It's All Beginning Again

[Niobe 'Nightmare' Martin]

“Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear.” ― Stephen King

The scene slowly fades into Niobe sitting on a brightly colored beach towel, people walking back and forth in front of her as she rubbed sunscreen onto her arms and legs as a small radio that sat besides her blared out this loud heavy metal song that was a particular favorite for her. She smiled, starting to hum along with it, not caring if anyone saw her or noticed.

Crowded streets are cleared away
One by One
Hollow heroes separate
As they run

She lay down on the towel and shut her eyes tightly, pushing aside the sunglasses that had been brought with her. She really didn't want to look like a fool with a pale pair of eyes because she didn't take them off. But all matter of looks aside, she was quite relaxed at the moment. Her career had taken a bit of a stall for a couple of months when the last company she was in decided to shut down for a while. The constant rotating of owners and GM's, and overall not knowing what was going to happen next or even if there was going to be another show pretty much put things to a stop. It was sad, because she was honestly happy there. They were the first place to sign her right out of the independent circuit. She had grown comfortable there, won her first championship gold. All in all it was a good experience.

Then the lull came, the period when she was sitting at her home, trying to get ahold of a friend who still worked in the circuit to see if she could get back in. It had worked, successfully, and she went back to where she had started for the time being until another company came calling. About a month or so later, they did. The same way she got brought into the last one. Recruiters found her after a show, said to come by the arena where they were having a show, tryout and they would get her into the next show if they liked what they saw. There were others that came, by word of mouth or by recruiters.

They liked what they saw, apparently, and stuck her on the roster, putting her on the Meltdown card. The first couple of matches she was in didn't go so well. More of that damn ring rust. And she would kick herself hard afterwards for loosing something like that. Now she was alone here on a beach in beautiful Auburn, AL, relaxing. Was she worried about what was to come? Oh sure. She wasn't going to let the last two fails get to her much at all.

She was being put into a tag team match with some girl called Angelina Quinn, against Carmen Rivera and "The Hitman" Steve Stryker in this test for the best qualifying match. Was this really the kind of people they had in mind for this match? She'd been in a match with Stryker last week, and we all know how that went. Tough competitor, but she wondered how far that competitiveness would go when faced with her full wrath. And that Carmen, tsk tsk. Word was going around that she had quite a mouth, and an attitude to match it. She didn't have some really good things to say about either of them.

She started to think silently to herself.

"I may have had a couple of bad matches here, but that doesn't mean a thing. A bit of a misstep, if you'll call it. I'm not even going to go back and think about it. That's all in the past.

I'm not much of a challenge am I? Not much of a challenge? You're talking out of your ass Carmen. What your dealing with here is a challenge. I am the Nightmare, I am that thing you should be afraid of. That's why they call me so. I've come here to make a name for myself, bring a sort of sweeping chill to the air. I want to bring the fear again, like the old days. There's not enough of that. All these smart comments you have about my body shape and my partner's haircolor show me nothing more than your insecurity about yourself and this match. You sure like to run your mouth a lot, and the ol' Stryker boy does too.

I'm not going to run, or hide, or freak out. None of that. What I can take away from this match is the satisfaction that I've beaten a loudmouth, and an even bigger egotistical loudmouth. We may have faced each other once before, Stryker, and you may claim to be the best and the brightest this company has to offer but all claims aside. It's not going to be easy this time. This time I know what you're going to do, and this time you're going to find it very hard to deal with me. What happened last week was just the beginning. This time it will be the end.

So me and my partner are going to have a very interesting time taking the fight to you both. I don't know much about her, and she doesn't know much about me but a part of me says that things are gonna work out well in that ring. This qualifying match will swing in our favor and we'll be the ones walking away with a win. You'll be left with the bitter taste in your mouth, and the lingering thoughts of a Nightmare.

Enjoy the show."[/color]