Monster

[Jayson Matthews]

“This next match….”

He exhaled and shook his head.

“...it’s huge.”

He shook his head again and stared off to the side as he imagined the magnitude of this match and what it meant to him.

“It’s quite possibly the biggest match of my career. Hands down.”

He looked into the camera. No smile, no grin. Just the piercing blue eyes of a focused individual.

“Everything is on the line here. So many prizes that I would love to earn. I mean first off there are the points for the Heir to the Throne. I’ve managed to earn my way to the top of the rankings, tied with three other guys. I’ve been gaining momentum in the weeks prior, I’ve been working hard to gain these points and I know that not all of us are going to make it out of Lineage in the same position. But if I can pull off the win and secure my spot in the lead or even get ahead of everyone with a submission win, that would be amazing. I’d be one step closer to a shot at the world champion and achieving a long time dream.”

He smiles in awe at the thought of one day winning that belt, but the smile slowly fades away.

“But this week...Heir to the Throne points are the last thing on my mind.”

He sighs.

“I have an opportunity to win the Extreme Championship. Now, winning some gold would be nice. And as I’m sure some of you remember, I am a former three time champion, back when it was known as the Invictus Championship. I held that belt with pride and fought some epic wars against some pretty brutal people and I managed to hold onto that belt for one hundred fifty four days. I tied the record for the longest reign. I could win this match and become the first ever FOUR time Extreme Champion. That’s never been done before in IWF and if I managed to make that happen there is no doubt in my mind that I’d go down as the greatest extreme champion there ever was. Man, that would be cool. Wouldn’t it?”

He thinks about raising that title up in the air for the unprecedented fourth time at the end of Lineage. But again his smile slowly fades away again.

“As cool as it would be, making history isn’t even on my radar.”

He shakes his head as he stood up from the chair he was sitting in.

“No. This week as I prepare for the biggest match I may ever have, I am only thinking of one thing and one thing only.”

He steps forward and glares into the camera.

“Making. Angel. Blake. Suffer.”

His fist clench as he thinks about his goal this week on pay per view.

“That is the only thing on my mind. That’s the only prize that I want to take home with me. I want the satisfaction of knowing that Angel knows how big of a mistake he made. I want Angel to wish he could turn back time and take back the things he did to me, and be forced to repent for all eternity. I just want to him to feel bad for what he did. He did something to me that can’t be undone. He did something to me and now I can’t go back.

His mouth snarled with rage but a single tear ran down his face.

“He changed me.”

He wiped the tear away.

“I remember before. When I was happy. It was around this time, last year. I was Invictus Champion, working hard to advance in the Heir to the Throne tournament. I had Sasha, I had Nighthawk, I had good friends. I had the world and nothing was holding me back. Things were a lot more easy to figure out back then.”

He smiled as he reminisced.

“And things continued on like that as time went on, up until I lost the Invictus Title. Then things started getting a lot more confusing.”

His smile faded.

“Mind games.”

“Tricks.”

His eyes matched the fear in his voice.

“Little kids prophesying my future. Calling for my death. I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t figure anything out and then before I knew it, there was the voices in my head. The images Id see at night and in my dreams and soon whenever they wanted.”

He ran his palms through his blonde hair as he looked into the camera.

“It was all him. He was in my head before I even knew what happened. He manipulated me by using my fears and brainwashed me by using my hopes. He made me believe his view of the world. He forced me to sever the ties of the people I cared about all so that he could force me to become the person he wanted me to be. He took me in, he showed me what a father’s love could have been like, and he knew that was something that I wished for...he heard my prayers, and he used them against me. It was nice at first, to feel that kind of love but at the time I didn’t know what the outcome was. That at the same time he was claiming his love for me as his own son he was slowly killing the old Jayson Matthews. He was slowly trying to destroy my heart and my soul from the inside out.”

His lips quivered and his eyes watered as he tried to contain his anger.

“Angel Blake pretended to love me like a father, and sleazed into my mind, and he turned me into something I wasn’t. And I didn’t even get a choice…”

He lowered his head and wiped his eyes. He took a deep breath and got his emotions in check. After a few moments he looked back into the camera. Still piercing through the lens with a glare.

“To me that’s just unforgivable.”

“You son of a bitch, I never asked for any of this. I never wanted to lose Sasha, I never wanted to break Nighthawks heart, I haven’t even seen or spoke to my sister in months. But that’s what my life is now, because of you! They all hate me. The people I care the most about hate me because of you, because you turned me into a monster…..”

His breathing was heavy and he chuckled and grinned into the camera.

“You turned me into a monster…”

He smiled again, baring his teeth.

“And it was the worst mistake you ever made, God.”

Jayson took a step toward the camera and he pointed at his chest.

“Because now I’m a monster that’s coming after you!

He points into the camera.

“You see, we may not be blood but you still gave me power when we were together. You still showed me how to be a monster and now I’m going to use what I learned all over your lying and manipulating ass at Lineage. You showed me how to be a remorseless and sadistic son of a bitch. You showed me how to be vicious and brutal bastard with no soul just like yourself. And that’s exactly what I’m going to be this Sunday.”

He smiles, and out stretches his arms.

“So congratulations DAD, at Lineage you will finally get a glimpse of the son of god you always wanted, while I pummel your old painted face into dirt under my knuckles! This isn’t about the Pack verse the Age of Gods, it’s only about me and you. I’m going to bring the rage that you tried to fill me with and I’m going to use it to destroy you. I know that I may not be able to hurt the being that is inside but I know that Angel Blake’s body is old and decrepit. His back, neck and knees are easy targets, for kendo sticks, and steel chairs, and baseball bats. His face a perfect place to strike with barbed wire and glass. If it’s bones I have to break, then I’m sure I can find a way to make that happen. I will snap his limbs off like chicken bones if that’s what it takes. I don’t care if I have to pump every last ounce of blood from his broken down, lifeless body, then that’s what I’ll do. If I want to get my revenge, and truly defeat God himself then I will become the one thing he always wanted me to be.”

He simply shrugs his shoulders.

“A monster.”

“But the only difference is, at Lineage, when that bell rings and our match starts I will be the monster, but for good.”

“I will allow myself to become the monster that destroys God, for good. Because the monster inside me isn’t fueled by rage and anger like you thought, no, it’s ran by the passion inside me. The desire I have. The passion I have inside to defeat you and set things right, and my desire to go back to the way I was before. My monster is ran by my heart and my soul.

He holds up two fingers.

“The only two things your power could never truly corrupt, no matter how hard you tried.”

“So when that bell rings I’m coming at you with a monster that you’ll never be able to contend with God, because you don’t know what heart is. Yours died long ago. I’m coming into the ring to face you for everything that you made me do and all the people you made me hurt. I’m coming to the ring for all the other people that you’ve hurt in the past and the people you might hurt in the present. I’m coming for Sasha, for Nighthawk, for my sister, for all the fans that I may have let down, for my mother! I want them all to know I’m sorry. I’m coming to Lineage to make things right. For good.”

“I don’t care what I have to do, or what I have to go through…”

He shakes his head and swipes through the air with both hands.

“Put me through tables, throw me off ladders, I’ll still get up. Throw me through walls, cut my skin, I’ve thrived in extreme before. Some call me the best champion ever. Make me a broken and bloody mess, I will still give you every ounce of blood sweat and tears that I have in my body, for good.”

He spits off to the side. He starts seething with rage.

“Your a snake, Angel Blake. A venomous beast that needs its head cut off. And that’s going to be me. I’m going to break you down, I’m going to outwrestle the GodKing in his own world of extreme because rage and anger simmer over time, but heart beats forever. And inside my heart beats a fire that no God could ever snuff. And after I’m done beating the hell out of God, I will teach him the ultimate lesson he should have knew in the first place…”

“Angel Blake could never have been MY father….”

Jayson smirks.

“Because he doesn’t have the balls…

“And I prove that on Sunday. Angel Blake is a legend, a hall of famer, but this Sunday he meets the one man his power couldn’t break down. I’m going to take Angel Blake down. I show that Angel Blake isn’t some God you fear, he’s merely a miserable husk of a man that hates himself more than anyone else could truly hate him. That’s his weakness over all. No matter how legendary they say he is, I know that his true dark secret is that deep down he’s a sad pathetic man who ruined his life already. Angel Blake is the example of what giving up everything really means. A long time ago Angel Blake gave up his heart and sold his soul. This Sunday night…”

He pounds his fist into his palm and he smiled confidently. The passionate flames in his eyes danced for the camera.

“The heart and soul of IWF is going to show him what he’s missing.”

“And as I prepare myself to step into the ring with my biggest opponent ever, quite possibly the most legendary and the most awe inspiring of all the members of the Hall of Fame, I come in with confidence. I know that Angel underestimated my heart once before, he didn’t realize the strength of my will to survive him. This week he realizes the true extent of that will. He’s going to learn he was outmatched from the start and he won’t be able to keep up in the end. I will show Angel just how far I’m willing to go to show him why he should have never messed with me!”

“And when it’s all said and done Angel, after the Heir to the Throne points have been logged and the Extreme title has been placed on my shoulder and everyone is going crazy and my music is playing. I’m going to look down at your broken and bloody carcass lying unconscious in the middle of the ring after I whipped your ass, for all the things you’ve done and all the things you had coming to you, I’m going to smile.”

He grins. The anger and the emotion he felt now transforming into laser focus.

“Because you’ll be gone, and out of my life, for good.”

He places his palms together as if he were praying but he looks directly into the camera.

“Oh Heavenly Father…

….the end of days has been dark…

...but at Lineage…

...the son will shine.”

Jayson slowly nods his head.

“And it will be bananas!”

Fade.