Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2022 12:35:32 GMT -5
Last Night
Safe Haven
Newport, Rhode Island
The bell rings. My Name is Human blasts over the sound system. The fans in attendance cheer loudly for me. Slowly I make my way back to my feet. I don’t feel like celebrating victory. My head throbs, blood still runs down my face. Instead, all I want to do is go see my son. On my way up the aisle, I look up. Frankie and Lauren, Seb and Sloane stand at the entrance way.
In the moment, part of me feels like I want to let him off the hook. Another part of me, a big part of me, wants to go back and kick his ass all over again. Turning to face the ring, Easton remains motionless after the Heat Seeker. I warned him about that kick. Something inside wills me back toward the ring. After a few steps, Frankie rushes in front of me.
“Go back to your mom,” I tell him.
“It’s over Dad,” he says. He looks at Easton in the ring and back at me. “You beat him. Let’s go home.”
Rarely ever do I deny him anything. He wraps his arms around my waist for a moment and it’s a big deal to me. At 11 years old, he’s hit the age where he can’t be seen hugging his dad in public because that’s just not cool. Reluctantly, I listen to what he wants. Placing my hand on his head, he and I head up the aisle. My friends and family head back through the curtain and immediately, we’re joined by doctors and medics. They spent a good hour picking glass and thumbtacks out of my entire body while I ended up with fourteen stitches on the top of my head.
We didn’t stay at Safe Haven. Frankie goes back to school on Tuesday and we were all ready and eager to go back home to New York as it is. Waking up, my entire body was sore and stiff. Cuts, scrapes and bruises are all over my face and my back. The day after a fight such as that always makes me question just how much I want to do the whole wrestler thing. I have more money than I’ll ever really need. I have other business interests. I have my acting side piece. Not to mention ownership of a national wrestling promotion.
I have three kids. Two natural born, and Frankie. Not once has any of them ever been used as a pawn in someone else’s game. That bothers me. It sticks in my gut like a dagger. I left my last life because my children weren’t safe had I stayed. I dismantled the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel. Yet here I am four months later, defending my son from someone that put him in danger to prove some sort of point.
It was a war. One for the ages, in my not so humble opinion. One that, I hope, teaches Easton Alexander something. He is undoubtedly a great competitor. But this was never personal and he didn’t need to go to the lengths that he did to procure what I had already planned on giving him.
People see this tweet or that, they watch Massacre and listen to me say this or that and they always, always take things at face value. So few take the time to think critically about what it is they see and hear. They thought I was targeting Easton and, to a point I was. Though it never had anything to do with fearing any generation of talent. I mean, I was a military leader. I flew fighter jets. I’ve been to war three times. I’ve been shot, shot at and shot down. Wrestling is just a business to me. I have no reason to fear anyone over anything. I certainly don’t care about my ‘spot.’
It never had anything to do with me disliking Easton. I don’t, or at least I didn’t, dislike him. There’s a lot of potential within him. All I was trying to do was force him to tap into it. I want to build stars in OCW. I have no particular interest in seeing myself in the ring. I have no current aspirations to chase championships. My goal is and always will be to strengthen my business. OCW is my business. Easton Alexander is my business. I have a vested interest in seeing him succeed.
They play checkers.
I play chess.
I hope he takes this opportunity to self reflect much in the way I often do. My hope is that he thinks about where things started and where they finished last night. I hope he realizes that no matter how much he might dislike an adversary, that using their children as some form of revenge is the exact wrong way to go. The kids are innocent, and not to be messed with. Throughout the entire saga, Easton Alexander was the hero, I was the villain. In one night and one ill-fated decision, he forced everyone’s hand. We swapped places almost instantly. In my heart, I know that wasn’t his intent. Easton Alexander is better than that.
Rolling out of bed and still stiff as a board, I gingerly make my way to the bathroom to evacuate my bladder leaving Lauren to sleep. Afterwards, I throw some shorts on and head downstairs. In the kitchen, Berta is making breakfast and Frankie waits eagerly at the breakfast bar.
“You look like shit,” Berta says as she flips some eggs.
“Thanks, I earned it,” I say with a smile as I pour myself some coffee.
“Blondie comin’ down?” she asks as I sit beside Frankie at the bar.
“I’m lettin’ her sleep,” I answer as I turn to Frankie. “Ready for school tomorrow Bub?”
“Hell yeah,” he says. “Even more ready for this freakin’ breakfast.”
We sit quietly for a few minutes while the bacon sizzles.
“So um… it’s not over is it?” he asks.
“Is what over?” I ask, admittedly feigning ignorance.
“The… ‘me’ thing.”
Hesitating to answer, I think back to last week. Tuesday morning after he was safe and sound at home, he told me the truth of his kidnapping. He informed me that Easton didn’t act alone and he told me who helped him.
It hurts me.
It angers me.
I am an emotional man and I have never denied it. My emotions can and will get the better of me sometimes but this one required me to take a step back. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe that Frankie was a victim of betrayal. Someone close to me, someone I trusted. Denial just was not in the cards, so I set out to confirm what Frankie told me. Cyrus Braddock and I will need to have a very long discussion.
“Oh… no Buddy… it is not over. Not by a long shot.”