Post by Michael Callahan on Jan 26, 2013 14:50:58 GMT -4
BONUS ISSUE
A Special Edition Michael Callahan Graphic Novel
Heavy rain pounds down on me as I walk through the rows of headstones at Seattle Down town Graveyard, looking for the still fresh plot of land where the woman I once called lover now resided permanently. The hailstones and the rain-drops battered against my blazer jacket with the force of golf-balls, smacking the plastic film around the bouquet of flowers I'd brought with me. After a couple of minutes of searching, I found the plot I was looking for...
Michael Callahan: I can't believe it. You're... really gone.
I took my fedora hat off out of respect, allowing the rain to annihilate my brushed and combed hair and leave it clinging and stuck to my face in a matter of moments. I didn't care though, my head was clouded with possibilities no more...
Michael Callahan: It was never meant to be like this. You and I were meant to get married, start a family, live happily ever after. You were my first and only... and now... you're gone.
I shut my eyes tightly as my hand coiled around the bouquet of flowers, unwilling to just drop them and let them go. In my mind all I could see was the picture of us together on my fireplace, the perfect memory of her.
Michael Callahan: Do you remember the time when... we climbed Rattlesnake Hills in the summer of 99? How I had to help you over the overhang of that cliff? God, I remember when I finally pulled you up and you fell on top of me. I opened my eyes, and looked straight at you... and you had this big smile on your face, and your blonde hair was breezing in the wind on this hot summers day... and... God you were so beautiful. And... we made s'mores... started a campfire... got drunk together for the first time...
The stress was hysterical. My stomach started doing loop-de-loops until my knees gave way and I sank to the floor, my hands raking through the as the tears flooded down my face, indistinguishable from the rian.
Michael Callahan: It was never meant to end like this! This never should've happened! If I hadn't been so blind... so stupid... so selfish... this never would've happened! So many times, I had the opportunity to save you and I didn't. I was too stubborn, too proud to realise I was driving you away! And now.... you're gone... and you're not coming back!
Lost with despair, I pounded my fists into the grave in the vain hope that it would somehow bring her back to life. I couldn't focus, I could barely breathe, until a man in a dark gray anorak with one one tooth between his family called out to me.
Gravedigger Barnes: You okay there mister?
I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my blazer and stood up, my knees tugging up a load of mud with them as I tried to retain my balance.
Michael Callahan: Yeah... I... just... I gotta' go.
The anorak wearing man with a shovel placed his hand on my shoulder but it wasn't as comforting as it was meant to be.
Gravedigger Barnes: It's never easy when you feel responsible for someone's death... but you'll move on. Life goes on. Do you believe in The Good Lord, mister?
I nodded my head slowly, shaking, my bottom lip quivering.
Michael Callahan: Ye-...yeah?
Gravedigger Barnes: Then you'll know that everything happens for a reason. God works in mysterious ways mister, and it might not always seem like he's doin' the right thing but he's got a plan fer us all.
The mere thought that God could do this to someone made my stomach tighten up. Could God be so malevolent? My brow furrowed and my fists tightened up into balls. I could've hit him, if he weren't so nice.
Michael Callahan: If this is what God has planned for us... then I don't think I wanna know.
I wasn't going to stand around and listen to this any more. I threw the flowers to the grave and walked away, knowing that if I didn't go soon, I never would.
Gravedigger Barnes: Mister, wait!
Michael Callahan: I'm leaving. Take care of her for me.
Stirring my gradually warming milkshake in Gary's Diner on the outskirts of Seattle, near the sea, the rain hadn't relieved itself at all and was only growing worse as the storm clouds hung overhead. I was feeling miserable, understandably, and as the only customer here the manager wasn't liking it. Joan Mars, a frumpy looking fry-cook in her 40's had had enough of me.
Joan Mars: 'ey, listen bustah, if yer gonna' sit der all day stirrin' yer milkshake an' makin' us all feel miserable den you can get outta' here. We ain't got no time for sad-face at Gary's Diner.
I clenched my fist and pounded the table, white hot with anger at being cast out for not conforming to the happiness levels of everyone around me. It took every fibre of restraint not to knock this rotten old harridans teeth down her throat.
Michael Callahan: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realise it was a federal offence to drink milkshake while you're grieving, you haggard old bi-
Right as I was about to tear this woman a new one, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a young woman, no older than twenty, soaked through her clothes with pale white skin, shaggy brunette hair and a dull green pair of eyes shot red from sleep deprivation.
?: Excuse me... umm... is there any chance I can sit with you? I just... I can't sleep, and... umm... I need some company and... you look like you could use some too.
Michael Callahan: Su-... sure. Sit down. I'll get you a fifth of vod if you like. Maybe a little alcohol will cure your insomnia.
?: Be-...believe me, I've tried eh-everything. I drank myself ill... and I still c-couldn't quite fall asleep.
Michael Callahan: Take a seat. I'm just gonna' go have a smoke.
?: Ca-can... can I come with you?
Michael Callahan: Sure. Grab my jacket and throw it on yourself though. You look like you might drown out there otherwise.
She threw on my coat and we stood outside Gary's Diner, just under the little bit of roofing so the rainfall wouldn't put my cigarette out. I lit up and took a drag, before offering her one.
Michael Callahan: What's your name kid? Smoke?
?: Ye... yes please. My-my name is.... is El-ellen Bi-Bishop.
Michael Callahan: You always had a stutter or are you just cold slash nervous?
Ellen Bishop: Bi-bi-bit of both. Ye-yes please.
I passed her the cigarette and she took a long drag, probably just grateful for the warmth it brought as the smoke filled her lungs. She coughed a little, then passed it back to me.
Michael Callahan: Cool. Do you know who I am?
She looked like the deer in the headlights, worried she might offend me if she didn't.
Ellen Bishop: No?
Michael Callahan: My name is Michael.... And I'm going to help you cure your sleeping problem
We shared a smoke... then we took a drive.
I sat now on the bonnet of my car, tape-recorder in hand at the edge of the parking lot, staring out over the cliff-face and into the sea. Ellen was sitting in the car waiting for me.
Michael Callahan: It's amazing, isn't it? What man can gain and lose inside one calendar year. Have everything and have yet nothing at the same time. When I came to Action Packed Wrestling last year... I had a fiance, I had friends, I had a burgeoning political career and I what looked like a golden ticket. A contract to wrestle for APW... and in my first match, I got myself a Suicidal Championship match.
Remember the days? I do. Life seemed so much easier then.
Michael Callahan: Now, I don't have to tell you how history followed out. I won that match and became the longest reigning champion in the history of Asylum. I held the belt for two hundred and ten days, breaking James Chambers record with the World Championship and setting a benchmark for all future Asylum champions that has yet to be broken. On the way, I beat a slew of contenders, saw to it that some never returned to my show again... and I changed the landscape of Asylum... forever.
The changes have been immeasurable. Gone are the days of “Hardcore Asylum”.
Michael Callahan: To some, that would sound like a golden ticket of an opportunity. One that anyone would snatch up on. But as time passed me by, all that I already had I was starting to lose. My fiancé left me, my friends decided they wanted nothing to do with me, the Traditional Restoration Initiative left me, Hell, even my assistants, two people who swore blind loyalty to me under employment no longer stand by my side. So unforgiving were they of the beast that they discovered I was becoming as I snow-balled into depression and madness, that they packed up and they left. They couldn't handle me, my success, and the effect it was having on me as a person... so they walked.
I'd always been confident... but my arrogance since wrestling had been startling.
Michael Callahan: Then... when all I had left was Steve Fukuyama, I lost my beloved championship and the downward spiral began. I was losing to people I never dreamt it possible to lose to. I was getting usurped by the likes of “Golden Boy”Anthony Bailey, Chris Strike and Jason Kash, guys who weren't putting in half the effort I was to make it to the top of the ladder. I even lost to Sally Talfourd, a woman I have made a ritual of humiliating throughout this entire year when I was looking likely to be billed as the next world champion. I lost everything... I was even starting to lose my mind. I lashed out, broke my own moral codes out of sheer desperation, started cussing and blinding and of course... my cardinal sin, using the weapons that I swore I would never pick up. I became... one of “them”.
It made me cringe deep inside to know I could be compared to someone like Jason Kash.
Michael Callahan: I had to strip myself down to the very core, take away everything that made me me, everything that made me a human fucking being just to get back to square one so I could pick up the god damn pieces. It took the death of my true love, losing all my friends and the things I cared about and my personal creed to get it but I got there. I sold my soul to the devil... to get back on the path that I was destined to be on. To make change, to make impact, to be someone once again. And yet here I am, sobbing on a cliff-face getting damn-near soaked frozen in the rain, staring down Phil Atken... Phil fucking Atken... as the man I seek to liberate the world heavyweight championship from.
I imagined Phil squirming as I sealed in the Victory Lock, begging for mercy. It was all I could do to make myself smile.
Michael Callahan: People ask me all the time... “Michael, if you could take it all back... would you?” And the answer is always the same.
Pause.
Michael Callahan: ... No. Never.
The sound of thunder is deafening now.
Michael Callahan: You see, I might not have chosen to do it. I might not have realised the damage that my political career was doing to my personal life, nor did I realise the damage my wrestling career was doing to both of my politics and my home... but to get what you truly want, you have to make some sacrifices. To get to this point now, where I get my arch-nemesis, the despicable Phil Atken one on one for the championship? I've had to sacrifice EVERYTHING that matters to me. In Washington State, I'm a laughing stock. My home-life is a mess. I have no family, no friends, no girlfriend, no colleagues, nothing... But that's the sacrifice you have to make if you want to make it in this industry.
The scars of wrestling cut deeper than the physical wounds.
Michael Callahan: You people may not realise it, but every Asylum, every pay-per-view, every stupid Meltdown special I do, I put life and limb on the line to not only put on the best show possible but because I love this artform. I've sacrificed blood, sweat, tears, hours of my time trying to better myself so that I can one day be remembered as the man that redefined an industry, an era, and I do so for all of you, not just myself. Whether you love me or you hate me, the suffering I endure does me no good if you people don't care...
I sighed heavily, barely able to get the words out as the cold sunk in its fangs.
Michael Callahan: ... But you do. You turn up in your droves, week after week, to watch me suffer. I've lost EVERYTHING for this sport, EVERYTHING and what do I have to show for it? Phil Atken however has sacrificed nothing. He's stolen the World Heavyweight Championship from Sally Talfourd, who for all her faults numerous and great at least put herself through Hell in an Elimination Chamber to call herself champion... then he has the audacity, the front, the NERVE have his friends hold back the arms of Sally Talfourd as he stabs her... and ALL of you people in the heart and robs the championship of it's integrity.
I punched the bonnet of the car, as rage filled me.
Michael Callahan: I'm as real as it'll ever get Phil. I don't hide behind talk about “science”, I've stripped my soul bare for all to see, the true monster that I am both in and out of that ring. Yet you want to poke and prod and aggravate me? I simply won't abide it Phil, I can not and will not stand by and let this continue. At Survive and Conquer, you're going to have to prove that you have the guts and the courage to sacrifice everything you've got, just like I did, to hold onto that championship you hold so dear. Your little friends aren't going to save you this time. I've worked too hard and too long for this moment Phil... and now for one last time, I'm going to make the ultimate sacrifice that you can't to pry that world championship out of your rotting little fingers. I'm ending this Brothers Grimm fairy tale you call a championship reign... and sacrificing everything to restore it's integrity... That Phil, that's a promise!
