Taking Hold of the Flame Battle Royal

[Rick Young]

Ash Harte

The scene opens up in not a lavish apartment, but it’s not a dump either. The apartment must be located somewhere near down town New York, because the lights and sounds of the big city were filtering in to the apartment very easily. If you weren’t listening for it you wouldn’t hear the sound of a set keys jingling outside of the door. Moments later an exhausted looking Ash Harte entered the ‘living’ room of her apartment. It’s only been barely a week since she was in South Bend, Indiana to visit Minka Pressler to talk her into getting herself in to the battle royal that’s going to be taking place at Taking Hold of The Flame. Though she already misses the quietness of Minka’s farm house, because it was definitely more peaceful this. She drops her keys down onto the table next to the door as she shuts and bolts it shut.

When she left home to pursue a career in professional wrestling she never thought that she could live in a small quiet town like South Bend. She always felt that she had to live in one of the biggest cities if she was going to make it. So that was part of the reason why she decided to move out of Watertown, New York to the big apple. However, the major one was that she didn’t want to live in the same city as her ‘parents’, because they didn’t approve of her decision to become a professional wrestler. As she starts to walk through the apartment she notices that the light on her home answering machine is blinking. Rare I know someone having a home answering machine in the day and age of cell phones replacing home phones. Though, Ash keeps it mostly for nostalgia purposes, but mostly it’s so that she doesn’t have to give her ‘parents’ her cell number. She reluctantly walks over to the machine and pushes the play button on it, because she has a feeling the type messages that on there.

“You have… seventeen… new messages.” The machine said, before a beep was heard.

“Ashlyn, its grandma call me.” Ash scoffed a little bit at the woman that called herself, her grandmother. It’s true, the voice of the woman was that of Linda Harte, and was her biological grandmother. However, the woman was more like her mother than anything else as Ash never had a chance to get to know her mother as she died when she was really young and she never knew her father, because he supposedly wanted nothing to do with her. Another beep was heard as the machine moved on to the next message.

“Ashlyn, its grandma again. Please call me.” She said, Ash could only sigh, because other than the disagreement over her choice to become a professional wrestler she and her grandparents had a great relationship. The machine just kept playing the messages and with each passing one they were getting more frantic. Normally that would be nothing to sneeze at, because it could be wrote of as her grandmother getting worried, because they hadn’t heard from her for a few days. However, that’s not the case here… these are all from today and all from the last hour… one after the other. You know the kind of messages you get from an ex-lover just after you break up with them and they are pleading with you to take them back, that they’ll change, and that they still love you. That’s the kind behavior that’s coming from her grandparents at the moment. Something was going on with the both of them, but they weren’t talking about it… just telling her what she can’t do.

“No more new messages.” The machine chimed, and Ash let out a sigh of relief that she doesn’t have to listen to any more pleading from her grandparents for her to call them back. Don’t get her wrong she had every intention on calling them back, but not until after the battle royal at Taking Hold of the Flame, because then she could tell them look nothing to be worried about. That all the training that she paid for was well worth it. After taking a couple of breaths she starts talking to herself.

“In a few hours, I’ll be getting on a plan to head to Montreal, for my debut in the Taking Hold of the Flame battle royal.” She said, a smile creeping on to her face when she thinks about it. As how many people can calm that they made their debut in that match? How many can calm that they did that and won it? As that’s what she plans on doing and then she’s going to go on to win the SCW World Championship from Sienna Swan. To most that would be a pipe dream, but she was taught by several of her trainers to always dream big.

“I can’t express how excited I am for this as this will be the first time that I’m in front of the fans at an SCW show not as a valet, but as a wrestler to show them what I am made of.” She says, places her hands together in front of her chest and starts to rub them together. As some of her nervous energy is starting to manifest in her actions.

“Though I have to be careful, because there are more than a few draw backs.” She says, “I don’t know how I’m going to handle my emotions in the moment. The pressure of failing is going to be crushing, but more than that… it’s a battle royal. I don’t know whose going to be in the ring when I come out, I don’t know who is going to enter after I’m out, and well generally anything can happen.”

Ash pauses to take a deep breath to settle her nerves a little bit. “I have no idea who I’m going to wrestling against, but then again they know nothing about me… probably don’t even know my name.”

“Which is fair enough, because I haven’t done anything of note in the in the SCW.” Ash says, as she starts to take off her jacket that she’s wearing. She grimaces a little bit, because her left shoulder is heavily bruised and discolored at the moment. A little souvenir she picked up during her last ‘extra’ training session at the gym down the street from her apartment. She probably shouldn’t be seeking more training, because the Youngs, Singers, Presslers, and even Woody Hoyt have been great trainers, but her need to impress during the battle royal. So what if some guy in her local gym by the name of ‘Bear’ doesn’t have much in the way of wrestling training. He offered valuable experience in trying to overcome a sea human flesh considering that he stood at seven feet tall and nearly six hundred pounds that treated Ash like a rag doll.

“After this match though, I am sure that people will know my name even if I don’t win, because I’m going to stand out.” Ash paused again as her nerves started ramping up again. So another quick and deep breath to settle them down. “There is no doubt about it… this match could make or break me, but no matter the outcome I will shine in it, because even if I don’t finish up being the survivor I will learn something from it. No matter the match, win or lose, I will make sure that I gain something from it.”

Ash’s little apartment practice promo session is interrupted when all of the sudden her phone starts ringing. She didn’t even have caller ID on the phone, but she knew who it was that calling the phone. Which was easy, because only her grandparents were given that number and as such are the only people that call it. Outside of the few times that she receives telemarketer calls. She really thinks about just letting the call go to her machine again, but decides against it, because they would probably just call right back anyway. So Ash answers the phone, but puts it on speaker phone, because she had a feeling that this call was going to get loud on their side of things and she didn’t want them busting her eardrums with it.

“Hello, can I ask who is calling?” Ash asked, as just about every part of her body was hoping that it was one of those rare telemarketer calls.

“Ashlyn Simone Harte! It’s about time you answer the phone!” Shouted her grandmother and Ash let out an inaudible sigh as her hopes were dashed.

“I’m sorry, grandma, I’ve been out.” Ash said, as she already knew that this wasn’t going to end well.

“Doing what? Sleeping around with man whores?” Boomed her grandfather’s voice and Ash couldn’t help, but sigh again as it’s apparent that her grandparents had figure out how to use their own speaker phone finally. Which is great, because Ash had been trying to teach them how to use it so that she could talk to both and end happier conversations faster, but having to deal with both of them yelling at her in the moment… she wasn’t liking this. She obviously didn’t think this through when she got them that phone with the speaker.

“I’m not one to throw my love around like grandpa.” Ash said, but her mind betrays her a little bit as she remembers her reaction to Luke Dallas when she first saw him on Minka’s land. “I’m not seeing anyone at the moment.”

“Is that because you are going through with that devil’s professional wrestling?” Her grandma chimed back in, which was pretty accurate as to why she hadn’t found someone to send her time with. Juggling that with her training would be too much to bare, but she can’t say she didn’t think about maybe hooking up with Woody a few times, but then she found out that he was married and that killed her fancy in him real quick.

“I don’t see what you have against it… why don’t you give it a chance? Let me show you how talented I am.” Ash says, even though she knows that it isn’t going to go over well with her grandparents. However, surprisingly the both of them are quiet for a long time. Which gives Ash both hope, but a sense of panic as well. Clearly there was a second conversation going on between her grandparents probably with their ‘knowing’ looks to one another seeing as she can’t hear a word that they are saying.

“Ashlyn, please don’t go through joining that vile business.” Her grandmother said, with an eerily calm demeanor given the topic of discussion they were having. Ash knew that was coming, because that’s always been their stance on her wrestling. For some reason they just have something against professional wrestling, but the moment that she asks for them to explain themselves… they clam up about it.

“Give me one valid reason why I should not follow my dream?” Ashlyn said, and despite the fact that she had hoped that this time was going to be different it wasn’t. Both of her grandparent’s clammed up in that moment.  It was a good several moments before anything was said again, but unlike the other times… Ashlyn got a response that she wasn’t ready for…

“We don’t want you to end up like them.” Her grandmother said, and it blew Ash’s mind, because she couldn’t figure out what she had meant by ‘end up like them’. Ashlyn is about to ask her grandmother what it is that she means by that, but before she can her grandfather cuts her off.

“Linda! I thought we were never going mention that?” He said, and the sound of his voice she could tell that he was furious at the slip of the lip that just happened by his wife. Now the question on Ash’s mind was what going on, because she was completely confused, but she didn’t get to ask that question either as all of the sudden the phone line went dead.

She couldn’t believe it, but the phone had been hung up on her in that manner. She really thought about calling her grandparents back to ask them what was going on, but she decides against it when she looks at the wall clock. It was just about time for her to be leaving for her flight and she still needed to get something to eat.

So she moved over towards the fridge after hitting the button on the base of the phone to turn the speaker off. She opened up the door to the ice box and the revelation of how Spartan the pickings were she made the decision that she was going grocery shopping the moment that she gets her first paycheck from SCW as an in ring competitor. As the contents of her fridge at the moment were a bottle of SMART water, a stick of celery, and a carton of Low Mein.

Out of the contents the only thing that she felt would be enough to satisfy her hunger was the Low Mein, but when she picked the carton up to open it and sniff the contents… she quickly changed her mind. She was DEFINITELY grocery shopping with her first check as the carton of Low Mein found its way to the trash can. Once the expired contents of the take out were thrown out she returned to the fridge to grab the bottle of water.

She didn’t like the idea of it, but she was going to have to stop for something on the way to the airport to eat.