Lost

[Link]

Man: Get up James, we’ve got work to do.

At that moment, Link turns around from the grave and a look of shock and horror covers his face.

Link: It can’t be…

Link stood astonished at what he was seeing. After all these years after all of the pain, suffering, psychotic and psychopathic behavior the root of all of the evil and confusion could be traced to the death of two individuals. It was the death of this parents that could easily be seen as the birth of Link. James Carter, aged eight, witnessed a senseless crime turn into a brutal homicide. An outcast, an outsider with respects to his own family, James Carter did his best to change the world. He had lost everything, and people walked around ungrateful, unthankful, and unwilling to truly look at their lives and examine themselves. In his early adult life he was shown that mankind prides itself in tangible items such as money and materials. He knew all too well that tangible meant weak. Tangible meant that it can be taken away, broken, or cheapened. A young James Carter was exposed to an underbelly of corrupt businessmen, brawlers from all of the world, and power hungry men seeking their own gain, when he joined WFWF. There he was trained and further molded into the man that he has become today. Link has always represented the inner struggle that we all face in day to day life. The struggle to do what is right vs wrong. To act on impulse and inner feelings vs. logic and reason. To do what you want vs. to do what his best for the greater good or for those that matter most to you. All these struggles, all of the battles that Link has endured in his career against Bomb, Silent Assassin, Ricker, Moses Lake, Hammer, Level One, Trevor Blackwell, Frost, Quantum, and most importantly, Freak would never have happened if that fateful night had never occurred.

Link: It can’t be you, you died, you are dead. Dad. How…

Link turns around and looks at the grave behind him where his Father and Mother are to have been laid to rest for the past twenty years. He turns back, and through the heavy rain he sees his Father for the first time in all those years.

Carter: James, my son, you’ve got a lot to do before you give up.

Link: I can’t do this anymore. I’ve made a huge mistake. People don’t listen anymore, and I can’t keep fighting this battle alone. Lolita and Adam have never understood, and BDC being back hasn’t done anything for the revolution of APW. Now that Jeff is back, I don’t know what is going to happen. I’m lost, Dad, I am weak.

The rain begins to come down even harder in what has to be the worst storm in this regions history. Thunder rolls across the sky making it hard for Link and his Father to communicate. Links Father talks in his normal voice as Link must raise his voice to speak.

Carter: I know son, that’s why I’m here. You’ve been doing the right thing. And I know you have gone off of your path, but I’m here to guide you. I’m here to get you back on track. Son, I know you’ve missed me and your mother, but the events that have occurred in your life have happened for a reason, for you to be exactly where you are right now. You’ve had a great career, and no one can ever take that away from you. Now, its time to kick things back into high gear.

Link: HOW DO YOU PROPOSE I DO THAT?! Level One has taken EVERYTHING away from me. He has taken over the APW slowly but surely with his poisonous lies! Father, I was screwed by him and I have lost not once, but TWICE! Knowing DAMN well that I should have one that last match, I was screwed poppa.

Carter: And what are you going to do about it? Are you going to quit? Are you going to let that bring you down?! What about all the lives you’ve changed through enlightenment? When was the last time YOU were enlightened? That is why I am here son. I am here to enlighten you.

Link: I don’t understand. How are you even alive?!

Carter: I’m not asking you to completely understand right now. I’m asking you to do what I tell you. Son. I need you to…

Thunder and lightening crack across the scene as Link leans forward to try to hear his Fathers instructions. The words of Mr. Carter fall deaf on our ears however.

Link: How will I contact you? How will I find you?

Carter: I’ll be around son. I’ll be around.

Link: Dad, I love yo…

Lightening strikes a large near by that comes crashing down on some graves near by. Link falls back onto the wet muddy grass. As he looks up to his Father, he has vanished.

Fades

Opening up in an abandoned gymnasium Link walks aimlessly passing by old rusted exercise equipment. Broken glass and cracked pipes expose this dark room’s ugliness. Link closes his eyes and an almost faint smile comes across his face as he takes in the mix of smells and feels the humidity on his skin. We come in closer and Link opens his eyes and looks dead into the camera.

Link: The glory days. The old times. We remember them good or bad through a lens. We filter the reality out of it and glorify the past into making into this monument of events. We over dramatize our parts by turning us into demigods or key figures. Matthew the non-practicing doctor tries to delude himself into thinking his career was something greater than it was. It’s clear he thinks he is something special because he in his time in APW has been pinned twice in singles competition. Funny, the more I think about it, how often is “Dr.” Matt actually in singles competition? Every time I turn around he’s either fired, injured, too busy, or doesn’t care. And when he is in singles competition who is he facing? Oh that’s right hes wasting time on people he’s already proven to have beaten in the past, like Trevor Blackwell. To me, he gloats about the wrong things. To be proud and to boast about all the accomplishments he has made here in APW is like being proud to have kicked the asses of the Canadian Special Olympics participants. I’m sure Matt did some amazing things back in the day, but like myself, APW has been a cancer to Dr. Matt. Matt hasn’t realized that that cancer was the man people refer to as President Jeffrey, but I thankfully have come to terms with that and have making strides to counter this disease.

Links begins to slowly walk around the gym. He finds a small piece of broken equipment. He picks up this tiny piece that looked like it was a handel to some large machine. He plays with it for a bit before tossing it away.

Link: Since coming to APW I have fulfilled nearly EVERY promise I have made to the people of APW. I said Dr. Phate needed to leave, I said Jeff needed to leave. And what happened? Someone took my words seriously and finally had the balls to take out Jeff. I’m not saying I know who it is, but the things I wanted, the things I said needed to be done were done. Thankfully Phate was smart enough to leave on his own. But what about Dr. Matt. Sure I didn’t say anything regarding him when I first came here, but right before we fought the last time has he done anything to improve his situation? Has he done anything I’ve suggested? No. Hes fought in more pointless matches. Lost some, won some. He has continued to fail to win the big one. He has continued to be AVERAGE. Save for a few people here, most people seem to only want the average, and that is something I just can’t stand for. This is Action Packed or is this Average Packed Wrestling? I promise, just like I promised those things before, to excel, TO do what I sought out to do, to make changes, to save lives, and to run this business with something most people here don’t seem to have, intellect.

Link turns his attention away fromt he camera to pull out a lone cigerette from his jacket pocket. He lights it, takes a long drag before continuing on.

Link: Dr. Matt, come overdrive, you will not get your retribution, in fact, you are just going to get a swift reminder that the past is the past. Whatever your remember from the days where you beat people that you felt were beneath you or beat people when you put forth the minimalist amount of effort are OVER. I’ve beaten you before, I’m going to beat you this week, and if I see you squandering whatever talents you have left in that ignorant skull of yours I’m going to request we fight again so I can beat some more sense into you. Dr. Matthew, you have something in you that most of the others here do not have. You have a sadistic streak that actually makes some sense to me, but I can see in your eyes you don’t even believe in yourself. Throughout that tape you sent in, you just seemed to be going through the “motions”. You just did what you had to do, had a few laughs and called it a day. There isn’t going to be any laughing at Overdrive. I don’t care if you are a contracted wrestler or not. Do you think me having a contract has stopped me from doing whatever the fuck I want to? Hell no it hasn’t’ before and it won’t here now. I’m going to fuck you so many different ways you aren’t going to know what hit you. Okay, there probably is a better way of saying that, but Fuck it, I’m emotional. Don’t think that I hate you Matt, because I don’t, I just know how lost you are. You see, I was just as lost as you. I completed most everything I sat out to do, except win the APW Championship and now instead of me LEVEL ONE will be facing Lively. THAT SHOULD BE ME! I should be the one who gets the chance to change APW. What do you think Level One is going to do? He is going to do the same thing he always does. Bring PEOPLE and Organizations DOWN!

Link is nearly out of breathe. He takes a hit from his cigerette and is all better. He looks away and tries to calm down and keep focused. He closes his eyse for a moment and the lids begin to tweak.

Link: Dr. Matt, what kind of person do you want to be? Do you want to be the person who floats around until you become completely irrelevant like the Blackwells? Shit or get off the pot. Give us that hardcore motherfucker you so claimed to be, or finally just leave the APW. OR, shut me up. Prove me wrong. If I am wrong about you, beat me. I dare you. Haunt me, like the feelings of emptiness have haunted you for the past few months. Are you going to go to sleep tonight knowing that you are going to kick some ass, or are you going to doubt? Are you going to wonder if this next time you step into the ring you are going to get your ass kicked so hard, that its going to end your career. Part of me thinks you WANT someone to end your career. Well you say the words. When we start our match just let me know, and I will make an example of you. Link is back. I have found my direction again. I have my purpose laid out for me and no more am I looking at the past for direction. I have something new to follow. I’m no longer a little lost sheep being led to the slaughter. Are you? Of course you are. Life is a series of choices and roads and you sir are at a point to make that choice. You can be like this old busted up equipment that saw myself and many others training in years ago. Like this equipment you can be abandoned, forgotten and broken. Or you can change. You can show us all that Dr. Matt is still alive and well. Ha, I think we all know already what you are going to chose. And at Overdrive, another APW superstar bites the dust.

Link: So Dr. Matt, come Overdrive, allow me to enlighten you, and I’ll allow you to enjoy yourself.

Link looks down at the ground as we zoom back and fade out.