Revenge

[Mai Everstone]

Mai didn’t think it was technically against the rules but then again, she hadn’t brought it up in The Murder group chat. Still, when Rini had invited her over to just ‘hang out’ and listen to music together and read, it was the exact kind of hang-out that was Mai’s vibe. She was terrible at small talk. She felt awkward trying to find things to say. There was a sort of script in her head during social interactions, she had to run it perfectly or things got weird. It was exhausting. At least at the hangout at the haunted maze, she had been able to almost disappear behind a camera.

Just vibing in a cozy hotel room, each doing their own thing but still hanging out? Honestly the dream. Rini Ishikawa and Mai Everstone sit on the floor, comfortably leaning against the bed with pillows scattered around them. They each have their own stack of comic books and manga—Rini's are primarily shoujo manga, while Mai flips through a vibrant hardcover copy of Sandman, her fingers tracing the colorful panels. Even with Neil being a lowkey garbage person she still loved the books and had made the personal decision she was going to keep them. They had helped her through dark times when she was younger and his inability to understand consent wasn’t going to take that from her.

Between them, a cell phone was hooked up to a small Bluetooth speaker playing their shared Spotify playlist, an eclectic mix of music. Mai’s taste leans towards alternative rock and indie bands with some songs from musicals that she liked, while Rini’s tracks bring in more energetic J-pop or maybe some anime themes. The music flows seamlessly between their chosen genres, forming a unique soundtrack for their quiet afternoon. Every once and a while Rini would ask about a song or Mai would comment on it.

Both are engrossed in their reading, the silence comfortable, punctuated only by the turning of pages and the soft hum of the playlist. Occasionally, one of them nudges the other to point out a favorite scene or artwork, sharing a quick smile before diving back into their stories. A few times Rini started rolling around with laughter at something funny she read and Mai would have to get a little small info dump to understand exactly why what happened was funny but she smiled. This was easy. This was…there's a calm, unspoken understanding that this is their time to unwind.

Neither spoke of The Murder or Birds of Prey. Neither spoke of Charlier and Shea. They just existed in a small peaceful truce where they just existed in the same room together. It was a maybe less public friendship than the one she shared with Shea and Vivienne but it felt nice. A simple one that felt comfortable.

---

Can I tell you a secret?

I didn’t always want to be a wrestler. I’m not one of those girls who always planned on becoming a wrestler. I hadn’t trained forever to achieve this goal. Not that I am not super committed to it. Not that I haven’t dived feet first into becoming the best wrestler I could be. Not that I haven’t looked at wrestling and see where it could be better. Just like you Dean. You wanted to do something before you got thrown in that trunk of a car. Sure, there’s an argument it was always in your blood. But you went to college for Journalism, and you got on a ballet scholarship.

I mean, it explains a lot, doesn’t it? The self-control. The way you seem to completely disregard gravity. The way you take the slurs and the early homophobia in your career. Of course, you did ballet. I’ve also seen the variation you did on The Black Swan for your midterm. Yeah, your school has that on youtube, did you know that?



See, as much as you know about me, I know about you. Because the career I was meant to have was a classical pianist. Trained for it my whole life. Played piano at church. Practiced every day before and after school. Something to have a structure in my life that my Dad did not worry about benign the devil’s influence. I know the church blames him for sending me to public school for my fall from grace. But it wasn’t public school. It wasn’t the dark comics. It wasn’t me trying to adopt every unlovable creature that brought me to wrestling.

It was you.



I was a fan.

Not in the weird ‘Hear me out’ cake trend.

I never wanted to sleep with you.

I just saw something in what you did that really inspired me. I’m actually technically still a mod on the Dean Harper subreddit if you can believe it. I have almost every shirt from your side of the merch store.

I specifically love the Goth Goon shirt from 2017. They should put that back in stock btw. It’s super comfortable.



Sure there were others before you that tingled the Goth vibe. Angel, Eternity, Rowan, Maxine, and others I will probably get a few hate messages for daring to forget. But you were my first. But The Pack? I was a fangirl. I know Vivienne and Shea will be disappointed in me for that. But come on?!

I remember when the OG Pack members represented the horsemen of the apocalypse. Rowan was War. Caleb was Fammine. Maxine was pestilence. Dean, you were Death.

Found Family. Family of Choice. Forbidden Romance. Forced Proximity. Allergic to commitment. Recruiting with baked goods.

God, The Pack had it all.

But it all got fucked up.

And I even remember your time after leaving The Pack when you tried, though briefly, to be a good person. You tried to hold back. As if it was a way to prove you were changed. But they wouldn’t let you change. No one in this company wanted a better version of Dean Harper.

They wanted the monster.

You’ve tried a few times to be less yourself.

For Warren.

But none of it had that same… commitment of that first time.



So as much as you may read me for filth, let me return the favor.

You loved Maxine, no one can deny that. But you clung to Warren like a lifeline. I think, at the beginning, you loved him too. But I think he stopped being the person you fell in love with a long, long time ago. I think you clung to him and those old feelings because you felt that it was the only relationship after Maxine you were allowed to have.

I think you felt he was the only one Maxine wouldn’t judge you for having.



And, god I am gonna get yelled at about this in the group chat….



But he didn’t deserve you. I’m not sorry to say that. I get he’s everyone’s favorite soft boy but, after a lifetime of being told he was never enough you were the safe option for him. He wasn’t gonna ruin a friendship by being with you. He was never going to have to change to make you happy. You were just meant to take him as he was with no growth and no self-reflection.

And I think the more you let go of Maxine’s memory the rose-colored glasses came off. The fighting started.

To be clear, I don’t hate Warren. I don’t mind vibing with him in a group setting. But part of being someone who spent a lot of time in the background means I can kinda lowkey see when a couple doesn’t work.

Or maybe its all the romance manga I’ve been reading?




This match isn’t about your flaws in that sense though.

It’s about the fact you don’t know how to let something go.

I think Rowan wouldn’t have hurt Damien. I think Rowan just wanted a way to have a connection to both her friend who passed and the semi-son who betrayed and left her.

You should have just apologized. Apologize like with your heart. And it would have made things better.

Like Maleficent. Invite her to the birthday party and she doesn’t curse anyone.

If you had explained yourself, come clean to Brooklyn and April when the tag team thing happened we wouldn't be where we are right now. They would have been mad but if you had EXPLAINED your reason and apologized, things would have been better.



I mean god, I watched the matches you’ve had so far.

Maybe there’s some things to Shea you should say too.

You know the ones.

I’m not such a petty bitch to just dump that for public consumption.

But I’ve watched your matches enough to know that…that was different, wasn’t it?

Reminds me of a certain other match.

What?

Dean Harper processing his emotions through violence?

Shocked!

Shocked I say!



Point being.

This match this week? Its to first blood.

And I know exactly what you are capable. I know how far you can go, how far you will go. But I am not one to just sit by and let that shit happen.

Anything you can do, I can do.





I wont get as much psycho-sexual pleasure as you get out of it, obviously.



But I can make you bleed just as much as you can.

See you in the ring Dean.