Subject: Her survival, and a little bit of history.... Sat May 21, 2011 6:32 am
-We all deserve a second chance...don’t we?-
Rogue feels the Cat O’ Nine Tails slap wickedly across her back, leaving a bloody trail of ripped skin and blood...and again, and again. Each time she screams. It’s too much. The pain is unbearable, like being trapped in a blender. It’s suffocating and never-ending. Tears sting her eyes.
Across from her is her de facto husband. Shadow Demon. He’s chained up, his arms and legs trapped in shackles. She looks desperately to him, and their eyes meet. Was this their last time together? Should she say goodbye?
She wouldn’t even know what to say, there were so many things she could think of to put into that goodbye that she’d probably just give up and see ‘Catcha ya later!’ Besides, she had never been one for dramatic, heart-wrenching speeches or all the other mushy stuff that normally came with a relationship. In fact, she hated it.
Which was probably why is was a good thing she was married to a clown.
Again the Nine Tails came down with an evil crack on her back. After a while she had gotten used to the pain, but she knew she wouldn’t last much longer. She was losing too much blood. She felt weak and nauseous, and was sure that any moment she was going to hurl her guts all over the dark, dusty floor. Behind her was the man who had organized their kidnapping by Salvation, and was now beating the life out of her.
Corey Casey.
What was his plan? Did Shadow have something he wanted? She couldn’t hear what he was saying; she was pressed up against the ground, and all she could hear were muffled shouts. She was so angry – she’d already tried to fight her way out of it, but he had been too strong for her and pushed her forcefully back into the ground with malice. Her shirt was torn wide open at the back, and blood was now leaking all over it from the grotesque wounds on her back. She now felt like screaming, shouting, biting, scratching, anything that would get her out of this situation. But she couldn’t. She was pushed too far down into the ground to make a move –Corey had her expertly pinned to the floor.
Down the nine tails came again, but after this time, Corey grabbed her head, and turned her towards Shadow. And suddenly, Corey was shouting at her.
Corey Casey SHADOW DEMON IS MINE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!
She spat on the ground, and kept her mouth shut. Corey growled, and grabbed a bunch of her hair in one hand. He then roughly ripped it out of her head, jerking it sideways. Rogue screamed, and threw her fists wildly at him, blinded by rage and pain. But Corey had all the answers, viciously striking her across the face, and then trapping her head in his arms again.
Corey Casey This time when I ask you, YOU SAY “YES”, OKAY?
Rogue coughed, stretching out her arm to Shadow in another valiant attempt to escape. She saw Shadow’s eyes that were welling with tears, and his bloody wrists and ankles, trapped in rusty but sturdy shackles.
At that moment CC leant forward and stomped on her arm, and then twisted it behind her back with such force that she almost threw up.
Corey Casey MAYBE YOU’D LIKE IT IF I BROKE YOUR ARM INSTEAD, IS THAT RIGHT, WHORE?! WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?!
She could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck, and the agony of the painful position her arm was in. She couldn’t let this go on for too much longer. It wouldn’t be worth it. It would never end, if she just kept resisting. She had a high pain threshold, but this was all too much. Her back had not stopped throbbing and stinging since the first time the razor-tipped whip had been brought down on it.
Corey Casey Now, SAY THAT I’M HIS MASTER, HIS LORD!
Looking into her husband’s eyes, she could see the terror and pain written all over his face – the tears now tracing lines down his face like snaking rivers. She drew in and exhaled a deep breath, and then uttered the words that Corey Casey appeared to so desperately need to hear.
Rogue ....You’re his lord...
Suddenly, Corey pulled out something sharp and shiny from inside his robe, something that she couldn’t quite make out. It was a weapon of some sort. Unfortunately, by the time she realised this, she knew it was too late.
Time seemed to slow, and all she could see was Shadow Demon, his face twisted in agony and disbelief, and all she could hear was him crying out her name so that it echoed around the tiny room – and then an evil chuckle from behind her.
She could feel nothing but cold. And then, as her breath caught in her throat, one single thought ran through her head:
“This can’t be the end.”
**
-24 hours later-
“I’m afraid this may be the end...”
Rogue blinked open her eyes, and was suddenly attacked by a harsh bright light. She attempted to wipe her eyes with her arm, but found that she felt extremely weak, so she just blinked a couple more times until she could focus her vision. When she focused she saw she was looking out through a window at a sunbathed garden, with various ferns and flowers scattered around it. Then she looked around the room, and saw that, rather than her initial thought that she was in a hospital, she was in a small room with wooden panelled walls. She looked over in the direction of the spoken words that had woke her up, but saw nothing but an empty doorway. As she turned, she felt a sharp, stabbing pain sear down her neck like a lightning bolt. She gasped, and, gritting her teeth, looked down to inspect the wound.
It was bandaged, but it still looked like a bloody mess. She could see that it was a long cut going down the right side of her throat; starting under her cheekbone and trailing down the length of her neck. The bandages were crudely placed, as if whoever had put them on was unexperienced or lacking in the skills to appropriately stem the bleeding. Rogue knew a bit of first aid herself, as she’d taken a class in it when she was younger.
“Or maybe not!”
A smiling woman of fair age hurried into the room holding a tray with a jug of water and a cup on it. She had black hair, blue eyes and wore a waist-high skirt and a floral shirt. She was a big lady, but her smile shone like a thousand suns.
Rogue Who are...
As Rogue tried to talk, she found that her voice caught painfully in her throat. She coughed loudly as the woman placed the tray on a small table that was next to her bed.
??? Ohh, darling I wouldn’t try to talk right now if I were you. The doctor said that you should avoid putting any stress on your...“vocal chords” I think the right words are...
She paused, as if remembering something distant. Then suddenly she gasped.
Jenna Pardon me, I haven’t even introduced myself yet! My name’s Jenna.
Jenna set about pouring her a glass of water. “How did she rescue me?” thought Rogue, watching her actions closely, “And who could ever find someone this hospitable to someone as condemned as me in the city of salvation?” Then she realised that they probably weren’t even in the City anymore.
She said, handing her a glass of water, which Rogue drank from. It soothed her throat nicely.
Jenna Well, last night, I was making the trip into the City that I usually do to do my shopping, you know, living out here there isn’t any other place to go to to get supplies from, unless you wanna travel all the way interstate...anyway, I was driving down, and suddenly in my headlights I see something lying on the side of the road. First of all I thought it was an animal of something, but when I pulled over to have a look, I found you. As you can imagine, you were in pretty bad shape – but I checked up on you, and you still had a pulse. So I lifted you up, and as carefully as I could, put you in the passenger seat. I had to stem the bleeding with my hand you see, so I kept one hand on your neck and one hand on the wheel, and drove back here. I bandaged you as best I could, and then put you here, in my bed. I called a doctor this morning, and he said he was going to come in and have a look at you, probably fix you up a lot better than I could.
She smiled, lighting her face up like a light bulb. Rogue still couldn’t understand how someone could be so nice to her when she hardly knew her. She had saved her life. But what did that mean for her? How far away from the city were they? And just how badly injured was she? Judging from the pain she’d felt before, it had to be pretty bad.
Jenna Oh, you probably want to ask me some questions. Here.
Jenna passed her a writing pad with a pen clipped on over the top. Rogue nodded, and then began to write. After a few moments of scribbling, she held it up. It read:
“Thank you so much, Jenna, for doing all of this just for me.”
Jenna beamed back at her. Rogue then rubbed that out, and wrote another message and held it up; a longer one this time.
“I need to know, how severe is this wound? How long until I can move freely again?”
Jenna I thought that would be one of the questions you asked. Unfortunately, the Doc didn’t sound too optimistic when I rang him and told him about it. I don’t know how long the pain will last, but I’m sure he could give you some better painkillers or something, although I don’t know how well they’d work. Right now I’ve only got you on some pain medication I had in my cupboard. And they will wear off, but the doctor should arrive before then.
“Morphine would probably be the only solution” thought Rogue, sighing inwardly, “And even if we got any, I’d still have to be bed-ridden.” Suddenly she felt the fire rising in her again. For perhaps a few moments she had forgotten – but it was Corey Casey who had done this to her. Corey Casey had nearly killed her. And what was happening to Shadow Demon? Suddenly, she felt unwell. Maybe it had been the meds, but she had forgotten everything that had happened that lead up to her being in this bed. What had Corey done to Shadow? She remembered his words...
“SHADOW DEMON IS MINE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!”
Just hearing those words made her shiver in disgust. She shifted in her bed, and when she did felt a sharp pain shoot straight up her back – just like the one she had felt going up her neck when she’d woken up. A small cry escaped her lips. She’d forgotten about her back lashings.
Jenna What’s wrong? Is it your back?
She nodded.
Jenna I managed to bandage that as well, but unfortunately it was really hard to make the bleeding stop, so I did my best, but I couldn’t stop you from losing a lot of blood from it, I’m sorry.
Rogue couldn’t bare it. She was going nowhere soon and she knew it. More than that, she had no way of knowing what was happening to SD, because this woman obviously wouldn’t know about him, nor about Corey Casey. Had Corey been trying to make Shadow his slave? Or maybe a weapon that he could use at his own will. Even if she got through all this waiting and pain – would he even recognize her? Was he going to forever be Corey’s plaything?!
“Snap out of it,” she thought. Shadow would be too strong. She had to keep faith – even though she knew he was looney, SD would find a way to get out of it. There was always a method to his madness – always...and if he couldn’t? Then she would just have to go and make him remember who he was.
Jenna Can I ask you, what is your name? I’d just like to get to know at least that about you.
Jenna smiled brightly, and she nodded back at her. She decided against telling Jenna her actual name – mainly because she despised it. Ever since she’d been little, she had loathed her name. “Tara Brown” what kind of a name was that? It was boring and clichéd. She held up the pad.
“I don’t go by my real name. Call me Rogue.”
Jenna Ok, nice to meet you Rogue!
Jenna beamed again, and Rogue felt a sense of understanding in her. The fact that she hadn’t questioned her chosen name at all – something that happened more often than not when she introduced herself to other people – gave her a sense that Jenna wouldn’t judge her at all. She was used to judgemental people – down from what she wore to what she did for a living. She was admittedly a tomboy, and a wrestler. You could only imagine the conclusions people drew from just those two things. Not that they ever bothered to get to know her, or anything like that. They always seemed to take one look at her, and think she was out of order in the world. Maybe it was because she wasn’t wearing tiny short skirts and high-heels. Maybe she was being overly dramatic, but many a time when she was young she’d find herself being left out or insulted because of the way she dressed, or liked to play the sports that guys liked to play.
It had been this bullying that had led her to take up music.
Jenna suddenly interrupted her train of thought.
Jenna You’ve obviously got a lot on your mind, Rogue, so I’ll let you be, darling. The doctor should be here within half an hour. If there’s anything I can get you, just let me know. Are you feeling ok right now? Not too much pain?
She shook her head.
Jenna That’s good then. I’ll be on my way.
Jenna hurried out of the room, just as she’d hurried into it, closing the door behind her.
Rogue had taken to learning the guitar and piano, as well as training her voice to sing. Music was the one thing that kept her sane in her youth. At school, if she was seriously insulted by anyone, she couldn’t stop herself from getting into a fight with them. It wasn’t that she had a vendetta against everyone, it was just her nature. She had always been short-tempered, and when others realised that she was easy to get riled up, they began taunting her every day – practically begging her to snap. She almost certainly would have been expelled if it wasn’t for music, which was her one and only release.
Her parents offered no sanctuary. She’d never known her dad – he fled her mother after finding out about her pregnancy. Her mother decided to keep the baby, but, as Rogue would soon realise, her mum suffered from a serious alcohol addiction. But she didn’t spend much time at home anyway. The skate park basically was her home. Most of her friends were, as they got called, skate rats. She was never any good at skating or scooting, but she used to love hanging out there and watching her friends failing over and over at trying to pull off a jump, and then occasionally seeing one of them pull it off. She would bring her acoustic along and just play anything she felt like. That was perhaps one of the better things about living in a small town: at the skate park, they could basically do what they wanted, because very rarely was it a popular destination.
Another thing that was a reason for her being bullied as a kid was that a majority of her friends were guys. It wasn’t like she wasn’t friends with girls or anything; it was just how she was – a tomboy who loved to hang out with guys, fight, and play music. She wasn’t gay, no matter how many times she’d been called it. Some people were so short minded that they just couldn’t see past what they saw at first glance. Anyway, as she grew up, she became more and more interested in wrestling. She loved to fight – but had to practice keeping her emotions under control when she did. So that was why she began boxing at the local gym, practicing it with a trainer helped her to keep her anger under control, and actually make her a more effective fighter.
However, soon she realised that wrestling was practically a man’s world, and the only women who competed were usually just eye candy for fans that had little or no actual talent. It was elementary that she wouldn’t be hired by any of the big companies – she had no supermodel looks to speak of. She was determined to keep looking though, and soon she came across the perfect opportunity.
A reasonably new fed, named the No Limits Wrestling Federation was looking for new members. It was different – it accepted all people who requested membership, as long as they committed 100 percent. “If you try, you will succeed” was their motto. Soon she had contacted their owner, who was called Ramirez Silva, and filled out an application. She was just waiting to be booked, and be able to wrestle her first ever match.
But on the eve of what she anticipated to be her first show, she received terrible, if somewhat expected, news.
Her mum had died. Killed in a drunk-driving accident, that also caused the death of a mother and her baby boy. The fact that really hurt Rogue was that it was her mother’s fault. Even though as soon as she heard that it was a drunk-driving incident she knew it was her mum who would’ve been the drunk, it still hit her hard. Somehow, someway, she felt that it was her fault. She held herself guilty, because more than once she had abandoned her mum when she was drunk on the couch, instead of trying to help her; all those times when she could’ve gone home, but decided to hang out at the skate park till late instead. She had helped her, but there were more opportunities she could have taken up.
All these thoughts made her a wreck leading up to her mum’s funeral – and she had to put her debut for NLWF on hold. However, it was in this period of time that a man reached out to her. A man she’d never known, but made her feel safe and good about herself. He was a clown named Shadow Demon. His personality was eccentric, to say the least, but there was something about him. How he understood her better than anyone, and that he was different and unique in his own right.
He was just like she was – different from everybody else.
SD was the one who gave her the courage to pay a visit to the remaining family of the mum and child. She apologised to them, probably more than once, and they said that they were grateful for her apology, and that was that. The thing was though, that after she left, she felt a hundred times better. It helped her to accept that, even though she could spend all her time blaming herself, it would never make her feel better. What she did probably would have been what any other teenager would have done when her mother drank and rarely seemed in the mood to talk to her about anything – run away from it.
It was Shadow Demon who helped her realise that.
At her mum’s funeral, she was asked to play a song at the funeral by her mum’s dad, who contrasted with his daughter. He was a nice, caring man and when he asked her to play he said that he had no problem if she didn’t want to do it. But that he’d heard her playing before, and really liked it, and there was nothing else more Initially, she was divided about the idea - firstly because she’d never played to an audience bigger than four or at the most five of her friends, and secondly, she was unsure if she would be able to keep it together.
It was true that she wished she’d had a better relationship with her mum, despite the fact that it was impossible to do something like that when you were forced to look after yourself due to your mum being incapacitated by alcohol most of the time. That was why she had left her, to make something of herself. But just because she left her didn’t mean that she hadn’t missed her. Many times when she was trying to make it as a wrestler she had found herself wondering if she ought to give up and go home to care for her mum. The day she left home, she’d phoned up the home for the elderly, which wasn’t far from their house, and paid them to come and collect her mum and take care of her for the rest of her life. But it was up to her mum whether or not she wanted to take the offer – and later on, Rogue got informed that she hadn’t taken the offer.
That was probably what led to her death the most – that she didn’t realise she needed help to live a normal life again.
Anyway, Shadow again encouraged her, so she decided to take up her grandad’s offer. None of the songs she’d written fit the tune of a funeral, so she decided to do a cover of one of her favourite artist’s songs: “Tomorrow” by Avril Lavigne.
And so it was her, in her track pants and baseball cap tilted to the left, who had took the stage and performed in front of a sorrowful audience dressed in black.
She managed to hold it together through most of the song, right until the end, when eventually her grief got to her. But as she cried, all she could remember hearing were claps, and when she looked up, every single person attending was on their feet, clapping – if quietly. It was a strange scene at a funeral, but one that she had never forgotten as the years went on. A couple of weeks after the funeral, she joined NLWF as both a manager of Shadow Demon, and a wrestler. She married him soon after; and helped him to the greatest Undisputed Championship title reign the fed had ever seen...until now. He’d been brutalised by Salvation and then easily pinned by Steven Angel, ending the 109 day reign. And then Salvation had kidnapped both of them, with Corey torturing her and seemingly forcing Shadow to be under CC’s control.
It’d be a long time before she would see her husband again – being stuck in this bed like this – but her only hope was to pray that she recovered quickly, and that Salvation kept on believing that she was dead. Once her wounds healed, she would return to NLWF, and find Shadow again. Then, once he was back into his normal state of mind (if you could say normal) they would wage an all out war against Salvation, and in particular, Corey Casey.
Shadow Demon is shown, sitting on a chair with his legs stretched out across a table. He’s staring through a window at the heavy rain bucketing down on the outside garden.
Shadow Demon In the name of all that is holy, it’s like the world is ending out there!
Shadow cracks a smile, and looks into the camera.
Whoever came up with the idea to cash in on people stupidity through randomly generated end of the world dates was a genius! It’s so hilarious when nothing happens, and all the lads and laddettes who buy into the stuff realise that they just wasted a day or so of their lives being on edge and stocking up the ol’ supplies for the big apocalypse!
SD laughs.
Just like the people buying into Chris Matthews being a better general manager than I! Hah! Are you people insane?! Do you honestly think that this dull, boring excuse of a man could put on a better show than I? Chrissy couldn’t get excited if he got dropped in a pool of ice water. Do you really want a guy like that as your GENERAL MANAGER??! If you wanna see the same matches, the same segments, and the same guys in the main event over and over and OVER again, then sure, Chrissy will be just the GM for you!
He laughs again, this time louder.
See, what the people that want Chrissy as their general management man don’t understand, is that there won’t be anything left of the poor guy after Isolation! Ya see, our match is gonna be fought under no DQ. Ya know how they say, never mess with Corey Casey in a match with no rules? Well I’ve messed with the lad more than once, and more than once it’s been an even contest. Screw Corey Casey, you don’t want to mess with ME in a match with no rules! Tell me Chrissy, it may have been before your time, but did you ever catch the last man standing match in NLWF between yours truly and that rascal Brenton Cyrus?? If you didn’t then, how about the Make Me Scream match between me and that monstrosity Cotton? Triple threat TLC match between me, KIDdy boy and the wee Irishman Aaron? Fatal-Fourway Elimination with me, Corey, JHawk and again Mr. O’Shea?
Shadow takes his legs off of the table, and stands up, his eyes returning to the window.
Are you starting to see a pattern? Some of my greatest wins have come in matches with no disqualifications! In fact, I won all of those I mentioned, except the one with BC, in which I drew. I, sir, have been through some of the bloodiest battles in history and come out on top. That’s how I got to be one of the best at what I do, y’see. A legend of hardcore, I’ve been so lovingly called in the past. Sure, you could point out some major chinks in me armour, such as the fact that I was perhaps the worst tag team wrestler on the planet, and couldn’t by a world title in my early days, but the fact is I got to where I am today with me own determination, and I’m a proud chap because of that.
Shadow turns around, and leans into the camera.
But ya see Matthews, this week, as Connor would say, I CANNA’ LET YA WIN!!! If I’m to prove to anybody that I’m still a top guy in wrestling, then I gotta win this week. Seeing as it’s been a while since everyone’s seen ESS DEE in the ring, they could start thinking in their stupid heads that for some reason Shadow Demon’s ring return won’t live up to the hype, and he’ll get rolled by the “retired” Chrissy. Well I’ll tell ya what, matey, I ain’t gonna give you an inch. I’m gonna win, just like ma boy James Shark is gonna win that Full Throttle championship, oh yeah baby!
Suddenly, Shadow is interrupted by a man running up to him and whispering something in his ear, before quickly running off again.
Waddya MEAN stop mentioning James Shark in my promos? The kid’s a legend! Anyway, you know what? I thought of this just the other day...with Nick returning and the impending brand split...It’s almost like the circle is complete. IWF has all the power in talent to reach the heights set by its predecessor – and maybe even higher! It’s going to become something amazing, that’s for shore! Now all it needs is a great, clownin’ GM to take control.
Shadow grins, and moves close up to the camera again.
And y’all know who that is right?
Not Chrissy Matthews.
But me!
Shadow Demon!
Shadow cracks up laughing, and smacks the camera away with his hand, sending it tumbling to the ground.
Subject: Her survival, and a little bit of history.... 
Sat May 21, 2011 6:32 am
