X-treme Wrestling Federation

My eye lids fluttered to see the white ceiling. The last 24 hours were a blur, I gazed around to check my surroundings. I was on a black leather sofa that was sleek on my supple skin. My back ached slightly from what is safe to assume was a poor night's sleep.

I wasn't quite sure where I was until I sat up in my boxers to smell a combination of fresh air and burning oak. The scent left a bitter taste in my mouth. All I could hear was the crackling fire and the soft winds.

In front of the fire, a man gazed into the flames. Despite not seeing him for years my heart begun to race as I could tell almost immediately that it was Morgan, my one remaining brother. My stomach churned and butterflies fluttered in my heart.

Was it nerves? Was it hunger? I think it was a little bit of both, but regardless, I remained silent as I tried to wake myself up.

Morgan spun in his chair and faced me like a Bond villain without a cat. He had not aged particularly well. He was a few years older than me but it seemed like much more. Silver streaks shined in his fair hair and his beard was slightly whispy. He still had a slight charm to him and he was still slightly handsome but he certainly wasn't the stallion that he once was. That was of course how he appeared.


When he spoke I realized that he was still as strong as he ever was. There was one thing I never liked about Morgan though and that was his selfishness. He liked to sit on the fence in order to benefit himself. Whilst the rest of my family had been plotting revenge for the last couple of years, it seemed as though Morgan had built himself a substantial life. I couldn't tell too much from the room that I was in but I got the feeling that the house was rather grand.

“Ah, you're awake. That's good. You don't look as bad as I had expected,” his voice was soft but strong.

“Why am I here Morgan? I thought I would never see you again,” my voice was a quiet whimper, a certain coldness ran through my voice.

“You're all that I have left,” he was always a poetic man, much like myself he spoke with a certain intelligence and depth that not all people understood.

“And how do I know you are any different from the rest of them? Why would you have forgiven me for what I have done? For my sins. I feel that I have truly paid the price for what I did, Death seems content on allowing me to roam the mortal world for eternity until every thing around me has crumbled. Are you sure that you want to be a part of that?”

“I always have been. Just because I chose not to get involved in the ridiculous witch hunt that plagued our family for years does not mean that I am not a part of it. The reason why I am here, is to help you. I am married you see Steve, to a girl named Lisa, sweet girl but we cannot have a baby. You are the only one left who can continue our line and let's face it you're hardly young anymore. Isn't it about time you settled down?”

“I was settled. Or don't you remember?”

“Only too well.”

“Well, your irritating French henchman thought it fitting to save my life but not to save Lacey's. How wrong it is that I remain on this crumbling planet whilst she is left as nothing other than worm's meat. I am not so sure I can love again, and I am not so sure that I want to,” all of this recent attachment was draining. Losing someone is almost as soul destroying as murder itself. This left Morgan with a sad smile on his face, I fear he had hoped for more from me than this.

“I understand,” he muttered quietly, but I knew that in reality his hopes had been shattered.

Out of everyone, Morgan was probably the only one who truly cared about the family legacy that me and the rest of my former household have seemingly destroyed.

“You know the day it happened?” He moved his right hand and placed two fingers on his lips.

“The day what happened?” I knew exactly what he was talking about but I acted oblivious in hope that we wouldn't have to talk about it.

“The day in which you entered this world,” he went ahead and said it anyway, boldly.

“Ah,” I was taken aback, I was certain that Morgan was a coward but it seems as though he has grown up a lot since I last saw him many years ago.

“When you entered this world, another life exited almost immediately after. A life that was, at the time, more important than yours,” what was he getting at?

“Do you not think that it is rather selfish of you to not replace those that you have murdered with new life?”

“What I did... I did without choice. I did it in justi..”

“YOU DID IT FOR YOU!” Morgan bellowed, he was no longer calm and composed as his emotions took over.

“You did what you did in order to survive, yes. You did what you had to do. You did not have to murder all of those poor boys all of those years ago. You did not have to murder my mother when you entered this world. You did not have to murder my father, my brothers.” Tears begun to pour from his shining blue eyes, streams trickled down his face.

“Aren't you forgetting something?! That was my mother, my father, my brothers. IT WASN'T JUST YOU WHO LOST THEM!”

“Yes and you butchered them all the same in order to save your own selfish life.”

“I did not butcher our mother and you know it! If I could turn back time...”

“You would what? You would do things differently? Do not kid yourself. You are on this Earth for one reason and one reason only...” He couldn't get the last words out at first. He struggled for breath and his shaking arm rose, and his index finger pointed directly at me.

“Go on... say it,” I said with a tear trickling down my face.

“You are on this Earth for YOU... You couldn't save Lacey, you couldn't change Mark and you certainly couldn't help our family.”

“None of that is fair,”

“Oh and what is fair anymore Steve? Is it fair that I have lost everything that matters to me? Is it fair that the only person left in this world that I have left is too selfish to continue the family heir line. I had not intended on vengeance, but I certainly had hoped that you had intended on doing the right thing,” he sat back down, shaking.

I looked up a moment, “Hang on,” something clicked in my head.

“What?” He looked up once more at my bearded face.

“You said that you have lost everything that matters to you? What of Lisa?”

“Lisa is fine, I can assure you,” the tone in his voice was doubtful.

“What has happened Morgan?” Something was not right.

“I had no choice...”

Then I stood, and slowly walked across the room to the door. I pointed to it, without saying a word and Morgan simply nodded, another tear fell from his aging face.

I pushed the door open slowly to see a naked body lying in the bed. It was Lisa.

Placing my hand on her face, I realized what had happened, she was ice cold. Blood no longer rushed around her body.

Dead.

I turned back to see Morgan standing in the door way, with a dagger in hand.

“Why?” The word was a soft, torturous echo that rushed around Morgan's mind.

“She gave me no choice,” there was always a choice.

“I... I... do not understand?”

“We are happy Steve, we WERE happy. Yet she was insistant that we did not have children...”

“So you murdered her!?”

“Oh do not judge me for the things that I have done. You are far worse than...”

“But no... The people I killed... They wrongfully tried to kill a boy who was no longer that boy. I HAD NO CHOICE.... You though, you're a monster,” could I really be saying that?

"I'm just a man... with a burning heart,"

Morgan fell back, and slumped against the wall and broke down into tears. He begun cradling himself as he threw the dagger across the room, towards no one in particular.

I grabbed him in my arms, but I wasn't sure why.

He was my brother. I suppose.