Post by Veronica Strader on Feb 10, 2022 6:37:42 GMT -5
OCW Arena
Key West, Florida
February 9th, 2022
(Off Camera)
Access Denied had come and gone, and Veronica Strader was still the OCW Trans-Atlantic Champion. She had done what a lot of people said she couldn’t have done: she retained. Dylan Thomas had been the first true test of her mettle in OCW, and she passed. She might be 8-0 in the company, sitting in the top 3 with Outcast and the A-Lister mentioned above, but she wasn’t satisfied. One can’t be satisfied in this industry as that will lead to complacency and eventually be the undoing of the individual.
While Veronica was preparing for the fact The Lost Stranger could pick her championship to make a play for, she was also preparing for the event he chooses PerZag, and someone else on the roster steps up to take the challenge. On top of it all, she was suspicious of the recent signings of Victoria’s mom and aunt, the legendary Cowgirls From Hell. What did they want? Were they really just trying to keep OCW afloat while also returning to the squared circle for one last run like Meghan had told in her in Roswell at Massacre, or was there another plan?
After all, they did, the company she owns part of a considerable favour showing up to open TPW’s Miami Vice, and she had to admit once the match got going, CFH found their old groove and took over. Veronica knew her love (and Victoria’s) of wrestling was naturally in their blood, like The Rivers and Knoxs, so maybe they were telling the truth. She knew there was one way to find out.
Besides grunt workers and security, the arena is empty, so she figured this would be a perfect time to grab her purple Yoga Mat and splay it out on the floor. She turns down the lights and sits cross-legged on the mat. She puts herself in a meditative seated position, her hands on her knees, palms facing up, and slowly closes her, silently concentrating.
Veronica’s Psyche
Victoria’s Mind Palace
Veronica opens her eyes and finds herself sitting on Victoria’s twin bed covered in pink sheets and a pink duvet inside of her childhood home. Still, it was just a reimagination inside the mind of the original Vee, a reminder of what is gone. Veronica stands up, and she can hear Victoria’s adoptive father singing horribly to a Canadian band known as April Wine. She peaks her head out the door and see’s the pulled-back hair of Victoria in a ponytail sitting at the counter in the kitchen, watching her dad flip pancakes high up and catching them in the frying pan like he did when she was little. Veronica watches for a moment, feeling the pang of longing for parental bonds and love before she walks down the hallway into the kitchen and pulls out the stool beside her “twin” sitting down.
Victoria turns her head and looks at Veronica. She smiles before turning back to watch her dad flip more pancakes. He made the “Tower of Power” like he would when Cara spent the night. The girls would ignore warnings of “Do Not Try This At Home” when they would watch PWA’s Chaos or Rampage and spend the day wrestling in the backyard imitating the Cowgirls From Hell.
“What are you doing here, Veronica?” she asks the Rivers Affliction, as her heart warms watching her dad.
“You know why I am here, Victoria. You managed to escape this place you have created to call your mom a week before Access Denied,” she responds, rather annoyed because she knows Victoria knows why.
“You didn’t seem to care when I emerged from that pile of wood and cement that almost crushed us during the match to help us retain,” she replies, confirming Smith’s theory that maybe Victoria was back at ACCESS DENIED. “Why do you care now? I’m back here, locked in this world I can’t seem to escape from.”
Veronica scoffs.
“You put me in charge; you wanted to be here in this ‘mind palace’ or whatever it is!”
“Only after you manipulated me over months of emotional and physical abuse,” she says calmly, never taking her eyes off the growing stack of pancakes. “Why are you here disrupting the small amount of joy I get being locked away, not in control of my own body?”
Veronica sighs, slightly annoyed because she doesn’t believe Victoria doesn’t know why.
“Doctors have somehow cleared CFH to compete in the ring once again. They have signed a contract to come to OCW.”
Victoria turns to face her doppelganger, and it is a genuine look of surprise followed by concern.
“Between mom's neck and Auntie Tee’s lower spine, that could be….”
“Devastating? Yeah, it could be. So why in the hell would they come here, other than some pipe dream of getting you back?” she replies rhetorically, as she thinks she knows the answer already.
“Mom grew up without a mother because her’s died when I was born. Grandpa didn’t give her a choice when he sold Cara to raise us and be a mother… if I was to guess, no matter what her daughter calls herself, she just wants to be a mom to her firstborn, and Auntie Tee? She’ll do anything for mom and help whatever way she can,” she says, and Veronica can feel a sudden rush of sadness from her other half. Even if Veronica lacks a heart 87.2% of the time, she loved Victoria in her own twisted way, and she was accurate with the assessment of her mom and aunt.
“Vee, doll, you know what I’ll do to you, Meghan, Tamika… if I find out you are lying, you know what I will do, right?”
“Yes, I am aware —” she saw it is coming, but she knew she had to keep up appearances. She knew exactly what her family was planning. Veronica squeezes just tight enough to show she is serious.
“Don’t ever forget it.”
Veronica lets go, and with both hands, she pats Victoria’s shoulders, straightening out the pink blouse that she is wearing. Veronica gets up slowly, kissing Victoria on the top and walks back to the bedroom. When Victoria knows she has left her sanctuary of solitude, this mind palace, she looks over at her dad, sighing.
“I hope she bought it.”
Veronica Strader Condo
Roosevelt BLVD Key West, Florida
February 9th, 2022
(Off Camera)
Veronica had tasked the Equality Duo/OG members of Vee Strader’s entourage, groupies, whatever you wanted to call. Still, they have names to set up a duo waterfront condo for her and her friend, Madison Addison (Maddie to her friends). She had bought the two as condominiums usually are two in a single structure, and she was planning to tear down a wall to have one big condo, but the Condo Board put a stop to that. She had met Madison not long ago when Vee had moved to Tampa after signing with Thunder Pro Wrestling. She removed half of the commentary team, giving Madison a job when she bought 49% of the company after some poor business decisions made by “Thunderin” Terry Marshall. Previously, she was an Instagram influencer but knowledgeable in the sport. While Veronica (as well as Victoria) understands the world is changing and individuals need to make a living, she wanted Madison to have a respectful job in an industry that has outlasted many fads. The commentary could make or break a promotion's televised shows, and she wanted to have a voice of the old generation and the new. Madison has done very well in her Play by Play position, even if it was more just aggravating her partner, Harry “The Hairstylist” Hotcakes, by referring to him as a boomer, Pancakes and most recently McGriddle.
Madison is helping Veronica unpack from the penthouse apartment she had purchased in Tampa (which she is letting Roxxie G. and Marcy, The Headmistress stay in when they aren’t staying at the OCW Arena). Madison pulls out a scrapbook Victoria must’ve made as a ten-year-old wrestling fan. She wipes some dust from the cover with two biker patch-style images she made of the “Cowboys From Hell” and “Cowgirls From Hell.” She flips it open, and the first page has cut-outs of Scott Nash Strader, “tHE dREAM rEAPER,” Payton Strader, and Gunnery Sargent Hartman; the original Cowboys. Beside them were the cut-outs of Meghan Nash Strader and Tamika Nash Strader. The family back then had a thing about “The Three Most Feared Initials in Professional Wrestling, so they all used SNS, MNS, TNS, TDR, etcetera with the CFH crews added into that.
“Oh wow, your grandpa and great uncle were handsome! Look how young your mom and aunt are,” Madison says, flipping through the scrapbook.
“Only by blood, besides my cousins, I don’t have any family, Maddie,” there was a hint of sadness in the Affliction's voice. Small things like this separated her from OCW’s legendary monster Supreme Machine and his sister Queen Machine Jenny, but she was just as deadly and twisted as they are. The image of Scott’s lifeless icy blues flashes by her eyes. “Victoria was a huge fan of the Strader family growing up, back when they were relevant and meant something.”
Madison tilts her head ever so slightly, looking at her friend, wondering why she disliked Victoria’s family so much. The Raven, she understood, he was an insufferable prick and had watched him belittle Victoria right into Veronica, who continued his manipulative ways.
“Well, after watching the Cowgirls in action at TPW’s Miami Vice, I can understand why. It’s like they know where one another is at all times, and their fluidness hitting the Over and Out to their finisher was just cool. The fans loved it, and honestly, so did I. One of the few times Pancakes and I agreed on something,” Madison says, and her reply has a tinge of ‘fan girl’ in it. Veronica looks to her right with just her eyes at Madison, who is excited, flipping through the book.
“You aren’t wrong, I guess. I am just concerned them coming to OCW has something to do with Victoria, but she swore to me she has no idea, and Meghan just wants to have her daughter, no matter what her name is,” she says, remembering their conversation from the night before. Madison looks up from the book as Veronica stands, grabbing a box and walking it to the front door.
“Would that be a horrible thing, Vee? Ya know, having a mom and an aunt to love you?” most wouldn’t have the vagina (some would say balls, but really, you tap a scrotum and dude is down but a Vagina? That can push a 15 lbs baby through and be ready to go in a month) to say something like to the Affliction, but Madison didn’t care. Veronica likes that about Madison, but she also had the intellect to know how far she could push that.
“Honestly? It wouldn’t be horrible, but I don’t wanna talk about that right. Let’s get this finished, and we have dinner around the fire pit tonight.”
Madison nods as they each grab another Rubbermaid bin with the final stretch is in sight.
A few hours later… (on camera)
Our Trans Atlantic Champion stands under a large palm tree that overlooks the pool area of the Beachfront Condominium Complex. She wears a pair of dark purple LuLu Lemons yoga pants, a Roxxie G Equality brand black hoodie with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows, and a purple headband that keeps her back. Harold turns to film what she is gazing upon; two couples, one that is two young men that remind her of Gideon Cross snuggling in a hammock. The other is two older women that give off a Thelma and Louise vibe who are simply sitting beside one another with their feet in the pool. Harold turns back to Vee.
“A month ago, if you told me that Poblano was a time jumper who worshipped an Owl Goddess named Raganna, the Cowgirls From Hell deciding they wanted to be a part of this amazing promotion and that Mike Zybala owned OCW again even though he didn’t beat BRIM I might have called you nuts,” she says, a tiny grin creeping across her face, “but that would be a major case of “the pot and the kettle,” and that is one thing I am not.”
“A hypocrite,” she states quite proudly.
“The one thing I remember about this business as Victoria grew up watching this sport and saw everything she that she had seen or would see is that anything is possible in this industry. The stereotypical feel-good story is from mortal enemies teaming up, career-ending injuries only to return years later (or even months). Or seeing the ultimate underdog become the top champion somewhere,” she says, pitching her tone high slightly to add excitement to her point. “Then you get the families like the one Victoria, and I come from that could be the main characters on Days of Our Lives and The Young & The Restless.”
She raises her full brow twice in succession before she stands up and walks towards the ocean, Harold filming her right side profile, her blowing backwards gently from the wind off the water.
“It’s no secret that beginning of the end of Victoria’s reign in our body came from Scott Nash Strader and Maxine “Mad Max” Riggs bumping uglies. It’s quite the tale of betrayal, and I’m not talking about OG Patriarch either. Everyone in that clan knows he was capable of anything. No, I am talking about Maxine. Do you know that Meghan Strader took her under her wing? Started to train her in the ring, put a roof over her head as she had been a street kid, and supported her relationship with Victoria even after finding out she and Cara were her babies.”
“So when Max decided to be a disloyal cheater, she not only broke Victoria’s heart twice with not just cheating but cheating with her grandfather, but it also broke Meghan’s. I mean, think about it, Meghan had lifelong issues with her dad, but she knew who he was, and she had to watch her firstborn’s heartbreak twice from the betrayal of her girlfriend and the grandfather with who she bonded. He taught her about the finest whiskey’s of the world, how to ride motorcycles, appreciation for illegally smuggled cigars, and also took part in training her in the ring.”
She stops where the cool ocean water washes up on her bare feet. She wiggles her toes in the wet sand. She looks up to the sky, seeing all the stars. She continues to look up as she talks to us.
“Now, it’s no secret that I am known to hold a grudge at times, but I am also a shrewd businesswoman. After the profits coming in week after week at Thunder Pro Wrestling just backs up the fact I know what I am doing. That’s why I hired you..."
She turns her head to face the lens, the flickering flames illuminating the same glasz eyes that belong to Matthew The Raven Knox.
“... Max.”
She turns the rest of her body, placing her hands on her waist and slightly tilting her head to the right.
“I got you that job because, for one thing, you are a beast in the squared circle. Two, I know that Victoria would’ve given you a chance. Suppose no one has figured it out yet. In that case, I do whatever is best for her and will do what is necessary to achieve her dreams and my dreams which absolutely line up,” she raises her brow and holds it for a few seconds, her glare penetrating the camera lens controlled by the opiate and hooker lover. Her brow comes down; she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them back up and continuing. “But for some reason, you decided you should come to OCW. It was one thing for me to hire you, control your schedule and what-not, but now you are trespassing.”
“To be in OCW, you have to be Proud and Strong, and that isn’t you, Mad Max. You don’t belong here, and I know I can’t get you fired or released. I mean, look at you, tall, built like a shit Brickhouse, long hair, gorgeous woman that could bench both Lord Allton with Mike Zybala sitting on his lap,” she says as the right side of her lifts up in a smirk. “So I am going to take this opportunity to do what Victoria wouldn’t ever get the chance to do and smack you around from post to post to post to post.”
“There is a saying Meghan used to wrap these up and took for me. You know it, or at least you should. You were a Cowgirl for a couple of ticks... after all.”
Her smirk shifts into the Strader sneer the OCW Faithful were about to get a lot more of with the additions of CFH.
“God forgives.”
“I don’t.”
The scene fades away to the infamous “JOIN OCW: Would if I could… Biiiitch” promotional advertisement. Veronica looks at Harold and gives him an approving nod.
(Off Camera)
“Good work as always, Harold. Back at the condo, in my purse on the kitchen table, there is a pill bottle full of those white triangle-like pills,” she says with a chuckle, seeing the way the junkie eyes of her pervert cameraman light up. “Before you ask, yes, you can sleep on the couch.”
Harold hightails up towards the condo as Veronica looks out at the ocean as some clouds partially cover the moon. Seventy yards to her left, she sees another person but doesn’t mind as many people enjoy the sand and the water at night. She turns around and heads back to spend the first night in her new home.
The clouds drift away, the blonde ponytail lights up, and Victoria smiles widely. She closes her eyes, the smile not leaving, and breathes in deeply like she tastes fresh in months.
“You’re right, Veronica."
"I don’t."
Key West, Florida
February 9th, 2022
(Off Camera)
Access Denied had come and gone, and Veronica Strader was still the OCW Trans-Atlantic Champion. She had done what a lot of people said she couldn’t have done: she retained. Dylan Thomas had been the first true test of her mettle in OCW, and she passed. She might be 8-0 in the company, sitting in the top 3 with Outcast and the A-Lister mentioned above, but she wasn’t satisfied. One can’t be satisfied in this industry as that will lead to complacency and eventually be the undoing of the individual.
While Veronica was preparing for the fact The Lost Stranger could pick her championship to make a play for, she was also preparing for the event he chooses PerZag, and someone else on the roster steps up to take the challenge. On top of it all, she was suspicious of the recent signings of Victoria’s mom and aunt, the legendary Cowgirls From Hell. What did they want? Were they really just trying to keep OCW afloat while also returning to the squared circle for one last run like Meghan had told in her in Roswell at Massacre, or was there another plan?
After all, they did, the company she owns part of a considerable favour showing up to open TPW’s Miami Vice, and she had to admit once the match got going, CFH found their old groove and took over. Veronica knew her love (and Victoria’s) of wrestling was naturally in their blood, like The Rivers and Knoxs, so maybe they were telling the truth. She knew there was one way to find out.
Besides grunt workers and security, the arena is empty, so she figured this would be a perfect time to grab her purple Yoga Mat and splay it out on the floor. She turns down the lights and sits cross-legged on the mat. She puts herself in a meditative seated position, her hands on her knees, palms facing up, and slowly closes her, silently concentrating.
Veronica’s Psyche
Victoria’s Mind Palace
Veronica opens her eyes and finds herself sitting on Victoria’s twin bed covered in pink sheets and a pink duvet inside of her childhood home. Still, it was just a reimagination inside the mind of the original Vee, a reminder of what is gone. Veronica stands up, and she can hear Victoria’s adoptive father singing horribly to a Canadian band known as April Wine. She peaks her head out the door and see’s the pulled-back hair of Victoria in a ponytail sitting at the counter in the kitchen, watching her dad flip pancakes high up and catching them in the frying pan like he did when she was little. Veronica watches for a moment, feeling the pang of longing for parental bonds and love before she walks down the hallway into the kitchen and pulls out the stool beside her “twin” sitting down.
Victoria turns her head and looks at Veronica. She smiles before turning back to watch her dad flip more pancakes. He made the “Tower of Power” like he would when Cara spent the night. The girls would ignore warnings of “Do Not Try This At Home” when they would watch PWA’s Chaos or Rampage and spend the day wrestling in the backyard imitating the Cowgirls From Hell.
“What are you doing here, Veronica?” she asks the Rivers Affliction, as her heart warms watching her dad.
“You know why I am here, Victoria. You managed to escape this place you have created to call your mom a week before Access Denied,” she responds, rather annoyed because she knows Victoria knows why.
“You didn’t seem to care when I emerged from that pile of wood and cement that almost crushed us during the match to help us retain,” she replies, confirming Smith’s theory that maybe Victoria was back at ACCESS DENIED. “Why do you care now? I’m back here, locked in this world I can’t seem to escape from.”
Veronica scoffs.
“You put me in charge; you wanted to be here in this ‘mind palace’ or whatever it is!”
“Only after you manipulated me over months of emotional and physical abuse,” she says calmly, never taking her eyes off the growing stack of pancakes. “Why are you here disrupting the small amount of joy I get being locked away, not in control of my own body?”
Veronica sighs, slightly annoyed because she doesn’t believe Victoria doesn’t know why.
“Doctors have somehow cleared CFH to compete in the ring once again. They have signed a contract to come to OCW.”
Victoria turns to face her doppelganger, and it is a genuine look of surprise followed by concern.
“Between mom's neck and Auntie Tee’s lower spine, that could be….”
“Devastating? Yeah, it could be. So why in the hell would they come here, other than some pipe dream of getting you back?” she replies rhetorically, as she thinks she knows the answer already.
“Mom grew up without a mother because her’s died when I was born. Grandpa didn’t give her a choice when he sold Cara to raise us and be a mother… if I was to guess, no matter what her daughter calls herself, she just wants to be a mom to her firstborn, and Auntie Tee? She’ll do anything for mom and help whatever way she can,” she says, and Veronica can feel a sudden rush of sadness from her other half. Even if Veronica lacks a heart 87.2% of the time, she loved Victoria in her own twisted way, and she was accurate with the assessment of her mom and aunt.
“Vee, doll, you know what I’ll do to you, Meghan, Tamika… if I find out you are lying, you know what I will do, right?”
“Yes, I am aware —” she saw it is coming, but she knew she had to keep up appearances. She knew exactly what her family was planning. Veronica squeezes just tight enough to show she is serious.
“Don’t ever forget it.”
Veronica lets go, and with both hands, she pats Victoria’s shoulders, straightening out the pink blouse that she is wearing. Veronica gets up slowly, kissing Victoria on the top and walks back to the bedroom. When Victoria knows she has left her sanctuary of solitude, this mind palace, she looks over at her dad, sighing.
“I hope she bought it.”
Veronica Strader Condo
Roosevelt BLVD Key West, Florida
February 9th, 2022
(Off Camera)
Veronica had tasked the Equality Duo/OG members of Vee Strader’s entourage, groupies, whatever you wanted to call. Still, they have names to set up a duo waterfront condo for her and her friend, Madison Addison (Maddie to her friends). She had bought the two as condominiums usually are two in a single structure, and she was planning to tear down a wall to have one big condo, but the Condo Board put a stop to that. She had met Madison not long ago when Vee had moved to Tampa after signing with Thunder Pro Wrestling. She removed half of the commentary team, giving Madison a job when she bought 49% of the company after some poor business decisions made by “Thunderin” Terry Marshall. Previously, she was an Instagram influencer but knowledgeable in the sport. While Veronica (as well as Victoria) understands the world is changing and individuals need to make a living, she wanted Madison to have a respectful job in an industry that has outlasted many fads. The commentary could make or break a promotion's televised shows, and she wanted to have a voice of the old generation and the new. Madison has done very well in her Play by Play position, even if it was more just aggravating her partner, Harry “The Hairstylist” Hotcakes, by referring to him as a boomer, Pancakes and most recently McGriddle.
Madison is helping Veronica unpack from the penthouse apartment she had purchased in Tampa (which she is letting Roxxie G. and Marcy, The Headmistress stay in when they aren’t staying at the OCW Arena). Madison pulls out a scrapbook Victoria must’ve made as a ten-year-old wrestling fan. She wipes some dust from the cover with two biker patch-style images she made of the “Cowboys From Hell” and “Cowgirls From Hell.” She flips it open, and the first page has cut-outs of Scott Nash Strader, “tHE dREAM rEAPER,” Payton Strader, and Gunnery Sargent Hartman; the original Cowboys. Beside them were the cut-outs of Meghan Nash Strader and Tamika Nash Strader. The family back then had a thing about “The Three Most Feared Initials in Professional Wrestling, so they all used SNS, MNS, TNS, TDR, etcetera with the CFH crews added into that.
“Oh wow, your grandpa and great uncle were handsome! Look how young your mom and aunt are,” Madison says, flipping through the scrapbook.
“Only by blood, besides my cousins, I don’t have any family, Maddie,” there was a hint of sadness in the Affliction's voice. Small things like this separated her from OCW’s legendary monster Supreme Machine and his sister Queen Machine Jenny, but she was just as deadly and twisted as they are. The image of Scott’s lifeless icy blues flashes by her eyes. “Victoria was a huge fan of the Strader family growing up, back when they were relevant and meant something.”
Madison tilts her head ever so slightly, looking at her friend, wondering why she disliked Victoria’s family so much. The Raven, she understood, he was an insufferable prick and had watched him belittle Victoria right into Veronica, who continued his manipulative ways.
“Well, after watching the Cowgirls in action at TPW’s Miami Vice, I can understand why. It’s like they know where one another is at all times, and their fluidness hitting the Over and Out to their finisher was just cool. The fans loved it, and honestly, so did I. One of the few times Pancakes and I agreed on something,” Madison says, and her reply has a tinge of ‘fan girl’ in it. Veronica looks to her right with just her eyes at Madison, who is excited, flipping through the book.
“You aren’t wrong, I guess. I am just concerned them coming to OCW has something to do with Victoria, but she swore to me she has no idea, and Meghan just wants to have her daughter, no matter what her name is,” she says, remembering their conversation from the night before. Madison looks up from the book as Veronica stands, grabbing a box and walking it to the front door.
“Would that be a horrible thing, Vee? Ya know, having a mom and an aunt to love you?” most wouldn’t have the vagina (some would say balls, but really, you tap a scrotum and dude is down but a Vagina? That can push a 15 lbs baby through and be ready to go in a month) to say something like to the Affliction, but Madison didn’t care. Veronica likes that about Madison, but she also had the intellect to know how far she could push that.
“Honestly? It wouldn’t be horrible, but I don’t wanna talk about that right. Let’s get this finished, and we have dinner around the fire pit tonight.”
Madison nods as they each grab another Rubbermaid bin with the final stretch is in sight.
A few hours later… (on camera)
Our Trans Atlantic Champion stands under a large palm tree that overlooks the pool area of the Beachfront Condominium Complex. She wears a pair of dark purple LuLu Lemons yoga pants, a Roxxie G Equality brand black hoodie with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows, and a purple headband that keeps her back. Harold turns to film what she is gazing upon; two couples, one that is two young men that remind her of Gideon Cross snuggling in a hammock. The other is two older women that give off a Thelma and Louise vibe who are simply sitting beside one another with their feet in the pool. Harold turns back to Vee.
“A month ago, if you told me that Poblano was a time jumper who worshipped an Owl Goddess named Raganna, the Cowgirls From Hell deciding they wanted to be a part of this amazing promotion and that Mike Zybala owned OCW again even though he didn’t beat BRIM I might have called you nuts,” she says, a tiny grin creeping across her face, “but that would be a major case of “the pot and the kettle,” and that is one thing I am not.”
“A hypocrite,” she states quite proudly.
“The one thing I remember about this business as Victoria grew up watching this sport and saw everything she that she had seen or would see is that anything is possible in this industry. The stereotypical feel-good story is from mortal enemies teaming up, career-ending injuries only to return years later (or even months). Or seeing the ultimate underdog become the top champion somewhere,” she says, pitching her tone high slightly to add excitement to her point. “Then you get the families like the one Victoria, and I come from that could be the main characters on Days of Our Lives and The Young & The Restless.”
She raises her full brow twice in succession before she stands up and walks towards the ocean, Harold filming her right side profile, her blowing backwards gently from the wind off the water.
“It’s no secret that beginning of the end of Victoria’s reign in our body came from Scott Nash Strader and Maxine “Mad Max” Riggs bumping uglies. It’s quite the tale of betrayal, and I’m not talking about OG Patriarch either. Everyone in that clan knows he was capable of anything. No, I am talking about Maxine. Do you know that Meghan Strader took her under her wing? Started to train her in the ring, put a roof over her head as she had been a street kid, and supported her relationship with Victoria even after finding out she and Cara were her babies.”
“So when Max decided to be a disloyal cheater, she not only broke Victoria’s heart twice with not just cheating but cheating with her grandfather, but it also broke Meghan’s. I mean, think about it, Meghan had lifelong issues with her dad, but she knew who he was, and she had to watch her firstborn’s heartbreak twice from the betrayal of her girlfriend and the grandfather with who she bonded. He taught her about the finest whiskey’s of the world, how to ride motorcycles, appreciation for illegally smuggled cigars, and also took part in training her in the ring.”
She stops where the cool ocean water washes up on her bare feet. She wiggles her toes in the wet sand. She looks up to the sky, seeing all the stars. She continues to look up as she talks to us.
“Now, it’s no secret that I am known to hold a grudge at times, but I am also a shrewd businesswoman. After the profits coming in week after week at Thunder Pro Wrestling just backs up the fact I know what I am doing. That’s why I hired you..."
She turns her head to face the lens, the flickering flames illuminating the same glasz eyes that belong to Matthew The Raven Knox.
“... Max.”
She turns the rest of her body, placing her hands on her waist and slightly tilting her head to the right.
“I got you that job because, for one thing, you are a beast in the squared circle. Two, I know that Victoria would’ve given you a chance. Suppose no one has figured it out yet. In that case, I do whatever is best for her and will do what is necessary to achieve her dreams and my dreams which absolutely line up,” she raises her brow and holds it for a few seconds, her glare penetrating the camera lens controlled by the opiate and hooker lover. Her brow comes down; she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them back up and continuing. “But for some reason, you decided you should come to OCW. It was one thing for me to hire you, control your schedule and what-not, but now you are trespassing.”
“To be in OCW, you have to be Proud and Strong, and that isn’t you, Mad Max. You don’t belong here, and I know I can’t get you fired or released. I mean, look at you, tall, built like a shit Brickhouse, long hair, gorgeous woman that could bench both Lord Allton with Mike Zybala sitting on his lap,” she says as the right side of her lifts up in a smirk. “So I am going to take this opportunity to do what Victoria wouldn’t ever get the chance to do and smack you around from post to post to post to post.”
“There is a saying Meghan used to wrap these up and took for me. You know it, or at least you should. You were a Cowgirl for a couple of ticks... after all.”
Her smirk shifts into the Strader sneer the OCW Faithful were about to get a lot more of with the additions of CFH.
“God forgives.”
“I don’t.”
The scene fades away to the infamous “JOIN OCW: Would if I could… Biiiitch” promotional advertisement. Veronica looks at Harold and gives him an approving nod.
(Off Camera)
“Good work as always, Harold. Back at the condo, in my purse on the kitchen table, there is a pill bottle full of those white triangle-like pills,” she says with a chuckle, seeing the way the junkie eyes of her pervert cameraman light up. “Before you ask, yes, you can sleep on the couch.”
Harold hightails up towards the condo as Veronica looks out at the ocean as some clouds partially cover the moon. Seventy yards to her left, she sees another person but doesn’t mind as many people enjoy the sand and the water at night. She turns around and heads back to spend the first night in her new home.
The clouds drift away, the blonde ponytail lights up, and Victoria smiles widely. She closes her eyes, the smile not leaving, and breathes in deeply like she tastes fresh in months.
“You’re right, Veronica."
"I don’t."
