Post by Duane on Jun 4, 2021 8:57:45 GMT -5
Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas—Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. May 8, 2021, 11:45 a.m.
She was the last of the six to testify against him. Four others did it remotely, with anonymity measures in place. The fifth was also remote, but chose to show her face to the world as she still bore scars from that night to drive home the point. She would be the one to do it in person, to come to the end of the path she had travelled these last seven years.
Behind her, there for the emotional support, was Amelia Hall (herself a fellow survivor). The two had bonded during Elyssa’s time at The Aerie before the pandemic brought the world to a shuddering halt, finding kindred spirits in each other. While Elyssa insisted she could do this herself, Amelia was having none of it, and insisted on showing up for the trial.
She felt the nerves bundle in her stomach as the DA got to his feet. “For my final witness, I call Elyssa Deveraux to the stand.”
The usual pomp and circumstance followed, and with the DA’s questions, Elyssa relived her experiences on the night of August 21, 2014. Of how she was physically assaulted, knocked out with a blow to the back of the head, and regained consciousness in the middle of being sexually assaulted by someone in the middle of a city park. It was only because of a nearby streetlight that she was able to look at her attacker, and she confidently pointed to the defendant sitting at that table. It wouldn’t be until years later, when the defendant was arrested for a similar offense, that the DNA would find a match in several cold cases, and thanks to a lack of a statute of limitations, the DA piled on the charges.
Thirty minutes of questioning later, the DA was finished, and the defense attorney decided to forego the cross examination. Both the defendant and his attorney knew they were dead to rights, and the DA refused to drop to a lower plea bargain with his position at stake in an off-year election. It only took the jury a half hour to decide on the severity of the charges, and soon enough the defendant was removed from the courtroom in chains, soon to be a welcomed guest of the state correctional institution at Camp Hill for the remainder of his natural life.
After a further debriefing period by the DA, Elyssa was finally allowed to leave the courthouse, and found Amelia just finishing up a phone call as she approached. “So how do you feel?”
Elyssa paused for a moment. “…Vindicated. I feel vindicated. I know he won’t do that to anyone else ever again. I can finally move on with things.”
“Good. Closure is important.”
“Says the woman who physically dissected her tormentors in a hardcore rules gauntlet match.”
Amelia chuckled at this. “We all have our ways to cope, Elyssa. I lashed out in violence. You retreated in on yourself after trying to push your boundaries too far too fast, and then got nudged on the right path. Your path is yours to walk. Mine wouldn’t work for you, nor for about anyone else.”
The younger woman fell silent in thought as both returned to Elyssa’s car to drive back to Maryland. As they left Harrisburg, Amelia turned slightly to face the driver of the vehicle, fingers flying over the phone’s touchscreen. “So, Elyssa. Given any thought to actually performing in front of people?”
“When the time is right. Likely going to be soon, with things starting to reopen. Probably going to want a full face mask though because I trust no one.”
Amelia chuckled at this. “Girl, you and me both. Turns out, we might have a lead for you to start. Very sporadic, and you’ll be splitting time with others but there is a spot we can get you in on.”
“…Go on.”
“It’ll be easier to explain back in Maryland, back at The Aerie.”
“Are you—”
“RISE! Hands up, hands up high!” preceded an electric guitar instrumental as Amelia looked down at her phone. Elyssa chuckled at this—that seemed to be a common ringtone for him, though she had heard others. Amelia pressed the screen a couple of times, and then spoke. “You’re on speaker, Will.”
“How’d everything go?”
“Good, Teach,” Elyssa responded as she got back on to I-78, heading east towards I-83 that’d lead them back into Maryland. “Everything went well, and this chapter is finally done in my life.”
“Glad to hear it, Elyssa.” If she didn’t know better, Elyssa would still swear that there was a bit of a hitch in his voice whenever he said her name. “Did Amelia give you the good news?”
“She said she was going to mention something when we got back to The Aerie right as you called. No idea what, though.”
“Ames…”
“Will, she’s driving. You want me to make her lose her focus and crash us into some big rig?”
“Amelia, you give me too little credit. I can multitask after all.”
A baritone chuckle came from the phone. “Fair. Elyssa, how do you feel about taking a road trip to Indianapolis?”
Elyssa felt her stomach twitch a little, her breath quicken just so slightly. She darted a sideways glance at Amelia, who was doing her best to hide a Mona Lisa-like smile. “Indi…Level Up?”
“The same. They want Nocturne for a weekly show taping this time. But the guy they want her facing is a behemoth. Seven foot tall, powerful, feels no pain. I speak on that last part from personal experience.”
Elyssa let out a long, slow exhale. “Teach, I want you to level with me. Do you think I’m ready?”
“Indubitably. You’re quick to pick up on things, you’re physically prepared. The only way you’re not ready is if you’re mentally not prepared.”
She paused for another breath, gathering her thoughts. “I’m as ready as I’m going to be. Though if you have any contacts that tall with that sort of persona who can come to the Aerie for some last-minute prep work, I think that’d help matters some.”
This time it was Will who fell silent for a few moments. “I think I can arrange that, Elyssa. Come by The Aerie tomorrow, after lunch. I’ll have someone here roughly this guy’s size. Let you get used to what to expect.”
“Thanks, Teach. I’m ready.”
“Just prove it to everyone else, Elyssa.”
Will disconnected the call, and Amelia shifted to look at Elyssa. “So, Nocturne, ready for your coming out party?”
Elyssa’s smile never left her face for the remainder of the two-hour trip back to The Aerie.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Darkness. Suffocating all around. Dull pain, throbbing on occasion with periods of sharpness. A sense of slipping between times, between worlds, between reality and unreality. It is something she’s seen before, when the conscious brain gives way to the subconscious, and haunts her nights. Especially now that she had to relieve it verbally one more time, the most important time, the last time. By now, the subconscious would be in full control, reminding her that she was just along for the ride, that she should just be still and it would all be over soon.
But that was then. That was before her vindication. Now, there is no place in her life for that injustice to hide. The one responsible would never be a free man again. And this was just a flashback that held no power over her.
A brilliant, green light penetrated the darkness. A second, and a third, until the darkness was erased by a bright, verdant luminescence. Then, the green faded out, leaving her staring at a wrestling ring and feeling at peace for the first time in ages. A voice, feminine, seemed to float to her on the astral winds.
”You are never alone. Not anymore.”
The image faded in her subconscious as her physical form rolled onto her other side, and fell into a deeper sleep. Come the morning, she would feel like she had never gotten a better night’s rest…well, not in years, anyway.
The healing had finally begun.
~~**~~**~~**~~
So. This is it. This is my big debut. Against a guy nearly seven feet tall, damn near unstoppable, and seemingly unaffected by pain. How is someone my size supposed to keep a behemoth like that down?
Even as I ask that to myself, I can hear Teach’s voice in my mind answer that with a rueful chuckle. “Very carefully.”
I’m not the aerial artist Amelia is. I’m not a technical mastermind like Teach is. I’m nowhere near as comfortable in a brawl as either one of them. This is going to be a disaster for the character, no doubt.
Yes, I know we’re supposed to lose as Nocturne. That’s the deal. But seriously, does the Developer or whoever runs this damn place have a sort of desire to see people injured? This is the second time Nocturne’s been booked in a match, and the second time against people that even Teach would have second thoughts about facing in a straight-up brawl.
If I didn’t know better…
Still, Amelia’s said I’m ready for this. I know she wants to go back under the hood, that she wants to write another chapter of her improbable comeback story. But she’s given the task to me. The first true graduate of The Aerie to be in a match in front of an audience larger than a gymnasium’s, and recorded for posterity. This is point where others would make a quip about “No pressure, right?” or some such.
Not this person. No, there’s no pressure at all. After all, I’ve endured far worse before I even got in the ring to start learning this trade. Amelia and I, we’re more alike than most realize. Though I know Teach knows. He knew well before he opened the school—I was the one who told him. It was his guidance that led me to get my mental state right first, and get me ready to follow through with the physical portion of it.
That day in Harrisburg five years ago was the catalyst for my personal rebirth. Much like his old ring persona, I rose from the ashes of my own personal hell, reborn and renewed. It’s only fair that this next chapter falls to me to write.
The cameras and Level up faithful will only know me as Nocturne, a masked woman garbed in black and green. The world knows me as Elyssa Devereaux, college dropout by choice and gig worker by trade. My inner circle knows me as a survivor, a fighter, a woman who refuses to let the world ruin her life, and a graduate of both the school of hard knocks and The Aerie. While Lord Raab may only know me as his first actual opponent in Level Up, by the end of the night everyone will know me by another title.
I am a professional wrestler. And it’s time for my story to begin.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Residence of William Prydor—Bel Air, Maryland. June 6 2021, 8:37 p.m.
Every adult eye in the residence was tuned in to the 60-inch TV Will had his PS4 hooked up to, running the Twitch app. Two matches were down in the books and Nocturne’s was up next. As the cameras caught sight of Nocturne making her way to the ring, Will closed his eyes for a few moments, then shifted his gaze over to Amelia. “Whose idea was the color?”
“Hers. She wanted green, and I wasn’t about to say no.”
A brief flash of a memory in Will’s mind—a brunette, emerald green eyes sparking as she smiled at him, announcing she was pregnant with his twins—came and quickly went as he focused his attention back on the screen. “Does she know the significance?”
Tori answered him. “It was her plan. Of course she knows, we even made sure to tell her that there was other meanings to it in this household. She wanted it anyway. But there’s more to it than that, Will.”
“Hmmm?” He sounded a bit distracted as the cameras cut to Lord Raab’s entrance.
Amelia was quick to jump in. “This makes it official for you. All the teaching, the training, and hardships with the pandemic and dealing with that…this moment makes it official. No matter what happens, no one can take away the fact that there is one of your students, in a wrestling ring, taking her first steps into the wider world.
“The ghost of Cassandra Carmichael can be laid to rest, Will. This night will be the first night of defining your legacy as a teacher, not five years ago in the death throes of the OWF. You’ve helped that young woman overcome a lot, Will. For that, and that alone, you should be proud.”
“No. Not alone, Ames. We did it together.”
A contented silence fell between the three as the bell signaled a new beginning—of the match, of a young woman’s career, of an older man’s next chapter in life.
She was the last of the six to testify against him. Four others did it remotely, with anonymity measures in place. The fifth was also remote, but chose to show her face to the world as she still bore scars from that night to drive home the point. She would be the one to do it in person, to come to the end of the path she had travelled these last seven years.
Behind her, there for the emotional support, was Amelia Hall (herself a fellow survivor). The two had bonded during Elyssa’s time at The Aerie before the pandemic brought the world to a shuddering halt, finding kindred spirits in each other. While Elyssa insisted she could do this herself, Amelia was having none of it, and insisted on showing up for the trial.
She felt the nerves bundle in her stomach as the DA got to his feet. “For my final witness, I call Elyssa Deveraux to the stand.”
The usual pomp and circumstance followed, and with the DA’s questions, Elyssa relived her experiences on the night of August 21, 2014. Of how she was physically assaulted, knocked out with a blow to the back of the head, and regained consciousness in the middle of being sexually assaulted by someone in the middle of a city park. It was only because of a nearby streetlight that she was able to look at her attacker, and she confidently pointed to the defendant sitting at that table. It wouldn’t be until years later, when the defendant was arrested for a similar offense, that the DNA would find a match in several cold cases, and thanks to a lack of a statute of limitations, the DA piled on the charges.
Thirty minutes of questioning later, the DA was finished, and the defense attorney decided to forego the cross examination. Both the defendant and his attorney knew they were dead to rights, and the DA refused to drop to a lower plea bargain with his position at stake in an off-year election. It only took the jury a half hour to decide on the severity of the charges, and soon enough the defendant was removed from the courtroom in chains, soon to be a welcomed guest of the state correctional institution at Camp Hill for the remainder of his natural life.
After a further debriefing period by the DA, Elyssa was finally allowed to leave the courthouse, and found Amelia just finishing up a phone call as she approached. “So how do you feel?”
Elyssa paused for a moment. “…Vindicated. I feel vindicated. I know he won’t do that to anyone else ever again. I can finally move on with things.”
“Good. Closure is important.”
“Says the woman who physically dissected her tormentors in a hardcore rules gauntlet match.”
Amelia chuckled at this. “We all have our ways to cope, Elyssa. I lashed out in violence. You retreated in on yourself after trying to push your boundaries too far too fast, and then got nudged on the right path. Your path is yours to walk. Mine wouldn’t work for you, nor for about anyone else.”
The younger woman fell silent in thought as both returned to Elyssa’s car to drive back to Maryland. As they left Harrisburg, Amelia turned slightly to face the driver of the vehicle, fingers flying over the phone’s touchscreen. “So, Elyssa. Given any thought to actually performing in front of people?”
“When the time is right. Likely going to be soon, with things starting to reopen. Probably going to want a full face mask though because I trust no one.”
Amelia chuckled at this. “Girl, you and me both. Turns out, we might have a lead for you to start. Very sporadic, and you’ll be splitting time with others but there is a spot we can get you in on.”
“…Go on.”
“It’ll be easier to explain back in Maryland, back at The Aerie.”
“Are you—”
“RISE! Hands up, hands up high!” preceded an electric guitar instrumental as Amelia looked down at her phone. Elyssa chuckled at this—that seemed to be a common ringtone for him, though she had heard others. Amelia pressed the screen a couple of times, and then spoke. “You’re on speaker, Will.”
“How’d everything go?”
“Good, Teach,” Elyssa responded as she got back on to I-78, heading east towards I-83 that’d lead them back into Maryland. “Everything went well, and this chapter is finally done in my life.”
“Glad to hear it, Elyssa.” If she didn’t know better, Elyssa would still swear that there was a bit of a hitch in his voice whenever he said her name. “Did Amelia give you the good news?”
“She said she was going to mention something when we got back to The Aerie right as you called. No idea what, though.”
“Ames…”
“Will, she’s driving. You want me to make her lose her focus and crash us into some big rig?”
“Amelia, you give me too little credit. I can multitask after all.”
A baritone chuckle came from the phone. “Fair. Elyssa, how do you feel about taking a road trip to Indianapolis?”
Elyssa felt her stomach twitch a little, her breath quicken just so slightly. She darted a sideways glance at Amelia, who was doing her best to hide a Mona Lisa-like smile. “Indi…Level Up?”
“The same. They want Nocturne for a weekly show taping this time. But the guy they want her facing is a behemoth. Seven foot tall, powerful, feels no pain. I speak on that last part from personal experience.”
Elyssa let out a long, slow exhale. “Teach, I want you to level with me. Do you think I’m ready?”
“Indubitably. You’re quick to pick up on things, you’re physically prepared. The only way you’re not ready is if you’re mentally not prepared.”
She paused for another breath, gathering her thoughts. “I’m as ready as I’m going to be. Though if you have any contacts that tall with that sort of persona who can come to the Aerie for some last-minute prep work, I think that’d help matters some.”
This time it was Will who fell silent for a few moments. “I think I can arrange that, Elyssa. Come by The Aerie tomorrow, after lunch. I’ll have someone here roughly this guy’s size. Let you get used to what to expect.”
“Thanks, Teach. I’m ready.”
“Just prove it to everyone else, Elyssa.”
Will disconnected the call, and Amelia shifted to look at Elyssa. “So, Nocturne, ready for your coming out party?”
Elyssa’s smile never left her face for the remainder of the two-hour trip back to The Aerie.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Darkness. Suffocating all around. Dull pain, throbbing on occasion with periods of sharpness. A sense of slipping between times, between worlds, between reality and unreality. It is something she’s seen before, when the conscious brain gives way to the subconscious, and haunts her nights. Especially now that she had to relieve it verbally one more time, the most important time, the last time. By now, the subconscious would be in full control, reminding her that she was just along for the ride, that she should just be still and it would all be over soon.
But that was then. That was before her vindication. Now, there is no place in her life for that injustice to hide. The one responsible would never be a free man again. And this was just a flashback that held no power over her.
A brilliant, green light penetrated the darkness. A second, and a third, until the darkness was erased by a bright, verdant luminescence. Then, the green faded out, leaving her staring at a wrestling ring and feeling at peace for the first time in ages. A voice, feminine, seemed to float to her on the astral winds.
”You are never alone. Not anymore.”
The image faded in her subconscious as her physical form rolled onto her other side, and fell into a deeper sleep. Come the morning, she would feel like she had never gotten a better night’s rest…well, not in years, anyway.
The healing had finally begun.
~~**~~**~~**~~
So. This is it. This is my big debut. Against a guy nearly seven feet tall, damn near unstoppable, and seemingly unaffected by pain. How is someone my size supposed to keep a behemoth like that down?
Even as I ask that to myself, I can hear Teach’s voice in my mind answer that with a rueful chuckle. “Very carefully.”
I’m not the aerial artist Amelia is. I’m not a technical mastermind like Teach is. I’m nowhere near as comfortable in a brawl as either one of them. This is going to be a disaster for the character, no doubt.
Yes, I know we’re supposed to lose as Nocturne. That’s the deal. But seriously, does the Developer or whoever runs this damn place have a sort of desire to see people injured? This is the second time Nocturne’s been booked in a match, and the second time against people that even Teach would have second thoughts about facing in a straight-up brawl.
If I didn’t know better…
Still, Amelia’s said I’m ready for this. I know she wants to go back under the hood, that she wants to write another chapter of her improbable comeback story. But she’s given the task to me. The first true graduate of The Aerie to be in a match in front of an audience larger than a gymnasium’s, and recorded for posterity. This is point where others would make a quip about “No pressure, right?” or some such.
Not this person. No, there’s no pressure at all. After all, I’ve endured far worse before I even got in the ring to start learning this trade. Amelia and I, we’re more alike than most realize. Though I know Teach knows. He knew well before he opened the school—I was the one who told him. It was his guidance that led me to get my mental state right first, and get me ready to follow through with the physical portion of it.
That day in Harrisburg five years ago was the catalyst for my personal rebirth. Much like his old ring persona, I rose from the ashes of my own personal hell, reborn and renewed. It’s only fair that this next chapter falls to me to write.
The cameras and Level up faithful will only know me as Nocturne, a masked woman garbed in black and green. The world knows me as Elyssa Devereaux, college dropout by choice and gig worker by trade. My inner circle knows me as a survivor, a fighter, a woman who refuses to let the world ruin her life, and a graduate of both the school of hard knocks and The Aerie. While Lord Raab may only know me as his first actual opponent in Level Up, by the end of the night everyone will know me by another title.
I am a professional wrestler. And it’s time for my story to begin.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Residence of William Prydor—Bel Air, Maryland. June 6 2021, 8:37 p.m.
Every adult eye in the residence was tuned in to the 60-inch TV Will had his PS4 hooked up to, running the Twitch app. Two matches were down in the books and Nocturne’s was up next. As the cameras caught sight of Nocturne making her way to the ring, Will closed his eyes for a few moments, then shifted his gaze over to Amelia. “Whose idea was the color?”
“Hers. She wanted green, and I wasn’t about to say no.”
A brief flash of a memory in Will’s mind—a brunette, emerald green eyes sparking as she smiled at him, announcing she was pregnant with his twins—came and quickly went as he focused his attention back on the screen. “Does she know the significance?”
Tori answered him. “It was her plan. Of course she knows, we even made sure to tell her that there was other meanings to it in this household. She wanted it anyway. But there’s more to it than that, Will.”
“Hmmm?” He sounded a bit distracted as the cameras cut to Lord Raab’s entrance.
Amelia was quick to jump in. “This makes it official for you. All the teaching, the training, and hardships with the pandemic and dealing with that…this moment makes it official. No matter what happens, no one can take away the fact that there is one of your students, in a wrestling ring, taking her first steps into the wider world.
“The ghost of Cassandra Carmichael can be laid to rest, Will. This night will be the first night of defining your legacy as a teacher, not five years ago in the death throes of the OWF. You’ve helped that young woman overcome a lot, Will. For that, and that alone, you should be proud.”
“No. Not alone, Ames. We did it together.”
A contented silence fell between the three as the bell signaled a new beginning—of the match, of a young woman’s career, of an older man’s next chapter in life.
