legacy
Jun 23, 2016 15:52:53 GMT -5
Post by bmac on Jun 23, 2016 15:52:53 GMT -5
June 19th, 2016
*OFF CAMERA*
“Still nothing?”
The doctor turned around from her position leaning over the hospital bed and looked at the doorway, making eye contact with Molly Reid and smiling faintly as she stood there looking on. She turned back towards the bed, where Molly’s mom lay, surrounded by tubes and wires and many other things that Molly didn’t understand. She looked at one of the monitors and wrote something down, before turning back to Molly.
“Hello again Ms. Reid. Not yet, no. But it’s only been a few days now. There’s no way of telling just how long these comas will last. She could wake up in a minute for all we know.”
Molly awkwardly looked around the room, trying to find anything else to look at. “It’s...possible that she won’t ever wake up though?” she asked, not with hope or anger, but just almost as a matter-of-fact.
The doctor looked at her for a moment, before slowly nodding her head. “Yes, technically it’s possible. But drug overdose comas have a very high rate of recovery. She was very lucky that she was discovered quickly and we were able to get oxygen back to the brain right away. There’s a very strong chance that your mother pulls through.”
Molly thought about how many times in the past that she had wished for her mother’s death. It was the only way that Molly knew would guarantee a life without her mom in it. No more painful reminders, no more angry thoughts, just nothing. But now, here she was, laying in a bed that could possibly be her last. And there was no joy. No relief. In fact, Molly wasn’t really feeling anything aside from some confusion as to why she wasn’t feeling anything. It was bizarre. “Cool,” Molly said, causing a strange look from the doctor. She clearly hadn’t been told anything about the relationship or lack thereof that Molly had with her mother. So to the doctor, Molly was just a normal daughter here with her normal mother. “If she wakes up, she could have brain issues though right?” Molly asked, trying to change the subject off of the awkwardness.
The doctor nodded again. “Yes, it’s certainly possible. We’ve had people wake up from comas with absolutely no brain issues, and we’ve had people wake up with extreme ones. There’s just no way to know for sure. But we’ve had great success in the past in helping comatose patients make great recoveries and live good lives.”
Molly nodded her head. She stared off at the seemingly lifeless face of her mother in the bed. Why wasn’t she happy, or sad, or angry, or relieved, or anything? She just wanted to feel something, anything. But right now, it was just emptiness. Maybe she just needed to clear her head. There was nothing Molly hated more than the inside of a hospital. Ever since she spent three months living in one after a particularly violent wrestling match, she hated spending any time in them.
“Can you call me if anything changes? I just need to go do some things.” Molly said as she glanced back at the doctor.
“Sure thing Ms. Reid,” the doctor answered before turning back to Molly’s mother and continued to write things down as she looked at different instruments and monitors. Molly quickly turned around and walked out the door and down the hospital hallway. She knew where she needed to go.
June 19th, 2016
*OFF CAMERA*
She had forgotten how far away the site was. It felt like she’d been walking for an hour. She hadn’t, but walking through a cemetery always seemed to take a long time to Molly. Just the whole feeling of it, with the death and sadness that surrounded everyone who stepped foot in one. So what was really a ten minute walk felt ages longer to Molly on this evening.
Molly slowed down as she approached what she came for. She stood in front of it for a few moments, saying nothing. She just stared ahead, looking down at the gravestone in front of her. Eventually she sat down on the ground in front of the grave.
“Hey dad.”
Molly used to feel weird coming here and talking to a gravestone. It always felt forced, and she wasn’t sure what to do or why. But a few years back when she started to turn her life around, she got past it and started coming three or four times a year. Sometimes she’d come because she wanted to think about problems, and other times she just wanted to tell him how she was doing. She knew that somewhere out there, he could hear her.
“I know it’s been a long time, I’ve just been so busy with everything,” Molly spoke softly, not wanting to disturb anyone else who might be visiting the cemetery as well. “The wrestling, the travelling, I’ve just been doing so much that I’ve barely even been home. And then when I am home I’m just training or busy. I know you wouldn’t care if I never visited, but I feel bad for it.”
Molly sighed, staring straight ahead. “But I just had to come today...cause...well...it’s Kate. She’s in the hospital right now. Overdosed on pills and in a coma. The doctors say she’ll be ok and wake up soon. But I just...I don’t know if I want that. Every time I saw her I wished she was dead. But seeing her on that bed with the real possibility that she would, I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t know what to feel. I just...I wanted your help.”
Molly wiped a tear from her eye and squeezed them shut. For a few moments it was just blackness, but as Molly relaxed she started to imagine her dad standing there in front of her. And as she imagined it, she slowly started to see it. Until he was right there, standing right in front of her, smiling. Molly smiled back at him, wiping another tear from her eye. “Hi dad,” she said softly.
“Hi sweetie,” he smiled back, also wiping tears from his eyes. Molly slowly approached him in her imagination, opening her arms and embracing him with the biggest hug she had ever given anyone. It felt so real. Like he was actually there. She held the embrace for what could have been any amount of time. She didn’t know and she didn’t care. She just wanted the hug to last the rest of her life. But eventually her dad broke the hug and took a step back, placing his hands on her shoulders as he looked at her. “My little girl’s all grown up.”
Molly smiled and wiped her face. “I sure am dad,” she replied. He smiled back at her and hugged her again one more time before breaking away and looking at her again.
“So what seems to be the problem that you needed my advice about?” he asked her.
Molly looked away, unsure of how to phrase it. “Well, it’s...just…”
“Your mother,” her dad chimed in as Molly looked back up at him and nodded, “you want to know what I think you should do?”
“I just...I don’t know what I feel or what I should do. I’ve spent every minute of my adult life hating her. But now it’s like...the doctors found no trace of any drugs in her system besides the sleeping pills. And she was found living in a church where she’s apparently been helping out. Like everything points to her having turned her life around. So am I the bad guy if I don’t even try to forgive her and move on?”
Molly’s dad looked away for a moment, before turning back and staring into Molly’s eyes. “Look Molly. What your mother did was a horrific thing and nobody would blame you if you never forgave her for as long as you've lived…”
Molly could sense his trailing off at the end of that, and chimed in, “...but?”
Her dad smiled as he heard her. “But that doesn’t mean you have to do that. Look, I can’t tell you what you need to do. Just know this. The woman I married was an incredible person. She was sweet, caring, loving, beautiful. Everything. She made a lot of mistakes, but deep down I know she can still be that person.”
“You always thought that,” Molly said, “that’s why you’d try to support her even though she wasn’t a part of our lives growing up.”
“I did,” he answered, “but that was my decision. I knew her when she was that woman. You never have. So you’ve had no decision.”
“Until now,” she said.
Her dad smiled at her again. “Until now. And it doesn’t matter what you do. As long as deep down, you truly believe that what you decide is the right thing to do. Whatever choice you make, it’ll be the right one.”
Molly smiled weakly and hugged him again. “Thanks dad. I think I know what to do.”
“Glad I could help sweetheart,” her dad said, wiping tears from his eyes again. “You’ve become exactly what I always hoped you would Molly. I couldn’t be any more proud of you. I love you so much.”
Molly felt tears pouring down her face as her dad broke the hug and slowly started to back away. “I miss you daddy,” she managed to get out as she reached towards him. “I love you.”
Her dad smiled at her as he slowly reached out towards her as well. As their fingers touched, he slowly began to fade away, until he was gone completely. Molly slowly opened her eyes and found herself still sitting in front of the gravestone. She wiped the tears from her eyes as best she could as she looked around to see if anyone was near her. She slowly got to her feet and pulled her phone out of her pocket. One missed call, from the hospital. Molly slowly unlocked her phone and dialed her voicemail.
June 23rd, 2016
*ON CAMERA*
The screen flashes on to a shot of Molly sitting on a chair, smiling at the camera. She waves as if to say hello, before she starts talking.
“Hey y’all! It’s your favorite Molly, back at it again. I’ve been having so much fun all week at Frontier Con, getting to meet all of you. It’s been awesome, and thanks for all the support! You guys really are the best! I hope to hear all of you cheering me on come Saturday night. I heard all of y’all two weeks ago when you were cheering me on against Sara Cochran. Speaking of which, I don’t want to be a bitch and say Sara got what was coming to her last week, but like, yeah. She’s got a big mouth, and she uses it. But the whole she deserves to be in this match too stuff, I think I put a stop to that last week. She’s a fine wrestler, but just didn’t quite have enough to beat me last week. So that’s that. I got some much-needed momentum coming into the biggest match of my young FGA career this weekend at All Star Showdown V.”
“Everyone knows that Annie Dupree is my best friend. We met a few years back, she set me up with Dom Harter, we hung out a bunch, and the rest is history. We’ve always been there for each other. I was one of her bridesmaids, and she’d be one of mine if I ever wanted to get married.I love her like a sister, and I always will. So I always dreamed of one day getting to wrestle in the same company as her. But it just didn’t work for the longest while. I was in IWF when I met her, then when it closed down, I went to SCW while she was still over in FGA. It was only after my injury and subsequent break that I decided to finally get it done. So I signed with FGA and there we were, finally working together. It was great. Then we went to SSWA with Emily Carter and won the Trios Titles. We’re teaming up on Sunday in the Global Tag Team Tournament in HKW. Everything I wanted to do with Annie in wrestling, I’m getting the chance to do. But we still haven’t faced off in the ring. Until Saturday.”
“When Annie won the Mid-Atlantic Legacy championship, I don’t think anyone cheered louder for her than I did. I was so happy for her, because I knew how hard she worked to get there. I knew how much it meant to her to be able to beat Izzy and Savannah at Gold Rush Rumble. To go from the tag-team specialist that she started out as, to a full-blown singles champion and star in the company, that was a huge deal. I was so proud of her, and I still am so proud of her.”
“So to say that I was caught off guard when she announced that my match against Nero was going to be a number one contender’s match would be an understatement. I was kind of floored. I did not expect to be given that chance, especially against Annie. Looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I had a few wins under my belt, including the winning pin against Tony, Johnny and Danny. My only loss was to Ricky, and it was a pretty close match. So maybe I deserved it, maybe I didn’t. I try not to pay attention to that kind of stuff. But that wasn’t what shocked me the most. It was that Annie herself had chosen us to compete to wrestle her. Which meant that Annie was giving me the opportunity to be her first challenger for her belt. Which, thanks to beating Nero in that match, I now am.”
“It caught me off guard mostly because it’s her first defense. She knows first-hand how excited and proud of her I was. She knows how much I want her to succeed and be the best that she can be. But now, I’m the one who is standing in the way of her reaching that level of success. It’s not a great position to be no matter what happens. If she beats me, then it’s a blown opportunity by me and I’ve lost my chance to be a champion in FGA. But if I beat her, then I’m the one who ruined her championship reign. So there’s a level of unfortunateness no matter what happens.”
“But while it might suck, there’s no real decision here. I want to win. I want to be the FGA Mid-Atlantic Legacy Champion. Annie knows this, just like I know how much she wants her reign as champion to be the best ever. We both have our own goals, and when it comes to wrestling, you sometimes have to put your friendships aside for the sake of reaching those goals. That’s what’s going to happen on Saturday night. I get to step into the ring against my best friend, and try to put an end to her championship reign before it even really begins. I want the title belt. I want to be a champion in FGA for as long as I possibly can. Izzy Anders set the bar high with her incredible reign last year, but it’s over now. It’s time for someone else to step up and have an even better reign. And that person could very well be me.”
“For the past year or even more maybe, I’ve always been compared to Annie. I’ve mentioned it here countless times before, so y’all know what I’m talking about. People telling me I’m just Annie’s groupie, I’m trying to copy her, trying to ride her coattails, etc. Nevermind that I’m older than Annie. Nevermind that I’ve been wrestling longer than Annie. Nevermind that I’ve been a world champion in an international company. Nevermind that we’re best friends, of course we have similar personalities. People just see the two of us, and they like Annie more because they know her or whatever, and so they attack me with those insults. I wish I could just ignore them completely and not even think about them, but I can’t. Some days I can brush them off, but they’re always there, eating away at me.”
“And that’s why the comparisons are so ridiculous. Because I could never be Annie. She rarely takes anything to heart like that. She’s so good at brushing off insults and just taking the high road and ignoring them. I can’t do that. I wish I could, but I can’t. I take those things personally. I can’t really explain why, and even if I could I don’t think I’d want to share that with the world. But I’m big enough to admit my faults. And that is definitely one of them. So when people call me a copycat or a wannabe or a groupie or whatever, I desperately want to change their minds. I want to do whatever I can to stop hearing those comments. I know I’ll never be able to completely stop them, but maybe Saturday night will help. If I can go in there and beat Annie, become a champion in FGA against the very person people think I worship, it might shut them up a bit.”
“So I’ve got this chance, and I can’t blow it now. Annie, I know you’ve been ready for this match since you first announced the number one contender match. You knew that there was a good chance it would be me you’d be wrestling. And I heard what you said last week. Sure it was all in good fun to get me fired up for the match, but how much of that was based in reality? Did you really make this match because you wanted to get the ball rolling on your big title reign? That’s a lot of the talk that I’ve heard too. But you know, I don’t think that’s the case. You’ve seen me wrestle countless times. You know that I can compete with anyone in that ring. You know I have the ability to beat anyone I stand across from. You wouldn’t dare underestimate me, or think that this will be an easy title defense for you. Because as soon as you think that, you’ve already lost. No, I know that you’ll be ready to have the hardest match of your entire career this Saturday at All Star Showdown. We know each other so well, it’s going to be a war. We’re not going to leave that ring willingly. You’re going to have to knock me out cold to keep me down for three seconds. And I know I’m going to have to do the same to you. I’m prepared for it. We’re friends before, we’re friends after. But once we step into that ring, you’re the Mid-Atlantic Legacy champion that I desperately need to beat.”
“People have been underestimating me my entire career. People didn’t think I’d succeed in IWF, and I became the only female world champion in their history. People didn’t think I’d succeed in MLC, and I took two of the best fighters in the world to their absolute limit. And now, people don’t think I’ll succeed against you Annie. Just like all the other times, I’m going to go out there and prove them wrong. This match means everything to me. I’m not going to be a footnote in your career. I’m not going to be a stepping stone for your incredible title reign. I’m going to craft my own legacy here in FGA. And it all starts this Saturday night. People won’t think of me as Annie Dupree’s coattail rider after this match. After this match, they’ll just think of me as champion. Mid-Atlantic Legacy champion. This is what I’ve been working towards since I started here in FGA. This is my chance, my moment, my opportunity for greatness. And I’m not going to let it go to waste. I love you Annie. I’ll never stop loving you. But bring it on.”
June 20th, 2016
*OFF CAMERA*
Molly’s mom’s eyes slowly fluttered open. She slowly moved her eyes around the room. Where was she? It looked like a hospital. She tried to move, but found herself unable. She felt too weak. The last thing she remembered was...dying. Yet here she was. She heard a noise in the corner of the room. She turned her head and saw her daughter staring at her from the corner of the room.
“Molly?”
There was a moment of hesitation. Molly’s mom braced for the worst. But then Molly smiled, albeit weakly as she replied.
“Hi mom.”
Molly’s mom’s eyes started to well with tears. She had never been called mom before.
*OFF CAMERA*
“Still nothing?”
The doctor turned around from her position leaning over the hospital bed and looked at the doorway, making eye contact with Molly Reid and smiling faintly as she stood there looking on. She turned back towards the bed, where Molly’s mom lay, surrounded by tubes and wires and many other things that Molly didn’t understand. She looked at one of the monitors and wrote something down, before turning back to Molly.
“Hello again Ms. Reid. Not yet, no. But it’s only been a few days now. There’s no way of telling just how long these comas will last. She could wake up in a minute for all we know.”
Molly awkwardly looked around the room, trying to find anything else to look at. “It’s...possible that she won’t ever wake up though?” she asked, not with hope or anger, but just almost as a matter-of-fact.
The doctor looked at her for a moment, before slowly nodding her head. “Yes, technically it’s possible. But drug overdose comas have a very high rate of recovery. She was very lucky that she was discovered quickly and we were able to get oxygen back to the brain right away. There’s a very strong chance that your mother pulls through.”
Molly thought about how many times in the past that she had wished for her mother’s death. It was the only way that Molly knew would guarantee a life without her mom in it. No more painful reminders, no more angry thoughts, just nothing. But now, here she was, laying in a bed that could possibly be her last. And there was no joy. No relief. In fact, Molly wasn’t really feeling anything aside from some confusion as to why she wasn’t feeling anything. It was bizarre. “Cool,” Molly said, causing a strange look from the doctor. She clearly hadn’t been told anything about the relationship or lack thereof that Molly had with her mother. So to the doctor, Molly was just a normal daughter here with her normal mother. “If she wakes up, she could have brain issues though right?” Molly asked, trying to change the subject off of the awkwardness.
The doctor nodded again. “Yes, it’s certainly possible. We’ve had people wake up from comas with absolutely no brain issues, and we’ve had people wake up with extreme ones. There’s just no way to know for sure. But we’ve had great success in the past in helping comatose patients make great recoveries and live good lives.”
Molly nodded her head. She stared off at the seemingly lifeless face of her mother in the bed. Why wasn’t she happy, or sad, or angry, or relieved, or anything? She just wanted to feel something, anything. But right now, it was just emptiness. Maybe she just needed to clear her head. There was nothing Molly hated more than the inside of a hospital. Ever since she spent three months living in one after a particularly violent wrestling match, she hated spending any time in them.
“Can you call me if anything changes? I just need to go do some things.” Molly said as she glanced back at the doctor.
“Sure thing Ms. Reid,” the doctor answered before turning back to Molly’s mother and continued to write things down as she looked at different instruments and monitors. Molly quickly turned around and walked out the door and down the hospital hallway. She knew where she needed to go.
June 19th, 2016
*OFF CAMERA*
She had forgotten how far away the site was. It felt like she’d been walking for an hour. She hadn’t, but walking through a cemetery always seemed to take a long time to Molly. Just the whole feeling of it, with the death and sadness that surrounded everyone who stepped foot in one. So what was really a ten minute walk felt ages longer to Molly on this evening.
Molly slowed down as she approached what she came for. She stood in front of it for a few moments, saying nothing. She just stared ahead, looking down at the gravestone in front of her. Eventually she sat down on the ground in front of the grave.
“Hey dad.”
Molly used to feel weird coming here and talking to a gravestone. It always felt forced, and she wasn’t sure what to do or why. But a few years back when she started to turn her life around, she got past it and started coming three or four times a year. Sometimes she’d come because she wanted to think about problems, and other times she just wanted to tell him how she was doing. She knew that somewhere out there, he could hear her.
“I know it’s been a long time, I’ve just been so busy with everything,” Molly spoke softly, not wanting to disturb anyone else who might be visiting the cemetery as well. “The wrestling, the travelling, I’ve just been doing so much that I’ve barely even been home. And then when I am home I’m just training or busy. I know you wouldn’t care if I never visited, but I feel bad for it.”
Molly sighed, staring straight ahead. “But I just had to come today...cause...well...it’s Kate. She’s in the hospital right now. Overdosed on pills and in a coma. The doctors say she’ll be ok and wake up soon. But I just...I don’t know if I want that. Every time I saw her I wished she was dead. But seeing her on that bed with the real possibility that she would, I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t know what to feel. I just...I wanted your help.”
Molly wiped a tear from her eye and squeezed them shut. For a few moments it was just blackness, but as Molly relaxed she started to imagine her dad standing there in front of her. And as she imagined it, she slowly started to see it. Until he was right there, standing right in front of her, smiling. Molly smiled back at him, wiping another tear from her eye. “Hi dad,” she said softly.
“Hi sweetie,” he smiled back, also wiping tears from his eyes. Molly slowly approached him in her imagination, opening her arms and embracing him with the biggest hug she had ever given anyone. It felt so real. Like he was actually there. She held the embrace for what could have been any amount of time. She didn’t know and she didn’t care. She just wanted the hug to last the rest of her life. But eventually her dad broke the hug and took a step back, placing his hands on her shoulders as he looked at her. “My little girl’s all grown up.”
Molly smiled and wiped her face. “I sure am dad,” she replied. He smiled back at her and hugged her again one more time before breaking away and looking at her again.
“So what seems to be the problem that you needed my advice about?” he asked her.
Molly looked away, unsure of how to phrase it. “Well, it’s...just…”
“Your mother,” her dad chimed in as Molly looked back up at him and nodded, “you want to know what I think you should do?”
“I just...I don’t know what I feel or what I should do. I’ve spent every minute of my adult life hating her. But now it’s like...the doctors found no trace of any drugs in her system besides the sleeping pills. And she was found living in a church where she’s apparently been helping out. Like everything points to her having turned her life around. So am I the bad guy if I don’t even try to forgive her and move on?”
Molly’s dad looked away for a moment, before turning back and staring into Molly’s eyes. “Look Molly. What your mother did was a horrific thing and nobody would blame you if you never forgave her for as long as you've lived…”
Molly could sense his trailing off at the end of that, and chimed in, “...but?”
Her dad smiled as he heard her. “But that doesn’t mean you have to do that. Look, I can’t tell you what you need to do. Just know this. The woman I married was an incredible person. She was sweet, caring, loving, beautiful. Everything. She made a lot of mistakes, but deep down I know she can still be that person.”
“You always thought that,” Molly said, “that’s why you’d try to support her even though she wasn’t a part of our lives growing up.”
“I did,” he answered, “but that was my decision. I knew her when she was that woman. You never have. So you’ve had no decision.”
“Until now,” she said.
Her dad smiled at her again. “Until now. And it doesn’t matter what you do. As long as deep down, you truly believe that what you decide is the right thing to do. Whatever choice you make, it’ll be the right one.”
Molly smiled weakly and hugged him again. “Thanks dad. I think I know what to do.”
“Glad I could help sweetheart,” her dad said, wiping tears from his eyes again. “You’ve become exactly what I always hoped you would Molly. I couldn’t be any more proud of you. I love you so much.”
Molly felt tears pouring down her face as her dad broke the hug and slowly started to back away. “I miss you daddy,” she managed to get out as she reached towards him. “I love you.”
Her dad smiled at her as he slowly reached out towards her as well. As their fingers touched, he slowly began to fade away, until he was gone completely. Molly slowly opened her eyes and found herself still sitting in front of the gravestone. She wiped the tears from her eyes as best she could as she looked around to see if anyone was near her. She slowly got to her feet and pulled her phone out of her pocket. One missed call, from the hospital. Molly slowly unlocked her phone and dialed her voicemail.
June 23rd, 2016
*ON CAMERA*
The screen flashes on to a shot of Molly sitting on a chair, smiling at the camera. She waves as if to say hello, before she starts talking.
“Hey y’all! It’s your favorite Molly, back at it again. I’ve been having so much fun all week at Frontier Con, getting to meet all of you. It’s been awesome, and thanks for all the support! You guys really are the best! I hope to hear all of you cheering me on come Saturday night. I heard all of y’all two weeks ago when you were cheering me on against Sara Cochran. Speaking of which, I don’t want to be a bitch and say Sara got what was coming to her last week, but like, yeah. She’s got a big mouth, and she uses it. But the whole she deserves to be in this match too stuff, I think I put a stop to that last week. She’s a fine wrestler, but just didn’t quite have enough to beat me last week. So that’s that. I got some much-needed momentum coming into the biggest match of my young FGA career this weekend at All Star Showdown V.”
“Everyone knows that Annie Dupree is my best friend. We met a few years back, she set me up with Dom Harter, we hung out a bunch, and the rest is history. We’ve always been there for each other. I was one of her bridesmaids, and she’d be one of mine if I ever wanted to get married.I love her like a sister, and I always will. So I always dreamed of one day getting to wrestle in the same company as her. But it just didn’t work for the longest while. I was in IWF when I met her, then when it closed down, I went to SCW while she was still over in FGA. It was only after my injury and subsequent break that I decided to finally get it done. So I signed with FGA and there we were, finally working together. It was great. Then we went to SSWA with Emily Carter and won the Trios Titles. We’re teaming up on Sunday in the Global Tag Team Tournament in HKW. Everything I wanted to do with Annie in wrestling, I’m getting the chance to do. But we still haven’t faced off in the ring. Until Saturday.”
“When Annie won the Mid-Atlantic Legacy championship, I don’t think anyone cheered louder for her than I did. I was so happy for her, because I knew how hard she worked to get there. I knew how much it meant to her to be able to beat Izzy and Savannah at Gold Rush Rumble. To go from the tag-team specialist that she started out as, to a full-blown singles champion and star in the company, that was a huge deal. I was so proud of her, and I still am so proud of her.”
“So to say that I was caught off guard when she announced that my match against Nero was going to be a number one contender’s match would be an understatement. I was kind of floored. I did not expect to be given that chance, especially against Annie. Looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I had a few wins under my belt, including the winning pin against Tony, Johnny and Danny. My only loss was to Ricky, and it was a pretty close match. So maybe I deserved it, maybe I didn’t. I try not to pay attention to that kind of stuff. But that wasn’t what shocked me the most. It was that Annie herself had chosen us to compete to wrestle her. Which meant that Annie was giving me the opportunity to be her first challenger for her belt. Which, thanks to beating Nero in that match, I now am.”
“It caught me off guard mostly because it’s her first defense. She knows first-hand how excited and proud of her I was. She knows how much I want her to succeed and be the best that she can be. But now, I’m the one who is standing in the way of her reaching that level of success. It’s not a great position to be no matter what happens. If she beats me, then it’s a blown opportunity by me and I’ve lost my chance to be a champion in FGA. But if I beat her, then I’m the one who ruined her championship reign. So there’s a level of unfortunateness no matter what happens.”
“But while it might suck, there’s no real decision here. I want to win. I want to be the FGA Mid-Atlantic Legacy Champion. Annie knows this, just like I know how much she wants her reign as champion to be the best ever. We both have our own goals, and when it comes to wrestling, you sometimes have to put your friendships aside for the sake of reaching those goals. That’s what’s going to happen on Saturday night. I get to step into the ring against my best friend, and try to put an end to her championship reign before it even really begins. I want the title belt. I want to be a champion in FGA for as long as I possibly can. Izzy Anders set the bar high with her incredible reign last year, but it’s over now. It’s time for someone else to step up and have an even better reign. And that person could very well be me.”
“For the past year or even more maybe, I’ve always been compared to Annie. I’ve mentioned it here countless times before, so y’all know what I’m talking about. People telling me I’m just Annie’s groupie, I’m trying to copy her, trying to ride her coattails, etc. Nevermind that I’m older than Annie. Nevermind that I’ve been wrestling longer than Annie. Nevermind that I’ve been a world champion in an international company. Nevermind that we’re best friends, of course we have similar personalities. People just see the two of us, and they like Annie more because they know her or whatever, and so they attack me with those insults. I wish I could just ignore them completely and not even think about them, but I can’t. Some days I can brush them off, but they’re always there, eating away at me.”
“And that’s why the comparisons are so ridiculous. Because I could never be Annie. She rarely takes anything to heart like that. She’s so good at brushing off insults and just taking the high road and ignoring them. I can’t do that. I wish I could, but I can’t. I take those things personally. I can’t really explain why, and even if I could I don’t think I’d want to share that with the world. But I’m big enough to admit my faults. And that is definitely one of them. So when people call me a copycat or a wannabe or a groupie or whatever, I desperately want to change their minds. I want to do whatever I can to stop hearing those comments. I know I’ll never be able to completely stop them, but maybe Saturday night will help. If I can go in there and beat Annie, become a champion in FGA against the very person people think I worship, it might shut them up a bit.”
“So I’ve got this chance, and I can’t blow it now. Annie, I know you’ve been ready for this match since you first announced the number one contender match. You knew that there was a good chance it would be me you’d be wrestling. And I heard what you said last week. Sure it was all in good fun to get me fired up for the match, but how much of that was based in reality? Did you really make this match because you wanted to get the ball rolling on your big title reign? That’s a lot of the talk that I’ve heard too. But you know, I don’t think that’s the case. You’ve seen me wrestle countless times. You know that I can compete with anyone in that ring. You know I have the ability to beat anyone I stand across from. You wouldn’t dare underestimate me, or think that this will be an easy title defense for you. Because as soon as you think that, you’ve already lost. No, I know that you’ll be ready to have the hardest match of your entire career this Saturday at All Star Showdown. We know each other so well, it’s going to be a war. We’re not going to leave that ring willingly. You’re going to have to knock me out cold to keep me down for three seconds. And I know I’m going to have to do the same to you. I’m prepared for it. We’re friends before, we’re friends after. But once we step into that ring, you’re the Mid-Atlantic Legacy champion that I desperately need to beat.”
“People have been underestimating me my entire career. People didn’t think I’d succeed in IWF, and I became the only female world champion in their history. People didn’t think I’d succeed in MLC, and I took two of the best fighters in the world to their absolute limit. And now, people don’t think I’ll succeed against you Annie. Just like all the other times, I’m going to go out there and prove them wrong. This match means everything to me. I’m not going to be a footnote in your career. I’m not going to be a stepping stone for your incredible title reign. I’m going to craft my own legacy here in FGA. And it all starts this Saturday night. People won’t think of me as Annie Dupree’s coattail rider after this match. After this match, they’ll just think of me as champion. Mid-Atlantic Legacy champion. This is what I’ve been working towards since I started here in FGA. This is my chance, my moment, my opportunity for greatness. And I’m not going to let it go to waste. I love you Annie. I’ll never stop loving you. But bring it on.”
June 20th, 2016
*OFF CAMERA*
Molly’s mom’s eyes slowly fluttered open. She slowly moved her eyes around the room. Where was she? It looked like a hospital. She tried to move, but found herself unable. She felt too weak. The last thing she remembered was...dying. Yet here she was. She heard a noise in the corner of the room. She turned her head and saw her daughter staring at her from the corner of the room.
“Molly?”
There was a moment of hesitation. Molly’s mom braced for the worst. But then Molly smiled, albeit weakly as she replied.
“Hi mom.”
Molly’s mom’s eyes started to well with tears. She had never been called mom before.
