==========
October 21st, 2019
Miami, Florida
Off Camera
==========
Glory Braddock and her husband Kurt Logan are
sitting inside the office of police lieutenant Joseph Kane. The office
was painted grey, and it had only one floor-to-ceiling window, which faced the
main road. On the grey desk sat a desktop computer, a notebook lying open, and
a stack of papers sitting under a turtle-shaped paperweight. In a corner, the
air conditioner was blasting at medium, and there was a swivel chair in the
middle of the office. A bookshelf, bursting with books was in a corner, with
yet another stack of papers under a paperweight that was shaped to look like a
tuft of grass. A few pens were lying on the papers, but some had fallen onto
the top of the bookshelf.
Trouble is definitely afoot for the Braddock
household in order for them to be here at this police station on this Monday
afternoon. Truth be told, The British Bombshell expected this; she has
always feared that this day would come but she never imagined that it would be
to this scale. Her father, the illustrious patriarch of the family Glenn
Braddock, is missing. Glory always
expected, or at least hoped, he would simply pass away peacefully.
Recently she had been bracing herself for a major seizure that might take her
father’s life, for those have been occurring more frequently; but this is
unexpected and most definitely unwanted.
Braddock sits next to her husband, Kurt, who tries
his best to comfort her, tries his best to make his wife feel better but how
does one feel better about their father being missing? Glory and Kurt can
only hope that the police lieutenant can provide some assistance for them in
their time of need. Joseph Kane is a
tall, stout individual with a receding hairline. He wears a navy blue sports coat over a white
button up shirt. He is punching away at his computer keyboard.
“Ms. Braddock, I put out a BOLO [Be On the Look
Out] for your father. If he is still anywhere in the area and any of my
men see him, they will notify me immediately.”
He turns from his computer and stares at The British Bombshell critically. “Though
you probably should have come here yesterday.”
“My father is out there and who knows what
condition he’s in and all you can do is criticize me?!”
Braddock exclaims angrily. She is not too thrilled right now but then
again, who can blame her? Her father is missing and she is deeply
concerned. The British Bombshell wants
answers, not criticism. Kane, however, is an office not known for
empathy. He is all business and by the
book entirely.
“If your father left the residence when you say he
did then he has had plenty of time to move around and get out of the
area. He may be out of my reach by now.”
“Bloody hell!” Glory
exclaims. “What do you mean by that?!”
“Tell me something, Ms. Braddock; what happened the
night before your father supposedly walked off?”
The overweight police lieutenant asks. This is not a memory Braddock
particularly wants to relive for she feels guilty, she feels as if she is
partially responsible for driving him away.
“We had an argument.”
This is all Glory says but she knows it was more than just an argument.
This was the first time she ever really stood up to her father. All of her life she idolized him, despite his
flaws, and thus was afraid to ever stand up to him even when he was
wrong. When he told her that he didn’t approve of Glory’s daughter
Melinda dating Archie Van Stanton and that Glory should do whatever she could
to end that relationship, it was the final straw for Glory and she not only
talked back to him, she outright told him off. Her father clearly did not
appreciate her words. The British Bombshell
believes that this argument is what pushed him to leave.
“Would you consider this an intense argument?”
Joseph Kane asks. Braddock immediately and without hesitation nods her
head.
“Yes. That’s why he left.”
“You believe that is the case. The truth is
we do not know yet why your father left. Technically we do not know that
he left of his own accord, though I think we can safely rule out kidnapping
because there was no evidence of foul play at the residence.”
“So what the hell else could it be?!” Glory’s
frustration is growing with each passing question from the officer.
Joseph sighs and shrugs his shoulders.
“The truth is, Ms. Braddock, that it could be any
number of things. What you also must understand is that your father is in
his sixties. He is mentally competent,
within his right mind, and faculties.”
“What are you suggesting?” Braddock
narrows her eyes in an angry glare at Joseph, for she already senses where this
is going and she doesn’t like it. This is not what she had hoped to
achieve by coming here.
“Even if my men find your father we cannot force
him to return home. We can tell you where he is, we can even ask him to
call you and notify you of his whereabouts, but that is all this department can
do for you. Your father is a grown man, Ms. Braddock, and he can make his
own decisions. He can do what he wants
within reason. But as I said, if any of
my men see him, we will try to make contact with him and we will notify you.”
The British Bombshell starts to stand up but Kurt
can sense that only trouble can come from this, so he gently and yet firmly
grabs her by her arm and holds her tight. Braddock turns to look into
Kurt’s eyes and she gets the message loud and clear; calm down. Glory sighs and nods her head as Kurt stands
up and nods at the officer.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Kane.”
“My pleasure.”
Kurt, arm in arm and hand in hand with Glory
Braddock, exits Joseph’s office and steps back out into the main police
station. The British Bombshell is fuming and her husband can tell based
on the tight grip she has on his hand.
Her anger is a mixture of how she was treated just now by Joseph Kane
and also concern over her father’s well being. Guilt also washes over her
for she considers the real possibility that her father would never have left
had she just not yelled at him. Had she
not lost her temper would her father have still remained at her Miami home and
not run off? It is a good question but still a hypothetical one, one that
Braddock continues to ponder as she and Kurt exit the police station and step
out into the parking lot area. Their
vehicle is parked near the front and they approach it. Kurt opens the passenger’s side for his
wife. Normally she would thank him but on this afternoon she is too
emotional for any response. Braddock
remains silent as she sits down and shuts the door. Kurt walks over and gets into the driver’s
side.
“Can you believe that fat bloke?!” Glory
exclaims angrily, obviously referring to Joseph Kane. “He didn’t seem to
want to help us at all!”
“That isn’t exactly true.”
Kurt says quietly. “He’s just being realistic about the situation we face.”
“Don’t bloody well tell me you’re taking his
side?!”
“He is right, your father is a grown man who can
make his own decisions. We can’t baby him.” Kurt
points out softly. Glory shakes her head defiantly, refusing to buy what
her husband is selling.
“He may be a grown man but he is also
epilleptic. He is unsafe out there on his own.”
“Correct and the police are going to be looking out
for him. If they find him, they will notify us. We can continue to try and call his cell
phone and hope he’ll answer, we can occasionally check the places he frequents
in Miami, otherwise we’ve done everything we can do.”
The anger upon Glory’s face is quite evident as she
stares a hole deep into her husband. Kurt just stares back, but
lovingly. If shouting at him will make
her feel better then he is prepared to take it. Knowing this quickly disarms
Braddock and the look of anger quickly changes to a look of guilt as she slumps
down in the chair. She shakes her head in disappointment, disappointment
in herself.
“It’s my fault…” her
voice trails off. Kurt grabs his wife’s hands and squeezes them tightly.
“It wasn’t your fault. None of this is your
fault.”
“Sure it is.” Braddock
remarks. “Had I not snapped at him, had I not lost my temper…”
“What else could you have done?”
Kurt asks. “Were you hard on him? I can’t say because I wasn’t
there. But you weren’t wrong. Your
father was out of line for telling you to choose between your daughter and him,
all because of some silly family rivalry. Gloria, I have watched you take
a lot of verbal abuse from him. I never
said anything because I knew how much you adored him but it was high time that
you stood up for yourself.”
“But my dad…”
“He reacted to this entire situation very
poorly. That doesn’t mean we don’t love him still. We are going to find him though. Ok?”
The British Bombshell considers the words of her husband.
He is right, after all; this silly rivalry between the Braddock family and the
Van Stanton family had to end eventually. It’s her father who couldn’t
let go of the feud, he could not forgive and forget. So maybe this isn’t her fault after
all? Much like in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Glenn is allowing this
rivalry to destroy him.
“Yeah, I guess…”
Glory’s voice trails off.
“So what do you want to do now?”
Kurt asks. “I mean, you have Breakdown this week. I’m sure under the
circumstances Sasha would understand if you weren’t there.”
“No, I want to be there.”
Glory states defiantly. “Like you said, the police here are looking for
dad. Hopefully he’ll show up.
Meanwhile I have to keep myself distracted. You know?”
“I understand.” Kurt
leans in and plants a kiss on his wife’s lips. “Just try and take care of
yourself.”
“I will try…”
==========
October 25th, 2019
Miami, Florida
Off Camera
==========
Glory Braddock stares absently and blankly out the
window, watching the scenery pass by as she rides in the passenger’s seat of
her vehicle, driven by her husband Kurt Logan. The beautiful blonde
barely notices he is present and doesn’t notice the scenery of downtown Miami,
either; too much is on her mind right now for her to notice. It has been almost an entire week since The
British Bombshell has seen or even heard from her father. Guilt is eating
her up from the inside out over this entire incident, for she truly believes in
her heart and soul that had she not said anything to him, had she not gotten
into that argument, had she just kept her mouth shut, then maybe her father
wouldn’t have run off.
“He’ll be fine, Glory.” This
is the voice of Kurt Logan trying to comfort and calm his wife. All along
he has done his best to convince her that none of this was her fault but she
cannot shake the feeling of guilt that washes over her. He has told her
that Glory had every right to stand up for herself against the imposing and
unfair will of her father. Braddock
doesn’t buy it; she should have known that nothing good could have come from
talking back to her father. Glenn Braddock is just like her, he has a
temper, only worse. She should have
known that he would have done something; she just assumed he would shout back,
or worse yet try to strike her physically.
Glory had no idea he would take the drastic act of walking away.
The police were useless and unable to help.
Glory isn’t even sure that the police lieutenant bothered to put any time or
effort into looking for her father. He told Glory that Glenn Braddock
“was a grown man” and had every right to “make his own decisions.” What he doesn’t understand and what Glory is
most concerned with is the fact that her father is an eppileptic. She
isn’t convinced that he is safe out there on his own.
Yet there is still hope; earlier today she received
a call from her father. Despite her best efforts to get him to talk to
her, the grizzled veteran was completely silent. All he would tell her
was that he would be at a bar in Miami later in the day. He gave her the address and that was
that. Now Kurt is driving his wife to the address of this bar in hopes of
a reunion and in hopes to fix this broken relationship between father and
daughter.
“Gloria? Are you listening to me?” Kurt
asks after receiving no response from his wife. Glory was off in her own
world, trapped in her mind, but this question and the use of her full first
name brings her to attention. She turns to face her husband.
“Huh?”
“I said your father will be fine.”
Kurt says, repeating himself for Glory’s benefit. The British Bombshell
still isn’t convinced of this. She shakes her head, and the words that
come next are dripping with skepticism.
“You don’t know that, Kurt.”
“Your father is the toughest son of a bitch I
know. Even at his age he can kick anyone’s ass and you know this.
Plus he is smart; stubborn but smart. He
is fine.” Kurt is being sincere. He
isn’t just saying a bunch of bullshit hoping his wife will feel better.
Glenn Braddock is among the toughest individuals he knows. Glory agrees with her husband on that point
and she knows better than anyone else just how tough he can be, for it was
Glenn who trained her. Glenn prepared her and taught her everything he
knew about professional wrestling.
Despite this, doubt runs through The British Bombshell’s mind.
“He is tough, he is smart, he is all of that, but
do you know what else he is?” Glory
waits for an answer from her husband but he remains silent. “My dad is
an epilleptic! He could get killed!”
“Is that it, then?”
Kurt asks quizzically. “Are you concerned because your father is an
epilleptic?”
“Isn’t that enough?!” The
British Bombshell exclaims.
“Just answer this question for me; is your dad
taking any medicine for the seizures?”
Glory blinks several times out of confusion.
This is most definitely a strange question for her husband to ask. Surely
he would know just as well as she does about the medicine prescribed to her
father. Still, she humors him anyway.
“Depakote.”
“Right, and is that medication still at the house?”
“No, it was missing, because he…” she
stops suddenly, she realizes where her husband is going with this. Kurt
is smiling knowingly.
“Your father took the medicine with him, because he
knows just as well as we all do how important it is for him to take the
Depakote in order to control the seizures. Your father is old enough to understand how
important it is to control the seizures.
He hasn’t even had that many, to be honest. So tell me, Gloria,
are you really concerned about the epilepsy or is there something else?”
The British Bombshell is silent as she stares at
her husband. Braddock considers his question as Kurt pulls the car into
the parking lot of a rather seedy, run down looking bar. He pulls into a
parking space and then turns off the car.
He turns and stares at his wife almost as a police officer would
interrogate a suspect of a crime.
“Gloria, your father is fine. He just called
us today and told us where he would be.” Kurt
points at the bar. “He’s in there waiting on you right now. Your
concerns are valid but we won’t know anything until we get in there and talk to
him.”
“I…” her
voice trails off, she is having a difficult time with this entire situation “...I’m
sorry, Kurt. I really am sorry for acting this way. It’s just that
I’ve always been so close to dad and he’s always been so close to me. The
thought of possibly losing him is frightening.”
“I understand.” He
reaches out and takes her hand. “So let’s go find him.”
A nervous smile creeps across Braddock’s face, but
despite her nerves and worrisome attitude she nods her head. Kurt exits
the driver’s side and Braddock immediately exits the passenger’s side. They meet at the center and walk hand in hand
towards the front entrance of the bar. This is definitely not a place
Glory would ever be caught dead in. This
isn’t her style or taste. Kurt, maybe;
but not Glory. Glenn seems to enjoy this
environment. He always preferred things
a little more rough around the edges, so it’s no surprise to his daughter that
he would be found here on this evening.
Kurt pushes the front door open and steps inside
the bar. It’s a rather dark atmosphere and smoke fills the area. It is only about half-full, and whether this
is good business or an off night is anyone’s guess. The patrons are
mostly people like Glenn himself, rough individuals from all walks of life,
only a few from the upper crust like Glenn while most might be described as
thugs, bums, or just plain poor.
“There he is.” Kurt
points towards a table in the far corner. The British Bombshell turns her
attention and sure enough her father sits alone at the table with an alcoholic
beverage in front of him. Glory doesn’t even wait for her husband to say
anything else before she begins making her way with a determined stride towards
the far corner, towards her father. Kurt follows closely behind as they
approach the table.
“Hi, dad…” Glory’s
voice trails off as she pulls up a chair, not bothering to wait to be invited
to sit down. She sits on her own, next to her father. Kurt pulls up a chair next to them and sits
down. “Bloody hell, dad, you had us all worried sick!”
“Sorry about that, love.”
Glenn says quietly. He takes a sip of his beer. Glory can tell that
he isn’t quite drunk yet but he is on the verge of it. “I just needed
time to myself. I know I should have told you but I felt that I needed to
be alone and I was worried that you would follow me if I told you where I was
going.”
“Damn right I would have followed you!” Glory
exclaims, tears flowing down her cheek. She realizes she is again losing
her temper and so to avoid a repeat of the incident that led her to this
situation in the first place, she sighs and shakes her head, backing off her
harsh language. “Sorry, dad. I’m just concerned. That’s all.”
“No need to apologize.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t need to apologize to me for anything,
Gloria. You have done absolutely nothing wrong.”
“Where have you been staying?” Kurt
chimes in out of curiosity.
“A motel nearby.” Glenn
grunts. “It isn’t exactly the lap of luxury that you two are used to, but it
was good for me.”
“That may be the case, dad, but you deserve better
than a motel.” Glory insists. “Come back with Kurt
and me. Come back to the house and let’s forget about everything that
ever happened, ok?”
“No.” Glenn
narrows his brow, stating this with intensity as he stares at his daughter.
“Why the bloody hell not?!”
Glory exclaims.
“Look, if you think that bloody motel is so
terrible then buy me a new place. I honestly don’t give a damn where I
stay, Gloria, and you know that. I just
think you and I need to live apart, we need to live separately and it’s for
your own good as well as mine.”
“You can’t mean that!”
Tears are welling up in Glory’s eyes yet again. Losing her father is her
worst fear and she is beginning to see it come to pass. The British
Bombshell is not a quitter and she will try her best to convince her father to
abandon what she views as an insane idea.
“Damn right I mean it.”
He takes another sip of his beer.
“Listen dad, I’m sorry about what I said Saturday
night. I am sorry for anything I may have said that offended you.
Just please come home.” Glory is pleading now with her father
to return. He shakes his head.
“You think I’m offended by any of that shit you
said?” He chuckles again and shakes his head. “I mean,
I’ll admit I was angry at first and that may have been why I left initially,
but being away from you, Kurt, and Melinda gave me time alone to think. After a
day or two of being alone I realized that you were right.”
He reaches out and takes hold of his daughter’s
hands. He squeezes them tightly, with a firm loving grip. “When I met
your mother we were happy. We truly were happy together. She didn’t even mind my wrestling
career. Then you came along…”
The British Bombshell listens intensely to what her
father is saying. She recalls her mother saying that her parents divorced
because her mother, Mary Ford, could not handle Glenn’s wrestling career.
Glenn, of course, had always denied it.
Being the child stuck in the middle Glory never quite knew what to
think.
“...Saturday you told me that I had always wanted a
son and that I never truly wanted you. That’s only partially true. I admit that I always wanted a son and that I
was disappointed at first when you were born. That’s on me. I did love you, Glory, but maybe that
disappointment is why I tried to...what was it that you said...make you into my
clone?”
“Yeah…” Glory’s
voice trails. She regrets saying that, even if a part of her does believe
it.
“After you were born your mother wanted me to
retire so I could focus on helping to raise you. I refused. Wrestling became an obsession with me. Your mother thought my injury at the hands of
Thomas Van Stanton would finally force me into retirement but she was
wrong. It only made me more obsessed, this time I was obsessed with
finding a way to continue my wrestling career.
And I chose to do that through you.” For the
first time in Glory’s life she sees a tear forming in her father’s eyes. “I
knew you idolized me, I knew you looked up to me, I decided to pass everything
I knew about the business to you. It kept me alive. You kept me alive.”
Glenn shakes his head. “But it was unfair to
your mother as well as unfair to you because I wanted you to be me. My
wrestling career continued, in a fashion, and in a way I got the son I wanted
because I did mold you after my image. I should have known that it was
unhealthy. Hell, there were plenty of
damn warning signs but I ignored every bloody one of them.”
The elder Braddock guzzles the last of his beer and
slams the glass on the table. Glory barely notices this as she is focused
on her father’s confession. “The first warning sign of my own destruction of
this family was when your sister protested my favoritism of you. She
protested privately and I said nothing.
She protested publicly and I said nothing. Finally she willingly allowed herself to be
taken by Aphrodite Noel.”
The British Bombshell nods her head as she
remembers this all too well. Aphrodite Noel, cousin of Abigail Lindsey,
took on a strange obsession with the Braddock family that started merely as an
attempt to humble Glory and her sister Chastity and grew to Aphrodite trying to
claim them as her “children.” Chastity went easily, thanks in large part
to everything to Glenn just said. Glory
was much more difficult but even she, too, recognized Aphrodite as her “mother”
at one point. The British Bombshell has
since returned to her true family name but Chastity never did.
“I should have done more!” Glenn
shouts, taking Glory by surprise. “But I still did nothing! I focused
all the more on you...but then I lost you too…”
“It’s ok, dad. I’m sorry for ever going to
her. I just…” Glenn interrupts her…
“Do NOT apologize!”
He shouts in a commanding tone. “It was my fault because I pushed both
of you to that crazy bitch! You had every right to do what you did; but I
admit, it did hurt me. Yet even then I didn’t do a damn thing about
it. I was still too stubborn to admit I
was wrong, too damn stubborn to reach out and apologize to you or your
sister. Then Saturday happened…”
Glenn’s voice trails off and he sighs “...you
said those things to me and I was angry. I was downright bloody pissed
off with you so I left. But then after a day or two it hit me; I realized
that I may lose you again. I lost you once to Aphrodite because of my
stubborn and controlling attitude. And I
probably lost your sister forever to her. So I knew I had to try and make
things right.”
“Just say the word, dad.”
Glory says with a smile as she wipes tears from her eyes. “We can start with
a blank slate. Forget all of it.”
“I don’t want a blank slate. None of this
should be forgotten otherwise I’ll make the same mistakes again. All I
want to know is that you forgive me.
Julia may be lost to me, but there’s still time to salvage our
relationship.”
Julia Braddock, the name of Glory’s sister before
she legally had her name changed to Chastity Noel. Glory nods her
head. This is what she has been
wanting. She may not have known it days
ago but this is truly what she wanted; not just to have her dad back with her
physically but to repair this broken, damaged relationship. “Dad, of course
I forgive you. And know that it is not too late for my sister. You
two can still make things right. Just
swallow your pride, reach out, that’s all it takes.”
“That’s what I love about you most, Gloria.”
Glenn says smiling warmly as tears now flow freely down his cheek. “Just
like your mother you have no fear of calling me out on my flaws. I need
that kind of reminder. I lost that when
I allowed your mother to get away from me. Never change, Gloria. Never change.
Never...never...neee…..”
And just like that Glenn’s eyes start to roll in
the back of his head. He starts to slur his words. Glory knows what is going on and she quickly
turns to her husband. “Kurt, I think he’s having a seizure…”
Her fears are confirmed when her father collapses
out of his chair and on the floor. Glenn begins to convulse wildly and
frantically. Kurt takes out his cell
phone and leaps from his chair. “You take care of him, I’m calling the
medics.”
The British Bombshell nods, she would rather be
with her father right now anyway as she drops down to the floor by her father’s
side. “Stay with me, dad. Stay with me…” Despite her words
and her pleading, her father’s convulsions seem to get wilder and more
violent. She checks her watch.
Timing these seizures are important.
Already this one has gone on longer than any of his previous seizures
and that is quite distressing.
“Dad! Stay with me!” A
terrified look of fear is etched across Glory’s face as she begins to fear the
worst. “DAD!”
==========
October 26th, 2019
Miami, Florida
Off Camera
==========
Back at the Miami residence of the Braddock family,
more specifically we find the bedroom of Glenn Braddock empty. It is
empty and silent, and will be for a long time now, because the patriarch of the
Braddock family, Glory’s father Glenn Braddock, is no more. The seizure
he suffered was easily the worst one he had ever endured. He hadn’t come out of it by the time the
medical team had arrived and Glory dreaded the worst. Her fears were
confirmed after EMTs declared him dead on arrival.
The door opens and this empty space is filled,
temporarily, with the presence of his heir. The blonde haired Glory
Braddock walks in wearing a knee length purple skirt, matching purple high heel
pumps, and a floral print white blouse. A stoic look is upon her face as
she gazes at the scene of her father’s old room. It’s ironic, the man once known as Britain’s
Best never got to spend another day in his beloved home nation, but Glory will
try her damndest to make sure he gets buried at his true home.
Glory marches across the floor and over to what was
once his bed. She sits down on the edge of it and then reaches over to
the nightstand where she finds a framed picture of Glenn and Glory together
during happier times. This was when she was ten years old. Braddock puts this picture down and picks up
another framed picture. This one was
taken from the Braddock Wrestling School back in 2007 when he was training her.
These are the happy, joyful memories of her father
that she wants so dearly to hold onto. These memories are all that she
has now, for life took him away from her.
It isn’t fair, but life isn’t fair. It is just another painful
irony in all of this that mere moments after they made peace with one another
is the time that her father was called into the next world.
Tears form in her eyes and she reaches up to wipe
them away. “Quit that bloody crying!”
The British Bombshell looks up and sees her father
standing there. He is wearing his gray workout pants and matching gray
sweater. A scowl is upon his face, the
same scowl The British Bombshell recalls oh so well when he was training with
her and working with her at the gym. Despite seeing this vision she lets
a low chuckle escape her lips. “I know that’s not you, dad. I just
happen to have a very wild imagination.”
“Does it really fucking matter?!”
He exclaims in his usual drill sergeant manner. “You’re sitting there
on your pretty little ass bawling about me but we’ve made peace. You
forgave me, Glory, and that’s all I bloody well wanted. Yet you sit there, crying like a damn baby,
when tomorrow there will be no fucking crying when that you step into that
chamber and you’re locked inside with five other pieces of shit who want your
head on a platter.”
“I know; it’s just hard to let go of you…”
tears drop down onto the picture she is currently looking at.
“You don’t have to let go of me. You’re
always gonna have me right here.” He
reaches out and points at her chest and then she points up at her head. “And
right there. No one else will bloody well forget me either, because I
have passed my legacy onto you. I taught you everything I knew and you
took it and you didn’t just run with it, you fucking surpassed me. People
called me ‘Britain’s Best’ but you? Heh,
you are the best in the god damn world!”
Glory shakes her head. “I don’t have the world
title.”
“Titles are just temporary. Look at that
naive little bitch Alistaire who kept ducking you like a fucking coward.
Look how blasted quick he lost the title to the other snot nosed punk kid Owen
Cruze. And with the odds he’s up
against, odds are he is going to lose it at Under Attack. Greatness is
determined by a consistent effort. You
have achieved so much over such a long period of time that even your enemies
admit how great you are. Are you the
best in the world? Ask that psycho jackass James Evans! Even he called you the best!”
‘Glenn’ motions for his daughter to stand up.
“Stand up!” The British Bombshell obliges. She stares into the
eyes of this vision her mind has come up with. “I know what you said about
Rise To Greatness, about how it’s a good thing Syren is no longer
champion. Bull fucking shit!
You’re trying to save face! Now
you get a second chance at Under Attack but so does Syren and also that
backstabbing fake plastic ass bitch Sienna! Alistaire wants the title
back, James too, and Owen wants to keep it…” he growls “...now I’m not
gonna lie, you’re gonna get hurt. You’re gonna get planted. I just want you to promise me one thing…”
“Anything.” Glory
says quietly.
“When you get knocked down, I want you to pull
yourself back up, punch each and every one of those pieces of garbage in the
mouth. I want you to fight and keep fighting and when you start to feel
like can’t go on any longer, I want you to remember my face, I want you to
remember that I told you to FIGHT LIKE HELL, LIKE IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD…”
a smirk crosses his face “...because your daddy loves you.”
“I love you too, daddy.” The
British Bombshell wipes the tears from her eyes. Slowly but surely the
image of her father fades away.
“Glory!” Kurt’s
voice comes from just outside. “Are you still in there?”
“Yes…” she
says quietly, just loud enough for Kurt to hear.
“Well hurry up. We have to make this flight
to St. Louis.”
“I’m coming.” Glory
gazes at her father’s bedroom one last time. She winks. “Love you
dad...I’ll miss you…” with that, Glory exits the bedroom.
==========
St. Louis, MO
On Camera
==========
The Enterprise Center is an impressive sight off in
the distance, the sun shining down brightly over the home of the St. Louis
Blues. A few moments later Glory Braddock steps into view from stage left
to stand directly in front of the Enterprise Center. The British Bombshell is wearing a tight form
fitting black dress, black high heel pumps, and a pair of sunglasses over her
eyes. Her gorgeous blonde hair flows freely to below her shoulders. A confident grin is upon her face as she
looks into the camera.
“Not long now the venue behind me will host a match
so sadistic, so violent, that Supreme Championship Wrestling uses it only once
a year at most. Myself and five other wrestlers will step into the
infamous elimination chamber to do battle.
I can tell you right now that Sunday I will be fighting with a heavy
heart, for my father passed away this past Friday.” The
grin on her face fades. In its place is a much more stoic, serious gaze.
“My father taught me many things during his time as
my trainer, but more important than anything else he would teach me, he
instilled within me a respect for this business. Ever since I made my
debut as a professional wrestler in 2008, I have always fought for what I
believed was for the best interest not of myself but for the great sport of
professional wrestling. I won’t stand here and pretend that I was right
every single time in my career. I won’t
stand here and lie and say that I never made mistakes. Hell, I’ve made plenty of them. One of those mistakes was ever thinking that
Sienna Swann meant a damn word she said to me.”
“Dear old dad also warned me that I would make
mistakes and he told me that the important thing was to learn from those
mistakes. So I’m not going to give you some bullshit excuse to try and
save face. I screwed up, I failed when I
trusted her. But I have learned from
that mistake and now at Under Attack you had better believe that I will look to
get my hands on her make her regret the mistake she made of ever crossing Glory
Braddock.”
The British Bombshell takes off her sunglasses and
tosses them aside. “My instincts told me that you were no good, but I didn’t
listen to my instincts. I listened to my cousin. I allowed my delusional cousin Angelica to
blind me into trusting you. Now that you betrayed that trust and betrayed
me on Breakdown, you’re going to suffer because you will be locked in that
chamber with me. And I hope and pray we meet, I truly do, because I want
to personally be the one to choke you out and dash your hopes and dreams of
becoming world champion again.”
“It’s clear that you don’t care about this business
like I do. It’s clear that you do not respect anyone but yourself. And it
has become abundantly clear to me that people like you do not belong anywhere
near the world championship.” Braddock
laughs sarcastically. “Funny thing is, as much as you detest Syren, you and
her basically the same creature. You’re cut from the same bloody
clothe. You’re both tyrants who need to
be taken out. Once I thought you were the
lesser of the two evils, Sienna. Truth is, there really isn’t much
difference. You have the Beauty Factory,
she has Infamous. Both of you want to
win and be champion not out of respect for this business or the spirit of
competition but to have both of your oversized egos stroked.”
Braddock shakes her head. “I cannot allow you to
become champion. Same goes for you, Syren. We’ve already seen what a Syren title reign
is like and it is a cancer upon this great company, a great company that has
given so much to you and yet you act like the victim, you play this off as if
SCW has done you wrong? Answer me this question, mate; what the hell have
you done to deserve entering the chamber?
Last I checked you lost to Aaron Blackbourne. He’s not in this chamber but you are. Not every organization would have allowed you
this opportunity, and yet here you are. What do I say to you, Syren, is
the same message daddy would always give me when I was first learning the ropes;
shut the fuck up, quit your bitching, and fight. Fight and earn it the hard way, the right
way. Because that’s what wrestling is
all about and that is the philosophy I have always grown up with, the
philosophy I have competed with my entire career.”
A low chuckle escapes her throat. “I doubt daddy
could have ever imagined the world championship being defended within the
confines of a structure such as the chamber. Wrestling has evolved and as
athletes we have to evolve. James Evans
most certainly belongs in the chamber.
Despite the bullshit Sienna will no doubt spew about him, his resume
speaks for itself. He has come off of an impressive tag team run with my
cousin and now has returned to singles competition. And James, I recall your words about me. Thanks for that, mate; but I refuse to
recognize myself as the best of anything until I can beat the best and at Under
Attack I will be locked in the chamber with five of the very best in SCW
today. It will be my job to take each and every one of you out using
every ounce of talent, skill, and intelligence that I have until I am the last
one standing. Then and only then I will
proudly call myself the Best in the World.”
“You’re used to the chamber, aren’t you? You
have chamber experience. I recall you
and my cousin winning a chamber match to earn a tag team championship
opportunity and you seized upon that opportunity to become tag team
champions. We had a go in the six person tag and, fair play to you, you
caught me off guard. Granted there were
some circumstances surrounding all that, Sienna and her bloody fake
circumstances, but I’m not one to make excuses. You beat me, mate in a
tag. We got to have a go at one another
last Breakdown, but we got interrupted again.”
“I respect the hell out of you, mate. Despite
everything that’s been said and done, I do respect you and I hope we can
actually finish a match without any interruptions or controversy one day.
That’s the good thing about the chamber though, isn’t it? Nothing stops it until there is a
winner. We can finish what we started,
James. And as much as I’m sure you are
hoping to seize upon yet another opportunity inside the chamber, I am here to
tell you right now that the opportunity is mine.” She pats herself on the
chest. “Mine and mine alone. No more saving face, no more moral victories
like Rise To Greatness. No more bloody
excuses. This time I accept nothing less
than total victory and the world championship.”
“You’re not the only one with chamber experience.” Braddock
smirks and waves at the camera. “Hi, Alistaire. You have had the nerve
to say I don’t deserve this opportunity, you have the nerve to say that I do
not respect tradition or this sport? The more you talk the more you piss
me off! Everything I have done, every
single match I wrestled, every championship I have won, all of it was out of
the pure spirit of this great sport! I am a second generation wrestler,
my daughter who is training as well and will be a third generation after me and
her grandfather before me, we all have this business in our blood, and you
still have the nerve to accuse me of being disrespectful of traditions, of
wrestling itself? On Breakdown you, Owen, and James were booked against
myself, Sienna, and Bree. Now my
partners weren’t exactly the most popular of individuals, but what would you
have had me do, huh? I know that in the
spirit of competition and the traditions of wrestling I would compete, no
matter who my opponents were and despite who my partners were. A wrestler
competes and that’s what I did, I competed.
Sienna tried to get me to cheat, she even wanted me to use a chair
against James but I refused, because I respected this sport and its traditions
too much to stoop to her level. Then
last Breakdown when Infamous tried an ambush, I fought them off alongside Owen
and James.”
Braddock’s look more intense than ever as she
shouts. “Tell me, was that evidence for you, you stupid bastard?!
Honestly, I don’t need to prove anything to you. I know who and what I am and done trying to
convince you of anything. You’ve made me angry, Alistaire, and that anger
has nothing to do with you beating me at Rise To Greatness. Hell, I tried to be a good sport and
congratulate you and then you threw all of that back in my face. So now at
Under Attack I will enjoy getting the opportunity to choke you out.”
“Finally there’s Owen Cruze…”
she shakes her head “...I feel bad for you, mate. You just won the
championship at Apocalypse and your first championship defense is against five
other hungry, aggressive competitors inside one of the most sadistic structures
ever devised. And you’re so young at that. But what I like about you is that you’re not
complaining. You’re not like those two
entitled brassers Sienna and Syren who hate the very thought of sharing this
opportunity with anyone else. You’re just going to step into that chamber
and do your very best. You’re going to
throw everything you have into this and let the cards fall where they may. That’s what wrestling is all about, that’s
what competition is all about, and I can honestly say that you as champion is a
breath of fresh air.”
“Being the world champion means having to constantly
defend it against the best and you have five of the very best targeting you
right now, Owen. One of those happens to be The British Bombshell. Respect is there, Owen, believe me when I say
that; but despite the respect that I have for you, understand that I will do
whatever it takes to become the champion inside that chamber and if that means
choking you out and ending this whirlwind ride you have been having right now,
then so be it. Know this, Owen, your dreams of being champion will come to
an end at Under Attack and the reality will set in. That reality is being locked in an
unforgiving steel structure with me.”
The British Bombshell turns around and looks at the
Enterprise Center. “My father competed in many arenas during his
time. His era of wrestling may not have had the kind of flash and pizzazz
that ours has but he did compete in front of large crowds. He fought
because he loved competition and wanted to prove he was the best. Under Attack you have one who wants to be
world champion because she thinks she’s fucking entitled to it just because her
name is bloody Syren. You have another who wants to use it as a bloody
prop for her For The People propaganda machine.
You have another who wants to add another championship to his already impressive
resume. Another wants to have it so he
can continue to be judgmental of what he believes wrestling is truly
about. Then you have the champion, a young kid living his dream who
doesn’t want his dream to end so quickly.”
Braddock turns back around to face the
camera. She looks intense. “Then
you have me! I fight for the same reason as my father, the spirit of
competition and to prove to myself and to the world that I am the best.
And to do that I have to win this chamber, I have to become SCW World
Champion. So listen to this really good,
my name is Glory Braddock and I am dedicating this match to my father, whose
memory I am fighting for, and for every wrestling fan out there who still
believes in wrestling! Sic Semper Tyrannis…”
The British Bombshell walks off the scene stage
right. The scene fades to black.
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