Deliver Us From Evil

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Off Camera

Scene 1

4/18/16

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Jones women are tough and very stubborn.  Some joke that these traits are genetic.  Almost every Jones woman has gotten involved in the wrestling business, from Angelica Jones to Kayla Jones, and the next generation Marie and Corey Jones.  And all of them have shown extraordinary courage in their willingness to fight anyone and to stare down any challenge, no matter how difficult.  Needless to say, it takes a lot to shake the nerves of a Jones woman.

And yet on this day, Kayla Jones is very nervous.

Kayla currently finds herself sitting in the driver’s side of her vehicle, staring at the front doors of a local gym.  The redhead is waiting anxiously for the arrival of her older sister, Angelica.  But Angelica is late.  She is very late.  And that is very unusual for her.

Angelica and Kayla were supposed to be training and preparing for a match they have been asking for, demanding really, for quite a long time; a tag team match against Gable Winchester and Autumn Valentine, the reigning SCW World Tag Team Champions.

The Sisterhood lost the belts to Gable and Autumn several months back in a four way sudden death match.  But neither Angelica nor Kayla were pinned or made to submit and yet, due to the sudden death format, they still lost the gold.  It bothered the Jones sisters ever since and they have been demanding their rematch for the titles.

No, this isn’t a title match, but it will be an opportunity for the Sisterhood to prove that they are worthy and deserving of a title shot.

Kayla wants this win and she thought Angelica wanted it too, but how badly does she want it?  Either Angelica doesn’t want it as badly as Kayla thought she did…

…or something is very wrong.

Kayla pulls out her iPhone and immediately dials a number.  She puts the phone to her ear and waits…and waits…and waits…and waits…finally Kayla sighs and hangs up.

“Damnit, Angelica, why aren’t you answering your cell?  Maybe you’re at home…”

Kayla dials another number, this time she isn’t waiting long until she gets an answer, she quickly puts it on speaker phone…

“Angelica?”

“Sorry, it’s just me aunt Kayla.”

That’s the voice of Kayla’s niece, Marie Annabelle Jones.  Kayla sighs with disappointment.

“Where is your mother?  And what are you doing there, anyway?”

“I’ve been trying to reach mom but she’s not answering her cell phone.”

“I know, I already tried…”

“So I came here to the house but she’s not here either.”

Kayla nods her head.

“Ok…”

“I’m worried, Kayla.  Where could she be?”

“I have no idea.  We were supposed to be getting ready for a tag team match against the champions.  This is big and we cannot afford to be off step.”

“And she’s not there?”

Kayla shakes her head.

“No, she’s not.”

“That’s strange.  Mom has been seemingly obsessed with these tag titles lately.  It makes no sense for her to ditch you like this.”

“I know, it doesn’t make sense.”

“But then again, mom has been under a lot of stress lately, considering what happened with Kelly and grandpa…”

A sense of realization comes across Kayla’s face.  Marie raises a good point, a very good point.  The kidnapping of Kelly Jones and the subsequent kidnapping of Bart Jones has put a great deal of emotional stress and pressure on Angelica.  How does one deal with something like that?

Kayla knows exactly Angelica deals with something like that.

“Uh, Marie…”

“Yeah?”

“I have to go.”

“Why?  Did mom finally show up?”

“No, but I think I have an idea of where she might be…”

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Off Camera

Scene 2

4/18/16

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Religion is a source of comfort for human beings.  Even the most hardened atheist has to admit that religion provides a sense of comfort for people during times of trial and tribulation.

That holds especially true for Angelica Jones.  Religion has always been a part of the life of the self-proclaimed Dragon of professional wrestling.  She grew up in a Roman Catholic household and after her mother died and her father left the country, she ended up in a convent where she became a nun, a member of a sisterhood.  And despite the fact that religious life is completely behind her now and that she is a wrestler, she still turns to religion to assist her during times of extreme crisis.

Angelica Jones has not known a crisis quite like the one she currently finds herself in.

The Boston native thought she knew her family.  In particular, she thought she knew everything that there was to know about her father's dirty little secrets.  As the matriarch of the Jones family, she knew it all.  But she was hopelessly naive and very wrong about her assessment of the situation.  There was still at least one big secret left to be exposed and that secret would put her entire family in jeopardy.

A secret by the name of Anastasia.

Bart Jones left the country shortly after his wife, Kelly Jones, had been murdered.  The men who had murdered his wife were members of the Russian Mafia and he decided to track them down to Russia himself and exact his own version of Punisher-style revenge.  This left Angelica and her sister Kayla completely abandoned without either parent.  But that was only a part of the problem.  They had no idea of what their father was doing in Russia.  They had no idea of the enemies he was making while he was in Russia seeking his brand of revenge.  And they had no idea of whose life he would impact.

Anastasia was one of those lives he impacted.  Bart rescued Anastasia's mother from members of the Russian mafia.  Her mother made one request of him and that was that he would adopt Anastasia and raise her in a safe environment, protected from the Russian mafia.  Away from the danger.

What happened after that is anyone's guess.  Bart claims that he lived up to his promise and he raised Anastasia as if she were his own daughter.  That alone was enough to enrage Angelica and Kayla.  While his biological daughters were back in the United States suffering he was protecting this stranger's daughter and helping her to live in the lap of luxury.  The sense of abandonment grew even more in the hearts and minds of Angelica and Kayla.

Oh but there's two sides to every coin and multiple versions of every story.  Angelica and Kayla would hear Anastasia's version of the story when she surfaced and began harassing the Jones siblings until they agreed to speak with her.  Anastasia informed them that Bart never lived up to his promise and, in fact, abandoned her just as he abandoned Angelica and Kayla.  Anastasia went on to make a request of the sisters.  She wanted them to tell her the location of their father, Bart Jones.

Angelica and Kayla did not know what Anastasia had planned for Bart if she were to find him but they did not expect it would be good.  And yet, despite their own grievance towards Bart, they would not give him up to Anastasia.  At least, they would not do so willingly.  Despite all of his mistakes and flaws, despite what he had done to them, they would not betray their father.

Shortly thereafter is when everything went south.  Some men attacked Angelica's oldest daughter Marie and Marie's fiancée Arthur Pond.  But that was just a distraction, for while the entire Jones family was at the hospital focusing on Marie and Arthur, other men were busy breaking into the Jones family home and kidnapping Angelica's youngest daughter Kelly.  A ransom note was left at the scene and that note made it clear who was involved and what they wanted.  The note, written in Russian, stated that they would return Kelly in exchange for Bart Jones.

It was clear and evident that Anastasia was behind the kidnapping, for she was the one who wanted Bart Jones's head on a pike to begin with.  It became increasingly suspicious that she was perhaps even working with the Russian Mafia, for how else would she have had the back-up and assistance that she had?

Kayla Jones told her father of this and after a heated argument with his daughter, he finally convinced her to let him give himself up in exchange for the safe return of Kelly Jones.

And thus Kelly is safely back home with her mother Angelica, but Angelica and Kayla's father Bart is now gone.  Bart is being held by Anastasia and, maybe, the Russian Mafia and there is no way of knowing if they are keeping him alive and torturing him or if he is already dead.

Angelica likes to think that she is in control of her situation.  She likes to think that she has a pretty good handle upon everything going on in her life.  But this is a situation, a crisis, that makes it evident to her that she does not have control.  Not only does this fact bother her, but it frightens her.  It frightens her to know that she cannot make things right.  It frightens her to know that these people could strike again at any member of her family and she would not be able to do anything about it.

With these troubling thoughts going through her head, Angelica Jones has to go to the one place where she can still find some comfort and solace; church, specifically the church she went to as a child growing up...Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Church.

Angelica Jones is just outside of two large dark brown ornate doors that lead into the nave.  The redhead is wearing a long black ankle length skirt and black high heeled pumps.  She is wearing a long sleeved white button up silk blouse and her long red hair is left unrestrained to shoulder length.  To her right, hanging on a wall, is a small container of holy water.  She dips her right hand in the holy water and then proceeds to make the sign of the cross, starting with her forehead, going to the chest, and then over each shoulder.  Angelica pushes the doors open and steps inside the nave.

The nave itself is even more beautifully decorated with stain glass windows lining the walls, each illustrating a different even of the passion story of Jesus Christ.  Jones begins to walk up the center aisle, ignoring the pews on either side.  She reaches the front of the altar and stares upwards, at the crucifix hanging on the wall.  Immediately she drops to her knees in reverence and tears form in her eyes.

“Why?!”

Her voice is loud and echoes throughout the grandiose church.

“Why, Lord, did you allow this to happen?!”

She shakes her head.

“I have had to deal with so much in my life...my mother was murdered, my father abandoned me, I sacrificed my teenage years to serve the church and then I sacrificed even more years of my life to bring my family back together!  And now this...an insane Russian woman who wants to harm my family, who has proven that she can get at my family anytime she wants, and she now has kidnapped my father...”

she reaches up to wipe tears from her eyes.

“...or worse.  I am supposed to be the matriarch of this family but I can't protect the family from this.  Lord, this is too much for me to deal with.  Take this cross from me, it is too much for me to bear.  Lord, I...”

Angelica's voice trails off.  She narrows her brow as if in intense thought.  She frowns.

“...how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough.”

That's the voice of Kayla Jones, Angelica's younger sister.  Angelica turns her head to the right and watches as Kayla walks in from the side, stepping out, emerging from the shadows.  She is wearing a pair denim blue jeans, flip flops, and a black SCW t-shirt.  Her long red hair is pulled into a ponytail in the back.  She carefully approaches her sister with an uneasy smile on her face.

“I heard every word.”

Angelica rolls her eyes.

“I guess I can't get any privacy, not even in Church.”

The younger sibling kneels down at the altar with her older sister and looks directly into her eyes.

“Angel, this is something you can't deal with alone.  You know this.”

“I do know this, Kay.  Why do you think I came here?  Our dad is gone.  He's probably dead...”

Kayla sighs.

“You don't know that...”

“Well you can live in a fantasy world if you want, but I'm going to live in reality and the reality is that he is dead.  The Russian Mafia has him and they want him dead.”

“We don't know that Anastasia is involved with the Russian Mafia.”

“Yet again, more fantasy.  But however you want to slice it, the point is that our father is gone and there wasn't anything I could do about it.”

Kayla reaches out and places a comforting hand upon her sister's shoulder.

“Don't blame yourself, Angel.  There was nothing any of us could of done.”

Angelica's frown turns into an outright sneer.

“Who said I blamed myself?”

Angelica points a finger at her younger sister, who draws back with shock and surprise.

“You are to blame for this!”

“What?!”

“You heard me!  I told you not to tell dad about the kidnapping and the ransom note...I told you that if he knew he'd want to sacrifice himself...but you told him anyway and sure enough, he wanted to trade himself with those psychos and then what did you do?”

She pokes a finger on Kayla's chest.

“You let him!”

Kayla rears back and slaps the taste out of Angelica's mouth.

“How dare you accuse me of being responsible for this, you selfish little bitch!”

Angelica rears back and slaps Kayla just as hard as she was slapped.

“Don't you call me a bitch, Kayla.  You know what I'm capable of.”

“What are you going to do?  Kick my ass in church?  Real mature, sis.”

Angelica shoves Kayla as hard as she can, causing her to fall backward on the floor.  Angelica then stands up and glares down at her fallen younger sibling and dares her to get back up.

“Come on!  Let's do this!  Here and now!”

Kayla contorts her face into a look of anger as she stands up and gets nose to nose with Angelica.

“How do you think I feel about all of this? Huh?”

Tears begin to form in Kayla's eyes.

“I tried to stop him!  I tried to change his mind!  And to the end I tried to save him and Kelly both but there was nothing I could do but watch as Anastasia and her goons took him!”

Kayla buries her face in her hands and begins to cry.

“You have no idea, Angel.  You have NO idea what I went through!”

She looks back up at Kayla, her eyes red from crying.

“Do you have any idea what it would have been like to choose between our father and your daughter?  Because that is the choice I was faced with the night they took dad.”

Kayla continues to glare at Angelica.  Meanwhile, Angelica's features slowly softens as her anger begins to drift away...

“I...I'm sorry...”

Angelica embraces Kayla in a tight hug.

“I'm sorry for accusing you like that, I shouldn't have and I'm sorry.”

“You're right, you shouldn't have.”

They break the embrace and Angelica nods her head.

“And I'm sorry for threatening you...I remember when we fought before, the times I did hurt you, and I still can't forgive myself.  I would never hurt you again, sis.”

Kayla smiles sheepishly.

“It's ok...I guess we're both a little on edge.”

Kayla places a hand on Angelica's shoulder.

“But I'm serious.  You can't deal with these problems alone.  So tell me, what's wrong?”

“It's...”

Angelica's voice trails off and then a laugh escapes her lips.

“...it's stupid, really, but...”

“What is it?  Just tell me, Angel.”

Angelica sighs.

“I'm supposed to be the head of this family.  I'm supposed to protect this family.  And yet my oldest daughter Marie was attacked and beaten by them so easily, they just as easily kidnapped my youngest daughter Kelly, and then to top it all off, they managed to get our father.”

Angelica pats herself on the chest.

“They did it on my watch, Kayla!  Clearly I am not the same woman I used to be.”

She glares angrily.

“The old Angelica Jones would not have let this happen. The old Angelica Jones would track them down and make them pay for this.”

“Just like what you did to Marie's father?”

Angelica smirks devilishly.

“Exactly.”

Kayla frowns.

“You know what will happen if you become that person again, right Angel?”

“Yes, I do...”

She sighs.

“...but that's the only person capable of protecting this family.  And that's my duty.  That is my responsibility.  I have to protect this family.”

“You don't have to do THAT in order to protect us.  You don't have to become...”

“...become what?  Become the Dragon?  Yes, I think I have to, because I cannot bear this otherwise.  I cannot do this, Kayla.”

She shakes her head.

“I just can't.”

Kayla takes her sister's hands and squeezes them tight.

“You do what you have to do, sis.”

“Do you mean that?”

Kayla nods her head.

“I do...I have faith that you will do the right thing.  I just ask two things of you.  First, I want you to think about it before you do anything rash.”

“And the second?”

Kayla turns to face the altar, looking upward towards the crucifix.

“Pray with me...”

Angelica nods her head.  She then turns and faces the altar, looking up at the crucifix.  They begin praying in unison.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Lead us not into temptation...”

There is a brief pauses from the sisters before the final words are uttered.

“...deliver us from evil.”

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On Camera

4/19/16

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We open in a barely lit workout area.  In fact, the term “barely lit” is probably a little too generous considering the blackness and darkness surrounding everything except for one singular spotlight shining down upon a small wrestling ring, definitely smaller than a regulation ring.  Suddenly the full lights come on, illuminating everything in the room.  As it turns out, this is quite a large workout area with a track for running on the outer rims.  Inside the track are weights scattered over the floor, the wrestling ring, and two red heavy bags typically used to boxers or kickboxers.  The equipment and the ring all look worn, just as worn down and dingy as the walls and concrete floor do.  Clearly this place has either not been used in a long time or it's just not very well kept up.

The quiet in this workout area is interrupted by the sound of clicking against the concrete floor.  The clicking sound grows louder and louder until Angelica Jones steps into the scene from stage right.  The Boston native is wearing a crimson red knee length skirt and a black short sleeve blouse.  Her long red hair hangs unrestrained to shoulder length.  Her feet are encased in the black peep toe high heeled pumps that no doubt were the cause of the clicking sound.  Jones stops in the center of the shot, directly in front of the wrestling ring, and turns to face the camera.

“Behind me, this entire environment around me, this place that most of you might consider to be a rat infested hell hole is a place that, for years, was like a second home to me.  For years I came here and willingly allowed my body to be tortured and broken, battered, beaten, and bruised.  This was the place that served as the beginning of a long tumultuous journey, a journey that like a roller coaster has had its ups and has had its downs, but it is a journey that I would never give up, not for anything.”

She looks to her left and then looks to her right and then turns back to face the camera with a pleasant grin on her face.

“This is a special place to me because this is the school, the wrestling school, where I began my training to do what I love, to do what I do better than anyone else.  This is where I began my journey as a professional wrestler and this is where the Angelica Jones that whether you love her or hate her, you can't help but respect her, was born.”

The pleasant grin fades into a grimace.

“For years I trained here at this facility.  While other teenagers my age were beginning to think about college I was killing myself here in this facility trying to hone my skills in preparation to become a professional wrestler.  My hard work paid off and I got my big break in the Global Division of Wrestling.  I signed my GDW contract and I made my debut in GDW in 2003.”

The grimace contorts into an outright sneer.

“And for over thirteen years since then I have busted my ass night in and night out trying to be the best.  For over thirteen years I sacrificed time away from my family for this business.  I sacrificed time away from my children for this business and hell, I even forced this fucked up life onto my children for this business.  I bled puddles of blood and I suffered broken bones and probably lost years off of my life all for this business.”

Jones shakes her head.

“Point being, there isn't a damn person alive today who has the right to say that I do not take this business seriously...”

Kayla Jones walks into the scene from stage left.  She is wearing denim jeans, black high heeled boots, and a red long sleeved sweater.  Her long red hair hangs unrestrained to shoulder length.

“That goes for me as well.  Without going into the details, professional wrestling quite literally saved my life.  I would probably be dead were it not for professional wrestling providing me with an escape from a terrible situation.  I have been doing everything I can since then to give back to this industry.  In other words, boys and girls, The Sisterhood cares about this business.  We take this business seriously.  We love this business.  Now did we get distracted?”

Kayla shrugs her shoulders.

“Some would say yes, but others would say it's ok to have a little fun.  My sister already said it once and I will reiterate, that having a little fun is perfectly fine and we are indeed entitled to a little fun.  But never let it be said that The Sisterhood does not take any of this seriously, because that will just serve to piss us off and the last thing you want us The Dragon and her meaner, younger, and tougher sister to be pissed off.”

Angelica frowns and turns to face Kayla.

“Tougher?  Really?”

Kayla smiles sheepishly.

“Ok, scratch that last part about being tougher.”

Angelica nods her head.

“Good.”

“In any event, saying that we are a joke, that we don't take this business seriously, not only is that like poking a mean bear with a sharp stick, but it's a big wake-up call to me and Angelica.  Apparently the wrestling world at large needs to be reminded just what we are capable of when provoked.”

Angelica points at the camera.

“You want the old Angelica Jones and Kayla Jones back?  You want the two toughest bitches in this sport to remind you why you don't mess with us?”

Kayla glares at Angelica.

“Hey!  I am not a bitch!”

Angelica rolls her eyes.

“It's just a figure of speech.”

“Oh...”

Angelica turns her attention back to the camera.

“Point is, you want us?  You got us.  And now we're ready to remind Supreme Championship Wrestling exactly what the Jones Sisterhood is capable of when we are at our very best, because when we are at our very best, we are damn near unstoppable.”

Kayla points at the camera.

“And we start with YOU, Gable and Autumn!”

The younger Jones sibling laughs lightly.

“The SCW World Tag Team Champions.  First of all, let me start out by saying the one thing we should have said a long time ago but perhaps we were a bit too full of ourselves to do so.”

Kayla applauds, in a somewhat sincere tone, which is odd considering how rare that is in professional wrestling!

“Congratulations.  Congratulations on beating us for those belts and congratulations on a great title reign thus far.  You have definitely proven to be worthy title holders.”

Kayla shakes her head.

“But make no mistake about it, champs, while you may have technically beaten us...”

Angelica and Kayla make quotation mark signs with their hands.

“...you never did pin us and you never forced us to submit.”

Angelica shakes her head.

“Nope, never happened.  And we're not making excuses, we're not trying to minimize your title reign.  Every team involved knew the rules of the sudden death format going in the night you beat Jake Starr and James Evans, NOT The Sisterhood, for the belts.  Every team knew that the titles could change hands without beating the champions.  We accepted that.  But understand that you never did beat the former champions.”

Angelica motions to herself and then to Kayla.

“Me and Kayla want our rematch at the SCW World Tag Team Titles and if beating you first in a non-title situation is what it will take to convince SCW to give us our shot, then so be it.  But you should want the match too because you can finally prove to the world and to any of your doubters or critics out there that you are the legitimate tag team champions of SCW because you can defeat the Sisterhood, the former champions.”

Kayla nods her head.

“Don't misinterpret us.  We do respect you and you have nothing to prove to us.  You've already proven your worth to The Sisterhood and, quite frankly, we look forward to a hell of a match with you guys on Breakdown.  We do want to win and maybe earn a title shot but at the end of the day, perhaps even more important than those titles, is our desire to build up tag team wrestling, not just in SCW, but all over our sport.  We care about tag team wrestling, we love it, and we want to illustrate how exciting it can be and how competitive it can be.  SCW has been advertising that they want new tag teams in the division.  They already have at least one new team signed, Money in the Bank, right?  Well you two and The Sisterhood, we can show these new kids what tag team wrestling in SCW is all about.”

Angelica smirks.

“But make no mistake about it, at the end of the day, we do want to win and we do want those titles back and The Sisterhood will do everything within our power to win and get our titles back.”

Kayla nods her head.

“That's right, so be ready for a war, and get ready to have your teeth kicked right down your throat!”