Dedication to those past-I will claim my place on top of FWA

[Dylan]

JANUARY 23, 2018, 5:15 PM

** Fade in **

We open outside of a dark, run down cathedral, in the early part of dusk. The cameraman circles around the front of the cathedral, before picking up on the front door being slightly ajar and light coming from it. The camera moves forward as you hear a light crunching from the cameraman's footsteps. He slowly creaks open the door to give us a full view of the innards of the cathedral. What appeared to be dark and dreary on the outside is very bright and colorful. Almost offsets the exterior. Up the center walkway, there’s a man clad in blue jeans, combat boots, and a black tank top kneeling in front of the altar. His head is bowed so we cannot tell who. They are mumbling something, the camera barely being able to pick up much of what is said.

Unknown: …I pray…safety…FWA…Supremacy…Amen.

The man stands up and turns to a preacher/minister/some sort of religious looking character, shaking his hand and somewhat bowing his head to him. The man of religious authority smiles and says a few words to the other man. The man who was praying grabs a leather jacket and sunglasses and puts them both on. He turns around and is revealed to be Dylan Black. He walks right by the cameraman and down the long aisle, acting as if that cameraman isn’t even there. He continues walking, with the cameraman giving chase.

Cameraman: Dylan! Dylan Black! Mr. Black?

The cameraman keeps calling out to Black as he just simply walks away, either ignoring or not hearing the man shouting behind him. Black continues walking out, the cameraman in full pursuit. He hops into an unmarked, black car, and peels off, leaving the cameraman in a cloud of dust.

** Fade out, then fade in **

We open this time in a graveyard, Black is kneeling in front of a gravestone, with his head bowed. The camera pans behind him to read the stone.

FRANK M. [REDACTED]

JANUARY 1, 1940 - JULY 25, 2017

He places his hand on the gravestone, brushing off some of the light snow that has accumulated on it(does it snow in South Carolina?) and a light drizzle begins to fall from the sky. He takes a moment to remember some fond memories of his grandfather, smiling as he sinks into remembrance. He then frowns as the feed shimmers into a sad flashback.

FLASHBACK

JULY 29, 2017

It’s a hot summer day in South Carolina, as we begin during a military funeral. The servicemen lower a casket into the ground and the camera pans to a man standing behind all the crying faces. In an all black suit, with black aviators and his hair tied back in a ponytail, is Dylan Black, stone faced and not moving. As they finally lower the casket into the ground and begin to bury it, people begin to leave. Time progresses to showcase everyone leaving.. everyone except Black. A few hours pass and he just stands there, staring at the grave, soaking in the death of his grandfather. He then kneels down and puts his hand on the gravestone that signifies where his grandparents are buried. We then fade back into the present, with Black in the same position.

PRESENT DAY

JANUARY 23, 2018

Black pulls his hand off the gravestone and stands up, looking down upon the sacred sound where his grandparents were buried. A hand appears on his shoulder and he turns. It’s his girlfriend, Margaret.

Margaret: Come on, baby. You got a show to prepare for.

Black nods, and turns around. Getting into their unmarked car again and driving into the distance.

** Cuts to black, then a glass shatter effect starts the next scene **

We fade back in once again, to Dylan Black is seen stumbling through a dark, midnight dreary forest. He seems to have no idea where he’s going and some could say he’s even fearful of his surroundings. On the ground, there’s dead leaves and some drops of blood. The trees are bare, almost dead, just branches reaching towards the sky begging for life with weakened support from the trunks. This scenery spells out nothing but depression and death. The only noises are the crunches from whatever Black steps on, some cricket chirping. Everything is in black and white, like an old timey silent movie.

Back to Black, he’s now running through the forest like a bat out of hell now, trying to find an escape from this nightmarish landscape, from this Hell. There seems to be no end to this place, just an endless amount of trees. Black stops to take a breather, leaning against a tree, when down from the tree into his hands falls a severed head. He screams, dropping it, and runs and runs and keeps on running. He reaches a broken bridge and, not stopping to think, runs and jumps. Mid jump, he realizes he miscalculated the distance and falls into the small river below it with a big SPLASH! Black lays panting in the river before sitting up, holding his head. He takes his hand away and there is blood on his hand. He is bleeding from the back of his head. He stands up, a bit wobbly, sighs, and climbs up slowly out of the river. He stands up and looks up to see a clearing in the distance. Thinking this’ll be the way out out this devilish place, he starts to hobble towards the clearing.

When he gets to the clearing, there is a lone tree in the middle of the empty area. He walks up to it and walks around the tree, seeing nothing unusual, and sits down by the tree. He closes his eyes for a few moments and…

THUD!!

Black jumps up. He looks around, and sees nothing unusual still, then leans against the tree.

THUD!!

Black knows now something is up, so he looks around, and still sees nothing. He takes a few steps back from the tree. Nothing happens. He shrugs, closes his eyes, lets his guard down…..

THUD!!

Black opens to his eyes and to his horror, sees a girl in the tree, hanging by a noose. He runs up to her and checks her vitals, to see if she’s still alive, if she can be saved. She can not. Her life has been stripped from her now. Black begins to freak out a bit, as he recognizes the girl as his sister. He closes his eyes and a tear falls from his eye, and when he re-opens his eyes he’s not in the forest clearing anymore, but instead in a warehouse. There is a small light coming from Black’s left and fearing the worst, he walks towards it. He picks it up and shines it on a switch and as he flips the switch, the flashlight that was emitting the earlier light flickers out. The room Black “teleported” is a fairly small warehouse storage facility. There is a young man lying on the ground in the middle of the room, and he appears to have a gunshot wound in his head, his brains scattered on the ground. It’s a bloody, gory mess. Black falls to his knees beside him, screaming.

Black: “IT WASN’T MY FAULT! IT’S NOT MY FAULT!”

He repeats those lines over and over again, until he looks up through teary eyes, and he sees a noose and a stool. He determinedly walks over to it, stands on the stool, and just as he’s about to put the noose around his neck, the floor falls out from under him and he falls through a portal-looking tunnel. No one can make heads or tails of what’s going on until…

JANUARY 24, 2018. 1:26 AM

THUMP!!

Black wakes up in a cold sweat, in his hotel room. It was all just a dream. A nightmare. He rubs his eyes and gets up, walking to the bathroom of his hotel room. He stares at himself in the mirror, his hair matted and his eyes tired. He turns on the faucet and splashes some water in his eyes. He gets back in the bed and lays next to Margaret. He then softly begins to sing

Carry on my wayward son,

There’ll be peace when you are done.

Lay your weary head to rest,

Don’t you cry no more.

** Fade out, then fade in yet again **

JANUARY 27TH, 2018

We see Black and Margaret driving down a highway, a day before XHF: Supremacy. They drive by a sign that reads “Welcome to Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

Black: We’re almost there. Tomorrow, I’ll be walking out with the FWA Firestorm Heavyweight Championship, as well as those XHF Tag Team Championships.

Margaret: You’ll have to be careful, babe. Two back to back matches. Start out in the triple threat, then the tag fatal fourway, and if you’re lucky, progress to fight the GUNs for their belts.

Black: I don’t need luck. The stars have aligned, and for the first time in years, the gods are looking down upon me and have decided to grant me with the strengths I’ll need to destroy all 9 men and 1 woman who stand in my way.

Margaret: You really need to play it safe. They know you have two matches so if those Bruce McClane and Lethe people were smart, they’d decommission you early. Leave Dackle to fend for himself as you’re weakened.

Black: If they want the XHF Tag Team Championships to come home to FWA, they won’t. I don’t know much about this McClane fella, but Lethe.. Oh boy. She’s had some harsh things to say about me. Think I should retort to her, and McClane too, since he talked about me.

Margaret: Well, do it right now! Pull over and let me drive, and you can record with your phone and post it online. Think of it like one of those Shield promos you fancied a few years ago.

Black: Nah, gotta be more original than that. Besides, I made a call to Mongo, he arranged a little something-something for my promo to them.

** A dark cloud of smoke overtakes the screen, sending us into complete blackness and transitioning us into the final scene **

We cut in to a semi-pitch black room, with very few distinguishable features. It looks like there’s a rocking chair with someone possibly sitting in it, and when the camera moves up, there seems to be a light hanging from some fixture on the ceiling, with a short chain hanging beside it to turn it on and off. A figure stands from the chair and pulls the switch, revealing Dylan Black clad in his new ring gear, but no war paint. The room is very similar to the little shack where Sister Abigail was buried/burned alive. He sits back down in the rocking chair, rocking back and forth as the chair makes squeaking noises. Black, however… he just stares off into space, like he doesn’t even realise he’s being filmed. He keeps rocking the chair, before he finally takes a deep breath and begins to speak.

Black: There’s been a lot on my mind lately. A lot of deaths from my past, including my sister, my best friend, and most recently, my grandfather. I know they’d be cheering me on if they were still with us, but they aren’t. They have passed on to the afterlife, and will be watching from the heavens above as I ascend my throne of FWA.

Black stands up and picks up his weapon of choice, Crimson. He smiles, and looks into the camera.

Black: There’s a lot of people saying I don’t deserve to be in this match, that I got my one shot on episode 3 and now it’s time to hit the end of the line. Well, might I remind you, folks, that I was not involved in the official decision for that match! It was Lethe pinning AK Andrews to the mat, 1… 2… 3… So, I wasn’t even planning on being involved in this match, I just wanted to focus on my XHF Tag Team Championship match, and I get a call from Duke. And he says Jackson Grace, the original third participant to this match, has been moved to the X*Crown match, and I have replaced him. So, it turns out that I finally get my shot at Lethe. Not exactly one on one as I’d prefer, but I’ll take any shot at that Firestorm Heavyweight Championship.

Black cricks his neck in that eerie way that he does, and sits back in his chair, giving a light smile. An almost genuine, but barely visible, barely there smile.

Black: Now, Lethe, or Emerald or Phobia, whichever name you decide to go by, I gotta admit. You are one tough cookie. During your short tenure here, you’ve gone undefeated, tangled with some of the biggest and baddest people here, yet somehow Lady Luck always shines on you and allows you to prevail.

You did mention something that did peak my interest. In our first scheduled match, you were unfairly dismantled by that big bastard, Rob Wyatt, and I felt a twinge of sympathy. I didn’t want an easy pass to the finals, I told everyone I came here to prove I am a bonafide main event star, and I’ll be damned if I would’ve taken the easy road to glory. No, I enjoy the pain, the suffering, having to work to earn my place. And I wasn’t going to let Rob Wyatt take those feelings away from me!

Dylan Black takes a deep breath to calm himself down, and looks dead into the camera with his cold, dead, blue and white eyes.

Black: Things have come full circle now, Lethe. You are a champion. A double champion, actually, So you have progressed from the clueless little girl coming in with no idea what in the hell she’s thinking. No, you’re now the biggest fish in the FWA sea, and there’s a predatory creature with his sights on you. Two, actually, but one’s a little too formally dressed, so to say. Our official first fight, I will admit, I took you more lightly then I should have. I now know what to expect. And I bet you’re there, thinking “Well I know what to expect too,” you don’t. You really don’t. I like to change things up, match to match, I’m unorthodox, a bit on the wild side. I know you’re on top of the FWA mountain, soaking in the first sunshine you’ve seen in years, with all the adoring fans, but I have better things to do then stand around waiting for your moment to end. There’s a brass ring being dangled in front of my face by you, and if that ring were a human, I’d grab it by the throat, pull it down, and take what’s rightfully mine, the FWA Firestorm Heavyweight Championship!

There is a fire in Dylan Black’s eyes, a spark in his soul that he hasn’t felt in years, and he loves this feeling. There’s a burning passion, an overflowing amount of confidence radiating off of him and for once, he feels more than ready more then prepared, to meet his goal and conquer the challenge that stands in front of him. He then stands up and paces about the room, with a smug look upon his face.

Black: Of course! I almost forgot, this is a triple threat match! And in third place, with very little acknowledgement because he’s just that forgettable, Mr. Bruce McClane! This lad here, he fucking calls himself the son, THE SON, of a god damn movie character! I don’t know if this man is delusional, or if he wants to latch onto the success of the best damn Christmas movie of all time! But it seems this Bruce fella, is actually the cousin of my own partner in darkness! Now, from my first impression, McClane, you seem like the kind of guy who would let yourself get your arse handed to ya by Lethe, just so you can smile at the kiddies and say “I’ve never hit a woman before.” Look pal, you’re in the wrestling world. We’re paid to beat the crap out of whoever they tell us to. We get in that ring and duke it out, no matter the gender of our victim. It, it, it’s like survival of the fittest. You either adapt or perish, eat or be eaten. It’s not about morals, it's about who is the best in the fucking world inside that squared circle. And son, it doesn’t seem like you make the cut.

Black sits back down in the chair and pushes his mop of hair out of his face. He then leans Crimson against his chair and sighs.

Black: Ya know, if there was one moment I could bring my deceased sister, best friend, and grandfather back for, it’s this match. I want them to be physically here for me. But they won’t. Claimed too early, they were. They’ll be with me in spirit, as some deities from the afterlife. Well, Grandpa, I’ll have you with me at least.

Dylan Black reaches under his shirt and pulls out a pendant. Upon closer inspection, it’s revealed to say “THIS CONTAINS THE ASHES OF FRANK M. [REDACTED]” or some shit like that, whatever those ash pendants say on them. He pulls off the necklace and stares at it, before shaking his head and putting it back on. He looks into the camera one final time.

Black: Lethe. McClane. I pray for your safety in the FWA Firestorm Heavyweight Championship match at Supremacy, because I will be unleashing my inner demons upon you, and it will be a spectacle unlike anything you have ever seen before. With the spirits as my witness, I will regnet exitium. I will let destruction reign, let ruin fall upon Minneapolis and the XHF, because.. Darkness? It will envelop, it will consume, and it will end those who stand in its way.

The scene finally fades out, with Black rocking in his rocking chair and cackling away like a madman, while the Darkness logo overlays the Supremacy posted featured on the screen.