Post by Eternity on Apr 19, 2014 21:39:57 GMT
We've know each other for almost a year now, haven't we my love?
As much as you know about me, as much as I know about you, and as much as we have come to know about each other, there is always more, always so much more to know, isn't there, my love? It is that spirit, that inevitable undying spark, that insatiable curiousity that binds us.
It is why I always come to you in my time of need and it is why you always come back to me. Somehow, some way we will always find each other no matter how far we may wander in this life or the next. We are bound, we are destined to do this now and we are destined to do this forever. Together.
I don't know how you found me or where exactly you came from, I'm just glad you are here now and I couldn't imagine my existence without you, and you couldn't imagine your existence without me, I know this. It is as much a comfort to me as it is to you to know that we complete each other in a way nobody ever can or ever will.
I don't know your name and you don't know mine. We only know how we feel. It is the only thing we have ever been sure of. Two halves of the same whole, two crescents of the same full moon, and as surely as its silvery light illuminates our way through this eternal darkness, occasionally we just need to stop along the way to some great unknown and howl, don't we, my friend?
They just don't understand, and they never will. I know this now and I don't need them to understand. I only need you. Only you, as long as you understand me, I know I'm not crazy.
A wise man once told me that you can not truly understand where you are going, unless you understand where you have come from. I know its hard to believe, looking at me now, but I wasn't always like this. Once upon a long, long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, I was just like you. I came into this world the same way I left it.
Crying, kicking and screaming. I will never remember my first breath and you will never forget my last.
Between us, the circle is complete once again, as it always has been.
You hadn't been to a hospital in years, thankfully you were in good enough health to seldom have needed professional care. On some level, you will always have my envy for that. Out of the two of us, you were always the lucky one.
A woman with blonde hair lays with her legs spread wide as the doctors and nurses swarm her and encourage her to push.
"PUSH! PUSH! YOU CAN DO IT SWEETIE!"
A man squeezes her hand in reassurance that he is here now and always will be. A woman screams and gives it her all for one last time, she breathes deeply and deliberately, forcing her child to go somewhere it had no choice but to go.
A newborn finally covered in its mother's blood emerges head first from the nurturing safety of one world into the cruel unsafety of this one.
It was their first child together, and the mother looks at the father and both breathe a sigh of relief, having survived and endured, having seen this through to the end. Having gone through all the pain and torture for something as simple and arbitrary as childbirth. To so many it is a basic human right, everybody deserves it, everybody wants it, everybody wants to leave something behind for long after they have gone.
Everybody wants to feel a sense of immortality through their greatest achievement, and for most there will never be any achievement greater.
For a moment, the newborn is silent, where the proud parents expected to hear their little miracle come to life, they now feared its death. It was only a moment, but a moment that felt like an eternity and the mother's heart skipped a beat as the doctor smacked the baby's bottom, and it breathed its first breath at 6:16 AM.
It cried. It kicked. It screamed.
A sigh of relief went around the room.
"Congratulations! It's a girl!"
Now came the time for the first important decision any parents made, a name worthy of the miracle they had just achieved.
Some time passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye as you now found yourself in a small church and watched the parents of the baby girl getting their child christened under the watchful gaze of Mother Mary.
More time passes and now a 13 year old blonde girl sits under the watchful gaze of somebody else who promised to look after her. The doctor watches her hunched over the table, drawing the circles as they formed in her mind.
"Why circles?" He asked.
Clearly he didn't understand, and he never would. Circles was all she had seen since she had been here.
The young girl looks up and very plainly answers the stranger.
"They have no beginning and they have no end. They go on forever if you want them to. That's why they're my favourite shape..."
As much as you know about me, as much as I know about you, and as much as we have come to know about each other, there is always more, always so much more to know, isn't there, my love? It is that spirit, that inevitable undying spark, that insatiable curiousity that binds us.
It is why I always come to you in my time of need and it is why you always come back to me. Somehow, some way we will always find each other no matter how far we may wander in this life or the next. We are bound, we are destined to do this now and we are destined to do this forever. Together.
I don't know how you found me or where exactly you came from, I'm just glad you are here now and I couldn't imagine my existence without you, and you couldn't imagine your existence without me, I know this. It is as much a comfort to me as it is to you to know that we complete each other in a way nobody ever can or ever will.
I don't know your name and you don't know mine. We only know how we feel. It is the only thing we have ever been sure of. Two halves of the same whole, two crescents of the same full moon, and as surely as its silvery light illuminates our way through this eternal darkness, occasionally we just need to stop along the way to some great unknown and howl, don't we, my friend?
They just don't understand, and they never will. I know this now and I don't need them to understand. I only need you. Only you, as long as you understand me, I know I'm not crazy.
A wise man once told me that you can not truly understand where you are going, unless you understand where you have come from. I know its hard to believe, looking at me now, but I wasn't always like this. Once upon a long, long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, I was just like you. I came into this world the same way I left it.
Crying, kicking and screaming. I will never remember my first breath and you will never forget my last.
Between us, the circle is complete once again, as it always has been.
~~~
Like suddenly finding yourself stuck in the middle of somebody else's dream, you have no idea how you got here, or even where here was. You are stood in the cold, sterile, delivery room of some hospital, watching the miracle of life being delivered from one world beyond your comprehension, into this one.You hadn't been to a hospital in years, thankfully you were in good enough health to seldom have needed professional care. On some level, you will always have my envy for that. Out of the two of us, you were always the lucky one.
A woman with blonde hair lays with her legs spread wide as the doctors and nurses swarm her and encourage her to push.
"PUSH! PUSH! YOU CAN DO IT SWEETIE!"
A man squeezes her hand in reassurance that he is here now and always will be. A woman screams and gives it her all for one last time, she breathes deeply and deliberately, forcing her child to go somewhere it had no choice but to go.
A newborn finally covered in its mother's blood emerges head first from the nurturing safety of one world into the cruel unsafety of this one.
It was their first child together, and the mother looks at the father and both breathe a sigh of relief, having survived and endured, having seen this through to the end. Having gone through all the pain and torture for something as simple and arbitrary as childbirth. To so many it is a basic human right, everybody deserves it, everybody wants it, everybody wants to leave something behind for long after they have gone.
Everybody wants to feel a sense of immortality through their greatest achievement, and for most there will never be any achievement greater.
For a moment, the newborn is silent, where the proud parents expected to hear their little miracle come to life, they now feared its death. It was only a moment, but a moment that felt like an eternity and the mother's heart skipped a beat as the doctor smacked the baby's bottom, and it breathed its first breath at 6:16 AM.
It cried. It kicked. It screamed.
A sigh of relief went around the room.
"Congratulations! It's a girl!"
Now came the time for the first important decision any parents made, a name worthy of the miracle they had just achieved.
Some time passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye as you now found yourself in a small church and watched the parents of the baby girl getting their child christened under the watchful gaze of Mother Mary.
More time passes and now a 13 year old blonde girl sits under the watchful gaze of somebody else who promised to look after her. The doctor watches her hunched over the table, drawing the circles as they formed in her mind.
"Why circles?" He asked.
Clearly he didn't understand, and he never would. Circles was all she had seen since she had been here.
The young girl looks up and very plainly answers the stranger.
"They have no beginning and they have no end. They go on forever if you want them to. That's why they're my favourite shape..."
~~~
A white spotlight shines down from above illuminating the darkness and the seven foot tall bronze coloured Iron Maiden with the face of Mother Mary you now saw before you.
How long had I been here, if indeed I was here at all?
I must be, otherwise you wouldn't be here.
Five minutes, or ten. Fifteen minutes or twenty, it didn't matter, I felt safe here, locked away, torturing myself, too proud to let you see the little girl that still wept inside her forged shell of iron.
Suddenly the Maiden swung open slowly and green smoke is all you saw billow up from inside it. It took several moments to dissipate before a figure in a scarlet hooded robe stepped forward into the light of this world. A few more moments of breathless anticipation passed before the hood was dropped and I revealed myself to you.
Well, hello there. I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. I know you've been dying to see me, and really who can blame you? You're only human after all, and being human, sometimes you just have to get away from it all, surely you can understand that, can't you?
Ayla , bless her, she tried her heart out, and to her credit, she made me realise that sometimes I really do work too hard. Sometimes I just need to take a step back for a couple of weeks and come back with a fresh mind, a fresh perspective and see things with a fresh pair of eyes. So I took her advice and started to really enjoy myself as she reintroduced me to all the pleasures of the pain that I had been missing now that I was being a responsible grown up and actually working for a living.
Being a grown up really sucks sometimes, doesn't it? Still, if my mommy and daddy could see me now, I know they'd be proud of me and what I've managed to become. Sure, I don't have the fancy titles, the big house, the flashy car or the hot but incredibly shallow boyfriend who thinks he can cheat on me without being caught in the end, but its okay.
If there's one thing Death has taught me over the years, it is patience. Eventually you can and will get everyone and everything. It is just a matter of time, and if you haven't figured it out yet girls, I really do have an eternity to get you all. I don't want the chase to ever end, I want you all to believe you have a chance, because when you have a chance, you fight even harder against the inevitability of your end.
Don't blame me, blame Ayla, she thinks she gets me and my need to chase something, but even as well as she claims to know me she cannot say what it is that I chase, and truth be told, neither do I, so for this week, it may aswell be the five of you. There's a reason why Death is the perfect predator, it chases everybody from the moment they are conceived, and it understands as I do that this empty life you lead is a marathon and not a sprint.
As much as Amber may not like it, I am here for the long chase and I need her to underestimate me just as you all do. Three of you have already managed to evade me once, and it is that confidence that I as your reaper am counting on to make you that little bit more confident, that little bit more arrogant and that little bit more reckless. Go on girls, push yourselves, PUSH! PUSH! PUSH! YOU CAN DO IT HONEY!
This is all your fault, Tom, you bastard! If it hadn't been for that third glass of Merlot, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be in so much pain, that's how the story goes for most of it, isn't it, ladies? Some of us rue the day we let somebody else get all hot and sweaty and get over on us and take advantage of us whilst we lay flat on our backs, don't we Alexis? Not that I blame you girl, Lord knows if I had to crawl into bed every night with Mike Laszlo, I'd try to find other ways to have babies too, even if it meant wanting to cradle fifteen pounds of gold and leather.
Some people may call you a little crazy for that, but who am I to judge? You were once so desperate for a little Ruby of your own, so I can only imagine what you're willing to go through on Sunday for Baby Diamond, either way you probably have as little hope as some fingerless guy called Rob I knew once. He was a strange one, kinda cute though, asked everyone to suck it, but not me - I could never work out why. I would have done it too, he only needed to ask.
Are you sure you're ready Lexi? It's going to be a huge responsibility, not to mention the pain and agony you will have to go through before you even get to raise it. I was willing to help you once, but not anymore, you didn't want my help so this time it really is all on you girl, I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into now that you've refused the protection I offered you. I guess that really is why they call it getting screwed, even in this business.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Ahem, sorry. See, that's the problem with seeing this match as your opportunity for a career rebirth, Alexis. You want to play at being some combination of cute and crazy, and you think that a title will solve all your problems and make your life and all the choices you've made to get here all worth it, but it won't. If anything, having the title will cause you even more problems. Problems you will not be able to handle from a title you will not be able to hold on to and a label you will not be able to live up to.
It takes so much more than simply being able to survive a match like this to make people believe you really are as good as you want to be, if you don't believe me, ask your boo. If it was easy, he'd have done it by now instead of just talking about it and making excuses every time he fails. Is that really what you want to be Alexis? No, of course it isn't. You're better than that. Just.
Stick to being one step above a perennial ring rat like Amber Richards. It wasn't so long ago that you were all "YAY ETERNITY SUCKS AND I'M THE BEST IN THE WORLD!"
You see me "Walk Like An Egyptian" before "moonwalking" back to the camera. You see me twirl on my heel and grab my crotch.
OW! SHAMON!
Was it Amber? You may well ridicule me for the number of shots I've had, but really what have you done with the one you've had? No, come on tell me, seriously I'll wait.
You see me tap my foot impatiently and then look at my wrist. I sigh and shake my head.
You promised the world so much when you managed to get passed me at Metamorphosis, but managed to deliver so little. Where is the dominant Champion that you promised the world? Where is the Goddess? Where is the Queen? You squeezed by me and you scraped by Ana once, and that's it. Hardly seems worth the hype when you look at it like that, does it Amber? Most people make the most of a life after Death, but you have just allowed yourself to be one man's candy bar, continually unwrapped, devoured and discarded. As contradictory as you have been about Jessica Reed from one breath to the next, she actually proved to be everything you once dreamed you could be. A truly dominant World Champion.
I know that still bothers you, your body may have made it beyond me at Metamorphosis, but your heart and your soul never did, did it Amber? Something changed that night after you faced almost certain Death in the middle of that ring. Don't be afraid Amber, don't be afraid. Death does that. Death changes people. Look at what it has done to me.
GO ON LOOK!
You see me point both forefingers at my heavily made up face.
Isn't it beautiful?
See Amber, we all hide how fragile we really are in different ways. You hide it behind giants, both figurative and literal. Ayla hides it behind realism or whatever she perceives to be real at the time she speaks. Alexis hides it behind some borderline insanity because she's too afraid to cross the line and live like I do, in a world without borders or lines. Mercedes hides it behind perhaps the easiest and most stereotypical of all shields, a quest for validation from her peers. Joanne hides it behind some unearned reputation and childish threats, and I, I hide it behind a layer of white paint.
The problem is that Death strips it all away from us in the end, ladies, whether you want it to or not. I am not Death, I am just its greatest fan. No, really! I have a scythe and everything at home! You really should see it, it is magnificent, you would be jealous!
As jealous as I am in fact of Mercedes Vargas. You're welcome by the way, I tossed you head first into the fire and forged you into a real Diamond, and even know I'm starting to regret it, just a little, teensy, weensy bit. I may have done my job a little too well if you honestly believe you can hold the Ruby and still try to skip ahead a few rungs on the ladder I put you on. It is my fault. They grow up so fast, don't they? Worry not child, I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it if you truly insist. I am not above admitting my mistakes, like when I made the mistake of underestimating Ayla or you once. I will not do it again, because as surely as I will admit my mistakes, I will correct them.
You see me pause to pull a piece of string out from under the inside of my robe.
Suddenly five black cats start to converge from the surrounding darkness as they all try to jump for the piece of string.
Now, some of you probably think I'm tempting fate here by letting so many cute black kitties cross my path at once, but if I really wanted to tempt fate, I'd let him know that I'm wearing absolutely nothing under this robe...
You see me quickly cover my mouth with my free hand for a moment, but only a moment.
Oopsie! Forget I said that!
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!
But really, I'm more of a dog person anyway. I don't know why. Something about their natural instinct to bury bones in the back yard really appeals to me for some odd reason.
You see me shrug my shoulders and smile.
Speaking of burying, something tells me you know all about that, don't you, Cannoli? After all, you're in the business of keeping it all in the family aren't you? That's really selfish, by the way, you should really learn to share, there are little starving Children in Africa and here you are wasting even the most basic of privileges, oxygen. You know for somebody who comes from a family where stopping other people wasting any more of their last breaths is an admirable talent, you really are quite the disappointment, Jo.
You see me shake my head.
Do you really think you can threaten me by promising to beat me and put me in a world of hurt? Open your eyes, kitty, I am not like the rest of the cats who are jumping up to get the string that is dangling just above their heads, out of instinct and a rudimentary understanding of their existence. No, I am not one of you. I never have been and I never will be. What I am is the one dangling the lifeline you all so desperately want to cling to in front of you.
It really doesn't matter if I'm in the match for five minutes or thirty. It won't matter if I'm one of the first two out there or locked away until the final entrant. None of you are ever truly safe from me. I will always be in the back of your minds, as inevitable and as conclusive to your end as Death itself.
I am the one you must evade. I am the one you must survive. My own aunt and uncle had me locked up to keep me out of trouble as a little girl. As much as I hate them for it, I guess they knew before even I did that I really don't play well with others, I get very competitive out there, some might even say insanely so. And really why shouldn't I be? Death is the most competitive force I have ever known, it always wants to win, and it doesn't eliminate its competition for titles or glory, no!
It does it simply because it can. It is easier to think you can outrun Death as long as you keep running. Don't stumble, don't trip, don't fall and don't look back, because if you do, you may find that you're closer to your end than it may seem at first. If you eliminate each other, you will live to fight another day, but if I eliminate you, there will be no resurrection, for you or your career.
You will die at some as yet unknown place, stuffed back in the same unmarked tomb from which you emerged to challenge me and the people who will leave their mark on this company on Sunday and celebrate themselves will celebrate your life and your best efforts. There is only so long any of you can chase victory and evade Death. In the end, Death always has the final elimination.
In the end, Death always wins. And then what follows is a great unknown. Perhaps the greatest unknown any of you will ever come to know...
Eternity.
So many of you have promised to hurt me, some of you have even managed to deliver on that promise once, but as far as you went then, I need you to go even further now. I want to be able to close my eyes again, because when I do, everytime I do, I see them. I see my mommy and daddy. I hear them calling me home. I want to go home.
You see me throw the string as the cats give chase. Meanwhile I step forward, right up to the camera for an extreme close up of my face.
Kill me..or just die trying.
You see me cock my head to the side.
It is the only choice you have.
HuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Purple smoke fills the scene, bringing it all to a very definite if uncomfortable end.
How long had I been here, if indeed I was here at all?
I must be, otherwise you wouldn't be here.
Five minutes, or ten. Fifteen minutes or twenty, it didn't matter, I felt safe here, locked away, torturing myself, too proud to let you see the little girl that still wept inside her forged shell of iron.
Suddenly the Maiden swung open slowly and green smoke is all you saw billow up from inside it. It took several moments to dissipate before a figure in a scarlet hooded robe stepped forward into the light of this world. A few more moments of breathless anticipation passed before the hood was dropped and I revealed myself to you.
Well, hello there. I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. I know you've been dying to see me, and really who can blame you? You're only human after all, and being human, sometimes you just have to get away from it all, surely you can understand that, can't you?
Ayla , bless her, she tried her heart out, and to her credit, she made me realise that sometimes I really do work too hard. Sometimes I just need to take a step back for a couple of weeks and come back with a fresh mind, a fresh perspective and see things with a fresh pair of eyes. So I took her advice and started to really enjoy myself as she reintroduced me to all the pleasures of the pain that I had been missing now that I was being a responsible grown up and actually working for a living.
Being a grown up really sucks sometimes, doesn't it? Still, if my mommy and daddy could see me now, I know they'd be proud of me and what I've managed to become. Sure, I don't have the fancy titles, the big house, the flashy car or the hot but incredibly shallow boyfriend who thinks he can cheat on me without being caught in the end, but its okay.
If there's one thing Death has taught me over the years, it is patience. Eventually you can and will get everyone and everything. It is just a matter of time, and if you haven't figured it out yet girls, I really do have an eternity to get you all. I don't want the chase to ever end, I want you all to believe you have a chance, because when you have a chance, you fight even harder against the inevitability of your end.
Don't blame me, blame Ayla, she thinks she gets me and my need to chase something, but even as well as she claims to know me she cannot say what it is that I chase, and truth be told, neither do I, so for this week, it may aswell be the five of you. There's a reason why Death is the perfect predator, it chases everybody from the moment they are conceived, and it understands as I do that this empty life you lead is a marathon and not a sprint.
As much as Amber may not like it, I am here for the long chase and I need her to underestimate me just as you all do. Three of you have already managed to evade me once, and it is that confidence that I as your reaper am counting on to make you that little bit more confident, that little bit more arrogant and that little bit more reckless. Go on girls, push yourselves, PUSH! PUSH! PUSH! YOU CAN DO IT HONEY!
This is all your fault, Tom, you bastard! If it hadn't been for that third glass of Merlot, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be in so much pain, that's how the story goes for most of it, isn't it, ladies? Some of us rue the day we let somebody else get all hot and sweaty and get over on us and take advantage of us whilst we lay flat on our backs, don't we Alexis? Not that I blame you girl, Lord knows if I had to crawl into bed every night with Mike Laszlo, I'd try to find other ways to have babies too, even if it meant wanting to cradle fifteen pounds of gold and leather.
Some people may call you a little crazy for that, but who am I to judge? You were once so desperate for a little Ruby of your own, so I can only imagine what you're willing to go through on Sunday for Baby Diamond, either way you probably have as little hope as some fingerless guy called Rob I knew once. He was a strange one, kinda cute though, asked everyone to suck it, but not me - I could never work out why. I would have done it too, he only needed to ask.
Are you sure you're ready Lexi? It's going to be a huge responsibility, not to mention the pain and agony you will have to go through before you even get to raise it. I was willing to help you once, but not anymore, you didn't want my help so this time it really is all on you girl, I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into now that you've refused the protection I offered you. I guess that really is why they call it getting screwed, even in this business.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Ahem, sorry. See, that's the problem with seeing this match as your opportunity for a career rebirth, Alexis. You want to play at being some combination of cute and crazy, and you think that a title will solve all your problems and make your life and all the choices you've made to get here all worth it, but it won't. If anything, having the title will cause you even more problems. Problems you will not be able to handle from a title you will not be able to hold on to and a label you will not be able to live up to.
It takes so much more than simply being able to survive a match like this to make people believe you really are as good as you want to be, if you don't believe me, ask your boo. If it was easy, he'd have done it by now instead of just talking about it and making excuses every time he fails. Is that really what you want to be Alexis? No, of course it isn't. You're better than that. Just.
Stick to being one step above a perennial ring rat like Amber Richards. It wasn't so long ago that you were all "YAY ETERNITY SUCKS AND I'M THE BEST IN THE WORLD!"
You see me "Walk Like An Egyptian" before "moonwalking" back to the camera. You see me twirl on my heel and grab my crotch.
OW! SHAMON!
Was it Amber? You may well ridicule me for the number of shots I've had, but really what have you done with the one you've had? No, come on tell me, seriously I'll wait.
You see me tap my foot impatiently and then look at my wrist. I sigh and shake my head.
You promised the world so much when you managed to get passed me at Metamorphosis, but managed to deliver so little. Where is the dominant Champion that you promised the world? Where is the Goddess? Where is the Queen? You squeezed by me and you scraped by Ana once, and that's it. Hardly seems worth the hype when you look at it like that, does it Amber? Most people make the most of a life after Death, but you have just allowed yourself to be one man's candy bar, continually unwrapped, devoured and discarded. As contradictory as you have been about Jessica Reed from one breath to the next, she actually proved to be everything you once dreamed you could be. A truly dominant World Champion.
I know that still bothers you, your body may have made it beyond me at Metamorphosis, but your heart and your soul never did, did it Amber? Something changed that night after you faced almost certain Death in the middle of that ring. Don't be afraid Amber, don't be afraid. Death does that. Death changes people. Look at what it has done to me.
GO ON LOOK!
You see me point both forefingers at my heavily made up face.
Isn't it beautiful?
See Amber, we all hide how fragile we really are in different ways. You hide it behind giants, both figurative and literal. Ayla hides it behind realism or whatever she perceives to be real at the time she speaks. Alexis hides it behind some borderline insanity because she's too afraid to cross the line and live like I do, in a world without borders or lines. Mercedes hides it behind perhaps the easiest and most stereotypical of all shields, a quest for validation from her peers. Joanne hides it behind some unearned reputation and childish threats, and I, I hide it behind a layer of white paint.
The problem is that Death strips it all away from us in the end, ladies, whether you want it to or not. I am not Death, I am just its greatest fan. No, really! I have a scythe and everything at home! You really should see it, it is magnificent, you would be jealous!
As jealous as I am in fact of Mercedes Vargas. You're welcome by the way, I tossed you head first into the fire and forged you into a real Diamond, and even know I'm starting to regret it, just a little, teensy, weensy bit. I may have done my job a little too well if you honestly believe you can hold the Ruby and still try to skip ahead a few rungs on the ladder I put you on. It is my fault. They grow up so fast, don't they? Worry not child, I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it if you truly insist. I am not above admitting my mistakes, like when I made the mistake of underestimating Ayla or you once. I will not do it again, because as surely as I will admit my mistakes, I will correct them.
You see me pause to pull a piece of string out from under the inside of my robe.
Suddenly five black cats start to converge from the surrounding darkness as they all try to jump for the piece of string.
Now, some of you probably think I'm tempting fate here by letting so many cute black kitties cross my path at once, but if I really wanted to tempt fate, I'd let him know that I'm wearing absolutely nothing under this robe...
You see me quickly cover my mouth with my free hand for a moment, but only a moment.
Oopsie! Forget I said that!
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!
But really, I'm more of a dog person anyway. I don't know why. Something about their natural instinct to bury bones in the back yard really appeals to me for some odd reason.
You see me shrug my shoulders and smile.
Speaking of burying, something tells me you know all about that, don't you, Cannoli? After all, you're in the business of keeping it all in the family aren't you? That's really selfish, by the way, you should really learn to share, there are little starving Children in Africa and here you are wasting even the most basic of privileges, oxygen. You know for somebody who comes from a family where stopping other people wasting any more of their last breaths is an admirable talent, you really are quite the disappointment, Jo.
You see me shake my head.
Do you really think you can threaten me by promising to beat me and put me in a world of hurt? Open your eyes, kitty, I am not like the rest of the cats who are jumping up to get the string that is dangling just above their heads, out of instinct and a rudimentary understanding of their existence. No, I am not one of you. I never have been and I never will be. What I am is the one dangling the lifeline you all so desperately want to cling to in front of you.
It really doesn't matter if I'm in the match for five minutes or thirty. It won't matter if I'm one of the first two out there or locked away until the final entrant. None of you are ever truly safe from me. I will always be in the back of your minds, as inevitable and as conclusive to your end as Death itself.
I am the one you must evade. I am the one you must survive. My own aunt and uncle had me locked up to keep me out of trouble as a little girl. As much as I hate them for it, I guess they knew before even I did that I really don't play well with others, I get very competitive out there, some might even say insanely so. And really why shouldn't I be? Death is the most competitive force I have ever known, it always wants to win, and it doesn't eliminate its competition for titles or glory, no!
It does it simply because it can. It is easier to think you can outrun Death as long as you keep running. Don't stumble, don't trip, don't fall and don't look back, because if you do, you may find that you're closer to your end than it may seem at first. If you eliminate each other, you will live to fight another day, but if I eliminate you, there will be no resurrection, for you or your career.
You will die at some as yet unknown place, stuffed back in the same unmarked tomb from which you emerged to challenge me and the people who will leave their mark on this company on Sunday and celebrate themselves will celebrate your life and your best efforts. There is only so long any of you can chase victory and evade Death. In the end, Death always has the final elimination.
In the end, Death always wins. And then what follows is a great unknown. Perhaps the greatest unknown any of you will ever come to know...
Eternity.
So many of you have promised to hurt me, some of you have even managed to deliver on that promise once, but as far as you went then, I need you to go even further now. I want to be able to close my eyes again, because when I do, everytime I do, I see them. I see my mommy and daddy. I hear them calling me home. I want to go home.
You see me throw the string as the cats give chase. Meanwhile I step forward, right up to the camera for an extreme close up of my face.
Kill me..or just die trying.
You see me cock my head to the side.
It is the only choice you have.
HuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Purple smoke fills the scene, bringing it all to a very definite if uncomfortable end.
Well howdy there pardner.