I've always been protective of my brothers. Ever since I was very young. I made it my responsibility... nay, my priority to look after them and watch out for their best interest. This of course was the reason backing all of those times that I got my ass beat by our mother. Mostly anyway. They'd do something, usually normal stupid shit that any average, regular kid might do and incur her wrath. Just as vicious and scorned filled as any evil witch from a fairy tale could produce, it would be invoked and with it, came the rage induced actions of a woman possessed.


A fury that no one should face, in general for anything, let alone during those types of circumstances and least of all being her offspring. With no exaggeration, she was a monster and from the time I was small, I knew her for what she was and understood what she was capable of doing. In direct association with the fact that she was bitter over raising three children, who weren't like the rest. We weren't the little perfect angels that she wanted, we were half alien freaks that she was burdened with raising and without the loving support of the man that knocked her up, no less. Azrael vanished off the face of the earth and wasn't there for her, her family didn't want anything to do with her because she gave birth to abominations; in their mind, so she had to do it all on her own.


Which became the fault of her children, like we asked to be created or something and when things happened that made her angry, she took those opportunities to rain down her resentment and outrage upon us. Tenfold. It wasn't right but I saw it for what it was and knew there was no way to suspend it or cancel it out when it came. So I would take it upon myself to draw her focus away from them with my own brand of antics. Saying and doing things for the sole purpose of putting the spotlight on myself. It is a characteristic that I still possess to this day and how I gained the ability to say literally anything, with a straight face.


Understand that there are zero reasons, besides being defensive and mindful of my brothers that initially was the basis of my actions and shenanigans. Through no fault or defect of their own, this mentality can solely be attributed to my innate need to keep them safe. Simply put, it's not like they were or slow in the head. No. My brothers are both capable and normal functioning individuals. Raph has always been the strong and athletic one, taking on the world like some kind of indestructible tank. While Ezra is brilliant beyond his years and can figure out any sort of situation, when he puts his mind to the task. Both are quite able to do things on their own and at this point, don't really need me like they used to. Yet, still I hover, ever ready to leap to their aid, in nothing more than a moment's notice. It's a quality that will probably be forever instilled in me.


Donovan Blackwater - the leader and full time mouthpiece for The Brothers Blackwater. Always thinking ahead and planning, never allowing myself to be backed into a corner, I am ready for anything. Within reason. I've always been too clever for my own good. Quite often this has gotten me into a pickle just as much or maybe even more than, it has successfully extracted me from a problematic circumstance. However, in the same vein, I wouldn't be where I am today without using certain qualities to get ahead. As others wait for what they want, wishing for the right time to do something, I step forward and act, taking charge of a situation and manipulating aspects to my favor. I used my wit, charm and good looks, to push myself forward and rise up the ranks in society. Assets that I fully took to my advantage in my career as an accountant/financial consultant, they aided me when I needed to acquire clients or obtain a professional edge in the corporate industry.


There isn't a goal that I cannot surpass or an objective that I won't achieve, when I address a situation or tackle the responsibility of any endeavor, everyone involved becomes putty in my well manicured hands. All eyes are always on me, when I saunter into a room, I know they either want to be me or have me in some way or another. This is a factor that allows me to get my way, each and every time. There's nothing that I couldn't accomplish. If I desired it, then I owned it. That's just the way that it was and how it will always be. Or so I thought...


Then I met Abigail Monroe and slowly but surely, my vision of the future started to change. Even before we had a child together. Abigail had a type of control over me. My biggest weakness and my greatest strength. She is solely the reason that my brothers and I didn't carry out our master plan of killing Azrael Erebus. Our primary motivation for joining the XWF, we never carried the idea into fruition and instead opted for the more rational approach of talking to him. How we chose to listen and give our father a chance, alternatively to acting on impulse alone. That occurred directly in correlation to Abigail convincing me that there was another way, which in turn caused me to sway my brothers away from the concept of vengeance. Although, once it was established that we weren't going to enact our diabolical plot of revenge, we still stuck around the XWF because god damn it, wrestling is just that addictive.


Still, even in that, I am not the same man that I once aspired to be in this fine federation. Where I once said I was going to be the main attraction, trail blazer, trend setter with my name always in lights, center stage, forever top billing in any event that I signed up to participate in. Now I find myself less concerned with that. Titles and shiny trinkets are nice to achieve and will never stop adding to the thrill of the fight, but now it isn't the only force that drives me forward. I blame marriage and my son for that.


While I craved attention and the glisten of lights as I surged on a path of greatness. Now I'm perfectly happy wrestling and going home to my wife and son. Their happiness is my main concern and it takes precedence above all else. If that makes me seem boring, so be it. No longer do I care what people think of me, outside of my family. I've become boring and ordinary, where that would have drove me mad in the past and quite literally, been the end of the world for me. It's merely a "meh" factor now. I thoroughly enjoy the little things, the small joys in life and look forward to spending quality time with Arkin. Being there to see him grow up and mature into the amazing person, he will no doubt become. This of course will not happen without my efforts to be a good father though.


My brothers and I are the prime example of shitty parents and we're fucked up. There's no easy or kind way of saying it, the three of us are seriously fucked and it shows. Never will I let my son turn out like I did. Suffering debilitating panic attacks, smoking pot to remove the edge off what should be considered normal days, acting like a glorified class clown because at the end of the day, when all is said and done, that saves me from the reality of any situation. The sad clown mentality, always laughing to hide or shy away from feeling anything else. I'd die before I saw my son suffer that fate. So I take the initiative that I once had to be the brightest shooting star in the sky and I put it all into raising him to the best of my ability.

---

I stared down at pancakes, eggs and bacon, all frying in separate cast iron skillets on the stove with a mild, sense of accomplishment. Multitasking and totally killing at it. Yay! Go Donovan, you're a fucking rockstar at this shit. Woooo! Bet you could add making fresh squeezed orange juice, into the mix and still excel. My son Arkin (Currently a highly active three year old) was sitting in a booster seat at the kitchen table. A real, actual feat that I managed to pull off, at the mere mention of making this breakfast. Score major points for me, not only in parenting but also in the field of being an awesome husband because this gave Abigail the opportunity, to shower and have a period of time for herself in the morning. Not an easy task since my son decided that he wanted to become her shadow these days.


"DaaDee! When will breakfish be???"


He quizzed me from his spot at the table and I smiled.


"Um... break-FAST."


I emphasized the last part, in the hopes that it helped him to understand that there would be no fish involved, in this morning's production. Also as a way to let him know that's how the word is pronounced.


"In literally, two minutes. I promise."


Only confusion registered in his expression. So I held up two fingers and waved them, catching is attention with the swift movement of my hand.


"This many minutes."


Arkin then looked down at his own hand and copied the gesture, which made me laugh. He was really the best. Not a moment or a day passes when something silly that he does, fails to remind me of that fact. Without even touching the skillet, I flip three pancakes with absolute perfection. Thank you, force powers. For something that I supposedly don't wield as far as certain members of the XWF roster are concerned, you are mighty helpful this morning. One of those pancakes was in the shape of a bear too. So that took some fucking skill. My focus returned to my son, I see that he's now biting the edge of the table and sigh, shaking my head at his antics.


"Arkin. Don't eat the table. Food is almost done."


His response is muffled because he doesn't take his mouth off the edge of the table when he speaks. What inspired this idea, I don't know but it clearly had a powerful hold over him. Glancing at a container of strawberries, stationed on the island divider that's next to me, that separates the stove, fridge, sink, etc from the area of my kitchen where the table is located, I send one over to him. It hovers in front of his face for two seconds, before he reaches out and grabs it. Accompanied with a very enthusiastic "Oooo..." Arkin then introduced the strawberry to his mouth. That's when I felt the vibration of my phone inside the pocket of my pj bottoms. It doesn't beg for my attention for long, before it receives it.


"Ahoy-hoy."


"Hello, is this Donovan Blackwater?"


"That it is. Who's calling."


"Daphne Harding. I'm calling from Shady Lane Sanitarium. This is in regards to your mother, Stella Blackwater. Is this a good time to talk?"


"As good of a time as any, what's up?"


It's a hasty inquiry. Not much concern or care given to what the answer might be.


"This is in reference to her passing and the events surrounding it."


"Her what now?"


In my head, a record had its player's needle scratch across it, abruptly.


"Her death. She passed away this morning."


Deep breath, my throat suddenly formed a lump inside of it, that I can't seem to swallow down. Somehow I manage to croak out words in spite of this though.


"How did it happen?"


"She killed herself. This morning. Sometime around 3am. I need you and your brothers to come in as soon as it is feasible, to identify the body and so that we may discuss a few things."


"Come in? There?"


Air stopped being breathable. My thoughts were jumbled and hazy. It was like I was Arkin trying to comprehend what two minutes were and have it make sense in my world.


"Why do we all have to be there?"


"It's better if we talk in person."


"Alright."


When I give this affirmation, zero effort can be attributed to my brain. I'm on autopilot at this point.


"Excellent. When can I expect you and your brothers?"


"I don't know. Later today."


"Are you more keen on the afternoon or..."


"I don't know!"


She shuts up. Quick. The outburst made certain of that. I don't even try to muster a fake apology. Mostly due to the fact that the part of my brain that would tell me that I need to do that has shut off.


"I don't know."


Repeating myself in a softer tone is all that Daphne Harding is going to get from me. With the state that I'm in, she should consider herself lucky that she's getting that.


"Do you want to contact your brothers and call me back? Figure it out from there?"


"Sure."


There's no farewell, no kind of goodbye at all, I hang up and that's it. From there, I look down at the burned teddy bear pancake, sizzling in the skillet and I want to cry.





"Okay. First off I gotta say... when I said that we should grab a beer and chat, I didn't realize that I was talking to a kid as young as you are. I thought you were my age. I'm currently twenty four just to clarify that for you, although I haven't been alive for nearly that many years. You're like what... seventeen, yeah that's totally inappropriate on my part. My bad yo. We should still have a chat sometime and compare war stories but I'll buy you a Hi-C Ecto Cooler or something instead. I've already beaten up a tiny fifteen year old girl, I can't be incurring any more stink eyes from the public. Haha! I say this like I actually care. Did I sound believable?"


"Anyway, on with the show... you say that your name inspired our match. You're the greatest, most wonderful thing since sliced bread and the entire world knows it. You're like the Beatles, fireworks on the fourth of July and Jesus combined, only better and there's zero doubt in anyone's mind about that fact. Um... sure, why not? I'll play along with that insanity. When I said that I caused the match to happen, I meant that I got things rolling because I mentioned the concept. I put the idea in their heads, I blatantly stated that I wanted to face Thaddeus Duke and the match became a reality."


"Another fun claim that you made was that Azrael was trading wins and losses with Theo Pryce and your father. Here's where I say, show me the examples of losses that he took from Theo Pryce. I'll wait. Because from what I read in his journals. The best Sebastian ever got was a cheap shot victory via a briefcase and a tie, while Theo never beat him. The only wins that he achieved when Azrael was in the ring with him, is when the two of them were fighting on the same side. Hey, but I could be wrong, I am reading this from a journal. Azrael could have lost his mind briefly and made that shit up. That sounds plausible, right?"


"Thanks for bringing up that he was a part of your life in some way though. I didn't get to know him until I was an adult. Even then it would have never happened if my brothers and I, didn't seek him out on purpose. The spaceman didn't know we were his children, till we made ourselves known and confronted him for being absent all our lives. We were actually planning on killing him, live and in front of millions of wrestling fans at first but then we changed our minds and gave him an opportunity to defend himself verbally for what he had done. Hey but at least he was a part of your life. That's awesome."


"You talk about how I've been here for months and I have nothing to show for it. Agree to disagree there. I joined the federation in August of last year and in my second match ever, I won the X-Treme title, carried it for eighty four days and now, I'm the television champ. Seven months and two championships. You joined the federation in October of 2016. Two years and five months, that's how long you've been an XWF employee. You won the X-Treme title three times, I won't knock that, that's pretty impressive. But then I notice that you've had seventeen matches total."


"You've been employed with this company for twenty two months longer than I have been and yet, I wrestled in more than half the amount of matches that you have. How is that possible? I mean, I get being busy, I work as an accountant/financial consultant and have a family and certain responsibilities that take precedence over wrestling or shooting promos. Meanwhile, you're a child dictator or something to that effect but seventeen matches, in well over two years, that's insane. I suppose you're just that memorable though. A teenage sensation, like those kids from the Suite Life of Zach and Cody or Justin Bieber. Your fan base must be all little girls and chester molester old dudes. Super cool. I'm so totes jelly of you. I wish I was the fantasy fuck of Drew Archyle."

Donovan Blackwater
Former 1x...