Jessrassic World: Part Four

[Jessica Reed]

{ Our scene re-opens deep inside a large, foreboding forest as Jessica and Hannah Reed make there way to the large structure of the old park which looms before them. Jess holds Hannah’s hand as she helps her climb the large staircase toward the huge doors which dominate the front of the building which they carefully push open together, breaking through the layers of rust. Jess and Hannah walk into the large entrance hall, still complete with the skeletons which hang on rusted metal wires from the ceiling, flanked by two eroding steel spiral stair cases which no longer look fit for purpose. The pair pause for a moment and look at the vibrant plant life which has invaded through every crack and broken window, completely dominating the once vibrant building. Jess steps behind her sister and carefully closes the door being them, picking up a metal pipe which she places between the door handles as she re-joins her sister who looks completely unimpressed. }

Hannah Reed: My shirt is completely ruined!

{ Hannah continues to dust off the slime which has run down her left shoulder, but to little avail as Jess shakes her head, laughing to herself. }

Jessica Reed: You’re the one who insisted you came with me, prehistoric forests are hardly the most hygienic of places.

Hannah Reed: That’s not helping!

Jessica Reed: Ok, ok. If what you say is true and nobody bothered to do a clean-up of this place then there should be a box of old clothes lying around somewhere…

Hannah Reed: Ew, are you serious?

Jessica Reed: Do you want something to wear you don’t care about getting ruined or not?

{ Hannah groans. }

Hannah Reed: Fine! Just don’t go anywhere, I’ll have a look for some weapons too, I should have a map of this place on my phone somewhere.

{ Jess salutes mockingly. }

Jessica Reed: Yes sir!

{ Hannah prepares to respond but instead scowls and turns around, climbing over the debris and invasive plant life as her eyes remain firmly fixed on the screen of her phone before she disappears into the dark through one of the door ways. Jess stands in the middle of the entrance hall for a moment and takes it all in before slowly walking around, amazed by how quickly nature has reclaimed the building. Suddenly something catches Jess’ eye plastered across one of the walls. Stepping carefully she gets closer and quickly realises it’s one of the old promotional posters from the original park, complete with a large image of herself clutching some promotional material. Jess stands before the poster, halting for a moment as she looks at it before tentatively reaching out her arm. Jessica pushes the vines away, brushing off a thin layer of moss which has pushed through some of the cracks in the paper. She pauses for a moment, looking herself in the face as she holds her flattened palm against the poster, allowing a small smile to run across her lips. }

Jessica Reed: Was it really so long ago?

{ Jess’ eyes remain affixed on the advert, oblivious to the fact that Hannah has remerged behind through of the doors at the side of the central hallway, complete with an old “Jurassic Park” shirt folded over her arm. Hannah prepares to shout to her sister but realises what she is looking at and pots to slowly approach her from behind, carefully stepping over the undergrowth that has reclaimed the building before standing beside her sister. }

Hannah Reed: Happy memories?

{ Jess jumps a little, snapping back to reality as she turns to look at her sister briefly before looking back at the poster. }

Jessica Reed: Perhaps… tinged with sadness.

Hannah Reed: You shouldn’t be sad, Jess. You should be proud. You helped build this place, even though people have begun to forget that contribution and your accomplishments have passed into the annals of history. There wouldn’t be a Jurassic World without you.

{ Jess smiles but her joy is soon replaced with a frown. }

Jessica Reed: And there wouldn’t be all this chaos without me either. I chose to hide myself away from the world and stay out of the lime light, it’s as much my fault that the Anadominus is out there destroying everything we love and tearing apart what we worked to achieve. If I hadn’t shunned the limelight to try and let other people live the dream I did…

{ Jess shakes her head. }

Jessica Reed: Maybe… just maybe, all of this could have be avoided.

Hannah Reed: If you had been around, maybe the enclosure would have been stronger. If you had been around maybe we would have contained the problem more effectively. They’re all maybe’s Jess, the fact is we bred a monster. We shouldn’t have expected to create a beast with so many enhanced predator traits without the corresponding behaviour. We played God, encouraged this creature to push the boundaries to try and out compete our competitors, we created the environment for the Anadominus to thrive.

{ Hannah gulps. }

Hannah Reed: It’s our fault those people suffered.

{ Hannah turns to her sister. }

Hannah Reed: You shouldn’t blame yourself and you shouldn’t be ashamed of what you did. We shouldn’t rely on your to rescue us all the time, you’re just one person. We should have learned and done more to prevent this. I’m proud of you and everything you’ve done with your life, Jess. I always have been.

Jessica Reed: You’re proud of me?

{ Hannah nods. }

Hannah Reed: Of course I am. Despite everything you’ve sacrificed for other people, despite all of the trauma you’ve been through, deep down you’re a good person, somebody who is putting her neck on the line again for everybody else, even though she doesn’t have to. How couldn’t I be proud of that?

{ Jess’ eyes begin to water as she sniffs, desperately trying to hold her emotions in. Hannah lays a reassuring hand on her shoulder as they both stand silently side by side for a moment before Hannah leans in toward her sister. }

Hannah Reed: So tell me… who wants to go look at the arsenal of weapons I found?

{ Jess looks at her sister. }

Hannah Reed: I found a bazooookaaaa!

{ Jess laughs as she wipes a tear away, shaking her head at the overly excited look on her sister’s face. }

Jessica Reed: I suppose I ought to take a look, I don’t think it’s safe to let you near explosives.

Hannah Reed: Hey, I share a life with Roberto, if I can survive that I can survive a few hand grenades. Wait… you’re meant to pull the pin out of those to make them safe right?

{ Jessica’s eyes widen. }

Jessica Reed: Please tell me you didn’t…

{ Hannah looks at Jess for a moment before her bottom lip begins to quiver and she keels over laughing. }

Hannah Reed: You should have seen the look on your face!

{ Hannah continues to bawl her eyes out as her laughs begin to ring around the entrance hall but suddenly she freezes in place as the sound of a deep roar echoes from outside, somewhere in the distance. Hannah lifts herself up, her previous look of ecstasy replaced with one of intense worry. Jess lifts her hand from the wall and turns around, assessing how far away the sound came from. }

Jessica Reed: You should show me those weapons. We can’t afford to stay here much longer.

{ Hannah slowly nods her head and turns to lead her sister into the room containing the weapons stockpile. The pair carefully, yet hastily, make their way through the doorway as our shot of the old reception centre lingers a little longer. The scene is completely silent until the sound of crumbling plaster falling from the ceiling breaks the stillness and the shadow of a large predator moves across some of the windows at the rear of the building and our scene gradually fades to black. }

The moment is finally here.

And I couldn’t be happier.

For months and months now I have put up with your endless abuse, Ana. Attack after attack, slander after slander, you have been unrelenting in your criticism of me but strangely afraid of fighting on anything approaching equal terms. This Sunday you are finally going to have to back up everything you’ve been saying about me inside a cell where nothing can interfere in proceedings and maybe, just maybe…

We will find out who the better woman really is.

And it couldn’t come a moment too soon. You’ve had three opportunities to fight me fairly, in numerous capacities be them singles match, Championship matches or even tag matches and you have done absolutely everything in your power to cheap shot me just so you can enjoy all the pictures of you stood over my prone body. Yet, for all your devious ways, there is one very important thing you’ve chosen to neglect.

You haven’t broke me.

Not by a long shot.

But one thing you have done, is forced me to do some long, hard, thinking. Yeah, I know right, total shocker, Jessica Reed using her noggin for a change, but it’s true. Everything you has put me through has forced me to look at myself more deeply than I have for some time and I reached a pretty disturbing conclusion.

Perhaps, deep down, me and Ana aren’t really so different after all.

You and I both hide our insecurities behind masks of our own making, it just so happens that mine is more colourful and less destructive. I mean if you ignore how many times I’ve glued material to myself and burned through tables with hot knives. For every single costume I put on to transform into somebody else, whether you care to admit it or not, you match me with every single verbal beat down you deliver to somebody else to hide your own demons.

I wouldn’t dream of speculating what they are, Ana, but it’s pretty simple. It takes one to know one.

Everybody has this crazy idea in their head that I am completely oblivious to who I am and that I am just some silly little bubble head who has no idea that she’s hiding behind fantasy characters to avoid her problems. That couldn’t be further from the truth guys, I know better than anybody why I put on this face paint and why I spend my time pretending to be somebody else and I darn well know why Ana Jones invest so much energy into breaking down everybody else.

Deep down, Ana, you’re hiding from something just like I am, we just have different mechanism of coping with it.

You bully, harass and ridicule people to distract everybody from your own shortcomings and to reclaim some sort of power you feel you must have lost in a former life. Everybody seems to be content with just accepting you as a total sour puss and that’s that, they never want to look deeper because heaven forbid they actually realise that deep down, your insults are just as much a projection of some deep seated trauma as my costumes are.

Nobody wants to humanise you, because it neither suits your mission to be the biggest meanie in the company or the fans lust for somebody to really hate.

Honestly, it’s actually quite scary the lengths people will go to completely ignore the obvious, that your behaviour is hiding something deeper, just because it’s more convenient to paint you as the devil and you’re more than happy to revel in the image.

But do you know what frightens me even more, Ana?

Just how obvious it has become to me that you and I are just two sides of the same coin. We are more alike than I would ever care to admit, yet perhaps even more importantly when I look at you it’s like staring into the mirror and seeing the monster I could have become. You’re everything I could have become, if I had chosen different path to my own and quite frankly…

That terrifies me.

When I look at you, I am reminded that if I had chosen the path of anger and hatred, if I had elected to lash out at the emotional abuse I suffered as a child and young adult, I could be the same miserable, bitter and tortured soul you are. I too could hide my fears behind a giant ego and tear other people down to make myself feel better about the nightmares that gnaw away at me.

To be blunt, I could have become everything I have strived never to be.

And I have to admit, I saw that side of myself coming out when I jumped the barricades and attacked you. All that pent up aggression, all that rage about everything you have done to me, it erupted and I admit, a part of me enjoyed laying punch after punch into you. It was a release I have never truly experienced before, but amidst all of that joy there was a red alert sounding.

I could see myself becoming just like you, revelling in the misfortune of somebody else to satisfy my urge for revenge. I could see that I was betraying who I was, everything I’ve fought to represent, and I was choosing to conduct this fight in the same manner you have. I was sinking down to your level and abandoning all of my principles.

The only thing that comforted me was one simple fact.

It was still a choice.

It was a choice just like the one I made to not submit to my hurt and pain and respond by lashing out. It was a choice just like the one I made to try and make a positive difference in other people’s lives instead of exploiting them. It was a choice just like the one I made to reject my darker emotions in favour of those I have hung my flag on throughout my career.

I know everybody likes to think of me as the perfect little princess who never has an evil thought in my adorable little brain, but unlike you Ana I am willing to bare my humanity to the world this week.

I am a person, just like everybody else, and even though I do my best to do the right thing, there are parts of me that are just as capable of evil as anybody else. The difference between you are I, at its core, is that I choose not to embrace them, I choose to do the right thing and I choose to inspire people, rather than oppress them.

You chose a different path and this weekend, those two paths are on a collision course.

This Sunday two very different world views are finally going to clash, inside a cell, one last time.

I’m not going to be arrogant enough to presume or promise anything, Ana. I am marching down that ramp and into the cell with every intention of doing everything I can to win, but more importantly than that, I am going to get inside that hellacious structure to finally write the conclusion in our story. I am going to look you in the eyes as they secure the pad lock to that door and ensure that, win or lose, there can be no more excuses.

No more crying about me avoiding you, despite repeated opportunities to finish this. No more taking cheap shots at me from the comfort of knowing you won’t need to back them up. No more question marks around which one of us is truly “the best” in the here in and now between those ropes.

This Sunday, at Legacy, the story of Ana Jones and Jessica Reed will end.

Whatever the result.

I can only hope that the conclusion to this epic will do justice to how truly important this match should be. Underneath it all, when you cut through the bull hicky, this is a wrestling match between IWF’s two biggest names in women’s professional wrestling, inside the kind of structure that was long reserved just for the men. This is the dream match the fans have clamoured for since Ana emerged as a dominant force and I was cleared to return to in ring competition.

Regardless of everything else, I hope we give the people what they deserve.

Deep down, whatever our differing motives may be, we’re both in this business for moments like this.

We’re both here to prove ourselves on the biggest stage of all.

Let’s prove to everybody why we deserve to be here.