Gold Rush 2016: Eve Taylor vs John Doe - Mask vs Elite Openweight Title
- Thread starter Dave
- Start date
- Status
Viola Moonlight
I'm Literally Just Here for WZCW
Eve Taylor sat against the wall next to a rather large window, leaning back as her legs arched into the sky, bending at the knee before resting against the floor. Not much could be seen outside as the darkness had truly set in the outskirts of Milan. Only scattered lights of Italian residences in the distance and Eve's partial reflection were present across the glass. She wasn't paying much attention to what was outside, but rather looking down into her lap where her hands were playing.
"Are you ready to unmask yourself?" Eve asked herself, a slight grin forming on her face.
Her fingertips were slowly caressing, trying to get a feel of what she was playing with in her lap. Slowly, she brought it up into view, looking directly at it. It was the mask of John Doe.
"That was the question you haunted me with, John Doe."
She slid her hand inside the mask and opened it up, as if a face filled the mask. She brought it up close to her, almost face-to-face with the mask. She did not need to sniff the mask for the stench to penetrate her nostrils, nor did she need to lick the mask to taste John Doe. Most people would've cast aside the mask or at the very least, pulled it away from their senses. For Eve, however, she found it oddly satisfying to be this close to the mask of the man who stole her championship.
"It's funny, I should be asking you the same question since I've got your mask." Eve remarked, still slyly grinning. "Seeing you stand out there exposed, unable to hide yourself..." Eve let out a chuckle. "Perhaps I should give Mikey that second date for giving this to me? What do you reckon, John? Maybe I'll wait until how the World championship match goes before I answer."
Her eyes darted everywhere, looking through the details of the intentionally poor stitching and slits. With her free hand, she pressed one finger and slowly trickled down the mask, letting the rough exterior guide her down. She patted the top of the head before she lovingly cupped the side of the mask, staring into the eyes of Doe's mask.
"I'll give it you, John. This mask gave me nightmares." She said, as she closed her eyes. "Every time I went to sleep, every time I blinked... I saw your face. The terrifying image of your glaring eyes and wicked smile, ripping Senshuken away from me. It was all I could think about. You sent my emotional and mental state into a downward spiral, one that almost destroyed all hope of recovery. Taking away the one thing that defines me..."
Eve paused for a moment, not wanting to think about Senshuken for the moment. She continued examining the mask, looking to shift her focus.
"You know the main reason I chose to use Eve Taylor as my name? Most people elect it was my affinity towards Elizabeth Taylor, paying homage to someone who inspired me. She did inspire me and I have said this in interviews, but that was mainly to humanise me. Bring me down to Earth with everyone else. The truth of the matter is because of my talents for tailoring when I was child. I spent a couple of years working illegally as a tailor, honing my craft to create some unique dresses. I could tell you many stories and discuss ethics on my involvement here, John, but I'm not here for that. The point of this little anecdote is to share my love for great detail when it comes to all things fashion, including masks."
She turns the mask around, discovering all these details on the back.
"I can tell by the craftsmanship that this mask meant a lot to you. The terrible stitching and repairs done to this mask tells me you've fixed it up yourself. Nobody fixes broken clothing when they've ripped, unless you can't afford it or it means something special to you, John. You don't strike me as the kind of person to care about money. I'm sure you have plenty stored away to employ a professional to fix it or make a new one, but no, you repaired it yourself... this butchered piece of material is almost beautiful in a sentimental sense. I'm almost in awe, inspired even."
She removes her hand from inside the mask, holding it limp. She caresses it once more.
"You must feel ugly without your mask, John, like a part of you is missing. You feel like you're nothing, wandering around the world like a lost, homeless child searching to fill the hole in their heart. The more you wander, the bigger the hole gets. Every day, every hour... every second, it grows deeper. You might find something along the way to distract you from or replace the hole, but it's only temporary. No matter what you do, that hole will always remain..." Eve trails off for a moment. "It's almost how I feel right now, John. When you took Senshuken away from me, I felt lost. It was the only thing I had left. Cerberus is gone. I can never get my modelling career back. My friends are no longer around. Hell, I'm in Milan right now and I can't even see my own family."
Eve turns her head towards the window, looking out. She points to a particular glow in the distance, one of the few lights left on.
"Can you see, John? See that light? That's my family home. They're celebrating my eldest sisters' birthday tonight. Everybody is there. My parents, all three of my sisters and their husbands... even my grandparents. Birthdays are a big celebration for my family. We used to go on for hours into the night. I remember, when my great grandmother turned seventy, we celebrated until morning. I even got to try my first sip of wine at the age of seven." Eve let out a laugh. "I'd love to be there tonight, but this apartment is the closest I can get without violating court orders."
Eve puts her whole hand up to the glass. Every time Eve was in this apartment, staring into the distance at her family home, she always came to tears. Tonight, however, when she instinctively went to wipe her eyes, they were dry. She had no tears to shed.
"I've lost all this, more than any person... and yet, you still take Senshuken, my Elite Openweight championship, from me and ask me strip myself away? You rip the one thing I have left just to play your little game of 20 questions? Just to ask me... 'are you ready to unmask yourself?'..."
She drops her head down, shaking her head as she laughs. She grabs the mask of John Doe again and looks directly at it, laughing and waving her finger.
"Ah, that's funny, John." Eve continues to laugh. "You did the one thing that would grab my fullest attention and that's the question you ask me?! That is the one question you want answered the one question you feel would break me from the inside? You're hysterical, John!"
Eve cannot seem to stop laugh. She roars from her belly, doing her best to hold it down as the laughs are overtaking her body. It takes Eve a minute to calm herself down, still letting out chuckles. She gets up from her position and begins walking through the dark apartment.
"Wow, I haven't laugh this hard in years!" Eve says, wiping away tears of laughter. "You couldn't have chosen a more moronic question to ask! If you haven't noticed John..."
Eve flicks the light on, throwing her hands up in the air to reveal what was in the apartment... or whatever happened to it.
"... I'M A FUCKING SUPERMODEL!" Eve yells at the top of her lungs.
This apartment was less of an apartment and more like a converted storage loft of clothes, the world's biggest walk-in wardrobe in the entire world! There are clothes upon clothes, shoes upon shoes, accessories galore... it was every girl's dream palace! Eve skipped over to one of the racks and let her fingers flutter through the dresses, like a windy breeze bellowing through an old oak tree. She keeps the mask of John Doe on her hand, letting him see everything.
"Look at this, John! I've transformed a two-bedroom apartment into the fashion sanctuary! Every outfit I've ever worn in my entire life is in this building. Every single time I've had a photo shoot or a party or an event, that outfit is in here." Eve walks up to some specific clothes. "This red dress? I wore this on the red carpet when my then-boyfriend was up for an award. Or this two-piece bikini I did for the cover of Maxim when I first broke out? How about this stiletto design I made famous for Cosmopolitan? There is no one event where I wore the same outfit. There is no one place I had the same face, or hair style, or shoes."
Eve turns back to the mask of John Doe.
"You ask me to unmask myself? Look around us, John! I put on a different every day. New clothes, new face... every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I looked like a new person. I had to become a new person every day. I had to put on a new mask... every... day. This was my job, this was my life, this is my life... EVERY... DAY!"
She takes pauses, looking around at her collection. Slowly, she walks through everything again. She walks everywhere, searching through her catalogue of clothes as if she was walking down memory land. She feels the fabric and smells the material of some of her dresses, walking through familiar territory. Slowly, she gets to the most recent of outfits, her wrestling attires. Her debut attire, her Cerberus attire, her Kingdom Come attires... slowly walking to the end.
"I'm already unmasked, John... I have been ever since I became Eve Taylor. Many people like you say that when I became this godly supermodel that I put up a wall, when in fact I tore it down. Everything Eva Pellegrini was, no longer exists. No family, no friends... Eva Pellegrini is merely an alias I use to book flights and hotels to evade any fanfare of my arrivals. Eve Taylor is who I am and she's just a clean slate, ready to be manipulated to whatever she needed to be for that day. Eve Taylor put on these costumes and masks for the camera but in the real world, she was just the lost, homeless child wandering around looking to fill that hole."
Eve stops to the part of the wardrobe where the lights do not shine upon, covered in some darkness. Eve puts the mask of John Doe on a rack, looking down at her. She begins to remove her clothes, one item at a time until she has nothing left. She looks at the mask of John Doe.
"See why I laughed at you, now? I'm still the same person. There is no difference. I took off everything and yet, I see no mask lying around. The same thing happens when I put on a new attire, too."
Eve turns to the rack and begins putting on the attire at the end, starting off with the stilettos.
"If I could wrestle you naked at Gold Rush to further prove my point John, I would. I'd go out there in front of the world and beat you in the middle of that ring if it wasn't inappropriate. You could call me an exhibitionist but you asked for it, it'd be your fault... but since I can't do that, I'm going to redirect the question at you, John. Are you ready to be unmasked, John? Are you ready to face the entire world without a mask and walk around exposed?"
Eve adjusts the last of her clothes before checking herself in the mirror, making sure everything fits well.
"Stunning, aren't I, John? I'd look a lot better when I finally reclaim Senshuken and have my title hang from the shoulders of its rightful owner. A proud woman with her prestigious championship, once again defending it against all comers... but until then, you wear my Elite Openweight title."
Eve turns to the mask, removing it from the rack and feeling it once more.
"So, would it be fair to say that I wear your mask, too?"
She kisses the hole where the mouth would be and begins putting on the mask, pulling her long blonde hair through. She lifts her head up high, breathing in heavily through her nose to take in the stench and licking around the outside of the mask, tasting John Doe. She turns around, her eyes glaring more into the looking glass. A wicked smile forms on her face as she stares at herself, appreciating the look more and more.
"Wow! It's almost like you couldn't tell it's me... like a real Jane Doe." Jane says, turning around in the mirror, giving a smile. "You might not recognise me, Senshuken... but mommy's coming for you, and she's going to teach daddy a lesson."
"Are you ready to unmask yourself?" Eve asked herself, a slight grin forming on her face.
Her fingertips were slowly caressing, trying to get a feel of what she was playing with in her lap. Slowly, she brought it up into view, looking directly at it. It was the mask of John Doe.
"That was the question you haunted me with, John Doe."
She slid her hand inside the mask and opened it up, as if a face filled the mask. She brought it up close to her, almost face-to-face with the mask. She did not need to sniff the mask for the stench to penetrate her nostrils, nor did she need to lick the mask to taste John Doe. Most people would've cast aside the mask or at the very least, pulled it away from their senses. For Eve, however, she found it oddly satisfying to be this close to the mask of the man who stole her championship.
"It's funny, I should be asking you the same question since I've got your mask." Eve remarked, still slyly grinning. "Seeing you stand out there exposed, unable to hide yourself..." Eve let out a chuckle. "Perhaps I should give Mikey that second date for giving this to me? What do you reckon, John? Maybe I'll wait until how the World championship match goes before I answer."
Her eyes darted everywhere, looking through the details of the intentionally poor stitching and slits. With her free hand, she pressed one finger and slowly trickled down the mask, letting the rough exterior guide her down. She patted the top of the head before she lovingly cupped the side of the mask, staring into the eyes of Doe's mask.
"I'll give it you, John. This mask gave me nightmares." She said, as she closed her eyes. "Every time I went to sleep, every time I blinked... I saw your face. The terrifying image of your glaring eyes and wicked smile, ripping Senshuken away from me. It was all I could think about. You sent my emotional and mental state into a downward spiral, one that almost destroyed all hope of recovery. Taking away the one thing that defines me..."
Eve paused for a moment, not wanting to think about Senshuken for the moment. She continued examining the mask, looking to shift her focus.
"You know the main reason I chose to use Eve Taylor as my name? Most people elect it was my affinity towards Elizabeth Taylor, paying homage to someone who inspired me. She did inspire me and I have said this in interviews, but that was mainly to humanise me. Bring me down to Earth with everyone else. The truth of the matter is because of my talents for tailoring when I was child. I spent a couple of years working illegally as a tailor, honing my craft to create some unique dresses. I could tell you many stories and discuss ethics on my involvement here, John, but I'm not here for that. The point of this little anecdote is to share my love for great detail when it comes to all things fashion, including masks."
She turns the mask around, discovering all these details on the back.
"I can tell by the craftsmanship that this mask meant a lot to you. The terrible stitching and repairs done to this mask tells me you've fixed it up yourself. Nobody fixes broken clothing when they've ripped, unless you can't afford it or it means something special to you, John. You don't strike me as the kind of person to care about money. I'm sure you have plenty stored away to employ a professional to fix it or make a new one, but no, you repaired it yourself... this butchered piece of material is almost beautiful in a sentimental sense. I'm almost in awe, inspired even."
She removes her hand from inside the mask, holding it limp. She caresses it once more.
"You must feel ugly without your mask, John, like a part of you is missing. You feel like you're nothing, wandering around the world like a lost, homeless child searching to fill the hole in their heart. The more you wander, the bigger the hole gets. Every day, every hour... every second, it grows deeper. You might find something along the way to distract you from or replace the hole, but it's only temporary. No matter what you do, that hole will always remain..." Eve trails off for a moment. "It's almost how I feel right now, John. When you took Senshuken away from me, I felt lost. It was the only thing I had left. Cerberus is gone. I can never get my modelling career back. My friends are no longer around. Hell, I'm in Milan right now and I can't even see my own family."
Eve turns her head towards the window, looking out. She points to a particular glow in the distance, one of the few lights left on.
"Can you see, John? See that light? That's my family home. They're celebrating my eldest sisters' birthday tonight. Everybody is there. My parents, all three of my sisters and their husbands... even my grandparents. Birthdays are a big celebration for my family. We used to go on for hours into the night. I remember, when my great grandmother turned seventy, we celebrated until morning. I even got to try my first sip of wine at the age of seven." Eve let out a laugh. "I'd love to be there tonight, but this apartment is the closest I can get without violating court orders."
Eve puts her whole hand up to the glass. Every time Eve was in this apartment, staring into the distance at her family home, she always came to tears. Tonight, however, when she instinctively went to wipe her eyes, they were dry. She had no tears to shed.
"I've lost all this, more than any person... and yet, you still take Senshuken, my Elite Openweight championship, from me and ask me strip myself away? You rip the one thing I have left just to play your little game of 20 questions? Just to ask me... 'are you ready to unmask yourself?'..."
She drops her head down, shaking her head as she laughs. She grabs the mask of John Doe again and looks directly at it, laughing and waving her finger.
"Ah, that's funny, John." Eve continues to laugh. "You did the one thing that would grab my fullest attention and that's the question you ask me?! That is the one question you want answered the one question you feel would break me from the inside? You're hysterical, John!"
Eve cannot seem to stop laugh. She roars from her belly, doing her best to hold it down as the laughs are overtaking her body. It takes Eve a minute to calm herself down, still letting out chuckles. She gets up from her position and begins walking through the dark apartment.
"Wow, I haven't laugh this hard in years!" Eve says, wiping away tears of laughter. "You couldn't have chosen a more moronic question to ask! If you haven't noticed John..."
Eve flicks the light on, throwing her hands up in the air to reveal what was in the apartment... or whatever happened to it.
"... I'M A FUCKING SUPERMODEL!" Eve yells at the top of her lungs.
This apartment was less of an apartment and more like a converted storage loft of clothes, the world's biggest walk-in wardrobe in the entire world! There are clothes upon clothes, shoes upon shoes, accessories galore... it was every girl's dream palace! Eve skipped over to one of the racks and let her fingers flutter through the dresses, like a windy breeze bellowing through an old oak tree. She keeps the mask of John Doe on her hand, letting him see everything.
"Look at this, John! I've transformed a two-bedroom apartment into the fashion sanctuary! Every outfit I've ever worn in my entire life is in this building. Every single time I've had a photo shoot or a party or an event, that outfit is in here." Eve walks up to some specific clothes. "This red dress? I wore this on the red carpet when my then-boyfriend was up for an award. Or this two-piece bikini I did for the cover of Maxim when I first broke out? How about this stiletto design I made famous for Cosmopolitan? There is no one event where I wore the same outfit. There is no one place I had the same face, or hair style, or shoes."
Eve turns back to the mask of John Doe.
"You ask me to unmask myself? Look around us, John! I put on a different every day. New clothes, new face... every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I looked like a new person. I had to become a new person every day. I had to put on a new mask... every... day. This was my job, this was my life, this is my life... EVERY... DAY!"
She takes pauses, looking around at her collection. Slowly, she walks through everything again. She walks everywhere, searching through her catalogue of clothes as if she was walking down memory land. She feels the fabric and smells the material of some of her dresses, walking through familiar territory. Slowly, she gets to the most recent of outfits, her wrestling attires. Her debut attire, her Cerberus attire, her Kingdom Come attires... slowly walking to the end.
"I'm already unmasked, John... I have been ever since I became Eve Taylor. Many people like you say that when I became this godly supermodel that I put up a wall, when in fact I tore it down. Everything Eva Pellegrini was, no longer exists. No family, no friends... Eva Pellegrini is merely an alias I use to book flights and hotels to evade any fanfare of my arrivals. Eve Taylor is who I am and she's just a clean slate, ready to be manipulated to whatever she needed to be for that day. Eve Taylor put on these costumes and masks for the camera but in the real world, she was just the lost, homeless child wandering around looking to fill that hole."
Eve stops to the part of the wardrobe where the lights do not shine upon, covered in some darkness. Eve puts the mask of John Doe on a rack, looking down at her. She begins to remove her clothes, one item at a time until she has nothing left. She looks at the mask of John Doe.
"See why I laughed at you, now? I'm still the same person. There is no difference. I took off everything and yet, I see no mask lying around. The same thing happens when I put on a new attire, too."
Eve turns to the rack and begins putting on the attire at the end, starting off with the stilettos.
"If I could wrestle you naked at Gold Rush to further prove my point John, I would. I'd go out there in front of the world and beat you in the middle of that ring if it wasn't inappropriate. You could call me an exhibitionist but you asked for it, it'd be your fault... but since I can't do that, I'm going to redirect the question at you, John. Are you ready to be unmasked, John? Are you ready to face the entire world without a mask and walk around exposed?"
Eve adjusts the last of her clothes before checking herself in the mirror, making sure everything fits well.
"Stunning, aren't I, John? I'd look a lot better when I finally reclaim Senshuken and have my title hang from the shoulders of its rightful owner. A proud woman with her prestigious championship, once again defending it against all comers... but until then, you wear my Elite Openweight title."
Eve turns to the mask, removing it from the rack and feeling it once more.
"So, would it be fair to say that I wear your mask, too?"
She kisses the hole where the mouth would be and begins putting on the mask, pulling her long blonde hair through. She lifts her head up high, breathing in heavily through her nose to take in the stench and licking around the outside of the mask, tasting John Doe. She turns around, her eyes glaring more into the looking glass. A wicked smile forms on her face as she stares at herself, appreciating the look more and more.
"Wow! It's almost like you couldn't tell it's me... like a real Jane Doe." Jane says, turning around in the mirror, giving a smile. "You might not recognise me, Senshuken... but mommy's coming for you, and she's going to teach daddy a lesson."
The scene opens on an empty room. An old VHS camcorder is positioned on a tripod, a foot or so to the side of an old Zenith television. The picture is all snow, the static starting loud and drifting off to a moderate hum as the sound adjusts. Scattered on the floor are old Polaroids with dates scrawled on the bottom. In the center of the room is a leather armchair, lined and studded with tarnished brass. John Doe sits, leaning back, his chin resting on his chest, little beads of sweat trickling off his brow. An oversized orange and black set of Carhartt coveralls blankets his body. A single leg is extended, his foot resting on a tiny wooden table with barely enough room for a stainless steel tray. It's contents? A near-empty bottle of bourbon, a Collins glass, and a large Polaroid camera.
John pulls a glass from somewhere beside him, and lifts it in front of the television light. A swallow remains in the bottom. He swirls the golden-brown liquid and watches it coat the interior before tossing it back. A low cough escapes him as the burn fills his throat.
The snow comes to a stop as the end of the tape is reached. The picture dances backward with the automatic rewind becoming the only noise in the room.
John Doe (voice over): Such are my days anymore. A span of 72 hours was all it took. For the third time in my life, my father walked out on me. I can excuse the first, understanding the...sensitive...nature of his relationship with my mother. The second? Also excusable, since it was my own fault. Not mine, actually, but I was the one in a coma, wasn't I?
John lets his foot drop to the floor. The thud rattles the table, but a quick reaction catches the neck of the bottle. John tosses the glass from his hand, allowing it to shatter against the wall, as he pours the Collins glass to almost the top. He leans back, slowly, stretching as he does, and then settling back into the indent his body has molded for itself.
John Doe (voice over): This last one though...What a doozy, eh? One day, he's the champion, leader of the Trinity. The three of us held back the storm that followed the light, defeating, nay, destroying all that opposed us.
A chuckle, and a semi-swallowed belch.
John Doe (voice over): And he walks away. Like he always does.
John tips back a small sip and licks back the wetness that perched itself on his lips. His eyes close as he savors the taste.
John Doe (voice over): Story of my life.
John leans forward and places the glass on the tiny table, holding it until the table steadies. He pushes aside a few of the pictures closest to him, and picks one up, studying it.
John Doe (voice over): Christmas. I was 3. And what did Santa bring young Michael Darrow? A pair of socks, a pack of 5-year-old baseball cards with a hard, stale, piece of gum inside, and one of those little faces with magnetic hair that you could move with a pen-type thing. Mom really broke the bank that year. You could feel the love in this one. Dad? Oh, he was somewhere else. He always was.
The picture windmills out of John's hand, bouncing off the large television. John leans to the side again, scooping up a picture rather quickly.
John Doe (voice over): My 12th birthday. Socks! Again. Can't say enough about good foot care, can you?
John crumbles the picture in his hand and lets it fall in his lap before he leans forward and collects his glass. He throws back its contents in one gulp; a hacking cough erupts from his chest before he tosses the glass away, this time watching as it smashes against the television.
The pictures continue dancing backward.
John leans back into his imprint again.
John Doe (voice over): And this leads me to you...Eva.
As if on cue, the pictures cease their dance, and begin playing forward. The first images show a large bearded man, garbed in black, kissing a frail woman before exiting the house.
The woman turns around, her smile and warmth giving way to sadness. Her eyes turn glassy, but the smile remains. You'd have to know her, to know she was holding anything back.
??? (from the tape): Oh, Michael! Shut that thing off! You know I hate the way I appear in those moving pictures!
A warm chuckle escapes that sad mouth of hers, before the picture flickers to black. Just seconds pass before the picture returns.
John Doe (voice over): Walking out. Like always. You know something about that pain, don't you...Eva? A childhood of nothing but hand-me-downs and disappointments. Being told you had the world, but knowing better. Something inside told you so, and nothing could change it. I was...14? perhaps 15? when this video tape was made. From everything I could find, you were about that age when you're life changed.
John leans forward and grabs the bottle by the neck, and slumps into his seat while letting the taste of Kentucky's finest rest on his tongue.
John Doe (voice over): I was in a wheelchair, undertaking endless hours of physical and occupational therapy, just to be told I might have a normal life again. You were the fresh face being featured in more magazines than the average person reads in a week.
Another sip.
John Doe (voice over): When I was taking my first steps, again, you were on catwalks in New York...Paris...Tokyo.
Another sip. A longer sip.
John Doe (voice over): When I was facing the heavy bag, being told I'd never amount to anything, and I should feel lucky just to be standing...you were starting your wrestling training, as all of your closest confidantes cheered you on, knowing you'd be the star you are, Eva.
John lifts the bottle, slowly, staring into the bourbon itself, allowing the color to blend with the pictures moving behind it.
Gabriel and Mary are laughing, playing Connect 4, while Michael sits in the background, reading the first of many books that occupy the pocket on the side of his wheelchair.
John Doe (voice over): Alone. Again. Once you became a woman, did you ever experience loneliness, Eva? Before I took your Senshuken, that is. No. I don't think so.
Another extended swig from the bottle.
John Doe (voice over): You have surrounded yourself with false friends. People who blindly agree to everything, and you believe this is happiness. It's helped you maintain this mask, this facade. I know what lies beneath, Eva. I do. Do they know the true loneliness you feel, late at night? Would they believe a wonderful bottle of red wine is the only thing you can fully confide in? Would you believe it?
John consumes the rest of the bottle, hacking up a cough as he tosses the empty vessel aside. It clangs across the floor without shattering.
John Doe (voice over): Anyone who gets close enough to see the real you is instantly pushed aside. Flex Mussel.
John uses his boot to shove over the table in front of him. The camera hits the screen with a thud while the tray hits the ground and spirals to a stop after a minute or so.
John Doe (voice over): Ramparte.
John grabs the ends of the arms, and pulls himself to his feet. He hesitates a second, maintaining his composure, before taking a step to the side and pacing the room.
John Doe (voice over): Senshuken.
From somewhere behind the chair, John kneels, unzipping a large duffel bag. He stands, allowing the gold from the Elite Openweight championship to glisten in the dim glow from the antiquated television.
John Doe (voice over): You valued this, didn't you? That's why I needed to take it from you. To unmask you.
John Doe: You put yourself in a position of notoriety, and that's why you must be the first to fall. You have the most to lose, from revealing your true face.
John drapes the belt over the back of the chair, running his fingers along the nameplate.
John Doe: You have the most to lose, aside from me. You see, with my father gone, I once again am without an identity. I once again lack purpose. That mask that you so nonchalantly waved before me on Ascension will find its way home. And then I will step back on the path I was on. I will set out, again, to unmask all of my opponents, showing the true faces of everyone in this company, from the suits to the bottom feeders.
John pauses, taking a few deep breaths and wiping the sweat away from his eyes.
John Doe: The time has come for you to return to the squalor from whence you came, Eva Pellegrini. Are you prepared to do the unthinkable, to regain this championship? Are you prepared to cleave flesh from bone? Are you prepared to put on one mask, to remove another? To feel the blood cover your face, showing the world the true Eva?
With his face hidden in shadow, John drags his hand across his face. He slowly circles the chair, falling back into it, resting against the belt. Blood is running freely from his hairline, masking his face in crimson.
John Doe (voice over): You're in a lose-lose, Eva. If you don't wish to bleed, to make me bleed, you will not get back your precious Senshuken. If you do bleed, and you do draw blood from my flesh, you'll have unmasked and shown who you really are, who I know you are.
Time's almost up. Make your choice. I'm dying to see which door you choose.
The video ends, turning to snow again. As the static begins to grow louder, the picture slowly fades to black.
John pulls a glass from somewhere beside him, and lifts it in front of the television light. A swallow remains in the bottom. He swirls the golden-brown liquid and watches it coat the interior before tossing it back. A low cough escapes him as the burn fills his throat.
The snow comes to a stop as the end of the tape is reached. The picture dances backward with the automatic rewind becoming the only noise in the room.
John Doe (voice over): Such are my days anymore. A span of 72 hours was all it took. For the third time in my life, my father walked out on me. I can excuse the first, understanding the...sensitive...nature of his relationship with my mother. The second? Also excusable, since it was my own fault. Not mine, actually, but I was the one in a coma, wasn't I?
John lets his foot drop to the floor. The thud rattles the table, but a quick reaction catches the neck of the bottle. John tosses the glass from his hand, allowing it to shatter against the wall, as he pours the Collins glass to almost the top. He leans back, slowly, stretching as he does, and then settling back into the indent his body has molded for itself.
John Doe (voice over): This last one though...What a doozy, eh? One day, he's the champion, leader of the Trinity. The three of us held back the storm that followed the light, defeating, nay, destroying all that opposed us.
A chuckle, and a semi-swallowed belch.
John Doe (voice over): And he walks away. Like he always does.
John tips back a small sip and licks back the wetness that perched itself on his lips. His eyes close as he savors the taste.
John Doe (voice over): Story of my life.
John leans forward and places the glass on the tiny table, holding it until the table steadies. He pushes aside a few of the pictures closest to him, and picks one up, studying it.
John Doe (voice over): Christmas. I was 3. And what did Santa bring young Michael Darrow? A pair of socks, a pack of 5-year-old baseball cards with a hard, stale, piece of gum inside, and one of those little faces with magnetic hair that you could move with a pen-type thing. Mom really broke the bank that year. You could feel the love in this one. Dad? Oh, he was somewhere else. He always was.
The picture windmills out of John's hand, bouncing off the large television. John leans to the side again, scooping up a picture rather quickly.
John Doe (voice over): My 12th birthday. Socks! Again. Can't say enough about good foot care, can you?
John crumbles the picture in his hand and lets it fall in his lap before he leans forward and collects his glass. He throws back its contents in one gulp; a hacking cough erupts from his chest before he tosses the glass away, this time watching as it smashes against the television.
The pictures continue dancing backward.
John leans back into his imprint again.
John Doe (voice over): And this leads me to you...Eva.
As if on cue, the pictures cease their dance, and begin playing forward. The first images show a large bearded man, garbed in black, kissing a frail woman before exiting the house.
The woman turns around, her smile and warmth giving way to sadness. Her eyes turn glassy, but the smile remains. You'd have to know her, to know she was holding anything back.
??? (from the tape): Oh, Michael! Shut that thing off! You know I hate the way I appear in those moving pictures!
A warm chuckle escapes that sad mouth of hers, before the picture flickers to black. Just seconds pass before the picture returns.
John Doe (voice over): Walking out. Like always. You know something about that pain, don't you...Eva? A childhood of nothing but hand-me-downs and disappointments. Being told you had the world, but knowing better. Something inside told you so, and nothing could change it. I was...14? perhaps 15? when this video tape was made. From everything I could find, you were about that age when you're life changed.
John leans forward and grabs the bottle by the neck, and slumps into his seat while letting the taste of Kentucky's finest rest on his tongue.
John Doe (voice over): I was in a wheelchair, undertaking endless hours of physical and occupational therapy, just to be told I might have a normal life again. You were the fresh face being featured in more magazines than the average person reads in a week.
Another sip.
John Doe (voice over): When I was taking my first steps, again, you were on catwalks in New York...Paris...Tokyo.
Another sip. A longer sip.
John Doe (voice over): When I was facing the heavy bag, being told I'd never amount to anything, and I should feel lucky just to be standing...you were starting your wrestling training, as all of your closest confidantes cheered you on, knowing you'd be the star you are, Eva.
John lifts the bottle, slowly, staring into the bourbon itself, allowing the color to blend with the pictures moving behind it.
Gabriel and Mary are laughing, playing Connect 4, while Michael sits in the background, reading the first of many books that occupy the pocket on the side of his wheelchair.
John Doe (voice over): Alone. Again. Once you became a woman, did you ever experience loneliness, Eva? Before I took your Senshuken, that is. No. I don't think so.
Another extended swig from the bottle.
John Doe (voice over): You have surrounded yourself with false friends. People who blindly agree to everything, and you believe this is happiness. It's helped you maintain this mask, this facade. I know what lies beneath, Eva. I do. Do they know the true loneliness you feel, late at night? Would they believe a wonderful bottle of red wine is the only thing you can fully confide in? Would you believe it?
John consumes the rest of the bottle, hacking up a cough as he tosses the empty vessel aside. It clangs across the floor without shattering.
John Doe (voice over): Anyone who gets close enough to see the real you is instantly pushed aside. Flex Mussel.
John uses his boot to shove over the table in front of him. The camera hits the screen with a thud while the tray hits the ground and spirals to a stop after a minute or so.
John Doe (voice over): Ramparte.
John grabs the ends of the arms, and pulls himself to his feet. He hesitates a second, maintaining his composure, before taking a step to the side and pacing the room.
John Doe (voice over): Senshuken.
From somewhere behind the chair, John kneels, unzipping a large duffel bag. He stands, allowing the gold from the Elite Openweight championship to glisten in the dim glow from the antiquated television.
John Doe (voice over): You valued this, didn't you? That's why I needed to take it from you. To unmask you.
John Doe: You put yourself in a position of notoriety, and that's why you must be the first to fall. You have the most to lose, from revealing your true face.
John drapes the belt over the back of the chair, running his fingers along the nameplate.
John Doe: You have the most to lose, aside from me. You see, with my father gone, I once again am without an identity. I once again lack purpose. That mask that you so nonchalantly waved before me on Ascension will find its way home. And then I will step back on the path I was on. I will set out, again, to unmask all of my opponents, showing the true faces of everyone in this company, from the suits to the bottom feeders.
John pauses, taking a few deep breaths and wiping the sweat away from his eyes.
John Doe: The time has come for you to return to the squalor from whence you came, Eva Pellegrini. Are you prepared to do the unthinkable, to regain this championship? Are you prepared to cleave flesh from bone? Are you prepared to put on one mask, to remove another? To feel the blood cover your face, showing the world the true Eva?
With his face hidden in shadow, John drags his hand across his face. He slowly circles the chair, falling back into it, resting against the belt. Blood is running freely from his hairline, masking his face in crimson.
John Doe (voice over): You're in a lose-lose, Eva. If you don't wish to bleed, to make me bleed, you will not get back your precious Senshuken. If you do bleed, and you do draw blood from my flesh, you'll have unmasked and shown who you really are, who I know you are.
Time's almost up. Make your choice. I'm dying to see which door you choose.
The video ends, turning to snow again. As the static begins to grow louder, the picture slowly fades to black.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
