(IN)FINITE. [03: END OF DAYS.]

[Mav.]

The trouble of holding back all of the anger that has been caused with the constant questioning has grown immensely as each day goes by, as each question is thrown out there, as each person has opened up their own opinions on the matter at hand. Five people stood inside of the room with Jason as he took in the surroundings he found himself in at this very moment. Alyssa, a long-time friend and former flame to Jason—someone that’s always been there at his side for anything. Nathan, his younger brother. Lauren, the lover – the current flame by his side. Dominic, a known name that’s been by Jason’s side for years, both professionally and personally.

Yet, the fifth person in the room isn’t really someone that everyone else can truly see. Only he can see her. Having spent the past few weeks trying to figure out why he could hear her, why he could see her, why he could always sense her in any room he entered has left him more dumbfounded than before. Nonetheless, the tension within the room was razor thin, everyone had their concerns, everyone had voiced their opinions beforehand, but none were quite what he had envisioned his future to be set in stone as. Jason wanted to continue on as if nothing were happening, as if his neck was barely being held together, and that’s what terrified him the most — not the injury, but the worry of everyone around him.

These aren’t matters that anyone would know, these aren’t matters that Jack or Bobby would know. Cross is aware but he’s only known the minimal effect of what the future can be like. The last four months have been painful, yes. The last four months has left Jason in a very vulnerable position and most days, he is awoken as if he’s knocking on death’s door. Most notably, that’s when she began to appear all of a sudden. Is it a sign of some sort, was she stopping him from opening up that door and walking toward the light itself? Nothing was made sure and she won’t begin to admit the issue at hand. She might look toward him with a sense of dread but nothing would be confirmed or denied, he always continued to say that ‘it’s for the best if she doesn’t’, but how much longer can he handle not figuring out the truth?

She can’t break, there’s no possible way around it.

“Hey,” Alyssa spoke up, catching his attention almost immediately. “I know how you feel about the topic and everything else, but we need to figure out what you should do.” She took a seat in front of Jason, hands clasped together and a deep sigh was heard escaping her lips. “Please don’t get angry at us like how you’ve done with Lauren. We’re only here to help you out as much as we can.”

“The doctors continued to tell you time and time again that you cannot continue on how you’ve been going forward with wrestling. They told you to stop, they said that you cannot keep fighting their recommendation — it’s gone past that now,” Dominic soon spoke from behind Jason, though he didn't move his head to look in his direction, but focused on the woman in the room. “They want to force you to give it all up. That’s not something that we want to force onto you either but we’re not given much options.”

Lauren was the next to make her move, stepping in front of Jason and crouching down to meet his eye level, arms wrapping around his head gently. “I just want to see a perfect future for the two of us, Jason. I want to know what we’ve got awaiting us in our future and I need you there to see it.” The tears began to fill up her eyes, breaking down in front of him. “Don’t be so silly, Jason. I need you at your best, I can’t do this alone.”

“For god’s sake,” Nathan’s patience was wearing thin by how everyone had approached the subject at hand. He reached for his phone, switching the screen on and almost shoving the phone into Jason’s face. “That little girl, my daughter, loves to spend time with her uncle. Her only uncle, might I add. I can’t let you fucking ruin it for her because you made horrible fucking decisions in your life.” The phone falls almost perfectly into his hands. Jason stares down at the screen to the one-year-old child on the lock screen in the hands of his brother. “For once in your life, Jace… don’t be so fucking selfish.”

What followed was a brawl of words between Dominic, Alyssa, and Nathan. The tears were falling down along the face of Lauren, she was aware that nothing could save her dreams of the perfect future with the man she loved. Jason simply sat there, in silence, and a faint smirk was beginning to grow. Soon enough, that smirk grew into a full smile and even began to laugh maniacally. Nobody within the room was taking notice of his behaviour, but the woman in the corner of the room did. She took notice, and she grew the look of concern almost immediately. Jason can see that look for himself, he knew it was right in front of him, but all he could do was laugh and laugh and ... then he was slowly getting quieter all of a sudden. The smile was slowly fading away from his face until he had become expressionless, and his hand reached toward his chest.

Inside of his chest, he could feel the pressure being put through his heart. It was like a hand had reached inside of him and grabbed onto his beating heart, the grip on that hand was tightening very quickly, and the pain that followed was like that beating heart had been stabbed. It had become hard to breathe with how he had felt, a glance up to the woman in the room made him see the beaming light reaching out from behind her, from the sun, and it was coming closer and closer with each gasp for breath he attempted. Jason had slumped over onto his side but it seemed like everyone was more focused on themselves than himself.

Suddenly, he had awoken, in the middle of the night in his own bed, with Lauren fast asleep by his side. The horrific nightmare had come to an end for him but the sweat that fell from his head was all too real, as were the faint tight feeling he had within his chest. For only a second, it felt like, he was ready to find himself heading into the upper room.

And that was what terrified him the most.

—

“Do you understand the definition of the word ‘finite’, Jesse?”

His voice is the first thing that the camera feed picks up as we fade from black and into a brightened room. White on all four walls, floor, and even the ceiling. There, within the middle of the room, was the dark-suited Jason Long. His face was expressionless, though, he had stared directly into the lens of the camera recording him.

“Restricted. Limited. Bounded. We’re all aware of what infinite can mean, possibilities are endless with a word like that. However, I want to speak words that can mean something to someone, and when I speak of you, Jesse? I see nothing that is infinite in any manner.” He paused for a moment, shaking his head gently. “I’ve spent the past couple of weeks beginning to wonder when the journey might end, when the inevitable might happen, and when dreams can become our greatest nightmares — granted, my friend, I had hoped the day would come that we’d meet once again. I was surprised to see our names together for the first round knockout stages but to find ourselves crossing paths again, it’s like fate had brought us here for a reason.”

“I’m aware why you might not think the same, why you might see this as more of an opportunity to finish what you could’ve started in the first round, and why you might brush me aside as someone who you defeated before, defeated again, and can defeat once more to reach the finals. It’s quite the tale, Jesse, it really is.” A deep sigh is heard. “However,” he had paused in place. The room filled with silence almost immediately. “I don’t think you’re aware of the threat level you’ve wandered upon.”

A flick of the lights and the room immediately changes it’s decor, the walls – as white as they were – were slowly becoming more ‘bloodstained’ with each flicker of the lights.

“First round, you had deemed me as someone without hunger in him. In the first round, you were already seeing yourself going over me to prove a point. To see yourself standing over me once again as if it were a repeat of how it came to be at Night of Champions. That’s fair game. Though, you did see advancement first – I’m almost certain you stayed around to see who else was joining you.” Jason pointed his finger to the camera. “Let’s be honest here with ourselves, Jesse. I’ve spent quite a lifetime of mine becoming the best and becoming the worst. I’ve made a history of being overlooked, underachieved, and much more. You could sit there and say that you did defeat me at Night of Champions, but you never reached a goal, did you? You never saw yourself capture the crown that made you what you claimed to be.” He leaned in a little bit closer, his voice becoming a whisper. “I know a man is afraid to admit his faults when he does his best to brush them aside, from personal experiences.”

“You can sit there and sulk, asking yourself what you need to do in order to prove yourself, but rest assured, Jesse...” The silence filled the room once again, the lights began to flicker, and that’s when the smile appeared. “You were never cut from the same cloth as others who are intended to create success.”

The blood filled the room more and more, what was once a whitened room had become blood soaked, almost painted in the mysterious substance that laid under the footing of The Last Breathing Mercenary. His smile, however, came off sinisterly as the blood seemed to have stained his face.

“How can anyone be willing to believe a man who makes all of these claims and yet, has not been able to fully back them up? You’ve treated so many with the threat of the violent grave, and even told others that you’ve put me into one, but here I stand before you with one more chance.” Jason scoffed to himself, “I wouldn’t call it a chance though, more so a lesson to be learned.” He shook his head from side to side, the smile growing more. “Your chances of trying to get into my head over time has come up empty handed in a way, because you’ve not been able to get anything right and that sickens me. Remember when you told me that I honoured everything to my ‘wife’, remember when you told everyone that I was buried along with the rest in your special grave, or just about whatever nonsense you can come up with?”

“You always come up wrong.”

“I don’t need to explain myself in that matter either, because you’ve always been wrong for as long as you’ve chased the sun, hoping to find something that helps you regain momentum and the dagger that stabs into anyone who’s doubted the name of the ‘King of Hardcore’, but you’ve never found a way to capture the crown.” He shrugged his shoulders. “The only way you’ve come close was last week. In a non-title match.” Once again, his shoulders are just shrugged. “At this rate, Jesse, it becomes embarrassing to watch you try so much but end up falling at the final hurdle that completes your task. You’ve set yourself out to make the impossible task happen. You wanted to be a king of something. That was never going to work out in your favour because it never helps prove anything.”

“You’ve left yourself restricted. You’ve left yourself limited. You’ve left yourself bounded.” A slight smirk appears upon his lips. “In a world filled with endless opportunities for anyone to accomplish, you chase after the pity crown so you can hold a name unlike any other has been able to. You’ve trapped yourself in a corner, you can’t find the escape from the void you’ve fallen into, whereas I?” He questioned, for a moment, but then the smile appeared once again. “I’ve had endless opportunities, a lifetime supply of chances, an infinite rate of success. That is what has gotten me to this very point, that’s what has brought me from our first meeting to now. You can close the casket but nothing can seal it shut because I have every chance in the world to pick myself back up and not worry for the consequences that follow.”

Jason sighed, gesturing toward the camera. “You, on the other hand, have a reputation to uphold.”

“You begin to question if it’s all worth it at the very end: no, it hasn’t been at all.” He began to laugh, almost hysterically. “So when you find yourself out there this weekend, ask yourself how much further you can continue being finite with your options.” He taps the side of his head. “Think about it longer than you need to.”

“My journey began with my downfall, my journey will end with one hand on the End of Days winnings. With such infinite possibilities, I can do whatever the fuck I might want. And honestly, I see what’s in store for myself, Jesse.” He raises a finger. “Defeat Death Trap or Jack Diamond.” And then a second. “Defeat Cross Recoba.” And finally, a third. “Take back my fucking crown, it’s all so simple to map out. I don’t think you’ve even reached that far yet, have you? You’ve not thought ahead of what you can do. So focused on trying to be someone you can’t. Forcing yourself to be someone you can’t accomplish.”

The flicker of the lights continued, but soon enough, the blood was all gone, the room was back to normal once again. It was as if it never existed to begin with. Jason stepped closer toward the camera and the stern look in his eyes was clear to see.

“You dug yourself into that violent grave, and you can lay in the dirt you dug for others.”

“And think about where it all went wrong for you.”

The feed, at this point, had turned to static—wiping away any visual seen before the clean cut to black.