Flicker

The light in the office was flickering. Only slightly, but it was enough for Kai to notice. It had a distracting, rhythmic quality. Beat. Beatbeat. Beat. Beatbeat. The man on the other side of the desk didn’t seem to notice, but it was driving Kai crazy. He couldn’t pay attention.

“Can you just get to the point, Tony?”

Tony, Kai’s manager, sighed.

“The point? Right. Let me explain slow and clearly with little words. You have been with WWG for 9 months now. The contact was open ended. No commitment. But now they want a new deal. Your deal at the moment means you can’t perform—“

“Compete.”

“—compete anywhere else. They just want to know how long you’ll commit to.”

“I like my current deal.”

“And I do too. It’s great value for you. But making a fixed term commitment would mean even greater opportunities for you within WWG. Look at it this way, Kai. They’re afraid to feature you more prominently on the show because they consider it an investment with an unpredictable return. They could spend the next three months making sure you get all the TV time in the world, all the main event slots, all the big matches to keep you interested. But if you suddenly decide WWG is not for you, you can just up and leave, no consequences to you. And all the time they’ve spent on you? They can’t exactly take it back.”

“Is this that face of the company **** you fed me back when I first signed? I should’ve seen through that then.”

“No, you just didn’t listen. I said you’d still have to go through all the usual wrestling politics. No one was gonna hand anything to you.”

“And they didn’t, Tony. I won a championship, I fought for my spot in those main events, and I fought for my championship match against Trine Larsen. Everything I’ve done has been work.”

“They’re ready to take the next step with you, Kai. They think you might just pull it off and become the world champion.”

“They didn’t last time?”

“They did, and they came to see me, and you didn’t answer your phone.”

Beat. Beatbeat. Beat. Beatbeat.

“Doesn’t that bother you?” Kai muttered, leaning back into his chair.

“Does what bother me?”

Kai pointed at the ceiling. “The flickering light. I swear, it’s almost like it clicks. I don’t get it. You just sit there and it goes on and off, on and off. It’s maddening, Tony. Completely maddening.”

“It’s just a light, Kai. I’ve got more important things to think about. Like your contract.”

Kai rolled his eyes, then ran his hands through his hair.

“Okay. Talk to them. Find out what they want me to commit to. And then halve it with a counter offer.” Tony slightly raised his arm in protest, but Kai cut him off. “It’ll be a small offer. Probably just a year. It’s a starting point for them. Six months, that’s as far as I’m willing to go now. Make them bump up the salary, too. I could use a little more disposable income.”

Kai stood up, shook Tony’s hand, and turned to the door.

“And maybe I’ll buy you a new **** globe.”

* * *

The last time Kai had seen Jackson Green in person, Jackson was making a bizarre series of hand gestures from behind a cameraman towards WWG’s intern, Lance Hoffman. The relief this time when Kai opened the door, and Hoffman was nowhere in sight, was obviously. He let out a deep breath, let his shoulders drop, and relaxed. But in a quick moment he caught himself, suddenly realising Green had, of course, brought a cameraman with him, which could only mean one thing.

“Kai Shepard! If I could just have a moment of your time.”

“As long as you haven’t brought Lance with you, then yeah, go right ahead. Wanna come in?”

Kai stepped to the side of the doorway and gestured for Green and the cameraman to enter, which they did. He waited for them to take their seats in his locker room, before pulling over a small chair of his own, and continued what he had been doing – strapping his wrists.

“Well, it’s another week, another main event for one of WWG’s fastest rising stars, and we thought it best to check in and see how you’re doing after that hellacious match against Marcus Collins last week.”

“You know, it’s funny you mention that match. I can’t really remember any of it. But, they told me I won, so I guess that’s good enough for me.”

“It must’ve been that package piledriver off the stage that scrambled your brain a little.”

“See, I don’t even know if you’re joking. Haven’t watched the match. All I know is my head hurt for days, but I finally got a little bit of redemption against Marcus Collins. Only, it never seems to be in the big one. I can lose championship matches to him no problem, but when it comes to another day, well, I think I’ve got his number now.”

“And that must give you some confidence going into tonight’s six-person match against the Syndicate.”

“A little, yeah. But each of those guys – they’ve been a thorn in my side since I arrived. So I’m looking forward to getting a little revenge on them in the ring, and maybe outside the ring too, if I get the chance.”

“How do you feel about your team mates, Trine Larsen and Rayven? Obviously, you’ll soon meet Trine Larsen in a championship match, but have you put that aside or is there some potential for distraction?”

“I know a lot of guys would be second guessing themselves and upset at teaming with two women against three men, but I’m looking forward to it. Both Trine and Rayven have proved time and time again that they’re two of the toughest wrestlers in WWG, and to have that on your side is a huge asset. Trine, well, I haven’t got a problem with her, not really, so I’ll have her back and I’m sure she’ll have mine. I can’t see any serious rivalry bred out of hatred or jealousy between us. Just the thrill of competition, maybe, and that’s all it needs to be between us. Soon, we’ll find out which of us is better. Trine already has the victory over me, but I was not at my best that night, and I think she knows it. Now I’m getting better day by day, and so the next time we go one on one, it’ll be something special, I’m sure.

“Rayven, on the other hand… well, I don’t like having someone so desperate to prove how unstable they are in my corner. Rayven comes across, to me, as an actress. Like, we get it, you’re crazy. Or you’ve just been reading too many Harley Quinn comics. I don’t know, I really don’t know her, but something about her whole persona seems so forced to me. Rayven seems to desperately want people to think she’s a psychotic ****, but I’m just not convinced it isn’t all an act. And I could find myself in trouble for saying that. I’ll have her back, and I just hope she has mine too, and doesn’t try to attack me because that’s just what psychos do, or some bullshit. Maybe there’s a real person under there, but, uh, the pool looks more like a puddle, if you get my meaning.”

“That’s some harsh criticism towards your tag team partner tonight, and I expect you have equally grating things to say about your opponents. Your thoughts?”

“You know, Jackson, actually I don’t. I’m sick of it, to be honest. It seems like every week I have to talk about how much grief Marcus Collins, or Maxwell Lord, or Wretched Nobody gives me, or any other wrestler here. And that’s the thing with this pathetic ‘Syndicate’ bullshit. They want people talking about them. About how dangerous they are, how threatening they can be. But Maxwell Lord has struggled to achieve anything lately. Wretched Nobody is much the same. And Collins, well, he’s had a great run, but he’s passed his peak already and it won’t be long before you see him in the openers against the Trotters and Jersey Boys of WWG. Guys that could be great, but just never reach the next level. Instead, they’re trying to stay relevant the only way they know how. Assault, assault, assault.”

“Lastly, we have to ask, the WWG twitter feed is bombarded with questions – Jack Grayson, is he signing with WWG?”

Kai smiled. “You’ll have to ask Jack. He doesn’t keep me updated with this stuff. I know they’re talking to him, but nothing’s official.”

Suddenly, Kai’s phone buzzed and he grabbed it from the table. His thumb dashed across the screen a couple of times. His eyes lit up. The smile on his face broadened.

“Well, Jackson, here’s your answer.”

Kai lifted his phone in front of the camera, showing them the text message.

“I JUST SIGNED MY CONTRACT! CLOUD9 IS BACK TOGETHER!!!”