Tracy James has Been Released

We come in to see Tracy James exiting the office of Madison Wright. He walks down the hall with his head hung low. As he walks, The TED’s voice echoes in his head.

He turns the corner towards the locker rooms.

Tracy reaches the locker room of The Company and grabs the door handle. However, he doesn’t turn it.

He takes a moment to turn the handle and crack the door open.

A tear rolls down the face of Tracy James. He’s finally lost his cool, and turns to walk away. As he leaves, the door slowly opens more, revealing nobody in the locker room.

Tracy makes his way to the parking lot, not even packing his bags. He doesn’t have the heart to face his allies, he just wants to get far away from the arena.

He checks his phone, which has exploded with notifications.

CMV Twitter has made the news public. Just minutes ago, Tracy James had personally requested his release from Madison Wright, and it was granted. He has hundreds of notifications from fans and wrestlers alike @ing him about their thoughts on the matter.

Tracy rapidly scrolls through the list, not reading any, simply looking at the names.

Not one is from any of the Company.

It’s true. He was right. He had failed not just himself, but his friends as well, as if they even liked him to begin with. They don’t care that he’s quit, they’re probably at the club right now celebrating being free of the albatross across their necks.

In a way, Tracy was relieved too. Tracy joined The Company in hopes of finding new friends after Team Quantum self-destructed, but ever since he unleashed the devil back onto the world, he’s been questioning his role here. The guilt weighed on him every time he looked into the eyes of Shay Hoxton, and the fire of the sins cleared up when he shared the ring with The TED. It reminded him of the past, when things made sense and he lacked any doubts in himself.

He thought that maybe he could return to those simpler days by losing to TED, but in reality, he was just running from his problems. His doubts didn’t disappear when he saw TED, they just became covered with clouds, and those clouds brought a storm.

Now Tracy has decided to run again. To run from the rain, to run from the past, and to run from himself. He has officially become a free man, but why does he still feel the chains around his ankles?

Tracy has made it to the parking lot and reaches his car. He goes to pull out his keys, but unfortunately, they’re still in his locker and he never realized it. Will he have to confront The Company after all?

That voice. Tracy knows it well. He turns to look towards his former leader: Xander Slate.

By Slate’s side are Shay Hoxton, Anthony Kamron, TJ Black, and Liz Carter. Tracy completely freezes up. It seems The Company has come to confront him first.

Kamron and Black approach James, and Kamron launches a brutal knee to his gut faster than the tired Tracy can react.

Kamron and Black begin attacking Tracy, throwing brutal overhands to his back and striking him in his ribs. After a few seconds of the attack, Black throws Tracy into the car. James winces in pain as TJ grabs him and smashes his head into the roof.

He doesn’t know what’s worse, the pain of the attack, or the pain of knowing it’s his former friends attacking him. Perhaps he deserves what’s happening to him. He’s the one who quit to TED, he’s the one who quit CMV, and he’s the one who quit on The Company. Perhaps he should quit once more and just take the beating…

Or perhaps he should stop running. His mind has been clouded by rain ever since his talk with The TED, but somehow he feels a small fire burn in his heart.

Tracy takes a shot at TJ Black out of pure instinct, hitting him with a hook to the jaw. The suckerpunch breaks Black’s grip on James. Tracy is surprised, where did that come from? Now it’s too late to back down, Black and Kamron are pissed, and the beating will be ten times as worse if he doesn’t defend himself now.

Tracy throws a kick to Kamron, who jumps back as Black grabs him by the waist and pushes him into the car behind him once again. Now grappled, Kamron tries to run in for an attack, but James gets him with a back elbow to the face. With Anthony stunned, Tracy throws a couple knees to TJ’s chest, weakening his grip, and pushes him to the concrete below.

With both members down, Tracy turns to run out of the parking lot, but with his adrenaline flowing, he’s forgotten about his surroundings.

The cold sting of brass meets his jaw. Xander Slate clocks Tracy in the mouth with brass knuckles as heart as he can, and Tracy’s mind goes blank as he falls to the ground beneath him. He hits the concrete with a hard thud, and the recovered Black and Kamron begin laying into him with hard kicks to the ribs.

Tracy lays there, motionless as the boots stab into him, the cracking of his ribs and jaw overwhelming his senses.

The beatdown finally stops. Anthony Kamron sits Tracy up and rests him against his car.

The two return to Slate and The Company begin to walk away. All except for Shay Hoxton, who instead approaches Tracy. Shay takes a seat on the concrete by Tracy’s side, shoulder to shoulder, neither man looking at each other.

Tracy’s sight is slowly fading, but he can hear Hoxton’s words loud and clear.

Shay Hoxton puts Tracy’s car keys into his hand.

Shay moves in front of Tracy, who turns away.

Tracy slowly turns to face Hoxton, but where he once saw an overwhelming evil, he now sees kindness.

Shay takes his handkerchief and wipes the blood off Tracy’s mouth before standing and walking away, joining the rest of The Company. Tracy is left alone in the center of the parking lot, alone with nothing but his thoughts.