A Song of Ice and Fire

[Joey Flash]

T̝͕i͓̺̜͍̝̝̘m̧̜͕e̲ ̟͇̩͉͓̙́i͇̦̱̻̜s̶̘̞̘ ̭̪̗̘̀a҉ ̧̼c̶̼ì̖r̬̱͍͚͘c̤̖̣͍l͡e͉̺͔̮



The Saga Ends.

“With great pain comes great opportunity,
You will bend before me, give me your unity.
I will have you, I must have you,
One of the two, either will do.
It’s time for War, let’s begin,
Oh won’t you just let me in?”

Overdrive

This wasn’t planned, this wasn’t scheduled. This wasn’t a promotional tour, this wasn’t a whim. What this was, was a necessity. Not since Occulo had Joey Flash had a challenge like the one that was on its way, Occulo was a man so much like him that he automatically had the advantage. It pained Joey every second of their encounters. All he wanted to do was to tell Occulo ‘If you just thought this way…’ or ‘If you just did this…’ it would be all okay. For this one, the opponent was so opposite to Joey Flash that it made him apprehensive. Every question that could possibly start with ‘What?’ he had already asked himself and ran through the scenario multiple times.

He had not seen Dune for a couple of weeks; Joey was growing a tad heartsick. The man had become his driving force, his wrestling muse, whatever you call it, that man was it. He smiled as he pulled the thin white cloth over his head and stepped out toward desolation.

The first thing Joey noticed was the heat. What he had previously thought of as ‘a warm day’ was turned into a chilly day in the park as he took his first steps into the arid wasteland of the Mojave desert. He had planned this trip for months but finally he pulled the trigger. He had booked the flight here with the sole reason of preparing himself for the intensity of his rival, now he was here, now he felt the heat against his skin and through the soles of his shoes he no longer wanted to prepare for his rival, he wanted to surpass him.

Flash took a sip from his water flask and set out into the desert, he had no waypoint, no end goal in mind. All he had in his thoughts were the words ‘adapt and survive’. All reason had gone out the window the moment Thomas Bates was announced as the opponent for Dune at Revenge. Joey Flash was running on instinct, his instinct as a hunter told him ‘hit home’ and ‘Mojave’, so Joey Flash was here. The disdain for his future opponent was growing by the day, what was once an impersonal, surgical taking of a belt was turning into an anger fuelled explosion; it would work to his advantage Joey thought to himself. He was here now and Dune was pre-occupied, this was the move, this was to get the king on the backfoot and set him deep into a trap.

It had been over an hour since Joey had set off; only his waning mobile phone for comfort and contact to the guide who brought him here provided any kind of solace. Within the next ten minutes Joey was sure he was going to collapse, footfall after footfall became heavier, what was once a brisk walk became a life and death fight for each step. It had become a task to even drag one foot in front of the next. It was a realisation that only now hit home to Joey Flash. Dune was tough, not just tough, almost superfuckinghuman. Flash sagged to the scorching sand and recoiled his exposed hands immediately, his shorts providing minimal cover for his lower half.

Flash stared up at the sky, the cloudless intense sun bore down upon him and seemed to be condemning him to an early grave, and he couldn’t help but laugh. The laugher was cut short by the roaring of a motor, the roaring got closer and closer. Flash thought of all the missed chances he had in life, all the choices he had made. Was it worth it? Was any of it worth it? As Flash got to a knee, then to his feet he was frozen completely still by what he saw.

No, it wasn’t meant to happen already, it wasn’t meant to happen here…

Two figures dropped from the vehicle and approached the lone figure of Joey Flash. He hadn’t expected this. Was this a good thing? Was this a bonus? …or was the worst fucking thing that could have ever happened?

Stepping from the buggy walked the two figures, one of them much larger than the other. Flash stood and wiped his brow and the figures approached. Joey steadied himself.

Joey: Hello.

The taller man stepped forward, if Joey could see a smile break across the man’s face, he figured now would be the time.

Man: Welcome to hell.

It was a Thursday evening in the Mojave Desert, the world span, people worked, people ate, people drank, people fucked, people slept, and people lived.

Here, right now Joey Flash came face to face with Dune.



Promise Me (Prelude)

Alessandra could feel Joey's warm seed running down her thigh. The lovemaking was void of love, emotion or feeling, he had said nothing, he hadn't spoken a word, he just...took her. She looked across at him, Joey was staring straight ahead, bolt upright in a glazed almost trancelike state. Finally, he broke the silence.

Joey: I hate you.

Alessandra reached a hand out toward him but he caught it before she touched him. He let her go instantly and she didn't try again.

Joey: I hate you. Do you know what you've done to me?

Alessandra was silent.

Joey: You killed them. They were children, and you had them killed.

Alessandra: Jo-

Joey: Who did it?

Alessandra was silent once more.

Joey: Who killed the two children Alessandra?

He looked at her and she saw the first flashes of emotion rush across his face. Hatred. He knew. She had been so good at hiding herself it had been as natural as breathing to her, and yet now in front of this one man she could hide absolutely nothing.

Joey: Y-you didn't...

Alessandra: I was not going to live my life without you by my side.

Joey: Was it worth it? Was it fucking worth it?!

The anger was growing.

Joey: Do you understand, do you understand one bit? You have fucking ruined me. Every night is haunted by their faces, thinking I had some part to play in this, thinking that it's my fault, that I'm a fucking child killer, do you know how that fee-

He hit her.

Joey: Of course you know how that feels. Or do you? Do you even feel for anything? Why have you done this to me?

She didn't even react to the blow, and spoke to him in a very matter of fact tone.

Alessandra: I love you.

Joey: LOVE? Don't even speak of that fucking word here you evil fucking-

Alessandra: I love you Joseph. Everything I've ever done has been to protect-

Joey: Want to know why you get to call me 'junkie?', why you get to hold that over my head? Why you bring that up every time I make ONE FUCKING MISTAKE? Because I fucking need it you cunt.

Alessandra: Jo-

Joey: Just fucking shut up, for once in your fucking life you're going to listen to me. I see their faces every night and I wake up feeling the need to either block it out again or turn a fucking gun on myself. The only reason I haven't done that is because I dunno I had some stupid fucking idea that I had a family, that I had someone who I could trust, rely on and...and...

He began to cry.

Joey: Why...why...why fucking you...why is it always...

Alessandra can't remember the last time she cried, she always found it intriguing other people's emotions, trivialities that cloud rational thinking. Even so, she watched on at the broken man sat in front of her, her broken man, her love and felt the strange sensation of tears running down her cheeks.

Joey: I can't live like this anymore, I can't live...

She got the feeling that even if they hadn't been interrupted, that would have been the ending of the sentence anyway. The voice cut both of them deeper than anything else.

Christian: I had a bad dream.

Joey stared wild eyed through the tears at the little boy stood in the doorway. Joey watched as he toddled into the room, clambered up onto the bed and approached Alessandra, her face turned from stone to loving mother in a second and he watched as she soothed the child, stroking his hair. All this time he thought the monsters were all in his head, but watching this display, this fucking travesty, the monster had been his bed all along. Child killer to calming presence, murderer to mother.

Alessandra: What happened sweet thing?

Christian: I died.

Alessandra: What? No no, it's just a nightmare, you're fine, look, mommy's here.

She glanced at Joey.

Alessandra: Daddy too.

Christian looked at his father who tried to smile through the tears.

Christian: Yeah! Daddy, you'll protect me right?

Joey looked at the woman holding his child.

Joey: Right.

Christian: From anything?

Joey bit his lip.

Joey: From anything.

Christian: He killed you too you know.

Joey: Who did?

Christian: The Jackal did.

Joey looked at his scared child for a moment, but his intent was entirely on the woman holding the last bastion solace in his life and made one solemn promise. No matter what...

Joey: I will always protect you.

Palaver

Joey didn’t know why he was back here. It was as if the place had been calling out to him as a place offering sanctuary for all the sins and troubles that weighed him down. He began once more his pilgrimage through the Mojave Desert. He stepped forward into the arid wasteland that contained his quarry, this was the only thing that could clear his mind, he needed this. He needed the thrill of the chase, the thrill of the hunt. There was only one thing that could help him figure his life out, figure his future out; he needed to find out who HE was.

This was no hunt; this was no search and destroy. Dune was not his target, last time he came here he wanted to learn more about Dune, what he found was the most imposing powerful man with the wisest and most learned mind he had ever found himself face to face with. This made him more excited than he could even express. The same level of excitement as he had dread and fear of what was the future for his life with Alessandra. This was no hunt; he had been lying to himself. This was nothing but a soul searching trip.

The sun had crested below the horizon and only half of its power spread across the Mojave. Flash squinted his eyes as he could just about make out something appearing across the horizon. He had Déjà vu, for a second he thought it would be a dune buggy coming tearing across the sand toward him containing Dune and Freeman. This time it was no Dune buggy, it was a lone figure. The figure was closer still, was this a mirage? By the time Joey had blinked away the sweat the figure was discernable. A man.

The man was only a hundred feet away now and Joey was able to make him out perfectly even with the solar backdrop. He was dressed immaculately in a grey suit, waistcoat and most oddly completely pristine unscuffed brown shoes. The man stepped toward Joey as if he was floating above the sand; each step seemed to be the stride of three men. He smiled as he approached, his beard framing the smile perfectly.

Man: Welcome!

He was only a few paces away from Joey now, the heat rising from the ground made it look like his very being was shimmering. Joey shielded his eyes and gave no response.

Man: Joseph Malignaggi, Joey Flash, please let me in.

In an instant Joey fell to the ground grasping his head, the crippling pain shuddered throughout his head; it was as if a great army were strafing the walls of a castle for a weak spot. He screamed in pain and writhed on the red hot ground for a moment before the pain completely disappeared and was replaced with a light almost drunken buzz. He struggled to one knee as he found the man right next to him, a big smile plastered across his face.

Man: Oh you’re a keeper.

Joey: Motherfucker…

Joey hopped back to his feet and fired a left hook at the man who simply smiled wider as the punch just seemed to…miss. Flash took a step back and stared wide eyed at the man.

Man: Interesting. How interesting!

Joey: Who the fuck are you?

Man: Quid pro quo Clarice.

The man laughed.

Man: You were betrayed recently weren’t you? It was a loved one wasn’t it? Alex? No, Alessandra…

He smiled.

Man: Pathetic.

Joey stood up filled with rage, he was expecting Dune, Dune was his enemy, his rival, his quarry, but this guy? This guy he would happily kill right here. Joey took a step toward him before the man spoke.

Man: Joseph Malignaggi, Joey Flash, please let me in.

Joey fell to the ground once more his head throbbing with pain ten times that of earlier. If that was a barrage this was a fucking annihilation. He grabbed at his hair trying to stop the pain, deep breaths, deep breaths…then the pain stopped and the drunken buzz returned. Joey tried to stagger to his feet but collapsed on the sand.

Man: You’re REALLY a keeper.

Joey: Who…the fuck are you?

The man smiled once more.

Man: Well done, quid pro quo.

He offers Joey a hand.

Man: Call me Jack.



The Man with the Van Dyke beard.

The man called Jack shimmered in the dying light of the wasteland as he led Flash through the desert. Joey had followed him without so much as a question for the past ten minutes, it took until now for your number one contender to regain his wits and shake the throbbing pain from his thoughts. The heat it seemed here in the Mojave was truly overwhelming after all. Joey fixed his gaze on the man’s back, the out of place suit, the unscuffed shoes, it was at this point he began to wonder how much of this was mirage and how much of it was reality. 

Jack: You have questions.

Joey stopped and thought for a moment.

Jack: Don’t dawdle, walk and talk.

Joey: I asked before, who the fuck are you?

Jack waved his hand dismissively in the air and continued to almost glide across the sand.

Jack: An odd question, I gave you that answer already.

Joey: Cut the shit, seriously. Are you with Dune?

Jack stopped and span a quick one eighty, a thick plastic grin affixed to his face.

Jack: Whatever made you think that?

Joey: I dunno…

Jack: You do know, go on.

Joey: Because I appear in the same fuckin place of the desert I was when that guy found me last time and now you appear out nowhere and I’m supposed to believe, what, it’s just a coincidence?

Jack: No. I like to think of it as…fate.

Jack turned and continued walking, Joey followed.

Jack: What if I told you that I could help you destroy the man known as Dune? What if I told you I could help you take everything that he is away from him, strip him of his humanity and make him into a broken husk of a man, does that sound nice?

Joey: No.

Jack: No? Oh Joseph Malignaggi, you lie, you either lie…

He turns back round, this time with the vilest of scowls across his face, it sent a cold shudder through Joey’s body even on this most sweltering of days.

Jack: …or you’re not what I thought you were after all.

Flash furrowed his brow, as strange as this man was, he was losing patience, he was losing patience very fucking quickly.

Joey: I think you need to realise something here ‘Jack’.

Flash stepped toward him.

Joey: You are not in control here, by any stretch of the imagination, I am letting you lead this dance we’re taking but by no means am I ever going to be spoken to like that again.

The two men were face to face.

Joey: Do you understand, Jack?

The scowl changed back to the plastic grin, Jack seemed pleased with this.

Jack: Absolutely, perhaps I was mistaken.

They continued in silence for another mile of heavy trekking before the horizon began to darken and their shadows became less man and more deformed monster in their traverse of the never ending sea of sand. Jack spoke again in a hushed tone.

Jack: I can give you everything you ever wished for Malignaggi.

Joey stopped once more, as surreal as this already was, it was getting hell of a lot worse.

Joey: Stop this fucking shit, who are you, seriously, is Dune gonna come out of the shadows and show himself now? Am I gonna have to fight more of these desert dwelling goons? What’s the fuckin deal here?

Jack: Not at all, all you have to do is…

The figure that was Jack seemed to fade into the darkness, more like he swallowed the darkness into his very person before disappearing entirely, only his voice remained, it grew louder and more powerful with each word.

Jack: Let me in.

This time there was no stopping the process, in one sweeping instant Joey Flash felt himself engulfed by that very same cold infinite darkness.




The Killer and The Girl

It’s strange, the best things in life come at points where you think there is no salvation. When you are dying of thirst and the first life giving droplets of water fall onto your tongue, when the doctors swore you would never walk again and you take that first unaided step by yourself while struggling alone in the gym at four A.M, for Joey Flash? It had seemed like an eternity of nothingness and the most amazing thing he could imagine was to finally be blinded by the light again. His eyes flickered open and he blinked away the blinding haze of light. The first thing his eyes focused on was the throbbing image of three bright X’s circling round and round. Where he was and the position he was in quickly became clear as he blinked away the grogginess and the three X’s turned into two. A voice made the reality of his situation even clearer.

Pinky: You’re awake.

Flash felt a pang of pain jolt through his head and he recoiled at the words. He struggled up to his haunches and found himself looking up at a woman who seemed to have grown in stature the last time Joey saw her, if Dune was the King out here, this woman looked every bit a Queen.

Joey: Y-yeah.

He tried to get to his feet but staggered forward and fell into the corner of the bar.

Pinky: Hey look ou-

Joey: I’m fine.

He wasn’t. He turned to look at her.

Joey: Look I’m not-

Pinky: Shut up, just shut up.

Joey propped himself up on the bar and did just that.

Pinky: Do you know what you’ve done? You, you…I could fucking kill you.

Joey held his hands up and smiled a sad smile.

Joey: I probably deserve it. Give it to me.

Pinky: You have ruined him; he was such a kind man, such a tender man. Now you know what he talks about we’re alone?

Joey: I don’t want to hear it.

Pinky: I don’t care; you’re going to hear it. Maybe then you’ll understand what you’ve done to him, done to us, done to…

Her eyes dart to her stomach, Joey’s eyes widen.

Joey: Whoa whoa, hold up-

Pinky: LISTEN! Since I’ve known him he’s been targeted, it’s been water off a ducks back, it’s been childsplay, he has conquered, he has crushed and he has protected everything, this time though…he has someone he can’t get rid of as easily as the rest, you’re nothing like others he says. I don’t understand. Looking at you face to face now I can see how pathetic you are, you’re barely even, barely even a man! You dare come here again? What is your thought process right now?

Reduce it all to ash.

Joey: Look Pinky, I respect-

Pinky: You respect nothing!

Reduce it all to ash.

Pinky: You’ve done nothing but torture and torment us for months, why don’t you just leave us alone, what do you want, is it really worth it? Is that belt worth this? If so, just take it and leave us alone.

Reduce it all to ash.

Joey: No, that’s not what I want-

Let me in…and reduce it all to ash.

Joey felt the darkness overcome him again, the Double X club would burn this night.



My Apology

For this instant, for this one moment Joey Flash didn’t waver. This light would not be put out so easily.

‘I am Joey Flash’

He said to himself as the throbbing pain was being forced from his mind. He heard Jack’s voice in the back of his head.

Jack: So you choose death. This is an error that will cost you everything. I could have given you the world Joseph.

Joey had no idea what this guy was, how he’d found him in the middle of nowhere, how he knew Joey’s name, knew Dune, knew to lead him here…left him here. What was going on? Joey’s mind was running a mile a minute with a billion different thoughts, worries, possibilities and mostly, pain. However the one thought that overwhelmed everything as he felt the presence of Jack disappear completely was simple.

‘I am nobodies fucking pawn’

His eyes opened and he saw the door to the Double X club open, it swung back and forth for a moment before Joey noticed what had entered. A Rottweiler. This was Dune’s dog, he remembered.

Pinky: Oh!

She approached the dog, a smile on her face and bent down to give it a hug. Joey watched the dog as she approached, its tail wasn’t wagging, it didn’t seem excited, it didn’t seem…it didn’t seem much like a dog at all. Joey reached to grab Pinky and pulled her back just before an earth explosion rocked the doorway of the Double X club. His ears rang and his arm was throbbing with pain as he staggered to his feet amongst what was left of the front of the club, rubble. The dog had completely disappeared, it hadn’t been killed, hurt or scared off. It simply wasn’t there. Flash gritted his teeth as he managed to find Pinky also staggering up a few feet away from him. The pair of them looked through the rising smoke of the explosion and could see several figures stood in front of two large dune buggies, as the smoke cleared they could make out six masked figures, the one at the front was holding what Joey assumed was the cause of this destruction, a rocket launcher.

The most haunting thing for Joey, was that sat next to the man with the rocket launcher was the same Rottweiler from before, it seemed to be almost smiling at the chaos and destruction.

‘So you choose Death.’

Joey gritted his teeth again and grabbed Pinky.

Joey: Are you okay?

Pinky was delirious.

Pinky: I-I-

Joey: Are there any weapons here?

He slapped her. This wasn’t time for hesitancy.

Joey: WEAPONS, WHERE?!

She pointed toward the remnants of the bar, Joey hoisted her onto a shoulder and sprinted behind the bar where he was met with the remnants of a hundred smashed glasses and bottles, quickly sitting on the ground he felt the pain of the glass shards, but that pain would be nothing compared to what was going to happen to them here. He spotted the weapon Pinky was talking about and his heart sank. A shotgun. A single shotgun against military grade weaponry. They were outnumbered and truly outgunned.

He laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, Pinky looked at him in horror…until her lips started to curl upward as well and she laughed along with him.

Joey: I’m sorry.

Pinky: For blowing up my wall?

Joey: For everything. I don’t hate your man, I don’t…look, just tell him I’m sorry for everything I’ve ever done. Occulo, Howard, Freeman…I mean fuck, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to tell him in person.

Joey grabbed the shotgun, two straps of ammo and draped them over himself. He checked the chambers were full and cocked the gun.

Pinky: What are you doing?

Joey: Call this…my apology.

He grabbed Pinky and kissed her on the forehead, and glanced at her stomach.

Joey: Don’t suppose he’d let you name it Joseph huh?

Pinky was crying. She gave a sniffling laugh.

Pinky: Don’t-

Before she could even respond Joey had already left her, he had hopped over the bar and the thumping powerful footsteps akin to those of a man ascending the gallows rumbled across the wooden floor of the club. She gave a glance over the bar to see the man called Joey Flash exit the club and face their would be killers. The way he stepped through the smoke, wind whipping around him and making his hair dance in the breeze he looked every bit the action hero. She watched as the man she had hated from afar for so many months stepped forward to protect her and her unborn child. She had seen Dune escape insurmountable odds time and time again, when with him even when she was at her most scared he always made her calm and feel like everything would be okay…meeting Joey Flash for real, seeing the look in his eyes, the warmth in his heart. She had that exact same feeling now.

A Clash of Kings.

Promise me... (First Tape)

The camera begins rolling and flickers into focus into a small study like room, two streams of light illuminate the backdrop of the room as the dust floats aimlessly in the void of the air. Sitting down in front of the camera is Joey Flash. He is dressed immaculately in a black suit and tie, a puffed up handkerchief in his breast pocket and a dark deep purple waistcoat offsetting the black, his chiselled features look drawn and worn down. His cheeks look thin and his eyes sunken with deep rings that even makeup couldn’t help belie his sleepless nights. He takes a deep breath before drawing his slumped posture straight and his frown into a very much forced smile and gave a wave to the camera.

Joey: Hello Christian. If you’re watching this then you’re sixteen years old …or you’re a sneaky little kid who is going to get a backhand from me for finding this and watching it.

He smiles a warm beaming grin.

Joey: I don’t know why I’m doing this, but…I dunno, I guess I do know why I’m doing this, I lie. You’re nearly four years old now; when you were born I wasn’t any more unprepared. I couldn’t be more unprepared for anything else in my life. I didn’t know how children worked; I barely know how I work myself so how can I hope to look after a little life that relies on me for everything? Anyway…

He takes a breath.

Joey: I’m doing this because when I was about your age I lost both my mother and father, house fire, the flames took everything from me that day. They say my father left the iron on by mistake and just went to sleep. Paul and Isabella Malignaggi died in their sleep from the smoke, torched their lungs. The only reason I survived was because I was in a bed downstairs and the flames barely even touched the room, crazy right? I cried and I cried, but by the end of the year you know what? I was fine; I barely thought about them, you know how bad that sounds? Now I can’t even remember my father’s voice; I can barely even remember what they looked like. Every day of my life I wonder about them, what type of people were they? Were they kind, were they loving people?
I guess why I’m doing this is because no matter what, I want you to know your father.

He smiles softly.

Joey: My name is Joseph Malignaggi, born in Palermo in 1989 to Paul and Isabella. I have no brothers and sisters, I have no blood relatives…I had no blood relatives until…

He points to the camera.

Joey: You. I’m filming this on the 26th of September 2015, today son I’m going to be marrying the love of my life.

His mouth twitches as he says this and he wipes his brow.

Joey: I know she might be hard work at times, I mean damn, she’s bad enough now I can’t imagine the next ten years, but know that she loves you. She will…protect you, just if you can try to do the same for her, okay?

I’m filming this so you know me, not the me you hear from others, not the me you see on Television, but the me who loves you more than anything else in this world. You are the single most important thing in my life. You might hear a lot of things about me from lots of people, maybe some people like me, most probably the opposite…and they would be right.

I’m not a good person son, not by a long shot; I’m everything that I never want you to become. I do everything I do because of how I was raised in childhood, bouncing from parent to parent, from pizza box to pizza box trying to find sustenance enough to pull me through a cold winter’s night on the streets. I am who I am because I have had to do what I had to do to be here today, to be able to give you the life that I never had, to let you go through life happy. Are you happy Christian? I hope so. I really, really hope so.
Just know everything I do, I do for you. Everything I do is to give you a better life, if anything opposes that? I am willing to do life.

So yeah, maybe when you watch this you won’t even get this far, maybe you’ll hate me so much by then that you’ll have deleted this already. Just know, I am your father Christian, and I love you.


Steel and Sand (I)

The wind swept the sand across the wasteland as Joey Flashed stepped from the ruins of the Double X club with just one thought run through his mind.

‘Protect the girl’

He was staring down six rifles aimed directly at him, there was no cover, and there was no divine intervention to be had here in the heart of the Mojave. For Joseph Malignaggi there was only death. He took a defiant step forward and with a sweep of his foot drew a line in the sand. If he was going to make his last stand, he’d do it with fucking style.

Joey: Come, Jack.

Flash didn’t wait on ceremony, the only saving grace he had was the wind. Don’t die out on me wind. He used the same foot to kick as much sand as he could into the oncoming wind and as the men opened fire he peeled off to the other side, the sand cloud he kicked up was riddled with bullets but it wasn’t for a few seconds until the gunmen realised their target was the other direction, and much much closer. Joey took a deep gulp of oxygen and slid across the sand like Mike Powell after takeoff as he managed to slide behind one of the buggies. Another deep breath and he darted upward and unleashed a single overpowering shot from the shotgun; the shell buried itself squarely in the gut of one of the men.

He ducked back down, took another breath and emerged from a different spot behind the buggy he fired another shot in the general direction of the group but was back down in cover before he could see the damage, his peripheral vision signalled to him that he would have to be awfully quick on the reload as two of the men were rushing toward him. There is one thing to be said for Joseph Malignaggi, he damn sure is quick. He emptied the barrel and deposited a couple more shells, with a quick cocking of the gun he was back in action, he aimed at front of the buggy and pleaded.

Please be stupid.

They were stupid. Rather than having one from the front and another flanking both men trundled into his sights round the front, they barely had time to raise their rifles before Joey unloaded two shots and turned two heads into red mush. I guess fortune really was behind him, he plucked the assault rifle from the twitching hands of the dead gunman and peeked once more to find only three of the men standing, another reload and Joey was ready for the end. The wind whipped up once more and Joey sprinted from the back of one of the buggies as bullets tore through the wall of sand and flew past the flying Sicilian. He peeked once more and lined each of the men up before he fired three controlled bursts, two of the men dropped instantly with a stream of red from the back of their head joining the sand in a bloody dance in the wind. Joey had missed the kill on the third man, but he was on his knees and leaking blood from a wound on his shoulder.

What it must have looked like for that man, as he could see the long black hair flying in the wind and the piercing blue eyes stared at him through the sandstorm. Joey was stood over him as the man began to struggle to his feet, he reached for his erstwhile trusty rifle before Flash casually kicked it, and with it his only hope of salvation firmly out of reach.

Joey: Look at me.

The man looked terrified, even with the mask Joey could see. He aimed his own rifle at the man’s head.

Joey: You will never, ever hurt this girl. Now shuffle off this mortal coil.

He fired a single shot that rang with a harrowing finality as the man dropped to the floor, his lifeblood leaking into the sand. Flash surveyed the warzone; the carnage was overwhelming, if the odds were 100/1 for him to survive then god damn he was a fuckin lucky winner today. A quick sweep of the battlefield and Joey could confirm that all six men were down, with a deep breath he began to laugh. He had done it, he had really done it. The laugh turned in an instant to a horrified gasp, the six men were indeed dead, but it’s what was missing from this scene that made him take off toward the remnants of the Double X club…where the fuck was the dog?


Steel and Sand (II)

Joey Flash stepped across the threshold of the Double X club and was immediately aware of the change in atmosphere. The sweltering heat that was an overwhelming force everywhere he went in this desert had been replaced by a throbbing cold chill that pervaded the room, soon it because obvious why. Stood in the centre of the room were two figures, stood directly in front of him was Pinky, the lover of his arch enemy, the woman he had sworn to protect. Stood behind her was the cause of the chill and the conductor of this dirge.

Jack: Hello Joseph.

Pinky: Ru-

Jack grabbed Pinky by the hair and punched her once in the side of the face with a force that Joey instantly knew likely shattered the girl’s orbital bone. She screamed in agony and reached for her face only to receive another punch in the same spot, the scream became a whimper this time. Flash raised the rifle toward Jack only to find the man’s thin smile turn wide, the neatly trimmed beard can barely hide the man’s joy. He lets out a little giggle.

Jack: Stupid child, it won’t work. Your gun will jam.

Flash instead decided to drop Jack once and for all; he lined the sight straight at the forehead of the man and pulled the trigger. The only sound that rang through the ruins was the gurgling giggle from Jack once more.

Jack: It won’t work, not here. Do me the courtesy of talking, and drop the gun, we don’t want this lovely woman hurt by your stupidity do we Joseph?

Joey Flash was defeated. He dropped the rifle to the floor.

Jack: Good.

Joey Flash had been in this predicament many times in his life, hopeless scenarios, betrayals, multi layered deceit, but never had he felt anything remotely like what this situation was resonating. For the first time in his life Joey Flash felt truly helpless.

Jack: Did you enjoy the little game?

Joey: Game?

Jack: Those men, do you want to know what I told them?

He whispers to Pinky.

Jack: Do you want to know what I said?

He pulls her up by her hair and grabs her round her throat, he sniffs at the blood trickling down her cheek from the series of punches before talking to her again.

Jack: I told them, ‘Pinky is in danger; she’s being held captive by an enemy of Dune’s…’

Jack begins to walk, dragging the girl with him. They approach Flash step by step but even as they pass him by he feels helpless, as much as he wants to will his legs forward they remain rooted as if cased in cement. Jack and Pinky disappear from the Double X and all of a sudden Joey’s body responds to his will, he picks the rifle up again and sprints toward the door, as he steps outside the sunlight is overwhelming and the heat immediately returns, shivers turn to sweat in a matter of moments as Joey looks over the battlefield of five minutes ago to see Jack and Pinky in the middle of the brutality, Jack is still speaking.

Jack: ‘…he is a very very dangerous man, you need to be careful, you need to bring everything you have. I realise you might not believe me, why would you?’ Want to know what I did then?

He laughs and with a flick of the wrist magically produces a photograph from thin air into his hand, he turns it toward Pinky. It shows her tied up, bloody, beaten and battered with Joey Flash standing over her, sick grin on his face.

Pinky: Tha-tha-‘s not…

The pain was so intense she could barely speak.

Jack: Real? Of course not. This is simply…a trick.

In an instant the picture changes to a picture of Dune and Joey shaking hands in friendship, then to a graphic scene of Jack on top of Pinky as she screams in orgasmic ecstasy.

Jack: A trick always is rooted in reality though is it not girl? To show them the picture I wanted I needed a photograph to begin with; do you want to see what photograph I chose? The man was so angry when I mentioned you were in danger he didn’t even notice I’d stolen it.

The photograph of Jack and Pinky in coitus slowly fades and reverts to its natural original form, a little girl sat on her father’s knee. Pinky’s eyes widen in horror.

Pinky: No…

Jack’s grin hits a hundred megatons.

Jack: Oh yes. What would any father do when his daughter was in mortal danger from such a nasty evil man? What would your Dune do if he knew his unborn child was in danger? What would…

He licks his lips.

Jack: Your father do, Pinky?

Joey had heard enough.

Joey: STOP THIS.

Jack: Oh no no no. So what DID your father do Pinky? He came out here with five men he could trust more than any others in the world, they followed him with the knowledge they were ‘doing the right thing’, what a ridiculous notion.

Jack wrenches Pinky’s neck and angles her gaze down to the dead man on the ground.

Jack: ‘Shuffle off this mortal coil’ I believe Joseph?

Then in one swift movement removed the dead man’s mask to reveal the lifeless face of Pinky’s father, Chief, his face only belied one emotion in death, sorrow, sorrow that he couldn’t save the person who he cared for most in the world. Pinky was hysterical, the blood mixed with the tears as she stared at the man who had been her rock, her saviour, her role model, her…hero.

Pinky: You-

She wheeled round toward Jack, all the hatred, animosity and anger a human being can possibly possess and direct to another directed straight at this man she had met as a patron in her bar only a few nights ago, she would do anything to kill this man here. It was for this moment, it was for this moment that Pinky had always prepared, Dune had oft told her off for being constantly armed; that she didn’t need it, that she wouldn’t need it…well she needed it now. She reached toward her boot and pressed the release catch on her boot to release the small pistol; she raised the gun at the face of Jack and prepared to pull the trigger.

Jack: Too slow.

Pinky felt faint for a moment, then the pain shot through her body, followed by a thunderous crack of a gunshot. It was like time was frozen for a moment as the pain flowed through her, her vision began to splinter and drop in and out of darkness as she looked down to the epicentre of her pain, from her stomach leaked a flow of red. She felt her legs turn to jelly and her consciousness begin to fade. She saw the face of Jack, smiling, happy, triumphant…then she saw the barrel of a shotgun against the back of Jack’s head and heard only these words before fading into darkness. Pinky held onto a sliver of hope, Joey Flash was still trying to save what was left of her life.

'I will NOT let her die!'



Steel and Sand (III)

Joey Flash pulled the trigger and in the space between squeeze and the point blank impact of the shotgun blast Jack had disappeared. Flash had never seen anything of the like before, one second there was a man, no, a being, there and the next there wasn’t, it was like he never even existed. The proof of Jack’s machinations lay on the ground bleeding to death.

Joey: Hey, hey stay with me.

He checked her pulse, it was both erratic and slow, this was bad, this was real bad. Flash pulled the loose shirt he was wearing over his head and in one movement ripped it in half. He pulled Pinky’s top upward to see the coagulated gore around her midsection, it made him wince just looking at it. He pressed his left hand down on her wound and held it there for a moment. He didn’t know first aid; he barely had a clue what to do in this situation. The only hope he had was chance and luck. He wrapped the torn shirt around her stomach, a pitiful and makeshift tourniquet to be sure, but it was all he had. He picked the broken dying woman up and loaded her onto one of the buggies, taking a glance at the man he had killed earlier, the man known as Chief.

‘I am sorry. You were an amazing father. I will save her…I swear it. I am sorry’

The buggy sped across the desert, Flash had no idea what to do, where to go. The only destination he knew was the one he was taken to on his first visit to this forsaken land. The horseshoe canyon that Joey Flash had visited only last month came into view, as he approached he thought of the man inside. This wasn’t how the war between Joey Flash and Dune was meant to go; it was supposed to be a wrestling match, a test of skill and will, not…not whatever this had become. This feud, this match, this fucking quest Joey had been on the past few months of relentlessly pursuing the champion for the simple and transient joy of being called ‘World Champion’. Because of this selfish dream people had died, people were dying and lives were being ruined. This was not how things were supposed to go.

They entered the canyon and Joey manoeuvred to where Dune kept the keypad for the entrance to his home. Flash had made sure to note in his mind the sequence of numbers Dune entered the last time they were here, just in case…he tapped the keypad with the same code. With a flash of a red light the word ‘Denied’ came up. He hit the keyboard again, please, please work. Denied again. The pass code had been changed. Flash tried to wake Pinky from her pain and shock induced silence to no avail. He picked the girl up and gently laid her in the shade at the side of where the doorway would open. He stared upward at where the CCTV camera used to spot potential raiders and bandits was stationed and spoke.

Joey: I don’t know whether you can hear me through this, I don’t know whether any of this will get through. Please, if anyone is there open the fucking door. Please, just, just open the door. She is hurt, she is really badly hurt and I don’t know if she’s going to be okay. DUNE!

The door didn’t open, only the wind of the Mojave responded with a whipping scream along the cavern.

Joey: Pinky is an amazing woman, if anyone in this world can survive…this…then maybe…

This woman was strong, if anyone could survive this it was her. The woman kissed by the flame. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

Joey: Pull through. Please.

He looked at the wound and the blood still slowly seeping through the material and wasn’t hopeful.

Joey: I’m sorry.

He looked toward the CCTV camera addressing the invisble spectre of Dune and mouthed the very same.

‘I’m sorry.’


Blood and Gold

The camera’s glare weighed heavy on Joey Flash this day. Usually this sort of thing would be like breathing. He forgot he had requested a special set of promotional videos to be put together by WCF studios; the whole crew was setting up at his Brooklyn mansion by the time he arrived home from the Mojave. He had done what he had set out to do, Joey Flash had found himself. What he had found was a man that had no chance at happiness, a man who courted death and destruction with every breath he took, a man who just by being here and being alive endangered everything and everyone he ever cared about. He affixed a fake smile to his face as he stepped in front of the screen the crew had set up for the filming.

Cameraman: You ready?

Joey: Ready as I’ll ever be.

The cameraman held his fingers in the air, 3…2…in the final second before the film went live Joey thought about this match. Was it worth it? Was it worth everything that has happened? Was it worth the death and destruction, the hurt and the pain? He thought of Occulo and the pain he had put his old rival through, he thought of Howard Black and the pain and suffering Howard’s wife and son would have to deal with, the horror of seeing their hero being broken in front of their eyes. He thought of Freeman, the old and helpless mentor, he thought of Chief, the concerned father who only wanted to protect his most cherished person in the world. He thought of Pinky, that woman who was so full of spirit and life, the woman who was to be a mother soon, the torment she would go through even if she survived, the emptiness of fragile foetal life in her womb.

Then he thought of Dune. He thought of the man who had beaten Joey to every milestone, to every goal, the man who dethroned ICE Beckman, who has vanquished challenger after challenger. The man who Joey had to hear being called ‘The best wrestler in the world’, the man who Joey had to see day in day out be called ‘WCF World Champion’. This image drove every other thought from his mind. Was it worth all the pain, all the suffering, all the hurt?

Joey took a deep breath and steadies himself and only one word resonated within his thoughts.

‘Yes.’

Joey: Finally.

He took another deep breath.

Joey: It’s finally time. Can you feel it people? Can you feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up? This is the time that has been destined since the day I first stepped through the door into WCF property. This is the one moment you people have been dreading so very long but every single one of you had already accepted this as inevitability. I can’t stop smiling; I can’t stop my body shaking in excitement. You all know the struggles I’ve had, the hardships, but this, this is better than the first hit of heroin, I’ve caught the dragon, I’ve got his neck in my hands and I’m about to twist the ever loving life out of it.

What a moment, what a time to be alive. Since the moment I arrived here I’ve strived after, no I’ve fucking demanded one thing, to get what I’m owed.

Joey Flash after ten long months gets what he has deserved since day fucking one. A World Title shot. This is amazing. Ten months ago Joey Flash met Seth Lerch for the first time and signed his fuckin soul away to this company, every drop of sweat I’ve spilled for you people watching me, begging me to lose. Well shit now I’m one match away, I’m five minutes of a beating away and three seconds of my opponents shoulders on the mat.

This has been fun to listen to you idiot fans. A month ago I heard what people were saying about the possibility of this match, ‘routine defence’ ‘easy win’ ‘one sided beat down’ and every single one of these has me salivating even more at stepping through the ropes for this match. Then what has happened? What has happened since I decided to actually…wrestle? You tell me?

He holds his arms out waiting for a non-existent response.

Joey: I’ve wiped the floor with every person who has desires at top tier status in this federation, it hasn’t been a tough road, it hasn’t been a slog or anything remotely like that, it’s been EASY. It’s beautiful to me really; we had a whole new generation of fans here who have absolutely no idea about Joey Flash. People hear Joey Flash and think ‘joke’, they think of the guy who lost to Grime, the guy who got pinned in Trios, who lost to Adam Young. Yet we have another generation of fans who have been dreading this moment and praying Joey Flash would never get a shot at the World Title because of how unbelievably dominant he will be at the top of the mountain.

Which side should you believe? How about believe your own fucking eyes. There won’t be a 50/50 split on which side Joey Flash falls, there won’t be a split on who is the dominant force in the federation, trust me, I won’t leave a split on what the most one sided demolition of a World Champion by their challenger in WCF history is going to be. I think right about…

Joey looks at his watch.

Joey: Now is when both the fans and my opponent know what this is going to be, and they have that sinking feeling that they jumped straight into shark infested waters while already leaking blood.

Joey pauses for a moment.

Joey: Is there something I haven’t mentioned yet? Is there a certain someone that’s slipping my mind? Could it be that the mythical, unbeatable, amazing, unstoppable World Champion hasn’t been mentioned yet? I think it’s about time.

We’re going to get it started right, we ain’t gonna waste no time, this is going to be an absolute bodybag from start to finish. Hello Dune. We’re finally going to fight. It’s finally going to happen, we’ve waited nigh on half a year for this moment to come, but it’s here. It’s finally here.

Joey licks his lips.

Joey: This is a moment of such monumental and epic proportions we’ve reduced the WCF’s signature match into a fucking sideshow to our match. Dune vs Joey Flash, the two biggest box office and marquee names in the company, the two most talented men in the company, the two best wrestlers in the world, finally, one on one. There are no words that can aptly describe the importance of this match for the WCF, for the fans, for us as competitors and for us as men.

Joey Flash and Dune, we joined this company at the end of 2014, we were immediately paired together as part of the ‘super rookie class’. You, me, Occulo, DVS, Maelstrom…Scarecrow, of that group we are the only two left Dune, the only two. It was an inevitability that this was a match I would eventually have to deal with, so here we fucking go Dune.

He takes a deep breath and brushes his hair back.

You’ve faced so many pretenders, so many people who like to talk big games but at the end of the day lack the one thing you need to be World Champion .

Joey pounds his chest.

Joey: This is the first time you’re coming up against someone who has the exact same will and desire you have toward the title. The title is everything to you? Well it’s even more than that to me; it’s an affirmation of my fucking life. I’ll sacrifice everything I have, everything I am for the taste of the gold. The belt? Nothing but material. The thing I’m interested in is the TITLE. That shit is a statement; it’s a testament to the title of ‘best wrestler’ that my name is already engraved in. Wanna know right now why you’re going to lose your belt to me? Because the TITLE is already mine. You’re the World Champion and for the first time in your life you’re the bonafide straight up underdog, you’ve been the overwhelming favourite in every match since you’ve grabbed the belt, even against Beckman you were the favourite. In this one though? Tables are completely fuckin flipped. There isn’t a man alive who would be close to even money against Joey Flash.

You’re not fighting to defend your title; you’re fighting for an ounce of legitimacy in your otherwise pathetic and worthless title reign. Murdock? Suck a dick. Hatcher? Suck a dick. Showdown? Suck a dick. THOMAS URIEL FUCKING BATES? Suck as fat southern dick. You’re finally fighting someone of true quality one on one, this is the measure of a man and you’re not even going to hit one millimetre on the ruler. As far as this match goes I AM the champion, the WCF is my house and I’ve allowed you to kick your feet up for too long. So now I’m going to do it right, time to keep this weak ass tenant out, your rent’s overdue and you’re about to get buried.

I am the king here; do you not understand this Dune? You cannot impose your will or your skill on someone who has total and utter control of the situation. See for the past year you’ve been clawing and fighting tooth and nail to climb to the top of the mountain that I’ve been sat waiting at the summit of since you even started, I’ve been at the top without even trying. I’m the star you chase and try to align with, the moment I made my debut here I already solidified my status, a status it’s taken you more than half a year to achieve, am I lying? Then why when you’ve accomplished so much more than me, won Trilogy, won Ultimate Showdown, World Champ…am I still ten times a bigger name than you?

Joey smiles.

Joey: This place IS my house. You will stand where I say you stand, you will sit when I say sit. You will beg, you will cry and you will lose. What’s this Dune? It’s not going how you expect? You getting that knot in ya stomach? That frog in ya throat? Bitch you’re facing Joey Flash in a World Title match, hello Titanic, meet tip of Iceberg, want to be introduced to the rest?

What’s happening Dune? WCF viewing public, question for you folks peep this, how on earth can this guy be the face of the company when he so insecure he’s scared to even show his face to the public? Disfigured fuckin faggot I can imagine the hurt in your heart every time they show our images next to each other and how you curse the lord for how you’ve been genetically fucked in life compared to Joseph fuckin Flash.

‘Oh he’s so beautiful god I’d love him to fuck me’

To

*INSERT PHANTOM OF THE OPERA THEME*

Fuck man you’re a disgrace. Socially awkward queer, you’re the type of bitch to turn up to a party and be like ‘HEY HEY GUYS, SO UH…LET’S DO SOME BEER!!!’

Joey shakes his head.

Joey: Madness, you’re leaking money for Seth with your pathetic unmarketable bland ass right now. More shit for the WCF fans, pop quiz.

1) Name one original and interesting thing Dune has brought to being World Champion?

What? I can hear a lot of crickets but no one speaking up.

2) Name the one on one defence this guy had that has excited you before I appeared?

No?

3) Name one moment you’ve been emotionally invested or excited by a single thing this fuckin walking cure for insomnia has ever done here? The fans don’t care if you live or you die, they don’t care about your history or your family. Why? Because you are such an emotional void whose life is like a cheesy eighties Sci-Fi serial, ‘What will Dune get up to next week? Will he escape from the clone/mutant/dragon/alien, save the day and get the girl?’ Answer: We don’t fucking care. You know it’s telling when in your promos people care more about what happens to your fucking dog than what happens to you.

Sorry to break it to you Dune, you want to know what you are to these people? You are what we call a ‘transitional champion’, you’re the little period of time the fans block out of their memory in between interesting and captivating World Champions… months they’ll have completely blank memories of in WCF history.

‘ICE was World Champ, then Joey Flash, what happened in the few months between then?’

‘I dunno I guess it was vacant’

This is how boring you are Dune; this is how meaningless you are in the big picture of things. You are martyr to the church of Flash; you are a sacrificial fucking lamb to my reign as champion. ICE would have been the exact same thing but I dealt with him in a much more effective way that got him out of the way for good. Maybe once War is done you’ll disappear to wherever the fuck you came from and not bother us with your bland shit anymore. You were being humoured at first Dune, but now it’s nothing more than boredom leading into disdain, you can hear the cries from the crowd, the mutterings as you deliver the same old shit week after week, fastball every time you just can’t change up.

What was once a legend in the making is becoming a memory that’s fading, the memory of someone who had potential, once. People had high hopes for you, maybe you’d be the next one, maybe you’d be the guy to shine, to carry WCF into a new era. Sorry to disappoint, Occam’s razor shit, sometimes the most obvious answer is the correct one; it’s been Joey fuckin Flash all along.

Want to know what you are at the base of everything Dune?

Mr Monotony.

Mr Same shit different day.

Mr People only rooted for you to become Champ because of how terrible your predecessor is, now that’s out of the way people are sick to fucking death of seeing the same uncouth, uncaring, unwashed, unstylish, underdeveloped black hole of charisma sucking the air out of the arena every time his ugly fuckin face appears on screen.

You are average. You are average, boring, basic, bland and fucking formulaic. You entertained at first and brought something fresh to the game, but now we are fucking tired of you. Come on Dune, even you’re not that ignorant, that mask isn’t stopping your sense of smell right?

Even you can smell your fucking novelty wearing off.

Joey gives himself the fuckin screwface at the searing heat he just delivered to the pitiful Dune, Joey was even starting to feel a bit sorry for Dune at this point…sike, no of course he didn’t, instead he decided to ether Dune some more.

Joey: Don’t feel so bad Dune, chin up, masked metal mandibled mongoloid. Give us that winning smile!

Joey flashes his own smile.

Joey: This would have happened to anyone who had the misfortune of drawing the shortest of straws in professional wrestling history; it could have been my friend Jonny right now receiving the exact same level of soul rending bodybag material. The person who was to make their defence against me for the World Title was doomed from the damn start, don’t take it as a bad thing that you’ll fail, take it as a learning experience. In this instance, to never ever step foot in the ring with me with that belt on the line again, this is going to be a beating you’re not going to come back from. This isn’t a match people will watch and scream ‘rematch, rematch!’ it will be a match people watch and scream ‘god please stop the damn fight already’ and ask themselves ‘Will Dune ever wrestle again?’ after it.

This isn’t debateable, this isn’t a classic by any fucking accounts, this is one man so much better than any of his peers dominating the person who the company and the public deem closest to his level. That’s all this is. Your sense of pride won’t allow that though will it Dune? I know exactly what type of person you are. You’ll come with your ego puffed and your pride welling up in ya bird chest and read from Dune Script v5 the same old repetitive shit.

What’s it going to be this time Dune hmm? Let me help you out a little bit, let me help you with your script shall I?

- I lost to Grime
- I got pinned in Trios
- I formed Imperium
- I lost to Adam Young
- I’ve got a tough family life…
- …but you’ve got it tougher.
- I’ve had a rough history…
- …but you’ve had it rougher.
- I’ve had a great first year in WCF…
- …but you’ve done it better.
- How I’ve wallowed in the mid card for so long, how I’ve won no major titles, how I’ve attacked Occulo, how I’ve attacked Howie, how I’ve attacked Freeman and this is going to be an aptly named show about ‘War’.

You’ll say some shit about fire, you’ll talk about how you’ll burn my life down around me and you’ll act so defiant and strong.

Joey claps.

Joey: It’s beautiful. I should pitch that shit to Hollywood. What? Make a move Dune. Prove me wrong. What do you have for me? You fucking bland unoriginal joke. Your style is outdated and pathetic, you’re one of the most simple, easy to figure out wrestlers on the roster and yet no one seems to have the same eyes for it as I do. People think you’re some deep thinker who plans his matches out so meticulously, studies the tape, studies the opponent and trains correctly…I mean shit we’ve all seen your 80’s training montages with Freeman right? Go you. That type of preparation might serve you well against 99.9% of this federation where you can scrape by on skill alone but you’re in the rare air only the pair of us can breathe in, I’m steady and calm whereas you’re struggling for every gulp of oxygen. Your analytical brain is impressive for sure, you target your opponent where they’re most weak and by god man you fucking destroy it, it’s like you’re a computer playing chess against chimps for the most part in this federation.

This time a fucking Grandmaster is stepping to you, I’ll beat Deep Blue in only three moves.

This match isn’t just going to show why I’m the most transcendent athlete in the business, but why a mind like mine has long been feared here. Every single domino is falling into place heading into the match, I’m leading you right into my web and yet you have absolutely no idea what’s going on around you. You’re my greatest creation Dune, I’m writing this whole story and you’re my protagonist, this is your tale of success and failure and ultimately getting killed in the centre of the ring by Joey fucking Flash, I’ve dug a grave complete with headstone and all, shit it’s your story Dune, its only right I put you in the plot.

Joey smiles.

Joey: We got bodybags on deck? Yep. I get it Dune, you’re feeling a little deflated, a little sad, those thoughts are starting already those thoughts of ‘Maybe I’m in over my head after all’, ‘Maybe Joey Flash IS as good as he says he is’, ‘Maybe I’m not as good as I thought…’ I guess right about now you’re starting to understand what Beckman felt at the start of the week when he realised the mountain he had to climb to beat you huh?

Let it sink in, let it sink in really deep. I love the fear, I love the doubts , I want nothing more than to completely and utterly destroy you before we even step through the ropes cos inside? Well you can ask your ‘brothers’ Howard and Occulo what happens there.

Shit that reminds me! It’s been a whole Joey Flash promo and we haven’t gotten personal yet? What is the world coming to? Well Dune let me put it in a way you’ll understand, you always do talk about fire and heat like you’re a fuckin propane salesman or something. Hank Hill ass bastard, lemme lay it out for you this way. This time? Me rubbing sticks and blowing embers, but what’s coming next? Flamethrowers and fucking napalm, that unease and doubt that’s creeping in is going to consume you by the time I’m done.

You’re already one foot in the grave and by god you’re going to get absolutely fucking buried. Bodybags on deck.

The screen cuts to black.

A Storm of Swords

Jonny Fly sends his regards

It was the eve before Joseph Malignaggi would commit his future to be part of the Allegri family forever more. Was he having second thoughts? Of course not, those thoughts were up to about a fuckin billion by now, the underlying thing he kept asking himself, that kept him from just disappearing right now was the answer to the one question he kept asking himself about if he ended it and just walked away.

‘Would you regret it?’

The answer to that every time he asked himself was a resounding yes. He had no idea what would be coming for the future, all he knew is at the bottom of his heart all he wanted, all Joseph Malignaggi ever desired in life was a family. He reclined into the chair that sat serenely on the roof of La Societa, he was already drunk and could feel his head whooshing as he looked skyward. The stars were rendered non-existent by the light and the cloud cover; it made him sad for a moment.

The this week would be the most important of Joey’s life, on the Saturday he would marry the woman he loved and on the following Sunday he would be facing his mortal enemy and rival for the biggest prize in professional wrestling. The wedding was one thing, it was a routine and it was ceremony, was the title match that easy? He felt the butterflies in his stomach and the tingling tenseness in his skin just thinking about the match. His entire last year has been building toward this climax, Joey had told reporters earlier this week

“If you’re pounding away for a year then shit you better get the best fucking orgasm of your life.”

It felt to strange to Joey to have such a mind-set heading into this match, every match he had ever been in during his WCF tenure so far he a small shred of doubt, a shred that maybe he wouldn’t get it done, that even if he did he’d be sloppy or fuck up or something. Stupid shit he knew, but thoughts nevertheless. For this match though? Joseph felt an air of calm and unease like none he had ever felt before, facing the titanic Dune should be the single biggest challenge of his career, it should be the one immense force that should be making Joey double take and doubt himself more than any other and yet all he could think of was how easy this match was going to be.

Never in any scenario that played out in his head was this a match that Joey Flash was going to lose, he had watched Dune, studied Dune down to the very core. For all of Joey’s outlandish hubris he was at heart a competitor and a fighter. In any other sport you can lose by a score and go home, think bad about yourself for a while and then get over it, in professional wrestling? If you lose one on one in that ring, you were the one beaten, not your team, not because of the ref, not because of anything else than your own lack of skill and power.

Dune vs Joey Flash, this is the match of the two best wrestlers in the company at the moment, this is the main event of main events, this is the biggest selling Pay Per View match that the WCF will get this year. This is the match Joey has been demanding, campaigning for since he first stepped foot in the company, but to him this match wasn’t so much a contest, but a fucking procession.

A voice, followed by a beer slamming into his gut broke his daydreams.

Fly: Don’t get all pensive on me.

The four time WCF World Champion and future Hall of Famer Jonny Fly plonked himself down in the deckchair next to Joey and cracked his own beer open, guzzling it before dropping it into the pile of empty cans next to him.

Joey: I’m not pensive.

Fly: Not pensive? Don’t give me that, I’ve seen that look, staring at stars and shit, I bet you had a nice little inner train of thought running too didn’t you?

Joey: No.

Fly: Liar!

The two men sat in silence for a moment.

Fly: You doubting yourself like a bitch?

Joey: Give me some credit.

Fly: I was just checking. Look…

Joey: Is this the part you give some fuckin cryptic and ‘sage’ advice?

Fly: No, it’s the part where I say if you lose this match I’m going to stomp your face in.

They look at each other and laugh.

Joey: I’m not worried in the fuckin slightest; this is going to be a cakewalk.

Fly shrugs.

Fly: I dunno Dune’s pretty tough…

Joey: Motherfucker shut up.

Fly: He pinned me.

Joey: Oh yeah Thomas Bates outlasted you in that one didn't-

Fly: Grime.

A single word rendered all of Joey's mocking null and void.

Joey: Fair point. This is in the fucking bag though man, trust me.

Fly: I don't, but go ahead.

Joey: No one in the entire world is thinking any different. The only thing they’re trying to do is convince themselves that Dune has a chance. It’s like when Pacquiao fought Floyd, everybody knew the score going into it and yet to make themselves feel like it was going to be something more than it is in order to enjoy the event more. It makes more people more money if this is the narrative going into this fight. This is a one sided fucking massacre, this isn't a PPV, this is a liveleak viral video, it was going to happen to whoever managed to pull the short straw on facing me for the World Title.

It’s gonna be that Howard Black vs Thomas Bates type shit.

It’s gonna be me doing to Dune what he did to ICE.

This is a top class competitor getting absolutely and thoroughly outclassed in every aspect of professional wrestling.

Fly is gazing off into the distance clearly bored by Joey's nonsensical bloviation before snapping back into reality.

Fly: Fuck. Yeah, that reminds me, I was asked by Seth to give this to you.

Jonny Fly fumbles in his jacket pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper before handing it to Joey.

Joey: What the fuck is this?

Joey looks over the paper.

Fly: Employee evaluation! See, Seth hasn’t left you out. He really does like you you know.

Joey: Right.

Fly: Right. Read that shit.



Joey: Aww, he thinks I'm beautiful.

Seeing Joey's elated little face Fly slumps in the chair and sulks to himself.

Fly: I never get told I'm beautiful. This is sad.

Joey: Wow.

Fly: I say I’m sad and all you have is ‘wow’? Where is your compassion for your fellow man?

Joey: I didn’t know Seth thought that way.

Fly: DID YOU NOT NOTE MY SADNESS?! He’s not even given me my report yet.

Joey: Is that why you’re sad?

Fly: …yes.

Joey: Maybe because you’re his favourite.

Fly: Motherfucking Torture gets an evaluation every week praising him, where is my fucking praise? ICE Beckman was fucking donkey dick and he still gets his sent to whatever ditch he’s living in by courier every week. WHERE IS MY PRAISE?! WHERE IS MY ACCEPTANCE?!

Joey: I’ll suck your dick.

Fly: Where is my fucking- …what?

Joey: Nothing.

Fly: My imagination, fuck man I must be more loaded than I thought.

Joey: Yeah man. Look hang on, do you have any paper?

Fly searches mockingly, patting himself up and down.

Fly: Yeah right next to where I keep my wallet and my keys, of course fucking not.

Joey stands up and struts toward his office.

Fly: Oh for fucks sake…

After a few moments Joey returns, a smile on his face. He proudly hands Fly a piece of shoddy paper sloppily written on.



Fly: What the fuck is-

He breaks into a small smile.

Fly: Okay.

Joey: Huh?

Fly: I’ll do it.

They lock eyes and give each other a handshake so manly and immense it makes Schwarzenegger/Weathers look like two clammy handed Pantheon fans at a Corey Black appreciation night lightly dapping each other.

Joey: It’s pathetic really. I have no one close to me that I can even think to ask, I don’t even fuckin trust you and I’m asking you to be my best man. Pathetic isn’t it?

Fly: Not at all, I’ve betrayed everyone I’ve ever been close to or formed a bond with. It’s what winners do.

Joey: Right. That brings up the question, which of us is going to betray the other?

Fly shrugs

Fly: Maybe this time it will cancel itself, life works in mysterious ways.

Joey: How about we do something- / Fly: How about we do something-

Joey: You first.

Fly: No you.

Joey: On three.

Fly: Okay.

Joey: One…

Fly: Two…

Joey: Three-

Joey/Fly: Let’s betray Seth!



Valar dohaeris

It was early morning before Joey staggered through his front door, it had not been the blowout Bachelor party Joey envisioned he’d have when he was to get married, quiet drinks with the closest thing he had to a friend was about the best he could for at the moment. He fell into the nearest chair in his living room; it had been a week since he had left the Mojave desert. Since he had left Pinky…his head pounded with regret and remorse more than with intoxication. There he simply sat; Joey Flash and the darkness were close friends of late, he found it soothed him more than happiness and light did. His world was illuminated as he found himself blinking away temporary blindness as he saw an imposing shadow approaching, after a momentary adjustment he found himself face to face with the single most influential man in the Italian underworld, the patriarch of the Allegri family stood before him.

Bernardo: Good eve-

He glanced at his watch.

Bernardo:…morning Joseph.

Bernardo Allegri didn’t wait for an invitation and acquired himself two glasses from the drinks cabinet to the left of Joey, he sat both glasses down with an authoritative clunk and pulled a bottle of Scotch from below. The aroma of more alcohol brought Joey back into consciousness as quickly as it had made him almost begin to drift off. The liquor cascaded in a serene stream into the ornate glasses, Bernardo handed one to Joey and then picked the second up for himself, taking a sip he sat down in the chair opposite.

Joey: Good morning.

He slurred and raised the drink toward Bernardo. The man’s thin lips tightened even more.

Bernardo: You’re drunk.

Joey: I’m-

Not? He almost burst out laughing but instead his own voice as well as his thoughts simply trailed away.

Bernardo: Tomorrow…pardon, today you are going to become my son.

The seriousness of both the conversation and the implications hit Joey like a ten tonne truck. With all that had been going on with him personally, between him and Alessandra, between him and Dune, now with this Jack character he had almost lost sight of the major ramifications this day had.

Joey: Yeah I guess I am.

Bernardo: You guess.

Joey took a sharp breath; he didn’t want to say anything wrong here. It’s like Bernardo knew what Joey would be doing, where he’d be, and what state he would be in. This is a man who made every situation to his advantage. Joey cursed his double vision and delay in cognition as he glanced at the Scotch in his hand, in for a penny in for a pound. He took a drink and glanced at Bernardo for a reaction, the man remained stoic for a moment before breaking out into a laugh.

Bernardo: You know Joseph, if it were my son getting married today I’d be sitting the girl who was taking him away from me down and making sure that she understood what it meant to be marrying an Allegri.

If someone were ever to marry my daughter?

His eyes narrowed as he made eye contact with Joey, the stare wasn’t one of judging or appraisal, more of…knowing.

Bernardo: I’d trust that person with the family’s future.

Joey was stunned; he had expected strong arming, intimidation, threats…anything but this. Bernardo smiled at him.

Bernardo: I never thought this day would come. I never knew what type of person Alessandra would end up choosing, she was never one for courting or romance, she never even so much as expressed an interest. So when she sat me down, smiled and said those two words ‘I’m pregnant’ it made me, I don’t know, numb. She wasn’t excited, she wasn’t upset, it was just a fact. When she told me who the father was I can’t say I was surprised, I had Robert in one ear talking about this ‘kid he found’ who would ‘bring him to the top one day’ and in the other my daughter, the most savvy and wise person I know telling me how amazing and special this ‘Joseph’ was.

Joey: High praise.

Bernardo: Very. So some what four? Five? Years later I finally get to meet this Joseph, the man who had since killed my dear friend Robert in cold blood, had abandoned my daughter before coming crawling back, had spat on and embarrassed my entire legacy and family with the amount of disrespect he had shown. You looked me dead in the eyes and told me “I know who you are but on my fucking word you talk to me like that again I’ll end you.” I knew immediately why she chose you. I knew then, and I know even more so now, looking at you now is like looking in a mirror thirty years ago. You know the night before I married Francesca I didn’t go to bed until past daybreak? I didn’t care about the day after, I was just living life. That’s what I told myself.

Joey: I do care, it’s just…

Bernardo: Go on.

Joey: I’m scared. I’m scared I’m not good enough for this, that I don’t deserve this. What have I done in life to earn people toasting my life and wishing me happiness? When all I have ever deserved is fucking hurt.

The scotch went down beautifully. Joey took a breath that the heat of the alcohol turned into a cough before speaking again.

Joey: You tell me huh? What have I ever done to make anyone proud of me? What have I ever done to make anyone care? Cos lemme tell you, it’s nothing like that all. I’m barely surviving; I’m barely living as it is. You wanna know what I spent my last week doing? I spent it in the middle of nowhere trying to save someone, guess what happened.

Bernardo was silent.

Joey: No. You won’t guess because you already know the answer right? I might say the right things but I’ll be fucked if I can actually do this shit. You might have some ideas about this, you might have some ideas about me, but it’s not like that. It’s not like that at all. Want to know what’s happening with my life at the moment? Want to know why I’m scared? Want to know why I’m near blind fucking drunk at…

He fumbles with his sleeve to reveal his watch.

Joey: Four fifteen in the morning? Because I’m scared I’m not doing the right thing tomorrow, yeah. That’s right. Because next week I’m fighting a man I should respect more than any other competitor I’ve ever faced in my life and I’ve done nothing but cause harm to him. I’m not going to bullshit to you, if this is the kind of shit you want running your-

His protests were silenced by a hand on his shoulder; Bernardo Allegri looked down on him with a smile.

Bernardo: Interesting. You are an interesting case Joseph. You are more like me than you know. The crown is a heavy one, but you will wear it magnificently.

That one line ruined any chance of sleep Joseph Malignaggi had that night.



Promise me...(Second Tape)

The camera flickers on into the small study once more where we see Joey stood up this time, he is pacing up and down the room muttering to himself.

‘should…not right…no….’

He stops and pauses for a moment before regarding the camera, the same overegged faux look of happiness crosses his drawn face once more.

Joey: Hey Christian, I’m sorry about cutting it off before I just needed a little time to think, about what I’m going to do with the rest of this video. I don’t want to leave it like this, like I dunno, I’m just a random guy that you might just be watching on a video and end up with more questions than answers y’know?

I was going to do some stupid stuff like talk about my favourite colour or whatever, silly right? That’s not what you’re wondering while watching this. The answer is purple, in case you were. So I thought to ask myself what things I would have liked to known about my own father, I guess maybe you don’t, maybe things have happened, or I’ve ended up doing something that ruins all of this, but I’m going to give you the option. I’ll tell you everything.

If you want to know about your father then I’ll begin speaking again in thirty seconds, if not, you can just hit the off button, you can either delete this file or throw the disc away or whatever, I promise I won’t be mad.

Joey stands on the spot for longer than thirty seconds, nearly a minute before he engages the camera again.

Joey: I’m glad, I’m more glad than you can possibly imagine.

It was at this point Joey had finally been accepted, not by anyone else judging him or his actions, not by anyone he had ever wronged or hurt, not by Alessandra, not even by Christian. Joey Flash had accepted himself.

Joey: I used to be a bad person son. Not just a bad person, a really bad person. I did horrible things to people for the sake of what? Acceptance? Money? Fulfillment? Who knows. I sure don’t. I’m not going to lie to your face and tell you that isn’t me anymore, it is, and It’s going to be an even bigger part after tomorrow. Look, I mean….ah…

He fumbles his words.

Joey: It’s what I would want to know, alright? Look, watch this, fuck. I swear too.

Then gives a nervous laugh.

Joey: What I mean is that I’m going to be doing right by the family so that when you’re watching this you never have to go through what I have or have to live the life I do. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy let alone the person I love more than anything else in this world. I wish I could have done things differently, that I could have been someone people could look at and admire, that inspired the next the generation to better themselves. Instead I’ve done the exact opposite.

That’s not me though. I’m not a strong man son, my life is entirely ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’. At sixteen years old I was the best heavyweight amateur boxer in the country, I had won two national golden gloves titles in a row, what I did was nearly unprecedented. Want to know what I was doing the day I was supposed to be competing in the trials to represent the country in the Olympic Games? The day where I was a near 25/1 favourite to win the place on the national team? I was in a rundown alley playing a game of dice for twenty dollars.

That was the day my coach told me never to box again, that it just wasn’t for me, that I could never be a competitive athlete. It wasn’t that I didn’t have ‘it’ it wasn’t that I wouldn’t be able to succeed at the next level. Want to know what he said to me? The reason I now live the life I do, the reason that I do the things I do?

‘You are so good that it almost hurts, what is it you are scared of? Losing? Failure? No, that’s not you…

…you’re scared of success.’

The camera cuts.


Valar morghulis

It was part two of his three part epic of pre-taped War promotional videos. If the first was his Godfather, this would be his II, if the first was A New Hope, this would be his Empire. Joey Flash had taken a break in between the shoot for a bathroom break and a quick drink of water and now here he was in front of the glare of the camera lens.

Joey: Let’s begin. I said this time I’d get personal…but on further reflection that seems to mean different things to us both Dune. To you personal is the shit we do outside the ring, outside our safe zone that is the WCF. To me? Personal is the garbage you deliver every week in the centre of the ring while wrestling and delivering your mediocre promos. I need to have you know outside the confines of a WCF ring, outside of those ropes I’m not who you think I am, I’m not a demon, I’m not a devil, I’m not someone who is hunting you and your family down to take everything from them. We’ve never had a formal introduction Dune.

My name is Joseph Malignaggi, you know me as Joey Flash. Outside of the WCF I’m on some ‘People are awesome’ ‘Free love!’ ‘Peace and equality for all!’ you know all that positive shit. Once we step through those ropes though?

Joey smiles his trademark grin.

Joey: I’m on that complete opposite shit. You’ve done so much in your first year won every battle, you’ve defeated every comer, and you’ve been the best wrestler in the federation, clearly, no debating. Shit, even I’m not debating this, can’t argue with facts can you Dune? You’ve had a debut year that would make Beckman’s cock shrivel like it was covered in ICE. You’ve made me look like a positive amateur at this point; I mean what can I say to you achievement wise, fact wise? What do I have I to back my claims up? It’s simply this: watch us in the ring. One is a master of his domain, so imperious and dominant over the squared circle it’s like he was born and raised there the other one is Dune.

Let’s be serious about your accomplishments for a second. Let’s dig beyond the end result and let’s take a look at the journey that took us to that point. Dune fights Jay Omega in what should have been an easy win over a nondescript mid bum, how’d you win that one?

Joey takes a bow.

Joey: Fast forward now, you take on the most dominant champion of 2014, look what happened, I managed to get close to that very man and influence his already poor decision making and his idiotic psyche into actually going forward with this match. He lost because I allowed it. That is all, if I desired Natural ICE Beckman would still be World Champion, still parading around with his own brand of drudgery but no Dune, it was your time…because I decided it was so. If I weren’t there making things a little…easier for you then shit, you’d have damn near been beaten into a state lookin like you’re suffering with ALS from that ICE challenge.

…and another bow.

Joey: I wanted Beckman from the start; I wanted the joy of ripping his livelihood from his arms like I was snatching a newborn from a suckling mother. Then you came along, I watched you Dune, I watched you and I watched you in awe. This wasn’t a man I could just take from; this wasn’t a man who would let me waltz away with everything he was. This isn’t a man without character or personality, without life experiences, this is a man with a fucking purpose. You might not have had the skill in the ring, but you can be damn sure you had everything else. I decided then I didn’t want to take from you…I wanted to BREAK you.

So from that day on I made it official in my mind, I would take the WCF World Title from you. You were about to struggle against Gonzo and look who helped you once more. Two thumbs pointing at this guy, it was my duty Dune, my duty to help you through your time of troubles.

Fuck all the bullshit; let’s get down to the meat of the matter with it. You have been nothing but a puppet under my control this entire year; you’ve been screaming ‘I’m a real boy!’ to Freeman, your achievements and your accomplishments are nothing but a by-product of my desires and my actions. How does that feel? Is that emasculating? Is it embarrassing? Well if it isn’t…it fucking should be.

Do you not understand yet Dune? I’ve purposely pushed my pawn across the board this year until I could manoeuver him into the position I could best take advantage of him. That’s business, that’s strategy at its highest level, you help a man build an empire promising that it will be nothing but victory and prosperity, all the while leaving lots of little flaws untouched…then you attack it. This is the biggest stage; this is the best moment, so why not finally make the move?

I destroyed Occulo to the point of him almost quitting wrestling for good; I crushed Howard Black so badly little Joey is considering changing his own name as soon as he’s legally able as he can’t live with the trauma of sharing it with the man who ripped daddy’s arm in half. I did this openly, I did these things in front of you and what did you do? You did exactly what a bitch is supposed to do…nothing.

Then I took that old man and beat his brains in right in front of you, damn near gave him that Obi-Wan treatment, if that fucker had turned into a blue ghost half way through I wouldn’t have been surprised. Why do I do this Dune? Why do I haunt you, why do I punish you so? I purposely hardened your heart just so my wrath could show. I want to fight the monster; I want to fight the mythical Dune, the greatest force in the WCF today. I want to take this demon and rip it to fucking shreds. I refuse my first World Title reign to be brought to shame by the mark I end up taking it from, that’s why I actively refused to face Beckman, I waited and waited for the right person I would rip the title from…then up you pop. You’re everything I could ever hope for WCFHarmony.com would have made us a perfect match. The parting gift is me taking that belt from your weak fuckin grasp.

This is going bad for you Dune, are you going to wave the white flag yet? Are you going to throw the towel in yet? You’re in the biggest match of your career and guess what? It’s a fucking mismatch. I can’t believe people were excited for this, that this was the contest and the match everyone was waiting for, can you believe it? As close as a month ago people were even laughing at the possibility of this match, now who is laughing Dune? You’re not, I know for a fact you’re not, you’re instead shining the title to present to me on a silver fucking platter. So who? Who is left hmm? Where are the doubters at?

He waits a moment.

Joey: I thought so. The only people who ever thought this outcome was anything but already written in permanent marker are a) Mentally Challenged b) Dune fans c) Low card wrestlers full of jealousy. Though to be honest a) and c) are one and the fucking same. Dune vs Joey Flash, the most one sided ‘Big Match’ in WCF history, you’re done and it’s not even closing time. How does it feel Dune? You are truly, utterly, thoroughly beaten already and I’ve not even got close to breaking a sweat so far. Does it make you sad that your efforts mean absolutely nothing in front of Joey Flash? That the man you think is some sneaky, snarky, back fighting bitch is going to slap you in the face, stand right in front of you while I do it and beat you in every phase of the game. I’ll light you up standing and I’ll embarrass you on the mat. Damn I’m not even cooking yet; shall I murder this guy yet?

Joey holds a hand to his ear and in a Hoganesque move poses waiting for a non-existent response

Joey: The answer is in…it’s unanimous…Dune is spared, it’s a no.

Joey slumps his shoulders and begins to away…

…before wheeling back round to the camera.

Joey: SIKE I LIED. You thought I was going to let this shit just end like that? That’s not how this works. See Dune, I don’t need to get personal to body you, Pinky is awesome, your dog is cool, Freeman is a bawse. The outlier is you, you’re just a cunt. No more games, this belt IS everything to you, and I respect that. I respect your hard work, you’ve faced off against so many people it’s been inspiring, I’ve been there close, I’ve been there helping but still, it’s magnificent. Though it’s telling to me, you never show any overwhelming desire, you never push your will and your intentions on your opponents. You’re scared of the big moment, I recognise that and I understand. You’re scared. You can barely look in the eyes of someone who’s trying to insult you, trying to take your title from you…

Joey steps close to the camera.

Joey: Try looking in the eyes of someone who’s trying to kill you. I feel already like I’m beating this dead meat like I’m Rocky in the freezer, Dune’s getting lit up in the worst kind of way. King of nothing, bitch you’re getting overthrown like you’re a midget playing first base.

It’s screwface central in Joeyville. He continues laying the ether on the poor Dune.

Joey: I’m back on my shit again; no way can you even come close. Here’s where I bury this punk, I’m on some barbarian shit, I’ll finish this kid something Vicious (no Sid) this is a tar heroin hit.

Can you feel how I’m fucking with you Dune? I can kill you one line at a time, that’s how terrible you are. In the ring? Average? Out the ring? Even worse. It’s pathetic the shit you try to satisfy your own small mind with. You don’t have long, you don’t have long at all to keep hiding away in your little bubble and convincing people you’re a good wrestler and a good world champion. Take a look Dune, soak this in.

The camera pans down to Joey’s feet and slowly creeps upward toward his face.

Joey: This is what champions look like, they say real recognise real right? Well you just don’t give me that same feel. I’m everything that is elite in this world, I’m MJ with the ball, I’m the other MJ in a dance hall, I can moonwalk over black ice I’m that nice. I’m Jonny Fly in his prime killing the game with absolutely no equal, you? You’re Zach Davis and Freddy Whoa. You just talk a good fight.

You fight a good game against no marks, but we’ll see what happens when a god steps up in your grill. I’ll take everything from you at War Dune, your dignity, your poise, your confidence, your World Title, your kidneys…your liver…damn I’ll probably be able to sell damn near everything. I profit from how shit you are by taking your world title and this, shame there is one organ I’ll get nothing for…

Joey smiles.

Joey: No one is in the market for the heart of a bitch. This is an execution of the worst possible kind; it’s so bad ISIS would confiscate these fuckin tapes. I’ll give you props Dune, you tried…too bad you’ve already fuckin died. I’m already wondering who I’m going to face at One, I’d love it to be Occulo, wouldn’t that just be the sweetest fucking thing? Two years in a row, two Christmases off. David Sanchez? I don’t know if Puerto Ricans celebrate Christmas but that guy fuckin sucks regardless. Los Tiburones? Uhhhh….who? God this is terrible. I wish I could just beat on Dune every month of every year; it would be so much easier. I’d get an easy win every month and would hardly get touched in the process. Seth, make it happen.

So go ahead Dune, fucking talk. Talk about anything, talk about everything. Talk about what I wore to sleep last night, talk about what my favourite colour is (TO RE-ITERATE, PURPLE), talk about how much of a prick I am. The one thing you can never talk about is my ability in the middle of the ring. Because if you even so much as bring that up you’re only bodying yourself. My skill is unquestioned; my style is beyond anything in this federation. So what’s next huh? What do you have for me? I can tell you. Absolutely fucking nothing.

You’re done, it’s the seventh inning stretch and you’re already preparing to go home. This is the first time in your fucking life you’ve been challenged and it’s turning your legs to jelly as you’re already trying to run home. I’m already salivating over the tender meat I’m going to get for my meal at War, it’s gotten so bad you’re barely even struggling now; god this shit makes me sad. I thought you were worth my time Dune. Don’t let everything that has happened between us be a waste.

So here I am, there you are. I am challenging you man to man, soul to soul. Do something. Hurt me. Break me. Destroy me.

Joey mimics the action he performed in the desert and sweeps his foot across the floor. He looks at the floor then back at the camera.

Joey: I’ve drawn the line in the sand Dune; let’s see if you are capable of crossing it.



Promise me...(Third Tape)

The camera flicks back on.

Joey: Scared of success? It took me about five years of arguing with myself, nights of denial, nights of crying while I laugh until I realised what he meant. You wanna know what he meant by that Christian? It doesn’t matter how much talent you have, it doesn’t matter how much intelligence you have, whether you’re sat in your mothers basement claiming you could be the next great novelist, whether you’re a struggling actor working in Burger King claiming you could be the next Al Pacino if you were just given the chance, if the right person saw you.

I see the opportunities open; I’ve got a clear view of the passing lane and every time I just let the ball go whistling past my ear and someone else gets the opportunity that was meant for me if I only had the courage to go take it. I know why now, I understand. I tell myself every time that ‘I don’t deserve it’ that because of who I am, because of what I’ve done in my life that nothing good can ever come to me, that nothing good can ever last. Then along you came, the one thing in my life that made me believe again, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me son. You’re…

Joey removes the handkerchief from his top pocket and dabs his eyes dry.

Joey: You’re my everything. By the time you’re watching this it will be a long time in the past and you’ve probably watched the tape of the match about a dozen times whether I win or lose. Your dad has a shot at the biggest prize in the world of professional sport, the WCF Heavyweight Championship. It only happened because of you, know this, it happened because you gave me the courage to finally step up to the ball destined for me, pick it out the air and take it back to the house.

With all my heart, I thank you.

A Feast for Crows

And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so low?

Joey hit the ‘Stop’ button on the camera. He didn’t know why he was doing this at first, this video, at first he thought it would have just been a nice memento from when times are finally going good for him, when Joey was finally feeling a level of contentment in life. So his son could see him as he wanted to be remembered, so he could see Joey happy. In truth it was only now that Joseph Malignaggi realised that the purpose for the video was twofold, it was also a confessional.

He had no one he could open up to, he couldn’t show emotion in front of anyone, he certainly couldn’t cry. It wasn’t the way he was raised, it wasn’t the way he needed to be, ‘show no weakness’ was a commitment he had to hold now and forever. What Bernardo had told him last night was damning enough, ‘you will wear it magnificently’, that was as much of a blessing as a King telling his firstborn son that everything was going to be in his hands soon. It was a scary thought and not one Joey wanted to even entertain right now, he knew the ramifications of this day, he knew what it meant for the Allegri family and he knew what it meant for an outsider with no pedigree to be in this position. He wouldn’t have wished this on his worst enemy.

His worst enemy was waiting half a world away and seven days away. He felt nothing but remorse for how everything…fuck it, Joey manoeuvred back in front of the camera. This was confessional, so let’s get all your sins out. He fiddled for a moment before beginning the recording of a new file, this one was for you enemy of mine. Joey’s suit still as immaculate as ever, only the crumpled handkerchief in his breast pocket signalled the emotional outburst of five minutes ago.

Joey: Hello Dune. You’re probably never going to watch this or ever hear me speak these words so I dunno, I guess this is for myself. I’m a selfish guy after all.

He takes a deep breath.

Joey: I’m sorry. I wish I had something else to call you by, Dune is so impersonal, do you have a birth name? I guess I’m just prying now, I don’t mean anything bad if it’s a sore subject. I just want to talk to you man to man with it, I’m Joseph Malignaggi and I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’ve ever made light of your brother or your family, I understand how heavy that probably weights on your heart, I look back on this shit and shake my fucking head at the shit I say or do sometimes.

I’m sorry for what I did to John, Occulo was my biggest rival before you came along, to be honest…I’m glad he’s back. The guy is amazing talent; he’s got everything anyone could ask for as a wrestler, probably as a partner and friend too, I guess you know about that. I burnt that bridge the moment we met.

I’m sorry for what I did to Howard. I did what I did in the name of ‘sport’ and ‘wrestling’, in truth it was in nothing but fear. I identified a threat large enough to pose a massive problem for me and my future in the company and I made a rash decision that damn near cost a man his livelihood. Am I that insecure in myself that I couldn’t just let him walk away? Maybe. I didn’t need him to make you fight me, you know what I did instead? I didn’t want to have to earn my way there; I didn’t want to have the fear of failing again ruin my chances, so yeah, I took the coward’s way out. I cost a young family their income and turned a great wrestler into nothing more than a memory. I have to live with that, the thoughts don’t just wash over me like people seem to think. I’m not a monster Dune, I’m not the person you think I am.

I’m sorry for taking things out of the ring, I don’t know why I do the things I do, I guess I’m just a weak man. When I saw Freeman in the ring I saw nothing but an opportunity, a way to get inside your head and affect your mindset, I even wanted for you to hit me and to take the World Title from you like that, you know how pathetic that is? THAT is what I wanted. I saw an opportunity, then I watched the tape back and I saw an old man who was savagely beaten for no reason, his only crime? He loves you and cares for you.

Joey removes the handkerchief once more and dabs at his eyes.

Is Pinky okay? Is your…

He bites his lip to stop his voice breaking.

Joey: …child okay? I tried. I fucking tried, I tried to save them Dune, I did my best. What you had, no I’m going to be positive, what you have is an amazing woman and you have a future, I promise. Look, I’m going to say this now, you’ve got something very very dangerous on your doorstep, I don’t know what I can do to help…fuck, what I’m trying to say is…

If you want help protecting your loved ones, if you want whatever help I can give with dealing with Jack. Once this War is over, it’s over, win or lose this is the end for me, you can hate me, detest me, want to kill me with every fibre of your being and I wouldn’t at all be resentful, if I were you I’d feel the exact same.

Just know that when the dust settles and this is all done, I’m going to respect you, I’m not going to come after you ever again, but if you just ask, I’ll be there by your side and fighting for you and your family. This is a match between the two best wrestlers in the world, period. No one can come close to the level we put out in the ring, you are the best wrestler, the best man I have ever crossed swords with in a professional setting. You’re a consummate pro, a world class athlete and a great role model.

Today I get married, it’s going to be the happiest day of my personal life, next Sunday having the joy of finally facing my near equal in the ring will be the same in my professional life.

So yeah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry for everything. I don’t ask for absolution, just understanding, even if the understanding is I’m a piece of shit…that’s okay. I just wa-

His train of thought was interrupted by a loud rapping of the door and a voice booming from the outside. His best man had arrived.

Fly: Are you ready? What the fu-

Fly paused for a moment.

Fly: Heck are you doing?

Joey composed himself and hit the stop button once more. He walked toward the door and responded.

Joey: I’m ready you massive cunt, what the fuck are you saying heck for ya fuckin faggo-

As Joey opened the door he saw why, Jonny Fly stood in front of him reluctantly holding the tiny hand of Christian Malignaggi.

Fly: That’s why.

The little boy ran toward his father and was scooped up into a big hug. The little Malignaggi was the near spitting image of his father; even his suit was tailored to match Joey’s for the big day.

Christian: Daddy, Uncle Fly is so cool!

Fly: Whoa hold your horses; I am NOT your Uncle kid.

Christian: Nope, Uncle Fly.

Fly: NO! So you’re trying to tell me I not only have to be burdened with an African-American brother but now a fucking…sorry, hecking, Italian nephew?

Christian: Uncle Fly is a great wrestler he says; he says he is better than you! Beat you and Dune on same night he says. I think he’s stupid.

Fly: I asked you ‘Can you keep a secret?’ and you said yes you brat!

Joey sat Christian on his shoulder and regarded his best man. Fly answered all the questions Joey had for him.

Fly: Yes I have the rings, yes the kid is okay, yes Alessandra is on her way, yes people are actually here, and no there is no Beckman hiding in the rafters like a drunken phantom of the opera-

Joey: Are you s-

Fly: I TRIPLE checked. You needn’t be worried.

Joey: Wouldn’t you be?

Fly: Well I-

Joey: Look, I just want everything to go down safely, everything hinges on this day. I need to make sure.

Fly pulls his jacket open to reveal him strapped and vested.

Fly: My ‘mother’ always said to use protection. It’s not served me wrong yet. I got this, try to enjoy it.

Christian Malignaggi stares open mouthed in awe at seeing the pistol holstered inside Fly’s jacket, the four time champion pats him on the head.

Fly: You saw nothing.

Christian: I saw nothing.

Fly looks up at the man he is going to be serving as the best man for and smiles.

Fly: He’s a good one. Ahhh fuck…

Joey: Language!

Fly: Ahh heck.

Joey: What now?

Fly: Rings.

Joey: What about rings?

Fly: Forgot them.

Joey: You wh-

Fly: Back soon.


Only a cat of a different coat, that's all the truth I know

We open once more on the pre-taped Joey Flash promotional videos, here is the third of his three. Will it be expectedly a let down like almost every third of a great trilogy? Let’s find out!

Joey: Can you cross the line Dune? I know what type of man you are, you’re tough, you’re strong, and you’ve seen the worst that life has to offer yet still managing to come out of the struggles the other side. You’ve been scarred on the inside, you’ve been ravaged on the outside, you wear your struggles and your hardships as a trophy strapped to your face. The way you preach you should be on a late night TV slot asking for donations for God, you’re fuckin effective that’s for sure. You wear your past, and that’s cool, I never ever have once asked for anything for what I’ve been through.

You ask for support, sympathy and following for the shit you’ve endured, I stand here as Joey Flash, I wear no war wounds or scars, I tell no stories of how my life was doomed from the start, how everything I’ve ever loved or cared for has been ripped from me. I get no support, I get no sympathy, I get no following, I don’t ask for it. I fight and I work every day to make up for my mistakes, to make up for the things that were done to me in the past, I don’t wallow and I don’t use the shit that was thrown at me as a shield for my failings and my inadequacies. I accept that shit. This is why that line isn’t something you can cross Dune, I’ve been toeing that shit my entire life to make things better for those around me, you can’t do it without someone else holding your hand. This is why this match is destined to end only one way. All the talk, all the shit we’ve done the past year, it all boils down to the centre of that squared circle and for the time we share together. We’ll dance our dance and we’ll put on for the WCF fans, of that I have no doubt, I’ll show the difference between a man who has lived his life by destiny, prophecies, great sages giving him advice and people constantly protecting him and a man who has had nothing but his own body and his own wits, who had had to live, survive and eventually thrive by relying on nothing but himself.

I’ve asked for no help ever since I joined this place, everything I have ever done has been as a chess move to manouver the pair of us into this very ring at this very time. Now what do you think is going to happen when these two worlds collide and no one is left to hold you up when all the pressure and the talent in the world is dragging you deeper and deeper into the dark waters of desperation and despair, there is no light of hope creeping in down here Dune.

See what I’m doing here Dune? Don’t get where this is going yet? Is it not obvious? I’m doing what you do and doing it even better, I’m killing you with your own style. Bullshit metaphors and terrible rambling drawn out trash talking, it’s fucking pathetic, if you ever played pro ball you’d set the season record for eight second violations…you take far too long to get your fucking point across.

Joey smiles his fucking smile for the last time in this promo.

Joey: Can you see the difference? Can you sense this shit? We're entering the bottom of the ninth and Dune is rocking a ten run deficit. This is the difference between an elite professional wrestler and a muscular hyped up fucking thug who has no skill, no training, no timing. You are the antithesis of anything that is quality in this business, you are the antithesis of anything that ever drew money, made a superstar or managed to connect with global audience. What you are is a rage against the machine, Beckman was a piece of shit who added nothing to the game, you were the man to get rid of him, clap, applause. You're a fucking placeholder, I told you at the start and I tell you now, people don't remember ICE Beckman, people don't remember Dune. People remember Jonny Fly, people remember Joey Flash. There is such a big difference, such a gulf in class it's almost sickening that you don't see it.

Enough of this fucking queer show, time to get back to what the fuck I was here for.

This shit is going to be a real talk fuckin body. Ain’t no two ways about it. What’s gonna happen on Sunday night is going to be one of the biggest acts of violence and destruction in Oklahoma City, this ain’t Durant injuring his foot where a few people were upset they wouldn’t get to celebrate that year. This is that midnight vigil ‘I’m never seeing my loved one again’ shit, this is that Timothy McVeigh shit, what I do to Dune at War is a fuckin homicide in waiting.

It’s not a question of what Dune wants to happen in this match, he can fight, scratch and claw all he wants but the outcome is not going to change. You’ve built up this whole cult following this year, I see that shit, I see people at every event more and more of them coming through the gates with the mask on, with the tactical vests, men women and children it just doesn’t stop. What gives? Are people that attracted to success, to champions? I find it interesting, you say anything and they just go away believing at gospel.

‘Joey Flash will crumble among the flames’

‘I will destroy everything he has’

‘I am the best wrestler in the world, no one can touch me’

You actually seem to believe that shit. You’ve brainwashed thousands and thousands of WCF fans that this is the truth; well it’s going to come to an end quick. Sudden Flash right to your jaw and everything ends. It’s like the Jonestown Massacre cos one punch will end your whole following.

Bodybags on deck, let's hear it for Dune, the transitional World Champion no one ever gave a fuck about.


A coat of gold or a coat of red, a lion still has claws

Warm amber beams illuminated the decadent stained glass windows scattered around the grand cathedral. They created a light so pure it was as if angels themselves had cast their rays down through the setting sun, decorating the aisle with rainbow confetti. A speckle of blue reflected upon the cheek of Joseph Malignaggi as he stood at the end of the aisle, momentarily getting lost in the royalty of his own eyes. Was he lost too? Never did Joey think a place so holy would accept him and embrace him as one of the sons of this earth. Too many sins to wash clean, no amount of fragrance could mask the smell of his sordid history. How could such a place house him, and his succubus wife to be? The place seemed too clean for matrimony so unholy, but money could buy you that, even God turned a blind eye if you had the dollar to bribe him. Every man on this earth is a crook, and that starts with the big guy too. He created Joey after all, one of the Lord's living, breathing sinners about to wed the devil herself.

The guests began to arrive one by one. Shuttling in like passengers on a train destined for hell fire. Most of the faces Joey did not recognise, they may as well be passers-by. Celebrities and their offspring decorated in this week’s trends, mistresses of men muddled in right at the back staring beady eyed at the wives of their million-dollar meal tickets, overweight aunties long since forgotten. They merged together as a mass of fascinators, camera flashes and bejeweled well wishes. The first recognizable face to approach Joey was Paolo Allegri, his eyes were scanning the room as he walked towards Joey.

Joey: Don’t tell me…

Paolo: There’s a nice blonde at the back, she’ll be mine.

Joey: Confident.

Paolo: Why not, this venue? This place…perfect.

Paolo plucked a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed at his brow.

Paolo: Hot in here.

Joey: Hell has that reputation.

Paolo: Second thoughts?

Joey: No. Suit’s too tight.

Joey pulls at his collar manoeuvring it into a more comfortable position.

Bernardo and Francesca approached. Joey could feel their gaze upon in, the flicker of a warning in her father's eyes, and then a smile followed by a welcoming grip of his shoulders. The tight dress hugging the curves of Francesa, Alessandra would be furious if she caught sight of her mother, taking even the smallest part of the spotlight away with the slit in that dress.

Bernardo: Come on Paolo, it’s almost time.

Paolo: I’ll be with you in a moment. I’ve just got to speak to the photographer.

Bernardo lead Francesca to her seat, kissing her delicately on the cheek before heading towards the entrance of the Cathedral and then out of sight. The sound of music began to fill the air as the last of the guests took their seats and their voices turned to a hush, a whisper and finally silence. Jonny Fly shot through the door at the speed of a bullet, taking to the aisle like an Olympian as the sound of the music cut out. His heavy breathing and apologies replaced the harmony of church music as he dashed towards the alter. He placed the rings into Joey's hands.

Fly: You’ll be needing them.

The minister shook his head as a raspy cough left his throat. He glared at Joey and Jonny, one bushy white eyebrow raised with all the fury of God sculpted into his expression.

Joey: Fuck. No going back then.

The minister motioned to the orchestra to restart their symphony. Summoning Joey's bride to be, each note a piece of a Ouija board searching for demons in the dark.

Two tiny girls dressed as angels in fluffy blush gowns tottered towards the altar, splashing pink and cream petals across the floor creating a carpet of sweet scents. They glided towards Joey like tiny ballerinas, tiptoeing to the side lines. The groomsmen and bridesmaids followed holding posies in their hands, smiles beaming as they tried to beat the sound of the chorus. Lastly, Christian pranced down the aisle, a cheeky grin plastered on his face from the moment he caught site of Joey. He let out a “Daddy!” dashing towards him, stumbling over his tiny feet but keeping himself upright as he ran towards his open arms. The gap between them, his finish line. Joey scooped him up and kissed his flushed chubby cheeks as he burst into a giggle. Joey placed him onto the ground, the smile still glued to his face exposing his gummy parts, and pointed towards the entrance way just as she appeared. Alessandra.

Every inch of her was breathtaking. Joey had heard of the splendour of seeing your bride walk down the aisle, but couldn’t have prepared himself for the vision he saw before him. She wore a mermaid gown, fitted to her hips and flaring outwards, she was both sexy and elegant. Her eyes sparkled and her smile dazzled all those who glanced at her. Those green eyes bore into his soul and took away the oxygen from his lungs. Her long black hair cascaded down her back trailing the lace arch upon her spine. The room slowed down with every step she took, striding down the aisle like a fearless gazelle.

Reaching Joey, Bernardo let go of his daughter’s hands and placed them in Joeys. He took her delicate small hands in his and stared deeply into her eyes. Hypnotized by their jade embers. She truly was a supernatural force. He wanted to fuck her on that altar for the world to see, to show them that she belongs to him. He didn’t want this moment to end. The minister said some words that they both missed. So transfixed by one another's presence each syllable danced over their heads, flew through their ears and out of the cathedral. The guest cried as the sun began to set creating a warm glow in the atmosphere. Alessandra and Joey caught the word “vows” escape from the minister’s lips and they both repeated the only words that mattered.

“Forever you
Forever me”

They scooped up Christian holding him between them

“Forever us”

The mold of fascinators and beady eyes erupted into tears of joy and laughter as Joey kissed Alessandra with renewed passion. Melting into each other, becoming one, breathing in the moment of their divine solidarity. They clung on for as long as their lips would allow, with their last breath releasing. Both Alessandra and Joey smiled and turned their heads towards Christian, sandwiching him between a kiss. Joey on his right cheek, Alessandra his left. He grinned , his face smushing into a cherubesque form. Celebration erupted and echoed around them, creating a united bubble of happiness that could never be burst. The room began to shake, the laughter turned silence and then screaming. The saints on the windows melted and turned to flame, the ministers grey eyebrows turned to ash and cinders.



And mine are long and sharp, my Lord, as long and sharp as yours.

The heat engulfed St Patricks Cathedral as Joey Flash found his world lit up by gunfire and flames. He grabbed his newlywed bride by the waist and wrenched her to the floor; their first kiss was almost one of lead as bullets began to fly among the crowd. Screams and shouts were rendered mute as more explosions went off through the building, crouched behind the front row of seating Flash saw Jonny Fly returning fire over the holy ground at the assailants.

All he could see of who was crashing his wedding in the most heinous of ways were masks, he saw five or six men in balaclavas with automatic weapons opening fire on the unsuspecting innocents of the congregation. He knew this scene, he knew it well. He remembered back to the Double X club, to Pinky and Jack, if this wasn’t his handiwork then god damn was someone a good copycat. Whatever was happening he had to get his wife and child out of here safely before being able to help. Alessandra shoved herself free and screamed in his face.

Alessandra: GET ME A GUN.

Joey dragged her down to the floor with a thud.

Joey: JUST STAY DOWN. I understand you need to uphold the Allegri name and help protect the family-

Alessandra didn’t even look flustered, amongst the carnage and chaos not even a hair was out of place on her head.

Alessandra: I’m no longer an Allegri. I’m a Malignaggi, and yes, I’m going to fucking protect you.

She kissed him on the forehead and reached inside his jacket, removing the piece that he was reticent to show even Jonny Fly earlier. She chambered a round and smiled at him.

Alessandra: Til death do us part?

She kicked her heels off and slid to join Jonny Fly behind the front row of seating. He stared for a moment at the pair, Fly was fighting for him, Alessandra was fighting for him. These weren’t people who were just using him to their own ends; these weren’t people just throwing his trust, his heart to the side of the road. It was at this scanning of what had turn from a ceremony into a battlefield that there was one person who was no longer present, Joey’s heart sank. Where was his son?

He saw Fly grab Alessandra as the pair blasted at the crowd of oncoming would be assassins as they barrelled through a door at the opposite side. Good, they would be safe at least. What happened to him was an absolute afterthought. No one he loved or cared for would die today.

He peeked round the pillar he was shielding himself from the onslaught with and finally saw what was happening, the only fire that was coming back seemed very sporadic, seemed very robotic, very controlled. The one thing his sharp gaze locked onto was outside the front of the building that had since been reduced to nothing but rubble, ash and dust. For a second he swore he could see a vision that he never expected to see in his lifetime.

Three men that he never thought as much had shared a word. There at the front of the building watching the carnage were the man he knew as Jack, his lifetime enemy John Mullins Sr and…and…it was then he knew the man who had called him on the phone so long ago, the man who had arranged everything negative, had ordered Vincenzo to infiltrate his life and sow distrust amongst the Allegri family…was an Allegri himself, stood proudly next to these two men laughing, a smile across his feminine features, the man who refused to be king? The man who looked every bit like a usurper, Paolo Allegri, the younger brother of his wife. Flash felt himself fill with an incandescent rage, there was no room for cognition left, his body simply moved. He began a sprint toward the front of the church, the bullet fire had ceased now, all that was left was the vision of the three men looking, laughing. He didn’t need a gun, he didn’t need a weapon, you wanted a massacre? This is going to be a fucking massacre.

As Joey ducked and dodged from side to side, from flimsy wooden cover to flimsy wooden cover he gradually noticed that the gunfire had all but stopped. He finally locked his eyes forward and saw what his ears had already notified him of, the gunfire had stopped. There were no more gunmen, no more assailants, and the three men he saw… that he thought he saw were no longer there. Whatever this game was, he hoped it ended soon.

Joey stood up to get a better view and began walking toward the destroyed entrance of the church, as much as he wanted to continue you on the flames from inside the church gave him a stark reminder of the situation he found himself in. Before he had gotten distracted at the front of the church…where was his son?

He wheeled himself back around and was welcomed by a sight that Satan himself would feel positively at home in. From each and every side the flames licked up the walls clawing for just another inch of real estate each time, it looked like someone had just dropped a vat pig’s blood over a high school psychic. Joey shielded his eyes from the ever clawing heat; his legs felt like they had iron weights strapped to the calves has he dragged his legs forward.

I have to get there…I have to make sure they’re safe…I have to…

The silence of the flames was broken as a familiar voice split the flames and boomed through the decimated holy ground.

Dune: Joey!

Joseph Malignaggi looked upward to the beams above the altar to see his rival, his enemy, stood in all his demonic glory, his ragged and torn face mask less and contorted in a sadistic smile, if he even could smile. The flames seemed to bathe him in a light that belied his very intentions on this day. Dune seemed to laugh as he pulled his prize that he was hiding behind one of pillars on the rafters. It was then Joey Flash finally found his son. Christian Malignaggi was dragged by the hair to Dune’s side. The boy was a crying mess, his face contorted in fear he was screaming so loud his lungs were crying blood. Dune dragged Christian up by the hair and held him skyward.

Joey watched this in almost slow motion, his stomach tightened with fright and his legs turned to jelly.

Joey: PLEASE-

Dune: For the sins of the father.

That line echoed and reverberated in Joey’s head for what seemed like an eternity as the scene unfolded in front of him. His flesh and blood, his saviour, his progeny, his child, his son was launched from the nigh on sixty feet drop. His sightline changed from the demonic chainsaw jawed Dune to the screaming crying child, he fell and Joey sprinted. His legs exploded into motion and he powered forward in a near superhuman explosion of energy, Flash ran and the child fell…but for the first time in his life, Joey Flash wasn’t fast enough.

Christian Malignaggi’s last thoughts on this earth were ‘Daddy where are you?’ and ‘Mommy please…’ then there was nothing but pain, then nothing but silence.

Joey was half a second too late, he saw his son’s fragile and delicate body crunch into the unforgiving stone floor, there was no blood, there was no gore but Joey knew. He knew right away.

Joey: Christian… CHRISTIAN?!

He dragged his son toward him, a quick check could already tell, the little boy had been absolutely broken by the fall. His ribs were split apart, a small trickle of blood leaked from between his lips.

Joey: No…it can’t…son…hey, come on champ wake up.

He tried to move the boys head up but it simply lolled from one side to the other like someone trying to fix a puppet into position. He waited and waited, he slapped, he screamed and he cried but there would be no response from Christian Malignaggi. The little boy that had been so full of life, the little boy that had been Joey Flash’s life, been his saviour, been his everything. His salvation lay lifeless in his arms as the flames began to consume them. It didn’t matter anymore.

Let the flames take me. They’ve taken everything else.


Promise me...(Fourth Tape)

Joey: So, uhh, I dunno how much more you wanna hear me rambling on, I know that I wouldn’t want to hear some chump of a guy talk about all his supposed successes and failings to me like I don’t have the capability of thought.

Joey runs his sleeve across his forehead.

Joey: At your age I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know who I was, I didn’t know what I wanted, I didn’t know anything at all. Want to know what I want now? I’m twenty six years old and all I want is for you to be happy. I realise that not everything I can do will make you happy, I realise that not everything I do will make you like me, but know that I love, know that I love you more than anything in the world. I might be a lot of things son, but at my heart I’m not an evil person, I’m not a bum I’m not a junkie, whatever words you hear to describe me I’m not that. Just remember me as…a wrestler. I step through the ropes every week for you, I fight and I win for you, I couldn’t care any less if I lose every week or not, but what I do son is I win, I have the best winning record of any wrestler in the history of this company, why?

I do it for you. I go out there every week, I win and I dominate. This is my biggest test, this is the most important match I’ve ever had in my career. I’m going to win Christian, I’m going to beat Dune, and I’m going to give you the WCF World Title as an early Christmas gift. Maybe this will be the one…maybe then after everything I’ve done…

You’ll finally be proud to call me ‘Dad’.


A Dance with Dragons

The hollowed out husk of a man sits before you in the WCF locker room, it is one week since a moment that should have been the happiest day of someone’s life turned into the most horrific thing that should ever happen. Joey Flash sits with his wrestling attire on, his wrists taped, everything prepared, what was a World Title match had turned into a death march of a broken man. Flash looked at the camera, his eyes devoid of any hope and expression that was there in his prior promos.

Joey: I told you to cross the line, I told you to cross the line. I pushed and I prodded. You did well Dune. Okay.

Joey takes a deep breath.

Joey: What's going to happen at War...is I am going to kill you. I'm going to beat as much pain into your body as I physically can, then I am going to kill you. In front of whatever following you have, whatever family, whatever friends...they are going to witness the man they care for, they love get tortured and butchered in front of their very eyes. This isn't a wrestling match, this is no longer even a procession, this is a slaughterhouse for Dune.

Joey keeps his emotionless stare at the camera.

Joey: No slogans, no talk. Just death. It all ends tonight.

A Game of Thrones

‘The Pain of War – The tragedy of the man who conquered the world’
                              a report by Scoops Callahan

    On the morning of Saturday 3rd October the world was at Joseph ‘Flash’ Malignaggi’s feet. He was to wed his long time betrothed Alessandra Malignaggi (née Allegri) his childhood sweetheart and a week later have his honeymoon in the ring in what was billed as the biggest and most lucrative World Title match in modern history. (The 4.7 million pay-per-view buys making it the biggest selling event in North American professional sports history surpassing Mayweather vs Pacquiao which clocked in at 4.6m) By the time the sun had set on the wedding day of 3rd October Malignaggi’s life was thrown into chaos.

    The terrorist attack on St Patricks Cathedral, Manhattan, caused eleven people to lose their lives as gunmen launched an assault on the Cathedral first with several explosive devices and then indiscriminately firing assault rifles among the wedding party. Since the attack no organisation has explicitly claimed responsibility but word from the lead investigator Agent John Mullins, he believes the attack to be “an isolated incident” and “gang related”, also Mullins said that the CIA are “pursuing several leads” for the attack. In what was the largest terrorist act in the city of New York since the September 11th attacks of 2001, the city, and the nation have rallied behind the man at the epicentre of this tragedy, Joseph Malignaggi. A man who lost everything that day, a man who received the most horrific wedding present of all, Christian, the four year old son of Malignaggi and Allegri was caught in the attack and passed away before ambulances could reach the scene.

    The six days following the tragedy, a city mourned, a mother held a proud and dignified public face of hope, and a father disappeared. Alessandra Malignaggi spoke in depth about that day many times to the media, her first public speech being the most poignant.

    “I want you to know, I don’t hate you. Do you want to know what I’m feeling? I am feeling sorrow, I am feeling regret, I am feeling angry, I am feeling hopeless, helpless…but I do not feel hate. I plead with every mother in the world, love it, cherish it, motherhood is the most experience in the world. The bond between the little being that was once just a beating heart in your womb and you is worth more than anything. I will mourn, I will cry, but I will not be broken. My son, my friends, my family, all the ones you hurt, you killed will always be in my heart, and that, is something you can never take away.”

    Her display of defiance was in stark contrast to her newlywed husband who after seven long solitary days he emerged from the shadows to compete in his World Heavyweight Title match at War. What would have made fascinating documentary footage, seeing Malignaggi in the locker room before the match was jarring if not surreal. The fierce warrior touted as the next ‘Golden Boy’ of WCF Wrestling seemed just a shade of what he was once, as if his aura and confidence had been ripped straight from his core. The once languid and carefree warm ups of the Malignaggi locker room, the laughter and the loose stretching routines in front of all the cameras were replaced by a lone man lost inside himself as he simply remained seated with a towel hanging across his thick black mane of hair. Neither of us spoke in the twenty minutes I was given to interview him prior to the match, no words were needed.

    That night Joey Flash met Dune in one of the most intense, hellacious match-ups in WCF history a match that saw both men put out of action, that night, for all of his suffering that week, for everything that had been and everything that would come, at the end of the night Joey Flash would be able to say one thing.

‘Son, I’m the Champion of the World’.

    Then, the ether of the waiting game consumed Malignaggi. A concussion is not an issue that a prognosis can easily be laid out for the patient and a date circled in the calendar, yet in Malignaggi’s mind there was only ever one date circled in permanent marker, December 27th and one name running through his mind, Dune. When I caught up with the former Champion I felt like in the space of five minutes I had traversed two completely different worlds, and that the man who answered the door to me with a meek smile on his face was a completely different man than the one I spoke to moments later. The Malignaggi mansion is as impressive, opulent and grand as one would expect from a persona as self-gentrifying as its owner, to even make the approach I was tasked with a curt conversation with a security guard who on confirmation opened the gates to the kingdom.

    The meandering drive to the front door took all of ten seconds but those ten seconds were enough to remind you, perhaps intentionally, the world you are about to enter. Even in the heart of coldest December the hedgerows are pristine and the lawns look like a groundsman worthy of Yankee Stadium was slaving it to the very early hours of this morning. Upon the resounding and regal sounding of the bell the door swung open to reveal my humble host for the day, or forever how long he would have me.

    If first impressions are forever lasting, where Joey Flash seemed to exude an aura of, call it a writer’s crutch for having no other word for it…but he had ‘it’. If you’ve seen ‘it’, you understand. Joseph Malignaggi on the other hand with his sunken, drawn face and dark bags around his eyes looked every bit the opposite. His long scraggly hair was as uncouth as his facial hair. As he welcomed me into his home he looked so out of place in the palatial estate.

    We made small talk over coffee, as I glanced around the kitchen it gave a painful reminder about how the man in front of me was suffering. A child’s mug, a child’s knife and fork and most heartbreakingly a child’s sloppy drawing of a man holding a big gold belt with ‘GOOD LOOK DADDY’ written underneath. It was only then I began to understand the hell the former Champion was living in. We spoke briefly on this subject.

“It’s a process. ‘Every day is another healing step across the ocean of happiness’” Malignaggi shook his head and spoke as if he had already damned his recovery “I know already though, I knew from the start. It’s an ocean I can never be baptized in.”

    The silence and the uncomfortable feeling I got from Joseph was all I needed, he seemed to sense this and with a forced smile asked if I wanted to watch him train for a bit. “You can have your interview down there.” The ‘down there’ he spoke about was, as I was soon to find out, his ‘Sanctuary’ as he called it. The smell of leather infused with sweat hits you instantly as you descend into ‘The Sanctuary’. It’s a small room, reminiscent of the Hart Dungeon it barely looked big enough for one man, let alone both of us down here. A lone heavy bag hung languidly from the ceiling as you entered, with a worn and tattered speedbag mounted in the corner to the left. A skipping rope and a pair of maroon boxing gloves were strewn below the heavy bag with their hand wraps trying to escape from within. The other side of the room, a single thin mat, it looked like he had just pilfered a childhood Gym mat from a local school and thrown it down saying ‘You can be my wrestling area’. For this to be the training room of the most accomplished technician in the world of professional wrestling was almost laughable, though within five minutes he had turn the scoffing into awe.

    “This is where the magic happens” Malignaggi told me with a smile, this time it seemed every bit genuine as he began taping his hands. “You’re the first person I’ve let down here, honoured?” I was. He acknowledged the odd nature of his training regime. “It’s different for different people right? Some people need sparring and competition, some people need the rigours of lifting and technique drills. I mean shit, I’ve tried it, for sure, but I know what works for me.” I pressed him on this. “So my shit is pretty simple. Three steps, right?

1) Roadwork, THE most important part of any professional combat athlete, you can have all the skill in the world but if you get sloppy because you’re tired then what good are all the hours you spent drilling?
2) Speed, fluidity and movement.”

    This one, he demonstrated. He fired a couple of jabs into the pit of the stomach of whatever invisible opponent he was imagining as the heavy bag before stepping inward and unleashing a combination of punches so crisp and powerful it felt like each crack on the bag were his hands going supersonic, the final crack of leather on leather seemed to happen by the time he had already taken two steps to the other side of the bag. This dance, and that’s all I can describe it as, continued for around three or so minutes, but I didn’t care, it could have lasted for three hours and it wouldn’t have bored me once.

    Watching Malignaggi here was nothing like watching Flash in the ring, in the ring you could see the boredom seeping from his pores; his movements were sloppy and often took the scenic route to every attack when directness would have been more efficient. The person in front of me looked like every muscle twitch was the correct one, every step, every slight movement of the head had purpose and was done with the deliberate precision and repetition of a neurosurgeon. This was like watching a metronome.

    Finally taking a step back he turned to me with a grin, sweat dripping from his brow onto the mat. I was speechless, he wasn’t even breathing heavily. When asked how long he could do that for he simply gave another grin “Not a clue!” The fan in me wanted to make him keep doing it until he dropped, but the journalist in me made me not push the question. However, he had only given me two of his steps. I asked what the third was. He licked his lips and plonked himself down with a sweaty splat on the high school gym mat and closed his eyes and with a deep breath gave his answer.

“Meditation”

    Meditation. Joey Flash, the most savage striker, the most vicious submission specialist in the WCF relied on...Meditation? He opened his eyes and laughed. “You’re sceptical.” I was. “Aight, so it’s not meditation as such, I dunno, maybe it is, but like…say I’m facing Du-“he was going to say Dune, he hesitated. “Dustin Beaver. I sit down in front of my computer and for four, five, six hours straight I watch nothing but his matches. I watch nothing but him. I don’t so much as look at the opponent. What I’m looking for are patterns. How a wrestler moves when they’re on the front foot, on the back foot, pushing off the left, pushing off the right, the hitch in the stance before they shoot for a takedown, how their right hand is positioned when they throw their left…everything. I’ve got a memory like a fuckin sieve, but this stuff, I just…remember. So I sit here, I close my eyes and I fight the match. I fight the match dozens of times, sometimes more in my mind, how they’ll attack me, what they will do if in a certain situation, their mental state, their physical state. I walk into the ring every time with the fight already won, because I’ve already won it a billion times up here” with a finger tapping his temple he gives another smile before continuing. “I tell anyone who listens that a wrestling match is 90% mental and 10% physical.” It was easy for him, an Olympic level athlete to say, but I understood his point. Though in truth this experience with him, his training, his mindset, it was a complete surprise. This wasn’t the arrogant, dismissive man who competed every Sunday; this was the uber-prodigy who honed his craft and perfected his skills from Monday to Saturday.

    It was then I brought up the elephant in the room. December 27th. Dune. Malignaggi’s happy demeanour changed almost instantly. “It’s a match I have to win.” He said with a steely matter of fact determination. “It’s not a Deathmatch out of hype, this isn’t a publicity stunt, this is…it for me. I have to win this match, everything I am as a person, as a man, my family, my future, this is everything.” The rumours that Dune was seen present at the Malignaggi massacre grow stronger every day, a look at Joseph talking about this subject almost as much as confirms this. “One of us is a dead man walking; this match isn’t going to end with a pinfall or submission. This isn’t how this story goes. We are no longer a fairytale of man slays beast, or tormented beast finally slays man, this is real life. This is where the consequences to our actions are very much real, there are no erasers and no previous save games to revert to in the real world. This match will end up with either me leaving in a hearse, or you Dune. However the difference between us is…I don’t care. I am willing to sacrifice everything to drag you down to hell with me; if it comes to it, we are going to burn together Dune. Who is going to survive the hell we put each other through? Will I? Maybe, maybe not, but I am going to ensure that you burn in your own inferno of hate. The prophecy was right Firestarter.

“Into the wastes a child is born, the second to his Mother.
He knows nothing of innocence, for he is molded by tragedy.
And always the Reaper follows with its scythe above his neck.”

    Well guess what Dune, the reaper is here, the scythe is across your throat, and on Sunday he’s going to collect what he’s owed” I left the Malignaggi estate shortly after. I left with empathy for the man, I left with respect, I left with a feeling like the training I witnessed for those five minutes was the most inhuman display of speed, precision, timing and raw talent I’d ever seen up close in person. Mostly though, I left with the impression, with the knowledge that on Sunday 27th December we would witness something special, something special indeed. When my children ask me, ‘Where were you for Dune-Flash II?’ I’m going to be able to answer.

‘I was there.’

Sanctuary

It had been the Sunday following Joey’s World Title triumph that they had buried Christian. The cold chill of winter had begun as the Malignaggi’s and Allegri’s marched the coffin through the graveyard. Joseph and his new father in law, Bernardo Allegri led the pall bearing. In his time Joey had attended many funerals, seen countless friends die, helped carry them to their final resting place. Why was it then, that this smallest of caskets weighed the heaviest?

The rest of the day had been a blur to him, a nonstop ride of alcohol, tears and ‘I’m sorry’s’. He didn’t like to ever think about that day. He didn’t like to think at all. He had spent the better part of the next two months with a bottle in one hand and a knife in the other. As if one day he prayed he gained enough drunken courage to finally introduce the knife to his wrist. As great as his pain was, as terrible as his nightmares, he still had one shining light. One bastion of hope in this world, Alessandra.

She had saved him from the darkness that had its hands wrapped solidly round his throat and was dragging him deeper and deeper. Sometimes in life all you need is someone to take you by the hand, look you in the eyes and tell you ‘I’m here, everything will be alright’. Well, it was all he needed anyway. A few kind words, a hug and some support and almost overnight he was off the booze and back in training. She was his guardian angel, his muse, his-

His daydream came to an abrupt end as he slid inside her. Alessandra Malignaggi screamed and then bit her lip in toe curling ecstasy. Joey grabbed her hair and pulled her head upward before running his tongue down her neck before sinking his teeth into the nape. She moaned once more as he released her and continued to pound away his rhythmic tune of flesh on flesh. They hadn’t so much as said a word to each other all night, they barely talked at all since their wedding day, still every night - without fail, they fucked. He looked at the raven haired beauty below him, through all this, all the doubts about he ever had about her had vanished. She had been the pillar of strength while he crumbled, she had been the candle illuminating his shadow, she had been the guiding hand helping him through all the pain. He pulled her hips toward his as he climaxed. They remained in stasis for a moment as the orgasmic breaths normalised, Joey slid himself free and flopped down next to her.

They didn’t discuss this; they didn’t discuss much of what happened that fateful day, but he knew as well as she did. This wasn’t an act born of carnal desire; this was an act of trying to replace the hole in their life. A child to replace the loss of a child, sure if you were to try explain it to someone else it might seem pathetic and selfish but to these two drifting souls nothing else made more sense. Dabbing at the hot seed running down her inner thigh, Alessandra looked at her husband. He was an emotional being, he always had been, it was his biggest weakness. She felt the loss of her son, the disappearance from her life, the lack of his presence but for Alessandra, she never…felt. The speeches she gave to the media-

“I want you to know, I don’t hate you. Do you want to know what I’m feeling? I am feeling sorrow, I am feeling regret, I am feeling angry, I am feeling hopeless, helpless…but I do not feel hate”

Felt so false even to her, the tears and the breaking voice convinced everyone else. Even Joseph. She didn’t feel regret, she didn’t feel hopeless, she didn’t feel helpless…he felt only hate. Hate in the way that if someone took an important piece of property from you, hate in the way as if someone walked into your house and brazenly disrespected you. Not hate for the death of a child. Not hate like Joseph had. She had immediately dispatched three of her finest men to the Mojave Desert to eliminate the man responsible but found nothing but death for themselves. Joseph had begged and pleaded for her to stop, to let him ‘deal with it’. She turned her gaze to the man next to her. On Sunday he was set to face the very man who threw their son from the rafters of St Patrick's Cathedral to his demise. She had thought about having Dune simply assassinated as he entered the building, before the match, during the weigh in…sneak a pistol in, step up as a reporter and give him that Hyman Roth treatment. Joseph had been steadfast in his refusal. She spoke to him for the first time this evening.

Alessandra: What are you thinking?

Joey glanced at her before looking away.

Alessandra: What’s going through that head of yours?

Joseph: Nothing.

Alessandra: Nothing?

Joseph: What do you want me to say that I-

Alessandra: That you’re going to kill him.

This stopped Joey mid-sentence, he seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.

Joseph: That’s the plan.

Alessandra smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Alessandra: Do you need anything? I can help.

Joseph: I’m sorry.

Alessandra: What?

Joseph: I’m sorry Al. This, all this is my fault. I’ve been selfish, I’ve been stupid, I wish I could just rewind time and never even have started down this stupid fucking road.

Alessandra: What road, what are you-

Joseph: DUNE! Don’t you get this? He didn’t come after me; he didn’t pick a fight with me. It was me, it was always me. I’ve done it with everyone, but this time…this one time, someone fought back. I never intended any of this. I only wanted a wrestling match, that’s all. They wouldn’t give me a wrestling match, so I had to push, I had to prod, I had to hit, I had to hurt. So then we end up…where we are, I mean what…next time it could be you.

Alessandra: Joseph, don’t be ridiculous I’m-

Joseph: You’re only human. Dune he’s…something else. Money, power – these things mean nothing to him.

Alessandra: And he’s not human? Joseph you’re bring idiotic.

Joseph: Am I? You haven’t seen, you haven’t felt it Al, it’s like you’re watching a demon just walk through humans knowing that there are no repercussions, no comebacks, that there is no harm that can come to them.

She could see him shaking as he spoke, his lips quiver, his olive skin whiten.

Alessandra: You’re scared.

Joey paused for a moment.

Joseph: Yes. I’m scared.

He had never said those words before.

Joseph: I’m scared about what happens if I don’t end this on Sunday. If I fail then what happens? What happens to you? I cannot fail here. I am the only person able to so much as put a scratch on this guy; I am the only person who can beat him. I cannot fall here, it is not an option. So yeah I’m scared. I’m scared my training won’t be enough, that my skill won’t be enough, that maybe he really IS a demon and no matter what I do he’s going to keep coming.

She had certainly never heard these words from him before.

Alessandra: Joseph, you’re the best. You’re untouchable in the ring-

Joseph: Is that going to be enough?

Alessandra was silent.

Joseph: Promise me something.

These words never ended up being followed with ‘Buy me cake’ or anything pleasant. She agreed.

Alessandra: Go on.

Joseph: Whatever happens on Sunday, don’t turn your head. No matter what you see, no matter what happens to me you need to watch. This is going to be my last stand.

Alessandra: What are you saying?

Joey just smiled at her.

Joseph: That I want my Queen to watch as I slay the monster.

It isn’t what he meant. She knew. This was it, wasn’t it? He was willing to die. He was willing to die to beat this man, to protect her, to avenge their son. Joseph slid out of bed, stood up and began to dress. She watched as the man she loved slipped his familiar grey hoodie over his head. Since when was Joey so strong? Since when was he so determined? She had never seen that look before, such calmness and serenity before a match. Usually he was a jittery restless mess, but now it looked as if he was taking a beautiful sunny walk through Central Park.

He left the room to train once again, now she knew what he reminded her of. This looked like a man with such absolutely confidence in himself that the outcome was a formality, or, and this sent a cold chill down her spine, a man who had accepted his fate and was smiling in the face of a firing squad.



Eulogy

St Patricks Cathedral, the site where his world crumbled. This place that would have been buzzing with Christmas ceremony and cheer was nought but a relic of happiness, hope and joy. The winds whipped around him as he stepped through the incinerated, once grand, doorway. Scorch marks gave way to marble as he entered. The Cathedral for the most part was intact; any structural damage was only superficial at best. This was a place built to last. Still, everywhere Joey turned was another horrific reminder of his wedding day. Each step dragged him deeper into a waking nightmare. Bullet holes riddled a tapestry into the walls, it was enough to almost make him vomit. Then, he did.

This was the place; this was where his son had died. He ran the sleeve of his grey hoodie across his mouth and relived every second.

“For the sins of the father”

He continued forward, this was not the time, this was not the time for weakness.

Joey finally finds the destination of his pilgrimage, in front of the altar. The place where Malignaggi and Allegri were to be forever joined in happiness and sadness, in health and malady, two against the world. Where the love of his life swore hers to his and they would rule as king and queen, the empire was a vast one, Joey had sworn to bring the crown back to her. Now he sat the throne, he sat as the ruler of all that he surveyed. The king paid the ultimate price for his throne, the young prince, his progeny, his heir, his son was now but a memory. Memories were an interesting thing, what was so real, the feelings, the love, the happiness and joy is now just a picture burned into the brain. Love, happiness and joy, these were things he had a memory of, but since the day Christian passed Joseph had not felt even the embers of these feelings flickering inside his hollow husk of a heart. As he took his place on the altar once more, he thought of being declared the World Champion…then of his baby’s lifeless, unmoving body. The Kingdom was not worth the price it cost to deliver.

Joseph: I’ve had so many whispers in my ears these past two months, so many false words of condolences, so many false words of care. I’ve heard the words ‘I’m sorry’ more than enough than any man needs for a lifetime, people that I’ve barely spoken to and barely even know have been front and centre offering their support…but the second the cameras disappear so do the words, so do the people. People gravitate to tragedy, it’s like a drug, you sense the chance for some self or public gratification and you pounce. Hounds to a slab of fresh, dripping raw meat. It’s pathetic.

Is this a good show for you people?

Joey runs a hand through his coarse, thick black hair and takes a deep breath.

Joseph: These people, so full of great advice, so full of ‘good intentions’, want to know one of the things they told me?

‘Return to where it happened, make peace with the situation’.

So here I am. Do you know how hard this is? Do you know what this took for me? Do you people know what it’s like to every night pass out from exhaustion while your stomach churns and all your mind is kind enough to show you is that one moment you never want to see again on repeat, on repeat, on repeat? That’s what they said to me though, ‘Make peace’…so, here I am. I look around and I see people I knew and cared for getting gunned down and hunted like a pack of wild dogs, I see the scorch marks of where the fires consumed my life and my future, I see the ruin of my happiness, I see my beautiful baby boy-

A tears begins rolling down Joey’s cheek, he pays no mind. It’s as if this was a clockwork occurrence of regularity, where once he would have done anything to dab and claim ‘Something was in my eye’, now the sadness just fell with a force of a hundred megatons to the stone floor without him as much as blinking.

Joseph: -and I don’t feel at peace.

He turns to the camera.

Joseph: I feel (*BROKEN* *HOLLOW* *ALONE*)…at war.

Joey throws his arms out by his side and looks skyward through the broken rooftop and up toward the stars as he begins to speak, no, shout. His voice cracking every other word as the tears fall.

Joseph: Is this what I deserve? Is this my penance? Is this the consequence for all the choices, all the mistakes I’ve made? What do you think? I’m not a good person, I know, I know what I’ve done, I know the choices I’ve made…but…does it have to be…does it have to be this hard?

He runs his sleeve across his nose and then dabs at his swollen puffy eyes.

Joseph: Dune. It’s finally here. This is the match that we want, the match we need. We have mutual demons that need an exorcism, but only one is going to be cleansed in this match, the other is heading into an early grave. This is what this match is. This is not a wrestling contest, this not a grudge match, this is the end of everything.

This is a match between the two best wrestlers in the world who need for their mind, body and soul to win this match. There is nothing else after this; this is the end of it all. Let me ask you Dan, what do you see? What do you see when you close your eyes at night? Do you see what I see? Do you see a little boy crying, a little boy screaming, then silence, then absolute nothingness, then the erasure of everything you are and ever have been as a person? Do you? What do you see? Do you sleep, do you dream? What do you dream of? Do androids dream of electric sheep? Do monsters dream of even greater monsters hiding in the shadows? Are your dreams of Pinky’s forever barren womb, of her vapid, thoughtless, dreamless mind? Of the unnamed, blank features of the fetal life that was growing in her womb? Of Chief’s mangled, destroyed skull? Do your bones ache with the memory of the person you once were, that they are now creaking and hurting with every step you take because of the weight of the sins you have compiled since?

What do you want me to say? That I’m going to hunt you, I’m going to destroy you, I’m going to kill you? I don’t blame you. Do you understand Dune? I don’t blame you.

He sniffles and then faces the camera once more.

Joseph: This…

He motions the camera to scan the destruction of the Cathedral.

Joseph: All this. It’s me. Dune and Flash, these are my sins. I have broad shoulders…and I’m going bear this cross. Fate is a funny thing Dan, if things would have happen just a little bit differently for either of us this year, we could both be happy, we could both be settling down for Christmas with our families but your fate, and thus, my fate was decided long before The Jackal, before you became World Champion, before anything else. You drew the attention of Joey Flash.

For the few months in this federation we had nothing to do with each other, I didn’t care for you, you didn’t care for me, and we got on with business. Then…something happened. We both exploded out of the blocks in our career, people were already calling Joey Flash the next big thing, the next dominant World Champion, the next dynasty. Who was Dune? Dune was a super rookie, he was an elite by every standard, but he lost. He lost, and he lost, and he lost. Joey Flash just won. Dune lost and Joey won, yet who was the one who got all the opportunity? All the chances? Was it the winner? Or was it the loser? Did I get what I deserved?

A slap from his own hand flashes across his own face as Joey tries to steady himself.

Joseph: I hate that I’m this person, I hate it Dune. I hate that-

Joey takes another deep breath and dabs his eyes once more.

Joseph: You…you had everything I thought I deserved. Every step I took you were one ahead of me. Trilogy Cup? I didn’t even get a look in. I was 13-0; I was the greatest prospect in WCF history. This tournament told me everything I needed to know about the threat these people felt from me. It was practically oozing from each and every one of the ‘main eventers’. So, let’s see who participates in this: Jackson White, Occulo, Jay Omega, Deuce Murdock, Alex Richards, DVS, Jayson Price, Chelsea Armstrong and…Dune. What is missing here Dune? Can you tell me?

The man who would have swept that tournament without so much as breaking a sweat, but no, see…you were that step ahead weren’t you? I won a battle royal to become the first alternative to the tournament, I tried week after week to injure someone, anyone, I didn’t care, would you? I wanted what was owed. However during the finals I made a decision that would destroy both of us. I decided to attack Dune.

I remember the day that we first met in the ring, there had been nothing between us, we hadn’t met, we hadn’t talked, we hadn’t as so much shared a glance. Yet as I brought that shovel down on your head, again and again…I knew. I knew it wouldn’t be enough. You won that match, you won the title shot. It was only a matter of time then.

You were going to take my crowning moment away, I had paved the way, I had laid all the groundwork, Imperium was my road to the crown, our idiotic champion didn’t even realise it…but while I was working in the shadows, you stood proud in the light and just ripped the crown away from him. All my hard work, my months of planning just…

He blows imaginary dust from his hand.

Joseph: Gone. It was that day you were no longer a sideshow to me, you became my prey. How can this happen? How can a man with not even half the wrestling talent of me be doing this? You marched through DRG like they were nothing; you annihilated every possible challenger who even crossed into your realm. It was a World Title reign worthy of all the accolades, all the plaudits, you were nigh on unprecedented in your dominance…yet here I was, watching, waiting. I systematically destroyed everything around you; I lit your world on fire until you were backed into a corner and had nowhere to go.

I beat one of your best friends into semi-retirement.
I snapped your other best friends arm into pieces.
I assaulted the closest thing you had to a father…

…and guess what Dune? It worked. It fucking worked. Finally, I had you. Then things took a turn beyond my expectations, beyond my reasoning. If it had been just Dune and Joey Flash, we would have had our match, I’d have beaten you and that would have been that…but it seems I wasn’t the only one who had settled on you as the prey. That was the one thing I couldn’t account for. I couldn’t account for The Jackal.

He takes a deep breath and speaks again.

Joseph: Whoever he is, no, whatever he is, I promise you, I will do right by Pinky, by Chief, by everyone he has ever exploited or hurt. I understand you Dune, I understand you so much it hurts. I was right there when he…did what he did to Pinky, to Chief. Same reason you understand me, you were there when he…did what he did to Christian. I know, Dune. I know, and I understand. You’re a wronged man with only one outlet for the rage he feels in this world, me, and at One I’m going to be stood right in front of you and you are going to try to snuff my existence out. I don’t blame you for anything, I pushed and I prodded, I walked into the monsters lair and I dared it to unfurl its wings and try to ravage my village so that I could sweep in as the big hero and be the one to have killed the monster in front of the world. Everything that has been done, that we’ve gone through is on me. Do you get it? Do you understand? I’m fighting to exorcise my own demons and my own sins, like Luke in the cave I’ve fought you and killed you so many times in my mind but when it comes to ripping that mask off the only thing staring back are my own cold dead eyes gazing into my soul with my lost humanity and innocence.

If this shit could be resolved any other way then I’d do it, believe you me. If I could sit down inside a small room on a leather couch and talk away my demons then I’d be doing that. I’ve tried Dune, I’ve tried everything. But this…fighting, war, pain, death – it’s all I know how to do. I don’t hate you Dune. I don’t want to kill you…

He turns to the camera and we finally see a flash of his old self.

Joseph: …but I’m going to anyway. It’s not a game of forgiveness, of understanding this isn’t how this game works, you know as well as I do. This is where our roads merge, and one of our roads comes to an end. It is the final battle, in our game you win, or you die.

A thin smile creeps across his face and he seems to loosen up a little, cracking his neck from side to side and licking his lips.

Joseph: You are my greatest rival, Miyamoto Musashi vs Sasaki Kojiro, Goku vs Vegeta, Billy vs a salad – I think you’ve got me fucked up Dune, Dan my old cunt. This is Christmas, what’s coming next is your gift. You think I was going to walk through this promo crying and philosophising? Asking ‘why me?’ and talking like we’re even remotely on the same level? Like since what happened here I’ve somehow lost my balls? That I’m going meander through a long, winding, boring, aimless, venomless, bland and generic promo? Let me reiterate, I am not you.

Every week you remind me of a display at a museum tour, you press a button and here comes a booming voice full of emotion and conviction, of truth and reality telling the who, where and when, when the same sounds have blasted from the speakers over three hundred times that very day. Each week is the same story; each week is the same sad sombre sobering dogshit tale.

This is where I put a stamp on the year Dune. This is where I take your soul before I take your body on Sunday. I’m not content with squeaking out a pinfall, or simply beating you. I’m coming for EVERYTHING you are. I’m going to dissect you; I’m going tear bone from sinew and I’m going to rend your self-worth from your mind you fucking basic automaton.

He pauses for a moment and takes a long deep breath.

Joseph: Here is where we separate Dune. Here is where you lose this match. You dance to everyone else’s whim and now by god you are dancing to mine. Here is where we separate a great wrestler…and a fucking god. This is where everything starts coming out of the woodwork, motherfucker you’re about to get this good work, before? That was a check swing. This next shit is violent, time to open up on him like an X-Wing pilot.

You think I respect you as a man? Well I don’t, you’re a fucking worthless scumbag who can protect nothing in his life,

Brother? Dead.
Fiancée? Braindead.
Father in law? Dead.
Unborn child? Dead.

If I were Freeman or your dog I’d be hiding under a table just wondering when a bomb is gonna drop on the house at this rate. You attract death, anyone bearing your last name or becomes remotely close to you is destined to be snuffed, welcome to the Dune’s, the Kennedy’s of WCF. Where is your pride as a man? But no, you put all the blame at my door:

“It’s that Italian guy, it’s all him…it’s certainly not my fault, it’s never my fault, I could never be weak or pathetic enough to never be able to protect the ones I love, I live my life by a prophecy that talks about my greatness.”

You’re a naïve fucking child. You run around screaming for answers, the first person to say ‘Well we don’t know who did it, what their motives were…but they look like this, and did it for this reason’ your dumb ass walks off the short pier straight into whatever plot the next person who decides to manipulate you has. You’re the perfect tool, the perfect weapon, big, dumb and ignorant. It makes me sick to think I even have to deal with this match right now, to deal with you right now.

“Don’t shoot the messenger, don’t blame me: I was only the bullet in the gun”

Right? Like you should be absolved because you let yourself be controlled or fooled into doing something against your will? Is that what you’d say about clerks who worked at Auschwitz? About the men who simply drove the trains back and forth to the death camp? Well it happened. Fucking own it.

I broke Occulo – That was me.
I broke Howard – That was me.
I beat Freeman senseless – That was me.
I blew Chief’s head clean off while he was begging for his life - …that was me.

I own my crimes, I own my mistakes, and I own my horrors. I am standing in that ring on Sunday night ready to atone for everything Dune. You? Holocaust denier, ‘it never happened’ right?

Joey starts pacing up and down growing in anger and volume.

You collaborating with an evil force to wipe out my family – That wasn’t you, right?
You committing one of the biggest acts of terror in recent history in this country – That wasn’t you, right?
You holding my son above your head and throwing him to his death? That wasn’t you?

Is that the narrative you’re going to run with? So you’re a coward as well as a big dumb ignorant naïve tool. I don’t care what you think, what your warped take on our feud is. So take your fucking prophecy and slam it straight up your cunt, remember the Reaper with the blade across ya neck? Well bitch I’m right here, on Sunday you get to meet him. You’ll get that Slash in your throat like you’re a Guns n’ Roses groupie.

Do I respect you as a wrestler?

Let’s think about this one for a second. Before our match at War you were so adamant on how dominant you were, so vehement you were the greatest ‘big match’ wrestler in the company. How you’d defended the World Title so many times, how you entered Ultimate Showdown as champ and by god you left as champ, that’s a great feat…

…Clap, applause.

You pinned Jonny fuckin Fly god dammit. You were undefeated at PPV’s, madness. Then you finally faced Joey Flash…and your whole fucking world changed. You are the best in the world, a world where I don’t exist. In this world? You are #2. You will forever be #2, no amount of hard work, dedication can help, I could be on a five day coke binge, show up on Sunday and still dispatch you Dune. You have come into both our matches with chest out and balls swinging and left a beaten, broken man. I beat you in a Trios match, your excuse after that one? ‘It wasn’t a one on one match Joey, if it was you would have been annihilated’.

Then we got our one on one match and what happened? You lost again. ‘Big match wrestler’ eat a dick. What type of big match wrestler gets routinely bodied by the same opponent time and time again? LeBron in the finals, Dune vs Joey Flash. Fans might hype you when you go on big winning runs, might see the dominance out there in the ring, but when I cross your path you just seem to shake and disappear like an etch-a-sketch.

There is an inescapable talent gap between us; a gap that you think has what? Somehow closed over the three months I’ve been out? While I’ve been sat in bed unable to eat, my eyes red fucking raw and exhausted of tears you have been fighting, while I’ve been recovering from my concussion and unable to train you have been dominating the competition back here. You can look down from your place on the mountain and laugh at little old me having to start from the bottom again. So this will make the difference will it Dune?

Joey shakes his head and smiles again.

Joseph: You’re the author of your own demise and you don’t even know it. While you’ve been trying to plough away at some misguide campaign to regain the World Title, while you’ve been going after #BeachKrew and fighting a different person every week I have been doing what little training I can, resting, recovering…I mean shit, I’m in better shape now than when I left. The aches? All gone. The niggles? All gone. For these three months while you’ve been so distracted I’ve only had one name in my mind and one head ready to display on my wall.

Dune.

You think I’m coming back a weaker man? A broken man? Shit it’s the exact fucking opposite. You’ve gone and turned Megatron into Galvatron, Gandalf from Grey to White, Joey Flash into your own personal angel of death. For this I’ve hardened my heart, shit’s so black it could be called Aunt Vivian 1. You’ve strengthened my resolve beyond my mortality; do you understand what that means Dune? Do you have any idea? Of course you don’t, how could you? Well on Sunday I’m going to show you.

I am going to show you Dune why for our entire careers here you have been second best to me.

I am going to show you no matter what hard work you put in, the gap between us is only growing and growing. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, but what happens to Mr Hard Work when Mr Talent works hard? You’re going to find out.

I am going to show you who the best wrestler in the Wrestling Championship Federation is, I was anointed the heir almost immediately, people thought I would burn out, people thought I wouldn’t last the year, now we end and I’ve had the most dominant debut year in recent memory. My record is obscene, I’m a Triple Crown winner already…this year ends with me butchering the closest person people consider to my level and leaving absolutely no doubt that this has been my year.

He takes a deep breath and stands back next to the altar.

Joseph: I am going to show you Dune, just what it is you’ve done to me. Every tear, every sleepless night, every time I walk through my front door without hearing ‘Daddy!’, every present that is sat under my Christmas tree that is never going to be opened, every smile, every goodnight kiss, every day I have to continue living knowing that I couldn’t save the most important thing in the world to me. You’re going to feel every bit of my pain, I’m going to break you in every possible way, we can talk about wrestling all we like but this is no wrestling match. I’m going to leave you a broken, battered, bloody mess. Your life is in my hands, I’ll hold you over the precipice and I will make you beg, I will make you plead for mercy…

…and I will give you none.

Malignaggi drew the sign of the cross on his chest and kissed his right fist before pointing it skyward. He took in the destruction of the Cathedral once more, he remembered the fire, and he remembered the gunshots, the cries, the screams. He remembered the bodies; he remembered the helplessness of the people…no not just people, his friends, his family. He began to walk toward the exit, with each step it seemed to echo louder. The steps that brought him into the nightmare were now leading the way into the future, each step adding renewed purpose, renewed vigour.

I guess they were right after all, Joey mused to himself. Facing the nightmares, facing the demons, accepting them, accepting yourself. I guess this is what peace feels like. On exiting the building it had already become dusk, the sun was setting through the buildings casting a beautiful red hue across the Cathedral.

Joseph: Dune. Never once confuse yourself with who I am. You may think you have broken me, you may have thought you’ve destroyed my home, my life, my happiness. You look at me and what do you see? An emotional wreck who can barely keep his head together? A man who has nothing left? A man who has nothing to fight for, a man who will just roll over and show you his stomach. Since War you have held yourself in some state of superiority over me, you act like you’ve made me weak and submissive. Through all of this I think you’ve lost sight of something, you’ve got something fucked up Dan. You seem to be confusing emotional with weak, I will slit your throat while a tear is rolling down my cheek.

I am not a broken man; I am not a weak submissive bitch who is going to roll over. I am the end of you, I am the one who will turn you to dust and throw you to the wind.

Joey pulls he hood over his head, his face looking almost feral with the unkempt stubble across his jawline and wild black hair curtaining the sides of his face.

Joseph: I am Joey…fucking…Flash.