Post by Salem Shepard on Sept 1, 2016 17:27:55 GMT -5
Breakfast PT1
(August 29th – the Morning after Revenge, 7:17am)
Breakfast had its ups and downs that morning. Shepard had met Crazy J, Cash and Sheps sister Claire at the café just as the sun was coming up. Erik had called him and said Crazy J kept him up most the night wailing on about Lisa. Then after that, J started to call Jaymz and Jaymz had gone to stay with his old friend and brought J up to the café this morning. Jaymz didn’t like people, but he would die for the few people that he did like. Crazy J was his oldest friend and always had his back even if Crazy J had totally lost his mind and was completely wrong. Erik had called ahead to the café and told them Jaymz was bringing them an insane amount of money to close down the café to all customers for a few hours. Erik paid them more than the dump was going to earn in a week, so they quickly locked the doors and cooked up whatever the ZT crew wanted. The regulars still beat on the doors trying to get it in, so Jaymz took post at the door and with one look – nobody knocked on the locked door again. They simply turned away. His face etched with time and scars and a look in his eyes that made people shudder as they passed by. He stood by the front door wearing his long black jacket that hung down to his heels, smoking one cigarette after another.“He looks like a giant fucking terminator over there, …Like in T2 when he was watching out for John and Sara when they slept.” Shepard said from the booth as he turned to look at Jaymz. Jaymz flicked a cigarette butt his way that Shepard dodged as it flew past his head. Crazy J and Cash sat on one side of the booth and Shepard sat next to his sister on the opposite side. Shep and Claire had their backs to Jaymz. Claire looked a lot better since she had overdosed – the night J and Shep had taken her to the hospital and Shep had run off. She had seemed to put on a little weight and there was a clearer look in her eyes. She had been clean since she got out of the hospital. Overdosing was a big enough scare to keep her sober - for now. Shep noticed that Jaymz did NOT want her in here when she arrived. But after Crazy J told the monster she was ok – he settled down. But still, he could see that Jaymz was still suspicious of her.
Crazy J was a mess. He was still sobbing over Lisa and he had huge globs of snot running down his face, past his lips and dangling from his chin. Cash suggested that he wipe his face off several times but J said it would rub the paint off – and we couldn’t have that shit!! The waitress, an older lady who smelled like anchovies and cigarette butts, came and took their order and for a moment the small café was silent after that, …except from the occasional sniffle from Crazy J. J looked up with his red teary eyes and spoke to Claire. As he did, some of the snot worked its way into his mouth, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Claire…Im really glad you beat your cancer.” J tried to force a smile.
Claire wasn’t sure how to react; she knew he was crazy though. “I….I didn’t have cancer. I overdosed.”
“Oh…Im sorry.” J looked back down at the table, “I overdosed too…I overdosed on my love for Lisa and I miss her more than anything in the world.”
“So…Was that just a replica of Lisa?” Claire asked, and when she did everyone had a look of panic on their faces. Except Crazy J. He looked up from the table with a pissed look in his eye. Shep tried to motion to her to be quiet; but Crazy J had her attention.
“You think Im gonna bring some other bitch to the ring to PRETEND to be Lisa!?! Why THE FUCK WOULD I DO THAT!?”
Claire recoiled at his comment, and being a bitch raised in the hood she always mouthed off and fought back. “Hey, you don’t have to be such and asshole!!”
Shep grabbed her by the arm and tried to force her out of the booth with his body but she didn’t budge. It was like trying to move a rock. He budged her again and she still didn’t move. That’s when Shep noticed the massive black …thing…in the corner of his eye. He looked up next to Claire and saw Jaymz blocking her in the booth. His massive chest was heaving up and down, his nostrils were flared and he gritted his old yellow teeth at Claire. If there was one thing in the world to fear, it was being on the bad side of the seven foot monster that called itself Jaymz. Half man, half beast…He didn’t create this world, but he made it his own. Shepard could feel the air pressure in the room start to change and fear gripped his body. He squeezed his sisters arm even tighter as he watched the blackness take over the monsters eyes. It rolled in like waves from the corners and swallowed his irises and finally his pupils into a blackness that seemed soo dark that it stretched on into eternity. It captivated you, those pitch black eyes held you in a trance and there was nothing you could do. Shepard and his sister froze both their jaws slack as Jaymz reached inside his jacket with his left hand.
At the same time, Shepard could hear the glass in the windows begin to crack behind him, and could almost feel the very foundation that the cafe was sitting on begin to shift. Jaymz pulled his hand from his pocket and all Shepard caught was the gleam of the blade as the giant moved with quickness a man his size shouldn’t possess. He jammed the massive knife straight ahead into the front of Claire’s throat, directly under the chin. Shepard, who was on the opposite side seemed to see it in slow motion. He saw the skin on the back of his sisters neck begin to poke out in a sharp point before the blade burst through sending blood spraying on his face. The blade continued on through the flesh, making its way closer to Shepard’s face as he watched the blood drip from the blade. He heard his sister try and breathe, but it was cut with a sickening wet, gurgling sound as she choked and gasped. Her body convulsed and Shepard finally let go of her arm as he screamed out in fear and fell back against the cracked window - shattering it. Jaymz tilted his head and lifted Claire up from the booth by the handle of the knife with ease. He looked on at her with a sick look of satisfaction as her limp body swung in the air from the blade of the knife. After a moment, he tilted it down and Claire started to slip from the end of the blade and fell to the floor with a muted thud. Jaymz licked the knife, and then walked back off to stand his post next by the front door. Shep, shaking in fear, covered in blood looked wide-eyed at J and Cash.
Cash only shrugged before he spoke, “She shouldn’t have been talking shit man…Sorry about that.”
*********
(Thursday, September 1st - Live)
The ZT Tower was the tallest in Houston was the tallest of the bunch, and the tallest tower in Houston. Zero Tolerance had skyscrapers in LA, Detroit, Houston, and Memphis where Erik spent most his time flying to each one making one deal after another. They had been spending a lot of time at the ZT tower in Houston because, surprisingly, Erik had approved of the idea that Crazy J and Shepard came up with and they had been making progress on it in their spare time. Schizo had his own office at the ZT tower looking north out to the city, but he hated calling it an office because he didn’t have a real job, ...he wrestled. The north wall was one giant window with the shades drawn, at Crazy J’s request. He was still a mess over Lisa and they had all tried to cheer him up over the week but nothing had worked. Shep had massive pieces of art that covered the walls and all of it was of death and destruction. Some of them were painted by Marilyn Manson and those were the ones that he admired those the most. Cash was laid back on the couch with a remote in hand, changing channels on the massive TV with a beer in his other hand. “So when’s that Hank Brown sumbitch posed ta be here?” Cash slurred.
Erik Black had flown in WCF backstage reporter Hank Brown on the private ZT jet for an interview that was scheduled last week for Shep and Crazy J. Shep wanted to cancel the interview after J lost Lisa but J had insisted they do they interview anyway.
Shep pulled his jersey sleeve back and looked at his watch, “He should be here anytime.” Sheps bright blue hair was spiked up and he had his face painted like a skull, with one white out contact. He looked at Cash and noticed that J wasn’t sitting on the far end of the couch any longer. His eyes scanned the large office and on the opposite end of the room was another couch, sitting next to a giant pot of Elephant Ears. Salem saw the plant moving and saw Crazy J tucked away between the pot and the couch. “What the fuck?” he muttered as he walked that way. As he got closer he could see Crazy J’s ass cheeks between the leaves, and as he peered closer, he closed his eyes and jumped back
“J??!!!? What the fuck man!!??”
Crazy J popped up from between the plant and the couch, zipping his pants up in the process. His eyes were still bright red and swollen as he had been crying all week. He still had snot running down his face, but he had at least been wiping it off – and it left his bare skin showing around his mouth and chin. He was a mess and he looked horrible.
“What?” J said in a sad voice.
“Are you fucking jacking off on my couch!?”
“NO!!” J looked a little guilty as he awkwardly sat down on the couch, cellphone in hand. “I was just….Well, Lisa always rubbed my pickle on her crotch, that’s how we had sex….And, I don’t know why, but your couch reminds me of Lisa.”
“…You were rubbing your dick on my couch?”
“its soft..” J said as he stroked the seat of the couch, “Can I take it home?”
It was then there came a knock at the door and a young lady with amazing blue eyes walked in wearing what Twilight would wear to the ring. Behind her was Hank Brown of the WCF. He thanked her; she smiled and looked at Salem, “If you need anything, just page me King Salem.” She walked out and closed the door, and everyone in the room looked at Shepard.
“Uuuh…I uh, ..She likes to call me that.” He said nervously. “She came up with that on her own”
“uh-huh, I bet.” Cash laughed, “And why you got your secretary dressed up like that bitch we posed to smack around last week? …That’s weird man. She don’t like ya, ya need ta get over it.”
Hank settled his way into a chair and Shepard sat next to him. “First off, thanks for flying me out here! Mr. Black has been very accommodating…Should we wait for Crazy J?”
Shepard and Hank looked behind them, Crazy J was sitting on the couch playing on his phone and Hank could see he was in bad shape. He whispered to Shep, “He must be looking at pictures of Lisa?”
Crazy J heard the comment, froze and glared at Hank. “No. Im watching porn. It helps me cope. ..And these porn videos on my phone are amazing. The porn industry is going to explode on the internet, there’s soo much and it’s only been out a few weeks. We should tell Erik, he likes to invest. Internet porn is the wave of the future.”
Hank was taken back, “he still thinks porn on the internet is new? ..Ookk, we’ll go on without him. Salem, it’s obvious that you are attracted to Twilight, she is an amazing woman!”
“Yes, I know she is. But Hank…I don’t think she’s feelin me. But I don’t quit!!! I am not a fucking quitter!!!! One of these days she’s going to realize she needs a little Schizo in her life….Now, it may not be today…It may not be tomorrow. But I’ll be waitin….And I’ll be watchin…yeah, I will….Right through her bedroom wind----oh shit; I didn’t mean to say that. Can we edit that out?”
Hanks eyes got big, “Do you really know where she lives!?”
Salem froze, “no comment.”
There was an awkward silence for a moment before our Hillbilly Hero shouted from across the room, “yeah he do!! Don’t let ‘em fool ya!!!”
Hank didn’t approve, “I don’t think Ms. Twilight is going to like you snooping around her house…That’s weird.”
Salem was getting frustrated, “I didn’t say I did!!!! It was a joke!!!”
“NO IT WASN’T!!!!” Cash yelled with a laugh.
Salem closed his eyes, he didn’t like doing interviews without Crazy J..this wasn’t his type of thing. He pulled out his vape pen and started to vape the THC oil because this wasn’t the time and place for his condition to start actin up.
Hank asked, “So what is it like getting into the ring with her? ..And what did you think about that match?”
Well, I was a little sad that she didn’t want my flowers…It kinda hurt my feelings if you wanna know the truth. Those cost a lot of money; I made sure I got the best looking ones. I knew she wanted to kick my ass, but I thought she would at least like the flowers…No, she didn’t. But that’s ok because Im not giving up on her just yet. One these days she gonna want to see the Schizo start peelin these clothes and getting oiled up!! ..ok, I’ll stop there cause you lookin at me kinda funny, Hank. …But I liked her throwing me around the ring and I felt the power she has, I see why she’s a respected wrestler around here…and uh, that just made her more attractive to me. I didn’t get to see her long though, because she and her little puppy bitched out of the match. I know she prolly had to go change her panties after being in the ring with me for a few minutes, so she had a good excuse for leaving the ring…But that other bastard? Ah hell, Archer just her tag along and he’s no competition for me when it comes to twilight cause he’s like the guy stuck in the friend zone. ..So, he’ll never get to see that side of her like I will one day… Damn, I’d eat a mile of her shit just to smell her asshole..
Hank was appalled, “That. Is. Disgusting…..This might be the weirdest interview I’ve ever done.”
Well, this next match might be the weirdest match I’ve ever been in. Have you seen the Cap WCF guy? Yeah, I know you have – and we kicked his ass in our first match here... That guy dresses like a condom, something his daddy should have used years ago because he’s a fucking embarrassment to this sport.”
“Hey now!! Captain WCF is a great man and a great representative of our federation!!”
No, Hank, I told you. He looks like a man in a condom. This guy didn’t stand a chance against us in the ring the first time and weve only improved since that point…This is just a warmup for when Cash and I get to fight for the rights to be the number one contender for the tag straps. Now, I don’t know why they keep sticking outsiders in our matches…We don’t want to work with outsiders…Cash and I are better off as duo taking on those three guys; we don’t need someone elses help to get the job done…and we don’t want to work with anyone else other than Crazy J!!
“Well, let’s talk about that match, Salem. How is the Freekshow going to do this week?”
The Freekshow? That’s Crazy J and myself, yall aint even got to see the Freekshow yet. But it don’t matter what combination of Zero Tolerance you put in the ring, cause Cash and I work just as well as Crazy J and I do. I train with these guys all the time, and like I’ve said, I know these guys better than anyone. So as long as Night Ryder shows up and in shape, then we shouldn’t have any problem…And we don’t know this guy, I’ve never even crossed his path back stage, but if he fucks this match up – then Cash and I are going to beat the holy fuck out of him for it!! Tomohawk gets to see what ZT’s all about before Cash and I get to take those titles away from him, the ones that shoulda been stripped because he’s not a real “team” anymore and hasn’t been for a few weeks now. I watched his stuff on TV the other day and I guess Cap WCF is the new tag Champ along with him? Yeah, I don’t know how that works…but, he needs a teammate I guess… After Cash and I take care of business in the coming weeks and earn our right to fight for those titles, the WCF won’t be able to ignore ZT. Crazy J already took care of business and brought the first WCF Title to Zero Tolerance, and Cash and I got our eyes on some of that gold too. So it don’t really matter who Tomohawk has standing in his corner in a few weeks, …cause there aint gonna be no stoppin ZT when there’s gold on the line. But, that’s in a few weeks..We still have to earn out right to get there so we gonna have to bring it next week! BUT WHEN DO WE NOT BRING IT!? People thought we would bitch out and run off after Gemini pinned my ass a few weeks back….But I told yall, that was only going to make us stronger and help me learn. Twilight, as sweet as she is, thought that Cash and I would turn on J if he won the Hardcore Title…which he did…and if we lost our match…which we didn’t….Why would I be jealous that Crazy J got a hardcore Title shot!? Why would that tear ZT apart? Honey, you don’t know Zero fuckin Tolerance. Now, I could see a group of 3 girls getting jealous and tearing each other apart, ..Because that’s what girls do to each other. They backstab and turn on each other. THEY VICIOUS!!!! …no….Thats not how ZT works. We were Crazy J’s number one fan that night, we bout trashed that locker room watching it on the TV…Fuck, that shit was stressful. Hank, we got things rolling right row, and we gonna hit some more speed bumps and take some losses on the way, …but that don’t stop us, we still gonna keep on comin!!
Crazy J came bursting through between Shep and Hank with a surprised look on his face, “HEY!! Guys!! You aren’t going to believe this…Im on this porn site and it says “Hardcore!!” So this porn site actually has a whole section dedicated to me, the Hardcore Champion!!!”
He pecked around on the phone and a disappointed look came over his face, “Wait a minute!!!!! This Hardcore has nothing to do with me!! …Someone needs to call the WCF offices and tell them about this. All I see is a bunch of dirty people doing dirty things…They must have uploaded Bishops cult orgies instead of my Hardcore Title stuff. Hank, can you tell those guys at the WCF to fix this when you go back?
Hank had no idea what to say, “uumm…Ok?”
“Thanks man” J said as he wiped his snotty nose on Hanks shoulder, ..he didn’t seem to notice.
Listen Hank, Cash and I are going to make quick work of these fools this week, ..well, unless Night Ryder holds us back. But, kinda like last week, if Cash and I just tag each other in we can take this match and run away with it. Two of these guys have already felt the power of Zero Tolerance, and that was our very first match here when nobody gave us a chance. When we came here and people laughed at us, told us we were going to be nothing more than jobbers in the WCF, but so far we have proven them all wrong. That’s why I told you earlier this was nothing but a warmup match to prepare for the real fight that’s coming when ZT gets ready to take those tag belts away from Tomohawk. Dion, Cap WCF…those guys know they don’t stand a chance against us!!! Dion looks like he’s gotten a little better since the last time we faced him, but he hasn’t improved at the rate that we have. He hasn’t risen in the ranks of the WCF like we have…he’s a big guy, he’s hard to move around the ring but after getting in the ring with people like Gemini and Twilight, I feel like I can handle any one of these three guys now. Here’s a guy that was injured a few weeks back and he claims that his shoulder is good and ready to go, ..but is it? Is he really ready to stand across the ring from ZT when he’s not 100%? He never should have said a damn word about that shoulder!!!
“Why is that, Salem?...Does it give you something like a mental edge thinking he may not be fully healthy?”
No, Hank!!! It’s because when I get into the ring with him, Im gonna beat the holy fuck out of that shoulder. Im gonna make sure it’s still fucked up from when he hurt it the first time…And trust me, if Cash and I ruin that shoulder and keep him out of the ring for the rest of his life...well, we don’t really care. Because he stands in the way of what we want and if you people haven’t figured it out yet – we get what we want. We take what we want. Our goal when we arrived to the WCF was to hold the tag belts AND a singles Title all at the same time. Things changed a little because it was Crazy J and I that wanted to go after the tag belts and Cash wanted to go after the solo Title…But hey, any tag team ZT can put together is still better than anything the WCF has to offer at the moment. There is no other group of people that can team up and fight with the cohesion that we do. They keep teaming us up against these guys who don’t fight together and we keep taking them out one by one…With only one blemish along the way so far. And for two weeks in a row they keep adding someone to our side that we don’t want, and I don’t know if that’s a way to try and keep ZT from rising to the top, but if it is, …it damn sure aint gonna work.
“Well you guys have defiantly raised some eye brows since your arrival. I saw on Facebook earlier this week that you said you were broken hearted over Twilight….Now that it’s been a few days; are you still as upset?”
“Well, no Hank, not really…You see, Miles MacArthur replied to my post and told me that if I wrote a song it would help my broken heart feel better. Well, I aint no song writer…but it was a good idea!!! So I brought it up to Crazy J, because we all know he’s a big crying mess and misses Lisa…And he said he wasn’t a song writer either, so we decided to write poems. ..Hey J, you wanna read your poem right now?”
J yelled from the back of the room, “I twatted mine the other day. It’s on the internet.”
“What!? …We were gonna read them for everyone….oh well..” Shep shrugged, “I decided to add a little flair to mine”
Cash got up from the couch and picked up his acoustic guitar that was on the floor. He sat in a chair next to Shep and Hank then started to play. It was clear that Cash was just as good at playing the guitar as he was at drinking and wrestling! Shepard pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it as Cash continued to play.
“I wrote this poem…it was inspired by something that happened Tuesday night. I call it, ‘Twilight of my Dreams’ and it goes something like this…”
Shep cleared his voice. The guitar playing was great but it didn’t mix with the awful poem that Shep started to read.
“We see Schizo laying on the ground by a large rock,
Hes holding something in his hand, that would be his cock.
He gazed on at the twinkling stars in the dark sky,
And he thought of shooting his gooey load in Twilights eye.
The long cool, grass was wet on his back,
But the soft, gentle tips tickled his sack.
He increased his speed, his heart rate going even higher,
Until the sides of his penis burned like it was on fire.
He spit on his hand to moisten his tool,
The amazing feeling it caused, made him drool.
He blew his load like the fourth of July,
But without Twilight, it made him cry.
As he zipped his pants in this nice secluded place,
A cop came by and saw his painted up face.
Shepard, he thought it was a race
But the cop chased him down, and maced his face.
Oh my, what an amazing sight,
To see Schizo jack off in the dim moon light!”
“Thank you…thank you” Shep smiled as Crazy J did the quiet clap and Hank nearly dropped the microphone in shock of what he just heard. Cash put the guitar way and went back to his beer. Shepard looked at Hank, expecting him to say something but he didn’t, so Shepard continued on.. “Cash actually made a song out of that tune; it was good stuff…CASH!!! You gonna sing your song, or did you post it on twitter too!?”
“nope…I aint singin shit taday” He said as he popped another beer. “Holy shit….Shep, come check this out..”
Shep got up and Hank followed him over to where Cash was standing. Jason was looking at the couch that Crazy J had molested earlier and there was a circular hole right in the cushion, and it looked to be wet.
“..He really did that to your couch?” Hank was disgusted more than ever.
Crazy J walked up beside them and they all gave him a weird look. “WHAT!?!? ….Its not what it looks like, ok? The couch gave me permission, so it wasn’t rape it was love.”
Shep nodded, “yeah man…I changed my mind. You can have the couch…”
[/b]
*************
Breakfast PT2
(August 29th – The morning after Revenge. Time - ??:??)
Shep rubbed his eyes just slightly as to not smear the paint and looked around. ..”Where the fuck am I?” he muttered as his vision came into focus. He looked around at the old abandoned warehouse. The old green windows that were higher than fifteen feet from the floor had been shattered; which allowed the sunlight to pour in from two sides. Broken wood pallets lay on the floor and the walls were covered in graffiti that Shepard almost laughed at. He was an artist when it came to tagging things, and his artistic skills were almost as good as good as his wrestling skills. The massive concrete pillars that held up the building were peeling their white paint and a few birds flew out the window. Shepard sat in a chair with a small card table in front of him. Across the table was his father. His dead father. He sat slumped back in the chair, the dried blood covering his old flannel shirt from the gunshot wound and the massive gaping hole on the right side of his head where the bullet found its way out of its soft fleshy target. He looked exactly like he had the last time we saw Shep’s father several weeks back. He smiled, the right side of his face showing nothing but a few teeth and tatters of flesh hanging down. His voice was deep, low and raspy.“Hello, son.”
Shep’s neon blue eye contacts darted around the room in a panic as he finally came to his senses. “Claire!! CLAIRE!!! I have to find Claire’s body, Jaymz killed her…that son of a bitch!!!!”
A wet chuckle rose from the dead man’s mouth, “she’s not dead.”
“YES SHE IS!!!! Jaymz killed her!!!”
“No, she’s not. After breakfast you took her back to her apartment. The new one. The one you bought for her after she almost died…..You should have let her die, Salem.”
Shep was takin back by the last seven words his father spoke, but he was still confused. “What do you mean? We were in the restaurant and…”
He trailed off as the dead man raised one of his pale hands in front of him. “…And that was this morning, son. That was hours ago. All of you ate, all of you watched that crazy person cry over a doll and you took your sister home afterwards…That was hours ago. What’s the last thing you remember?”
Shep sat in the chair and seemed to think about it, “Well, we were talking to Crazy J and….and…that’s when Jaymz came up and..
“..And then you forgot?” The old man seemed pleased by this. “Everything went fine there this morning, until you got anxious and started to hear things… voices….Then you started to see things, like Jaymz killing my daughter…”
“None of that really happened?” Shep relaxed and it felt like a mountain had been lifted from his shoulders. “What do you want?”
The dead man sat up in his chair and placed both arms on the table, clasping his hands together and intertwining his fingers. “Why are you still here, Salem? Why haven’t you crossed over to my side yet? ……We could be together again and you know that you were always my favorite - being my only son. You made me proud when you were little, but you let me down as you got older. ..And look at you, you turned out no better than the white trash, spics and niggers we lived around. You were better than that when I left this world…how old were you then? Nine…ten?
“That’s not true…I got out of there.”
“YOU GOT OUT OF THERE!?” The dead man tilted his head back and roared in laughter that echoed through the old warehouse. “You’re still beating people up for money!! There’s no difference in what you do now compared to the backyard fights you used to setup. And you hit a woman? I taught you better than that.”
“I have to…It’s my job. She’s on the WCF roster.”
“You are an embarrassment. You are still the same loser you’ve always been. You’re a worthless piece of shit from the hood. …You’re white trash and I DIDN’T raise you that way.”
Shepard sat there not saying a word, trying not to make eye contact with his dead father as he continued to rant.
“How long do you think this is going to work for you Salem? Are you getting all your frustrations out once a week in the ring? ..Is that working for you? Im willing to bet you haven’t told that scum you call your friends your whole history, have you? ..Did you tell them why you went to jail the second, third and fourth times? …You can’t live like this Salem. You can’t keep hiding the past you’re trying to run away from…. I watched as you fought in the backyards when you were young. You were better than everyone in the neighborhood and you took them out quickly. But once a week wasn’t enough, was it? You scheduled more …and more…until you were fighting every day, taking in all the change and foodstamps the niggers and spics would lay down on their friends… And what happened when you didn’t have any more spare time to squeeze in those fights? …What happened then? You still had those frustrations locked inside of you, and you started to beat your opponents down when they were on the ground. You started kicking their teeth out when the fight was over. You became more and more violent because the number of fights still couldn’t scratch the itch you had. ..Until you killed that guy in Sullivan’s backyard. …Tell me son, beating him soo badly and killing him felt good didn’t it? It finally felt like there was something deep inside of you that was satisfied, right?”
Shepard didn’t even look up. He knew his dead father was right. Fighting was what he loved the most and he obsessed over it, and when he had killed the guy two blocks away from him when he was younger, he felt complete. He never told anyone that, and he knew from that day forward that fighting someone would never give him the same pleasure he got from killing someone. The satisfaction. The excited, tingling feeling in his gut. The chills of ecstasy that ran through his body. It had only happened twice in his life and he had kept that urge under control for many years. He knew killing was wrong. But maybe his father was right, he wondered. He joined the WCF in hopes that fighting the best in the world would help keep that urge at bay. The urge he never told anyone about, the one his ZT brothers were never aware of. So far it was working and wrestling once a week kept his addiction to fighting fed and satisfied. He had done a better job of keeping that in control compared to his schizophrenia, which had been a lot better since he started smoking weed last week. Last week had been excellent and he didn’t have one side effect from the schizophrenia – but here he was, sitting across a table from a dead man. He only shook his head ‘no’ to his father – still not making eye contact.
“C’mon Salem, join your old man. You can’t keep that urge and your secrets bottled up forever and you know it. Do it, do it before you kill someone and spend the rest of your life in jail and disappoint your so-called friends. Do it before you win a match and the fight wasn’t enough to satisfy you, ..and you kill that person in the ring with blind rage…Not knowing what you’ve done until it’s too late. There’s a noose up that stairway, ..take advantage of it. Put it to good use. Go ahead and join me son, join me before you make another huge mistake like you did in the Sullivan’s backyard…..We both know you will...Youre a disappointment and you always will be…redeem yourself and join me.”
Shepard, still looking down with his eyes closed muttered, “No… Im not a murderer. I can control that part of my life. I know I can. I have...”
He opened his eyes and looked up at his dead father who was nowhere to be found. The table and the chair the dead man was sitting in were gone. He was alone in the warehouse. He looked at his cellphone and saw he had nine missed calls from Cash, and several more from Erik Black and Jaymz…They had been trying to get ahold of him for hours since they left the cafe. He pulled his vape pen from his pocket, full of THC and started to puff... He knew it would help the hallucinations he had had all morning, it would just take a minute or two. He looked at the far end of the building and saw the noose hanging down.
“It’s not my time yet …” he said quietly as he got up and walked over to the door, letting the sun light flood into the building as he walked off.
