Post by Mac on Aug 15, 2021 18:36:26 GMT -5
“Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.” ― Henry Ford
“Voodoo boy? So, now I’ve been marginalized by the announce team because of where I’m from? Let me tell you all something. I have not practiced that in many years. Voodoo is overrated. I mean, come on, you can do better than that. Like I would stoop to syncretism, that’s some creole bullshit. Made up religions and magical charms, I mean, it’s entertaining and all, and I’m sure the television audience got a kick out of you calling me that. I try not to dwell on people saying things like that too much, they think it’s funny but I think it’s lame. That certainly isn’t my focus leading up to exp twelve. Maggie is. The final boss champion, our top belt is what she holds.
Maggie is a very polarizing person in this business and in this company. She wants to be liked, respected but mostly respected I think. Rightly so. She’s our top champion and that’s all that matters. I can give a small amount of respect, just for the sake of who she beat to get there and who she’s defended against. I have to admit though, I’m a bit confused. You never really know who it is exactly will you face in a match against her. Will it be Maggie Lockheart that you face when the time comes?
Or Jenova.
Will she continue to cling to this idea that she’s even remotely equipped mentally or physically to take that on? I was at the hub and heard her story. She told the story of Jenova with such conviction and passion. She wants so badly to be that person that Lucy Wyld was in her darkest of times. What exactly is it though that it gets you? Does it make you a better person? Fame? Money? Respect? Love?
The short answer is no.
None of that at all.
The why’s are so much more important though aren’t they? In my case it's how I know these things. When that story was told at the hub during wrestle stock, it caused me to want to know everything about Jenova, Lucy and Maggie. How all of that meshed together. So, I did what any good professional would do, I started researching everything about you, champ. Under normal circumstances I might not bother at all but this is different. If I should beat you, then I have to be considered for a shot at the top of the food chain. What happened at wrestlestock should never have happened. My failure to secure a spot to fight for the tag titles is well documented. That doesn’t kill my motivation or momentum. I have yet to have my shoulders pinned by anyone in this company. Should that happen against you, then you’ll have my respect, grudging or otherwise. I digress though, back to the why’s…..
And why that doesn’t give you what you want it to. The only thing that Jenova will provide you with, and I hate to say this, is an escape mechanism. A way to hide who you really are, and more importantly what you really are. You could be in an elite class all your own without that personae but here you are struggling through an identity crisis that’s not needed. That’s bad for you but good for me Maggie, while you are distracted with this crisis of self, I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity. I’m going to do what I’ve always done in this business. I’m going to make you regret ever signing the contract for this match.
In our world, you’re either the hunter or the hunted. I’ve been both, my life has flashed before my eyes before I even reached puberty. I know what the jaws of death look like and feel like, do you know that feeling of helplessness, Champ? If you don’t, you’re about to. I find that excruciating pain is the best teacher and motivator around. It kicks us into survival mode and when that moment arrives, you find out what a person is really made of. What a human being is capable of, the lengths they will go to, just to survive. I live in that mode every day, make no mistakes about it Maggie, I’m coming for you, harder than anyone ever has in your career. You have something that I want, and I take what I want.
Fade
“Reconnecting”
{Indianapolis, Indiana}
[7:00 A.M.]
Off-Camera
The last time we saw Johnny and his sisters they were getting acquainted. It didn’t take long for them to fall into a routine with everyone doing their part to keep things as orderly as they could until it was time to move. The move itself went off without any issues, the girls worked remarkably well as a team. All very different in personality and drive but all very effective when working together. The life they had been forced to lead, was, well nothing any woman or girl should be subjected to. They had been forced into prostitution at very young ages, and that in itself he was sure had scarred them in ways that no one could possibly imagined. Johnny was a hard man and had no sympathy for anyone. Their collective stories tugged at his heart in a way that surprised him. He honestly didn’t believe he even had a heart or a soul anymore. It was one of the reasons he approached the wrestling business the way he did.
Claire, Cindi, and Janice looked at the expansive apartment in stunned silence. Johnny realized it was a kind of culture shock for them. They were forced into those little one room shacks and were rarely outside of them. They still had plenty of money left over from what they’d stolen from their family. Now, he needed to figure out how he was going to feed three women. The oldest, Claire, had a highschool diploma at least. The middle child, Janice did not, as for Cindi, he doubted she had ever set foot in a public school system. He motioned for them to sit on the new sofa that he had purchased after the deposit for this place had been paid. Johnny sat cross legged in front of them on the floor. “Okay Ladies, now we have to figure out how we survive here in Indy.”
The three girls all grew pale at that comment and Johnny was quick to cut that line of thinking off. “There won’t be any of that,” he said in a stern voice. “I know the kind of life they forced you into, put that out of your brain. We are not going down that road again.”, was the comment he followed with. All three women visibly calmed at his statement, and the color came back to their faces. “I guess the best way to start this conversation is to say, what do you know how to do, other than that other thing?” All three girls laughed a bit at his uneasiness to even mention sex in front of them. He didn’t want them to think that was even on the table at this point. To him it wasn’t and he would never ask them to do that again. He knew he was a hard man, but even he couldn’t do that to his own flesh and blood.
Claire was the first to speak up, “I took some website building classes in school, I even built theirs for them when they asked me to.” He smiled at his oldest sister, “That’s good, do you happen to have all the passwords for that site?” he asked. She smiled, “damn right I do.”, they shared a knowing smile of what would come next. He then looked at the middle girl Janice, “how about it?” he asked her softly. She beamed at him, “I’m good at stealing things, and being really quiet to the point that people don’t even realize I’m even there.”, she said proudly. The ability to blend in and be unnoticed was a pickpocket's dream skill. He knew this to be true because it had made a difference in whether he ate or not too many times. “Glad I’m not the only one with that particular skill, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”. He looked at Cindi and she grinned, “I’m the driver Johnny. If it’s got wheels I can drive it.” she said defiantly. He smiled at that statement. Claire chuckled, “keeping it between the ditches is another issue altogether though.”, and then all three girls laughed. It had been the first real laughter he had heard from them. That was a good sign in his opinion.
What was even better was that he had the beginning of a plan in his brain, a way for them to be comfortable. He had to make some calls first though. See if any of his old contacts in New Orleans had anyone they’d recommend in this part of the country.
Fade
“Reconnecting Part 2”
{Indianapolis, Indiana}
[7:00 A.M.]
Off-Camera
It turned out that Jesse had survived the encounter with his father and uncles, it was a narrow miss but a miss all the same. Jesse had contacted him to let him know that he was alive and on his way to california. That was one less loose end to deal with. Phase one of his plan to exact revenge on his parents for what they had done to their own flesh and blood was beginning. Claire had locked out all users from the website except for her own and the admin account of course. She had quickly changed the passwords for both accounts and began to download all the videos that had been made. He was certain that their parents intended to use them in the future as a way to extort more money from their clients. The list of clients consisted of law enforcement, celebrities , politicians and less well known people of course. They all had one thing in common, they had a fetish for young girls.
“These motherfuckers are disgusting.”, Johnny said in his usual matter of fact tone. The girls remained silent on the topic but he got the feeling that he had really no idea how true that was. Through a friend of his, he was able to secure anonymous email accounts via the man’s server farm. They would start out small, notifying the person that should they not choose to pay, the video would be released to law enforcement and their families. Payment would be handled via an application that was under one of the anonymous accounts. After two emails they had netted over fifty grand. As promised they had done a screen capture of before and after photos for the payee showing that the file had been removed from the server. “This doesn’t fix what you girls were put through, there’s only one way to address that.” He said as he looked at each of them in turn. “Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.”, said Cindi so softly that it was almost inaudible. Johnny looked at his youngest sister and smiled. “I didn’t know you were a fan of Walter Scott”, he said to her. She smiled, “I didn’t know who he even was until you, brother. I really enjoyed reading that book.”. The Heart of Mid-Lothian had been a little gem he stumbled upon when living with Jasper.
“It is a very enjoyable read, to say the least.”, he remarked. He was trying to think of the last time he spoke to Jasper. The retired county sheriff who had helped him get the girls out of harm's way. The way they communicated was stupid easy. Jasper had a burner phone that had only one number in it. That number was for a burner phone that Johnny had. It had been about three weeks since he lost spoke to the man. He worried about Jasper, who had refused to leave the area despite knowing the kind of people he was dealing with. The old fella only had one member of his family left and that was his daughter Katie. Katie and Johnny were roughly the same age, he thought she was likely a few months younger than himself. He considered trying to call her to find out if Jasper was okay, but that was a bad move and he knew it.
The burner phone buzzed just then, it sat on the kitchen table in front of him. It had the message, “One new text message” sitting there and glaring at him like some terrifying monster out of mythology. Johnny knew instinctively that something was wrong. Jasper wouldn’t text him, the agreement was that they would talk to each other without resorting to text messages. He picked up the phone and looked at the message. The message read: One dead and four more to go. There was nothing after that, indicating that whoever was in possession of the phone had killed Jasper. His head buzzed as the color drained from his face. Then he buried his face in his hands and did something that even surprised him. He laughed, shaking his head, he stood up from the table. He grabbed the phone and stuffed it in his pocket, and walked toward that balcony. Once he was outside, he allowed a single tear of grief to roll down the black synthetic surface of the mask.
The phone began to ring, he dug it out of his pocket and answered the call. As expected, it wasn’t Jasper’s voice, but the voice of his father. A voice he hadn’t heard in years but still recognized. The old man had a very distinctive voice, very similar to Clint Eastwood in his prime. “I don’t know who you are, but you are very dead.” The voice said to him, he barked a laugh and disconnected the call. “I’ve been dead since I was ten fucking years old.”, he said in a flat tone of voice. He pulled the case apart and removed the battery and the sim card. “Beware the fury of a patient man.”, Johnny said as he stared off into the distance. “I am a very patient man with nothing but time on my hands in order to seal your fate and end your lives.”
Fade
“Voodoo boy? So, now I’ve been marginalized by the announce team because of where I’m from? Let me tell you all something. I have not practiced that in many years. Voodoo is overrated. I mean, come on, you can do better than that. Like I would stoop to syncretism, that’s some creole bullshit. Made up religions and magical charms, I mean, it’s entertaining and all, and I’m sure the television audience got a kick out of you calling me that. I try not to dwell on people saying things like that too much, they think it’s funny but I think it’s lame. That certainly isn’t my focus leading up to exp twelve. Maggie is. The final boss champion, our top belt is what she holds.
Maggie is a very polarizing person in this business and in this company. She wants to be liked, respected but mostly respected I think. Rightly so. She’s our top champion and that’s all that matters. I can give a small amount of respect, just for the sake of who she beat to get there and who she’s defended against. I have to admit though, I’m a bit confused. You never really know who it is exactly will you face in a match against her. Will it be Maggie Lockheart that you face when the time comes?
Or Jenova.
Will she continue to cling to this idea that she’s even remotely equipped mentally or physically to take that on? I was at the hub and heard her story. She told the story of Jenova with such conviction and passion. She wants so badly to be that person that Lucy Wyld was in her darkest of times. What exactly is it though that it gets you? Does it make you a better person? Fame? Money? Respect? Love?
The short answer is no.
None of that at all.
The why’s are so much more important though aren’t they? In my case it's how I know these things. When that story was told at the hub during wrestle stock, it caused me to want to know everything about Jenova, Lucy and Maggie. How all of that meshed together. So, I did what any good professional would do, I started researching everything about you, champ. Under normal circumstances I might not bother at all but this is different. If I should beat you, then I have to be considered for a shot at the top of the food chain. What happened at wrestlestock should never have happened. My failure to secure a spot to fight for the tag titles is well documented. That doesn’t kill my motivation or momentum. I have yet to have my shoulders pinned by anyone in this company. Should that happen against you, then you’ll have my respect, grudging or otherwise. I digress though, back to the why’s…..
And why that doesn’t give you what you want it to. The only thing that Jenova will provide you with, and I hate to say this, is an escape mechanism. A way to hide who you really are, and more importantly what you really are. You could be in an elite class all your own without that personae but here you are struggling through an identity crisis that’s not needed. That’s bad for you but good for me Maggie, while you are distracted with this crisis of self, I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity. I’m going to do what I’ve always done in this business. I’m going to make you regret ever signing the contract for this match.
In our world, you’re either the hunter or the hunted. I’ve been both, my life has flashed before my eyes before I even reached puberty. I know what the jaws of death look like and feel like, do you know that feeling of helplessness, Champ? If you don’t, you’re about to. I find that excruciating pain is the best teacher and motivator around. It kicks us into survival mode and when that moment arrives, you find out what a person is really made of. What a human being is capable of, the lengths they will go to, just to survive. I live in that mode every day, make no mistakes about it Maggie, I’m coming for you, harder than anyone ever has in your career. You have something that I want, and I take what I want.
Fade
“Reconnecting”
{Indianapolis, Indiana}
[7:00 A.M.]
Off-Camera
The last time we saw Johnny and his sisters they were getting acquainted. It didn’t take long for them to fall into a routine with everyone doing their part to keep things as orderly as they could until it was time to move. The move itself went off without any issues, the girls worked remarkably well as a team. All very different in personality and drive but all very effective when working together. The life they had been forced to lead, was, well nothing any woman or girl should be subjected to. They had been forced into prostitution at very young ages, and that in itself he was sure had scarred them in ways that no one could possibly imagined. Johnny was a hard man and had no sympathy for anyone. Their collective stories tugged at his heart in a way that surprised him. He honestly didn’t believe he even had a heart or a soul anymore. It was one of the reasons he approached the wrestling business the way he did.
Claire, Cindi, and Janice looked at the expansive apartment in stunned silence. Johnny realized it was a kind of culture shock for them. They were forced into those little one room shacks and were rarely outside of them. They still had plenty of money left over from what they’d stolen from their family. Now, he needed to figure out how he was going to feed three women. The oldest, Claire, had a highschool diploma at least. The middle child, Janice did not, as for Cindi, he doubted she had ever set foot in a public school system. He motioned for them to sit on the new sofa that he had purchased after the deposit for this place had been paid. Johnny sat cross legged in front of them on the floor. “Okay Ladies, now we have to figure out how we survive here in Indy.”
The three girls all grew pale at that comment and Johnny was quick to cut that line of thinking off. “There won’t be any of that,” he said in a stern voice. “I know the kind of life they forced you into, put that out of your brain. We are not going down that road again.”, was the comment he followed with. All three women visibly calmed at his statement, and the color came back to their faces. “I guess the best way to start this conversation is to say, what do you know how to do, other than that other thing?” All three girls laughed a bit at his uneasiness to even mention sex in front of them. He didn’t want them to think that was even on the table at this point. To him it wasn’t and he would never ask them to do that again. He knew he was a hard man, but even he couldn’t do that to his own flesh and blood.
Claire was the first to speak up, “I took some website building classes in school, I even built theirs for them when they asked me to.” He smiled at his oldest sister, “That’s good, do you happen to have all the passwords for that site?” he asked. She smiled, “damn right I do.”, they shared a knowing smile of what would come next. He then looked at the middle girl Janice, “how about it?” he asked her softly. She beamed at him, “I’m good at stealing things, and being really quiet to the point that people don’t even realize I’m even there.”, she said proudly. The ability to blend in and be unnoticed was a pickpocket's dream skill. He knew this to be true because it had made a difference in whether he ate or not too many times. “Glad I’m not the only one with that particular skill, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”. He looked at Cindi and she grinned, “I’m the driver Johnny. If it’s got wheels I can drive it.” she said defiantly. He smiled at that statement. Claire chuckled, “keeping it between the ditches is another issue altogether though.”, and then all three girls laughed. It had been the first real laughter he had heard from them. That was a good sign in his opinion.
What was even better was that he had the beginning of a plan in his brain, a way for them to be comfortable. He had to make some calls first though. See if any of his old contacts in New Orleans had anyone they’d recommend in this part of the country.
Fade
“Reconnecting Part 2”
{Indianapolis, Indiana}
[7:00 A.M.]
Off-Camera
It turned out that Jesse had survived the encounter with his father and uncles, it was a narrow miss but a miss all the same. Jesse had contacted him to let him know that he was alive and on his way to california. That was one less loose end to deal with. Phase one of his plan to exact revenge on his parents for what they had done to their own flesh and blood was beginning. Claire had locked out all users from the website except for her own and the admin account of course. She had quickly changed the passwords for both accounts and began to download all the videos that had been made. He was certain that their parents intended to use them in the future as a way to extort more money from their clients. The list of clients consisted of law enforcement, celebrities , politicians and less well known people of course. They all had one thing in common, they had a fetish for young girls.
“These motherfuckers are disgusting.”, Johnny said in his usual matter of fact tone. The girls remained silent on the topic but he got the feeling that he had really no idea how true that was. Through a friend of his, he was able to secure anonymous email accounts via the man’s server farm. They would start out small, notifying the person that should they not choose to pay, the video would be released to law enforcement and their families. Payment would be handled via an application that was under one of the anonymous accounts. After two emails they had netted over fifty grand. As promised they had done a screen capture of before and after photos for the payee showing that the file had been removed from the server. “This doesn’t fix what you girls were put through, there’s only one way to address that.” He said as he looked at each of them in turn. “Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.”, said Cindi so softly that it was almost inaudible. Johnny looked at his youngest sister and smiled. “I didn’t know you were a fan of Walter Scott”, he said to her. She smiled, “I didn’t know who he even was until you, brother. I really enjoyed reading that book.”. The Heart of Mid-Lothian had been a little gem he stumbled upon when living with Jasper.
“It is a very enjoyable read, to say the least.”, he remarked. He was trying to think of the last time he spoke to Jasper. The retired county sheriff who had helped him get the girls out of harm's way. The way they communicated was stupid easy. Jasper had a burner phone that had only one number in it. That number was for a burner phone that Johnny had. It had been about three weeks since he lost spoke to the man. He worried about Jasper, who had refused to leave the area despite knowing the kind of people he was dealing with. The old fella only had one member of his family left and that was his daughter Katie. Katie and Johnny were roughly the same age, he thought she was likely a few months younger than himself. He considered trying to call her to find out if Jasper was okay, but that was a bad move and he knew it.
The burner phone buzzed just then, it sat on the kitchen table in front of him. It had the message, “One new text message” sitting there and glaring at him like some terrifying monster out of mythology. Johnny knew instinctively that something was wrong. Jasper wouldn’t text him, the agreement was that they would talk to each other without resorting to text messages. He picked up the phone and looked at the message. The message read: One dead and four more to go. There was nothing after that, indicating that whoever was in possession of the phone had killed Jasper. His head buzzed as the color drained from his face. Then he buried his face in his hands and did something that even surprised him. He laughed, shaking his head, he stood up from the table. He grabbed the phone and stuffed it in his pocket, and walked toward that balcony. Once he was outside, he allowed a single tear of grief to roll down the black synthetic surface of the mask.
The phone began to ring, he dug it out of his pocket and answered the call. As expected, it wasn’t Jasper’s voice, but the voice of his father. A voice he hadn’t heard in years but still recognized. The old man had a very distinctive voice, very similar to Clint Eastwood in his prime. “I don’t know who you are, but you are very dead.” The voice said to him, he barked a laugh and disconnected the call. “I’ve been dead since I was ten fucking years old.”, he said in a flat tone of voice. He pulled the case apart and removed the battery and the sim card. “Beware the fury of a patient man.”, Johnny said as he stared off into the distance. “I am a very patient man with nothing but time on my hands in order to seal your fate and end your lives.”
Fade