04-24-2023, 07:42 PM
OOC: Deanna’s 2nd roleplay. Promo takes place immediately following Selena’s (in 2nd roleplay).
DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.
Frost ‘Forever Home’
Black Arrow Neighbourhood
Manhattan, New York
April 15, 2023
1:52pm
Deanna sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, surrounded by free-lifting weights, dumbbells, treadmills – the basic ‘necessities’ of an at-home gym. Her ears were filled with the notes of fantasy music with soft ‘fairy vocals’ (as the title suggested) that pumped in through the Bluetooth speakers. She didn’t want her usual, high-octane, get-your-butt-moving music that she often listened to while in the family’s gym-room. She had tried that the first time when writing the promo and Selena had basically told her the result of that.
Biting her lower lip as she adjusting her shorts a little and then scratched her temple, the redhead worked her lower lip with her teeth as she stared at the slew of eight pages on the ground surrounding her in a semi-circle. She had to admit that her wife’s advice had made a lot of sense. She had started thinking about this promo late last night, when she had awakened in the middle of the night and fought her bed devoid of her favorite sleeping-companion – aka her wife.
Now, to be clear, normally waking up at 3:12am with no Selena Frost wasn’t usually a cause for alarm for the redhead. The Snow Queen was often an early riser (sometimes as early as 4 or 5am) when she was home in-between SCW shows. It could be she wanted to get a solitary workout in, or maybe a swim in their private pool/gym house further down their property. Or maybe, with the spring FINALLY here (much to Deanna’s delight), the platinum-blonde was enjoying the large lake that filled the middle of the circular Black Arrow Neighbourhood, the cold, outdoor waters often reminding the former world champion of her ‘polar-bear swims’ in Nome, Alaska. Or maybe she was back in her office, working on her own stuff for SCW – or taxes like she had been on and off the last few days.
The point was, there were half a dozen reasons why Selena was not where Deanna wanted her to be in that moment, which was in bed, snuggled up in her arms, and the logic part of Deanna’s brain KNEW this and tried to remain calm as her empty hand touched the absent side that belonged to the older woman. However, a part of her brain immediately recalled that night in Iowa – on their ‘Believe it!’ bus. Part of her mind, feeling Selena’s current absence, instantly drew up that image of her wife crying in her arms, actually considering leaving SCW for good. Leaving it behind and letting the new owners and the vague/elusive D. thrive… or burn… without The House of Frost.
And despite herself, it was that memory that had driven Deanna to search the house for her beloved wife, even if it met earning her ire and frustration at disturbing what she was doing. So, after checking in on their sleeping children, she had made her way quietly throughout the house, stopping at each room first until she had, finally, reached Selena’s office in the basement… where she could, as she had approached the entrance of the room, hear her wife’s shaky voice as she emotionally dumped so much of her soul into that ‘Royal Letter’ towards the SCW owner, O. D..
For Deanna, who had heard dozens, maybe hundreds, of Royal Letters in her life with Selena (eight or so years), she had never heard something so raw and emotional from Selena. She couldn’t even be sure what emotion it was from Selena. Was it anger? Was it heartbreak? Was it surrender? Was it revelation? It had sounded like all of those to the redhead – only adding to her own heartache as her heart reached for her wife. Still, she stayed in the dark of the adjoining cinema room, waiting for the platinum-blonde to exit to go to the bathroom and then return later before sneaking out of the basement and returning back to her empty bed, contemplating everything she had heard her wife speak about.
She hadn’t slept much after that, her mind immediately trying to work out the beginnings of her first draft of the promo that lay strewn before her in pages – Deanna’s emerald eyes scanning them as she sat there in the gym space.
Selena had been right in her assessment. The Queen’s Guard had talked about everything in those pages. She had gone after O. (about two pages on the far left) and his interpretation of her, even chastising him for how he was treating her wife. She had then targeted Ace and how he didn’t care about the tag-team division. And then she had gone after Ravyn, merely instilling her belief from last Breakdown that the woman didn’t deserve a chance at the tag-team titles, while heaping on the losses Ravyn had suffered at Selena’s hands over the years. And as she read the whole thing again, Selena’s feedback kept ringing true in her ear: the message Deanna had scribbled onto the end of the last page when she had finished in Selena’s study.
Use her words to motivate you… not mess with you!!! She had added the three exclamation marks herself, as if to tell herself that message with gusto! Because it was true! She had written this draft emotionally because… she sighed as her ears continued to pick up the soft music and vocals of the background melodies. She HAD written this draft emotionally, because all she wanted was to make Selena feel better. She wanted to get things back on track for them in SCW, and it killed her to see her so troubled over the potential sale of SCW, their tag-team reign cut-short by an absurd match, and then to have to deal with Ace AND Ravyn mocking all their work and their journey as a tag-team like that, with Ace Marshall acting like some kind of ‘Frost-Zealot’ or something and Ravyn being the arrogant brat she always had been. She wanted to get things back to normal for them, like they had been when Light in the Darkness had fought them.
Why had that match been seen as a ‘break in reality’ for the four of them? Deanna wondered. As a glimpse of what they were fighting for and what they wished to be the norm in SCW, rather than the exception to all the chaos, title-for-title matches, and the insistent ‘meddling’ (Gods, I wish I had never heard that word from Selena last night! Now it’s stuck in my head! O. the meddler…). Why couldn’t that match, with audiences out of their seat and cheering for both teams because of the effort and passion, be the standard of SCW and tag-team wrestling? Deanna wasn’t entirely sure The House of Frost was going to get that – she could agree with her wife on that assessment. Between Ravyn having Lexy getting involved because of the ‘wife-drama’ between Ravyn and Syren and Ace continuously harassing Konrad – gods…
Deanna winced at that reminder. Konrad. THERE was the true wildcard, not Ravyn. The redhead remembered her last match with the Burned in Blood man, or Iced Blood or Blood Blood or Ice, Ice, Baby – whatever his name was nowadays, it didn’t matter! What mattered was what mattered then, and that was the damn mace he had nearly sliced her face open with last time she and he had crossed paths. He had sliced open the turnbuckle thanks to her quick maneuvering, but what if he had gotten her arm, or her leg, or had actually gotten her face….
Instinctively, a hand raised up at that idea, resting on her cheek. And would Lexy be working against Ravyn this time? Or would she work with Ravyn at the behest of Syren? Over some demented plan by one or both of them to get the tag-titles back on Dark Fantasy or, at the least, in the camp of LexyCorp?
She sighed at the familiar surge of emotions, heartbreak being one of them. There was no way the House of Frost would have a match this weekend like they had had with Light in the Darkness. There was no way that she would have the chance to truly test herself against two world champions for the first time in her tag-team career – both Ace and Ravyn had, pretty much, guaranteed that. Still, even though she had no idea how… they had to win.
Again, Selena’s words rang through her ears as clearly as the music. So many teams were entering the division now. So many of them wanting to fight for the tag-team titles. Bree and Datura, Amy and Simon, Chase and Kelsai, The Playgirls again, Deanna was actually losing track at how many teams. But The House of Frost wanted to defend their titles against all of them. It was exciting! So much potential for more classic matches! Devoid of the mind-games and simply about talent and… and…
She exhaled, clapping her hands together to refocus on the task at hand. She needed a better promo! She knew that. She needed to be better than what everyone was seeing in her. She needed to be more than a cog, or a shadow, or the weak-link! She needed to be someone worthy of being the SCW World tag-team champion with ‘The Face of SCW’! She needed to be someone that was ‘good-enough’ to be The Queen’s Guard. Gathering up the papers, Deanna eyed the first page of typed words, having no idea where to start to do that.
The sound of her ringtone: that of an upbeat version of Cascada’s “Everytime We Touch” (her ‘first-dance’ song when she had married Selena) broke her out of her thoughts as the phone rang beside her. Quickly, as if somewhat grateful for the distraction and hoping it could bring some inspiration to her, Deanna grabbed it and hit the screen with her finger to accept the call.
“Hello?” she answered brightly.
“Deanna?” the voice was gruff, a little winded, and perhaps a touch upset, but it was the fact that he had used her first name and she hadn’t recognized the voice that raised her alarm slightly.
“Yes?” she spoke slowly. “Who is this?” the last thing she wanted was another ‘Killjoy’ stalking them via phone.
“It’s Paul Parks. Tannis’ father.”
Immediately, Deanna’s lungs exhaled the air she did not know she had been holding in relief. “Oh… hey!” she breathed. “Sorry, I was… just working out…” she answered lamely as her eyes gazed at the papers in her hand. “What’s up, Paul? How’s Tannis and Sara-“
“Tannis is in the hospital again. She collapsed.”
Emerald eyes went wide as Deanna took in the words. “She collapsed?”
“Yes. We don’t know why, but we were having brunch-“
“Brunch, okay…” Deanna nodded her head, though her brain instantly snapped to a thought. Who still has brunch these days? Why can’t we have brunch? Pancakes AND Tacos… FOCUS! “Then what?”
“She was talking about seeing you and Selena next week and then she just collapsed onto the table.” Paul explained, his voice growing more and more panic.
“Okay…okay…” Deanna breathed. “You’re at the hospital now?”
“Yes.” Paul answered. “Sara is with her and Dr. Kern is on his way.”
The request was unspoken but it might as well have been yelled in the redhead’s ear. There was a reason he had called the Frosts. It had been them that had made their residence in New York possible in the first place, paying for it with their own money from being SCW wrestlers and tag-team champions for the months they had been. Maybe it was for them to use their influence, or maybe they just wanted the emotional support for them, and especially, Tannis, but Deanna wasn’t stupid.
“I’ll get Selena.” She spoke strongly. “We’ll be there as fast as we can.”
“Thank you.” Was all the father could get out.
“Okay, we’ll see you soon.”
Immediately, she hung up the phone and stuffed it into her shorts-pocket. Jumping up to her feet, she tried to ignore how asleep her legs were. “Come on, guys!” she ordered them as she tried to run, managing an awkward stumble-run out of the gym. “Move it!” a few more strides, and a near stumble into the damn pool, and she was rushing out of the gym/pool house, her strides landing her on each flat stone of the trial between that house and their ‘Forever Home’. She had managed to get to the third stone when she saw the front door open and Selena step out, the Snow Queen’s sapphire eyes turning towards Deanna with, Deanna could still notice, a beautiful smile as she recognized the redhead and her speedy approach.
“Selena!” she called out, holding her phone up as she reached the porch Selena stood on, not winded from the run, but still feeling frazzled.
“Deanna.” Selena smiled, perhaps a little playfully. Deanna couldn’t tell. “You look like you just got a great idea. Writing going okay? Elsa and I are heading to this space exhibit – can you just move your work inside to watch the other-“
“Tannis had another episode!” Deanna blurted out, not really listening to whatever her wife had been saying. This was not the time to be so easily distracted by Deanna’s stupid ADHD. She needed to focus – TANNIS needed her to focus.
She saw Selena’s breath stop, sapphire eyes widened, and her mouth hang open for a second as she tried to speak.
“She…she what?”
Quickly reaching into her pocket, Deanna held up her phone. “Paul just called me. They were having a late lunch and she collapsed onto the floor! She’s at the hospital right now!”
“Gods…” to her wife’s credit, it only took a second for Selena to register everything she had heard, establish the shock and implications of Deanna’s statements before her face adopted a serious expression – driven, passionate – similar to the one she had shown that night in the ballroom when she had accepted her fate to become a witch with the Aldens. Pure focus: what is happened? What needs to be done? What is the next step? Deanna could almost see the thoughts forming behind her wife’s eyes at a mile a minute. Gods, she wished she could be that quick and calculating in SCW, in the ring – then she wouldn’t have gone through that door. She would have been able to keep up with her wife. She would still be tag-team champion and the House of Frost would be facing a real tag-team, like the number one contenders in Bree and Datura and not this mess of a- FOCUS! her mind screamed as she saw her wife’s lips moving.
“Can you call Gerda? I need her here to watch the kids.”
“On it.” Deanna nodded quickly, though her brain took a second to full register the order from her wife. “Let me grab my purse.”
“Just get my wallet while you’re there.” Selena pressed. “I’ll get the car-“
“Mother?”
Hearing the voice, Deanna saw her daughter Elsianna standing on the stairway, seemingly confused about something. She was looking, not at her, but at Selena with such an expression. “What’s going on?” asked with a tilt of her head, her orange-gloved hands nervously interlocking and releasing.
Focus… Deanna’s mind reminded her, prompting the redhead to quickly move up the stairs and around Elsianna with a quick, “Excuse me, dear.” She was in her room in less than four seconds, her fingers working her phone to speed-dial Gerda, and placing the phone on speaker.
The device rang four times before it was picked up.
“Hello?” came the familiar voice.
“Hi, Gerda.” The redhead spoke loudly as she began stripping out of her shirt and shorts. “Where are you?”
“Just outside having some lemonade. Are you okay?”
“Yes…” Deanna answered quickly as she pulled out blue jeans and a dark-green long blouse that ran down to her thighs. “Well… no.” she called back to her phone as she pulled her hair out of its ponytail and its long mane of red. “Can you get here now and watch the kids?”
“I- yes.” Gerda answered quickly. “Is everything alright?”
“That kid Selena and I were helping? Tannis?”
“The one with the cancer?”
“Yes.” Deanna answered quickly. “She collapsed and is back in the hospital. The parents want us there.”
Her change complete, the Queen’s Guard kicked the discarded shorts and shirt she had work to the side of the wall. She would pick it up later when she got back home. Giving herself a quick glance at the mirror hanging on the wall, she grabbed her purse and Selena’s wallet as instructed and was out of her room quickly; making her way down the stairs just in time to have Elsianna rush past her, the older woman just barely able to move into the wall to avoid running into the child as Elsa ascended the stairs and into her own room. Deanna only had a moment to watch the child before turning back to see her wife standing at the foot of the steps, a sad expression on the former world champion’s face.
“Gerda’s on her way. Here.” Deanna spoke, reaching the main-floor and handing Selena her wallet. “What’s wrong with Elsianna?”
The Snow Queen merely shook her head. “I’ll explain on the way.” She turned her head to the outsidem past the open door as they heard the sound of a car honking and approaching them, Gerda’s. “Let’s go, quickly.” She ordered, prompting the two to leave the house, jump into the Jeep Liberty, with Selena driving. They were out of the driveway quickly and nearing the main roads in minutes.
“Gods, I hope she’s alright.” Deanna whispered, clutching her phone to her chest after firing off a quick text to Paul – letting him know they were on their way.
“She has to be.” She heard Selena whisper, though she wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince Deanna or herself with that statement as they merged onto traffic, zipping along the highways en route to the hospital. “She has to be…” she repeated, confirming the previous uncertainty Deanna had in favor of the latter. “Why do you have that?”
The question caught Deanna off guard, causing her to stare into her hand… where she still held the pages of the first draft of her promo. “I…” her eyes widened in surprise. Had she changed while still holding the papers? Or had she absently just placed them near the purse and wallet when she had gathered them? Or had she just grabbed everything in her hurry to get to the hospital – she couldn’t recall, but there was no denying that the papers that were clutched in her hands. “I have no idea.” She settled on saying, placing them all on top of the dashboard without thinking.
The driving continued without interruption for another twenty or so minutes until the Frosts parked in one of the public parking spaces near the hospital. Selena was out first, the wind causing her sundress to billow a little as it reached her. Deanna was barely out of the vehicle before she heard Selena lock it with the remote. Quickly, Deanna offered her hand to her wife, who took it tightly in hers before they jogged into the hospital, the doors opening automatically for them.
The pair didn’t have time to really look around the familiar setting of white walls and tiled floors. Instead, they were, almost immediately called upon by the tall man in blue jeans and red-black flannel. “Selena! Deanna!” they instantly recognized him as Paul, Tannis’ father, prompting the wives to renew their jog to close the short distance to the man.
“Thank you for-“
“It’s nothing.” Selena promoted, cutting off the man’s gratefulness. “Is she okay?”
“We don’t know.” Paul sighed. “Sara and Kern are with her now.”
He was quick to move after that answer, and the Frosts were just as quick to follow him as they made their way through the halls and to the elevator, taking it to appropriate floor. For Deanna, she barely noticed the movement of the elevator or the dings it made as it hit each floor. Instead, her eyes kept stealing glances towards Selena, the Snow Queen’s jaw clenching and unclenching - When had she re-braided her hair? Deanna suddenly noticed, but then again, Selena had noticed Deanna changing her clothes so…
She’s alright. Deanna sighed at the thought, echoing her wife’s earlier words. She has to be.
The difference was, however, was that Deanna needed Tannis to be alright, not just because she was young and deserved to be in good health to enjoy her childhood, but also because of Selena. She had assessed this earlier. Tannis was the symbol of ‘control’ that Selena was trying to keep a hold of in her life. With SCW spiralling out of control more and more with each day, with the sale still up in the air, with D. leaving and talking down to her and her beliefs, with everything with Kimberly and now Ace and Ravyn, helping the Parks beat this cancer in their child was one of the few things Selena felt she had any control over outside of her family. It was one of the few things that made her feel like, well, like she was making a difference in people’s lives – a real difference in the world she lived in. A feeling that was dwindling in SCW with each passing day.
And if Tannis were to take a turn for the worse… Deanna wondered, once more stealing a glance towards Selena… what would that mean for her wife? If the last vestige any good Selena tried to do amounted to… well, nothing?
Again, that gripping fear of that ‘third story’ that SCW was so fond of airing for the SCW Universe – the fall of the hero. The turn of good to evil… the fear of that happening to her beloved gripped Selena, causing a hand to fly to her green blouse to shift it a little, allowing her breathe easier, though there was no issue with the shirt to allow that in the first place. Suddenly, she couldn’t get out of the elevator fast enough, and she wasn’t the one with claustrophobia like her wife had.
The last ding filled her with relief as the doors opened, Paul getting out first but Deanna almost jumping out of the elevator, breathing as quiet a sigh as she could and refusing to look back at the metallic-box-thingy. She didn’t even want to see her wife’s reaction to such a small antic. Instead, she waited for Paul to start walking again before following him, staying only a few steps behind him as they travelled the last of the short distance of halls until they were standing outside the patient room. As seemed to be the case today with the redhead, she had only to look at the door before it suddenly opened before her eyes, this time allowing the tall, dark-skinned Hindu man to walk out, observing the chart in his hands. He wore a white lab coat and his hair was naturally curly.
“Dr. Kern!” Paul called out, earning the man’s attention, giving an extra burst of speed to reach him a second or two faster than the Frost wives. “How is she? How is my daughter-“
“Mr. Parks.” The doctor held up his hands. “She is fine. She just had a fainting spell.”
“A fainting spell?” Paul asked, earning a nod from the good doctor.
“This happens from time to time as we begin new medication with cancer patients. The altered blood pressure, thinning of blood, there are numerous possible reasons why, but they are not as serious as they seem.”
“You’re sure.” Paul asked, the father clearly still a bit on-edge, which the doctor tried to calm with a slow, understanding smile.
“I’m sure.” He explained. “We’re just keeping an eye on her and analyzing her medications for now. We will make some slight alterations to avoid such spells.”
“Can she go home then?” the father asked.
Slowly, almost sad to do so, Kern shook his head. “Standard policy says we need to keep her here for at least two hours before discharging her.”
“I see.” The taller man nodded his head. “Is she okay?”
“She is.” The doctor explained. “And she’s awake now. I recommend not getting her too excited or emotional. A spike could cause another episode today.”
“Thank you, doctor.” Paul reached out to shake his hand.
“I will be make in a short while.” Kern added before making his way down the hall to a pair of nurses, who were already approaching him – probably to discuss another patient.
Alone with Paul once more, Selena and Deanna glanced at one another. “Should…” Deanna tried. “Should we go then?” she asked slowly. “What if seeing us gets her too excited?”
Turning his head, Paul offered a kind smile to the two women. “It’s alright.” He nodded. “We’ll be careful.” He added before reaching the door and turning the handle enough to open it and enter. Slowly, hesitantly, Selena and Deanna moved closer to the door, neither daring to go in right away. They could hear voice on the other side.
“I’m fine, dad.” Came the sweet voice of the child they knew so well.
“I just don’t want you to get too excited again.” Came Paul’s voice.
“Can you just promise to be calm?” came an older woman’s voice, Sara’s, no doubt.
“I promise.” Tannis replied.
“Alright.” They heard Paul sigh, but it was more of a relaxed sigh than anything else, before he called out. “Come on it, guys.”
Slowly, Selena went first, leaning her head past the door and into the patient room. Deanna, slowly, followed suit, her head leaning in just below Selena’s. It would almost be comical if they weren’t terrified of overexciting the child. They were celebrities after all.
“Hi, sweetie.” Selena smiled, seeing the girl’s face light up.
“SELENA! DEANNA! I-“ immediately, Tannis eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed backwards onto the bed, all four adults immediately on alarm!
“TANNIS!” They all cried, almost at once, though Deanna’s was just a fraction of a second later as all four rushed towards the bed. Immediately, Deanna was desperately searching for the ‘emergency call button’ to get some help, emerald eyes scanning this way and that. She had just spotted it and begun reaching for it when the child’s torso sprung up, the brightest of smiles on her face!
“GOTCHA!” she laughed before dissolving into a small fit of laughter, falling against the bed with her giggles. Dumbfounded, the four adults looked at each other, each of their hearts still racing before a single voice rang through the room.
“TANNIS ABIGAIL PARKS!” came Sara Park’s sharp and commanding voice. The tone was beyond familiar to both Selena and Deanna, the latter leaning closer to her wife.
“Uh-oh…” she whispered, the tone very similar to one she adopted with her children. “Mom voice.”
“Yep.” Selena nodded, her hands reaching up to hold Deanna’s shoulders as she stood behind the shorter redhead.
“She gonna get it.” Deanna added.
Sara, meanwhile, had marched to the far side of Tannis’ bed, eyeing the child with the sternest of looks. “Don’t you EVER do something like that!” she ordered, causing the laughs in the child to suddenly cease and the laughter in her eyes dispel a little.
“It… it was just a joke.” She tried, a hint of terror in her voice towards her angry mother.
“It’s not a joke!” Sara pressed. “And it’s not funny! You almost scared your father and I AND Mrs. and Mrs. Frost to death!”
“And Selena’s old. She’s closer to it than me.” Deanna stated, trying to ease the tension caused by Tannis’ prank.
“Deanna!” Selena tried. “I’m only seven years older than you!”
“Yeah, and your hair’s already turning white.” Deanna gestured towards Selena’s head.
“My hair’s ALWAYS been white!”
“Therefore???” Deanna lead, gesturing with her hands as she eyed her wife.
“What?”
“Therefore, you’ve always been old.” Deanna concluded. “Tannis, back me up here.”
“Your hair’s whiter than my grandmother’s.” Tannis answered. “But it’s really pretty.”
“That’s true.” Deanna nodded.
“Neither of you are helping.” Selena narrowed her eyes at both of them. “And I believe, Tannis, your mother was talking to you.”
“Yes, I was.” Sara re-engaged with her previous ‘motherly-tone’. “Now, young lady, I want you to apologize to Selena and Deanna this minute for scaring them like that!”
Despite the slight pouting of her lip, the child did not hesitate to cast another glance at the Frost wives. “I’m sorry.” She quickly spoke, though Deanna could hear the earnest in her voice. She almost wanted to dismiss it out loud, laugh it off as a ‘great prank’ for the child’s sake, but she wasn’t the little girl’s parents. She wanted to respect their choice of reaction, so instead, she simply nodded her head, smiled at the girl and remained silent as Selena moved around her to approach the other side of Tannis bed, the Snow Queen kneeling down and taking the young girl’s hand into hers.
The ’scare’ having since passed, Deanna was able to fully observe the girl – the same age as her Elsianna but far more frail looking. Wait… I didn’t ask Selena why Elsianna seemed so upset when we left… came the sudden realization, but it hardly seemed the right time to bring up the subject. Instead, she merely watched her wife as she spoke to Tannis.
“What happened, dear?” she asked. “Your father said you fainted.”
“Yeah.” Sighed the child. “That’s what they told me too. I was talking about you guys visiting me after the weekend and the pay-per-view… Deanna promised to show me what poker is.”
“You what?!” asked Selena, Paul AND Sara, all three pairs of eyes suddenly on Deanna.
“I…” Deanna tried to explain. “She was asking about the pay-per-view title! ‘Playing the Wildcard’? So I explained what it was in reference to and she said-“ she began to speed up her speech as she spoke. “she said she heard of poker but didn’t know how to play – never played a hand. I promised I’d teach her how to play Texas Hold ‘Em if she promised not to use it to gamble at school!”
“And I did!” Tannis came to the redhead’s defense. “I did promise that, I mean.”
“Deanna…” Selena sighed. “Poker’s not really a game for an eleven year old.”
“I’ll be twelve soon.”
“Or a twelve year old.” Paul corrected.
“Couldn’t you teach her ‘crazy 8s’ or something?” Selena tried, earning a shrug from Deanna.
“Well…” Sara interrupted. “To continue, Tannis kept talking about meeting you and wanting to know about the pay-per-view. She got more and more excited and then passed out.”
“One minute, I was eating scrambled eggs, the next minute I was here! It was weird!” Tannis concluded with a smile.
Despite the young girl’s positive energy, Deanna saw Selena squeeze the girl’s hand gently, the only sign of worry that came from the Snow Queen. It wasn’t enough to get the girl’s attention, however, as she glanced at her father. “Can I go home now?”
“Not yet, dear.” Paul sighed, taking a seat in the chair Sara had occupied pre-prank. “Doctor said he’d come get you when you could.”
“How long would that be?” she asked, gesturing towards the monitors attached to her for heartrate. “I hate these things.” Her pout returned, once more a faint glimmer of her actual age.
“He said another hour or two.” Paul explained. “But we can watch TV on your phone.”
“And we can talk about SCW.” Selena tried, doing her best to get the child’s enthusiasm back.
“And I can teach you-“ Deanna caught herself. “A very safe and kid-friendly card game if we have any cards.”
With all those ideas in play, the two hours seemed to zoom by very fast. Selena and Deanna did their best to be positive regarding the pay-per-view match headed their way, exuding confidence that The House of Frost would, once more, be world tag-team champions completely, while leaving out the not so confident or pleasant facts of the company. Again, Tannis inquired about the selling of SCW and, again, Selena couldn’t answer her. What could she say? That it scared her? That she didn’t know what her future held?
How could she possibly say that to a child who doesn’t know if they will have any future at all… Deanna had sighed at that thought. She, eventually, had settled on teaching Tannis how to play Crazy-8s, but she had done it with all the ‘special cards and meaning’ behind them to keep it interesting for the child.
In short, the few hours almost flew by and when Dr. Kern returned to check on Tannis, he wasted no time in discharging her while giving Sara and Paul an updated medication-plan to assist in lowering the frequency of any future fainting spells. Relieved, the two families bid each other farewell till next week, the Frosts leaving first, heading back to the elevator, going down it and heading out of the hospital.
“Glad it worked out.” Deanna sighed as she gazed out towards the New York sky, the sun much lower than when they had entered the hospital. Beside her, Selena gave a slow inhale and exhale before nodding her head.
“Hope we don’t have to deal with anymore scares like that for the rest of the week.”
“So…” Deanna tried. “Don’t picture Ravyn and Ace as tag-team champions.”
“You are too spunky for your own damn good.” Selena shook her head, causing Deanna to stick her tongue out at the platinum-blonde as she fished out her cellphone for the first time since they had entered the hospital.
Probably got a few emails over where my promo is for the pay-per-view… she thought with a grumble as she turned her phone back on… stunned when she saw she had 47 missed calls and 13 voice messages… all from Gerda.
“What the-“ she almost cursed as she dialed the older woman’s phone. On the second ring, it was picked.
“Deanna!” it was Gerda’s voice but it was frantic, almost as if she was having a panic attack! “Deanna- I couldn’t get Selena and-“
“Gerda, slow down!” Deanna urged, gaining Selena’s attention immediately. “Selena is here with me, remember? We had to go to the hospital to check on Tannis and-“
“SHE’S GONE!” The voice, even without speaker-phone, rang loud enough to be heard by the nearby Selena, the next set of words causing both wives blood to run cold.
“ELSIANNA IS GONE! I LOOKED ALL OVER THE HOUSE AND I CAN’T FIND HER! SHE’S GONE!”
_______________________________________________________________
![[Image: tetXUW1.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/tetXUW1.gif)
Inside the Ky-Vee Arena in Kansas City, Selena Frost, the Snow Queen of SCW, stands within an empty wrestling ring, which is filled with eight playing cards, two places at each primary direction like spots on a compass. Carefully, Selena takes off her SCW world tag-team title and lays it on the ground. Either I restore the House… or The House will die trying. Because I’d rather be without this title than tied to either one of you while you promise to bring it back to the joke it was before Deanna and I came along. Believe it!
Slowly, Selena backs away from the tag-title and the large cards in the ring, the camera locking on the title for a few seconds as Selena’s shadows is seen moving away from the ring…
A second passes before another shadow comes forward and another hand reaches down and picks up the title… the camera moving up to the redhead that now stands before it. She wears blue jeans, a dark-green sweater and her hair is a mane of red, emerald eyes glowing as she holds the title that once was hers.
So… guess it’s my turn… Deanna Frost speaks to the title before lifting her eyes up to the camera.
And what is there to expect, right? I’m sure Ace and Ravyn aren’t surprised. ‘Deanna following behind Selena’? Typical, right? But… really, this may shock you but, Selena felt that I needed to have the last word for our House in regards to this match.
She gives a light shrug of her shoulders before shaking her head, her eyes casting down to her wife’s tag-team title. And you know what? I’m glad she did, because there’s something that I have to say. Something that’s been weighing on my mind, weighing on my soul for some time. And the more and more I think about it, the truer and truer it has become.
Reaching over to the first pair of cards, Deanna’s eyes them. Because this isn’t some ‘random match’. This isn’t some ‘no idea what to expect’? This isn’t even some ‘game’ that Ace is making up and Ravyn is trying to take advantage of or even my wife is trying to help survive from. This is… this is the real life situation of EVERYTHING that exists for me right now.
With one shoe, Deanna flips over both cards on one side of the ring, revealing the Ace of Spades and the King of Clubs. The Aces are wild. Wild Ace. The man that no one can tie down. No man can predict. No man can really stop when he wants something bad enough – I emphasize man because… well, Selena made that clear. she smiles, perhaps a little amused at her own attempt at a joke. The king of debauchery. The man of a thousand plans and ideas. Will do ANYTHING to win. ANYTHING to get what he wants. ANYTHING to amuse himself.
Slowly, Deanna walks across the ring to the opposing pair of cards. With her shoe, she can manages to flip them over, revealing the joker card and the King of Hearts, the king’s sword just behind their head. The supposed wild card, herself. The Bad Girl Ravyn… Deanna eyes the king card beside the joker card. Someone that would as soon as stab you in the back than lend you a hand, sometimes one right after the other. Ever the planner. And…
Moving northward, Deanna reaches the top cards, flipping them over with her shoe, revealing the Ace of hearts and the Queen of Diamonds. The Queen of SCW. Its heart, its face. Its very definition and, maybe, its very soul…
Slowly returning to the middle of the ring, surrounded by the playing cards, Deanna takes a slow breath before speaking. You could not imagine a more loaded game. A more high-stakes match. And me, in it all… not even in the same league.
Because if you think about it, the differences are mountain-sized, aren’t there? It’s the lowest hanging branch, which is why Ravyn grabbed it last Breakdown, because it was easy. But there is a reason it is there. Because it’s covered in truth. It’s true, I’m the only one that isn’t a former world champion. I’m the only one that hasn’t main-evented Rise to Greatness. Hell, I’m the only one that’s never been a ‘wrestler of the year’ or won a third or second-tier title like the Adrenaline or the United States title. Never main-events a pay-per-view. Never won ‘the big match’ on my own… Last year, I spent my first Rise to Greatness event as a wrestler… on the preshow…
And that’s… that’s what you wanted me to know Ravyn, wasn’t it? You picked up on it so easily, didn’t you.
Because you didn’t come out on Breakdown to get in Selena’s head, did you? She’s way too good for that. She knows you too well – beaten you WAY too many times. No, you came to that last Breakdown to… to get in my head. You told the world what we already knew. That I am the least experienced. That I have the least accolades. That I’ve never fought and beaten former world champions before, but gods, you laid it on thick, didn’t you? Like wow…
A bitter smile forms across Deanna’s features.
I mean, for the past few weeks, I’ve had to listen to the boss of SCW, O. D. refer to me as a cog. As a disposable piece within the company that could just be bought or tossed away any day now. Little more than Selena’s shadow, that’s what he said – a concept that I have been fighting for over a year. A notion that I have struggled and fought tooth and claw to defy each and every time I entered the ring. The dream of standing in the ring not as my wife’s shadow but as her partner. As her equal. Not as her weakness, but part of her strength. To stand here within an SCW ring and say that I, Deanna Frost, belong here on my own merit and that I represent The House of Frost as strongly as my wife…
She pauses, letting her words settle.
And week after week, from the roster to the board, to the very owner, I have heard every contradiction to that statement. Every person denying it is so – certain that it could never be so. That the shadow of Selena Frost, ‘The Face of SCW’, is too large for anyone to get out of.
Biting her lower lip, Deanna looks down at her feet, as if trying to find the right words to say.
And I have fought that for so long, had my head buried so deep in the trenches that it took hearing it, not only from the man that hired me, but from both of you: Ace and Ravyn, for me to see things differently. Clearer.
She scans the Ace of Spades. I had to see you, Ace, tell my wife that you would go by “Ace Frost” and establish “The New House of Frost”. Her head jerking a little, the Queen’s Guard seemingly rather affected by that notion. Let me tell you something about that name, Ace. If you looked far enough back into her past, you would understand what her family name means to Selena. How it has driven her for years and years. One doesn’t simply become a ‘Frost’ in Selena’s family. It is earned, it is bestowed. And, should you be lucky enough to marry her, it is years of commitment, loyalty, of working through the hard times and worse times and overcoming every obstacle, fight and problem to stand together, united in love. The House of Frost, our tag-team, is a manifestation of that relationship, a representation of the trust and love she and I share both inside and outside of this ring.
But for you… you came in the first chance you had and established that all of that could be replaced with a new last name for yourself and a new team name – literally putting ‘new’ in Selena’s and my name. And the most incredible thing of it all, you legitimately believed it. You believed, you believed, you believed, that I was that easily replaceable. That all my years of marriage, of managing Selena, helping her to title victories, tournament wins, those years in prison in Frankfurt where I got by only on my belief that she was waiting for me, the children we have together, the dreams we’ve had for SCW together – you genuinely believe that all of that means nothing compared to you.
She stops to breath for a moment. And that I… am just a disposable cog.
Slowly, her head turns around to eye the Joker card and the King of Hearts. A weak link that can’t beat the ‘upper echelon’. Which I find interesting considering the source of that statement, Ravyn. Now, don’t get me wrong. There is some value and merit to what you said, you are definitely the upper echelon of SCW. I think you already made that clear. But the Herculean task of ‘beating you’… it sort of loses its luster when you lost to Cassie Wolfe just a few weeks ago.
Deanna eyes the camera, specifically the woman she is talking about. A rookie. A new face in SCW… beat Ravyn Taylor. Which means it CAN be done. It IS possible…
And with the amount of losses you’ve had over the past year or so and your absences from the ring, maybe, just maybe I’ve got enough in my own experience to overcome you with your and Ace’s ring rust. Because while you’ve come and gone, showing up but not wrestling, I’ve been here learning every second of every day. Testing the limits of what I can endure. Testing myself against the very best. I went toe to toe with Owen Cruze. I made him submit and pinned Josh Hudson twice, Ravyn Taylor. So IT IS possible. MORE than possible, it is an undeniable FACT that I can pin and BEAT the upper echelon! I know it! I believe it! I HAVE to do it!
Her voice echoes in the ring, louder than even Selena’s had been, the raw emotion on display from the Queen’s Guard.
Because if what you are saying is true, Ravyn – if it is true that I can’t handle the fires of the elite. If I can’t handle the pressures of the upper tier wrestlers. If I am forever doomed to live through embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss at that level. If my name is cursed to be synonymous with losing to “The Five Moves of Doom” – if all that you said is true…
Then everything Ace said and implied is true and I am an easy replacement.
If that is true than everything O. D. said about me is true. I am just a cog. A shadow of Selena’s. Disposable, replaceable…forgettable. Emerald eyes cast down to the two remaining, face-down cards.
And that changes everything. That changes everything about this match. That changes everything that this match stands for. If all of THAT is true than this is about so much more than integrity, the future of the tag-team division, or correcting a wrong by a coward in Kimberly Williams, or fixing a mistake, or even a dream between two wives! This becomes more than that for me! This is me fighting for everything that I believe myself to be! Everything I dream myself capable of! Everything that I have earned. Everything I have wished for. Everything that is MINE!
Tears can be seen brimming within the young Frost’s eyes, yet her voice never quivers.
You say I am a cog?! You say I am a shadow?! You say I am easily replaceable?! You say I am not ready for the fire?!
I CAN’T exist as a cog! I CAN’T exist as a shadow! I CAN’T exist as simply replaceable! And I HAVE to be ready! Because I have to believe that is who Deanna Frost truly is! A diamond in the rough! A World Champion in the making! A future star in this bright world of SCW!
That’s why I am the real wild card in this match, Ravyn. Because I’m not going to be simply fighting for the tag-team titles! No, Ravyn, Ace… O.… tonight is not me fighting simply for another tag-title reign! This will be me fighting for my very LIFE! My very IDENTITY! My very EXISTENCE in this world!
She pauses for a moment, her chest heaving a little. So, Ace, Ravyn… D. too! With all respects to your abilities and opinions and positions of power in the ‘upper echelon’, I don’t give a damn how unprepared or how ‘not ready’ I am to face the fire. I am going to face it! I am going to walk through it! I am going to take every burn, every plan, every jab, every slight, every notion you have about me and I will KEEP fighting until ‘the impossible’ is done and I defeat two former world champions in this very ring! Until the cog becomes an integral piece! Until I emerge from that shadow. Until the ‘replaceable’ becomes ‘irreplaceable’. Until ‘forgettable’ becomes ‘unforgettable’! Until Deanna Frost, the ‘wife of Selena Frost’…
Deanna’s eyes lower down to the two facedown cards, her foot inching out towards them, wanting to turn them over. Until Deanna Frost becomes something else entirely.
Slowly, she draws her foot back, not touching the cards, her head slowly rising up to stare into the camera. And whatever that is… will result in the one thing YOU are not ready for, Ravyn Taylor. One thing YOU cannot so easily replace, Ace Marshall.
And that is one more Frost surpassing the both of you!
Holding out the SCW tag-team title, the redhead holds it out towards the camera. Checkmate, bitches! before dropping it back into the center of the ring.
The camera slowly fades as it focuses on her, the title at her feet, and the two facedown cards standing before her – her cards – her very identity…
Uncertain… a wildcard that will soon be played… with EVERYTHING at stake.
DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.
The Witches of Alden
”Innocence”
Frost ‘Forever Home’
Black Arrow Neighbourhood
Manhattan, New York
April 15, 2023
1:52pm
Deanna sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, surrounded by free-lifting weights, dumbbells, treadmills – the basic ‘necessities’ of an at-home gym. Her ears were filled with the notes of fantasy music with soft ‘fairy vocals’ (as the title suggested) that pumped in through the Bluetooth speakers. She didn’t want her usual, high-octane, get-your-butt-moving music that she often listened to while in the family’s gym-room. She had tried that the first time when writing the promo and Selena had basically told her the result of that.
Biting her lower lip as she adjusting her shorts a little and then scratched her temple, the redhead worked her lower lip with her teeth as she stared at the slew of eight pages on the ground surrounding her in a semi-circle. She had to admit that her wife’s advice had made a lot of sense. She had started thinking about this promo late last night, when she had awakened in the middle of the night and fought her bed devoid of her favorite sleeping-companion – aka her wife.
Now, to be clear, normally waking up at 3:12am with no Selena Frost wasn’t usually a cause for alarm for the redhead. The Snow Queen was often an early riser (sometimes as early as 4 or 5am) when she was home in-between SCW shows. It could be she wanted to get a solitary workout in, or maybe a swim in their private pool/gym house further down their property. Or maybe, with the spring FINALLY here (much to Deanna’s delight), the platinum-blonde was enjoying the large lake that filled the middle of the circular Black Arrow Neighbourhood, the cold, outdoor waters often reminding the former world champion of her ‘polar-bear swims’ in Nome, Alaska. Or maybe she was back in her office, working on her own stuff for SCW – or taxes like she had been on and off the last few days.
The point was, there were half a dozen reasons why Selena was not where Deanna wanted her to be in that moment, which was in bed, snuggled up in her arms, and the logic part of Deanna’s brain KNEW this and tried to remain calm as her empty hand touched the absent side that belonged to the older woman. However, a part of her brain immediately recalled that night in Iowa – on their ‘Believe it!’ bus. Part of her mind, feeling Selena’s current absence, instantly drew up that image of her wife crying in her arms, actually considering leaving SCW for good. Leaving it behind and letting the new owners and the vague/elusive D. thrive… or burn… without The House of Frost.
And despite herself, it was that memory that had driven Deanna to search the house for her beloved wife, even if it met earning her ire and frustration at disturbing what she was doing. So, after checking in on their sleeping children, she had made her way quietly throughout the house, stopping at each room first until she had, finally, reached Selena’s office in the basement… where she could, as she had approached the entrance of the room, hear her wife’s shaky voice as she emotionally dumped so much of her soul into that ‘Royal Letter’ towards the SCW owner, O. D..
For Deanna, who had heard dozens, maybe hundreds, of Royal Letters in her life with Selena (eight or so years), she had never heard something so raw and emotional from Selena. She couldn’t even be sure what emotion it was from Selena. Was it anger? Was it heartbreak? Was it surrender? Was it revelation? It had sounded like all of those to the redhead – only adding to her own heartache as her heart reached for her wife. Still, she stayed in the dark of the adjoining cinema room, waiting for the platinum-blonde to exit to go to the bathroom and then return later before sneaking out of the basement and returning back to her empty bed, contemplating everything she had heard her wife speak about.
She hadn’t slept much after that, her mind immediately trying to work out the beginnings of her first draft of the promo that lay strewn before her in pages – Deanna’s emerald eyes scanning them as she sat there in the gym space.
Selena had been right in her assessment. The Queen’s Guard had talked about everything in those pages. She had gone after O. (about two pages on the far left) and his interpretation of her, even chastising him for how he was treating her wife. She had then targeted Ace and how he didn’t care about the tag-team division. And then she had gone after Ravyn, merely instilling her belief from last Breakdown that the woman didn’t deserve a chance at the tag-team titles, while heaping on the losses Ravyn had suffered at Selena’s hands over the years. And as she read the whole thing again, Selena’s feedback kept ringing true in her ear: the message Deanna had scribbled onto the end of the last page when she had finished in Selena’s study.
Use her words to motivate you… not mess with you!!! She had added the three exclamation marks herself, as if to tell herself that message with gusto! Because it was true! She had written this draft emotionally because… she sighed as her ears continued to pick up the soft music and vocals of the background melodies. She HAD written this draft emotionally, because all she wanted was to make Selena feel better. She wanted to get things back on track for them in SCW, and it killed her to see her so troubled over the potential sale of SCW, their tag-team reign cut-short by an absurd match, and then to have to deal with Ace AND Ravyn mocking all their work and their journey as a tag-team like that, with Ace Marshall acting like some kind of ‘Frost-Zealot’ or something and Ravyn being the arrogant brat she always had been. She wanted to get things back to normal for them, like they had been when Light in the Darkness had fought them.
Why had that match been seen as a ‘break in reality’ for the four of them? Deanna wondered. As a glimpse of what they were fighting for and what they wished to be the norm in SCW, rather than the exception to all the chaos, title-for-title matches, and the insistent ‘meddling’ (Gods, I wish I had never heard that word from Selena last night! Now it’s stuck in my head! O. the meddler…). Why couldn’t that match, with audiences out of their seat and cheering for both teams because of the effort and passion, be the standard of SCW and tag-team wrestling? Deanna wasn’t entirely sure The House of Frost was going to get that – she could agree with her wife on that assessment. Between Ravyn having Lexy getting involved because of the ‘wife-drama’ between Ravyn and Syren and Ace continuously harassing Konrad – gods…
Deanna winced at that reminder. Konrad. THERE was the true wildcard, not Ravyn. The redhead remembered her last match with the Burned in Blood man, or Iced Blood or Blood Blood or Ice, Ice, Baby – whatever his name was nowadays, it didn’t matter! What mattered was what mattered then, and that was the damn mace he had nearly sliced her face open with last time she and he had crossed paths. He had sliced open the turnbuckle thanks to her quick maneuvering, but what if he had gotten her arm, or her leg, or had actually gotten her face….
Instinctively, a hand raised up at that idea, resting on her cheek. And would Lexy be working against Ravyn this time? Or would she work with Ravyn at the behest of Syren? Over some demented plan by one or both of them to get the tag-titles back on Dark Fantasy or, at the least, in the camp of LexyCorp?
She sighed at the familiar surge of emotions, heartbreak being one of them. There was no way the House of Frost would have a match this weekend like they had had with Light in the Darkness. There was no way that she would have the chance to truly test herself against two world champions for the first time in her tag-team career – both Ace and Ravyn had, pretty much, guaranteed that. Still, even though she had no idea how… they had to win.
Again, Selena’s words rang through her ears as clearly as the music. So many teams were entering the division now. So many of them wanting to fight for the tag-team titles. Bree and Datura, Amy and Simon, Chase and Kelsai, The Playgirls again, Deanna was actually losing track at how many teams. But The House of Frost wanted to defend their titles against all of them. It was exciting! So much potential for more classic matches! Devoid of the mind-games and simply about talent and… and…
She exhaled, clapping her hands together to refocus on the task at hand. She needed a better promo! She knew that. She needed to be better than what everyone was seeing in her. She needed to be more than a cog, or a shadow, or the weak-link! She needed to be someone worthy of being the SCW World tag-team champion with ‘The Face of SCW’! She needed to be someone that was ‘good-enough’ to be The Queen’s Guard. Gathering up the papers, Deanna eyed the first page of typed words, having no idea where to start to do that.
The sound of her ringtone: that of an upbeat version of Cascada’s “Everytime We Touch” (her ‘first-dance’ song when she had married Selena) broke her out of her thoughts as the phone rang beside her. Quickly, as if somewhat grateful for the distraction and hoping it could bring some inspiration to her, Deanna grabbed it and hit the screen with her finger to accept the call.
“Hello?” she answered brightly.
“Deanna?” the voice was gruff, a little winded, and perhaps a touch upset, but it was the fact that he had used her first name and she hadn’t recognized the voice that raised her alarm slightly.
“Yes?” she spoke slowly. “Who is this?” the last thing she wanted was another ‘Killjoy’ stalking them via phone.
“It’s Paul Parks. Tannis’ father.”
Immediately, Deanna’s lungs exhaled the air she did not know she had been holding in relief. “Oh… hey!” she breathed. “Sorry, I was… just working out…” she answered lamely as her eyes gazed at the papers in her hand. “What’s up, Paul? How’s Tannis and Sara-“
“Tannis is in the hospital again. She collapsed.”
Emerald eyes went wide as Deanna took in the words. “She collapsed?”
“Yes. We don’t know why, but we were having brunch-“
“Brunch, okay…” Deanna nodded her head, though her brain instantly snapped to a thought. Who still has brunch these days? Why can’t we have brunch? Pancakes AND Tacos… FOCUS! “Then what?”
“She was talking about seeing you and Selena next week and then she just collapsed onto the table.” Paul explained, his voice growing more and more panic.
“Okay…okay…” Deanna breathed. “You’re at the hospital now?”
“Yes.” Paul answered. “Sara is with her and Dr. Kern is on his way.”
The request was unspoken but it might as well have been yelled in the redhead’s ear. There was a reason he had called the Frosts. It had been them that had made their residence in New York possible in the first place, paying for it with their own money from being SCW wrestlers and tag-team champions for the months they had been. Maybe it was for them to use their influence, or maybe they just wanted the emotional support for them, and especially, Tannis, but Deanna wasn’t stupid.
“I’ll get Selena.” She spoke strongly. “We’ll be there as fast as we can.”
“Thank you.” Was all the father could get out.
“Okay, we’ll see you soon.”
Immediately, she hung up the phone and stuffed it into her shorts-pocket. Jumping up to her feet, she tried to ignore how asleep her legs were. “Come on, guys!” she ordered them as she tried to run, managing an awkward stumble-run out of the gym. “Move it!” a few more strides, and a near stumble into the damn pool, and she was rushing out of the gym/pool house, her strides landing her on each flat stone of the trial between that house and their ‘Forever Home’. She had managed to get to the third stone when she saw the front door open and Selena step out, the Snow Queen’s sapphire eyes turning towards Deanna with, Deanna could still notice, a beautiful smile as she recognized the redhead and her speedy approach.
“Selena!” she called out, holding her phone up as she reached the porch Selena stood on, not winded from the run, but still feeling frazzled.
“Deanna.” Selena smiled, perhaps a little playfully. Deanna couldn’t tell. “You look like you just got a great idea. Writing going okay? Elsa and I are heading to this space exhibit – can you just move your work inside to watch the other-“
“Tannis had another episode!” Deanna blurted out, not really listening to whatever her wife had been saying. This was not the time to be so easily distracted by Deanna’s stupid ADHD. She needed to focus – TANNIS needed her to focus.
She saw Selena’s breath stop, sapphire eyes widened, and her mouth hang open for a second as she tried to speak.
“She…she what?”
Quickly reaching into her pocket, Deanna held up her phone. “Paul just called me. They were having a late lunch and she collapsed onto the floor! She’s at the hospital right now!”
“Gods…” to her wife’s credit, it only took a second for Selena to register everything she had heard, establish the shock and implications of Deanna’s statements before her face adopted a serious expression – driven, passionate – similar to the one she had shown that night in the ballroom when she had accepted her fate to become a witch with the Aldens. Pure focus: what is happened? What needs to be done? What is the next step? Deanna could almost see the thoughts forming behind her wife’s eyes at a mile a minute. Gods, she wished she could be that quick and calculating in SCW, in the ring – then she wouldn’t have gone through that door. She would have been able to keep up with her wife. She would still be tag-team champion and the House of Frost would be facing a real tag-team, like the number one contenders in Bree and Datura and not this mess of a- FOCUS! her mind screamed as she saw her wife’s lips moving.
“Can you call Gerda? I need her here to watch the kids.”
“On it.” Deanna nodded quickly, though her brain took a second to full register the order from her wife. “Let me grab my purse.”
“Just get my wallet while you’re there.” Selena pressed. “I’ll get the car-“
“Mother?”
Hearing the voice, Deanna saw her daughter Elsianna standing on the stairway, seemingly confused about something. She was looking, not at her, but at Selena with such an expression. “What’s going on?” asked with a tilt of her head, her orange-gloved hands nervously interlocking and releasing.
Focus… Deanna’s mind reminded her, prompting the redhead to quickly move up the stairs and around Elsianna with a quick, “Excuse me, dear.” She was in her room in less than four seconds, her fingers working her phone to speed-dial Gerda, and placing the phone on speaker.
The device rang four times before it was picked up.
“Hello?” came the familiar voice.
“Hi, Gerda.” The redhead spoke loudly as she began stripping out of her shirt and shorts. “Where are you?”
“Just outside having some lemonade. Are you okay?”
“Yes…” Deanna answered quickly as she pulled out blue jeans and a dark-green long blouse that ran down to her thighs. “Well… no.” she called back to her phone as she pulled her hair out of its ponytail and its long mane of red. “Can you get here now and watch the kids?”
“I- yes.” Gerda answered quickly. “Is everything alright?”
“That kid Selena and I were helping? Tannis?”
“The one with the cancer?”
“Yes.” Deanna answered quickly. “She collapsed and is back in the hospital. The parents want us there.”
Her change complete, the Queen’s Guard kicked the discarded shorts and shirt she had work to the side of the wall. She would pick it up later when she got back home. Giving herself a quick glance at the mirror hanging on the wall, she grabbed her purse and Selena’s wallet as instructed and was out of her room quickly; making her way down the stairs just in time to have Elsianna rush past her, the older woman just barely able to move into the wall to avoid running into the child as Elsa ascended the stairs and into her own room. Deanna only had a moment to watch the child before turning back to see her wife standing at the foot of the steps, a sad expression on the former world champion’s face.
“Gerda’s on her way. Here.” Deanna spoke, reaching the main-floor and handing Selena her wallet. “What’s wrong with Elsianna?”
The Snow Queen merely shook her head. “I’ll explain on the way.” She turned her head to the outsidem past the open door as they heard the sound of a car honking and approaching them, Gerda’s. “Let’s go, quickly.” She ordered, prompting the two to leave the house, jump into the Jeep Liberty, with Selena driving. They were out of the driveway quickly and nearing the main roads in minutes.
“Gods, I hope she’s alright.” Deanna whispered, clutching her phone to her chest after firing off a quick text to Paul – letting him know they were on their way.
“She has to be.” She heard Selena whisper, though she wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince Deanna or herself with that statement as they merged onto traffic, zipping along the highways en route to the hospital. “She has to be…” she repeated, confirming the previous uncertainty Deanna had in favor of the latter. “Why do you have that?”
The question caught Deanna off guard, causing her to stare into her hand… where she still held the pages of the first draft of her promo. “I…” her eyes widened in surprise. Had she changed while still holding the papers? Or had she absently just placed them near the purse and wallet when she had gathered them? Or had she just grabbed everything in her hurry to get to the hospital – she couldn’t recall, but there was no denying that the papers that were clutched in her hands. “I have no idea.” She settled on saying, placing them all on top of the dashboard without thinking.
The driving continued without interruption for another twenty or so minutes until the Frosts parked in one of the public parking spaces near the hospital. Selena was out first, the wind causing her sundress to billow a little as it reached her. Deanna was barely out of the vehicle before she heard Selena lock it with the remote. Quickly, Deanna offered her hand to her wife, who took it tightly in hers before they jogged into the hospital, the doors opening automatically for them.
The pair didn’t have time to really look around the familiar setting of white walls and tiled floors. Instead, they were, almost immediately called upon by the tall man in blue jeans and red-black flannel. “Selena! Deanna!” they instantly recognized him as Paul, Tannis’ father, prompting the wives to renew their jog to close the short distance to the man.
“Thank you for-“
“It’s nothing.” Selena promoted, cutting off the man’s gratefulness. “Is she okay?”
“We don’t know.” Paul sighed. “Sara and Kern are with her now.”
He was quick to move after that answer, and the Frosts were just as quick to follow him as they made their way through the halls and to the elevator, taking it to appropriate floor. For Deanna, she barely noticed the movement of the elevator or the dings it made as it hit each floor. Instead, her eyes kept stealing glances towards Selena, the Snow Queen’s jaw clenching and unclenching - When had she re-braided her hair? Deanna suddenly noticed, but then again, Selena had noticed Deanna changing her clothes so…
She’s alright. Deanna sighed at the thought, echoing her wife’s earlier words. She has to be.
The difference was, however, was that Deanna needed Tannis to be alright, not just because she was young and deserved to be in good health to enjoy her childhood, but also because of Selena. She had assessed this earlier. Tannis was the symbol of ‘control’ that Selena was trying to keep a hold of in her life. With SCW spiralling out of control more and more with each day, with the sale still up in the air, with D. leaving and talking down to her and her beliefs, with everything with Kimberly and now Ace and Ravyn, helping the Parks beat this cancer in their child was one of the few things Selena felt she had any control over outside of her family. It was one of the few things that made her feel like, well, like she was making a difference in people’s lives – a real difference in the world she lived in. A feeling that was dwindling in SCW with each passing day.
And if Tannis were to take a turn for the worse… Deanna wondered, once more stealing a glance towards Selena… what would that mean for her wife? If the last vestige any good Selena tried to do amounted to… well, nothing?
Again, that gripping fear of that ‘third story’ that SCW was so fond of airing for the SCW Universe – the fall of the hero. The turn of good to evil… the fear of that happening to her beloved gripped Selena, causing a hand to fly to her green blouse to shift it a little, allowing her breathe easier, though there was no issue with the shirt to allow that in the first place. Suddenly, she couldn’t get out of the elevator fast enough, and she wasn’t the one with claustrophobia like her wife had.
The last ding filled her with relief as the doors opened, Paul getting out first but Deanna almost jumping out of the elevator, breathing as quiet a sigh as she could and refusing to look back at the metallic-box-thingy. She didn’t even want to see her wife’s reaction to such a small antic. Instead, she waited for Paul to start walking again before following him, staying only a few steps behind him as they travelled the last of the short distance of halls until they were standing outside the patient room. As seemed to be the case today with the redhead, she had only to look at the door before it suddenly opened before her eyes, this time allowing the tall, dark-skinned Hindu man to walk out, observing the chart in his hands. He wore a white lab coat and his hair was naturally curly.
“Dr. Kern!” Paul called out, earning the man’s attention, giving an extra burst of speed to reach him a second or two faster than the Frost wives. “How is she? How is my daughter-“
“Mr. Parks.” The doctor held up his hands. “She is fine. She just had a fainting spell.”
“A fainting spell?” Paul asked, earning a nod from the good doctor.
“This happens from time to time as we begin new medication with cancer patients. The altered blood pressure, thinning of blood, there are numerous possible reasons why, but they are not as serious as they seem.”
“You’re sure.” Paul asked, the father clearly still a bit on-edge, which the doctor tried to calm with a slow, understanding smile.
“I’m sure.” He explained. “We’re just keeping an eye on her and analyzing her medications for now. We will make some slight alterations to avoid such spells.”
“Can she go home then?” the father asked.
Slowly, almost sad to do so, Kern shook his head. “Standard policy says we need to keep her here for at least two hours before discharging her.”
“I see.” The taller man nodded his head. “Is she okay?”
“She is.” The doctor explained. “And she’s awake now. I recommend not getting her too excited or emotional. A spike could cause another episode today.”
“Thank you, doctor.” Paul reached out to shake his hand.
“I will be make in a short while.” Kern added before making his way down the hall to a pair of nurses, who were already approaching him – probably to discuss another patient.
Alone with Paul once more, Selena and Deanna glanced at one another. “Should…” Deanna tried. “Should we go then?” she asked slowly. “What if seeing us gets her too excited?”
Turning his head, Paul offered a kind smile to the two women. “It’s alright.” He nodded. “We’ll be careful.” He added before reaching the door and turning the handle enough to open it and enter. Slowly, hesitantly, Selena and Deanna moved closer to the door, neither daring to go in right away. They could hear voice on the other side.
“I’m fine, dad.” Came the sweet voice of the child they knew so well.
“I just don’t want you to get too excited again.” Came Paul’s voice.
“Can you just promise to be calm?” came an older woman’s voice, Sara’s, no doubt.
“I promise.” Tannis replied.
“Alright.” They heard Paul sigh, but it was more of a relaxed sigh than anything else, before he called out. “Come on it, guys.”
Slowly, Selena went first, leaning her head past the door and into the patient room. Deanna, slowly, followed suit, her head leaning in just below Selena’s. It would almost be comical if they weren’t terrified of overexciting the child. They were celebrities after all.
“Hi, sweetie.” Selena smiled, seeing the girl’s face light up.
“SELENA! DEANNA! I-“ immediately, Tannis eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed backwards onto the bed, all four adults immediately on alarm!
“TANNIS!” They all cried, almost at once, though Deanna’s was just a fraction of a second later as all four rushed towards the bed. Immediately, Deanna was desperately searching for the ‘emergency call button’ to get some help, emerald eyes scanning this way and that. She had just spotted it and begun reaching for it when the child’s torso sprung up, the brightest of smiles on her face!
“GOTCHA!” she laughed before dissolving into a small fit of laughter, falling against the bed with her giggles. Dumbfounded, the four adults looked at each other, each of their hearts still racing before a single voice rang through the room.
“TANNIS ABIGAIL PARKS!” came Sara Park’s sharp and commanding voice. The tone was beyond familiar to both Selena and Deanna, the latter leaning closer to her wife.
“Uh-oh…” she whispered, the tone very similar to one she adopted with her children. “Mom voice.”
“Yep.” Selena nodded, her hands reaching up to hold Deanna’s shoulders as she stood behind the shorter redhead.
“She gonna get it.” Deanna added.
Sara, meanwhile, had marched to the far side of Tannis’ bed, eyeing the child with the sternest of looks. “Don’t you EVER do something like that!” she ordered, causing the laughs in the child to suddenly cease and the laughter in her eyes dispel a little.
“It… it was just a joke.” She tried, a hint of terror in her voice towards her angry mother.
“It’s not a joke!” Sara pressed. “And it’s not funny! You almost scared your father and I AND Mrs. and Mrs. Frost to death!”
“And Selena’s old. She’s closer to it than me.” Deanna stated, trying to ease the tension caused by Tannis’ prank.
“Deanna!” Selena tried. “I’m only seven years older than you!”
“Yeah, and your hair’s already turning white.” Deanna gestured towards Selena’s head.
“My hair’s ALWAYS been white!”
“Therefore???” Deanna lead, gesturing with her hands as she eyed her wife.
“What?”
“Therefore, you’ve always been old.” Deanna concluded. “Tannis, back me up here.”
“Your hair’s whiter than my grandmother’s.” Tannis answered. “But it’s really pretty.”
“That’s true.” Deanna nodded.
“Neither of you are helping.” Selena narrowed her eyes at both of them. “And I believe, Tannis, your mother was talking to you.”
“Yes, I was.” Sara re-engaged with her previous ‘motherly-tone’. “Now, young lady, I want you to apologize to Selena and Deanna this minute for scaring them like that!”
Despite the slight pouting of her lip, the child did not hesitate to cast another glance at the Frost wives. “I’m sorry.” She quickly spoke, though Deanna could hear the earnest in her voice. She almost wanted to dismiss it out loud, laugh it off as a ‘great prank’ for the child’s sake, but she wasn’t the little girl’s parents. She wanted to respect their choice of reaction, so instead, she simply nodded her head, smiled at the girl and remained silent as Selena moved around her to approach the other side of Tannis bed, the Snow Queen kneeling down and taking the young girl’s hand into hers.
The ’scare’ having since passed, Deanna was able to fully observe the girl – the same age as her Elsianna but far more frail looking. Wait… I didn’t ask Selena why Elsianna seemed so upset when we left… came the sudden realization, but it hardly seemed the right time to bring up the subject. Instead, she merely watched her wife as she spoke to Tannis.
“What happened, dear?” she asked. “Your father said you fainted.”
“Yeah.” Sighed the child. “That’s what they told me too. I was talking about you guys visiting me after the weekend and the pay-per-view… Deanna promised to show me what poker is.”
“You what?!” asked Selena, Paul AND Sara, all three pairs of eyes suddenly on Deanna.
“I…” Deanna tried to explain. “She was asking about the pay-per-view title! ‘Playing the Wildcard’? So I explained what it was in reference to and she said-“ she began to speed up her speech as she spoke. “she said she heard of poker but didn’t know how to play – never played a hand. I promised I’d teach her how to play Texas Hold ‘Em if she promised not to use it to gamble at school!”
“And I did!” Tannis came to the redhead’s defense. “I did promise that, I mean.”
“Deanna…” Selena sighed. “Poker’s not really a game for an eleven year old.”
“I’ll be twelve soon.”
“Or a twelve year old.” Paul corrected.
“Couldn’t you teach her ‘crazy 8s’ or something?” Selena tried, earning a shrug from Deanna.
“Well…” Sara interrupted. “To continue, Tannis kept talking about meeting you and wanting to know about the pay-per-view. She got more and more excited and then passed out.”
“One minute, I was eating scrambled eggs, the next minute I was here! It was weird!” Tannis concluded with a smile.
Despite the young girl’s positive energy, Deanna saw Selena squeeze the girl’s hand gently, the only sign of worry that came from the Snow Queen. It wasn’t enough to get the girl’s attention, however, as she glanced at her father. “Can I go home now?”
“Not yet, dear.” Paul sighed, taking a seat in the chair Sara had occupied pre-prank. “Doctor said he’d come get you when you could.”
“How long would that be?” she asked, gesturing towards the monitors attached to her for heartrate. “I hate these things.” Her pout returned, once more a faint glimmer of her actual age.
“He said another hour or two.” Paul explained. “But we can watch TV on your phone.”
“And we can talk about SCW.” Selena tried, doing her best to get the child’s enthusiasm back.
“And I can teach you-“ Deanna caught herself. “A very safe and kid-friendly card game if we have any cards.”
With all those ideas in play, the two hours seemed to zoom by very fast. Selena and Deanna did their best to be positive regarding the pay-per-view match headed their way, exuding confidence that The House of Frost would, once more, be world tag-team champions completely, while leaving out the not so confident or pleasant facts of the company. Again, Tannis inquired about the selling of SCW and, again, Selena couldn’t answer her. What could she say? That it scared her? That she didn’t know what her future held?
How could she possibly say that to a child who doesn’t know if they will have any future at all… Deanna had sighed at that thought. She, eventually, had settled on teaching Tannis how to play Crazy-8s, but she had done it with all the ‘special cards and meaning’ behind them to keep it interesting for the child.
In short, the few hours almost flew by and when Dr. Kern returned to check on Tannis, he wasted no time in discharging her while giving Sara and Paul an updated medication-plan to assist in lowering the frequency of any future fainting spells. Relieved, the two families bid each other farewell till next week, the Frosts leaving first, heading back to the elevator, going down it and heading out of the hospital.
“Glad it worked out.” Deanna sighed as she gazed out towards the New York sky, the sun much lower than when they had entered the hospital. Beside her, Selena gave a slow inhale and exhale before nodding her head.
“Hope we don’t have to deal with anymore scares like that for the rest of the week.”
“So…” Deanna tried. “Don’t picture Ravyn and Ace as tag-team champions.”
“You are too spunky for your own damn good.” Selena shook her head, causing Deanna to stick her tongue out at the platinum-blonde as she fished out her cellphone for the first time since they had entered the hospital.
Probably got a few emails over where my promo is for the pay-per-view… she thought with a grumble as she turned her phone back on… stunned when she saw she had 47 missed calls and 13 voice messages… all from Gerda.
“What the-“ she almost cursed as she dialed the older woman’s phone. On the second ring, it was picked.
“Deanna!” it was Gerda’s voice but it was frantic, almost as if she was having a panic attack! “Deanna- I couldn’t get Selena and-“
“Gerda, slow down!” Deanna urged, gaining Selena’s attention immediately. “Selena is here with me, remember? We had to go to the hospital to check on Tannis and-“
“SHE’S GONE!” The voice, even without speaker-phone, rang loud enough to be heard by the nearby Selena, the next set of words causing both wives blood to run cold.
“ELSIANNA IS GONE! I LOOKED ALL OVER THE HOUSE AND I CAN’T FIND HER! SHE’S GONE!”
_______________________________________________________________
Inside the Ky-Vee Arena in Kansas City, Selena Frost, the Snow Queen of SCW, stands within an empty wrestling ring, which is filled with eight playing cards, two places at each primary direction like spots on a compass. Carefully, Selena takes off her SCW world tag-team title and lays it on the ground. Either I restore the House… or The House will die trying. Because I’d rather be without this title than tied to either one of you while you promise to bring it back to the joke it was before Deanna and I came along. Believe it!
Slowly, Selena backs away from the tag-title and the large cards in the ring, the camera locking on the title for a few seconds as Selena’s shadows is seen moving away from the ring…
A second passes before another shadow comes forward and another hand reaches down and picks up the title… the camera moving up to the redhead that now stands before it. She wears blue jeans, a dark-green sweater and her hair is a mane of red, emerald eyes glowing as she holds the title that once was hers.
So… guess it’s my turn… Deanna Frost speaks to the title before lifting her eyes up to the camera.
And what is there to expect, right? I’m sure Ace and Ravyn aren’t surprised. ‘Deanna following behind Selena’? Typical, right? But… really, this may shock you but, Selena felt that I needed to have the last word for our House in regards to this match.
She gives a light shrug of her shoulders before shaking her head, her eyes casting down to her wife’s tag-team title. And you know what? I’m glad she did, because there’s something that I have to say. Something that’s been weighing on my mind, weighing on my soul for some time. And the more and more I think about it, the truer and truer it has become.
Reaching over to the first pair of cards, Deanna’s eyes them. Because this isn’t some ‘random match’. This isn’t some ‘no idea what to expect’? This isn’t even some ‘game’ that Ace is making up and Ravyn is trying to take advantage of or even my wife is trying to help survive from. This is… this is the real life situation of EVERYTHING that exists for me right now.
With one shoe, Deanna flips over both cards on one side of the ring, revealing the Ace of Spades and the King of Clubs. The Aces are wild. Wild Ace. The man that no one can tie down. No man can predict. No man can really stop when he wants something bad enough – I emphasize man because… well, Selena made that clear. she smiles, perhaps a little amused at her own attempt at a joke. The king of debauchery. The man of a thousand plans and ideas. Will do ANYTHING to win. ANYTHING to get what he wants. ANYTHING to amuse himself.
Slowly, Deanna walks across the ring to the opposing pair of cards. With her shoe, she can manages to flip them over, revealing the joker card and the King of Hearts, the king’s sword just behind their head. The supposed wild card, herself. The Bad Girl Ravyn… Deanna eyes the king card beside the joker card. Someone that would as soon as stab you in the back than lend you a hand, sometimes one right after the other. Ever the planner. And…
Moving northward, Deanna reaches the top cards, flipping them over with her shoe, revealing the Ace of hearts and the Queen of Diamonds. The Queen of SCW. Its heart, its face. Its very definition and, maybe, its very soul…
Slowly returning to the middle of the ring, surrounded by the playing cards, Deanna takes a slow breath before speaking. You could not imagine a more loaded game. A more high-stakes match. And me, in it all… not even in the same league.
Because if you think about it, the differences are mountain-sized, aren’t there? It’s the lowest hanging branch, which is why Ravyn grabbed it last Breakdown, because it was easy. But there is a reason it is there. Because it’s covered in truth. It’s true, I’m the only one that isn’t a former world champion. I’m the only one that hasn’t main-evented Rise to Greatness. Hell, I’m the only one that’s never been a ‘wrestler of the year’ or won a third or second-tier title like the Adrenaline or the United States title. Never main-events a pay-per-view. Never won ‘the big match’ on my own… Last year, I spent my first Rise to Greatness event as a wrestler… on the preshow…
And that’s… that’s what you wanted me to know Ravyn, wasn’t it? You picked up on it so easily, didn’t you.
Because you didn’t come out on Breakdown to get in Selena’s head, did you? She’s way too good for that. She knows you too well – beaten you WAY too many times. No, you came to that last Breakdown to… to get in my head. You told the world what we already knew. That I am the least experienced. That I have the least accolades. That I’ve never fought and beaten former world champions before, but gods, you laid it on thick, didn’t you? Like wow…
A bitter smile forms across Deanna’s features.
I mean, for the past few weeks, I’ve had to listen to the boss of SCW, O. D. refer to me as a cog. As a disposable piece within the company that could just be bought or tossed away any day now. Little more than Selena’s shadow, that’s what he said – a concept that I have been fighting for over a year. A notion that I have struggled and fought tooth and claw to defy each and every time I entered the ring. The dream of standing in the ring not as my wife’s shadow but as her partner. As her equal. Not as her weakness, but part of her strength. To stand here within an SCW ring and say that I, Deanna Frost, belong here on my own merit and that I represent The House of Frost as strongly as my wife…
She pauses, letting her words settle.
And week after week, from the roster to the board, to the very owner, I have heard every contradiction to that statement. Every person denying it is so – certain that it could never be so. That the shadow of Selena Frost, ‘The Face of SCW’, is too large for anyone to get out of.
Biting her lower lip, Deanna looks down at her feet, as if trying to find the right words to say.
And I have fought that for so long, had my head buried so deep in the trenches that it took hearing it, not only from the man that hired me, but from both of you: Ace and Ravyn, for me to see things differently. Clearer.
She scans the Ace of Spades. I had to see you, Ace, tell my wife that you would go by “Ace Frost” and establish “The New House of Frost”. Her head jerking a little, the Queen’s Guard seemingly rather affected by that notion. Let me tell you something about that name, Ace. If you looked far enough back into her past, you would understand what her family name means to Selena. How it has driven her for years and years. One doesn’t simply become a ‘Frost’ in Selena’s family. It is earned, it is bestowed. And, should you be lucky enough to marry her, it is years of commitment, loyalty, of working through the hard times and worse times and overcoming every obstacle, fight and problem to stand together, united in love. The House of Frost, our tag-team, is a manifestation of that relationship, a representation of the trust and love she and I share both inside and outside of this ring.
But for you… you came in the first chance you had and established that all of that could be replaced with a new last name for yourself and a new team name – literally putting ‘new’ in Selena’s and my name. And the most incredible thing of it all, you legitimately believed it. You believed, you believed, you believed, that I was that easily replaceable. That all my years of marriage, of managing Selena, helping her to title victories, tournament wins, those years in prison in Frankfurt where I got by only on my belief that she was waiting for me, the children we have together, the dreams we’ve had for SCW together – you genuinely believe that all of that means nothing compared to you.
She stops to breath for a moment. And that I… am just a disposable cog.
Slowly, her head turns around to eye the Joker card and the King of Hearts. A weak link that can’t beat the ‘upper echelon’. Which I find interesting considering the source of that statement, Ravyn. Now, don’t get me wrong. There is some value and merit to what you said, you are definitely the upper echelon of SCW. I think you already made that clear. But the Herculean task of ‘beating you’… it sort of loses its luster when you lost to Cassie Wolfe just a few weeks ago.
Deanna eyes the camera, specifically the woman she is talking about. A rookie. A new face in SCW… beat Ravyn Taylor. Which means it CAN be done. It IS possible…
And with the amount of losses you’ve had over the past year or so and your absences from the ring, maybe, just maybe I’ve got enough in my own experience to overcome you with your and Ace’s ring rust. Because while you’ve come and gone, showing up but not wrestling, I’ve been here learning every second of every day. Testing the limits of what I can endure. Testing myself against the very best. I went toe to toe with Owen Cruze. I made him submit and pinned Josh Hudson twice, Ravyn Taylor. So IT IS possible. MORE than possible, it is an undeniable FACT that I can pin and BEAT the upper echelon! I know it! I believe it! I HAVE to do it!
Her voice echoes in the ring, louder than even Selena’s had been, the raw emotion on display from the Queen’s Guard.
Because if what you are saying is true, Ravyn – if it is true that I can’t handle the fires of the elite. If I can’t handle the pressures of the upper tier wrestlers. If I am forever doomed to live through embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss at that level. If my name is cursed to be synonymous with losing to “The Five Moves of Doom” – if all that you said is true…
Then everything Ace said and implied is true and I am an easy replacement.
If that is true than everything O. D. said about me is true. I am just a cog. A shadow of Selena’s. Disposable, replaceable…forgettable. Emerald eyes cast down to the two remaining, face-down cards.
And that changes everything. That changes everything about this match. That changes everything that this match stands for. If all of THAT is true than this is about so much more than integrity, the future of the tag-team division, or correcting a wrong by a coward in Kimberly Williams, or fixing a mistake, or even a dream between two wives! This becomes more than that for me! This is me fighting for everything that I believe myself to be! Everything I dream myself capable of! Everything that I have earned. Everything I have wished for. Everything that is MINE!
Tears can be seen brimming within the young Frost’s eyes, yet her voice never quivers.
You say I am a cog?! You say I am a shadow?! You say I am easily replaceable?! You say I am not ready for the fire?!
I CAN’T exist as a cog! I CAN’T exist as a shadow! I CAN’T exist as simply replaceable! And I HAVE to be ready! Because I have to believe that is who Deanna Frost truly is! A diamond in the rough! A World Champion in the making! A future star in this bright world of SCW!
That’s why I am the real wild card in this match, Ravyn. Because I’m not going to be simply fighting for the tag-team titles! No, Ravyn, Ace… O.… tonight is not me fighting simply for another tag-title reign! This will be me fighting for my very LIFE! My very IDENTITY! My very EXISTENCE in this world!
She pauses for a moment, her chest heaving a little. So, Ace, Ravyn… D. too! With all respects to your abilities and opinions and positions of power in the ‘upper echelon’, I don’t give a damn how unprepared or how ‘not ready’ I am to face the fire. I am going to face it! I am going to walk through it! I am going to take every burn, every plan, every jab, every slight, every notion you have about me and I will KEEP fighting until ‘the impossible’ is done and I defeat two former world champions in this very ring! Until the cog becomes an integral piece! Until I emerge from that shadow. Until the ‘replaceable’ becomes ‘irreplaceable’. Until ‘forgettable’ becomes ‘unforgettable’! Until Deanna Frost, the ‘wife of Selena Frost’…
Deanna’s eyes lower down to the two facedown cards, her foot inching out towards them, wanting to turn them over. Until Deanna Frost becomes something else entirely.
Slowly, she draws her foot back, not touching the cards, her head slowly rising up to stare into the camera. And whatever that is… will result in the one thing YOU are not ready for, Ravyn Taylor. One thing YOU cannot so easily replace, Ace Marshall.
And that is one more Frost surpassing the both of you!
Holding out the SCW tag-team title, the redhead holds it out towards the camera. Checkmate, bitches! before dropping it back into the center of the ring.
The camera slowly fades as it focuses on her, the title at her feet, and the two facedown cards standing before her – her cards – her very identity…
Uncertain… a wildcard that will soon be played… with EVERYTHING at stake.
![[Image: hffOaUZ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/hffOaUZ.png)
SCW Supreme Champion
6x SCW World Champion
4x SCW World Tag-Team Champion
2x SCW United States Champion
3x SCW Adrenaline Champion
SCW Television Champion
Longest Reigning SCW World Champion (234 days)
Winner of Shot of Adrenaline Tournament (2016)
Winner of Best of the Best Tournament (2016)
Winner of Trios Tournament (2018)
Winner of U.S. Championship Tournament (2020)
Winner of World Championship Tournament (2023)
Winner of Tactical Warfare (2014, 2019)
Winner of Elimination Chamber (2015, 2024)
Winner of Roofed Cage Match (2019)
Winner of Last Person Standing Match (2019)
The Unbelievable Main Event (2021-2025)
Winner of Double Jeopardy Match (2022)
Winner of EOTY Invitational (2023)
Winner of EOTY Invitational (2023)
Winner of Ironman Match (2024)
Wrestler of the Year (2016, 2021, 2022, 2024)
Tag-Team of the Year (2020 - w/ Regan Street)
Match of the Year (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024)
Feud of the Year (2014, 2019)
Shocking Moment of the Year (2024)
![[Image: 34zetxl.png]](https://i.ibb.co/SnpvD5T/34zetxl.png)