Promo - Funeral for a Friend

[Sly 0]

Trees flash across the camera, zooming by at an alarming rate. Breaking the monotony, a few road signs fly by. A radio blares in the background presenting the local classic rock station for everyone to hear as it pauses for a quick station identification.

 

"KJKZ ninety-two nine! Your home for classic rock! We're in the middle of a commercial free drive home as we near the five o'clock hour! We just heard a classic from Queen, and we're going to keep on rocking you with a classic by Styx!"

 

"Ugh..." a voice groans over the radio.

 

"I'm saaaailing aaawaaaaaay,

Set an open course, for the viiiirgin seeeeeaaaaaa"

 

*Click*

 

The sound from the radio is silenced with a click on the dial. Our view out the camera rotates around to reveal the inside of a car, more than likely a rental, and the man who is driving it, Austin Sly. Gone is his normal casual attire, instead he has adorned a black suit with a white shirt and tie. He wears a slight look of disgust on his face.

 

"I hate that song. Mrs. Young should've had an abortion." Austin pauses as if to think, "that's not fair of me... the whole lot of them should've been aborted."

 

The look of disgust fade and a look of frustration returns to Austin's face as he looks up at the traffic in front of him. He looks from side to side searching for a route off the road.

 

"I'm late as it is! Can't you fucks just get out of my way?"

 

Austin reaches down and rests his hand impatiently on top of the stick shift in the middle of the car. He looks from side to side again scanning the flow of traffic. In one quick movement he shifts his car down and jolts his steering wheel to the right darting onto a side road. The car speeds along at an almost alarming pace again, blowing through the rural neighborhood. Nothing but trees and grassland surround the road as the space between us and the busy highway slowly widens. Casually, Austin reaches down and clicks the radio back on. The final notes of "Come Sail Away" drift through the air before being replaced by Foreigner's "Double Vision". He gawks at the radio, but he settles into the fact that music beats out the silence of the road. He's a only a few miles away from the church anyways...

 

 

 

... those miles pass quickly, and the car comes sliding to a stop on the side of the road in front of a rather large brick church. Cars line both sides of the street and fill the parking lot, this quiet country church was obviously not meant to hold such a well-attended event. Austin looks longingly into the rear-view mirror attempting to fix his hair rather quickly before opening his door and stepping out onto the street. It proves all for naught though as a gust of wind quickly rearranges his hair for him. He scurries across the street and up the steps to the church before quietly cracking the door open and sliding in un-noticed. The camera follows him in and gazes around the room taking everything in.

 

"We are gathered here today to witness the union of Nathaniel..."

 

Nathaniel? Union? The camera looks up to see NTD decked out in his best suit standing across from an absolutely stunning woman in a full white wedding dress. We've snuck into NTD's wedding, even though we're a little late. Austin takes a seat casually on the empty end of one of the back pews and lets out a little sigh before our camera fades...

 

*****

 

We fade back in at the wedding reception that night. Austin and NTD stand in the corner watching over everyone while reminiscing.

 

"Quite a ceremony man... how can you afford this?"

 

"Don't forget that I run a wrestling academy on top of balancing my time with you in the SWF. I've got a steady stream of money at all times."

 

"But yet you can never afford a pair of pants." Austin chuckles a bit, "speaking of pants, what's the special occasion? Ah I crack myself up."

 

"Don't worry, I'll be out of them sooner than you may realize." NTD smiles back at his friend, who seems a bit repulsed at this new information.

 

"Um... yeah... anyways. I guess you'll be taking some time off from the fed to celebrate and everything, right?"

 

"Yeah, I turned in my vacation request with Zenon when I joined back up. He seemed fairly understanding about it and knew that I really couldn't change my wedding date to fit our event schedule, so he gave me about a month off for everything. I'm about a week into it already... time is just flying."

 

"Sure has been. I've been in the SWF for almost five months! You're married now! Seems like only yesterday you guys started dating... now you're stuck with her for the rest of your life. You sure you're okay with that? Heh." Austin jokes along with his friend.

 

"Yeah, she's the one. I've known for a long time." NTD pauses to think "hey... look... about here recently. I haven't meant to come down on you..."

 

"Look, say no more. I understand completely. You've been under a lot of stress with the wedding and all. We're both reached a point in our lives where there's some important changes being made. You're off to get married, and I need to refresh my career somehow. We've got to focus on what's important."

 

"I know what you mean. Uh-oh... here comes the wife! Feels so great to say that. Hey, I'll catch you in a bit, I'm going to go have this dance with her and then we can talk about this all later. Don't go anywhere!"

 

Austin smirks as NTD dances off with his lovely wife. The smirk slowly fades away as Austin picks up his drink and takes a quick chug. He looks down at his watch, then slowly slinks off to a table to wait as we fade out for a last time.