Post by "Kronus" on Feb 22, 2015 10:45:56 GMT
Made a wrong turn once or twice
Dug my way out, blood and fire
Bad decisions, that's alright
Welcome to my silly life
** Four Weeks Ago **
The tinny sounding radio chugs out some banjo-lead country music as the local station slips through the speakers. Alastair narrows his eyes slightly, but makes no move to switch the radio off as his eyes dart between the road and muted GPS system affixed to the dash.
On the passenger seat of the car sits the envelope that contained Bailey's letter, the return address hand scrawled across it had been her first mistake... But not her last. He glances back to the envelope for a moment and his hands tighten on the wheel, his knuckles blanching from the pressure as he gets to his turn and starts down a hand cobbled looking driveway.
As he pulls up outside the moderately nice looking home, he swings the car door shut with a slam, taking his time in locking it as an older woman makes her way out onto the porch, the later winter sun not quite warm enough to stave off the chill in her bones as she pulls a shawl around her shoulders.
Alastair looks up to the sky, noticing the grey clouds rolling in before he turns to face dead old 'Auntie Mae' his boots crunch against the gravel and she seems dubiously curious about her new visitor, as her eyes trace his frame, her face turns to one of a coy smile - even at such an age, she still cannot help but be attracted to his boyish charm.
"I wasn't expectin' visitors!" she calls, moving a hand to fix her hair as he moves across the rest of the drive way, skipping up the steps to the porch he bows his head in a quick greeting "I like the element of surprise ma'am." he smiles sheepishly before extending a hand to her;
"I don't believe we've had the pleasure..." he starts as she takes his hand "My name is Alastair Stevens, I'm here about Bailey." as recognition reaches the woman's face her smile drops along with all the colour from her cheeks.
Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood
Miss 'No way, it's all good'
It didn't slow me down.
Mistaken, always second guessing
Underestimated, look I'm still around...
"Shock and Awe... the two boys who took a liking to trying to rip apart some goof-off stage names my brother and I threw together, well boys that blew up in your face didn't it..."
"Boom!"
"Bay.. No."
"What?! Blew up... Dynamite... Get it?"
"Uh huh... If you're going to continue to lower yourself to the intellectual level of these neanderthals I will make you sit in the corner...
Now, back to my point Mr facetious and Mr clueless... You really want to stand there in your mock-ups with your ovwer blown props to make up for your many, many failings... And go at us for being 'talkers' I mean shit boys... Your promo ran so long not even a Taco Bell inspired bathroom break cleared it.
But please, feel free to keep running your mouths and very successfully proving exactly why you amount to all of nothing in the tag division. List off a few more teams no one has heard of or gives a damn about! Abacadraba Doo and The Unicorn Boys too right?! Any other fantastical tag teams you wanna name as losing to you?
...No?"
"Unicorn Boys would be a pretty awesome name for you and Colt..."
"That corners calling your name Bay.."
"Fine, fine... Go be aggressive and Grr at the camera, I'll wait for the expel of energy after..."
"Pervert."
"Yup."
"Ahem.. Where was I? Right - Showe and Acks desperate attempts to make themselves seem relevant after talking a big game and getting put on their asses... Well, whilst we are playing the who beat who game, here's a little list for you..
Bad Company.
Apocalypse.
Shock and Awe.....
Scars and Stripes, you've heard of those guys right? The Champions of the division - who also lost to us."
"Come to think of it, is there a tag team who has faced you and NOT lost a match?"
"Nope, not in IWF - which is the ONLY place we have wrestled - see despite 'Boom Boom' and Markie's ascertations my brother and I are not a pair of big-shot veterans looking to make a last run - I am an Olympic Standard trained Wrestler from HIGH SCHOOL and Titan is a former NFL player... But yeah kiddos, we're real veterans of the ring...
Guess it makes you feel better if being the 'new kids' is backed up by having less experience, even if it is a total fallacy based on poor research and I am pretty sure some undiagnosed ADD..."
"That explains the 'throw everything at the wall and see what sticks' mentality of their promo..."
"Shame it doesn't explain their complete and total inability to retain anything other than tired pop culture references and bad catchphrases though, does it?"
"Guess not..."
"For example, how the 'brains' doesn't quite have the smarts to figure out that lecturing us on how 'in-sync' two friends who are coated in ring rust will be more in-sync than brother who have, in lives past, quite literally burned together in the name of brotherhood...
But please boys, don't allow me to piss in your wheaties, no, really - keep lying to yourselves and then call it 'prepared' keep making the same tired assumptions and insults rather than learning from your time in the ring... See, that's the really, REALLY sad part in all of this - you could take your time in the ring with us as a learning curve...
A measuring stick by which to improve.
But instead? You dance around like performing monkey's for the organ grinders upstairs hoping that tanks and carts and army fatigues will somehow make you relevant enough to get a push despite your lack of skill... Despite the fact that I would personally pay to see Scars and Stripes beat the idiot out of you both....
But instead, my brother and I are getting that honor and I really cannot wait for the second time you will walk away losers, wondering what the fuck happened because for all your so-called preparation you did last time, your only excuse is 'we weren't ready' - but please, underestimate us again...
And when we beat you, there won't be a damn thing Shocking about it."
So complicated,
Look how we all make it.
Filled with so much hatred
Such a tired game
It's enough, I've done all I could think of
Chased down all my demons
I've seen you do the same...
"I don't have a word to say to someone of your... kind, Mr Stevens!" Auntie Mae yanked her hand free from Alastair, who simply smiled, a little wider than before and lowered his voice, not quite threatening but with more of an edge to it "That's fine ma'am, you'll do well to just listen to me then.."
He hadn't expected her to invite him into her home and she didn't disappoint, she stood before the porch screen, hands on hips as though challenging him to try and go inside. Alastair took a step or two back and lent against the decking, kicking his feet out in front of him, he exuded a relaxed air, which only seemed to ruffle the old woman further.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter she had written and sent to Bailey, tossing it into the air it caught the light breeze and floated lazily down to the ground. Auntie Mae tries not to follow it's path but cannot help it, Alastair's eyes trained on her as she pauses, before stooping to pick it up.
"This was my private words to my Nephew!" she spits, shaking the letter at him. Alastair laughs, folding his arms now "You don't have a nephew." the older woman sucks a breath in through her teeth, shoving the letter up her sleeve quickly she clucks her tongue at Alastair.
"You may support the sinful way in which Bradley chooses to represent himself-" Alastair cuts her off, his voice loud and booming now "CHOOSES?" for a moment, she appears smug and satisfied with his outburst, but her face quickly blanches when he pushes forward to tower over her.
"She, IS who she IS and how dare you or any one of your undereducated, blind lemmings following a dead word, group of bible-bashing homophobes EVER make her feel like she is nothing, like she could ever be considered anything other than perfect...." he doesn't raise his voice this time, keeping it a low, calm threatening whisper as she shrinks back against the porch screen.
"Bradley is dead to me..." she snarls, her face twisted into an odd mix of fear and piousness... Alastair laughs, pushing away from her, he turns, pointing a finger in her face, his rage bubbling so solidly beneath the surface it causes the finger to shake.
"You will never contact Bailey again, if you see her in the street... You will keep walking. If you see her on the TV, you will change the channel..." he moves forward again now, pressing so close to Auntie Mae that she is trapped between him and walls. "If I ever hear your name in context to my girlfriend again, I will personally ensure not even satan will want the likes of you...."
Alastiar then turns and thumps down the steps to the porch, as he reaches the front yard, he pauses and looks back at the old woman, who has now gathered herself and is looking down at him with judgment burning her eyes.
"You will burn for all you are - SINNER!" veins bulge in her neck as she shrieks these words at him, fingers pointing wilidly to him and the ground, again Alastair only laughs addressing her one last time.
"Save me a seat."
Done looking for the critics, cause they're everywhere
They don't like my jeans, they don't get my hair
Exchange ourselves and we do it all the time
Why do we do that, why do I do that?
"Well, well boys - looks like we get to take another run at one another hmmm? And whilst the moniker remains the same, you both claim to be 'free' now, to have shucked the shackles of a cruel and lost old man and his whips... and you know what? I don't fucking care!"
"AL!"
"No, I mean this, every single word.. I Don't. FUCKING. Care. See, it wasn't Crowe who put his hands on Bailey, it wasn't Crowe who thought they could touch someone so much more than they will ever be... No, it was your greasy hands all over her... No one and I mean NO ONE ever puts their hands on her...
That was your last mistake in a long line of screw ups that will lead to your ass kicking at Danger Zone."
"Those assholes are going to pay, right honey?"
"In blood, sweat and tears baby.
See, where Shock and Are are simply a mild annoyance, a little buzzing fly - they are nothing more than that, if anything at worst they serve as a distraction... A meaningless addition to a match where you boys are Finally going to get exactly what is coming to you.
And unlike Shock and Awe, I won't bother myself with going on and on and on..."
"And on... And on... And on andonandonandonndon... AND ON!"
"With why we are going to beat you down, discard them like the worthless chuckle brother wanna-be's they are and walk out of there with a shot at the tag champ... Nope, I am going to let my fists do the talking...
Right through your thick skulls!"
You're so mean when you talk
About yourself. You were wrong.
Change the voices in your head
Make them like you instead...
*Now*
Her hair is soft and smooth through my fingertips and the gentle smile on her pink, pouty lips is like that of a cherub. She tilts her head up in my lap to glance at my face, I return the smile before her eyelids flutter shut once again - the silence in this moment is beautiful.
I can still remember when we were first together, the screaming, sweating, shudder inducing nightmares that racked her physically and emotionally night after night were like something out of a horror movie.... And that feeling of helplessness... That dark, awful space you are locked in when you watch someone you care deeply about suffer knowing there is nothing you can do...
The silence of this moment makes me so thankful those days are over. That she can lie here now, her hand wrapped in mine, her head resting against my thigh and slumber quietly... She says it's because I make her feel safe - that with me she knows no one can ever hurt her again - I am juvenile in love enough to not really know what that means...
I am not as brave as Conni - I haven't pushed and pressed for her past, it's not who she is... I can't stand to see the sadness in her eyes when she thinks of home, it's like my heart being ripped into a tiny thousand pieces whilst someone in the distance laughs at the helplessness of it all...
But I know that I help, I make a difference... And that's all anyone really wants, isn't it? To matter... She tells me that to me, she matters and that's the most amazing thing in the world... I want to tell her that if I had sat down and written out all the things that I wanted in my soul mate - I'd never have believed it possible to fall in love with her, but I think she knows that already...
I just hope that she knows, for all the flaws... For all the bumps and for every glance or whisper, it's worth it.... "Al.." she half whispers, on the cusp of sleep... "Yeah Bay?" my hand strokes her hair again as she smiles up at me, eyes closed. "Thank you."
Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feel
Like you're less than fucking perfect
Pretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feel
Like you're nothing, you're fucking perfect to me
Well howdy there pardner.