The video begins and the first thing that becomes immediately obvious is that it’s night. Everything aside from the area directly in front of the camera is shrouded in darkness, with just a few lights in the distance perhaps from street lamps or perhaps from other people who have made their way in to the night. The area in front of the camera is illuminated however allowing us to see everything quite well and it becomes all too obvious where we are just from the shortest of glances. There is grass on the ground and various tombstones lining up in the visible area in front of the camera. This isn’t a creepy cemetery that looks like it’s come from a horror movie however; there are no daunting trees visible or broken tombstones, in fact from what we can see of the area it looks to have been kept in remarkably good condition. After a few seconds Zoe Sperling, better known throughout the wrestling world as Syren, steps in front of the camera. She’s wearing a pair of blue jeans and a black jacket on top of a t-shirt with a crucifix on the front. “Hey everyone,” she begins before looking around and then looking back in to the camera. “So, as you can see today we’ve taken a little field trip. Now when I’ve been recording these videos lately they’ve always been from hotel rooms and I was going to shoot this one in a hotel room as well, and then I got this crazy thought in my mind. Just recently on Breakdown there’s been a lot of messages sent, there have been a lot of videos that were designed to get inside my head and terrify me and I’m going to let you in on a little secret – they worked! The last few weeks I’ve seen some of the creepiest videos I’ve ever seen, dolls burning and hanging and I asked myself how could that NOT get in to my head, right? So I thought maybe I should respond. Do you know how hard it is to get a permit to film here?”

She just smiles at the camera, laughing a little. “I know, I could have just broken in and I know I probably could have found somewhere a lot creepier to stand and film than right here but I’m not trying to make this video ‘spooky’ and I’m definitely not looking to break any laws. You see the reason I came here, the reason I chose to do this rather than film from my hotel room is that I wanted to tell you guys a story about me. Now this is probably going to make some of you laugh, and it’s probably going to make the Frost family, who’ve taken it upon themselves to turn my life in to a living horror film over the last few months, laugh to themselves joyfully but I’m not a fan of scary movies. In fact I’m going to go one step further and admit that when you go to the theatre to watch one and you see that girl who’s clinging to her boyfriend’s arm, who’s covering her eyes so she doesn’t have to watch the gory parts and who actually screams every time there’s a big, scary moment then if we’ve ever been to see the same movie at the same time then that girl might actually have been me,” she admits before shrugging her shoulders. “For Halloween my friends used to dress up like serial killers from scary movies and jump out at me and it always, always worked. I always screamed. I hated it. And I just don’t get why people actually like that stuff. I don’t get why anyone likes to watch people get hacked up, even if it’s not really real. I don’t get why anyone enjoys serial killers chopping people with knifes or hunting them down with chainsaws. I don’t get why anyone actually enjoys the whole ‘monster’ genre because it scares the hell out of me, and so after everything I’ve seen, after all the movies and TV shows where vampires and zombies come crawling out of graves coming somewhere like this was a challenge...”

She takes a few paces away from where she’s standing, walking over next to a tombstone and kneeling down beside it. We see the name on the tombstone reads ‘Margaret Smith’ but the dates and the other words are covered up by moss that’s been growing across it. Zoe reaches down and touches the grass in front of the tombstone before looking back up to the camera. “Now if this were a horror movie this would be the part where a hand shoots up from right about here,” she says, looking at the ground and waiting a few seconds before looking back over at the camera again. “But it’s not. There’s no zombie that’s going to burst out of the ground here, there’s no chance that this woman, Margaret, is going to come back to life as a vampire, the fact is that when you really stop and you think about it this graveyard is only creepy because we let it be. The reality is that there’s nothing here that’s actually terrifying at all, but after all the iconic moments we’ve witnessed in our lives on the big screen, all the scary stories we’ve told one another and all the books we’ve read about monsters and demons we give places like this a power over us by being afraid of them,” she says before standing up and stepping away from the grave again. “When you look in to somewhere like this from the outside and you feel a chill in the air and you see line after line of tombstones as far as the eye can see your mind automatically draws on that imagery and a place like this becomes genuinely scary. That’s how it works. And this isn’t the only imagery that has power over us. Now if my father sees the shirt I’m wearing tonight he’ll probably freak – Jewish girl wearing a cross on her shirt? Yah, he’d hate that – but the reason I’m wearing this shirt is because this symbol has power associated with it as well. People all over the world have had their lives affected by this symbol, but as iconic as it may be at the end of the day it’s just a cross.”

She brushes the hair out of her face and tucks it behind her ear before shrugging her shoulders. “So why is it that we give all of this power over us? Why is it that we let all these images control so much of our lives and the way we react? I mean we all know vampires and zombies aren’t really real, and even if they were we all know that something like this shirt wouldn’t really keep you safe. It’s all stories. It’s all make-believe. And yet there are so many people who saw the beginning of this video and probably reacted the same way I react whenever I see a graveyard. The same thoughts probably occurred to all of you watching this as occurred to me. You want to know what I feel right now, standing in this place? It isn’t fear, its sadness. This place is full of sadness. There are so many people who’ve been buried here, so many families who’ve lost loved ones and who’ve cried in this place and it’s like somehow it holds on to that. It’s like there’s something about the atmosphere here that seems to hold this aura of sadness. I didn’t really expect that,” she says before looking around again, slowly turning on the spot before looking back at the camera again. “Of course places like this can be turned on their head as well. When I was younger I was obsessed with one television show, and I know it was a little old for me when I first started watching but I couldn’t help myself, I just loved it. That show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a blonde girl who stood in a place like this as the vampires rose up and rather than screaming and running in fear she took a stake and she drove it through the vampire’s chest and killed it. Now I was little and I probably shouldn’t have been watching the vampires crawling out of the graves to begin with, but the thought that a girl could kick ass like that was empowering to me.”

“The problem with using Buffy Summers as a role model is that she had super powers and I don’t. She wasn’t just an ordinary girl; she was The Slayer, the one chosen from her generation, with more strength, more speed, and more power than anyone else. So obviously with all the advantages like that to be more than a match for the creepy things that crawled out from hell she never had anything to be afraid of anyway. And me? I don’t have super powers. I’m stronger than an average girl my age but that’s because I wake up every morning and I head to the gym. I’m faster than an average girl my age because I work on it every single day and I push myself to my limits in order to test myself, in order to get faster. And I’m more powerful than an average girl my age not because I’m blessed with super powers that put me beyond the realms of normalcy but because I stepped beyond those realms a long, long time ago when I started fighting not just girls my own age and size but men as well. And I’ve fought far more than just men. While I can stand here and categorically tell you that vampires and zombies aren’t real I can also stand here and tell you without a doubt that monsters are. I’ve dealt with them. I’ve been picked up by them and thrown around. At the Elimination Chamber I was picked up by a monster and thrown in to a steel support. Every week since then I feel like I’ve been dealing with monsters, that I’ve been dealing with demons who want to hurt me, who want to cut me, who want to drain my blood for god only knows what purposes. At Perfect Destruction I was choked out and cut by a monster who wanted to eviscerate me, a few weeks after that I was kidnapped and dragged away to have my blood drained out of me by another monster who only wanted to do me harm. I never got a chance to pay back that first one who threw me so mercilessly in to the steel, he got taken out by his own ‘friends’ before I could confront him again, but the other two I’ve confronted time and again. And I’m not Buffy, I’m not ‘The Slayer’, I don’t have the super powers but that doesn’t mean I can’t stand up to them and take them out.”

“I’m not going to stand here and make any excuses about what happened at Perfect Destruction. I knew what I was doing when I accepted Rachel’s challenge to make it a First Blood match, I knew how dangerous that kind of environment was going to be and I also knew I could take it to her every single step of the way and I did. She bragged about it afterwards, she acted like she could dismiss me so easily after that night like she’d proven a point but no matter what she tells you I was right there with her every single step of the way on that night. The dominant force of the Underground, the longest reigning Underground Champion of all time, stepped in to a match with a woman who admits she’s turns away so she doesn’t have to watch the gory parts of horror films and yet that woman matched her every single step. Rachel beat me in the end, she choked me out with her noose and cut me, but on that night I proved to the world that even in her world I was more than a match for her,” she says before running her finger along her forehead. “And I remember Rachel. I remember the fact that you cut me on that night. I remember waking up and being covered by my own blood. And that wasn’t the first time either, was it? You’ve cut me so many times, you’ve made me bleed so many times, and you’ve enjoyed it. You’ve gotten off on it. Can you see the scars? I’m not sure you can, they’ve healed surprisingly well but they’re there. What’s worse is that I know they’re there. People tell me they can’t even see them but every time I look in to a mirror I see them. Every time I look in to a mirror I remember what you did to me Rachel. You and your husband wanted to get in my head and you did it, you cemented a spot in there. You scared me. You got me looking over my shoulder. But while you may be in my head you haven’t gotten what you wanted, because I’m still right here!”

“And as much as you’ve gotten in my head, I’ve gotten in yours as well, haven’t I sweetie? I was probably already in your head from before, after all you’ve already claimed that me beating you is what triggered your transformation from Little Southern Belle to Sadistic, Violent Bitch. And you wanted to get even with me, you wanted to hurt me and you pulled it off. You hurt me. You choked me out. You had me at your mercy. You sent the message you wanted to send for almost a year, and yet you didn’t really beat me, did you? Oh sure you won the match, you were declared the winner, but how many other opponents have you bloodied in that ring and left for dead who crawled away when it was over with? How many times have you sent them slinking away with their tails between their legs and the knowledge that you were just that much better than they were? You beat them Rachel. You beat them in to submission. But you didn’t beat me! No sooner was our war at Perfect Destruction over with than we were BACK in that ring on Breakdown, you with Rachel Foxx, you as part of Requiem and me with Jake Starr of all people to partner me, and yet when THAT night was over you weren’t standing over my bloodied corpse like you wanted to be. In fact when THAT night was over I was the one who was still standing for the first time in what felt like six months! You like the power that comes with scaring them away, don’t you Rachel? Guys like William Mason step up to you, threaten you, claim they’re going to knock you off your throne and you beat them down and they crawl away with their tails between their legs and you love that. It makes you feel strong. It makes you feel dominant. But when you beat me down I got back up, I stood there in the middle of the ring and I DARED you to try it again and you couldn’t handle that. You beat me and yet YOU were the one who ran away...”

She begins laughing and just smiles at the camera. “Did it feel good taking apart Next Level at War of the Roses? I imagine it would. You took it to two of the men who made the Underground division what it is. You took it to two former World Heavyweight Champions, to two iconic figures in SCW, and you left them bloodied and beaten and broken in the ring. You got what you wanted out of that as well, because Tommy has moved on, Tommy wants nothing more to do with you, and that has to feel good. You scared off a former World Champion. So how much does it haunt you that you can’t scare off me?” she asks, holding her arms out defiantly. “You tried to break me physically, you tried to break me mentally, you tried to make your name by being the one who dominated Syren and believe me sweetie I know a thing or two about dominating in this business, and yet every time you knocked me down I kept getting back up. Every time you thought you’d made your point I came back looking for more. And when your husband stepped up to me, when he tried to take me out on your behalf I drove his face in to the steel steps, I broke him down in the middle of the ring and yah he hurt me on that night, he left his mark on me without doubt but when my night at War of the Roses was over not only was I standing over Aiken Frost’s broken body but I was standing in the middle of that ring with a steel chair scaring you and Rachel to the back as well and sending another message to you that you CAN’T BEAT ME. You can hurt me. You can get victories over me. But you can’t ever stop me standing in that ring, in that spotlight. You can’t stop me from being who I am. And you know who I am, don’t you? It’s a title you thought you could take from me with one victory, but a title I’ve earned in four and a half years of dominating. Who I am Rachel is the BEST FEMALE WRESTLER IN THE WORLD, and you can NEVER take that away from me.”

“You’ve sent so many messages; you’re obsessed with this idea of destroying ‘Barbie’ so much so that you’ve decapitated dolls, hung them in a gallows and set them on fire. You love sending messages, don’t you Rachel? You get off on it, whether they’re creepy videos or just short bits of text in one hundred and forty characters. But here’s the thing about all of that – I’m not interested in your messages. I’m not interested in anything you’ve got to say to me. I can’t ignore the videos, you’ve made them impossible to ignore, but I can ignore the endless reams of tweets. I have ignored them. I hit the block button because I got bored of it. See this thing between us was never going to be settled over social media, but it’s only over social media that you’ve got the guts to stand up to me at all! I walk out to that ring week after week and you send threatening tweets and scary videos, but you’ve lacked the guts to get in to the ring with me a second time and find out what’ll happen. I challenged you to put that title of yours on the line and you hugged it close because while I’m freely willing to admit that you and Aiken have gotten in my head and you’ve scared me it’s time you admit that standing toe to toe with you, pushing you to your limits and always coming back from all the bullshit you’ve put me through has scared YOU Rachel. That’s why it took the Board of Directors to sanction the rematch between us, because you lacked the guts to actually agree to it yourself. You tell the world you’ve moved past me, but we both know that if you really had you’d have no problem repeating the supposedly dominant performance you put on at Perfect Destruction a second time. The reason you haven’t is because you’re scared that the second time around I could actually BEAT YOU, and then what? What will you brag about then?”

“You’ve been torturing Barbie Dolls to send messages to me for weeks but on Sunday night when we step inside the Thunderdome I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now PLAYTIME IS OVER! You’ve tried to turn my life in to a horror movie and here I stand, on what looks like the perfect setting for the finale of that movie, telling you straight that you might have hurt me, you might have cut me, you might have scared me so many times and we might be about to step in to one of the most terrifying structures in SCW history but this Sunday I won’t let fear stop me. At the aptly named Retribution I’m going to make fear in to my motivator. For every time you’ve tried to hurt me I’m going to hurt you back! For every time you’ve jumped me from behind I’m going to come at you from the front! This Sunday I know damn well I’m getting in to one of the most dangerous environments in the history of this promotion with one of the most dangerous women who has ever laced up her boots and I know that what you want more than anything is to send me to somewhere like this when it’s all over. You want to bury me deep underground and prove a point, don’t you? You want to leave me six feet under, ‘Dead in Tombstone’ as you’ve said so many times. Well Rachel, I welcome you to try. This match this Sunday is so far beyond just a match anymore, it’s so far beyond just business, this match this Sunday is so very personal for me and I know better than anyone what I’m going to have to go through this Sunday. I know how much the Thunderdome can hurt you. I know how much it can shorten careers when you’re locked inside it with a NORMAL person but I’ll be locked inside with YOU. This all started because you couldn’t handle me beating you. This Sunday it ends with one or both of us getting destroyed. I know what my chances are. I know what I’m going to have to go through. But I also know this Sunday won’t be the end of me, just the end of this thing between us. I’m not expecting to walk out of that ring this Sunday. Hell, I’m not even going to promise I’ll win the match. But I will promise this – this Sunday, if I’m going to hell, then you better get ready bitch because I’m taking you with me!”

She laughs once more, not ending the video with any of her normal showmanship but instead just standing there, staring in to the camera, wanting the world to know how serious she is. And with that image in place the video ends and the replay button appears on the screen.