time: thursday evening, nine thirty p.m.

day: march twenty-third, oh six.

place: bailey's bay, bermuda; engel residence.

(I scream without a sound)

(How could you take away everything that I was?)

(Made me a fuckin' slave)

(Your face that I despise, your heart inside that's gray)

(I came today to say.. you're fucked in every way.)

(It's getting late. I have to be up early tomorrow for my flight to Milwaukee. I've got to meet Dustin and 'neeka at the airport. Did he say he was bringing Rain along? Probably not. The sky is beautiful tonight, full of stars and other astrological things that I can't think of at the moment. I'm not feeling too good; my stomach is killing me. I need some peptol, that always does the trick.)

(I get up from my leather brown couch in my luxurious living room and walk to the kitchen. I open our medicine cabinet and grab the bottle of peptol bismol. I take a pretty big swig of it, wipe my mouth, and put it back. It's got a bit of kick to it, but it works. I had a bad case of the stomach flu this morning, constant regurgitation for a couple of hours straight. It wasn't pretty.)

(It wasn't fun. It was like watching a Stonfan brothers promo. Yes, it was that bad.)

(I find my way back to the living room, resting on my couch once again. The 52 inch TV is turned to some college basketball. I throw the mute button on; I can't stand the sound right now with my headache. Who needs to hear those commentators babble on and on anyway? I can clearly see what's going on, I don't need someone to explain it to me like I'm some basketball illiterate retard.)

(I hear a ruckus in the kitchen; Mia must be doing some last-minute packing for tomorrow. I really didn't want her to come, I had a bad feeling about it. She's persistant, though, and a very stubborn woman. One of the many reasons why I love her so much. I pause the basketball game -- gotta love having a DVR -- and go upstairs to check on Alexia. I find her in her room, doing some packing herself.)

VIRUS: Mom said you could go, huh?

(She nods, not even turning to look at me. Progress can only go so fast, but at least she's communicating with me again. I hated her being silent and non-responsive with me. I love her so much.)

VIRUS: I can't believe you want to go...but I'm glad. Just please be careful when I'm backstage and not with you guys. Stay with your mom at all times, okay? I love you sweetie. If you need anything, just let me know.

(She nods again. I see a tear fall down her left cheek. I walk into her room and give her a hug. She hugs me back. I felt complete. Dark, silent, and complete. I stroke her cheek and give her a kiss on it, telling her everything is going to be okay. I tell her to come downstairs when she's done packing so I can spend some time with her before tomorrow. She nods.)

(I make my way down the stairs and into the kitchen. I see Mia packing a few things, still, and I walk up to her. I give her a kiss on the back of the neck and start to dance with her.)

Mia: Keep that up, mister, and you might be too tired to get up tomorrow morning.

(I smile and tease her with another kiss on the neck. This one tickled her a bit and she pulls away, turning to look at me.)

VIRUS: I want you to know that I'll have people there keeping an eye on you in case anything should happen. I'm not taking any chances anymore. I love the fact that you and Alexia want to come and cheer me on, but I won't take any chances. I'm not letting anything happen to this family anymore.

Mia: Baby, you never did. Things happen for a reason. We can't explain how, when, or why; but they just happen. You didn't let those people kidnap Alexia. You didn't. Please, stop blaming yourself.

VIRUS: I can't help it. I felt like I could've done something to prevent it. I should've known. I should've known.

Mia: Relax, okay? It's over and done with. It's in the past. Concentrate on the present and the future. Concentrate on what you plan to do now and raising our little girl. She needs you more than ever...she doesn't need you guilt-tripping yourself all the time.

VIRUS: Yeah, you're right. Listen, I gotta do my CWA thing and then Alexia and I are going to hang out in the living room. We'll probably watch a movie or something, so you should come in whenever you're done packing.

Mia: Okay...have fun.

(I nod my head and walk over to the kitchen table. I grab the video camera out of the corner, putting in its usual position -- facing the floor-to-ceiling windows and getting a good shot of the backyard. I sit in my usual spot, between the camera and the windows behind me, and I grab the remote control. Remembering that I put a fresh tape in their earlier, I hit record.)

VIRUS: I heard TDR quit. That's a shame. I'm glad he didn't leave without me pinning him, though. That was a good feeling, then I realized why I was able to hit the Euthanasia on him -- Dustin and his brass knucks. Eh, shit happens. I didn't do it and I can't help that it happened. I took advantage of the situation and put him down for the one, two, three. That's all that matters.

Who cares if Dustin shattered his jaw beforehand? I heard that shot, too. It didn't sound good. Take care of that jaw, TDR. It'd be such a damn shame if you couldn't talk anymore. Or would it?

Anyway. Moving along, I haven't got much to say. I've got important family matters to attend to, plus an early flight out of Bermuda to Milwaukee tomorrow morning. I hope you all understand. It's not like my opponents said much of anything important or relevant to our match. They came off as pretty fucking retarded and impotent. I actually thought these guys would have some intellect to bring to the table, then I realized I was in the CWA.

Sigh.

I might be beating a dead horse here -- because Riona covered it pretty well -- but just because Langly is a woman, doesn't mean she's not to be feared. She's probably snapped more bones, broken more dreams, and beaten more men than you two have combined in your whole career -- and that was just last year. Yet, you fucking idiots have the audacity to underestimate her based on the sole fact that she is of the opposite sex. Look at her track record, morons, and you might think differently. She's busted and beaten more ass than any woman I've ever known.

Seriously. Get the fuck over yourselves, you make me sick -- at least sicker than I already am.

(A cough. I rub my temples a bit...I hate headaches.)

VIRUS: Well I must admit, my first match wasn't my finest performance in my entire career. I got the job done, though. I got the pin, the victory, and tallied up another mark in the win column. Do you think I honestly care if you were impressed with my first match? No. I really don't. See, at least I was fighting SOME talent in my first match. Now? I've got you two. That's an insult on my part.

Sable...please don't do this ever again. Thanks.

Wow - in that rambling of God knows what, Thomas, you actually managed to say something correct. I believe Riona and I have only tagged once and we were victorious. Consider us undefeated together. You forgot about that, didn't you? I'm sure you and your brother have lost plenty of times, but Riona and I remain undefeated. Sure, we might've only had one match together, but hey -- who cares?

Did you also forget that I'm a multiple tag-team champion myself? Yeah, that must have slipped your mind if you were talking crazy shit like you were. You have the "edge" - right. What edge is that? Stupidity?

I don't need to go on about how Ryan McCade and I won the UHWA and AOWF tag-team titles and how I pretty much picked up Ryan's slack and was winning tag matches pretty much on my own, do I? No, I didn't think so. If you were so smart, you would've looked that up. You would've seen that at one point I had to wrestle two men in a handicap match just to keep the UHWA tag titles.

That was a good night. I loved walking out of there with both belts on my shoulders.

But hey, you're the man because you made fun of our stable name. Congrats. You've probably made the worst mistake in the history of promos. Do you honestly know how stupid you come off making, or at least trying to make fun of, a stable's name? You don't hear me making fun of Self~Inflicted Drama, do you? Or The Charms? Or The Straders? No. I don't make fun of their names because I'm smarter than you. I go after their members and what they have or haven't done. I go after different things besides names. How fucking elementary can you get, Thomas?

I can't even deal with you anymore. Riona and I are going to destroy you both. See ya.

(I reach for the remote control, hitting the stop button. I take the video tape out of the camera and lay it on the counter. Putting the video camera back in its corner, I hear Alexia coming downstairs. She goes into the living room and begins to look at our massive DVD collection, looking to pick out a movie. I hear Mia coming as well. We both sit down on the couch, while Alexia finally picks out a movie.)

(And for once today, I felt normal.)

-fade-