Supreme Championship Wrestling

SCW Television Championship

2 RP Limit for singles

3500 word max per RP

Deadline: Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at 11:59:59 pm ET

Chapter 14: So many ways to say goodbye…


That’s right. You heard that chapter title accurately. This isn’t some fake-out that I have yet to explain like that cemetery in the Kings of Shadows where all the members of my family and past seemingly are buried. Yes, I haven’t forgotten about that. Nor have I forgotten my tale to you that this was the story where I die at the end. Did you all forget that? I can’t blame you. I’m not what you would call a consistent story-teller, as it were.

But I haven’t forgotten any of it – we just haven’t reached the point where either of those things are to be explained. Perhaps they never will be explained. As I said, this may be a way to say ‘goodbye’.

I mean, does anyone remember where we last left off? When my last match was? Almost two months ago back in last year of 2021 against Katie Steward. Ah, now THAT was an eyeopener. There I was, telling you all the part of my life where I felt scared to take the surgery for my knee, not because it was expensive or could go wrong. Quite the opposite – I had been scared that it could go right.

It was still true, even as we began the new year…

I shall be as honest as I can with all of you. I was never meant to make it this far this go around. I wasn’t. I was supposed to be some sort of ‘enhancement talent’ – what a drop for me – to Aaron Blackbourne years ago. That’s why I was brought in to become his ‘secret challenger’ while he held the Television title over a year ago. They had wanted to build a program around him and I where I, inevitably, ‘passed the torch of creativity and entertainment’ over to him – making him the ‘new showman’, as it were. That’s what management wanted. They wanted to package Aaron as their ‘next star’ and wanted to use me and my legacy to do it.

And I agreed.

Why not? The boy was talented! I had done enough! You tell me I hadn’t! I fucking dare you! Tell me I haven’t done enough in my career with SCW! Maybe someone like Autumn or Ace will mock it or even say I’ll never reach it again – she fails to see how the latter is such a compliment to me! And it proves my point! Because she’s probably right! The titles I’ve won, the main-events I held, the history I created! People are still talking about me when they compare me to such greats as Christian Savior and Selena Frost – and I usually win over who they prefer, at least compared to those two…

But Aaron was everything I wasn’t. Young, strong and fast, and creative in ways that I wasn’t. So, I agreed to promote him, to push him, to make the feud entertaining and then, whether he beat me or I beat him when it was all over, I’d simply disappear back to the shadows…

It hadn’t happened that way…

I had ended up driving the poor boy out. Breaking his momentum, his confidence, everything in that Under the Big Top match. Did I feel guilty? In a way – like breaking your friend’s favourite toy on the school playground. If all the kid could do was be there when he won but not when he suffered massive loss, than SCW needed to see that – and there was no way I was going to hand off my namesake as ‘the entertainer’ to a flake that bailed when things got tough. Would you? Would you bequeath your legacy – someone you a good portion of your life to build - to someone that would drop it into the dirt the second things turned tough?

So what was meant to be less than a year of a return transformed into…something else. And the more that I worked hard to regain some semblance of respect to my name and legacy, the more my knee became a factor. And the more my knee became a factor, the more and more I started using it as a crutch, an excuse.

Not to SCW, you understand, I didn’t want superstars knowing about it. You saw what Glory Braddock and Holly Adams and Ricky James did to it when they realized it was a weakness. It became more and more about being “the one that put Shilo Valiant on the shelf”. Heh heh… such an achievement! I should be flattered by that. That someone would take delight in being the one that took me out of SCW for good. I think I may have done that a few times, like I had with Blackbourne, but I honestly can’t remember anyone I had knocked out of SCW.

Except, perhaps, Masquerade… but don’t I have a right to remember that one?

When I learned that I could take the surgery – I realized how much I needed my knee to be in its worse condition. Isn’t that fucked up? But if I had a bad leg, I had an excuse. An excuse to justify why I lost the Adrenaline title to Holly Adams. Why I had failed inside the chamber to Ace Marshall once again pinning me. Why I couldn’t really ever be considered for the World title despite my desire to reach for it, being overshadowed by more impressive names like Glory and Kandis and a few others.

But if the surgery took that away, even if it made me faster and stronger again – made me something akin to my old self in terms of ability… and I still failed? What did that say about Shilo Valiant – in his best form – against the current crop of SCW’s best?

Truthfully, had it not been for Katie Steward, that mindset might not have changed. I may still be making excuses for you as to why I needed to put off the surgery – why I still needed to ‘wait’ because ‘things were happening in SCW’…

But you know you’ve reached a certain “bottom of the barrel” when the supposed ‘legend’, the ‘Queen of Queens’ is about to face you and she doesn’t deem you ‘worthy’ enough to hype a match against you with a promo.

I think that rocked my world more than anything she could have said against me. I mean, here I am, with far more accolades than her – SHILO VALIANT! – and she felt I wasn’t worth her time to go in front of a camera and promote a match with me.

Defeating her soundly had done little to alleviate that feeling. Very little. I felt like a joke going through the weeks – hell, Ricky James, the man that I was supposedly in a bit of a feud with, up and left SCW too… apparently facing me in a feud held as much of appeal to him as it had for Katie…

It left me to wonder…what happened?

Truthfully, guys. There was a time when facing me – beating me – actually meant something. Someone like Regan Street would praise my name before she beat me at Rise to Greatness. Someone like Kelcey Wallace would put a statue of my likeness in her entrance as someone that she had conquered! An actual statue!

Truthfully, it hurt guys. That facing me, beating me, was seen as nothing – not worth an effort. Than to be told by management that they had ‘nothing for me’ all of January while they scrambled to adjust to the new year and all the controversy – controversy I couldn’t even be part of…

Last time that happened, I had blamed them up and down. This time? I couldn’t even do that.

What did the name of Shilo Valiant hold for their cards now compared to Selena Frost and Cid Turner? Compared to Glory Braddock and, hell, even Syren with her lackluster record of late? Was my name even mentioned on those shows? I hadn’t heard anything as I had waited, sitting through the weeks from my home in Guelph.

I think rock-bottom hit me – like all of that I had just spoke of – hit after sitting by and watching Body, Heart and Soul. Ironically, enough, it had been watching Autumn Valentine make her entrance with Ace Marshall. I had watched Autumn both gracefully dance her way through her weeks as Television Champion and also stumble her way through her partnership with LexyCorp or whatever name they were using.

It was both amazing – her talent – and pathetically boring as hell – her ‘entertainment’. I won’t waste my thoughts on the ‘wedding’ that happened at End of the Year just yet. I’ll simply say: I would have done SO MUCH better. Forget an outrage from a person in a bear costume. Oh no! Imagine an actual bear – the ring-BEAR-er! YES! That’s what I could have done, just as a starter!

I remember dwelling on such thoughts as I watched Autumn with the Television and tag titles, handing one off to Lexy… and then I turned off the television. I didn’t want to see the rest of the pay-per-view. What did I care about the tag titles? Or some wrestlers with ‘hurt feelings’ over DQ finishes? I didn’t. If SCW couldn’t control their damn stables after how many years, then let the world title be mired in controversy. Controversy equalled ratings, so they should have been happy.

But turning off the television with the remote, my eyes took in the black screen, medium-sized – long gone was the big-screen I use to have in Toronto where I could watch it all ‘in HD!’. Now? It was a small-sized 33-inch that barely took up part of the wall. Hell, there were more ‘decorate books and crystals and photos on the shelves that thing stood on – THEY took up more space than the damn TV and that was what was used more than anything else in that entire section.

But on the black screen, I spied my own reflection. I could see the face, the brown sweater I wore, the black trackpants I had on, my short hair and trimmed-goatee sticking out against my paler/scarred skin of my face.

“What happened to you?”

The question came from me but I had not realized it for several seconds, even as my ears picked it up and logically pieced the information together – my son, the only other man in the house, did not yet have the timbre in his voice that I did, go figure.

I didn’t answer myself out loud. I was not in front of a camera. Acting ‘crazy’ by talking to myself was not going to win me any points. Instead, I just looked at my reflection. I allowed those thoughts, the ones I described to you earlier, to run through my mind – my match with Katie, my absences, all of it. They all ran through my mind as I slipped towards that ‘rock-bottom’.

I felt my hand reach out to grip the injured knee hard – gripped so hard that the fingers and knuckles turned an even paler color. Why wasn’t I there? Why hadn’t I been booked in over a month? Why was I watching Body, Heart and Soul instead of performing in it?! What had happened to the show?! What had happened to my feud?! What the fuck had happened to me?!!

“Leaked” sex videos?!
‘Packaged’ products of $X9.99?!
Guys in bear costumes?!
Fake weddings with the most obvious of swerves?!
Wrestlers crying on Twitter to have titles change hands over disqualification?!

“HOW THE FUCK IS THIS ENTERTAINING?!”

My voice rang throughout the family room and I immediately heard movement from down the hall from the bedroom, causing me to instantly regret my sudden, and temporary, loss of control. I knew better than to curse in the house like that! I was a father after all, with a very impressionable eight-year old son sleeping in the basement. Stupid Shilo… I thought You’re not in the Kings of Shadows anymore! You’re not in those big hotels and fancy towers of The Empress. You’re not in the high life of being the biggest name of SCW anymore… you’re just a common Joe – working his shifts and living in a small, three-bedroom house…

I heard the footsteps closing in on me but I did not look away from the spot on the floor that my eyes were locked on. I had left the lights off while I had been watching the pay-per-view, leaving the only illumination coming from the adjacent kitchen, its soft white lightbulb sending some light through the large window-gaps of space from the semi-wall that ‘separated’ it from this room.

First thing I saw were a pair of bare feet as they walked to where I was looking, along with the billowing of the nightgown of dark blue. Then, it all lowered itself until I could see her kneeling before me, her soft, brown eyes gazing at me through round reading glasses.

“Sorry.” I whispered, looking at her but not really looking at her, you know? “Didn’t mean to yell.”
“I know.” She sighed, a hand reaching out to run its fingers along the scarred flesh of my face. “What is it this time?”
“Everything.” I sighed, sitting back into the plush chair I had been sitting on.
“I told you not to watch the pay-per-view.” She sighed, a gentle chastising, more sad than irritated.
“I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”
“After the End of the Year?” she sighed. “Really?”

Yes, that night had been bad for me. It wasn’t that I had been snubbed from any match at that point, but rather that I had to sit through and watch that fake wedding between Lexy Chapel and “Ryan Watson”. The whole thing was so…so… cliché! Oh my god, what the hell had management been thinking?! When had weddings EVER gone well in this business? There was always some kind of “SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER- DUH DUH DUUUUUUUUH!”. Gods, it had been so painfully obvious and yet on and on it went!

Now, Marina was wondering why I had expected things to be better in the new year and the first pay-per-view of 2022… and I didn’t have an answer for her other than to shrug my shoulders.

“I’m just…” I sighed, unable to finish the sentence.

Truthfully, guys? I wasn’t even that mad. I mean, the material alone this kind of lame-ass ‘entertainment’ could give me in my ‘Carnival of Rust’ promos? Oh! The shit I could say! I could tear the entire LexyCorp into a hundred pieces simply by how lame they were as entertainers. I could laugh at how bad their product was… so why wasn’t I? Why was I angry instead of amused? Why was I bitter instead of incited?

Because it was really my fault.

How long had I known of this surgery to ‘fix’ me? Since my last match with Autumn Valentine? And how many months had I put it off? Three? Maybe four? I could have had it and skipped the Elimination chamber and been back in time to crash the wedding myself! Gods! The Ring-BEAR-er! I could have sicked him on Marshall while Marina subbed in a bouquet of Venus-Flytraps for the bride! What? That fit Lexy, right?!

But I had put it off and put it off – content to stay in this ‘semi-effective’ form of ‘maybe he’ll wrestle well and maybe he won’t’. Content to half-ass my way through my matches with such limitations rather than take the time off I needed to get better and take a risk at failing even at my best!

The Brand and LexyCorp had run roughshod over MY show – MY entertainment – because I had been too much of a chickenshit to get rid of my crutch and stand before them as I was before – as good as I was before.

“Can you…” I lifted my head to look at Marina as she was kneeling before me. “Can you come here please?”

She gave a tilt of her head before standing up to her feet. She made to move around me to sit beside me on the armrest, but I was faster, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her into my lap. Immediately, as her light form fell on my legs, I felt the one knee seize up and lock – of course it did.

“Shilo!” she whispered in worry, not wanting to wake Memphis like I probably had. “Your knee!”
“It’s fine.” I bit through clenched teeth, my head slammed back into the back cushion of the chair, eyes sealed shut as my head pointed upward towards the ceiling, though my arms tightened around my soulmate.

I let the seconds ticked by and Marina, too afraid of agitating my knee, did not move from her spot – thank goodness. I felt her pressed up next to me as I held her and breathed through the pain as it ebbed and dulled away. One last inhale and exhale and I opened my eyes.

She was the first thing I saw, staring down at me with the utmost worry etched into her features. Twelve years guys. Over twelve years of a wrestling career, hers a little shorter than mine but no less violent and dangerous. In the dimly lit room, I didn’t see that as I reached up to gently remove the glasses from her face, placing them down before reaching back up to caress her cheek with my hand. I didn’t see the lines of aging that I knew were there on her face as they were on mine. I didn’t see the lines of worry that had etched themselves into her features. I didn’t see how she was smaller now than she was back then, a combination of a different training and stress of being a mother and soulmate.

No, in that moment, despite knowing the light was playing a trick on my eyes, I saw Marina as she had looked those 12 years ago. A rascal, my partner in crime, partners in the Underground, selling Necro on the streets in Toronto…

“Remember when I would catch you like this?” I asked, holding her tight. “When we would run on the rooftops.”
“You never caught me like this.” I saw her smile in the shadows and dim light, her hand reaching up to touch the hand that held her face, her head turning into my warm hand. “You always wanted to carry me bridal-style. Said you needed the practice-“
“For when I made you my soulmate in Solgemia.” I finished, smiling. “Least I wasn’t lying.”
“I never believed you were.” Marina whispered. “Though you sure took your sweet time with asking me.”
“Life.” I shrugged my shoulders.

Maybe it was seeing the sham of a wedding at End of the Year that was making me reflective of the one that had meant the most to me. No one in SCW had seen our Solgemia. In fact, few, to this day, really knew about it. Even if they did, no one really understood it. It wasn’t for their world – but one Marina and I had been part of… so long ago.

“It’s time.” I sighed. “I’m going to have the surgery.”

She stiffened a little in my lap, understandably. “Another promise?” she whispered. “One you’ll change with an added word like ‘soon’ later?”
“No.” I sighed, looking up to smile at her. “I’ve got one more match – whatever it is… and then I’m done.”
“Done?” there was a worry in her voice but I still smiled up at her.
“Done.” I sighed. “I can’t keep half-assing this, Marina. I just can’t. It’s hurting too much – I have to either be thriving there… or not there at all… and I can’t do that with this knee. So… one more match… and then I’m done.”

She said nothing at first, moving in to lean her head into the crook of my neck. “Nomas said you’ll be out for three or four months – maybe longer.” She whispered in reminder.
“I know.” I whispered, reaching up to stroke her bare arm with my hand. “But I can’t keep putting it off. I need to get back to what I was – what we were.”

Leaning up to gaze at me, I saw her eyes shining in the dim light. “I’ll retrain with you.” She whispered. “We’ll do it together.”
“We always have…” I smiled back. “No couple in SCW has shit on us.”
“Shilo!” she whispered. “There is a child living here.”
“What?” I grinned. “I’m just saying 12 years and going strong!”
“Ish.” Marina teased before cuddling up next to me. “So, you think you’ll have another match soon?”
“Probably.” I laughed. “Maybe I’ll start the same way I started! Against some nobodies like Mignona…”

Marina laughed with me, resting against my form as I held her. “You’ll be alright.” She whispered.

It was a statement that, a week later, we would not be so sure of…

Well, I set up this story to take place over two PPVs. Then I got sick. So instead I'll run it over a few weeks of standard word limit RPs instead. It'll continue in tomorrow's.

Enjoy.

Life in Seasons
Book Two, Chapter Fifty-Two

OOC: No words. Just… enjoy





Chapter 15: …I guess this way works.


There was no one around me. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be. How many months – how many years – had I travelled alone here? How long had it been since I had Marina with me consistently? Not that I could blame her. She was allowing me to do this by staying behind more often than not to raise our son. Without her, returning to SCW would not have even been possible, and Shilo Valiant would not have had a second try at this… he’d just be working some random 9-5.

I had to smile at the thought as I sat in the empty seat, one of, literally, thousands that filled the empty 02 arena in London, England. It was hard to imagine. My semi-retirement hadn’t endeared me to any particular occupation and, thanks to Marina, and what savings I had amassed in my career, I didn’t have to really seek out meaningful employment.

But what if it had just been Memphis and I? What kind of job would fit Shilo Valiant, the former wrestler? Fry-cook? Some kind of entertainer or personality? I didn’t think I could go back to the streets of Toronto selling Necro – being too well known.

I gave it some thought as I sat back in the hard plastic of the chair, my legs hanging over the head of the next chair in front of me. I didn’t want this to be my last match – not here in London. Don’t get me wrong, I had nothing against the United Kingdom in any way. One of my favourite matches in my career had been when I had defended the United States Title against Lucas Knight at the “Anarchy in the UK” event in my earlier years, defeating the ‘hometown hero’. Doubt he still hadn’t forgiven me of that one – poor bastard…

I closed my eyes to breath slowly. No, this was not how I had wanted to go. Perhaps I had always been aiming too high, but there was only one place that I had wanted to end things in wrestling for me forever. The place that had become synonymous with my name almost ten years ago: The main-event of Rise to Greatness. The place where I, and I alone, had been able to headline three times in a row. The main-event that had housed so many other deserving superstars dreams and some incredible matches… I had wanted it to be there so badly. One more time to just…just…

I opened my eyes to sadly dismiss the sad thoughts. I could see the ring from here, the white canvas just begging for some kind of splash of color. How many years had I tried to provide that color in the ways of my ‘entertainment’? The Tour De Necro, The Sky of Dreams, The Valley of Thorns… My head craned upward to see the scaffolds hanging high above. I had run so many catwalks like that, haunting SCW like it was my playground. Dropping down from them to the shock and awe of the SCW Universe - I couldn’t do that now, my knee would not have managed the impact very well – risking locking and immobilizing me in front of the SCW Universe, something I couldn’t allow.

I felt hot tears sting the back of my eyes. It was so different than it had been five years ago, when I had
‘bowed out’ out of SCW during the last Shot of Adrenaline tournament. I had been tired. I had been sick. I had felt like I had nothing left to give. After eight long years in SCW, achieving nearly everything there was to achieve, I had simply had enough. I felt I could not keep it up anymore. Consistent losses to those like Xander Valentine and Regan Street… So, I had walked away thinking that I would not miss this place…

How wrong I was.

No, it wasn’t the superstars – my fellow wrestlers that had come and gone without a care, few really mentioning me with any fondness or worthwhile memories. Hell, most of them still held a grudge against me for losing or ‘having their number’, if Discord was to be believed, and I had no reason to doubt it. And it wasn’t even the fame or the spotlight, though I had certainly ‘played the part’ in pretending it was over the years.

It was just…being here. Performing. Whether I was the good guy “The Necro-Merchant” or the villainous “Blood-Stained Joker”, months away had left me missing it – but… but…

I smiled sadly. SCW had moved on. Moved on so easily. There were other superstars. Far greater ones. I didn’t think it needed me anymore. And the time away until they did need me?

No… this end was different than the last time. I didn’t want to go this time. I didn’t want to ‘bow out’. I wanted to stay. I wanted to perform. I wanted to entertain. And yet…

I’ve been here long enough… I whispered, taking my eyes off the ring to look around the arena, unable to stop the sniffle that came from me. A little embarrassed, I ran my hand through my short hair – remembering when it used to be so long, fitting of the Necro-Merchant but not so much Shilo Valiant’s current incarnation: The Man Who Laughs. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied one of my old masks, the one I had used during the “Silent Showman” time, simply cast upon the nearby steps, blank eyes staring nowhere. Near it, there were a few syringes – the ones the Merchant use to use in his entrance as he shouted “NECRO!”.

What would those Shilos think of me now? Willingly choosing to leave…

Marina and I had been thrown a bit when SCW had announced that my final match was not to be against some jobber or some mid-card looking to make a name for themselves or even some main-event loser from Body, Heart and Soul looking for a ‘bounce back’, though she could very well be, but one last Television Title match against Autumn Valentine.

The amused scoff escaped me. Too little…too late… I whispered, pushing myself out of my chair and to my feet. Quietly, I stepped out of the aisle, stepping over a few more variations of my masks that littered the floor. I almost slid on one of my long coats that hung on one of the other seats, spilling out to the ground with its long leather. My soulmate and I had, indeed, been stunned, perhaps more so at how little it changed things. Even if I were to pull off some miracle and beat Autumn again, odds were it would not be something for the title to change hands – Autumn was LexyCorp’s only champion now, that Television title the last of their ‘power’ after the humiliation they had suffered at the pay-per-view. No… if I had learned anything in the previous encounter, it was that Ace and Lexy would be there tonight, happy to screw me out of another title opportunity to keep their ‘angel’ safe…

True, SCW deserved better entertainment than that… but it wasn’t going to be me that would be able to give it to them after tonight… even if I did win… I would merely be delaying the inevitable. A few more matches until I, inevitable, burned out and lost the title… and I would be back here… this same spot, saying goodbye…perhaps forever…

Again, those damned tears pricked my eyes and I wiped them away with my sleeve and with a laugh. There it is. I smiled sadly as I descended the stairs, my eyes back on the ring. Big, old silly SCW Universe…

Silence greeted me, but I didn’t need an active audience now. The more I entertain it… the more it needs entertaining…

A sigh escaped me as my mind flashed to the events of Body, Heart and Soul and End of the Year – moments that were supposedly meant to be ‘entertaining’:

The live ‘accidental’, ‘sex show’.
The fake wedding.
The World title in pitiful controversy.

Was this what SCW was going to continue to be? I shook my head dismissively. Yes! I sighed loudly, my voice echoing just a bit throughout the empty arena. Yes, I know they’ll get it wrong without me. Like they did with Blackbourne… like Ace Marshall failed to do… often poorly imitated… never truly duplicated…

I felt my knee tremble from one step and my hand quickly gripped the cold metal of the nearby rail, steadying myself. My eyes still on the ring, though I could see more of my past littering the chairs and steps near me, making almost a trail to the squared circle.

Masks.
Costume pieces.
Old gags like ladders and ticket stubs of past events.
A career laid before me like a graveyard, living only as memories.

Well, I suppose… came my whisper of a voice. Just to show them how it’s done… one more show-stealing moment… won’t kill anyone. My eyes travelled down to where my hand gripped my knee hard, an amused smile crossing my features. Except maybe me.

My eyes travelled up to the red lights I could see hovering around me, the drones that I knew where there from the start – SCW’s camera staff recording everything I was doing.

They were waiting for me… She was waiting for me.

One last smile and I pulled myself up fully, spying the one thing I needed. Reaching out, my hand took the long, crimson red coat with the green words “HA! HA!” spray-painted on the back and all over the arms: The Man Who Laughs’ coat. You wait a moment, Autumn! I shouted out to the drones as they flew around me, my arms slowly finding the right place to pull the longcoat over my frame. I want to do this right!

Adjusting the coat, I took a deep breath as I made my way further down the steps. I’ve got a few things I want to say to you. I bit my lip at that, my smile never fading. Basics first… I turned to one red light.

Tell me, does the ‘Crown Jewel’ of LexyCorp still shine so brightly and smugly? Or has it dulled? Has that gleam faded just a bit with the knowledge that, despite every which way you’ve tried to be relevant, you lost to a team that has ‘Unicorn’ in their name and tinfoil hats on their heads?

I grinned, turning away to walk down the aisles, knowing the cameras would follow. It was perhaps, the only thing entertaining about you that I have seen all this time. If that sounds bitter, it certainly is. I wish I had been given the time you had these past few weeks – how I could have done things. How I could have entertained…

You always confuse me, Autumn. Speaking of ‘proving your worth’ in the ring and then throwing yourself into such low-brow nonsense! One of the most talented people here and yet one of the most boring and predictable outside of wrestling. I laugh a little. From someone that has made a career out of ‘acting a part’ and ‘playing an audience’ – do you really believe you fooled me with that sex-show? Or that ‘wedding’ swerve?

That’s why I ask if you are still the woman wishing to prove herself when you faced me last time. Are you that same woman? Or has being denied over Holly Adams and her ‘photoshop’ buttons on Twitter left you jaded?

Oh yes… I smiled. I understand the allure. I understand being slighted when it comes to End of the Year voting. In perhaps my greatest year, one where I won the Flame Royale from start to finish, won the SCW title back at Rise, and held it all the way to Under Attack, I was denied the wrestler of the year award to a creature that beat up jobbers most of the year. I understand the bitterness… but has it consumed you? Are you becoming more desperate to be relevant that everything about you is fake?

I turned my head up at nearby camera. Or have you simply faced the truth? I tilted my head.

What was your biggest complaint? That you deserved it because you had “the longest Television title reign in SCW history”? Yes, so magical. So important. And, no doubt, indicative of your abilities. Turning back such names as Konrad Raab, Kandis, Bison Jones, Purity Pixie – I could go on with the names… but one thing is missing. Your tag ambitions aside, one word you haven’t been able to say all this time regarding your historic reign, no matter how amazing in the ring you are…

I turned my head then to grant her a jester-smirk. ”Undefeated.”

You can’t say that, can you? Because then you would be as big of a lie as your sex-video and as much of a fraud as your ‘wedding’, wouldn’t you? You’d be as big of a fraud as Ace and Lexy, wouldn’t you?

It’s something I actually can be somewhat proud of. That as how good you are, Autumn. That for all of your wins – your conquering of this division – I…and I alone… beat you.

A laugh escapes me as I reach another set of stairs, continuing my descent, the pieces of my past showing up as I pass them.

Not that I imagine the feeling is mutual. After all, you still retained the championship, but I know it sits with you, doesn’t it. It sits in the back of your mind. One man – one single person – keeping you from being ‘undefeated’ in title defences. One jester, a masked fool- I couldn’t help spinning slowly on the spot as I gripped a rail, careful of my knee, chuckling a little still. A man you needed Ace Marshall to deal with-

Does it make you think, Autumn? Does it make you doubt? That perhaps it wasn’t Holly Adams and her campaign that kept you from being chosen for the End of the Year and it wasn’t a conspiracy, but rather, your biggest argument in favor of your case for it… was built around the fact that had it not been for Ace, you may not have been the Television Champion. That without Ace saving you from me, your reign would have not been record-breaking or historic or… anything…

I smiled as I threw my head back, my eyes looking around the arena. I mean, if it were not so – if it was merely a delay in the inevitable of me joining the list of those you had vanquished… then why didn’t you fight for a rematch? Why has it taken over four months to reach this overdue second round? Why, the moment you lost to me, were you suddenly facing Lexy’s FATHER, CHBK?

I felt a wicked grin grace my features, my brain bubbling with theories. Oh, my dear, Autumn… how amusing… you don’t realize – you’re too busy whining about the tag titles and ‘not being picked for the world title’ to realize just how protected you actually are. How you’ve always been protected in this little reign of yours.

Even… I look down, my eyes scanning my bad leg. Even on a bad leg, the world saw that I was more than a match for you. The world saw that I, even as I am now, could very well have taken the last of your relevance… and Lexy has been keeping you safe – keeping you as far away from me as possible. Because as good as you are… you are good enough to beat Josh Hudson. Good enough to beat CHBK. Good enough to beat NEARLY anyone.

But good enough to beat me? I make my way down another set of stairs, my feet hitting the ground mats that surround the ring. Now that is an entertaining debate… one I have waited four months to find the answer to.

Turning, I jump up to sit on the apron of the ring, my back against the ropes as I look at the cameras hovering in front of me. But do you know what interests me just as much, Autumn? As much as proving that, even now, Shilo Valiant can beat the greatest Television Champion in SCW history?

My jester-grin softened to a knowing smile. Being able to say I beat a future World Champion.

I knew I had her attention and I leaned back into the ropes. Star of Tomorrow? Do you need any more proof, Autumn? It’s there. Right before you. Problem is? You’re too busy being what everyone else in Lexy’s World wants you to be. Television Champion? Tag-title champion/contender? Surrounding yourself in scandals and mistakes rather than emerging and standing as one of the brightest futures here?

Lazily, I dropped down to roll under the ropes, getting up slowly to stand in the ring. You don’t see it. You look at me and see a legend ‘desperate to restart his career’… and that’s not true at all, Autumn. I’m not looking for a new beginning… I’m looking for a fitting end.

I smile knowingly, those damn tears back as they pricked the back of my eyes. Tonight, I will not lie, Autumn, you have with you two options – and both of them you are going to thank me for, just like you should have thanked me for keeping away all those months while you padded your reign with more wins to ‘forget that one loss’ against me.

Option one! I held up a finger as I walked around the ring. I beat you – and I take away that Television Title. I free you from the mid-card and with nothing holding you back now? Nothing to burn you out week after week? You will be free to challenge the upper card! Syren, Glory, Selena, Cid – no longer trapped in a reign that’s long since served its purpose to you. I beat you and not only do I prove something to myself, I free you from that title’s obligations to allow you to FINALLY live up to your entertaining potential of “The Star of Tomorrow”… No more need for fake sex-videos and fraudulent weddings. No more need for conspiracies… you become set on the path you desperately desire…

That’s option 1.

My fingers change to the “2” sign. Option 2… you beat me… and you can say with your head held high that not only did you beat Shilo Valiant… you sent him on his way as he left SCW…

With a sad smile, I turn to gaze kindly at the nearest camera. That’s right, Autumn. You and you alone – temporary or permanent – can say that you were the last person to fight me… and that you sent me out of SCW with a loss worthy of a world title contender… My eyes travelled down to my knee once more. I have very little left… A sad smile as I came clean. Little left that I can do with how I am… but I can do this, Autumn. One more moment in the spotlight. One more moment to steal the show.

Reaching out, I dust my hands in front of me. So!! I hope you are prepared, “Angel of LexyCorp”! Because if this is to be ‘the end’ for me – in a fitting “Angel vs. Jester” match? Then I truly have nothing to lose. And if you don’t know how dangerous that makes me - when I have nothing to lose? Just ask Ace Marshall. Ask him how and who I beat while he was both the World Champion and Television Champion – ask him how that went… That wicked grin returns to my features.

I thrust my hand up a little. So prepare! Prepare to gain so much but also to lose something that has been long overdue to me! Because if I have any say…well… I’d rather walk out holding a title than walk out empty-handed once again.

I give one last smile to her – truly hopeful that all I have predicted for her…and myself… will come to pass.

One more moment in the spotlight…
One more moment to steal the show…
One more moment… to make me laugh…

Hearing a snap and pop sound, I jerked my head up just as all the lights go out, save for a single spotlight shining down on top of me. I saw the bright white shining down on me, almost blinding me… and I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped me, tired and amused as it was.

Thanks guys… I smile before casting one more glance towards the light. Do me a favour, will you?

Keep the lights on while I’m gone…

I don’t wait for an answer from the SCW staff. I know none will come… I just… I walk out of the spotlight – even if every part of me was begging me to stay in it…

I guess… I guess I couldn’t really say it after all, could I? Sorry, guys…

Necro.

My second for the week.

Enjoy.

Life in Seasons
Book Two, Chapter Fifty-Three