Hold On - Behind A Vacant Image - Psalm One

[Silver Eagle]

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. As you come to this day, Little Wing, you will find the more daring you are, the further you will progress. You may find that you are a daredevil, knowing no bounds when it comes to what you perform in the ring, but you will now have to take risks outside of it. Too long have you been walked over in your British home, too long you have been trodden on in the SSWA, and now with this setback… a biased jury taking what was rightfully yours, it is time for you to take risks elsewhere. Change your home, change their feelings, change your tone. Make the change, be the change and then let the whole world change with you. You are the Rising Phoenix, you are the fire that burns that no one can ever walk through. It is time you let that fire rage and consume all around you. Fan the flames, my beloved daughter. Fan the flames and watch the whole world burn in your name. Forget the jury, forget the judge and become the executioner.”

==

I know this pain
Why do lock yourself up in these chains?
No one can change your life except for you
Don't ever let anyone step all over you
Just open your heart and your mind
Is it really fair to feel this way inside?

==

It hurt. Everything hurt. Body. Mind. Soul. Everything. She was guided through the spiralling hallways, attempting to hide the anguish she was feeling from the one person she truly adored. She led her by the hand, no pomp or fanfare, just silent footsteps through the barren wasteland. The brunette rested her head upon her lover's shoulder, a blank expression upon her face as the night’s proceedings began to truly sink in. She had come so close, in a match that just didn’t come naturally to her against one of the very best in the world. She had tried to throw all the offence her mother had taught her, had tried to study Aurora’s every movement in the buildup but it was to no avail. The Jury had spoken and they had voted against her 2-1, exactly the same way in which her wife had been eliminated. It pained her mind, it assaulted her body, it turned her guts inside out and yet as she walked along… she smiled.

Her wife paused as they walked, cradling her beloved in her arms. “How you manage to keep that smile on your face, I’ll never know,” she whispered tenderly. “You’re the bravest person I know.” Anastasia simply looked up at Sophie, that glazed look in her eye as she gazed upon the blue halo around her head, the one only she could see. She lost herself for a moment, gazing tenderly at the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, marveling at every fraction of her face and committing it to memory so she could never and would never forget. Not like she ever would.

“If you don’t smile, the world can never smile with you.” She felt a tear in her eye, but she somehow held it back. Sophie noticed everything, it was one of the things she adored about her, but this she missed, which she thanked the heavens for. “Do you mind… i-if I just take five minutes? Yanno, alone, just to think? Post match ritual and all that jazz” The Songbird already had one hand on the locker room door. Sophie knew full well what she was referring to, she had picked this up from her Mother, sitting and contemplating what had just occurred in silence, whether in defeat or glorious victory. Sophie El placed Ana’s title belt upon her shoulder, then kissed her forehead gently before turning to leave. “I-I love you,” Starling cried after her, almost in a strange form of desperation.

“I love you too, always.” That was the response she was given, quick, sharp and honest. Anastasia watched in wonder as she left, and then entered the room alone.

==

Some day somebody's gonna make you want to
Turn around and say goodbye
Until then baby are you going to let them
Hold you down and make you cry
Don't you know?
Don't you know things can change
Things'll go your way
If you hold on for one more day
Can you hold on for one more day
Things'll go your way
Hold on for one more day

==

Setbacks, I’ve had quite a few in my time, more so than anybody else in my own opinion. The Iron King tournament was no different. But no matter how much that hurt, I must act just like my title belt, and rise from the ashes as a blazing Phoenix to be born again. Kinda sounds quite poetic, doesn’t it? It’s beautiful imagery, and I guess this is what my title represents. My title. Nobody elses. And I fully intend on it staying that way for the foreseeable future.

I guess you could say it represents Faith as well, and that would be the reason she has been selected as my first title defence. She’s been through so much, just as I have. She’s tasted glory, she’s faced adversity and even career threatening injuries, and yet she has still come back. It’s something to admire and applaud, in my honest opinion, and I have so much respect for her for it. She’s even realised she needed to start from the ground up, signing herself up for RISE so she could pick up the pieces of what she had lost and build them up anew, brick by brick. They’re the best coaches in the world. It was sensible, if anything, even if she went against doctor’s orders, at least she is taking precautions.

But no amount of precautions will prepare her for what she faces at Redemption. For while I may admire her determination and resolve, that is not going to hold me back when I face you, Faith. I’ve already seen your doubts, and no encouragement from management has changed that. You are stepping into the fire when you face me, and you won’t be able to step through to the other side. I AM the fire, Faith. I am the Rising Phoenix, and that shadow of doubt in your mind has been cast by the towering inferno that is me. I’m shining brighter and more ferocious than ever before, and the setbacks that I have suffered as of late are like gasoline on my open flame. I’m ready to explode like an atom bomb, and you are standing at Ground Zero. And there is going to be a very, very big bang once that bell rings. I’m not holding back anything, respect and admiration be damned. You seem very lovely, but when you try to take what I fought so hard for, you’re going to get hurt. I’m sorry but not sorry.

I wish you luck, though I wish you were at your best before your injury. That was something to see, and I’m not sure if you will reach that plane again. But there is hope. After all, you had a head injury and came back. I once died for three minutes and look at me now. Someone always has it worse, then someone always gets better. With enough determination you might make it, but it is not at Redemption.

And I still remember what happened at the Boatle Royale, and payback is a bitch called Anastasia.

==

You could sustain
Or are you comfortable with the pain?
You've got no one to blame for your unhappiness
You got yourself into your own mess
Lettin' your worries pass you by
Don't you think it's worth your time
To change your mind?

==

The wind rustled her hair as she stood on the ledge. The weather was cold and damp like her feelings, invisible vultures encircling her, waiting for the inevitable. She had entirely broken down as she had entered the room, sliding down the walls as the flood finally came, demons and devils and creatures of the underworld mocking her for her failure. She had lost many times before, but never like this. She had been cheated, assaulted and beaten down, but never in her life had it come to the point that faceless jury had made the decision, made the call that she was simply not good enough. And in the aftermath, she had become forgotten to a challenge from her superior lover. She had become forgotten in the pre-match as well, her opponent preferring to praise a potential opponent for the final as opposed to speaking about her. It was like it was some form of forgone conclusion, and it threw her off completely in the build up. She lost focus through sorrow and anger and doubt, and by the time she had regained it, it was too late. It was done. She had lost. Lost everything and more,

She clutched the window frame tightly, staring down at the fatal fall that awaited her. Sophie would understand, wouldn’t she? She would move on and be happy. She would be better without a crutch such as her. She would find someone new, then challenge whoever was champion and become everything in her absence. Least she told her she loved her one last time. Mama would be upset, but she had her life with Strike now. She gave her up not once, but twice, it would be just like that again, right? And then Jackie, Sabrina, Kenzie… Holly would say ‘FINE, Whatever’ and that would be that. No change. They would be happy. Happy.

She let a single boot tumble of her foot and down, watching on to see if it sprouted wings and took flight. It didn’t. It fell. And so would she. She fell as soon as she burnt the wrestling bible Papa had sent. Papa? No, Isaac. No, Bobby. Whoever he was or wasn’t. It mattered not, she couldn’t cheat, she couldn’t use that cheat code he had begged her to use. And yet some, some of it still committed to her memory. Messages of deceit and lies, shady goings on in the world of HKW. Well, they would be buried with her, along with the title belt she had wrapped tightly around her tiny waist. Her last feeling of pride died as she stared upon her prize, knowing it was the last great achievement. Nobody had wanted her succeed anywhere else in any other way. Opponents, fans, timekeepers, security, management, judges. No one. At least she could achieve this.

She let weightlessness take her as she finally let go, feeling relief in her bleeding fingers as she plummeted, the wind now beneath her wings as gravity took over. There was a thud, a throb of pain and the whole world turned to a blurry mixture of darkness and numbness, a trickle turning into a river from the back of her head. Confusion took hold as she unexpectedly opened her eyes. Hovering above her was a figure with spiked horns, a forked tongue and hooves of a goat. He panted and cried as he cradled her head in his serpent like arms.

“Dear girl, you may be the Songbird, but those little wings can only carry you so far. But your song, your song must live on.” Bobby B. Barabbas said. She stared up at the figure, his eyes matching her own, and she gripped him tightly as the floodgates opened once more.

“Papa…”

She was such a fool.

==

I know that there is pain
But you hold on for one more day and
Break free the chains
Yeah I know that there is pain
But you hold on for one more day and you
Break free, break from the chains

==