Post by Dathyn on Jan 31, 2016 23:55:10 GMT -6
The Calm Before The Storm
"If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. If one break a man's bone, they shall break his bone…”
-The Code of Hammurabi
--
The sun beat down upon his brow, sweat saturated his forehead, and what wasn’t condensed to the skin fell to the broken Earth beneath him. The ground was a host to a myriad of fluids, a canvas to his art – a testament to his power, a tribute to his rage. His fist, broken, yet glorious, remained clenched as he drove his hand into the air, with a cry of victory. His body was stained with the blood of his fallen adversary, an attire he is used to wearing.
A throbbing pain on the back of his head followed his victory scream, as he looked around. The fans were on their feet. Years of booing him, years of hating him – erased with this victory. He looked at what was now his, what was his empire, what he had earned. The air was thick, thick with the smell of death, and that air quickly filled the champion’s lungs as he inhaled; but he accepted that breath nonetheless, for that tainted, toxic air was his doing. He walked in a circle, admiring his handiwork. He stopped and stared down at a man, on both knees, severely injured.
Tyler Storm stood before him, clutching his Eye for an Eye title belt to his chest, barely breathing. The warrior stood before the broken down former champion. He took a knee and brought his hand to the chin of Tyler. ‘The Hybrid’ trembled ever so slightly upon the touch of the calloused ‘Visionary of Wrestling.’
“The end must come for all of us. Your story will be remembered. Allow me to save you.” Tyler nodded his head, knowing his time had come, knowing the torch had to be passed on. Moments later, Dathyn plunged a sword through Tyler’s chest, taking his life and his title; redeeming Tyler’s soul.
--
“Do I have to keep doing this? This is so boring.” Ryan continued to polish my wrestling boots, staring up at me and hoping that I’ll cave in. It’s funny, for the life of me, I do not see the resemblance between Heath Williams and his bastard child. But I guess I’ve been more of a father to Ryan this past week than Heath has ever been.
“Can you see your face in them? No? Then keep going. You can stop then.” Ryan, though young, was a smart kid. He was also the perfect leverage to use against Hardcore Heath, and was the absolute easiest avenue to take in mentally tearing Heath apart. You see, Ryan hates Heath, far more than I ever could. Heath’s abandoned the kid twice. Not once, but twice; I’m beginning to wonder how I’m viewed as the villain in our little feud. But hey, the ‘father of the year’ award runs in Heath’s blood. At least Heath’s father stuck around, despite being an abusive crackhead and overall leach of society.
Puerto Rico was a wonderful place, especially if you know where to go. Personally, I like to stay clear of the touristy spots, and I like to hang out with the locals. I like to embrace their culture, and add it to my repertoire of experiences. So there I sat, at the wooden table (mahogany, I believe), of the hotel where me and my entourage were staying. By that, I mean me, Grace and Ryan. Grace was passed out from our morning training session, and Ryan, of course was cleaning my boots. I figured, he’s never done a chore in his entire life because of his absent father, so we may as well catch up now.
The room was dimly lit, but very well furnished. Paintings on every wall, two beds, a cot and a couch. A fridge full of alcohol (thank God, I couldn’t put up with these two while sober), and a flat screen TV were the saving graces of this room.
They say we have nothing to fear but fear itself. They say that we can overcome any fear, any obstacle put in our path with enough hard work, perseverance and dumb luck. They say that like a Phoenix, we can rise from our own ashes and create a better self in our darkest hour. Even with our hands tied, our back against the wall, our body broken and our eyes blinded, we can achieve anything we want.
Well they’re wrong.
People would like to have you believe that anything is possible, and that there truly is nothing to fear but fear itself. Well, half that statement is correct. The first half. And because the first half is correct, the second half is false. Anything is possible, which means that the amount of pain and suffering that can be inflicted, the amount of unfortunate events, the amount of death, is truly limitless. So no, fear is not the only thing to fear, as there are much more unimaginable actions that could be taken.
Last Breakthrough, I saw the elements of fear in the eyes of two men on two separate occasions. The first was after my match with Cera, after I picked her apart and in an act of cowardice, she intentionally got herself disqualified. Cera knew that if our match continued down the road that it was going, her doom was inevitable. She understood that, and thought she could save face by getting herself disqualified, rather than taking a loss like an honorable warrior. But there is no honor in this business, so despite her act of cowardice, I respect her for that. She knew she couldn’t win, so she took fate in her own hands and smacked it with a sledgehammer. What she didn’t know, was she was the perfect catalyst to me executing my plan. Once Heath stormed the ring, I knew that I was going to be outgunned and outmanned by he and the traitorous Cera, so I had a card up my sleeve.
Enter Ryan Gallagher. He was my secret weapon against Heath. I knew, deep down inside, underneath all of his inadequacies as a man, all of his short-comings and failures, Heath was a good person – which I am not. So, unfortunately for him, I will use his humanity against him, and I will throw his son in his face every chance I get. I wonder how it feels to know that your son is a bigger fan of your rival than he is of you? To know that the man you hate most, is the man raising your son now. After only a little research, I located Heath’s son and his family, threw money at them, and now I have their son for a bit. I’ll tell you what, Heath sure knows how to pick ‘em. And as Ryan stood in front of Heath, defending me from an assault, I saw the look in Heath’s eyes: fear.
“Are you still having him polish your shoes? The hell’s wrong with you?” Ah, the sunshine of my life has awoken, and here comes the unrelenting judgment. Grace vacated the bed she was sleeping on and waltzed over to me. “You trying to impress Tyler? Maybe blind him with the glare from your boots?” I highly doubt that I’ll have to blind him to drive him through a table. But the first half of that question was interesting.
Perhaps not so much impress him, but I was very interested to have this match. Very rarely, do I get the opportunity to wrestle someone who I actually respect. Tyler defeated me, he defeated me fair, and was the first person in VOW to do so. I also have defeated him, so that makes us one for one. I guess you could say that we’ve taken one another’s eyes. The score being ‘tied’ so to speak was the only reason that I didn’t lay him out in the center of the ring at the past Breakthrough. Part of me believes that he was expecting a fight, but I wanted to keep it respectful – partly to throw him off. And as I shook his hand, I caught a glimpse, maybe just a flicker even, of fear in his eyes. You know what they say about eyes: they’re windows to the soul.
The fact that this match is a tables match doesn’t bother me as much as I’m sure most people would think that it would. I’m the type of wrestler who’s proven time and again that I can win under any circumstances. Sure, do I relish the checkmate of submitting opponents? Yeah. But putting Tyler Storm through a table would also probably sexually arouse me as well.
Slowly, I began clearing off the table, without responding to Grace, of course. Before last Breakthrough, she and I worked on conquering pain, which, I would say is a success. She definitely has a few more scars than she’d like, but I’m just breaking her in. Once the table was cleared off, I got up from it and stared at Grace. “Today, we will work on fear. I want you to put yourself through this table.” Silence.
“I can’t do that.”
“You can’t? Or you won’t?” She hesitated as I asked that question. I inched towards her, eye to eye with her at this point, my hand wrapped around her wrist. I repeated myself, something I am not used to doing. She stared me right in the eye and mouthed the words: I won’t. I released her wrist and smiled at her.
“You’re a quick learner. Most people wouldn’t have thought about being afraid of me, even though they are, deep down inside. You picked that up quick. You see, fear comes from a place of insecurity, a place of falsehoods. When you’re honest with yourself, fear ceases to exist. Unfortunately, most people are not honest, and that is why they posses fear.”
As I finished my lecture, Ryan ran over to me and shyly asked: “They call you the magician, can you show me a magic trick?” A smile crept across my face as I kneeled down, my eyes resting on the son of my rival, before reaching behind his ear and pulling a coin out from behind it before giving him a wink.
After Double Jeopardy, they will not call me ‘the magician,’ they will refer to me as their Eye for an Eye champion as they kneel before me. They say that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, and if that is the case, I’m not only fine, but I welcome that. I have lived my entire life blinded from all the joys of the world, and would gladly lead the blind through the harsh realities of the world.