Head Above Water

Time (Partially) Heals All Wounds

Memories can be both a curse, as well as a blessing. Most times, memories get forgotten, they blow away like leaves on a cool Fall evening. Some, however, stick around like a magnet to a fridge door. The memories that Mercedes, (Sasha Banks) was carrying on her shoulders in her everyday life was that of despair, paranoia and sorrow. She was one of the strongest individual people on the planet, but even the strongest of us fall sometimes. It happened so fast, all of these past six months seemed like a blur of red, and darkness. The pain didn't sit in all the time, only rarely did it culminate inside of her little heart and boil over, lashing out on those she cared deeply for.

To make any sense of this, we will have to retract six months, back to the night the pain started.

It was a cold, dark January evening, and Mercedes had just finished performing at WWEs flagship show, 'Monday Night RAW'. She had a decent match with one of her closest friends, Bri Bella, and was enjoying the fact that she was killing it on the main roster. She had a fiancé at home who loved her dearly, best friends on the road and family always showering her with praise with compliments. She had just gotten a call from her mother which kept her back at the arena for an extra, whomping half hour. Her mother could talk just about as much as Mercedes herself could. After she got off of the phone, she began to take off her ring gear, her tiny little body was so sore. The grind of the WWE was intense, really intense. The hardest job on the world might be a WWE Superstar, and being the caliber of Superstar that Mercedes was? She had huge expectations to fulfill as well as well as her own to exceed. She got out of her ring gear and didn't feel like taking a shower at the arena, her tiny frame needed to be rubbed out and no movements must happen for at LEAST two hours. After she slid on some super duper comfy clothes which included her friend Pam's (Bayley) signature 'I'm a Hugger!' Shirt and some dark pink leggings, she slung her bag over her shoulder and began to approach the exit of the building.

"OHMYGOSH, SASHA BANKS! HI SASHA CAN I PLEASE GET A PICTURE?!" A shrieking fangirl fastly approached Mercedes and she felt her stomach turn over. She adored her little fans, going out of her way each and every possible time that she realistically could. But at the same time, when you've slept a cumulative two hours of sleep and just wrestled? Your patience runs thin in a matter of tiny seconds. She hid her sigh and turned around, slapping her best fake smile on as she possibly could as her red locks fell graciously to the side, "Yea, of course sweetheart." She walked to meet the overly excited fan halfway for this picture that she was dreading more than life itself. The young brunette girl couldn't have been more than sixteen years old, Mercedes set her bag down and wrapped one of her extremely sore arms around the little girl as she pulled her cell phone out and raised it above the two of them. Mercedes pushed out a half smile now, her trademark type smile as she made it public that she says it a ton. "THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ARE SO THE BEST!!" The girl shrieked yet again, piercing Mercedes's ears deep into their core. "Yea, of course of course. You're welcome." The girl wrapped her little arms around Mercedes's waist and squeezed lightly. All the frustration Mercedes was feeling prior to this was now gone, she wrapped her arms around the girl who slowly began to whimper and cry, was it that she was just so damn happy to meet her? Or was there something else brewing up.

"Hey..Hey why are you cryin' sweetheart? Are you alright?" Mercedes rubbed the young girls back gently, the fact that this was happening now was both super depressing, and kind of random yet irritating. Mercedes really just wanted to go home and relax, she didn't expect to have to be playing Doctor Phil tonight after she busted her ass all day and night. The young girl whimpered once more before looking up with teary, bloodshot eyes, "I just love you so much, I never thought I'd meet you, or even see you perform..I-It's just a dream come true and I don't wanna go back.." After hearing the words spill out of her mouth, Mercedes herself felt tears fill her little eyes, she instantly pulled the girl back into a hug and rubbed the back of her head softly. It dawned on her that no matter how tired and ridiculously irritated Mercedes was, this was far more important than laying on her ass and doing nothing with herself. "I'm here honey. Okay? You are so cute, don't cry..C'mon.." She fought her own tears, as her voice broke quietly and she bit the insides of her cheeks harshly. This was such a humbling experience for Mercedes, it had never happened where someone was so excited to just..Meet her that they broke down in tears when they did. Pulling back slowly, the tiny girl looked up at her and smiled a little, her voice was breaking at every word, "Bosses don't cry, right?"