05-02-2023, 04:13 AM
05-04-2023, 09:01 PM
05-04-2023, 10:13 PM
DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.
Nome, Alaska
May 1st, 2023
8:13pm
She had promised herself that she would never come back here. She had promised herself that she would leave this place alone for what it was now. She had told herself that she needed to stay away from this specific place – to let this place be… be the tomb that it had become.
She had broken that promise, despite every part of her, with each step, begging her to turn back.
Still, as Selena breathed, watching her breath condense oh so familiarly into mist before her eyes, she could not stop her brain from recognizing how each step sounded as her boots stepped onto the cold ground – how comforting it felt. How good it felt to feel the familiar stone under her feet. How it felt under her hand as she ran her pale skin against the chiseled stone wall. How, despite the flickering lights above her, some still functioning while others long since burnt out, she knew exactly where to go even in the long shadows of the path.
I shouldn’t be here. Her mind told her again for the umpteenth time, issuing warning after warning to turn around and go back. Back to her rented car, back to the small airport, back to her private plane, and back to Manhattan where her wife, children, dog and her ‘Forever Home’ were waiting. Back where she had things so many people went their lives without. Love, a family, financial security… so much.
However, she didn’t turn around. She simply kept moving forward – moving further into the cave. Further into her father’s gold-mine.
It had been almost a year since she had last been here. Almost a year since she had followed Killjoy down into this place’s depths for a final showdown with her biological sister – almost a year since Project: Black Ice and Project: God Save the Queen had seen their conclusion. And as the Snow Queen took another step further into the dark, she was tempted to turn her head, to the elevator that was several feet behind her, giving a soft amber glow in the interspersed light and darkness.
The place where her sister had met her end.
The thought caused Selena to stop in her tracks, almost turning her head back towards the closed elevator door. No, she wasn’t afraid of Killjoy anymore. Her sister – Celina – was long dead and buried, killed by Killjoy’s own obsession for Selena’s identity and life. In the end, Killjoy had killed a Frost, alright, just not the one she had meant to.
I shouldn’t be here.
Selena gave a quiet sigh as she journeyed on through the cave’s interior. She could feel the cold through her blue jeans and the green sweater she wore – Deanna’s… which she had stolen before leaving New York – and even hear the wind high above her on the surface of Nome. Despite the past here, she closed her eyes and breathed it all in as best as she could, letting it comfort her. The cold was a familiar friend, as it had been for as long as she could remember. Before Deanna, before the children, before the Scythes, even before wrestling…
She was back where she – No, she refused to say or even think the word ‘belonged’ despite feeling every inclination of it here. It was a far cry from what she felt in the one place she had thought she did belong: SCW.
Turning a little, the platinum-blonde leaned against the cold stone wall, her legs suddenly feeling heavy and weak at the same time. Quietly, she sunk down the stone to sit against it, resting her head against the resilient surface. Aside from her mental ‘warnings’, she also couldn’t get the other images out of her mind either – the ones that had prompted her to up and leave her home and return back here in the first place… alone.
Ace hitting Deanna with a chair – the move that had started the chaos.
Konrad Raab running down to the ring and interfering repeatedly.
Ravyn throwing the chair at her head when the referee had been knocked out.
The strange man that had run out.
Lexy Chapel getting involved.
Alexander Crowe attacking.
Ace pulling her tights in the illegal pin to win.
The SCW fans erupting… cheering him as he stood there with her title.
The memory – the sounds – all of it Selena had watched over and over again on the YouTube replay, unable to bear it or free her mind of any of it. She couldn’t just ‘let it slide’ like she had so many losses in her career, even here in the depths of this cave. If The House of Frost’s match with Light in the Darkness at Retribution had been one of the proudest tag matches she had ever been part of – the epitome of skill vs skill and a match of integrity - than the shitstorm they had endured at Playing the Wildcard was, by far, the opposite! How different a month can make things… Four people interfering, mostly against the Frosts, weapons used – and it had taken a small army for Ace and Ravyn to steal the titles from her and Deanna… and the SCW Universe had LIKED it! Had CHEERED for it!
She shook her head. Okay, not all of them but enough that it had filled so much of the stadium. Why? The Snow Queen shook her head. How could they have liked it? It was beyond unfair! It was beyond uncalled for! It was a slap in the face of the SCW Universe – a cheap play against the integrity and matches of skill they had paid to see! Had she not spent years fighting against such unfairness in SCW? Fighting against such methods of ambushing and chaos so SCW could be about the talent and the skill and the passion? About being ‘the best wrestling company in the world’?
And on top of it all… O.. The man that she had put… put everything into believing in? THAT had been what had started this whole thing! What had thrown her off since before the bell rang and plagued her mind the whole night! She had known what she had seen. With her very eyes, she had watched her boss take the Royal Letter she had written – the letter she had painstakingly taken hours to choose every word, both pleading and accusatory, to try and make the SCW owner see reason. See what was becoming of the company he had built and dedicated nearly twenty years of his life too (Selena almost a decade herself). The company she had believed in with all her heart and soul.
She had watched him print the letter out… and then toss it away in the trash without reading it…
All those hours of work, years of fighting for him and SCW, defending him, saving him in some instances. Sacrificing her own health and body, littered with scars from such… and he had thrown her pleas away… as if it was nothing. As if she was nothing.
But why? It made no sense to the Snow Queen! She had emailed the letter to him, yet he had chosen to print it out and destroy it! Why?! Why not just quietly delete it from his phone or something?
Unless he wanted you to see him throw it away… her mind mocked, adding another jab of pain into her heart.
Her sapphire eyes slamming shut in the dark, the Snow Queen angrily bit her lower lip, slamming the back of her head against the stone ‘wall’ in frustration! It created a dull ache at the back of her head, almost comforting to her. She did it again, savouring the ache in her current mental state!
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!” the yell had sat and stewed in her core, her soul, for days, compounding with all these memories and festering within her as she had tried her best to simply figure it out on her own. Trying to rationalize and give SCW, the fans, even D., the benefit of the doubt. She had failed time and time again to understand it, even now in the depths of the place she knew better than even her own Manhattan home (decades of life here over seven years in Manhattan).
“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!” again, her voice echoed throughout the stone, the only ‘reply’ to her cracked voice of questions. “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!” the last shout came out as more of a desperate cry, tears stinging her eyes before falling readily.
“I…” her voice fell to a whisper, but still echoed through her father’s cavern – once the only place she could find peace in her life. “I hate you…” came the whisper as she drew her legs up to her chest, cradling herself tightly as the tears fell. “I can’t do this anymore…” more cries, sobs, escaped her, the Snow Queen – perhaps one of the strongest willed women in SCW – powerless to stop herself. “Father…” she found herself speaking still but could not control her own voice. “Daddy…” the soft accent shook as more tears filled her. “I can’t do this anymore… I wanna go home…”
“Daddy…” the repeated word came not from her, but the voice a little further down the cave, causing the Snow Queen’s head to jerk up, her sapphire eyes’ vision, temporarily, blurry from her own tears. She blinked, trying to clear her vision and managed it after a second try. “Daddy…” the voice cried again.
Before her eyes, amidst the lights and shadows flickering in their dance of functioning lightbulbs, the platinum-blonde saw the young girl form before her – as if crafted from the very shadows and darkness of the cave. A small child with hair as snow-like in color as her own, tied in a braid so like hers, though less voluminous. She wore not the clothes for winter, which was more common in Nome, even back then, but black shorts and dark-blue t-shirt. Selena heard the child crying as the little one sat against the stone wall, just like she was, the child grabbing her left leg and clutching it close to her chest. From where she sat, Selena could the various shades of red across the child’s knee, a little blood coming from it as the child cried. If Selena didn’t know better, she would have sworn she was staring at her daughter Elsianna…
“Daddy…” the child cried, her accent soft, tears flowing down her sapphire eyes as she cried out.
Despite herself, Selena, ever a mother, reached out towards the child, instinctively wanting to help her, stopping only when she heard the voice come from behind her.
“Well, what happened here?” the kind voice asked as someone moved past Selena, walking towards the child and kneeling down towards her. He wore black pants and a gray hoodie, but in his hands was a little kit that Selena recognized as some kind of first-aid kit (from the familiar cross on the side of the red box).
Her mouth hanging open in shock, Selena recognized the face of her father: Jonathan VanHohenheim.
No… not Jonathan… her mind corrected as she recognized the youthful features of the man’s face – features that Jonathan had lost years ago. Donovan…
Before her, kneeling before the child, was Donovan Frost. The man she had not seen in so many decades – only a shadow of him named Jonathan VanHohenheim, whom she still loved as any daughter would towards her father. Still, to see Donovan there, smiling the patient smile that Jonathan did not truly have, Selena let a few more tears escape her eyes. Gods, how she still missed that man…
“I tried…” the innocent child gulped, trying to find words in her voice despite the pain she was feeling. “I tried… and I tried… I tried to… I tried to…” her sobs gave way to some starting form of hiccups, the young girl unable to control her bodily functions as her emotions ran rampant inside her.
“Selena…” Donovan tried, holding up a free hand as his other set the first-aid kit down. With the free hand, he cupped the child’s face. “Calm down. It’s okay.”
“But it hurts…it hurts…” small Selena continued to cry, sniffling as she tried to quell her sobs.
“I know it does.” The father replied quietly, unaware of the older version of his daughter that watched everything unfold. “But I need you to be strong. I need you to be brave, okay?”
Looking up at her daddy, the child took in a gulp of air before nodding her head. Opening the kit, Donovan fished out the cotton-ball bag first and the bottle of (Selena recognized the white and red colors) rubbing alcohol. “This is going to sting a bit.” He warned the child, but despite said warning, the little one cried out as soon as the doused-cotton touched her knee.
“Ahhh! PAPA!” more tears came from the child. “Make it stop! It’s not fair!”
For a few seconds, all adult-Selena could hear were her younger self’s cries, her heart twisting at the pain she was remembering. Still, the sobs eventually passed as Donovan applied a simple band-aid to the child’s scuffed knee.
“There you go.” He remarked, reaching over to hug the child. “You were wonderful, Selena.”
No, I wasn’t. Selena sighed, laying against the stone wall as she watched the two dismally. I failed. I failed everyone. I failed SCW. I failed…everything I believe in. I tried…
“So…” Donovan tried as he released his daughter from the hug. “Can you tell me what happened, snowflake?”
The child sniffled at her father’s nickname for her – a nickname Selena had not heard in two decades. Jonathan didn’t know her that way. And probably never will…
“Gavin pushed me.” The young girl answered honestly. “I stood up to him like you told me to. I told him I would tell the teacher on him if he didn’t stop picking on me… and he just laughed at me and pushed me into the ground.” A few more cries escaped her. “I can’t do it, daddy. I can’t stand up to him.”
“Yes, you can.” Donovan remarked. “And you can tell the teacher.”
“No, I can’t!” cried young-Selena. “He’s bigger than me! He’s stronger than me!” more hiccups escaped her as she began to be worked up again. “And he’ll just laugh at me and push me down again! I’ll never get him to leave me alone!”
“I’ll never get him to understand.” The sound came from both child and adult Selena at the same time. “What’s the point?” they both added.
“No one will listen if I tell on him. No one will believe me.” The child continued to cry. “They just say I’m lying and desperate for attention…” without hesitation, the child threw herself into her father, wrapping her small arms around his reachable neck and clinging to him in a desperate plea. “Can we just leave? Leave Nome forever? Please!”
Despite the positioning of the three ‘people’, Selena could see the saddened expression on her father’s face as he held the (she surmised) eight-year-old. This version of her was still so small, not having quite hit the growth spurt that would give her the long legs she would use to knockout so many superstars within SCW. No, this ‘Selena’ just wanted her father to hold her and make her problems go away… she almost smiled at herself for that. She had truly thought her father had such power, but he was simply just a man. Flawed, good, but not invincible or all-powerful like the child before her believed.
Or I wished to be… her mind whispered as she wiped a stray tear from her eye. Before her, she saw Donovan lean back a little to face his daughter. Slowly, he reached out to take the necklace that was around the girl’s necklace, pulling at it a little to reveal it before the two of them. Selena spotted, even in the few lights that operated above them, the gold-sheen of the gold-nugget as it shined in the light (or was that just part of her memory?).
“Do you know how long I had to wait to find this?” he asked slowly, his eyes and smile patient as the sniffling Selena shook her small head. “Oh…before you were born.”
“But I’m eight!” child-Selena remarked.
“Yep.” Donovan nodded. “I started digging in this cave a few years before you were born. And, about a decade later… there was my proof.” He gestured to the necklace. “But…for so many years, day by day, failing each and every time… no one understanding me or believing that the gold was there? It hurt, snowflake.”
“Like this?” she gestured to her knee, earning a nod from her father.
“Yeah.” He smiled, clearly not wanting to correct the difference between a decade of pain and a mere scrape of the knee. “But I kept digging. I kept looking.”
“Why?” the child sniffled, her eyes still wet from her tears and confusion laced in her features. “Why didn’t you just stop and run away?”
Donovan took a deep breath, casting his eyes around the space – even, Selena thought, settling on the adult Snow Queen (she was almost sure he had ‘seen’ her. Stupid as the very thought was.) – until settling back onto the child.
“Because when you believe in something hard enough. When you believe in something with all you have and all you are… you have to keep fighting for it. You have to keep looking for it. Even if no one believes it is there. Even if no one believes you or believes in you finding it. You have to keep looking.”
“Keep digging.” Both the adult platinum-blonde and Donovan said at once, the memory vivid in Selena’s mind but unable to stop a few more tears from falling down her pale cheeks.
“Because one day…” Donovan continued, gesturing towards his daughter’s necklace again. “One day – even if it takes years… you’ll find it. And the world will know you were right. And it will be a better place for it!”
The eight-year-old sniffled, reaching up to wipe at her eyes. “So, if I keep trying to stand up to Gavin… people will one day believe me and maybe he’ll stop?”
“In everything you do, darling.” Donovan remarked. “All you do – believe in it, even if that faith is no bigger than that gold-nugget. Never lose it. Hang onto it as tight as you can… because sometimes…” the two began to fade before Selena’s eyes, Donovan’s last words dying through the fading echo. “That’s all you need…”
Silence greeted Selena again, the Snow Queen alone in the cave once more. Despite what she had witnessed in the light and shadow’s tricks on her mind, she felt no elation. No inspiration. Rather, she felt the same sinking feeling in her heart that she had carried from Playing the Wildcard.
“I can’t, father.” She whispered. “I can’t keep looking. I can’t keep believing… I just…” she sighed, reaching up to the necklace that was no longer there – the gold-nugget locked away in her home in Manhattan. “I’m tired…” she whispered, her head falling to rest against the stone, her sapphire eyes fluttering shut. “I’m so tired of fighting… when nobody believes anymore…”
“Then maybe you should just give up then!”
The voice came not from in front of Selena, but behind her, the tone and pitch causing Selena’s spine to go ramrod stiff, her eyes flying open as the ‘ding’ sound of the elevator was heard. Slowly, fear creeping into her spine and making her feel a cold she had only felt once before in her entire life, she turned her head around to gaze back the way she had come.
To her horror, the elevator doors opened, revealing the figure that stood there, dressed in black pants, shirt and a leather jacket. A figure that slowly, methodically stalked towards Selena until they were standing before her, blue eyes burrowing down into the terrified Snow Queen.
“Hello, sister. Are you ready to die now?”
With a wicked grin, Celine Frost – the monster known as Killjoy – glared down at the Snow Queen, delighting in the pained cry that escaped Selena’s mouth.
“Not you…” Selena whispered, slamming her eyes shut, her mind screaming for her father to return. “Anyone but you…”
I shouldn’t be here! I shouldn’t be here! I shouldn’t be here!
“You should’ve listened to yourself…” Killjoy mocked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Because now you have to deal with me…”
The Witches of Alden
”Return”
Nome, Alaska
May 1st, 2023
8:13pm
She had promised herself that she would never come back here. She had promised herself that she would leave this place alone for what it was now. She had told herself that she needed to stay away from this specific place – to let this place be… be the tomb that it had become.
She had broken that promise, despite every part of her, with each step, begging her to turn back.
Still, as Selena breathed, watching her breath condense oh so familiarly into mist before her eyes, she could not stop her brain from recognizing how each step sounded as her boots stepped onto the cold ground – how comforting it felt. How good it felt to feel the familiar stone under her feet. How it felt under her hand as she ran her pale skin against the chiseled stone wall. How, despite the flickering lights above her, some still functioning while others long since burnt out, she knew exactly where to go even in the long shadows of the path.
I shouldn’t be here. Her mind told her again for the umpteenth time, issuing warning after warning to turn around and go back. Back to her rented car, back to the small airport, back to her private plane, and back to Manhattan where her wife, children, dog and her ‘Forever Home’ were waiting. Back where she had things so many people went their lives without. Love, a family, financial security… so much.
However, she didn’t turn around. She simply kept moving forward – moving further into the cave. Further into her father’s gold-mine.
It had been almost a year since she had last been here. Almost a year since she had followed Killjoy down into this place’s depths for a final showdown with her biological sister – almost a year since Project: Black Ice and Project: God Save the Queen had seen their conclusion. And as the Snow Queen took another step further into the dark, she was tempted to turn her head, to the elevator that was several feet behind her, giving a soft amber glow in the interspersed light and darkness.
The place where her sister had met her end.
The thought caused Selena to stop in her tracks, almost turning her head back towards the closed elevator door. No, she wasn’t afraid of Killjoy anymore. Her sister – Celina – was long dead and buried, killed by Killjoy’s own obsession for Selena’s identity and life. In the end, Killjoy had killed a Frost, alright, just not the one she had meant to.
I shouldn’t be here.
Selena gave a quiet sigh as she journeyed on through the cave’s interior. She could feel the cold through her blue jeans and the green sweater she wore – Deanna’s… which she had stolen before leaving New York – and even hear the wind high above her on the surface of Nome. Despite the past here, she closed her eyes and breathed it all in as best as she could, letting it comfort her. The cold was a familiar friend, as it had been for as long as she could remember. Before Deanna, before the children, before the Scythes, even before wrestling…
She was back where she – No, she refused to say or even think the word ‘belonged’ despite feeling every inclination of it here. It was a far cry from what she felt in the one place she had thought she did belong: SCW.
Turning a little, the platinum-blonde leaned against the cold stone wall, her legs suddenly feeling heavy and weak at the same time. Quietly, she sunk down the stone to sit against it, resting her head against the resilient surface. Aside from her mental ‘warnings’, she also couldn’t get the other images out of her mind either – the ones that had prompted her to up and leave her home and return back here in the first place… alone.
Ace hitting Deanna with a chair – the move that had started the chaos.
Konrad Raab running down to the ring and interfering repeatedly.
Ravyn throwing the chair at her head when the referee had been knocked out.
The strange man that had run out.
Lexy Chapel getting involved.
Alexander Crowe attacking.
Ace pulling her tights in the illegal pin to win.
The SCW fans erupting… cheering him as he stood there with her title.
The memory – the sounds – all of it Selena had watched over and over again on the YouTube replay, unable to bear it or free her mind of any of it. She couldn’t just ‘let it slide’ like she had so many losses in her career, even here in the depths of this cave. If The House of Frost’s match with Light in the Darkness at Retribution had been one of the proudest tag matches she had ever been part of – the epitome of skill vs skill and a match of integrity - than the shitstorm they had endured at Playing the Wildcard was, by far, the opposite! How different a month can make things… Four people interfering, mostly against the Frosts, weapons used – and it had taken a small army for Ace and Ravyn to steal the titles from her and Deanna… and the SCW Universe had LIKED it! Had CHEERED for it!
She shook her head. Okay, not all of them but enough that it had filled so much of the stadium. Why? The Snow Queen shook her head. How could they have liked it? It was beyond unfair! It was beyond uncalled for! It was a slap in the face of the SCW Universe – a cheap play against the integrity and matches of skill they had paid to see! Had she not spent years fighting against such unfairness in SCW? Fighting against such methods of ambushing and chaos so SCW could be about the talent and the skill and the passion? About being ‘the best wrestling company in the world’?
And on top of it all… O.. The man that she had put… put everything into believing in? THAT had been what had started this whole thing! What had thrown her off since before the bell rang and plagued her mind the whole night! She had known what she had seen. With her very eyes, she had watched her boss take the Royal Letter she had written – the letter she had painstakingly taken hours to choose every word, both pleading and accusatory, to try and make the SCW owner see reason. See what was becoming of the company he had built and dedicated nearly twenty years of his life too (Selena almost a decade herself). The company she had believed in with all her heart and soul.
She had watched him print the letter out… and then toss it away in the trash without reading it…
All those hours of work, years of fighting for him and SCW, defending him, saving him in some instances. Sacrificing her own health and body, littered with scars from such… and he had thrown her pleas away… as if it was nothing. As if she was nothing.
But why? It made no sense to the Snow Queen! She had emailed the letter to him, yet he had chosen to print it out and destroy it! Why?! Why not just quietly delete it from his phone or something?
Unless he wanted you to see him throw it away… her mind mocked, adding another jab of pain into her heart.
Her sapphire eyes slamming shut in the dark, the Snow Queen angrily bit her lower lip, slamming the back of her head against the stone ‘wall’ in frustration! It created a dull ache at the back of her head, almost comforting to her. She did it again, savouring the ache in her current mental state!
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!” the yell had sat and stewed in her core, her soul, for days, compounding with all these memories and festering within her as she had tried her best to simply figure it out on her own. Trying to rationalize and give SCW, the fans, even D., the benefit of the doubt. She had failed time and time again to understand it, even now in the depths of the place she knew better than even her own Manhattan home (decades of life here over seven years in Manhattan).
“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!” again, her voice echoed throughout the stone, the only ‘reply’ to her cracked voice of questions. “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!” the last shout came out as more of a desperate cry, tears stinging her eyes before falling readily.
“I…” her voice fell to a whisper, but still echoed through her father’s cavern – once the only place she could find peace in her life. “I hate you…” came the whisper as she drew her legs up to her chest, cradling herself tightly as the tears fell. “I can’t do this anymore…” more cries, sobs, escaped her, the Snow Queen – perhaps one of the strongest willed women in SCW – powerless to stop herself. “Father…” she found herself speaking still but could not control her own voice. “Daddy…” the soft accent shook as more tears filled her. “I can’t do this anymore… I wanna go home…”
“Daddy…” the repeated word came not from her, but the voice a little further down the cave, causing the Snow Queen’s head to jerk up, her sapphire eyes’ vision, temporarily, blurry from her own tears. She blinked, trying to clear her vision and managed it after a second try. “Daddy…” the voice cried again.
Before her eyes, amidst the lights and shadows flickering in their dance of functioning lightbulbs, the platinum-blonde saw the young girl form before her – as if crafted from the very shadows and darkness of the cave. A small child with hair as snow-like in color as her own, tied in a braid so like hers, though less voluminous. She wore not the clothes for winter, which was more common in Nome, even back then, but black shorts and dark-blue t-shirt. Selena heard the child crying as the little one sat against the stone wall, just like she was, the child grabbing her left leg and clutching it close to her chest. From where she sat, Selena could the various shades of red across the child’s knee, a little blood coming from it as the child cried. If Selena didn’t know better, she would have sworn she was staring at her daughter Elsianna…
“Daddy…” the child cried, her accent soft, tears flowing down her sapphire eyes as she cried out.
Despite herself, Selena, ever a mother, reached out towards the child, instinctively wanting to help her, stopping only when she heard the voice come from behind her.
“Well, what happened here?” the kind voice asked as someone moved past Selena, walking towards the child and kneeling down towards her. He wore black pants and a gray hoodie, but in his hands was a little kit that Selena recognized as some kind of first-aid kit (from the familiar cross on the side of the red box).
Her mouth hanging open in shock, Selena recognized the face of her father: Jonathan VanHohenheim.
No… not Jonathan… her mind corrected as she recognized the youthful features of the man’s face – features that Jonathan had lost years ago. Donovan…
Before her, kneeling before the child, was Donovan Frost. The man she had not seen in so many decades – only a shadow of him named Jonathan VanHohenheim, whom she still loved as any daughter would towards her father. Still, to see Donovan there, smiling the patient smile that Jonathan did not truly have, Selena let a few more tears escape her eyes. Gods, how she still missed that man…
“I tried…” the innocent child gulped, trying to find words in her voice despite the pain she was feeling. “I tried… and I tried… I tried to… I tried to…” her sobs gave way to some starting form of hiccups, the young girl unable to control her bodily functions as her emotions ran rampant inside her.
“Selena…” Donovan tried, holding up a free hand as his other set the first-aid kit down. With the free hand, he cupped the child’s face. “Calm down. It’s okay.”
“But it hurts…it hurts…” small Selena continued to cry, sniffling as she tried to quell her sobs.
“I know it does.” The father replied quietly, unaware of the older version of his daughter that watched everything unfold. “But I need you to be strong. I need you to be brave, okay?”
Looking up at her daddy, the child took in a gulp of air before nodding her head. Opening the kit, Donovan fished out the cotton-ball bag first and the bottle of (Selena recognized the white and red colors) rubbing alcohol. “This is going to sting a bit.” He warned the child, but despite said warning, the little one cried out as soon as the doused-cotton touched her knee.
“Ahhh! PAPA!” more tears came from the child. “Make it stop! It’s not fair!”
For a few seconds, all adult-Selena could hear were her younger self’s cries, her heart twisting at the pain she was remembering. Still, the sobs eventually passed as Donovan applied a simple band-aid to the child’s scuffed knee.
“There you go.” He remarked, reaching over to hug the child. “You were wonderful, Selena.”
No, I wasn’t. Selena sighed, laying against the stone wall as she watched the two dismally. I failed. I failed everyone. I failed SCW. I failed…everything I believe in. I tried…
“So…” Donovan tried as he released his daughter from the hug. “Can you tell me what happened, snowflake?”
The child sniffled at her father’s nickname for her – a nickname Selena had not heard in two decades. Jonathan didn’t know her that way. And probably never will…
“Gavin pushed me.” The young girl answered honestly. “I stood up to him like you told me to. I told him I would tell the teacher on him if he didn’t stop picking on me… and he just laughed at me and pushed me into the ground.” A few more cries escaped her. “I can’t do it, daddy. I can’t stand up to him.”
“Yes, you can.” Donovan remarked. “And you can tell the teacher.”
“No, I can’t!” cried young-Selena. “He’s bigger than me! He’s stronger than me!” more hiccups escaped her as she began to be worked up again. “And he’ll just laugh at me and push me down again! I’ll never get him to leave me alone!”
“I’ll never get him to understand.” The sound came from both child and adult Selena at the same time. “What’s the point?” they both added.
“No one will listen if I tell on him. No one will believe me.” The child continued to cry. “They just say I’m lying and desperate for attention…” without hesitation, the child threw herself into her father, wrapping her small arms around his reachable neck and clinging to him in a desperate plea. “Can we just leave? Leave Nome forever? Please!”
Despite the positioning of the three ‘people’, Selena could see the saddened expression on her father’s face as he held the (she surmised) eight-year-old. This version of her was still so small, not having quite hit the growth spurt that would give her the long legs she would use to knockout so many superstars within SCW. No, this ‘Selena’ just wanted her father to hold her and make her problems go away… she almost smiled at herself for that. She had truly thought her father had such power, but he was simply just a man. Flawed, good, but not invincible or all-powerful like the child before her believed.
Or I wished to be… her mind whispered as she wiped a stray tear from her eye. Before her, she saw Donovan lean back a little to face his daughter. Slowly, he reached out to take the necklace that was around the girl’s necklace, pulling at it a little to reveal it before the two of them. Selena spotted, even in the few lights that operated above them, the gold-sheen of the gold-nugget as it shined in the light (or was that just part of her memory?).
“Do you know how long I had to wait to find this?” he asked slowly, his eyes and smile patient as the sniffling Selena shook her small head. “Oh…before you were born.”
“But I’m eight!” child-Selena remarked.
“Yep.” Donovan nodded. “I started digging in this cave a few years before you were born. And, about a decade later… there was my proof.” He gestured to the necklace. “But…for so many years, day by day, failing each and every time… no one understanding me or believing that the gold was there? It hurt, snowflake.”
“Like this?” she gestured to her knee, earning a nod from her father.
“Yeah.” He smiled, clearly not wanting to correct the difference between a decade of pain and a mere scrape of the knee. “But I kept digging. I kept looking.”
“Why?” the child sniffled, her eyes still wet from her tears and confusion laced in her features. “Why didn’t you just stop and run away?”
Donovan took a deep breath, casting his eyes around the space – even, Selena thought, settling on the adult Snow Queen (she was almost sure he had ‘seen’ her. Stupid as the very thought was.) – until settling back onto the child.
“Because when you believe in something hard enough. When you believe in something with all you have and all you are… you have to keep fighting for it. You have to keep looking for it. Even if no one believes it is there. Even if no one believes you or believes in you finding it. You have to keep looking.”
“Keep digging.” Both the adult platinum-blonde and Donovan said at once, the memory vivid in Selena’s mind but unable to stop a few more tears from falling down her pale cheeks.
“Because one day…” Donovan continued, gesturing towards his daughter’s necklace again. “One day – even if it takes years… you’ll find it. And the world will know you were right. And it will be a better place for it!”
The eight-year-old sniffled, reaching up to wipe at her eyes. “So, if I keep trying to stand up to Gavin… people will one day believe me and maybe he’ll stop?”
“In everything you do, darling.” Donovan remarked. “All you do – believe in it, even if that faith is no bigger than that gold-nugget. Never lose it. Hang onto it as tight as you can… because sometimes…” the two began to fade before Selena’s eyes, Donovan’s last words dying through the fading echo. “That’s all you need…”
Silence greeted Selena again, the Snow Queen alone in the cave once more. Despite what she had witnessed in the light and shadow’s tricks on her mind, she felt no elation. No inspiration. Rather, she felt the same sinking feeling in her heart that she had carried from Playing the Wildcard.
“I can’t, father.” She whispered. “I can’t keep looking. I can’t keep believing… I just…” she sighed, reaching up to the necklace that was no longer there – the gold-nugget locked away in her home in Manhattan. “I’m tired…” she whispered, her head falling to rest against the stone, her sapphire eyes fluttering shut. “I’m so tired of fighting… when nobody believes anymore…”
“Then maybe you should just give up then!”
The voice came not from in front of Selena, but behind her, the tone and pitch causing Selena’s spine to go ramrod stiff, her eyes flying open as the ‘ding’ sound of the elevator was heard. Slowly, fear creeping into her spine and making her feel a cold she had only felt once before in her entire life, she turned her head around to gaze back the way she had come.
To her horror, the elevator doors opened, revealing the figure that stood there, dressed in black pants, shirt and a leather jacket. A figure that slowly, methodically stalked towards Selena until they were standing before her, blue eyes burrowing down into the terrified Snow Queen.
“Hello, sister. Are you ready to die now?”
With a wicked grin, Celine Frost – the monster known as Killjoy – glared down at the Snow Queen, delighting in the pained cry that escaped Selena’s mouth.
“Not you…” Selena whispered, slamming her eyes shut, her mind screaming for her father to return. “Anyone but you…”
I shouldn’t be here! I shouldn’t be here! I shouldn’t be here!
“You should’ve listened to yourself…” Killjoy mocked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Because now you have to deal with me…”
05-05-2023, 10:29 PM
The Witches of Alden
”Ghost”
Nome, Alaska
May 1st, 2023
9:07pm
Angrily, Selena pushed herself to her feet, keeping her back to the figure that ‘stood’ behind her.
“Oh…” mocked Killjoy, crossing her arms over her chest. “You just going to ignore me, is that it?”
“Just leave me alone.” Selena growled as she pushed her legs, somewhat asleep, through the tunnels. “I didn’t come here to see you.”
“Oh no! You came back to listen to ‘daddy-dearest’ for that ‘oh-so-effective’ peptalk, right? ‘Keep digging! Keep fighting!’” Killjoy mocked. “Too bad it didn’t work this time!”
“Shut up! I didn’t-“
“Oh bullshit!” interjected the killer/ghost. “You hate Nome even more than I ever did! But you keep running back here every time you can’t deal with the real world and SCW! You keep running back here to hide in your cave every time you fail!”
“I’m just trying to figure this shit out!” Selena growled back, not caring that she was cursing. “I’m looking for a way to turn this all around!”
“YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A REASON TO GO BACK THERE!”
The scream came from Killjoy, echoing through the cave – or did it, Selena wasn’t sure if it was really an echo. It was enough to get her to stop for a moment, though she kept her back to the spectre.
“You could hole up here right now. Hide away from the world like you did for over a decade of your life!” came the teasing tone. “Screw SCW! Screw the fans! Screw Deanna and the kids-“
That was the trigger, causing Selena to spin around, her eyes glaring down at her sister. “Fuck you!”
“What?!” Celina mocked with a shrug. “You’re the one holding Deanna down from being a star! It’s YOUR shadow that’s holding her back! You were the one that got pinned and cost her! You were the one that abandoned her and let her go through that door frame! Hell, let’s be honest – I put her in prison to get to YOU!”
Despite herself, Selena’s jaw clenched shut, her eyes threatening to brim with tears as they had at the sight of her younger self and her father.
“You’re finally realizing it, aren’t you?” Killjoy’s voice dropped to a deadly calm/serious tone. “You didn’t come here for inspiration. You came here because you’ve realized… that they don’t need you. Not Deanna, not the kids, and now… not even SCW. Nobody needs you.”
Despite herself, the Snow Queen suddenly could hear those cheers again from Kansas City – worshipping the chaos. The unfairness. The screwjob that had occurred to her and Deanna.
“They don’t want ‘integrity’ anymore.” Killjoy whispered, once more behind Selena. “They don’t want ‘fairness’ and ‘skill’ anymore. They want chaos.”
Slamming her eyes shut, Selena felt her head lower. Still, that voice persisted.
“So… why not just die?” Killjoy whispered. “Let ‘The Snow Queen’ die. Let this ‘integrity’ die and do what every single person in SCW has been ‘prophesizing’ about you since day one…”
This ghost didn’t need to further explain what she meant. This was part of Selena’s mind – she had witnessed enough ‘ghosts’ in her life to know that. The implication was beyond clear.
Since day one, those in SCW – the bitter, the jealous, the angry – they all had seen her as a ‘fraud’. That her ideals of ‘virtue and integrity’ were nothing more than a ruse to get ahead. That she was ‘fooling everyone’ and ‘any day now, Selena was gonna turn on everyone and laugh like a super-villain. HA HA HA!’. Autumn Valentine, Christy Matthews, even Owen Cruze and Bree Lancaster. Everyone had believed kept believing it, even a decade later, that Selena was fake and playing the longest con in the history of SCW.
Why not just do it?
A month ago, she would have spat at the idea. But that had been before she had watched the SCW Universe cheer for a basic clusterfuck that had been the ‘chaos trios cash in’ followed by that travesty of a tag-team match! That had been before her pleas had fallen on deaf ears by the man that had been… been her mentor for nearly a decade in O. D..
“It would be so easy.” Came Killjoy’s voice in her ear, Selena even feeling a pair of hands reach up to grasp her shoulders from behind. “You’d be untouchable. You’d be unbeatable. Fuck being a queen… you’d be a Sovereign. You’d be a Goddess. You’d be-“
“Everything that I despise…” the voice from Selena was barely a whisper, lacking any true strength.
“Well, they hate you anyway. So what? What do you owe them now? What do you owe D. now?” Killjoy teased. “And you’d have me guiding you the entire time. Showing you how it’s done.”
Her eyes closed, Selena gave a shake of her head as she continued to push herself through the tunnel.
“What’s the alternative?!” she heard Killjoy call out to her. “More screwjobs? More dismissals by the boss? Your legacy reduced to tainted losses? Your greatest accomplishments forgotten because everyone’s figured out how to beat you now?!” A pause. “Or the girl that ran away and hid in a cave because she wasn’t ‘popular’ anymore?”
Despite the words, Selena continued to push herself onward through the cave. She longed for Deanna’s soft touch and comforting words. She longed for her children’s beliefs in her. She even missed Oberon’s soft fur and how often he just wanted cuddles. She longed to KNOW what she was fighting for and what she believed in…
I shouldn’t be here… the voice was a mere whisper in her mind now, growing weaker with every twisted-truth that Killjoy was speaking in her ear. She was set to take place in a damn tournament to crown a new world champion – booked to face Josh Hudson first, then the winner of Xander Valentine and… Ace Marshall (she cringed a little at the name)… and then maybe Syren, Asher or Adam or Kandis – It didn’t matter! The way she was now?! Scattered and lost? She wasn’t even going to get past Josh Hudson!
Yeah, he was reeling from a loss, but she was broken! And she knew it! It was the only reason Killjoy could even be here! Because Selena was broken and she didn’t know how to fix it – no, scratch that! She knew two ways to fix it and neither made sense! Either she simply ‘kept fighting’ and being the punching bag for the fans jeers against her integrity and the target of D.’s dismissals, or she embraced the chaos like even the boss was telling her to do cause “the fans like it” and turn her back on EVERYTHING she believed in! Everything she had taught her children! Everything that made her… her.
She needed a solution. She needed an answer – because if she couldn’t find one, then Josh Hudson was kicking her ass and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it-
Her eyes caught something in the shadows of the tunnel by a pair of burnt-out lightbulbs. It took a second of Selena to recognize it. She knew the eyeless sockets that stared up at her. The tooth-filled jaw that almost grinned. The black skull that was on its side.
Killjoy’s… still here… like she was. Like Selena was.
“Take it.” Came Killjoy’s voice. “Be what they WANT you to be. What they are MAKING you into.” The whisper was so close to her ear, Selena could almost feel it against her earlobe. “Become Killjoy.”
Slowly, Selena reached out, taking the helmet of her sister into her hand and lifting it up. It was still as heavy as she remembered it. Still felt cold in her hands. And as she looked down at it, she could hear her own voice, mixed with Deanna’s, begging her to throw it away. To toss it further into the cave and leave it with whatever remains of Celina existed in the elevator shaft!
But she couldn’t… not yet. She… no, she had to figure all of this out. She wouldn’t be Killjoy, she wouldn’t… but she couldn’t stay like this. She couldn’t stay a victim of what SCW was becoming.
SOMETHING had to change. Something had to happen! Otherwise…
“Otherwise, I don’t want to go back there.” She whispered as she turned around. Killjoy was gone. Her voice was no longer in Selena’s mind. Only the black skull remained in her hands and Selena stared at it far longer than she meant to. Still, when she moved again, it was finally back the way she came.
Back to Manhattan, back to SCW – even if she wasn’t so sure how much longer she could return to the latter…
_______________________________________________________________
The Royal Letter
SCW Universe,
So… we gonna talk about what the hell that was about? Because I feel like I’m getting mixed signals. Let me take you back about a month ago. Retribution. House of Frost and Light in the Darkness, fighting for the SCW tag-team championship. A bout of skill, heart, passion and integrity. And you, SCW Universe, on your feet, cheering us, lending your voices in favor of such a display. Such a definition of the letters S-C-W…
Now, fast forward to Playing the Wildcard. What began as a rumbling peanut gallery of voices over the last few weeks grew into a cacophony of shouting for chaos. And the result was a match with not one, not two, not three, but four different interferences, multiple weapon uses, and so many of you on your feet, CHEERING for it all.
Now, I don’t mean everyone in the SCW Universe when I say that! I don’t mean the True Believers or those that stand for integrity in SCW, but for those that have been vocal against the House of Frost and against me lately, I have a question for you. After getting your ‘wish’ last pay-per-view, who is the best tag-team in SCW?
Is it the new champs of Ravyn and Ace? Oh, you don’t know? You have no idea cause they didn’t earn that win? They stole it?
So, let me ask another question: Is that how it is now? Do I come into work with a steel chair and crack my opponents backs and skulls before the match even begins? Do I have my wife run in and get involved or ambush my opponent? Do I hire publicists and managers and total strangers to run in and clear the path for me?
Cause, seriously, guys, I thought we were past all this with The Brand being gone! I thought we were past such pathetic attempts for titles and victories because SCW was supposed to be about much more than that!
I mean… do you realize how untouchable I would be if I just followed suit? No no! Think about it for just a simple second! Fighting ‘by the rules’? With ‘integrity’? What have I done with that mindset?
Won two of the biggest tournaments in SCW history.
Knocked out Xander Valentine in record time.
Held the world championship longer than anyone ever has.
Headlined Rise to Greatness twice in a row!
And that’s just off the top of my head. Now, imagine me fighting with ‘protection’. With people standing nearby to ensure my success. Imagine me fighting with no care for the rules and only victory in my sights. Give it one minute of actual thought – I dare you!
Terrifying, isn’t it?
It is a terrifying notion if Selena Frost just finally did what everyone has been ‘waiting for all these years’ - the ‘hook or crook’ method - and stole this match, stole this tournament and the world title right from underneath you like several people in this competition are aiming to do.
I could… I really could…
And after Playing the Wildcard, I can admit that I was sorely tempted. I was tempted to do a lot of things. Like ‘turning on SCW’. Like pissing on SCW’s letters…. Like quitting SCW…
Yes, I’m not ashamed to admit that. I’ve got a boss that disrespects me, a roster that can’t stop with the same one-liners that were old back in 2014, and an SCW Universe filled with people that just want pitiful, gimmicky, political, cheap, ambushing, low-tier wrestling and not Supreme Championship Wrestling…
Clearly, my place in this federation that I believed in is in question, so why not just leave? Why not take one of the many offers I’ve been given elsewhere and just re-establish myself there as the dominant force?
The reason I won’t is because, despite it all, I still believe in this company, its people, and I still believe that this company deserves to be, as it brags to be, “the leading force in sports entertainment”. I know, that’s gonna get a few people rolling their eyes at me but it’s what I’ve always been about and what I will ALWAYS be about.
And I think that’s the reason why you hate me so much, Josh. See, you talk about competition and about being ‘the backbone’ of this company, and I find it just the biggest laugh I’ve ever heard.
Cause, let’s face it, Josh, how many times have you walked out of SCW with your tail between your legs, telling us to go ‘screw ourselves’ or whatever? How many times have you quit when the going got tough, huh? How many times did you just run away cause you couldn’t hack it? And you want to say that YOU’RE the backbone of SCW? I mean, I’m at odds with SCW right now, but even I don’t think its backbone is THAT weak. Just misguided.
But back to you, Hudson. You’ve made it clear for awhile that you don’t like me. It’s no secret. You think I’m what? A blight on this sport? A cancer? A disease that is sucking the life out of – YADDA YADDA YADDA… like I’ve never heard any of that before!
Seriously, Josh. Did you snatch Ravyn’s promo notes from her cellphone or something? Cause, I gotta be honest with you, after our history and your love to regurgitate it, I would have thought you’d be a bit more creative with your thought process and a bit more understanding towards what is awaiting you this Breakdown.
But you know… it is funny that you think I am a cancer to this sport. I mean, apart from the fact that I am actually DOING what you claim to do in bringing competition into this sport – check the tag-team division if you don’t believe me - you think I’m a cancer when you, Josh Hudson… well, you’re the biggest cancer here!
I mean, let’s turn back the clock, shall we? Biggest bit of ‘history’ between you and me. Past, Present and Future. Where you whispered into the ears of my sisters and dearest friends, Regan Street and Sienna Swann and turned them into ‘win by any means’, piledriving-the-boss wrestlers with no integrity or morals. You made SCW believe that this was a stable meant to build the future of the company, right? And you proceeded to accrue accolades and victories up and down by hook or crook. Hell, your group dropped a damn crate on my foot to try and take me out of SCW permanently, didn’t you? But, Hudson… Where is the present? Where is the future? Where was this ‘vision’ that you promised?
It’s gone. It never came to pass. It never blossomed. What did? Josh Hudson.
I’ll go a little forward, okay? You claim that you are responsible for building up Owen Cruze into the megastar he became. That all his success is because you pushed him, right? The ‘diamond’ sharing his ‘sparkle’ and making another diamond out of coal, right?
But how did that all start, Josh? Was it the ‘competition’ you say you fight for? Or was it you bitterly attacking Owen because he was ‘chosen’ for a team by Asher Hayes and you weren’t? Was it because you were ‘saving SCW’ or was it because you were crying ‘It should have been me!’ like a spoiled brat?
You see, Josh, I know what you’re gonna spout off on where I am concerned. It’s the same diatribe I have heard for years! “Fraud! Liar! Manipulating! Faker! Spotlight-whore!”. But what makes it sad for you is the hypocrisy.
Because the truth is: Past, Present and Future? Owen Cruze? It wasn’t to help my sister or Sienna. It wasn’t to help Owen. It sure as hell wasn’t to help SCW. It was, and always had been, about one thing:
Making Josh Hudson relevant again.
It’s that jealousy of yours rearing its ugly head – “It should have been me!”. And you hate me so much because, deep down, you just want it to be you. You just want to be “The Face of SCW”. Just like so many others that can’t seem to accept it.
You want to know why it’s me that’s “the Face” of this place, Josh? Why so many people keep bringing it back to me? Why it’s my face on the opener and the intro to every SCW show?
Because I don’t just talk it. I live it. I work it. I stay when everyone else leaves, including you. Ten years here and not a single lull. Not a single step away. Not a single break. You want to talk about ‘making bones’? I’ve BROKEN bones! I’ve been scarred! Cracked open! Bled FOR this company – not for myself like you have! I have given EVERYTHING to this place that I believe in where you have come and gone and done as you pleased and pitched it as ‘saving the sport’ – using it as a punchline while I’ve used it as the core of my beliefs!
Which leads us to the most important element of this matchup, Josh, because, like you, I’m haunted by the pay-per-view loss. It’s not something that I can just shrug off. I’m haunted by those cheers for chaos and cheating. I’m haunted by it because I am afraid of SCW falling back into the days of Syren, of Sienna… of Josh Hudson. Of interferences, ambushes – a lack of integrity!
Because what happened, ‘backbone’, the last time YOU held a title – I mean longer than the span of a quick nap? You lost it to Glory and proceeded to be responsible for it being dragged through the mud and become a mockery of itself, becoming the U.K championship, right? But it kept you relevant, so who cares?
I will give you credit where it is due, Josh. You are easily one of the most ruthless, intelligent wrestlers in SCW today. You’re cunning, resilient, and dangerous – I’d be a fool not to acknowledge that.
But you know what else was proven at the pay-per-view other than the dire state of SCW that needs to change? It’s that you, Josh Hudson, as good as you are and as arrogant as you are, can be beaten if a person has more heart and resilience than you. And I’ll be the first to admit, the list of people that can say that about themselves isn’t long… but I can!
Why do you think Owen mentioned my name first in his final promo? Why do you think I’ve been here when you kept leaving and coming back? Why do you think I outlasted you, Past, Present and Future and everyone else that thought I was some ‘fraud’ or ‘disease’ or whatever?
Cause I am THAT resilient. I am THAT driven. And I am not here to simply conform to the supposed ‘old standard’ of interferences and cheap wins. I am here to FIGHT! I am here to do what you have claimed to do in your fake-crusade!
Fight for the integrity and true competition of SCW!
And this tournament is the opportunity to do just that! This tournament is the opportunity to bring SCW out of the mud that many people have accepted it as since the beginning of the SCW season! This is an opportunity to make it right again by fighting through the supposed ‘best’ of SCW until there is ONE SCW World Champion! An SCW world champion that isn’t about ‘multiple titles’ or ‘title for title matches’ but redefining how the world title NEEDS NO OTHER TITLE to stand above as the greatest championship in the industry!
So don’t be thinking about Syren, Josh. Don’t be thinking about Ace. Don’t be thinking about Allocco or Xander. Don’t be thinking about Kandis or Asher. Because I’m not. I’m only thinking about tonight. I am only thinking about Josh friggin’ Hudson and beating Josh friggin’ Hudson and showing just how much of a diamond you are not. How much of a ‘backbone of SCW’ you are not. How much of a world champion… You. Are. Not.
It took a damn army to take me down at the pay-per-view, Josh. You don’t have an army. You couldn’t do it when you HAD an army with Past, Present and Future. And this Breakdown? You’re still not gonna do it. No, what you’re gonna do is take your beating, give a beating, and then, when all is said and done… you will believe that I not only am I ‘The Face of SCW’, but I do it all far better than you. Whether you want to admit it or not.
Believe it!
Sincerely,
Selena Michelle Frost
The NEXT SCW world champion
05-05-2023, 10:35 PM