certainly would have been embarrassing to lose to her again. No, it is truly a blessing from above for you that she didn’t make it. Falling on your face again? That would just be the worst, wouldn’t it?

No, wait, it would be the worst, if you lose to me.

I mean, come on, you’re Mikah, you’re not supposed to lose to somebody like me.
“I’m new, I’m beneath you.”
“I don’t belong in the same ring with you.”
“Other typical generic bitchy thing that you would say about anyone else.”

I know, I know, your whole thing is, you come in, you win some stuff, you get bored, and then you leave before you can really be exposed and then you sit on the top of the mountain and claim superiority. You’re the best, when the rest of the competition isn’t really good. When it is, you scurry away and retire. Literally the best you’ve faced for that title is Crystal, and she doesn’t even bother anymore.

This whole thing was a fucking decade ago by the way.  Like… why bother?

When we really look at it, you are less and less impressive. What this signals is that you are still trying to justify your legacy, when it is hollow. It crumbles under scrutiny. Perhaps this is the reason you want Amber to come back. So you have someone to prop you up and make you look better than you actually are. You won other titles in unification matches for fucks sakes. If anything screams stat-padding, it’s that. And now, you enter the Blast From the Past. Just to prove you’re as good as you think you are.

This just reeks of desperation and a lack of confidence in your own legacy.

But hey, you are in the finals. You did beat… hold on… Cassie Wolfe? Christ. Oh, no, wait, you did beat Alicia Lukas. Like I said, you win some stuff and then you get bored. So kudos to you are in order aren’t they? I’m sure that if you win this tournament, everyone will just look at the people in the tournament and think… “Yeah, that sounds about right.” Then you can crow about it all day. It still won’t change how you are viewed.

I will also opine that this is why you continue to want Mark Ward’s attention as his favorite and you just call yourself the best bombshell, when the reality is, nobody thinks of you when they think of all-time greats.

Misty? Set the bar.
Amy Marshall? Done it all.
Roxi Johnson? Ditto.
Amber Ryan: Completely overshadowed you.

Hell, even Alicia Lukas, Evie Jordan, Crystal Whotever and Sam Marlowe have carved their names in history here.

You’re the one everyone forgets about. You are a shooting star, Mikah. Here one moment, gone the next. And people move on. They forget. And I know you really can’t stand that, can you? You want so bad to be in that class, but you… you just aren’t, and you never, ever will be.

You said it yourself, you just want to remind people you are good. Ney, great! You don’t care about the championship, you just want to win a tournament that you, in all honesty probably should, and then… you’ll leave again and feel good about it. I love that for you, you have created the best win-win scenario.

You win, and then you’re like “I’m so good, I won this tournament!”
You lose, and it’s “Tee-hee this was all a gag, I really don’t care. Retired again!”
 
I know, I’ve seen this movie before.

But there is good news for you, Mikah! There is a silver lining in all this. You, Mikah, have been given a very important task. You have a chance to be the savior you always wanted to be. You have a chance to make the biggest impact in Sin City Wrestling, maybe of all time. Doesn’t that sound appealing? It should be to someone like you. It’s extremely important that you accomplish this task.

Do you know what it is?

You have to win this match. You have to stop me.

You are the last hope for this place to stop me from going straight to the top right away. The last “great” “legend” to stop me before I get truly started in changing this company. Now, mind you, I don’t really count you in this changing. I will put you in the “Retired” list and that will be less work for me.

Besides, why would I want to change you? You’re perfect just the way you are. Insecure and proud of it. I love that about you. I love it for you. You can’t really find too many desperate, insecure, attention-whores in this day and age.

Wait, nevermind, Twitter, Onlyfans and Tik-Tok exist.

Okay, so you’re not that special. Still, Sin City Wrestling only has… like three of those too.

Come to think of it, we have too many Mikah’s around here. Well shit. This… this won’t do at all.

Yeah, see, this is why I have to move you to the “retired” section. There’s just… no room for you here anymore. Your spot? Your position? It’s already been filled. We have no need for you. We have upgraded models of you. You’re just obsolete Mikah.

I have big plans for changing and re-shaping this company, and the sooner you are out of it, the better. Don’t worry, you won’t be the only one I have to remove. There’s plenty this company doesn’t need. You’ll get your own section, like I said, and then you can observe from afar and make pithy comments and stuff. That’s your thing. But moving forward, there’s just no need for you to be part of this.

As with any athlete or worker in any company whose work isn’t up to snuff, there just comes a point where we have to let them go. It will be my time at some point as well, hell, it probably should have been in some cases sooner, but that’s not the point. I’m going to send you where you can have a permanent vacation away from all this and you don’t have to worry your pretty little head about it anymore. Your time, Mikah is up, and this is where we have to part ways.

After Into the Void, your services will no longer be required.

And you can fuck right off back to Hawaii. Again.

And we’ll forget all about you. Again.

But don’t worry, everything will be much better off without you.

Trust me.

5
Well now, would you look at that. I’m a big winner in my debut match against not one, but two, opponents. The only opening round triple threat match and now, I am on to the semi-finals.

As I said, change takes a while. Fortunately for all of you, I have a LOT of time.

Now, I don’t have a plan at the moment. I’m still working on it. I find it best to just let whatever happens, happen. I know what I have to do, and that’s all I’m worried about. There’s all these things going on and people trying to get other people to come back and run divisions and people talking about the good old days and oh, there’s so many happy couples.

So there’s a lot to account for and an actual plan is really hard to formulate at this point. I didn’t know who I was even facing this week for a day or so. I couldn’t plan on it being Julianna, it could have been Samantha, or Laura Jackson, or Mikah, or Alicia Lukas. But… it’s Julianna, and I’ll get to her in due time.

But I haven’t even really started to tell my story, so we have another fun time recollecting about the past.

It’s funny, the past is a running theme around here. If you stop and think about it, I am pretty much the only new crop of talent that is in this tournament still. We have Alicia, Julianna, and Mikah, trying to reclaim recent past glories. And Samantha and Laura have even further past glories. It’s like the fresh, young talent has all but dried up.

And that just won’t do.

The past is supposed to help shape the future, not block it out. The future is inevitable.

I am it.

But I’ll tell you about my past, so that you understand what the future of Sin City Wrestling is going to look like.

Let's introduce a little chaos. It will make it all clear.

Join me. Believe me. Trust me.







The school year wore on and I felt more and more comfortable there and it led to research more things. I developed an interest in animals, but more importantly, anatomy. I was now curious how it all worked. For the first time in my short life, I was shown how open the world was and all the things in it. I was curious about everything. This continued for pretty much my whole life.

But more importantly, I found that Sheila was just as curious. We talked almost daily and shared food and toys at recess. We swung on the swings and did all the little kid stuff you probably remember. This is when kids still went outside, but I mean, this is 2006 we’re talking about, that time was coming to an end. But when I was smaller, I didn’t really have friends that were my age. Our neighbors didn’t have children. Charlie knew a bunch of people and they came to the house frequently, so most of the people I talked to were adults.

Sheila was the first who just talked to me, sounded like me, and had interests similar to mine. I found more things to look up and to talk with Sheila about, as I forged this relationship with her. We spent the first 3 years of school in the same class. Sheila and I were I guess… friends. We said “hi” and “bye” to each other everyday if that qualifies us as such.

Until there was this one time where we took a test in 2nd grade.

I believed that Sheila and I were the two smartest kids in our classes. We always got the highest grades, and it always got to the point that Mrs. Myers, Ms. Prescott, our 1st grade teacher, and Mr. Price, our 2nd grade teacher, would tell us we couldn’t answer questions to give the other children a chance.

This of course fed into my superiority complex. In addition, in my head, I believed I was smarter than Sheila. A little egotistical, I’ll grant that the notion is ridiculous to have in elementary school, but this is how children are wired sometimes. It was also my way of standing out in school because I still wanted to be seen as someone who was worth something. I wasn’t tall, or some beauty pageant material girl. I didn’t dress in expensive clothing, but it wasn’t like I was shopping at the thrift store for clothes.

Anyway, that whole feeling was shattered when we took that Social Studies test on U.S. States and their capitals. I was certain I had gotten them all, but my test came back with a 98% instead of 100%. And Sheila had gotten them all. This had to be a mistake. Could Sheila actually be smarter than me? I couldn’t rationalize this in my brain.

I missed Georgia. For some reason, I was so sure that Augusta was the capital, instead of Atlanta. Augusta is actually the capital of Maine. For some reason I marked Augusta twice.

I wouldn’t live this down in my own head for a long time. It’s preposterous when you think about it, but I held onto this. Sheila was able to match me in everything else, I wasn’t able to get a higher grade than her on anything. This… this would not do.

My mother didn’t set play dates or anything, so the only time Sheila and I ever got together was at school. And then, one day, Sheila came up to me with a big grin on her face.

“Hey, do you wanna come play at my house after school?” She asked, grinning and hoping I would say yes.

“I have to ask my mom.”

Once the day ended, my mother was there to pick me up and I approached her, with Sheila by my side.

“Mom, can I play at Sheila’s house after school?” I asked, not wanting to launch into the puppy dog eyes, just yet.

My mother seemed rather surprised and intrigued that this was happening. She looked around as Sheila’s mother wasn’t there just yet.

“Let’s see if her mom is okay with it.”

“She is.” Sheila replied with a big grin.

Finally, Sheila’s mom appeared and she and my mother had a small conversation and my mother nodded to me.

“Okay, you can go. Sheila’s mom is going to bring you back home at 7.”

“Thanks, mom.” I said, smiling and excited that this was happening.

We arrived at Sheila’s house and it was huge. I had never seen a house as big as hers. She even had a swing set in her backyard. I was so jealous of this. Her mom and dad talked and seemed to have a happy relationship, something else I didn’t have. Why couldn’t I be here? I wanted this for me, but I didn’t have it.

We played with dolls for a little while, then played some games on the internet before heading outside and swinging on her swing set.

“Take it easy, Sheila!” Her mom shouted from the window. I understood that Sheila didn’t have the lung capacity to exert a lot of energy.

Sheila and I played and laughed and giggled and then, out of nowhere, The same labored breathing began in Sheila. She was having an asthma attack. I knew exactly what to do and sat her upright. I reached and felt around her outfit and found her inhaler. I looked at it and then a sudden strange thought crossed my mind.

“What if I don’t give this to her?”

Depending on severity, asthma can be fatal. I don’t know why I thought this was a viable option, but I did. Perhaps this was a little bit of revenge for that test. It had to be. Even though she had nothing to do with it, and it was my mistake. I blamed her. I was still jealous, angry and bitter.

I looked at her face, desperate for the inhaler and I hesitated for a moment, only a brief one, but it felt like forever. There was this feeling of now having Sheila’s life in my hands, and I very much enjoyed it. I looked her dead in the eyes, holding the inhaler and that feeling finally shook from my head. I gave her the inhaler just as her mother rushed outside. I used the technique and her mother stopped, observing me doing this, before her maternal instincts came back and she rushed over. She continued what I started and soon enough, Sheila was her normal self again. Sheila’s mom turned to me, a sigh of relief escaping her as she rubbed my shoulder.

“Thank you, Franchesca.”

I shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

In my head, I had won some kind of battle. Sheila may or may not have been smarter than me, but I had full use of my lungs. And that made me superior.

We went inside, had dinner and we got to play a little longer, just talking about animals and things we found on the internet. I honestly don’t think that Sheila knew what went on in my head and why I hesitated at that moment. I believe that she thought that maybe I didn’t know what to do. Maybe. I’m not sure.

Sheila never really said anything other than “Thank you” to me after that and she and her mother dropped me off at my house. 7pm, right on time. I explained to my mother about all the things I saw at Sheila’s house and how it made me feel. I never told her about the asthma attack thing though.

Charlie had very little interest, he just was concerned that I didn’t get into trouble, because then he would have to come down to the school and have to deal with it. And for the most part, I didn’t get into trouble. I never did much of anything besides my work. I really only talked to Sheila, but occasionally I had to work with Mark on things, or we would be grouped together.

I didn’t really have much to talk about with Mark, but he made it a point to speak to me every day. Mark would talk to me, but it was mostly about stuff he liked, like cartoons or TV shows and stuff like that. He would occasionally be aware of what Sheila and I would talk about seeing on the internet.

And then, one day, out of the blue, he wrote me a love letter and hid it in my desk. I found it, but he hadn’t put his name on it. I knew it was his based on his handwriting, but he also was very curious from then on about how I was feeling and whether or not I liked anybody. Mark really liked me, and thought I was cool. He wanted to hang out with me. A schoolboy crush by the time we hit 2nd grade.

I was clearly too young for dating or even a remote interest in boys or girls, much less romantically. I was interested in Sheila because I spent the most time with her. Mark was… okay I guess?

In fact, Mark was the one gave me the name “Frankie”

Mark had an interdental lisp. So he could never say “Franchesca.” It always came out “FranchTHca” So, one day after many, many times of being unable to say it, he just asked.

“Can I call you Frankie?”

“Frankie is a boy’s name.”  I replied, correcting his despite the fact he probably knew this.

“I know, but it’s really hard for me to say FrancheTHca”

I cringed at hearing my name mispronounced. I hated it, and he was the only one who couldn’t. I know he couldn’t help it, but it just bugged me. But heaven forbid I let the kid struggle. Oh my god, let's make it easier for this kid. So…I just conceded this to make it easier for him.

“You can call me Frankie.” I answered.

Relief washed over Mark’s face as from then on, he called me Frankie whenever he needed to talk to me or ask me something. Soon Sheila started doing it too. It didn’t really bother me as much as I thought it would. It wasn’t any easier to hear Mark talk, but I dealt with it. I just went with it and at the end, almost every person I encountered during my formative years called me “Frankie” instead of “Franchesca”. 

Once we hit 4th grade, Mark just sort of dropped his schoolboy crush and I just became a girl he knew and talked to. I suppose it also was helped that once we hit 4th grade, Mark was no longer in my class.  He would see me in
the hall, smile, wave and occasionally talk to me.

And… for some reason, I felt almost offended. Like… am I not good enough now? Not that I was actually interested in him or even the concept of dating at the age of 10, but the idea that I could be dropped like that was kind of insulting.

Nonetheless, I let it go. I now had more important things to worry about.

Because this was around the time my mother started taking pills to help her get through the day.  So I had to grow and mature a lot faster than most 10 year olds. It felt like working two jobs and not getting paid for either of them, and basically getting no help. Charlie did the bare minimum, if that. Charlie worked at his job, came home and that was the end. So outside of occasionally buying dinner on his way home, or running to the store, he didn’t do much of anything. I was mowing the grass, the dishes, and the laundry as my mother would often forget in her stupor.

But I could take solace in the fact that at school, I had Sheila. I always hate Sheila.

Until I didn’t.

5th grade.

She wasn’t in my class.

My best friend was now not in the same class as me. I was devastated. How did this happen? We were inseparable for 5 years and now she wasn’t there. I was more upset about that than pretty much anything else. Sheila was my escape. My one true friend. Even though years earlier I irrationally hated her for a stupid test, but now, she was gone. In some other class.

I had to find her. Talk to her. Get to the bottom of this situation.

I eventually ran into Sheila in the hallway when I was coming back from lunch and Sheila was going to take hers.

“Hi Sheila!” I announced excitedly.

“Hi Frankie!” She said, with a smile on her face as well. At least she was happy to see me.

“What class are you in now?” I asked, eager to know what happened to my friend.

“I have Mr. Bates now. He’s really fun. What about you?" She replied.

“I have Mr. Rendell now.” I answered. “He’s okay.”

“That’s good. Do you want to talk after school?” She asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I have to go now.” I said, hurrying to catch up with my classmates.

“See you later!” She shouted as I was walking away.

Crisis. Averted.

It did feel strange to not have my friend around. She helped me feel normal. I missed my friend. But it did make me hands down the smartest person in my class. So that was a plus, and my sense of superiority returned yet again. I was a born leader and this was just more evidence I was the future.

I aced everything, but by this point, it wasn’t fun anymore. School was now just a thing that I did and I was good at. There was no competition for me. Without a real rival in Sheila, everything just felt half as important. I made the honor roll time and time again. I got awards and plaques and ribbons for 1st place all the time. They are probably in a box somewhere in my former home.

Yeah, life was looking pretty great the first 5 years.

But… as it has a habit of doing, life changes things.

The last conversation I had with Sheila, was over the summer. And that's when I found out she was moving away. Her dad was in the Marines as a reservist, but had gotten promoted and was actually in line to command his own unit in Washington state.

She was moving. And then... she was gone.

She never even said good-bye. She just left me.

Just when I needed her most.




I have to say I am intrigued.

I am never really faced off against a robot or android or whatever you are, Julianna DiMaria. But that’s how you sound. It’s just weird to me to hear someone so obsessed with facts and figures, to the point that that’s all they talk about. You sound like the human equivalent of Chat GPT when you speak. So much so that it’s hard to really know who you actually are. What do you actually stand for? What are your thoughts on the economy? Does pineapple belong on pizza? These are the burning questions that are being asked and yet, all you can say is a version of when you click the speaker button on google.

“Did you know that Bea Barnheart has lost 87% of her matches? That means she must suck! I have not lost as many, therefore I am superior to her in our upcoming wrestling bout!”

It’s just that. Boring stat after boring stat.

Pardon me for being rude here. I didn’t even introduce myself to you. I’m Frankie, I’m the future of Sin City Wrestling and I need to re-shape it in my image. We are facing each other on Sunday and I am going to kick your ass and then win. It’s nice to meet you.

So Julianna, what happens when the person you are facing has no such stats for you to spew? What happens when you face someone who has a clean record? Does the computer have any sort of answer to that? Because that time is now for you, Julianna.

Well, I will tell you a normal person would speak about themselves and their personality or motives or something along those lines. That’s how wrestling works. But I have seldom heard you speak about these things the entire time you’ve been in Sin City Wrestling. The best you can do is talk about facts and figures because you have no personality to speak of. It is your defining trait.

That and the whole “I don’t care what you think about me” thing that you cling to like a binky. But we both know you do care.

Seriously, until literally last week, the last time anyone saw you, you were streaming for fuck’s sake. And it wasn’t even a titty stream. It was you fighting with internet trolls. Do you know how silly that is? You must. If you are famous in any way, there’s just going to be a section of people who dislike and hate everything you do. And you, like a complete buffoon, chose to engage them. You, the same person who claims to not care what people think, went to your haters for an opinion. These two things seem diametrically opposed, but you do you. Now, hilariously, after you, as you are one to do, “laid out of the facts” because that’s… you know… that’s your thing. Facts and figures. Numbers. Men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t, right? So after you laid those out, those haters, those trolls, you convinced them that you were right. You shut them all down and laid down the law and all of a sudden everybody was on your side.

So, this begs the question: How much did you pay those people to make you look good?

It’s okay, you can tell the truth. Was it like 3 people at like 5-6 laptops all with usernames to make it look legit? Different browsers and everything, right? Wait, I bet it was family members. Brothers and sisters and whatnot? And no, I’m not going to bother fact-checking you having siblings, because it’s not really important enough to me. If it was, I would. But the fact that you just outsmarted, out-witted, and were just so right about things and every single one of those people turned in your favor? It’s highly suspect.

But, let’s roll with the whole idea that those were all very real people. All of them. And you brought them all on side. That is impressive!

So, one can help but wonder how they all felt after you did all that, you talked about all the facts, and then… then you lost anyway.

So is it safe for those people to now feel stupid for supporting you? Can they go and just piss off back to Bella Madison fandom? Do you care? I know, you don’t care about these things, which then begs the question why you bothered to do a stream in the first place? You clearly enjoyed making those people look dumb for supporting Bella, right? But… now you’re not going to give a shit about them still liking you, are you?

Or… was the whole thing a sham? 

I mean, we haven’t seen or heard another meet and greet from you. So, where did you run off too, Julianna?

Did you hit rock bottom? Again?

You’re the only one allowed to do it, right? No one else knows what rock bottom is, do they?

You keep telling people that they don’t know what it is, they have never had it as bad as you. You are aware that not everyone experiences the same rock bottom, correct? There is no standard “rock bottom” so to speak. Just because you’ve had it rough for a period, doesn’t mean other people can’t, you twat.

You really want to play the game of “who has had a shittier life?”  You have no idea what a shitty life is. You just present these things in a sad, pathetic attempt at gaining pity from people you allegedly don’t give two fucks about. “My life is so hard, nobody takes me seriously!” “Respect me because I rose above the self-imposed and self-created problems I have!”

I suppose everyone is the hero of their own story. And every good hero goes through the hero’s journey. Even if they have to invent obstacles.

You throw these things out there all the time like a shield. You just think you know what rock bottom is, because you want your problems to be pitied. This is why you spout the facts and figures, when in your favor. You don’t know what a person goes through to experience their own rock bottom. I’ve had it way worse than you ever could.

Have you been homeless, Julianna?
Have you ever been penniless, Julianna?
Have you had to use your body to survive the night, Julianna?

Fuck. No. You haven’t.

So does this make me the authority on rock bottom? No. Because that’s MY personal low point. You can have yours, but I’m going to mock the shit out of it until you stop using it to judge everyone else. And then, then you’ll actually be able to post about not running away from your problems and actually have it be something other than ironically hilarious.

So, I eagerly await when you have to talk about yourself, instead of me. I mean, you can call me a cheater, and say my win wasn’t impressive. You can, I don’t mind. I did cheat, and well, for the first match, beating two people? Maybe it was a fluke. But outside of that, you… what can you say? I’m forcing you to talk about yourself, the one thing you stink at. You have nothing.

Actually. Yes. Yes you do. You do have something to talk about. I’m telling a lie. I just thought of it.

I spent all this time talking about facts and figures being what you do, and I’ve overlooked the obvious. I’ve actually been talking about your personality. You do have a defining personality trait:

Victim.

Now, before you fly off the handle and curse my name and possibly subtweet me… this is the part where I empathize a small amount with you. As a person who loves science, one of the things I studied was people. How the brain works, how it functions. The brain has this bizarre mechanism where it will choose what is comfortable, over something that is objectively better. I understand that is the case with you, Julianna. Because you are in an abusive relationship.

You are in an abusive relationship with yourself.

It’s why you do what you do. It’s why you jump head-first into the lion’s den with steaks tied to your legs. Metaphorically of course. Because you have copy-pasted your father’s voice in your own head, in your own mind. Because you are subconsciously trying to show him all the good things you have done, all the things that give you pride, all the things that make you feel accomplished, hoping that it will change his opinion.

And in your own head, you can hear the “I don’t care” from your father.

This is also why you constantly spew facts, numbers, statistics. It's why you fight trolls, it’s why you attack and prey on their shortcomings. Because You want to be viewed as better. Because you want the evidence to prove your father’s voice in your head wrong.

“Look dad, there’s someone worse than me!”

I will tell you the same thing that his voice does.

“We don’t care.”

And do you know why we don’t care?

Because you insist on reminding us.

You won two championships in Sin City Wrestling. You have probably won championships elsewhere. Good for you. You should be happy. Celebrate those accomplishments. But reminding everyone every time you’re on our screens is just the most annoying shit ever. And guess what? Your father’s voice, the one in your head, will never care.

You may think I’m destroying you right now, which, yes… I am. But at the same time, I’m telling you what nobody else will.

And that’s about as far as I’m going to go with empathizing with you, it’s not really your fault.

Actually, yes it is.

 Because at this point in your life, if you haven’t dealt with this by therapy, then you never will. I am on the mission to change this entire company, but honestly, I believe you to be a lost cause. I don’t want to change you at all. Because you have accepted the abuse.

You love it. You need it. You crave it. You want to try and make the negativity in your life into positivity, but you fail.  No, I don’t want to change you. I want you just the way you are. In a constant battle you will always lose. Because subconsciously, you want to anyway.

Maybe this will change you anyway. Maybe it won’t. At this point, I don’t really care that much. It was cathartic for me to tell you, more than anything.

The only reason I care this week is because you are my opponent, and beating you ups my stock in Sin City Wrestling. Beating a former Roulette and Internet champion week one, and then beating a former Internet and world champion week 2? That is perfect. That would be perhaps the most impressive start for any wrestler in Sin City Wrestling history.

Which includes you.

I just thought I’d point that out.

Anyway, I hope that you have enjoyed our little chat today. Perhaps you will remember it, you will think long and hard about it and it really opens your eyes. And then you can thank me, after the match is over and I make it to the finals.

Or don’t. I don’t care.

Either way, I’m going to beat you and go to the finals.

See you real, real soon, Julianna. Sweet dreams!

6
Greetings and Salutations, Sin City Wrestling.

I believe a proper introduction is owed to you. My name is Franchesca Holliday. Most people call me Frankie. It’s a lot easier to say for most people. Just rolls right off the tongue, I think. You know, I never liked it, but it eventually grew on me. Oh, I’m sorry, where are my manners? This is an introduction.

I have signed with Sin City Wrestling in an effort to compete at something I find very enjoyable. And I feel that this is an excellent release for some pent up emotions. If you have been following my journey, I’m simply telling you my story and how I came to be the person I am today. Today, we continue that journey, but there is an added bonus.

You see, I have followed Sin City Wrestling for some time. And like many companies, businesses or enterprises, there are ebbs and flows. Ups and downs if you will. And SCW has certainly hit the down part. And I don’t want the company I grew up enjoying to have this kind of problem when I am in a position to fix things. So that’s what I’m going to do.

Wait… no. No no no. “Fix” isn’t the right word. That implies that it’s simple and won’t take me time. I am allotting for quite a long amount of time, because there is much work to do. You know what the word is?

Change.

I’m going to change you, Sin City Wrestling.

I have been tasked with my first match, since I have signed up to compete in the Blast From the Past tournament. And I find it very fitting that my first match in a tournament, stands out as the only triple threat match of the whole deal, on either side. I will say I did miss the random mixed tag team format, but I find this to also be a much simpler design. And there is such beauty in simplicity.

I find myself traveling to Sweden of all places to make my debut. And this being a triple threat match, means chaos. It means the unknown, it means the unpredictable. And I like it. I like it a lot. Fitting for the new girl to have to prove herself by beating not one, but two opponents.

Very well.

As I said, I am here to change SCW, and remake it in my image. And that begins by taking on Lilith Locke, and Melissa. This will take time. But, as I also said, I have allotted a lot of time to this process. When I am done, this will be an extremely different place. I will lead you to the future, Sin City Wrestling.

Take my hand, won’t you? You can trust me.

Can’t you?

Let us begin.






School is strange.

What you do in school is supposed to have some kind of impact on your life. It’s supposed to help shape you. To help you make career choices and find what you are good at, what you like and dislike. And a tiny portion of that is true. It’s miniscule, really.

The reality is that school is a glorified popularity contest that parents send their children through with the most unpopular people on the planet. And then it gets awkward and a group of basically strangers get to see how uncool you are while they are also uncool. It’s the world’s lamest fashion show, and then we learn how to properly use skills and emotions. Mostly pettiness, bitterness, jealousy and envy.

It’s a lot to manage but we all just do it.

You may think I’m just taking this wildly contrarian opinion or just being an edgelord or something, but it’s the truth. Nobody at any level of school is “cool”

Go ahead, think back on what you did in school. You wore ugly, uncomfortable clothing to impress people you don’t give two shits about. You said and did stupid shit. You tried your best to “fit in” with people that today, you probably don’t care to remember or have long since forgotten. You listened to teachers and educators that taught you to a standard of a test and really didn’t care otherwise. You made judgments. You bullied or you were bullied. You were judged. You were an asshole to somebody. You were a bitch to somebody you didn’t like. Or you received that abuse. Children don’t allow other children to walk away unscathed.

 And then you have regurgitate a fuck ton of useless and impractical information, all so you can receive a piece of paper which basically states “I’m not the village idiot.”

School is strange.

Elementary school is probably the most civil of all, because we’re all just learning how to be students. Because for the most part, it is an enormous skill in everything we do. Still, we judged others on their appearance, what kind of clothes they wore, what they were into, and we decided whether or not we liked them like that really fucking matters at the end of the day.

But we were and are the future. We are part of one generation or the next.

But it is a complete shitshow getting there isn’t it?




I can remember my first day of school.

The Milwaukee Academy of Science. A pretty nice charter school that doesn’t have a history of crime or embezzlement that a lot of charter schools do. I was chosen by lottery, so I guess I can thank my mother for at least investing in my education. She told me I was a naturally inquisitive child so she wanted me to have a good education.

MAS treats PK-12 so I wouldn’t ever have to go anywhere else. And I would be with the same people for the entire school life. Which sounds great at first, but it really isn’t. But specializing in science made it appealing to me and I took to it with great excitement.

My mother did the job of teaching me to read, write, count, and spell before I ever entered MAS. I could have, if given the option, skipped Kindergarten altogether. Some of these kids were not as advanced as I was and I could tell. I was already forming opinions and the ability to just bluntly blurt out all the things kid say because kids are fucking subtle.

Anyway, my mother brought me to the door to meet the teacher, Mrs. Myers. I had previously met Mrs. Myers at orientation the week prior. She smiled brightly as she waved at me.

“Hello Franchesca!” Her voice was really cheery.

I smiled and waved back. “Are you ready for class today?”

I nodded and Mrs. Myers smiled again and nodded as she looked up at the clock before beginning to greet other students.

 Some children were already crying about the fact that their parents were leaving them with pretty much a complete stranger. We are taught at an early age we should have a healthy fear of strangers, but this one was okay, I suppose. But this just goes against everything we learn before this moment, so some were apprehensive and nervous, and some downright scared.

My mother looked at me, kneeling down and clutching my shoulders and that same pained smile she wore like a glove.

“Are you going to cry when I leave?” She asked.

“No.” I replied with a shake of my head for emphasis. “You’re coming back to get me, right Mommy?” I asked.

“Of course. I’ll be right here when school is out.”  Was her reply.

“Okay.” I responded.

That’s all I needed to hear. I found my name on the desk taped with some fancy and colorful label and sat down. Behind me was a little girl named Sheila Kopecky. In front of me, a boy named Mark Grey. We were listed alphabetically by last name, so they were the closest to me.

I looked back over where my mother was standing when I sat down and she smiled with that empty grin once more, blew me a kiss and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. I got up and walked over to her. She knelt down and hugged me tightly.

“I love you.” She whispered in my ear, as I felt my shirt becoming wet from her tears. I smiled as I looked her in the face.

“I love you too.”

My mother was taking pride in me. I walked back over and sat down, turning to look again, and she was gone. I looked ahead and Mark was still clinging to his mother and hoping she wasn’t going to leave. But she had to, and Mark sniffled his way to accepting this. I looked back at Shiela,and her parents or whoever had long since left, and Sheila was laying out pencils and a notebook. She also had a weird white thing on her desk I had never seen before. I turned completely around to see her.

“What’s that thing?” I asked, pointing at it.

Sheila looked up at me and picked up the small white object.

“My inhaler.”

“What’s it for?”

“I have asthma.”

I was confused. I had heard the word before but only because my doctor checked me for it when I was a bit younger than I was. All I knew was that I didn’t have asthma, whatever it was. Sheila could see I was lost.

“It helps me breathe when I don’t feel good.” She finally brought me up to speed.

“Oh. Okay.” Was my only response. I didn’t really know what else to say. I wanted to question her further, but even then it felt weird. Like, why am I interrogating this girl? I don’t even know her. I hadn’t even introduced myself.

I turned back around and got my own pencil and notebook prepared. All the parents had finally gone and it was time to learn. But very quickly I learned that I was already ahead. Some of those kids couldn’t read or write.

And thus began my superiority complex. I was better than these other children.

I was superior, I could do these things with ease and they were struggling. Part of me wondered why this was happening. We learned to count and spell and all that fun stuff. It was odd to be away from my family, but it felt more positive than anything. My mother could do things she wanted and well.. Charlie was going to do whatever he wanted anyway.

Once the first day ended, I was even curious about asthma and what it was about. I did a bunch of research, even at 5 years old, I knew what I was looking for. I learned about the 4x4x4 rule and how to care for someone with it. I got as much information as my tiny brain could remember and was eager to share my findings with Sheila, but obviously, she would have already known.

Sheila was pretty much the only person that I talked to consistently. I would occasionally talk with other children in my class, but I don’t remember the vast majority of them with any sort of specific memory, with the exception of Andy Beltrami. Andy was a bigger child, and thus, a bully. He was pretty aggressive when it came to toys and acted out quite a bit.

It was fascinating to see him just be perfectly normal at one moment, and then when something didn’t go his way or, even if nothing actually happened, he just had an impulse to abuse and torment everyone in class. Why are some little kids such assholes to everybody for no reason? You wouldn’t think that a charter school would tolerate this, but it was excused by Andy just being a child. Andy’s mom was called a few times, but this behavior continued.

Until Andy threw a football at my head. It dinged me slightly, but still hurt. I told my mother about it through tears.

“Don’t worry about it sweetie. You have to ignore bullies. Once they see they can’t hurt you, they will leave you alone.”

This seemed like the correct answer so, at first, I chose to heed my mother’s advice and ignore Andy. But the rude behavior continued. So, after the second football was thrown at my head, I decided that this wasn’t going to stand anymore. I searched on how to best get revenge on a bully. And most agreed with my mother that ignoring the bullying makes the bully lose interest. This, as it turns out, is a load of horseshit. Bullies will try even harder to get a rise out of you and Andy made sure I was annoyed. He never really demanded money or anything. He just… acted like a little asshole the majority of the time. So, actions needed to be taken. 

I noticed Andy loved action figures. He brought them for show and tell, he played with them at recess and wouldn’t let anyone touch them. I now knew what I needed to do.

So, one day after show and tell, and while we were having some quiet time, I made my move.

“Mrs. Myers, Can I get paper from my backpack?”

“Go ahead, Franchesca.”

You see, our backpacks and coats were in a separate room. I went out, and found Andy’s backpack and grabbed his Spider-man action figure. I put it in my bag, and returned in no time with paper. At the end of the day, Andy was none the wiser. I took it home, and  Spider-Man became a patient on my make-shift operating table.

Yes, stealing things is wrong, but… meh.

Andy spent the next few days angrily searching for his action figure and swearing up and down it was in his bag. Mrs. Myers helpfully suggested that perhaps they fell out of his backpack. Andy stopped bullying for a while, but it all came to a head when he pushed me off a swing at recess. I finally got my chance.

“Don’t ever touch me ever again!” I shouted in the most shrill voice I could.

Andy just laughed.

“You can’t do anything to me, you ugly toad!”

I don’t know why he went with “toad” but he did. I opened my coat and pulled out the torso of his Spider-Man action figure. It still had the “AB” initials that Andy’s mom most likely put on it to signify it belonged to him. I held it in my hand and showed it to Andy, who got very upset upon seeing it.

“If you ever bully me again, you won’t get ANY of this back.”

Andy became enraged and demanded I give him the torso. He came forward, and one of the very few pieces of advice Charlie ever gave me, came to me.

“If boys try to grab you, you kick ‘em in the nuts.”

So, I did.

Andy went down like a sack of potatoes and screamed in pain. He told Mrs. Myers shortly thereafter, but due to his bullying and nasty behavior, Mrs. Myers took my side. Andy of course then told them I stole his action figure, which I denied. I know lying is wrong, but in this case… meh. My bag and pockets were searched, but while Andy was crying his eyes out, I hid the torso in the sandbox on the playground, so they never found anything.

And after that, Andy hated my guts, but he never bullied me ever again. And I never gave him that action figure back, just in case. I figure his mom bought him a new one or something. My mission was accomplished either way.

Andy did continue to act out and bully other children the rest of kindergarten, but… I’m no hero.

They can figure it out.

I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. I am the future after all.




Wasn't that fun?

Anyway, I suppose I shall speak to both Melissa and Lilith. First, Melissa.

It is an honor and a privilege to be able to welcome you back Melissa.

I have followed your career here in Sin City Wrestling and I have to say I am… I am underwhelmed to be honest with you. I think everyone really is. I expected more, and so did everyone else. You have been wildly inconsistent, coming and going and disappearing for months to years at a time. You said you were looking to make your mark on the company, and yet, you make a small indent and just as soon, it’s fixed and your mark is gone.

Yes, you won some championships and that’s nothing to scoff at. But at this point, it feels more like this is a desperate attempt to remain relevant. You know good and well you’re not cut out for this anymore. You know it’s been far too long and you should just stay away. You know deep down in your soul that this isn’t worth it anymore. The game has passed you by, as it has pretty much everyone that you competed against. Surely you must be aware of this. Mercedes Vargas and Kat Jones? Has-beens and Ariana Angelos is about the closest thing to a never-was as can be and she has as many title victories as you do.

So, it makes me believe that you have tried to make a mark, and got a little bit of success, but it was fleeting. So the odds really don’t favor you right now Melissa. You’re going to come back and fail again. That’s where we stand. If we’re being honest with each other right now, and hey, I know, you don’t know me, I’m the new girl here but I’m still going to give you the helpful advice you need. So let’s be honest with each other right away. I was always taught that it is the best building block to a healthy relationship. The honest truth is, I’m torn.

On one hand, I need to beat someone like you. Even with the miniscule amount of credibility you have, you still have more than I do. So, I need you to show up and do your thing and dance around and feel that middling reception you’re going to get, come to the ring and wrestle me, and then I need to beat you. It’s really a simple thing.

But on the other hand, you know good and well you showing up is only going to lead to that outcome. Deep down in your heart, you are aware that this isn’t your time anymore. It’s my time. I am the future, or as it was, the present. This whole thing is about me. I am the person whom Sin City Wrestling has tasked with changing the whole game, not you. You are irrelevant at this point and really there is no need for you to show up and suffer the embarrassment of losing to me and then going back into hiatus for the foreseeable future. Because if you are sticking around, it means I have to change you too.

And honestly, again, I don’t have the time or patience to really change you when you don’t matter.

I have a grand plan and you are just the stepping stone that I step on and then I don’t think about afterwards. It’s really that simple. The plan doesn’t require you to try and reclaim lost momentum or the tiny amount of faded glory you once had. I want you out of the way. I need you out of the way.

But you can clearly see my dilemma here, correct? It’s not lost on you? I need you to just do me a solid here and just accept what this is and let me get on with my work. Because my work going to be a long, arduous process and you gunking it up would be really fucking rude and I haven’t said anything rude to you, have I? I’ve been nothing but cordial. I have not raised my voice, I haven’t lied about you. I was very polite if I do say so myself. I started this whole thing by telling you what an honor it is to face you.

And yet, I can sense this growing hostility. And I don’t like it, Melissa.

I might have said some things about you that you perhaps find offensive or rude, but they were not intended that way. If you took them that way, then that really says more about you than it does about me. I am merely stating the truth and the shared consensus of your contemporaries. You haven’t lived up to expectations, I think we can both agree on this topic. You haven’t competed, nor won a championship in Sin City Wrestling in over 2 years. You have been absent, and long since forgotten. I have been trying this entire time to give you the respect you deserve and I just keep getting the sense that you are going to be very ungrateful about this and treat me as if I know nothing and I’m just some little girl who knows nothing.

I know more than you think Melissa. I believe I have shown this with this little chat we are having. I could lie about you, but what’s the point? I’ve demonstrated all there is to care about with you, and I’m trying to make that count for something, and I’m doing it for you. But if you insist on all of the hostility and being ungrateful, I will oblige you. I will put you right back into obscurity on Sunday. I will take you out and if you persist I will ensure that you do not return to the ring for a very long time, if ever again.

That’s the game we’re playing Melissa. It can be very easy, and I can beat you and then, hey… you can say you played a part in the biggest game-changing event in Sin City Wrestling history.

Or you can be wiped out.

You can be a good soldier and play the part I need you to play, or I can break you like a toy and put you in the scrap pile.

The choice is really yours Melissa.

Do yourself and your peers a huge favor and make way for the future. Please?


Moving on, it is always fascinating to me to try and figure out what makes a person tick. I believed once this match was announced that I was being given a very tough nut to crack as it were, when it came to Lilith Locke. I took a look, I stared into that abyss and I saw what was ahead of me.

I am scared, Lilith. Terrified, even. Quaking in my boots, as it were.

Okay, no. I don’t want to disrespect you like that. It’s an insult to both mine and your intelligence. On with this.

Does this whole scary-girl spooky bitch thing like… supposed to be that way? Are you really going with that? Do you think that sounds scary or intimidating? 

I hate… Well, no, this has to be said: You really don’t have the first clue about what evil actually is. You just think you do. You put on a mask, you use voice distortion and that is what you think evil or something crazy is. It’s just showing a lack of imagination and creativity to me.

Come on, show me something Lilith. Show me how evil you are. Show me how crazy you are. Because all I’m getting now is the same type of jump scares that people think passes for horror today. Let me explain this to you: I can jump out of the bushes and startle you. Will you be scared of me? No. Of course not. You’ll jump and recoil, but you don’t really have a fear of me. That’s what you’re doing. You jumped out of the bushes and yelled “boo” and I’m more annoyed than anything else. Because it’s cheap. You’re like… 2000’s CGI monster effects. It looks bad, it sounds bad, it’s just bad.

Your words are just hollow, you understand this, right? You don’t scare anybody with them. “I’m going to crush your windpipe oooh boogie boogie boogie.” That’s you. Have you crushed a windpipe yet, Lilith? Have you felt the last bit of air escape a person’s lungs? Because if you have… first of all, that’s awesome, but if you truly had, you really wouldn’t be bragging about it, or threatening people with it. Tell me Lilith, are you really going to do all those horrible things you say to me too? I have yet to see you gouge an eye out or anything like it. I don’t want you to threaten me with that if you’re not going to do it. If you’re going to actually choke me, I need your tiny hands flexing for all their worth. Tense, white-fucking-knuckled. I don’t want you to say it unless you mean it!

No Lilith, I want to FEEL that shit. You will have to try much, much harder than that to really make me feel the fear you want me to feel. Because I’ve felt true fear and you, you are not giving it to me. The psycho babble doesn’t make me feel intimidated. It just feels rehearsed. You can tilt your head to the side like a dog, because you think it makes you look strange. You can ramble on and on about crushing things and digging your fingers into eye sockets and whatever you think makes you sound threatening, but it’s just not gonna work for me.

You see, as I said, I need to feel it. That’s the key to a good sense of horror and dread. Horror isn’t a look, it isn’t a word, it isn’t a voice. Horror is an atmosphere. It is the unknown. It’s what I don’t see, that makes me afraid. It’s not knowing what’s actually there. You’re giving away all your secrets without even trying, Lilith. You’re not going to make me squirm or have that sense of apprehension if you just give me all the blood, guts and gore right away.

Besides, even if you did it the right way, it’s still not going to really bother me.

I used to fucking cut people open for a living, Lilith.

Well, I guess in the proper sense they weren’t people. They were cadavers. I don’t know, do we class cadavers as people? They’re just a corpse, right? Anyway, I had them laying on the slab. I cut them open with a scalpel, and then had to use bolt cutters to break their ribs. I’ve had all kinds of human pus, blood and all kinds of others fluids explode in a big juicy fucking fountain on my table. So no, Lilith, I am not going to be worried about anything you have to say.

No Lilith, I will take you and Melissa and I will beat you both and then, I will move on. I will force you to be who you really are at the end of the day. You will have to look at the woman in the glass and know that you’re cheating her. The role you’re playing isn’t working anymore. Some people may be afraid of you, but I can assure you, I am not. I have dealt with the horrors of the world and I can come out the other side with the knowledge of what’s real. You, Lilith, clearly haven’t.

You just need some therapy. Or to grow up and stop pretending that you are as dangerous as others make you out to be. They may build you up, but I will break you down. In fact, I already have. Just like that.

You call yourself chaos, you call yourself twisted, but right now, your blood boils with rage as I didn’t even need to try that hard. I have turned the chaos on you. Because you just think you understand chaos, you haven’t lived it. You’re angry right now, partly because of what I said, but more so because what I’ve said is the truth. It’s your dirty little secret. And with these words, I will change you.

Can you fathom the depths I will go to change everyone? Especially when I start with you?

Just something for you to consider, Lilith. Think about it for the next few days. And while you do that, just remember to look at that woman in the glass. Because she is clearly very disappointed in you. I will change you Lilith. I’m going to make it a goal of mine. Or maybe not. Maybe I’ll just get bored after I beat you and move on to another toy to play with.

Maybe. Maybe not.

But you won’t know until after Sunday.

See? That’s the atmosphere I love. Uncertainty.

Enjoy it, Lilith.



Ladies, I will see you soon. I just know we're going to be good friends.


7
Character Building Roleplays / Chapter 2: Sarah's Folly
« on: May 02, 2025, 01:59:01 AM »

I have told you about my mom, and while I should, and in some ways do feel bad for her, she was complicit in everything that happened to me, even if she didn’t really have much to do with it.

Sarah was born in 1982. She met an awful man in 1999, married him in 2000 and had me in 2001.

From there, despite being the ripe old age of 20, Sarah was a mom. She did the best she could, but she really had no frame of reference and no one to lean on. And it took its toll obviously. When someone just essentially legally kidnaps you, it’s kind of hard. And I would suggest that it just became too much for her.

My mother was there for the majority of my childhood. She tried to teach me things, but when you barely know how the world even works, it becomes rather difficult. She gave me a tablet and let me just learn on my own. My teacher was the internet itself. And not even the awful cesspool the internet is now. Like the infantile days of youtube. Nothing but 10 minute videos of people posting random nonsense. Before anyone really wanted to be youtube famous.

My mother did, when I was young, care for me. She tried her best, I suppose, to raise me. I learned how to read, write, speak and spell without issue. Charlie? I know once I was able to walk, left me to my own devices, but did, a time or two, actually reach out, hold me and comfort me when something was wrong. But most of that was my mother.

Again, it’s not like my mother has some elaborate backstory to really talk about. She was 17 years into her young life, and then boom, you get fucking uprooted, and given a false promise of an easy life. And she lamented it the day she found out she was pregnant. Again, you have to grow up almost instantly when this happens. You just are a parent. I don’t know if my mother ever thought about other options, but then again, I never asked. All I know is that I’m here, and it seemed to suck the soul out of my mother.

I know all too well, just how much having no time to grow up and mature can strain a person. Imagine just being removed from everything you know and you love and being put in a different place, and having to essentially start your life all over again. And with a person who doesn’t really even love or care about you. I don’t think Charlie really cared about anything but himself. He gave my mother money, and just stepped aside after that. He trapped her in a way that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. She was utterly dependent on him, and he essentially used my infancy and early childhood to help handcuff my mother to him.

I don’t believe that Charlie ever really loved my mother. He loved things about her, sure. But truly loved and cared for? No. And what lesson does that teach a woman? To Charlie my mother’s only value was what she could give him when he needed or wanted it. Getting pregnant with me obviously wasn’t what he wanted and only briefly made him act at least… decently, I guess towards my mother. She was a piece of meat, with no real way out of the situation.

Until she found it. Or rather… it was given to her.

I will say that my mother did everything she could have done, all things considered, to raise me. I was fed, clothed, and had a roof over my head. I was taught how to function properly. I had a small sense of right and wrong, good and evil, as it were. My formative years were spent as most any other child’s were. Essentially, it was a 9-5 for my mother. Because after 5, usually dinner time, I was pretty much left to my own devices.

But it became too much for my mother.

Again, you are a straight A student, you have your whole life ahead of you, and then boom, it’s all gone. Like, fucking GONE. You have this new life, and you have to raise a child and you are getting nothing from your partner. It’s a parasitic relationship and eventually, you run out of energy to give. No matter who you are, or how strong you think you are. We all have our breaking points. I often saw my mother crying, no doubt wondering how she fucked up this badly. When I was 8, she suffered a mental breakdown and spent several weeks in the hospital. She came home after that and it did not get any better.

 When I was 9, my mother finally succumbed to medication to help her get through the day. Something to take the pain away. The stress of life is crazy. And sometimes, you need a little help to get you through the day. And she got it.

Alprazolam.

Or, as you probably know it, Xanax.

I don’t know if normal antidepressants would have done any better or worse. Actually, yes I do.

You see, Xanax is usually prescribed for stress, and it relaxes people. But, oddly, or perhaps, not so oddly, one of the side effects of Xanax is actually difficulty sleeping. So, the mood was helped for a little bit, but then it wasn’t enough. This went on for a couple of years. Finally, my mother had to have something to help her sleep. And she got it.

Zolpidem.

Or, as you may know it, Ambien.

Combining Ambien and Xanax together isn’t recommended. They are both antidepressants. They both cause fatigue, drowsiness, and more importantly, slow down breathing. Once the doctor found out about this possible combination, he no longer gave her Xanax and instead, prescribed Sertraline. Which is Zoloft.
Zoloft in the morning enabled my mother to power through and mask the horrible feelings she had. Perhaps I was able to give her some joy early on, but everyone has their limits.

The Ambien was a different story. 

I watched many times as a child as she took those pills and would literally be comatose about 30 minutes later. Completely unresponsive and unable to do anything even if she wanted to. But, she did have a sleepwalking issue which then resulted in multiple times her sleepwalking to the kitchen, opening bottles and retrieving food from the refrigerator, and walking away, back to the couch or even her bedroom and laying down again. I had to ensure a lot of the time that my mother actually slept on her side or stomach, because she would vomit and it would get stuck in her mouth. I distinctly remember fishing chunks of food from her mouth with my finger, and Charlie doing the same once I told him about it. I suppose at least, he cared for her in that he didn’t want her to die.

Perhaps more so that he would be the prime suspect in her death investigation than anything else.

There was even a time when my mother took Ambien, and then went to sleep, only to get up, grab her keys, get in the car and drive down the highway.This is rare, but it did happen. She was pulled over and arrested and Charlie had to bail her out. Perhaps she was mentally trying to escape without even realizing it. But she was trapped.

This incident caused my mother to lose her license and so she couldn’t really go anywhere, further trapping her. Surrounded by the same walls, the same floors, the same things, all day, everyday. I know why my mother took pills. To escape this existence. Perhaps it was just my presence that prevented her from ultimately taking all of them.

It forced me to grow up and mature faster than normal. I basically ran the house when I was 10. I learned through osmosis for some things, but a lot of things I had to look up on the internet. I suppose I should be thankful that it was there. If there was one thing my parents did give me, it was exceptional intelligence. I probably wasted it on dumb shit if I’m being honest, but I was able to essentially cook and clean, and do many household related activities very early in life. My mother had a hand in it, as did Charlie. But when your father has no interest in you and your mother can’t take care of herself much less a child, what more can you really do?

I honestly don’t know if my mother is even aware I left the house. I won’t say that our relationship is broken, or even strained. She raised me, sure. But that only lasted for the first 10-11 years of my life. Once my mother was caught up in pills, once she was finally broken, there wasn’t anything there. She became more or less a zombie who barely spoke, just went through her routine like a robot. She was a husk of a person. She had been on autopilot for basically my entire middle to high school life. It is why she didn’t object to Charlie finding a renewed interest in me.

My mother never reached out to me, she never attempted to contact me in any way once I was gone. She sat there, when Charlie told me to leave. She sat there, on the couch blissfully unaware. Part of me in that moment hoped that it was a permanent one for her. I hoped it was the end for her. More of a mercy killing than anything.

So I can’t really be mad at her, other than putting an incredible strain on me, through no fault of her own.

The end result is that Charlie ruined my mother, which caused my mother to be unable to properly raise me.

I’m not from a broken home, my home was DESTROYED.

And it has made me who I am.

8

My father is a predator and a deviant.

But I cannot tell my story, without telling his story first. Because we’re a lot alike.

No, I’m not a predator. Well, I am. But at least not in that same sense. And I’m not nearly on his level of being a deviant, but we are both products of the home and time we grew up in.

But this is the prequel, if you will, as to how I became the agent of chaos.

Charlie was born in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Charlie was a product of the late ‘60’s and into the ‘70’s and like all teens do I guess, he rebelled against his parents, who were products of the 1940’s. Shit was crazy back then. World War II, into the Cold War, Red scare, everybody suspicious of everybody. Rock and Roll coming into its own and being scary as FUCK. Dudes just shaking their hips scared old people and made it devil music. And then you got people going into space, The President of the United States getting shot. Shit was WILD back then.

And then here comes Charlie, who grows up and more people get shot, the hippies show up, and everybody is on drugs. But by all accounts Charlie was a square. A nerd that got swirlies I guess. But boy when he hit the late ‘70’s he fell in love with punk rock. And that fueled his rebellion. He was about anarchy, fighting the man. He was going to concerts, hanging out at bars and clubs and probably doing some shady shit.

I mean, he was. He said so during a drunken rant a time or two.

But then something happened and all of a sudden he was 25 and realized dying his hair and spiking it into a mohawk wasn’t going to be the best option. Because shit changes when you’re 18. There’s no test or anything that says “You’re an adult now.”
You just…are.

 And suddenly, Charlie had to figure life out after a few years of still being carefree despite not actually being able to be as carefree as he was. And so, Charlie grew up and finally tried to get his life together, but those 7 years of drinking, smoking, doing copious amounts of drugs, fucking, and being a punk rocker had left him 7 years behind.

He wasn’t good at anything. Those times where you’re supposed to learn a skill or trade or… anything useful, he had pissed away starting to start a band and an anti-government coup. Probably both at the same time. But once that faded, he had to try and fucking do something.

So he spent the ‘80’s and ‘90’s trying to find something. To become something. All the while still maintaining the rebellious spirit he had. He was still anti-government, but that shit doesn’t pay bills. He spent the better part of two decades landing odd jobs and getting fired because he was a functioning alcoholic and drug addict. Finally, he became a contractor, working for himself and doing roofing, landscaping, shit like that. And he found himself wanting to settle down.

And so, this being the ‘90’s, he found the internet, a fancy new thing to try and get himself a girlfriend and wife. And he set his eyes on a woman named Sarah Clyde. Only, by this point, he wasn’t looking for the girlfriend or wife type. He wasn’t trying to find that at all. What he thought was settling down wasn’t even that.
He was simply looking for a permanent hookup.   

And Charlie took advantage of Sarah, who was only 17 at the time.
In the year 1999… Charlie was 38.

He wined and dined her, and I mean, Sarah was captivated and probably had a thing for older men. Some people are like that. And she thought she was going to live a life that sounded pretty good to a teenager.

“You don’t have to work, you can stay at home, you have money so you don’t need to worry about anything like that. He’s got the job, the car, the career, the house. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got life figured out.”

That sounds pretty great for someone who isn’t even out of fucking high school.

And for the record, nobody has life figured out even at 38. When you’re trying to have a relationship with a person half your age, you have NOTHING figured out.

Charlie set this relationship up and they kept it a secret for six months. He groomed her. And then Sarah turned 18 and now, like I said before, she was an adult. Again, you just are one day. Shit is weird like that. So, Charlie, who had money, bought a house and moved himself and Sarah out of Michigan entirely and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This was part of his manipulation and control. He moved her away from everyone she knew. He convinced her this was the right thing to do because he was going to make her life easy. But Charlie wasn’t looking for a loving relationship. Simply, one of dependence. She would be dependent on him, and without him, she would have nothing, and be somewhere where she would be well behind if she attempted to leave.

And the dream scenario turned into her nightmare, because that’s what always happens.

Charlie never went anywhere with Sarah. She may have gone out on her own from time to time, but she had no social life. She didn’t know the neighbors, didn’t work, didn’t drive, she had the bare minimum, and she slowly began to realize that maybe this wasn’t what she wanted. Because, again, she was FUCKING 18. I cannot imagine how batshit crazy the life she was living was then, but I think I have a pretty good idea.

And maybe Charlie sensed that was what was happening, because in 2000, on October 31st, they were married. A 40 year old man married a 19 year old girl. Answering the question “Who the fuck gets married on Halloween?”.

Timing is everything in life I guess, right?

And then, to ring in the new year, Sarah got pregnant. And Charlie was not happy about it. He realized what it meant for him. He now had an extra mouth to feed, and not one that could give him any personal benefits. Sarah was nothing but a concubine for Charlie. And with her pregnant, sex was… less of an option, not that he didn’t try. But now she had less uses. And seeing this as a big negative instead of life being created…

Charlie kicked Sarah out of the house with nothing.

And for two months, Sarah had to stay at a shelter, having no money to do anything for herself.

After those two months, Charlie came back. Perhaps coming to his senses, or more likely, perhaps sobering up for a short period. Charlie poured his heart out to Sarah who, not having any other options, took him back and moved back into the house. And for that short period? Life was as she thought it might be.

And 9 months later, out popped little Francesca Denise Holliday.
September 10th, 2001.
Yes, if you ever had any doubt, I AM a harbinger of world-changing events.

Charlie, at that point, thought about actually settling down. He took care of me, from what my mother told me. He played with me, carried me, bought me things, changed my diaper and all that stuff that dads are supposed to do. Perhaps I gave him some kind of purpose, a reason to not be a complete shithead.

But, turns out, that wasn’t true either.

As soon as I could walk, talk and move about a house of my own volition, Charlie pretty much tagged out on actually being a parent and left that up to Sarah. I became just another mouth to feed, and not one that he was personally interested in feeding if he could help it. Charlie was 40 and wondering what the hell happened to his life.

I became a burden.

I suppose that being a parent isn’t something you just can do without actually wanting to do it. And I know Charlie didn’t want to do that, mainly because of how I was treated.

Now, Charlie was never abusive to me. He never physically harmed me. No, that was too much effort. He may have had some actual disdain for me as a person. I cramped his style, I had to be taken care of. But once I hit the age of 14, I was paraded in front of Charlie’s friends and co-workers. Several times, I was hit on my men nearly 3 times my age, and Charlie didn’t really care. I found it terrible at first. I wasn’t even fully into my body, not developed as a person, and so while I thought this was terrible at first, I became used to it. But I couldn’t become my mother. So that’s why I say at first, because I began to understand and figure out that these men would give me anything I asked for. So, I began using them instead. And I amassed quite a bit of money, gifts and clothes, simply by flirting with 40 year old men, and never giving them anything in return other than a compliment, and most of the time, my time to listen or simply be objectified. It was a small price to pay for becoming a hustler at the age of 15 with literally no consequences.

But Charlie wasn’t impressed by this. I don’t know if he really cared about me at all. He never told me he loved me. Every request was a huge burden, every holiday a complete fiasco. More or less, I got presents and other material things so I would shut up and leave him alone, unless I could do something for him.

The only other real use I had was drunken therapy sessions, which is pretty much where I learned all the information I know. Now, it IS entirely possible that Charlie was gaslighting me, so there’s that aspect as well.

I suppose that was enough, since I did manage to become a fully functioning adult, so there’s that. Not that Charlie is or was interested in that in the first place. I was, and always will be a burden to him, I could never please him, or make him proud or even happy for me. He believed he did his job. And to an extent, I suppose he did.

I have not seen Charlie since I left. That night, Charlie has no idea who I was, and assumed I was either A) A hooker, or B) There to rob him. So he pulled a gun on me, and told me to get out of his house.

So I did.

And I’ve been on my own ever since.

 I don’t know if he’s still alive. I will assume he is though. If I know anything about him, it’s that all the years of drugs and alcohol probably gave him a death tolerance. Death has been coming for him for a long time, and he has persisted for this long.

That’s what I know of my father. I suppose it’s cliche that a girl would have daddy issues.

 But I’m different.

 I don’t JUST have daddy issues.

I have mommy issues too.

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