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We stepped inside of the Sinful Mayhem Wrestling Execution Center where I got my first look at an actual wrestling training facility. I’m taken in by how big the inside of the building actually was. There was not one practice ring, but seven. There was also another room filled with workout equipment and I saw everyone eyeing me as I stood near the entrance looking for someone in charge to speak to. Just then a man appeared from the training room near the back of the building and headed towards me.
Here we go...
“The Execution Center is closed to the public.” He said as he approached us. “You can come back when we have tickets available to-”
“No need, my good man.” Abel said abruptly, cutting him off. “My name is Mr. Lapis, and this is my client I was telling you about, Zyra Falls.”
I wore the fakest smile on my face as the man looked Abel and me over with his eyes. “That’s right!” The man said, clapping to himself. “I completely forgot about your client having a tryout with us tonight. Please excuse me for not remembering, I have been so busy around here.” He extended his hand out towards me. “My name is Jared Cotterill and I am in charge of the wrestling talent relations here at Sinful Mayhem Wrestling.”
I shook Jared’s hand, still smiling. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cotterill.” I said to him.
Mr. Cotterill dropped my hand and turned around to look for someone. “Your manager Mr. Lapis has informed me ahead of time that you have been traveling all over the country and have won many titles Miss. Falls.” He said.
“Oh, “I said as I shot Abel a look. “He is correct, sir.” I replied.
“Why don’t you change in the women’s dressing room and when you come back, I will have found you an opponent to help me assist you in your tryout tonight alright Miss. Falls?”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Cotterill,” I said as he rushed away to look for someone to go head to head with me soon. “I don’t have any loose clothing to wear for this tryout.” I whispered to Abel.
“Here,” Wren replied as she handed me her backpack. “Wear something in there and we will go out and buy you some clothes tomorrow morning.” she said to me.
“I’m so glad you came with us Wren.” I said smiling at her. “You are a lifesaver.”
“I know I am.” Wren beamed proudly. “Now go get dressed so we can watch you mop the floor with whoever he picks!” she whispered. I nodded and scurried towards the women’s locker room. The room was white with brown benches here and there screwed to the floor. There were lockers lining each wall. I was hesitant to touch them because you know that metal burns vampires the instant we touch it. I quickly regained my composure as I walked to the first wooden bench and sat down. I unzipped Wren’s bag and to my surprise, she had black stretch pants and a gray loose fitting tank top and... wrestling boots in here? I wasn’t about to question her fashion statement from the future. I quickly got undressed and put on the loose-fitting shirt, black pants and boots. I shoved my things into Wren’s bag and held my sneakers in my fingers as I walked out of the dressing room. I saw Wren standing near one ring and she waved me over to her. “Jared found a girl for you to go up against,” she said as she took her bag and my shoes from my hands. “Unfortunately for you though...” she whispered to me. “My dad sort of told them you are one of the best female wrestlers who not signed to a company. I sure hope that you know how to wrestle, girl.” Wren said, patting me on the shoulder.
“Does... watching wrestling on T.V. count?” I whispered to her.
“Not really, no.” she replied.
“Then I am royally screwed here!” I whispered to her. I looked across the ring where Abel stood. “I hate you!” I mouthed to him. He smiled cockily back at me just as Jared came back with a younger looking girl. She looked like she was fresh out of high school and started training here at the Execution Center.
“Alright, Miss. Falls,” Jared said in a loud booming voice. “I want you to get inside the square circle and start doing some warm-up drills!” he said. I swallowed loudly and reluctantly put one hand up on a white rope and pulled myself up. I climbed in between the second and third rope and walked to the nearest corner. I have never stepped foot inside of a wrestling ring in my entire life! I was going to have to cheat and use my psychic abilities to help me get through this wrestling tryout tonight. I looked over at Jared and he called out drills for me to do. “The first drill of the night... is The Crab Crawl!”
I envisioned a wrestler doing the Crab Crawl, and I immediately went into a bending position on the mat. I placed by hands on the mat, while bending my knees. I rose to my toes and moved forward, backward and laterally while making a large cross on the mat. I did this for three minutes until Jared called for me to stop. I stopped where I stood breathing heavily and looked at him. “Very nicely done Miss. Falls.” he said. I nodded curtly at him as I waited for the next drill. This time the girl stepped inside of the ring and stood opposite me. “This is one of our newest recruits to the SMW Chantress Division.” Jared said. Her name is Astra Falorsi, and she is the daughter of a former armature wrestler.” Astra had long brown hair, and she was beautiful. She also unlike myself probably knew how to wrestle for real and that is why Jared picked her to go up against me. “The next drill... is The Flip and Stand drill!”
Again, I envisioned what the Flip and Stand drill looked like in my mind’s eye, and I immediately went to the position. I started out on my back with my knees bent, When I felt the moment was right, I rolled to my left and jumped up facing Astra while standing in the ready position. This move required me to use my legs and arms to push myself to my feet. Both Astra and I alternated from left to right for three minutes. From there Jared kept naming drills off quickly, and I had to keep up with him. “The Shuffle!” I knew I had to move fast here, so I quickly followed and mimicked what Astra did a movement for movement. She placed her hands behind her head and started moving towards me and I moved just as quickly. I had to tone down my vampire speed to match Astra’s human speed as we moved around the square circle in unison. “The Baldo Bag!” It was an endurance testing drill, which stimulated in the ring running ropes, dropping and jumping back up and over the grounded opponent. This was much more exhausting than I had expected, but I kept going. “Stop!” Jared finally yelled, and both Astra and myself stopped where we stood.
***
“ZYRA?” TIMBRAX’S SILKY voice drew me out of the vision and back to reality. “Zyra, are you alright?”
“What?” I replied as I blinked twice and realized that I was sitting in the van. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I replied.
“What did you see?” He asked, glancing back at me in the rear-view mirror.
“It was... stupid really,” I said, forcing a laugh. “It was really nothing-”
“What did you see?” He repeated his question. “Even the stupidest vision to you may be importance to the rest of us, Zyra.”
I frowned. “I saw you dropping myself, Wren and Abel off in Florida.” I said. “And... you needed to come up with a plan still, so my mother decided that I go undercover as a...” I let the word hang in the air. I couldn’t tell them, could I?
“As a what... Zyra?” he asked me.
“As a professional wrestler for Sinful Mayhem Wrestling.” I finally said. I sat back, and I waited for them to burst into laughter. They didn’t. Instead, Timbrax pulled the van over to the shoulder of the highway and cut the engine.
“That’s... actually not a bad idea Zyra.” Abel replied.
I blinked in total confusion. “Really?” I asked him. “I mean, I know that everyone wanted me to go into hiding for my protection and everything but this-”
“This is something I can see you doing.” Timbrax said to me.
“Listen to these guys,” Wren said as she was looking down at her phone screen at something. “According to this article, The Sinful Mayhem Wrestling Corporation will have a three day try out session at their Execution Center... in Florida. “ Wren said, looking back at me. “And it starts... tomorrow.”
“Guys...” I said to them. “Are you listening to yourselves right now?” I asked. “I am not a wrestler.” I said. “I can’t even pull off being a Vampire Princess right, let alone try out to become a professional wrestler!”
“Were you not the one who said the girls needed a break or a mini vacation Zyra?” Timbrax asked me.
“Yes,” I replied. “But this clearly is not the same thing, Timbrax.”
“Think about it, Zyra,” Timbrax said. “If you do this, Velika won’t know where you are for a delightful couple of Months-”
“Timbrax, we don’t have months,” I pointed out. “We have hours to get away from Velika-”
“This is it.” Timbrax said abruptly cutting me off. “This is our game plan for now.”
“And what am I supposed to wrestle as if I get picked to represent their company, Timbrax?” I asked him.
“As Hell’s Guardian, of course.” Timbrax replied bluntly. “I’m getting you to Florida through The Astral Thread.” Before I opened my mouth to protest, Timbrax had already pulled the three vans through the thread and the next thing I knew, we were in Florida. We were apparently sleeping in the van tonight, just to make sure that Velika wasn’t looking for us at any hotels... anywhere. Timbrax suddenly grabbed furiously at his head and started growling to himself.
“Timbrax?” I asked him with caution in my voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Stay away from me, Zyra!” he snapped angrily at me.
“Wren, get out of the van!” Abel ordered his daughter, and she immediately unfastened her seat belt and pushed opened the door. She hopped to the ground and ran towards the van that was behind us to alert them of the situation. Abel cautiously opened the sliding passengers sided door and nudged his head towards it, instructing me to get the hell out of the van. He backed out of the van slowly and stood in front of me defensively as Timbrax exited the van and strolled towards him. “Timbrax,” he said, pulling his necklace off. I watched the cross transform into a sword as he held it out in front of him as he protected me from Timbrax. “You don’t want to mess with me.”
He chuckled to himself as he continued walking towards him. “Ah, but I do, Abel.” Timbrax said, stopping inches away from his blade. He stared past him and looked directly into my eyes. “It appears Velika has activated something within me gorgeous.” he said.
“Yeah,” I asked him, trying to keep my cool. “And what’s that Timbrax?”
“Every living Varacolaci is to kill you on the spot.” he said. “And since I am the only Varacolaci who is the closest to you...” Timbrax hissed, revealing his fangs towards me. “It appears I am the one who has to follow through with the order.”
“If you kill me, then you die too, remember?” I said as the fear took a hold of my body. This was the first time since meeting him I was deathly afraid of him.
He chuckled to himself. “I know,” he replied coolly. “And I am going to enjoy... Every minute of us... dying together gorgeous.” At that moment I could feel my blood turning to ice and my face turned pale. Timbrax came at me and Abel immediately stabbed him in the stomach. I cried out in pain as my hand instinctively touched my stomach. I pulled it back and saw dark scarlet blood coming from my wound. I could hear Timbrax laughing evilly as I fell to my knees and fell to the right. I could feel the cold dirt beneath my face and I knew I was dying. Again. Before the darkness swept over me, I heard Timbrax say: “Velika has finally won!”
The next thing I remember was an alarm going off and someone was shaking me awake. “Will you please turn off that annoying alarm?” A female voice I didn’t recognize said to me. My eyes shot open, and I quickly sat up in bed. I reached over and pressed the off button on my cell phone. “Thank you!” The female voice said as she went back to sleep. I’m confused as I fought to untangle myself from the bed sheets. I finally fought my way out of the sheets and quietly picked up my phone from the nightstand that was beside my bed. The time was five-thirty in the morning. I tiptoed out of the room and walked down the small hallway and found the kitchen. I flicked on the light and it took my eyes a few minutes to adjust to the fluorescent lighting.
Where am I?... And who is that girl I am rooming with?...
I walked over towards the breakfast nook that was nearby and I quietly pulled out a chair and sat down. I was trying to figure out what was going on here when the girl walked into the kitchen and plopped down beside me in the next chair. She yawned and smiled at me. She looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t think of her name right off hand.
“That was some show we had last night, wasn’t it Zyra?” She said to me. “I mean, when you jumped off of that top rope and kicked me in the face. That sent the crowd home happy!”
I just blinked and stared at her, face deadpanned. “I’m sorry,” I said to her. “Who are you again??”
The girl laughed, thinking I was telling a joke, but I was completely serious. “Come on Zyra, you know who I am.”
I shook my head at her. “No, I don’t.” I said totally serious. “The last thing I remember is-”
“I know!” The girl said, snapping her fingers as she looked at me. “You must have gotten a severe concussion during last night’s match!” She said standing up. “I’ll call Jared and have him get a doctor to check your head out.” With that, the girl exited the room and left me sitting all alone in the empty kitchen.
Who am I?... I remember nothing?...
My past’s gone... and my life was in danger...