This is Personal!

19th December

St Louis, MO

 

“What happened to you, mi hermano?”

Sektor looks down at his brother who is bound to his wheelchair. His atrophied legs strapped to the stirrups, his hands which are contorted at the wrists are resting on pillows, whilst wet air whistles in and out of the tracheostomy in his throat. 

He looks around his brother’s room. It’s large and spacious to maneuver the hoist which would get him to and from his wheelchair and bed, but fairly bare save for a TV mounted on the wall. He is sat in front of a window, overlooking the gardens which are being showered by thick, wet, rain. 

He squats down, looking at his brother who can only move the eyes in his sockets in his direction. The eyes are full of sorrow as he stares back at his able bodied brother, beginning to glisten with wetness. Eventually a single tear rolls down his cheek as Sektor grits his teeth. 

“Oh don’t fucking cry,” he barks. “Remember all the shit you’d give me for crying when we were kids?”

Sektor tries to uphold the hard act but he can’t help but feel compassion for his brother. Although most of his childhood was torture at his brothers hands, he was still his brother. His only surviving blood relative, save for his daughter. Seeing him like this was not a pleasurable experience, even if there was some form of karma involved. After all, real men cry.

“Shit, man. If I’d have known,” Sektor chokes. “If someone had informed me,” he continues, staring at his brother with regret. Eventually his head bows. “I’m sorry.”

Sektor stands up and turns away to look out the window, barely able to look at his brother in this condition. 

“Nurses say it was an accident. That you fell down the stairs drunk and broke your neck. Suffered a brain injury too,” he explains, sounding sceptical. 

He lets out a deep sigh. 

“I’ve been thinking about the past a lot lately. Even though you were a complete cunt to me growing up? You were an important part of what has shaped me into the man that I am today,” he admits, almost cracking a smile. “So tell me, brother..”

He turns around and looks his brother in the eyes with an intensity.

“Did she do this?”

His brother’s eyes flicker around in their sockets and Sektor doesn’t know what to make of it. He found himself wishing that he could talk, or at least have the ability to use his hands to write something on a piece of paper. But he was a mute, and a quadraplegic. He also didn’t know what brain damage he’d been left with, whether he even recognised who he was. 

He bows his head with a sense of defeat before carefully placing his hands on either side of his brother’s face. 

“If she did? I’m gonna find out,” he informs his brother, his eyes narrowing. “And she will pay!”

—————————————————————————————————————————

The GSWA

 

Sektor had arrived back at the Gold Standard Wrestling Academy to a hero’s welcome. As he entered the main training area, with the LSD championship over his shoulder, his students and trainers had all rushed over and embraced him. Amongst them was Adam Ellis, soaked to the skin with sweat as he put in some last minute preparations for his own big match with Bill Dickinson later that night. As the students were ordered back to work, Sektor put an arm around his protegee and walked with him to a quieter corner of the gym. 

“You should be resting. You need to save all this energy for tonight,” he explains, taking note of how much work was visible on Adam’s clothes and body. 

“Meh, I got bags of energy for that fat slob. I’m just warming up,” explains the rookie with confidence rather than arrogance. 

Sektor smirks and shakes his head.

“When we’re done talking, you go take a hot bath and put your feet up. You wanna prepare? Think about how you’re going to avoid being slammed against that steel cage tonight,” he warns, hoping his wisdom is heard. 

“Will do,” Ellis notes. “I can’t believe you came! I’d have understood if you wanted to stay in the UK. I don’t expect you to interrupt your own preparations.”

Sektor smiles. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Besides, it’s an opportunity for me to watch Bill up close.”

Adam nods and it’s clear that he is happy his mentor has arrived to watch his big match at Evening of Champions. Having Sektor close by will give him that extra motivation to dig deep and fight harder. 

“You need to be mindful that Bill is going to be looking to send a message to me tonight,” Sektor warns, giving his young apprentice a stern look. “And you’ll be the messenger.”

Adam smiles, unperturbed by the threat that Dickinson poses. “I’ve survived Bill before. This time? I’m gonna be the one sending the messages. And I’ll make sure there’s just enough of him left for you to finish off at Iconic.”

Sektor chuckles and pats Ellis on the cheek. 

“I love your confidence, kiddo. I know you’ll make me proud..”

“To what do we owe this surprise?”

Their moment is interrupted by the familiar voice of Regan Marsden, who soon joins the pair. She crosses her arms and eyeballs Sektor with a look that only a pissed off woman can achieve. 

“Hello Regan,” Sektor replies, with a blunt tone. 

“That’s all you have to say to me?”

Sektor shrugs and looks at Adam. “What else would you like me to say?”

“Oh, I dunno? How about an explanation for why you’ve been ignoring my calls? Or for all the business decisions you’ve been making without discussing them with me?”

Sektor sighs and shakes his head dismissively. 

“I don’t have time for this..”

“Well you will make time! What the hell were you thinking? Blindly accepting contract offers without even negotiating?”

Sektor looks around the gym and notices that the students and crew have all stopped what they are doing to eavesdrop on the awkward encounter. Feeling his cheeks warming with embarrassment he clenches his teeth. 

“Perhaps we should discuss this in my office?”

“Perhaps we should!” She barks, storming off towards the steel staircase which ascends towards his over-watching office area. Sektor gives Ellis a pat on the back before heading after her, looking around at his cadets. 

“Get back to work!”

As his booming voice echoes around the training area, the students scurry back to their training like startled insects. 

As he follows Regan into his office, he closes the door slowly. 

“Well?” she says, leaning against his desk with her arms folded. 

Sektor doesn’t respond, he simply grabs a remote control and begins to bring down the blind on the window that looks out over the training area.   

“First of all,” he begins, turning slowly to face her. “You ever speak to me like that again in front of my students? I’ll break your fucking jaw!”

Regan’s face drains all its color as Sektor makes this threat. 

“Secondly, I don’t have to explain shit to you,” he says, practically spitting his words at her. 

Regan seems to choke on her own words, trying to figure out what’s going on as Sektor dumbfounds her. 

“John, I don’t understand..”

“How about, you, do some explaining for a change?” he suggests, standing tall in front of her and raising his chin so that he’s staring down his nose. 

Regan’s face hurts with confusion. “Explain? Explain what? I don’t understand.”

“Why don’t we start with your name?”

Again, Regan pulls a disgruntled expression. She was either genuinely confused or a great actress, he thought to himself. 

“My name?”

“Your real name. Mrs Fitzpatrick!”

The looks of shock on her face told Sektor all he needed to know. She was beginning to visibly shake as she realised that the jig was up and Sektor was onto her. 

“How did you find out?”

“Does it matter?” he sternly replies. 

“I was going to tell you..”

“Bullshit!” 

“I WAS! When the time was right,” she continues, her green eyes beginning to glisten.

“I suggest you start talking,” he warns, with a growly tone. 

She takes a second to compose herself before straightening her back and looking him in the eyes. “Yes, I was married to your brother. I assume you know now about his accident?”

“That what you call it?” he skeptically replies. 

She chooses to ignore that comment as she continues. “I was devastated. Once I realised he was no longer the man that I married and fell in love with, I decided I had to be selfish and move on with my life. I was granted power of attorney so I divorced him and changed my name. A clean start,” she admitted, forcing some guilt into her expression. 

“Little cold wasn’t it?”

“He should have died! That’s no life! He’s a prisoner in his own body. I’m still young and the man I loved is dead. Judge me if you want. But I did what I needed to do. But I made sure he has the best care. You’ve seen it I presume?”

Sektor doesn’t reply, he just stares at her. 

“Believe me, I wish he was still my husband. But a woman needs more than a name,” she explains. 

“I guess that’s where I come in.”

She looks up at him with her tear filled eyes and appears confused. “Huh?”

“What, you gonna tell me it was a coincidence how you engineered your way into my life? What’s your game with me?”

“There’s no game! Look, I know it looks bad. But when I realised you and I were connected through Adam, I felt like we needed to meet. I needed to meet Jason’s brother. And when we did I began to feel something. I felt close to him again, but something felt different.”

“I am nothing like my brother!” Sektor snaps, assuming this was what she was referring to. 

She nods slowly. “Perhaps that’s what made you all the more appealing.”

Sektor smirks and shakes his head. “I don’t buy it. There’s a reason why you were trying to get to me and I wouldn’t mind betting it was about money.”

She appears shocked by this suggestion. “How dare you accuse me of such a thing!”

“Oh fuck off Regan. You’re obsessed with money. I know how bitter my brother was for me for not joining the family business. I know he blamed me for my father selling off most of his assets. That why you came for me? To take back what Jason felt I took from him?”

She continues to shake her head, giving the appearance that she hasn’t a clue what he is talking about. 

“You’re not making any sense.”

“Okay. How about this? Did you do it?” he asks bluntly, carefully looking at her eyes for tell-tales. 

“Do what?”

He speaks the next few words slowly and carefully and with purpose. “Did you push him down those stairs?”

Regan’s face is filled with shock. 

“Are you seriously asking me that question?”

“Oh come on, now. I haven’t forgotten all that pillow talk. How you would ‘never allow yourself to be controlled by a man again?’ I know how cruel my brother can be. Enough to drive a person to push him down some stairs and make it look like a terrible accident.”

“I can’t believe..”

Before she can finish her sentence, the Gold Standard lunges towards her and grabs her by her skinny neck, pinning down to the desk and breathing heavily in her face.

“DON’T FUCKING LIE TO ME!”

“You’re hurting me!” she cries. 

“I’ll fucking kill you if you don’t start telling the truth!”

“John, please, you’re scaring me!”

“You should be fucking scared,” he says, pressing his nose against hers. “However evil you thought my brother was? I’m worse!”

She continues to quiver and cry before Sektor eventually let’s go and pulls away. 

“Gah, this is useless!”

Sektor rakes a hand over his moustache as he seethes with anger. 

“We’re done!”

“John, please! I love you!”

A smirk slowly spreads across his face as he turns to her. “Shut the fuck up! I don’t love you. I could never love you. You were a good lay and I thought you had your uses as a business partner. But that’s all you ever were to me, and you’re a dime a dozen.”

“You don’t mean that,” she sobs, staring at him with desperation. 

“Oh but I do. You’re like all women to me. Toxic! You’re a mould of negativity and I’m going to scrape you off and throw you out. I am fucking champion, Regan. I have to surround myself with positivity. So get your shit. I want you out of my building in the next five minutes or I’m gonna drag you out by that pretty perm of yours.”

As she continues to sob he heads for the door. Standing in the doorway he turns his head slightly to speak over his shoulder.

“Oh, and Regan?”

Crying on her knee’s, she looks up at him from the floor.

“Merry Christmas!”

As he slams the door shut he hears a violent shriek of anguish come from within his office. He smiles to himself and breathes out a sigh of relief.

—————————————————————————————————————————

 

I don’t have time for drama. And women bring drama. Having that hanging over me was turning my blood to poison and clouding my visions. My head needs to be clear for Iconic. I can’t let a single thing put my championship at risk. It’s not easy to shake off. I was always taught to leave my baggage at the door when I arrived at an event. You bring that shit to the ring with you and your wrestling with an instant disadvantage. So many arguments with my ex-wife would follow me to the ring and cost me a win.

I don’t have time to be fucking around with Regan. She’s not worth it. I needed to make a clean cut and remove her from the equation. Maybe she did push my brother down the stairs, maybe she didn’t. But it doesn’t matter. Either way he’s gonna rot in a wheelchair and I can’t do anything about that. All I can do is what she did and be selfish. 

All I care about now is this LSD championship and retaining it at Iconic.

Bill Dickinson will take any sign of weakness he can get to find a foothold in this match and I don’t want to give him a damn thing. 

He wants the big time. He wants the Legendary John Sektor. I am going to give him the best version of myself possible. A man who is clear of mind. A man who’s sole focus will be to put him down and retain my championship. 

Like Bill says, he only needs one shot. One opening to put me down and take away my championship and pride. Just like my brother lost it all in one flash of a moment, the same can happen to me. Losing to Bill Dickinson at Iconic will feel the same as being crippled. Losing the LSD championship would be like losing a limb. 

The pressure is building, as it always does. The pressure that Built when Clay Byrd threatened to put me down at Bottom line. The pressure that built when Jatt Starr took me to the wire at Iconic. But I swallowed that pressure and converted it into positive energy and I did what I do best.

I adapted. I survived and I came out the other side even stronger than I was before. I’m not laughing at Bill Dickinson any more. I’m not taking him lightly. He is a man who threatens everything I have built over the course of this entire year and I’ll be damned if I don’t finish it on a high. 

Bill’s also forgetting a very important detail of this match.

This is personal! 

He can paint himself as a working class hero all he wants. His video’s showing his humble little life with ole’ Martha on the farm are cute. Maybe he will convert the majority into being in his corner at Iconic, but I won’t forget that he’s a bully. 

Just like my brother was. He tried to school yard this shit out of my apprentice and I’m going to stand toe to toe with him and punch him in his big fucking nose. He’s about to meet the ugly side to John Sektor. I’m gonna be vicious. I’m gonna be sadistic and I’m going to look to hurt him. 

Bill will get a taste of what’s to come when he meets my young apprentice tonight at Evening of Champions. Locked in a cage he will be reassured that I won’t be a factor, but he will see what I can do as my boy puts all of my teachings into practice, and looks to get a little revenge of his own. 

I would never admit this to Adam, because I don’t want to dent his confidence before such a big match. But I don’t expect him to win. Bill Dickinson might not wrestle in the big leagues but he’s still a veteran and Adam is still learning. If he can’t beat Adam then he may as well be a no-show Iconic. 

But I hope for Bill’s sake he doesn’t sleep on him. I know Adam is going to dig as deep as he possibly can to beat him tonight. Just as I will at Iconic. 

By the end of tonight you’ll know you’ve been in a fight Bill. Then shit get’s turned up to eleven…

..because I’m next!