“Really Mark? You seriously booked Roy against the Barbie Doll of the Asylum the show after you put him against the number one contender for Titan’s World Heavy Weight Title? I don’t know what’s in your fucked up head but this abuse of Roy’s talent has to stop. Flip flopping weight classes is bullshit. But yes I’ll let him know and have him ready, you just better get your act together or I might just take my complaints up with the board.” Morgan's agitated words pulled me out of sleep. Movement from her side of the bed had woke me completely up as the phone conversation ended.
Clearing my eyes with a few blinks I sit up and smile, there at the edge of my bed sat Morgan. She had nothing but the blanket covering her as she looked down at her phone annoyed and shaking her head. I let out a light cough to let her know I was up, causing her head to turn in my direction and flash a brief smile and blush. “I take it Mark told you who I’m facing.” I say standing up and stretching my arms above my head before cracking my neck, allowing Morgan to admire my body one last time before the day began.
Sighing, Morgan’s expression changes from enjoying to disgust. “Yes he did, Natalie Burrows or as I call her, Southern Belle Bitch.” Morgan said, the acid dripping from her tongue as she spoke. Her words made me chuckle as I looked around for a useable set of clothes for the day ahead. “I mean let’s face it, Roy, she’s only getting the push she is because she’s a woman that plays sweet and innocent, uses the tools god gave any woman, and has lucked into a few wins. She doesn’t belong in a match with you.” Morgan added trying to get me to understand her point against my opponent.
Still smiling from just waking up to her, I pull on a set of unstained jeans before walking over to her. I pull her head to my chest lightly before speaking my mind. “Morgan dear, it doesn’t matter who or what Mark books me against. I’m a fighter, I fight. So I’m against Natalie Burrows, the girl with something to prove, so what? I’ve fought with the best and worst and I still get the fame. I can make any match a main event, ANY MATCH, even one with the resident tramp.” As I speak I feel her body relax a bit, but I can tell she is still unhappy with the fact that I’m facing my Prestige opponent weeks before the biggest event of the year. “Hey, look at it this way. You’re going to be ring side and can give her a piece of your mind during and after the beating I plan on handing out. She wants to play with the boys, well what happens when she deals with a fully focused man?” As the words leave my lips Morgan looks up at me with her beautifully sinister insane smile, and I know the mic won’t be her only tool against Ms. Burrows.
“Really? You mean you’ll let me…” Morgan paused mulling over the word that would best fit what she wanted, “educate her?” The desire and pure twisted joy she was having at just the thought was enough for me to nod, you can’t deny a women anything that could potentially be redirected your way. So I was allowing a clinically insane woman to mess with someone, so I was agreeing to forgo a person’s well-being, so what? We’re professional wrestlers. It happens. Deal with it.
Giggling with glee, Morgan jumps up and kisses me in thanks. Chuckling at her reaction I nod a thank you before turning to head out of the room. “Oh, get me everything you can on her from before her time at the Asylum. I want to break this bitch, not just beat her.” ‘No one will stand before me on my way to the Pure Title, and if that meant being the first man to break a girl’s spine on worldwide television, at least it’s a headline.’
‘Roy, are you really ready for this match? You just got knocked out by Cross last week and Burrows beat Tenfold last time she got in the ring.’ Tai questions me as I walk out of my room leaving Morgan to get dressed, and to face a day of training for a very different opponent than I last fought.
‘Ready? Am I truly ever ready? Does it really matter? What matters is the fact that I have a match and WILL be focused for it on October twenty-third. As for her win over Tenfold, the guy never showed up for that match. Sure he was there but, come on, that wasn’t the same Danny that beat me the week before. So to me that is nothing to worry about. When that bell rings I am always there, ready, and fuming to demolish whoever Mark decided to put in front of me.’ I responded as I walked through the house, taking note of the others. Shamus in his chair, Peter teaching holds and submissions to John on the floor, Mary in the kitchen with Leo holding her hips and humming. This was a good morning for all that was about to explode.
“Off to the gym, it’s Burrows this time,” I mention barely above a whisper and receiving the eyes of all. The shock of the name and nature of what it meant. The boys were baffled by the Pay-Per-View preview while Mary whimpered. This was common when I announced who Morgan had informed me who I was fighting, because Mary knew what I was capable of and felt sorry for my opponent, whereas the rest would wonder why they were chosen. Mixed emotions, conflicting interests, and different desires were expected in a house of seven grown adults, so I paid it no mind as I closed the door gently behind me, after last time I didn’t want to repair another door.
‘Roy, hear me out. This isn’t her first dance and you should take her seriously. Don’t shrug her off because of her gender. Don’t make the mistake everyone before you has made. Think, plan, and calculate. Play the game you always do and don’t let recent mistakes haunt you. You haven’t exactly performed well enough to blow Natalie off.’ Tai reminded me. His words alone were enough to energize me enough to want to train for this western hick bitch. I hadn’t won a match in months, but most of the time I didn’t lose either. Not the point. I was a main event star that poured everything into every match and yet I kept failing to grab the brass ring. No more.
Natalie Burrows would become my next Kirk Kennedy. I would leave her unconscious in the ring with blood dripping from her forehead at the hand of my sledge hammer. She wouldn’t walk out of that arena with the confidence she entered it. Natalie Burrows, the first true female competitor, wanted equality, well I’m Roy Viper and I don’t discriminate. I hand out beat downs to anyone that dares to step in front of me. I might not always come out ahead but I never allow them to leave the same. Whether I’ve earned respect, shaken their will, broken a bone, or simply knocked them out, no one has walked away from a match with me the same. This Southern Belle is no different, and I will take absolute pleasure in ringing her bell.
Throwing open the doors to the gym I take a deep breath so the venom in my mouth would not be directed at Tai.
‘Believe me, Tai; I’m not shrugging her off. If anything I’m giving Ms. Burrows more attention than she deserves from me. If I can’t beat her I might have to consider taking a small break from the Asylum. I’ve been on the road a year and aside from Kirk and a small fan base I have nothing to show for it. I want the Pure Title. No, I NEED the Pure Title and she wants to keep it from me.
I’ve been in ladder matches, triple treats, hardcore, ten man tag, rumble and I’ve stolen every show. What I haven’t done is won a title. And now barely a month away from the Asylum’s biggest event this no name bitch comes in to my ring and wants to steal what is mine? FUCK NO! So Tai do you think I’m shrugging her off? Do you think I’m going to let my mistakes get the better of me? Do you think I am going to do anything but work my arse off to leave her in a pool of crimson iron? If you do I might have to mentally abuse you first.’ The moment the last word left my mental mouth I sighed in relief. The pressure and desire that had been building over the course of my month long losing streak lifted. I felt revived and ready to train. Tai, on the other hand, was shaken from the passion and anger I had attacked him with. Smiling at the overall effect of my rant I walk over to the bench to start my long day.
‘Roy, sometimes you scare me.’ Tai finally answers as I begin to add weight to the bar.
‘Oh Tai you haven’t seen anything yet.’ I think in reply, as I bring the bar to a total of three hundred and fifty pounds.
‘You think just the idea of me fighting in the state I’m in is scary? Well you don’t even know the worst part.’ I lay on the bench, sliding under the bar and settling my hands on the grips before heaving it off the supports and lowering it to my chest.
‘What do you mean Roy? Why have I not seen what is to come? What do I not know about your plan?’ Tai asks skeptically, obviously not sold that I had my aces hidden from him. As I lift the bar from my chest I can’t help by smile before lowering the bar at a faster pace to increase the strain on my arms.
‘Tai, I’ve been in the main event, I’ve stolen the show, I have been the thing that gave the Asylum decent ratings on multiple occasions. What has Natalie done?’ I ask him. As I continue to pick up the pace, I hear heels faintly drawing closer.
‘So, it’s not about what you’ve done Roy, it’s about what you do next. Tell me something that makes you ready for Burrows, tell me something that makes it worth my time to listen to you banter, tell me something to make me believe this won’t be like every other time.’ Tai’s voice is that of a friend wanting to believe. His tone has desperation and doubt. His tone sends a shiver of anger down my spine. His words said he didn’t think I could do it.
Anger doesn’t begin to describe what I am feeling. My blood boils, my eyes refocus on the bar above me, and my ears hear the heels walk through the gym doors. I grit my teeth and push my arms to their limits, bringing my pace to one rep every second. “ROY!” I hear Morgan’s voice of shock before the sound of papers rustling to the floor followed by rushed steps fill my ears.
‘I'LL TELL YOU SOMETHING YOU MENTAL PARASITE. I AM BETTER THAN NATALIE BURROWS! I HAVE TAKEN BRETT CROSS TO THE LIMIT JUST LAST WEEK! SHE HAS NO CHANCE AGAINST A SNAKE COILED IN A CORNER! THAT IS WHAT IS DIFFERENT YOU STUPID DISIMBODIED VOICE!’ I yell at Tai as I continue to push my muscles to their limits and Morgan hovers over me in shock as I almost toss the bar above me with each upward lift.
“Roy slow down if you lose your grip -” Morgan began before she shifted her focus from my arms to my eyes. “Fine. I’m here to spot you then. And fill you in. Burrows is five ten, one hundred seventy three pounds. A goody two shoes as expected and has a short fuse for sexist men. I couldn’t find much on her before the Asylum and is a simple country girl. Roy, please listen.” Morgan begs me, but I refuse to quit or even slow my pace. As she speaks, her words just echo as my mind retreats into itself.
Inside my mind I find comfort, I find peace, and I find ruthless aggression. Inside my mind there is an archive of all I have done, and if I am to win against Ms. Burrows, there is one place I needed to revisit, Japan. As my body turned to autopilot, my mind faded into my truly darkest corner. Morgan continues to list all she found out in a short time and it will all be revisited but only when I was done showing Tai what would make me better than Natalie.
‘So you want me to tell you something to make you believe? I can’t. But I can show you.’ I answer calmly as I bring up a memory that should have remained buried.
For five years before I came to the EUW I worked in Japan taking any match I could. For the most part Tai was my mentor when it came to my wrestling career, but that wasn’t enough for an Irish boy that loved to fight. I took any offer I could knowing that the style of the locals would help prepare me for the future I wanted, and that led me to the underworld of Japan. It was there I reached my tolerance of violence.
I had been working for the underworld for a few months and they had come to love me. I was a foreigner willing to do anything to win, anything to learn, and so they took advantage of it. Usually they just put in a disloyal or new guy to prove a point. This night, this memory was when they put the boss’s daughter in the ring with me. I’ll admit I’m not proud of what happened. I’m not proud I held that girl in a triangle for a few minutes, or that I suplexed her over ten times, or that I Injected her into the mat for five minutes straight. And it is not pride, or regret that brought me back there to show Tai. It was desperation.
‘I never told you I did this, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. But when I’m backed in a corner I go into survival mode. I worked for the Triad. I did their bidding and I almost killed a girl. I then listened to you and became your greatest student, yet you now doubt me. Tai I can’t promise I’ll win, but I can promise I’ll do what is asked of me, and what is necessary. You, the Sins, Rivera all ask me to win, I need this win, and I’ll be damned if my name isn’t the most talked of the world after SNV. So do you now doubt that your Cobra can win against a trained, determined, and proud woman?’ I asked Tai as the sound of the weights shifting on the bar, Morgan’s voice, and the fan in the gym slowly started to fade back into my mind.
‘Can….yes. Will….well, we’ll see.’ Tai answers in a tone I can’t figure out nor care to. Instead I welcome reality back and slow my arms with each rep before finally resting the bar on the supports to hold it above the bench. Morgan’s eyes light up as she sees the spark return to mine, signaling to her I was back.
“You okay?” She asks worriedly, while her face gives away her joy at my return.
“We’ll see. I’m ready for Burrows mentally, but I need to be better than Titan physically before I say I’m okay. I have to end this losing streak, Morgan, I have to. And I need to do it in such a way no one doubts me again.” I reply in a hollow tone letting her know my focus was not to be challenged. Taking a breath a thought occurs to me and I smirk before turning to face my beautiful girl. “What’s her injury history?”
As the words leave his lips both Morgan and Roy share a sinister smile before Morgan begins informing Roy of the few points of wear and tear on the Southern Belle. This was just the beginning of a grueling day for Roy. He spent another five hours in the gym while he and Morgan discussed different ways of maiming Natalie before spending the rest of the day in front of the television watching each one of her matches in the Asylum.
Roy’s focus was once again on the prize and couldn’t be broken. He wasn’t going to slip into complacency just because in his mind, Natalie was an untested woman. He ate better, he trained harder, and he showed no remorse in his training. At one point he almost tore Leo’s arm out of the socket with his triangle, nearly broke John’s neck from a German, and gave Peter a concussion from too many spike DDTs. Roy had scared every member of the Sins except Morgan by the end of the week and yet all he kept saying to himself was that it wasn’t enough until he got the respect and fame he wanted and it started with Natalie Burrows.
At what point would Roy be finished? When would he be stop his walk of destruction? Will he finally be able to break a losing streak or would Natalie just add her name to the list that had beaten him? Will this be a fight remembered in the history books, or just another match on a card? Sunday Night Vengeance October 23 holds the answers. Be there and watch a Snake take on a Southern Belle. It’s live and it’s real. Who will win? 
