Mr. X (Part 4: Smoke & Mirrors)

A towering, dark clothed figure descends a set of rotten wooden stairs in an eerie and disconsolate basement. As whistling begins to fill the empty silence you can tell that it’s a man by the tone of voice. Wearing a plain black hooded all in one, he blends in with the surroundings.

His steel-toe capped boots arrive on the concrete ground with a thud and each step he takes causes a further thud, each one seemingly growing louder and louder. A bulb hangs from above in the middle of this fairly comfortable sized room. It’s spacious but the dimly lit atmosphere causes a claustrophobic feeling.

A muffled cry is heard in the corner of the room as the dominant figure stands underneath the light. He stops whistling and points in the direction of the noise and heads into the darkness towards it. The cry rises in volume before the man enters the light once again, this time with a handful of long, sticky, unwashed hair that is attached to a young, female body. It’s a woman with duct tape covering her mouth and her hands tied behind her back with rope also tying her feet together. Going by her grubby face and torn clothes, she has been here for a considerable amount of time.

With one hand already occupied, the hooded man drags a table underneath the light and throws the woman on to it. He unravels her tied feet and hands and straps her to the table; not without a struggle first.

Once the job is done the dejected woman calms down and turns her head to look into the black background. The light above now reveals a more detailed look at her horrid conditions. The man in black from head to toe, with his face hidden in the darkness of the hood, moves in on her face and breathes heavily which causes her to cringe. He strokes the hair out of her depressed face and returns to a standing stance. He then begins to speak out loud with a deep, very dark sounding voice.

“I just got off the phone to your husband, Ling. He has been a bad boy this week. After two weeks of helping me build my bank balance up he goes and ruins it but losing to Lucas McCann. Not only did Ziu kill one bet of mine but in doing so he also killed another. I needed a win and I needed a win by submission and I what did I get? A loss. Two bets and two losses. He is so lucky that I held back on putting a larger amount on the bets at the last minute. If I didn’t I would be pretty much broke right now.”

Since the beginning of October, VoW superstar Ziu Zhong has been following orders from Mr. X. Ziu’s wife, Ling was kidnapped by a Mr. X and he promised to keep her unharmed as long as Ziu did as he was told. Mr. X placed various bets on VoW to make up the money he had lost and Ziu had to make sure they went through successfully. Everything was going smoothly up until last time out at Breakthrough 17 when Ziu failed.

Mr. X circles the table and when he reaches the side that Ling is facing she swiftly moves her face to the opposite side. Looking into the eyes of Mr. X only gives him more arrogance, power and adrenaline.

“That’s money lost, Ling, and I don’t like losing money. We were building up to a great, interesting moment at Darkest Hour but it was all ruined thanks to your husband. What an inconsistent liability that man is. Don’t Ziu care that I have his pregnant wife?”

Mr. X shakes his hooded head before whistling off into the darkness once again. A bunch of keys begin to rattle and this causes Ling to jump. A creaky door is opened and a squeaky trolley rolls out and ends its journey next to Ling who looks on in horror at what she sees. She tries to wriggle free but to no avail.

“Oh, you like my tools do you?”

Mr. X laughs out loud as the muffled crying begins again. Lying just inches from her head could be a scene from a sick horror film. A chainsaw takes up most of the room with the sharp, grisly cutter shining bright beneath the hanging light bulb. Alongside it are knives, a wrench, a hammer, an eye clamp, and various other equipment used to butcher someone. By the time Ling’s eyes reach the end of the table of goodies, Mr. X is standing there with his hands reaching down to pick up two identical cleavers; rectangular bladed knives. He scraps them together and looks into Ling’s bulging eyes.

“My favorite.”

Mr. X walks around the table once again and leans into Ling’s face.

“VERY close and personal these are.”

Ling twists her body in all sorts of angles but there is no way she is getting off this table. Her wrists and ankles begin to glow red beneath the dim light but the pain is nothing like what she could experience with the tools in Mr. X’s hands.

“I warned Ziu not to mess with me, Ling. I told him to get the job done each week and the quicker he did it the quicker you got returned to him. He obviously doesn’t love you if he goes around letting Lucas McCann defeat him. What was he playing at? If your wife is kidnapped and her life depended on you winning a match, regardless of who you’re up against, you’re going to win, aren’t you?”

Mr. X sharpens the cleavers in his hand once again, scrapping the steel together seductively. He is enjoying this a little too much.

“Maybe Ziu isn’t strong enough to get the job done. Maybe he can’t handle the pressure? Either way, this situation is not working. All bets are now off.”

Mr. X leans over Ling once again with his dirty, stale breath. He stays there for a little too long for Ling’s liking. As he pulls away he also pulls the duct tape away from her mouth, the meat cleavers just inches from her skull in case she does anything stupid.

“What have you got to say for yourself?”

“Why…are…you…you…you…”

“Come on girl, don’t stutter.”

“Why…are…you…doing…this…to…me? Me…want…my…husband…back.”

“I knew you’d bore me.”

Mr. X shoves the duct tape back over her mouth rather forcefully.

“I’ve told you, bitch. I'm in it for the money. That's why you're here. Your precious Ziu was meant to follow some simple instructions but he just couldn't do it, could he? So I can't see you leaving anytime soon; not until we get to the bottom of this.”

Mr. X starts to walk around the table again, each thud ending the silence.

“You’ll be pleased to hear that your husband is actually on his way here. For the last assignment against Lucas McCann I emailed him instead of calling so he hadn’t heard from me for a month. A whole month. I could feel the stress through the phone call. It may have been the reason why he lost. So I thought it would be best to invite him here and get this sorted once and for all. He knows that there will be no more bets and he will be here any minute now. We have to find another solution because this plan obviously failed.”

Mr. X lays the cleavers back on the table of tools and whips out a box of cigarettes from his pocket and lights one up. He takes a long, drawn out puff before blowing the smoke into Ling’s face, causing her to cringe.

“Whilst we wait for your husband to arrive why don’t we watch his promo this week?”

Mr. X. takes a few steps further into the darkness and suddenly a light grows in strength as a laptop screen arises. With a few clicks on the VoW website Mr. X lands himself on the Ziu Zhong promo for Darkest Hour.

“Let’s see what excuses he comes up with this week. ‘McCann got lucky’. ‘McCann beat me again but I’m still better than him’. Yeah, yeah, Ziu; be the better man will you.”

Mr. X sits on the edge of Ling’s table blowing smoke into the dark air. They both watch on as Ziu Zhong’s face shows up on the laptop screen. Tears flow down Ling’s face as she watches on.

The setting on the laptop is in the familiar surroundings of Ziu’s dark and dingy gym, with a ring in the middle of the room and various weights in the background. Sitting on a bench, Ziu is lifting weights under the faint light that just about reaches him from above the ring. He is looking into the floor as he welcomes the wrestling world.

“It has all come down to this.”

Ziu Zhong, the number one contender for the Zero Gravity Championship, rests the dumbbell on the floor. He rubs a towel over his face before looking into the cameras lens with determination and focus.

“All the work I have done so far in VoW all comes down to this Monday night. For every mile I have travelled, every match I have trained for and every opponent I have battled against, it all comes down to this match. Shane Sparx. One on one. Zero Gravity Championship belt on the line. There can only be one winner.”

The centipede looks away into the darkness. Could he find hope there before Darkest Hour?

“Last week was disappointing.”

Ziu Zhong, our very own Mr. Selfie returns his sight from the darkness and stares directly into the camera.

“I put a lot of work into my match against Lucas McCann but couldn’t find the win. He’s a tricky opponent but one that appeared to put on a repeat performance from our first match three months ago. I’m not talking about the result, no; I’m talking about Zhu Zhu pets. In our first match Lucas banged on about Zhu Zhu pets and Chinese food. Now this past week he goes and does the exact same thing for our second match. How creative of you, Lucas. You stood in a toy store and talked about relevance next to a mechanical pet hamster. Where’s the relevance in that? If standing in a store and talking about something that has no relation to his opponent whatsoever apart from a similar name gets you wins then maybe we should all run on down to Toys-R-Us before Darkest Hour?”

Ziu Zhong looks down at the dumbbell beneath him and shakes his head in disbelief at the outcome of his match against Lucas. All that training and...nothing.

“In fact, Zhu Zhu isn’t even similar to my name. Ziu is pronounced ‘sigh’ with a Z or simply ‘Zi’. Where the hell does Zhu Zhu come into it? It’s a f****** robotic hamster for crying out loud.”

Ziu shakes his head once again but this time it causes a snigger.

“VoW management fell for that one, but at the end of the day, I clearly wasn’t up to the job. My inconsistency was proved yet again and I go back to the drawing board. Lucas was the better man and we all move on.”

Double Z reaches down and picks up an energy drink and squirts it into his mouth before continuing.

“I wanted three wins out of three before Darkest Hour but it wasn’t meant to be. Some people have been questioning why I reacted the way I did after the my last match ended and that was the reason. After my loss to Berlin Anderson I said to myself, I need to prove to VoW that I’m still worthy of my Zero Gravity Championship title shot and that’s why I went straight to Stefan Frei. He did reject my suggestion of having to win all three matches leading up to Darkest Hour to get my title shot, but in my mind it was still there. What happens now that I lost? Well I feel that I have proved myself enough to have earned my title shot. When I’m backstage everyone always pats me on the back and tells me well done for putting that request out there and how brave I am. I don’t want all the plaudits; I just want to prove to the fans that I deserve my title shot. It appears that I have done that and regardless of the loss, and thanks to Stefan rejecting my request, I now head into VoW’s fourth PPV as the number one contender for the Zero Gravity Championship. Bring your best Shane, that’s all I ask. I want to say that I beat the champ at his best.”

Ziu motions his hands around his waist to symbolize that he is coming for Shane’s belt.

“Early in my VoW career I won the Quest for the Case and that’s what has led me here today. Although it feels like ages ago, that was a strenuous match to get through so early in my career. I proved my potential and now I’m starting to deliver that and show more and more each week what I’m about. Shane will see the whole package this Monday night.”

Zhong rubs the towel over his face once again, wiping away further sweat from his workout.

“Shane Sparx, you have no idea what I’m feeling right now. You have no idea what I’m going through. All the anger inside of me will be taken out on you this coming week. I’m walking out of Darkest Hour with gold around my waist, and that’s a promise. A promise to the fans that travel to come and watch me at every single event. The men and women who applaud me, sing and chant my name and give me a standing ovation. The fans who sing along to my entrance theme. A promise is a personal guarantee and I give that to my fans that I will walk out of Darkest Hour as the Zero Gravity champion.”

The Centipede clinches his right fist and pats his chest in a sign of respect to his fans.

“Shane, Monday night will be your Darkest Hour, but it will be my brightest hour. I’ve got nothing to lose but everything to gain. You have everything to lose.”

Ziu stands up with the towel traipsed over his shoulders.

“Like you partner Lucas likes to repeatedly say, Shane, go ahead and take a few selfies of yourself with that belt because by the end of Darkest Hour you won’t be wearing it.”

Mr. X is standing by the laptop and he pushes the screen down to end the promo and sends the room back to its original dark and dreary set.

“He looks focused, huh Ling? It’s a shame he wasn’t that focused last week when he was getting his ass handed to him by Lucas McCann.”

During the promo Mr. X had finished his cigarette. He starts to circle the table once again that Ling remains on, picking up his trusty meat cleaver duo along the way. After a moment of silence and a few circuits of the table, Mr. X finds himself standing roughly halfway up Ling’s body. He stares into her eyes but she won’t return the favor. Mr. X smiles as he notices a presence in the room.

“Oh look, Ling, our guest has arrived.”

Mr. X spins round with his hands full with two meat cleavers and comes face to face with Ziu Zhong from across the room.

“We finally meet. You found the place ok then?”

Ziu ignores him and focuses on the love of his life.

“Ling!”

“Oh, no no no no no. You stay right there. Come any nearer and your wife AND you will look very peaceful on this cold, concrete floor.”

“Ling, don’t worry, everything is going to be alright.”

“Is it, though, Ziu?”

Mr. X sharpens his cleavers for the umpteenth time, taking his attention away from Ziu to stare at the cold steel in his powerful hands.

“You disappointed me, Ziu. What happened at the last event? I took your wife; the same woman you have known since you was 6 years old. That’s 20 years of your life you have known this woman. I took her and all I asked of you was to make sure my bets go through with perfection. Beat Brett Carson. Done. Beat Scott Knight. Done. Beat Lucas. You just couldn’t get it done could you? You weren’t mentally strong enough to get it done.”

“I put my all into that match. Ling is my world, not that I need to explain myself to you.”

“Well maybe there’s a meteor ready to crash into your world because I don’t like it when I lose money. I’m practically back to where I was at the beginning of all this. Not only have you wasted my time, you have wasted your own time. That’s without talking about what you have put Ling through for the past two months. So what happens now? I can guarantee you that I won’t be putting any more money on any bets.”

Ziu fires back instantaneously.

“I’ll pay you. Everything I have, you can have it. My house. My savings. My belongings. It’s all yours.”

“How sweet, Ziu, but we both know you’re not worth a lot of money. You’re one of the lowest paid wrestlers in VoW. They’re taking you for a mug in fact. You deserve better than how you get treated there.”

“I’ll find you some money. I’ll do anything. I just want my wife back.”

“How are you going to find money just like that?”

“I’ll threaten VoW management that I will leave unless they up my money.”

“Yeah because that will work won’t it. You don’t even know the amount I’m asking for. All you had to do was get to Darkest Hour and with another win and we were all set for the finale. That would have been it.”

Mr. X shakes his head with displeasure.

“You’re a decent wrestler, Ziu, that’s why you deserve a better pay packet, but when push comes to shove you simply haven’t been good enough. Lucas proved that.”

“I know what I’m capable of. Shane Sparx will know what I’m capable of on Monday night.”

“You can’t keep telling people that, you need to prove it. I know what you’re capable of. I’ve witnessed it close up these past few weeks.”

“So what are you getting at?”

“Can’t you see, Ziu? Take yourself out of this very moment and watch on as a neutral. Who has pushed your performance level up a gear these past two months? Who has made you the talk of the company? Who has made you who you are right now, a VoW Championship title contender? It’s me. I did it. I was the one that created the monster inside of you. There’s a fire in your belly nowadays that wasn’t there before. You demolished Brett Carson with ease; you spanked Knight just like his mistress does, and you came very close to gaining revenge on Lucas. It’s not perfect but we’re getting there. It was all down to me. I’ve made you a better wrestler, when will you realise that?”

Ziu stands there and ponders Mr. X’s comments. Ling releases a short burst of a scream through the duct tape before more tears run down her face in the direction of her ears. She’s screaming through the tape just like Shane would be screaming through his broken teeth at Darkest Hour.

“Ziu, come with me. Join me. We can be a force together. I can make us rich. I can guide us to the top. We can get you a new VoW contract that makes you one of the highest earners. You deserve to be one of the biggest paid wrestlers in the company. We can defeat Shane at Darkest Hour and you can hold gold around your waist. We can show VoW management that we mean business. You can still be Mr. Selfie the fan favourite. You can still be the nice guy who enjoys the fans applause who would stand there and sign every fans autograph if he had the time. You can remain that guy but you need my backing to make you a stronger professional, just like I have proven over these past few weeks. Let’s team up together and we can take you to ridiculous heights.”

Ziu looks as if he has been brainwashed and his facial features copy that of Mr. X. All of sudden it’s as if Ziu’s life all the way up until this very moment was a lie. His facial features change and mature into an evil glare.

“What do you say? Are you now on my wavelength?”

Mr. X stares across the murky room at the tall wall mirror that he has been talking to all along. It was only ever a one way conversation. There are only two people in this room, one is Ling and the other is Mr. X...aka Ziu Zhong.

An ominous, sinister grin appears on his face as he stares into his own eyes looking back at him through the mirror. Kidnapped? Ling has been kept down in their very own basement, in their very own home, all along.

Mr. X lays down the cleavers on the tool table once again and then pulls out another cigarette and lights it up. Ziu and Mr. X continue their conversation.

“What do we do with her?”

Mr. X pauses and takes a hit on his cigarette before blowing smoke towards the ceiling.

“You can have her back if you like but I think that relationship may well have been ruined by now, don’t you?”

Ziu emits an evil laughter.

“You never did want that baby, did you?”

Ling’s husband’s face is not one that she recognises anymore.

“Never.”

Mr. X looks into a weary pair of eyes that lay on the table and then follows a trail downwards all the way to Ling’s small bump.

“Don’t worry about her for now, Ziu, go and win us the Zero Gravity Championship. Go and win a Championship belt just like you have wanted to do since day one in VoW. Go and give Shane his Darkest Hour in his 15 year wrestling career. I...”

Mr. X picks up one of the sharp meat cleavers whilst still smoking on his cigarette. He begins to caress Ling’s stomach with one of the cleavers in a clockwise motion.

“...I’ll give Ling her Darkest Hour.”

This beautiful, well-spoken, minute Chinese woman once had it all. A lovely home in a fantastic city with a kind, gentle husband and a baby on the way. Now she was stuck in a rotten basement with her mad husband, brainwashed by a character he had created inside his own mind. There was still a baby on the way but don’t hold your breath that it will make it.

“X.”

“Yes, Ziu?”

“If we’re going to do this then I need you to do one thing.”

“Sure. What can I do for you?”

“Put that ghastly cigarette out. If we’re going to be moving onto ridiculous heights then I need a decent pair of lungs on me.

“Oh shit, yeah, of course.”

“Make that’s your last one.”

“Ok. Now get moving, we haven’t got long before we need to leave for Darkest Hour.”

Mr. X continues to caress Ling’s stomach with the meat cleaver, this time going back and forth from one boney hip to the other. With his other hand Mr. X takes off the duct tape covering his wife’s mouth.

“Don’t scream bitch.”

Mr. X drags the cold metal cleaver up Ling’s clothes and finishes at her throat where it sets up home.

“Any last words?”

Ling cries whilst spitting out her words.

“Z...i...u......me...knows...you...in...there...some...where...p...p...ple...please...don’t...do..this.”

“It’s Mr. X to you.”

“Z...i...u......be...stron...ger......you...can...over...c...ome...this.”

“Enough.”

Mr. X sticks the duct tape back over Ling’s mouth which causes another subdued scream.

“No more talking, bitch.”

Mr. X pulls the cigarette from his mouth, takes a deep breath and then blows his last smoke in the direction of the mirror. Through the hazy mist he doesn’t see an inconsistent loser anymore; he sees a much darker side, a much stronger and competitive head. Ziu Zhong the winner.

Mr. X lowers his face and kisses Ling’s forehead. Ling looks shit scared as Mr. X leans back and opens his mouth to perform the ritual that Ziu Zhong has slowly but surely been doing as of late. Puffing his chest out and ‘releasing the beast’. This is followed by the meat cleaver flying through the air and taking out the only source of light in the room, the bulb above his head. The room is sent into complete darkness.

Hushed screams

Muffled heavy breathing

Steel-toe capped boots...thud...thud...thud

Panic

Thud

Thud

Thud

Panic

Silence

“Your husband can’t save you now.”

An evil laughter fills the room from within the black hooded figure that has now overcome Ziu Zhong’s mind, body and soul.

A monster has been created.

Ling’s Darkest Hour had just begun.


Come Monday night...


Darkest Hour...


...Shane Sparx would be next.