"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome on stage, Gaaaaaaabriel!"
The booming voice alerts the audience to my presence. I've been working on this show for a while, a few stunts, some talking, some solid entertainment. This last week has been hell, illness has destroyed me for so much of the week, dehydration has left me with constant headaches, sickness, but I promised this show, and against the advice of Synn, Despayre, Rage, Kittie, Shane, Fantasia and Christian Underwood, here I am, in the rafters, about to hit the stage and hope I don't accidentally end up getting the first three rows of the audience wet, exorcist style. That would do nothing for my reputation.
Thumping music blasts through the speakers, and flashing lights cover the stage.
All I gotta go is get through this show, than I can head back upstairs and pass out for a while. Great advice for people here. Do not order chicken at 2am, right before a place is closing, for days, it will ruin you
A huge bang from on the stage is heard and smoke fills the area and I step off the rafters, slowly drifting down on to the middle of the stage, looking out at some of the familiar faces in the crowd of thousands. I can see Synn, sitting next to a beat up looking Rage...
He was warned about the zoo I guess
Next to Rage was Despayre, clutching Angel in his fingers, with Shane and Fantasia next to him, and Kittie sitting on the end of the group, next to Jamie Staggs. In a different part, my eye takes me to the front row, to show Christian Underwood and partner The Big Pump. My eyes flick around to see the Party Girls, drinks in hand staring up at the stage. I turn my head slightly again to see The Surf Boys, with their tag partner Wyatt Peterson. A strange trio if there ever was one. Jason Adams and Belinda Simone, along with the lovely Pussy Willow and Ms Rocky Mountains, sit a few rows in front of the weird combo of James Huntington-Hawkes III and Casey Williams. Bo Dreamwolf and Austin Parker sit close to the front of the room. Various members of the SCW crew are also around.
Looks like I pulled in a crowd tonight
The crowd applaud as I look around them, moving to the center of the stage and standing in front of a microphone.
"Welcome to the show, how you all doing tonight?" I say with a smile
A positive cheer comes back.
"Oh good, cause I don't have time to sit there and help the unhappy ones, this is not the Dr Phil show" I tell the crowd with another smile
Smiling is important when you're on the stage, you smile, they smile, they come back and see you again, you get richer. Simple formula, use it to get rich, free advice
A laugh returns to be from the crowd.
"You've found yourself at the Gabriel show, now this is a show that will not disappoint, you always get your money's worth. To the people who got free tickets, you can now leave cause well, this is as far as free is worth."
More laughs.... either I'm good or they're drunk
"I'm so glad to be back on this stage in front of people again. Not that wrestling isn't entertaining, but it's nice to get back on the stage from time to time to do this kinda thing. For those that didn't know, this was my calling in the early days. I left home at eighteen, went to Paris for years to practice street magic but you can only go so far with street magic, it's part of the reason I chose to come to the states in the first place, to push the limits and do better than people I look up to, any street chump can do things like this"
I rub my hands together before opening them and making a dozen roses appear from my hands.
"Anyone can do that"
I squash the roses together in my hands and pull my hands apart to reveal a dove. I release it and it flies to the back of the stage.
"All very amateur stuff that you see at kids parties. I prefer to push the limits, and make people sit there and truly ask themselves 'how the hell did he do that?' That's the kinda things I like to make people think. Something like this"
I turn and walk away from the front of the stage and towards a gold and red velvet throne, decorated with royal and regal insignia down the sides. An assistant runs on to the stage and hooks a microphone around my head and on to my face.
"I feel like I'm working at a drive though with this thing stuck to the side of my head"
Laughs echo around the hall. I turn to face the crowd as two beautiful assistants walk on the stage. My eyes can't help but wander as I look at them come on the stage.
"I love these parts when we get hot chicks on the stage"
I really do, would you look at the ass on that redhead, ow ow wow!
"It's a good part of the show, but here we have a throne, nothing more nothing less"
I move around it, hitting it at various places, walking around the back and resting my elbows on the top of the chair and looking out at the crowd.
"As much as I like a couple of smoking hotties on my side here, it doesn't feel like a party, so I think we need a few more, whatcha say?"
A resounding yes from masculine. I smile to the crowd and walk round to the front of the throne, raising my arms. The two female assistants pick up a red crushed velvet sheet, in front of the throne and raises it up, about level with the top of the throne. I walk around the throne and back to the front of it, looking out at the crowd, watching in anticipation, before spinning back and putting my hands on top of the sheet. I pull it down from the assistants hands, to show three more females sitting on the throne. The crowd cheer as I turn back towards them.
"Give it up for the lovely assistants"
The crowd oblige by cheering as I move to the front of the stage with all five women.
"Take your pick Rage, all five are awesome"
Rage growls at me from the crowd, but I think secretly, he's trying to pick which one to hang out with later.
"A lot of magicians base their trade on the good old card trick. These things have been around for centuries. Card magic, in one form or another, likely dates from the time playing cards became commonly known, towards the second half of the fourteenth century, but its history in this period is largely undocumented. Compared to sleight of hand magic in general and to cups and balls, it is a relatively new form of magic. However, due to its versatility as a prop it has become very popular amongst modern magicians"
bor-ing
"But me personally, I find these tricks slightly annoying unless you really push it to the limit. Anyone can do an 'is this your card?' stuff, but I like to take that trick and turn it in to something special. For me to do so, I need Rage on the stage to help me out, come on big fella."
The whole crowd look towards Rage, who shakes his head.
"Come on, I won't set you on fire. Give the man a hand"
The crowd clap as Rage reluctantly gets to his feet and moves towards the stage. He slowly climbs the steps and walks towards me, clearly hurting for some unknown reason. I tap him on the back, forcing a wince from the big man.
"Ok, simple card trick, with a twist, with no fire at all. Here's what I need you to do big fella"
From the side of the stage, an assistant walks over, holding a roll of duct tape, and quickly hands it to me. I instantly get a burning look from Rage, but before he can say a word, I pull out the tape and put it across his mouth, tearing it off at the end.
"Now all you have to do is stand there and look pretty"
I quickly turn away from Rage and move to the front of the stage. I look down at Christian Underwood and pull a pack of cards and a pen from my pocket.
"Mr Underwood, how about helping me with a trick. All you have to do is pick a card and sign your name on it"
Christian's a good guy, he'll do this for me
Christian takes the cards and pen, thumbing through them as I turn around. After he selects a card, he signs his name across it, before putting it back in the pack and calling for my attention.
"Thank you" I say "Now what you've done, is made that card unique, there is not another card in the world just like that, you've made it your own"
I turn quickly to Rage.
"Catch"
I throw the cards towards Rage before he can catch them deliberately. Rage raises his eyebrows in surprise, before lowering them with anger. I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him.
"Well you ruined that one" I tell Rage firmly, only to hear him growl.
Rage rips the tape off his mouth, revealing Christian's card, complete with signature. Rage looks down, pulling the card off from his face, looking at it before holding it up to the crowd. The crowd applause as I take the card from Rage and take it to Christian, handing it to him. Christian inspects the card and nods as the crowd cheers.
"Thank you"
I nod to Rage who leaves the stage, a little shocked and surprised.
"I like that one. That's gonna be the one trick that bugs the hell out of ya."
As I stand looking out at the crowd two assistant walk on to the stage carrying a strait jacket. The crowd oooooh and ahhhh
"Wouldn't be a show without one of these. Anyone ever heard of the sixty seconds to live?"
Some of the crowd cheer as I look at them and the assistants wrap the strait jacket around me, tightening my arms across my chest as three ropes lowers down just behind me.
"For the people who don't know, here's what's gonna happen. Those ropes that have come down behind me. two are going to be attached to my ankles, the third has be dipped in kerosene. I will be lifted twenty feet up in the air. The third rope will be set on fire. I have about sixty seconds to escape or I fall and will end up giving the cleaners a tougher job tonight"
The assistants tighten the straps one more time and help me lay down on the floor. The move towards my feet and wrap the ropes around my feet. The ropes start to tighten and lift me off the floor as dance music pulsates through the building. The rope starts to lift me off the floor, moving higher and higher, foot by foot. I nod to the assistant once I get to about twenty feet in air. She nods towards the side of the stage and a huge oiled muscle man with a leather mask walks across the stage, holding a huge touch, flames flying in to the air
Yes, Synn did have something to do with hiring him
The man holds the torch to the third rope, the flames instantly jump up the rope, towards its connection with the other two ropes. I start to struggle
This strait jacket is tighter than usual
I struggle viciously as the flames touch the top of the rope, catching the first rope an instantly burning through one rope, my leg drops, wobbling my leg in the air.
Oh shit
The flames lick the last rope, teasing it's burning blue light against the last rope, catching light of the rope. the flame burns out as the second rope burns and my body plummets towards the earth. The crowd gasp in shock as the lights flick out for a second, as the come back on, I'm sitting on the strait jacket, looking out at the shocked crowd. The crowd cheer in appreciation.
"I'll see you all in part two, someone get the beers in"
The curtains close in front of me to the cheering crowd.
Ok, here's the deal people, I was gonna tell you about the second half, I really was, it involved fire, animals, bows, arrows, apples, blindfolds, the lot, but I've been pretty ill lately, so how about we fast forward to after the show where everyone's gone home happy, and I can get down to talking about what's on my mind. Gotta admit though, that does sound like one hell of a second half of the show, maybe I'll show you it sometime.
The stage is now silent and I'm just looking at everything in front of me. Props from earlier lie dormant, and silent from their grand use earlier tonight. Footsteps approach me from behind as I turn around sharply to see Synn behind me. I listen to his slow applause of me, and take a slight bow towards my mentor.
"So another night where I haven't blown myself up" I tell Synn "Impressed much?"
I could feel my ego growing as I speak
"Well..." Synn says to me, his cold eyes staring in to mine "It's always a good thing when you end up in one piece after a show. If you didn't, Joshua would be running around with superglue, and we both know that is not wise"
"Not smart at all" I replied to Synn "Superglue and Despayre does not mix"
A strange crooked smile came from Synn's lips as he turned his back to me, looking out to the rows of empty chairs in front of me, filled earlier by SCW stars and fans.
"Is this what you want Gabriel?" Synn asks me with his back turned
"Define 'This'" I challenged him.
"Entertaining people from the stage over the ring?" Synn shoots back
I couldn't help but smile at this one
"I like entertaining on or in both" I told Synn
"Are you focused on the SCW Tag Titles?" Synn asked me
"Of course" I replied back as fast as I could. "I'm even working on promos to be more Synn-like"
I watched Synn turn around quickly and look at me, a smile crossing his lips.
"Really?" He said to me slowly
I click my fingers and the lights drop down, except one spotlight, resting upon a throne, candles randomly light as I clap my hands. I walk over to the throne and sit down upon it, looking at Synn.
"Really" I reply "The setting is very you"
Synn nodded his head slowly at me. I point to a camera on the stage.
"Know how to work one of those things?" I asked him.
Synn stared at me, slightly confused
"Erm, yes" He replies
"Well get cracking than. Let's see if I can be Synn" I tell him with a smile.
THE FOLLOWING IS FILMED THROUGH THE CAMERA HELD BY SYNN. IF THE PICTURE GOES OUT OF FOCUS, IT'S HIS FAULT.
"Hello SCW, it's one half of your tag team champions here, Gabriel and I'm here to give you all a harsh lesson of the world. What I'm about to say will change your views on how you see your life. If you feel happy plodding along in the shower that is your life right now, please turn the channel right now, but for those who want to learn a lesson or two from someone that knows the truth, than it's time for you to listen. Are you sitting comfortably? Good, than I'll begin."
I glance towards Synn, a curious look on his face.
"Do you know what helps people get out of bed every morning? Well, the non lazy ones at least, the ones that drive themselves forward. It's the hope that one day, they will get exactly what they want, exactly what they feel they deserve. Even the ones with poor lives, living from hand to mouth like so many do, sit and pray for a better day. I'm gonna let you in on a tiny little secret here. A secret that will shock so many of you. When you sit there and say 'God, please help me, please give me a better life, please, please help me do things I'm not capable of doing' there is no one listening. There is no one on the other end of that line. There is no answer machine, there is no one to place you on hold, you're talking to thin air. Belief and faith, is bullshit I'm sorry to say"
Synn tilts his head looking at me, clearing impressed
"When people said the earth was flat and if you went to far, you'd fall right off of it, people believed that, even though there was no proof or substance behind a wild claim such as that. If anyone did do that, how would they be alive to tell that tale? This drunken yarn was told time and time again to people saw it as fact, rather than fiction. It's bullshit. Just because you say you saw something, doesn't make it so. I'm pretty sure police officers up and down the country, hell, the world, meet a guy with the moniker 'Jesus' every day of their life. It doesn't make him the leading character in the book of bullshit, does it? "
I stretch my arms out on to the arms of the throne
"Bullshit stories are what make people believe in useless, pointless junk like faith and destiny. I'm sorry to piss on the cornflakes of all young lovers out there that feel you were brought together by some almighty, powerful source, but you really wasn't. Fate and destiny is not real, choice and chance is. Don't you get sick of hearing those love stories? 'Well, we were in a bar, surrounded by people, and I saw him, and I couldn't take my eyes off him, it was fate' bullshit! It was not fate, it was choice, you chose to be in that bar, by chance, he was in the bar, you chose to look at him, it was not destiny, nor fate. If he decided to go to some other bar, you'd have met someone else and thought that was fate. It's like hearing people talk about how they would have been involved in an accident if they would have left five minutes earlier. You didn't leave five minutes earlier, you chose to leave five minutes later, you chose to do that, no one else, you. You decided to get the bus instead of the train you usually get before it went off the rails, you opted for a later flight, missing the earlier flight crashing. You wasn't saved by divine intervention, you was saved by your own personality, and your own choosing."
I look firmly at Synn holding the camera.
"You were not chosen for a higher purpose, you decide your own life. Believing in things you can not control, is not the way forward, controlling your own life, that my friends, is the way forward, that is the way to live life. If I were to meet my future wife in SCW, it wouldn't be destiny, it would be down to the fact that we both had a chance to be here, and we both decided to take that chance, not because someone out there put us in this place. It's the same with all aspects of life. You chose to train for a job you wanted, you have the job you wanted. It's not rocket science you know. The thought of fate and destiny surely counters the apparent free will aspect to our lives. If fate and destiny were real, why do we do anything? Why don't we sit here and wait for it to happen? Because it's not real, we have the free will to do what the hell we want to do. If I wanna show up for Into The Void bare arse naked, it's because I had the free will to do so, not cause some hire power told me to. We can not go through life hoping to be saved by an invisible person, dragging us from the pits of our lives. We can not speculate what awaits us on the other side, if there even IS an other side. We have to live our lives by choice"
I can see Synn becoming more and more impressed. Damn, do I sound like him or what?
"It wasn't destiny that I picked Synn's pocket that day in Vegas, I was broke and wanted some cash, I chose to dip my hand in his pocket because well, he looked like the kinda guy that carries around stupid amounts of money and well, I wanted it, so I went for it. He and Shane chose not to kick seven bags of shit out of me when they caught me, they chose to give me the life I now lead. Destiny? Bullshit, choice, you got it."
I watch Synn shake the camera slightly
"Everything that has lead me to success has been by my choice, not by the hand of anyone else. I chose to pick Synn's pocket, I chose to step in to the ring, I wanted gold, I got it, I wanted to be a sin, so I chose to be. I chose to be where I am right now and if you think for a second this is where I want things to end for me, than you're mistaken. You can sit there and go on about how your 'fate' is to win gold, then what? That's the end for you, does your life stop? Does it hell. See, choices lead you to where you are. I chose to be a sin, I choose to take advice from Synn, from Shane and Fantasia, because it makes future choices a lot more easier. I chose these people as family, and we are stronger than any conventional family, so much stronger. See, where as conventional family are bound by blood, they have to be there, we are bound together because we chose to be, because we bring out the best in us all. We are stronger than any normal family, we push each other to be better because we choose to"
I flick my hair back over my ears with both hands and look towards the camera.
"Now you might see this as pointless rambling, but here's where everything ties together, because this is where I link it to you Aleksei. I saw you and your sister, it proves that real family has more holes in than a fishing net. You got to choose the next extension to your family, and believe me when I say this, you need someone you can trust like family to take the gold from my cold hands, but I think you made a very bad call in this case. I think you should have done your homework a little better here Aleksei. I admit, you probably couldn't have asked for a better tag team wrestler, Weapon X has won more tag gold in his career than most have won, he is one of the most experienced men on the roster, but let me tell you a little something about Weapon X. He tried to screw with the sins before, he tried to accuse Synn and I of keeping Despayre 'dumbed down' on pills. Weapon X left us with so much ammo to destroy him, you will get caught in the crossfire. You will get hurt because of one wrong choice Aleksei, this is going to cost you a chance at taking this title of mine. I didn't get it by going out and picking some random guy to team with, I worked hard for it with a partner with credibility, a partner I could rely on, a partner who is family, you picked the first guy you could find"
I shake my head slowly
"Bad choice there Aleksei, Weapon X may well be a top tag team wrestler, but Weapon X is not a good guy. He likes to act like a good guy, but the man sits there and tries to make everyone else look bad, regardless of who they are. This man would make a nun look bad to keep himself looking good, he will make you look bad, just to keep himself looking good. It's not really a warning Aleksei, it's the truth. I mean there was myself, and Synn, popular in SCW ranks, and we get painted as the bad guys, with the Harkore Warriors trying to paint themselves as heroes trying to save an even more popular Despayre. Think about it Aleksei, this man would make his own mother look bad to make himself look better. Also for the record, I don't buy in to his wife being 'Mrs Perfect' either. No one's perfect, and I think that alone shows the ego, that alone shows the arrogance. This man is not to be trusted Aleksei, you have made the wrong choice here, you have cost yourself a legit shot at taking our titles. I fear for you now, I can't help but feel if the going gets tough, Weapon X will get going."
I inhale sharply
"I'm sorry Aleksei, it's just the way things go. You make a bad call, and now you must pay the consequences"
I pause for a second before delivering my final line.
"And that my friends, is the gospel, according to Gabriel"
The lights drop out completely as the screen fades to black
