Post by Joey Flash on Apr 4, 2015 2:46:40 GMT -5
Born in lust, turn to dust...
Alessandra Allegri stepped from the cab and pulled her holdall alongside her. She had been away for too long, it had moved at a whirlwind pace, she had decided to have Vincenzo tailed on a whim and as she sat outside La Societa seeing Vincenzo and James Harris bundling Joseph into the trunk of his own car it rang alarm bells right off. She had hoped that they were taking Joey back to her as she instructed, but the moment that they began heading in the exact opposite direction that told her everything she needed to know about the situation and that this would have to be dealt with. She loved Vincenzo, he had been there since she could form memories, and hell her earliest memories involved playing soccer with Vincenzo and her father, he committed the ultimate sin punishable by death, under no circumstances will you fuck with her family.
She had detailed extra security to watch over Joseph and Christian while she was gone, not to interfere with them but to keep their distance, as ridiculous as it was she didn’t want Joey’s pride shattered even more than it already had been. She had been in lengthy discussions with her father and his associates the past two weeks in attempts to diffuse and decipher this whole situation and came up blank. She faced a stone wall every face she turner to over there, forcing her to return almost empty handed save for a few kind words of her father and promises of ‘It will be alright’. Now came the tough part, she had spent the best part of a decade pretending to be something she wasn’t and now in a situation where lives were on the line the veil had to be blown away completely and utterly. The silence in the car as they drove home that night and the cold reception of Joey when they went to bed made her terrified of what was going through his head. The hens are coming home to roost girl, no man could ever love the person you really are.
As she approached her front gate she found the security guard at the gate, asleep, this wouldn’t do. She knocked on the window of the guard booth at her front gate. The man didn’t stir, Alessandra dropped her bag, opened the door and in one movement smashed her palm into the man’s nose creating a resounding crack. The man screamed as she grabbed him by the hair.
Alessandra: You’re fired.
Man: Wha- Miss!!!
Alessandra: You leave in the next three seconds.
Man: I’m sorry, I’ll stay awake I was just-
Alessandra: One.
Man: Please Miss Allegri I-
Alessandra: Two.
Man: Okay Okay!!! Fucking bitch.
She smiled; she would let that one slide. The man gathered his phone and wallet and quickly vacated his position. With a sigh she sat down in his seat and regarded the CCTV cameras, she had made sure to have every entrance covered the day she first bought this place. It had worked a treat…as long as someone competent enough was watching. Flicking her hair back she leant in for a better look. Everything seemed still and calm, this was good. She grabbed her holdall and pressed for the front gate to open.
She clicked the front door open and entered, the place was a mess. Empty beer cans lay strewn all over the hall, into the living room and throughout as far as she could see. The pervading stench of cannabis and tobacco seemed stuck to ever piece of furniture. A crash rang from a room down the hall, the kitchen. Alessandra’s eyes snapped toward the door, she didn’t know where Joseph or Christian were, but someone was in her house, in her kitchen. Fitting, the easiest place to clean up., she pulled her pistol from her handbag and placed her foot against the ajar door to the kitchen. Two shots, has to be quick, has to be clean.
She pushed the door open, the sight in front of her held the trigger finger. The back door to the outside wide open, draws open with cutlery and plates shattered all over the floor and in the middle of the floor laid prone next to a large pool of vomit was the love of her life. He was groaning into his own vomit, hair matted with the stuff.
Alessandra: Jesus...what in GOD'S name is the matter with you?!
She looked down with disgust, before walking over and prodding him sharply in the back with her pistol barrel. Joey looked up, eyes dazed, darting everywhere. He coughed.
Joey: Who the fuck are you? What are you doing, get out of my fuckin house...
Alessandra: I'm your fiancée... and this is my house.
She quickly hid the pistol in her handbag as Joey slowly sat up and pushed himself to his feet, staggering back into the wall before steadying himself.
Joey: Is it you, is it actually you?
He staggered forward and fell back to his knees on the floor.
Alessandra: I’m sorry.
Joey: Sorry? You’re fuckin sorry?
She wiped away the tears that were forming in her eyes. Joey looked at her for a moment, wiping the sick from around his mouth.
Joey: You want me to forgive you? You come here and expect a fuckin apology will make things okay?
Alessandra: I don’t expect-
Joey took a step toward the door, before starting to cough, harder than before. A couple of droplets of blood fell onto the clean floor, quickly followed by a pool of sick, Joey bent over on his haunches.
Joey: Good, because don’t you for one second think you have any fucking thing to apologise for.
Joey lurched toward her and embraced her legs. This was…unexpected, Alessandra had expected hate, anger, resentment, anything, anything but this. What she saw was simple, a man who loved a woman welcoming her home. As pathetic as the situation was she couldn’t hide her smile, she plopped herself down next to him, two multimillionaires, two entrepreneurs and two celebrities sat hand in hand in a pool of blood and vomit.
Joey: Why’d you, why’d you leave?
Alessandra: I’m sorry.
Joey: Quit it with the fuckin sorry; just tell me the truth, fucking talk to me. I’m not an idiot, I am not a child that needs to be coddled and protected.
Alessandra paused and took a deep breath.
Alessandra: You have a bounty on your head Joseph.
Joey nodded.
Joey: As I said, I’m not an idiot. Look, alright I don’t know what, what the fuck happened the other week but Vincenzo had-
Alessandra: Vincenzo had it coming. I feel absolutely no sorrow for him, and you should feel no sorrow for the two people you thought were your friends. They signed their lives away the moment they decided to stand against you, against me, against our family.
Joey: Our family?
Alessandra: Yes stupid, if someone puts yours or Christian’s life in danger then to me their life is forfeit.
Joey: Forfeit? Al, you…you…
Alessandra: Killed them.
Joey: How, I don’t understand-
Alessandra: Joseph, I am sorry. I am my father’s daughter, do you understand?
Joey: No shit, but what, you’re not a fuckin killer. I mean Jesus-
Alessandra: Then how did I save your life Joseph? What happened to those two men?
Joey was silent.
Alessandra: It doesn’t change things, it doesn’t change you and me, and it doesn’t change the life we’ve built, the love we share, the times we’ve spent, the child we have. It doesn’t make you any less of a man. I saw you kill one of my oldest friends in front of my very eyes and do you know what I thought in that moment? ‘That is my Joseph, look at how…powerful he is.’
Joey looked taken aback.
Alessandra: It was a rush; it was a fucking turn on Joseph. To see you standing tall amongst those who would wrong you, this is the man you are, this is the man I fell in love with. You are not someone who will be killed in a drug dealer’s house Joseph, your place is on the throne of the very world. Don’t ever feel you have to make yourself a lesser person, this shit in here…
She looks around the room.
Alessandra: This is not you; you are not a man that is meant for this life. You are a ruler, you are a king, you are damned fucking emperor. So I don’t care anymore, no more secrets, no more lies, everything I’ve ever done is for you, you think the heir to the Allegri empire would choose a mate who isn’t capable? Oh sweetheart-
She strokes his incredulous face.
Alessandra: Every single thing you have ever been through in life, any damage you’ve done to people and any hurt you’ve caused. I’ve done the same fivefold. You do not have to hide in front of me Joseph…and this time away it made me realise that, I dunno, maybe I don’t have to hide in front of you either.
The pair stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, the electric blue of Joseph’s glazed and hazy eyes and the smoky dusky brown of Alessandra’s were locked together in a dance of the soul.
Joey: This is…unreal, this shit; it’s like a bad dream.
Alessandra: It’s reality.
Joey: No fucking shit, doesn’t mean it’s not scary.
Alessandra: Are you afraid?
Joey: Of you?
He paused
Joey: Yes.
Alessandra: Joseph-
Joey: See, I’m a bad guy; I have no qualms about who I am, about what I am, but every single bad thing has etched a cut deep into my mind, into my soul and it’s turned me into something…something I hate. I’m not what you think I am Al, I’m no king, I’m no emperor, I’m just a punk who happened to stumble into the right places in life, I’m a punk who couldn’t live honestly, couldn’t survive in life on his wits. When I look at you…I see…a void. What scared me Alessandra, what makes me really fuckin terrified right now isn’t the fact that you killed two people to save me, I appreciate that and I’m eternally fucking grateful yeah? But you weren’t some, you weren’t some flustered housewife waving a gun around like they’d never seen one in their life, you were so surgical and clinical. When I’ve ever had to…had to kill someone there’s always been that feeling of remorse, regret and self-loathing but what I saw that night it wasn’t that, it wasn’t that at all. It was like…hunting for sport. There wasn’t a second of hesitation, that’s what fuckin scares me.
Alessandra: And what of it?
Joey sat back stunned; Alessandra stood up and offered a hand for him to get up.
Alessandra: There is a food chain in this world. I will love you no matter what; it just hurts to see a man of your calibre happy to just be ‘another guy’. You belong at the very top, so you either sit there in your own filth or you take my hand and you rise to the place you’re destined for.
Joey reached his hand toward Alessandra’s and she dragged him to his feet.
Alessandra: Now, let’s go see our son.
...born in sin, come on in.
For the first time in weeks, Joey Flash was clean shaven, his dressing room was tidy and he was feeling…better. He snapped a couple of punches into the air, took a step back then snapped another couple. The feeling was returning, the touch was returning. A grin broke out across his face; it had been three days since Alessandra returned, with more baggage than twenty fucking holdalls could carry. She had caught him in the worst of moments and carried him like his own personal angel back into reality. They had a frank and long talk deep into the night and spent the next two days playing with Christian and having family days in, how very quaint.
It had been a lot for Joey to take in at first, Alessandra Allegri, the woman he was to marry was no ‘daddy’s girl’…or maybe the problem was she was too much of one. It honestly felt like he now had a guardian angel watching out for him, he no longer was kept awake wondering about ways he was going to die or whether she wanted him dead. He had gotten concrete proof of the latter and the former…’scared’ had now become ‘determined’ and Joey sure as shit wasn’t going to let himself die on the floor of a kitchen choking on his own sick.
He plucked his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen.
Joey: Hey yo, Doc?
It was Dr Charles Edwards.
Charles: Joseph! I feared the worst, how’ve you been?
Joey: I’m uh, I’m good, more than good I’m great man.
Charles: Oh? What changed?
Joey: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
Charles: Shoot.
Joey: That’s coming up very shortly, but nah man, it’s not shit to talk about over the phone, how about we meet up next week and sort it? Yeah?
Charles: That would be splendid. Sure you’re okay?
Joey: Like I said man-
Charles: Quite. Listen, I don’t know if I have overstepped my bounds here, but have you taken my advice about other aspects of your life?
Joey: What, fuckin friends again man? The person closest to a friend is someone who I've beaten nearly to death several times and nearly set on fuckin fire.
Charles: Now now, I got into contact with someone in your line of work.
Joey: No fuckin way! These fuckers are all out to kill me-
Charles: Your OTHER line of work.
Joey: Oh, fuckin hell, good.
Charles: Well, as I said, I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds but the gentleman in question seemed VERY interested in speaking to you with regards to helping you find friends in the workplace. He seemed to be the Public Relations officer at your company or something.
Joey: Public fuckin Relations? You shitting me?
Charles: Anyway, he may be giving you a call later on today, let me know how you get on.
With that, the call ended and Joey was more bemused than when the call started. With a shrug he turned to face the camera that just so happened to be in the room all the time, who’d have guessed?
Joey: Shit ya boy lookin fresh as fuck.
He looked at himself in the lens and adjusted his hair.
Joey: We gonna cook some real heat in this shit turn that pressure cooker all up in this bitch, I’ve been going light for too long. That last promo was the funeral procession for this match, this one’s gonna be the epitaph. I talked a lot of nonsense last promo, entirely centred about a man who is nothing but nonsense Gemini Battle. You go play in a corner for this one; men are about do some business.
Thomas Bates, welcome to the federation. How are you finding it? Is it to your liking? Have you had a fantastic time so far? I bet you’re bursting at the seams to carry on with your career and see where your talent and skill takes you. You’ve killed almost every opponent you’ve been in the ring; you’ve sent two motherfuckas into retirement, your only loss has come to the hands of one of the best in the federation and you didn’t even get pinned. That’s applause worthy, nah that’s award worthy. That clown Gemini is a good wrestler, but he’s not a great wrestler, you Tommy are a great wrestler. I have an eye for this shit. You proclaim and quite right man, you have every confidence in your abilities, you proclaim that you and Battle will be ‘WCF World Champions’ someday.
You’re just as good as your record and as your performances suggest, see the problem with all that talent and that skill is that it’s taken you straight into a ring with me. You’ve triggered the kill switch for your own career and you don’t even realise it yet. See what you’re thinking is that the pair of you are stepping into the ring with the ‘Cute Animal King’ but pull back the veil and you’ll see a snarling fucking killing machine. This is like putting Toto and Lassie in the ring with the dog from The Sandlot.
WOOOO.
Joey laughed.
Joey: I’ve missed this, venom so potent it would make Bane shit his pants. Any of my fans out there, I’m sorry. It’s pathetic, I’ve let shit outside the ring get to me in a way it never should, fuck if ya’ll knew what was going on maybe you’d give me a pass, but I ain’t one for excuses. So I’m sorry. I beat Corey Black, Scarecrow, Jeff Purse, Steeltoe Joe and Gemini Battle, so you had that to tide you over. However the fact still remains, the fact that is becoming more embarrassing every day…I lost my title to Grime.
Fuck the undefeated streak, that was gonna go when it was gonna go, but the thing I can’t abide is that I dropped the title to an ungrateful, worthless piece of dog shit who is doing his best to disgrace everyone who has ever worked hard for this company. I’m sorry to everyone I let down during that match and since, I’ve not been the person that I should have been; I let the title slip to someone who was so unworthy challenger it makes me sick. So WCF fans, consider everything I do from here on my personal apology.
Thomas, this personal apology is going to slap you straight in your face and make you its bitch. You will never, ever be World Champion in this company. Four matches in and you think you understand this place and everything within, you seem to have a severe Joey Flash shaped blind spot in your little calculations. You’ve been in the ring with Z-Mac, Jay Omega and DVS none of which are even close to what you’re going to experience on Sunday, losing a hard fought Hardcore match is no shame at all.
However losing a test of might, skill and will to someone half ya fuckin size and knowing that no matter what you ever do there is no overcoming that? Shit son, that’s a backbreaker. The fact that your sorry ass is a biker has pretty much sealed the fact I’m going to tear ya fuckin face off. I’m going to enjoy picturing Grime’s ugly mug as I whale away on ya big potato head.
You came into the federation as a man who could have it all, a lone wolf biker…however the exact same guy joined about a week before. So you look at Grime and think ‘Ahh shit don’t wanna be like this fuckin loser’ which hey, I respect that, so you go and get yaself some help. If you can call it that, it’d be tragic if it wasn’t so fuckin hilarious. A lumbering giant, a mute Ruskie, a schizophrenic madman and a drunken fuckin Scot, ladies and gentlemen here are DRG(M).
Drunk Russian Giant Madmen.
That would make a good melodic death metal band name. I call royalties. I can’t front, help isn’t a bad thing, fuck it friends aren’t a bad thing either. I respect you for doing shit I can’t, but envy? Nah not at fuckin all. See what I’ve learned over the past week and it’s become clear as crystal to me is the fact that if the people you keep around you as friends aren’t even close to being your equal then they can barely be classed as friends at all. That’s what’s happened right here Bates, you’re acting more like an injured animal shelter than a helpful and kind friend. I’ve heard Zach Gowen is looking to join a new stable; I’ll have to send him your way Tommy. The men who you think will watch your back through thick and thin, sure they’re reliable, but doesn’t help they're only reliable on how shit they’ll do the job.
I digress, I’m not fighting your gang, I’m fighting the man Thomas Uriel Bates, a second generation superstar, a man who was born to wrestle. No joke, you have everything a man who could ever want to compete in this sport has, size, strength, charisma, fuck you ain’t even an ugly guy, in any other federation you’d have walked your way to the top. In this federation, shit maybe you would have anyway, but you’re sharing the same time and space as Joey Flash, and just how you did D-Sharp and Mr Amazing I’m fixin to do you even worse.
All your physicals gifts and your lineage are so impressive, on paper you should by rights be the best wrestler in this company. You’re a smart man and you’ve learned well at one of the best trainers in the world, so tell me this? How’s it going to feel when the man who is supposed to carry the powerful confederate tradition of having the strength of ten men of being to fight off fifty men at once gets thoroughly outclassed and dominated by a scrawny little immigrant? How will ya ancestors feel about that one Tommy? Same as always I guess, complete disappointment.
Gemini! You can come out of your corner now. Welcome back. It’s sad guys, it’s sad that the thing that both of you are most known for in this company is the week the FCC held us off TV, the pair of you fools were like fucking politicians, point scoring and bullshit. The best way that this could have been solved is you fight in the middle of a WCF ring one v one and solved this debate once and for all. Fuck it, I’m not for censorship but neither do I particularly fuckin care.
So here’s what’s gonna happen, unfortunately guys I can’t sit this one out for ya’ll to thrash this shit out. So I’m going to be a good little mediator, however rather than trying to settle the dispute calmly I’ll just beat the shit out of both of you and as it turns out, well hey neither of us is right, turns out Joey Flash is just a fuckin badass and we should shut up when in his presence.
It’s interesting; this is the first matchup I’ve been interested in for a while. I’ve bodied Pantheon in this time span, even then that shit didn’t excite me. This, this excites me. Two people with the hopes and dreams of greatness getting eclipsed by the shadow of true greatness, it could have been magical, it could have been amazing. Now it’s going to be routine. So yeah, I can wax lyrical about this all day, but the facts will come to light in the ring, maybe then you both will be a little more humble about proclaiming yourselves future World Champions. I am the gold standard, I am the standard bearer and I am unequivocally the best wrestler in this company, it took a lot to shake my confidence and maybe I’m not all the way back but fuck it I’m 95% and that’s more than enough to deal with the pair of you.
The most telling thing for this match was that when it was announced I bet neither of you had that feeling in your stomach, that drop in your heart when you found yourself matched against me. ‘I’ve got him at the right time!’ or ‘Ah he’s not as good as we thought’. Well this is interesting; you are both going to serve as an example of what happens when someone forgets about the monster under the bed and starts believing it just to be a shadow or the rustle of the wind. You will fear me, you will fear crossing me in the locker rooms.
When I go backstage after Explosion there will be no punk standing there with a towel telling me ‘Nice try Mr Flash’, there will be a punk there saying ‘Good god that was amazing Mr Flash’. This is no mid-card clusterfuck, to deride this match in such a way when I’m competing in it just doesn’t sit right with me, the match Joey Flash features is the main event of every damn card it’s on. We could see Fly v Orbit III at ONE and Joey Flash vs Adam Young on the pre-show would still be the main event, why? Joey fucking Flash.
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare your cameras, prepare your phones, put the children to bed and prepare to enjoy the greatest show on canvas live and in person. Your actors in today’s scene Thomas Bates and Gemini battle will be reimbursed very well in danger pay for the hurt they are about to receive. You’re going to learn first-hand what this is like, welcome to your Kodak moment. I will light you up under the chin like we’re telling campfire stories.
Say it with me now, it’s PPV time.
Gemini Battle
Thomas Uriel Bates…
Body-
Joey is cut off mid-sentence by the ringing of his phone.
Joey: Fuck sake.
Joey rummages for the phone, turning back to the camera.
Joey: Bodybags on deck, cocksuckers.
With that he answers the phone.
Joey: Hello?
A man’s voice is heard faintly down the phone.
Man: Joey Flash, it is a pleasure to hear from you, I was worried you wouldn’t pick up!
This must have been the ‘PR’ guy Charles was talking about, okay Joey thought, I’ll bite.
Joey: Yeah it’s me, now pardon my ignorance but what exactly is the fuckin nature of this call?
Man: Oh such verve, such red blooded testosterone, this is truly wonderful, just what I expected.
Joey: Okay come on who is this? If it’s you Occy I swear-
Man: Occy?
A laugh from down the phone.
Man: Don’t be silly Mr Flash, this is the opposite of a prank call, this is strictly and purely business.
Joey: Business?
Man: Well, pleasure too; I’m not a callous man.
Joey: What the fuck are you talking about? I’m sick to death of these cocksuckers phoning me up and talking in riddles.
Man: My my, how blunt. Well let me join you in Pantheon esque bluntness, you Mr Flash have the most staggeringly high potential I’ve seen in this federation for some time, so high even I am struggling to put an accurate measurement on it, moreso than almost anything I’ve seen…but see this potential it’s…wild…untamed…untapped. It’s like you’re a butterfly just waiting to emerge into a world of slugs.
Joey: Again with the fuckin rhetoric, I know this shit, I don’t need some PR guy telling me how good I am. Stop blowing smoke up my ass I’m-
Man: Oh Mr Flash you have it all wrong, I’m not someone who blows smoke, not at all. I merely fan the flames that already exist. You are the best wrestler in the company…technically. That I don’t doubt. What I do doubt is your mind set. When you first came into this company I was there, I watched and saw something that made my heart flutter with such excitement, but I think, no offense to you Mr Flash…you’ve lost a little something. Is it heart? No not that. Skill? No not that. Confidence? Ehhh, I don’t think that’s a problem. I think your problem, we’re still being blunt right now aren’t we Mr Flash?
Joey: Go for it.
Man: I think you’re simply…sad. You’re lonely, and I get that, I understand your pain, just recently my so- I’m sorry I don’t like to talk about it. What I’m trying to say Mr Flash, is you need friends, you need family, and so what I’m proposing is we meet for a drink after your victory at Explosion, harmless, right?
Joey: So what, you’re gonna give me some magical friendship pill?
Man: No Mr Flash, what I am offering you is a family. Brothers…and a loving, caring father.
With this the camera fades to black.
END!
Alessandra Allegri stepped from the cab and pulled her holdall alongside her. She had been away for too long, it had moved at a whirlwind pace, she had decided to have Vincenzo tailed on a whim and as she sat outside La Societa seeing Vincenzo and James Harris bundling Joseph into the trunk of his own car it rang alarm bells right off. She had hoped that they were taking Joey back to her as she instructed, but the moment that they began heading in the exact opposite direction that told her everything she needed to know about the situation and that this would have to be dealt with. She loved Vincenzo, he had been there since she could form memories, and hell her earliest memories involved playing soccer with Vincenzo and her father, he committed the ultimate sin punishable by death, under no circumstances will you fuck with her family.
She had detailed extra security to watch over Joseph and Christian while she was gone, not to interfere with them but to keep their distance, as ridiculous as it was she didn’t want Joey’s pride shattered even more than it already had been. She had been in lengthy discussions with her father and his associates the past two weeks in attempts to diffuse and decipher this whole situation and came up blank. She faced a stone wall every face she turner to over there, forcing her to return almost empty handed save for a few kind words of her father and promises of ‘It will be alright’. Now came the tough part, she had spent the best part of a decade pretending to be something she wasn’t and now in a situation where lives were on the line the veil had to be blown away completely and utterly. The silence in the car as they drove home that night and the cold reception of Joey when they went to bed made her terrified of what was going through his head. The hens are coming home to roost girl, no man could ever love the person you really are.
As she approached her front gate she found the security guard at the gate, asleep, this wouldn’t do. She knocked on the window of the guard booth at her front gate. The man didn’t stir, Alessandra dropped her bag, opened the door and in one movement smashed her palm into the man’s nose creating a resounding crack. The man screamed as she grabbed him by the hair.
Alessandra: You’re fired.
Man: Wha- Miss!!!
Alessandra: You leave in the next three seconds.
Man: I’m sorry, I’ll stay awake I was just-
Alessandra: One.
Man: Please Miss Allegri I-
Alessandra: Two.
Man: Okay Okay!!! Fucking bitch.
She smiled; she would let that one slide. The man gathered his phone and wallet and quickly vacated his position. With a sigh she sat down in his seat and regarded the CCTV cameras, she had made sure to have every entrance covered the day she first bought this place. It had worked a treat…as long as someone competent enough was watching. Flicking her hair back she leant in for a better look. Everything seemed still and calm, this was good. She grabbed her holdall and pressed for the front gate to open.
She clicked the front door open and entered, the place was a mess. Empty beer cans lay strewn all over the hall, into the living room and throughout as far as she could see. The pervading stench of cannabis and tobacco seemed stuck to ever piece of furniture. A crash rang from a room down the hall, the kitchen. Alessandra’s eyes snapped toward the door, she didn’t know where Joseph or Christian were, but someone was in her house, in her kitchen. Fitting, the easiest place to clean up., she pulled her pistol from her handbag and placed her foot against the ajar door to the kitchen. Two shots, has to be quick, has to be clean.
She pushed the door open, the sight in front of her held the trigger finger. The back door to the outside wide open, draws open with cutlery and plates shattered all over the floor and in the middle of the floor laid prone next to a large pool of vomit was the love of her life. He was groaning into his own vomit, hair matted with the stuff.
Alessandra: Jesus...what in GOD'S name is the matter with you?!
She looked down with disgust, before walking over and prodding him sharply in the back with her pistol barrel. Joey looked up, eyes dazed, darting everywhere. He coughed.
Joey: Who the fuck are you? What are you doing, get out of my fuckin house...
Alessandra: I'm your fiancée... and this is my house.
She quickly hid the pistol in her handbag as Joey slowly sat up and pushed himself to his feet, staggering back into the wall before steadying himself.
Joey: Is it you, is it actually you?
He staggered forward and fell back to his knees on the floor.
Alessandra: I’m sorry.
Joey: Sorry? You’re fuckin sorry?
She wiped away the tears that were forming in her eyes. Joey looked at her for a moment, wiping the sick from around his mouth.
Joey: You want me to forgive you? You come here and expect a fuckin apology will make things okay?
Alessandra: I don’t expect-
Joey took a step toward the door, before starting to cough, harder than before. A couple of droplets of blood fell onto the clean floor, quickly followed by a pool of sick, Joey bent over on his haunches.
Joey: Good, because don’t you for one second think you have any fucking thing to apologise for.
Joey lurched toward her and embraced her legs. This was…unexpected, Alessandra had expected hate, anger, resentment, anything, anything but this. What she saw was simple, a man who loved a woman welcoming her home. As pathetic as the situation was she couldn’t hide her smile, she plopped herself down next to him, two multimillionaires, two entrepreneurs and two celebrities sat hand in hand in a pool of blood and vomit.
Joey: Why’d you, why’d you leave?
Alessandra: I’m sorry.
Joey: Quit it with the fuckin sorry; just tell me the truth, fucking talk to me. I’m not an idiot, I am not a child that needs to be coddled and protected.
Alessandra paused and took a deep breath.
Alessandra: You have a bounty on your head Joseph.
Joey nodded.
Joey: As I said, I’m not an idiot. Look, alright I don’t know what, what the fuck happened the other week but Vincenzo had-
Alessandra: Vincenzo had it coming. I feel absolutely no sorrow for him, and you should feel no sorrow for the two people you thought were your friends. They signed their lives away the moment they decided to stand against you, against me, against our family.
Joey: Our family?
Alessandra: Yes stupid, if someone puts yours or Christian’s life in danger then to me their life is forfeit.
Joey: Forfeit? Al, you…you…
Alessandra: Killed them.
Joey: How, I don’t understand-
Alessandra: Joseph, I am sorry. I am my father’s daughter, do you understand?
Joey: No shit, but what, you’re not a fuckin killer. I mean Jesus-
Alessandra: Then how did I save your life Joseph? What happened to those two men?
Joey was silent.
Alessandra: It doesn’t change things, it doesn’t change you and me, and it doesn’t change the life we’ve built, the love we share, the times we’ve spent, the child we have. It doesn’t make you any less of a man. I saw you kill one of my oldest friends in front of my very eyes and do you know what I thought in that moment? ‘That is my Joseph, look at how…powerful he is.’
Joey looked taken aback.
Alessandra: It was a rush; it was a fucking turn on Joseph. To see you standing tall amongst those who would wrong you, this is the man you are, this is the man I fell in love with. You are not someone who will be killed in a drug dealer’s house Joseph, your place is on the throne of the very world. Don’t ever feel you have to make yourself a lesser person, this shit in here…
She looks around the room.
Alessandra: This is not you; you are not a man that is meant for this life. You are a ruler, you are a king, you are damned fucking emperor. So I don’t care anymore, no more secrets, no more lies, everything I’ve ever done is for you, you think the heir to the Allegri empire would choose a mate who isn’t capable? Oh sweetheart-
She strokes his incredulous face.
Alessandra: Every single thing you have ever been through in life, any damage you’ve done to people and any hurt you’ve caused. I’ve done the same fivefold. You do not have to hide in front of me Joseph…and this time away it made me realise that, I dunno, maybe I don’t have to hide in front of you either.
The pair stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, the electric blue of Joseph’s glazed and hazy eyes and the smoky dusky brown of Alessandra’s were locked together in a dance of the soul.
Joey: This is…unreal, this shit; it’s like a bad dream.
Alessandra: It’s reality.
Joey: No fucking shit, doesn’t mean it’s not scary.
Alessandra: Are you afraid?
Joey: Of you?
He paused
Joey: Yes.
Alessandra: Joseph-
Joey: See, I’m a bad guy; I have no qualms about who I am, about what I am, but every single bad thing has etched a cut deep into my mind, into my soul and it’s turned me into something…something I hate. I’m not what you think I am Al, I’m no king, I’m no emperor, I’m just a punk who happened to stumble into the right places in life, I’m a punk who couldn’t live honestly, couldn’t survive in life on his wits. When I look at you…I see…a void. What scared me Alessandra, what makes me really fuckin terrified right now isn’t the fact that you killed two people to save me, I appreciate that and I’m eternally fucking grateful yeah? But you weren’t some, you weren’t some flustered housewife waving a gun around like they’d never seen one in their life, you were so surgical and clinical. When I’ve ever had to…had to kill someone there’s always been that feeling of remorse, regret and self-loathing but what I saw that night it wasn’t that, it wasn’t that at all. It was like…hunting for sport. There wasn’t a second of hesitation, that’s what fuckin scares me.
Alessandra: And what of it?
Joey sat back stunned; Alessandra stood up and offered a hand for him to get up.
Alessandra: There is a food chain in this world. I will love you no matter what; it just hurts to see a man of your calibre happy to just be ‘another guy’. You belong at the very top, so you either sit there in your own filth or you take my hand and you rise to the place you’re destined for.
Joey reached his hand toward Alessandra’s and she dragged him to his feet.
Alessandra: Now, let’s go see our son.
...born in sin, come on in.
For the first time in weeks, Joey Flash was clean shaven, his dressing room was tidy and he was feeling…better. He snapped a couple of punches into the air, took a step back then snapped another couple. The feeling was returning, the touch was returning. A grin broke out across his face; it had been three days since Alessandra returned, with more baggage than twenty fucking holdalls could carry. She had caught him in the worst of moments and carried him like his own personal angel back into reality. They had a frank and long talk deep into the night and spent the next two days playing with Christian and having family days in, how very quaint.
It had been a lot for Joey to take in at first, Alessandra Allegri, the woman he was to marry was no ‘daddy’s girl’…or maybe the problem was she was too much of one. It honestly felt like he now had a guardian angel watching out for him, he no longer was kept awake wondering about ways he was going to die or whether she wanted him dead. He had gotten concrete proof of the latter and the former…’scared’ had now become ‘determined’ and Joey sure as shit wasn’t going to let himself die on the floor of a kitchen choking on his own sick.
He plucked his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen.
Joey: Hey yo, Doc?
It was Dr Charles Edwards.
Charles: Joseph! I feared the worst, how’ve you been?
Joey: I’m uh, I’m good, more than good I’m great man.
Charles: Oh? What changed?
Joey: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
Charles: Shoot.
Joey: That’s coming up very shortly, but nah man, it’s not shit to talk about over the phone, how about we meet up next week and sort it? Yeah?
Charles: That would be splendid. Sure you’re okay?
Joey: Like I said man-
Charles: Quite. Listen, I don’t know if I have overstepped my bounds here, but have you taken my advice about other aspects of your life?
Joey: What, fuckin friends again man? The person closest to a friend is someone who I've beaten nearly to death several times and nearly set on fuckin fire.
Charles: Now now, I got into contact with someone in your line of work.
Joey: No fuckin way! These fuckers are all out to kill me-
Charles: Your OTHER line of work.
Joey: Oh, fuckin hell, good.
Charles: Well, as I said, I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds but the gentleman in question seemed VERY interested in speaking to you with regards to helping you find friends in the workplace. He seemed to be the Public Relations officer at your company or something.
Joey: Public fuckin Relations? You shitting me?
Charles: Anyway, he may be giving you a call later on today, let me know how you get on.
With that, the call ended and Joey was more bemused than when the call started. With a shrug he turned to face the camera that just so happened to be in the room all the time, who’d have guessed?
Joey: Shit ya boy lookin fresh as fuck.
He looked at himself in the lens and adjusted his hair.
Joey: We gonna cook some real heat in this shit turn that pressure cooker all up in this bitch, I’ve been going light for too long. That last promo was the funeral procession for this match, this one’s gonna be the epitaph. I talked a lot of nonsense last promo, entirely centred about a man who is nothing but nonsense Gemini Battle. You go play in a corner for this one; men are about do some business.
Thomas Bates, welcome to the federation. How are you finding it? Is it to your liking? Have you had a fantastic time so far? I bet you’re bursting at the seams to carry on with your career and see where your talent and skill takes you. You’ve killed almost every opponent you’ve been in the ring; you’ve sent two motherfuckas into retirement, your only loss has come to the hands of one of the best in the federation and you didn’t even get pinned. That’s applause worthy, nah that’s award worthy. That clown Gemini is a good wrestler, but he’s not a great wrestler, you Tommy are a great wrestler. I have an eye for this shit. You proclaim and quite right man, you have every confidence in your abilities, you proclaim that you and Battle will be ‘WCF World Champions’ someday.
You’re just as good as your record and as your performances suggest, see the problem with all that talent and that skill is that it’s taken you straight into a ring with me. You’ve triggered the kill switch for your own career and you don’t even realise it yet. See what you’re thinking is that the pair of you are stepping into the ring with the ‘Cute Animal King’ but pull back the veil and you’ll see a snarling fucking killing machine. This is like putting Toto and Lassie in the ring with the dog from The Sandlot.
WOOOO.
Joey laughed.
Joey: I’ve missed this, venom so potent it would make Bane shit his pants. Any of my fans out there, I’m sorry. It’s pathetic, I’ve let shit outside the ring get to me in a way it never should, fuck if ya’ll knew what was going on maybe you’d give me a pass, but I ain’t one for excuses. So I’m sorry. I beat Corey Black, Scarecrow, Jeff Purse, Steeltoe Joe and Gemini Battle, so you had that to tide you over. However the fact still remains, the fact that is becoming more embarrassing every day…I lost my title to Grime.
Fuck the undefeated streak, that was gonna go when it was gonna go, but the thing I can’t abide is that I dropped the title to an ungrateful, worthless piece of dog shit who is doing his best to disgrace everyone who has ever worked hard for this company. I’m sorry to everyone I let down during that match and since, I’ve not been the person that I should have been; I let the title slip to someone who was so unworthy challenger it makes me sick. So WCF fans, consider everything I do from here on my personal apology.
Thomas, this personal apology is going to slap you straight in your face and make you its bitch. You will never, ever be World Champion in this company. Four matches in and you think you understand this place and everything within, you seem to have a severe Joey Flash shaped blind spot in your little calculations. You’ve been in the ring with Z-Mac, Jay Omega and DVS none of which are even close to what you’re going to experience on Sunday, losing a hard fought Hardcore match is no shame at all.
However losing a test of might, skill and will to someone half ya fuckin size and knowing that no matter what you ever do there is no overcoming that? Shit son, that’s a backbreaker. The fact that your sorry ass is a biker has pretty much sealed the fact I’m going to tear ya fuckin face off. I’m going to enjoy picturing Grime’s ugly mug as I whale away on ya big potato head.
You came into the federation as a man who could have it all, a lone wolf biker…however the exact same guy joined about a week before. So you look at Grime and think ‘Ahh shit don’t wanna be like this fuckin loser’ which hey, I respect that, so you go and get yaself some help. If you can call it that, it’d be tragic if it wasn’t so fuckin hilarious. A lumbering giant, a mute Ruskie, a schizophrenic madman and a drunken fuckin Scot, ladies and gentlemen here are DRG(M).
Drunk Russian Giant Madmen.
That would make a good melodic death metal band name. I call royalties. I can’t front, help isn’t a bad thing, fuck it friends aren’t a bad thing either. I respect you for doing shit I can’t, but envy? Nah not at fuckin all. See what I’ve learned over the past week and it’s become clear as crystal to me is the fact that if the people you keep around you as friends aren’t even close to being your equal then they can barely be classed as friends at all. That’s what’s happened right here Bates, you’re acting more like an injured animal shelter than a helpful and kind friend. I’ve heard Zach Gowen is looking to join a new stable; I’ll have to send him your way Tommy. The men who you think will watch your back through thick and thin, sure they’re reliable, but doesn’t help they're only reliable on how shit they’ll do the job.
I digress, I’m not fighting your gang, I’m fighting the man Thomas Uriel Bates, a second generation superstar, a man who was born to wrestle. No joke, you have everything a man who could ever want to compete in this sport has, size, strength, charisma, fuck you ain’t even an ugly guy, in any other federation you’d have walked your way to the top. In this federation, shit maybe you would have anyway, but you’re sharing the same time and space as Joey Flash, and just how you did D-Sharp and Mr Amazing I’m fixin to do you even worse.
All your physicals gifts and your lineage are so impressive, on paper you should by rights be the best wrestler in this company. You’re a smart man and you’ve learned well at one of the best trainers in the world, so tell me this? How’s it going to feel when the man who is supposed to carry the powerful confederate tradition of having the strength of ten men of being to fight off fifty men at once gets thoroughly outclassed and dominated by a scrawny little immigrant? How will ya ancestors feel about that one Tommy? Same as always I guess, complete disappointment.
Gemini! You can come out of your corner now. Welcome back. It’s sad guys, it’s sad that the thing that both of you are most known for in this company is the week the FCC held us off TV, the pair of you fools were like fucking politicians, point scoring and bullshit. The best way that this could have been solved is you fight in the middle of a WCF ring one v one and solved this debate once and for all. Fuck it, I’m not for censorship but neither do I particularly fuckin care.
So here’s what’s gonna happen, unfortunately guys I can’t sit this one out for ya’ll to thrash this shit out. So I’m going to be a good little mediator, however rather than trying to settle the dispute calmly I’ll just beat the shit out of both of you and as it turns out, well hey neither of us is right, turns out Joey Flash is just a fuckin badass and we should shut up when in his presence.
It’s interesting; this is the first matchup I’ve been interested in for a while. I’ve bodied Pantheon in this time span, even then that shit didn’t excite me. This, this excites me. Two people with the hopes and dreams of greatness getting eclipsed by the shadow of true greatness, it could have been magical, it could have been amazing. Now it’s going to be routine. So yeah, I can wax lyrical about this all day, but the facts will come to light in the ring, maybe then you both will be a little more humble about proclaiming yourselves future World Champions. I am the gold standard, I am the standard bearer and I am unequivocally the best wrestler in this company, it took a lot to shake my confidence and maybe I’m not all the way back but fuck it I’m 95% and that’s more than enough to deal with the pair of you.
The most telling thing for this match was that when it was announced I bet neither of you had that feeling in your stomach, that drop in your heart when you found yourself matched against me. ‘I’ve got him at the right time!’ or ‘Ah he’s not as good as we thought’. Well this is interesting; you are both going to serve as an example of what happens when someone forgets about the monster under the bed and starts believing it just to be a shadow or the rustle of the wind. You will fear me, you will fear crossing me in the locker rooms.
When I go backstage after Explosion there will be no punk standing there with a towel telling me ‘Nice try Mr Flash’, there will be a punk there saying ‘Good god that was amazing Mr Flash’. This is no mid-card clusterfuck, to deride this match in such a way when I’m competing in it just doesn’t sit right with me, the match Joey Flash features is the main event of every damn card it’s on. We could see Fly v Orbit III at ONE and Joey Flash vs Adam Young on the pre-show would still be the main event, why? Joey fucking Flash.
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare your cameras, prepare your phones, put the children to bed and prepare to enjoy the greatest show on canvas live and in person. Your actors in today’s scene Thomas Bates and Gemini battle will be reimbursed very well in danger pay for the hurt they are about to receive. You’re going to learn first-hand what this is like, welcome to your Kodak moment. I will light you up under the chin like we’re telling campfire stories.
Say it with me now, it’s PPV time.
Gemini Battle
Thomas Uriel Bates…
Body-
Joey is cut off mid-sentence by the ringing of his phone.
Joey: Fuck sake.
Joey rummages for the phone, turning back to the camera.
Joey: Bodybags on deck, cocksuckers.
With that he answers the phone.
Joey: Hello?
A man’s voice is heard faintly down the phone.
Man: Joey Flash, it is a pleasure to hear from you, I was worried you wouldn’t pick up!
This must have been the ‘PR’ guy Charles was talking about, okay Joey thought, I’ll bite.
Joey: Yeah it’s me, now pardon my ignorance but what exactly is the fuckin nature of this call?
Man: Oh such verve, such red blooded testosterone, this is truly wonderful, just what I expected.
Joey: Okay come on who is this? If it’s you Occy I swear-
Man: Occy?
A laugh from down the phone.
Man: Don’t be silly Mr Flash, this is the opposite of a prank call, this is strictly and purely business.
Joey: Business?
Man: Well, pleasure too; I’m not a callous man.
Joey: What the fuck are you talking about? I’m sick to death of these cocksuckers phoning me up and talking in riddles.
Man: My my, how blunt. Well let me join you in Pantheon esque bluntness, you Mr Flash have the most staggeringly high potential I’ve seen in this federation for some time, so high even I am struggling to put an accurate measurement on it, moreso than almost anything I’ve seen…but see this potential it’s…wild…untamed…untapped. It’s like you’re a butterfly just waiting to emerge into a world of slugs.
Joey: Again with the fuckin rhetoric, I know this shit, I don’t need some PR guy telling me how good I am. Stop blowing smoke up my ass I’m-
Man: Oh Mr Flash you have it all wrong, I’m not someone who blows smoke, not at all. I merely fan the flames that already exist. You are the best wrestler in the company…technically. That I don’t doubt. What I do doubt is your mind set. When you first came into this company I was there, I watched and saw something that made my heart flutter with such excitement, but I think, no offense to you Mr Flash…you’ve lost a little something. Is it heart? No not that. Skill? No not that. Confidence? Ehhh, I don’t think that’s a problem. I think your problem, we’re still being blunt right now aren’t we Mr Flash?
Joey: Go for it.
Man: I think you’re simply…sad. You’re lonely, and I get that, I understand your pain, just recently my so- I’m sorry I don’t like to talk about it. What I’m trying to say Mr Flash, is you need friends, you need family, and so what I’m proposing is we meet for a drink after your victory at Explosion, harmless, right?
Joey: So what, you’re gonna give me some magical friendship pill?
Man: No Mr Flash, what I am offering you is a family. Brothers…and a loving, caring father.
With this the camera fades to black.
END!
