Promo: Preperation

[Guest Aecas]

The camera slowly fades into focus as Ben Hardy looks over his shoulder at Gus; both men are walking down an unremarkable hallway, stopping occasionally as Hardy checks the name of a door before moving on.

 

“I don’t think we’re ever going to find him Gus, we’ve been around this place twice now and there’s still now sign of him.” Hardy says in exasperation as they trudge down

 

No sooner has Hardy finished speaking but a door opens out into the corridor, and Aecas steps out into the hallway, looking down at Ben and Gus with an unreadable expression on his face. Gus almost runs into Hardy as the plucky interviewer halts sharply to avoid crashing into the gothic giant.

 

“You took your time…We’re in here…” The Black Angel says quietly.

 

Without waiting for a response Aecas turns on his heel and walks back into the room leaving the door open, Hardy turns to cast a nervous glance at the camera before slowly moving around and through the door, Gus following him at a cautious distance. The locker room is dark and foreboding, the only light coming from a television playing ream after ream of wrestling clips, Ben Hardy moves into the room cautiously, jumping as the door slams behind him with a bang. Aecas sits down on a plain steel chair giving Ben a somewhat sinister grin.

 

“Don’t look so nervous Ben, I won’t bite…” He says with a chuckle as the camera pans down to reveal a pair of roses sitting in their own pot plant on a chair of their own, the remote control for the TV tucked neatly under a leaf. The SWF International Title sitting neatly behind the plant, and strangely enough a small cat collar with a bell hanging around the main stem of the left most rose.

 

Hardy smiles a little nervously and sinks into another chair opposite Aecas, his eyes drawn to the TV momentarily before he remembers his job and raises the microphone to his mouth, Gus hovering just behind him. The camera is levelled on Aecas the shadows dancing curiously across his body from the glow of the television, the dark splashes of near permanent make up that adorn his face contrasting sharply with his pale skin in the dim light.

 

“Aecas, you've already come far in your matches since your return...but...”

 

Aecas continues to stare at Ben Hardy with his blank, dead eyes. That shark like grin never leaving his face for a moment as he watches the interviewer..

 

”But what?”

 

“But you’re going to be going into 13th Hour with no idea of who your opponent will be until its almost too late, doesn’t that bother you?”

 

If its possible, Aecas' grin grows even wider... his eyes boring into Hardy who starts to squirm slightly under that penetrating stare before he chuckles slightly once more.

 

“Bothered? Why on earth would I be bothered?” He replies in an amused tone before he points at the International Title with a single finger. “Bothered that I might lose the gold?”

 

“Well….yes. You could be put up against anyone on the roster and there are several superstars you’ve yet to face in your career and some you’ve never beaten!”

 

One of Aecas hands moves up to idly stroke over the cuts on his face, old scars that Viktor Tarakanov created several years back, now old and faded, his fingers glide slowly over them and the fresher grazes that mar his skin thanks to the thick gauze that Wildchild wraps about his fists before stopping and slowly digging the nails into the cuts. He slowly tears away the clotted blood as Hardy stares in horrified fascination. The Black Angel chuckles softly as fresh blood wells up from the cuts, running down his face in fat drops as he idly tosses away the scab tissue, licking the fresh blood from his fingers unaware or ignoring the expression of revulsion on Ben Hardy’s face before the champion’s eyes slowly slide back to him.

 

“All I care about Ben, is the pain. The pain inflicted every night in that ring, by every man or woman in the company. The pain is relative, the pain gives you a focus, and the pain gives me that extra incentive to tear my opponent limb from limb…to see him scream…to make his agony plain for all to see...” He trails off and then starts to laugh quietly, dragging a finger through the reopened cut and smearing blood down the old scars. “Just like dear old Viktor.”

 

“Viktor Tarakanov suffered four broken ribs and a nasty concussion from one of your matches as I recall…” Hardy says quietly, trying not to think of that fateful event even as he makes a conscious effort to stay in his chair.

 

“Indeed he did, Viktor was a man of iron, but I showed him that even iron can be sundered with a powerful enough strike. Viktor and I understood one another, and after him there was one man who very nearly broke me.” The giant muses, reaching out and nudging the collar with a blood smeared finger, the soft tingling of its chime awfully out of place with the man who brushed it.

 

Hardy nods a little distractedly as he looks at the silent plant and the collar. “Ummm, I don’t mean to sound out of place, but where’s Reggie? Has he been replaced?”

 

Aecas laughs at that and shakes his head slowly. “Replaced? Never, I left Reggie in very good hands Benjamin.”

 

Hardy nods cautiously at that, about to speak again before the images on the TV screen catch his eye; Gus pans the camera a little to the right to view the screen of the TV. Aecas’ eyes also turn as he regards the screen, clip after clip of wrestling matches being played, all of them involve Aecas, and all of them show some scene of brutality, a catalogue of events for the past year as he toured Japan.

 

The content seems to be mixed between Aecas dealing out devastating punishment to his opponents be it with weapons or sheer brute force, or himself covered in blood, being hit again and again with various weaponry, but grinning all the time.

 

“Wrestling was always my dream Ben Hardy. And as you can see it is a dream I pursued to fruition. And at 13th Hour I’ll be returning once again to my home away from home.” The giant says as he watches the footage, his unsettling smile still in place. Ben Hardy looks incredulous as he watches the video, of what Aecas has put himself through over the past year and shakes his head as he looks back at the huge Briton sitting opposite him.

 

“More like a nightmare.” He mutters quietly, but not quite quietly enough.

 

Aecas' head snaps back around to look at Hardy, his dead eyes boring into the suddenly nervous interviewer, his former humour vanishing in an instant. Hardy's fears only increase when after several long moment Aecas cracks a thin half-smile.

 

“You’re not the first to say that Ben Hardy. And I doubt you’ll be the last. But you and all the others forget one simple thing.

 

Hardy cautiously holds the mic out towards Aecas, licking suddenly dry lips.

 

“And what’s that?”

 

Aecas’ grin grows to shark like proportions once again, a grin that shows more teeth than humour, and most of those pearly whites seem disturbingly pointed, as the camera zooms in on his face, his dead eyes staring directly into the lens and the viewers watching.

 

“This is my nightmare Ben Hardy. AND I DECIDE WHEN I WAKE UP!”

[Toxxic 0]

Bloody seven-foot Hardcore whackjob...

 

Nice promo Veers close enough to stereotypical OTT views of mental disturbance to be effective, without ever quite going over the edge...