[Mikah]

“THE HOUSE THAT BUILT ME.”
LOCATION: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK.
DAYS UNTIL THE MATCH: 6
SCENE: i
REC

MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021
TIME:2:30 P.M.

Mikah stands on the sidewalk, staring at Jack and Becca’s bar that she had spent so many hours at when she had been pregnant with Leighton and even after she had her oldest child. Jack and Becca were more like her parents than her biological parents were and that made a lasting impact on Mikah. But she stands on the sidewalk, staring at the building that now had a closed sign on it. Mikah runs a hand through her platinum locks as she thinks about all of the things that Becca had taught her during her pregnancy. And then in Leighton’s newborn stage. It was because of Becca that Mikah had turned out to be a pretty decent mother, even though she still had her doubts about it, most days.

::ER “I’m surprised to see you here.”

Mikah turns around and looks at the young woman, who now stood in front of her. A smile halfway graces her lips as she looks at her. It had been closing in on three years since she last saw the young girl that had once shown great promise in the ring but family came first. And Mikah fully understood that.

;;MIKAH “Life has been crazy the past few years.”

Mikah looks over at her and sees that not much has changed in her appearance. But she had something about her that screamed more mature than the last time that Mikah had seen her.

;;MIKAH “How’s your siblings, Ellie?”

Mikah looks at Elowyn, who relaxes a little bit once she realizes that Mikah actually remembered who she was.

::ER “They’re fine. Asher is graduating in May and I’m struggling to maintain my cool with Auden, who only wants to be an adult. And Lincoln is just really smart and is enjoying his friends at school.”

Mikah smiles at Elowyn and then looks back at the building, before her eyes look back at Elowyn. She takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out.

;;MIKAH “How long has this been closed?”

Ellie looks at the closed down bar before looking at Mikah again.

::ER “A while, actually. They tried to sell it but when COVID hit and everybody went into quarantine, they couldn’t. So it’s just been sitting there empty since September of 2019. I think they tried to call you because they knew how important this place was to you but they must not have had the right phone number because Becca said that she never got a hold of you. But then they both got COVID and didn’t make it.”

Mikah raises an eyebrow before walking over to the building and Ellie follows her, raising an eyebrow at the blonde. Mikah’s quiet for a moment before finding the hide a key that was hidden in a spot that only her, Becca, and Jack knew about. Ellie watches as Mikah unlocks the door and walk inside and then putting the key in the pocket of her jacket.

;;MIKAH “I lived in the apartment above the bar when I was just barely over eighteen years of age, Ellie. I ran away from Seattle, from my biological parents because I couldn’t stand they way that they handled…things. Becca and Jack treated me like their daughter and I definitely didn’t appreciate them as much as I should have. I had my daughter here and Becca treated Leighton like her own granddaughter and helped me with her the best that she could. They didn’t have children of their own; something about complications and fertility so they were happy to dote on Leighton and me. I should have come back more than I have but…I got busy. I had another baby and I always wanted to come back so that they could have met Myles but it just…it wasn’t in the cards.”

Ellie could see the raw emotion in Mikah’s eyes as she talks about Jack and Becca and her regrets in life. Ellie watches as Mikah moves to one of the closed doors and grabs the key from her pocket again and uses it to unlock the door.

::ER Are you supposed to…“”

She doesn’t get an answer as Mikah starts to move up the stairs and Ellie quickly follows the blonde up the stairs. Mikah unlocks the door to the apartment and walks inside, placing the key back in her pocket. She runs a hand over one of the kitchen counters. It was a small apartment; just one bedroom, one bath, a kitchen and a living room and that was it. It was fully furnished and Mikah smiles as she sees a picture of her and Leighton taped to the fridge still. Mikah walks over to the picture and touches the tips of her fingers to the image, looking at the baby form of her now 15 year old daughter.

;;MIKAH “Becca always loved this picture. She says it’s how she remembers me before I got into wrestling and before I got to be such a big name and had this reputation of being a bitch. She says that this is who I really am and she always said that she could see how much I loved Leighton even though I seemed terrified of motherhood for the first two months of Leighton’s life.”

Mikah’s eyes look over the slightly faded photograph as she looks and remembers what it had been like as a young mother with a new born child.

::ER “They loved you, you know. They talked about you often and tried to make sure that people knew about you. They were proud of you and how you made something out of yourself instead of just living above the bar and working the bar.”

Mikah smiles as she looks over at Ellie before walking over to one of the windows and looking out.

;;MIKAH “I spent a lot of hours at this window with Leighton when she was a baby. She liked to people watch.”

She was reminiscing about the days of her youth and how it had been as a single mother. She hadn’t entirely been alone as she had Leighton, Becca, and Jack. But it was still different when she was alone in the apartment with the baby.

::ER “You seem to have your shit together now…and you have another child…”

A laugh escapes Mikah’s lips as she glances over at Ellie.

;;MIKAH “Right. Divorced, with two children, each of them has a different father. And I can’t decide what I want to do with my life.”

Ellie raises an eyebrow at Mikah’s small confession.

::ER “I thought you knew what you wanted to do with your life. And were doing it…”

Mikah shrugs her shoulders at Ellie.

;;MIKAH “Wrestling? That’s easy; I could do that blindfolded and be good at it but my personal life? That’s kind of in shambles. No direction, just living.”

She shrugs her shoulders as she looks around the apartment.

::ER “You know that’s not a bad thing, there could be worse things, Mikah. You know that you helped me so much in 2018. You got me this great job with amazing benefits and helped me find the best for my siblings. You need to give yourself more credit.”

Mikah chuckles before turning and looking at Ellie, an unrecognizable emotion in her eyes.

;;MIKAH “You might be the only person that thinks that. I don’t think that there are a lot of people in the world that think I’m a good person. They can’t separate me from what they see on TV or in the ring; they think that’s who I am. And granted, that’s who I let them see but..”

She shrugs her shoulders as she stops talking for a moment.

::ER “Fuck them. You know who you are, Mikah. And that’s all that really matters. Jack and Becca believed in you and I think that that is important. They knew that you were a good person despite everything that you say about yourself. You didn’t even know me two and a half years ago and yet, you helped me more than you will ever know. And I surely didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have. And without you, I wouldn’t have met Adam at all and now he’s living with me and helping me out with my chaotic siblings. You’re better than what the trolls say that you are.”

Mikah smirks a little bit.

;;MIKAH “I have to face one of the girls that I’m training at Jet City South. She claims to be a mini me but she doesn’t have the personality that I did at her age. She’s good in the ring because duh, I’m the one who’s worked with her. But she’s way too talkative and way too perky to be a mini me. You are more of a mini me than she is. And nobody is going to be exactly how I was ten years or so ago. I was in a different place and still running around with Christian Othniel and hanging off of every word that man said. And the alcohol was out of control. It was a disaster.”

Mikah sighs before running a hand through her hair.

::ER “You’ve grown up well, though. You seem to have gotten over that stage of your life.”

Mikah nods her head, a smile on her face.

;;MIKAH “It took a while to figure out, I’ll admit that. But once I got it figured out, it was easy to get my shit in order.  But hey do you know how to run a camera? I have an idea…”

A glint appears in her eyes as she looks at Ellie, a smirk spreading across her face.

::ER “Yes, I know how to do that.”

Mikah smiles and walks over to the fridge and takes the picture off of the fridge and motions for Ellie to follow her. Ellie raises an eyebrow but follows the blonde back down the stairs to the bar.

;;MIKAH “Great. I have the perfect idea for my promo for this weekend. Everybody’s gonna be surprised.”

“ROOTS.”
LOCATION: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK.
DAYS UNTIL THE MATCH: 6
SCENE: ii
REC

MONDAY, MARCH 1 2021
TIME: 4:45 PM

The scene opens up to see Mikah sitting on a bar in front of a mirror that she’d taped plenty of old pictures of herself and Leighton all over. She smirks as she looks at the camera as it zooms in just enough as Mikah holds up the picture that had been on the fridge earlier.

;;MIKAH “This is who I am.”

She looks at the picture, a look of admiration on her pretty face before she looks back at the camera as she lets the camera zoom in on the picture of her and Leighton.

;;MIKAH “Or who I was at eighteen years old. This is before I got into wrestling and before I even formed who I am today. This little girl in my arms is my daughter, Leighton, who is currently fifteen years old and flourishing well in her world. But do you know who she’s going to be?”

Mikah flicks her eyes to the camera again.

;;MIKAH “She’s going to be better than I am in the world. She’s going to be a better human being than I am. She’s better than me and I’m admitting that openly.”

She didn’t seem to mind admitting that to the people that would be watching this or to her opponents. She always claimed that Leighton would definitely be a better person than she was and she always hoped that she was.

;;MIKAH “But do you know what she’s not? She’s not me. She will probably not get into wrestling and that’s okay. She won’t be the next me and that’s why I was looking for the next Mikah to take over and that’s where my opponent comes in on Sunday. Ruby Steele.”

Mikah cracks a smirk for a moment at the mention of her protégé’s name.

;;MIKAH “Now Ruby, you’re good in the ring. Trust me I know and I’m not about to bad mouth you, because that’s not who I am. I don’t bad mouth the people who I trained and worked with or work with on a regular basis. Do you have flaws?”

She raises an eyebrow at the camera before nodding her head.

;;MIKAH “Of course you do.”

She shrugs her shoulders.

;;MIKAH “But that doesn’t take away the fact that in that ring? You’re excellent and you’ve set out to do everything that you said that you were going to do when you said you would. And that’s impressive for a rookie, I’m not going to lie. You have an excessive amount of talent in your body but there is a few differences between you and myself.”

She smirks at the camera.

;;MIKAH “For starters, you are a lot more perky than I am. And you talk. A lot. And you seem to like people whereas I seem to stray away from people. You have support you’re your family and you don’t have that edge that I did when I was your age. Is that a bad thing? No, you have a different sort of edge when it comes to competing and that is not at all a bad thing.”

She smirks a little bit.

;;MIKAH “You see, when I was your age, Ruby. I was ruthless, emotionless. This?”

She pushes the picture closer to the camera so she can show off the happy picture of her and Leighton.

;;MIKAH “This girl was gone.”

She pointed to herself in the picture.

;;MIKAH “She didn’t exist anymore. I had been in the business for a year or more and I had changed. The wrestling world changed who I was in such a short time that I had grown into this ruthless person. This person that didn’t give a fuck about what other people said about me. I won most every match I was in back then and I was good. I was on my way to being the best and I knew that. And I put my career before my daughter and let myself be that ruthless, cold hearted person.”

She reaches up and tucks her hair behind her ear.

;;MIKAH “You are not a cold hearted person, Ruby. And that’s not a bad thing but it makes you vastly different from me in every way there could be. You wear your heart on your sleeve but you still kick ass while doing it. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let anybody into my life until 2010 when I met CO for the second time but sober this time. He changed who I was and shaped who I have become. And I know you’re hoping that I can do that as your trainer.”

She smirks softly.

;;MIKAH “But what I can teach you, can only be taught in the ring. I can’t teach you to be heartless or cold hearted. I can teach you how to execute a move in the ring flawlessly but I can’t teach you to walk around with a chip on your shoulder because you feel like the world had wronged you in more ways than one.”

Mikah grabs a picture and shows a vastly different picture of herself that had been taken in 2010. She was way too thin and looked as if she was on something.

;;MIKAH “This….this version of me had so many issues. I barely ate; I ran all the time and I lied to the doctors and people who employed me so I could continue to do what I loved. I loved alcohol more than I loved my job in 2009 to early 2010. I was a mess and I knew it but I didn’t care. And you’re lucky that you’re not facing this version of me. This version? She’d kick your ass for fun and not regret any part of it. She’d hurt you without caring if it actually was real or not. She held no empathy for anybody other than her daughter. She couldn’t feel anything but the need to be skinny and the need to be the best. She even beat her then husband’s sister up multiple times and often insulted her just because she thought it was fun. This girl was a walking work hazard.”

It was the truth.

;;MIKAH “But that’s not who I am today. You see, I’ve grown since my days in my twenties. I grew up and I’ve learned how to control my emotions a little better. I’ve learned how to love somebody and how to be the best version of me and not intentionally hurt people if I didn’t have to.”

She takes a deep breath before slowly letting it out.

;;MIKAH “I am still just as good in that ring but I’m more in tune with what I’m doing in that ring. I’m not reckless anymore and I don’t have that chip on my shoulder anymore. This? This bar is what shaped me before I got into wrestling. The people who owned this bar were basically like my parents and I loved them. They would have been so ashamed of my actions that I hid from them but no more. I’m not going to be that person again. I’m going to be better; I’m going to be the best and unfortunately, Ruby. I’m going to have to show you how it’s done on Sunday. I’m going to have to show you why I am the measuring stick when it comes to the Bombshells. Why people compare the newer Bombshells to me and my record. Because I am the best there is and whether I win or lose this weekend, you’ll understand why I’m the best there is and you’re going to get a real treat this weekend when we step into the ring against one another. But remember…”

She winks at the camera as she shakes her hair out of her face.

;;MIKAH “I trained you, Ruby. I know more about you than you think I do. And I get that you know me as well, but I’m still very much aware of what you can and what you can’t do in that wrestling ring. And I’m prepared to take on whatever it is you give me on Sunday. And I know that you’re ready for it because I’ve trained you to be. You’re just going to have to bring your best, Ruby.”

She smiles at the camera.

;;MIKAH “Because when it comes down to it, that’s all that we have to do. Is be our best.”

She goes to end the promo but Ellie stops her.

::ER “Wait…isn’t this a tag team match?”

Mikah blinks a few times as she looks at the camera.

;;MIKAH “I guess it is…”

She rolls her eyes at the camera.

;;MIKAH “It doesn’t matter, really. Her partner doesn’t exist, he’s a figament of the imagination. And my partner? He better show up on Sunday or I’ll kick him in the face if he doesn’t bring his A game.”

She shrugs her shoulders.

;;MIKAH “I’m not sorry about it. But this isn’t fucking preschool and this isn’t recess. I’m not about to let somebody who clearly doesn’t give a fuck about the fact that they got teamed with the best damned Bombshell that they could get. And they like to think that I’m going to just be easy to work with. You want me to respect you, Lachlan? Earn my fucking respect. You’ve done fuck all to earn it. And you’re going to have to work hard on Sunday to go up against Ruby’s nonexistent partner. And you’ll be lucky if I let you tag me in. If it goes how I think it’s going to.”

She shrugs her shoulders again.

;;MIKAH “Or maybe it will be a surprise. Maybe you’ll show up to work for the win. But just a reminder I’m not afraid to put you in your place no matter what genitalia you have. Don’t hold me down and we’ll be fine, Lachlan.”

She smirks again.

;;MIKAH “As for Ruby’s nonexistent partner, just shut up. You talk to much.”

She slides down off of the bar and flicks her hair over her shoulders.

;;MIKAH “See you on Sunday. You all better be ready for the fight of your life.”

She smirks as she walks towards the door to leave the bar and she stops to look back at the mirror that was covered in pictures of her. She lets her eyes linger for a moment. There were plenty of memories that were being shown on the camera and she smiles before looking at Ellie, who was controlling the camera the best that she could. Another smirk slides on Mikah’s face as she looks at Ellie then straight into the camera’s lense.

;;MIKAH “Ciao.”