Post by Rated R on Oct 1, 2018 14:17:02 GMT -5
Tyler Draven Presents
The Rules
The Rules
The Game
"What the hell was that?"
After a few months of being in the WFWF I’m starting to realise why Trace always had such a problem with Lila, and authority figures in general. Long story short, they’re really f*****g annoying.
"What d’you mean?"
"That. Out there. What just happened. What the hell was it?"
"I mean last I checked they call it winning."
"I’m not talking about the result, I’m talking about how you went about it."
You know my sister always joked that I didn’t understand girls. Guess she was right because I am absolutely clueless as to what’s going on right now.
"I’m not following."
"You said you were ready to come back, you said you’d got your head straight, that you knew what was expected from you. And then you go and do that?"
"I won, fair and square! What the f**k are you talking about?"
"Tyler, language."
"Shut the f**k up Anders! Fair and square Lila, one, two, three. What’s the problem?"
"You jumped him Tyler, before the match had even-"
"Before the… The bell had rung! It’s not my problem if he wasn’t ready."
She starts pacing, like mom did whenever she was trying to make a point. Tell you what, didn’t work much then, don’t see it working much now.
"How many times do I have to tell you this, how many times do I have to try and get this message across to you? What I saw out there? That wasn’t the Tyler Draven I know, that was Trace Demon. I need you to be better than that!"
"I’m getting bored of you pretending that you know me Lila. You don’t know me, you just see me the way you want to see me, you see what I could be to your whole crusade to make your vision of WFWF a reality."
"Tyler, maybe you should think about everything Lila’s done for you, the chance she’s taken bringing you in."
"I’m not denying any of that, honestly, I’m not, just think you need to take a step back and recognise that I’m just a guy who wants to wrestle and make money for his family. I don’t want to be your poster boy, or a message, or anything else."
There’s nothing worse than when you can see the cogs ticking in someone’s head, but you ain’t got a clue what’s about to come out of their mouth.
"Maybe you were right."
"Okay, not how I was expecting this to go but… thanks? And I guess I’ll see you at Wembley?
"Oh, I wasn’t talking to you. Anders told me it was too soon to bring you back, that you still hadn’t got your head on straight, but I wouldn’t listen, I wanted to see the best in you, but sometimes even I can be wrong. Tyler, you need to realise that this, me and you, you and the WFWF, it’s a mutually beneficial deal. If you don’t hold up your end of the deal, then what reason do I have to hold up mine?"
F**k, maybe Trace was right about her.
"I’m sure another month off will make you see sense Tyler. We’ll see you when we get back from Wembley."
I’m too stunned to say anything before she walks off, her head held high as if she hasn’t just revealed herself as a grade-A b***h. Unfortunately for Jason Anders he doesn’t think to hightail it out of there as soon as his master did.
"F**k!"
I see red. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember all of it, just flashes, of throwing chairs, tipping tables, lobbing a water cooler at two guys whose only crime was talking about last night’s episode of whatever the f**k people watch nowadays. And all Anders could do was watch until I stopped.
"That god damn b***h!"
"Tyler, you need to calm down, we can get past this, Lila’s reasonable, if you play ball, do the right thing-"
"The right thing? That’s all anybody has been saying for months! That I did the right thing taking a bat to someone’s head, that I did the right think allying with Sleater, but what if I’m not eh Anders, what if nothing I’ve done has been the right thing, because all I’ve done is listen to other people! Trace, Lila, you!"
Okay, let’s be honest, I’ve never listened to Anders for a second, but the point stands.
"We’re only trying to help you be as good as we know you can be!"
"Help me? So Lila’s trying to help me is she? What do you call taking me off one of the WFWF’s biggest shows in recent memory, because I sure as hell don’t think of it as helping me!"
"She just wants you to get your head straight."
"No, she wants to send me a message that if I don’t play ball then I don’t get paid!"
"You’ve got a contract Tyler, you’ll still get paid. Think of it as a paid vacation."
"If I don’t wrestle Anders then I don’t get my appearance bonus, I can’t get my win bonus, I can’t sell any merch, not that I’ve any but if I did I couldn’t f*****g sell it! Lila taking me off shows is taking money out of my pocket, and she damn well knows she’s doing it because it’s the only leverage she’s got over me."
But you don’t take food from a starving dog.
"If she wants to play games, then it’s time I start playing too."
< *** >
The Demon in the Corner
I don’t sleep a lot anymore. Mainly because every time I do I have the same recurring nightmare. Me, a barbed wire baseball bat in hand, Trace Demon’s head in front of me. Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what happens next. It’s not always the same, sometimes it isn’t Trace. Sometimes it’s the guy whose head I caved in when I was fourteen. Sometimes it’s my uncles. Sometimes it’s my own, which is by far the weirdest one. Sometimes it’s… no, best not to think about any of the rest.
Whoever’s head is being served up, it’s always me holding the bat.
So like I said, I don’t sleep a lot anymore. Which is a problem given that I feel so awkward lying there awake next to Arisa, the girl I’ve been seeing for the past two months. Tonight’s worst than most though, because I’m still wound up by what went down with Lila. The rage has been bubbling up in my gut since that moment, which made for an uncomfortable flight back let me tell you.
Unable to take it anymore I roll out of the bed as quietly as possible, not that it matters because the girl could sleep through a bloody war. I head for the kitchen, because where else am I meant to go. I instinctively head for the fridge to grab a beer, then remember it’s 3 in the morning and water would probably be a better shout.
I never bother with lights on these late night sojourns. I know this apartment like the back of my hand, even in the dark. Which is why I notice it. A flicker of red, about head-height, just out of the corner of my eye. A certain shade of crimson that catches my eye.
But it’s not just that. I feel it, the presence. His presence. Milliseconds later I hear the breathing and a whisper.
"Can’t sleep Tyler?"
I spin around, glass in hand ready to throw, but there’s nothing there. Even in the dark I can tell there’s nothing. Takes a few seconds to calm down, to tell myself it’s just the lack of sleep. I head back to bed, then stop. Don’t know why, just something tells me to flick the light on. So I do.
On the couch is the bat, the one wrapped in barbed wire, the one still stained red. I’ve had it locked up for months, haven’t taken it out, haven’t even looked at it, yet there it is, laying on the sofa. And I remember where I’ve seen that shade of crimson, felt that presence before, heard that voice before.
Either I’m going mad…
Or Trace Demon was just in my apartment.
< *** >
Wembley
"Destination please?"
"London, Heathrow."
Had to pay for this one myself, since there wasn’t a chance the WFWF were going to comp it, even if I’d told them I was showing up. Lila would have shut that down real quick. So instead I paid for my own flight, crammed myself into economy with screaming babies and a bunch of high school grads whose parents have too much money heading to Britain because you can get f****d up at eighteen, and put myself up overnight in the cheapest place I could find close to the airport.
I spent the night keeping my head down, just on the off chance that somebody in the building watched WFWF and recognised me. Sure, a WFWF guy being in the same city they’re running a huge show isn’t newsworthy, except to the higher up who essentially banned him from turning up. If Lila knew I was here she might click on to what I was planning, and I couldn’t have that until it was too late for her to stop it.
So I laid low, I watched tape, I prepared. He might not know who was going to walk out through that curtain, but I sure as hell would.
I checked out as early as possible, threw a hood over my head and started walking London, heading for Wembley. Three and a half hours is a long time to walk, to be stuck in your own head, but that was fine, because all I could think about was what was going to happen if I could pull this off tonight.
It took a while, but eventually I made it, early enough that I could flash my WFWF credentials and get let into the building without anyone of note noticing it was me. Didn’t give me much time to appreciate the f*****g size of the place, but that could come later, after I’d gotten what I came for. Instead I set myself up inside an empty room, got changed into my gear and waited. I warmed up for what felt like hours, my eyes on my phone, watching the show as it aired live, focused solely on the one moment I was waiting for.
And then I heard it.
"We’re heading for a commercial break ladies and gentlemen but when we come back we will find out just who has accepted Frank Lynn’s open challenge for the WFWF International Championship."
I have.
Turns out it’s easy to accept an open challenge. I always thought there was some contract you had to sign but no, you literally just have to be the first one out there. Also helps if you pay a guy in sound to play your music before anyone else gets a chance. What? I told you, we’re playing by my rules now. I might not be as sick and twisted as Trace but if this is what it takes to make sure I get paid then this is what I’ll do.
I really wanted to make it to the ring without seeing anyone, but if you know anything by now it’s that if there’s a way Jason Anders can ruin a day, he will. Today he did it just by showing up. So a little like every other day.
"Tyler? What the f**k are you doing here?"
"What happened to language, old man? Anyway, can’t stay, got somewhere to be."
"No no no, you can’t be here. If Lila finds out-"
"Pretty sure she’s gonna find out Anders, I don’t plan on being quiet out there."
"Out there? Oh god no Tyler you can’t be serious. Frank Lynn?"
I always forget the guy has a little bit of a brain somewhere inside the bald head of his. Sadly I’m on a tight schedule. Sadder still, Anders seems intent on following me down the corridor towards the gorilla position.
"Tyler, if you do this, if you embarrass Lila like this, then she’ll cut you loose! You’ll be gone!"
"You really think she’s gonna fire her new International Champion when all he did was answer an open challenge? Think of the response that’d get from the sponsors and the press. C’mon, we both know she’s smarter than that."
"And what if you lose? Frank Lynn’s not like the other guys you’ve faced, what if you’re not ready? Think about this for a minute!"
"All I’ve done is think Anders. I need to get paid so I can support my sister. The only way I get paid what I need is by being on the shows, and it looks like the only way I do that is by either being Lila’s b***h… or going out there and winning the International Championship."
"You think it’s that simple? You think, even if you win that title, that Lila just lets it go, that there aren’t any repercussions? You’re smarter than that."
He’s right, I am. I know it doesn’t end here, I know I’m not that lucky. But it doesn’t matter. There’s got to be a line somewhere. I follow Lila’s way of thinking, then sooner or later somebody’ll come along, somebody like Trace, and she’ll ask me to take care of them. And I will, because I won’t have any other option.
Not unless I do something, now.
"All I ever wanted was to wrestle Anders, to make money, to look after my sister. I didn’t want to get blood on my hands, I didn’t want to be caught up in any games, I just wanted to wrestle."
"It doesn’t work like that. I know Trace well enough to know he would have taught you that. You don’t work here, in the WFWF, without playing the game."
"I know. And I’m gonna play it. But when Lila asks what I’m doing out there, and we both know she will, then you tell her this.
God, I’ve been building up to this all f*****g day and I didn’t even realise it.
"The rules have changed."
< *** >
Frank Lynn.
I know you’ll never hear this, not until it’s too late. Not until this match is over and done. But it doesn’t matter, because as far as your concerned Frank you don’t really care who steps up to face you anyway, do you? This isn’t about your opponent. It doesn’t matter whether it’s me, whether it’s Phillip Schneier, whether it’s Old Men Epoch, it doesn’t matter to you. There’s only one reason that any man issues an open challenge. It’s because he’s got something to prove. To the crowd, to the company, to himself.
You Frank, you’ve got something to prove. I can see it, everyone can see it, it’s been obvious since day one. Since I was just some dreaming kid, sitting, watching the TV. See I remember you turning up, and you had the same chip on your shoulder that you do now. The same point to prove. You need to show everyone that you can do this, you need to show everyone that you deserve to be here. Only now it’s more important than ever because you’ve got that International Championship and everybody out there is questioning whether you deserve it because of the way you won it. Me? I don’t really care how you won it. I’m sure as hell not one to talk considering I’m gonna accept your open challenge and fight you when you’ve got no idea who your opponent is. I mean let’s be honest here, that’s pretty f*****g unsporting.
Point stands though. This open challenge is about you proving that you deserve to be the champion. It’s not about the WFWF being a better place, it’s not about bringing prestige to that title, it’s about you and your ego. So no, I realise that you don’t care who answers you. And to be honest with you, I don’t care that it’s you I’m answering. Now I know you’ve got all this history with Trace Demon, and me and you, we’ve got a little bit of bad blood too, but this match isn’t about Frank Lynn vs. Tyler Draven.
It’s about the WFWF International Championship.
You see Lynn that title means something to the two of us. To you it’s a signifier that you belong, it means you deserve to be here, it’s the only thing keeping that chip on your shoulder from consuming you. To you Lynn that title is nothing more than a symbol of what you want to be, of what you think you deserve to be. That’s why you don’t care about your opponent, because in your head this is all about you.
To me? That title means life. That title means survival. I win this match and I get to support my sister, my family. I win this match I get to keep on wrestling but on my own terms. This match isn’t about me being a champion because I want to be the best, or because I want to carry around a belt, it’s about me being a champion because I need to be here and right now the only thing standing between me and supporting my family is you.
So Frank you might not know who your opponent is, but I damn well know who mine is. I’ve watched tape, I’ve scouted you, I’m ready for whatever you bring. And call it unfair, call it a cheap way to win, I don’t care. I call it the only option I have! All this talk about doing the right thing, all this talk about doing bad things for the right reason, I say it because it’s been true every single damn time. I hurt Trace Demon because I had to, but it wasn’t just for the good of the WFWF, it was for the good of me, it was for the good of my sister, of people I care about. I am not afraid to do bad things.
So me and you Frank you’re stepping in that ring with something to prove and me? I’m stepping in there fighting for my livelihood. Ask yourself which one of those is the worthier cause? Which one of those people sounds like the hero here? And then ask yourself if it even f*****g matters. Lila Sleater has this ideology of good and bad people doing the right thing and the wrong thing. But as far as I’m concerned good people do whatever it takes to help people. You? You’re not helping anyone by holding that title.
But me? I’d be helping the only people that matter.
So Lynn, when we step in that ring you better believe that you’re going to get the challenge that you claim you want. But I think you’re gonna realise pretty damn quick, when we’re stood opposite each other, that you’ve picked a challenge that you cannot win, because it’s a challenge that I cannot afford to lose. So yeah, I’ll wish you good luck, but you better be ready for anything. Because I will be bringing everything to take that title, to take my chance of survival, away from you.
