I have to admit, I was rather nervous. I had told my immediate family when I was younger about what was happening to me, they brushed it off so I dealt with it by myself. But now, now I was going to tell someone everything, including the fate that my grandmother had a year after the voices in my head stopped. I woke up that day and got dressed, went downstairs and saw my Dad sitting at the kitchen table, he wasn’t one for talking which was fine because today was all about one thing, saying what happened to me out loud and to someone that I know will understand.
I’ve been hiding something from her since we met, not telling her of my past and the strange occurrences, so I know when someone else is hiding something. I know that something happened to Beth, it’s the reason she spaced out when I was punching the guy that stabbed me. I felt the tender area where the knife had been plunged in, and remembered that moment, it led me on a path of thoughts that led me to the words that my Mother said the morning of the day she died.
“I will always love you.” She said. It was like she knew something bad was going to happen that day.
Beth is hiding something, but that’s fine, I’m not going to force her to tell me, I don’t need to know what happened to her, or what she did. When I walked into the kitchen, my Dad looked up. “Hey, son.”
“Hey.” I replied. We didn’t talk much, not even the death of my Mum, his Wife, was enough to get us to interact. I skipped breakfast and headed outside. We were originally meant to meet at my house, but with my Dad being in today, we decided to meet at hers as her Mother wasn’t going to be around.
I walked along, thinking of how to say everything, trying to make it sound logically, but there was nothing logical about the voices that I heard. I noticed it started to get a little darker, and a thick grey cloud had appeared, I wondered if that was a sign.
“Hi,”
“Hey, come in.” She said with a beaming smile. I walked into the house and we went up to her room and sat on the bed. We made some small talk, talking about how things have been since I attacked that man, she asked how my stab wound was doing, but small talk wasn’t the reason I was there, I needed to get this stuff off my chest.
“Alright, listen, you don’t have to listen to this. It’s not a pleasant story.” I warned.
She shook her head though, “I want to hear it, not because I’m nosy or want to pry into your business, it’s just I think once you tell someone then you can move. We can move on.”
I believed her and began to tell the story of my childhood.
***
When I was a kid, I was pretty normal, had a group of friends and had a pretty loving family. But, when I was ten, I watched a horror film that had this man and women use a Ouija board to contact some spirits. After a few weeks, one of my friends came up to me at school, and said they had found a similar thing and his older Sister agreed to attempt to use it with us. Interestingly, his Sister insisted that we use it my house, and we used the excuse that she would look after us whilst my parents went out for dinner.
When that night came around, myself, my friend his Sister sat around a table, in a dark room with this Ouija board sitting in front of us. We put our hands on top of a glass and my friends Sister, whose name was Abi, began the to try and contact some spirits.
“If any spirits are there, move the glass for us.” My heart was beating in my chest, almost like it was going to explode, which was weird, because at the time, I didn’t believe in this kind of thing.
“Please, is anybody there?” She continued to ask and I looked over at my friend who had a smile on his face, he looked like he was enjoying this, but the glass continued to stay still.
“Why don’t one of you ask?” Abi looked at her both, we glanced at each other and my friend challenged me to a game of Rock, Paper & Scissors which I thought was a really inappropriate kind of thing for a moment like this but I went with it.
With my free hand I lost by choosing paper whilst he chose scissors. I took a deep breath, trying to slow my heartbeat down.
“Is anybody there?” I held my breath, and after a few moments, the glass moved towards the ‘Yes’ section of the board. I looked at my friend and Abi, thinking they had moved it as a joke, but their eyes were wide with what seemed like a combination of fear and amazement.
We sat in silence, when the glass began to move around the board in circles, we followed it with our hands and then the glass flew off the table and across the room. It’s safe to say we were freaked out, my friend stood beside Abi as I stared at the glass. The lights in the room started flickering, and I felt a little light headed. I felt compelled to pick up the glass, so I slowly walked over and started swaying, as I bent down to pick up the glass – I collapsed.
I woke up in my bed, it was dark and it seemed to be night outside. I assumed that my parents were back and Abi and my friend left, I was a little thirsty so I left my room and went to get a drink. As I got a glass and poured myself a drink of water, I heard someone say something, I turned around, but nothing was there. I thought it was just my imagination so I just went back upstairs. Before going to bed, I opened my parents door a little and took a peek inside, they were asleep.
I can’t remember how I got from collapsing in the living room, to my bedroom but I was too tired to think about it. I climbed back into bed and tried to get some sleep. As I was drifting away, I heard someone whisper. I fell asleep, and had one of the worst dreams, at least I think it was a dream, of my life.
I woke up in bed. I thought I had just woke up again, but this was different, everything felt different – more ominous. I got up and opened my door, it didn’t lead to the hallway like usual, instead I was in the middle of nowhere. It was dark, and foggy, I could see a figure in the distance, it was adult size and it seemed human at the time. I didn’t have anything else around me, as I turned around and the room was gone. It was just me, and this figure, so bravely or foolishly – I walked towards it.
As I got closer, everything started to get darker and darker, until I was in complete darkness. I reached the figure that had a white glow behind it, so I felt a little better, but when my eyes adjusted to the white glow, I stood in front of my grandmother.
“Gran, what are you doing here?” I slowly asked. She didn’t respond, she just shook her head and said “What have you done?”
I tried to think what she meant, but then another figure appeared behind her, shrouded in a black crowd, he (or it) had a butcher knife in her hand and he grabbed her by the neck and slit her throat.
I immediately woke up, screaming, my Mother rushed through to my room. “What’s wrong? What happened?” I didn’t know what to say so I just said “Sorry. It was just a bad dream.” She hugged me and left the room, I thought about it and that’s just what it was, a dream... right?
A week later, I didn’t have any dreams like that again. I just had this inner voice, talking to me, I thought it was just my thoughts, but one day, I went to school and I accidently bumped into a kid that was a year older than me.
“Sorry about that.” I said, I went to walk on but he grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall. There was nobody around, he was saying something to me, but I couldn’t hear him, I could just hear a voice in my head, this wasn’t my thoughts, it was something else. “Fight back.”
I don’t know what came over me, I wasn't a very violent person, but it’s like I didn’t have control of my body and I didn’t know what I was that strong, as I grabbed his hand and ripped it off my chest and twisted it. I still couldn’t hear the guy, but I could tell he was screaming. I wanted to stop but then I heard that inner voice again, “Keep going.”
I kept going, this time twisting his arm. “Go on. Rip it out of the socket”. At the time, I didn’t know what a socket was, but I knew ripping something out of it wasn’t going to be good, so I fought against it. “Do it!” I continued to try and stop, I summoned enough energy and finally let go of the guy. He ran off, but then I heard that voice again, “You made a mistake.”
That day, I got spoken to by the Head Teacher, he gave me a lecture and sent me on my way home. I got back home, but didn’t tell my parents. That night though, I sat down on the couch and watched an episode of a wrestling program that I recorded and remembered thinking that I wanted to do something like that when I was older. But, then the phone rang – my Mother answered.
“Hello?”
“What?”
“What happened?”
“Car crash?”
“No.”
Once my Mum got off the phone, I walked through to the kitchen where she was sat, she was crying. “What’s wrong, what happened?” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes.
“Your Gran... she, uh... I need to explain something called death to you.”
I sat down, and despite knowing what death was, I let my Mum tell me, and then she told me that my Gran had been in a car accident and apparently she died instantly. She had apparently seen someone on the road, and swerved out the way and off the road. I felt sick, my mind instantly went to that dream that I had, it couldn’t be connected, could it? It had to be a coincidence.
That night, I went to bed and I heard the inner voice again.
“Disappoint me again, and I’ll kill everyone you love.”
I told my Mother the next day, but she brushed it off. She was a little concerned, but she thought it was just kids dreaming up something bad.
A few years later, I would have been fifteen and I was sitting on the couch, watching wrestling again with my Dad. He was never a fan, he thought it was stupid and didn’t approve of my watching. I decided I wanted to be a wrestler, and went about joining a Judo class and would join a wrestling school in a few years. I heard that voice that night.
“You haven’t disappointed me lately. Good.”
***
I looked Beth in the eyes, hoping that she wouldn’t laugh at me as I just spilled everything out. But she didn’t. She stood up and hugged me.
The next few years were a whirlwind. The voices didn’t return, at least not for a while, and Beth and I grew closer. We left high school, she went to University while I got my start in a wrestling school and started wrestling small events. After she graduated, and I was a relatively experienced wrestler, getting rave reviews at the events I did, we moved in together. After a year of living together, I got a phone call from a promoter that I was going to wrestle at, and he told me that there would be a scout from a new company called Premier Wrestling Circuit at the small time event.
I impressed them and got a contract with them. I was driving home that night, and got a phone call. I was told that Beth was in a car accident.
***
I had a few days before my match at Vortex, so decided to go home. I got the first flight to London, and then hired a car to drive up to Scotland. I reached there for one purpose, to visit my Mother’s grave.
I drove up to cemetery, I had the PWC belt in the back of the car, and thought for a moment about leaving it. My Mother didn’t live long enough to know that it was my dream to become a World Champion, so I decided to leave it. I walked over to the grave and stood over it.
I took a deep breath and sat on a bench across from the cemetery. I started to remember everything that happened in the lead up to my booking that got me scouted for PWC.
Everything went through my mind, thinking about how if I lost the belt in a few days then what would have been the point in all of this. After spending a few more minutes paying my respects, I remembered what happened at the hospital after Beth was in that car accident.
---
I had rushed into the hospital and the doctor let me into the room. It wasn’t good, she was hooked up to every medical device possible. I looked to the doctor, “Is she going to be okay?”
He looked down at his papers and looked back at me, “She’s in a coma. It’s very unlikely that she’ll wake up from this.” Tears welled up in my eyes.
“But, there is a chance though?”
“Yes. But, it’s very unlikely.”
At that moment, Beth’s Mother showed up outside the room. She walked in and broke down in tears. Half an hour later, her Mum and I were sat by her bed, saying nothing, until she held back another round of tears and turned to me.
“You have to go.”
“What?” I said.
“I know about your wrestling thing, and I know that you had a trial type of thing, right?”
“Yeah. I got a contract, but I can’t go,” I turned to Beth, “not while she’s like this.”
“It’s what she would have wanted. She knows it’s your dream, so you go to America and you make your dream come true, you win whatever it is your after.” She turned back to Beth, tears welling up again.
“But, what if she doesn’t wake up.”
“She will, she’s strong, she’ll wake up and when she does you’ll be here, holding a title in front of her.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to.”
I thought about what she said, and left with a heavy heart.
--
It was getting dark in the cemetery, but I still had one thing to do before going back to America. I got in my car, and drove to the hospital. I reached behind me and pulled the title belt and put it on my shoulder.
After I won the title belt at Vortex in my first match, I got a phone call from a doctor who said she was still non-responsive and how it had gotten to the point that she needed to be on life support. They had told me the best thing would be to let her go, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t let go.
I stood outside the hospital for a moment, and then walked in. I found the room and walked in. It hadn’t been that long, but it felt like years and years since I last saw her. I sat down on the chair and looked at her, despite being in a coma, she looked as beautiful as ever. The doctor that I spoke with the first time I was here, and on the phone, opened the door and walked in. I ignored him.
“Mr. Black – I’m sorry you’re here to witness this. We have a problem, it’s been a month and a bit, and there has been no improvement.”
I looked at him.
“We believe that she will never wake up. It’s best if we just let her go, we have already had the blessing of her Mother, it was difficult but she did the right thing. Now, you must do the right thing."
He looked at me for what seemed like an eternity, but I was dealing with an inner struggle, do I let her go or do I be selfish and hope she wakes up. This was the women that I love, the women that knows everything about me, even the darker side to me.
The doctor pressed me for an answer. I got up, and kissed Beth on the forehead, and the doctor seemed to think that was an answer because he reached for the machine.
I snapped towards him and pushed him up against the wall.
“The answer... is no.”
I started choking him.
“If you turn that machine off, then I’ll come back, only this time I won’t stop until you realize you’ve taken your last breath.”
I let him go and knelt beside Beth’s bed.
“I’ll be back.”
I got on a flight and headed back to America. I decided to take a nap, but then I had a dream, a dream I’ve not had in a very long time.
I was in my old bedroom, I got up and left the room but it led to the same place it had before. A figure was in the distance, I had nothing else that I could do, so I walked towards it. I got closer, expecting it to be someone I cared about, but it was that shrouded figure that appeared before.
It told me, in the same voices I hear sometimes, that Beth could survive, but on one condition. I defeat Freddie Vos at Alpha & Omega.
: But in all honesty, I've got my work cut out for me. Rush is an excellent character and TWG is a great writer in his own right. I can't bet against myself here but if I don't bring my A-game, I can see myself losing this match. MOTN imo (Y)
