Golden Days
Scene One | Off-Camera
“How’s the passenger?” Harrison asked, lighting up a cigarette. Alex and he stood on the balcony overlooking Tokyo, as Luna had disappeared into the bathroom to get herself ready for the night.
“Quiet, at the moment. Dreamless sleep is the biggest thing I’ve noticed. I suspect it is his doing, but I’m not sure. I really need to get in touch with Sullivan at this point.” Alex said, lighting his own, handing a beer to Harrison. Harry nodded in response, raising it for a moment in thanks, twisting the cap off.
“Working on that currently. Proving to be a little harder to get our former contacts to partner up against him. Loyalty runs deep when people are so afraid of a man. They’ll flip though. The threat of him turning rat on them, it’ll be enough to get us over the line.” Harrison said, taking a long drag on the cigarette, followed by a big mouthful of the beer.
Alex nodded a little, opening his own beer, knocking back a decent amount of it in one sweep. It was somewhat funny, now that he thought about it. Harrison and he had never really been on the best of terms, but here they were. Talking about a jail break, talking about essentially forcing the wiping of the mind of a friend from his past. Part of it was bittersweet. He never would have thought Harrison would be the man on the other side of the gun, as it were.
“I’ll let you know when I have him somewhere stateside. Harder to work the angles from halfway across the world, but man. You two would love it over there. I’ll have to convince Luna to come visit when you guys get a moment. I’m sure you could do with a break.” Harry went on, a smile settling on his face. It was somewhat off-putting seeing the man who was normally so gaunt and focused having some light back in his life. It was… different.
“Might have to take you up on it. All goes to plan, I should have some time off between October and the end of the year. Things never go to plan though. I’m not sure what we’re doing anymore. You know it better than I. This business chews people up, and refuses to spit em out.” Alex said, turning his gaze back out to the city. The lights almost felt like they were pulling him. Sort of what it felt like when Mors was trying to pull him into his own mind. To take control.
“Get out while you can. I know I’ve said this before. I know it ain’t easy, but trust me Alex. This business cares not for you. Not for me, not for her. It takes and takes, and it doesn't give back. But, I understand too. The lights, the crowd. The pulse, the energy. Doing what we did, it was the closest thing I could get to that rush of adrenaline again. Soak it up, make the memories, and get out while you can. Go run James’ bar. Fulfil his dream.” Harry said, knocking back the rest of his beer, placing the cigarette back on his lips.
“Funny how things have played out. Almost feels like the old days. Less two, of course. But, being here. Talking shop. Looking out into that neon city. Reminds me of better days.” Alex said, stepping forward to lean on the balcony railing. Holding the bottle by the neck loosely in one hand. Probably a little too blaise.
“Part of me wishes we could go back to those times. Only part of me. Maybe with the foresight we have now. Free from his oppressive hold. With less dead on our hands. Lauren and James still here. The depths can keep the other two.” Harry said softly, stepping up to lean on the railing next to Alex. He leaned over and clinked their bottles together, a second cheers.
“I miss her still, Lauren that is. I’m happier in life than I have been for a long time, but there are things everywhere that remind me of her. These tours, her stories of the world. Little things that she was obsessed with. I love Luna, but I miss Lauren.” Alex said, shaking his head a little. Leaning further forward on the railing, half hanging off it.
“It was an injustice, her being taken from us. Disease is a cruel mistress, Alex. No one blames you for feeling lost. I’m sure Luna would be happy to go home with you. To hold your hand, and talk to her. I think Lauren would be happy to know you let yourself move on. She was too good for us.” Harry said in response, putting a hand on Alex’s shoulder. It was nice to have some kindness back in his life. From Harry of all people.
“So what’s the plan boys? Where are we going?” Luna’s voice cut from across the hotel room. Harry lowered his hand as Alex stood up. Blinking the forming tears from his eyes, and slipping into a happier state. A more gentle part of his mind.
“Let’s go for a walk. See where the night takes us.” Alex said, turning around with a big smile. Luna had just cracked her own beer. Her make-up on, her hair brushed, and a new top and jeans. She was immaculate even with the most minor of effort. Some were lucky to find true love, even once in life. He’d been lucky enough to find it twice. Even moreso, twice with the same person. As much as he missed Lauren, he was happy too.
“We need to talk.” The voice of Vita Mors echoed in his skull.
Unearned and Unwarranted
Scene Two | On-Camera
“It’s a little bit funny to me, at this point. I can keep talking about these grievances, and yet, the more I do the more proof is presented. Unwarranted and unearned, I coined that for the horseshit that occurs in this company. The weekly title matches that are given in pity to those who do not deserve them. To those who have not earned them. To those who simply do not belong in the same conversation as those who hold the championships. For better or worse, the top and bottom are the only place where people can look and be proud. For at the bottom of this cesspool, there is a shining king of achievement that sits there. For at the bottom, in the muck and filth, there is me. There is Alexander Raven.”
“At the peak, Finn. Yet the distance between the base camp and the peak are not so far apart anymore. No, I would go so far as to say, despite my best fucking efforts to make that Internet Championship sought after? It has been thrown to the wind, and now sits as a mockery of what it should be. Peter Vaughn? A transitional champion in the end. Precious Peter made of glass. Like I said he was. When he lost the Roulette Championship, the Championship that I now hold? I told him that things would only be downhill from there. I told everyone that the man was fragile, and that when things went bad he would go away. So what happened? He lost the Roulette Championship. He lost to me in the Blast from the Past. He lost the Internet Championship, and failed to take the World title from Finn. So now where is he?”
“Gone.”“I speak the truth, and people tell me I’m lying. They always tell me I’m lying. They call me crazy, they call me delusional. They call me so many things except for what the truth is, and the truth of it is? I was right. I was right about Peter. I was right about Finn. I was right about Sean, I was right about Miles and Austin and Jayden and every other person I have turned my eyes upon and spoken the truth. Yet, I am the one full of frivolity? I am the liar? So be it. Let them believe what they wish to believe, for I cannot change their mind. The only thing I can continue to do is to expose them for being the liars that they are. To expose them as their failures that they will continue to be, for subscribing to the idea of favouritism. To safety. To a belief that they will continue to receive what they have not earned, and what they do not deserve.”
“Which brings me to the newest undeserved that has been thrown an opportunity they do not understand the meaning of. A main event opportunity for the whelp that is still sickly wet with the moss of the swamp he crawled out from. Green as a grasshopper, and yet they think him deserving to be across the ring from me? That is disrespectful. Continuous disrespect from the men I have been attempting to expose since the day I walked in here. People call me a choke artist, but I have earnt every one of my fucking opportunities from the bottom to the top. I walked my miles, I took my whippings. I walked through the glass to bleed for what I earnt, and they told me I was wrong.”
“They tell me I was undeserving of the opportunities I was given. Jack Washington, another fickle boy of glass. He said it time and time again. He thought himself above me, and wondered why I was given any look. He ignored the truth of the obstruction that was there. He ignored the fact that I was denied every opportunity I should have been given. Then there is little Jayden, who now takes my ire too. The man whose father is unfortunately missing at sea. He too believes himself entitled to opportunities not his own. So allied with the men who see my worth, I now stand undeniable. Now allied with a man who suffered the fate I once did, and the man who is suffering simply for his benevolence. I stand, and see them for they see me.”
“And we see you, Lyle.”
“Oh yes, you are the man I was talking about. The green little grasshopper with a mouth too big for his boots to walk the talk. The cocksure arrogance of the Kasey family seems to run rampant in their bloodline. Props to Miles for taking the Roulette Championship from me once upon a time, but… by his own admission. Miles knows that beating me once? That was a fluke. Every single time I’ve stood across that ring since, I have dogwalked that plucky little prick from pillar to post, and made him my little bitch. Every time he mouths up, I am reminded that the confidence and bravado came not from his own bag, but from the people he surrounded himself with. Inarticulate, so he used another’s words. So does the older, so does the younger. Lyle, I see you. I hear you. I understand you, but know this.”
“Allowing the world to fight your battles for you? It will be your undoing. Allowing people to be your mouthpiece, it will ruin you. To allow Miles to defend you, and at the same time tear you down with acknowledgement of your inability? I would not stand for it. I would not simply let sleeping dogs lie. For when it comes to being the champion? You stand alone. For when it comes to stepping into the ring with the Napalm Kingslayer? Know that the world will tell you I’m delusional until you step up to that curtain. Until you go to move to the ring, and they pull you aside. They ask for a moment of your time, and they tell you to be careful. They tell you to watch yourself out there, for the man you step into the ring with? He will do more than simply beat you.”
“I want you to understand the opportunity being given to you, Lyle. I want you to understand that whilst you do not deserve it, you will understand why you are not ready by the time the bell rings. See, I want you to take a moment. I want you to go listen to what Aiden Reynolds had to say when we were put in a match with each other. I want you to listen to the respect that man had for me, and the ability of the man he was facing. I want you to go and listen to what he had to say, because that is what you need to keep in mind. I want you to go and listen to the drivel that spewed from the mouths of Bill Barnhart and Eddie Lyons before our opening match at Summer XXXTreme. I want you to hear what they have to say, and then understand the difference.”
“The difference in what they said, and what they did. I want you to understand what they wanted to do, and what they were able to do. I want you to understand the difference, Lyle. I want you to understand the difference between me and them, and then ask yourself. Are you even good enough to lace their boots? For I think you’ll find the truth is not so pleasant. I think you’ll find that the more you listen, the more you understand, the more you grasp the truth? The more you will come to acknowledge what the difference between you and I is. Inexperience is no excuse for stealing opportunity. An opportunity that should have been in the hands of the lost lamb Peter Vaughn. In the hands of the men who had at least attempted to battle their way to a championship opportunity. Hell, for better or worse? The only person I can see deserving of an opportunity right now, is the boy who pissed me off so badly I may or may not have participated in a potential life ending event with that kid’s father.”
“I want you to think about that. I want you to think about what I am willing to do, simply to punish someone for their perceived transgressions.I nearly ran Jayden down, I threw his daddy over the side of the cruise ship. In my past, I have broken and beaten people within inches of their life. I have been beaten and bled within inches of my life. I want you to go and look at what I did to get to Jamie Dean, and think about it for a second. These were things I was willing to do, when I wasn’t permitted. Which I ask you to really think about. I’m still here. I’m still the Undisputed Roulette Champion, and despite my screaming and demanding for people to earn their way to an opportunity. To earn the right to step into the ring with me, I am instead handed… you.”
“Little Lyle, the man who will be martyred in the name of their petulance. See the wheel spins, it lands and every single time, someone walks out just a little less put together than they were when they walked in. The wheel spins, and it gives a licence to me to hurt people who are participating in a system that I wish to dismantle. You know, they once respected my demands? When I was Internet Champion, I was given the damn right to pick and choose my opponents. So I picked the killer’s row of World Champions. I threw myself to the bloody wolves over and over, and you know what happened each and every fucking time? I walked away the king. The victor, the winner. You know who I beat in that run, Lyle? Your namesake. Miles Kasey. He got to taste the bitter fucking pill of defeat when he came to understand that while he had stood in place? I had grown, I had gotten better, I had gotten more vicious. I had become the killer he wished he could be.”
“I want you to go and listen to everything people have said. I want you to watch the tapes, and then I hope you come to the understanding that I wish of you, Lyle. I hope you come to understand that when that bell rings, the fact that you exist on the bottom, sucking and feeding at the scraps left by your betters? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that you’re green at the gills, and without the experience to know better. It doesn’t matter because when that bell rings, I do not care if it is your first, your fiftieth or your last match. I do not care how much strategising you and your new love interest have done. I do not care how much preparation you have done, because it will be irrelevant. The difference between you and I, Lyle? I fucking belong here. I am a motherfucking champion. I am the workhorse, I am the fighter. I am the man that this company needs, and instead they give pity to people like you. They give unearned and unwarranted opportunities to people like you, Lyle.”
“It makes me sick. It makes me overly upset. It makes me want to hurt you, so badly, that they reconsider throwing a mewling baby to the fucking birds. They throw the inexperienced little one to the veteran ring general, who gets his kicks by tearing the flesh from bone, and bleeding the little martyrs dry. So, I want you to think about all of that. I want you to listen to everything they say. I want you to understand the differences between those who have come, and those who will. I want you to drill it into your own mind, Lyle. So that when they pull you aside, just before your music hits. When they tell you to be safe out there. To be careful. I want you to understand that they are not telling you that because they care. They are telling you that, because they know what is about to happen to you. They know that when you step into that ring, they cannot protect you from me.”
“Nobody can protect you from me. There’s part of me that hopes we get something fun on that wheel. That we get locked in a funny little steel cage, or we get asked to smash and grab and fight and stab with anything we can get our hands on. I hope we get something overtly violent. I hope we get something that makes you truly understand why I am who I am. The ‘missing resident of Arkham Asylum’? That's the best you’ve got to get under my skin? You’re gonna have to try harder than that, boy. You’re going to have to do your best, to even stay in step with me. Just like Miles, I’m going to dog walk you. Hell, maybe we’ll get to be literal with that. Strap those pesky little collars around our necks, so I can hang you over that rope, and see the fear in the eyes of those who love you as you turn blue. The only question now, Lyle.”
“Will you give up or will you let yourself slip into arrogant unconsciousness? I think the latter. I think, you’re so certain of yourself, that you would rather be seen as the strong tough boy who lets his mind slip, rather than give me an ounce of pleasure in knowing I put you in such excruciating pain, that you simply had to give it up. Who knows though? I’m the choke artist, right? Maybe I’m too confident. Maybe I’m too sure. Maybe, just maybe. I deserve the way they look down their nose at me, and you are going to be the knot that trips me up. Maybe you’re the one who makes me look a fool. Another Kasey, another thorn in my fucking side.”
“Unfortunately, I just don’t think you’ve got the grit, boy. I don’t think you’ve got the stamina, and you sure as hell don’t have the skill. So take it from this Arkham resident. Count yourself lucky for this opportunity, because in the end this is the only opportunity you get. The next time you even think of putting a toe in my way? I’ll ensure you don’t ever get back in this ring again. So Lyle.”
“Are you listening?”
