==========
Previously…
Off Camera
April 5th,
2018
==========
It is dark outside in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the
thunder rolling in the background signals to any normal common sense individual
that a storm is brewing and it would be best to stay indoors. But Sophie O’Brian is far from normal, even
if her common senses do tell her that she is about to get wet. But she knows that she can get to her
destination before the downpour. She
knows because she can see her destination, an old warehouse, up ahead in the
dim lighting of a few overhead lights mounted on the warehouse itself.
Her journey here was one she hasn’t made in a long time,
and yet she still remembers it all too well.
The houses gave way to an empty barren road a full twenty minutes ago
and the verge became more of a junkyard than the junkyard. The old machinery lines, the road covered in
dirt, and scavenged into skeletons of whatever they were. Still it has the curved roof like an aircraft
hanger and the walls are corrugated tin. The broken tarmac around it is empty
except for a forklift – it must be in use again, just like it was all those
years ago.
Sophie O’Brian feels the first rain drop hit her
hand. She stops gazing at the warehouse
and makes her way up to the door. One
might expect this place to be locked up by whoever owns it but not Sophie. Sophie expects it to be unlocked and, sure
enough, as she turns the doorknob and it opens easily. She steps inside and shuts the door behind
her. The lights are off and it is pitch black. Sophie can’t see her hand in front of her
face.
This causes great frustration for the Belfast native.
“Ok, stop the
games!” Sophie shouts loudly. “I know you’re here!”
She pauses to wait on an answer from someone who
apparently doesn’t exist. Sophie growls
angrily, shaking her head.
“Damn it! You wanted me back! You ALWAYS wanted me back!” She spins around. “Well
here I am! So come out of hiding!”
Again Sophie pauses, waiting for an answer from this
unknown individual. But still
nothing. Sophie is very agitated by this
point.
“I called
you! You said you’d be here! Now you stand me up?! You stand me up when I need you the most?!” Sophie sighs and
shakes her head. “I suppose I deserve this…”
Suddenly the lights in the warehouse come on all at
once. Sophie smirks knowingly.
“Now I know
you’re here.”
“Of course, how
could I reject this proposal of yours?”
Comes a female voice from off in the distance.
The sound of clicking heels can be heard as she continues talking. “I had to have my fun, though. You said it best, Sophie. You deserve it for abandoning me.”
Sophie watches the center of the room. A woman with raven black hair in a crimson
red dress and matching patent leather heel pumps steps into the room. She motions for Sophie to come towards
her. Without waiting for another
request, Sophie immediately steps towards this woman.
“Greetings,
Sohpie. It has been a long time. Too long, if you ask me.”
“Yes, it has been
too long….” Sophie’s voice trails off as
she kneels down before this woman “…my
Mistress.”
==========
Scene 1
Off Camera
April 5th,
2018
==========
In the holy
scriptures, thunder often signifies a divine truth or divine judgment about to
be sent down upon mankind. To the
saintly, to the good, to the god-fearing, thunder could be something worth
rejoicing over. After all, it is
symbolic of God Himself. To the sinner,
it brings about great distress, worry, and even fear; fear of the judgment and
wrath of God.
I am a
Catholic but I haven’t exactly been practicing my faith. Most observers would say that I am quite the
sinner and if I don’t change my ways soon, then I will be on a highway straight
to hell. I never feared hell before, nor
did I fear God’s judgment. Naïve as it
may be, I always felt that the hell on earth that was my childhood and teenage
years prepared me for any kind of hell that God could dish out.
Yet now, as
I remain here kneeling before this woman; a woman I haven’t seen in nearly two
decades, I am fearful. Shudders of fear
run through my body as the thunder and lightning cracks outside of the
abandoned warehouse where I find myself with this woman. Perhaps this is the “fear of God” that so
many people speak of?
I am
slightly taller than this woman and I have more experience as a fighter. I was trained by the best wrestler in the
world, Glenn Braddock. I should have no
fear of her, and yet I feel a sense of intimidation in her presence. She gives off a strange aura of power. One that I never could seem to master myself.
Her name is
Quinn Murray.
“Yes, yes it has been far too long since
we’ve been together, my dear Sophie.” She purrs as she gazes down at me
with a controlling stare and a devious smile. “It most certainly wasn’t on account of anything I did, was it? Was I at fault, Sophie?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, still not
daring to even look up at her.
“Perhaps my thought process is on a level
superior to yours? Allow me to, how do
you say, dumb it down?” She snickers.
Normally I wouldn’t take that insult from anyone, and a part of me wants
to protest, but I can’t find it within me to fight back. “Did I do something to drive you away from me?”
“No…of course not, my Mistress.”
“Well if that is the case, tell me
something,” she rubs the back of her hand across my cheek “why did you leave me? Why did you abandon me?”
“Mistress, you should know this.” I ask,
sounding somewhat surprised that this question was even posed to me.
“Perhaps I do.” She folds her arms over
her chest. “Humor me.”
“Fine.
But you knew that Mark and I were training at the Braddock Wrestling
School. You knew that Glenn Braddock was training us to be professional
athletes…wrestlers. We owe a great deal
to Glenn.” Tears begin to form in my eyes as I recall the terrible
memories. “Mark and I got beatings from
our alcoholic father on a regular basis.
We both ran out of the house as soon as we legally could and never
looked back. But we needed help. Glenn Braddock provided that help, not only
monetarily but in the form of training so that we could defend ourselves going
forward and so that we could have a future for ourselves going forward; a
future in professional wrestling.”
The
confidence begins to return to me. It’s
enough to make me stand back up, eye to eye and nose to nose with Quinn Murray.
“Glenn Braddock helped secure us contracts
with Global Division of Wrestling where we made our professional wrestling
debut. That’s why I left.”
“That is a lovely speech my dear, and a
beautiful recounting of the events, but they are slightly inaccurate.”
“In what way, Quinn?”
“MISTRESS!” She slaps me across the
face. It rocks me backward, stunned more
than anything else. I rub the stinging
from my cheek as I stare at Quinn who has an angry glare on her face. “We need to clear this up, Sophie! Glenn Braddock did not ‘save you’; I
did! You came to me before you ever went
to him! I gave you a home before your
idiot brother ever did! I was the one
who encouraged you to go to Glenn Braddock and allow him to give you the
necessary wrestling training! That is
why I owned you back then and why I was your Master and you were my loyal
servant! At the very least you still owe
me that much, Sophie! Are we clear?”
Once again,
those who know me realize that this would not be something I would ordinarily
take very lightly. Yet my confidence is
immediately shattered by Quinn’s impressive, mighty aura. I bow my head like a repentant young girl.
“Yes…my Mistress.”
“Good.” Almost like flipping a switch,
Quinn goes from angry to calm. It even
makes me shudder, just ever so slightly, to watch her swing from one extreme to
the next like that. “Yes, I recall how
you told me you were leaving me to become a professional wrestler. And I followed your career, Sophie. I hope you realize that. I followed you from Global Division of
Wrestling, Motor City Wrestling, Future Wrestling Alliance, Millennium
Wrestling Alliance, Independent Wrestling Cartel, Global Championship
Wrestling, and now your most recent venture…Supreme Championship Wrestling.”
I admit, it
does surprise me that she kept up with me for this long. I always had the impression that she just
thought of me as a toy or a pawn, someone she never really cared about. Perhaps she actually does care?
“Then you will admit that I was ready to
leave.” I state defiantly, my confidence starting to emerge again. “I held world championships in four of those
organizations, Mistress. I have been a
champion everywhere I have ever wrestled.
Everywhere that welcomed Sophie O’Brian would end up getting dominated
by Sophie O’Brian.”
“Perhaps this is partially true but you are
leaving off a key piece of information, Sophie.”
“What are you talking about?” I demand
with an arched brow.
“Supreme Championship Wrestling.” She
shakes her head, making tsk tsk noises at me. “Hardly a show of dominance if you ask me, my dear. I mean, you HAD me convinced that you really
had learned everything you could from me, but then you showed up in SCW and you
humiliated yourself.”
It’s like a
punch in the gut to hear her say that to me; and what makes it worse is that
she is absolutely right. I have been a
disgrace to myself and everything I stand for since coming to SCW. I haven’t lived up to my potential. This is why I came here in the first place
and she knows it. Quinn Murray knows it.
“No, I haven’t done well in SCW. This is why I have returned to you. This is why I came back.” I kneel down
before her once again as a sign of what I’m willing to give her, to offer her. “I seek your guidance, Mistress. I want to learn more and to improve myself so
that I may dominate SCW as I have dominated everywhere else.”
I dare not
look up into Quinn’s eyes in fear of offending her again but the slight
laughter that I hear is enough to tell me that this isn’t going well for me.
“You abandoned me, Sophie. You foolishly left because you thought that
you knew everything there was to know.
You thought you learned everything that you could possibly learn from
me. I was offended when the student
tried to declare herself a graduate before the teacher could evaluate her. So tell me, my dear,” she reaches down
and guides my head upward so that she is looking directly into my admittedly
nervous eyes “why should I help you?”
No answer
comes from me. It isn’t on account of
not having an answer. I do have an
answer. I just am afraid of what that
answer is; I am afraid of having to make the sacrifice that I will have to make
in order to obtain her help as a mentor, as a guide, yet again. I really do not want to answer this question
but I doubt very seriously Quinn will let me off this easily.
“No answer from the supposed sociopath? Nothing from the master strategist herself?”
She shakes her head in disappointment. “You disappoint me, Sophie. I had watched you progress so very far away
from my presence and now here, before me, you regress back into childhood.”
“I apologize, my Mistress.”
“No need for apologies; at least not
yet. Just tell me one simple thing; how
desperate are you, Sophie?”
“ Very desperate.”
“Finally, some honesty!” She exclaims
with a wide ear to ear grin and laughter.
“I mean, clearly you are enough
desperate enough to return to your rightful and proper place…”
She paces a
hand on my head “…and your rightful and
proper place is at my feet and in my service, all for the mere hope that I will
give you more knowledge. Am I
correct? Is this what you are offering
me?”
“Quit teasing me!” I have had enough and
immediately stand up, one final rush of adrenaline and anger causes me to get
up in Quinn’s face, staring her down with a narrowed, hateful glare. “Yes! You are absolutely right! I know what you want more than anything else
in this world! For all the wealth and
privilege and influence that you have, there was just one person who ever
walked away from you!”
I pat myself
on the chest. “Me!”
Quinn glares
with hatred right back at me. She slaps
me again but this time I don’t back down.
There is a tense pause before she finally speaks.
“Yes, I admit it. It ate me alive for years when you left me,
when you abandoned me. I felt as if I
had lost a piece of my heart and soul!
Damn it, I cared about you Sophie!
Yet you walked away!”
“Bullshit!
You never cared about me! I was
just a servant to you…hell, I was less than a servant…I was your plaything! I was your toy! I was a possession that you could use and
manipulate at any time. I could see
it. I wasn’t ignorant to what you were
doing to me. But I never spoke up and I
never complained because I wanted to learn from you. I wanted the beautiful wisdom that you had to
offer and for years you taught me. For
years I not only was your possession but I was, as you said, your student. And I learned from my Mistress. I learned a great deal from my Mistress and
what I learned helped me win four world championships.”
I sigh and
shake my head. “But now I need help. I am clearly missing something because it has
been damn near a year in SCW and I have yet to make any sort of impact, let
alone get close to a championship. I am
desperate, Mistress. Desperate enough to
come crawling back to you, pleading for assistance. So damn it, are you going to help? If not, don’t waste my time!”
She smirks
knowingly, devilishly even. I’m not
quite sure how to interpret that smirk but it doesn’t take long to ponder before
she gives the answer.
“Oh I’ll help you, my dear; but my valuable
wisdom comes at a price.”
“What’s the price?”
“You left me, Sophie. And it hurt me. You may not believe me, but it did hurt
me. I will not lose you again. There is more, but all I ask for now is your
undivided loyalty and devotion and a promise that you will never again leave my
side.”
“I promise, my Mistress.”
“Not good enough!” She exclaims, her
voice raising ever so slightly. “I want
you to kneel down and say it!”
Realizing I
don’t have much of a choice here before this imposing woman, I kneel down
before her and bow my head in reverence.
“I belong to you, my Mistress. You have my loyalty and devotion for as long
as I live.”
“Excellent,” she grins from ear to ear “then we begin immediately. Understand that you will be called upon once
again to pay a price for my knowledge. Nothing is free in this world, Sophie,
especially wisdom. Wisdom, in fact, is
the most expensive gift of them all, as you will find out. When the time comes that I inform you of the
price of my wisdom, will you be ready to pay?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes…my Mistress.”
==========
Off Camera
April 11th,
2018
Breakdown
==========
A submission
victory is something I haven’t managed in quite a long time, despite the fact
that I am a submission specialist; trained by one of the best submission and
pure wrestlers in the world. It was
humbling to have to admit that I had fallen from such a lofty perch to the
point in my career where I was barely surviving in Supreme Championship
Wrestling. Facing a comedic joke of a
human being named Billy Breakdown is, in and of itself, a humbling experience.
Finally it
happened; the breakthrough I had been wanting has happened. Well, perhaps ‘breakthrough’ is too strong a
term for a victory over a simpleton like Billy Breakdown, but the fact that I
did make him tap out rather quickly is, at the very least, a turning
point. Maybe I have finally turned my
luck around and if so, not a moment too soon.
Coming up in a few short days I get the opportunity to claim the Interim
United States Championship; a battle royal where the winner faces AJ Helms for
the title.
I realize
that one victory over Billy Breakdown may not mean much, but it has restored in
me some much needed confidence that I had been lacking for the past year in
SCW. And I owe it all to one person…
…Quinn
Murray.
The smile on
my face will most likely have to be surgically removed and everyone knows it as
they watch my brother and I walk through the backstage area of the arena following
my match on Breakdown. I am confident
yet again in my abilities and I know I will be the Interim United States
Champion when all is said and done.
We ignore
the officials and other superstars that line the backstage area. Mark follows me closely as I finally find my
way to the dressing room, pushing it open and stepping inside. Mark follows me
inside and lets the door shut behind him.
I turn around and, in a move that is rather unbecoming of me, I embrace
my older brother in a tight hug.
“I did it!”
“Yeah, I knew you’d bounce back, Soph!”
We break the embrace and he looks at me curiously, cautiously even. “But, uh…”
“What?
What is it?” I ask, arching my brow out of curiosity.
“Are you sure you’re ok, Sophie? Cause, I mean, you don’t normally do that.”
“Do what?”
“Hug.” He smirks. “You’re not a hugger.”
“There’s a first time for everything,
Neanderthal.” I wink at my brother, letting him know that I did not mean
anything by the insult…this time.
“Now that’s the Sophie I know.” He lets
out a slight chuckle.
“Yes and it is the Sophie that always should
have been.” I declare proudly and defiantly. “I have clearly lost focus this past year. My brain was not where it should have
been. But now that I have my priorities
straight, I can finally achieve the goal that should’ve been my primary goal
all along.”
Mark and I
lock eyes and I can tell that he is pondering my words. He is deep in thought. Yes, this giant Sherman Tank of a brother of
mine is capable of normal human thought, even if I question it on occasion. Finally he tilts his head to one side and
studies me.
“Was it really that simple, Soph?” Mark
asks somewhat skeptically. “You just had
your priorities out of whack and you needed your head screwed on straight?”
“If you want to minimalize what I did with
such language then yes, I had my priorities ‘out of whack’ and I needed my ‘head
screwed on straight’ as you so eloquently put it.”
“Then how did ya do it, Sophie?” Mark
asks again, pressuring me this time. “Or
DID you figure out? How can you be sure
that you got things back on track?”
“Look, dimbulb, who is the brains of this
time? Me or you?” I gently but
firmly smack him in the back of his head. “I
know myself better than you, Mark, so I can honestly and forthrightly tell you
that I have indeed gotten back on track.
I have set my priorities straight.
I am the Sophie of old.”
“Funny,” Mark shrugs his shoulders “I never knew she was gone.”
I stare
angrily and intensely into his eyes.
Then I hear my phone ringing. I
reach into my bag and pick up the phone.
I see the caller ID and immediately turn back to look at Mark.
“Go away.
I need to take this.”
“Who is it?”
“It doesn’t matter!” I exclaims loudly. “Just go!
I’ll be out in a moment…this won’t take long…”
Mark again
shrugs his shoulders as he exits the dressing room. Then I answer the phone and place it to my
ear.
“Yes, my Mistress? I take it you saw that match.”
“I did.
I want to congratulate you on a job well done. But that was just a first step. Now we must prepare you for the next big
challenge. You will claim this United
States Championship, Sophie. Whether it’s
interim or not, doesn’t matter. It shall
belong to you. Your training and
education must continue if you are to win.”
“Yes, of course, my Mistress.”
==========
On Camera
==========
“That's been one of my mantras - focus and
simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get
your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because
once you get there, you can move mountains.” --- Steve Jobs
Now Steve
Jobs was hardly a warrior in the military sense but in the tech world and the
business world he was one of the truest and mightiest of warriors and, dare I
say, one of the expert strategists of the business world. Focus and Simplicity was his mantra and that
mantra helped turn Apple into one of the technological powerhouses today.
This past
year I haven’t exactly been following that mantra of success. To be perfectly frank, I have been completely
lost focus on what was really important and, in turn, I made my task here in
Supreme Championship Wrestling entirely too complex and complicated than what
it should have been. I was focused on trying
to prove some social theory of mine to be true.
Yes, I was proven to be correct.
My theory that each and every one of you are no better than the
villainous sociopaths you claim to detest was proven accurate.
While I
admit, being proven right does make me feel good, I also have to admit that it
was but a mere short term pleasure.
After all, what did it get me in the end? How did being proven right help my standings
in Supreme Championship Wrestling?
It didn’t
help me at all. My standings remained
the same; I remained at the bottom of the barrel, where I started nearly one
year ago today in this company. I had earned nothing for my efforts. But that begs the question, what do I really
want out of my career in SCW?
That’s where
Steve Jobs comes in. Focus and
simplicity; well my focus clearly was on something far too complex and
complicated to help me earn anything. I
needed to simplify my goals. I needed to get back to the very basics of why
wrestlers wrestle in the first place. I
had to go back to the very beginnings of myself, if you will, and gaze deep
into my own dark soul and find out what it is that I wanted, why did I want to
be a professional wrestler?
Competition;
as cheesy and corny as it may sound, and as surprising as that may be coming
from a dark-hearted sociopath like myself, competition is the one thing that
connects us all. Whether you are a
glammed-up fake goddess named Katie Steward, a one-eyed goat loving freak like
Beard, a Japanese Karaoke master, or a wannabe Cruze, we all have the same
competitive spirit that drives us forward, that keeps us going in this sport,
in this industry.
That is when
I had the epiphany. If all I wanted to
do was engage in social experimentation upon the mass of unlearned Neanderthals
in the world, I could do that in any other career field. But I chose to be a professional wrestler
because I loved to fight and I loved the thrill of competition.
On four
separate occasions in four different companies I proved myself to be the best
damn professional wrestler in the world…or at least in that company…yet here I
stand, nearly one year after my SCW debut, and I’m struggling? I’m barely hanging on by a thread to any sort
of relevance?
That isn’t
who Sophie O’Brian is and you will all find that out the hard way at
Unflawed. Two world champions in the
form of Alexis Quinne and Tommy Valentine will find out about the REAL Sophie O’Brian…especially
Valentine, who I owe some payback…
Gothfather
and Barnhart, both of whom have had just as much bad luck as I have, will see
their bad luck continue and will learn about the REAL Sophie O’Brian…
And Aaron
Blackbourne, while he has had some minor success, more success than me anyway,
he too will continue his downward spiral, while I finally move my way up into
the spot where I deserve to be…the spot where the REAL Sophie O’Brian deserves
to be!
I realize
now that I only have myself to blame for my lackluster rookie year in Supreme
Championship Wrestling. I’m not the ‘world
beater’ I knew I could be and that is because I was distracted by unimportant,
trivial matters. But my focus is back
and that is bad news for each and every person involved in this scramble for
the Interim United States Championship.
Especially
AJ Helms.
AJ never
wanted this United States Championship match because he didn’t want to face his
family. That is very sweet of you, my
dear, and I can promise you that I will make damn sure that you will NOT get
the Interim United States Championship.
I will win that battle royal and I will then proceed to destroy you to
take that championship; that way you will never have to worry about facing
mommy dearest.
You’re
welcome.
