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Thaddeus Duke · (04-13-2019)

[duke]4:04 PM | John Adams Academy | New Haven, Connecticut[/duke]

He thinks no one knows who he is, but I do. I’ve watched wrestling since I was 7 years old. I started watching the XWF and I saw his father wrestle. He was good. He kicked ass and took names and I watched as his resume of accomplishments grew longer and longer. Thaddeus Duke came up in what? 2016? 17, maybe. I’ve never been a big fan of the good guys, but I can give him some credit- he was excellent. And now he’s back at it, falling short of how good he started out.

Of course, I had to watch wrestling in secret because my own parents saw professional wrestling as inferior to pretty much everything else, except maybe flipping burgers at McDonald’s. Even that would be a debate.

By the way, my name is Garrett Wentworth. I know. Wentworth. It’s a typical family name for a family that’s well off, right? See, I use that to the best of my ability. I’m quite literally a piece of shit human being. I use my name and my fathers power to coerce others to do things.

I live with a secret. No one knows it. Not a single solitary soul other than myself. Today, Thaddeus gets to hear my secret and I know it will go no farther. Why? Because I am who I am and I always get what I want. I know Thaddeus Duke is super rich and ultra powerful, but in my estimation, he’ll want to keep his secret, so he’ll keep mine as well.

The blacked out Suburban rolls to a stop at the curb near the front of the central John Adams building. Thaddeus is just now walking out with his bag draped over shoulder. Beside him, Curtis Joseph, the friend Thad met on day one. They shoot the breeze for a few moments before giving that bro hug that’s so common today as they reach the Suburban.

[duke]”You need a ride anywhere man?”[/duke] he asks his friend.

”Nah man, thanks. Joey is headed that way,” he replies. ”See ya tomorrow brother.”

[duke]”Yeah man, see ya.”[/duke]

Thaddeus enters the Suburban after tossing his bag into James’ lap. Jim doubles over seated, the wind knocked from his body as the heaviest and hardest part of the bag landed squarely between his legs.

”Mate!” Jim squeaks out with tears in his eyes. ”Right in the nuts!”

Thaddeus laughs loudly as he slams the car door and the Suburban rolls away.

[duke]”How was your day watching Dr. Phil?”[/duke] he asks through his hearty laughter.

I have to keep my distance. I said I know who he is, but there is a small chance I could be wrong. How disappointing would it be to realize Jack Fitzgerald is actually just some rich kid named Jack Fitzgerald and not the ultra powerful Thaddeus Duke?

What a challenge I face, huh? Bending and twisting a man of his stature and standing, literally overpowering him mentally. That’s a challenge worth chasing. Getting a man like him to do what you want.

Anyway, the first rule when you’re tailing someone? Is to not get caught. Don’t get discovered when tailing your mark. That’s it. There are no other rules.

I keep my distance. I keep my eyes forward and never come any closer than a half block behind. I know the route, so I will probably even make a couple turns here and there just to come up behind them again later.

Back in the Suburban, James is lying across the floor, nursing his injured manhood as Thaddeus continues laughing at him.

[duke]”You’re such a baby!”[/duke]

”I owe you one mate,” he says through a groan.

[duke]”You’re my best friend Jim, my services come free of charge,”[/duke] he jokes.

”No, I mean it you fuck. I’m going to hit you in the balls when you least expect it,” Jim informs him as he struggles to get back up and onto the car seat.

I turn left back onto Galileo Drive and up ahead? The black Chevrolet Suburban containing who I expect to be Thaddeus Duke. We’re close now. On the horizon I can see the guard towers and the top of the Duke Compound. I saw it enough on television through the years to know what it is and what it looks like. Though I have to admit, it’s far larger in person. Even at this distance.

Back in the Suburban, James has stopped bitching about the nut shot and his now turned his attention to Curtis Joseph. Thad’s best friend from school.

”This Curtis bloke,” he begins his inquiry. ”You’re sure he can be trusted?”

[duke]”Yeah I think so,”[/duke] Thaddeus answers.

”Why?”

[duke]”I don’t know,”[/duke] Thad answers honestly. [duke]”I just don’t feel like he has any maliciousness in him. He’s been friendly with me since day one and has yet to even mention again that I am who I am.

“He’s just gone about life calling me Jack. Letting me live my lie.”[/duke]

The Suburban turns off of Galileo Drive onto the drive leading into the Compound. As the car approaches the gate house, the gates are opened after a snap of the fingers by one of the two armed guards stationed inside, flanking the road way.

”And you want to invite him here for Easter dinner?”

[duke]”I do.”[/duke]

”For what fucking purpose?”

[duke]”Because I care about him,”[/duke] Thaddeus replies as the Suburban accelerates up the hill toward the big house. [duke]”His family basicaly abandoned him, Jim. They were telling him for months that ‘oh yeah we’ll be home for Easter and we’ll come bring you home for the week’ and all that happy horse shit only to say ‘oh we’ve decided to spend the holiday in Brazil’ or some shit.

“I told you Jim, a lot of these kids, their parents send them to John Adams so they no longer have to deal with the burdens of being parents.”[/duke]

”You have a soft heart, Thad.”

[duke]”That’s not news.”[/duke]

”One of these days, it might get us all killed,” Jim muses aloud as they exit the Suburban. As they walk side by side toward the doors of the big house, Jim swings Thad’s bag around his shoulder.

[duke]”OOOFFFF!”[/duke] he grunts as he hits the pavement after his bag hits him square in the family jewels.

”Told you,” Jim informs with a smile and a laugh.

[duke]”You’re a fucking dick, you bitch,”[/duke] he states as he gets back to his feet and stretches out his back while clutching his manhood. [duke]”Imma fucking kill you.”[/duke]

This was not planned! I’m surrounded by 6 vehicles and 12 men. Guns drawn and pointed at me. After Duke’s car turned into the driveway, I kept traveling, but I didn’t know it lead right to his fucking personal airport!

But wait!

There’s more!

Not only did I run into his airport, but his airport has a fucking military unit stationed there and I am not in a good place! This is literally the first time in my entire life I feel like I’ve made a mistake and MIGHT just be in over my head.

”Get out of the car and on the ground, NOW!” yells one of the armed militants through a megaphone.

The car door opens and the young man steps out, arms raised in defeat.

”GROUND! NOW!”

Garrett drops to his knees and lies face down, his arms out stretched. Three men rush over and pat him down before cuffing him. They pull him to his feet and lead him over to one of their vehicles.

Thaddeus accelerates his go kart through the turn, coming in hot behind Jim’s kart. He’s an ultra competitive young man and he’s got to win at everything. Failure isn’t an option. There’s only two laps left and he made a miscue four laps ago that allowed Jim and two others go around him. Since then, he’s battled back and only Jim sits in his way of the checkered flag.

Thaddeus Duke is a fan of greatness. In baseball, he loves Babe Ruth. He loves Willie Stargell. He loves Willie Mays. Among others. In football its the Kansas City Chiefs because of Patrick Mahomes. In auto racing, it’s Dale Earnhardt.

Whenever they’re racing the go karts, Thaddeus always dresses in black and wears an old GM Goodwrench racing helmet complete with the dark smoke colored goggles, made famous by the late racing legend.

Coming out of the final turn with just a quarter mile to go, Thad’s front bumper is tucked in and touching Jim’s rear bumper. Thaddeus dives low, pulling along side Jim and closing in quick. Side by side they race to the flag. They slow up and turn around, chatting as they travel back to the stripe.

[duke]”I’d have beaten you by a half a lap if I hadn’t drove in too hard earlier,”[/duke] he shouts over the loud engine noise.

”Make all the excuses you like, Thad, I was better than you today.”

[duke]”That’s a registered trademark Jim,”[/duke] Thaddeus jokes, referring to ‘better than you.’ [duke]”I’ll expect a royalty check.”[/duke]

They come to a stop and kill the engines as the flag bearer reviews the slow motion footage.

[duke]”Tell Jim who won, Dave.”[/duke]

”Edwards. By like an inch,” Dave informs Thaddeus.

”Whew! How sweet it is!”

[duke]”Fuck you Jim. I went easy on you.”[/duke]

”Like you went easy on Blackwater,” Jim digs.

[duke]”Fuck you very much!”[/duke] Thad jokes as his phone rings. He looks at his phone, perplexed.

”Who is it?”

[duke]”Yeah,”[/duke] he answers.

”Sir, we have a situation,” Thad’s commander informs.

[duke]”What kind of situation?”[/duke]

”The uninvited guest type, sir.”

”Do they have a name?”

”Garrett Wentworth. He says he knows His Grace from school.”

Siiiigggghhhhhhhh. [duke]”Fuck.”[/duke]

”Shit.”

[duke]”Don’t hurt him. Bring him to the house.”[/duke]

”As you command.”

Thaddeus hangs up the phone and he and Jim start walking toward the house.

”This isn’t good news Thaddeus. Do you think Curtis told him?” Jim asks.

[duke]”I don’t know,”[/duke] he admits. [duke]”I doubt it. Garrett isn’t very friendly. He’s kind of a dick to virtually everyone.”[/duke]

”To you?”

[duke]”I don’t think he’s ever said more than ‘hey’ to me.”[/duke]

In the house, two guards flank Garrett in the middle of the main hallway as James and Thaddeus enter the doors.

[duke]”Jesus, Burt, uncuff him!”[/duke]

”Sorry sir, we didn’t know what we were dealing with,” the commander states as he uncuffs Garrett and takes his leave along with the other guard.

[duke]”Follow me,”[/duke] Thad says to Garrett as he heads into the solarium off the back side of the house. [duke]”Sit,”[/duke] he instructs as he starts to pace out of slight nervousness mixed with a little bit of anger.

”Jack I...”

[duke]”There’s no sense calling me Jack, really,”[/duke] Thaddeus interrupts. [duke]”You know who I am obviously, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”[/duke]

”To be honest, I only thought you were Thaddeus Duke but I didn’t know for sure,” he lied.

[duke]”Did they hurt you?”[/duke] he asks, referring to his military men and his guards.

”No.”

[duke]”Why the fuck are you here, Garrett?”[/duke]

Garrett sits quietly and doesn’t answer. Thaddeus throws himself down in a chair and tosses his leg up over his knee, then rubs his forehead with his right hand.

[duke]”You need to talk, Garrett. You’re on soveriegn land and I’m sure you know what that means.”[/duke]

Garrett leans forward a little as his musters up some nerve.

”We need to talk alone,” Garrett states.

”Out of the question,” Jim pipes up.

[duke]”Leave us,”[/duke] Thaddeus agrees to Garrett’s request.

James stares at Thaddeus. ”What? No. That’s a bad...”

[duke]”I’m fully capable of handling myself as you well know Jim,”[/duke] Thad interrupts. [duke]”Out. Now.”[/duke]

James starts to protest, but stops himself. ”As you command Your Grace.” He takes leave of the solarium leaving just Thaddeus and Garrett.

”Your Grace,” Garrett smiles at the notion. ”Do I have to call you Your Grace?” he asks in jest.

[duke]”They don’t even have to call me that. They do it out of respect for my authority,”[/duke] he explains. [duke]”Now tell me why you’re here.”[/duke]

”Long story short, I thought you were you, but I didn’t know for sure. I followed you home to find out.”

[duke]”Five miles away there’s a sign that reads ‘ILLUMINATUS NATION.’ Surely that should have been your confirmation. Yet you follow me all the way here and you wind up in the clutches of my military.

“It seems you didn’t think this all the way through.”[/duke]

”There’s something about me no one knows.”

[duke]”There’s things about everyone that no one knows, Garrett. That’s what makes people unique and not mindless drones.”[/duke]

”I know who you are, Thaddeus. And now you get to know me, because I can’t trust anyone else with it.”

[duke]”Probably because you’ve alienated the entire class, Garrett. You’re a dickhead and everyone knows it.”[/duke]

”You are Thaddeus Duke,” Garrett states. To which, Thad rolls his eyes. ”I know that and I could go in tomorrow and announce it to the entire school.”

[duke]”You know who I am,”[/duke] Thad echoes him. To which Garrett nods. Thaddeus leans forward with fury in his eyes. [duke]”Then you should know just what I’m capable of, Garrett. I could have you executed just for being here uninvited and no one could do a damn thing because as you well know, this is sovereign land and I make the laws here.”[/duke]

Garrett clears his throat.

[duke]”What’s so important that you’d literally risk your life to confront me here that you couldn’t do in school by just pulling me aside?”[/duke]

”I needed to know for sure. I needed to know because… I have your secret, and now I can force you to keep mine.”

[duke]”And what’s stopping me from going to school tomorrow and doing exactly what you just threatened me with? I could just as easilty get on the mic at school and say hey, you all think I’m Jack Fitzgerald but really I’m Thaddeus Duke. Garrett Wentworth is a giant tool but you all know that, so here’s his little secret that he told me last night.

“What’s to stop me?”[/duke]

”Because that’s not you,” Garrett answers. ”You’re good. Disgustingly good. People love you and trust you and you would never violate that trust despite how you feel about someone as loathsome as I sometimes am. And you like your anonimity.”

Thaddeus agrees but he won’t ackowledge that. [duke]”Tell me what you want to tell me, whatever it is you need to get off your chest so we can go about our lives.”[/duke]

”I’m gay,” Garrett blurts out as his face flushes with redness.

Thaddeus laughs.

”Why is that funny?”

[duke]”I’m not laughing at you,”[/duke] he states. [duke]”I mean, I am, but not because you’re gay. I’m laughing at you because its Twenty Nineteen and literally no one cares if you like dick.

“Yet you went through all of this when if you really wanted to tell me that, you could have just told me in school because that’s not my business to divulge someone’s personal business.”[/duke]

Garrett slumps in his chair feeling embarrassed and foolish.

[duke]”Since I’m not a cunt, stay for dinner,”[/duke] Thaddeus offers Garrett. [duke]”In the meantime, I’ll have you car brought over and we’ll talk more after dinner."[/duke]

To Be Continued...

[duke]I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Though not as short and twice as sweet as Scully’s own words.

Scully chose the scaffold match for a reason and let me tell you why. The fact is, Scully is overrated trash that's in the history books as a former Universal champion. Yeah, he beat Lane but if there was ever a bigger fluke win in the history of this company then I’d be glad to hear it. This is the same man that lost the title to Peter fucking Gilmour.

Let that sink in.

Peter Gilmour was the Universal Champion because of Scully. He knows it. I know it. The world knows it. Let’s face facts. I’ve been pinned all of two times my entire career. Twice. Dos. Deux. One more than one, one less than three. So the likelihood of someone as good as Scully is, read between the lines on that one, pinning me to the mat is very slim and Slim done left the building. So let’s pick a match where the ability to not fall determines the victor. Luckily for me and certainly not so much for him, is I’m nimble, quick on my feet and have great balance and athleticism.

It won’t be as easy to knock me off a stupid ass scaffold as you think, Skulls.

This man says this company hasn’t been the same without him and I’d venture to argue it’s actually been better without him and I’m not going to stand here and point to this fact or that fact because I’ve already illustrated that Scully is literally the worst Universal champ in history. He'll come out here filling your heads with the fact that I have yet to be Universal champion, but rest assured, my day in the sun will come. And when it does, I’m extremely positive that I will be a great fighting champion, unlike he was.

See, Savage is coming Scully, and on Saturday night you will learn without a doubt why I say I’m better than you![/duke]

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