Lake Baneasa, Bucharest, Romania.
The midday sun shines down on to Lake Baneasa, as I sit on it's banks. My eyes dart around at the life around me, everyone from families of four to couples walk past behind me as I glare on to the water. My jeans rest easy on the grass below me, but a cooling breeze forces me to pull my leather jacket tighter around me.
"I thought I might find you here." Synn's voice says behind me.
My head spins around, looking towards Synn as he approaches me with Despayre holding Angel in his hand. Despayre is oddly wearing a string of garlic around his neck.
"Why?" I ask.
"You're oddly drawn to water." Synn informs me. "You're an element man, and I don't see any tire fires here, so thought I'd find you here."
I turn away from Synn, my eyes glancing back on to the water as Synn takes a seat next to me as Despayre moves towards the waters edge.
"Why is he wearing garlic around his neck?" I ask Synn "I mean I know he's got his own sense of fashion but that takes the piss"
Synn shrugs his shoulders, rolling them backwards.
"I'm not completely sure." Synn starts "But I'd hazard a guess that it has something to do with our location."
"A park?" I dryly say to Synn.
"Romania" Synn replies "Since it was announced that we was coming here, Joshua has been talking about it's history and mostly, it's history with vampires."
"Vampires?" I ask curiously
"Yes, Romania is the home of Transylvania." Synn tells me
"Does he know that vampires aren't exactly..." I trail off "Real."
A wry smile crosses Synn's face as he looks at me with eyes dancing with life and menace.
"Didn't you say that about the Loch Ness Monster and Godzilla?" He asks me with a grin.
"Yeah..." I start "But vampires? Is he looking for the fangs and demonic eyes ones or is he looking for the ones that are covered in glitter?"
"Pft!" Despayre says from the waters edge "Everyone knows those glittery ones aren't real."
Despayre looks back to the water, causing a smile from me.
"Well you're right on that one Despy." I comment.
"So what brought you out here, Gabriel?" Synn asks.
"A way to clear my head, a way to think." I tell Synn "I have so much coming up in the next few months, what with O, taking on Sean Jackson, a match with that fool Andrew Watts, should I get past Jackson."
"Stop right there." Synn tells me with a raised hand "Should you get past Jackson?"
"You know what I mean." I state "I will get past Jackson, there's no doubt in my mind about that, was a figure of speech about him. I just have a lot going on, and needed a way to clear my mind, make plans for how to deal with this. You know me, I never leave a stone unturned."
Synn slowly nods his head, shading his eyes from the sun.
"And what have you come up with?" He asks
"It's fairly simple. It's obvious that Watts is gonna be there this week to try and look like he's worthy of my title, to try and sell himself on people so he doesn't look like the joke that he is. He'll be watching every move that I make" I say casually "So to me, it's about putting on a show, getting in to his tiny little mind to show him that if he thinks I'm gonna be just another number on his record, then he has already lost this match before he even gets in to a ring with me."
"So your plan is to put on a show?" Synn says with a raised eyebrow.
"I know, I know" I comment "But more of a show than usual. More of what I can and will do. Watts takes everyone lightly, it's in his nature to do that but it's time to open his eyes and let him see who and what he is dealing with. He feels he's dealing with just another opponent, but the things I can do is like no other and he needs to see this as soon as possible. this puts Sean Jackson in a very bad place."
"He's been in a bad place since you took his title." Synn says matter of factly.
"Yes, but on Sunday, it means that he's in an even more bad place." I start "Sean Jackson is a thing of the past, a man who knows stepping in to this, is his last chance, he knows if he blows it, and he will, he will be in limbo. He will have to find someone else to annoy to try and regain his former glory and that will weigh on his mind, that will play games with his head, he's gonna slip up and he knows it, but I'm gonna show him how much better I am than he is and plant that seed in Watts' head that there's also a difference in class between us."
A thoughtful look crosses Synn's face.
"I don't think you need to worry too much." Synn thoughtfully says "Jackson knows he's coming in to this with no chance."
I nod firmly in agreement, my eyes focused on the water in front of me.
"I know that I got this." I say to Synn "After all, I am the master of the impossible..."
I stand up, moving closer to the water and crouching down over the water. I turn my head back towards Synn.
"You've seen it a million times." I start "Proving the impossible by walking on water. Jesus did it and many people have replicated it over and over and over. I've done it but it no longer falls under the impossible, it no longer pushes boundaries, but this..."
I turn back to face the water, my eyes focused on the liquid as I slowly move both my hands flat over the waters surface. I look down with narrowed eyes as the water starts to bubble. A crowd begins to gather round as Synn rises to his feet and Despayre joins him by standing next to Synn, watching my every action. The water starts to boil all over the lake, causing people to turn and stare at the water from all angles of the lake. A smile crosses my face as the crowd watch on in awe and the water begins to boil faster, more bubbles breaking the surface.
"Ummm, tea anyone?" Despayre says innocently
I turn to Despayre with a smile and look back to the middle of the lake as the water starts to bubble more intensely, jumping up in the air in small bursts. From out of nowhere, a huge burst of water in the middle of the lake, followed by a second one, much higher, the water turning in a tornado fashion. Gasps of shock and surprise from the crowd force a smile across my lips.
"The best is yet to come." I mutter to myself
I focus my eyes on the water, before closing them, my hands shaking above the water surface. Droplets of ice starts to fall from my finger tips and in to the water below. The water below my hands starts to harden, before spreading across the lake, a layer of ice creeping towards the tornado in the middle of the lake. Ice start to surround the tornado water from every side of the lake, reaching the base. More sounds of shock and awe is heard around the lake and video phones film the spectacular and unbelievable event. The water starts to freeze the base of the tornado, moving its way to the top, the whole thing now covered and the tornado in to a solid block of ice. I turn to look at Synn.
"Yeah, magic man here still got it." I say to Synn.
I step on to the solid ice, turning towards Synn once more.
"Now that was impossible." I start "Beating Sean Jackson and then on to Andrew Watts is not."
I step off the ice and past Synn, but Despayre calls after me.
"Shouldn't you turn this back to normal?" He says pointing to the lake.
"You do it." I tell Despayre. "Just tap the ice."
I smile and start to walk away as Despayre hovers his hand over the ice. He taps down on the ice, causing it to turn from solid ice to water once more, the ice tornado dropping down in to the middle of the lake once more. Despayre nods with a smile on his face and turns to Angel in his other hand.
"I don't know my own strength sometimes!" He tells Angel.
The scene fades out to black
All good things come to an end...
Sadly for some they do. Now I know you can sit there and the brighter quick witted of you people listening can sit there and snigger "Yeah, your title run is coming to an end", but that is not what I'm talking about so back to your mother's basements for you. I'm talking about a certain Mr Jackson's aspirations of holding my title.
You know this is your last chance saloon, right Sean? You know this is your last shot at taking this title from me, deep down, you know it is. Well cowboy, it's not gonna go too well for you in this ol' saloon.
It's finally happening though, it's finally here and set to happen, it's finally come round to where I get to face you one on one. It's time to bury the myths that sit in your head and stop you from having to listen to that voice in your head trying to justify why you don't have my title anymore. It's time to face up to who you really are in your soul and see the simple truth that everyone else has been looking at for a long, long time and that is that you're simply not worthy of holding the World Heavyweight championship anymore. Everyone has seen it for a long time and there's been so many laughing at you behind your back, giggling away and wondering just how strong that moonshine is that you've been drinking because they all know that everything coming out of your mouth is simply words of a desperate man.
Desperate being the right word.
Desperate to convince yourself that you're not a bad wrestler, desperate to convince yourself that you deserve to be where you are, desperate to show that you are worthy of holding the top title but the sad fact is, is that no one else believes in you because everyone else already knows that the gold is with the right man, everyone knows that you have nothing but hot air anymore.
This is why I had absolutely no issues in telling Christian Underwood to sign this match up and I know Christian has put the odds back in your favor to give you a fighting chance by making me have to beat you not once, but twice in the same match. I know somewhere in his little mind that you might sneak two lucky wins against me, but the thing is I don't intend on letting you pull off one little win on me.
Everyone knows how these things go, usually, and by law of averages, we should both win one and set up the grand finale where it can go either way but that is where I like to buckle trends. I've never been a traditionalist, so I'm going for two straight pins here Sean, not one but two straights wins. There's not a chance in hell I'm gonna let you put my shoulder to the mat and even give yourself the dignity of pinning me. I will not be selling myself short here and making someone not worthy of pinning me, having the opportunity to do so.
I've listened to you for months talk about how you're the better man, yet you've done nothing to actually prove it, you've done nothing to show it. It's been excuse after excuse, after excuse, after excuse. Nothing of anything else. You accuse Drake Green and Drexel Matheson of laying down and letting me take the wins, but you have no proof any of that ever happened, this is why people look at you and can no longer take you seriously. When you said you was gonna end Drake Green with a knee to the head, you did just that and people looked at you and started to believe you was a man of your word, people had no choice but to take you seriously. When you started to come up with this whole theory, telling people that I somehow influenced people to give up a shot at the title that everyone wants, people looked at you in a completely different light, people looked at you and asked why?
Why Sean, Why?
Why are you hell bent on embarrassing yourself? Why are you hell bent on making yourself look stupid? Why are you hell bent on ruining every piece of credibility you've ever built up in your career? People were sad, people were shaking their heads, people were wondering if the mental rapist himself, was losing the ability to play with other peoples minds. Maybe the years of trying has reversed and now the only person who's head you can get in is your own and that simply isn't good enough.
You've become a train wreck, people don't wanna look at the train about to fall off the track, but they just can't turn away and these bullshit accusations have turned you in to that. You're a walking, talking, living, breathing disaster that people feel guilty about watching, but they just can't turn their heads away from you. It's not a good thing, they're not watching for entertainment, they're watching to see what mistakes you're about to make next. This is the issue Sean, This is the problem, where you are making mistake after mistake, but somewhere in your head, you're trying to justify it, you're trying to make it look good, but the problem is the rest of the world see that you're just a fool to yourself.
You've taken away the fear factor and your very own aura around yourself.
People used to see their name against yours on the card and instantly look past your flaws as a wrestler and think "God damn, this man could end me with that knee!" but they don't anymore. They sit there and just simply think "meh". They simply think that it's another night at work where they can walk away with a win over someone who used to be a talent, someone who used to be worth something in this business. People no longer fear stepping in to the ring with someone who has headlined shows all over the world and looked good doing it, people sit there and know they could ad the high profile name of Sean Jackson to their win list. There's only one person to blame for this...
You!
You took away the fear with your bullshit excuses, you took away your own seriousness by claiming things with no proof to back it up. Ever since I took the title back to where it belonged, you have sat there sabotaging your own career, your own character. Awwww Sean, did me beating you mentally and physically send you in to a twisted tailspin where you couldn't stand the fact that I made you look bad, so you had to make yourself look bad.
That's it, isn't it Sean?
You couldn't live with the fact that I out classed you in every sense of the word and made you look bad, that you had to try and one up me by making yourself look bad. Your little ego wouldn't let someone make you look bad, so ya had to try and do it to yourself to make yourself look bad.
Nice try, but a swing and a miss
Look at the root of it all Sean. Look down at where it all started. You had Sean Jackson in the ring, big time champion, you had Drake Green, Mr Popularity in there and you had me, the underdog, the man who no one expected to win, to walk away with the championship and against all odds... Yes Sean, that is another song by your favorite singer Phil Collins... the plucky little underdog, con artist, magic man, walked away with the title. That had to burn, right? Watching the man who no one gave a chance to, walk away with the gold. The truth is, I've been making you look bad since that day and I will continue to make you look bad at every chance I get. Honestly, take a day off from making yourself look bad, I'll do it for you Sean. I've done it before and no matter how much you convince yourself that you're doing it yourself, it's all about me doing it to you.
Don't worry about punishing yourself anymore Sean, cause I'm about to do that for you because I'm about to take away your last chance of holding the top title, I'm taking away your chance of defeating me, I'm gonna take away your pride, I'm gonna take away your passion, I'm gonna take away everything you thought you had.
So welcome to the last chance saloon, your first shot is on me, but ironically, that will be your first, and last shot you ever have.
Time for talk is over Sean, it's time to face reality and that reality is that on Sunday, your hopes and dreams come to a grinding halt. Start thinking of your next excuse Sean, cause you're gonna need it after I show you that all you believe, is all in your head only.
May God have mercy on your soul Sean Jackson....
Cause I will not!
