Rust

by **Sonic Xavier** Thu Jul 14, 2022 8:01 pm

The camera pans over an empty gym. A faint light shimmers in the background, as if the place has a single heartbeat still pulsing. Over looking the scene of this lifeless gym, a voice can be heard. Slightly grizzled, but warm and nostalgic.

???: I thought I was dead.
Left to rot in the coffin that was my career.
I've been lost to time.

The camera then shoots over to a a pair of wrestling boots in the center of the ring, barley visible due to the singular light in the background.

???: The years pass by.
My feet grow tired from the constant aching.
The scars I left.
The pain I inflicted.
All of it floods back into me.

Gaining new focus, the walls of the gym look archaic. Chipped paint and concrete is all the viewer can see, the dust and cobwebs layered in-between each brick. The image stops on the only thing escaping the aged background. In a protective case, lies a golden championship belt, it's lettering unreadable but it's golden shine still preserved. The voice continues, a bit more remorseful than before.

???: The gold.
All the accomplishments.
They taken them from me.
Not a single time that I don't look back.
And I see the bodies I left in the pursuit.
The same pursuit that left me in a place of pure emptiness.
Yet when I had it around my waist, pure jubilation in my soul.
Pure....

The voice pauses for a while, as the camera pans back to those old wrestling boots. Fading in slowly, footsteps can be heard, getting louder with each step of the march. As it does so, the silhouette of a man walks through the light. A dark colored hoodie over his head, the light too weak to fully show his face. The voice turning from bleak into this wild change of determination and inner fire.

???: That purity.
That desire to be the best.
That's what pushed me to my greatest heights.
[BEEP] everything else, I loved it!
I savored every moment!

The voice rising, building with each word, as if his mind was in pure bliss. The nostalgia radiating off him. The hooded man reaches ringside, climbing up the steps while taking in the moment.

???: So, you want me to just sit here like an old dog?
You want me to just die off, don't you?
Every single one of you don't know a damn about me!
Everything I sacrificed for that title!
Every kid's dream had to crush!
Ever close friends' bones I had to snap!
Everyone I loved I had to push into the pit!
Every single person I had to eliminate in my way!
I bled for this!
I died for this!
I DESERVE MORE!
I DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE!
I DESERVE MY CAREER BACK!!!

The hooded man gets inside the ring, lifting those worn boots back up close to him with his right hand, dearth gripping on them as it were his last lifeline.

???: I might have a little bit of rust...
A little bit of age...
I'm the veteran now...
But when it all comes down to it....
I am still....

The lights flash on, almost blinding the whole view. The hooded man now in full view, a dark grey hoodie over his head. Black boot cut jeans with dark brown working boots. His hands wrapped in old tape giving off a rustic yellow color. Left stating in the empty gym, a close up of the man's face, wearing a black full face mask with a blood red X.

Masked Man: [BEEP]-ing.
Better.
Than.
YOU.

He reaches to pull the mask off, but before he can do so, the lights again shut off, as we enter into the pure black. The camera fades into the darkness of the gym.