Post by Lantlas on May 17, 2006 17:38:13 GMT -5
“Everything is as planned.”
Narenwyn gazed into her six foot mirror, admiring her long white dress. Kieran Evenstar stood near the doorway with her arms crossed, dressed like a fiery demon in her medieval outfit. Narenwyn turned to face Kieran, her eyes glowing like a burning sun. “Then the time has come,” she proclaimed. Pulling a small drawer open on her nightstand, Narenwyn retrieved a very small object and held it in front of her.
“You’ve found it?” Kieran asked.
“It can only be used once,” Narenwyn explained.
“How does it work?”
Narenwyn held the object up to her face, merely inches away from her illuminated eyes. “Whoever is on the receiving end of the strike will perish, whether human… or immortal.”
“You mean it’s a…”
“Yes, it is,” Narenwyn stated, as the size of the evil smile on her face grew. “It’s a shame that Eldarin won’t be here to see this tragic ending.”
Almost from nowhere, Devon Drake suddenly burst into the room with a heated expression on her face. “I should’ve known,” she mused. “This was your plan the whole time, wasn’t it?”
Kieran smiled at her human self. “Of course it was,” she laughed.
“How could you do this to him?”
Narenwyn stepped in front of Devon. “You, little human, have no room to talk.”
Devon glared into Narenwyn’s eyes, not backing up an inch. “I may have made my mistakes, but unlike you, I’ve rectified them. I will not let you destroy him so that you can sleep a peaceful night without your guilty conscience reminding you what you’ve done!”
Narenwyn doesn’t respond, but instead keeps her smile. From behind, Kieran struck her down with a knife chop to the back of the head. Kieran giggled, admiring her work, and she looked back at Narenwyn. “It’s all you from here,” she called as she walked out of the room.
Narenwyn kept her eyes locked with Devon’s fallen body. She looked at the object in her hand one more time, and then laughed maniacally. “Wouldn’t that be devious of me?” Narenwyn placed her hand on the unconscious Devon, and there was a flash of light so bright that it knocked Narenwyn flat on her back.
A few minutes passed, and Devon rose to her feet. She looked at her own hands, and then looked in the mirror. “May all your paranoid fantasies come true,” she muttered. She knelt by the body of Narenwyn. “At last you’re going to finish what you started, Devon,” she laughed as she mockingly stroked her hair. “And when I get back, you’ll join him.”
…
“…and as we not only climb the ladder but burn it behind us, the PCW landscape will have changed forever, and instead of being measured in wins and losses, you'll only be measured by how long you lasted against Lantlas or how many Sinn Nature's you survived.”
…
“That's why, despite everything, I hope you can forgive me for what I'll soon be doing. I cannot escape from my past, nor the heart that lies in pieces at your feet. Instead, it will be taken out on all those who lie before me. Slither, Majesky, Byrd, Brass, Chrissy, Maddog, and any opponents I face thereafter. The Elven Path is laced with blood and broken dreams, and I will leave each one of them behind as I progress.”
…
“And take them all down the Elven Path, every last one of them. One day, you will not let Sinn feed off your abilities either. Take Dominion as far as you can, but one day only the Elven one will remain standing.”
…
“A wrath has been felt, and the illusion that Ace Anderson is the highest on the throne around here has been thrashed with a harsh dose of reality.”
…
“Who would notice one who sits back and waits for things to come to him? What can the booker do if he has this specimen with all this talent, but does just enough to get by with the victories every week? I put you in the spotlight where you belong, and before long, those supposed powerful men will realize that's what they are... men. Mortal, weak men. You speak of yourself as a man of honor, but you still do not seem to grasp this concept that you are not one of them. You are like no other, and that will never change. No matter how much you try to suppress me, I will always come through in a time like that, because I'll be damned if I let your selfless pity for these creatures interfere with your ability to be the most dominant performer in the history of this business."
…
“This stupid Elven bastard has not taken his last breath quite yet!”
…
The die had been cast, and the date had been set. May 21st, 2006, everything I’d been working for since day one in Pure Class Wrestling would be there for the taking. An anticipated match-up, a detailed rivalry, arguably the two best in the entire industry going head to head in a climactic match to determine the true champion, and the right to call themselves the best wrestler in PCW.
I couldn’t shake the feeling from my head that there was more to this than I imagined. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the “Ace of Spades” that Ace’s father had given me on my journey to the past. Everything in my life certainly had a sign, and meeting Ace’s father while I learned that his and mine were like brothers provided yet another new, somewhat twisted perspective on this whole thing. With a father like that, what happened to Ace between birth and wrestling that turned him to being the way he is? Then again, it was also possible that it was all just an act.
Many things were uncertain, but one thing stood in stone from the very beginning. This was a match I had to win. There was no question about it. From the minute I stepped into a PCW ring, I had one goal on my mind. It wasn’t to be a tag team champion, to be popular with the fans, or to contest for a belt of regional or mediocre status. I wanted nothing to do with anything but the world champion. Being a blue-haired freak, it was no surprise when I learned I had a long way to go before I was even allowed to think about it, but Ace Anderson certainly had no qualms about making his feelings known. Mocking me in that little tabloid called “T.A.G.” was the first strike in the battle that has raged on for months now. At that point, most anyone who mattered hadn’t even bothered to give me a second look before making Elf jokes and passing me off as some rookie who would be gone by the next week. Then, this rookie started winning matches, and won a championship belt in his third week in PCW, and things began to change.
Seth and I certainly appeared divided in our personal lives, but when we were in the ring, we were unstoppable. Climbing our way up the ladder and leaving many behind us, Ace began to change his focus from it being a mere pest on which he could step into a possible threat. The first time we ever met face to face, we actually tagged together against Johnny Vivacious and S.I.N. Had circumstances been different, one could only imagine the potential of a Triad of Terror such as Ace Anderson, Lantlas, and Seth Sinn on the same team.
Our first encounter came several weeks later, when Ace intentionally disqualified himself, claiming that he had gotten bored and decided to end the match. Any logically-oriented person would know damn well that he got himself defeated by technicality before this nobody out of Germany put a dent in the image of Greatness. This of course came after I laid him out at the end of a Pay-Per-View contest, sending him the message that I was a force he couldn’t ignore forever.
Ace evened things up with a victory over me a few weeks ago, but there could be no argument that the best was not brought out of the champion to do so. The potential of a huge main-event title match had been there since the beginning, but this was the icing on the cake. The booking committee and those in charge could no longer ignore it. No matter what they thought of me, whether they believed I was the Elven Warrior or not, a 14-2 PCW record could not be taken lightly, especially when one of those losses was a bogus technicality. Now, my record and my standing in this place mattered not. Who raises the title in the air at the end of Collision Course will end all the arguments and seal the deal once and for all.
Still, there were many things that needed to be cleaned up.
Earlier this week, I’d found Seth Sinn in a drunken stupor. My once-tag-team partner was now reduced to nothing more than that of which we used to scorn. The first time the main-eventers paid any attention to us, we laughed as Johnny Vivacious muttered on while drunk off his rocker, and later defeated him soundly. Now, Seth was at the same point. Fully convinced that I had slept with his wife, he was throwing everything away on this account. That night, after I let Seth tire himself out while yelling at me and trying to swing, I carried his unconscious body back to his motel room. I almost felt guilty for leaving him there alone in that condition, but there was nothing further I could do for him. Seth would have to find his own way to peace, as that was something I was unable to provide for him.
Christine left town after Trauma this week to no one’s surprise. Who would want to hang around and be reminded of everything that’s going wrong? Assuming the likelihood that Seth had not returned to the locker room since the self-destruction of his marriage, I needed to find something inside there. Pieces needed to be put together, in more ways than one.
Most of the furniture inside remained; only some pictures on the wall and some clothes from the dresser had been removed. The shards of my emblem remained in the place I’d left them. Lowering to my knees and searching around the far leg of the coffee table, I continued to find tiny glass trinkets. Slowly aligning each piece with its counterpart, there was soon only one missing. It was the center, the heart of the emblem, of course being the one piece that held everything together. I could definitely see the significance. Moving the couch a few inches towards the wall, I found it. Gleaming in the light, I wiped off my forehead and took a deep breath as I prepared for what may happen when this emblem was reformed.
As I placed the last piece of the emblem with the others, a vision suddenly came through my eyes. Eldarin, my father, standing several feet from Narenwyn, who was visibly unhappy with something.
“You said if a situation ever came up like this that I should talk to you,” Narenwyn yelled.
“I did say that.”
“Then why are you reacting like this?”
“Why am I reacting like this? How would you expect me to react to my wife sleeping with another man?”
Narenwyn cheated on my father? She seemed so elegant when I had seen her. How could she have done something like this to him?
“You should’ve been more clear about what you felt, Eldarin,” Narenwyn screamed. “The choice is yours. What do you want to happen?”
Sly little bitch, giving him the chance to be the bad guy in the situation after you fucked up, sure. She sure did remind me of someone I once knew.
My father did nothing, his expressionless face not even reflecting the pain in which he surely was. How he maintained that calm status was a mystery to me. Narenwyn became frustrated with the lack of an answer. “Maybe this just isn’t going to work.” My father turned away for a few seconds as Narenwyn continued with her emotional assault of pain. “I should’ve listened to my mother. She was right about you, as was my sister. You’re nothing, and you never will be. The only one who sees anything good in you is your little buddy Jason, and that pathetic piece of crap is thinking about reproducing? What’s going to spawn from those loins, a world champion wrestler?” Eldarin whipped around and stepped right in Narenwyn’s face. She egged him on. “What’s the matter? Did I hit a nerve?”
“Do not speak of Jason in that manner again,” he warned.
“Of everything about which you choose to be angry, the fact that I insulted your friend is the one that makes you speak?”
“Jason is my best friend, he’s been like a brother to me. Especially in times where the way YOU’VE acted towards me has caused me to ponder my existence. There’s only so much someone can take from someone who claims to love you, Narenwyn!”
“I can’t help it if you’re not good enough for me, Eldarin. I’ve given you the chances, I’ve shown you how to change, but you just can’t listen, can you?”
“Just let me go.”
Narenwyn started to yell back, but then stopped. She pushed him by the shoulders into a wall and walked out the door. He waited for a few seconds, hoping maybe she’d walk back through and apologize, but she didn’t. He collapsed on the floor, and whispered one last thing.
“Forgive me for what I’ll soon be doing, Narenwyn.”
The vision faded, and I was met with a force that pushed me on my back as I returned to reality. Staring at the ceiling in the dark room, something struck me the wrong way about Narenwyn, how similar she was to someone I knew. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, exactly. Before I could contemplate further, a voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Lantlas, what are you doing in here?”
I turned around and saw Devon Drake standing in the doorway. Her eyes drifted to the emblem on the table, and I saw a slight hint of panic on her face. “What happened?” she asked.
“When I put the emblem back together, I saw something.”
“What did you see?”
“I saw Narenwyn and Eldarin, arguing with each other. She cheated on him, and because of this, she left him.” All at once, it hit me… It was exactly what had happened between Terry and me, although in different circumstances. Terry and I had never gotten married, but she left me in the same way. Narenwyn was eerily resembling Terry in my thoughts, and the pain my father felt was somehow very similar to… mine.
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe that worthless idiot deserved it?” Devon asked, angrily.
“Why would you say that about my father?”
“I knew Eldarin too, and he would do nothing but spend time down at the bar, feeling sorry for himself because he just couldn’t measure up to the accomplishments his wife made.”
“You knew him? But… you couldn’t… have…” There was no way Devon could’ve known Eldarin. He disappeared in the late 70’s, and Devon was a mere child back then. Kieran must be speaking through Devon again! “Kieran, stop it right now!”
“This isn’t Kieran,” Devon responded. “It’s me, Devon. And I’m going to do what I should’ve done a long time ago!” Devon lunged forward with something shiny, and I just managed to nearly duck it. “Come on and get what’s coming to you!”
“Stop!”
We both turned and saw Narenwyn standing there. “You aren’t doing shit.”
My mother swearing? This wasn’t something that sounded like her usual epic way of speaking. Devon gritted her teeth and took a step towards Narenwyn. “You… I thought I took care of you.”
“Can’t take me out that easily, bitch. I told you, I’m not going to let you destroy him because of your own failures!”
“Try and stop me!” Devon started to turn to me, but from nowhere, Kieran Evenstar dove towards her and grabbed the Elven Emblem at the same time. A flash of light knocked me off my feet, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kieran drive a small object into Narenwyn’s chest. The light slowly faded, and Narenwyn’s body suddenly disappeared. Devon’s eyes burst open and she started breathing in heavily. I crawled over and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Devon, what was going on? You weren’t acting like yourself.”
“That wasn’t me, Lantlas,” she replied. “That was Narenwyn.”
Kieran sighed. “She almost killed you too, Devon.”
“Kill? What?” I turned my head to both of them, more confused than ever.
Kieran continued, “Lantlas, Narenwyn took the form of Devon in order to jam a soul reaver into your chest. Immortal or not, it would’ve killed you. Then,” she looked over at Devon, “she would’ve killed you as well. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“But you were in on it with her!” Devon screamed.
“Keep in mind, you and I are the same being,” Kieran replied. “By killing you, it would’ve killed me too.”
“So the only reason you saved us is for your own survival?”
Kieran groaned and looked down at the ground. “Some come to their senses sooner than others. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure out that what she was doing with Lantlas and Terry was wrong.”
Terry? My eyes likely started to grow. “Terry? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I can’t tell you, Lantlas,” Kieran explained. “This is one thing you must figure out on your own. You’ve come this far, and you have learned many things. However, some things remain undone. These are things that I, nor anyone else, can tell you.” Kieran helped Devon to her feet, and they both headed for the door. Devon walked out the door, and Kieran turned back one last time. “Good luck, Lantlas.”
The door closed, and there I was left alone, again. In the darkness, I fell once again to my back and stared at the ceiling. No matter how many times it happens, I never seem to be prepared for these things. In a matter of a few days, my former best friend believed I’d slept with his wife, I’d signed for a world championship match with Ace Anderson, and my mother tried to kill me. Things sure were a long way from where they started.
…
“The first rule of war is knowing thy enemy. The first rule of the Elven Path is knowing thy fate. The truth lies within thee, either shallow or deep, but the choice is yours to fight it or accept it. Either way, it's the same result. Notice the path you've taken, the one right under your feet... THE ELVEN PATH!”
…
Now, the only question on my mind was where had this path brought me? I knew what I had to do to find out, and I knew I had to do it alone. I only wondered if I’d be able to handle the answers. Sometimes people wish to know the future, but don’t like that they see. In my experiences in the past few months, after everything I’ve seen and done, what in this life could I possibly not be prepared for? As the path comes to an end, things will be determined once and for all.
…
"And you... I wish I didn't feel for you anymore... Such is life."