That fucking beeping noise.

There isn't much more of an annoying sound. All I'm trying to do is catch a few winks and yet there it is. Beep, beep, fucking beep. 'World class' medical support, and they can't even quieten a goddamn beep. What kind of confidence is that supposed to inspire?

God, I hate Saudi Arabia.

Beep.

Last time I was here was about four years ago and I swore that I would never come back. Most of these Arab countries tend to give a little leeway on their 'no alcohol' policies for westerners who might spend a bit of coin, and I've always been here on business so I certainly met that bill. You have to be respectful and keep it to your private quarters, but they'll allow it. But for me, all the sneaking around just for a bloody shot of whiskey isn't worth it. Not to mention the challenges in getting anything else 'fun', if you catch my drift. Shit, YA BOY can't even drop into a titty bar to kill some time. This place sucks. And a hospital here sucks even more.

Beep.

I feel like I got hit by a truck. Because I did. I had to give it to Jacki O'Lantern; I didn't think she had it in her. The whole stunt I pulled with taking her cats motivated her, and I guess that's what I had been going for, but I had meant it in a different way. Since the moment I returned to wrestling on the XWF's Madness brand after over 10 years out of the business, Jacki had been bugging the shit out of me. She wanted to be my 'friend'. I don't remember saying I was looking for one. So I took matters into my own hands.

Beep.

The deal I offered was that if she left me the fuck alone, I give her cats back. Instead, Jacki opted to drive a freaking monster truck into me, and in as much pain as I'm in, I'm kind of impressed. She can take the damn Lord of Violence for all I care. With Vinnie Lane seeming less and less involved in the day to day of Madness, it might not matter much soon enough anyway. And it's not like she beat me at my best. Yesterday I crawled out of a fucking pit in a farm after Arcadia turned into the latest edition of Fight: NYC's Blood Money. I wasn't exactly my freshest this morning.

Beep.

Maybe I should've seen a doctor then. But I had an obligation to fulfil! And so I fucking did. I got on a goddamn plane and was shipped off to Saudi to do what I do best: make fucking money. Nobody can take that away from me. Nobody can deny that I was the most interesting thing to ever happen to that Lord of Violence division. Nobody can deny that I outlasted the XWF Universal Champion himself, Raion Kido, in the pits of Blood Money.

Beep.[i]

Nobody can deny that I need some more fucking morphine.

I pressed the button attached to my bed. Another [i]beep sounded, with a less aggravating tone. I'm sure if it repeated ad infinitum like the other one, however, it'd equally make me want to crack my head open.

I gave it another blast, hoping the second sounding of the button would hurry the nurses along. Almost as soon as my thumb lifted up, the door to my room swung open.

"My boy!" shouted a portly, balding man who threw his arms open as if to give me a hug. The pit stains under the sleeves of his Hawaiian shirt and the bead of sweat forming just underneath the gold chain that hung down on his half-exposed chest both suggested I shouldn't accept. It was just a gesture on his behalf anyway. The two heavies who entered the room behind him reminded me just who I was dealing with.

"Jimmy," I said, eyeing the two brutes with caution. Jimmy took up a spot on the bed next to me, shuffling my hand away with his hip. "I trust everything came through on the payment front from Louie?"

He waved a hand through the air. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it! You and me, we're square. Mary said you treated her well enough and I trust she did the same to you, eh?" He winked. It was gross.

"I had fun," I shrugged. It had only been a week ago that I was out on my yacht with Mary, one of Jimmy's girls, and Maddy, one of Louie's. With  everything that's happened this weekend, it feels like it could have been a year ago.

"Good, good, good." Jimmy patted me on the shoulder. I winced a little as the contact vibrated its way through my whole body down to my legs which had taken the worst of the impact from the monster truck. For his part, Jimmy didn't seem to even notice my pain. He fell quiet, as if something was weighing on him.

Beep.

"You alright there, Jimmy?" The irony of asking that while I was in a hospital wasn't lost on me.

"Mary can be a little… nuts. Good kid, but… you know." I didn't. Moreover, I was also a little concerned that he's still talking about this girl. Did something happen to her? Does he think I did it? Shit, I hope she hasn't tested positive for something. Arcadia, Jacki O'Lantern's truck, then some sort of VD - not the kind of three-way I was hoping for when it came to that girl. "Sometimes people like that  they just need a little guidance. A soft hand. Someone to look out for them."

"Good thing she has you then." He grunted some form of acknowledgement. "Where are you going with this?"

"Do you remember when you and I first met? You were half-naked in New Orleans, soaking wet, and fleeing from one of the Chinamen." A faint smile appeared on his face. I think one crept onto mine too. Jimmy's being kind when he says 'half-naked'. It was the bottom half that was bare.

"I wouldn't call it fleeing…"

Jimmy's grin widened as he turned to me and cocked an eyebrow. "He had a gun, while you had…"

"My nuts flapping in the wind?"

Spit flew from Jimmy's mouth as he let loose a laugh from the belly.

Beep.

"Those little raisins?"

"It was wet and cold!"

"Mmm… that it was, that it was." He grew quiet again. Knowing Jimmy as I have l these years, it was….unnerving.

I tried to break whatever tension he was feeling. "Did I ever tell you that I wound up meeting that guy again?" That did enough to pique his interest. "He was Chan's cousin."

"That I did not know."

"It's cool though, Chan hated him anyway and loved that I had 'dishonoured him' - his words - by banging his wife. Even said he'd have him offed if I agreed to marry the broad. Still not sure if he was joking or not..."p/red]

Jimmy just smiled and nodded.

This was odd.

[red]"Jimmy…"

"This is not good, kid." He slid off the bed and took a couple of steps towards the window. I didn't say anything, and after a short moment, he looked back at me over his shoulder. "Look at you there. You can't even walk."

"I can, it's just–"

"This wrestling thing…" He cut me off. "You're not exactly setting the world on fire, Kieran. I don't get it. What are you trying to accomplish? You have so much promise with us. Look at what you've done. Back when we met I would have killed that Chinaman friend of yours. Louie and I hadn't spoken in years. Mario even longer. But now you want to wrestle again? Why?"

"I…" It was hard to explain. Hard for me to even understand myself. When that shaggy-haired cunt who calls himself ALIAS started taking my name in vain, my attention was on the industry again. And from there I just couldn't shake the thought.

I had made a lot of money doing what I had been doing. It certainly wasn't glamorous work. A big part of why I wasn't too concerned about what Arcadia really was - and let's face it, I did suspect - was that I had been in enough holes in the ground to not really be scared of the prospect anymore. I was good at what I did. But in wrestling? I was winning enough, but nothing like I should be.

Nothing like I used to be.

"Did you hear about the others from your little island getaway?" He was referring to Arcadia. "A number of them got little black boxes at the end. Want to know what was in then? Invitations. They got invited to another competition. But I look around this hospital room and I don't see one for you. I see no championship either. I see nothing to show for your work other than two broken legs as shrivelled up as your balls." I see him take a deep breath, and he approaches the side of the bed once more. "Kid, I like you. I want you to be happy. I gave you Mary, and I'll do it again. Any of the women, any of the money, any of the booze. Yours. I've let you follow your dream here and I always will, for your happiness. But this… the more you wind up like this, the more you wind up failing… the less I want to give you."

"I've got it under contro–"

"Don't. That's what they all say." Again he cuts me off. "You've heard it. You've been there when they've said it. Anybody who finishes those words doesn't have control over their bowels let alone their life. They shit themselves and they shit themselves and then they shit themselves some more. And they shit all over anything and everything in their vicinity. I don't want to be shat on, kid. Don't shit on me."

His eyes don't blink as he stares into my own.

He's right.

I groan as I push myself up off the bed, controlling my own weight as I sit up.

Beep.

"I'm not going to shit on you, Jimmy."

He holds that eye contact with me for a little longer.

Slowly, he accepts my claim with a nod.

"Then you better have a plan. And it better be a better plan than the island one! We were waiting in Maldives to pull you out, but never got the signal." Arcadia again. I had him and his goon squad on standby in case anything went sour (which it inevitably was going to) but never got a chance to put in the call.

"I'll come up with something." But what?

"You're no young 21-year-old champion anymore, you know…"

That… that's it!

Thirteen years ago I won the XWF World Championship, and two months later became the XWF Universal Champion in a title vs. title match. I would wind up losing the Universal Championship to Drake Komodo, and though I later won another shot I was never given, Raion Kido has made it clear that he won't come to Madness to put the title on the line. And that matters to me. I want to build this brand with my name plastered all over it, not jump to the same old shit I did within my first three months of the business.

But there is another idea in there…

Jimmy sees the wheels turning inside my brain. "Do you think you could find something for me?" I ask him.

"What?"

"The original XWF World Heavyweight Championship."

Yeah…this idea will do.

Say what you will about me, but never doubt that I know how to make a fucking headline. This is a business after all, and I am good at what I do.

Beep.

Beep.

Fucking beep.[/i][/i]