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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 10 2016, 10:51 PM (18 Views) | |
| Brytain Rollins | Aug 10 2016, 10:51 PM Post #1 |
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“How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going to be, from one minute to another.” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland ------------------ Las Vegas, NV -- July 25, 2016 I crashed to my knees, spent in every single meaning of the word. In every single way that a person could be. Physically, my bones felt loose like jelly. Emotionally, I was drained. I’d left all of me all over the canvas… I’d torn myself apart for this. I didn’t hear the bell or “King of the World” playing. I couldn’t see anything beyond the hot, bright. The title was a heavy weight in my arms. My white whale and I’d struck a harpoon through it’s heart finally. It belonged to me and me alone and I’d earned it with my blood, with my body… Clutching it to my chest, I dragged myself to my feet and my head spun and the world lurched. At first, it was just white noise and I couldn’t pick out the words, my ear were ringing too loudly; when I finally heard it, though, I had to swallow back to the tears. You deserve it. A stadium of thousands of people were chanting it at the top of their lungs and it filled me up with some emotion that I couldn’t name. Some strange wash of gratitude and overwhelming happiness. I stumbled, weak limbed, backstage; I was barely through the curtain when I was swept off of the ground and Michael spun me around in a slow circle. I pressed my face into his neck, dizzy. I had enough left in me to recognize the entirety of this moment… Michael had come to every single show with her, rarely leaving her locker room because he didn’t want to risk being glimpsed on camera. Refused to even let them catch a shot of the two of them walking in together. But now, he was here… standing just behind the curtains, not caring that the camera was catching their every move. I tangled my shaking legs around his waist as he pinned me to the wall and pressed a searing kiss to my lips. Breaking away, breathless, I pressed my forehead to his and murmured softly, “Is this real..?” He grinned at me, eyes bright as he reveled in my success with me. He gently slid the title out from between us, hefting it in one hand as he held it up for me. “This looks pretty real to me, love,” he said softly. I couldn’t stop the stupid grin that slid across my face, as real and true as anything. ------------------ posted to youtube.com The camera slowly focuses in on Brytain Rollins, sitting cross legged on the hood of her ‘63 Mercury Comet. Beyond her, the desert stretches out into the horizon for miles. She’s found a desolate stretch of it to park, the camera balanced on a tripod in front of her and her newly won Global title draped across her lap. She grins and it feels like we’re getting a rare glimpse into something real and true. Not some mask she puts on for the camera, not a guarded reaction… something honest. She looks up at the camera slowly, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from the title belt. “My white whale…” She bites her lip and stares across the expanse of sand and rock at the sun that sets in a red fiery haze, sinking into the horizon. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say because nothing really seems to be enough. Nothing seems like enough after this... I mean," she glances back down at the title, licking her lips. "What do you say when you spend half your life reaching and reaching for this thing that keeps slipping through your fingers again and again. Captain Ahab and the fucking white whale. This title has been my white whale... that thing that kicks me down over and over again but still, I get back up and I keep going after it. And now..." she holds it up, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "I put a harpoon through it's heart. It's finally mine... and I don't think it's really set in yet. Not totally, anyway. And it's surreal, to think that on the next Wildcard, when I walk out to the ring... I'll be walking out there as the fucking Global champion. But I know that I'll also be walking out there with a bullseye on my back the size of fucking Texas. I'm not stupid... I know what winning this thing does. It means that there are no allies anymore because I have the thing that other people will fight and scrape and claw for. Hell, until recently, that was me. Struggling closer and closer towards this thing that I couldn't reach. And now I have it and around every corner there's one more person who's right where I used to be. Someone who's willing to do almost anything to take this title from off of my shoulder. Like Sandy Makel... like Rex Evans, I'm sure. I don't blame them because now that I've had a taste I know what I would do to keep tasting this. To keep this piece of leather and metal in my grip." She runs a fingertip along the faceplate, a faint smile on her lips again. "I would do anything." ------------------ August 8, 2016 -- Las Vegas, NV The desert spread out in front of me, open and empty as the sun floated fat and yellow above the horizon. I was alone because I needed to be alone for this… There was nothing out here but me, the Global title stretched out in the backseat and the weight of everything that had happened in the past month. The cage of death and whatever that meant for me and V… There had been things that had passed between us thicker than blood that I still didn’t understand. Some change to our friendship that I should have expected but had been too blind to see coming. The Global championship and puzzling out what happens next. What happens when you’ve caught your white whale and it’s lying there gasping with your harpoon in its side? The bullseye on my back for everyone else backstage who were right where I’d been not even a full month ago. That hungry willingness to claw and scratch and fight for a chance to hold that title just for a moment. I edged my foot down on the gas harder and watched Las Vegas get smaller and smaller like a toy city behind me. The lights fading out until I could barely see them. Back there, my husband was waiting at the hotel for me. Back there, my friends were waiting to celebrate this thing that I’d spent half of my life struggling to reach. But I needed this out here, this alone-ness with my thoughts and something else. I spent so long climbing that I’d forgotten what came when I reached the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain had it’s own challenges that came along with it, most notably, turning around and stepping into a tag team match with Erin Gordon… standing across the ring from Dexter Jacobs and Sandy Makel. Stepping into the ring with a partner who had no tag team experience didn’t bother me. Erin was competent and ring savvy. I’d seen enough to know that at least if I didn’t know much else about the woman. It wouldn’t be the same as working with Jordyn Tyrell back in WWEA or even working with Freddie Lombard. But I felt confident enough that we could scrape up a unified front. What was bothering me though was trying to suss out Dex’s stake in this match. I knew why Makel was there… I’d swept in and stole away the title he’d just barely won. While he wouldn’t take it back in this match, he’d at least get some measure of retribution if he wanted it. If he could take it. The only thing I could figure about Jacobs though was that he was being thrown into my face because he’d be edging in on the title sooner or later. I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down as I let the highway stretch out behind me and Vegas proper receded in the rearview. Whatever came next, it’d be a cold day in hell before I let go of this belt easy. |
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3:17 AM Jul 11