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"The Wolf of Afghanistan" Joshua Schuler · (06-04-2017)

Prologue

Why would you say that I am insane?

I wouldn’t say that I have lost my mind simply because I hear voices and see people who may not really be there.

Honestly, that’s always kinda been my thing.

If anything, I think more clearly now than ever before. I know now what true madness really is. It’s the act of continuing to long for someone who shows you nothing but cold dismissive hate at every turn. It’s the idea of willingly traveling across time and space in the hope of finding a way to fill that gap in your heart with another version of the woman that you love. I’m beginning to see that love is the one true form of madness in this world. Love will drive a man to do things that no sane mind would ever justify. Love will cause you to needlessly lay your life down to save the one that you cherish. It will cause a man to completely abandon who he really is, just in the hopes of securing the one that he wants. Love is the best manipulator of the mind to ever be known, but when someone is in love, nobody bats an eyelash at their crazy actions. Not unless they’re Micheal Graves that is, then somehow I become a guy that needs to seek help. It’s nothing new, people have labeled me crazy for most of my life, but it wasn’t until today that I’ve ever considered the possibility that they might be right.

Day One

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King Theo spent the night explaining the peril that threatens his land to me at great detail. Nobody has managed to catch glimpse of the beast and live, but everyone sees the damage that it leaves in its wake. Young girls are kidnaped each night as they slumber. Whatever is taking them does so without breaking locks, without stirring guards, and without ever being seen. Some think this evil to be some sort of evil spirit, a curse on the land. Others believe that a powerful magician is behind the abductions. All that I know is that my precious otherworldly Dolly has been taken by this monster, and I shall not rest until she is both safe and mine.

We retired to our chambers within a few hours of the sun setting. I was instructed to get a good night's rest because we would set off at daybreak. I couldn’t sleep, however. I was too excited by the possibility that me and my Dolly Doll would finally be together as one. I had fallen so hard for her that I would gladly travel back in time and help the apparent ancestors of my biggest enemies fight an unspeakable evil that was sure to take my life just for the slight chance that I could somehow pull off a miracle and save the day, thus saving the purest love ever known to man. For that reason, I spent most of my night planning how I would combat different types of evil. Everything that I know about fighting mythical creatures stems from a TV show called Supernatural. Luckily they have battled a wide variety of creatures.

Gathering the materials necessary to fight each creature did prove to be a chore however. So I settled on preparing for the most likely scenarios. If it were a ghost that I should face, I have an Iron fire poker. If it were a vampire, I fashioned a stake out of a broom handle. Finally, should it be a wizard… Well, I wasn’t sure what a wizards weakness might be, so I figured if it were a wizard, I would just hit a Graves Consequences or two and be done with him. Of course, I realized that hitting a wrestling move on a wizard would likely require a bit of luck. That is why I killed a squirrel in the middle of the night and cut off his foot. Why a squirrel you ask? Because I couldn’t find a rabbit, and they’re close enough to the same thing… should work, right?

Anyway, when I did finally fall asleep, it had to be very early in the morning. I wasn’t going to rest well as the King had requested, but I wasn’t worried. Being prepared is far more important that being well rested.

…

…

…

…

Day Two

The blunt end of a sword smacked hard across my ass. My eyes fly open as I instinctively hop out of bed and turn, fist up, to see who my attacker is. I drop my guard when I realize that it is the Knight, Sir Samuels with a big smile on his face.

What in the bloody hell happened to your face?

I reach up and pat my face with both hands, I had not realized it at first, but I must have removed my mask as I slept. I quickly shield my face with one hand as I search around the room for my ask. Samuels seems to get a kick out of my misery and lets out a chuckle. Finally, I find the mask haphazardly tossed on on the floor beside of my bed. I grab it and quickly slide it over my head and tighten the straps.

So, are you going to tell me the story behind that hideous mug?

In a preemptively defensive tone, I reply.

A child did this to me!

The truth is that I’m embarrassed to admit that. It’s hard to justify allowing a small girl to get the jump on you, then beat you to within an inch of your life. It’s even harder to get people to understand that Dolly is special in that regard. She’s not your ordinary teenage girl by any means. What it is that gives her the strength both psychically and mentally to stand across the ring from men three and four times her weight, and then go on to kick their ass, I’ll never know. Not knowing what drives her makes it that much harder to make people understand. Fortunately for me, Samuels seems to take the hint that I do not wish to speak further on the subject.

Lord Theo is awaiting your presence in the main hall. Do not keep him waiting much longer, understand?

I nod my head, Samuels nods back, then he leaves my chamber. I slip on the clothes that Theo had his servants bring me. Stiff itchy navy blue pants, a lightweight white shirt with a lace v neck, and a pair of leather slip on boots. I quickly head down to the main hall of the castle, where King Theo, Sir Samuels, John Madison, and The Grand Wizard D’Ville are discussing our plan of action.

The fact of the matter is that we still have no way to track this beast.

I can track the beast!

Everyone’s attention turns towards me as I walk down the steps into the main hall.

You can, how praytell?

I spend the next several minutes explaining how, if given access to the princesses personal belongings, I can track her the same as a hound would. The King doesn’t seem to really believe me, but he goes along with the idea anyway. At this point, I feel as though he would try anything in the hopes of saving his daughter. Soon enough, armed with a pair of the princesses undergarments, we saddle up and prepare to undertake this adventure. I bring the garment up to my nose and take a long deep breath. Luckily laundry in these days isn’t washed nearly as well as in my time and the scent of the princess is still very strong. I can’t help but notice the disgusted look on Sir Samuels face as he looks to his King.

Sire, are you sure about this guy?

The King stares at me with a cold look. It’s hard, even for me not to notice just how much he dislikes me already.

No, I’m not sure Sir Samuels, but if there is even the slightest possibility that this… man… can lead me to my daughter, I have to try.

I pull the garment from my face and sniff the air a few times. Sure enough, I catch her scent.

We are heading north!

I point in the direction that we need to ride. Samuels lets out a chuckle. D’Ville and Theo, like me, don’t seem to find any humor in this situation.

Are you sure that you know where we are going!?!

Yes, the princess is definitely in that direction!

Sammy is still laughing and now shaking his head as well.

You’re pointing to the east, you moron!

I look ahead to where I am pointing, then back to Samuels.

I thought whatever direction you were facing was always north?

Samuels is now holding his gut and laughing harder. Theo looks to D’Ville for guidance. D’Ville nods and the two of them ride off. Samuels is the next to take off behind his King. Finally, I go as well. We ride for hours, as we do I have plenty of time to think about the Dolly that I left behind.

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We ride for a good half day as I follow the scent of Princess Dolly. The trip has been mostly quiet other than the occasional questioning of which way we way we should go. None of these guys seem to be interested in small talk, which is fine. My main concern is rescuing the princess and taking her back with me to my time as man and wife. Eventually, King Theo commands that we give our horses a break. I don’t understand why these guys don’t just invent cars already. These horses are slow, smelly, and can only go full pace for a short amount of time before we have to let them rest. I can’t help but think that this is a very ineffective way of travel.

My Wizard tells me that you agreed to this quest because our princess reminds you of a loved one. Is this true?

Yes it’s true.

Yet he says that you plan to accept my offer of marriage. Did something horrible befall the Dolly of your time?

Did something befall her? Like did she die?

Theo nods to me, confirming that is what he meant.

I mean, she may be dead on the inside, that would explain a lot actually.

What do you mean by this?

...Nothing. It really doesn’t matter.

The two of us gallop along silently for a while. The King's men trailing off behind us. Finally, Theo breaks the silence.

Can you tell how close we are?

I close my eyes and take a few short sniffs of the air as I try to catch her scent.

I don’t understand…

Theo looks towards me confused.

What is it?

The scent is strong… So strong that we should be right on top of her location, but… I see nothing but grass, tree, and stone.

Theo’s eyes squint as he begins to survey the area

Are you sure she’s that close?

This sniffer doesn’t lie when it comes to the scent of a beautiful young woman!

Suddenly there is a poof of smoke in front of us and wouldn’t you know it. It seems that another XWF Superstar has a doppelganger...

The pull of smoke begins to dissipate. As it does our new guest takes a step forward.

.

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Nope, it’s not the master of poofing that you were looking for. Instead, it appears to be a slightly better looking, yet trollish and wart covered Thaddeus Duke.

Master, you have returned, but why have you brought these men here?

The trollish Duke heavily breaths in and out of his mouth as drool runs down his chin. I can’t help but feel the burning stare from Theo as it digs into my soul. He heard the same as I, and I’m sure he came to the same obvious conclusion. It would seem that I too have a doppelganger in this timeline, but at least I can use this to my advantage.

Nevermind that you sniveling drone! Take me to the princess, post haste!

I notice that the trollish Duke looks both scared and confused.

But…

I said to take us inside… NOW!

He jumps back with a frightened look on his face as I raise my voice. Then he immediately bows and says in a whisper;

As you wish, master.

In an instant, we are transported, sans horses, inside of a dimly lit room. My best guess is a castle of some sort based off of the stone walls and floor along with the high ceiling. I also notice that the air is very moist and cold. Before my eyes can even adjust to the new surroundings, I hear Sir Samuels let out a furious battle cry followed by the wet mushy sound of steel entering a living being. I quickly rub my eyes in hopes that it will somehow help me to see better in this low light source. Somehow it does, and I find the troll like Duke laying on the floor just in front of me choking on his own blood.

Samuels, what have you done!?!

Samuels takes a bit of cloth out of a leather pouch and wipes the blood from his blade.

Killing treacherous monster before he realized that he isn’t who he pretends to be, sire.

He says while looking directly at me. Theo charges forward and shoves Samuels back, more to gain his full attention than anything else.

You fool, what if he was the only way out of this place?

Samuels sheaths his sword then looks up to the King.

Then we shall find another.

He says as he looks to the Wizard D’Ville.

The real question here is how do we trust this man when it appears that his double is the great evil that has been kidnapping young girls across our lands?

Theo and D’Ville don’t say anything as they both look towards me. They don’t need to, I can tell that they are asking themselves the same question and that I need to act fast before I too find myself with a new, unwanted piercing.

I swear to you, I only want to help save your daughter!

Tell me, how can I trust you, Warrior?

You can choose to believe me, or not, but when I tell you that the people in my world are nothing like their doubles here, it’s the truth. In my world, you are all horrible evil people. That troll is a great hero, I’m a great hero. This place seems to be filled with the same people that exist in my time, but their personalities so far have been completely different. I have no doubt that this world's Micheal Graves is a truly evil man because in my world I am a truly righteous one.

Theo’s men look to him, ready to strike me down if he gives the order. He contemplates his options for a moment before finally;

I shall choose to believe you, for now, Warrior. However, should I have even the slightest notion that you’re intentions are not as you claim, I will see you personally delivered to the gates of Hell, understood?

It’s hard to swallow, but I feel the uncontrollable urge to do so despite my mouth instantly drying up as I listened to Theo’s words.

Listen up! There is no telling what dangers lie within these walls. We must search this place for my daughter, but it is imperative that we stick together!

Suddenly there is a booming voice that seems to come from all around us.

There is no need for that father because it is I who have found you!

Suddenly a long wooden spear comes flying through the darkness and stabs right through the heart of King Theo. He drops to his knees as he tries and fails to gasp for air. Samuels draws his sword and D’Ville rushes to the aid of his King. Out of the darkness, a figure seems to float down from the balcony.

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You should never have come here, father!

I watch as Theo’s heart breaks before dying. The king takes his final breath before slumping over into the arms of his friend, D’Ville. Samuels lets out a battle cry much like before, but with merely a flick of the wrist, Princess Dolly sends him flying back and crashing into a wall. The result of which leaves him unconscious. She then turns her attention to me. With lust filled eyes, she walks over to me. D’Ville stands up to block her way, but he is sent crashing into a wall in much the same way as Samuels before him. Before I can even think to react, Dolly is right on top of me. She places a hand on my chest and looks lovingly into my eyes. She then reaches up and loosens the straps that hold my protective mask on. I tilt my head down as she then removes my mask. I hear the hard protective skull on the mask hit the stone floor below. With her hand, Dolly guides my head back up so that she can look into my eyes. She smiles, and we embrace in a long passionate kiss. In this moment, everything around me stops. The world just feels right for the first time in my life. In this moment, I confirm everything that I had previously known. Dolly is the part of my soul that is missing. With her by my side, I would surely be a better man…

Then suddenly the room went black…

The last thing that I hear before passing out is Dolly’s voice…

The master will want to see this one post haste. Lock them all in the dungeon.

Narration

Seeing Princess Dolly in person felt so good. For a moment, when we kissed, I thought that somebody up above was finally smiling down on me. Turns out, something is terribly wrong with this world's Dolly. I watched as she killed her own father. That’s something that I can’t even see the Dolly in my world doing, and if anyone deserved a fate such as that, it would be Muddy. Damn sure wasn’t King Theo. I can’t help but wonder what happened to this Dolly. She couldn’t have always been evil, if so, these men would never have risked their lives for her. They spoke about her with love and admiration, but the girl that they spoke of, and the girl that we saw were not one and the same. Something had corrupted her. Changed her into the evil creature that struck down Theo.

In the back of my mind, I knew what had caused her metamorphosis. It’s not something that I want to face, but I feel that I will have too. It seems that this world has more in common with mine that I originally thought. As much as I dislike my Theo and his Kings(™), there’s no doubt that they are noble and just men, much like the ones of this world. Thaddeus Duke may be a friend and fellow member of AX3, but he is also a traitorous little troll, just like his counterpart here was. When he turned his back on Dolly and kicked her in the face, he broke her heart. Did he care? No, he was only concerned with advancing his career, and joining AX3 is a sure fire way to do that. Did I care? Of course not, Duke was my competition for the heart of Dolly Waters. His actions only helped me get one step closer to my goal.

The thing is, I’ve spent so much time focused on how I feel and what I want, that I have failed to consider what’s best for Dolly in all of this. As much as I may love her, does it really do anything positive for her to be with a guy like me? Would I help bring her to new heights, or drag her down to the same depths that I’ve grown accustomed to? Judging by the effect that my counterpart of this world has seemingly had on her, I think I know the answer. Even if Dolly didn’t hate every fiber of my being, even if I could somehow convince her that my love for her is real, it wouldn’t matter. At the end of the day, all that I would end up doing is corrupting the girl that I love. I would ruin her life, just to try and improve my own.

Dolly doesn’t want me, a fact that I’ve known for some time now, but have chosen to ignore. A fact that I am now choosing to embrace. If I truly love this girl as I claim, then I must do what is best for her, not what is best for me. With that said, I know what Dolly wants. It’s not a forty-something-year-old man stalking her, buying her chocolates, or writing her bad poetry, It’s competition. Dolly Waters thrives on competing in the ring. It’s the entire reason that she exists in the XWF. She wanted to make the Waters name mean something again, and she has fought tooth and nail to make that happen. It wasn’t until I became involved that she lost her way. I got in that girl's head and forced her into a position where she couldn’t focus on her career because she had to keep an eye out for the crazy fucker in the skull mask that may show up and try to kidnap her.

Well, look where that got my otherworldly double. He has his Dolly Doll, but she isn’t the same Dolly anymore, is she?

It’s right here and right now that I decide that I will somehow find my way out of this place, and back to my time. I will show up at High Stakes, and I will bring the fight to Dolly in a way that the XWF has never seen from me before. I’m not going to do it because I hope to sway her into loving me. I’m going to do it because I know that win or lose, that’s all Dolly has every wanted out of me… out of anyone really. She wants to stand toe to toe with the best this company has to offer. I’m going to give her that, call it a parting gift because afterward, I am going to do one thing that I never thought that I would do… I’m going to leave her be.

But my newfound sense of right does not change the fact that I have a championship to defend. It doesn’t change the fact that I have been rising up the ranks at a fierce speed. Before I was fired, I was ranked number three in the XWF. Now I sit at a measly twenty-two. Before there was Dolly Waters, there was my career. It seems that my pursuit of her baby butt has done me no favors in that department. That’s another mistake that I plan on correcting. So if Dolly Waters gets the notion that just because I’m head over heels for her, that I’m not going to come into this match willing to do anything and everything to win. She is sadly mistaken! This is a House of Horrors match. This thing is custom made for a so-called madman like myself. I’ve made a career of doing crazy shit in the ring. Maiming my opponents, and sometimes even myself just to earn a victory. Peter Gilmour found out firsthand just how “crazy” Graves can go, and that wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg. Dolly wants competition, Dolly wants a challenge. Well, Dolly is going to get her wish, but at the end of the day, when the dust settles and the winner is announced. Win or lose, Dolly is going to realize that she just had the fight of her career.

Wake him up…

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