Tuesday January 27, 2015
9:48 PM Central Standard Time
Iberia Parish Community Center
New Iberia, Louisiana
“REF! HEY REF! HE’S CHOKING HER! COME ON!”
Wendy Briese pounded the ring apron in frustration, glancing helplessly over at her husband and then back into the ring, where Lucas of the Gator Boyz had Daisy June down in the corner, a foot across her throat as the young woman kicked and gagged his compatriots on the outside hooting and hollering at the abuse. Appallingly, the referee was staring at the blatant choke impassively, not making a move, despite this clearly not being a no-disqualification match.
Daisy June was going to lose this match, Wendy knew. Lucas was not a very good wrestler. He was fat and slow, more suited to bar brawls than a wrestling ring. Pretty much everything he did Wendy could see coming a mile away, and her minds eye was envisioning all the counter moves she’d pull on this obnoxious bloated braggart before he even knew what hit him.
But wrestling was a sport of relativity- it didn’t matter how bad you were, just so much as the person on the other end was worse. And Daisy June… might have been slightly competitive against Sarah Peek. The blonde was big- bigger than Wendy at least, nearly six foot and north of one-sixty, if Briese had to guess. And she was nice enough, and was absolutely estatic that “the other redhead from Scarlett Kincaid’s company” was willing to stand in her corner. But she clearly had no idea what she was doing. She had landed a few punches and a dropkick to start the match, and then a hiptoss- then went straight for the top rope for an elbow drop… missing by about ten feet. Lucas had taken over from there, and was dominating. Even worse- he knew he was dominating, that Daisy June was pretty much doomed already, and he was making sure to make the utmost most of it.
Wendy hated these types of title matches- the kind where the champion faced someone who wasn’t even close to rightfully being in contention, just so they could dominate and make themselves look good. Even worse, despite his overwhelming skill advantage, he was more than happy to break every rule in the book just to rub salt in the wound, including getting his equally fat and boorish Gator Boyz buddies to join in on the fun. Fortunately, her and Terry’s presence had diminished the interference somewhat, but there were still getting in cheap shots- many right in front of the idiot ref, who only stared apathetically.
“This is getting out of hand,” Terrence muttered next to her, as Lucas raised the limp Daisy up high in the air, and powerbombed her so hard the mat shook. “At least it’s over,” he sighed as Lucas covered.
1…2… and he pulled Daisy’s shoulder up- to a roar of approval of the crowd, Wendy noticed with a sick feeling in her stomach.
“Just end the match,” Wendy whispered as Lucas stood over Daisy, mocking her, and slapping her in a mocking fashion. He then kicked her full in the face, hard enough to draw blood gushing from the nose. The blonde woman flopped to the mat, barely moving, her face covering her hands. Her shoulders were shaking, and Wendy had the sense that she was crying. Lucas was without pity of course, pausing to high five his friends and play to the cheering crowd, raising his title belt aloft as if he’d already retained.
“What do we do?” Wendy looked over at Terrence wide-eyed. This was lopsided to the point of being dangerous. She suddenly wished she hadn’t left Pollaski back in New Orleans to watch Theresa. He was good at these situations, he’d know what to do…
“Oh, shit…” Terrence exclaimed as he pointed into the ring. Wendy turned to follow his finger, and gaped in horror as Lucas laid the title belt in the ring, pulled up Daisy, and hit a jumping piledriver on top of it!
“DISQUALIFY HIM!” she screamed, her voice barely audible over the roars of the crowd. “STOP THIS, REF!”
“Shut up the fuck up and let me do my job!” The ref had finally had enough of her protests and he snarled at her, while Lucas dragged Daisy up for a second piledriver.
“THEN DO YOUR JOB!” Wendy howled. “NO!” she shrieked again as another jumping piledriver was hit. Daisy lay motionless on the mat, as Lucas raised his arms triumphantly.
The crowd chanted “One more! One more! One more!”
Lucas cackled. “I’m gonna break this bitch’s neck… and then I’m going to fuck her corpse!”
The crowd seemed totally into that idea.
“Oh my God,” Wendy hissed as Lucas bent over to grab Daisy’s limp form. “He IS going to kill her.” And without any other thought, she brushed by her husband and slid into the ring. She ran across in a flash, and shoved Lucas as hard as she could with both hands, sending the big man stumbling back. “That’s ENOUGH!”
It was enough. She heard the referee call for the bell (oh, NOW it was a disqualification?), but her eyes stayed glued on Lucas who regained his balance easily, and glared daggers at her.
“What the fuck are you doing, you little bitch?”
“It’s over.” Wendy asserted, pointing down at the barely stirring form of Daisy. “You had it won ten minutes ago. You didn’t need to do this.”
She took a step back as the rest of the Gator Boyz slid into the ring, glaring at her. She turned back towards the other end, and saw Terrence still on the outside, his eyes wide with alarm.
“Look, you little slut,” Lucas growled. “This match is over when I SAY this match is over! And I say, this match ain’t over!” The crowd roared at that, and Wendy sighed. What the hell was WRONG with these people?
“No, it’s over, for God’s sakes!” Wendy ascertained, taking a step forward. “You made your point, you won, congratulations. She defiantly walked past Lucas, and bent down, to tend to Daisy, who was conscious- barely, and stirring- barely. But that was good- she wasn’t paralyzed at least, despite two piledrivers onto the title.
But she was shunted to the side, so hard she fell over. Wendy quickly rolled to her feet, getting her some distance from Lucas, who stood over her. “You think the fact that you’re on television makes you better than me?” He hissed. He looked out at the crowd. “Hey I think the little girl wrestler television star thinks she can hang with the GATOR BOYZ!” That was met with derisive laughter, and Wendy felt a little warmth creeping into her face.
“That ‘little girl wrestling company’ has been the toughest promotion I’ve ever been in,” Wendy said quietly. “And I’ve faced some of the toughest men in the state of Louisiana… and beaten them. Remember?”
She doubted Lucas did- the idiot couldn’t have been much more than twenty, and considering her own time in the Louisiana Indies was a decade ago, she could understand him not remembering. But some in the crowd did, and she got a surprising wave of support of her own.
“That sounds like a challenge.” Lucas sneered. “Whatchoo say, little girl? Can you enter the swamp with a Gator… and live?”
Wendy balked, something that the crowd immediately caught on and started to hoot, and she felt her face flush a little more. She glanced down to Terrence, who merely shrugged. Flustered she looked back to Lucas. “As much as I’d love to… my contract…”
“Oh, you’re not allowed!” Lucas whooped, drawing more hoots of mockery from the crowd. “Daddy’s going to GROUND HER if she wrestles against a real man!”
At the mention of her father, a white hot flash of anger swept through her, but she kept in check the sudden urge to beat Lucas into a bloody pulp right then and there, although she was breathing heavy, her fists clenched.
“Tell you what?” Lucas played to the fans yet again. “Since you guys didn’t get to see the main event FINISH properly, I’m promising you an extra match! Now, either miss TV star here can wrestle it or…” he pointed to Daisy, where two of the Gator Boyz were grabbing her, and roughly jerking to her feet. “Sweet little Daisy here goes another round!”
Wendy cursed herself for letting the distractions allow them to get to Daisy. Two of the Gators were holding her by the arms, while a third was already climbing on the turnbuckle. Wendy looked around at the roaring crowd. Finally she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
“What was that?”
“I’ll do it!” Wendy said, louder this time. “Now let her go.”
The Gators shoved Daisy at her, and Wendy helped her out of the ring to Terrence, all the while expecting to be jumped from behind, rehearsing the strategies of fighting out of a disadvantage with a brawler in her mind. But no attack came, as Terrence opened a chair for the groggy girl, and sat her down. She turned back to the smirking Lucas. “So, you going to put your money where your mouth is and put your title on the line?” she asked, confidence growing in her that she could beat this idiot.
Lucas laughed in her face, and her nose wrinkled as she smelled the whiskey. He was drunk as a skunk. Good, all the more easier for her.
“Me? You think you face ME? You ain’t done SHIT to face me, bitch! I’m the champion! No.. no… you?” He pointed out of the ring, to the floor. “You get Bubbles.”
The crowd around her roared, and began chanting the name. “Bubbles?” Wendy mouthed, and followed the point. A man even bigger than Lucas stood there, his mouth opened in a half-wit stare. She measured him up, wondering if there was some hidden ability to him that she couldn’t sense. But at the command of Lucas to ‘go git ‘im’, he simpy turned and lumbered away, the rest of the Gator Boyz following.
Good, that at least gave her time to prepare as she headed to her corner, taking off her watch, and pulling her phone and wallet out of her pocket. “Here,” she said, handing them to Terrence.
Her husband looked up at her. “You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “They’re all just big old liquored up idiots who haven’t fought a real wrestler in their life, and think they’re the biggest badbutts in the world because they can bully other people in their town around. Look… I’m going to go for the quick win here. Before the crowd can get too involved and these idiots can start thinking ofways to screw with the match. But just in case…”
“I gotcha,” Terrence agreed, but cringed. “I hope it doesn’t come to that. The boys at Saluki Racing ain’t going to be happy if they found out I’d been risking my health with fighting…” he said, referring to his new NASCAR XFinity team- which he’d just signed to in the past week.
“Yeah, well, I doubt Mr. Kincaid and Ms. Star are going to be happy about me doing this either, two days before Velocity and all,” Wendy sighed. “But…”
“You gotta do whatcha gotta do, right? Better you than me, though. I aint’ done this in four years. Think I’ll be a bit rusty.”
Wendy smiled, and stood back up, stretching as she awaited her opponent’s entrance. She wasn’t dressed in an ideal ring gear- jeans and a sweatshirt, but she supposed it was maneuverable enough for this. A commotion beganon the side of the room, and Wendy looked up as the crowd began to part. The Gator Boys were returning, and the chant was again echoing throughout the room.
Lucas came first, then the other four ina tightly packed bunch. There was nobody else with them, and for a second, Wendy spun around, expecting an attack to come out from behind. But none came, and she looked back over, and noticed that the four underlings were carrying something.
Something long.
Something greenish-brown.
Something with four legs and…
“Oh no…” Wendy whispered, the blood draining from her face. “No… no…”
Bubbles was a fourteen foot long Louisiana swamp gator.
“No.. no no no… this NOT what I agreed…” Wendy protested to the ref, or anyone who could hear her, as the four men slid the gator under the bottom rope into the ring. Lucas reached in with a stick, and with some trepidation, leaned into the ring, and slid a rope that had been tied around the gators mouth off. The moment it was free, the gator snapped its head around, chomping down on the end of the pole, snapping it clean off.
“Oh God…” Wendy whimpered.
*DING DING DING!*
The sound of the bell jolted Wendy to her senses. And she looked around. The crowd had surged forwards, and now surrounded the ring, making escape nearly impossible, although the ref had already slid out. She glanced back at Terrence, who was being jostled around, trying to stay as close to the ring as possible.
“Help me…” she pleaded.
And then the alligator charged.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Wendy screamed as the thing chomped at her legs, diving away just in time. Bubbles turned and lunged again, and Wendy rolled out of the way. Good Lord, but that thing was FAST! The gator charged again, and Wendy timed it right, lashing out a kick that connected right between its eyes. Stunned, the gator retreated, shaking its head. Wendy breathed a sigh of relief. Animals rarely attacked if they had to.. maybe by stunning it she’d convince it that-
Nope that just enraged it, and Bubbles charged anew, roaring in a frenzy, and Wendy nearly had her foot bitten off. Without any other ideas, she leapt to the nearest turnbuckle, climbing up top and crouching, staring down at the sea of people cheering- unanimously for the gator (save for her husband)
“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!” she screamed, which just seemed to incite the crowd even more.
A roar and a snap made her turn around. The gator was inches from her, snapping at her feet and bottom, but unable to get any higher. She frantically looked around for her husband. “TERRY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELP ME!”
For a response, Terrence held his hands out in helplessness. “You always said don’t interfere in your matches?”
“THIS ISN’T A MATCH , TERRENCE! IT’S A FEEDING! NOW- OW!” she shrieked as something poked her in the face, on the cheek. Lucas was prodding her with the pole, to get her off the turnbuckle. He poked again, and she swatted it away… and promptly lost her balance.
“AUGH!”
She fell with a thud beside the gator, who’s head snapped around. Wendy scrambled to her feet, trying to get away, but was off balance, and as she dodged another gator lunge she lost it completely, crashing into the corner, her head hitting the bottom turnbuckle.
“Ow…” she groaned, blinking tears of pain from her eyes. Then she screamed as Bubbles charged in, mouth wide to chomp down on her face. Reflexively, she jutted her hands out to protect herself, pushing the gators head back as the jaws snapped inches from her face. She gagged as a breath that smelled like rotten fish engulfed her. She wasn’t going to hold it off forever, she knew, sooner or later, it would move in and…
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Terrence fighting with the Gator Boyz, who had swarmed him to keep him from entering the ring. He was holding his own in the melee, but there was no way he could get to her in time…
The gator’s jaws snapped again, close enough for Wendy to feel the air displaced form the teeth. A few more seconds and…. What was that groaning sound.
The gator’s press at her slowed as it groaned again, and again, this time weaker. Then with a wheezing sound, it fell backwards, rolling over, and Wendy, all her momentum going into pushing it away, tumbled with it, landing on top as it rolled onto it’s back.
Suddenly the ref was in the ring pounding the mat…
ONE!
TWO!
THREE!
*DING DING DING!*
The crowd immediately went into a hush. Wendy sat up, just like she did after every other fall, and then remembered what was next to her, and threw herself backwards with a shriek. But the gator didn’t move, its eye oddly open and still.
The ref gingerly approached the animal, and poked at it… prodded it, then full on pushed it. It didn’t move. He looked down, and saw the eyes open, and looked around at the crowd, bewildered.
“It’s dead.”
Lucas was into the ring now, staring at it. Wendy slowly climbed to her feet, still gasping for breath as she checked herself over. She had a ripped sleeve with a few scratches on one arm, and one of her pants leg was torn, but other than that, she was miraculously fine.
“Bubbles?” Lucas meekly said as he poked at the gator himself. “Bubbles? BUBBLES!” He turned his head up, his face a mask of anguish and fury. “YE KILLED MAH GATOR!”
“NO!” Wendy protested, as baffled by all this as anyone. “I don’t know what happened! I’m sorry but…”
But Lucas was already advancing on her with a scream of fury. Wendy stood her ground, thinking of the best counter she could use- when a whistling sound went past her ear. A beer bottle barely missed her head- but not Lucas’s and caught the big man on the forehead. The man stumbled, wobbly, and for a second, Wendy thought about stepping out of the way, and letting him plow into the turnbuckle.
Instead, she hooked his head, leapt to the ropes, and hit the most satisfying Vortexinator she’d hit since she put Emma down back in Russia.
“Jerk.” Wendy snarled as she pushed herself to her feet- then ducked as another beer bottle flew by nearly missing her head again. The crowd was in full fledged riot mode, fighting with each other, the other wrestlers joining the swirling melee with abandon. Oddly, the only other two not fighting were Terrence- who had two Gator Boyz slumped at his feet around him, and Daisy June, who was much more alert, albeit still clearly rattled.
At least the brawl gave her room to slide out of the ring, she sighed gratefully as she did so.
“So, I think it’s time to go,” Terrence said lightly, rubbing his eye, which already had a dark circle around it and was growing blacker by the second.
Wendy couldn’t agree more, and together, she, Terrence, and Daisy June navigated their way out of the building, Pausing only once for Terrence to rip a chair out of some berserker’s hands and swing it back at him, the man collapsing in a heap. Soon they were out in the cool , oddly quiet night air.
“Well, that was nuts,” Terrence exhaled.
“Yeah… that’s now they normally end,” Daisy June said, still a little woozy. “Although not so much with the dead gator…”
“Yeah… I’d, hope not.” Wendy panted, and turning to stagger towards the RV. “I just want to get out of here.”
“Come on,” Terrence offered Daisy. “We’ll drive you back to Ella’s.”
Daisy looked for a second like she was going to object to returning to her mother, but finally shrugged and headed with them towards the RV. “Thanks. Although… man, she’s gonna be mad.”
“She’ll be happy you’re alright,” Wendy insisted. “She was just worried, is all.” She paused, thinking about that rolling pin and the big woman, and debated with what she wanted to say. “You know… if you really want to become a wrestler… I know a few schools that you could go to that would help you. You have heart, just… no training.”
“Nah…” Daisy June said, shaking her head. “After tonight, I just don’t think I’m cut out. And I’m not sure I’m up for all that schoolin’. So… maybe I better hang it up now, before I get hurt. Makes me sound like a cowardly quitter, don’t it?”
“No,” Wendy said. “It makes you smart.”
She gave the surprised Daisy a reassuring smile. “It’s not a sport for everyone, and there’s no shame in knowing it’s not for you. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen get hurt because they weren’t able to realize just how in over their heads they were.”
She held out her hand to help Daisy June up the rest of the way.
“Now come on, let’s drive you home.”
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