May 30 - late evening
Saxon Hotel (where the hell else?)
He sat back, away from the crowds of people talking, laughing, drinking and dancing as they mingled at the rooftop bar that was currently hosting the wedding reception of his older brother Lachlan and Sierra. He watched as the newlywed couple greeted everyone that turned up (well, moreso Lachlan than Sierra) as he leaned back in his chair, swirling a glass of red wine around in his hand. A pair of feminine arms wrapped around his chest from behind, and he smiled as Bella Madison rested her chin on his shoulder. He turned to kiss her cheek, but she was quick and turned her own face so that they ended up kissing on the lips. Mal chuckled as she walked around him and promptly sat down in his lap.
“I’m actually glad you convinced me to come,” she admitted, leaning to rest her head on his chest. “I know I haven’t been in the best mindset since all this...insanity started. First Mattie, then Aaron…”
Mal put the glass down on the table so that he could wrap both arms around Bella, pulling her tight to his chest and resting his cheek on the top of her head while she buried her face into his chest. “Listen to me, macushla...things are going to get better soon. Nick will find Aaron, Mack will find Mattie, this whole virus bullshit will be over, and then we’re throwing the biggest fuckin’ party any of us have ever seen. We’ll all get so shitfaced we’ll forget the last few months even happened.”
Bella smiled a bit. “Yeah, that sounds like something Levi would be ecstatic to put together.” She looked up at him, her blue eyes sparkling in the light of the candles from the table. “We could even throw in our engagement as a reason to celebrate, since we haven’t really had a proper party.”
“Not to mention our mixed tag title win,” Mal smirked.
She returned the smirk. “That too, of course. Gosh, we’re gonna have so much to celebrate.”
“See? That’s the spirit.” He leaned in and softly kissed her forehead. “We just have to have faith that it’s all going to be OK.”
They fell into quiet for a moment, watching as Sierra and Lachlan took to the makeshift dance floor for their first dance together as husband and wife. Bella let out a dreamy sigh. “I can’t believe that’s going to be us soon.”
Mal smiled, glancing down at her left hand and the engagement ring sparkling on her fourth finger. “Neither can I, and I’m the one that put the damn ring on your finger.” He paused a moment, looking thoughtful. “You know, I just had a thought...we can start the celebrations a little early.”
She glanced up at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Well, next Saturday will be an anniversary of sorts…”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Still not following.”
He gave her a bit of a withering stare. “Next Saturday will have been a year since you officially started your wrestling career.”
She blinked in surprise. “Really? I guess with everything else going on, it completely slipped my mind.”
Mal nodded. “Yep, last year at Destiny was when you stormed the ring and clocked Levi in the head with that steel chair, kicking off the first of many epic battles we’ve had over in PWS.”
She smiled a little. “And got me nominated twice in the same category at the year end awards.”
“See? Wherever you go, you know how to make a damn statement. Might have taken a bit longer here in SCW, but I’ll be damned if they don’t know who you are by now.”
“Well, that’s only because I needed you by my side to kick my self-loathing ass into gear and remind myself that I’m second-gen not to be fucked with.”
He grinned at her. “You know, I kinda love that saying. It suits you perfectly. And I can’t take all the credit, love. After all, I nearly got the both of us fired.”
“Good thing you pulled your head out of your ass then, isn’t it?” she teased, sticking her tongue out at him playfully.
“Yeah, yeah.” He gave a roll of his eyes. “Look, we can keep rehashing my nearly epic fuck-up, or better yet we can look ahead to Into The Void and focus on getting the biggest win of our SCW careers, as well as our first taste of gold.”
She smiled, leaning up to give him a lingering kiss. “I like that plan.”
“Figured you would.”
Their attention was drawn back to the dance floor, where a group of women were starting to fill up the middle of it. “Shit, the bouquet toss!” Bella said, jumping to her feet. “I gotta make sure that Alanah is part of that!”
Mal tugged on her wrist, causing Bella to tumble back into his lap. She was about to get angry with him, but he simply pointed to the group. “I don’t think you have to worry about that.”
She followed his finger to see that, sure enough, Malachi’s younger sister Alanah was right in the centre of the group. She looked a little uncomfortable being there, but she was surrounded on all sides and was unable to escape the group.
“I wonder who got her up there?” Bella wondered out loud.
Mal gave a shrug of his shoulders. “Dunno, but this is about to be a clusterfuck of epic proportions.”
Sierra finally came onto the dance floor, looking slightly embarrassed but with a little smile on her face as she turned her back to the crowd and tossed the bouquet of flowers over her head. The women in the crowd started scrambling, but soon they stopped and parted to reveal that the flowers had been caught by…
Alanah.
She looked absolutely stunned, her brown eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape, even as the women around her clapped and congratulated her. Bella let out a little squeal of happiness as she jumped off Mal’s lap again and rushed over to Alanah, giving her a big hug. Mal just blinked in shock, before grabbing the wine glass and downing its contents in one gulp. He stared at the empty glass for a moment, shaking his head and rising to his feet.
“I’m gonna need something stronger to deal with this.”
—————-
June 5
Saxon Hotel - rooftop bar
Another Friday night, with SCW quarantined in the Saxon Hotel while the virus raged on around them. Of course, being that it was a Friday night, the rooftop bar was the hot spot as many of the staff and roster of the company enjoyed the warm night as they drank and mingled.
But there was one person who - surprise, surprise - was off on his own, sitting on a plush lounge chair near a tabletop fireplace, nursing a bottle of Heineken. Malachi was used to being on his own, and truth be told he much preferred it that way. He was fairly certain that most of the roster still didn’t trust him for what he did to Lachlan, but he couldn’t care less. He had never been one to make friends easily, even back when he was a young boy.
“You know, I’ve had a lot of people squawking at me over the last little while about how ever since I started teaming up with Bella, I’ve ‘gone soft’. That I’m not the same ruthless, malicious bastard that walked into this company and gave my own brother a concussion and cost him a shot at the World title.” He chuckled slightly. “Normally, I’d go off on people like that, but in all honesty, I feel sorry for the pathetic basement-dwelling little incels. You know, the ones who call themselves ‘good guys’ but call any woman who won’t date them a bitch? Just because I get the privilege of teaming with my ridiculously beautiful fiancee does not mean I’ve lost my edge. If anything, it’s sharpened it. Because now I have something to fight for. I have a reason for everything that I do in that ring. Every hit I land, every body I break, it’s all to prove that Bella Madison and Malachi are the future of the Mixed Tag division. And in two days, that statement becomes fact.”
He finally turned his eyes to the camera, the fire reflecting in their blue depths and adding an almost otherworld ferocity to them, though the rest of his face remained carefully neutral.
“It’s coming down to the wire. This is when the nerves ramp up, the intensity gets dialed up to eleven, and we make that last push to prove to everyone with words just why you should believe in us. That is, before we step into the ring and prove it with our talent, our determination, and our hard work. Six of the best that SCW has to offer will be stepping into that ring on Sunday night, and every single one of us is more than ready to lay everything on the line for that shot at golden glory. So, let’s break it all down, shall we?”
He reclined back in the lounger, bringing one leg up to rest an ankle across his knee while he laced his fingers together across his chest. His face took on a pensive look.
“Brandon and Daniela. Two of the four members of the Trenton Tigers. The founding members, if I’m not mistaken. The team that almost didn’t make it to the dance in favour of some Johnny-come-latelys. See, if I were the two of you, I’d be right pissed that I’d fought tooth and nail to get a shot like this only to give it up to two people that just sat back and let you do all the dirty work. Look, I will give you both the credit you deserve...you weren’t exactly the walk in the park that I had been expecting. In fact, you two are pretty damn tough. And yeah, you proved me wrong when you stepped to us and pulled out the win. But lightning ain’t gonna strike twice. See, I’ve learned from that mistake, and I’m not going to make it again on Sunday. Neither will Bella, for that matter. We’ve both been watching that match back, almost obsessively. We’ve picked it apart, down to its bare bones. We’ve strategized more than a well-trained Spartan battalion, and we know that we are ready to avenge our loss to you. The fact that we’ll be coming out of this as champions...well, that just sweetens the pot.”
“And now we come to the reigning champs. Alex Jones and Johanna Krieger. One of the most dominant mixed tag teams in this division since...well, probably my brother and Sierra. Everyone's got the two of you as the odds-on-favourite to walk out of Into the Void still the champs. I mean, why wouldn’t you be? You’ve proven every time the two of you step into that ring that you are not a team to be fucked with. You’ve systematically destroyed every other team that’s dared to step up to you. So yeah, I can see why you’d be the favourites to win. But see, you may have designs on breaking some records with those belts, but it just ain’t gonna happen. Because Sunday night, your watch comes to its end, and a new guard takes up the banner. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve set quite the standard for the mixed tag division, a standard that for most others may be quite impossible to live up to. But trust me when I say that not only are Bella and I up to the challenge of meeting that standard...we are more than ready to raise it so much higher.”
He sat back up, leaning slightly so he was centred in the camera shot. This time, there was no mistaking the pure determination in his eyes as he stared down the lens.
“The new era begins on Sunday night.”
Drawing his thumb across his throat in his now trademark gesture, he rose from the chair and walked out of frame, while the camera blurred out on the crackling fire until the scene faded away to black.
