CONTINUED FROM PLEASURE AND PAIN PART 2: UNPLUGGED:

Chris stood at Nicole's bedside in Tampa General. Jenny waited outside. This didn't look like the Nicole he knew. Her face was sunken, her skin was a pale yellow. Her body was skinny, too skinny.

"I loved you" he said quietly"But all you did was hurt me."

She was in a medically induced coma from a heroin overdose. Her body didn't respond to the narcan. She had been out for nearly 5 minutes before the EMT's found her.

"And I can't let you control me anymore."

The machines beeped and buzzed. She was breathing through a tube.

"I need to let go."

But he couldn't. It was so tough to let go. All of the feelings in his mind, in his chest.....he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Grabbing one of her hands, they felt cold.

"What happened to you? I would have given you the world. I would have given you everything. But you turned your back. Just like Tommy turned his back. Just like my mother turned hers. You were supposed to be the one I spent forever with........now.....it looks like you aren't going to make it to forever."

Rage came over him. How could she do this to him? How could she put him through this?

But karma catches up. All the times that he felt dead because of her....now she would be dead....because of him.

Because if he ever wanted to be Universal Champion again, he needed to make sure his thoughts weren't clouded by anything else.......

He needed to finally let go.

He waited for the nurse to leave and he walked over to her machine. He pulled all the wires out......

Walking out of the room he nodded to Jenny...."come on....I have another charity case to kill".

She followed suit, looking back at the nurses and doctors rushing into the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chris was walking through the airport with Jenny when Steve Sayors came running up to him with a microphone and his phone in his phone.

"Chris, I am so glad I caught you before you boarded the plane! I needed to get your thoughts on McCoy's newest promo."

"Didn't I just spend an entire promo on his Rocky Dennis looking ass? I don't need to give you any sound clips."

"No....Chris, I mean this!"

He clicked play on the phone.

"I find it funny that his boy, whoever the hell that was he paid to speak in his promo, came at me harder than he did in both of his previous. Did he not have the heart to attack me verbally? Did he not have the heart to tell me how he really feels? Travis had someone else do his dirty talk for him, and that proves even more how much of a coward he truly is."

"But how do you feel about THIS?!"

He clicks play and the promo rolls on, the one that McCoy came out with, detailing a girl named Nicole and all of the remarks he said about her. Claiming responsibility for killing her. Or was it not her? Even he didn't know.

His eyes went wide. He was a bull seeing red.

He took Steve Sayor's phone and threw it across the terminal, shattering it into pieces.

"Travis McCoy has just signed his fucking death warrant......."

He storms off.

Jenny catches up to him by the American Airlines terminal.

"Chris! You ran off! I was nervous you went off and did something stupid!"

He sighed. "No, Jenny, I didn't do anything stupid. I just wasn't ready to hear that shit when I heard it. But, you know, now that I have had a chance to watch it again, I have noticed several flaws in it that McCoy looked over............"

Jenny tilted her head like a confused dog.

"First off, Nicole didn't have a brother. And the girl he was abusing, it was not her. Because she was laid up in a hospital.....so he wanted to play mind games by raping so other junkie slut. That is fine. Travis seems to think he got under my skin with his comments, but he doesn't know that I have already let go. I have already let Nicole slip out of my mind. I haven't pictured her doing anything. So whatever he has to tell himself to let him sleep at night, fine. But he knows nothing of my story with her. You see she was only a junkie recently. She only got into this habit within the last year or so. But Nicole, in true Nicole fashion, put her all into it like she did everything else. So he can keep trying to go below the belt, but he will always end up making contact just below the sternum. He can't even play mind games right. What can he do?"

"I don't know babe, I don't know."

Chris looks down at his Nike sneakers. The rug below them was worn out from daily use over the years. His beats headphones around his neck were blasting some sort of metal.

"Travis claims this match is about him. He is FINALLY correct in something. This match IS about him, not about me. It is a test. The booking department wants to see if he can hang with the best there is......they are sick of seeing him come up short against the John Hollidays and want to see if he is worthwhile to keep on the payroll. If he can hang in the ring with me, then maybe he is. But if he gets destroyed by me, then maybe he will continue fighting at the front of the card until he finally fades away or dies in the ring.........Yes. I think this company would book him if there was a chance. Look at some of the people they have on this roster. They don't care if he dies in the ring, you know why, Jen?"

"Why?"

"Because it brings them ratings. Imagine the social media headlines if someone were to die in the ring.....they would be talked about for years. Those greedy fucks in the Kings would eat that up and lord knows Vinnie is a ratings whore."

Jenny nods.

"So when I kill him in the middle of that ring....maybe then he will actually be talked about. Maybe then someone will actually care. I have been showing the world that his bullshit is nothing but cheap dollar store banter...but he continues it. He is a stubborn one, isn't he?"

"Too stubborn."

"But Jen.....he DID say something that got to me......"

"What's that?"

This match is what I've been asking for since I walked in the doors here. I just wanted a chance and you're that chance. Yes my list of opponents is...less than admirable but if you look at the work I put in you'd get it. I won SOTM my first and only month here. You said yourself XWF was less than thriving at the time I did the best I can with what I had.

He paused the promo on his LGv20.

"Is he serious? Superstar of the month back then? Sure, he did the best with what he could but what work load is he talking about? Every single match I saw.....literally, every single one.....he was getting his dick kicked in by superstars that could very loosely be referred to as "talent", and taking a beating from people would beat midget in a foot race. Travis McCoy is big, he is pyshical, but he just doesn't have the will to win. He wants to get dark, he wants to win with his words, but I think he has shown that he isn't capable of winning at all......but I have to give him credit for trying."

Lets not call anything lifetime when most of your backstory sounds like an episode from the OC.

"Did I mention he is cheesy, also? What is it with these undercard guys and their terrible comebacks? Surely he could have come up with something more creative. But while he is busy blowing his load in some girl he paid $20 to be in his promo, I am preparing for all out fucking war. Do you know what happened on the property of the castle we are fighting in?"

Jenny shakes her head, sitting down and slurping on her airport Starbucks.

"A portion of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II was fought on this property. It is part of The Ardennes. Do you know anything about the battle of the bulge?"

She shakes her head, still sucking on her overpriced coffee.

"It was the last major German offensive campaign in its western theater during World War II. It was an all out offensive launched by the German's. It was supposed to be their victory march. It was a surprise attack. During this attack, the Allies suffered their highest causalities of the entire war. But during the battle, the German's also became severely depleted and were not able to replace their losses. They went for broke....but in the end they lost. That is very similar to Travis. He went for broke, he tried to get me with the Nicole stuff, but in the end he will lose. This is his victory march, it is his final hoorah.....but in the end the right side will end up weathering the storm and riding off into the sunset. I am going to take all that he has, and more, and I am going to beat him at his own game. He wants to get down and dirty? Good. I can get just as nasty as anyone else. I can be just as brutal, just as cold, and just as evil. He wants a test, he wants me to prove him wrong...........

Good....

While I am proving him wrong he can prove me right. That he is nothing but a washed up nobody with bigger balls than brains. I am going to beat him to within an inch of his life in Belgium......and I am going to enjoy every second of it. If you don't want to be with me after this, I don't blame you. What I do to him will be monstrous, it will be demonic........"

She smiles.....a wicked smile.

"Good."

"I love you."

"I know."

"Now boarding American Airlines Flight 7754 to Brussels."

They stood up and held hands as they got in the boarding line. For the first time in a long time, he truly felt




Free.