act six: the death of superman
BANG!
The would-be Rambo shut his eyes in pain, his white shirt turned scarlet in an instant as he felt his knees begin to buckle. Guns clattering to his side, straps sagging from the impact and sliding down across the body of their owner, across the body of a dying man.
Christopher Champion had been fading before he'd ever came to the island, but it had been his best friend, Dominic Pericolo, who was needed to put the nail in the coffin of his legacy. Shakily lifting his head, Champion placed his hand on his heart, on the gaping wound left pumping life from his very center.
He could feel the same blood pumping from the wound slowly trickling out from his mouth. Choking him. Killing him. Champion began to hack the blood from his lungs, crumpling forward but placing his free arm forward to catch himself in the process. He could hear frantic, footsteps, the tortured screams and sobs of a man who'd supported him for so many years now past... the sobs of the man who had pulled the trigger that had finally killed him.
Christopher Champion smiled. Proud. He was... he was proud of him.
"Y-you... you did it, Dominic, y-y-you... y-y-you broke free..."
A struggled laugh escapes the throat of his friend, as Dominic places both hands on Champion's shoulders, holding him steady and shaking his head in disagreement. Dominic knew better... though Champion had it set in his mind that Dominic had been held back for so long by the relationship they'd had in the business, the fact of the matter was... it had never fazed him at all, it had only made him stronger.
"You're wrong, Champion..." Dominic whispered, that smile still on his face as his friend tried to lift his head, tried to look him in the eye as he spoke, "There was never anything I had to break free from. I... I did all this to save you."
Realization flooded Champion's veins, a place where poison once reigned over blood. The poison often changed, be it a new brand of liquor or some twisted form of lethal injection... the poison often changed, but it had always remained; at least, until now. A stabbing sense of guilt cut through the pride Champion had felt only moments before, and a year's worth of regrets came crashing down upon the man.
It had all been so simple... more than just an idealistic phone-call, it should have never reached the point it did. Long before Dominic ever returned to the NLCW, Champion... he had an open book of possibilities in his life worth taking, and many of those possibilities truly did center around returning to the ring without incident.
He had just been too blind to see that all along.
"I didn't come back because of you, Chris... I came back to save the NLCW, just like you did. You and I... we're a lot alike, but it's not because I try to be, Chris..."
It's because, whether he wanted to admit it or not... all the good that has grown in Christopher Champion has grown because of the influences of Dominic Pericolo.
It had been something Champion never truly gave the thought he probably should, but it was something that held true regardless. Granted, Champion had addressed it from time to time... Pericolo was a huge influence on his life, and was one of the biggest forces in changing how he handled himself in the business; however... he had never really put the pieces to the puzzle together.
Whatever Dominic Pericolo did, Christopher Champion had to do better... he had to, because that was the only way he was ever able to get to where he was today. Dominic Pericolo changed his attitude for the better, and Christopher Champion emerged the better wrestler for a very, very long time.
Yet for so long... Dominic Pericolo demonstrated abilities far and beyond where he and Chris had last left off, and such a showcase of talent... it was almost insulting, because it had all been achieved without Champion's help. It had all been achieved because Dominic... Dominic had made a change that Champion simply could not.
And that thought alone had driven him insane.
"I can't believe, I... I never, I..."
"I'm sorry..."
"I didn't... I didn't want it to end like this, Dominic, I..."
He was running out of time.
The darkness was growing ever larger by the moment, encroaching upon Champion's vision, blurring the lines of reality and the afterlife. He felt the cold touch of death on his shoulder and, as desperately as he didn't want to turn his head to it, he... he knew that he would have to.
A lifetime of regret would be difficult for him to deal with, but... at least he had an eternity ahead of him to handle it.
"I'm so sorry, Chris..."
The final words echoed through the fading mind of Champion, but he knew beyond all else that, despite Dominic's sorrow... he wasn't the one who should apologize at all.
Chris had thought he had changed himself for the better... but, in the end, he had been grossly mistaken, and that had cost him everything. For that... he knew that he was sorry.
And he knew that change, real change... was the only thing that could have saved him.