Hope.
She had absolutely none when she returned to the arena from the graveyard, in her losing effort to try and change the narrative of High Stakes.
She saw it as her last absolute shot to really get that big moment that she had been desperately searching for.
High Stakes was in her hometown after all.
Ever since she was a little girl, watching all these big moments on TV with her dad...it was almost ALWAYS Madison Square Garden.
Now here she was, and she was just numb. Then she was angry.
All that for what?
Lost. Broken. And no happy thoughts remained.
Then as if someone went ‘UH UH’ Candy....one of her mother’s oldest and most loyal friends was standing in front of her in all her pink glory.
Bella sitting on the floor, make-up a mess, covered head to toe in graveyard dirt, broken, sweaty and bruised looked up and swore she floated in like some strange fairy godmother. Without even knowing Candy helped her friend, without even asking.
The contract. The paper she was handed by the savior in very pink heels, was a contract for one of the bigger matches on High Stakes.
Suddenly, it all rushed back...the very essence of why she came to SCW to begin with. She never wanted to fit into the mold that was presented to her in other places. She didn’t want to be compared to her mother or step-father when it came to certain parallels. Her legacy was her own and Candy just handed her the keys to what could potentially be her kingdom.
The Winner gets a shot at the greatest prize for a woman in SCW. The World Bombshell’s Championship.
She just had to get through another mountain.
She hugged Candy, harder than she had hugged anyone ever, except maybe Mal when he found her.
“Mal! Oh my God, I can’t believe this...look...look what Candy gave me.”
“What?”
“It’s a contract for a match at High Stakes. Not a title match but...look!” she says shoving the paper in his hands.
He looks over it quickly, and his eyes get big, “Holy shit. And Candy gave you this?”
“YES! I swear hun, I didn’t even ask for anything, I was just telling her how I didn’t know what was going to happen at the show in New York and then suddenly she just handed me this. She said it was left over when she was acting under Christian’s role. She is just right over there if...” and Bella turns and Candy is gone, “...Candy?”
Bella walks back into the area where she and Candy were just talking and looks around and there is no sign of her at all, “Now where could she have gone off so fast?”
“Knowing her? Something shiny must have come along and distracted her.” Mal said standing behind her. Bella takes that chance to elbow him in the gut, “OW! I know! Fucking hell woman, I’m a broken man”
“You really just can’t help yourself, can you?” she says, turning to glare at him, “She just did something amazing for me. You’re lucky I didn’t hit the arm, jerk.”
Mal holds his hands up in surrender, “I get it, I’m sorry.”
Bella shakes her head and smirks, “Nope, not gonna be good enough. You’re gonna have to dress up for Halloween now to make it up to me....AND I think something nice for Candy.” she stops and thinks, turning on her heels and walking down the hall, “Isn’t her little girl’s birthday coming up soon? I wonder how she’d like it if her Uncle Mal dressed up like one of her favorite characters. I’m off to shower!”
Bella practically skips down the hallway leaving Mal in her wake, his mouth agape before he lets out, “I WILL SLEEP ON THE COUCH FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!!!! ANYTHING BUT THAT!”
From a distance we hear, “I’LL BE 15 MINUTES TOPS! STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!”
“BELLS!” Mal yells but doesn’t get anything back, “Shit.”
5 stages to 4 steps
New York was abuzz.
From a Nor’easter. A storm had the whole damn city just miserable. 2 days after her big news though she couldn’t help herself, Bella found herself in midtown Manhattan, dressed for business. Once her Uber managed to make it’s way to her location, she gave her drive a huge tip, a 5 star revue and made her way quickly into one of the myriad of tall buildings, covering her head with her business portfolio that she carried along with her and trying to foolishly run between the raindrops. Thankfully someone was there to hold the door open as she slid in.
The receptionist behind the desk looked up and brightly smiled, “Well! We haven’t seen you in a while!”
Bella brushed herself off while walking up, “Yeah I know. I’ve only be able to catch him at family functions. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen him since Aaron’s birthday. We’ve both been so busy.”
“Indeed you have. I swear he was suppose to retire.”
“He was, but you know him.”
“Sometimes, unfortunately. He is in his office.”
“Thanks Dani! Tell Ben I said hello.”
“I shall! The same to Mal.”
“I will.” Bella walks up to the big set of doors and quickly knock on them as she opens them up, “Grandpa?”
An older gentleman looks up from a pile of papers behind a rather large desk, “AH, there you are!”
“I know I’m late. I’m so sorry. Getting through this city is pure chaos right now.” she strides across the room as he meets her in the middle with a hug, “It’s so good to see you.”
“And you as well, my girl. What can this old man help you with?”
“Straight to business as usual.”
“There’s no other kind. You did say it was rather urgent.”
“I did but I was hoping to at least treat you to some lunch first.” just then a buzz comes over the intercom.
“Doordash is here, sir.”
“Thank you Dani. Bring it right in.”
“I swear.” Bella shakes her head, “Now I know where I get it from.”
“The act ahead of the thought? Yeah, it’s one of the few things your mother and I have in common. Our stubbornness being another.” he says laughing as Dani brings in the order, chinese food. “Ah perfect, and the soy sauce?”
“In the bag. I have my egg foo yung. Thank you for that.”
“Of course, we can’t let you starve.”
“Enjoy!”
“Ok so....business.” he says cracking open one of the containers, “I take it this has to do with one of your shows coming up. The one at MSG?”
Bella sets on the otherside of him and pulls one of the containers out of the bag setting it off to the side cracking it open to see a stack of eggrolls, one of their favorites, “Yeah, actually. I have so much I wanted to do but it was a waiting game til now. But...I was hoping that you could possibly call one of your contacts for me?”
He leans forward with a smile, “I see that glimmer behind your eye.”
Almost embarrassed, she blushes, “Grandpa don’t.”
He shushes her and sits back with an amused look on his face, “That dramatic flair of yours. Just like your mom. Rev Theory playing her out was one of her greatest moments.”
Bella shrugged, “I was sorta hoping for the same but...”
He brings his hand up, “Say no more. I’ll put the call in as soon as you leave and I’m sure they will say yes.” he says with a smile, “Now....eat and tell me about married life. You and Mal talking about starting a family yet?”
She looks up with that look, “Grandpa! We just got married!”
Shrugging, he takes a bite from his food, “Well it’s almost been a year, child. I remembered when your grandmother and I first got married, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”
“OH JEEZ! I don’t really need to hear this.” Bella says, covering her ears.
Laughing he grabs some water, looking adoringly at her, “It’d still be amazing to have a great-grandchild before I leave this world.”
She just gives him a look, “Maybe soon...but I’m so focused on my career right now and Mal’s hurt so one of us has to do the job.”
“And looking amazing in the process, being played out by one of the greatest indy metal bands today.” he says with an eggroll in his hand cheersing his granddaughter.
Bella grabs her own and cheers him back, “Now let's talk about you being there.”
Tricks and Treats
The call was complete, she even spoke to the woman herself and was almost speechless but when it came down to it, Ashley was just as down to earth as she was. Both excited, they talked about meeting up soon to talk details in person. But for now, she had to look to other things....
“Bea, Violet and Seleana.”
She says sitting up on her roof. It was a rare time during the nor’easter that the rain had just stopped and she could open the windows, let in some air and get away from Mal and Luka going back and forth. She loved them both but it was weighing on her.
“I feel like I’ve been here before with every single one of you and maybe we have. We have got to keep moving despite our shortcomings don’t we? Bea tends to run her mouth and get her in trouble more often than not. Violet will always be that leopard that tries to change her spots into stripes but she’s still the same backstabbing bitch and not to be trusted and then there is Seleana that has been there and done that, got the t-shirt and sold it on ebay.”
She looks up and sees the dark clouds swirling over New York.
“Ya’ll are on MY TURF NOW! Here in New York, you play by our rules. There is no mind games, there is no time for bullshit games. We like it real and we’re going to tell you exactly what we think to your faces.”
The skies go from still to swirling, back and forth above. The wind begins to pick up just a bit and she just closes her eyes and feels it.
“I BEGGED for this chance. The minute we were destined to Madison Square Garden for High Stakes, I knew what needed to happen. I am out to make my mark, larger than ever and you better believe ladies, that I am to the breaking point where I need to break a glass ceiling by diving through it, head first with no remorse. I’ve proven exactly how far I will go to make a point. I did it with Tempest to get where I needed to go. Don’t think that making you 3 each my own personal point won’t be enjoyable to say the least. There’s no friends...there’s no partnerships. There is going for exactly what we all want.”
Her crystal blue eyes open. You can almost see a storm all it’s own behind them.
“A shot. One. Glorious. Opportunity. To manifest our own destiny and get even a sniff at that World Bombshell Championship.”
And with a smirk she stands and looks out again. She inhales deeply, feeling that change in the atmosphere. Her eyes connecting....
“Happy Halloween ladies. Let’s play.”
