Post by Admin on Feb 8, 2023 0:31:18 GMT
(1 day Left)
Meghan Marie Strader-Kelser is an incredibly strong woman. What she had been through in her thirty-seven-years on this planet would have destroyed most people. Her mom dies at birth. She’s raised by a good man, Steven Smyth, the first fourteen-years of her life only to find out that her godfather/biker “uncle” Scott Nash was her real dad; the Strader revelation coming a few years later. Pregnant as a teenager, having one of her babies sold at birth and giving the first away. Kidnapped back to back to back by Scott’s enemies, the fact she wasn’t at the Highbury Hilton (mental hospital on Highbury Avenue in London) by the age of sixteen is a testament to the woman she had to grow into sooner than any child should.
At sixteen, she was smart enough to embrace the madness that was being the oldest child to Scott Nash Strader and became his manager. All before she could vote or legally drink (depending on the province or state), she was negotiating contracts, title shots, and whatever else he needed. Then she met Tamika and John for the first time just before her nineteenth birthday and it was the beginning of the best change of her life.
Meghan not only had a brother and a sister, but she found her best friend and for-life-tag-partner in Tamika. The next ten years were tumultuous for the Cowgirls From Hell, but they made their mark in the industry. The thing was… she had wanted to be the one to restore the family image, win a singles title belt, eventually the World or whatever a reputable company calls it. Problem is, every time she got going and made traction, SNS would make a choice and he would take her place while making her life incredibly tough instead.
Out of all the chaos under the banner of the Alliance of Wrestling Federations, lovingly called the AOWF, working for BWF (Blazenwing Wrestling Federation), BWF (British Wrestling Federation), LW (Liberty Wrestling), and many others but most importantly, the PWA (Pioneer Wrestling Association). Meghan met her husband and father of her youngest fraternal twins in the PWA. The younger half brother of Nathan Kelser, Dustin Thunderwolf Kelser. Nathan was part of the Darren Ridel and Matthew Engel plot to destroy the Strader family by successfully killing Vicca Li in a drive-by shooting and one half tHE bROTHER rEAPERS. Kaleb tHE cRIMSON rEAPER, while Payton tHE dREAM rEAPER escaped with permanent brain damage, when Nathan drove a Freightliner Classic into an ambulance they were in.
“You know how they say ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life?’ Well, it’s true until it is the last day of your life. Most people won’t ever know when that will come, but some of us, the ones who have lived lives when nothing was ever easy, achieve true greatness in spite of it, sometimes get the opportunity. When you have five beautiful children, marry the man of your dreams, you build a small family company into an empire, all while making tag team history with your little sister, who is also the best friend a girl could have, you can’t say it was all hard. But you know when time is up.”
“And I am okay with that.”
“I mean, it fucking figures, right? But when I look at my children… my sweet stoner Cara, whose only goal in life is to get high and be one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met. Victoria? Oh my God, she is special. She could take any company to new heights, and I just wish we could’ve seen what she could have truly done with OCW.”
“Veronica… nothing scares her. She doesn’t care how big they are, what they could do to her in the ring or outside of it. The way she shoots from the hip, just like I did in my career, but her future is going to go leaps and bounds from what I ever did.”
“My little ones… Clay and Elizabeth… Hopefully, wherever I end up, I can watch Tamika raise them into beautiful human beings. Or end up eternity with my old man, but there are worse men than my dad. He loved all of us… in a fucked up way, but thankfully my girls spent little longer than a couple years around him. Didn’t have the chance to fuck up their lives more than he did. Stole his granddaughter’s girlfriend. Can’t forget, he did sell Cara at birth.”
“I could bitch about the cards dealt to me in this life of mine, but to have it different meant I had to give up any of the moments I had or the people that made life worth living like my babes or my siblings… never.”
“Today started like every other day since I was diagnosed. I mean yes, it’s not as painful after my last match of my career against some nobody before OCW found out I was sick. Say what you will about that company, but when Marcus Welsh is steering the ship, he has a soul. But I didn’t get to leave the business my way, and I’ll be damned if I wasn’t leaving this life my way.”
“Don’t worry, it’s not what you think. I am going to let Tamika tell you all how I die when the time is right. If it wasn’t the cancer, I was at least gonna have a say in how it ends.”
Meghan’s gorgeous icy blue eyes flutter open, the sun shining brighter from the snow and ice outside on the ground. Pain was an everyday thing for the former Strader Matriarch, but today, she didn’t care. Reaching over to her nightstand, she palms a half dozen OxyContin hydro capsules and the same in Hydrocodone 4mg, commonly known as “dillies.” She turns to her side, and watches her husband, Dustin Kelser, sleep peacefully. Running her fingertips gently down his neck to his pecs, his eyes slowly opened and the man, once known as Thunderwolf in the ring, gives her a sad smile.
“It kills me to think that we may not have any more mornings where I wake up to your enchanting eyes.”
“Try not to think about it. It is nothing but a downward spiral. Just a reason to live each morning to its fullest. Don’t you agree?”
Dustin can’t help but give that vulnerable smile that melted her heart eight years ago.
“Are you sure you are up to it?”
“It doesn’t matter… I just want my Duth.”
Dustin chuckles at the nickname given to him over twenty years ago he could never shake. Only Corey Lazarus and his wife could call him that. Before he can say anything, she moves slowly and sits on top of him, leaning down to kiss him, and pulls back gently on his bottom lip with her teeth.
“Love me.”
“With all my heart.”
“My sweet Dustin… if there was anyone in life that may have had a shit deal like I had, it was Dustin. He was legendary between the ropes, and while I may have been a better tag team wrestler, there isn’t even one competitor today that holds a candle to what he accomplished. But throughout his accomplishments, the one thing he was most proud of was his children, blood or adopted.”
“He suffered so much heartache. Like the time Lisa Seldon kicked his pregnant ex-wife Misty off the ring apron, landing stomach first on the ring steps, causing a late miscarriage. I can tell you, 17 years later… he still hasn’t forgiven himself for it. I know my husband better than most, and I know my passing is going to destroy him. He thought he had finally found happiness. While I found happiness and will last to my last breath, for him it won’t. At least not with me, and my heart breaks. I only hope that Hannah, Chance, Izzie, Fiona, Clay and Lizzie will keep him from falling down that hole of despair and sadness. That he leans on his children. I know Veronica, Victoria and Cara who love their stepfather will be there too. He isn’t alone. I just hope he realizes that sooner than later.”
“Making love to my darling one last time is something I know he’ll never forget, and I will take with me to wherever it is I end up.”
Meghan found herself in the shower with Dustin, and her pain medication had kicked into overdrive and for the first time in months, she didn’t feel any pain, just her husband’s touch. Good thing Tamika had the hot water heater replaced. When Meghan and Dustin emerged from the bathroom, she dressed in her favourite stone-washed jeans and her old Motley Crue shirt.
Tamika couldn’t help but smile to see Meghan up and about. She brings her sister a plate of over-medium eggs and soft bacon. Being as gentle as possible, Tamika hugs Meghan from behind, burying the side of her face in the back of her big sister’s head.
“It’s so good to see you up and about.”
“Miracles happen. Did my sweet little stoner get the winters put on my car?”
Tamika lets go and crosses her arms as she comes around to face Meghan.
“That’s why the Bandit has new tires. Where do you think you are going?”
“I’m not dead yet, Meeks. I have been cooped up in this house for months. I just want to drive my car since I can’t exactly ride my Road King in this weather… the Bandit will do. Don’t argue with me, Tamika Anne Strader.”
“Your full name, Tamika. She means business. Trust me when I know that when she uses the middle name, you better listen.”
“(Hands up) Alright, alright. Dustin, please look after her.”
“I am a grown woman, granted a terminally ill grown woman, but grown nonetheless.”
Tamika shakes her head and throws her hands down in defeat. Heading back to the question, she throws a question over her shoulder for the brother-in-law.
“How do you want your eggs, Dusty?”
“(Groans) Scrambled. You know I only let you call me that because of your sister, right?”
“(Mumbling) Whatever you say, Dusty.”
While the family has their moment of levity, across the street from the simple one floor home that Ray and Susan Thomas raised their adoptive daughter, Victoria, Kristopholis Strader’s henchmen watch with intent.
“Should we let the boss know that it appears his oldest cousin is about to head out for the day?”
From the darkest corner of the attic the henchmen have set up shop, the white masked (albeit torn and battered, revealing the man’s dead white eye) man known as THE STALKER simply shakes his head.
“(Growling) No, we inform the boss when the job is finished.”
“When she’s dead?”
“(Growling) When the Cowgirls From Hell can ride… no… more.”
“To be crystal clear, I really should’ve seen this all coming. All the Straders that have died in the last two decades were brought on by family. Uncle Kaleb died because Uncle Payton had excelled at making enemies in and out of the ring. Got Aunt Vicca-Li killed in a setup drive-by shooting. It might’ve only been more fitting if Cara had been the one to kill their grandfather, but Victoria not being in control, but the Affliction. Haven’t you seen what that has done to the Supreme Machine and Queen Jenni? I never thought these words would be together in this statement, but his sister is the sane one. Plus, my sweet Morbid Corvid. What? He’s the father of my firstborn and our two Vees. He’ll always have a piece of my heart.”
“Sorry, I guess I am only trying to evade what is coming. Not for me, but for the people that actually matter to me. Fuck everyone else. They are the only thing I care about, alive or dead. Whenever Meeks comes clean with what really happened just after midnight on February 5th, 2023, just know she didn’t stay quiet because she wants to hide something bad. She just doesn’t want them to see her coming.”
“I never had a mother. I guess there were women in Scott’s life, but she is a surrogate mom, my fiercest protector. As a mother myself, I would do anything for my children, and I go beyond fierce. Only a mother has that trait. Men, now please pretend it’s 1999 and not jump down my throat saying this, but it’s not the same. They are supposed to compliment each other as parents, but one on one? A fierce mother is the next best. It’s only a technicality about her being the young one, but I know my Meeks is going to make sure I won’t die in vain. At the very least, I made her promise she will never stop living her life in doing so.”
“Well, I have a last day planned with my husband before we come home and it’s all ruined, but don’t worry, you haven’t heard the last of me yet… like I said earlier, I’m going out my own way, darlins’.”
“Besides, Veronica only borrowed ‘God Forgives, I don’t.’ As perfect as it suits her, I coined it.”
“And even in death, I live it.”
