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| Pride in the Stars; Cain vs Jarvis King | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 24 2010, 03:03 PM (72 Views) | |
| Alex Cain | Jan 24 2010, 03:03 PM Post #1 |
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Alex Cain
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It was the most difficult time of my life, up until recently. You never really expect it, when you are young you expect your heroes to live forever. Especially when they are men who have always appeared to be invincible in your eyes, men whose legacy is the stories told about them on the streets, the tales and the memories, some almost too tall to be true, but all were. I was 16 years old, sat at the bottom of the driveway in the sleepy suburb of London where my Nan and granddad had moved to just a few years before. Granddad had gotten fed up with the type of people living in our old manor, they were criminals, but they weren’t the sort of criminal that my granddad had respect for, men who sold drugs or enlisted youngsters to go out robbing and mugging for them, my granddad called them "fucking cowards." Whilst he wasn’t a criminal himself, well not all the time, most of the people he associated with were, but as my granddad used to tell me, “its crime son, but it’s not without its morals.” His generation was that old type of gangster, men who struck fear into the hearts of their enemies, but were loved and respected by their neighbours because they were also kind and generous to those around them. The big man in our area was a man called Jackie Tolson, from what I heard, his game was gambling, he would run anything you could take a bet on, part of the reason he was so friendly with my family was because my granddad was one of the top blokes in his bare knuckle racket. And whilst he wanted to be rich, Jackie wasn’t a greedy man, he knew who had helped him and he never saw anyone short. My granddad made most of his money while working with Jackie, and it wasn’t a small amount either, it allowed him to retire at 50 and gave him enough to be able to buy a nice house in the suburbs when he felt he needed to leave. Back in those days the area was a safe place to live, women would stand on their balconies watching the kids play down in the playground, chatting and gossiping, everyone knew everyone, and more importantly, everyone looked out for everyone else. If someone was in trouble, the community pulled together, and, more often than not led by Jackie, sorted out their problems. No one went hungry and no one was short of money, Jackie made sure of that, it was his manor and he knew that he was in the position he was in because of the people that lived there. My Granddad had more respect for Jackie than anyone else, he knew Jackie was a criminal, and he knew that he made all his money through illegal means, but as far as my granddad was concerned he did it right, no one got hurt and people were safe. But after a while it all changed, Jackie got old fast and died of some sort of cancer, nobody was willing to step into his shoes and the area descended into chaos. The gangsters were all jumped up kids looking for the quickest way to get rich, and back then, the quickest way was drugs. The big thing with all the city high fliers was cocaine and they were willing to pay big money for it, during the indulgent 80’s when money was as disposable as toilet roll. The problems began when a few of the youngsters got their hands on some gear and after making a lot of money very quickly, they got greedy for more, houses started getting robbed, women were mugged as they came home from the bank, kids were used in the break ins to get into small windows and suddenly the once happy community was a place where people were terrified to walk the streets. Gradually the level of violence got worse and worse, and the few people who tried to stand up to these upstarts were men like my granddad, but times had changed, fist fights to settle disputes were a thing of the past, weapons were everywhere, and as brave as my granddad was, he knew it was a losing battle. He became so disillusioned with everything, he and my Nan simply packed up and left, to try and live out their remaining days somewhere a little less troublesome. My parents followed pretty close behind. So here I was 16 years old and sat at the bottom of my granddads drive, tears streaming down my face, only a few moments earlier I had been sat in the living room when my dad came downstairs to inform us that my granddad, my hero, had died. I didn’t say anything, I got up and walked out of the house, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave, I just crumpled down to the ground and burst into tears. I couldn’t believe it, how could he have died? Men like him don’t die, they just don’t. My Nan came out of the house and knelt down behind me, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close to her, I sniffled loudly, and I could feel her tears dripping down onto my head. We sat there for what felt like an age, just venting all our sadness and emotion, finally she stood up and walked around me to face me, she knelt down in front of me, “He loved you more than you will ever know Alex, and I know you will miss him, I am going to miss him too, but he will never really be gone, he will always be a part of you, just like you were a part of him. He wanted the best for you, but now you have to go out there and get that for yourself, you have to make him proud of you Alex, he taught you how to live your life right, so do it.” I nodded, wiping the tears away from my face, I was determined to make him proud of me, I had never really cared what anyone thought about me, but my granddads opinion was gospel to me. Sitting on Angels back porch with a beer in my hand, the memory of that moment flooded back to me, would he be proud of me now? I didn’t know anymore, nobody else seemed to be, Scott and Angelica certainly weren’t, there wasn’t anyone else to be proud of me. my parents hadn’t spoken to me really for years, my mum wasn’t proud of me, that was for sure, she saw too much of my granddad in me, and it was something she always resented. My dad was proud of me, but he was so under the thumb he could never show it. Maybe I was too old to be worrying about all this now, but it kept nagging at me, why wouldn’t he be proud of me, I was following in his footsteps, but then he did what he did so that we didn’t have to. He did it for us, who am I doing it for? Not Scott, as hard as that was to admit, it had nothing to do with Scott, and it had everything to do with me, and me alone. It was a wholly selfish action on my part, and it was hard to come to terms with that. Angel’s Rottweiler strolled out onto the porch and sat down next to me, putting her head in my lap and sighing loudly. I placed my hand on the top of her head and scratched behind her ears; I put the bottle of beer to my lips and took a big swig. I didn’t really know how I felt at the moment, part of me felt better than ever, the fighter in me was on top of the world, confident beyond comparison, but the man was in pieces, my family life was falling apart all around me, my friends deserting me and everything I used to hold dear was crumbling at my feet. It did bother me, I knew it wasn’t meant to be like this, I knew this wasn’t what I wanted from my life, but for whatever reason, I didn’t care. Scott was a grown man, he had been through a rough time recently, but he was big enough and ugly enough to deal with his own shit in his own way, we all had to at some point. As for Angelica, I love her as a friend, but right now, I could care less what she thought. I had been torturing myself for days about this, was I doing the right thing. And ultimately, and somewhat selfishly concluded that for the time being, I was. Preparing for this match had sort of overtaken my life, it has become almost an obsession that I beat Jarvis, not because I want to keep hold of the title, I hadn’t turned into Chaolin Sahn, I needed to prove to myself, that I still had what it took to take on the best of the best and come out on top. I needed to prove that despite all the odds being against me, despite people being sure that my time was at an end, I had to prove than it wasn’t, that my time was now, my peak was now, that I have never been as good as I am now. Right now I felt like a dangerous man, I felt remorseless, I felt like how Ivan Drago felt after beating Apollo Creed in Rocky IV, “If he dies, he dies,” I honestly couldn’t give a toss if I ended Jarvis’ life in the middle of that ring on Tuesday, because if I did, all it would mean was that I achieved what I set out to achieve in the first place and I would cement my place in history. My legacy has not been written yet, it’s only the beginning for me, and Jarvis is going to join the long list of men who tried, and failed to topple me from the mountain. Angel walked out onto the porch, her hair billowing slightly in the breeze, she leant on the banister and looked out into the darkness engulfing her garden, a glass of jack and coke in her hand, the ice cube tinkling against the sides of the glass, and she took a sip and looked down at me. “Diesel likes you, the stupid dog.” I leant back on my elbows; Diesels head rolled over as I moved and she licked her lips and drifted back off to sleep. “I have an affinity with dogs; they seem to like me, which is more than can be said for most people at the moment.” She turned away from the banister and sat down on the steps next to me. “So are you going to tell me why you are here then? It’s not often you drag your fat old ass down here.” I sighed loudly, Diesels eyes flickered, in a blissful dream, unlike me. “I needed to be around a friendly face, someone who wouldn’t judge me.” Angel smiled, she didn’t smile too often, which was a shame, she could look quite pretty sometimes, although it was dark and I had had a few drinks. “So come on then, spill.” She took a sip from her drink and I proceeded to recount what had happened over the last few weeks, the chance meeting with Trent, and how my life had changed quite dramatically recently, she sat in silence listening, which was as unusual as it was refreshing, I needed to vent and she was a good outlet for that. It had crossed my mind that she might get pissed off at the hypocrisy of me challenging her about the sense of risking her career by wrestling with an injury when I was putting myself on the line night after night in a similar manner, but she didn’t, she simply nodded along, listening to everything I said, once I had finished, I felt like a great weight had been lifted off my chest, I knew that, no matter her opinion on it, Angel would stand by me, as much as she liked to pretend we weren’t important to her and that she could cope without us, we were her only family, and she wasn’t ready to lose that. “I have to say I am a bit surprised by this, Captain Clean has got skeletons in his closet!” I shrugged “Everyone has skeletons in their closet Amber, even me.” She got up from the stairs and walked into the garden, Diesels eyes opened from her movement and followed her into the garden, but her head didn’t move off my lap, there was now a large wet patch on my knee from the drool coming out of her mouth. “The real question is Alex, is all this going to be worth it in the end? Do you have Jarvis in your sights, or is this an excuse for something else you haven’t quite dealt with yet?” it was somewhat unsettling to have Angel being relatively sensible and seemingly genuinely interested and also mildly concerned. “I don’t know to be honest, at first I thought it was all about Jarvis, I thought the cocky little prick had gotten under my skin, which he had, but it was only after he made that snide little remark about Maya that he really did piss me off, and I think it was because of that I felt like this was the only way to get the fire I needed to really make him pay. And now I really do feel like I can’t lose, he is in for the shock of his life when that bell rings I can tell you that. 60 minutes isn’t going to be long enough for me. I felt bad taking advantage of Ian like I did, he’s a good kid, and I’ll make it up to him, but Jarvis took a few too many liberties in the last few weeks, and I saw an opportunity and took it. I think it’s made me a little bit callous, but I don’t think I’ve changed that much, I’m not a bad person now, I’m just........fired up I guess.” She nodded, “It’s good to hear that you are fired up, cos Jarvis will be I can tell you that. Cocky little mother fucker he might be, but he is dangerous. Saying that though, I could beat him.” She made a cocky little smile and then made a motion depicting having the World title around her waist. “I’m sure you could, I certainly wouldn’t want to be on opposing sides to you.” She sat back down next to me, stroking Diesels chin. “Well then can I suggest that you don’t beat Jarvis, if you are that scared of facing me?” “I’m sorry” I said, “I’m afraid I just can’t do that, meeting you one on one is just a consequence ill have to take for whopping The Webs Wet Blankets arse.” We laughed for a little while, Angel went back into the house and brought out a cooler filled with ice with some beers and a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of coke in it, “Saves having to keep getting up,” she said as I pulled the top off the bottle of beer I took from the cooler, I nodded in agreement and took a long swig. “I got this in the post yesterday” I pulled an envelope out of my pocket, it contained the letter Jarvis had sent me, I handed it to Angel and she opened it and began reading. Finally she finished, and folded the letter up and placed it back in the envelope, balled it up and threw a perfect shot right into the middle of the trash can at the end of the porch. “He really does have a high opinion of himself” She said, I nodded, “He does that, but some of what he is saying is true, perhaps we aren’t as different as I thought, sure he is a cocky little shit and maybe he is slightly overconfident, but then in some respects so am I. And he has certainly done his research, he seems to have Alex Cain deconstructed like a good little psych student. The problem for him is he has barely cracked the surface of what makes Alex Cain tick, and he thinks he has got right down to the meat. I guess on some levels I have become a bit predictable, I have followed a similar formula going into every match, I do doubt my own ability until it hits showtime. But this time was different, and Jarvis missed it, I barely doubted anything this time around, once I walked into that warehouse and had that first bare knuckle fight, once that adrenalin was pounding through my veins I knew that Jarvis King was no match for me now. He wants to talk about evolution, well let’s see how his highly evolved match winning technique hold out when he has a remorseless Alex Cain standing in front of him, ready to squeeze his brain out through his ears. He made this a personal war, he brought Maya into it when there was no need, and that’s why I stooped so low as to use his brother to get into his head. You see the bit where he says I never make my battles personal, well that’s where he completely misread the situation, had he not mentioned Maya, then maybe, just maybe he would have had a chance to beat me, but then he had to go ahead and piss me off. And he really didn’t think that through, if I can destroy the likes of Chris Andrews, Chaolin Sahn, Victor Quinn, and Elijah and your good self when I’m not angry, just imagine what I’m going to do when I step into the ring with a man that I utterly despise. I didn’t think it was possible to hate someone more than I hates Caca, but then Jar-Jar came along with his big mouth. Credit where it’s due, that fella can talk an A-grade game, unfortunately for him; he won’t be able to back that mouth up once I get my hands on him. He seems awfully proud of his record, and rightly so, it is impressive but he seems to be focusing a bit too much on it, the fact that he has beaten all these people makes me think that he has got to sure of himself, and he will take for granted that his youth and speed will be enough to see him through what is going to be, without a doubt, the most tortuous match he has even taken part in. Well I hope for his sake that he hasn’t, because if he steps into that ring at even 1% less than his very best, I will tear him to pieces like a wolf with a lamb. I’ve never wanted to hurt someone quite as much as I’ve wanted to hurt him, and over the last few weeks hurting people is what I’ve been doing for fun, while he is out getting his jolly’s or doing whatever the hell it is he does, I’ve been standing toe to toe with some of the most dangerous men you are ever likely to meet and I’ve been dispatching them, one by one, with utter uncontrollable glee. Jarvis is just going to be one in a long line of men who have challenged me and failed. It’s nothing for him to be ashamed of, he will join a group with some of the biggest names in the sport, but if he thinks he is going to get off lightly then he is very much mistaken. A couple of nights ago I broke a man in two when I made myself believe it was Jarvis King, I left him broken and bloodied on the floor and I just walked away. He could have had a family, he could have had kids, I didn’t give a rat’s ass, as far as I was concerned he was just in my way. And that’s what Jarvis is, in my god damn way. There isn’t much in this world that frightens me Amber, but right now the only thing that does is that Ian will be left alone after I have finished with Jarvis, I don’t want to rob that boy of his only brother, but I can and I will if I have to.” Angel nodded solemnly, she knew I meant business and that I didn’t need a pep talk to deal with Jarvis, we sat there silently for a few moments, I sipped my beer as I ran over in my head the lengths I would go to, to defeat the man I had grown to hate. Ordinarily I would have tortured myself over thinking like this, but I was focused, I had to be. Anything less than utter concentration would not be enough. “Look old man, I’m not going to judge you for how you decide to prepare for a match, if you think that this bare knuckle thing is the way to do it, then I’m with you, but make sure it’s worth it, make sure that you’re not doing it in vain, that you aren’t facing the possibility of losing people you care about because of it and not gaining anything.” I nod, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard her talk about anything seriously, without any hint of attitude or sarcasm, and for whatever bizarre reason, it made sense. If I don’t beat Jarvis, all this will be a pointless, worthless waste of time, but I wouldn’t lose, I knew it, I’ve never been more sure that Jarvis posed the biggest threat to me than anyone before, and I’ve never ever been more sure that when that bell rings at the end of those 60 minutes that I will be the man standing victorious in the middle of the ring. “I can’t afford to not win kiddo, I have no choice, losing is not an option. He says the critical difference between the two of us is that one of us is Jarvis King, it’s a shame that dubious distinction goes to him, I hope it doesn’t hinder him too much, id like at least a relatively even match.” I sat there for the rest of the night, Angel headed off to bed to rest up for her trip to the doctors in the morning. I finished the beers and looked up at the night sky, staring at the stars. My Granddad might not be proud of me right now, of how I had handled things, but come Tuesday, once I had shown Jarvis exactly why I am the greatest wrestler in the CWF, once I get that belt back and retain my title, I know he will be looking down on me and smiling. And then I can start building the bridges I had burned with the people I loved. |
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5x CWF Champion 1x Impact Champion 1x Tag Team Champion CWF Hall of Famer | |
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