Excuses

[Ghost Spike]

Excuses.

That’s all you have, that’s all you’ve ever had. Bullshit reasons for why you can’t accept why I’m better than you. For why you’ve just never been able to beat me, in your entire career, right Cable? Does that sting? I mean for the so-called “best in the world” - real original by the way, because nobody has EVER called themselves that, ever, yet you can’t beat me?

Oh right, it wasn’t a match, right?

Because I put your punk ass through a fucking table.

Well gee Cable, if you were so damn good, surely you’d have been able to prevent that? Surely, if you were so goddamn amazing, you’d have been able to do that to me instead? I mean, I managed to put not just you, but you AND Mike Laszlo through announcer tables, and I’m just one man…

But you’re the best in the world, right?

The best at what exactly?

Hashtags?

I mean, you run your mouth, you’re good at that. You’re great at running your thumb across your phone and slamming out tweets, but when it comes to an actual fight? You’re nothing more than the same little bitch you were back in HonorBound. Oh sure, you went “elsewhere” and grew a set of balls, but we all know you came back and beat some drastically inferior talent to steal your Imperial Championship Cable, there’s no point denying it. Not that it did much to deflate your ego, because I’ll be damned if that shit didn’t balloon up like fuck, because you’ll scream from every mountain top, hill, or even molehill you can that you’re the best in the world, and what it really comes down to….is the simple fact of..

Who are you really trying to convince?

It’ll take a lot more than some cute catch phrases and a hashtag to convince me, hell we all know it didn’t convince Laura, because she dumped you like a sack of bricks. Even the waste of oxygen that was Noah Field was a more attractive prospect than you Cable, how in the fuck does that make you feel? It’s gotta sting. Probably about as much as it stung when I left you broken amongst that table, right?

But not merely as much as it’s going to sting when I beat you.

You think I’m inferior Cable, and it makes me laugh.

You’ve never beaten me, never even come close.

You’re ego has grown, but have your skills really? I evolve, every single time I get in the ring. You see what you want to see, you see what you think you see. I am the greatest person to ever step foot in a wrestling ring, and you only need look at my accolades to see that. Diminish them all you like, it doesn't change that fact, ignore them at your own peril, brush me aside, and pay the price. Underestimate me, please, I beg you, because when I get you in that ring, and I break you? When I make you tap? It’ll make it that much sweeter. When you’re eyes grow wide because you’re in complete shock at the ability I possess in my fucking pinky toe compared to your entire body? It’ll make my day. You’re a footnote in the history of this company Cable Arcane….I’m a legend in this entire business. You’re simply a flavour of the month….I’m a GOD.

So please, continue your rhetoric. Tell me how bad I am. Tell the world how great you are, and how someone so terrible keeps getting the better of you, and how someone who can’t even wrestle can defeat the very people you cannot.

I’ll continue making history.

And making you look like the joke you are.

~~~

“Do you really want to know?”

{The two of them had moved from their hotel room to the balcony that they had, that overlooked the London landscape. A small table sat between the two of them, where they each had a hot cup of coffee sat there. Pandora looked deep into Spike, but he glanced off towards the city.}

Spike: I guess I owe you that much at least right?

{She reached an arm over and just placed it on his, just to get his attention, to comfort him.}

Pandora: You don’t owe me anything, you don’t owe anybody anything…..I just want to know you, that is all.

Spike: Well, I mean. I was born in Belfast - that much you know. I had a twin brother, Brad. In the womb his heart was failing, and there was some shit where my heart worked over time to support him or something, which is why I was born with a fucked up heart - hence my scars and stuff…..but, he’s my brother…...was….my brother. Years later my little sister was born, Freya….and that whole shit went down in Ireland. For some reason, Brad was sent to live with family in America, Freya was sent to an institute - even as a baby, and I was sent to an orphanage in Birmingham, England…..

{Pan raises a hand to her mouth, but doesn’t say anything.}

Spike: Pops faked his death, turns out he was running the orphanage all along. He was getting the kids to fight each other, and I mean really fight each other. It was sick, real sick. Eventually I managed to get out, ran away…..and I lived on the streets. Stumbled my way into this biker club, doing the only thing I knew how to do - fight. They took me in, providing I’d fight for them, and I did. I did some stuff I’m ashamed to admit. I hurt people. But it kept me clothed, it kept me fed, and it kept my old man off my back. Kept me hidden. Then, shit….then they discovered wrestling. This barbaric backyard shit….and they wanted me to do it. I was in deep, I owed members money for drugs….so I didn’t have much choice….I did, and would you believe it, I was fucking good at it. This weird American dude offered me a contract, and it was a way out. A way out of the club, and a way out of England. I took it, and I partied like a rockstar….that was the night I met Warrens Mum…..not that I really remember much, I never saw her again til like a year ago…

{Spike stops talking for a moment, just to let his words sink in. Pandora looks down for a second, letting everything sink in. Spike’s trouble with violence, his drug addiction, his abusive father, and the one night stand he’d had with Warren’s mother.}

Spike: Once I got to America….that’s when I realise how shit this business can be. They labelled me as “just a hardcore wrestler” and told me I’d be nothing. So I went out of my way to train, to be the best I could. I bounced from federation to federation, fighting the best I could. I toured Mexico, I went to Japan for three years and stayed with a family there, but I came back to America….and fell back on my violent ways…..because deep down, I’d been hardwired by my old man to be as violent as I could be. I met a few women over the years, very early into my career was Tanya Byrd, we had a fling, she got a pregnant…..yeah….an occurring theme, I’m noticing that too. She hid him from me too, for six years. Poor kid inherited my heart problems from me. Was in my life for about six months before he died….

{Spike stops again collecting his thoughts and closing his eyes, remembering one of his poor dead children, Zell Kane. Pandora closes her eyes too, and places her hand on Spike’s arm again.}

Spike: Turns out, it was true though. Old Doc Griffiths got in my head…..and it was true, I’d been seeing things, seeing my old man, but it was just in my head, and just when I got over it. River…..my wife at the time, turns around and reveals that she was fucking sent to me by him. My world fell apart. The mother of my child was faking it all along. She took Xander away from me,and I questioned everything in my life….and I became a monster, everything he’d ever wanted me to be. Oh...I missed the kicker of it all. He’d messed with my head so much, yeah? I totally had forgotten that I even had a twin brother or a little sister. It wasn’t til Brad showed up in XHF tand revealed it all….and man we went to war, we tore each other to pieces...you see this?

{Spike points to the scar on his hand that Pandora was holding.}

Spike: That was Brad. We did all that, because it was what HE….wanted us to do….

{Spike let’s out a deep sigh.}

Spike: Then he died…..and I felt such a weight lift off my shoulders. The man who had created this monster, who had guided my life in such a way, was gone. I know my ways are skewed, I know my methods are fucked….but it’s why I did what I did to Warren. I don’t want this life for him. Look at what it did to me. Look at what it did to Brad. Look at what it did to Freya…..this business has cursed my family…..I just….I just…..

{Spike looks at Pandora now, her big wide eyes taking everything in, not cutting him off once, letting him finally open up to her, finally let everything out, and tears just fall from his eyes.}

Spike: I don’t want to curse you too!

{Pan gets up and moves around the table, grabbing him in a tight huge, as Spike presses his face into her, grabbing her tight.}

Spike: I love you so much.

{Pan pulls Spike’s head up.}

Pandora: And I love you too, you know that…...that wasn’t everything though was it? You’re upset because you’re holding back aren’t you?

Spike: Do you really want to know every little detail? Every “greatest hit?” every woman who’s burned me in the past?

Pandora: No Michael….I just want you…

{She leans in now as she sits on his lap, and he places his arms around her, and the two of them embrace in a passionate kiss, as we fade on the landscape of London city.)

~~~

Ever the little bitch, aren’t you Laszlo?

I mean you like to think you’re so clever pointing shit out, but you completely miss the point. Ha! You made fun of his reign, but you beat the same people, that means your reign sucks too! Lollicoptors! …..but, that was exactly the point. HE tried to say I did nothing, that HE was so superior, yet every single person he beat….I beat before him, often several times. Every single person he “defended” his title against, I did the same thing. Those who couldn’t beat me, simply moved on to Cable, because they saw a weaker target...but you couldn’t see that.

I guess it’s harder to see things like that from your armchair.

Or you know, while you’re too busy holding your wifes handbag.

But hey, you’re Mike Laszlo, right? You do what you want, and when you want. So tell me again, why were you in a match for the number one contendership? If we’re supposed to take you for your word, why didn’t you just walk into a match with Andrew like Jake did? Hmmm? Why didn’t you just walk out and announce to the world that you where the number one contender and demand that Andrew face you? Oh...are you going to try and tell us now that you WANTED the match? Is this where you spin it on it’s head because once again you’re yet another person who can just never beat me?

It’s amazing how many of you there are isn’t it?

It’s funny how you all claim to be the best too.

I’m not going to lie though Laszlo, it was fun to watch you break through. It was one of those groundbreaking moments in the history of the company. A “boy done good” type moment, it reminded me of other moments I’ve witnessed, and made me remember who you reminded me of, and it brought a smile to my face, because deep down, to me? You’ll always be a Joe Everyman. A guy who was just….there….and then he had his moment in the spotlight, and when it was over? He pissed off, he rode off into the sunset.

It should have ended there Mike.

You should have let it go.

Instead you’re trying to live off of that one moment, and I know you’re probably thinking that’s rich coming from me, right? But the difference is, I’m living off twenty one fucking years of moments, not one. One that I keep on mentioning over and over, desperate for people to accept that I’m relevant, christ, between you and Cable, it’s like a shouting match of relevancy. But me? I don’t need to shout….I just exist, and if people don’t acknowledge it?

I beat it into them.

Just like I did when I put you through that table.

So now you two punks think you have the upper hand by teaming up against me, and forcing me to find a partner, funny that, right? Because ain’t nobody gonna team with Spike, right? I mean...I suppose I could go get Rob….but this ain’t Rob’s fight, and lord knows that dude deserves a break after everything he has been through. So I pulled some strings...and who did I get? None other than Roberto Verona himself.

I’m more than just a pretty face.

I don’t trust Roberto as far as I can throw him, but I trust his dislike of the pair of you. Yeah, I’ve teamed with him in the past, back in the old nCw….we weren’t exactly the best of friends, and I’ve probably made his job ten times harder since coming to IWF….but he knows for a fact that I’ve made this company more money than the two of you combined. I kept IWF afloat when the rats went running, when people couldn’t carry the ball, I stepped up…

And now it’s time to do it all over again.

Bring everything you have Mike, you too Cable, because if you thought you saw anything when I broke you both single handedly two short weeks ago?

You’re in for one hell of a surprise.