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Off Camera
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A beautiful
feminine figure stands quiet and calm just outside of two large dark brown
ornate doors that lead into the nave.
The redhead is wearing a long black ankle length skirt and black high
heeled pumps. She is wearing a long
sleeved white button up silk blouse and her long red hair is left unrestrained
to shoulder length. To her right,
hanging on a wall, is a small container of holy water. She dips her right hand in the holy water and
then proceeds to make the sign of the cross, starting with her forehead, going
to the chest, and then over each shoulder.
This is the standard procedure for entering a Holy place. She should know, for her mother was once a
nun and religious has always been a part of her life.
This is
Marie Annabelle Jones.
Jones
certainly has plenty of reason to be here on this evening and it’s more than
just simply going through the motions of the ritual known as penance, a ritual
that’s lasted centuries in the Catholic tradition. Pope Benedict XVI said regarding the
sacrament of penance “Nothing can improve
the world if evil is not overcome. Evil can be overcome only by forgiveness.”
Does Marie
need forgiveness? Her heart tells her
yes, she does. She always prided herself
on being better than her mother, someone who has had six failed relationships,
going on number seven. She prided
herself on being better than her sisters Kimberly and Jessica, both of whom are
psychotic and crazy in their own ways.
Yet it was the sin of pride that led her down the path to spiritual
disaster. Pride, a sin in and of itself,
led Marie to performing an act she thought she’d never perform.
She has
cheated on her husband. It goes beyond
that, however; she’s living a double life.
During the day, to the public at large, she is simply Marie Jones. But at night she goes by Lynette
Williams. It was through Lynette that
she ended up gravitating towards her SCW co-worker Blake Mason. And then, one night in the bathroom at a bar,
Marie did the unthinkable.
This is what
brings her here today to the church of her childhood, the church every Jones
woman has, at one time or another, visited for spiritual help and comfort. She’s not entirely sure what she expects to
get out of this, but she’s been conditioned to believe that this process is
necessary, that she has sinned and needs to confess.
Jones pushes
the doors open and steps inside the nave.
The nave itself is even more beautifully decorated with stain glass
windows lining the walls, each illustrating a different even of the passion
story of Jesus Christ. Jones begins to
walk up the center aisle, ignoring the pews on either side. She reaches the front of the altar and stares
upwards, at the crucifix hanging on the wall.
Immediately she drops to her knees in reverence and tears form in her
eyes.
After rising
to her feet, the young Phoenix turns and heads towards the back of the
church. It is there where she knows she
can find the confessional booths. She
steps inside, pulling the door shut behind her.
She kneels down.
“O my God, I am heartily sorry for having
offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but
most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of
all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and
to avoid the near occasions of sin.”
Marie sighs
and waits upon a response. The priest on
the other side responds shortly…
“When was your last confession?”
“About a month ago.” Marie sighs and
shakes her head. “I know I haven’t been
exactly consistent, Father. I usually
come every week.”
“That’s ok, God is always there to hear your
pains and praises, as am I. Maintaining
consistency with your confession is always good, confession is good for the
heart and soul, after all, but so long as you go to confession, that is the
most important thing.”
“Thank you, Father.”
“So what are your sins?”
There is a
pause as Marie contemplates her next words.
She knows the biggest sin of them all that weighs the heaviest on her
mind but she isn’t quite sure she is ready to say it just yet. Priests are sworn to maintain privacy and
confidentiality in these matters, so it isn’t like her secret will get out to Arthur,
but still, she feels shameful about telling it.
So instead she delays…
“Jealousy.”
“Ah yes, the green eyed monster. How were you jealous, my dear?”
“It wasn’t just jealousy, Father; it was
anger. I was wrestling for the SCW
Adrenaline Championship against Andrew Raynes.
I had him beat…damn it, I had him beat!”
Marie
realizes that she is beginning to lose her temper and losing her temper here
and now is not a good idea. She takes a
deep breath to calm herself and sighs.
“Apologies, Father.”
“It’s ok.
Do continue.”
“But I had him beat, I was going to win the
title, until Dylan Howell interfered. I
won but by disqualification. And I don’t
win the title on a disqualification.”
“In other words things didn’t go your way?”
“Worse than that!” She exclaims. “Howell gets rewarded! Mr. D goes and grants him a match against
Raynes for the championship, a championship I should have won, at Rise To
Greatness. Howell breaks the rules and
gets rewarded; meanwhile I’m trying to do things the right way and once again I’m
stuck with nothing.”
There is a
silence as Marie waits for the priest’s response. “Well, I do see how you come
across bitter and angry, but feeling that way is perfectly normal. Feeling a certain emotion isn’t sinful.
Thinking a certain way isn’t sinful.
What makes it sinful is did you act on it those emotions. Did you do anything to Mr. Raynes or Mr.
Howell?”
She has to
admit, she did want to do something to them, or at least to Howell. She wanted
to kick his ass. But she did not. She did manage to hold back. Thank God for small miracles. Marie shakes her head.
“No, I didn’t do a thing to them, Father.”
“Then what you did wasn’t a sin. Just give God thanks for the ability to
restrain yourself.”
“Of course.
Thank you, Father.”
“Do you have any other sins to confess?”
Here it
comes again. She knows she has a
legitimate sin to confess but at the same time she is ashamed to mention it to
anyone, especially to her priest. She
considers just telling the priest no, that she does not have anything else to
confess, and leaving on her way. But
then her conscience would still be bothering her.
“Uh, yes…yes I do…” her voice trails
off, she pauses, several difficult seconds pass as she is still unable to say
it.
“Well what is it?”
“I…” she sighs and shuts her eyes
tightly, tears forming in them “…I have
been cheating on my husband.”
“I see.”
The priest’s
voice remains remarkably calm. At first
that shocks Marie, but then again, he has heard much worse than this during his
time as a priest.
“Yes, I cheated on my husband.” She
reaches up and wipes some of the tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry, Father.”
“May I ask why? I mean, has your husband been a
disappointment in some manner? Did he do
something to you that would make you want to do this?”
“That’s the bad thing about this whole
thing, Father. My husband has always been so good to me. He’s been the perfect,
ideal husband. There is absolutely
nothing wrong with what we have.”
“The matrimonial covenant, by which a man
and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is
by its nature ordered toward the good of both you and your husband, my dear;
this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ our Lord to
the dignity of a sacrament. So you
understand, there must be some problem here in existence that would cause you
to sin in this manner.”
Marie is knowledgeable
on the church. She recognizes a paraphrase of the Catechism when she hears
it. Father is ready to scold her, or at
least she thinks so it’s best to remain honest.
She’s already deep into this.
“The problem is with me, Father.”
“How so?
Does he not pleasure you?”
“It’s not that…” Marie has to stifle a
slight giggle, she wasn’t expecting the priest to suggest that “…I was raised to believe in right and
wrong. I was taught to always try to be the best person possible. But everywhere I look, the ones breaking the
rules get rewarded; I already told you about Dylan Howell but he isn’t the only
one. Amy Chastaine, she used to work
with me before she retired, and she was always beloved. It came out that she was sleeping with two
other guys at once and she was beloved even more. I felt…I felt…”
“Jealous?”
“Yes, jealous.” Marie remarks, nodding
her head. “I began to question whether or
not doing things the right way was really worth it? I wanted to live on the edge. I wanted to walk that dark and dangerous line
between good and evil. My sister does
and she seems to always been happy. But
what about me, what about the girl always following the rules?”
She shakes
her head. “I’m not happy. I’m miserable because I’m not getting the
opportunities I deserve. I wanted to see
how the other half lives, Father. I
wanted to see how the sinful half lives.
So I created an alter ego. During
the day the public gets me but during the night I become Lynette Williams and
as Lynette I engage in every dirty, sinful, act I can think of. I just act on a whim, without regard to right
or wrong.”
“Well, the acts themselves are sinful yes,
but I must also ask, did you enjoy them?”
“I can’t lie;” she nods her head “in the moment of the act I enjoy it. It’s like a thrill or a rush. But later, when I stop to think about what I
did…my conscience starts to kill me…”
“Well that is good. That means you still know the difference
between right and wrong and you know that what you’re doing is wrong. But my dear…”
“Yes, Father?”
“You do realize that you cannot keep up this
double life forever, don’t you?
Eventually you will have to decide who lives and who dies; do you live
on and will you get rid of this Lynette Williams? Or do you want to live this sinful life
permanently? That is a question only you
can answer.”
“I understand, Father.”
“Say three Hail Mary’s as part of your
penance.”
“I will.” Marie nods her head.
“God, the Father of mercies, through the death
and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself, and sent the
Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the
Church, may God grant you pardon and peace. And I absolve you of your sins, in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
“Amen.” Marie makes the sign of the
cross over her chest.
“Go in peace.”
“Thank you, Father.”
Marie stands
up and exits the confession booth. On
the way out of the church she blesses herself with more Holy Water before
making her exit out of the door. It has
gotten darker outside, considerably so; the street lights outside are pretty
much the only light now that allows Marie to see anything at all. But she can definitely hear rustling from not
too far away.
It isn’t
long until a feminine silhouette appears from the shadows. She steps out into the light and we see that
it is Jessica Jones-Lasiewicz, Marie’s half-sister. She is wearing black denim jeans, black
boots, and a black long sleeved sweater.
Her long black hair hangs unrestrained to below her shoulders. Marie places her hands on her hips.
“What do you want?”
“Penance.”
“Is that so?” Frustrated, Marie points
towards the Church doors. “Go in there,
Father is ready, especially for psychos like you.”
“Psycho, moi?”
Marie sighs
and shakes her head. “Sorry, Jess, I didn’t
mean it like that. It’s just that you
sneaking up like this is getting all too weird.”
“That’s been my M.O. for a long time, Marie.”
She smirks. “And if you want to talk
about sneaking around, we should start with how you’ve been sneaking around at
all hours of the night.”
“We’ve already been through that. It’s none of your business.”
“I recall that conversation.” Jessica
approaches her and then runs a finger down Marie’s cheek. “Your makeup is running, though.
It must’ve been one hell of a confession.”
“Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.”
“Care to tell your sister about it? I could help.”
“Like I said, it’s none of your business.”
“So I’m right.” Jessica smirks
knowingly. “Whatever you’ve been doing at
all hours of the night, it’s gotten to you, you’re on a guilt trip about it.”
“I plead the fifth.” Marie starts to
walk past Jessica, who immediately grabs her by her arm.
“Marie, wait…”
“NO!” She shakes free of Jessica’s grip,
swatting her away. “Leave me alone!”
There is a
tense stare down between Marie and Jessica.
Finally Marie shakes her head.
“Look, I’m sorry Jessica, and it’s not that
I don’t appreciate your offer to help, but this is something I have to work
through myself.”
“You’re wrong, Marie. You never have to do anything alone. But if you want me to back off, I will. But you need to back off as well, before it’s
too late; before you get in too deep into whatever trouble you’re in.”
“It’s already too late for that, Jess.”
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On Camera
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The story of
Sodom and Gomorrah is a sad and tragic tale of two sinful, fallen cities. God had planned to destroy them both. He planned to wipe out their entire existence
unless Abraham could perform one simple task.
God promised Abraham that he would not destroy Sodom if he could find
ten righteous men. Sodom was rotten to
the core and ten righteous men didn’t exist in that place. So God laid waste to it.
I’d like to
think that there are righteous individuals still around in this industry. I’d like to think that there are people in
this great sport of professional wrestling who just want to have a good,
competitive wrestling match, who just want to see who is the best. That’s the entire reason I’m here. I am a competitor and I want to compete with
the best in the world to prove my worth and to prove to myself and to everyone
else out there that I am elite and that I am worthy of being a World Champion.
The
Adrenaline Championship should be mine right now but thanks to Dylan Howell it
is not. He broke the rules and yet he
gets rewarded by SCW by being given exactly what he wanted. I have no problem earning my shot at the
championship again, but shouldn’t he have to earn that title shot as well
instead of being given Andrew Raynes on a silver platter?
Christy Matthews
claims she’s turned over a new leaf, and maybe she is among the few righteous
ones in this business, but forgive me if I don’t believe a damn word that comes
out of her mouth, after beating me by hooking the tights and constantly using
her family situation as a damn crutch.
Then there’s Josh Hudson, who makes no bones about his unrighteousness. He seems to have no problem contributing to
the Past, Present, Future beat downs that occur on a regular basis in SCW.
Forgive me
if I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
That’s what I have to look forward to at Rise To Greatness. My immediate date is with a man I’m familiar
with; Alistaire Allocco.
We’ve danced
before, Alistaire. The last time was in
the world championship series and you were victorious. Credit to you on that one; you won’t get any
bitterness from me. I enjoy a challenge
and there’s no challenge that I enjoy more than facing a former world champion
and in this case, facing a former world champion who has beaten me, well hell,
that really is the perfect challenge for The Phoenix.
Though I
have to ask, are you still as idealistic as you were the last time we
fought? Everyone saw what happened to
you at the hands of Bree Lancaster on Breakdown. Did that catch you by surprise? Did you expect little miss classy to do such
a thing?
Here’s a
newsflash, Alistaire; the world is a terrible place. The world is a fallen place run by twisted
individuals and SCW, in particular, is full of crazies, druggies, and lizard
people. All hell has to literally break
loose before someone finally puts their foot down and does the right thing. For someone who claims to believe the things
you believe, you damn sure are in the wrong company.
Then again,
for the longest time I have been an idealist.
For the longest time I believed in an absolute right and wrong. Though more and more I’m beginning to see the
shades of grey. More and more I’m
beginning to learn just how ruthless you need to be in order to survive in this
industry and you need to take that ruthlessness a notch higher in intensity if
you ever want a world champion.
Are you a
hypocrite or a naïve idealist? Quite frankly
I don’t give a damn. I can just speak
for me and I can say that I’m not an idealist any longer. And I can also tell you that starting with
our match on Breakdown, I am taking my game up a notch. I am going to be more
ruthless and aggressive than I have been in the past.
The Biblical
story of Sodom and Gomorrah ended in their destruction because God could not
find any righteous individuals.
None. Not even you, Alistaire. I’m not saying SCW is a modern equivalent of
Sodom but I am saying that it’s time I rain down my own fire and brimstone upon
anyone who gets in my way.
I am The
Phoenix, after all, and that’s one thing a Phoenix has plenty of; FIRE! Fire in my heart, fire burning up within my
soul, and I am going to use that fire to fuel me past you, and right into Rise
To Greatness.
