♪♪Human beings in a mob
Whats a mob to a king?
Whats a king to a god?
Whats a god to a non-believer?
Who dont believe in anything?
We make it out alive
All right, all right
No church in the wild♪♪
I pulled the zipper of my hoodie up higher, adjusted my headphones, and put my hood up as I walked out the door. Paris was foreign to me. Somehow it didn't feel as foreign as San Francisco, but that feeling would likely never go away. I found it funny in a way, as a young boy growing up in rural Indiana I dreamed of living in California. Where I was from, your dreams were often crushed. I never had it as bad as a kid from say Harlem or the South Side of Chicago, but unless your dreams included a factory or meth, you had few options. I was lucky in that regard, my dreams had come true. I packed up and moved to Cali, I had a great life. I was in the spotlight, I was liked, people knew who I was, for a time I could call myself champion.
♪♪I'm up in the woods, I'm down on my mind
I'm building a still to slow down the time
I'm up in the woods, I'm down on my mind
I'm building a still to slow down the time
I'm up in the woods, I'm down on my mind
I'm building a still to slow down the time♪♪
I reached into my pocket and hit the button to play the next song, all the while doing my best to keep my face hidden. This time last year I would have opened my arms to any fans that might have approached me. Its funny in a way how quickly things can change. In the span of the year I went from living with my best friend and being a tag team champion to living out of my car and being at odds with the man I used to call my brother. From shamelessly putting my face out as much as I could, to hiding my face everywhere I went.
I passed a street vendor and purchased a gryo and bottled water and continued my walk, my jacket zipped just low enough to allow myself to eat as I walked. After dripping some of the meat onto my chin, I decided to take a seat on a nearby bench to finish my meal. I looked around, hoping to catch a view of the Eiffel Tower. As I looked up a gust of wind caught my hood and blew it off. I dropped my gryo in an attempt to put it back on. I thought I was in the clear until a small kid, no more than eight or nine, walked up to me. He had an ice cream cone in his hand, some of it was smeared on his face. In a way he reminded me of a myself as a child.
"Hey, I know you."
The child looked at me, waiting for me to respond. I took my headphones from my ears.
"No you don't kid."
"Yes, I do. You're Mikey Stormrage. You used to be my favorite!"
I looked at the kid, almost choked up. For a moment I started to question the man I had become. I was a jealous, envious, spiteful man. I had turned on my best friend.
"Then you put on that mask and became a bad guy."
I wasn't the one who changed, it was James. He let ambition get the best of him. He turned on me. He was the one who planted me face first into the canvas. He pushed me to the side and moved on. He threw away everything we had built together, our friendship, our titles, the brotherhood. It enraged me. I stood and smacked the ice cream from his hand. As he began to tear up, a woman who I could only assume to be his mother ran up to me, shouting in French.
"Quel est le problème avec vous? Monstre!"
I didn't speak French, but I could tell she was upset. As the other bystanders who spoke English began to yell that I needed to control myself, I pulled my hood back up over my head and put my headphones back in and began to walk away.
♪♪Bitch Im a monster no good blood sucker
fat motherfucker now look whos in trouble
as you run through my jungle all you hear is rumbles
Kanye West sample, heres one for example♪♪
I was in control of my own self. I might not have liked myself, but I was in control. Now The Beard, or should I say Jasper Benson, wasn't in control of himself. He was guided by another hand. Despite that, I needed to focus, clear my head. Too often in the past I had let the fact that I had beaten someone in the past make me lazy. I would try to coast off of my past victories, and when it came to my dear Jasper, I had my fair share, but it almost always failed.
I walked back to my hotel, one I had specifically booked to be away from the rest of the roster. I tried to focus on The Beard. He would be a tough opponent, he was on a roll. My mind drifted to my matches with Ricky Runn and my early tag matches with Saxton and Saboteur. Each time I was victorious in our initial encounter, but my arrogance got the best of me. My mind was racing, I was unable to focus on The Beard, Jasper, James, myself. I passed the mirror in my room and looked deep into my own eyes. I put my hand to my face, touching my own skin. I became ashamed, then angry. There was no beauty in a wretch like myself. I clenched my fist, and with a yell I threw a hard right into the mirror. It shattered and fell to the ground. I walked to the other side of the room and rummaged in my bag. As I walked back to the door, I looked down into the shattered pieces of mirror and again saw my reflection again. With my mask on I was beautiful again, and I would spread the beauty to the world, to James, to Jasper, to myself.