Post by Old Line Jeff on Mar 11, 2023 4:04:30 GMT -5
While Ronnie Long was in the hospital getting treated for a broken forearm, Daeriq Damien was in a different hospital getting treated for a separated shoulder.
He was long out of wrestling shape, and when Rob Riot had hurled him into the ringside stairs, he not only didn’t have two arms to cushion the crash, he’d had to contort himself to avoid taking any of it on his bad right arm. The end result, his left shoulder hit the top of the stairs.
Although he hadn’t gotten involved physically in a wrestling match (by his own decision at any rate), he would’ve, he thought, had jumped in in order to prevent Ronnie from having to tap out for the second time in his two decade career. However, he’d been on the floor, curled up in pain, worrying about Kirsty McKinney lying unconscious next to him, and didn’t even know how the match had ended until later.
Daeriq’s own active wrestling career had lasted just under a decade, from 1999 until 2008. He’d been a bad guy for almost all of it. More of a power-centric jack of all trades type wrestler, he’d viewed the business itself as something to be exploited, and the other wrestlers, even the ones he was allied with, as stepping stones to greatness. He’d stepped his way all the way to the IWA Heavyweight Title. And nothing really changed. Worse, he hit a plateau, skill wise. IWA had joined an interfed, and while some of his fellow wrestlers, when exposed to the wider array of talent had found a higher gear to play in, he… simply hadn’t. By the time IWA closed and its successor OLW had opened, Damien was mired in the tag division.
Granted, his tag team partner was Gemma Lockhart, and there wasn’t a (straight) male wrestler on the planet who’d have made fun of him for being able to get the time of day from Gemma, let alone teaming with her… but he’d formed two trios teams with her. The first, which also had Ronnie in it, achieved nothing. The second one, which included a guy named Brad Andrews, did find some success, but Brad and Gemma both left OLW after they won and lost the OLW Trios Titles, leaving Damien adrift in the midcard.
It was during the team with Gemma and Brad, however, that he’d taken his first fumbling steps towards “good guy” - first ending up on the cheered half of the alignment table due to shared enemies. Then, after they left, trying to teach his younger sister to wrestle.
Then OLW closed.
Then it announced a farewell show.
And training for that show was where he suffered the catastrophic elbow injury that ended his career.
Now with his other arm injured, he had a lot of time to sit around and think about… things. About what had really happened with the Brothers Gluck. About what he actually wanted to do.
So he called the man who everything always revolved around.
Jeff Andrews.
“Jeff, we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“About literally everything that’s happened since you started A*P five years ago.”
“Has it really been that long?”
“Yeah. You know how long it’s been since IWA closed? Nineteen years.”
“Fuck.”
“I know, right?”
“Well, we’re going to have to involve Ronnie. He’s the only one of us who’s still wrestling.”
“Yeah, but not just him. I want Cole there.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s got something to do with someone he hired for A*P. And you’re going to hate this, but… I want Heidi there too.”
A long, long silence from Jeff.
Jeff Andrews and Heidi Christenson were the first couple of pro wrestling in certain circles. They were childhood sweethearts. Their offspring would’ve had some of the finest wrestling pedigree in the world running through their veins. But they broke up in 2014, and even though Jeff was the one who walked away, he’d never recovered from it.
“If she’s there, I’ll videoconference in.”
Daeriq thought about Gemma Lockhart. They’d been friends. There had been benefits. But she simply moved on, hooked up with a different pro wrestler, guy named Python, the two of them had left wrestling for the music scene… he hadn’t heard from Gemma in years.
So he just put it on the line.
“Jeff, it’s about Queen of Sorrow.”
A deep breath on the other end of the line. Then…
“Fine. Call Ronnie. Tell him what’s going on and let him make the plans. He’s the only one of us fit to drive right now anyway.”
They’d agreed to meet at Ronnie Long’s Georgia farmhouse. By the time everyone involved was able to clear their schedules, it was the beginning of an unseasonably warm March. Ronnie didn’t like it. Warm was good, but abnormal seasons bothered him on a core level.
One of the benefits to having Heidi Christenson as a friend was that she liked cooking even more than she liked making origami out of people’s limbs, and she’d taught Deanna to cook almost as well as she could. She’d also arrived early, and the two of them had been cooking for two days straight. Ronnie for his part was sticking straight to his keto diet, preparing for the sins against carbohydrates he would soon commit.
Cole Christenson - Heidi’s little brother in name only, the man was a behemoth - arrived first, hugged his sister awkwardly. Ronnie didn’t know him. They’d been in some of the same promotions but never in the same ring at the same time. At least there was no weird history there.
Daeriq Damien arrived next, with Kirsty McKinney in tow. Ronnie noticed that her eyes looked normal.
And Jeff Andrews arrived last. Even though he knew what was coming food wise, he still dragged his heels up the porch steps. When he saw Heidi, he silently aged 5 years. She pretended she hadn’t heard him come in and didn’t turn around.
Deanna had made Ronnie lug the big guest table down from storage, and the seven people sat around it.
Nobody spoke.
Ronnie finally decided that since everyone was in his house, he’d be the one to break the ice.
“So here we are, Daeriq. Everyone who matters is here.”
“Not everyone…” Daeriq said, with a meaningful glance at the empty chair. “Kai didn’t show.”
“I did my best to find Kai, but I couldn’t.” Jeff spoke. “He posted his resignation from DEFIANCE on Twitter and that’s the last time anyone I know has seen or heard from him. All his numbers are dead, the only address I had for him was an apartment and the landlord said he left without leaving a forwarding address. I even tried leaving messages where I knew he’d find them. So either he’s really vanished into thin air, or he’s hiding.”
“If he knows anything about what’s going on he’s almost certainly hiding.”
“Before we start on that…” Heidi’s voice had an edge to it that made everyone but Jeff look at her. She was glaring at Damien. “I want to know what the hell you did to that girl.” She gestured at Kirsty.
“He didn’t do anything to me aside from try to train me.” Kirsty spoke up for herself. “That whole staring and never blinking and acting like I was brainwashed, it was just an act. A gimmick. He thought it might, y’know, get over.”
“Managers almost never get over anymore, I’m surprised Daeriq managed it.” Jeff said.
“Well, after you bailed on me and never came back…”
“Look, my parents passed away within a year of each other and left me a trainwreck to deal with. Feels weird saying it for the first time in 25 years, but I had something more important than pro wrestling to deal with, and it was something I couldn’t really work into my wrestling career. And unlike most of you, I never took any breaks. And now, I’m just so tired. I know I’ve still got stuff to do in wrestling, but… I’m tired. I know it sounds like the weakest excuse ever, but I’m just so, fucking, tired.”
Kirsty didn’t look sympathetic. But she was half the age of anyone else at the table.
“...And all this responsibility… guys I don’t have it in me to run another promotion even if I want to, and I do, but if Laurent Haniel wants me to run DCW so so badly I’m going to need more help than just ‘here’s a buncha money, make it happen.’”
“I think most of us here know about how much it takes. But whatever happened in that spaceship affected a ton of people, not just you. What happens if you don’t play?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard from Laurent since my magic spaceship ride.”
“Well, I think there’s one thing that’s important to ask. Who else gained something from this? Here’s what I got. Look at my forehead. Where Eric Dane carved it up with a fork during that I Quit match? No scars.” Heidi pulled her hair back, pointing at the skin above her right eye. “And no sharp shooting pain where he hit me with that wrong-way-facing chair either.”
“I’d love to know why it didn’t heal… this.” Daeriq picked his right arm up in his left, then dropped it. “But the reason I called this meeting of the minds is because I fucked up, really badly, and if I don’t explain…”
“Honesty, the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Deanna’s voice was brittle.
“Unironically yes. Here’s my great confession. The reason I got involved in this? Queen of Sorrow.”
“Who?”
Everyone looked at Jeff, but he didn’t look up. Finally Cole spoke up.
“She was one of the wrestlers Jeff and I signed when we were running A*P. She showed up in her mask and asked for a tryout. She was really impressive, she already had a unique look and she knocked her training partner out cold in minutes with a running knee. But… I suppose since we’re all here, I can share this weirdness with you.”
Cole rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“The real name she gave me was Tiffani Lords.”
“I’ve heard that name somewhere.”
“There was a videogame character with the same name.”
“Be that as it may.” Something of an aloof, staid workaholic, Cole had probably never held a controller in his life. “When I was reviewing finances, I noticed that none of the checks I wrote to ‘Tiffani Lords’ had ever been cashed. I then looked up the personal information she’d provided. Tiffani Lords was a fake identity that never existed. Her paycheck was generous for an indy promotion, too.”
“Well whoever she actually is, she found me, and she made it clear to me that she wanted Jeff Andrews running a wrestling promotion again.”
All the heads turned to look at Jeff Andrews.
“Why?”
“Of course she didn’t tell me. But she told me that deals like your spaceship thing could be made, and then she asked me if I wanted my arm back.”
“And you said of course.”
“Do you think I like this?” Daeriq picked his bad arm up with his good one again. “Of course I said yes. She told me to get you back into the game however I could. But that was right before you disappeared.”
“My fucking parents died, dude.”
“I’m SORRY. BUT. I really doubt Queen of Sorrow cares. Anyway. That’s where you came in, Ronnie.”
Ronnie had almost zoned out, but he jerked himself back to reality.
“I thought that if I messed with you, that it might bait Jeff into coming back to help his buddy out. Plus the idea of getting my foot back in the door I kind of liked. And Ron, you can say whatever you want about it, but I’ve always liked you. Managing you to a couple titles didn’t sound like a bad time.”
“This is absolutely fucking nuts.” Deanna, the only non-wrestler in the group, finally spoke up. “What you’re saying is some… weirdo who’s hiding her identity wants HIM to promote again, so she asked YOU to talk him into it, and you thought the best way to make that happened was to to torment MY FUCKING HUSBAND WHO’D BEEN RETIRED FOR A DECADE? And all you did was get his arm broken! If I could…”
Ronnie jumped to his feet, but Heidi was closer, and she gathered Deanna into a tight hug. The glare she fixed on Daeriq made Ronnie shiver.
“Ronnie did better than I expected but not as well as I hoped. Bluntly, solid upper midcarder who hasn’t been able to get through the glass ceiling in W:UK. He’s tied up in this blood feud with Rob Riot and it’s almost a good thing. The problem is, his success made Jeff less likely to get involved rather than more.”
“I also consider Ronnie a friend and like seeing him do well. And you know if I went to the XHF I’d probably burn my bridge so fast and furious his would catch fire too.”
Ronnie was not sure whether he’d heard Heidi mutter ‘grow the fuck up’.
“Queen of Sorrow started getting impatient with me. Then she got handsy. The second to last time I saw her was at the docks in Halifax. She threw me all over the dock and twisted my bad arm so badly one of the rods in it shifted. She said she was getting sick of waiting.”
Nobody seemed to know what to say.
“If I couldn’t get Jeff back into the game by messing with Ronnie, I thought maybe making him think I was picking on his protege would help. It didn’t though. And I do have some standards, I would never have hurt Kirsty. Really, if we ever get a chance, I’d love you to see what she’s picked up.”
Deanna started to speak, and Heidi reclasped the hug quickly enough to muffle it.
“I made The Foundation, and I recruited The Brothers Gluck, and this is where I really think I went wrong. I introduced Chapps to Queen of Sorrow, and I don’t know what they talked about but next thing I knew the Glucks were backstabbing me, and they may be working for Wesley Crane, but I don’t think he’s got as much control over them as he thinks he does.”
“This is nuts…” Ronnie shook his head.
“It is. And I don’t know what to do. Being slimy didn’t work. Maybe being honest will.”
Cole cracked his neck to the side. “By ‘work’, do you mean ‘fix everything’ or ‘drag Jeff back just like Queen of Sorrow wants’?”
“I don’t even know that.” As though his energy was used up, Daeriq lowered his head to massage his brow. “What happens if she doesn’t get what she wants? What happens if she does? She’s tied up in all this supernatural nonsense.”
“Here’s what I think. Laurent said that he wanted DCW created to be a battleground. How nerdy are you people, really? If I said he was the Big Good, would you know what I meant? I think maybe Queen of Sorrow is either the Big Bad, or she’s working closely with him. And if she’s secretly behind the Brothers Gluck now, it may be she doesn’t feel like waiting for me to get DCW off the group. But what she wants, I have no idea. She just seemed to want to cause mayhem for the sake of causing mayhem. I still have no idea why she attacked me during that full promotion brawl in A*P.”
There’s a reason everything revolves around Jeff Andrews. When his head is on straight, he runs the ship. And he was finally sitting up and clear eyed.
“If Queen of Sorrow wants me back, I think the last thing I need to do is be jumping in without looking. Daeriq, you want to actually help? Help Ronnie. He’s got three Bastards to deal with, and there aren’t three Untouchables left. You know I’ve offered, but Chris and Danny and-”
“Hi.”
Jeff Andrews went stiff. He closed his eyes. He let out a deep breath that came out uneven.
“I didn’t think you’d-”
“You mean you thought I’d say no, so you never asked because you were afraid to hear it.”
“Heidi, don’t-” Deanna said.
“No. I’m saying it. I’M not the one who ran away. Does anybody here want to say they know Jeff better than I do? Anybody?” Heidi looked around the room. “Jeff hates losing. Jeff hates losing so much that he forfeits all the damn time. Jeff walked out on me - US - because walking out on me was easier for him to deal with than the thought of me walking.”
Jeff Andrews didn’t respond.
“He’d always rather flip the board over than lose fair and square.”
An excruciating silence.
“I don’t even know why this… Laurent guy… thinks he’s the one to save everything.”
“He doesn’t.” Jeff’s voice was soft. “He thinks you will.”
Heidi stared at him.
“That’s the one think he and Dionicio talked to me about during the spaceship ride. That I didn’t bring up at the press conference. I’m the one who can bring everyone to the battlefield. You’re the one who can win the battle.”
It wasn’t very often that Heidi was stunned into silence.
“I have a confession.”
Everyone turned to look at Deanna.
“When you asked what everyone got out of the spaceship ride, something very strange happened to me. You all know how I tore my Achilles tendon at the beginning of my wrestling career and never went back? That got fixed. But more than that, it’s like I’ve been wrestling all this time. But it’s… it’s like there’s something living inside my brain that knows things I don’t.”
Ronnie barely heard the words.
“Heidi and I have been sparring while you’ve been in the UK, Ron. And I can keep up with her. Even on the mat. I don’t know how. It feels like I’m being told what to do. It’s like… like the knowledge got etched into my subconscious without me actually learning it.”
“I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, but here’s what I’m doing. I’m going to spend as much time here with Deanna as I can. And Daeriq? Leave Kirsty with us. Ronnie’s going to need someone actually watching his back to keep him safe. And if that’s not why you’re watching his back, you’ll answer to me.”
Daeriq swallowed a sarcastic remark and just nodded.
“If I can’t find Kai Scott, and the weirder this gets the weirder it is that he’s not getting involved, I’ll try to find Laurent Haniel.”
“I’ll see what I can find out about everyone involved in A*P. Queen of Sorrow isn’t the only person who had weird things happening around them, and money might open some doors that wrestling matches and schemes won’t.”
“I’m pretty close to ring-ready, I’ve been coaching martial arts and done a couple MMA fights. I don’t really want to come back but I’ll do what I can to get myself and Deanna ready if we need to, and we’ll take over training Kirsty. She deserves a lot better than what she’s got from you boys.”
“And somehow…” Ronnie sighed. “I’m the one that’s actually going to be wrestling. And there’s a lot of weirdness in the XHF too.”
“Yep. Keep your head up. Watch the Bastards. Watch the Circus. Watch Donzig-Gun. Watch the High Rollers club, especially the Glucks. And if you need a hand, you’ve got a room full of people who’ll back you up. You tell us what you need and we’ll try to make it happen.”
A prolonged silence. Deanna got up and disappeared into the kitchen.
“This is the part where you all say you’re not hungry, and I swear to god I will rip you limb from limb if you say it.”
Deanna reappeared with a whole Maryland Stuffed Ham on a platter and dropped it on the table so hard the table shook. Heidi produced a biscuit warmer from somewhere as Deanna set out homemade peach preserves. A big pot of greens appeared. And some stewed squash. Watermelon rind pickles. Hoppin’ john. Pimiento cheese with homemade crackers.
“Feels like we’re facing a last meal.” Daeriq said.
Ronnie laughed. “Then let’s die happy.”
He was long out of wrestling shape, and when Rob Riot had hurled him into the ringside stairs, he not only didn’t have two arms to cushion the crash, he’d had to contort himself to avoid taking any of it on his bad right arm. The end result, his left shoulder hit the top of the stairs.
Although he hadn’t gotten involved physically in a wrestling match (by his own decision at any rate), he would’ve, he thought, had jumped in in order to prevent Ronnie from having to tap out for the second time in his two decade career. However, he’d been on the floor, curled up in pain, worrying about Kirsty McKinney lying unconscious next to him, and didn’t even know how the match had ended until later.
Daeriq’s own active wrestling career had lasted just under a decade, from 1999 until 2008. He’d been a bad guy for almost all of it. More of a power-centric jack of all trades type wrestler, he’d viewed the business itself as something to be exploited, and the other wrestlers, even the ones he was allied with, as stepping stones to greatness. He’d stepped his way all the way to the IWA Heavyweight Title. And nothing really changed. Worse, he hit a plateau, skill wise. IWA had joined an interfed, and while some of his fellow wrestlers, when exposed to the wider array of talent had found a higher gear to play in, he… simply hadn’t. By the time IWA closed and its successor OLW had opened, Damien was mired in the tag division.
Granted, his tag team partner was Gemma Lockhart, and there wasn’t a (straight) male wrestler on the planet who’d have made fun of him for being able to get the time of day from Gemma, let alone teaming with her… but he’d formed two trios teams with her. The first, which also had Ronnie in it, achieved nothing. The second one, which included a guy named Brad Andrews, did find some success, but Brad and Gemma both left OLW after they won and lost the OLW Trios Titles, leaving Damien adrift in the midcard.
It was during the team with Gemma and Brad, however, that he’d taken his first fumbling steps towards “good guy” - first ending up on the cheered half of the alignment table due to shared enemies. Then, after they left, trying to teach his younger sister to wrestle.
Then OLW closed.
Then it announced a farewell show.
And training for that show was where he suffered the catastrophic elbow injury that ended his career.
Now with his other arm injured, he had a lot of time to sit around and think about… things. About what had really happened with the Brothers Gluck. About what he actually wanted to do.
So he called the man who everything always revolved around.
Jeff Andrews.
“Jeff, we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“About literally everything that’s happened since you started A*P five years ago.”
“Has it really been that long?”
“Yeah. You know how long it’s been since IWA closed? Nineteen years.”
“Fuck.”
“I know, right?”
“Well, we’re going to have to involve Ronnie. He’s the only one of us who’s still wrestling.”
“Yeah, but not just him. I want Cole there.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s got something to do with someone he hired for A*P. And you’re going to hate this, but… I want Heidi there too.”
A long, long silence from Jeff.
Jeff Andrews and Heidi Christenson were the first couple of pro wrestling in certain circles. They were childhood sweethearts. Their offspring would’ve had some of the finest wrestling pedigree in the world running through their veins. But they broke up in 2014, and even though Jeff was the one who walked away, he’d never recovered from it.
“If she’s there, I’ll videoconference in.”
Daeriq thought about Gemma Lockhart. They’d been friends. There had been benefits. But she simply moved on, hooked up with a different pro wrestler, guy named Python, the two of them had left wrestling for the music scene… he hadn’t heard from Gemma in years.
So he just put it on the line.
“Jeff, it’s about Queen of Sorrow.”
A deep breath on the other end of the line. Then…
“Fine. Call Ronnie. Tell him what’s going on and let him make the plans. He’s the only one of us fit to drive right now anyway.”
They’d agreed to meet at Ronnie Long’s Georgia farmhouse. By the time everyone involved was able to clear their schedules, it was the beginning of an unseasonably warm March. Ronnie didn’t like it. Warm was good, but abnormal seasons bothered him on a core level.
One of the benefits to having Heidi Christenson as a friend was that she liked cooking even more than she liked making origami out of people’s limbs, and she’d taught Deanna to cook almost as well as she could. She’d also arrived early, and the two of them had been cooking for two days straight. Ronnie for his part was sticking straight to his keto diet, preparing for the sins against carbohydrates he would soon commit.
Cole Christenson - Heidi’s little brother in name only, the man was a behemoth - arrived first, hugged his sister awkwardly. Ronnie didn’t know him. They’d been in some of the same promotions but never in the same ring at the same time. At least there was no weird history there.
Daeriq Damien arrived next, with Kirsty McKinney in tow. Ronnie noticed that her eyes looked normal.
And Jeff Andrews arrived last. Even though he knew what was coming food wise, he still dragged his heels up the porch steps. When he saw Heidi, he silently aged 5 years. She pretended she hadn’t heard him come in and didn’t turn around.
Deanna had made Ronnie lug the big guest table down from storage, and the seven people sat around it.
Nobody spoke.
Ronnie finally decided that since everyone was in his house, he’d be the one to break the ice.
“So here we are, Daeriq. Everyone who matters is here.”
“Not everyone…” Daeriq said, with a meaningful glance at the empty chair. “Kai didn’t show.”
“I did my best to find Kai, but I couldn’t.” Jeff spoke. “He posted his resignation from DEFIANCE on Twitter and that’s the last time anyone I know has seen or heard from him. All his numbers are dead, the only address I had for him was an apartment and the landlord said he left without leaving a forwarding address. I even tried leaving messages where I knew he’d find them. So either he’s really vanished into thin air, or he’s hiding.”
“If he knows anything about what’s going on he’s almost certainly hiding.”
“Before we start on that…” Heidi’s voice had an edge to it that made everyone but Jeff look at her. She was glaring at Damien. “I want to know what the hell you did to that girl.” She gestured at Kirsty.
“He didn’t do anything to me aside from try to train me.” Kirsty spoke up for herself. “That whole staring and never blinking and acting like I was brainwashed, it was just an act. A gimmick. He thought it might, y’know, get over.”
“Managers almost never get over anymore, I’m surprised Daeriq managed it.” Jeff said.
“Well, after you bailed on me and never came back…”
“Look, my parents passed away within a year of each other and left me a trainwreck to deal with. Feels weird saying it for the first time in 25 years, but I had something more important than pro wrestling to deal with, and it was something I couldn’t really work into my wrestling career. And unlike most of you, I never took any breaks. And now, I’m just so tired. I know I’ve still got stuff to do in wrestling, but… I’m tired. I know it sounds like the weakest excuse ever, but I’m just so, fucking, tired.”
Kirsty didn’t look sympathetic. But she was half the age of anyone else at the table.
“...And all this responsibility… guys I don’t have it in me to run another promotion even if I want to, and I do, but if Laurent Haniel wants me to run DCW so so badly I’m going to need more help than just ‘here’s a buncha money, make it happen.’”
“I think most of us here know about how much it takes. But whatever happened in that spaceship affected a ton of people, not just you. What happens if you don’t play?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard from Laurent since my magic spaceship ride.”
“Well, I think there’s one thing that’s important to ask. Who else gained something from this? Here’s what I got. Look at my forehead. Where Eric Dane carved it up with a fork during that I Quit match? No scars.” Heidi pulled her hair back, pointing at the skin above her right eye. “And no sharp shooting pain where he hit me with that wrong-way-facing chair either.”
“I’d love to know why it didn’t heal… this.” Daeriq picked his right arm up in his left, then dropped it. “But the reason I called this meeting of the minds is because I fucked up, really badly, and if I don’t explain…”
“Honesty, the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Deanna’s voice was brittle.
“Unironically yes. Here’s my great confession. The reason I got involved in this? Queen of Sorrow.”
“Who?”
Everyone looked at Jeff, but he didn’t look up. Finally Cole spoke up.
“She was one of the wrestlers Jeff and I signed when we were running A*P. She showed up in her mask and asked for a tryout. She was really impressive, she already had a unique look and she knocked her training partner out cold in minutes with a running knee. But… I suppose since we’re all here, I can share this weirdness with you.”
Cole rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“The real name she gave me was Tiffani Lords.”
“I’ve heard that name somewhere.”
“There was a videogame character with the same name.”
“Be that as it may.” Something of an aloof, staid workaholic, Cole had probably never held a controller in his life. “When I was reviewing finances, I noticed that none of the checks I wrote to ‘Tiffani Lords’ had ever been cashed. I then looked up the personal information she’d provided. Tiffani Lords was a fake identity that never existed. Her paycheck was generous for an indy promotion, too.”
“Well whoever she actually is, she found me, and she made it clear to me that she wanted Jeff Andrews running a wrestling promotion again.”
All the heads turned to look at Jeff Andrews.
“Why?”
“Of course she didn’t tell me. But she told me that deals like your spaceship thing could be made, and then she asked me if I wanted my arm back.”
“And you said of course.”
“Do you think I like this?” Daeriq picked his bad arm up with his good one again. “Of course I said yes. She told me to get you back into the game however I could. But that was right before you disappeared.”
“My fucking parents died, dude.”
“I’m SORRY. BUT. I really doubt Queen of Sorrow cares. Anyway. That’s where you came in, Ronnie.”
Ronnie had almost zoned out, but he jerked himself back to reality.
“I thought that if I messed with you, that it might bait Jeff into coming back to help his buddy out. Plus the idea of getting my foot back in the door I kind of liked. And Ron, you can say whatever you want about it, but I’ve always liked you. Managing you to a couple titles didn’t sound like a bad time.”
“This is absolutely fucking nuts.” Deanna, the only non-wrestler in the group, finally spoke up. “What you’re saying is some… weirdo who’s hiding her identity wants HIM to promote again, so she asked YOU to talk him into it, and you thought the best way to make that happened was to to torment MY FUCKING HUSBAND WHO’D BEEN RETIRED FOR A DECADE? And all you did was get his arm broken! If I could…”
Ronnie jumped to his feet, but Heidi was closer, and she gathered Deanna into a tight hug. The glare she fixed on Daeriq made Ronnie shiver.
“Ronnie did better than I expected but not as well as I hoped. Bluntly, solid upper midcarder who hasn’t been able to get through the glass ceiling in W:UK. He’s tied up in this blood feud with Rob Riot and it’s almost a good thing. The problem is, his success made Jeff less likely to get involved rather than more.”
“I also consider Ronnie a friend and like seeing him do well. And you know if I went to the XHF I’d probably burn my bridge so fast and furious his would catch fire too.”
Ronnie was not sure whether he’d heard Heidi mutter ‘grow the fuck up’.
“Queen of Sorrow started getting impatient with me. Then she got handsy. The second to last time I saw her was at the docks in Halifax. She threw me all over the dock and twisted my bad arm so badly one of the rods in it shifted. She said she was getting sick of waiting.”
Nobody seemed to know what to say.
“If I couldn’t get Jeff back into the game by messing with Ronnie, I thought maybe making him think I was picking on his protege would help. It didn’t though. And I do have some standards, I would never have hurt Kirsty. Really, if we ever get a chance, I’d love you to see what she’s picked up.”
Deanna started to speak, and Heidi reclasped the hug quickly enough to muffle it.
“I made The Foundation, and I recruited The Brothers Gluck, and this is where I really think I went wrong. I introduced Chapps to Queen of Sorrow, and I don’t know what they talked about but next thing I knew the Glucks were backstabbing me, and they may be working for Wesley Crane, but I don’t think he’s got as much control over them as he thinks he does.”
“This is nuts…” Ronnie shook his head.
“It is. And I don’t know what to do. Being slimy didn’t work. Maybe being honest will.”
Cole cracked his neck to the side. “By ‘work’, do you mean ‘fix everything’ or ‘drag Jeff back just like Queen of Sorrow wants’?”
“I don’t even know that.” As though his energy was used up, Daeriq lowered his head to massage his brow. “What happens if she doesn’t get what she wants? What happens if she does? She’s tied up in all this supernatural nonsense.”
“Here’s what I think. Laurent said that he wanted DCW created to be a battleground. How nerdy are you people, really? If I said he was the Big Good, would you know what I meant? I think maybe Queen of Sorrow is either the Big Bad, or she’s working closely with him. And if she’s secretly behind the Brothers Gluck now, it may be she doesn’t feel like waiting for me to get DCW off the group. But what she wants, I have no idea. She just seemed to want to cause mayhem for the sake of causing mayhem. I still have no idea why she attacked me during that full promotion brawl in A*P.”
There’s a reason everything revolves around Jeff Andrews. When his head is on straight, he runs the ship. And he was finally sitting up and clear eyed.
“If Queen of Sorrow wants me back, I think the last thing I need to do is be jumping in without looking. Daeriq, you want to actually help? Help Ronnie. He’s got three Bastards to deal with, and there aren’t three Untouchables left. You know I’ve offered, but Chris and Danny and-”
“Hi.”
Jeff Andrews went stiff. He closed his eyes. He let out a deep breath that came out uneven.
“I didn’t think you’d-”
“You mean you thought I’d say no, so you never asked because you were afraid to hear it.”
“Heidi, don’t-” Deanna said.
“No. I’m saying it. I’M not the one who ran away. Does anybody here want to say they know Jeff better than I do? Anybody?” Heidi looked around the room. “Jeff hates losing. Jeff hates losing so much that he forfeits all the damn time. Jeff walked out on me - US - because walking out on me was easier for him to deal with than the thought of me walking.”
Jeff Andrews didn’t respond.
“He’d always rather flip the board over than lose fair and square.”
An excruciating silence.
“I don’t even know why this… Laurent guy… thinks he’s the one to save everything.”
“He doesn’t.” Jeff’s voice was soft. “He thinks you will.”
Heidi stared at him.
“That’s the one think he and Dionicio talked to me about during the spaceship ride. That I didn’t bring up at the press conference. I’m the one who can bring everyone to the battlefield. You’re the one who can win the battle.”
It wasn’t very often that Heidi was stunned into silence.
“I have a confession.”
Everyone turned to look at Deanna.
“When you asked what everyone got out of the spaceship ride, something very strange happened to me. You all know how I tore my Achilles tendon at the beginning of my wrestling career and never went back? That got fixed. But more than that, it’s like I’ve been wrestling all this time. But it’s… it’s like there’s something living inside my brain that knows things I don’t.”
Ronnie barely heard the words.
“Heidi and I have been sparring while you’ve been in the UK, Ron. And I can keep up with her. Even on the mat. I don’t know how. It feels like I’m being told what to do. It’s like… like the knowledge got etched into my subconscious without me actually learning it.”
“I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, but here’s what I’m doing. I’m going to spend as much time here with Deanna as I can. And Daeriq? Leave Kirsty with us. Ronnie’s going to need someone actually watching his back to keep him safe. And if that’s not why you’re watching his back, you’ll answer to me.”
Daeriq swallowed a sarcastic remark and just nodded.
“If I can’t find Kai Scott, and the weirder this gets the weirder it is that he’s not getting involved, I’ll try to find Laurent Haniel.”
“I’ll see what I can find out about everyone involved in A*P. Queen of Sorrow isn’t the only person who had weird things happening around them, and money might open some doors that wrestling matches and schemes won’t.”
“I’m pretty close to ring-ready, I’ve been coaching martial arts and done a couple MMA fights. I don’t really want to come back but I’ll do what I can to get myself and Deanna ready if we need to, and we’ll take over training Kirsty. She deserves a lot better than what she’s got from you boys.”
“And somehow…” Ronnie sighed. “I’m the one that’s actually going to be wrestling. And there’s a lot of weirdness in the XHF too.”
“Yep. Keep your head up. Watch the Bastards. Watch the Circus. Watch Donzig-Gun. Watch the High Rollers club, especially the Glucks. And if you need a hand, you’ve got a room full of people who’ll back you up. You tell us what you need and we’ll try to make it happen.”
A prolonged silence. Deanna got up and disappeared into the kitchen.
“This is the part where you all say you’re not hungry, and I swear to god I will rip you limb from limb if you say it.”
Deanna reappeared with a whole Maryland Stuffed Ham on a platter and dropped it on the table so hard the table shook. Heidi produced a biscuit warmer from somewhere as Deanna set out homemade peach preserves. A big pot of greens appeared. And some stewed squash. Watermelon rind pickles. Hoppin’ john. Pimiento cheese with homemade crackers.
“Feels like we’re facing a last meal.” Daeriq said.
Ronnie laughed. “Then let’s die happy.”