Post by Tara Fenix on Feb 27, 2024 13:30:50 GMT -5
JANUARY 25, 2024
Everything should have been peaceful…
Everything should have been perfect…
Tara Diosa Docherty-Jimenez, better known to the world of professional wrestling as merely Tara Fenix, wanders throughout the hallways of the Blake-Docherty Estate, the property that she and her rekindled love, Angel Blake shared. She preferred to check the home on her own accord; she would ensure that the security system was armed. She was the one to ensure that the lights throughout the house were off. She was the one to ensure to tuck the children into their beds, and assure them safety as they would sleep soundly. It was her routine whenever she was home, and it was a small but strange comfort that she had taken upon herself every time she wasn’t on the road.
While starting her routine, the eldest daughter of Angel Blake, Hayleigh, the now eighteen-year-old, had a Playstation 5 controller in her hand - the mild tapping of the controller, and the tilting of the joystick, and Tara smiled at her, “Try not to stay up too late, okay?”
“Just finishing this level,” Hayleigh answers.
“I love you. Goodnight.” Tara says whilst turning off the overhead lights.
“Night.” Hayleigh replies.
Tara resumes her routine by heading upstairs, and opens the first door. The first room she checks on is that of her own middle child, Edward Blake, the first son of Angel. He was already fast asleep, and she smiles as she pulls the door close. The next room that she checked was that of her sixteen month daughter, Lilith Ophelia Blake; the toddler also was also sound asleep, but Tara wanders into the room to take a momentary glance at her daughter while also ensuring the baby monitor is turned on, and afterward, she returns to the hallway and carefully pulls the door shut.
As she nears another room, she can see the light emitting from underneath and she cautiously opens the door to poke her head in… Inside is her own eldest son, the son of William “Wraith” Spencer – Sabin – the twenty-one-year old who made his own mark in the industry under the same alias as his biological father; the same industry that his mother, father, and stepfather were all a part of cradling his own daughter, Tara’s granddaughter, in his arms.
“I thought she’d be asleep by now.” Tara says
“I thought so, too…” Sabin sighs and can’t help but chortle.
Tara’s own gaze remains locked on her son for a bit longer, studying his expressions…and she’s seen them long enough, she instinctively asks, “What’s wrong?”
Sabin looks to his own mother, knowing her gaze and knowing better than to try to hide something from her, he shifts his glance back and forth a little bit with a wry smile, “I just– I can’t help but feel like something is… wrong…” Sabin shakes his head. There was no logical reason for him to feel this way, and he knew it, so he tries to shrug it off, “I’m probably just tired.”
“Probably,” Tara says, “Do you want me to take over?”
Sabin’s gaze lingers on Mikaela for several seconds before he finally shakes his head, “Nah, I got this. You should go to bed.”
“Okay. Good luck… I love you.” Tara says, and pulls the door shut.
There is one more room, but Tara decides that she has no purpose in checking on it… The last room is a spare room that belongs to her younger sister, Jennie, who has made her own mark in the industry in recent years. It was a good thing to invest in soundproofing the room because Jennie was known to play World of Warcraft well into the evenings, and tonight was no different.
Tara finishes her own routine by finally making it to her bedroom, and crawls under the covers… Angel was already asleep by the time she made it to the bedroom. Tara blinks her eyes tiredly several times before eventually falling into a deep slumber without ever realizing it. It seems like she had only just blinked her eyes when she was stirred awake from a hand on her shoulder - she jolts herself awake, her bright blue eyes first locked on the person who woke her up, unsure of whether to fight or comfort, but as her blurred vision becomes more and more clear, and the faint voice of her eldest son, Sabin, she eases herself.
“Tláa,” Sabin says.
The sudden commotion also woke Angel up, and Angel looks over to see what’s going on.
“Hmm?” Tara groggily answers.
“It’s–” Sabin fumbles over the words several times, and shakes his head as he tries to hold back the pain, the disbelief, and everything…he sighs, broken heartedly, and both Tara and Angel are now more alert while waiting for him to finally say it, “It’s Uncle Steve. He– he’s passed away…”
The words stung Tara like a knife penetrating her heart. Steve Awesome– a man that she had known for over twenty years, a man that she traveled with multiple times around the world, and she grimaces while hoping that this is just some sick joke that Sabin is playing on her…but she could tell by the look in his eyes that this was no joke. Tara looks toward Angel as if to find comfort, as Angel grits his teeth, but remains silent. He gets out of the bed and leaves the room, and Tara is uncertain of Angel’s feelings to the news.
“What–” Tara finally manages to stutter out, “This– no–” Tara continues fighting the feelings racing through her mind before finally just lying back down in complete shock.
PRESENT DAY
Everybody believed that Tara’s glory days were behind her… Everybody, herself included, did not anticipate that the day would come that she would ever return to the ring. The industry had taken everything from her that it possibly could. It had left scars as stories for everything she had ever done, and everything she had ever accomplished, but when the day came that she felt that she could finally hang up her boots for the final time, the industry did not stop taking everything away from her. It had cost her her first marriage, and shortly after her announcement of retiring from in-ring competition, it had come for her second marriage.
She and Angel Blake had welcomed their first child into the world in 2012, and shortly after, were married. Tara truly felt that there was nothing left for her to do in the industry as the first woman to win the X*Crown Championship, and the first and only woman to ever be able to call herself the XHF World Champion - she had truly conquered the world, and became a household name, and there was nothing left for her. It was time for her to ride into the sunset… but the industry still wanted more from her, and she never saw the betrayal of Angel Blake coming.
For seven long years, Tara sat on the sidelines… without a fire in her soul. Without any passion because Angel had taken everything from her. Time continued to pass, and it seemed all but certain that Tara would fade into obscurity. Until she would come back from the dead, and rise from the ashes of what was left behind… In December of 2020, Tara shocked the world by announcing that she was coming back to take everything that was taken from her.
A darkness seemed to follow her at every turn as she longed for revenge, and longed to just hurt the people that forgot her name… the people that forgot what she was capable of doing, and she would not be denied her vengeance as she sought to hurt Angel, but in her conquest against her former lover, she would reunite with an old friend.
Steve Awesome.
Tara’s eyes are closed as the scenery fades in, a single tear rolling down her cheek and her voice cracks when she first speaks, “You were special…” Tara says as she opens her eyes, and all of the tears welled up as the cameras pan backward to unveil a parking garage - Tara takes a deep breath and traces her fingers across the hood of the car, “In my darkest time, you were able to find a way to just… pull me out of it… you were somehow, someway, able to make me see the light and see that there was more to me than just revenge and vengeance. When the days came that I didn’t think I could smile…” her voice shakes and she places her hand flat against the hood of the car.
“You made me laugh.”
She turns so her back is to the car and leans against the hood, her fingers still tapping the hood of the car, “It was here– after every show, after every match, you would find me– here– and even if we didn’t talk… even if we just had the comfort of our presence, you were here, and all I can think about is for how far back we’ve gone, I feel– a void without you. I feel like my laugh has been taken away from me; I feel like my smile has been taken from me… And– it’s never easy… you– especially– it’s never easy… I know that you would want me to keep smiling, and I know you would want me to keep laughing. I know that you would tell me life gets better, but I can’t help but feel that there’s a light that I will never feel again…” She takes another deep breath.
“It was always a comfort to know that you were just a message away, and that I could just– call you, I could just text you, and I knew that if I just did that, you would be there… But now, to know that if I call, if I text, if I do anything– I can’t… reach you…” She shakes her head.
“I should’ve called. I should’ve reached out to you– I should have invited you to meet my daughter, and I know– I know you would’ve loved her just as much as you were there to be Uncle Steve to Sabin, and Edward, and I know… you would’ve adored her. I wish she could have grown up to know you as Uncle Steve. I wish…” her voice trails off.
“Both of us – we’ve been around this world more than just a handful of times, and for all the years that we’ve been doing this, there’s absolutely no denying that there is something the road does to us. There is a friendship, there is a bond– in every sense of the word, Steve, you are family to me… You are a brother to me. You are– my sanity. Just like you were to a number of people, and I hope that you knew how much you meant… Not just to me, but to everyone. What you meant to everyone in this business, in this industry, in every promotion where you graced us with your presence, you were one of a kind that could bring the best out of everyone, and there was a damn good reason that you were The Face of the Franchise wherever you went. And so– I knew…” Her nostrils flare as she snorts out a little bit, an almost unnerving feeling overtaking her as she considers the ring she’s about to step into for the first time in over fifteen years.
“I knew that I needed to be a part of this. To give you a proper sendoff,” Tara says with a nod, and swipes under her eye to keep the tears from overflowing, “You know me– and you know what I can do inside of the ring… You know the drive that I have to be the very best in the ring, and that I want people to remember me for being exactly that, but let me go ahead and say that none of that matters this time around… The only thing I want to do is be sure that you’re proud of the show that we – all of us – do for you…”
She takes a momentary pause, and finally manages to flash a smile before resuming, “Umm– y’know, I think about the people that I’m going to share the ring with, and just I know my own mind– I know my own preparation– I’m looking for everything I can to tear them down, I’m looking for everything I can do to get into their head and make them question their chance to stand in the ring with me, and one in particular– and she was your friend, too… You know–” she says with a chuckle under her breath, hidden under the pain that’s still clearly in her voice, “It’s funny to me that when I think of Fiona, I always think how much I couldn’t stand her… How much I wanted to bury her… but it’s just– different– this time… It’s different because I know why she’s here, and she’s here for the same reason as me: to honor you. To pay our respects in the only way we know how, and that’s by blood. That’s by getting in the ring and doing what you were the greatest at!” She bites her bottom lip, and takes a moment to draw in another deep breath.
“Instead of what you would typically hear out of me… I want to say thank you, Fiona. Thank you for coming to share the ring with me on this night. Thank you for wanting to pay your respects to the man that we all knew and loved as Steve Awesome, and I truly can’t imagine another person to share this ring with… But we aren’t sharing it alone, are we?” Tara says with a smile.
“We’re sharing the ring with Eli Dresden– and I’m not going to lie… I’m not going to claim that I’m overly familiar with you, okay? That’s not to diminish anything you’ve done. I’ve heard the name– whispers, mainly– but you’ve clearly accomplished a lot, and proven yourself as a capable fighter… And that’s why I don’t want to break you down, and I don’t want to break Fiona down, either– I want to actually raise you both up. I want to thank you just as I thanked Fiona for making her presence here– I want to thank you for being the first to take me up on this match that I wanted– that I needed to have, and I want the absolute best out of both of you because this isn’t about me! This isn’t about titles! This is about honoring a great man, and I don’t want any of us to put any disrespect on his name by giving him any less than our best… By being any less than our best!” She says with a clenched fist, digging her knuckles against the hood of the car.
“I want the world champions! I want– the woman who took the trident. I want the woman who earned her position in the IWF Hall of Fame! I want them at the best of their game, and I want to assure you that you’re not getting anything less from me than the absolute best. You are getting the Queen of Queens! You are getting the Queen of Kings! You are getting the Great Phoenix, THE GODDESS, and the Undisputed GOAT! You are getting the woman whose name people dare not whisper because they know that the moment I hear it, I am going to arrive to remind everybody just how fucking good I am. And now–” Tara slaps her hand against the hood again, biting down harder on her lip as her gaze falters away from the camera for the time being…she looks toward the ground, and sniffles. She draws in one more deep breath.
“Let’s make sure we do this right… For Steve. Let's make this an absolutely AWESOME night.” She says boldly, as the camera pans out before finally fading out.
Even after the camera fades to black, Tara continues to lean against the car with quiet sobs escaping every so often. She does her best to try to keep her own composure, and hits the car several times to let out the pent-up frustration she felt for the situation that she didn’t expect to find herself in… The loss of a dear friend. Finally, still leaning on the car, she feels the car suddenly shift a little more, as if a second person stood beside her.
She didn’t open her eyes– she didn’t want to know whether it was a figment of her imagination or not, but even with her eyes closed, she could feel the presence of her friend. The thought of him standing beside her brought a smile back to her face. End.
