- Event: #97RED
The Kingdom Training Facility
Denver, Colorado
Wednesday, July 26th, 2023
It was business as usual inside The Kingdom training facility and wrestling school. The building was full of fresh young students who were eager to learn the craft of their choice. Be it boxing, MMA, or professional wrestling. Back off in another section of the building was a strength training area. Most of the male students lingered around this area. All of them want to get stronger or look as impressive as humanly possible.
A good physique and a muscular body help in most sports, especially the combat type. Always nice to look like you were chiseled from stone when you’re on the cover of posters or magazines. There was also the fact that the bigger you are, the more women you could bag. Or at least, that was the myth going around. And as all of these young talents worked on their bodies and muscles, or just bullshitted with each other. There was one person that was here for a different reason.
One of the owners of the establishment, Jace Parker Davidson found himself laying back on a bench looking to press a significant amount of weight. It was nothing that he hasn’t done before but yet there was a knot in his stomach as he stared up at the barbell above him. He had lifted his amount of weight hundreds of times before but lately? Lately, his body has begun to betray him in ways he couldn’t understand. He was scheduled in a one-on-one match for the HOW World Championship.
The first one-on-one shot he’s gotten in almost a decade but his opponent? The Champion was the man known as STRONK! Godson.
Power was Godson’s game and he had it in spades. Jace felt that he needed to prove to himself he could hold his own in the power game. Not just to beat STRONK! but for his own self-confidence. The road to the main event of 97RED was not a smooth one. Stumbling in a tag team match and then losing a single’s match against Rhys Townsend had rattled the Hall of Famer a bit. STRONK! hasn’t been pinned in fuck knows when and if Jace couldn’t even beat a rusty returning Hall of Famer?
What chance did he have of survival against a walking mountain of muscle?
Davidson shook out his hands and then gripped the barbell as tightly as he could. He squirmed on the bench and took a deep breath before raising the weight from its station. 380lbs of weight that Jace began to press into the air. He made it about two reps before his arms started to quiver and buckle. He grunted loudly, trying with every fiber in his being to place the weight back on its station but he couldn’t do it.
The loud sound of Jace’s arms losing grip of the barbell and the weight falling on his chest and neck echoed throughout the area. Davidson began choking and gasping which got the attention of the students nearby.
“Holy shit!” Exclaimed one student. “I think he’s choking!”
“Hurry up and let’s get that weight off of him!” Another student panicked. “He’s had his neck broken before!”
The panic and yelling of the students drew the attention of others farther away. Two of the particularly bigger students grabbed the barbell and lifted it off of Davidson’s body before placing it back on its station. Jace rolled off of the bench to the floor. Cough and choking the entire time as oxygen filled his lungs once again. Students knelt and gathered around the Hall of Famer before someone else can racing over toward the scene.
“What happened?!” Asked Samantha Tolson as he tried to weave her way through the students all gathered around. “Is anyone hurt?!”
All of the students looked up at the co-owner and girlfriend of Davidson before parting to give her a pathway toward the answer to her questions. Davidson was slowly pulling himself back to an upright position while trying to control his breathing without hacking up a lung.
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Jace croaked and waved a hand dismissively, not realizing Samantha was there glaring down at him.
Samantha turned around and laid eyes on all of the students gathered around watching. Her lips curled into a sneer as she spoke in a commanding tone.
“Everyone back to work!” She ordered. “You’re not paying us to stand here and gawk. I need a moment with Mr. Davidson… alone!”
The tone of her voice made everyone scatter back to whatever it was they were doing beforehand. Samantha turned and knelt to look at Jace in the face.
“What the fuck?!” The question was simple and hissed in a tone of a woman who was annoyed.
“Like I said it’s fine,” Jace spoke between coughs. “My hand just slipped but no real damage was done here.”
“No real damage?” Samantha questioned. “By the sound of everyone yelling I would say you’re lying to me about that.”
Jace went to speak up but Samantha cut him off. “And don’t even think about lying to me about the fact you just lied to me.”
“The important thing is that I’m perfectly fine,” Jace said after a sigh.
“The fuck you are.” Tolson bit off her words sharply. “You look like absolute shit. Something is going on with you and I’m tired of you hiding whatever it is.”
Samantha grabbed Jace by the arm and pulled him up to his feet. Once he found his balance, she began to lead him away.
“What are you doing?” Jace inquired.
“I’m going to take you to your office so that we can talk in private and you can finally be honest with me,” Samantha answered in a low tone as she walked Jace through the building.
They reached the office door and Tolson pulled it open. She pushed Jace inside and then entered behind him. She closed the door and then locked it behind her as Jace’s breath was still kind of labored. Samantha walked over and leaned back against his desk.
“Now tell me what is going on!” Tolson once again demanded.
“I’m telling you–” Jace is cut off once again by Samantha.
“STOP LYING TO ME!” She screamed which startled Jace. “You told me the last time that you did something that I would not approve of but never gave me the details. Said that you would handle it and yet here you are looking like you do right now.”
“Just a bad day.” Jace protested.
“It will be an even worse day if you don’t give me the details, NOW!”
Jace just looked at her and tried to come up with an excuse or a reason to get out of this conversation but he could tell by her demeanor that he wasn’t getting out of it this time. Davidson walked around to the back of his desk and flopped down onto his chair.
“STRONK! Godson.” Jace hung his head low.
“Your opponent at the HOW PPV. What about him?” Tolson pressed for more information.
“He was my friend. A tag team partner and a business partner.” Jace recalled but Samantha’s patience was running thin.
“I know off of that.” She growled. “Tell me what I don’t know.”
“STRONK! and I started the business together, STRONKUMMS LLC.” Jace raised his head and held his hand in the air before Tolson erupted again. “And yes, I know you know that but what you don’t know is the kind of business we conducted.”
“You told me it was frozen meat.” Samantha chimed in.
“It is,” Jace confirmed but his facial expression soured. “Less than FDA-approved frozen meat that was coated in steroids. That we knowingly sold to people for a profit. We were doing so well that we got the idea for liquid meat-flavored drinks.”
Samantha made a face like she was about to vomit in her mouth.
“I never said it was the best idea!” Jace admitted. “And it was as disgusting as it sounds. It didn’t sell for shit until I decided to add cocaine into the ingredients without making it public knowledge. So, only dumb enough to try steroid-coated rotting camel meat as a beverage got hooked on it because of the cocaine.”
“How the FUCK did you ever get away with any of that?!” Samantha asked, befuddled.
“A lot of shady dealings and money paid to the right people to overlook a lot of things.” Jace sighed. “And things were going great until late last year when STRONK! died. Or at least I thought he died. Me and his handler, Abdullah Choi handled most of the business end of things and Choi told me that STRONK!’s dying wish was to give the company to me.”
Samantha nodded her head as Jace continued.
“The whole thing was like a blur.” Jace chuckled weakly. “STRONK! had a pet bull that Choi ended up killing. STRONK! had punched a horse at a PPV. I had a lot of stuff coming at me from all directions but I accepted the company because I thought it was mine. I mean… it is mine. Only STRONK! didn’t really die, he thinks I killed his bull, and now he wants the company back.”
Samantha stood up away from the desk and paced around the office in silence trying to process everything that she just heard. The silence crawled under Jace’s skin until he spoke up.
“You can go ahead and yell at me.” Jace almost pleaded. “I know I deserve that and more.”
Tolson remained silent until she turned around and looked at him.
“That still doesn’t tell me what is going on with you.” She said while pointing her index finger in his direction.
“Remember when I got attacked and put into the hospital a while back?” Jace asked. “Before you or Madison or anyone else found out what happened, I had a visitor. Choi showed his face for the first time in a long while. He had been watching from a distance waiting for the right moment. I was at rock bottom and he offered me something that he told me that would help me. That would give me a fighting chance against STRONK!”
“You didn’t…” Samantha’s voice trailed off.
“I was weak and desperate so I agreed to allow him to inject me with whatever steroid cocktail that he had given to STRONK! to gain all of his muscle back,” Jace revealed. “But instead of getting stronger, I’ve been getting smaller and weaker. My body feels strange and I have no idea what is happening to me.”
Samantha spun around and marched over to a nearby wall and punched it as hard as she possibly could while screaming. Jace watched as her shoulders heaved up and down as the rage flowed through her like a mighty river. Tolson marched over to where Jace was seated and then slapped him across the face as hard as she possibly could.
“You are unbelievable!” She hollered as loud as she could muster. “Not only do willingly let someone inject you with illegal substances. You know how I feel about that, but you also decided to sell said illegal substances to people under the guise of frozen food. You became a drug dealer and there is no telling how many people… how many children whose lives you’ve ruined!”
“It was because of STRONKUMMS that we have Sanctuary!” Jace said defensively. “If it wasn’t for the money I made doing that we wouldn’t be standing here inside our own wrestling school and training facility!”
“Do you honestly think I care about any of that?!” Samantha asked frantically. “I have my own money and my own places to live! I didn’t need you to swoop in with fancy and expensive items! I just needed you, to be honest with me!”
“I’m telling you now!” Jace fired back.
“And that’s supposed to make it better?!” Samantha throws her hands into the air. “It’s not just the steroid use or the shady dealings. It’s you, Jace. You always do this!”
“Do what?!” He shouted back.
“You always go out on your own and think you can fix everything yourself!” Samantha paced around once again. “You choose to keep me and everyone else in the dark. You choose to keep me and others at a distance. Sure, you treat us well and you buy us things but you never truly let anyone in. You just walk around like this lone wolf who doesn’t need anyone. Some white knight that suffers time and time again to protect everyone else.”
“Sam…”
“Being a lone wolf doesn’t make you cool or a badass, Jace. It just makes you an asshole!” Samantha said trying to hold back tears. “I don’t need a white knight! I need someone who wants to confide in me. Someone who wants to love me more than just at a distance. I need someone that wants to build a family with me!”
“I…”
“SHUT UP!” Samantha screamed as she swatted a lamp off the top of a small table. “Time and time again I’ve tried to chip away at these walls you’ve built up. I’ve offered to fly your son out there free of charge just so we could spend time with him but you decline. You find an excuse why it wouldn’t work. I’ve asked you about your family numerous times and you utterly refuse to talk about them or let me help you in any way possible.”
“I can make this right, Sam!” Jace proclaimed as he rose to his feet.
“You can’t fix everything! Don’t you get it?!” Samantha pleaded. “You’re selfish, you’re impulsive, you would rather die than ask someone for help. You are your own worst enemy and I don’t know… I don’t know if I can just sit quietly and watch you destroy yourself while keeping me at arm’s length.”
Tolson turns around and heads toward the door of the office.
“Samantha don’t…” Jace called out but she cut him off.
“You need to go see a doctor and find out what exactly is wrong with you before it kills you.” She said in a somber tone.
Samantha unlocked the door and opened it. She marched out of it and slammed down door shut by her before heading to the nearest exit. Jace ran his fingers through his hair and fell back down in his chair.
—–
Sanctuary
Denver, Colorado
Monday, July 31st, 2023
Inside the home of Jace Parker Davidson and Samantha Tolson was oddly quiet. For the number of people that lived there at any given moment, it seemed like a ghost town. Jace sat on the couch in the living room just glaring at the television screen. He couldn’t tell you what was on it or what was on next. His mind was elsewhere and the sound of the television filled the void where talking and the chaos of multiple people living under the same roof used to be.
Down the stairs, Madison Carter came down and looked over at Davidson on the couch. She slowly walked around the back of it before taking a seat on the couch herself. She turned her body to look at Jace before speaking.
“Still no sign of Samantha, huh?” There was concern in Madison’s voice.
“She’s not answering calls or responding to text messages,” Jace responded dryly.
“Well, that’s because you really hurt her.” Madison sighed. “She’s mad at you and I’m not even sure if she’ll ever get over it.”
“Shouldn’t you be mad at me too?” Jace said in a tone that showed he didn’t want company.
“I am mad at you, to a point.” Madison shrugged. “However, I’m not surprised. I’ve known how you are for a long time now and went through the emotions about it when you ditched me for Samantha.”
“I guess I should apologize for that,” Jace murmured without looking away from the TV.
“It wouldn’t hurt.” Madison turned her body and leaned back on the couch. “A behavior change would be a longer-term solution.”
Before Jace could respond the sound of his phone ringing is heard. He dove his hand into the pocket to pull it out, hoping that Samantha had decided to talk to him. Although, disappointment soon took over when he saw the number that was calling. He swiped to answer the call and raised the phone to his ear.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Mr. Davidson, it’s Dr. Goldstein.”
“What is it, Doc?”
“I have the lab results from the blood work you did last week and I’m… confused.”
“Confused how?!”
“You stated at the hospital that you had steroids in your system.”
“That’s because I do.”
“Actually, yes, you do, but not the ones we were expecting.” The doctor confirmed. “What we found can’t honestly be explained.”
Jace’s body shot upright on the couch as anger began to wash over him.
“Then what is it you found, Doctor?!”
“That’s what I’m confused about.” The doctor paused. “As far as I can tell the majority of what is in your bloodstream is an ungodly level of Estrogen.”
Jace shot up to his feet and yelled into the phone.
“Did you just fucking say Estrogen?!!?” Madison’s eyes raised and she became instantly invested in the conversation.
“Yes, but along with other things I can’t yet identity.” The doctor tried to remain calm. “We’re going to need to run more tests to find out what exactly is going on. I suggest you come in for more blood work ASAP.”
“No can do, Doctor. I’m busy.” Jace snarled.
“Mr. Davidson.” The doctor interjected. “You don’t understand the implications of what we’ve found here. The amount of Estrogen in your body right now will cause massive changes.”
“Like muscle loss?” There was a sarcastic tone in Jace’s voice.
“Yes, but more importantly the swelling and enlargement of the breast tissue.” The doctor explained. “Along with erectile dysfunction, infertility, depression, diabetes, tumors, and cirrhosis just to name a few.”
“Thanks for the info, Doc.” And with that, Jace ended the call.
He shoved the phone back into his pocket and then grabbed hold of a large vase in the living room. He lifted it into the air and threw it as hard as he could at a wall. It smashed into pieces which caused Madison to jump. Jace’s mind was running 100mph trying to decide which way he was going to torture Abdullah Choi before he murdered him.
“I’ll kill him,” Jace said through a clenched jaw as his body vibrated with rage that he’s never felt before.
“I didn’t hear all of that,” Madison added. “But I heard enough to get what is going on and I think you need to calm down. There are more important things you need to focus on. Killing the creepy dude shouldn’t be at the top of your priority list. It getting yourself healthy and fixing things with Samantha.”
Jace threw daggers with his eye toward Madison before turning around to climb the stairs.
“Where are you going?!” Madison called out.
“I’m going to pack!” Jace shouted before disappearing.
—–
Sanctuary
Denver, Colorado
Tuesday, August 1st, 2023
The inside of Sanctuary was quiet. Even quieter than it was the day before. Samantha had gotten a text message the night before that she needed to come home immediately and talk to Jace before something bad happened. Samantha stepped through the front door and called out for Jace or anyone else that might have been home at the time.
She got no answer and began to check room by room looking for anyone to give her further context on just what was happening. Eventually, Samantha climbed the stairs and made her way to the master bedroom. She stepped inside and turned on the light to find it empty, just like every other room in the home. Tolson walked around the bed and looked around before finding an envelope sitting on her nightstand. She reached down and grabbed it to see her name was written on it. Samantha sat down on the edge of the bed and then began to read the letter inside the envelope written in Jace’s handwriting.
Dear Sam,
If you’re reading this then I guess that Madison has gotten in contact with you or that you came back to pack your things and leave forever. I know you’re angry and you have every right to be but a lot has happened and there is still a lot that I need to do. That’s why I’ve left early for Australia where the 97RED PPV is going to take place.
Yes, this is selfish of me but I need to do this.
Not just because I have to take things head-on and leave you at arm’s length. I’m doing it because I need time away to prepare for what is to come and to figure out just who I am and who I want to be moving forward.
You were right.
I do the things that I do without talking it over with you or anyone else. I handle things all alone because even at 35 years old, I still act like a 14-year-old child. That’s because it was at 14 when I was kicked out of my house by my stepfather and forced to live on the streets. You know that story but what you don’t know is that I’ve always held a grudge over it. Not for my stepfather or even my biological father but for my mother.
She stood there and allowed my stepfather to just toss me away like day-old Chinese food. She didn’t lift a finger, she didn’t protest, she did nothing. She didn’t try to smooth things over, she didn’t arrange for a place for me to stay. She never even came after me. She was content to let her child be tossed away with nothing and lived her life normally not knowing whether I was alive or dead.
That hurt… that still hurts.
I lash out, I’m violent to just about everyone but the person I’m mad at the most is her. I’ve never gotten over it and instead of dealing with my issues or processing that pain. I let it fester within me to the point it started to rot from the inside.
That’s why I willingly have done the horrible things I have done. That’s why I am happier keeping people at a distance away from me. I’m not even sure I know what love is… not true love anyway.
I loved my Uncle who took me in and saved me from homelessness. The one that made me finish school and trained me to wrestle but then he died tragically. There was my ex-wife. I thought I loved her but I didn’t really. She was more convenient than my soulmate. She was a whore and a submissive person that I could bend to my will.
And yet… I still managed to keep her at a distance. So much so, that she cheated on me, got pregnant, and then decided to lie that the baby was mine. I had broken my neck trying to save her from injury and at the lowest point of my life when I was confined to a hospital bed. She was out bouncing on some douchebag’s dick who fashioned himself as some kind of Butcher.
That was two strikes. A third strike terrifies me.
Which is why I was happy to just stay on my own. I was content using Madison as my replacement Tara but then I met you.
As much as I want to change, as much as I want to do things right. It’s not something that I can just snap my fingers and make happen instantly. I need time to focus and think about who I am and what I want out of life. Not just for myself but for those around me.
So, when I come back…
IF I come back… from this fight against STRONK! I don’t know if you’ll still be there. I don’t know if you’ll be ready to ride this fucked up rollercoaster with me or just cut your losses and move on to live a normal life.
Maybe getting my skull caved in by STRONK! is the nail in the coffin that I deserve. I just know that I’m tired of trying to cover up my insecurities. I’m tired of acting out because I had a shitty upbringing and I pretend to be angry at the entire world. I’m not going to run away anymore. Not from my bullshit and not from STRONK! Godson.
I’m going to fight my former friend even in my current state. I need to show him who I am as a person through the only means he’ll understand. I also agreed to put the STRONKUMMS company on the line in this match. STRONK! wants it back or rather, someone told him that he wants it back. I don’t want to continue to sell rotten frozen meat laced with illegal drugs. I held onto it for the money but also because I was holding out hope that somehow things could go back to the way things were with me and him. That was a pipe dream and I need to accept the reality of fact STRONK! and I might never be friends again.
I’ve fucked up a lot of things and fucked over a lot of people. Only to try and take a blind eye (ironic pun) to it all.
I know that I can’t fix everything.
But I can damn sure try.
I do love you, in my own fucked up way.
Sincerely yours
Jace Parker Davidson
Samantha sighed heavily, sitting down on their bed and reading Jace’s letter again, the questions flowing into the empty room.
“What state are you in, Jace? What the hell did Choi do to you?”
She wiped a few tears from her eyes, pulled out her phone, and tapped out a text to Madison.
Any chance we can talk here at home, and soon?