Chapter I
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"I want to tell you something."
The faint image of a mid-30 something man standing in a basement, looking at his son as he held him by the shoulders, a half-smile on his face and a wince in his eye. He was talking to a young Angel, a young Joseph Thompson at the time. Smiling and listening on, Angel nodded his head and awaited what he was going to say.
"You have something special. It may not look like that right now, but you have something special, beautiful and it's hard to put in words."
The father released his grip on Angel's shoulders and pulled his glasses off. He started to clean them and walked away, pushing a punching bag to the left of him so he could get past it. Most of their basement was filled with homemade workout equiptment; they couldn't afford much, so this was the near best thing.
"..Hey Dad?"
Angel knew what he needed to ask, he needed to force this out of his system because this had been his third "talk" with his father in as many as days and he didn't understand how he calculated and figured out some of the things he said. Fearful of what he was going to throw out.
"..Yes, Joe?"
"Can I see what's in store for me? How am I so much more special from the rest of the world?"
The father smiled, shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out a beautiful, vintage gold pocket-watch. It had a thick gold chain attached to it. It was the most beautiful thing Angel had ever seen.
Look at this watch and close your eyes. You will see your future -- It's captivated in the center of the ocean, you must swim out and find it, locate it, discover it.
It was an overwhelming statement that led Angel in a terrible fright. Unknowing what may occur at any moment, he took the watch from his father and flipped it over. The tick was intensely loud, it sounded like reverb to his own heart beat. Within the next few minutes, it began to pour outside and the lights inside the basement began to flicker.
"..Feel it Joe, feel the world taking you whole, appreciate it."
The ceiling opened up and a new world was there in full view in front of me. A dreary land of space and time. The moon was close enough to touch and the people surrounding him were floating around in seas of impurities -- Life seemed as if it were flowing with off-timed rythemetic drum beats -- Objects moved in pulsating form, only drifting to their position in slow jumps. The scene slowly changed to show Angel standing next to his father, the same words that were being told in the basement of his old house were being told while his father lay on his death bed; Old, gray and basically incoherent.
"Goodbye Dad -- I love you."
The scenes of Angel's discoveries through his father's final days of life. The meloncholy that lasted too long. Angel bowed his head down. We arrive in timely greatness, to Angel's latest days. It's been nearly a year since he's entered a ring, it's been nearly a year since he's smelled the same potent stench of victimizing and a year since he walked out to the pleasant applause of a crowd. It was time that he returned.
"Hey baby -- When are you coming home ... Ah, good. How did the conference go? Oh really? Nothing, I'm fine. Just a bit remenescent at the moment. No, I'm fine, guess what? I've returned to the ring, I'm wrestling again.. Isn't that great? Huh? No, no.. I never said I left the ring because of injuries, it was just a minor elbow injury, babe. Huh? No, I'm fine, I was cleared for the ring. Alright, go get 'em! Heh, alright, love ya'."
Bleak quiet. Nothing can be heard besides the footsteps of Angel, as he walked into the dark kitchen, turning the light on and sitting in one of the kicthen chairs, staring into a different paradise. A brilliant white light splashed upon the screen as we return to the death bed of Angel's father. Red rose petals, laying around the bed as his father's eyes stay wide open, his final ten minutes of life, his final ten minutes of existence.
"Go by these words, Joe. Never let anybody take you down. Never look at them with a surrendering eye. Life will change once you understand that there are no limits in life when you stick it to the person trying to stick it in you. You're an angel with wings, flock those wings and let them soar you into places you never imagined."
"I will never let anyone take me down, father. I have a future, a walkway over the river of running rapids just for me. Nothing can stop me and nothing will stop me."
He made that promise clear as he began to wrestle. Wrestling was never on his cleanest plate of ambitions, he was never a lover when it came to fighting and he never felt the need to deal with things in a crude physical manner, but he realized that his father was giving him advice in these general parts of life. It was his duty to follow up. He nodded as his father and exited the room. He knew his father didn't want his son seeing him die, so he left, without slipping out another word. As Angel exited the hospital, the scene transformed and we were brought into real-time. Angel standing on a cemented sidewalk, looking at a building, Angel's old house.
"I adored this house. There wasn't a slant on the floor, the boards were perfect, the electric was all in check, the backyard was beautiful and the houses surrounding it contained very friendly, welcoming people. No one has lived in this house for ten years. Empty, cold, dark and congested with termites. The end of a historic kid memory. So many events occured in that house. So many thoughts left wide open without them being capped off with answers or backgrounds. A bit like Viper. A questionable semi dominance in XPCW with a crude and rude attitude who's very uppity and high on himself. Don't let the fumes reak upon you for too long.
My pain is your misery. We enter that ring and I finally become at one with what I grew up to be, again. A chance to revive my skills and take you on once and for all. There were times when I was healing my elbow where I would just blank out and think of the past, think of all the years I spent making it as such a big figure in the wrestling world. There were times where I thought about giving up, throwing in the towel and calling it quits, but one thing always dawned on me. My father. He had always put me on the straight line, because he pushed me to my dreams before he passed on. I will succeed in reviving this dream, beating you being the first task on my list that I can just about check off."
Angel walked across the street and looked through the old house's window. Dust clouded the clarity of the window and there were large dents in the screen. The inside look like a shut-down psyche ward. Chair scattered around, rotted away from the termites. A rusty sink and the wallpaper on the walls rotted and/or rotting off. He walked to the entrance door and noticed that there was a roll of "Caution" tape on the ground. He opened up the screen door and tried to open the regular door.
"Locked shut."
Bummed out and hopeless on any other option, Angel kicked the center of the door, creating a large, gaping hole. Massive amounts of termites fell on the floor and scattered away. Angel looked at the dook-knob and decided to kick it. The door-knob fell off, rotted away. Angel used a bit of force and pushed the door down. It fell with a massive "BLAM", as dust rose around Angel. He walked down the hall and heard a faint scream. He jolted and turned his head to the left, he ran down a hall and heard the scream coming from his parent's old room. He opened it and alas, there was nothing, nothing but a frame picture on the wall directly in front of him. Angel walked inside the room and walked over to the picture. It was portrait of his family, waving and smiling, happy and cheerful. That was at his father's forty-second birthday party.
"I will leave you with one final message. A message that will keep you pondering for a lifetime. The inner turbulence surrounding you has become relevant towards my defense against you, Viper. The night shall begin and we shall take eachother on in full combat. Ny return. My night of fame, sucess and victory. Carpe diem, my friend, carpe diem."
Angel heard a ringing. It was his cell-phone. He stormed outside of the house and flipped his cell-phone, he answered it with a quiet "Hello". Angel replied moments later, "Jesus christ, I'll be right down there to pick you up." - Angel put his phone in his back pocket and ran to his car, he opened up the door to his car as the scene came to a sudden, fading end. Three rings of a phone could be heard and then all went quiet..
-=To Be Continued-=
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