Color coding:
1) Sid spoken word
2) All other spoken word and narrative
"So do you think you're any closer to finding out who you're after?"
Her voice is calm and curious; her body relaxed in his arms on the couch. Flo Feder may be short tempered and hot headed most of the time but there's no doubt she loves her husband very much.
Flo: It's important you find out who it is before they come after you.
That's part of my plan though, Flo - I've got to keep assuming that at any given moment he could attack me which, in itself, will reveal to me who it is.
Sid sounds confident in his answer and his reasoning does make some sense; although, there are a lot of holes in Sid's plan as Flo soon points out.
Flo: How do you know he won't "attack" you and end up killing you?
Flo's voice is starting to rise and her blood is beginning to boil.
Flo: You say all this shit so casually like it's all going to end up ok but the man you're looking for, who you don't even know for sure is IN the XWF, could be anywhere and might end up catching you when you least expect it. What the fuck am I gonna do if you come home in a body bag, Sid? (she slaps Sid across his chest) Huh? And what makes you think that if somebody attacks you, it would reveal them as the person you're after? You certainly haven't exactly made a lot of "friends" in the XWF from what I can tell, right?
That's true but as the top talent in the XWF today, I'm pretty confident in my ability to-
Flo: -To what? Get stabbed in the forearm and have your wife almost killed by being thrown off the stage?
Freeze Frame
For those who are unaware - A little over five years ago there was a match in which a masked man brutally attacked Sid Feder and nearly ended his life. The man stabbed Sid in several places - mostly his arm - and then proceeded to smash the steel ring steps down into Sid several times and actually left Sid's arm looking like a dangling, mutilated piece of meat. This man shattered the bone in Sid's forearm and ripped much of the tissue, causing him to need reconstructive surgery and a metal plate forged to the bone to keep his forearm in one piece. The recover process was a long one, but once it was all said and done, it only meant Sid was left with yet another weapon in his arsenal.
Talk about a 3 x Better Forearm.
On that same night; however, as police were bringing the masked assailant up the ramp and toward the back, Flo Feder emerged from the back in tears after seeing what had been transpiring. She didn't even realize she was walking right past the attacker who was able to get himself free and lunge into Flo, sending her flying off the stage and crashing several feet below into some electrical equipment. Flo was left in serious condition and taken to a hospital to be treated for severe head trauma and internal bleeding. Rumor has it she was mere inches away from Death's cold, wretched hands; much like her husband was.
The identity of the attacker was never found as he ended up making his escape after prying himself free from the police and charging into Flo Feder. He also went flying off the ramp and landed a few feet away, out of sight, and by the time anybody got over to that area to look for him he was long gone.
This was why we occasionally hear about Sid's five years away from the wrestling business.
This is why Flo can't stand the thought of Sid once again being involved in the industry.
Resume Frame No, I'm not confident in my ability to have the same thing happen again - I'm confident in my ability to set things right the moment I figure out this man's identity and we're both going to finally get vindication when that day comes. Remember the man who came to our house a few weeks before I came to the XWF?
Flo: You mean the bastard who handed you a package that you still won't tell me the contents of?
Yes; that man has spent considerable time absorbing knowledge from several sources in the wrestling industry because he's planning something big that nobody is going to see coming.
Flo: Won't you see it coming?
Even I don't know his full plan but I do know that on his way to acquiring 'all' of the knowledge he's seeking, he actually stumbled upon some evidence that suggests - very stronly suggests - that the piece of fucking shit I'm after is currently under some kind of contract with the XWF.
Flo: What evidence? You still never told me what he showed you; what was in that box?
Ah but there's a reason for that, Flo. You see once you're under contract with the XWF, and even before I was under contract and we had cameras filming us for that other project; everything becomes instantly public. There were even cameras that caught some of the footage of that man paying me a visit that day he dropped off the package and several people think they know who that man was just from that scattered footage.
Flo: So? What's your point?
My point is that too much is already known. If everybody knows I'm here and everybody knows I'm in search of the piece of shit who almost killed us; he already knows I'm here and already knows too much himself.
Flo: But doesn't that bring us right back to the point I was trying to make about how you're putting yourself out there like a goddamned sitting duck? Please, babe - I'm not just trying to be a bitch here when-
Sid chuckles.
Flo: Hey!
Flo slaps Sid in the face semi-hard; possibly playful but somewhat difficult to tell with Flo sometimes. Sid just chuckles again and lets her continue-
Flo: I'm just saying, even if you are "Mr. Lethal Lotto" or whatever you call yourself these days; you're still human - you still can be hurt again - you still can be taken from me and I just don't know what I'd do if that ever happened.
Yes but-
Flo: Stop! Let me talk!
She pushes herself up and away from Sid on the couch, now standing directly in front of him and raising her voice. She starts doing a lot of pointing right in Sid's face and talking with her hands as her temper very quickly accelerates.
Flo: And now what? What now? I'll tell you what now! Tonight you went and booked yourself in a fucking HANDICAP MATCH!
Flo SLAMS her open palm down on the coffee table, nearly shattering its glass centerpiece and making the two cups jump in place.
Flo: A fucking two against one scenario?! How the fuck does this possibly fit into your plans? I'm not stupid, Sid - I've done a little of my own homework in the last week and while you might be stepping into the ring with somebody who doesn't seem like a threat at all in Benjamine Crane; you're also stepping into the ring with a man who I'm finding out takes pride in simply distributing chaos and ruining lives! John Madison is a fucking psychopath!
I don't know if I'd say that but-
Flo pushes Sid back as he was about to lean forward and make his case. He just falls back and shuts his mouth, knowing it's going to be easier to let her get it all out.
Flo: I'm not done, Sid! Fucking John Madison? Has he even had a match lately? What's he been doing lately? Why NOW? Why is he springing back into action the second he sees you challenge Benjamine Crane? Why, Sid? Why?
Sid takes in a deep breath and begins to say-
Flo, I think you-
Flo lets out an overly exaggerated sigh that drowns out Sid's voice so he'll shut up again.
She continues.
Flo: I'm not done! Don't you find it a little suspicious that the one time you're put into a handicap situation, this weirdo who apparently takes pride in ruining lives suddenly bursts back onto the scene to jump in? Didn't you find it a little interesting how quickly and easily he manipulated you right into taking that damn match and accepting him as Crane's partner against you? You wouldn't have been in this situation if he had not pushed your buttons and got you heated up.
Sid finally pushes himself up off the couch and puts his hands on Flo's shoulders.
Listen - I've got this - I'm good. John Madison is somebody that my benefactor has done much homework on and fed me a lot of information regarding; he's not going to be the guy to stop me. I guarantee my winning streak continues through tonight and far beyo-
Flo: WHAAAAT???
FLO!: WHAAAAAAT?????
She smashes her fist down into the coffee ta-
-and there goes the center glass piece; shattered to pieces and descending to the carpeted floor beneath. We knew that was coming.
Flo: Your winning streak? You ignorant fuck! I'm talking about your LIFE!
Flo reaches forward and grabs the back of Sid's head, clumping a massive ball of Sid's hair in her fist very tightly as she brings him in face to face with her. She screams at the absolute fucking top of her lungs as a person walking a dog past their house actually hears it and starts to speed up because the neighborhood is well educated on the Feder household.
Flo: I'M TALKING ABOUT YOUR LIFE! I'm just going to come right out and fucking say it then-
She shoves him back a couple steps as he notices out of the corner of his eye, the man walking his dog actually start running away from the house.
Oh look now you're scaring the-
She easily overrides his voice.
Flo: What if that fucking psychopath John Madison is the man you're looking for? What if he's the mother fucker who almost killed us? Think about it. Think, babe. For the love of Christ fucking think!
Sid pauses for a moment - it's as though even with everything going on, he never considered that possibility.
Breakaway
It is a little strange though.
Think about it -- all of you.
Where has John Madison been?
When's the last time he was involved in a match?
What was Border Lines? Has anyone ever heard of that? Apparently John Madison is taking credit for all of the hell that has transpired in recent months regarding small time names like-
Joseph Page
Tax
Tristan Slater
and some others who even a narrator can't recall.
John Madison is said to be proud of his work; apparently marching a team of XWF competitors into a battle which was predetermined as a loss on XWF's side.
Some people claim foul play on the part of the WGWF for not knowing how to hold a legitimate contest even if their life depended on it, but John Madison is claiming foul play on himself; he's proud of what went down --- and that would be Team XWF.
Many believed that we had seen the end of John Madison and all for different reasons -- perhaps he had fulfilled his goal? Perhaps he was humiliated and secretly wished he could have won that big match not so long ago.
The truth is -- John Madison's mind is not one that can be rationalized with any type of logic a normal mind might come up with.
While Benjamine Crane's thought process and strategy to claim Sid is a "fake crazy man" might be kindergarten material that can be shredded like cheese; John Madison's strategy is much more multifaceted and downright unique.
Not unique in the sense that people want to get to know the man better and see more of him.
Unique in the fact that he has this way of making your stomach turn and making you really question how low some creatures of humanity will go.
Go back in time -- Watch John Madison's old escapades and see him abuse those who help him, see him prove to be one of the worst fathers on Earth (second only to Joseph Page's deadbeat dad ass), see him try to ruin the lives - and succeed - of even those who should by all semblance of reality be ''close'' to him.
Sid Feder's mysterious benefactor - the man who gave him the tip to come to XWF in search of the man who had almost killed him - actually tells Sid that John Madison is not the one he's after.
In fact -- the benefactor has guaranteed this to Sid, but Sid is keeping that to himself for now.
Well, until now.
You're a lucky man, John Madison. For if you had been the one Flo thinks you could be; the level of human torture and physical mutilation that you would endure would make even your former clawed associate cringe and would make your own family feel bad for you. The hell you would be put through would leave your dead ancestors screaming from six feet under - and they no longer even have mouths or lungs. Yet they'd scream for you, Johnny -- oh yes, they would.
Sid's mysterious benefactor is never wrong.
Or at least, that's what Sid believes. He's willing to walk right into tonight believing in his informant one hundred percent; and he's willing to walk right out of tonight leaving Benjamine Crane and John Madison as nothing more than a couple more notches on his belt. In all pure, honest likelihood; Benjamine Crane may not even walk out of the arena on his own free will this evening. Say goodbye to your future in this business. You had heart and you even showed something slightly resembling passion at one point - and now? Now? We just heard that last gurgle of the toilet after flushing it all away.
And John? Say hello to strange company such as Kimberleigh Alves, Tax, Joseph Page, Hank Lane, Grappling Gary, and so many others who we've all since forgotten why they were stars in the first place.
Goodbye, John Madison. The forgotten -- the afterthought -- the next of many dominoes to fall. You may matter an inkling more than Crane to some, but to Sid, you're just the condom he's going to wear while he fucks the living shit out of Benjamin Crane's career. I hope you don't break - Sid doesn't want any children, after all.
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