His name- his real name- was a mystery to me but to the WWE he was named
Maybe it was my own name that kind of attracted me to this European wrestler, making it difficult for me not to look away from him even when I was supposed to be working.
I, Frances Caroline Southgate, probably had the dorkiest name as a female runner and PA for the workers there in the WWE Company. I had been working there for some time, a year or so and often found myself watching various superstars that had intrigued me. I only watched but never talked to them because I was too damn chicken to even say hello to any of them.
That was my problem with Neville, I was scared to utter even a simple hi and it resulted in me just standing back in a hall at the various arenas watching from afar. This had been going on since he had appeared on the main roster after WrestleMania.
I had been running errands, minor stuff, for the Live Event show. It was a Sunday and there was a pause in the performance with Payback coming up the next Sunday. That just meant I would be traveling to the next Raw show with some of the other workers for the Monday Night Raw show. It wouldn't take us long since the bus I was in had it's own driver and it would only take a few hours to get there.
"Ms. Southgate," I pushed my chocolate brown hair out of my face as I was passing Neville and Dolph Ziggler in the hall. "Look for Richard Melloney ring side. He's looking for some help with the set up."
I nodded quietly, only looking at my supervisor Mr. Phillips. "Yes, sir," I said as King Barrett and Sheamus were walking towards us.
I gave them a wide berth because, well they scared me. At least with Neville, he wasn't as big and intimidating as they were. If they looked at me then I didn't see them. I had my marching orders and I needed to get them done.
Richard was an attractive guy, tall and lanky and he was kneeling next to the ring as I approached. He had a pitch black crew cut hairstyle and wore black slacks and a white shirt which was a staff worker's uniform when on duty. He had just crawled out, reaching for a tool box when I approached.
"You're the help?" He asked, looking at me up and down.
"Mr. Phillips told me you needed some help. So what do you need help with?" I asked.
"Pull that box underneath the ring and help me."
"I'm not qualified to set up the ring." I said moving the box and then heading under the ring.
"You'll learn. It's not that hard. I just need someone to hold the flashlight and hand me the tools that I need." He handed me the flashlight and then headed towards what looked like a perpendicular standing pole in the middle of the ring.
Richard had a New York accent. He said he came from Manhattan, New York.
"Where do you hail from?" He asked.
"I'm from Olympia, Washington." I said holding the flashlight.
"I heard that club life in Seattle is good."
"I guess." I answered watching what Richard was doing. If I was going to be putting a ring together then I better watch and learn.
"Oh come on, you're a hot little thing. You hair could do some work but I'm sure you'd get down and dirty on the dance floor." He smiled at me before going back to work.
I frowned. "I don't party. I've worked hard to get to where I am." I was still young, in my early twenties, but I hadn't ever gotten drunk nor been to a club.
"So you won't mind coming with me." He said.
"Going with you where?"
"There is a club a lot of us are going to. You should come. You'll have fun."
"I don't really do stuff like that." I told him.
He laughed. "Really? Sweet little thing like you have never gone to a club?"
I frowned and looked away, further into the darkness under the ring. "I'm not the type to go out and do something like that. But…" I shrugged. "You know what, let's do it. Sure, I'll go out to a club with you tonight. Might be good to have some fun," I smiled.
Richard smiled right back and patted my knee. "That's my girl. Tonight we're going to have some fun."
I was not going to be the shy and quiet Frances Southgate that I usually was. I was going to step on out of my comfort zone and have some fun.
Little did I know that my night of fun would turn into a disaster and I would wake up into either a dream come true or wake up to a horror.
The club was hopping by the time Richard and I got there later that night.
"Are clubs always so active on Sundays?" I asked.
Richard laughed. "It is if you're with a bunch of wrestlers. The party will begin soon." He told me as we waited in line to get into the club.
There were a few other guys that Richard worked with, some that I didn't know. As we were let into the club, I felt the anticipation go through me. It was a zing, an electrical current that proved to be anticipation but I wasn't sure what. Maybe it was as the further into the club we went the lights started flickering and flashing in a dance of their own. The smell of body sweat mingled with spilled drinks and bad perfume from the scantily clad females was unfamiliar to me. What wasn't unfamiliar about some of those females was the fact they were my co-workers.
"I feel overdressed." I said as I looked down at my jeans, nice blouse and tennis shoes.
"Just a little." Richard said guiding me over toward the nearly jammed lower bar. "But let's get some drinks."
"I don't drink all that often." I told him.
"Are you a lightweight?" He asked, brown eyes looking into my own brown eyes.
"Well I just never really drank in my life." I shrugged and watched the people around me.
Superstars were going to a roped off staircase that went up to the second level. John Cena and Nikki Bella, Randy Orton and Summer Rae, all those pretty women that were in the house show. Too bad it wasn't me.
I turned back to Richard who put a drink in my hand. "An Appletini, just perfect for a first time drinker." He said.
I looked at the long stemmed glass in my hands. I wasn't so sure about this whole drinking thing. I then watched Richard as he got his beer bottle before escorting me off to a back corner of the club.
It was a little dark back there. I was far off from some of my other coworkers, surrounded by guys that Richard seemed to know. There wasn't a female with them, just me. At first I found that a little odd, but I tried to tell myself that these guys would go off and mingle once they had their liquid courage intake.
"So, I take it you were never asked out to a club for a drink on a Sunday night?" Richard asked.
"I've had trouble dating." I twirled the little stick in my drink and then glanced at the people at the surrounding tables and near the dance floor.
"A pretty girl like you, I find that kind of hard." He laughed.
"Brie Mode!" I heard someone yell.
Brie Bella was dancing with her husband Daniel Bryan. It made me smile seeing how happy those two were together. They were so precious together, at least that's what I thought as an outsider looking in.
Suddenly my vision shook.
"Whoa." I said, reaching under my glasses to rub my eyes.
"What?" Richard asked before taking a drink of his beer.
I waved him off before taking another sip of my drink. "Tired eyes." I said. "I have something called jiggly eye syndrome. They jiggle if I am starting to get tired."
He laughed. "You are a funny girl, Frances." He said, some of his other friends joining in on laughing with me.
He seemed to like to laugh at me a lot. I didn't like that about him but it was something I could ignore for a while.
Tonight was Frances Mode. It was my night to feel fun and free. I needed to live a little, to experience life the way I wanted to. I wanted to feel freedom from the old me.
When my walls came down I started to feel light, airy, like I was flying. My drink was empty, some of Richard's friends had left but a majority of them stayed at the table talking and laughing. One guy was named Casey, who seemed to be a nice guy, though on the big side. He was one of the big rig drivers that hung out with Richard. He was almost as big and pale as Sheamus, except he didn't have red hair but blond hair.
"Hey, let's go dancing." Casey said, grabbing my forearm.
I felt tired, my eyes were acting up again, jumping and blurring whenever I moved too fast. The other guys were laughing loudly at something. It hurt my head when their laughter amped up, like a jackhammer was in my head.
"No, I don't feel like it." I told him, taking my hand back and then rubbing my temples to ease the growing pain there.
"Sure you do." He tugged me up out of my chair.
The pain swirled with being lightheaded. I stumbled and had to grab the table to stop from falling over.
"Geez, you really are a light weight, Frances." Richard said before peeling over into laughs with the others.
The pounding of the music matched the pounding in my head. Rubbing my eyes under my glasses, I tried to sit down.
"Come on, Pretty Girl, let's have some fun." Casey tugged me away from the table.
I went only because I could barely stand on my own. I held onto Casey's arm as he guided me towards the dance floor. His hand rubbed my back but it wasn't soothing because he was laughing the entire time. He was laughing at something funny and I had to think it was me.
As he laughed, my vision spun. I tried looking up but the strobing lights began dancing along with the people around us.
After that, nothing.
Nothing.
Totally nothing after that. I lost track of reality until the next morning.
I couldn't remember anything else that had happened after that, which was probably a good thing considering that I would have died if I had known what really happened.
Not the characters that I usually focus on but I wrote this because I needed something to do over the last week. There is more to come of this story, I promise you.
