vs Gavin Taylor

“It’s real nice seeing you, Aunt Sophie.”

The sweet little girl is quite polite and intelligent.  Truth be told, Martina O’Brian has the best parts of the O’Brian genes, intelligence as well as politeness.  Granted, no one ever accused my brother of being intelligent but intelligence does run in the family.  I am quite intelligent myself.  And it isn’t even that Mark is an idiot, even though I frequently accuse of being one.  His intelligence is more street smarts.

Perhaps Mark, then, truly is more intelligent than I am.  Shocking, isn’t it?  He would never sell his soul for the IWC World Tag Team Championship but I did.  I took the coward’s way out.  I took the easy way out.   Instead of staying beside my brother and fighting The Harem, I joined The Harem.  I joined that which I had stood against, that which I hated.

No one can understand, no one can possibly understand why I did it.  Without a championship I am nothing.  Being a champion defines who I am.  In my first two years as an active wrestler I won four world championships and broke world tag team title records.

Maybe I got lazy, maybe I gave up too quickly after failing to defeat The Harem, but either way I chose that being world tag team champion in IWC by any means necessary was better than trying to earn them the right way and failing to do so.  And yet there’s one other thing that people refuse to accept, refuse to acknowledge.

I did it out of love.

Polly Norah isn’t a willing participant in all of this.  She did not want to work for Ethan Von Aaron and The Harem.  She did not want to be working for Alana Starr and The Good Movement.  So why not help her by keeping her company.  Misery, as they say, loves company.

I am not a horrible person and yet I am among the most detested in IWC right now all because of how I went about my business.  But no one understands the grief that I go through.  No one understands the mental anguish I go through.

This anguish goes far beyond just what goes on in the Independent Wrestling Cartel.  Outside of the ring, my personal anguish having to deal with my dark side.  My dark side has slowly grown stronger, more influential.  That dark side took control and murdered my husband, my sweet Tony Morgan.  I lost my husband and not only did I lose him, I lost him because I murdered him.

My descent into madness has not gone unnoticed.  My brother Mark and his wife Ashley have noticed it and have since tried to keep me away from their child, my sweet niece who stands before me today in her bedroom showing me her IWC action figures.

“And this one you got me.” Martina produces an Ethan Von Aaron action figure without its head.

“Where did its head go, Martina?”

“I took it off.”

“Oh?  Why did you do that?”

“Ethan is stupid.”

A smirk forms on my face. “You really are a smart girl, you know that?”

I lean over and kiss her on her forehead.  Meanwhile Martina roughly tosses the Ethan figure away and then picks up an Orlando Cruze action figure.

“I like this one.”

“Yeah, Cruze is quite a guy.”

“Will he be ok, Aunt Sophie?”

I wish I could say yes.  He took a terrible beating on Riot and is even now in a coma.  Rumors are circulating about his condition.  All I know for certain is that he is in a hospital fighting for his life.  I also know that Martina is too young to understand…

“He’ll be fine, Martina.”  I pat her on the head.

“Ask her who her favorite wrestler is?”

I turn around and spot Ashley, Mark’s wife and my sister-in-law, standing there in the door way smiling politely.

“Oh, Ashley, I didn’t know you were standing there.”

Ashley ignores me and just walks over to Martina.  Truth be told, Martina is actually Ashley’s niece as well.  Martina is the daughter of Mark and Leslie, Ashley’s sister.  But Leslie is dead now and Mark is married to Ashley.  It’s good for Martina, though, that she at least has a mother figure in her life.

“Tell Aunt Sophie who your favorite wrestler is?”

Martina embraces me in a tight hug. “SOPHIE!”

I hug her back. “Thank you, Martina.”

After we break the embrace Ashley motions to the door. “Why don’t you go downstairs and see your daddy, ok?  Me and Aunt Sophie have something to discuss.”

“Ok, Aunt Ashley!”

Martina quickly makes her exit.  I turn and smile sheepishly at Ashley. “Thank you for that.”

“She adores you, Sophie.”

“I know and I also know that I don’t deserve it.”

“I know things have been rough on you lately.  But I am glad you made that first step towards getting help, REAL help, by seeing a psychiatrist.”

“Yeah, but it isn’t that simple.  Dr. Warren says that the next step towards recovery is going to see my father.”

“Oh…”

Ashley knows full well about mine and my brother’s past.  She knows how hard it will be for me to go see him after all of this time.  Ashley walks over and wraps an arm around my shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Sophie.  You always have me and Mark backing you up.  Know that.”

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Promo

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I do what I do for a reason.  Every step, every action I take is with a purpose.  It is all part of my plan.  I do not have to agree with everything Alana Starr and Ethan Von Aaron stand for.  I just need to know what they are doing for me and what they ask of me and thus it all boils down to this.

You need to be eliminated.

You are gunning for our world tag team titles with Andre Jordan as your partner.  Good choice, by the way.  But my task is to make sure that you don’t make it to Reawakening.  And like a good soldier I always do what I’m told.

Nothing personal.