Villain of the Year
”Off Course, of course!”
K90/Rhinelanderwag highway
Oberwesel, Germany
February 2nd, 2025
3:13pm
Selena just sat there against the cushioned seat, her eyes glued on whatever it was that was directly in front of her. She didn’t look left. She didn’t look right. She didn’t look up and she didn’t look down.
She just kept looking forward, past the front window of her car – the Aston Martin DB12 that she had won at the End of the Year Invitational a little over a year ago. The last person to ever win it – sapphire eyes simply taking in the sight of all the vehicles that zoomed past her. Some trucks, some cars, some vans, a trailer or two, all of them different colors and shapes and sizes. She could even spot a few of the drivers through their front windows – male, female, families. It was wide a variety as the vehicles themselves.
Now how long she sat there in the driver’s seat, motionless? She had sort of lost track of the time with that, her mind in a haze, but she knew that it had been enough time for her to play a little game with herself. One where, in the few seconds of her spotting one driver after another (as they sped past her), she would give them some kind of backstory.
A farmer out to get some items for his land and farm.
A lawyer hot off a case and rushing home to tell her husband all about it!
A family visiting from CAAAAAALLLLLGAAARRRY! Why she had chosen Calgary of all places, she wasn’t sure, but it was something.
Some people, as they passed, also seemed to be in on the game, for they too stared back at her, some way longer then others as they passed, some with expressions of wonder and curiosity, some with shock and disbelief.
For some reason, Selena liked both kinds of expressions. It allowed her to turn the game onto herself and imagine what people were imagining
her backstory to be. What was she to them?
A drunk that was clearly out of her mind?
Some kind of depressed soul that was making an impulsive choice?
Some unfortunate soul that had taken a bad turn?
Some ‘hot chick in the front seat’?
Was she ‘old-looking’ to them? Young-looking? Ugly? Attractive? Smart? Dumb?
She had taken a similar game in the moments following her match with Blake Mason a week ago. Standing outside the ring and walking up the ramp, turning as the medics had rushed past her to tend to Blake Mason as he lay in the ring: a bloodied heap at her own hands.
For a second, Selena’s eyes (for the first time since her car had stopped) broke her gaze from the front window to look down at her hands, the knuckles pale and the skin unblemished beyond a slight bruise or two along the right hand. Still, as she tilted her head to the side and narrowed her gaze just a bit upon the aforementioned hand, she could still see the blood that had covered it seven days ago, but only until she blinked or moved her head or looked away. Any of that and the image would disappear again, back to the recesses of her mind. She had learned that much in the last seven days.
She had stuck true to her plan with her family vising the Schonburg Castle here in Oberwesel for the week following the pay-per-view, with tomorrow being the day they all returned to New York, the children taken back to their ‘Forever Home’ with Selena and Deanna back to stay at the Snow Queen’s place in the Eyrie Tower, at least for a bit longer. With The Enigma’s ‘state’ still unknown – Kristen Scott (for all her bravado) only managing to do what Deanna had done countless times and beat down the smoky bastard but not outright end him – Selena was in no rush to push Deanna back into SCW and working, not with that unresolved. And while she was cautious, also, of Blake Mason and any kind of retaliation as well, she was certain the idiot would think twice before trying some of his ‘tactics’ against her again.
Even so, whatever ‘travel-plans’ she had made/promised to the family in terms of timeline… well, they were certainly on hold now as she peered a little beyond her, towards the way she had been travelling. In the distance, a couple hundred meters away, she could still (though not just barely) spot the shiny metal of her car’s rear bumper, reflecting what little light from the sun that was peeking through the dark clouds that hanged overhead. It was easier with all the bigger objects (like the rest of the traffic) swerving around it to avoid hitting it. Nothing could be done about the smaller pieces like the shards of lights and such. They just continued to come in and out of Selena’s vision, the Snow Queen losing them time and time again as some were flown/blown (by vehicle or winter wind) up and down and others were further broken into smaller pieces as the traffic drove over them.
A sigh escaped her. She hadn’t felt the first hit. Hadn’t even realized she had hit anything during the first spin. The second one? That had been felt, mostly because that had been the one that had stopped her, feeling the rear slam forward and cease all her motion. But a bent bumper (at least she had thought that’s all that had happened at the time) wasn’t the end of the world. She could still travel home and deal with it later…
That had been the reason for the few hundred meters travel she had attempted from the original impact area. For that was all she had managed to achieve before the hood of her prized-car had flown up, effectively blocking the majority of her vision and forcing her to stop in the middle of the road – in the middle of the traffic. It was by Odin’s will alone that no one had bulldozed into her or she into someone else as, for the next few minutes, she had slowly (painstakingly so) driven the car to the side of the road, where she was now. Of course, after that, only then had she had the brain cells to get out of the car to investigate why the hell her hood had flown up like that, only to see the TRUE first crash – the one she had missed happening due to the car seemingly never losing its momentum during its big spin.
The front was as totalled as the back, a variable pancake or crushed tuna can of metal, plastic and glass.
And yet… she felt nothing. Not a bruise, not a sting, not a broken bone… not a feeling.
For a second, the former world’s eyes found the rearview mirror, allowing to see her own the reflection.
The pale skin.
The lack of expression.
The empty eyes.
Deanna will think I’m just in shock… Selena thought with a sigh. But no… it was so much more than that.
In truth, she hadn’t felt much of anything since her fight with Blake Mason in Dusseldorf. She couldn’t describe it. One minute, she had been filled with such rage, unleashing everything she had on him. The man had tried to put her on the shelf for good and mocked, insulted and threatened her, Deanna and her children. She… she had never been so angry before – no one had gone THAT far on a personal level with her in over a decade’s career in SCW. Not even Xander or Vixen Cain – at least when it came to her children. And the more and more the match had gone on, the angrier and angrier she had become until… until…
She sighed aloud, letting her exhale sound within the metal confines. It was as if a fuse had blown within her or something that night. She wasn’t sure when it had happened. When she had Mason tied up in the ropes and just kept blasting away on him until there was nothing left but a blood-soaked face of him. Those stomps to the head afterwards? The bell ringing the end of the match as Demitra held her back, the official she trusted above anyone else, including that damned bastard Alex/CHBK? She wasn’t sure.
It just… had happened and, suddenly, she had just felt… turned off. As if the fuse had blown and all her emotions were just… gone.
And for the past seven days, Selena had quietly contemplated on that. She had gone for walks with Deanna through gardens of Schonburg castle… and felt nothing.
She had hugged and kissed her children and sang them to sleep… and felt nothing.
She had watched replays of her match and all the subsequent matches of the pay-perv-view, watching Josh Hudson royally fail to beat Xander Valentine once again – the Executioner STILL the world champion… and felt nothing.
Not joy for Hudson’s failure.
Not sadness for Light in the Darkness’ pain against The Fall of Man.
Not disappointment at seeing Polly fall short in retaining the Television Championship, losing to the new girl Selena had beaten at Fatal Fortunes.
Not… not anything.
Even now, amidst the debris of her own car and the traffic, Selena still just felt empty, which was far more disappointing. She had thought that a drive around town would have given her something… that THIS would give her something, but still…
With one more sigh, Selena then heard a tap on the window, turning her head to spy the officer standing by her window. Had she called them? In a split second, she ran her memory back to her, not recalling a single moment of her using her phone. Still, many people had passed her for the past twenty or thirty minutes. Anyone of them could have made the call.
Regardless, upon the second tap, Selena opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle into the cold, crisp winter air. “Hi.” She offered weakly. “Sorry about-“
The officer, a bald man with sharp facial features (especially the nose and cheekbones) was already speaking, perhaps not hearing the platinum-blonde amidst the strong, winter winds blowing around them. He seem to be prattling off some kind of vocabulary as he pulled out a notepad and pen.
“I’m…” Selena tried, but the taller, broader fellow continued to speak. “I…” she tried again but was drowned out, until. “Excuse me!” she tried, allowing her ‘arena voice’ to come out, which, effectively caught his attention from his notepad and ‘routine/procedure’, the man finally stopping what he was doing to turn up and regard Selena. “I’m sorry, officer.” She stated simply. “But I do not speak German. I only know English. Do you have a translator or something?”
“No need.” The officer spoke back, voice rising to match Selena’s level to overpower the noise of the traffic and the wind. “I speak English.” He added before returning to his normal tone. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“Not…” Selena gazed back at the wreckage of her prized-car. “Not really. I mean, I can try, but one minute…” she eyed both ends, seeing the damage done to both sides of the car.
“Take your time.” The officer remarked. “But can you give me your name and birthdate please?”
“Selena Michelle Frost.” Selena answered. “Birthdate is December 25th, 1989. And I was travelling that way.” She gestured down the road her car was pointed towards. “To the Schonburg castle. I am staying there with my…” she almost said
wife – feeling no dismay when she stopped herself and instead chose, “family.” For a substitute. “We’ve been staying here on vacation. And I was driving back when…” she spun her finger in a circle in the air. “The next second, I’m spinning around and around until I’m crashing into the rail.”
“I see.” The bald man nodded, jotting down some notes onto the paper before closing it up to regard Selena. “Are you okay to take a breathalyzer test?”
Selena’s eyes widened in some form of curiosity, almost feeling amusement…. Almost. “You want to test me to see if I’m drunk or something?”
If he had a reaction to the question, the taller cop gave no sign of it. “We received a call that you crashed into the wall.” He read off another page in his pad. “That you stopped in the middle of traffic. Somewhat common for driving under the influence.”
“Well… I’m not.” Selena sighed. “But if you need to test me, fine.”
“Okay.” He nodded, stepping over to his vehicle to pull some things out of a kit. He was back by Selena’s side in less than a minute. “So, I am demanding a breathalyser sobriety testing.” He prattled on, as if reciting a procedure, attaching a plastic tube to some sort of a machine Selena had not seen before.
“Fine.” Selena nodded. “I’ll take one.”
“Thank you.” He added before holding the device up to the Snow Queen’s face. “Please blow into this before I say stop.”
Selena obeyed and blew into the ‘straw’, and just as she was almost out of breath, she heard the officer tell her to stop and immediately draw away from it, watching the man gaze at the screen before giving a nod of his head. “Alright.” He nodded before returning his attention back to Selena. “You said you spun out?”
“Yes.” Selena nodded. “I’m not sure what happened.” She gazed down the road opposite to the traffic flow-direction. “Maybe black ice? Or all the snow and slush gathered at the sides of the highway from the plows?” she offered.
“Well…” the officer nodded his head. “That’s all I need.”
Again, Selena was almost surprised, but again, the word there was ‘almost’. “Oh?” she asked. “I’m not being arrested or something?”
It was now the cop’s turn to gaze down the roads, towards the initial ‘crash spot’. “There’s no other car involved it seems. So there is no ‘at-fault’ issue here. For you, I’d get this…” he gestured to the smashed remains of her car, allowing Selena to do the same – the Snow Queen able to take in the utter destruction of both ends of the vehicle. “Towed to a mechanic. Do you have insurance? They can cover…”
He kept prattling on about the ‘next step’ for the platinum-blonde, but Selena was barely paying attention, giving only a slight nod or short word of understanding. Long as she wasn’t being arrested or detained or anything like that, she didn’t really care what else the man – who she read on his tag was named ‘J. Dacrem’ – had to say. She wasn’t concerned about the insurance, or having money to get the damn car fixed. None of that mattered.
And she felt nothing from it all.
Still, not wanting to provoke a cop, Selena quietly let the man give his ‘advice’ and rant, even granting him a kind ‘Thank you.’ To expedite his departure. Alone again, the young woman quickly stepped back into her car, closing it behind her as she sat in the front seat, allowing herself to breath in and out slowly as her body slowly warmed up from the cold – rejuvenating as it was from a physical aspect.
She didn’t call anyone right away like the cop had advised. Instead, she continued to watch the cars passing her. Continued seeing their expressions of her. Continued guessing what ‘their stories’ were and what they truly ‘thought of her’.
Would they care? Would they be concerned? Would it be a mixed back like in Dusseldorf? Would they think she was an idiot for being on the side of the road with a crushed front and end for a car? Would they care to ask if she was okay? Or were they too scared of her?
She didn’t know but it was fun to just wonder – at least she thought it was fun. Still, the real world did continue to beckon, and she reasoned that if she didn’t call Deanna soon – the redhead would realize the hour and call her instead. Either way, a confrontation was inevitable.
Guess I better get it over with. She thought as she slowly picked up her phone. She made one slight detour to call a tow truck to her location, the receptionist (sounding like a young woman, if Selena hazarded a guess) a bit less pleasant and more bored than Officer Dacrem had been. Still, Selena managed to get a tow assigned to her and told that he would be there in about twenty minutes.
Hanging up on the call upon confirmation, Selena sat back in her chair, watching the faces as they continued to pass her.
Guess I can’t put it off anymore. She sighed and slowly eyed the phone in her hand before unlocking the screen and dialing the number. The phone only rang three times before it was answered.
“Hey.” Selena sighed, once more gazing out her front window… “So, I somewhat crashed the car…”