The Octopus

Reunion Part 1

I first felt myself being shaken.

Second, I heard the words, “time to get up, prince charming.”

The words were dripping with sarcasm. I began to open my eyes and I grinded my teeth in anger at that comment.

I moved my head up to see the back of the man who had shaken and then talked to me. My eyes moved to understand my plight and I was seated at the end of a big table. The man got to a door and turned around and gave me a wink. I figured I must have been seeing things because that GUY was dead. I shook my head as I attempted to clear the fog inside it but when I looked again the ghost was still there. He was looking outside the room and talking but I could not comprehend what was being said.

He stepped to his left and held the door as a few people I recognized began to enter the room. Each person entered and nodded at me. Each nod felt like a knife being plunged into my back and my head started pounding and my hands began to shake.

Not a good sign I realized but this felt like a bad dream.

I wanted badly to rub my eyes, but my arms were tied behind the chair I had woken up on. I didn’t have my strength back yet, so I just leaned in the chair and stared at the ceiling.

“Ma’am.”

I think I knew that voice, but I wasn’t entirely sure. I looked back at the door to see Clarice holding an IPAD as an older woman entered. Following behind her was The Doc and as I watched him, he looked at me and smiled.

“Traitor,” I said as loudly as I could and suffice to say it wasn’t loud.

The people in the room had heard me but didn’t say anything, several of them just laughed quietly. The woman stopped and looked at me. “Oh, he looks uncomfortable, hon, can you untie him?”

Doc nodded at the woman and walked over to me. I stared angrily at him, but his smile never faded. He got behind me and I hissed, “you will pay for this.”

“You are where you should be, Steve,” he whispered to me. He finished untying me and walked away. Doc moved to the other side of the long table and stood to the right of the woman who had sat down at the head of the table. I rubbed the headache behind my eyes, but it wasn’t helping. It still throbbed probably from whatever Doc had shot into my veins.

“I believe you know almost everyone in this room and of course there are two who are late as usual and others taking care of someone,” the woman said as she put a cigarette to her lips. Clarice who was standing to the left of her took a lighter out and lit it for her.

She took a drag and blew the smoke towards the ceiling and put the cigarette down in the ashtray. “By the way, Steve, the only person who has betrayed people is you.”

My mouth opened to respond but nothing came out. The door flew open and two men arguing with each other entered. They stopped for a second and looked at me, again I felt knifes being put into my back and then moved in a circle while I bleed out on the red and white carpet my chair sat on.

Ellis Jackson stood there with a smirk on his face but next to him was the man I had looked up to since I was a kid, my favorite wrestler and trainer JD Lawson. He stood there with a stoic look on his face. He didn’t say anything and sat down to the left of the woman.

“You look like shit, kid,” Ellis said with a chuckle as he sat down to the right of the woman.

“Glad you two could finally make it,” the woman said as she gave Ellis an angry look.

“What is going on, do you all work for that goon?” Is all I could say. I was swimming in confusion and felt like I would drown at any second.

She took another drag of her smoke and then looked at me and smiled. “Clarice, how is that man?”

Clarice cleared her throat and looked down at the woman who sat continuing to smoke her cigarette, “the last I saw, he had blood coming out of his eyes.”

The Doc shuffled his feet a bit and looked uncomfortable at what he had heard but everyone else was calm and collected as if this was just the cost of doing business. The woman ashed her smoke again and then nodded as she stared at me, “good work, I do enjoy when someone goes above and beyond my expectations.”

She winked at me.

I felt something akin to anger bubble up inside me but instead someone…something…came back…

That is familiar.

I shook my head. I had not expected the voice to return and to do so meekly made me realize that---I might know this woman too.

“Can we move on?” My former trainer JD Lawson said with an annoyed tone. He looked a bit tattered. I was used to him looking confident and well dressed but today he looked like he hadn’t slept or combed his hair in days.

Ellis looked across the table at him and smirked, “can’t wait another minute to see your little lackey, huh?”

Lawson ignored him and then leaned over and whispered in the ear to the man sitting next to him. The man nodded back to him and gave him a thumbs up. I squinted and realized it was Rico, another one of Lawsons old long-standing employees. He along with Jack Marley were integral in the success JD had as a wrestler and all the other work he was involved in and whatever the hell was going on right now.

I mean…holding water is a skill, right?

The woman put her cigarette out and gave JD and Ellis both looks that could kill. She then looked back at me and pined, “it was never my intention of our meeting to be like this, Steve. The way things have been going though have left a bad taste in my mouth. The family business can only evolve if we have people we can trust and will move us in the right direction.”

I looked around the room with what had to be a very bewildered look on my face. They all looked back at me with interest in their eyes, “What does that have to do with me?”

Ellis shook his head and scoffed, “everyone here has helped you…”

“When have you ever helped me?”

“If you had listened to me, you wouldn’t be in this predicament now, would you? You wanted to be a better man for some woman you didn’t have the balls to tell you loved. Now you just meander around talking about redemption this and responsibility that. IT IS PATHETIC.”

I grimaced, that hurt. I looked over at Lawson and he nodded slowly back towards me, “he might be a piece of shit, but he is right about this.”

“Your responsibility now is to do what is best for us not your childish romancing of being in love. You are not someone who will ever understand that…none of us here CAN!” Ellis Jackson ended with emphasis, his face becoming red.

The woman let him finish and then took a sip from the wine glass that stood in front of her. “Let me explain what Ellis began before his detour.  JD trained you with Jack helping, Ellis helping, and William Morris helping…”

I pointed at William, “I literally put flowers at his grave just last year, how the hell is he alive?”

“Nothing will get explained if you keep asking questions, but if you must know: William faked his death because I told him to. Everyone is here because I told them to be, and you are here because its where you are meant to be. Let us continue then. Doc has helped you get back to your physical best even if you are mentally broken which is something he and I will talk about later.” She swirled her wine glass and gave it a grin.

The Doc gulped at those words but did not respond. It seemed he did not fully grasp what he was involved in. I also had no idea what I was involved in, “why me?”

“Ding-ding, that’s the right question, isn’t it?” She took her right hand and moved her graying black hair from in front of her eyes, the eyes looked as black as the deepest pit, it shook me.

I won’t believe it.

The voice was becoming a bit louder, but it was saying nothing helpful. I shuffled in my seat to get a little more comfortable and then placed both elbows on the table in front of me and looked down at her and responded, “Does it get an answer then?”

She waved my question off, “how much time do you have?” she laughed but it didn’t sound joyful and was more like a laugh a predator would make if it toyed with its prey. “Sorry, obviously you have as much time as I say you have but look, we are not your enemies. We will build you back up to the threat you used to be. As proof of my promises,” she pointed at William Morris who stood by the door, “reunion time, dear.”

Cut

--

Australia Part 1

January 11th

They came one after another, blistering me with punches and kicks. I had no options I told myself as I stared down at my knuckles. The fresh blood dripping down off the dried blood from the first mêlée, my knuckles swollen from my self-defense.

Unconscious bodies were dispersed throughout the run-down warehouse I was told to meet JD Lawson at. Instead, I entered and was met with a scene from Warriors and was attacked one by one from soulless men in sweatpants and hoodies. Nothing was said just our fists speaking for each other and I came to understand that their fists were desperate and wild.

When it was done, I sat on the floor and breathed heavily. My chest heaved and my heart pounded. There were ten people if you can call them that sobbing in pain with broken bodies and spirits.  Only thing that came to my mind was that it was better them then me. I didn’t feel guilty either, I did what I had to do.

The door to the warehouse opened and Doc walked in with his medical bag. He gasped at what he saw but tried to ignore all the carnage and walked towards me. “Let me see your hands, Steve.”

“Where is he?” I asked as I licked the drying blood from my lips.

Doc shook his head as he began spraying my hands with numbing spray and then wrapping them up. “We all have to fight through some adversity to become better people, Steve.”

I couldn’t feel my hands but could feel how tight the wrapping job he did was as circulation had been cut off a bit and my hands starting throbbing. “Heh,” I laughed sarcastically, “point me to the better people, Doc.”

Before he could answer, the door swung opened so hard it slammed against the other side. The loud sound echoed throughout the old warehouse and my headache began to scream. Ellis Jackson walked in and strolled arrogantly towards me, a grin on his face and a briefcase in his hand.

He looked around the room, but his reaction was the opposite of Doc. He spit towards a few down men that were close to his walk path. He got to us, and The Doc looked up at him, “I think he needs to go to the hospital.”

Ellis looked down at him, “you can go.”

“But…”

“I said: YOU CAN GO! Go give my sister a backrub or whatever she keeps you around for.”

Doc looked at me, “get them on ice as soon as you can,” he stood up and pushed past Ellis who just stood there and laughed at the departing Doc.

Ellis turned to me, “which one of these homeless drug addicts that I found on the street did you picture as Jackson Cooley?”

I placed my wrapped swollen hands on my legs as I continued to sit down unwilling to stand up and give him the respect he wished for, “I don’t care about anything you say. Where is JD?”

Ellis sneered at me as his face got red in anger, “you better start appreciating what I am doing for you before it is too late. A day might come where you continue to disappoint, and she just decides to move on. You don’t want that…do you?”

I sluggishly stood up and wobbled a bit because I was drained from the survival game Ellis had set up. I looked down at the smaller man, but he stuck his chin out, his grin back on his weathered face.  It was just asking for me to punch it, but I felt if I connected another punch my hand might just fall off my wrist. “I am going to get some fresh air. It is getting really self-important in here.”

I turned and brushed past him just like he had done to Doc walked towards the front door that had the color of rusting blood. How ironic I thought as I thought about how my hands looked under the gauze and wrapping. “There is NO ESCAPE, Steve!”

Cut

--

Reunion Part 2

It seemed to take forever but then the door swung open again and Jack Marley entered the room. Behind him walked back in William Morris and then one more surprise in Dmytro and of course JD’s wife Sandy Reed-Lawson who gave me a smirking shrug and sat down next to JD Lawson. Dmytro and William sat on the side with Ellis Jackson. Jack slowly walked down the side of the table and sat at the end next to Rico.

I nodded at Jack, but all he did was stare at the empty seat across from him. His eyes looked sullen, and it looked like he had hadn’t slept in weeks. “Hey, are you ok?” I whispered to Jack as I leaned towards him. He didn’t even blink and the harder I stared at him, I started to believe he was sleepwalking with his eyes opened. I looked over at my former mentor and he stared angrily at the woman at the head of the table.

She looked back at Lawson, “oh, don’t be so dramatic.” She took another sip of her wine and then stood up. She handed the glass to Clarice and looked down the table at me. “Do you see the empty seat next to Dmytro, Steve?”

I confusingly nodded and she began to walk leisurely towards me. “This is the core of our organization, and that empty chair is for you.”

Everyone had become silent. They watched and listened to her as she got closer to me. I wiped some sweat from my brow as I gave a look at the empty chair. She got in front of me and looked down at me. I gulped uncertain what she was going to do.

She put her arms out as she pointed at both sides of the table. She then clasped both hands to my cheek and forced me to look into her eyes, “we are The Octopus, and this is your initiation day…SON.”

The voice screamed inside my head and my eyes rolled back into my head as what I just heard had shut my mind and body down. The last thing I felt was my chair tipping over, my head pounding, and the voice yelling obscenities at this woman.

All I heard as my mind began to shut down was, “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

--

Australia Part 2

I ignored Ellis’s screams and was within feet of the door when he continued, “we are The Octopus, our tentacles reach everywhere, heh…well maybe you can learn for yourself you immature whelp.”

I opened the door and walked outside to realize it was now morning. I had been fighting in that abandoned warehouse all night. I shaded my eyes and walked into the run down old Military District of Beehive Casemate Battery. I did not see any tourists at this time, but I saw a bunch of old abandoned buildings and people sleeping in the corners.

“I just have to survive for now,” I quietly said to myself as I walked over to an old crumbling wall. I sat down on it and sighed. “So…this is what family is like, huh?”

I laughed.

It wasn’t because I was happy.

It was because if I didn’t, I would go insane in that moment.

“You should really go back.”

“You insult all of our fallen comrades by leaving like a child.”

“You don’t turn your back on family.”

Everywhere I turned there were people talking to me. They walked towards me, circling me inside their approach. I put my hands up to indicate I didn’t mean them any harm nor was I looking for a fight. “Who…who…who are you people?”

“I TOLD YOU STEVE, THERE IS NO ESCAPE,” I turned to see Ellis yelling as he strolled towards the people and me.

I still sat on the wall, my legs were heavy, and I wasn’t sure I could even run away at that moment. I looked at Ellis who continued to walk like he was stuck in molasses. “What is it you want, Ellis?”

He laughed, “OH WE ARE DONE TALKING, NEPHEW.”

“Huh,” I said and then watched as he put his arm up and pointed at me. The people upped their pressure on me and became moving quicker at me.

“KNOCK HIM OUT AND BRING HIM BACK INSIDE!”

They were upon me, and I felt every elbow, punch, bite, pinch, you name it they probably did it to me, as they dragged me off the wall and opened every injury I had and gave me many more as blood poured from me. I stared at the sun and the beauty of an Australian morning had become nothing but another blood-soaked day for me.

I attempted to flip off Ellis Jackson from wherever he was at that time, but I couldn’t move anything and closed my eyes.

--

I will be a harbinger of pain for those who fight against me.

I will be a plague for those who dare bring harm towards The Miracle Man.

I will fight through broken bones.

I will fight through blood dripping from my veins.

I spoke those mantras every night as I attempted to sleep while in Australia. A week of being forced to train with that MAN had given them the results they wished for.

I had stopped trying to escape.

There was no escape.

It didn’t matter if I didn’t like him because as I was told repeatedly this is for The Family.

This is for The Octopus, and more importantly this is for my Mom.

After the night when she told me the voice was loud but went silent again. It was probably too traumatic for such a past forgotten voice that only knew good memories.

I wasn’t allowed to ask where she had been.

I wasn’t allowed to ask anything if I am being honest. It is hard for someone as prideful as me to realize that I wasn’t anything special.

I was just a main tentacle in use so that the head could succeed.

I fought.

I ate.

I slept.

This wasn’t a vacation. I didn’t have anyone I could complain to. I was here for one thing and one thing only and that was to either beat a man back to the Pit or be beaten back into the training grounds of Ellis Jackson.

I won’t apologize, Mr. Cooley. I mean, neither of us would believe it if I did anyway.

You see ME, right?

I am falling apart piece by piece and being put back together for the good of the collective. I am told I will be better for it. I cannot help but feel that when I hit you, I won’t feel anything. When I suplex you, I won’t feel anything. When our blood mixes in that ring like a blind man mixing paints, I won’t feel anything.

They say that will make me a better wrestler. A better nephew. A better tentacle. A better son.

I am starting to believe there isn’t a better anything, just a worse world where I will be forced to be better by being worse.

Come join me in this downward spiral.