Gloomy Alleyways & Dark Secrets

This writing is part of a series of pieces within a fictional online wrestling federation.


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The streets were dark, the atmosphere tense, as I wandered slowly forwards, hands in coat pockets to protect them from the bitter cold. Every fifty yards or so I’d look round, left and right, whilst wondering to myself exactly who or what I was looking for. Guilty conscience? No, it wasn’t quite like that, mainly because I was able to rationalise to myself that I wasn’t actually doing anything wrong… not yet anyway……

I carried on walking, looking up quickly at the smallest of noises, startled by the rustling of the birds in the trees or the approach of a car… Jesus I was jumpy… I carried on regardless though, the cold orange glow of the street lamps casting a strange ethereal fuzz around me and giving me a ghostly pale complexion. Eventually, I reached my destination, a somewhat anticlimactic final stop on my whistle-stop tour of the back streets of Alabama; I leaned casually against the crumbling brick wall of the dark alleyway in which I now found myself, feeling strangely at ease despite the eerie atmosphere and cold winter wind whistling through the gloom. I leaned, and watched, and waited…

After a wait which was no more than a few moments long, the stillness in the air was broken by the approach of a second figure; I peered through the gloom somewhat nervously, before smiling as the figure came into view, and I was able to recognise certain defining features. Through the darkness, I registered a slim feminine figure, with dark hair cascading down to the owner’s shoulders. I saw a confidence in the way that this person chose to walk and carry themselves, yet also a strange vulnerability that appealed to my protective side. Everything about this woman, in fact, was appealing, and I couldn’t stop my smile from widening as one Caledonia Summers came into full view, wearing a strange look of distress. Undeterred, I turned in the direction of the murky alleyway and motioned that we take a walk. After a momentary pause, Caledonia sighed, and followed just a step behind.

“We must stop meeting like this…” I muttered through my smile, turning to catch a glimpse of her in the gloom.

Caledonia didn’t catch my eye, but instead looked straight ahead as we continued our slowly progress into the darkened alleyway; to put it bluntly, she looked pissed off.

“Yeah, well, you organised this little ‘get-together’…” she began in a testing voice, “Just say what you have to say, do what you have to do and we can go our separate ways.”

I frowned, confused; up til now, when we’d met, Caledonia had been friendly… maybe even a little bit more than friendly… The frosty reception that I was getting now had caught me completely off guard – I felt like a married man, under the glare of a scorned wife, trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to have done. Tact was definitely going to be the best approach here…

“What’s wrong Cali? Has something happened?” I asked.

Caledonia’s gaze didn’t falter, she still stared dead ahead as she answered my question in a tone as cold as the wind which still whistled around us, “No. Everything’s fine. What’s up – you don’t think I can handle the shit that life throws at me?”

I opened my mouth to reply, stopped, before closing it slowly, beaten. Something was definitely wrong, that much was obvious, and I had a pretty good feeling that it was me. I wanted to do or say something really sensitive, maybe even romantic. Instead, I managed to garble out another question reminiscent of many a failed teenage relationship.

“Have I… uhhh… have I done something wrong?”

Suddenly, Cali stopped in her tracks, a strange look coming over her face. I stopped a couple of steps later, caught off guard by her sudden halt, and looked back to where she now stood, stock still. She looked as if she was steeling herself to say or do something, her expression a bewildering mix of nervous and determined. After a few seconds thought, Cali looked up at me, her mind made up. I opened my mouth to speak, but she held up her hand authoritatively, before letting out a long sigh.

“I think… I think this needs to stop. Now. Before anything gets out of hand.”

My reply was swift, and echoed shockingly off the dull walls either side of us, “What?! Why?! It’s barely begun! What exactly has brought this on anyway? Have you spoken to Dan?”

I fired question after question at her, the words tumbling out of my mouth in a garbled rush. Cali merely stood there, eyes closed, and let the questions fly over her head, until I finally stopped. She looked into my eyes again, an infuriatingly pitying look in her own eyes as she attempted to explain herself.

“This isn’t about Dan.” she began calmly. “This isn’t about you. This isn’t even about you and me. There’s just too much risk involved. Too much that could be lost, on both sides… -”

I unconsciously took a step forward, cutting her off, “And?! That’s what makes it exciting isn’t it? Surely that’s why you got involved with me in the first place, right?! No-one’s suspected anything up until now, why would they start now?!”

I was rambling again, unable to quite believe what I was hearing, and doing my utmost to change the way Caledonia saw things. If I was being brutally honest, I wasn’t entirely sure why I was so bothered – sure our little ‘fling’ had been fun up until now, but I hadn’t exactly thrown my heart and soul into it. When all was said and done, I wouldn’t lose much at all if our ‘acquaintance’ would come to an end, there and then; there would be nothing stopping me from going back to Charlotte and returning to what was a happy existence. Yet still I protested, with words that unfortunately, seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

“Look.” This time it was Caledonia’s turn to cut me off. “I’m not saying it hasn’t been fun, because it has. But I’m not sure I’m doing this for the same reason you are. Not wanting to brag or anything, but even without you in my life Mitch, I had plenty of excitement. I didn’t do this for a quick thrill, like you obviously have.”

“No, I…”

Caledonia cut me short again, “My motives were completely different. I love wrestling, Mitch. And I love everything that goes with it – the competition, the rush of live performance, the camaraderie. But I’d never felt like I’d met someone who loved wrestling quite as much as I did. I felt like to truly feel the business, to enjoy everything that wrestling had to offer, I had to find someone who felt the same way about it as I did.”

My shoulders sagged, and I sighed, as all the fight seemed to leave my body, “And you thought that I was that person……”

Cali cocked her head slightly sideways, perhaps looking at me through new eyes, “Like I said Mitch, please don’t take this in the wrong way. This whole thing has been fun, I’ve enjoyed almost every side of it. You’ve been unpredictable yet discreet, and have been a true gent. And I do feel as if I’ve learnt more about wrestling in our time together. But I’ve also learnt a lot about myself; about what I am, and what I want. And after your little confrontation with Dan last week, I realised that there’s too much at stake. I can’t afford to lose my love for wrestling in exchange for a bit of fun…”

I took another step towards her, feeling desperate. It had suddenly hit me that this whole scenario was more important to me than I actually realised – I needed her, needed this excitement in my life. But it was slipping away, despite my best efforts to hold onto it, like sand trickling through my cupped hands.

In an act of pure desperation, I took Cali in a fierce embrace, practically pinning her against the wall of the alley and bringing my lips down to meet hers. I kissed her passionately, and for more than a few seconds, I felt Cali kissing me back with equal passion and intensity. For a fleeting moment, my heart leapt – with just one gesture, I’d done it! I changed her mind! But triumph turned to bitter disappointment just seconds later, as I felt her pull away, and shudder at my touch. I tried to bring her in closer again, gently this time, but she recoiled again, and physically pushed me away. Out of regret more than anything, I stumbled somewhat awkwardly back, watching sadly as Caledonia hastily wiped her mouth and rearranged herself. I sighed again as I tried to catch her eyes, for one last attempt at redemption.

“So…… this is definitely it then? There’s no changing your mind?”

Cali looked slowly up and met my gaze, but before she could answer, we both heard the muffled but audible sounds of Kasabian coming from the direction of my trouser pocket – my cell phone. I pulled it slowly out. In truth, I didn’t need to look at the name of the person who was texting me; I knew exactly who it was. I knew Cali knew as well. Nevertheless, I brought the phone up and looked at the message:


--- MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM CHARLOTTE AT 22:45 ---

Just arrived back at the hotel after being completely and utterly pampered at the spa. Thank you so much for a wonderful treat! Come and meet me and maybe you can have a treat of your own… wink.gif xxx


I sighed quietly and looked sadly down at the phone. I didn’t know. I just didn’t know any more. Confused didn’t cover it. In contrast, Caledonia was obviously feeling a little more decisive, as I heard her voice echo throughout the alley, as if from a great distance away.

“You should get back to her.” she said. I looked up, and saw a strange smile on her face as she looked slowly from the phone held in my right hand up to my nonplussed expression, “You’ve got a lot going for you Mitch. And I think somewhere, deep down, you know that. You don’t need me. You never did. Let’s stop this now before someone does something silly, OK?”

I didn’t answer, didn’t even move, and Cali looked a little cautious as she looked up at my face, searching for some sort of reaction. When I didn’t give one, she stepped slowly forward until she was right in front of me, looking straight into my eyes. I shifted a little to try to avoid her gaze, and saw a flicker of sadness pass across her face. Slowly, she stood on tiptoes in order to plant a kiss on my cheek, before stepping back and trying to catch my eye again. After several long seconds in which the only thing that moved was a stray leaf blowing sadly across the grubby floor, Cali let out a small sigh, before turning and making her way slowly back out of the alleyway. I remained stood exactly where she’d left me, stock still, until she’d practically reached the end of the alleyway. I turned and shouted after her, in a voice that was much more menacing than I ever intended,

“This doesn’t end here you know…”

Cali stopped and slowly turned her head to meet my gaze, from much further away this time. Now, it was my turn to look for a reaction, and I got one, though perhaps not quite the reaction that I wanted. She looked at me with that same frustrating pitying look in her eyes, and shook her head slightly, before turning and disappearing swiftly out of view. I sighed again, leaning back against the wall and rubbing my temples with both hands. It had felt like the last hour or so had been a complete waste of time. Nothing had gone right, and everything had gone downhill. And now I had to go back to my pregnant girlfriend and look her in the eye and lie to her that everything was OK.I had to go into work on Tuesday and pretend that I gave a damn about the CWF Tag Team Titles. Oh well… I thought to myself, might as well get the worst over with..

With what seemed like a massive effort, I hauled myself off the wall and made my way slowly out of the alley, hands in pockets once more, head bowed against the now fierce wind. The journey to the hotel was only a five minute walk, but every step seemed like an effort as I tried to digest exactly what had happened in that gloomy alleyway between two strangely lonely people who didn’t really know what they wanted from life at the minute. Still, the walk gave me a chance to reflect on the whole messy situation, as well as look forward to the radically changing future that lay ahead of me with the CWF.

Going back to my earlier point, and I was probably a little rash and harsh with what I said about the tag titles. The last thing I’d want to do would be to belittle the titles and devalue them. After all, they’re probably the single reason behind my steady rise within the company, and I always regard them with some fondness. In the same breath, the last thing I want to do is become complacent towards our opponents in the finals of this Tag Team Tournament. Jacob and Edgar Tully put in a solid performance in their half of the tourney to knock out Brandon Jackson and Mike Crisis, a performance which was bordering on dominant.

In essence, they are the epitome of a perfect old school tag team. A crafty and technically gifted Edgar, backed up by the sheer power and athleticism of Jacob. Add an experienced and sometimes underhanded manager like Bruno into the mix, and you’ve got a pretty formidable force. The two have only had modest success as singles competitors in their time with CWF, but they showed last week that if you pair them together, good things can happen. If I’m being entirely honest, it’s difficult to see any obvious weakness within Electric Mayhem. But, look hard enough, and suddenly the frailties and flaws of any individual or group begin to shine through. You see boys, in watching your demolition of Messieurs Jackson and Crisis last week, in revealing your strengths to us as a team, you also inadvertently revealed the inner weaknesses that will ultimately cost you the gold that you so crave.

Myself and Sean made a winning start as part of a tag team last week, and we did enough in my eyes to now go into a tag team match knowing what it takes to win. Tag team experience and continuity is invaluable, but it’s also something that can be picked up very very quickly. There’s no denying that, as brothers, you guys have got all the experience and continuity that one could ask for going into a tag team match of this magnitude. But ask yourself – what’s better than a relationship between that of a brother and a brother? What kind of relationship can breed as much respect and trust as one between two siblings? Mentor and student, perhaps? Or taking that a little bit further, maybe father and son? Sounding at all familiar guys?

But you see fellas, it doesn’t end there. Because that isn’t the only way in which Sean and I are better than your good selves. You see, whilst you may think that you have everything going for you when it comes down to two versus two, we know that we can go one better. We can be that little bit stronger, that little bit quicker and that little bit wiser. In the wrestling business, and in life, Sean and I have been through more in a single month, than both of you have been through in your entire lives. And as I said before, that experience is invaluable, and will be the chief reason why you won’t be leaving with the gold this time around.

But now we have to look past the Tag Team Titles, and survey the bigger picture for The Blue Scorpion, and The Trinity as a whole. You see, whilst I value these titles as high as any in the company, save for the big one. But at the end of the day, they’re merely a stepping stone. A statement of intent that signifies that The Trinity is a group to be taken seriously when people look back at the annals of the CWF. But along with establishing success as a group, I can also eye personal gain and glory as well, as I look forward to another World Title pay-per-view main event.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a lot of our beloved President when I made my presence felt last week, at the end of the crazily messed-up World Title match. But credit to him, it seems the boot’s on the other foot now, and he finally sees Valentine for the lying, snivelling manipulator that he really is. I begrudgingly give Jace all the credit in the world – he is good at what he does, there’s no two ways about it. But the problem with being a manipulator like Jace is, no matter how good you are, once you’ve been screwed by him once, you will never let yourself make the same mistake twice. Myself, Gamble and Jarvis have all had the wool pulled over our eyes once. But now, Jace has run out of tricks. None of us will allow ourselves to be duped by Jace in the same way again. And I’m sorry Jace, but when it’s just gonna come down to a straight wrestling match, or a scrap, you’re outmatched by both myself and Mr King on a pretty monumental level. Confliction is going to be very interesting, and just like the group that I formed just a few short weeks ago, I’m gonna be doing everything to make things right.

So, put those few things together, and add in the mess with Caledonia and a still pretty irate Mr Highlander on my hands, and I’ve got a pretty eventful few weeks ahead of me. Still… I thought to myself as I looked up at the lit hotel room that, for now at least, provided lodgings for myself and my pregnant carrying girlfriend, I’d gladly take any of that right now if it meant I didn’t have to look my girlfriend dead in the eye, and tell her everything was alright. Sometimes, it’s the simplest tasks which seem the hardest…

I trudged slowly up the stairs of the Hilton, the feeling of dread inside me building with every step that I took. I knew I was working myself up into a bit of a lather, that it was my own fault, and that I wasn’t doing myself any favours by constantly dwelling on the ifs, buts and maybes of the whole thing. But despite my best efforts to act natural, to kid to myself that everything was going to be alright, I could not ignore the hideous burning sensation creeping up my throat. Psychological, or physiological? I didn’t matter, it still made me feel like utter shit, as I tentatively knocked on the door of room 309, and awaited the arrival of possibly the least welcome of welcoming parties.

After a short wait, Charlotte came to the door and opened it slowly, her face lighting up as she clapped eyes on me. The burning sensation seemed to intensify in direct correlation with her widening smile, and I did my best to avoid eye contact. I was utterly brisk in my greeting, kissing and hugging Charlotte quickly before making my way swiftly into the hotel room. Charlotte, closing the door and seemingly oblivious to the complete and utter mess that her boyfriend was now turning into, turned round and asked the inevitable question,

“So, what’s been going on? How have you been?”

Never has someone uttered the line “I’m fine” with such insincerity, and I felt completely sick with myself. Charlotte, apparently still none the wiser, disappeared into the bathroom with a smile and a sly little wink, giving me temporary restbite from her accusatory eyes. I slumped back on the double bed, cursing my overactive imagination, and wondering just how I was going to get through another busy and evenful few weeks in the life of Mitch Hall…

It was clear that I was going to have to take the famous advice of a pretty famous person, and just Keep calm, and carry on.