Derrick's life had always seemed to take a turn for the worse. He considered himself just to be, generally, unlucky. From his troubled youth and all the way into adulthood. His career had panned out no different.
And still ... somehow it had managed to get even worse.
With his sister still in the hospital and Scotty keeping Derrick from seeing her, the lone Allen left standing was only a few drinks from falling.
"Let me get another over here." Derrick beckons the bar tender as he motions toward his glass.
Posted atop of rickety old bar stool in a dump of a bar, Derrick, attempts to hide from his sorrow in the bottom of a bottle. A highball glass, a pack a cigarettes and a beer sit lined up on the bar in front of him. Each vice in its descending order of importance to a emotionally ailing man.
"Hey, turn that thing to ES ... What is it? ESEN?" Derrick thinks on it for a moment. "Yeah, ESEN. Turn it to ESEN."
The bartender asks, "The TV?"
"No, the icemaker. Yes, the TV ... Who is drunk here? Me or you?" Derrick heckles.
The bartender flips through a few channels for a moment before giving in and resorting to the guide. He locates the desired channel and cues it up for Derrick. The program picks up somewhere amidst a clip show anchored by some intolerable talking head rambling on about results from all over the world.
"And with that we move to the struggling little promotion that could, the International Wrestling Federation, strangely enough centralized in Seattle, Washington. And the two biggest things on everyone's mind in the Emerald City is of course; Who is the champ!? And will Seattle's favorite son, Scott Douglas return to the sport following "The Clap!?"
"Scotty, Scotty, Scotty ... " Derrick mumbles into his glass.
"Only time will tell but one thing is for certain Scott Douglas and Derrick Allen did a number on poor little Courtney Allen. Let's take a look."
"Cut that off." Derrick barks at the bartender as he slams his glass down. He turns his attention from the television quickly as if he can't bear to watch the incident again.
The bartender looks up momentarily from the dish sink secured under the bar.
"Give me a second." he calls back.
"Now, cut it off! Cut this shit off!" Derrick demands as his temper begins to manifest itself through jerkier mannerisms and a slight twitch to his eye.
Through the ambient noise of the bar and Derrick's boisterously demanding tone, the clap and subsequent ringing of the steel chairs that sent Courtney deep into her vegetative and Derrick to his pickled state, squawks from the television speaker.
The sound snaps Derrick's attention back the television and he watches his only living blood relative collapse to the mat. A single tear creeps from his eye and rolls down his cheek only stopping when it meets the stubbled beard growth of a emotionally distraught unkempt man. The first is followed by a ready supply of pent up emotion and bottled up feelings.
Derrick raises his glass and hurls it toward the bar back mirror; shattering the glass and the etched mirror. The bartender pops up from his dish washing and instantly goes for the telephone.
"Who wants to go!?" Derrick screams out, addressing the bar patrons, as he stands from his stool. "Huh? Who the fuck wants to take a shot at "ADD" Derrick Allen? Who!?"
Derrick stands in the middle of the small dingy establishment arms outstretched.
"No one!? Not one of you has the balls to get off your ass and take a shot!?" he questions.
Derrick drops his arms only long enough to snatch a chair from under a low top bar table and hurl it across the small room. It crashes several feet way and following the clatter the bar falls silent. The only exception being the television.
The bumper music leading the anchor into commercial plays as he wraps up the segment that has been lost in the background.
"Maybe some of these questions will be answered next week on Chain Reaction 10, where Derrick Allen is scheduled to be in action for the first time since "The Clap" and the conclusion of Perfection and Vizier ta Seti has been rumored to air! We'll be right back with an ULTRATitle update!"
"What?" Derrick questions out loud. "Last week, I can't come in the fucking building ... but now I got a match? What kind of half assed shit are they running over there!?"
The bartender cautiously grabs the remote control and turns the television off before it can, possibly, divulge any more information that could potentionally cause this scene to become anymore grim.
"Who the hell am I facing? I told Mori, give me Douglas or give me the STRAP!" Derrick continues talking to himself.
Derrick digs down in his pockets and pulls out a wad of cash. He sorts through the mess and plucks two small pills from the make shift parcel. He pops them in his mouth and snatches the beer bottle he left on the bar top. He tips the bottle downing the rest of the beer and the pills just before he grabs his cigarettes from the bar.
"Derrick, you ... you better get out of here. Boss man said if you did this again to call the cops immediately. They should already be on the way." The bar tender timidly informs.
Derrick pulls a single cigarette from his pack, places it between his lips, and strikes a match to light it. He pulls in hard and responds to the bar tender with his first exhale. "Thanks for the heads up, Scotty. You're a true friend."
The bar tender question low under his breath as Derrick clears the threshold, "Scotty ... ?"