Post by Serenity Holmes on Dec 28, 2022 0:29:26 GMT
I've never suffered a time when I'd be pulled between two similar evils so far apart. Yet, it's the paradigms that haunt me in this regime. While I have defeated one my entire life, the other remains unhinged. However, this isn't just for a world championship; It's more than that. It's about a choice.
MOTHER.
"You'll never stop haunting me, will you?"
The dust trickled off her fingertips as she held the picture of her mother close to her face. Her family wasn't home, so she was allowed to be in the place that rejected her. Serenity's brown eyes were flustered with tears, her lip quivering as she sobbed at the miniature portrait of the woman she once called her mother now turned into faded memories. It was a pain scarring her existence that she knew Alice toyed with.
"Well, you have no hold on me anymore."
She dropped the frame of her mother's pictures watching the glass shatter on the wooden floor. Serenity leaned back against an old desk from her bedroom in the attic of her family's home. Thunder clasped across the dark skies outside, the rain battering against the window on this stormy night. She dug her hands in the sleeves of her leather jacket and kicked up her converses on the broken chair, just staring at the ridges of the picture.
"How does it feel, Alice? How does it feel to know you're not as invincible as you are? To have karma come back and bite you in the ass when you were on the verge of elevating in this company? That's right. There's no better word to use than I've just said."
Karma.
"Yes. You've done exactly what you did to me in Action Wrestling. The only difference is I get to take from you more than what you've taken from me. Alice, you've helped me in more ways than anyone has. I've dealt with this pain for so long that I believed it would never escape me, but beating you at Super Saiyan proved that I could overcome even the worst life has to offer me."
"But it doesn't stop there. Didn't you stop when you tortured me? Why should I? We're on the cusp of becoming a world champion for the first time in our careers, and how fitting it will be for the two of us against each other. JD Driftwood is there, but let's be honest, he's insignificant, considering we're the most dangerous threat to him now.
"However, Alice, I enjoy this. You've been digging that knife into my wound and pouring salt for pleasure. I get to return the favor as you ran to CULT looking to expand your career, but all you did was seal your coffin when you reminded me why I hate you."
She stood on her feet and placed her foot on her mother's picture before digging it deeper into the floor. Serenity stared with a blank expression compared to feeling nothing for her chaotic past.
"You couldn't let go. You've beaten me three times and still couldn't let go. You enjoyed making my life so hell that it became an addiction. You relapsed once I signed to CULT, and look what happened. The drug overcame you. I faced you in the Lions Den match and won. I showed you what it meant to persevere and never give up while you faded to complete darkness. I brought you to your absolute limit and made you sleep for a good time. I became the last FIGHT Champion, but instead of accepting it, you still needed your fix."
"You're a plague, Alice. A disease that won't stop. You're hooked on this addiction to inflicting pain on my life now that I'm fighting back? You don't know what to do. You can turn to all your pathetic fans, call all your friends, and they'll give you the same words I'm saying now. You should stop before things worsen, but we both know you won't do that."
Her eyes were fixated on the window, specifically on the pouring rain outside. She found herself leaning against the wall watching the stormy weather impose its border on the community, but she smiled at the chaos. It was soothing to know how much weight had been lifted off her shoulders, but she still felt that impulsing urge to deliver a final blow to Alice's world.
"It's too intoxicating. The smell of my blood drives you insane, and that's why you will fail. This is about the NEW World Championship for you, Alice. It's about making my life insufferable more than you've done before. You've lost sight of your FIGHT Championship because you wanted to hurt me, so imagine what will happen in the triple threat match at The People vs. Casanova English. You won't be able to control your thirst for my blood. You'll lash out in this uncontrollable rage, but I will use that to my advantage."
"I will break your unholy bond with my life as I stand above you with the championship belt, the biggest prize in this promotion. I will watch your pathetic life come crashing down to an end, and you'll have no one to blame but yourself. You'll have to look in the mirror, really look in the mirror, and see the mistake you are. The question burning in your mind repeatedly: How did Serenity overcome me?"
"The answer is you."
"Because you helped me overcome her."
She looked over her shoulder at the rigid mess of shattered glass surrounding the crumpled picture of her mother.
"You tried to bring me down using her, but all you did was help me fight through it. You made me stronger in your attempt to break me, and my hatred for you is now gone."
Those words were the key to releasing the chains of her spirit. She fell onto the floor and leaned against the wall prying her knees close to her chest. She took a moment to herself and rested her head against the wall with a smile of freedom.
"It's my turn to make you stronger. I will return the favor by ending this rivalry once and for all. You're sick, Alice. Let me help you by beating you in the main event. No more need for my blood, no more craving to give me pain, and you can be free of this hellhole you've made your life to be. I will make you a better woman than anyone has before. No more should you have to worry about me because after this? We're done."
"I will be your fix. My championship reign will be your cure. You will look at me every day as the leader of this promotion and understand that you can't hurt me anymore. It's over for you, Alice, but it's a beginning for me as I make history, becoming the youngest NEW World Champion CULT ever seen."
"But enough about you, Alice, there's another I need to beat who has the championship reign, and just like you, he's a pathetic excuse of trash who doesn't know how to get over his addiction as well."
FATHER.
The walk downstairs was slow; although she was alone in her home, it felt like uncharted territory. What once was a haven has become grounds for trespassing in her eyes, but the family portrait of her and her father on the wall in the hallway leading to the dining room kept her frozen in her path. Her fists clenched at her side, staring at it intently, knowing the rigorous training and harsh words he used every time she would speak back to him. Serenity never saw the relationship with her father turning into turmoil, but the industry has a way of infecting everything it touches.
"Fuck you."
"Fuck you, JD Driftwood. I don't want to hear a single word you have to say about me. I don't want your second-grade vocabulary spewing out of your disease-infested mouth trying to put together a simple sentence without any curse word you can think of. It is only a miracle that you've lasted this long in this promotion, becoming the SNUFF Champion and the NEW World Champion. You've made a complete embarrassment of the world championships when you were busy beating down your father to the point you ended up in jail, and for what? You like to feel as if you're a big man. So you travel across the world putting down people for your benefit or doing drugs in your goddamn trailer where you can abuse people at your leisure?"
She scoffed and sat down at the bottom step of the staircase. Serenity leaned forward, bracing her forearms against her thighs, and clasped her hands together, staring deep into the eyes of her father's drawing.
"You're pathetic. You're more pathetic than Alice Gemini, for at least she means what she does, but all you do is create more tragic moments. Your father is a disgrace that you enjoy beating him down and going to jail for, plus you're a drugged-up bum who manages to get off on beating down the inferior competition. You've never had an actual challenge, so you'll lose. Why did CULT place you in a triple threat match to defend the world championship against myself and Alice?"
"You need to see people who went through worse than you. People who have been through hell and back refuse to be consumed by it. We don't have to use drugs or become a typical Florida man like you to get the job done. What the hell has been instilled in our lives? It made us more robust than you. You sit in your little broken-down trailer, becoming more consumed by the drugs you stuff down and becoming cancerous to everyone around you. You make people's lives in the ring, but the people around you outside it even worse."
"You have never faced someone who can go through the bottomless pit and still come out on top. You rant, cry, and pretend you're this unstoppable monster, but all you are is a little boy sitting in the children's corner screaming at the top of your voice to be heard. You're an attention whore who clings onto the belt to stay relevant but look how silent you've been when you've been overshadowed by not one but two women who mean more to this company than you."
Serenity stood up and was in front of the portrait tugging on the inside pockets of her leather jacket. She flipped her wavy hair over her right shoulder and studied the picture, wondering where it all went wrong. A small tear dripped from her right eye, running down her cheek, but she took a deep breath to keep herself composed.
"I would never do what you did to my father even though he's said some very hurtful thing to me. I love him so much. Are you hurting your own family? That's a line I will never forgive. This addiction to drugs? It's an excuse. You want an excuse to hurt those around you, and now you have none to prevent you from this match."
"For the first time in your pathetic life, JD, you will be put down! You will try to make us look weak, but the weakest person in this match is you, the beloved NEW World Champion. Two women who have put each other through hell and have been through the last circle more than you will teach you what real pain is. To suffer every fuckin' day of our lives and still have the gall to rise higher than ever. You will see true strength and courage as we cast you aside like a nonfactor which is exactly what you are."
"Your father?! You are a disgrace. Mine? I will respect him as he has sacrificed everything in his life to be where I am now. That's what I need to do. I will stoop down to your level because I have so much respect for him, and even though we're apart in our relationship, we still have that love for each other. I refuse to be like you, which is why beating you for the world championship means so much. It will prove one thing about me that you will never see."
Humanity.
"That's right. It's what you lack today, and you will end up in the ground with no one to attend your funeral. You'll be rotting away with the worms in the dirt, wondering how everything went wrong, and that will be your judgment day. You are dead after this match, JD. I don't want you getting help. I want you in prison rotting away as you become someone else's bitch or are put to death by the state. You'll be undermined and thrown out by women I know you like to abuse for your benefit.
And when I beat both of you to become the NEW World Champion, I'll show what a true champion looks like. I'm not Donnie Hopkins, Jane Doe, Justin York, Holden Ross, or Vodka Black."
"I'm Serenity Fuckin' Holmes!"
Before she placed her hand on the portrait, she heard her dad's car pulling up in the driveway. Serenity sighed, walked to the backdoor, and stopped at the living room's light switch. She heard her family having a good time, enjoying the conversation with cheerful laughter, and she let her head down, trying to hold back the tears from exploding on her face.
"It's no more to say other than to see you both there. I'll redeem myself and become the NEW World Champion. I'll return home and be better. Unfortunately for you, it's lights out, and you'll be heard again. This is my promise to you."