Post by Kalidah on Jan 21, 2024 3:02:39 GMT
Darkness. There’s a lot of it in the basement of Hotel California. It doesn’t just fill the rooms here, it clings to it. This isn’t any mere darkness, it’s the malevolent kind. It’s the type that fights back against the light rather than run from, tries to smoother it whenever it tries to invade its territory. This is the kind of darkness that will swallow you whole rather than give you quarter. You can’t fight this kind of light, not when it has something it doesn’t want to give up.
From the floors above comes the sound of people singing “Happy birthday to you”. The darkness doesn’t care many are singing out of key.
There’s a moment of silence, and then a loud sound of cheering. Laughter and more singing echo through the hotel, but all this noise merely gets swallowed up like everything else down here in the basement. Its dominion down here is complete, none dare enter unless it wishes and no one can tell it what to do.
That is, except for one person.
There's the sound of a pair of hard soled shoes coming down the stairs and a lit candle shines down down into the bowels of the hotel. The audacity of this person! The darkness rushes forward to attack this invader, only to come up short when it feels his presence. Instantly it halts its pursuit. If it had feet it would begin to backpedal. As it slinks away, hides in corners and slides under the forgotten furniture.
A man in a three piece suit steps down onto the concrete and holds his candle up to look around. The flame obscures his face but his voice can clearly be heard.
Happy birthday to you!
You belong in a zoo!
You look like a monkey,
And you smell like one, too.
The darkness peaks out at him from the nooks and crannies as he passes by, taking no heed of it. It watches him walk into the backroom where its most prized possessions lay but does nothing to stop him. A fear rises up in it and the shadows around the man begin to shake. The man notices and stops to address the darkness.
“Don’t worry, I won’t take them from you. Not yet, my pet.”
The last of its will seems to dissipate with these soothing words, and the darkness all but disappears as the man lights one candle after another, creating a tunnel of lights leading to his destination.There in the backroom, where the darkness has been protecting them for months, lay two coffins. No sound comes from inside them, but in the silence two heartbeats can be barely heard through the pine frames. The man lies his hand on them both and smiles.
“Hello my two little eggs. I hope you’re both doing well and enjoying the accommodations we have provided you both these past several months,” he asks in a whispered voice. He waits for a moment, but when no sound comes from within he barrels forward. “I’m not sure why I came down here. Maybe it’s because it’s my thirtieth birthday and I wish you two were joining us, instead of incubating down here, or maybe it’s just because I really need someone to talk to and I know what a captive audience the pair of you are.
The man pulls the pocket square from his coat pocket and, unfolding it, drapes it on top of one of the caskets and takes a seat on top of it. He lets out a long sigh before continuing to speak.
“People have been wondering for months why we have been going after MEZA. Why did we single them out? Why not our dear friend, AJ, or one of the chickens, or even the cowboy in the mask? Sometimes it annoys me that people can’t see the bigger picture the way we do.”
He caresses the casket beneath him, like one touching the cheek of a loved one.
“You know quite well, my little hatchling, what Pollo Road means to us. We’re not sure anyone there does, which only makes it sadder you weren’t there at our side instead of having to lie down here like this for so long, but I digress.
“Those stupid chickens and their corporate frenemies. None of them can see, can they? It doesn’t matter whether they call it Pollomania, Lions Road, Maple Leaf Wrestling, or whatever nonsensical name they come up with in six months time, Pollo Road is not their legacy. No, that belongs to men like El…. No, on second thought, it doesn’t belong to that vanilla, cultural appropriation midget, but it belongs to people like Zookeeper Willie, Julian Cutlass, Alexander Irvine, and I might begrudgingly will add the names of people like James Edwards, AJ and that fake mother clucker, Pulver.”
He runs his hand over the casket again and sighs again.
“We were hoping someday it would belong to you as well. Well, maybe someday, my dear boy. Maybe someday.”
He stands up and dusts himself off.
“And it belongs to us, especially us. Despite our best efforts for the opposite, Pollomania wouldn’t have lasted a year without us, and all its gold hangs above the mantelpiece upstairs. Even if Flynn Buck was an absolute disappointment, we did try to help Lions Road off on the right foot. If it wasn’t for us, no one might ever give a damn about AJ, and Hambone might never have risen to become the star we knew he could be…”
The man chokes up and turns his back to the caskets as he regains his composure.
“We have sacrificed so much.” The words almost seem to choke him as he tries to force them out. “Our body, our friendships, our relationship with our sister… nearly losing our wife, twice. We sold out on more than one occasion, became the corporate asshole we swore we would never become. Many people might tell you that there are people who are more deserving of being recognised as the face of this league for the past nine years, but this company was built off our pain, our agony and our torment! If anyone has the right to have a say in who is going to be the face of this company now, it’s us! Not Super Pollo, not Duke, not the suits. US!”
The man shakes for a long while before finally managing to compose himself. With his free hand, he shakes off his pocket square and uses it to wipe his forehead.
“That’s why we chose MEZA. We saw the potential in him, and perhaps a little of ourself in him as well. MEZA could be the man to lead Pollo Road into the next decade, we saw that in him from day one. All he needed was to be tested, to be tempered in the fire for a while. That’s why we sicked the dogs on him. That’s why we wormed our way into his mind and tried to drag him into the abyss. It’s like our family motto says ‘Ferrum acuit ferrum’; ‘Iron sharpens iron’.”
He pats the caskets again and smiles, sadly.
“That’s what we were trying to do with both of you. It’s such a shame you both broke the way you did. Hopefully when you rise up, you’ll both be stronger than ever before and become the people I always knew you could become.”
The man wipes his hands and chuckles.
“Then again, maybe MEZA will soon be lined up in a casket right next to you both. It’s a shame too, he’s come so far in such a short period of time: beating the two biggest stars in the company, winning the Cruiserweight Title. You two know what they say though: be careful when you’re at the top of the mountain because that’s where you have the farthest way to fall.”
The man folds up his pocket square and places it back in his pocket.
“This is MEZA’s make it, or break it, moment. Either he’ll rise up to the occasion, or Kalidah is going to make him just another statistic. If that’s the case, it’ll be a pity. I like him, he reminds me of you, our bright prince.”
A voice calls from atop the stairs.
“Darling, what are you doing down there? Come on, you’re missing the party.”
“I’m coming my dear,” he calls back.
He kisses his hands and presses them down on the caskets and leans down to whisper.
“Pleasant dreams, you two. We really do hope you wake soon.”
The man quickly leaves the room and hurries upstairs. In his absence, a mouse comes scurrying out from between the floorboards from the kitchen above and drops to the floor. It begins to look around for something to eat. The darkness is on it in an instant. It doesn’t even have a chance to cry out before it’s engulfed and disappears into the inky blackness. With its master gone, the darkness is once again the master of its domain, and nothing can escape its grasp.
From the floors above comes the sound of people singing “Happy birthday to you”. The darkness doesn’t care many are singing out of key.
There’s a moment of silence, and then a loud sound of cheering. Laughter and more singing echo through the hotel, but all this noise merely gets swallowed up like everything else down here in the basement. Its dominion down here is complete, none dare enter unless it wishes and no one can tell it what to do.
That is, except for one person.
There's the sound of a pair of hard soled shoes coming down the stairs and a lit candle shines down down into the bowels of the hotel. The audacity of this person! The darkness rushes forward to attack this invader, only to come up short when it feels his presence. Instantly it halts its pursuit. If it had feet it would begin to backpedal. As it slinks away, hides in corners and slides under the forgotten furniture.
A man in a three piece suit steps down onto the concrete and holds his candle up to look around. The flame obscures his face but his voice can clearly be heard.
Happy birthday to you!
You belong in a zoo!
You look like a monkey,
And you smell like one, too.
The darkness peaks out at him from the nooks and crannies as he passes by, taking no heed of it. It watches him walk into the backroom where its most prized possessions lay but does nothing to stop him. A fear rises up in it and the shadows around the man begin to shake. The man notices and stops to address the darkness.
“Don’t worry, I won’t take them from you. Not yet, my pet.”
The last of its will seems to dissipate with these soothing words, and the darkness all but disappears as the man lights one candle after another, creating a tunnel of lights leading to his destination.There in the backroom, where the darkness has been protecting them for months, lay two coffins. No sound comes from inside them, but in the silence two heartbeats can be barely heard through the pine frames. The man lies his hand on them both and smiles.
“Hello my two little eggs. I hope you’re both doing well and enjoying the accommodations we have provided you both these past several months,” he asks in a whispered voice. He waits for a moment, but when no sound comes from within he barrels forward. “I’m not sure why I came down here. Maybe it’s because it’s my thirtieth birthday and I wish you two were joining us, instead of incubating down here, or maybe it’s just because I really need someone to talk to and I know what a captive audience the pair of you are.
The man pulls the pocket square from his coat pocket and, unfolding it, drapes it on top of one of the caskets and takes a seat on top of it. He lets out a long sigh before continuing to speak.
“People have been wondering for months why we have been going after MEZA. Why did we single them out? Why not our dear friend, AJ, or one of the chickens, or even the cowboy in the mask? Sometimes it annoys me that people can’t see the bigger picture the way we do.”
He caresses the casket beneath him, like one touching the cheek of a loved one.
“You know quite well, my little hatchling, what Pollo Road means to us. We’re not sure anyone there does, which only makes it sadder you weren’t there at our side instead of having to lie down here like this for so long, but I digress.
“Those stupid chickens and their corporate frenemies. None of them can see, can they? It doesn’t matter whether they call it Pollomania, Lions Road, Maple Leaf Wrestling, or whatever nonsensical name they come up with in six months time, Pollo Road is not their legacy. No, that belongs to men like El…. No, on second thought, it doesn’t belong to that vanilla, cultural appropriation midget, but it belongs to people like Zookeeper Willie, Julian Cutlass, Alexander Irvine, and I might begrudgingly will add the names of people like James Edwards, AJ and that fake mother clucker, Pulver.”
He runs his hand over the casket again and sighs again.
“We were hoping someday it would belong to you as well. Well, maybe someday, my dear boy. Maybe someday.”
He stands up and dusts himself off.
“And it belongs to us, especially us. Despite our best efforts for the opposite, Pollomania wouldn’t have lasted a year without us, and all its gold hangs above the mantelpiece upstairs. Even if Flynn Buck was an absolute disappointment, we did try to help Lions Road off on the right foot. If it wasn’t for us, no one might ever give a damn about AJ, and Hambone might never have risen to become the star we knew he could be…”
The man chokes up and turns his back to the caskets as he regains his composure.
“We have sacrificed so much.” The words almost seem to choke him as he tries to force them out. “Our body, our friendships, our relationship with our sister… nearly losing our wife, twice. We sold out on more than one occasion, became the corporate asshole we swore we would never become. Many people might tell you that there are people who are more deserving of being recognised as the face of this league for the past nine years, but this company was built off our pain, our agony and our torment! If anyone has the right to have a say in who is going to be the face of this company now, it’s us! Not Super Pollo, not Duke, not the suits. US!”
The man shakes for a long while before finally managing to compose himself. With his free hand, he shakes off his pocket square and uses it to wipe his forehead.
“That’s why we chose MEZA. We saw the potential in him, and perhaps a little of ourself in him as well. MEZA could be the man to lead Pollo Road into the next decade, we saw that in him from day one. All he needed was to be tested, to be tempered in the fire for a while. That’s why we sicked the dogs on him. That’s why we wormed our way into his mind and tried to drag him into the abyss. It’s like our family motto says ‘Ferrum acuit ferrum’; ‘Iron sharpens iron’.”
He pats the caskets again and smiles, sadly.
“That’s what we were trying to do with both of you. It’s such a shame you both broke the way you did. Hopefully when you rise up, you’ll both be stronger than ever before and become the people I always knew you could become.”
The man wipes his hands and chuckles.
“Then again, maybe MEZA will soon be lined up in a casket right next to you both. It’s a shame too, he’s come so far in such a short period of time: beating the two biggest stars in the company, winning the Cruiserweight Title. You two know what they say though: be careful when you’re at the top of the mountain because that’s where you have the farthest way to fall.”
The man folds up his pocket square and places it back in his pocket.
“This is MEZA’s make it, or break it, moment. Either he’ll rise up to the occasion, or Kalidah is going to make him just another statistic. If that’s the case, it’ll be a pity. I like him, he reminds me of you, our bright prince.”
A voice calls from atop the stairs.
“Darling, what are you doing down there? Come on, you’re missing the party.”
“I’m coming my dear,” he calls back.
He kisses his hands and presses them down on the caskets and leans down to whisper.
“Pleasant dreams, you two. We really do hope you wake soon.”
The man quickly leaves the room and hurries upstairs. In his absence, a mouse comes scurrying out from between the floorboards from the kitchen above and drops to the floor. It begins to look around for something to eat. The darkness is on it in an instant. It doesn’t even have a chance to cry out before it’s engulfed and disappears into the inky blackness. With its master gone, the darkness is once again the master of its domain, and nothing can escape its grasp.