NLW Uprising 11, RP 2: One Last Gasp...



Residence of William Prydor (Baltimore, Maryland):  June 12, 2008, 9:13 a.m.

He sat in the solitude of his screening room, watching over the footage of the Tag Team tournament.  Of the five other people in this match, four of them had been involved at some point in the tournament, three had advanced to the finals, and two had won the thing.  However, this wasn't a tag bout he was preparing for; it was one of those matches where the pin could happen at a moments' notice.  As such, he wanted to get as much information on everyone involved as he could.

He'd been in the room for about two hours straight, looking at as much footage as he could and making mental notes when his home phone rang.  He didn't even bother to look at the caller ID as he punched the "talk" button.  "Start talking, it's your quarter."

There was a pause before a mechanized female voice replied, "You have a collect call from…" the voice changed to that of a woman sobbing for a brief second before the robotic voice continued, "…at the Maryland Correctional Institute."

As the voice droned on, Will sighed.  Almost two weeks ago, she was sentenced to five years in prison for the crimes she was found guilty of, though more could be added depending on what the other jurisdictions ended up doing.  But hadn't he made it clear that he was done with her?  Why was she continuing to be a thorn in his side?  His anger beginning to rise within him, he waited for the prompt to end and then pressed "1" to accept the call.  Before he could even speak, she started.  "Will, why are you doing this to me?"

"Brandy, you did this to yourself.  When you decided to have me taken out of wrestling, run down in the night like some common thug, you deserved every last thing that you'll get coming to you.  There is no one to blame but yourself."

"But if you loved me, this would never have come to pass!  None of this would ever have happened!"

He sighed again.  This was going to ruin the rest of his day, and Elyssa was not going to want to talk to him tonight; he could see it coming.  "How is me trying to ensure our financial future together not loving you?  Would you rather have spent all of our money instead of having some put away for a house somewhere?  Would you rather live on the street because you had to buy all of the latest things and ruin the credit I had worked to build?"

"But…"

"BUT NOTHING!" he roared into the phone, startling Brandy into silence.  "You tried to use me for your own ends, and when that failed you decided to use someone else to get revenge on me.  It disgusts me to think that I once shared a home…a bed…my life, with you!"

A sob on the other side of line was his reply, as Will's anger continued to rise.  Leave it to her to play the guilt trip card, and try to make him feel bad for her being incarcerated.  It pained him to realize that Brandy had gone from someone who saw past his size to see the real person within, to a money-grubbing, back-stabbing, psycho bitch who only looked out for herself.  As she let out another string of deep sobs, Will forced his voice to remain calm as he spoke.  "The day you told me you had been with someone else, right before our wedding, I should have disowned you then.  No, I had to be the nice guy and adhere to the verbal agreement we made concerning the End of Nowhere.  Then you turn around and do this to me, thinking to drive me into madness and despair.

"You of all people should have known that it wouldn't work.  I've never gotten that depressed in the past before, and I nearly reached that point recently.  Yet somehow I kept plowing ahead, knowing that I could not give you the satisfaction of winning.  And when it's all said and done, now that we are at this point in our lives, you tell me, Brandy.  Who is the one who is having the last laugh?"

There was a silence before she spoke.  "Will…if I could have found a way to avoid it, I would have.  I was coerced into it."

"Still lying, after all of that, Brandy?  I know you had an active hand in things.  You are NEVER one to be in a supporting role for long.  I thought I knew you better than you did, but I was wrong.  I still know you well enough to know that much about you."

There was further silence on the other end of the line before Will resumed.  "I thought as much.  Do not call me again, do not try to get in touch with me again, hell…you might as well forget that I exist.  The minute I get off the phone with you, I'm filing a protective order to keep you from coming in contact with me.  I do not care how you started this, Brandy, but I'm putting an end to it now.  If I never see you again, it will still be too soon for me."

At this, Brandy chuckled…a low, sinister chuckle that made the hair on Will's neck stand up.  "You haven't seen the last of me yet, Will.  I can promise you that."  Before he could retort, she hung up the phone.  Sighing, he disconnected, waited a few seconds, then called another number.

One ring.  Two rings.  Three rings….

"Harford County Sheriff's Department, Lieutenant Anderson speaking."

"Elyssa, it's me.  I know you're busy but I'll be quick."

"What's wrong, hon?"

"It's Brandy.  She just called me collect today and seemed to indicate that we're not done with her yet."

"She did WHAT?"

"Yeah.  Listen, I need you to bring home an ex parte form for me, so I can file it against--"

"I'll have it taken care of by the end of my shift, Will.  As my residence is officially listed as your address, I can take care of it here.  Anything else?"

"…Nah.  As I said, I know you're busy, so I'll get in touch with the D.A.'s office to alert them that she will likely be filing an appeal; that's the only thing I can think of that she has in mind."

"Actually, Will, I have a bit of time.  It's been a rather sedated day, so I'll take care of that for you as well."

"Thanks, dear.  I owe you one."

"You can make it up to me tonight."  The low purr of her voice before she hung up the phone made Will smile a bit.  He also noticed that she never said that it was a "quiet" or a "calm" day.  Another superstition held over, as most cops he knew believed that to say it was a quiet day meant that all hell was about to break loose due to a jinx.  He just took it with a grain of salt and let it go, as he un-paused the footage he was watching and went back to preparing for his match in just over a week.  As he watched one of his opponents get an odd look on his face, an idea went off in his head.  Although he didn't like to think ahead, this one was too good to pass up, and he kept it in mind for when the time was right….

The End of Nowhere:  June 12, 2008, 2:38 p.m.

To say that this is unusual is to be putting it lightly.  The NLW brass wants to do a sort of video monologue as a lead-in for the six-pack challenge in a just under a week and a half.  I do not know who had this "brilliant" concept, but who am I to tell the powers that be to just piss off?  I mean…what the heck is there to see around here? 

Although Draco, Kane, and the rest are my main focus, apparently the NLW sees me as a potential moneymaker, an underdog who deals with the constant bitterness of the more prejudiced folk like Jake Steel.  The way I see it is this:  the fans are the ones who basically pay our salaries.  Without the fans, there is no Jackson, no Archangel, no Harvey Danger…at least in the way that we know them today.  So if there is something I can do to bring new fans into the seats to watch us compete, then it would be best for us all.

After all, championships may look nice on paper, and they damn sure look good around your waist or over your shoulder as the case may be.  But in the end, it's the connection with the fans, the impact you have with them, that determine your legacy in this sport.  For the longest time since joining NLW, I had neglected to remember that, electing instead to simply out-wrestle my opponents.

And now that the crowd has gone from indifference to cheering for me, I have remembered the difference they make in how your legacy is forever recorded.  So let those who are more concerned with their own abilities be so narrow-minded.  I've tried it; and though it works, it lacks that certain connection one gets with the fans.

Behind me, I hear one of the technicians speak.  "All right, Phoenix, we're ready."

Showtime.  Afraid you'll have to wait until Uprising airs to see what happens here, folks.  After all, I can't give out EVERYTHING without ruining the fun for you!

I just hope this idea I have will come to fruition.  It would be interesting, to say the least.

Heh.  Time will tell, as it always does.

\___(^)___/

It only took them one take to get everything done.  He noted that they were quick to pack up and leave, and simply wrote it off to the heat and the lack of features within the borders of his property.  However, when he heard an emergency siren closing in on the End of Nowhere, he looked towards the entrance of the place.

Sure enough, an ambulance had arrived, and was making a beeline for the house being built.  Will took off at a sprint, knowing it'd still take him a few minutes to get there.  Once he finally did, he saw one of the construction crew being loaded into the ambulance, neck brace firmly in place.  He tracked down the foreman of the crew, Joe Nelson, to ask what happened.

"Hammer fell on top of him, no apparent injury but we want to be certain there's no concussion.  Funny thing is I saw that hammer not even three minutes before it happened, and it was on the middle of the board that it fell from.  There was no wind, and no one went near it before it fell.  How it fell is beyond me."

As Will nodded and took a look at the progress of the house, he had a sudden sinking feeling that perhaps one of his recent opponents may have been right all along.  But there was no way that could be true.  Heck, ghost stories were simply that…

…right?

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