Providence || 3:34 am

“No…no….stop….please stop…”

“Trent! Trent! Wake up man!”

I heard Mike calling me but I was captured inside a nightmare. I couldn’t escape. The harder I tried to force my eyes open the harder it became not too. Finally, I flung my eyelids open and sat straight up in the bed. My chest, back and forehead were wet with sweat.

“Stop!” I yelled out into the blackness.

“Trent! Calm down! It’s okay man. It’s okay. It was just a nightmare.” Mike’s reassuring voice flooded my ears.

I took a few deep and much needed breaths. Just a nightmare. It wasn’t real. Oh God, the nightmares weren’t starting again were they?

I sighed and laid back down, my back toward Mike. I felt his arm hang loosely off my hip bone. I closed my eyes.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

“What is there to talk about? It’s the same story. You’ve heard it a million times.” I answered.

“I don’t mind hearing it one more time.” He said.

I know he didn’t mind hearing my story one more time but honestly, I didn’t feel like telling it again. And I didn’t want to subject him to a boring, pathetic childhood full of misery and fear again. There’s only so much a human can take and I think I’ve taken more than enough.

I felt the palm of his hand gently lay on my hip bone, applying no pressure, just resting.

“You want me to get Torrie?”

“No, I don’t want to wake her up. Let her sleep. I’m going to try to go back to sleep myself.” I said. I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes.

The last thing I wanted to do was wake up Torrie and have her worry over me like she does. She obsesses sometimes, like a mother would obsess over her newborn baby. It use to bother me but I have become so accustomed to it that it doesn’t bother me anymore. I know her heart is in the right place.

I had my eyes closed but I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t. I had beaten Fort Knox but now I was up against someone who may actually matter. Creeping Death. I weighed my options in my head. I weighed the possibility of losing to the possibility of winning. If I won then it would prove to everyone here I was not some pushover who was here to stay for only three weeks. Creeping Death had been around for a while and pinning his shoulders to the mat would mean certain glory.

“Mike?” I asked.

“Hmm?” He answered.

“Are you still awake?” I asked.

“Yeah, I am now.” He answered.

“It’s just this Creeping Death guy. He’s been around for a long time and his experience probably topples mine over. What the hell am I going to do?” I asked.

“Well you’re going to do to Creeping Death or whoever exactly what you did to Knox. Beat him.” Mike said.

“It’s not that easy. He says he is tired of being called old or whatever. I’m sure he is but come on face the facts, isn’t there a time for everyone to retire in their lifetime? How many times can he open his mouth without the same shit coming out of it? And does anyone even like him anymore? I say put the final nail in the coffin and get rid of the crap off the roster. A nice roster cut would be good.” I said.

I shifted my body till I was on my side facing Mike. I put my hands under my pillow. “He says he doesn’t have a god damn thing to prove around here. Well he may not of had a damn thing to prove before I got here but now that I’m here he does. He has to prove he can keep up with younger guys. I may be a rookie in this Federation but that doesn’t make a damn bit of difference because I’m not going to fight like one.”

“There, see, you can do this. I don’t see what the problem is.” Mike said.

What was the problem? Why was I stressing? Maybe because he could be smarter than me in ring skills? Maybe because he was a former world champion? I couldn’t let these things bother me. I couldn’t dwell on the past. I had to put my mind on the future and have tunnel vision.

I sat up in the bed and threw the blankets off of me. “I’m going to go have a cigarette on the balcony.”

“Alright, just yell if you need anything.” Mike said.

I grabbed my Salem Lights and lighter off the table and made my way toward the balcony. I walked out onto the balcony in nothing but my Joe Boxer boxer shorts. I lit up a cigarette and blew out the smoke.

“No you don’t have a thing to prove to anyone here. It’s true, you’ve made your mark and you can sit back and do nothing if you wanted. You hold the cards here and don’t think I don’t realize it. But that still doesn’t mean I’m just going to roll over and let you cover me. I’m coming out to fight. I’m coming out to win. Having won the world title four times yeah I guess you are bored with it. But I’ve never tasted it here and I want to more than anything and if going through you is what I have to do to get there, then so be it.”

I take another drag from my cigarette and blow it out.

“Like you said you can easily breeze through this Federation whenever and however you want. I’m happy for it. I’m happy you feel that way. But there comes a time when we all have to deal with reality. You’re reality check is going to be me. You’re going to come up against a brick wall and when you hit it you will hit it hard and it will be a wake call to you. You may not care about me. In fact you probably don’t. You probably worry about people like Torture or whoever else is at the top right now. I mean I don’t even pay attention to all that drama.”

“So with that in mind take me as lightly as you want. Blow me off and laugh me off whatever you want to do. But be prepared to come for a fight because I’m going to bring the fight.”

I blew out some more smoke before throwing the half lit cigarette off the balcony. I drew in a deep breath and walked back into the apartment. I walked into the bedroom where everyone was asleep. I crawled into bed, closed my eyes and fell asleep.

“Trent. Trent. Wake up man.” I heard Mike’s voice in my ears.

“I’m awake. I’m awake. What’s the problem?” I asked and threw the pillow over my head.

“The girls wants to go to the zoo today.” He said.

I flung the pillow over the bed and sat up in bed. “To the fucking zoo?”

“Yeah they said they wanted to go to the zoo so I guess we are going to go to the zoo today.” He said.

“But why? This is so random?” I asked with confusion in my voice.

“You would have to ask them but they are out on the balcony having a smoke.” He answered.

“Okay, okay, we’ll go to the fucking zoo. I don’t care.” I said.

I got myself out of the bed and went over to the dresser. I opened up a drawer and pulled out a pair of ripped up light colored jeans. I put them on and then added a black studded belt. I reached into another drawer and pulled out a Guns ‘N Roses t-shirt. I pulled it over my head before finding my socks and my shoes. I walked into the bathroom, grabbing my toothbrush and started brushing my teeth. While I was doing so Torrie walked into the bathroom.

“So you know what we’re doing today?” She asked like a little girl.

I spit out the toothpaste and nodded my head. “Yeah Mike told me we just had to go to the zoo for some reason or another.”

“To have fun of course.” She answered.

I put my toothbrush up and grabbed my eye liner. I put my eye liner on and sighed. “Okay, we’ll go to the zoo then. I’m ready whenever you guys are.”

“I think everyone is ready to go we are just waiting on you.” She said.

I nodded my head and smiled at her. I leaned over the counter and laid a kiss on her lips. She and I walked out of the bathroom and caught up with Marie and Mike in the living room.

“Everybody ready?” Marie asked.

“Yeah.” I said.

We walked out of the apartment and walked down the stairs. I put on my sun glasses as we went to the corner of the street to hail down a cab. A few minutes passed before we were able to get a cab. We climbed in and I told the cabbie to take us to the Roger Williams Zoo.

We reached the zoo faster than I thought we would. We got out of the cab and I paid the cab driver with a fairly good tip. I had the extra money because of my win over Knox.

We stepped onto the sidewalk to the zoo and went over to get tickets. I once again paid for the tickets because of the money I made. We went into the zoo and started looking around at the various animals. First we came to some birds, some monkeys….I wasn’t paying much attention. My attention was pulled on Creeping Death. I had to find out a way to win this match.

“Hey guys I think I’m going to take a little walk and I’ll catch up with you all later.” I said.

“Are you alright?” Torrie asked.

“Yeah I’m fine I just want to take a little walk.” I said.

I walked away from my friends with my hands in my pocket and my head down. I walked past some cages of animals, random animals that meant nothing to me. I walked through the repitle cages, still not paying attention. Then I stopped and looked at the cage before me. It was the tigers cage. I drew in a deep breath and released it slowly.

“You know I feel like the cage tiger because I feel like I’ve been put in a cage. I feel like I’ve already been sized up before I’ve stepped in the ring. I feel like Creeping Death has already got it through his mind that he is going to win this match. Yeah I feel like the caged tiger. Wanting to burst out and show exactly what you’re about. Wanting to burst out and show everyone your strength but there is always someone or something holding you back. I have to find what is holding me back. I have to find what is holding me back here in the WCF. Is it really the fact that I’m a rookie? Are the staff blind to my talent?”

I leaned up against the bars of the cage and watched the tigers lay down in the green grass.

“Like the caged tiger when I am released I am going to explode all over the entire roster and I won’t have any pity on anyone. There are guys out there who I don’t give a shit about but if I have to go through them to get what I want then so be it. Creeping Death you are one of those guys. You probably don’t know the power a caged tiger has. Let’s look at how powerful the tiger really is. Raw power and brains. That’s what I am going to be bringing to this match. You don’t have raw power and as for brains well you come up short in that department too.”

I shifted.

“So whine and cry about how bored you are. Whine and cry about how you have no competition or anything anymore. But come Slam you’ll find a whole new breed of cat in me and I promise you won’t like it.”

I pulled myself off the bars of the cage and began walking back towards my friends.