Moving on from the past: Part 3

==========

January 22^nd, 2017

Off Camera

==========

Marie Annabelle Jones had an opportunity to add yet another  accomplishment to her already impressive resume; the SCW United States Championship.  This would have been only the second time a member of the Jones family won championship gold in SCW and it would’ve been an important reminder not just to SCW but to the wrestling world that she was still a threat to be taken very seriously.  Unfortunately she faced the tough task of having to defeat Amy Chastain in order to achieve that goal.  And despite how hard Marie fought, despite her resiliency and durability, at the end of the day she lost the match and thus lost her opportunity at her first SCW championship.

It wasn’t just any loss.  A pin, count out, or disqualification would’ve been bad enough but at least Marie could have stomached it more.  The Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling lost via submission.  Amy forced her to tap out and that makes the loss sting all that much worse.

Her mother, the infamous wrestling legend and matriarch of the Jones wrestling family, Angelica Jones, has famously said that when  you make someone tap out, you take a part of their soul; because a tap out is just an admission that they are better than you.  So, for all of Marie’s crowing about how she would prove to Amy and the world that she was the Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling, it was Marie who tapped out to Amy.  It was Marie who admitted that Amy was better.  And now Marie definitely does not feel like a Crown Jewel.

Marie is beginning to question herself and her abilities just an hour after the match against Amy Chastain concluded.  She’s still in her dressing room in the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri.  The redhead is slouched down in a chair, with her head buried in her hands as she tries to take in everything that happened tonight.  Tonight was supposed to be her night.  She had it all planned out in her head:

She was supposed to win the SCW United States Championship and proudly walk into UWA the next day with the gold raised high above her head.  It would be one big step towards proving to Drew Bryant, David Helms, and all of UWA that she is worth top dollar.  But then to go on later on in UWA Outbreak and, as SCW United States Champion, go on to defeat Myra Lynwood to win the UWA X-Limits Championship as well, back to back nights?  It would be perfect.

But things didn’t happen that way.  Marie had all of the confidence in the world that she would pull off an extraordinary feat and win two championships in one night.  Now that confidence has been shot since she tapped out tonight to Amy Chastain.  Now she isn’t sure she can get the job done against Myra Lynwood on Outbreak.

That’s just for the short term.  There are long term implications for Marie Annabelle Jones.  She truly wonders now if she is The Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling?

The beautiful redhead has already changed back into her normal street clothes, consisting of denim jeans, black boots, and a red silk blouse.  She’s wearing her signature black leather jacket.  Jones is deep in thought, so much so that she doesn’t even hear her dressing room door opening and then slamming shut.   She does, however, feel that hand on her shoulder.

“Better luck next time, kiddo!”

Marie is startled and, as a result, nearly jumps up out of her seat. She turns her head and sighs as she finds the culprit: her identical twin sister Kimberly Williams, standing there with a look of mischief etched across her face.  Kimberly is wearing a torn pair of black denim jeans, black high heeled pumps, and a brand new Sophie James t-shirt which reads “Drugs are bad, mkay?” on the front.  Marie frowns, looking rather unimpressed at her twin sibling.

“Kiddo?  Seriously?”

Marie stands up and faces her twin.

“We’re twins, Kim.  Same age.  You have no room to call me ‘kiddo’…”

Kimberly shrugs her shoulders.

“Just an expression, babe!  No need to go all tappy tappy on me!”

Marie narrows her eyes.

“Tappy tappy?  Now you’re just trying to piss me off because that is NOT just an expression!”

Marie’s anger is quite evident from the look on her face and Kimberly loves every bit of it.  Williams giggles uncontrollably as she gathers her thoughts.

“Yeah, yeah, I admit, I was just trying to rile you up…”

Kimberly wraps an arm around her sister’s shoulder.

“…but you gotta admit, you do make it oh so easy for me!”

“It doesn’t make it right!”

“Oh come on, Marie, relax a little bit!  Chill out!  It’s not a big deal!”

Marie steps back and blinks her eyes furiously, at first out of confusion but then that confusion turns into anger once more as she cannot believe those words came out of Kimberly’s mouth.

“Not a big deal?  Really, Kim?”

Kimberly nods her head.

“Yeah!  Really!”

Marie marches towards her and grabs her by the shirt collar.

“It IS a big deal to me!  I wanted to be the United States Champion!  But I lost!  And I didn’t just lose, I tapped out!  I gave up!”

She lets go of Kimberly.  Marie then sighs as she sits back down in the chair and slumps over.

“I gave up.”

Kimberly pats Marie on the back.

“Other opportunities will come, babe.  Trust me.”

“I don’t know how many more opportunities I have left.”

“If you’d quit moping around then I could tell you that you have Rachel Foxx in a Television Title Eliminator on the next Breakdown.”

Marie immediately perks up upon hearing this.  Her last Television Title Eliminator was ruined when Jake Starr interfered, distracting her and costing her the match.  Opportunities like this do not come often and Marie is thrilled to have another opportunity so soon after failing to capture the United States Championship.   She also knows that she cannot afford to lose this one, and it will be her toughest task yet as she faces another former SCW World Champion in the form of Rachel Foxx.

“Foxx?”

“Yep!  You and Foxx one on one!  You win and you get that Television Title shot.  How does that sound?”

Marie finally smiles and then nods her head.

“I like it, Kim.  I like it a lot.”

“Great!  So no more of the mopey shit, right?  Cause I can’t stand you when you’re moping around and all that crap.  You get me in a bad mood and you know what happens when I’m in a bad mood.”

Marie rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, and I’d rather not talk about it.”

Kimberly puts on her biggest pouty face that she can muster.

“Awwww, now don’t say that, sweetie!”

Kimberly grabs Marie and pulls her back up off the chair and into a standing position.  Kimberly then embraces Marie in a tight hug.

“You love me!  You really do love me!”

“I do love you…”

Marie forces a break of the hug.

“…but that doesn’t change what you’ve done to Emma.”

Kimberly’s facial features change as she begins to grow more serious.

“Don’t talk about her.”

“We have to, Kim.  We can’t just ignore this.”

Kimberly turns her back to Marie.

“Sure we can.”

“No, we can’t.”

Marie turns Kimberly back around to face her.

“Some psycho from your past and Emma’s past named Dave is after us because of what YOU did to her.”

That does it.  Without warning Kimberly snaps and wraps her hands around Marie’s throat.

“DON’T BLAME ME FOR THAT!”

“ACK!”

“IT IS NOT MY FAULT!  DO YOU HEAR ME?!”

“I…can’t….”

“DO YOU HEAR ME?!”

“I…can’t…breathe…”

Suddenly Kim is shocked back to reality.  She releases her sister and Marie immediately drops to her knees.  Kimberly sighs and shakes the cobwebs from her head.

“Look, Marie, I’m sorry that I went a little nuts there…”

“A little?”

“Ok, a lot.  But I did warn you not to talk about Emma.  Don’t talk about Dave for that matter, either.  They are MY responsibility.  I will deal with them.”

Marie gets to her feet.

“It isn’t that easy, Kim.”

“It can be if you just stay out of it.”

Marie sighs and nods her head.

“Fine, but will you at least tell me if Emma is still alive?”

Kimberly nods her head.

“Yeah, she’s still alive.”

Marie senses that Kimberly’s defenses may be cracking.  She has a whole slew of questions to grill her with.  Unfortunately she does not have the time to do so as the door to the dressing room opens up yet again.  This time it’s Arthur Pond, Marie’s husband, who interrupts her thought process.

“Hi Marie, hi Kim, I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

Kimberly puts on a sweet, pure, innocent face that, surprisingly fools Arthur.

“You interrupting nothing, sweetie!  I was just leaving.”

“You could come back to the hotel with us?”

Kimberly shakes her head.

“No can do, I got places to be, people to see.”

She kisses him on the cheek.

“But thanks for the offer.”

Kimberly opens the dressing room door and makes her exit, slamming the door shut behind her.  Arthur turns to face his wife Marie and while he may have been fooled by Kimberly, he is not fooled by the lackluster half-assed attempt at a poker face from Marie.  Her frowns as he gazes skeptically at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.”

“You’re lying.”

Marie ignores shim as she sits down on the chair she was sitting in earlier.  Arthur pulls up a chair of his own and places it down across from her.  He sits down in that chair so that he is face to face with his lovely wife.

“Your sister is a good liar, but you’re a terrible liar, babe.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t always know when Kimberly is lying but I know when you’re lying and you have guilt written all over your face right now.”

He takes Marie’s hands and clasps them tightly.

“Something is wrong.  Tell me.”

Marie leans over and kisses Arthur on the lips.

“Arthur, you are a brilliant man, there is no questioning that.  But I doubt even you can help me with Kimberly.”

“What’s wrong with Kim?”

“What isn’t wrong with her is the better question.  She is out of control.”

Arthur chuckles.

“Yeah, I figured that much out the first time she pretended to be you just to get a kiss from me.”

“No, I don’t mean that.  Kimberly is a dangerous person, Arthur, and you don’t realize just how dangerous she is.”

Arthur frowns.  He’s intrigued now.

“How so?”

“She is a sociopath and she is very smart, very cunning, and very good at what she does.”

Arthur rolls his eyes.

“Thanks for being specific, babe.”

“You want specifics?  You got them.  Kimberly used to stalk the family, utilizing the sport of wrestling so that she’d have a legal means of fighting us.  She organized a faction to target us at every turn.  Then she dropped off the map, and we thought she was dead, only she turned up later and kidnapped me.  She locked me up in a basement.”

Arthur gasps ever so slightly.  He shakes his head.

“Marie, I…I had no idea…”

“I’m not finished.  For months she took my place in every aspect of my life.”

“Why would she do that?  What purpose did it serve?!”

“She had this crazy notion that I was the favorite of Angelica’s children, so she wanted to take my place and have my life.  And yeah, my life was better than hers, so she took my life as her own.  And she damn near ruined my career in the process.”

“Obviously she failed.”

Marie nods her head.

“Right, because while she had the wrestling world fooled, she didn’t fool my family.  My family could tell the difference and immediately they set out to trying to find the truth.  My other sister, Jessica, she eventually found out where I was.”

Tears form in Marie’s eyes and begin to roll down her cheek.

“I owe my life to Jessica.”

“I can see why Jessica hates her now and why she doesn’t trust her, and I’m also wondering if she isn’t right not to trust her.”

Arthur stares skeptically at Marie.

“Why do you trust her?”

“Your point is valid, babe, but it isn’t entirely her fault.  We are twins but I was raised in a stable environment by loving caregivers.  Kimberly was raised by a woman named Emma.  Emma Storm. A man named David Burns helped Emma raise Kimberly up until she was eighteen.  Emma shaped Kimberly’s sociopathic mind but Burns was the one who beat Kimberly regularly.  He made her ruthless.”

“I get the nature versus nurture arguments, babe, but that doesn’t excuse her behavior.”

Marie shakes her head.

“No, you’re not listening to me.  Kimberly was lied to!  Emma, David, they lied to her and made her think terrible things about me and the family.  She truly wants to be a part of this family and she truly wants to make things right between us.  But the way she wants to make things right…”

She pauses and shudders.

“…it’s just truly frightening.”

“What do you mean, Marie?  How is she trying to make things right?”

“Emma hates the Jones Family. That’s why she tried to manipulate Kimberly into destroying us.  Emma is a threat to the Jones family so long as she lives.  Kimberly has taken it upon herself to kidnap Emma and lock her in a basement.  She is torturing her as we speak.”

Arthur is in shock upon hearing this.  He shoots straight up out of his chair.

“My God!  So she’s….she’s still alive?!”

Marie nods her head.

“Yes, she’s still alive.”

“Well we’d better do something!  We need to stop her!  We…”

Marie shakes her head.

“It’s not that simple, Arthur.  I can’t turn over my own sister and besides…Emma deserves it…”

Arthur is stunned to hear his wife saying these things.  He shakes his head.

“Fine, whatever, but if you’re not going to stop her, then what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, Arthur.  I just don’t know.”

Marie stands up and faces Arthur.  Arthur wraps his arms around his wife in a tight hug.  He then plants a kiss on her lips.

“I love you, Marie, but you need to do something about Kimberly.  I had no idea how unbalanced she really was.  It really is unhealthy for her.  She needs help.”

He runs his right hand through Marie’s long red hair.

“And it isn’t safe for you.”

“I’ll fix this, Arthur.  I promise.  I don’t know yet how I’ll fix this, but I promise that I will fix this.”

==========

Present Day

On Camera

==========

Last week was supposed to be the glorious vindication for yours truly.  We began with Hazardous Envy and my shot to become the SCW United States Champion.  I fully intended to walk into Hazardous Envy, kick Amy Chastain’s ass, humiliate her, and take that United States Championship.  By doing so the fools running UWA would finally see the error in their ways, but it would be too late by then, because I would walk into UWA Outbreak the next day and defeat Myra Lynwood for the X-Limits Championship, thus becoming a dual title holder across two federations in the Triad.  There would be no denying that I was The Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling.

Unfortunately we don’t always get what we want.  You can pin it on me being overconfident and arrogant or you can simply blame it on the fact that Amy Chastain was better than me at Hazardous Envy.  But the point is that I lost the match.  I could not defeat Amy.

The worst part about it all is that I tapped out.  I gave up.

My mother, during one of her many wars with Selena Frost, once said that when you make someone tap out, you own a part of their soul.  I guess Amy owns a part of my soul now.  Regardless of owning souls or not, Amy beat me fair and square, straight up.  And for that, I congratulate her.

As for me, perhaps a part of my soul has been taken from me?  I honestly do not believe I deserve to be a Jones, because we Jones women are made of sturdy stuff and yet I tapped out quickly, way too quickly for the tastes of anyone in my family.  They may not say it, but I can sense it.  I can sense the disappointment.

But I can’t get rid of my name.  I was born with it.  I will always be a Jones.  My nickname?  That’s a different story.  I told Amy that I would prove to her and everyone else that I was The Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling.

Would a Crown Jewel tap out?

So maybe I’m not The Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling?  I asked myself that question every waking minute as I prepared for my next match the next night against Myra Lynwood for the UWA X-Limits Championship.  Ultimately I decided not to compete against Myra Lynwood as The Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling.  I had fallen into the farthest regions of the abyss and I needed to fight back to the top.  I needed to take flight and reclaim my true identity.

I was The Phoenix and I rose from the ashes of the Crown Jewel to become the UWA X-Limits Champion!

It was more than just a title win.  It was a rebound, not just professionally but personally.  I knew at that moment who and what I wanted to be.  I was Professional Wrestling’s Phoenix and I am now ready to continue my march up the ladder here in Supreme Championship Wrestling.

The SCW Television Championship is a title that evaded me once already.  I could have already had a title shot had it not been for Jake Starr’s interference, costing me my opportunity against Brett Sinclair.  But I’m not going to reminisce or regret about past mistakes.  I’m focusing on the future because the future holds one of my biggest challenges to date.

Rachel Foxx.

I have no doubts about how challenging this will be, Foxx.  I have no illusions that this might be easy for me.  You are a former world champion and one of the most violent women in Supreme Championship Wrestling.  But therein lies why this gives me the true edge.

You’ve been to the top before.  What’s a measly little television championship to you?  Do you really care about what you might get if you win this match to earn the television title shot?  No disrespect, but I have my doubts.

I still haven’t held gold in Supreme Championship Wrestling.  I haven’t won a big match yet.  Sure, I’ve won matches here and there.  But the big money matches here in SCW I haven’t been able to win.  And me beating you, a former world champion, that would equal big money.

Last week I was looking to revitalize my career.  My career did get revitalized but just not in the way I had expected.  I’m back on the right path and I’m not about to change now or anymore ever again.  You can knock me down Rachel but just like The Phoenix I will continue to get back up, I will continue to rise up from the ashes more dangerous than ever before, and I will continue to fight until I have earned that victory.

I will not be eliminated in this Television Title Eliminator.