Viewer Discretion Advised

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I keep having this dream. I am running and running, there's something behind me, it's dark. I can feel it closing in. It's like no matter how perfectly I run, how clever I am in my escape route, it always finds me, and gets closer each time. I don't know how much longer I can run. If I even can. If I sleep tonight, what will happen... will it be tomorrow? Will I just wake up fine from a nightmare? Or will the sense of dread finally consume me. All my life I have been trained, since I found the gym in Vegas that would change my life from a once poor farm boy with a silly nickname to a wrestling machine. Reborn. So much pride in getting better, so many nights spent grinding and practicing. And now this. I feel like another rebirth is coming.

Joshua sits at a table with his elbows down and cell phone to his ear. "Doctor Richards" is seen briefly at a glance. He listens, but an uneasiness eats at him. His eyes begin to dialate.

Yeah, maybe you're right. But it feels so real. Like a transformation is happening. I wake up in a cold sweat. And I have these... urges. I don't know how to explain them. I want... it's almost like... a rage, or a fantasy. Causing pain makes me... happy. Not competitively like against Kid Kool, but, demonstratively. Like some kind of... animal.

Doctor Richards takes his turn at speaking... just as Joshua's attractive female neighbor in a turqoise nightgown waves at him while grabbing the morning paper from her driveway. He waves back, his eyes lock, he rubs them but it won't go away. He cuts off the Doctor quickly.

Thanks, I appreciate you taking a call like this so early. I'll figure it out... yes... yes... I will go to the hospital if it persists. Thank you.

Joshua hangs up, then lays down on the sofa to rest his eyes. He sighs deeply, as if momentarily forgetting that he was trying not to sleep.

• ° • ° •

Moans are heard...

Like a female.

A pair of lips, then another pair kissing them...

Biting them... feeding...

The moaning woman, sitting on a wooden chair in a torn turqoise gown, draped between her widespread legs. Her feet look bloody and dark.

Scratches on her legs and arms...

A cut on her face bleeds... a pair of lips and a tongue wipe the blood away. The chair creeks and cracks. A low murmuring cry is heard. The lips find hers as she pulls away, a quick smack to the face and pointer finger as a warning. Two bare asscheeks perfectly toned flex in front of her, the gown now to the side. She groans and struggles, hands bound in wire behind the chair.



Tears stream down her cheeks...

Bloodshot eyes fill with fluid again, each thrust harder than the last. Finally it stops. She sobs uncontrollably. A hand lifts her battered and bitten chin. She looks up at him in disgust. He smiles with a chin glistening in blood and saliva.

Abandoning morals for sacrifice... all of them.



•°•° SACRIFICE °•°•

Picture it: Joshua walks calmly into the XWF locker room with a gym bag in one hand and a bloody piece of gown in the other. He raises the piece resembling a rag... basking in its ambiance for a moment. Taking it in and letting the smell of stale sweat mixed with terror ignite his senses before training. Another wrestler walks by... he protectively hides it in a safe place. He gets up and heads out to a special training area set up outside of the venue in Vegas with the Las Vegas Strip in the background. A small camera crew begins to roll and his promo begins. He pauses for a moment to breathe in the view of home behind him.

Ahhh. Where it all started. In Las Vegas. A perfect venue for my first match in XWF. Wow, who could ask for a better beginning than in your own neighborhood. I grew up blocks from here...

He hesitates, as one of the crew girls is wearing a dress similar to the one he idolized. He shakes it off.

Kid Kool, I know you have your sights set high. You want all the things a long career brings... money... ladies... belts... the meat and potatoes of this business and why we all do it. We risk everything to be the best, we leave nothing in that ring. Many other sports have people who "take plays off" or "don't give a hundred percent" to be the Legend they could be otherwise. I will say this... Kid... committment to the craft may not be a problem for you...

The girl in the dress turns flirting with a stagehand, bending over in the dress nearly to her underwear. Joshua's eyes transfix like a rabid dog. He stops talking and wipes his mouth with his hand, to collect the drool. The director yells cut and walks over with some water an an assistant. Joshua sits in the directors chair as they try to cool him down fearing heatstroke. Meanwhile his wanting eyes narrow in on the lust he so desires. His inner monologue becomes evident.

•°•

The director finally gets his attention, asking if he needs a doctor. Joshua's eyes refocus and he zooms back in. After a few minutes to regroup... they begin to reshoot the scene.

The end all, be all, is this... as tragic as it may be... I will stand toe to toe, looking into your eyeballs. You looking back into mine. I will see all the things that make Kid Kool tick at that very instant. I will discover what I always knew. How to beat you. How to make you say, "Joshua, I'm sorry... for challenging you, then talking bad about you" ANNNNDDDDDDDDD... "being a two-faced imperfect waste of your time." Hey, many men our age cannot apologize. It is hard to admit when you are wrong. Especially when your eyebrows are so swollen you can barely open your eyes, and your nose feels like it went through a meat grinder. See, now that's courage. No one can ever take that away. Awayyyyyyy. AWAAYYYYYYYYYYY...



Joshua stutters and appears pale. Again the director and associates run over to help, but his face turns white. The crew panicks for his safety and call 9-1-1. Moments later an ambulance pulls up and takes him on a stretcher. Meanwhile his face is completely paralyzed, he only whispers. After asking him what he is saying with no coherent feedback, the EMT finally leans in and thinks he makes it out... WiTcH.

●

Echoes fill his mind.

In a hospital bed, his eyes peak open delicate to the light. A nurse stands at the foot of his bed holding a chart in front of her face.

Can you remember anything?

He turns his head, opening his eyes wider.

Yeah.

She chuckles.

Well, let's start with the easy stuff, what day is it?

Saturday... I think.

That's good. And how about your name toots?

He thinks for a second.

Joshua.

Good, honey... your last name?

He looks up puzzled. Then it dawns on him. He grins. The white look returns to his face. His pupils grow huge and menacing.

Braddock.

○

Take from thee,
But one sacrifice,
Rape your ever changing life.

Become the animal,
That beats deep inside,
Bear is calling to destroy last rights.

Come to the alter,
To disguise or pray for,
A man who is blinded, two-faced, and untold.

Kid Kool, here's a dose,
Of Medicine, it will go down hard,
When you swallow this, my perfect Wild Card.





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WHOOO. HA. HEE. HA. WHOOO.