01-13-2023, 10:14 PM
An old familiar sound.
The deathly groan rumbling from Dolly’s throat,
Goddamnit, Chuck…
I told you, Dolly! I don’t feel comfortable doing this…
Dolly peels her stomach from the icy pavement of the highway shoulder, and positions herself on her knees. An exasperated grumble in response to what she’s seen under the smashed frame of her pickup truck:
Calm down, pussy- with a roll of her eyes, and moving to a vertical base, -they’re still alive… for now
Oh thank God, so there's still time to heal them!
HEEL them? As in bestowing upon them a dastardly, bastardly deed? Now yer’ talkin! So here, grab this guy by the forearms and drag him out here. I’ll grab my shovel from the bed and-
No! I don’t! I mean we need to heal these hitchhikers!
Frustrated, Dolly throws her arms up in the air. She can’t believe what’s become of one of the XWF’s most notoriously filthy and deranged competitors. A man so sick he would sacrifice his own children for success, suddenly has a heart for two random people on some random Jersey turnpike?
You didn’t eat the fucking pills, did’ja?
She barks while lunging at Charlie’s face like a rabid dog. She latches onto his cheeks with her thumb and index finger, pinching so tightly that he’s forced to open his mouth. A look of horror bleeding from his eyes as he babbles out some unintelligible plea.
COWARD!
In the midst of Charlie’s jaw trying to break Dolly’s clutches, his tongue raised up, allowing Dolly to see the barely dissolved pills hidden in his mouth. The look on Dolly’s face is one of disgust, with a fleeting hint of sadness. She shoves Charlie away, allowing him to spit out the pills onto the ground.
I’m sorry, Dolly. I just can’t do this anymore.
As the new tag-team duo begin a serious dialogue, the pleading groans of the helpless hitchhikers become more pungent from under the truck.
“H-h-helllllp-p-pllll-ease”
I don’t get it…
She turns from Charlie with a pondering gaze into the freezing skies above,
For all of my life I’ve tried doing the right-thing. Every word uttered, every action taken, with only the best of intentions…
“Rrraaa m-m-m-my legs-gaaahMY LEGS!”
...was I always a saint? Of course not.
“I’m losing a lot of blood…”
But when I was wrong, I was the first to admit it, wasn’t I? And I always tried my damndest to make things right.
“Help us, please!”
I wanted to be a company girl in the XWF. I wanted to help, I wanted to give back to the business that, despite their imperfections and occasional acts of exploitation, always kept an open door and an open spot on their roster for me. When I was abandoned here by my father, it was the folks in, and around the XWF who took me in- why wouldn’t I try to reciprocate that as best as I could?
You’re a good person, Dolly.
“Rr–erreagalaggal HERAHELP”
...good, huh? she turns back from her gaze out into the universe above to face Charlie, Yer’ right, Chuck. I WAS a good person, and now? she marches back towards him, coming face to face with this once monster of a man, ...now I wanna’ be great, goddamnit.
There’s an icy tone to her words that send shivers down Charlie’s spine even stronger than those caused by the windchill in the air,
All the good’ns die before we ever even know ‘em. The great ones though?
She digs a finger into Charlie’s sternum,
“IT HURTS SO BAAAAAD”
...they’re the only ones strong enough to live on, strong enough to fight fire with gasoline, and ice with water. That’s how you become great, Chuck. By being the worst.
Charlie watches Dolly turn from him again, she drops back to her knees beside the truck and reaches underneath,
“arreghh -h-help us… PLEASE!”
Oh, quit yer’ cryin’!
She grabs a hold of a pair of forearms and grunts as she pulls one of the mangled hitchhikers from underneath. A young man his legs are twisted and deformed, his face fractured and oozing blood. Dolly drags him into a full view with the car of a toddler pulling a cat by the tail. Charlie, his eyes bulging from his skull, rushes down beside the man. He floats a concerned and trembling hand over him, and Dolly marches right on by as if she hadn’t even noticed.
She bends over the edge of the truck frame, and produces a worn out shovel from the bed.
it’s fine if you ain’t got the guts to be great no more, Chuck.
She spits, while stomping back to the desperate scene,
Can't say I expected too much, anyhow. Even at yer’ worst, you were still a quivering bitch at times. At least that pinko freak Demos you danced around as knew that the ends justifies the means.
But you?
Yer’ an absolute coward.
I thought that such malicious cowardice could come handy. Thought maybe you’d be down to roofie the referee, or offer Maddy Jr. a Cleveland steamer to help throw the match. But I guess you only ever talked a big game. Pathetic. What are yer’ children gonna think now? If you’d have bought-in to being great with me, at least all the hell you put them through would someday be worth it in their hindsight.
When they look back and say: “you know, my dad might’ve been a piece of trash, but at least he was a part of the XWF tag team that propelled Dolly Waters onto the altar of wrestling goats.”
I mean this is such a prime opportunity, and yer wilting away! An opportunity to prove you’re more than just a forgotten television champion, Chuck. A chance to prove that you can aspire to be the forgotten villain sidekick tag champion too!
Against Maddy Jr. and Angie Vaughn… the most incompatible tag team in history!?
Junior is a punk ass piece of shit, pussy lil bitch. He did exactly last week what I said he would: he embarrassed himself, his tag gold, and the entire federation all in one short breath.
What a fucking disgrace.
Not just to his partner and the division, but to his very namesake. Could you imagine if PaPa Maddy had acted out like this spoiled brat? He never would have made a name for himself.
Now, it looks Junior is unmaking that family name all on his own, much to the chagrin of damn near everyone!
Especially his tag partner.
Angie.
Oh poor, poor Angie. I'm not going to say anything more on her. Speaking ill of the dead is becoming unconscionable to me. A lot of what I've done in the dark seems unconscionable when I walk into the light…..
If Angie's dead, then Junior might actually have a shot of getting some from her! Did you not hear that rookie Maddy crying because he’s already creeped Angie out so bad that she won’t even return his text messages? For what it’s worth, we don’t even really need to steal these championships. They’re practically handing them over!
But look at how weak you are. Down on yer’ knees trying to lend a hand. Where’s the strength in that?
Some could say I did Angie Vaughn a favor when I wised up and stopped caring about The Midnight Dolls. Practically ensuring her victory. But what “good” did it do? With all the resources at her disposal, she could’ve easily exploited Maddy Jr and his vaunted heritage in the XWF and rode the momentum of such a championship victory all the way to the top of this company… but see, that’s just the problem with people like Angie Vaughn.
She’s “good”. Not great. Trust me, I know full and well the difference between those two categories.
Did you know that idiot had the audacity to call me a prospect, Chuck? This mealymouthed cunt called ME a fucking prospect in the XWF! Prior to that, I had already lived through six major championship reigns, hosted the most successful wrestler-ran pay per view in company history, and was the commissioner of XWF Anarchy. Prospect? Get bent! The only prospect she’s facing now, is the prospect of her own sister Lacklan throwing in the white towel while I maul her worse than these rundown hitchhikers.
Dolly….I thought we were quitting our bad habits, I thought that was what we meant last Warfare at the end of our match….I think maybe you could be a guiding light in this world who could help straighten me out and set me on the righteous path. But this, Dolly…..this is something I never imagined.
I'm trying to grow as a man before I give up on the process altogether and let the noose take my soul. You're not helping things here…..
For so long I've lived only on the hatred and malice, through the suffering I inflicted upon others. I took a puerile joy out of it, and not just the physical.violence, but the mental torment and humiliation. It made me feel alive…for a time…but the feeling never lasted, and I was always on to my next target, never even stopping for a second to question why I needed this, why I needed to be this monster.
Now, I've asked the question.
And I don't like the answer.
I don't like the monster I've become, Dolly…and I can see that same monstrosity burrowing deep inside your own troubled spirit.
Is this the only path? Can I never leave this bed of nails I've made for myself and my family?
After a moment of contemplation, Dolly’s arms drop down to her waist, and the shovel hits the ground. She kneels down beside Charlie, her lip quivering, her eyes welling with tears,
[dolly]I’m… I’m so she sputters the words out through a state of lite hyperventilating ..so sorry, f-fer’ yer’ pain. It may be too late for me now, but who am I to deny your right to try and heal? the groans of the other hitchhiker still stuck under the pickup grow louder, and Dolly motions Charlie with her head and her eyes for them to go help this unlucky soul.
Charlie stands and starts scrambling ahead towards his opportunity to help, and most importantly to heal… but when he hears the metal shovel head scraping back across the pavement, it’s already too late…
Im Dolly fucking Waters, that’s who!
SWOOSH!
CRACK!
The shovel smacks Charlie in the back of the head and he crumbles onto the ground.
Dolly mounts his chest, and begins stuffing his mouth with the pills she was offering him earlier.
Guess who, Chuck?!!?
She asks her unconscious tag partner while rhythmically shaking the pill bottle in her hand like a maraca,
Well it’s none other than our green gas friend from the circus tent back at WarGames 2021! Remember? That ayahuasca, peyote crap you drugged us with? I found it in pill form!
This drug guided me to confront my worst elements. The fearful little meth addicted Dolly in the kissing booth? The person so scared of failing others that she ignored her own needs? I’ve finally realized that it was guiding me to cut bitch out of my life fer’ good.
Oh yer’ gonna heal from this alright Charlie...
She stands and moves overtop of the hitchiker now,dragging the shovel behind her,
Maddy Jr, and the bore Angie YAWN, tho?
She grins,
…at least they were a team good enough to die before we ever even knew ‘em
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