Post by Kevin Bishop on Nov 10, 2016 22:42:06 GMT -5
The needle broke my skin… That rush of poison mixing with my blood, awakens my mind and numbs my soul… This pain that I have gone as far as to call my shelter from the world… Gravity use to be so familiar and the ground use to hold me tight… But I fly… No strings needed… My body levitates from its stronghold with every push of that death dealing syringe… My eyes cloud over and I can sense a cold hand lift me from the floor…
“Come on, Darren…”
Who could possibly care enough for me in this moment of my downward spiral to actually offer a hand?
“Get up brother… The rest of The Brotherhood have been worried sick about you…”
My high can’t be shaken even by the hands of one of my own brothers… I’m too far gone… Turn back now and leave me be, not even a coherent word can escape my mouth…
“Darren, it’s Kevin… You gotta wake up bud…”
Kevin Bishop… Yeah, that’s him… Such a good kid… He’s never let me down and he always saw me as a hero… But they say you should never truly meet your heroes or at least see the real them… This right here… This man lying on the ground with a needle in his arm… Bad decision followed by even more bad decisions… That was my life and me finding this kid… Nah, that was probably the only good decision I have made in my life and trying to pick him up from that dark alley that rainy night… I never knew what he was going to become with a mentor like myself… What did I know about mentoring? I had a silver tongue and I could get any drug I wanted… That was my true gift… Bringing people together with one common goal, that came with this kid… My Brotherhood wasn’t a true entity until he came along… There was something more about this kid than what I was going to be able to teach and I think he was starting to realize that just as well…
“You’re going to be okay, Plague, I have the doctor coming…”
Plague… Kid… Kevin never understood… I am every meaning of the word in its negative text… I am the aftermath of the Plague, not the plague’s actions… I don’t offer a salvation, not I offer death and despair… The only cards I hold in my hand is a dead man’s hand…
“She’s here man, just hold on a little longer…”
Pale white… That was the feeling and the light that attacked my very eyes… I could hear the doctor yell at me, but I wasn’t coherent enough to pick up her dialogue. I felt her fist pound down on my chest trying to get my heart to revive itself… One after another the shots hit me like a ton of bricks, but my body gave no sign of life… Bruises started to appear on my chest, but the doctor was the type of woman who didn’t know what it meant to give up… I could tell by the lines on her face that age had gotten the better of her and it made me start to wonder what kind of track record did this good doctor have? How many lives has she single handedly save? Did she know what it was like to have a life slip right through your fingers? So many questions, but they’d be for not if I didn’t wake from this death bed that I tucked myself into… A cold sensation has started to stretch across my body, my muscles have started to seize up, and the tears in my eyes have started to dry… Next surely my bodily fluids would leave me involuntarily…
“We have you, Mr. Knight, don’t give up on us NOW!”
Just like that, the voice of an angel came to me and once her whisper became that of an ear piercing shout, my body came alive with a surge of electricity. Every inch of my bones inflamed and my muscles started to dance in unison with every spark. Am I alive?
“You’re going to be just fine, Darren… You’re a fighter, just keep fighting…”
A fighter… Yeah I’m some kind of fighter… If I was half as good at fighting I wouldn’t have given in to this vice of mine… I sit upon my throne and I warn my followers about such things… But here I am, laying on this floor half past dead, holding on to a broken life that should’ve left me a long time ago. A mentor… A hero… A false prophet… I don’t want this same fate for my most loyal follower… My chosen one… My one beacon of hope in my meek miserable life… What will be will be for me and my lost soul, but Kevin… He will continue on with my legacy and he will lift it from this darkness that I have personally plagued… The dark ages is a reality when I am involved and there’s nothing I can do any longer… Saving me here and now will do nothing for the greater good in this world… Why am I holding on then?
“Kevin, this isn’t good, he’s taking a turn for the worse, we need to get him out of here!”
Just like that I feel my body start to levitate… This time not brought on by the drugs… A soft cushion rests below my body as I am wheeled off on a gurney. These people are hanging to hope as if God gives a damn about Darren Knight… The scourge of the world who does nothing but look out for himself… Yeah and the devil may cry for me too… All eyes on The Plague who falls down and never gets back up… The story of my life, so again I ask… What I am I holding on then? What is keeping me here? I’m no fighter… I’m just a pawn in this game…
“We’re taking you to the local hospital, just keep strong for us…”
The road is bumpy, just like the road I have stumbled down just to get here today… Behind me blind sheep follow once lost, but now believe they have a purpose… It was so easy… The blueprint was there… Find the weakest minded individuals… Find those who have been struck with crippling mental issues… People who have hit rock bottom…. The outcasts of this world… It’s all I had to do… I was the one person who they could turn to and all I had to do is tell them what life can truly be like if we all just came together…
“Is he going to make it, doc?”
I can sense the distress in Kevin’s voice… He was legit worried about me… For what reason though? He’s no longer that 13 year old boy that I found on the streets… No, he was a 20 year old who was taking the wrestling world by storm and I couldn’t be prouder… With my guidance and with my plethora of knowledge of working the indies, he took charge in no time. Wrestled under that mask until he looked the age and that was his first taste of playing the park of The Plague… Plague Jr. to be exact… It didn’t take long, but it definitely showed his character… THIS kid was the fighter, not me and his traveling all over the world when others told him he wasn’t going to amount to anything… That truly speaks volumes about him…
“From my professional observations and his inability to use his basic bodily functions… It’s not looking good, but if he can hold on just a little while longer until we make it to the hospital, I’ll do everything I can to bring him back around…”
Good doctor… She has no idea what is truly going on inside of me… She wants me to hold on, but that’s just what she wants… ME? Nah, I know it’s time… I’ve ran this death race for long enough and I know my body has finally tapped… Just let go…
“We can’t just let him go, doc… I’m not ready to lead… Don’t do this to me, Darren!”
Kevin is scared… I get it… I was scared in the beginning to, but it wasn’t until something extremely dramatic happened that I truly realized what it was like to be the guy who had all the answers… Mine was finding one of my own laying facedown in their own bile… This is going to be worse for Kevin and strangely I’m okay with that… He needs this moment… A defining moment that’ll either make him or break him… I’m truly okay with whatever happens… I have done my part and I pass along my mantle without fear…
“Doc the sensors are going off!”
Here it is… That cold sensation is starting to return to my body… That feeling of my life slipping away… A welcoming tune plays in my ears as the lights in the ambulance grow brighter… They say don’t walk into the light and as the warm glow washes over me… I can understand the warning, it calls out to me like a moth to a flame… No matter how fast this ambulance drives I know now, now more than ever that my time is up… Kevin’s eyes are full of tears right now and it pains me to think I won’t be able to tell him how proud I am of the man he has become… And how I know he’s going to do great things with my Brotherhood…
“Doc PLEASE! I‘m not giving up on you DK!”
The sensors chime in unison until that fateful flat line goes off alerting everyone in ear shot… I notice Kevin drop to his knees next to my gurney and the doctor looks at her watch.
“Sorry son… I have to call it…”
Just like that, time rushes away and I can’t simply flip the hour glass over… The final nail hammered into my coffin… My finest vice sweeps me off my feet and is going to plant me six feet under… The only question left… Was it worth it?
“Nooooo! PLAGUE!!!”
Looking at Kevin’s reaction, it’d be too easy to say it wasn’t… But it has always been about the end game… I was never meant to lead… It was always Kevin’s destiny, not mine…
“I can’t do this without you, sir…”
The new Plague… Let him reign supreme with his Brotherhood… I couldn’t have chosen a better successor…
***
“I can’t do this without you sir!”
I shoot up out of the not so very comfy chair next to a hospital bed with the last words I spoke out loud hanging in the air. In the hospital bed lies Damian Kaine who lays unconscious with tubes attached to his nose. Across from me on the couch lays Karma covered with one of the scratchy beige hospital blankets, but she looks as cute as ever snoozing away. I turn back to Damian and the kid looks to be a mess. His hair is unkempt and dark circles around his eyes truly point out that he has seen better days than this one.
“What have you done kid?”
I speak and he doesn’t even flinch, but I feel he needs to hear what I have to say.
“DK, I truly hate seeing you like this… I’ve been in this very same situation before and the biggest difference is I’m the mentor this time around… Damian, I feel like I have failed you and it really is killing me inside… You see, 8 years ago, my mentor Darren Knight passed away from a severe drug over dose and I was standing next to him like I am standing here now… I watched his fighting spirit leave his body and I felt helpless… I’m not giving up on you DK, I can’t… That’s the same thing I told him all those years ago…”
Crazy that I look at this kid going through this and I feel like this could very well be my second chance to save someone where I failed before…
“I hate to see it like this, but you’re my second chance, Damian… My chance at redemption where I failed before… I couldn’t save Darren, but I’ll be damned if I let you stumble down that same path that I lost him… You’re stronger than he is Damian and as hard as it is to say that… It’s the truth… After he passed, I was told by the remaining brothers that I was the driving force that kept him and the entire Brotherhood going… That’s why it was so easy to keep the train a rolling on… I crumbled under the pressure at first, you know taking on such a demanding task wasn’t easy for me… I was still young, much like yourself DK and I didn’t know what it meant to lead… I could barely lead my life let alone the lives of an entire group of people… I feel that’s where you are right now… You came to me with your issues and I haven’t been able to break down your wall that you have put up… You tell me one thing and you feel another… I should’ve seen it and I should’ve kept you from over dosing like you did… What if we weren’t there to save you? Where would you be then, kid? Adrian Archer of all people warned me about you, but with my ultimate goal in saving people who need it most… How could I pass you up? Were you a lost cause from the beginning? Some would say that, but I saw potential in you Damian… I saw potential in you when others saw a kid who couldn’t put a win together even if his life depended on it… It so easy to discard those who lack fortitude when they reach their ultimate low, but it’s the uphill struggle that takes the real challenger at heart… You may not have come from the streets, but your struggle in life was just as bad and it is within that, that I saw a kid worth taking a chance on… You’ve improved under my tutelage, but it was your inner demons that I couldn’t predict… I should’ve seen the signs, I’m still beating myself up over the fact, but I give you credit on the fact that you hid it so well…”
This kid’s downward spiral is going to be his ultimate undoing and once it is all said and done… What will be left? If he can survive this, then I know he can survive anything… He just has to wake up…
“You need to take this moment to rest up and to really look at this whole ordeal as the wake up call that you desperately needed… Don’t look back and dwell, just look back long enough to know that the man walking away is better than what he once was… We are here for you kid, don’t forget that… We love you brother…”
I distance myself from the room leaving Karma in her sleeping state and I start to reflect on the dream I just had… Darren Knight… The Plague who saved me from the streets, it was a gift he gave me that I never got the chance to repay… That death he put in his arm, stole him from me and left me in a state of limbo… My mind raced for weeks after his passing and it wasn’t until months later that I realized that his death was my ultimate test… I knew that he gave up his fight for my sake, because I needed him to… One of our elder brothers pulled me aside after I fell down that dark hole of despair… He told me of the prophecy that Darren spoke of… He knew his time was going to come and he knew he was going to pass the torch to his chosen one… Me, being that chosen one, I had to step up or step out… The pressure was too much at first, but I did what I had to do… I found Sean Kraven who was in a drugged up state on the streets and I saved him… I found Karma who was hooked to pain killers from her years of wrestling on the independents and I saved her… It was my calling and it was my passion… This Brotherhood of lost and misunderstood was going to be pieced together in a different light… Darren admitted to the elder that he was some false leader, but he drew his leadership from my strengths… Darren was a proud man and I know he’d never admit to such a failing, but coming from the elder, I kinda just knew it was the truth… Funny how thoughts can change our direction in life and now I find myself lost within this hospital… I calmly approach a nurse who looks to be drugged herself, let’s hope it’s just the over exposure to the death wish coffee that rattles around in the cup in her jittery right hand.
“Hello miss, I was walking the halls and I seem to have lost my way… I believe my brothers are waiting in the lobby around here…”
From the look she throws my way, I can tell I must have taken her attention away from something pretty important… But she replies non the less.
“It’s been a night sir and I’m going to apologize from the get go, because I can tell by the way you flinched when I looked at you, that I came off with some serious RBF… The girls always give me a hard time for it…”
A voice that claws at my ear drums as if it has been crusted over by too much usage… And RBF… Ha, resting bitch face truly wasn’t her only problem, but I continue on with the wicked witch of the west wing of the hospital…
“RBF, yeah my wife has that from time to time… It’s all good, what about that lobby? You can’t miss some of my brothers, a lot of beards and tattoos with the lot of them…”
RBF girl kindly chuckles.
“Yeah, I remember seeing a homeless ginger… Or maybe he wasn’t homeless, but maybe you could take him to a good groomer…”
RBF looks at her coffee and back at me.
“Wow, I am so sorry, that was a real bitch thing to say…”
Seriously? This is the kind of help this local hospital has? Such language… Must be a reason to put this chick on the night shift…
“Meh, he hears it all the time, but he’s honestly one of the toughest guys I know and he’s a real to life gladiator, you should really see his workout regiment…”
Please don’t tell me about your workout regiment… Please don’t tell me about your workout regiment…
“Speaking of workout regiments, you should totally pick up doing the Zumba fusion with Cambodian kick boxing… Talk about a serious workout… Wooo and it has this hotty wrestler showing off his dance/fighting skills… You may know of him… Danny Anderson?”
Ha, Danny Anderson, the Mr. Disappearing Act… Zumba fusion with Cambodian Kick boxing… Whatever floats his boat I suppose… What’s next, Sweating it out with Baron Von Butcher? I have to end this conversation with his RBF having witch… She makes Lilith look intelligent and that’s saying a lot…
“Alrighty… So about the lobby… Is it just this way? Or what?”
She doesn’t skip a beat as she jumps around the counter and starts waving me each direction like she’s some kind of air traffic controller, helping land a Boeing 757.
“Just follow this hall way until you reach the double doors at the end, push through them and then follow that hall straight until you hit that dead end… Once there, you’ll see the lobby on the right hand side and I do believe I remember seeing a group of freaks there…”
Freaks? This woman is wearing too much mascara and she has the worst case of cum guzzling throat that I have ever heard, well next to the crack whore troll, Lilith of course.
“Well those freaks are my brothers and sisters, so if you could kindly hold your tongue while speaking ill of them, I’d greatly appreciate it…”
RBF’s face goes from resting to fully inflamed.
“Well excuse me, I’m only speaking of my observation and this is the night shift, you could only imagine the freaks I have in here on a daily basis.”
She just doesn’t stop… Relentless on her approach and she surely doesn’t have a filter… Am I being Punk’d right now? Is this Lilith in disguise? I mean the similarities are uncanny… RBF… Check… Cum guzzling… Check… Ball gag? Nope… No filter… Check… The ability to alienate everyone around her… Check… The lacking of ability to finish a conversation… CHECK CHECK…
“Well I’ll leave you to your freak watch… Mrs?”
RBF is hesitant but she answers after a few seconds of awkward silence…
“Phoenix… Kathy Phoenix…”
I shake my head and start walking down the hall waving back to Mrs. RBF Kathy Phoenix.
“Thanks a bunch Kathy, see you around…”
Not even looking back I can sense her eyes rolling and her over active personality going back to the task I interrupted her from. I make my way down the hall, through the double doors and at the dead end I turn to my right to see everyone sitting in the lobby… And I mean everybody… Freaks to the left and Brothers to the right… The freaks keep the normal hospital patients at bay and I even notice Sol and Sly talking to the nurses, probably pitching the idea of putting on a show for the sick… Sean is awkwardly pinned between Zander and Psychopomp who look to have just finished fighting over a baggy of cookies… As signs of the deranged pissed off look on Sean’s face and the partially empty bag of cookie crumbs sitting firmly under his right hand on his lap. Zander looks away as if trying not to make eye contact with me and Pomp looks to be nearly in tears… As I approach I see FPV and Dion walk past me, and they seem to be getting a long pretty well… Before I can say a word to Sean, Pomp starts to yell at me.
“I’m SO SORRY PLAGUE!”
Yes, this situation had definitely hit an all time high, but I try to calm things as a voice of reason…
“Pomp, it’s okay, what’s going on here?”
Pomp starts to shake and Craven looks at him with a, GO ON, look.
“Zander and I were fighting in the lobby and Sean may or may not have got struck in the process…”
Sean rubs his chin a bit and I can tell he’s laughing inside more than actually being pissed.
“And why were you two fighting, yet again?”
Zander turns to look at me and he decides to throw in his two cents.
“He started it! All I was doing was sitting here on my laptop, minding my own business and doing some web design… When all of a sudden he starts wailing on me with fists of fury!”
“That’s NOT AT ALL HOW IT WENT, YOU LIAR!”
You’ve gotta be kidding me, right now… These two are just like god damn children… Voice of reason though… Voice of reason…
“Okay, okay, enough already… Pomp why did the fighting start in the first place?”
Before Pomp can speak Sean chooses to chime in.
“Listen these idiots are going to keep pointing the finger at one another… The truth of the matter is this… Pomp loves his cookies and Bitch Tits over here snuck the bag away when he wasn’t looking. His brain goes somewhere else while he is working on his web design and before you know it, he eats the entire bag of cookies… Pomp notices and he starts to wail on the guy… Long story short, Fatty ate the cookies and Psycho boy got pissed, the end… I separated the two of them and I’m hating life right now for having to play god damn baby sitter… So if you don’t mind, can I tag you in?”
That just about sums it up… The look Sean gave me, the lack of eye contact from Zander, and the pouty face coming from Pomp… Sean stands up and Zander droops toward Pomp and Pomp does the same toward Zander. I nod to Sean as he walks past me, obviously fired up, so he’s probably going to go vape outside to calm his nerves. I don’t sit down, I just look at Pomp and Zander in a very disapproving fashion.
“You two are about to be placed on probation… One more…”
The two start trying to plead their case to me, but I cut them off.
“ONE MORE… Outburst… One more fuck up… And I will bring the hammer down… You boys will be tilling the land with Parish and Kelly… Is that what you want?”
Zander shutters at the very thought of Kelly in its short shorts and cowboy/girl get up.
“Now can you be civil for one god damn minute? Our brother is fighting for his life in this hospital and he needs us all to send him what ever positive vibes that we can muster… Can you focus on that, instead of the lack of cookies?”
Zander and Pomp both nod in unison.
“Good, so put a smile on those faces of yours and act like you care for one another… I have shit I gotta do…”
Like that, I put the two of them in their place and I make my way outside of the hospital, leaving the freaks and my brothers to hold down the fort til Damian’s cleared to leave. The kid is a fighter and that’s every bit of the word… With his lack of success in the wrestling business, you’d imagine he’d simply fold his cards and go home… But he sticks with it and he takes his lumps in the process. He feeds his opponents the ammo they need to use against him, by his lack of over coming his pitfalls… But he hasn’t stopped and I don’t see him giving up even in that hospital bed… I swear this is his wake up call and I’ll be damned if I let him back peddle…
In an instant my beautiful black Impala shines through the darkness with the above head street lamp beaming down on it. A 1967 Chevy Impala just like the one from my very own innocent vice, the TV show Supernatural… Saving people and hunting things… The family business… Yeah, it’s my vice and I haven’t missed an episode since day one… The bond of two brothers who would do anything to save the ones they care about most… Maybe it was the fact that they lost their mother at a young age and then their father… Something connected with me early on and I drive this car across country going from venue to venue, yeah maybe I’m not hunting monsters, but I feel like I’m saving people in a way. Crazy, I know, but hey, it’s how I perceive it I suppose. She was the first car I owned and I bought her with the money I earned from wrestling over seas… I just got back to the states and I was hooked to the show… I was in some Podunk town in the middle of Kansas (yeah kinda cool right?) and I stumbled onto some used car lot… There she was, freshly washed and shining as bright as ever in that hot sun light. It was at that very moment I felt my inner Dean come out and I could feel how he felt when he held his baby tight… I had to have her and I wasn’t going to take no for answer… The sleazy gentleman who was even more of a dirt bag than Silver Goldstein, was as crooked as ever and the gold tooth covering his left incisor didn’t help his image much. A mixture of mafia goon and poor pirate… But the price was right, as far as right as I could tell, maybe my head was just spinning at the thought that I just stumbled upon a once in a lifetime opportunity… I wasn’t one to pass up an opportunity, obviously… The rest was history really, I took her home and I’ve made my runs across country ever since. She’s gone the distance and I’ve loved every minute of it… Our next journey was for me to hit the road again, just something to clear my head for a while. Back roads were calling to me and I knew my baby was aching for a drive. I leap in giving up on the prolonged hesitation and I turn the key, causing her to roar to life. The growl shook the rest of the cars around me, even causing the one directly next to me to start chiming with its car alarm. I let her rip and I pound down on the gas peddle, gripping the steering wheel as I go. We speed out of the parking lot and we begin to attack the local street, speeding past every green light imaginable.
Ahead of me though, I could see it, the street sign I was looking for that would lead to the so called “unbeaten” path. Oak Willow Dr. was lined up of trees on either side of the road and my baby was purring in excitement every inch of the way. Here I was, back roads open to my every whim and the only thing running through my mind was this ride… I can feel the fresh air creeping through my window that was cracked a little bit and the fall air brings my senses to life. The smell of leaves wash over me and in the distance I can tell there’s a bon fire being stirred up. Pure bliss… Up ahead though, I notice an elderly man slowly stumbling his way up the side of the road, he looks a little lost… The question… Should I pull over? Maybe I could help him get to where he’s getting to… If he turned out to be some serial killer, I’m sure I could take him… I mean he wasn’t more than 85 and from the look of his state, he wasn’t getting by so easily in life… Why the hell not?
I pull over next to the elderly man and I roll my passenger side window down, leading the elderly man to prop both hands on the opening.
“Hello good sir… What beaut you have here…”
A man of good taste of course, my car was beautiful and I feel a strange urge to abort my mission of playing good Samaritan…
“Thanks, so what brings you this way? Do you need a lift somewhere?”
I can’t believe I just did it… I just offered this stranger a ride, even after my gut was obviously telling me no. The man stutters to get his words together before answering me.
“I ah, reckon I do… You going my way, son?”
The old man flashes a smile at me, showing off his set of some-r-teeth and I kindly unlock the door. He slides in and closes the door behind him. He nods at me and I turn my attention back to the road.
“I appreciate you picking this old bag of bones up, the road was starting to get long… Oh so long…”
Not sure if meant this road or the road in life, but no matter the case, he looked like he has been ridden hard and put up soaking wet.
“So what brings you all the way out here, are you lost or something?”
The old man just softly shakes his head no.
“No sir, I’m just trying to get back home… My wife has been waiting for me for a little while now, but you know the hooch can get the best of you… He had me by the haunches and it sunk its fangs deep into my soul…”
Poor guy, I’ve had friends who battled that very same demon and it looks like he was reeling because of it… Luckily I came along when I did…
“Wow, I’m sorry to hear about your struggles Mr…?”
The old man turns to me and smirks.
“Mr. Hanson, nice to meet you kid…”
“It’s nice to meet you too, I was just out driving trying to clear my mind and I saw you walking up the road… I couldn’t just leave you on the side road like that…”
The old man as kind as ever rubs my shoulder in a thanking manner.
“I appreciate it Son, but what brings you all the way out here to clear your mind anyway?”
A stranger like this, I’m not sure if I should open up to him, but he does seem like a genuine soul.
“Well… Truth of the matter is there’s been a lot on my plate as of late… I have been leading men and women for years now and out of all the good we do, there’s still people who claim we aren’t true to who we are…”
The old man scoffs at the idea.
“People can be pricks… Most of the people out there are only looking out for themselves anyway…”
The old man seems to be on the same wave length as me, which was kind of strange… But I continue…
“It’s true… I’m a wrestler by trade and I have a decent match coming up this Sunday that I’ve been preparing for… You see, there’s a guy by the name of Johnny Rabid, I have bested him on multiple occasions, but he does have a tag team victory over me and my Brotherhood… He is always quick to claim that I have changed for the worse and that the person who sits next to you isn’t the same guy that stepped foot in the WCF back in June… By I don’t dwell on my past and I have indeed changed over these past months… How could I prey on my own convictions for this long and stay the same disgruntled man of the world? Was I really going to be able to burn down the WCF to rebuild it? Not at all and I came to that conclusion… I mean I didn’t have The Pantheon by my side pushing for the same goal… No I had myself stepping into the WCF with a goal to over throw Seth Lerch on my own and when I chose to side with the clown known as Thomas Urial Bates, it blew up in my face… We didn’t do shit, even if TUB claimed we did, nothing really changed…”
“Change is just like beauty kid, it’s in the eye of the beholder… From the sound of it, you definitely have a full plate…”
This old man didn’t even know the full story and he was feeling sorry for me…
“I wish that was all, sir… That's not even the half of it, I’ll tell you… I’ve been building my Brotherhood and it has finally reached a point where every member has the opportunity to really become stand outs, but no one can take them seriously because of all their pitfalls from their past… I can only do so much to change their image, but with a past full of mistakes, it’s hard for them to shake it off… Hell one of them just tried to OD and he’s at the local hospital fighting for his life… That’s why I got away like I did to clear my head… I lost my mentor Darren Knight to this same situation and he simply stop fighting… I don’t see the same end game for this kid, but I thought the same about Darren too…”
“No matter how hard you try… You cannot place the change inside of a man and hope that it sticks… Every man has to put forth the effort, no matter what is given to them, they have to put the work in… You say your mentor passed without fighting?”
I just calmly nod.
“Maybe you didn’t really know the fight he had to muster to survive… What if he was fighting his entire life and he just finally couldn’t fight any longer?”
It’s so easy for this old man to say, but Darren must’ve been good at acting, because I never noticed him that far gone as he was that night…
“Vices got the best of him, just as it got the best of Damian, and from the looks of it, yourself as well, Mr. Hanson…”
Mr. Hanson lightly chuckles.
“Oh boy, you don’t even know… I was told many a times, once a drunkard always a drunkard… No matter how many times I tried to prove them wrong, back to the bar is where I wound up at… Buried under a bottle of Jack, asking for another…”
It pains me to see the hurt in this man’s eyes and it really hits home, as I remember seeing my father in this very same state…
“So you’re a glutton? Some would call me a glutton for pain, the amount that I put myself through for the sake of entertainment for the fans who pay their hard earned money… You ever find yourself being much of a wrestling fan, Mr. Hanson?”
“Oh yes, I love it when those boys axe handle each other and drop the big leg drop… If I was only younger, I’d throw on some skives and toss them boys around…”
“There’s girl now too…”
The old man just about croaks as he clinches his chest.
“Competing with the MEN? What kind of world are we living in now?”
“Oh yeah, my match this Sunday is a 3 way and a woman is a part of the fight… Sadly she’s just an obnoxious ADD having troll who doesn’t know the difference between a wrist lock and a wrist watch… She can claw me up and cheap shot me, but that’s about it… She rambles over and over again the same tiring bull shit and she does everything she possibly can to get under people’s skin.”
“That’s unheard of, I can barely sit right now… A woman wrestling in a man’s sport… What is this world coming to? It’s unreal… I just don’t get it…”
Wow, I think I may have hit a touchy subject for this old guy, he really is against women wrestling…
“A woman’s place is in the kitchen and bearing children… Not competing in a ring with men… What does this Johnny guy think of this winch being added to your match?”
I never really thought of that… Johnny is indeed a great wrestler, does he look at Lilith as a threat? I mean we can both obviously wrestle circles around her, but she is one for cheap tactics… What if I get Johnny down ready for the 3 and she pulls off some shenanigans? Or what if Johnny has me ready for the 3 and she does the same to him?
“Honestly, I see the both of us taking her out of the equation so we can actually see who the better man really is… We both are competitors of the highest ability and I think it is only inevitable for us to square off one on one… I’ve wrestled him in the WCF and I have wrestled him over seas in the UCI… But we have yet to have a singles match against each other…”
“Well you best hop to it son, this Johnny cat sounds like he’s going to give you a run for your money after you dispose of that little girl problem… Why are you wasting your time driving this old man around?”
Sadly, talking to this old man has really helped my mind settle… I knew DK was going to be fine and I knew my match this Sunday was going to be every bit the barn burner that I hoped it would be, with or without Lilith involved… My Brotherhood is going to continue its path and I know the next opportunity my boys have, they’re going to make the most of it…
“No worries man, are we getting closer to your house?”
“It’s up here on the right actually… Oh and don’t worry kid, everything is going to work out for you… I just know it…”
He’s right… Everything is going to work out for me and I’m going to keep pushing forward with my plans, no matter the cost… I pull up to a farm house on the right side of the road and as I come to complete stop, I notice Mr. Hanson is no longer sitting in my passenger seat…
“He’s gone…”
My door never opened… My window never lowered… So where did Mr. Hanson go? I can’t stand the suspense so I pull out my phone and I Google Mr. Hanson and the farm house address.
“Mr. Harold Hanson was found dead in his farm house home, he drank himself into a frenzy and his body gave out on him… Mr. Hanson was 85 and his only living relative is his wife Judy Hanson age 81...”
What the fuck just happened? I’ve heard of ghost passengers before, but this… This was something that I never thought would happen…
“Damn…”
My phone starts to ring in my hand and I notice it is Sean, I quickly answer it.
“Hey man, what’s up?”
“They’re releasing DK and he says he wants to ride back to camp with you… Where are you?”
Ha, if Sean only knew what I just dealt with he’d probably throw me in a padded room.
“I’m a little far off the beaten path right now, but I’ll be back as soon as I can, cool?”
“Yeah, that’s fine, they’re still waiting to discharge him, but I think the rest of the Brotherhood is getting restless… I think probably half of us hate hospitals to begin with…”
“I hear you man, I’m headed back now.”
I hang up my phone and slide it back into my pants pocket. I give the farm house one more look before I peel out leaving it in my rear view mirror. The old man told me that I hadn’t anything to worry about, because it was all going to work out for me… He said he just knew it, but what did he really know? I had the fight of my life against a foe like Johnny Rabid and he’s obviously looking to prove a point in this match of ours, even if Lilith is apart of it. Johnny Rabid was a vicious competitor… Cocky? Yes, but he is a man who knows when to put it all on the line… He was a man who would kill if it meant he’d be the victor… Killing Floor was no joke and not a single person left that match laughing… But the WCF didn’t care about all of that… Oh no, that wasn’t apart of their wheel house… That was some international incident that didn’t grace this land, but I’m okay with that… Nothing I do there is going to effect the WCF and nothing I do in the WCF will effect there… So that’s why I’m not throwing Johnny’s defeat over there by my hands into his face, but I’ll surely mention about eliminating him from WAR, because that definitely happened… We are going to fight come Sunday and it’s not going to be for the feint of heart… Oh no, it’s going to be a match bathed in our blood and sweat… We are going to leave it all in the ring and there’s going to be very little to take back to the locker rooms…
I’ll speed down Oak Willow Dr. and I quickly cut the wheel to drift around the turn leading to the main road. I wasn’t sure if I was going to inform my brothers of the happenings of tonight, because I’m unsure if they’d believe a word I’d have to say… Sure they listen when I speak, but I feel speaking of ghost travelers, that’d be a little bit too farfetched… Mr. Hanson was a good listener and maybe that is what I needed on this drive… I needed someone to bounce my problems off of and Mr. Hanson fit that bill… Damian looks like he’s going to be okay, I just have to keep a watchful eye on him… As far as Lilith went… Well, I’m going to have to keep her at arms length and dispose of her when the time is right… I know it and Johnny knows it… This match is OUR match… It hasn’t a damn thing to do with Lilith… She can’t even make up who she loves or hates on a weekly basis… She’s the Pantheon’s personal whore, but she claims to be a WCF lifer… She’s better off staying in her toy box with all of her teddy bears than competing in a ring… She can tote her accolades around all she likes, but it doesn’t mean shit when she hasn’t done shit lately… You’re only as good as your last match, that’s what I’ve always been told… And after this match, there’s going to be no doubt that I am as good as I say I am… Johnny is going to speak of my past and that’s all fine and dandy, but if that’s the man he’s preparing to face, then he’s going to be sadly mistaken.. I have evolved and I am a man who has proven time and time again that I can get the job done in the ring… This Sunday will be no different…
The hospital comes into view and I can see my Brotherhood standing out front waiting for the buses to pull up. I pull up behind the said buses and I notice Damian slowly walking toward the Impala with Karma holding onto his arm. She helps him into the passenger side and she walks over to my side of the car.
“I’m going to let you have some time with DK, is that okay?”
“Yeah, that’s fine, I think it’ll be good to talk things over with him…”
Karma gives me a big kiss before skipping away to the bus. I look over to DK in the passenger seat who looks half past dead.
“DK, how are you feeling brother?”
DK smirks.
“I feel like I’ve been killed and brought back to life.”
Ha, he can say that again, he looks like shit, but I’m not going to tell him that… Right now he’s too fragile.
“Nah, man you look good considering…”
DK rolls his eyes.
“You don’t have to sugar coat it brother… I know I look like death warmed over… I just want you to know, this whole ordeal wasn’t some kind of cry for help…”
I raise my hand to silence him before he started weaving his web of lies.
“Don’t need to explain man, let us just move past this and look toward the future… Just know, the next time you feel like going down this path, you better let me know or I guarantee the end result will be far worse… I mean that the nicest way possible of course…"
Did I? Really? Suicide is no joke and I really wanted DK to know how I felt about it…
“I understand Bishop and I truly apologize for letting my demons get to me that badly without giving you the chance to truly help me…”
I smile from ear to ear.
“Oh I’m going to help you and it’s going to be a little something I think ol’ Tom-A-Hawk would appreciate… Have you ever heard of a Native American Sweat lodge?”
“No, I can’t say that I really have… What are you planning to do with one?”
That smile still holds strong on my face.
“My boy… I’m going to make sure all of those evil toxins leave your body and then I’m going to make you go on a spirit quest to help you find yourself… When it is all said and done, you’re going to be a new man… A man who actually looks to the future with a brighter perspective…”
Damian actually looks excited, even though he’s taken back a bit.
“I’m game… Whatever will help…”
I hit the accelerator and my baby makes a loud roar and I nod to Damian.
“Good, hold on tight…”
Just like that we speed as fast as can be down the road.
And the road goes on…
