Having taken his seat for the flight back to the United States, David calmly placed a set of earbuds into his narrow ear canals, somewhat discomforted by how the cold plastic stretched the inside of his ears. He was never too fond of smartphones, but when his news firm back in New York had upgraded, their budget had also covered his upgrade. Living in the ever-changing world of communications, he kept in touch with the news and the main office, but otherwise had found no use for such a technological device. But now, out of the world of writing, David had indeed found a use for the darned thing: jazz music.

With Miles Davis blasting in his ears, David looked forward to the idea of being able to rest on the flight back home. Odd. Home. He'd never really thought of that burned out shack as home. But then again, nowhere had ever really been home to him. He simply moved with the tides of life, swimming from shelter to shelter, trying to find the place he could sleep soundly, with the idea that he was safe. But nowhere was rightly safe. Every house, every motel room, every tent, felt as though it were surrounded by wolves, slowly closing in on him. It was almost a claustrophobic feeling creeping on him when he slept. Shadowy hands crawling along the walls of his room, reaching ever so slowly toward him, just out of sight. But when he opened his eyes, they were gone -- little phantoms of his inward insecurity, leaving marks and scars across his mind. Little holes in the cerebrum.

He leaned to one side, away from a middle-aged woman on his left, and glanced out the window. Still on the tarmac, waiting for liftoff. Flight was such a strange thing. He'd grown so used to travel that he never really gave it a second thought. This machine, powered by some fuel and man's hopes and dreams, would take to the skies and spit in the face of God. It would mock the very birds alongside it. An airplane -- man's prideful boast in defiance of nature. Man can fly. Insane, David thought, we've risen to such heights.

But thinking of heights made him nervous. No, he wasn't afraid of heights. He was afraid of the personal highs he'd been experiencing. Life was going, simply put, much too well. It seemed almost destined that something miserable was lurking in the dark, waiting to pull him in. He was alive, in love, and adored by a select few. He was on top of the world. And yet...something inside him ached. It wasn't the voices in his head. It was the clawing of the hands in his stomach as it tossed and turned. Not motion sickness. Just a sickness of wanting.

And perhaps a fear of the coming storm. Three factions, one brand. David surely had his hands full. Or rather, Mystica did. The dark one inside would be facing the most ragingly popular phenom in the XWF. Even more so, it would be inside the cold steel of a cage. Locked in like dogs in a kennel. One bit of meat for the two of them. Bite at the scraps. Leave only bone.

David flinched slightly as Mystica roared inside him. Duke. One of the men who stole his Tag Title months earlier. David felt no compulsion in the matter, but the sleeping god certainly did. There was a bloodlust there; something violent and horrific. Unspeakable by human tongues. David could hear a droning in his head, like a massive machine winding up.

Much to his relief, it was merely the sound of the airplane taking off.

In the skies, David tried to remain calm. Having stirred the beast in his head, he was feeling a sort of sickness come over him. Must have been the airplane. Motion sickness, maybe. But he knew better. It was a hunger, not a nausea. But nevertheless, his gut ached as the phantom claws scratched at his intestinal walls. Quickly but carefully, David got up and shifted past the woman on his left and into the aisle, pausing momentarily to recite a line from Fight Club in his head. He made for the restroom, and barely managed to close the door behind him before he keeled over and vomited profusely into the toilet. After a few more heaves, he felt the feeling in his abdomen subside, and with shaking hands, he pulled himself from his knees onto his feet.

But staring back at him in the mirror was the snarling, wretched face of Mystica.

And from here, David knew this sickness would only grow more severe.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion