==========
Sins of the
Father
Act 2 ;
Scene 1
==========
A public
courthouse is normally a building that stands symbolic of justice being duly
served to one and all. Some statues
representing justice are represented by a blindfolded female, metaphorically
symbolizing how justice is blind and how it does not have any biases. One statue outside the US Supreme Court
building is of a turtle, symbolizing justice’s slow, patient move towards what
is right. No matter how you look at
justice, no matter how it is represented or symbolized, these buildings of
truth and justice are meant to be places where citizens of all types, whether
they be rich or poor, white or black or Hispanic, can get the justice they
deserve. The public courthouse should be
a place where one and all can feel safe.
Yet this
particular courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts does not exude those types of
feelings for one Marie Annabelle Jones.
This particular courthouse represents for her the place where her entire
life changed forever. It was on these
steps leading up to the courthouse where Marie’s father, Sean Williams, was
shot to death right before her very eyes by a mystery assassin…
…a mystery
assassin that she would later find out was none other than her own mother, Angelica
Jones.
Marie
Annabelle Jones has made it a point never to return to this particular
spot. It brings back too many bad
dreams, too many horrible nightmares that she has been trying oh so desperately
hard to keep repressed in the innermost recesses of her mind. Only a very unique circumstance would bring
her back here on this beautiful morning.
Yet here she
is, standing at the bottom of the gray concrete steps, staring upward at the
courthouse before her. Her eyes are
welling up with tears, tears that she is fighting back with every bit of will
power that she is. She does not wish to
appear weak as she stands with one of the most important people in her life.
Who is this
important person?
Standing
with Marie on this bright sunny day in Boston, Massachusetts is none other than
her mother, Angelica Jones.
Yes, as if
Marie being here at the sight of where her father was murdered wasn’t enough of
an emotional roller coaster, but now her mother has returned to the scene of
the crime. Marie now stands side by side
with her mother, the woman who is responsible for the death of her father Sean
Williams. The woman who, arguably, is
responsible for so much of her grief and emotional turmoil in her life.
It is a busy
day here at the courthouse and many patrons are moving hither and yon about
their daily business. Marie and Angelica
ignore them completely. More important
things are on the mind of the Jones women on this day…
“Things haven’t changed much in twenty
years.”
Those are
the words of the elder Jones, the mother, as she speaks absent-mindedly staring
blankly off into space. The younger
Jones, her daughter Marie, winces upon hearing these words. She knows where Angelica is going with this
and, quite frankly, she doesn’t want to hear this. She doesn’t want to hear any of this. Marie doesn’t even want to be here at all
today. She could and should be preparing
for the tag team battle royal coming up on Outbreak.
All of the
top tag teams in UWA are involved in this tag team battle royal. It isn’t make or break for the champions,
Marie and Sophie, it is worthwhile for them to win because if they do, all of
their opponents will have to wait in the back in the line. And a victory in this tag team battle royal
would easily solidify them as the top tag team not just in UWA but in the whole
of the Triad.
Instead she
is here, at this spot of emotional distress and anguish, a spot that to this
day still brings back bad memories.
“Yeah…I know…”
She turns
her attention towards Angelica, staring at her through tear-filled eyes.
“…so why did we have to come here?”
“It’s important.”
Angelica
squeezes her eyes tightly shut in a clear sign of emotional agony.
“Why is it so damned important?!”
Angelica
sighs.
“Marie…”
“You could have told me this over the phone
or at my house or at your house. We
didn’t have to come here. We didn’t have
to be here.”
Marie buries
her face in her hands and let loose with the tears.
“You know how hard this is for me, mom…”
Angelica
gently and comfortingly pats her daughter on the back.
“That’s why we HAD to come here, sweetie.”
Marie pulls
away and looks back up at her mother questioningly.
“Huh?!”
Angelica
nods her head.
“What I’m going to say to you…what I NEED to
say to you…it will have more effect here than it would have had if I had just
simply told you over the phone or at my house.”
“And what is it exactly that you need to
tell me?!”
“It’s complicated, but the first part of it
is rather simple.”
Angelica
sighs.
“Marie…your father is dead.”
It may come
as a surprise that Marie would need to hear such a message from her
mother. Marie has had twenty some years
to come to terms with her father’s death and while she may never like it, while
she may never truly accept it, she can at least understand and believe that the
man who is her biological father, Sean Williams, is truly dead and never coming
back.
At least,
you would think that.
A few weeks
ago while Marie Annabelle Jones was wedding dress shopping with her sister
Corey and their mother Angelica, Marie first caught sight of a man she swore
was a ghost from her past. The man she
saw stalking them around the dress shop look eerily like her father, Sean
Williams. And that wasn’t the end of
it. Later on that night, after the power
went off temporarily due to a thunderstorm, Marie could’ve swore she saw her
father again stalking her in her dark, powerless house.
Needless to
say, this should’ve been chalked up to nerves or a hallucination, but for
Marie, someone who has dealt with the arguably sociopathic Williams family
before, she refused to just chalk this up to a simple explanation. She is convinced her father is alive and
stalking her.
It’s up to
her mother to try and talk some sense into her.
“You don’t know that, mom…”
“Yes, Marie.
Yes, I do.”
Angelica
sighs and steels herself for what no doubt will be a tough conversation. One that is long overdue.
“It all happened right here. You were just seven at the time and your
father was on the verge of winning legal custody of you. That’s why you and him were here at the
courthouse in the first place. He was
speaking with a judge, trying to convince him to give him legal custody of
you.”
Angelica
rubs her temples.
“Do you have any idea how agonizing that was
for me?”
Marie nods
her head.
“I can only imagine.”
“Marie, you have been and always will be the
glue that holds me together. You are
what keeps me sane. The mere thought of
losing you is enough to drive me over the edge.”
A look of
realization slowly washes across Marie’s face.
“And you…you were about to lose me and there
was nothing you could do…nothing you could do about it…”
Angelica
nods her head.
“That’s right, and I wasn’t going to let
that happen….under no circumstances was I going to let that happen…”
Angelica
uses her right index finger to point off in the distance to a shrubbery.
“There were more shrubs and bushes at the
time, but that’s where I hid. That’s
where I took aim as you and your father were exiting the courthouse. That’s where I pulled the trigger and I ended
your father’s life.”
Angelica
bows and shakes her head in shame.
“I’m sorry, Marie.”
Marie
embraces her mother in a tight hug.
“It’s ok, mom…you…”
Marie sighs.
“…you meant well. And that Williams family was sociopathic and
psychotic anyway.”
“But does that make it right?”
“Uh…”
Marie shakes
her head.
“…I guess not.”
Angelica
chuckles lightly.
“Marie, this is a burden and a guilt that I
have had to bear and will have to bear for the rest of my life. I loved your father, I truly did. We never could work things out and back then
I was just as crazy and psychotic as he was.
It was destined to fail. Now,
looking back on things now that I have gone through psychiatric treatment I
would…”
Angelica is
now crying herself. Marie hugs her
tightly as a comfort.
“…I would give anything to bring him back…if
your father were back I would make things right between him and I.”
Angelica
shakes her head.
“But I can’t do any of those things, do you
know why?”
Marie frowns
and shakes her head.
“Don’t say it, mom…”
Angelica
places a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.
“Listen to me. I cannot bring your father back and I cannot
make things right with him because your father is dead.”
“No…”
“Your father is dead and he is never coming
back. The closest I can come to making
things right with him is to make things right with you because you and Sean’s
other daughter Kimberly, you two are his legacy. Do you understand?”
“I…”
Marie sighs
and nods her head.
“…I guess I understand.”
“Then you have to understand that your
father is dead and you were just dreaming.”
Marie shakes
her head.
“No, I know what I saw mom and I saw my
father.”
“You may have thought you saw your father
but you have to accept that it wasn’t him.”
“I saw someone, damnit!”
Angelica sighs.
“I’m not denying that. Maybe you were stalked by someone the other
week, but it wasn’t your father because I put a bullet through his head twenty
years ago and to this day I haven’t lived it down.”
Angelica
shakes her head.
“I wish you were right, I wish you had seen
your father. I would do anything and
everything I could to make things right with him. But I’ve accepted the fact that he is gone
and you need to accept that fact too.”
==========
Sins of the
Father
Act 2 ;
Scene 2
==========
The
courthouse is not a place where the Jones family likes to visit. It brings back bad memories for all involved,
for it is the site of Sean Williams’s death, it is the place where Angelica
Jones, in a psychotic rage, pulled the trigger, executing her daughter’s
father. Angelica Jones would go on to
spend many years in a mental institution as a direct result of that psychotic
rage. She would forever have a man’s
life on her conscience as a result of what she did. Needless to say, this isn’t exactly the type
of place she wants to frequent so when she does get up the gumption to go, it
has to be for a damn good reason.
Her
reasoning was solid: she wants to convince Marie that her father really is
dead. She wants to help Marie to accept
the harsh reality that her father is never coming back and that she should move
on with her life. Angelica wants Marie
to forget about Sean Williams and just move on.
Angelica is
under the assumption that her gambit paid off.
Marie and Angelica went their separate ways without uttering another
word about Sean Williams and Marie seemingly had accepted that he was dead and
that she was hallucinating.
Unfortunately
for Angelica, her daughter is a damn good liar.
Marie knows
all too well about the history she has with the Williams family. She remembers when she was younger of the
many crazy sociopathic stunts her father pulled in order to try and get revenge
against Angelica. When Marie came of age
she had her own encounters with Kimberly Williams, Sean’s daughter and Marie’s
half-sister, who tried in her own equally sociopathic ways to try and destroy
the Jones family.
In short,
Marie knows from experience that nothing is ever simple when it comes to the
Williams family. So as much as Angelica
may want her daughter to just drop it and move on, “dropping it” and “moving
on” are the farthest things on Marie’s mind.
In truth, Marie refuses to accept her mother’s simple explanation of
this whole scenario. Marie wants more
answers and there is only one other source she can think of that can provide
those answers…
…her
half-sister Kimberly Williams.
We open in a
small, quaint little café in Boston, Massachusetts. Marie Annabelle Jones and Kimberly Williams
sit across from one another at a small round off-white table. They each have a cup of coffee sitting in
front of them. Kimberly seems to be
listening intensely as Marie does all the talking.
“So she took me the courthouse in Boston…”
“That’s where she murdered our father.”
Marie nods
her head.
“Yeah…”
The word
murder seems to pierce through Marie’s soul.
It shouldn’t make her feel guilty and yet it does. It was Marie’s mother, after all, who
murdered Sean Williams and she murdered him because of Marie. Kimberly cocks her head to one side and
frowns.
“Oh, I’m sorry sweetie, I forgot. I wasn’t thinking.”
Marie smiles
sheepishly.
“It’s ok…I guess I should just get over it,
you know?”
“Get over what? It wasn’t your fault.”
“Wasn’t it at least partially my fault?”
Marie sighs.
“The reason the shooting took place was
because of a custody battle…custody of me…”
At this time
a waitress arrives at their table. She
is a brunette, wearing mostly black. She
looks down at Kimberly and then down at Marie, smiling broadly.
“May I get you ladies anything else?”
Kimberly
shakes her head.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
“Actually…”
Marie holds
up her coffee cup.
“…I could use a refill.”
The waitress
nods and takes the cup.
“I will be right back, ma’am.”
The waitress
walks off with the cup of coffee.
Kimberly then turns her attention back to Marie.
“Marie, you really shouldn’t beat yourself
up over something you had no control over.”
“That’s easy for you to say. He didn’t die because of you.”
Kimberly
sighs and shakes her head.
“Look, let’s just forget that for a moment
and focus on why your mom brought you back there in the first place? She had to know how terrible an experience
that would be for you?”
Marie
snickers. Kimberly frowns.
“What’s so funny?”
“You…I didn’t think you had a caring bone in
your sociopathic body…”
Kimberly
shrugs.
“Eh, I’m capable of being sympathetic once
in a while.”
Marie sighs.
“Anyway, my mom brought me back to the
courthouse, to the spot where she killed our dad, because she felt she needed
to prove to me that he was dead.”
Kimberly furrows
her brow as she stares for a few moments across the table at Marie.
“Why would you need proof that dad is dead?”
“Kimberly I…”
Marie sighs.
“…I saw him twice the other day.”
Kimberly’s
eyes grow wide with shock and awe as she stares across the table at her
sister. Marie just shakes her head.
“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
“No, quite the contrary. I think your story is believable.”
“Seriously?
You believe me?”
Kimberly
shakes her head.
“I didn’t say I believed you, I said your
story is believable. Remember who we’re
talking about. The Williams family
should never EVER be counted out. So
yes, I believe you may be onto something.”
Marie and
Kim hear a buzzing from nearby. It’s
Kimberly’s cell phone.
“I got to take this, hold on…”
Kimberly
takes her phone and picks it up, answering it.
She walks away from the table to get some privacy. Marie sticks around, waiting at the table,
until the waitress arrives back with her coffee cup, filled back to the brim
with black coffee.
“Here’s your coffee, ma’am.”
She sets it
back down on the table and Marie smiles.
“Thank you, miss…”
Marie’s
words are caught up in her throat as she spots something strangely familiar
standing off in the distance. Marie
frowns as she narrows her eyes, trying to get a better view.
“Who is that?”
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
Marie points
behind the waitress.
“That…who is…”
Marie gasps
and falls backward, out of her seat and onto the ground.
“DADDY!”
The waitress
kneels down to try and help Marie back up.
“Ma’am, are you ok?”
Despite her
best efforts, the waitress is continually kicked away by Marie’s frantic
flailing.
“It’s my dad! It’s my dad!”
“Ma’am, please calm down…”
Just then
Kimberly Williams comes running back into the scene. She shoves the waitress away and then she
herself kneels down next to her sister.
“Marie, please, calm down! What is wrong?!”
“It’s dad!
He’s, he’s…”
Marie keeps
pointing frantically. Kimberly turns and
looks in the direction but finds nothing.
She turns to face Marie and shrugs.
“There’s no one there, sweetie.”
“He’s there!”
“I saw him…I swear I saw him…you have to
believe me…”
“I believe you.”
“I’m not crazy…”
“I never said you were…”
“I SAID I’M NOT CRAZY!”
==========
This Is Our
Division
On Camera
==========
We open
outside in the bright sunny Boston, Massachusetts sky. There isn’t much in terms of background
noise. Some wind blowing in the
background as well as the sounds of car horns honking can be heard in the
background. Just then Marie Annabelle
Jones steps into the scene from stage left.
The lovely ginger is wearing a beautiful delicate lace crimson red dress
shaped into a lovely fit and flare detailed with a sheer yoke, dainty cap
sleeves, and a striking back cutout. Her
feet are comfortably encased in a pair of black high heeled pumps. Her long red hair hangs unrestrained to just
below her shoulders. Her UWA World Tag
Team Championship title belt is draped over her right shoulder.
“A lethal lottery style tag team tournament
to crown new number one contenders for the world heavyweight title at Olympus…who
would possibly have guessed that I would get such a great partner as Willow
Wilkes? And who would’ve guessed that
the two of us would work so well together throughout each round?”
She pats
herself on the chest.
“I knew!
I knew that we would advance past Gavin Taylor and Benjamin Flynn. I knew we would make it through Serenity and
Sophie. And I know that me and Willow
will pull it off one more time when we defeat Alana Starr and Myra Lynwood to
earn that UWA World Title opportunity for the both of us. A title shot that we both deserve, especially
me, someone who has busted her ass and paid her dues for a long ass time.”
Jones
smirks.
“I was a part of UWA back before it was UWA,
back when it was the Uprising Brand of IWC.
I was the number one overall draft pick.
And ever since then I busted my ass to earn my opportunity against the
best athlete on the roster, Vanilla Skyy, for the World Championship.”
She holds up
two fingers to indicate closeness.
“And I was this close to going all the way,
THIS CLOSE to becoming World Champion.
And now, Vanilla, I am on the verge of once again earning a title shot,
and damnit I am not going to just sit back, relax, and watch you beat me
again. This time I will not let my title
shot go to waste and I will become world champion again. I have worked long and hard to change myself,
to change my image, and to improve and to get better at what I do and my end
game is quite simply to make this company MY company to own it and to dominate
it in every possible way.”
She
snickers.
“Heh, but it seems as if I have admittedly
slipped up in at least one respect…”
She holds up
one finger.
“…I have been busting my ass so hard trying
to get back to the world title picture that I forgot about the nation,
specifically the Ginger Nation, specifically me and Sophie James.”
Jones pats
her UWA World Tag Team title belt.
“Me and Sophie won these belts back in
October of last year. And ever since
then we have defended the gold against ALL comers. Anyone who ever wanted a piece of the Ginger
Nation, me and Sophie were more than happy to give them the beating of a
lifetime. We’ve held these belts longer
than any set of champion in a currently active Triad fed. That makes us the greatest team in The Triad
bar none.”
She shakes
her head.
“It never did matter who asked for a title
shot, we were willing to fight anyone and everyone at any time because we
always have been fighting champions. But…”
Jones shrugs
her shoulders.
“…but apparently we have our doubters. The Dogs of War doubt us, even though they
can’t buy a win. Alana Starr and Kennedy
Street doubt us even though they have yet to have a tag team outing. And Chris Davids and Cassius Delight doubt us
even though we’ve already beaten them.”
Marie
smirks.
“So I guess that means me and Sophie have to
go out there and do what we’ve done time and time again. We’ll just have to go out there and beat each
and every one of them again and again and again. We’ll beat them all as many times as we have
to in order to shut them all up and make them all sit up and respect the
superior tag team in all of professional wrestling, because that’s one thing
that is clearly lacking and that’s respect.”
The redhead
chuckles.
“Let’s start with The Dogs of War. The little boys who thought they could
intimidate the Ginger Nation…”
She shakes
her head.
“…all you did was embarrass yourself. Seriously, you guys think that you are in the
same league as me and Sophie? Sophie and
I were willing to give you boys a chance once upon a time, because that’s who
we are. We have fought all kinds of wars
week in and week out and we never back down from anyone, so we won’t back down
from you either. But the more I watch of
you the more I realize you two are just simply pathetic. You can’t seem to beat anyone unless it’s a
pair of jobbers. Anyone with half a bit
of talent and you can’t hang. So take my
advice, take a step back and learn the trade, learn to fight, and then come
calling. Otherwise the Ginger Nation
will humiliate you.”
Marie sighs
deeply.
“Now we move on from the team that can’t
seem to buy a win to a team who thinks their best bet is to buy a set of tag
team titles and that would happen to be Retarded Goodness.”
Jones shakes
her head.
“Actually, I apologize for offending the
mentally handicapped by daring to associate you with a pair of complete morons
like Alana Starr and Kennedy Street. I
mean, let’s face facts, those two bimbos are right now as close to being tag
champions as they will ever be and all they did was make up a damned tag title
and declare themselves champions. It
worked for Roman Emperor Caligula when he declared war on the ocean only to
declare himself and his Roman legions
winners via forfeit when the ocean didn’t show up to fight him. But then again, Caligula was fucking insane…”
She points a
finger at the camera.
“…and so are you. Though I have to warn you, it didn’t work out
so well for Caligula. He ended up
getting assassinated because of his stupidity and so will you. And now to move on to talk about the one team
in this clusterfuck that the Ginger Nation actually respects…”
Jones nods
her head.
“…that’s right, I’m talking about Chris
Davids and Cassius Delight. You’re the
only team that has a legitimate gripe in all of this, because of how Sophie and
I did beat you guys for these belts. But
at the end of the day do you whine, bitch, and moan?”
She shakes
her head.
“No, you don’t whine. You just go out there and you try to earn
your spot back. And I respect that
because I’ve been there. I have been in
that spot where I had to fight tooth and nail to earn my place back. I had to earn my place in the tag team
division back. I had to earn my world
title shot back. And now here you are on
the verge of potentially earning a tag team title match.”
She
snickers.
“But unfortunately for you, this won’t be
your golden ticket. This isn’t going to be your chance at redemption. What you need to understand, what The Dogs of
War need to understand, and what Retarded Goodness need to understand, is that
this tag team division belongs to Marie Annabelle Jones and Sophie James. The Ginger Nation for too long has been
sitting idly by and letting all these other tag teams, all these pretenders to
the throne, rise up and try to take our division.”
Jones holds
up her UWA World Tag Team title belt.
“This is OUR tag team division and on
Outbreak we prove it by defeating all three of you and sending all three of you
to the back of the line. We’re
going to prove that you cannot beat us
in this clusterfuck scenario, let alone a one on one scenario, because we are
the best tag team not just in UWA but in professional wrestling.”
Jones sets
her title belt back over her right shoulder.
She winks at the camera.
“See you on Outbreak…”
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