20 Years Ago
Tampa Bay, Florida

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

Revelation 14:13


..........God he was so bored. He hated church. There was never anything exciting happening. There was just a bunch of funny dressing old people gabbing about nothing and singing in a language he couldn't understand. Why did they sing like this?

He hated how his mother always made him dress up too. He hated dressing up. God how he hated it. That stupid little tie, pants that were too tight, shoes that gave him blisters. Was it necessary to wear this stuff in 90 degree Tampa heat? All to listen to some old man talk about something he didn't understand for an hour and a half? Stupid....

"And now please rise and sing along with the choir as they praise the word of the lord....."

Chris's mother and stepdather (or whoever she was fucking that week), stood up, but Chris just wasn't feeling it. "Get up!" She whispered. The young kid rolled his eyes. He got up slowly. He still didn't see the point in any of this.

"....Haec dies quam fecit Dominus , exsultemus et laetemur vocemque!"

.....What the heck? He thought to himself......this is America isn't it?

Some old man was sitting like a wax sculpture figure, playing the organ. That damn organ, so loud an unneccesary. Yet, there was something oddly beautiful about it.

"....Haec dies quam fecit Dominus , exsultemus et laetemur vocemque!"

He looked up at the roof with rolled eyes. He believed in "God", but mostly because he was told he had to. He was told it was the right thing. He was told to talk to "him" whenever things got rough. Where was "he" when his grandmother died of cancer? Where was "he" when Chris got beat up at school. Where was "he" when the girl he had a crush on embarrassed him in the cafeteria? Where was "he" when his family has had six different homes in 2 years because his mother can't hold down a job or a man? Hell, she didn't even have a car. Yet, she had money for drugs.....

"....Haec dies quam fecit Dominus , exsultemus et laetemur vocemque!"

This "lord" was all knowing and all mighty. He watched over everything. He 'knew' everything. Did he know what Chris was thinking right now? Did he know that the older girl a few pews up had a nice butt in her skirt? Did he know that Chris touched himself the other day and actually kind of enjoyed it? Did he "know" that he killed a squirrell slowly the other day and hung his guts from a tree branch?

"....Haec dies quam fecit Dominus , exsultemus et laetemur vocemque!"

Would he ever catch reprecussions for all of these things that he has been told all his life are evil? If so, when? He almost wanted to...he wanted to believe.....

.....30 minutes later church got out, and he was sitting in the back of his stepdads SUV. His "father" was inside a gas station getting cigarettes....his mother had left him alone in the car to go meet "Angel". Chris knew what that meant. Angel was code word for finding her passed out on the bathroom floor again.

His mother got back in the car around the same time his step father did.

"This fucking cheap spic...." she lit a cigarette, tossing the crunchy sounding plastic wrapper on the floorboard. "Prices always going up. It's like he fucking thinks he is god."

Chris's eyes perked up.

"Like what the fuck. Floated here on a fucking board and now he wants to rip people off?"

..........The night ended exactly how 8 year old Chris thought. Fights, shouting, broken appliances, crying, cops and his mother ending up passed out in the garage. 3 weeks later Chris was removed from the house. Would "god" allow this?

10 years later...

Do To Others As You Would Have Them Do To You
--Luke 6:31

Chris loved Nicole. Nicole Dagastino, his first crush since middle school. They got along so well. They came from completely different backgrounds. Nicole's father was a doctor for the state and her mother a lawyer. They lived on the rich side of town, near Palm Harbor. She was always a rebel, and never afraid to speak her mind. Chris liked that. He loved that.

After years of bouncing between the streets and foster homes, living at his football coach's house in the basement just so he could get to school everyday, fighting in underground clubs just to get a paycheck because he was 'too confrontational' to keep a normal job, Chris was ready to settle down. Nicole was a year or so younger than him. He was turning 18 that summer, she would be 17 in the fall. They had been through a lot together at this point, some good and some bad, but they had always gotten through it and had gotten stronger from it. Nicole's only issue, in his mind, was that she had a mild eating disorder. She was skinny, but then again how man 17 year olds do you know that aren't? That is when the incident happened that changed his life--and his faith--forever.

*Nicole was watching television in her room as her parents set the table. Her dirty blonde hair tied back in a pony-tail, a tank top, yoga pants, she was comfy, to say the least. Chris was at football practice and claimed he had 'errands' to do afterwards, but she knew he was going to a fight club. They had a date planned for Valentines day and he needed the money. Something about that made her smile.

"Nicole! Dinner!" It was her moms shrill voice. God she hated that woman. She didn't understand her, she was such a frigid bitch. It was her way or the highway, all the time, with no variance. Nicole would be so glad when she turned 18 and could get the hell out of this house. Be on her own. Be with Chris.

"Nicole! Now!" ugh. Fine. She put her phone on the charger and sauntered down the stairs, not really caring about eating if she had to eat with these people. She was convinced they weren't her real parents (she would find out later in life that she was actually adopted--which would explain why her sister, their real child, always got preferential treatment).

She sat down at the table when her mother asked her what she wanted to drink. "Water, please" Nicole said.

"I would really prefer you had milk, Nic. You don't get enough calcium, you are too skinny."

"I don't want milk, mom, I would like water."

"You need the calcium. Hell, you are a rail. Just drink it."

"Yea, I am a rail, coming from the fat one...." Nicole said under her breath.

Nicole's mother brought milk out and set it in front of her. Then she took her seat and asked Christine, her sister, to lead them in prayer.

Nicole stood up, and walked into the kitchen with a huff. "Where do you think you are going, young lady?"

"To get my water, like I asked for" Nicole said with a snap. Her mother followed her into the kitchen and the family could hear the argument, something something about god and judgement, something something about calcium. About being skinny. About following rules. More about calcium.

Nicole came back out, small tear in her eye. The milk sat in front of her, staring at her. She just wouldn't drink anything, that's all. Christine led them in prayer, and Nicole sat there with her head down, a non visible eye roll. "Amen" the three of them said.

"Nicole, say amen" her mother shot. "Amen" Nicole muttered almost inaudibly. "Good, now drink your milk."

20 minutes later

Dinner ended and Nicole immediately shoved her chair away and ran upstairs. The entire dinner conversation was about how she doesn't look healthy and she needs calcium and how she should drink her milk---if she told her to drink her milk one more damn time---and Nicole had finally hit breaking point.

With her hands shaking, she opened the glass cabinet above her sink. Looking at the bottle in front of her, she grabbed it, trying not to drop it. Emptying it out into her shaking hand, she brought it to her mouth, then cupped her hands for the sink water. With a sad smile she walked downstairs.

"I have all the calcium I need now!" She yelled, holding the empty calcium pill vile, "so fuck you and your milk!"

It was only a short time later Nicole was in Tampa Bayview ER getting her stomach pumped. Her parents stood outside, talking to each other in a stern tone.

----Chris had just finished classes for the day. Nicole hadn't texted him all day, weird. But she went to a private school and her phone would be taken if she was caught on it. He didn't sweat it. He would talk to her at some point. Walking into the locker room for football practice, he couldn't even think of anything else but Nicole and their date. He didn't even care about practice really. He was completely smitten, for the first time in his life.


His phone rang, just like he predicted it would, only this time he was in the bathroom. Shit. He would have to call back. But before he hit redial he noticed there was a voicemail. He clicked to listen.

"Chris....." it was Nicole's mother. Double shit.

"Nicole has been sent away. You will have no contact with her. Do not write her, do not write us, she will not get the letters. Zero contact means zero contact. We have decided that this is best, for both of you, and for us."

His heart sank to his cleats. He swallowed hard. A cold sweat broke out. Did he just hear that? He listened to it again. And again. ".....and for us...." those words were chilling. That bitch. That fucking cunt. There was a rage built up in him that he hadn't felt in a long, long time.

Fuck Football.

He jumped into his Jeep and sped down I75 towards Nicole's house. He was a bull seeing red. Pulling up to her house he peeled into the driveway and slammed the Jeep into park. The little P icon lit up.

He jumped out, not even turning the car off. Basically running to the front door he pounded on it over and over and over and over and over. No answer. Neither car was in the driveway. Part of him wanted to kick the door down. Then that part of him took over. He kicked it over and over. Nothing. Bolted. He sat down on the porch and with his head in his hands, for the first time in years, he actually cried.

++++

-----

"Tommy, buddy, you need to come here. There is a problem with Nicole."

Tommy was at work. Damn. His boss was crazy strict.

"Bro, I don't know. I have been having car trouble lately, and she's on the other side of Tampa. That is a bit of a hike."

Chris didn't wanna hear it.

"I would do it for you, bro. I need you. I need a crowbar, I need to get into this house."

"Is that really a good idea? Her mom is like biggest lawyer in Tampa, bro."

"I just need to make sure she is telling me the truth. I need to make sure Nicole is okay. Bro, are you a friend or not?"

There was a pained sigh on the other line.

"Okay, brother, I am on my way."

Tommy never came. An hour went by, then 90 minutes. Chris became fidgity and impatient. He tapped his foot on the concrete step. Where the hell was Tommy? Did that little cocksucker bail? Ohhhhh he was in for an ass kicking.

Suddenly, his cell phone ringing jolted him out of his trance like state.

"Chris....." God he hated when phone calls began that way, having a flash back oh Nicole's mother.

"Chris.....it's Chad. There was a problem with Tommy. You need to come right now."

"Where are you?"

"State Street, come here NOW!" Shit, he was right around the corner.

---3 days later Chris stood at Tommy's funeral. Tommy had crashed his sports car coming to see him. When Chris got to the crash site, it was a grizzly scene. He blocked it from his mind...........The ONLY thing recovered from the car was a rosary that hung from the rearview mirror. Chris gripped it in his palm.....

.....What kind of god would do this?

......IF there was a god, why would he take two people in the same day? What kind of god does that? Not a God Chris wanted to be associated with........

He dropped the rosary on the grass.....the dried blood stained the white beads.....

+++

The wood from the old church burned like the firey depth of hell. He didn't think such a "holy" place could burn so fast.

He stood back and watched, taking a sip from a Jack Daniels bottle. He knew the sirens would be heard soon. He knew he would probably go to jail. He didn't care. His life as he knew it was effectively over anyway.

The old organ he rememred as a kid was all automated now. It was 2006, and the old organ player had long since died.

Good, fuck him too.

There was a sound like thunder as the wood and stone cracked. That was the first smile he had in weeks.

As the top of the roof crumbled in, the sirens of the TFD could be heard in the distance. The organ inside the church wailed as it burned, and wailed the tune of the pain he had and the emptiness now in his heart.

The last sound he heard was the organ wail before he passed out.....

TO BE CONTINUED


====

"Reverend Waters....

"This match means more to me than perhaps any match I have EVER participated in. And it is not on a professional wrestling level......it hits me on a personal level. That organ music will fill me with a rage not seen by any human being in the last thousand years. A win would be huge, but I am a Savage Saturday wrestler mostly. I am coming to YOUR show to take out all the emotions in my head. All the demons that haunt me, all the ghosts that constantly swirl around me. I am going to take them out on your holy ass. You may be a reverend, but I am a deacon of destruction. I am chaotic, unpredictable and flat out pyschotic. I hate everyone. I hate you. I am not just coming to Warfare to beat you, I am coming to put you out of your misery. I am coming to end you for good. I am coming to torture you. As soon as that organ begins to wail, your fate is signed sealed and delivered. As soon as those flames go up, your career ends."

"As soon as those flames shoot up I will destroy and dismantle you. You probably thought Luna Hightower had me huh? Guess you were wrong. I left her laying in the ring staring at the lights, looking up at the phony "God" and asking why. Why her. Why then. But this time, it is juicier. This time, I won't just leave you laying, but I will leave you charred and blacked beyond repair. I will leave your skin melted and peeling until your screams drown out those of the organ. When that bell sounds I will see Nicole's parents....I will see her ex boyfriend, I will see the staff at the facility she was sent to............oh, you don't know? You will soon. You all will soon. You will see a different side of Chris Chaos at Warfare. A side I promise you won't like.....

Let me quote a bible verse for you.....

But those mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me.
Luke 19:27

Sound familiar?

Get ready to burn...........get ready to sleep in the flames

Get ready to be equalized."

Fade to black.



XWF RECORD:
4-2-1