Post by Mav. on Jul 31, 2020 20:53:55 GMT -5
I - The Dream
24th of July, 2020 -- Wrestleworld Castle
The night was still young, the show had just come off of the air, and DOMINION IX had come to a chaotic end. For what it’s worth, the night was full of strong tension between both Ozymandias and Havoc along with Wraith and me. Beginning with the strong-worded and pre-recorded interview with Bobby Bishop and myself which ended in a heated brawl between Crew Members and toppling over a very expensive camera used to record the entire interview, but the night was topped off with a punch to the face by Wraith, the aid of Brass Knuckles included added an extra oomph as I was laid out but it wasn’t strong enough of a punch as I was able to put an arm over my fallen Ashes partner to secure the win. I had joined Claudia standing tall over everyone in attendance and the match itself, though as the feed cut away from me, I had fallen back down to a prone position in front of The Queen and was instantly given some medical attention. I hadn’t known at the time, due to me passing out from the punch again, but within that time… I faded into a dream world. I saw visions of Milan, it was like I was under some Post Traumatic Stress Disorder trance, I had visions of the ghost I saw. I also saw the tomb that houses the body of Allesandro Devione. Then I saw the Key of The Devione family in my hands but I was then awoken by Lannister slapping me across the face, I was in a cold sweat and I was trembling. Claudia knew what had happened to me, she knew exactly what just happened in front of her but Lannister and The Professional had no idea what went wrong.
The camera faded out and back to another scene, showing us from inside of the banquet hall where Lannister and The Professional walked in with Claudia Michaels. They find a weakened down man dripping with sweat onto the tables of the castle. Of course, that man being me. In my hand is a shiny red apple, a bite taken out of it showing it’s juiceful core. I look up to see the trio staring down at me, I gesture to them to take a seat in front of me, which only two of them do. Claudia is the one left standing over the shoulder of Lannister and The Professional as she places both hands on their shoulders. I look up at her, pushing my hair back and taking a bite out of the apple.
“Yeah, that happened now, didn’t it?” I ask her as she gives me a smirk which is something I never expected.
“It’s amazing, Jason,” she takes her hands off of both men’s shoulders and stands up straight. “You’re able to sit there after being unconscious and going through, what I would assume to be, another episode of that traumatic dream you had yet acted like it’s all normal to you. I have to ask… how in the queen’s name do you even do that? Especially if it’s as bad as what you described it to me as, how do you do it?”
I sat there and took in Claudia’s question, it wasn’t one I was familiar with but it was a very good question nonetheless. I sometimes ask that same question to myself but only on a rare occasion. I lean back in the chair I sit on and simply look right into Claudia’s eyes, she gives me a confused look as I smirk in her direction.
“I’ve come to fight it as much as I can, which is all I can do for now.” I take a deep breath before continuing to speak. “I realised that I need to not defeat Wraith but to kill him, and that’s all I can do for now.”
Lannister begins to speak up.
“Don’t you realise that you cannot kill something that is already-”
“Dead?” I ask as I interrupt Lannister. “Yeah, I know that but do you believe it? Come on, Lannister, tell me if you actually think he’s really dead as he might say he is. I know what you might be thinking. The last time you saw me, a couple of days ago, I was shaken up by traumatic dreams about Wraith and the night he put me through hell. Yeah, I’m still shaken up but I can still fight the good fight. As you can see, that’s what I did out there but take a look at who decides to make the first step towards the fight at Dreamworld.”
“I’ll admit, what he did was wrong but I can’t say that-” again, I cut out Claudia as I raised my hand.
“No,” I exclaim. “What you need to do is try to figure out if this is what you really wanted. If this match was really what you had envisioned, you’re the fucking queen after all. Hell, ask Jaywalker if this was the match he had intended, ask him what fucking vision he did have when making this match!”
“I’m sure his vision of this match was to put an end to the tension you two have had for months,” she responds. “All I know is that my vision is that you put an end to Wraith for good, I want you to make sure that he doesn’t come near me with that briefcase. If my gut feeling about his announcement is true, I need him as dead as can be come Dreamworld.”
I could hear it, the slight worry in her voice. It was not like Claudia to have some bit of worry in her voice, I’ve not experienced this since the lead up to the Trials of Seven match, it’s become a very rare occasion that she does have her doubts. I stand up from my seat, pushing the chair back ever so slowly and turning around as I walk towards a window. I look down and see the many men and women who attended DOMINION leave the castle, even someone who competed at DOMINION, they all leave the castle grounds. For a moment, I begin to think about that punch from Wraith. Again, I’m not surprised by his actions, just the way he used such weaponry. I placed my hand on the glass but I was rudely interrupted by Claudia once again.
“Jason!” is what I hear her call out from the same position she stands at. “Are you even listening to me?”
I turn my head to face her.
“Of course I am,” I respond. “And of course I will, why would you put the fate of your title in the hands of someone you couldn’t trust? Imagine how that would look for you if you couldn’t really put your trust into someone’s ability to beat someone. That’s like putting Cash Corleone against… I don’t know… Jacob Senn! Imagine sending him to battle against fucking Jacob Senn and, as I would assume, he’d get handed a pure beating. How would you feel about that?”
“That’s not the whole point of this, Mav,” Andrew speaks. “This is about you, your trauma with Wraith getting in your head. We need to make sure you’re going to be going into Dreamworld with him in your mind one hundred per cent of the time and we need to make sure he’s not going to mess around with you between now and the match. If he does, we’re at a major disadvantage!”
I stand there in silence, taking in as many words as I can. For the life of me, it feels like I’m stuck in a rock and a hard place, Professional was right about one thing, one wrong move and I’m screwed and at a disadvantage completely. Beating Wraith was always the game plan, but I had no Plan B if the trauma arises. I gulp, and within that second, all three of them saw the fear in my eyes and could also tell from my body language. I was shaking a little. I was thinking back to it. Back to Milan. To the moment I saw him. Claudia urges Lannister to grab a hold of me, I flinch at first but I am brought back to the chair I once sat on. There was never any dream, no nightmare but a reality and the harsh truth and reality that someday… at any given point… he might strike down on me again petrifies me. I take some heavy deep breaths, trying to gain control of myself in front of Claudia, who has now seen how bad it can get right in front of her very own eyes.
“Jason,” she asks. “Are you okay?”
I can hear her words, but I cannot bring myself to speak, it’s like being stuck in sleep paralysis and you cannot move nor can you speak or even scream for help. Lannister then slaps me across the face, one that is as stiff as his Uppercuts as I fall back out of the chair and onto the floor.
“What the fuck?” I ask out in anger.
“Lannister was only trying to see if you needed help,” Professional replies. “Lannister is probably sorry for hitting you as hard as he did. I’m sure he didn’t mean for it to be like that.”
I sit up from the floor, pinching the bridge of my nose as I get back into my chair and sit at the table once more.
“Look, I’m fucking sick of this shit between myself and Wraith and I’m not going to have that fucking cunt plague my mind any more.” I begin to grit my teeth with every word spoken. “If that mongrel wants to speak up about when he’s cashing in, then I’ll be right there to hear it, maybe take a front-row seat to hear what the fuck he says.”
“Jason, don’t try to do anything stupid.” I hear Claudia exclaim. “I need you in one piece for that match, I don’t want you in the same position as you were out there.”
“If anything, Claudia, you’d want to stock up on security for the show because if anything, after tonight…” I pause for a second as I look down at my hand, forming into the shape of a fist. My veins pulsate as my entire arm begins to tense up. “He’s going to find out that you don’t fuck around with me, and when you do, you’re going find out the consequences are not what you might have planned them to be.”
I slam my fist down onto the table, Claudia is shaken by the sudden slamming sound as I quickly stand up and push the chair back. It falls over and I begin my walk out of the room, I don’t even dare to look behind me as I walk out of the door, slamming it shut and leaving all three of them to themselves.
26th of July, 2020 -- The Heaven’s Arena
“How long do you think it lasts before it all comes crashing down and suddenly you’re back to being a nobody in this company?”
…
“I want you to look in my eyes. I build empires, boy. I can just as easily destroy them.”
…
“How about I turn Dreamworld into a nightmare for all of you?”
…
There are times where I do wish I could walk back to the locker rooms from some sort of confrontation with a smile on my face, I’ve not been able to do that since I dropped Wraith on his head back at Chapter Sixteen, that was the night when I told Wraith that he wasn’t a ghost but was soon to be one. How wrong I was after all of that took place. After I was released from the grasps on security, I was on an anger session, through my better judgement I was able to keep myself calm enough to make it to the back without even touching one of the security guards that had their hands all over me. I was known for my temper and everyone in the Underworld and even the Wrestleworld locker rooms knew that. Even so, Wraith knew that and he knew how to manipulate it, of course, it was all apart of his stupid mind games. As soon as I walked into the locker room, I was joined by Cash Corleone who came out of nowhere and was sided by his wife and child, Sakura and Yuki.
“Cash,” I speak as I quickly change my expression and tone. “I didn’t expect to have some company when I came back. What brings you here?”
I begin to walk over to Sakura who holds Yuki in her hands. I play with the young infant child as Cash begins to speak to me.
“I’ve heard about what’s been happening with you, and I know we never have seen eye to eye with anything,” he pauses as I look back up at him, Yuki holding one of my fingers. “I just wanted to know if you wanted to have a chat about it. I’m sure Claudia isn’t going to say anything, neither are Lannister nor Andrew will say a word about it, but I will.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“We’re all worried about you, Jason. I am, Claudia is, Lannister is and hell, even Andrew is.” I become a bit shocked by what Cash is speaking about. “This whole Wraith thing has been getting into your head a lot more than we even thought it would when he was exiled from The Underworld. I can understand why it happened, but it’s getting to you a little bit too much.”
“I never knew about this,” I lied. I had a feeling. “Well, I might have but that’s not the point. I had a feeling I was slightly turning to a different person, I just never thought people cared enough to worry about what I’m doing.”
“Are you kidding me?” he questions. “After what you did out there tonight, I think we’re all wondering what in the hell went through your head to even pull some crap like that! We had a feeling you’d be out there but god dammit, Jason, you really went over the top this time! We’re here trying to protect you but you’re throwing yourself to the wolves like this and guess what… You’re going to get bitten.”
“Look, Cash, I know you’re here trying to warn me about this but you’re a bit too late for this. What happened out there has happened and there’s no other way to rewrite history and make sure that doesn’t happen again. For you to come in here and try to tell me not to do what I did is simply pointless right now, isn’t it?” I calmly ask. “There’s no other way of putting it that this bit of a prep talk is nothing more than pointless. As I said, I get why you’re doing this but it’s simply fucking pointless.”
I could hear the little huff of breath coming out of Cash’s nose, I backed away from Yuki and Sakura with my hands up in the air.
“Sakura, would you mind leaving us for a moment?” he asks, Sakura obliges and leaves the room, slowly closing the door behind her as she leaves myself and Cash alone in the room. “Listen here, Jason, I’m trying to make sure you come out of this alive and I hate to see you even fallen at the last hurdle because trust me, every Pay Per View, that’s all you have been doing. You’ve been stuck at the last hurdle, and I’m not wanting you to do it again. So take my fucking advice and clear that head of yours before facing Wraith, or he’ll haunt you throughout that fight.”
“I think the word you’re looking for is a match-” I’m instantly cut off by Cash.
“I know what you’re like, that’s going to be a bloody fight if I’ve ever seen one,” he exclaims. “If anything, I’m doing you a favour because I want you to beat the fucking crap out of Wraith with everything you got… and I want you to make sure he doesn’t stand after it.”
It wasn’t him trying to make a promise, it was him trying to make his point stand out more and make sure it’s a clear message made. He quickly turns around and walks out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him as he leaves. I’m left to take in his words in complete silence and it’s hard to do it when your mind is at a point of breaking with the cluttered thoughts of a damned ghoul tormenting your life within your head. The head games were strong but there was ever going to be one thing stronger and that would be me.
II - The Expectation
29th of July, 2020 -- Canton, Ohio
It was a dark and cool night in Canton, again, I awoke from the same nightmare I’ve been dreaming of since that fateful night. They’ve become more constant with every damned day passed and they were eating me alive. I crawl out from under the covers, putting on some cargo pants and a white shirt as I stand up, I take one look back at the bed to see if I had awoken Rebecca which I haven’t. I walk over to her side of the bed, leaning in for a kiss on her forehead before walking out of the room. As I slowly creep around the penthouse home, I take one look out my back garden window and begin to think. It was only a few days ago when I had Claudia in my home and I remember the mirror I once stood at, seeing the red eyes… those red fucking eyes… and I continue to remember how much I began to scare her, and then I remembered how I scared Rebecca in some verbal confrontation one night. I knew that it was going too far. I knew it had to be stopped, but I never knew how. I grab my car keys from the bowl it was left in and head out the front door. The scene then fades to twenty minutes later in the Audi R8 driving around the city of Canton in the hopes of a bar open, I turn a corner and find one still opened, a little nightclub with no cue waiting outside. I pulled up to the establishment and headed inside, the bouncer knowing who I was, had no problem at all with me entering. I walk into the nightclub, expecting a large crowd but I was met with a couple of younger people in a booth, I ignore their antics and head to the bar where I’m greeted with the barmaid. She was around my age, blonde to white hair and red lipstick on her face.
“What can I help you with, sugar?” she asks.
“Miller, please. Extra ice.” I respond.
As I wait for my drink, I’m greeted by a man a bit younger than me, I could tell he was from the table I had taken notice to earlier as I see his friends telling him to come back over to them which he doesn’t as he takes a seat next to where I stand.
“Tell me, are you that Maverick guy who I’ve seen around here often?” he begins to question, I raise an eyebrow to his question before I nod in approval to his question. “I’ve heard you’re a bit of a famous name around this place, the only big thing this city has these days since Jack retired and handed the hotel to you. I can’t say I’m a big fan of yours but I’ve heard about you on that island you go to, it’s like Fight Island or some shit.”
“Yeah?” I somewhat begin to question his choice of words as my pint glass is slid over to me. “If you’re looking for some sort of photograph, autograph or even to cause some trouble here, then please don’t bother. I’m not here for long, I just needed a drink.”
“Trouble, come on, Mav. We all know what sort of trouble you get into now, don’t we?” again, he asks but I’ve already pulled away from giving him the attention he desperately needed. “I’m talking to you, {Mongo Edit: Nah we don't say that anymore}.”
He pushes my arm as I place my pint down, gladly, I didn’t spill a drop but I was more than pissed off with this stranger putting my hands on me the way he did. I turn to face him, my expression seemingly calmer than it should have been.
“What in the hell is wrong with you?” I ask then I turn to face the barmaid. “Can you get someone out here to help this man-”
I was quickly stopped by another shove by the drunken man.
“Wraith’s going to come for you, Mav! He’s going to come and put you in that coffin you belong in!” he exclaims. “He’s going to end you and then end Claudia Michaels for good when he takes that American Dream Championship!”
I can see the blue tint in his eyes, it was like a sapphire blue glint that came from the man’s eyes. I knew from that instant, this man might have been possessed by Wraith but it was only a simple thought in my head. I push the man back and knock him into the bar stools as he falls down but he’s quick to get back to his feet as he reaches into his pocket for something unknown to me.
“He’ll come for you, and then he’ll come for your sweet little Rebecca, and you’ll have no choice but to bow down to the Curse of the Devione family!” He loudly speaks up as his friends watch on in horror of what became of their friend. “You’ll have no choice...BUT TO KNEEL!”
The man pulls a knife out of his pocket and swings for me, just skimming my arm as he does. I push the man back and grab a hold of the arm with the Switchblade in his hand, I kick him in the shin and then slam his arm down onto the bar top, and again… and again… and again until he releases the blade from his hand. The man catches me out of nowhere with a headbutt to the bridge of my nose, which begins to sprout blood from the right nostril. I was then met with a right uppercut from the possessed man as I fell back into an empty stall. He walks over to the bar top and grabs his Switchblade knife but I come running in with a Dropkick to the man’s head which sends him over the bar top, knocking over all of the glasses and bottles in the way. Within that instant, my eyes glowed bright blood shaded red. I stand back up to my feet and leap over the bar top to where the man laid, crawling through the broken glass, I pull him back up to his feet by the hair and lay him over the bar top itself, climbing up onto it with one knee resting on the wood and my other foot resting on a dishwasher behind the bar. I began to rain down heavy right hooks to the man, and all I could see was red, I was making sure the man drew blood and he did, but by the time I stopped the barrage… His face was covered in crimson, and by even wiping a bit off with my finger, I could even feel the texture of blood. But that wasn’t enough for me. I reach behind me and grab a corkscrew, one they would use to open the bottles of champagne. I bring it close to the man’s face, who at this point, was begging for his life. He wasn’t the man that pulled a Switchblade on me, but I didn’t care for even a second. I raised my arm up as if I was going to punch him but in that hand was the corkscrew, wedged between my middle and ring finger. As I quickly brought the corkscrew down, I was stopped by a bouncer holding my arm in place, an inch away from the heart of the man who was crying tears through the thick blood covering his face.
“Stop Jason! Let go!” the bouncer screams into my ear.
I dropped the corkscrew and pulled my arm away, the bouncer rolled the man off the bar top and screamed at the crowd of friends the man was joining to call for an ambulance. I roll off of the counter and begin to make my way out of the nightclub as if nothing happened but my blooded white shirt was telling a very different story. I walk out and met with the sirens whaling in the background of what I assume to be the ambulance and police on their way to the nightclub, but I pay no attention to it as I walk to my car and begin to drive off from the establishment. I hear my phone go off and as I look down onto the screen on the car’s dashboard, I see the name Rebecca. I press to answer and listen in.
“Jay! Where the hell are you at!” she panicked to question. “Nobody knows where the fuck you went, not even Damian has seen you since you drove off!”
“I’m going to need you to meet me in the hospital,” I answer. “I’ll explain what happened there.”
“I’m going to fucking kill you in that hospital!” she roars down the phone before hanging up.
As I continue to drive, I begin to think and part of me is saying that I should have finished the job but in reality, there was no point, the man had done nothing wrong and he was out of control of his own actions. I continue to drive on as the scene fades out.
30th of July, 2020 -- Aultman Hospital
It’s been a couple of hours since the brawl in the nightclub, and in the late night of the hours I head out of the X-Ray room and await the results from the scan but for now, I am met with a more worried than furious Rebecca than what we had heard earlier. She looks down at the shirt I’m wearing, covered in dried up blood from the nose bleeding and the man’s blood being smeared all over me. Rebecca then looks up at my nose, somewhat crooked but not bleeding anymore as it once was. I scoff as I walk to the window that faces into the city where I could see the nightclub far off in the distance, Rebecca continues to stare at my possibly broken nose in shock at the state I’m left in. She can bring herself to even speak some words, let alone a full sentence.
“Jesus Christ,” she whimpers. “What happened to you?”
“Hard to explain, really,” I reply. “But I have a feeling that Wraith fucking possessed someone to try and either kill me or fucking weaken me enough that I’ll be an easy target for Dreamworld. Considering I might have a broken nose, the minute he hears that shit, he’ll be all over it.”
“Well make sure he doesn’t,” she responds. “That’s all you can do, right?”
“Rebecca, I had someone pull a fucking knife on me tonight! I had someone potentially break my fucking nose, I am covered in the cunt’s blood and mine!” I say as I take a seat right outside the X-Ray room. “This is getting too much for even me, I should have just taken up Cash’s advice.”
“What did he say to you?” she questions.
“He told me to cool my temper, said that the rest of The Underworld is worried about me and what I’ve been doing as of late,” I take a long deep breath. “I understand why they are now. I saw fucking red when I beat the shit out of that poor man, I felt like I couldn’t be stopped and I’m sure that man would have fucking died if it wasn’t for the bouncer.”
“You tried to kill him?!”
“Against my better judgement, it’s not like I wanted to, I just happened to turn into…” I pause for a moment but without even mentioning a word, Rebecca instantly knew what I meant or who I meant. “...and I felt like I couldn’t control it, it was like I was possessed myself, but by something else. Something far more sinister. I need to control it, I need to get a grasp of it because if I continue the way I am, then I don’t know what will become of me with this shit.”
I place both of my hands on the back of my head and in my head, I think back to the beating I gave that man, unaware of the condition he’s currently in right now. I could have killed a man with my own hands, his blood is dried into my shirt, my skin, and the memory is etched into my brain. There’s been no report coming through, was this all a dream? Did I imagine it happening? I have no idea what’s going on anymore nor do I want to know what is going on anymore.
“I’m confused, Rebecca,” I softly speak up. “I have no idea what needs to be done but I also have no idea what should be done as well. I have no plans for Wraith and how I’m going to take him down. I’m just going to go into this match alone, with a plagued mind of the traumatic nightmares filling up my brain as if they’re trying to weaken me down into something I’m not.”
“This is what I’ve been saying, and what you’ve said as well,” she exclaims. “You need to take control of that demon inside of you, you need to use that in order for you to even become powerful, you need to use it in order to kill that bastard once and for all!”
I begin to nod my head as she grabs a hold of my hand.
“I know what it’s like to have to live with trauma, I’ve had it as a child and it sucks a lot, but you need to take control of it and know how to use it against your opponents enough that they’ll have no choice but to give up,” she speaks. “Believe that you can and trust me, this whole Wraith thing will die and everything surrounding it will die too. You’re strong, Jay, I know that for a fact that you’re strong and when you’re in that zone, you’re unstoppable.”
“Unstoppable... that’s never achievable.”
“But you are, Jay! You’ve no fucking idea how unstoppable you can get when you put your fucking mind to work on it dammit!” she raises the tone of her voice. “You need to use that demon holding you back from within and unleash it on that bastard because all he’s been doing is ruining your life! Man up, Jay, and fight with everything you’ve got! I’ve seen you wrestle with that neck injury, I’ve seen you at your worst and yet found a way to push on and things look so much easier than it already is!”
“This is about Wraith-”
“Yeah, and like your Underworld buddies told you, Jay,” she begins to poke me right in the chest. “You need to beat this fucker dead or you’re going to end up being some haunted soul for the rest of your goddamn life!”
Rebecca was right, as was everyone else. This isn’t about me, this is about Wraith, this is about making sure he gets what he deserves and he dies for his sins. But the same question remains, how do you kill what is already dead? It’s a simple question but never has the more simple answer people expect it to have. It’s always about how it’s done and not by who, but he who yields the power can make sure peace is brought into this world. That’s what I plan on doing to Wraith, making sure peace is finally brought to the world, but it’s the question in my mind since I arrived here that’s been repeated over and over again.
“Baby, I don’t mean to give out or anything but I’m just trying to protect you as much as I can.” A tear runs down her face. “I don’t want you to go through what you’ve been doing over the last few weeks, I need you to get back to normal, Jay. Do what needs to be done.”
“I need to fix my fucking nose first,” I exclaim. “But I will do what needs to be done, and I’m going to put Allesandro in a fucking grave.”
That was never intended to be a promise to Rebecca, but to me, I know what had to be done to protect myself, to protect Rebecca and to protect everyone around me. This is about me, this about Wraith, nobody else but us and he has made it personal.
III - The Nightmare
1st of August, 2020 -- Dublin, Ireland.
The city of Dublin, Ireland. A familiar place, one that I grew up in for four years of my childhood, it feels like my second home back in Ireland. Every time I come here, it always feels so different. There is always that one change that feels so weird whenever I come here. For me, this time, people seem to steer away from me. Like they’re afraid. The report came out about the attack in the nightclub and as expected, it spread like a wildfire. Witness reports were the only thing that terrified anyone about me, they mentioned the eyes but never about their friend’s eyes. I swore they were glinting a sapphire blue but they couldn’t see that. Their friend had his back turned to them. Of course, that didn’t help my case at all. I make my way to a local church, the City Church to be exact, and head inside where I’m greeted to nobody inside. Not one person sitting in the pews, but a priest sits near the altar, the black shirt giving it away that it is one. I begin to make my walk up the altar and the priest turns his head to face me, once he spots out who I am, there’s a slight bit of fear in his eyes.
“You need to leave, right this instant,” he says as he points to the doors I had already walked through. “You’re not welcomed here.”
“Look,” I exclaim. “I mean no trouble, I came here to pray like you are doing right now. I’m sure God himself can hear out to one of his dying children if they really needed his help.”
“I said you are not welcomed here!”
I begin to laugh and lower my head but I suddenly grab the priest by his collar and push him back onto the floor, he looks petrified and scurries himself up off of the floor and to the back rooms. I have a smirk on my face, knowing that I am now left alone within the church. I slowly walk around the altar, seeing the chair that the priests tend to sit on during a major mass like a communion, confirmation or even a wedding. The soft red fabric resting along with the marble countertop of the altar feels amazing in my hand, I grab a handful of it and close my eyes as I think back to those visions and dreams I had, then I think back to that nightclub and how I felt the urge to turn back and Punt Kick that man to make sure he stays down for good. My head was filled with negative thoughts, I didn’t come here to be exercised but I came here to send a message to him. To Allesandro. I release my grip of the red fabric and open my eyes, looking up and seeing the empty pews waiting to be filled with people who come here for joy and to praise.
“Please, remain calm, the end has arrived.” I softly speak through my lips.
“Let me tell you a little thing about egos. It’s about a person’s self-esteem… their self-importance… your conscience begins to think that maybe you are the greatest thing to have ever existed, that you are an important man or woman and that everything you do cannot be topped, cannot be outdone, cannot be beaten. These thoughts will fill your head and sometimes, it can get ugly and I would know this, I’ve faced many that have claimed to be egotistical and then the real men who stand upon god complexes until they’re knocked off of their podiums.”
I take a deep breath.
“Those who pretend to have an ego, for the sake of even saying they have one, are nothing more than insecure. It’s their insecurity of wanting to know if they’re good or not, and the more fuel you add to the fire, the more it’s going to burn and the longer it will continue. You leave a man to think about how good he is, he’ll continue to think that he’s the best thing going because he can tell himself that but deep down inside, he needs that validation. That validation of hope, to see if people agree with what he’s been telling himself, and the more fuel added to that proverbial fire… the higher the flames get, the lower his insecurities get and the louder his voice gets.”
“I know many that can add to that description, I know many that can be deemed to be insecure with themselves but they tend to hide it but what happens when you expose a man like such? Would they crumble?” I ask myself. “It’s about that, it’s about how much you can break a man down and when you break him down piece by piece, you’re going to see his true layers. You’re going to see that ugly side of them you might not have seen before and when you do, your views on that man will be very different than before.”
I smirk and let out a light chuckle.
“A question you might be asking me is if this applies to Allesandro, and you’d be right, but I’ll get back to it soon but for now, I need to address the elephant in the room about him.”
I begin to tut.
“These past few weeks, these past few months, they are finally being put to rest in the matter of a couple of days. All of the mind games, all of the trauma, all of the attacks come down to this. Something we’ve been waiting so long for, something we’ve been waiting for since the day Kingdom Come came to an end. This is, as they would say, for all the marbles but do you believe that, Allesandro? Do you believe for it all to end like this?” I question. “I want to believe it, I want to know it comes to an end at Dreamworld, but you… You’ve taken it too personally, you’ve taken it to a new level, to a new height but I need to bring you to a new low.”
“This isn’t about Claudia, this isn’t about The Underworld but it’s about me. Just me, Allesandro, it’s all about me. I know where your focus lies, your focus lays on that briefcase in your hands and the American Dream Championship, that’s what it’s always been about. There was never a doubt that it’s been different, we’ve all known this since you won the damned thing. Ever since King of The World, you’ve become a liability to us and we all knew why you wanted to leave Trials of Seven early. It was never about Alyssa being eliminated early, you just wanted to freshen up for the inevitable, you wanted to wait and plan for the perfect moment but it was ruined for you, wasn’t it?”
“All of that and yet you still didn’t see why we did what we had to do.”
I lean forward, resting my arms on the altar.
“We cannot save you, enjoy the ride.” I whisper.
“You couldn’t see why we did it because your mind was somewhere else, Allesandro, you were thinking more of the positives for you. I know you. I see you. You didn’t want to be bounded by the chains that held you accountable for being that liability to us, and now that you’re free, you’re willing to haunt us- haunt me for all the wrongdoings we’ve done to you. It’s because of me that we’ve turned our backs on you, that’s what you’ll say but the harsh reality, Allesnadro, is that you turned your back on us and we did what we had to do. You HAD to be exiled before the inevitable, you’re either with us or you’re going to be against us and you were always fucking against us from the beginning.” The tone of my voice gets progressively louder with each sentence. “This was never about how you were going to grow into this ghost- this curse that’ll plague everyone within Wrestleworld, but it's always going to be about how you’ll take the biggest prize within Wrestleworld right now, the crown that rests within the castle, the American Dream Championship.”
“I could see the way you’d look at that title, Allesandro, I could always see how much you kept your eyes on the prize, even with that briefcase in your hands. It was always noticeable, but you never made it to be a chase for reality until now. But the chase for that reality was just too late, you’ve got Underworld at it’s strongest point and there’ll be nothing that’s going to change that. It’s about how you’re going to avoid everyone and everything in your path, right?” I ask. “It’s about how you’re going to find a way to make sure that there will be nothing more than a path of bodies laying in your wake and at the end of that path is Claudia and the title. How wrong your train of thoughts can get, Allesandro.”
“You’re willing to take us down, one by one, and haunt us until the day you become that champion. That’s what your mind is telling you, it’s speaking to you that you can take us all down because you are a god among us ‘mongrels’ but believe me, Allesandro, there’s no mongrel here. I don’t even think you understand what a mongrel is, do you? Clearly not, you’ve been using the word wrong this whole time. A mongrel is a cross-breed dog or in the terminology, you might be referring it to, a person of mixed descent.” I shake my head slowly from side to side. “For someone like you and the family you were raised by, you should consider yourself to be a mongrel yourself! I mean, didn’t your father married a couple of times? I’m sure he didn’t raise children with one woman, I’m sure he didn’t have you, Hale and Valkyria with one woman. Tell me, what is your mother doing now? I’ll assume she’s one of the dead wives that your father has. Such a pity, such a shame.”
“Maybe she’s better off being dead than to be married to that good for nothing scoundrel father of yours.”
I begin to laugh as I stand up straight from where I stand, I walk around the altar as I stand in front of it. I keep that wicked toothed smile on my face as I look around the church, in the background I can hear the priest shutting the back door closed as he leaves. I bring my right hand through my hair, all the way to the back of my head. For the matter at hand, I shouldn’t be smiling as I am but I cannot bring myself but to do so. I can feel a presence in the air, fueled with anger.
“This is the moment you've been waiting for.” I whisper again.
“Because of your family name, the heritage… the lineage… the namesake itself, you stand upon the same god complex as your father before you and you might complain that he was a man who’s done it all, won all these championships in his time but tell me where you stand again, Allesandro? You try to stand on the same god complex that your father once stood on and with every waking day that passes, you realise that you are not on the same level as him, you cannot fit into the same boots that he once wore. Hell, you don’t even dare to use the Devione name! Are you ashamed of the man that your father made you become? Ashamed of what you have become and knowing that you do not want to ruin the lineage of the Devione family.”
“Think about that, Allesandro, think about your brother. This was the city where I dropped him on his fucking head, and you know what, I could have done the same to your grandfather, I could have done the same thing to Salvatore Devione. What would your father say to you if I had done that? The man has already disowned you to the point you can’t use the fucking family name so why to bother now?” I smirk again. “Think of what Hale would say right now if he had seen the state you are in, think of what Valkyria would say to you right now, think of how disappointed your mother would be when she sees that her son is nothing more than the bastard son of some scoundrel and a whore, trying to make a name for himself by standing up against everyone and waiting to be knocked the fuck down but what he doesn’t realise is that his own insecurities wouldn’t be able to cope with the assault! When he finds out he is nothing more than a pissant peasant of a child who has done nothing more than to try and recreate the backbone of his father’s god complex to make his own but he knows he’s fucked when someone finally exploits his tactics, exploits his insecurities, EXPLOITS EVERY LITTLE FUCKING THING HE’S TRIED TO ACCOMPLISH! ALESSANDRO DEVIONE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A FUCKING COWARD, AN INSECURE LITTLE BASTARD CHILD WHO NEEDS THE VALIDATION FROM HIS FATHER THAT HE’S DOING WHAT IS RIGHT, THAT HE IS DOING WHAT HE DONE ALL THOSE YEARS AGO AND HE WON’T KNOW THE TRUTH UNTIL IT IS TOLD TO HIM!”
I stand there, breathing heavily as I try to calm myself down. The rush of energy that flowed through me felt amazing, it’s like a fresh new aura. That same wicked smile returns as I bring my left hand and gently caress it along my face and jawline.
“Allesandro, you asked for this to happen, and when Dreamworld comes, don’t go crying to your father when your entire ‘ego’ collapses within seconds.” I begin to chuckle once more. “Don't call it a warning, this is a war.”
I take one last deep breath before I begin my walk up the aisle of the church, my thoughts are clear… emptied… at peace. The scene slowly fades to black with myself walking out of the front doors of the church, leaving everything in silence as it once was before.