Caitlyn Catowize's story Pt.8

[CrazyCaityCat 65]

She tried to work up her nerve. She had to say something. She had to warn someone, anyone on the team. The equipment had been sabotaged. When she came in before the game the next day it was obvious that the hockey sticks had very thin, almost undetectable, slices cut into them. They would break, they would all break, with very little use. They would have a hard time winning the game if all their sticks were malfunctioning all game. So, she’d been trying to work up the nerve to say something. The problem was she was sure that if she did then the blackmailers would blame her for having done so. They’d probably exact some terrible price for her having the guts to go against them. What the hell was she going to do? As she was paralyzed by indecision game time grew closer and closer. When the time came to suit up, she did so and said nothing. When the time came to have the pregame huddle she joined in and she said nothing. When the time came for the coaches speech, she said nothing. When the time came to walk down the tunnel she did so and she still said nothing. When Jacob’s stick broke during warm-ups he thought it was weird but no one thought much of it. Caitlyn was beside herself though. This was it, her last chance to say something. She just…couldn’t. She was too afraid of what *they* would do.

 

As the game against Halifax started it quickly became obvious that something was wrong. Stick after stick went flying in half. The players quickly became aware that something was wrong and started grumbling, then outright yelling at the equipment manager. Caitlyn wanted to say it wasn’t his fault, to say it all must have been some act of sabotage, surely they wouldn’t then immediately suspect she knew something right? Yeah…right. She kept her mouth shut. The equipment manager did what they could, bringing out the backup sticks, which also broke. They had nothing they could do. The players were told to just be as gentle as they could with the sticks and do the best they could with what they had. To be fair they did quite well considering, but the 21^st were just too much for them given the disadvantage of sabotaged equipment. The ended up losing the game 5-4, by the last half of the 3^rd period they were completely out of sticks and were skating around with nothing in their hands. It was a complete joke. The fans were booing. The players were pissed off. The coach was screaming at the equipment manager, who was damn near crying in his helplessness.

 

By the end of the game Caitlyn felt more miserable than she had in years. She left the facility behind with half the arena still screaming about the sticks. As she walked to her car a man came out of the shadows and held up his hands to indicate he wasn’t a threat. This of course put her more on guard than if he’d done just about anything else. He told her she’d done well to keep her mouth shut, that they’d been watching to see if she could be trusted and that if she’d said something she’d have had real trouble. Then he faded away back into the shadows. Caitlyn got into her car and cried. She just cried, she couldn’t do anything else at this point. She was helpless. How long until they asked her to do this again? What was she going to do next time? This was only going to get worse. The worst part was now she was even further in the trap too. They didn’t have to even tell her but the fact was that if she chose to speak up next time then it would be used against her that she didn’t speak up this time. It would be a lose/lose situation for her. Now that she’d kept silent they had her even more firmly in their grasp.

 

The next game they had a new equipment manager. Caitlyn felt miserable still, perhaps even more so. The team were still pissed off, still wondering who had done that to them. Questions were being asked, supposedly a VHLM investigation was going to be started to figure out how this had happened. Caitlyn wondered if there were cameras in the facility, wondered if the fact that she’d left the door wide open would have been recorded. There was nothing she could do to defend herself if that was the case. She’d be shit out of luck, they’d probably ban her from hockey if she got caught with this business. The mood in the locker room was so low that it was no surprise that they lost the next game too. They played okay but just couldn’t put it all together to beat a really good team in Miami. Just too much distraction to play at their best.

 

By the time they got to Minnesota they had shaken most of the bad juju and were looking like their normal selves in the locker room. For the most part it seemed that the team blamed the equipment failure on the other equipment manager and now that the equipment hadn’t broken in the Miami game they were feeling good again. They went out on the ice and dominated once again, got an easy W. Caitlyn still felt terrible but her mood improved slightly after the game, that is until she got to the locker room. When she got to the locker room there were men in suits there that she didn’t recognize and the coach was talking with them. After a few minutes he made an announcement to the team. They were VHLM investigators and they would be interviewing players and team personnel. They were to cooperate fully with the investigation or they would be cut from the team immediately, per the team owner. There was no negotiating on this point. Caitlyn froze when she heard this. The rest of the team didn’t seem to mind, they went about changing as normal but this was the trap closing in on Caitlyn. What the hell was she supposed to do now? They’d be asking questions. All they had to do was find out she was the last one there that night and she’d be cooked.

 

She changed in a hurry, trying to be the first one out of the arena and on the bus. As she was getting on the team bus she got a call, when she answered she recognized the voice as the blackmailer. Her anger and fear immediately burst out of her and, because she was the only one on the bus, she let it out and yelled at him about how she was utterly fucked now, that he’d totally ruined her career, how they were going to kick her out of hockey. When she had finished he asked if she felt better. This of course pissed her off more but she saw a few other teammates heading to the bus so she couldn’t say do anything but tell him to fuck off and hang up. She immediately got another call. She answered and it was him again, she wanted to hang up again but truthfully she was afraid to do it a second time. He told her not to worry so much, that they’d already handled the investigation. That all she had to do when they came to her was to answer their questions as he instructed her to. Then he gave her some bullshit answers to give. She made sure to memorize them though, because they might be the only thing to save her life at this point. Basically, she was to tell them that she was the last one to leave that night, but she had gone back in after she’d left, as she’d forgotten something, and had retrieved it, then when she was leaving the second time she’d seen the former equipment manager still in the parking lot waiting around for her to leave.  When she had driven away she’d seen him go into the facility.

 

Caitlyn felt awful having to throw the man under the bus, he’d never been anything but professional. Yet, it was him or her at this point, that left her very little choice. She could feel terrible about it later, she’d be afforded that opportunity for the rest of her life in fact, but for now, for now she had to lie like her life depended on it, because it just might. What use was she to these blackmailers if she wasn’t in the VHLM after all? Would they really allow her to live with how much she owed them if she had no way to pay it back? She doubted it. So when the VHLM investigators got on the bus with the team to continue their interrogations Caitlyn felt a bit trepidatious but otherwise confident in what she was going to say. When they got to her she lied, straight faced and looking straight at them, without flinching or hemming and hawing. She was good at telling lies. She didn’t want to be but she was. Too much training from her mother she supposed. When they finished questioning her they got on the phone back to whoever they answered to and spoke in excited whispers, it seems that what she had said was exactly what they wanted to hear. The rest of the bus ride Caitlyn felt a mixture of misery and elation. She’d probably just destroyed someone elses life, and saved her own at the same time.

 

Part 9 here:

 

 

1612 words

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by CrazyCaityCat

[jRuutu 2,295]

10/10

 

Tragic and mysterious story, who are the forces behind the sabotage? What they want from Caitlyn? What did the equipment manager do to deserve such a treatment?

 

Well written article! Looking forward to reading more in the future! Only suggestion I would have is to add some kind of picture, but that is more of a general advice for media spots.

 

As a reminder: you can claim this same article for two more weeks after this as there is 3x500 words. 

Spoiler

(Post a reply: ''Claiming 30.11 - 6.12. Then after that another reply: ''Claiming 7.12 - 13.12) (Then use those posts to claim in the portal)

 

 

 

 

[CrazyCaityCat 65]

Claiming 2/3 for week ending 12/6

Edited November 30, 2020 by CrazyCaityCat

[OrbitingDeath 2,933]

40 minutes ago, CrazyCaityCat said:

Claiming 2/3 for week ending 11/8

12/6 I suppose?  Approved the claim though as that was for the correct week.

[CrazyCaityCat 65]

6 hours ago, OrbitingDeath said:

12/6 I suppose?  Approved the claim though as that was for the correct week.

Ha thanks, that was right before I went to sleep, I obviously needed it.

[CrazyCaityCat 65]

Claiming for week ending 12/13.