Post by The Ace on Feb 25, 2010 21:02:28 GMT -6
*Our scene picks up from last time as the red haired woman is embracing the National Champion, and it doesn't seem like she has any plans to let go of him anytime soon, she has her arms around him tight. Her face is pressed into his chest and her eyes are closed, seemingly savouring the moment for all it was worth. She takes a deep breath and smiles, breathing in his scent...*
Louise! My god I haven't seen you in...what?
*The woman we now know simply as Louise looks up at The Ace, a sparkle in her magnificent green eyes...*
Louise: Oh its been about twenty years, but who really keeps track of these things, I'm just glad you're back, I knew you would be. Everybody said you wouldn't ever come back here, not after what happened...but I knew, I always had faith in you Jake...I knew you'd come back...I knew you'd come back to me...
Is this what Xavier meant when he said that surely I must know what it feels like to be loved unconditionally, for someone to have faith in me regardless of how many times I screw up? Truth is, I've never known that kind of love, or at least what to do with it. I'm sure Kathy loves me, how could she not? We're expecting our second child together...
Argh! That's why I came here, precisely to get away from all that. I mean when you think about it, it really is amazing, right now it seems there isn't a man in the nCw locker-room who isn't having some sort of relationship issue. Steve and Mandi. Kelly Fox is pregnant. Megan Kane just popped out bastard child number 287. Falcon is playing the pregnancy detective armed with Serenity's test like some bad soap opera storyline. Paul James is back in school experiencing his first crush, Bates is having an affair with an airhead, Julietta - well ok so technically she's not a man - she's still getting desperate enough to **** anything that moves, the point is I couldn't have survived in that atmosphere right now. Its like breeding season over there damn it...
Locker-room morale is infectious, it has a tendency to spread like verrucas, if I had stayed in that sort of company this week, it would have only been a matter of time before the pressure would have poisoned Kathy against me. We would have had another fight about nothing and the cameras would have loved the drama and ultimately I would just have dropped the ball in my most important match since I lost to Adam Knite last year.
I could not let that happen, this isn't going to be Last Stand or A Night To Remember all over again, I will not allow some family issue to distract me from defending MY belt again. I had to get away, get away from it all before I made Xavier Cross appear to be some sort of prophet and find solace for my failures in the bottom of a bottle...again. I went through that with Adam and it didn't end well for me, I refuse to let Xavier bring me down like that.
I am not Gib.
The poor bastard, he was such a monster, now his life is crumbling. That will not happen to me this time, I need to retain my spirit. There is no truth to Xavier's words, he isn't a prophet. He isn't a God like Adam Knite - and even if he were he is not something I believe in anymore.
My God doesn't exist. He abandoned me twenty years ago, when I left this place, I only came back to bury Him, and now He is buried out there with the rest of the lies that constitute faith.
But why now? I'm not sure even I know the answer to that one, maybe it just seemed like the right time to lay it all to rest or maybe I came back here to find something other than my faith that I lost two decades ago.
Louise McDowell was your typical girl next door, we spent every summer growing up together, she was only a few years younger than me. She didn't live far from here or at least she didn't back then, now I don't know, but I figure she must still be local given that she's right here in my arms right now.
The only thing I didn't know was why.
Louise: Penny for your thoughts?
Hmm? Oh...nothing. I was just wondering why you were here.
Louise: Oh...well, when your Nan phoned me and told me you had come back, I couldn't believe it, I just had to come and see you for myself...
But why? I thought you hated me just like the rest of them.
Louise: Oh lord nooooo, why would I hate you Jake? We grew up together and I certainly don't blame you for what happened...
You...you don't?
*The Ace blinks in disbelief*
Louise: Nooo, silly, infact I made sure people knew exactly what kind of man you are, hell some folk around here still think of you as a wee bit of a hero for what you did. I know I'll never forget it, and I owe you my life...
*Louise finally steps away from his embrace, but only to close the door. Jake Conway no longer felt left out in the cold, abandoned by the people he once knew, and Louise's warm smile made him think that maybe he didn't leave behind the reputation that he thought he did...*
I was sixteen at the time I thought I'd let her down. Louise was almost like a little sister to me, the little sister I never had so I guess that made her even more special to me and that's also why I felt so guilty for what I did, or rather didn't do for her. I wasn't there for her when she needed me most.
I felt I had betrayed her, I think that was my first betrayal looking back, since then I guess its grown into kind of a pattern that I never grew out of. A habit I never could break. Maybe because deep down I don't want to.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I won't lie, some nights when I can't sleep it almost feels like it was yesterday. Hard to believe that twenty years have gone by since that one fateful summer.
I remember I was getting quite the dab hand at playing cards, Blackjack, Poker, Solitaire, I soaked them all up thanks to Grandpa tutoring me, and inevitably I figured there was no point in having the skill to playing all these games if you couldn't make a little money off of it. So Lou and I, we took our game to the streets. We set up makeshift tournaments wherever we could, which wasn't many places, usually back streets or abandonded sites and we played whatever the punter wanted against whoever wanted to play. Anything for a quick fiver.
To make sure the punters always paid us a fair price for the service we provided, however illegal it may have been, the games were always fixed of course, we'd let them win them win the first few to get their confidence up before we knocked them down, nobody liked it but hey it was nothing personal - just business.
Most punters cut their losses and went home throughly embarassed about having lost to me, a sixteen year old with an attitude. It was around this time that Louise started marketing me as 'The Ace' and I became somewhat of a local celebrity, much to my dad's disapproval.
But I didn't care, all I cared about was that I was winning, I was finally a somebody, not just Jake 'The Mistake' anymore, but The Ace and I loved it.
Unfortunately not everybody felt the same way, and one day this guy who was about 22-23 at the time took his loss to me pretty badly, he hurled more than enough abuse at us after I had taken twenty five pounds from him after our little Poker game. I thought after he had thrown his little tantrum that that would be the end of it.
Boy was I wrong. He came back a couple of days later with a few of his buddies and after the gang kicked the sh*t out of me in Louise's back garden where we were playing, they barricaded me in the shed.
What happened next haunts my worst nightmares still. I still hear her screams and her pleas for him to stop in the eternally damned recesses of my mind...
Louise: AHHHHHHHHH, NO! STOP IT, NO, NO, NO! GET AWAY, GET OFF ME!
At first I thought they were just tearing up the garden, but the more I heard her harrowing screams, the more my blood curdled, and then I knew exactly what was happening...
In my blind rage, I searched for something, anything to break myself out of the shed they had locked me in, but I was in a very bad way. I was racked in pain, keeled over and coughing up blood from the beating I had taken. Like a helpless dog, I crawled around on my hands and knees in the dark listening to my best friend scream her lungs out and I knew I couldn't break out of here without some kind of edge or they'd just jump me again and force me back in here.
Then I saw it. My salvation, it was heavy but it was powerful enough to serve my purpose. I lifted the sledgehammer with all my might and rammed it through the wooden shed door.
I was free...
But I was also too late.
Seeing me emerge, bloody and clutching a sledgehammer, Jack Diamond and his buddies fled, but the damage was already done. There she was, my little sister in every respect but birth on her knees in the grass weeping, her clothes had been torn from her and her bra was ripped. Her skirt in shreds and there she was still trying to cover up her modesty.
Jack had raped her right under my nose and there was nothing I could do to stop the sicko, all for a matter of twenty five pounds. I had let her down, she was my responsibility and I had failed her.
That was the day I lost my faith. There was no God, only the undeniable face of Satan.
I was at a crossroads in my life.
I had to make a choice.
My world had all been a lie I no longer believed in, my beliefs had betrayed me so I would dedicate my life to betraying them.
Even after we explained it to both our families, I still felt guilty, I still felt I had betrayed her, I stopped coming back here after that, the summers weren't fun anymore, all they represented was a loss of innocence for Louise and I - in a sense we had both been raped that day...
*It was a new day now, a new day but one where Xavier was still talking the same old sh*t and making the same old threats. Louise had left pretty soon after they had caught up yesterday, she said she was happy to hear that he was married now but The Ace could tell she wasn't. No surprise, he had disappointed her once again. But he couldn't worry about that now as he watched Xavier's promo on the television set before finally turning to the camera...*
How prophetic that doctor turned out to be huh? Because indeed I do have some bad news for you Mr Cross, for all your simple reinterpreting of my words, the message of the promo you just cut was essentially the same as not only your previous two but also my last one. I told you you were the mirror image of the parroting man they all despised in me and you now tell me the exact same thing only in many, many, many more words than were necessary. I'm sorry to tell you this Cross but just because you can reword and extend my promos doesn't mean you have what it takes to be me. A man who has been World Champion and a man who is National Champion, pull all the cards you want X, diamonds, hearts, spades, it matters not. You'll never be in the same clubs as The Ace...
*The Ace smirks at his own obvious pun*
I'm through having this pissing contest with you Cross, I really am. For a moment I thought of throwing a little respect your way since you and I are in a similar family situation, but then you opened your mouth and mentioned Steve Awesome's member and my wife in the same sentence, ordinarily that's bad enough but now, now I hope your wife losses that little bastard spawn of yours, I hope that's the news you get and that it kills you inside because believe me Cross I'm more than prepared to finish off whatever is left of you after your heart has been ripped from you. But perhaps I'm giving you a little too much credit here, perhaps you have no heart, just like you have no original thought of your own. Perhaps all you are is an empty shell of a man, a vessel made of glass to reflect the dreeams and ambitons of far greater men...
*The Ace chuckles*
And yet you think you can do anything I can do better, well forgive me for being a little cliche here Cross but as the saying goes, don't just sing it, bring it. Theory is nothing without evidence, and you should know that since you want to be such a keen biologist and dissect every part of me. You have nothing...nothing on me, apart from the lines I've fed you about not making it past my first defense ever, and technically even that is not accurate. Technically Adam was my second World title defense, but I don't count my first because it wasn't on a grand enough stage. With a little research, you could have called me out on that and made me look stupid infront of your precious fans, but you didn't, because you couldn't be bothered. You seem to think nothing further is needed to be a Champion so long as you can stand infront of a camera and flap your gums off and that my friend will prove to be the most costly mistake you could ever make against me...
You can endeavour to be MY past all you want X, but even that will come at the cost of YOUR future.
See X, I don't need to take your life, I just need to stop you trying to live mine. We're at a crossroads for a reason, and that reason is simple - you and I will never walk the same path...ever...
Our paths crossed again after a week or so. I caught up to Jack, and armed with my new favourite toy, I caught him in the gut. He wasn't so tough without his mates around. I heard he'd been bragging about being sprung out on bail by one of his daddy's lawyer's friends, and I knew his ego wouldn't let him admit he'd been taken out by a kid with a sledgehammer. Call it an unfair advantage if you want, but then I ask you, what exactly was fair about raping a fourteen year old girl over a bet he lost fair and square?
As he writhed around on the ground like the worm he was, I threw my calling card on to his chest - The Ace Of Spades - I thought it was rather poetic since the news reports had alleged that Jack Diamond left the Jack of Diamonds as his own calling card to his victims though it was never proven conclusively.
I made a vow to Louise that day...
I would defend her forever. Because I loved her. Cross my heart and hope to die.
And I almost did - because that was the day The Ace was born.
That was the day Jake Conway was reborn.
And this is who I will be until the day I die all over again...
This is the world I believe in.
This is the path I've chosen.
This is the choice I have made.
Louise! My god I haven't seen you in...what?
*The woman we now know simply as Louise looks up at The Ace, a sparkle in her magnificent green eyes...*
Louise: Oh its been about twenty years, but who really keeps track of these things, I'm just glad you're back, I knew you would be. Everybody said you wouldn't ever come back here, not after what happened...but I knew, I always had faith in you Jake...I knew you'd come back...I knew you'd come back to me...
Is this what Xavier meant when he said that surely I must know what it feels like to be loved unconditionally, for someone to have faith in me regardless of how many times I screw up? Truth is, I've never known that kind of love, or at least what to do with it. I'm sure Kathy loves me, how could she not? We're expecting our second child together...
Argh! That's why I came here, precisely to get away from all that. I mean when you think about it, it really is amazing, right now it seems there isn't a man in the nCw locker-room who isn't having some sort of relationship issue. Steve and Mandi. Kelly Fox is pregnant. Megan Kane just popped out bastard child number 287. Falcon is playing the pregnancy detective armed with Serenity's test like some bad soap opera storyline. Paul James is back in school experiencing his first crush, Bates is having an affair with an airhead, Julietta - well ok so technically she's not a man - she's still getting desperate enough to **** anything that moves, the point is I couldn't have survived in that atmosphere right now. Its like breeding season over there damn it...
Locker-room morale is infectious, it has a tendency to spread like verrucas, if I had stayed in that sort of company this week, it would have only been a matter of time before the pressure would have poisoned Kathy against me. We would have had another fight about nothing and the cameras would have loved the drama and ultimately I would just have dropped the ball in my most important match since I lost to Adam Knite last year.
I could not let that happen, this isn't going to be Last Stand or A Night To Remember all over again, I will not allow some family issue to distract me from defending MY belt again. I had to get away, get away from it all before I made Xavier Cross appear to be some sort of prophet and find solace for my failures in the bottom of a bottle...again. I went through that with Adam and it didn't end well for me, I refuse to let Xavier bring me down like that.
I am not Gib.
The poor bastard, he was such a monster, now his life is crumbling. That will not happen to me this time, I need to retain my spirit. There is no truth to Xavier's words, he isn't a prophet. He isn't a God like Adam Knite - and even if he were he is not something I believe in anymore.
My God doesn't exist. He abandoned me twenty years ago, when I left this place, I only came back to bury Him, and now He is buried out there with the rest of the lies that constitute faith.
But why now? I'm not sure even I know the answer to that one, maybe it just seemed like the right time to lay it all to rest or maybe I came back here to find something other than my faith that I lost two decades ago.
Louise McDowell was your typical girl next door, we spent every summer growing up together, she was only a few years younger than me. She didn't live far from here or at least she didn't back then, now I don't know, but I figure she must still be local given that she's right here in my arms right now.
The only thing I didn't know was why.
Louise: Penny for your thoughts?
Hmm? Oh...nothing. I was just wondering why you were here.
Louise: Oh...well, when your Nan phoned me and told me you had come back, I couldn't believe it, I just had to come and see you for myself...
But why? I thought you hated me just like the rest of them.
Louise: Oh lord nooooo, why would I hate you Jake? We grew up together and I certainly don't blame you for what happened...
You...you don't?
*The Ace blinks in disbelief*
Louise: Nooo, silly, infact I made sure people knew exactly what kind of man you are, hell some folk around here still think of you as a wee bit of a hero for what you did. I know I'll never forget it, and I owe you my life...
*Louise finally steps away from his embrace, but only to close the door. Jake Conway no longer felt left out in the cold, abandoned by the people he once knew, and Louise's warm smile made him think that maybe he didn't leave behind the reputation that he thought he did...*
I was sixteen at the time I thought I'd let her down. Louise was almost like a little sister to me, the little sister I never had so I guess that made her even more special to me and that's also why I felt so guilty for what I did, or rather didn't do for her. I wasn't there for her when she needed me most.
I felt I had betrayed her, I think that was my first betrayal looking back, since then I guess its grown into kind of a pattern that I never grew out of. A habit I never could break. Maybe because deep down I don't want to.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I won't lie, some nights when I can't sleep it almost feels like it was yesterday. Hard to believe that twenty years have gone by since that one fateful summer.
I remember I was getting quite the dab hand at playing cards, Blackjack, Poker, Solitaire, I soaked them all up thanks to Grandpa tutoring me, and inevitably I figured there was no point in having the skill to playing all these games if you couldn't make a little money off of it. So Lou and I, we took our game to the streets. We set up makeshift tournaments wherever we could, which wasn't many places, usually back streets or abandonded sites and we played whatever the punter wanted against whoever wanted to play. Anything for a quick fiver.
To make sure the punters always paid us a fair price for the service we provided, however illegal it may have been, the games were always fixed of course, we'd let them win them win the first few to get their confidence up before we knocked them down, nobody liked it but hey it was nothing personal - just business.
Most punters cut their losses and went home throughly embarassed about having lost to me, a sixteen year old with an attitude. It was around this time that Louise started marketing me as 'The Ace' and I became somewhat of a local celebrity, much to my dad's disapproval.
But I didn't care, all I cared about was that I was winning, I was finally a somebody, not just Jake 'The Mistake' anymore, but The Ace and I loved it.
Unfortunately not everybody felt the same way, and one day this guy who was about 22-23 at the time took his loss to me pretty badly, he hurled more than enough abuse at us after I had taken twenty five pounds from him after our little Poker game. I thought after he had thrown his little tantrum that that would be the end of it.
Boy was I wrong. He came back a couple of days later with a few of his buddies and after the gang kicked the sh*t out of me in Louise's back garden where we were playing, they barricaded me in the shed.
What happened next haunts my worst nightmares still. I still hear her screams and her pleas for him to stop in the eternally damned recesses of my mind...
Louise: AHHHHHHHHH, NO! STOP IT, NO, NO, NO! GET AWAY, GET OFF ME!
At first I thought they were just tearing up the garden, but the more I heard her harrowing screams, the more my blood curdled, and then I knew exactly what was happening...
In my blind rage, I searched for something, anything to break myself out of the shed they had locked me in, but I was in a very bad way. I was racked in pain, keeled over and coughing up blood from the beating I had taken. Like a helpless dog, I crawled around on my hands and knees in the dark listening to my best friend scream her lungs out and I knew I couldn't break out of here without some kind of edge or they'd just jump me again and force me back in here.
Then I saw it. My salvation, it was heavy but it was powerful enough to serve my purpose. I lifted the sledgehammer with all my might and rammed it through the wooden shed door.
I was free...
But I was also too late.
Seeing me emerge, bloody and clutching a sledgehammer, Jack Diamond and his buddies fled, but the damage was already done. There she was, my little sister in every respect but birth on her knees in the grass weeping, her clothes had been torn from her and her bra was ripped. Her skirt in shreds and there she was still trying to cover up her modesty.
Jack had raped her right under my nose and there was nothing I could do to stop the sicko, all for a matter of twenty five pounds. I had let her down, she was my responsibility and I had failed her.
That was the day I lost my faith. There was no God, only the undeniable face of Satan.
I was at a crossroads in my life.
I had to make a choice.
My world had all been a lie I no longer believed in, my beliefs had betrayed me so I would dedicate my life to betraying them.
Even after we explained it to both our families, I still felt guilty, I still felt I had betrayed her, I stopped coming back here after that, the summers weren't fun anymore, all they represented was a loss of innocence for Louise and I - in a sense we had both been raped that day...
*It was a new day now, a new day but one where Xavier was still talking the same old sh*t and making the same old threats. Louise had left pretty soon after they had caught up yesterday, she said she was happy to hear that he was married now but The Ace could tell she wasn't. No surprise, he had disappointed her once again. But he couldn't worry about that now as he watched Xavier's promo on the television set before finally turning to the camera...*
How prophetic that doctor turned out to be huh? Because indeed I do have some bad news for you Mr Cross, for all your simple reinterpreting of my words, the message of the promo you just cut was essentially the same as not only your previous two but also my last one. I told you you were the mirror image of the parroting man they all despised in me and you now tell me the exact same thing only in many, many, many more words than were necessary. I'm sorry to tell you this Cross but just because you can reword and extend my promos doesn't mean you have what it takes to be me. A man who has been World Champion and a man who is National Champion, pull all the cards you want X, diamonds, hearts, spades, it matters not. You'll never be in the same clubs as The Ace...
*The Ace smirks at his own obvious pun*
I'm through having this pissing contest with you Cross, I really am. For a moment I thought of throwing a little respect your way since you and I are in a similar family situation, but then you opened your mouth and mentioned Steve Awesome's member and my wife in the same sentence, ordinarily that's bad enough but now, now I hope your wife losses that little bastard spawn of yours, I hope that's the news you get and that it kills you inside because believe me Cross I'm more than prepared to finish off whatever is left of you after your heart has been ripped from you. But perhaps I'm giving you a little too much credit here, perhaps you have no heart, just like you have no original thought of your own. Perhaps all you are is an empty shell of a man, a vessel made of glass to reflect the dreeams and ambitons of far greater men...
*The Ace chuckles*
And yet you think you can do anything I can do better, well forgive me for being a little cliche here Cross but as the saying goes, don't just sing it, bring it. Theory is nothing without evidence, and you should know that since you want to be such a keen biologist and dissect every part of me. You have nothing...nothing on me, apart from the lines I've fed you about not making it past my first defense ever, and technically even that is not accurate. Technically Adam was my second World title defense, but I don't count my first because it wasn't on a grand enough stage. With a little research, you could have called me out on that and made me look stupid infront of your precious fans, but you didn't, because you couldn't be bothered. You seem to think nothing further is needed to be a Champion so long as you can stand infront of a camera and flap your gums off and that my friend will prove to be the most costly mistake you could ever make against me...
You can endeavour to be MY past all you want X, but even that will come at the cost of YOUR future.
See X, I don't need to take your life, I just need to stop you trying to live mine. We're at a crossroads for a reason, and that reason is simple - you and I will never walk the same path...ever...
Our paths crossed again after a week or so. I caught up to Jack, and armed with my new favourite toy, I caught him in the gut. He wasn't so tough without his mates around. I heard he'd been bragging about being sprung out on bail by one of his daddy's lawyer's friends, and I knew his ego wouldn't let him admit he'd been taken out by a kid with a sledgehammer. Call it an unfair advantage if you want, but then I ask you, what exactly was fair about raping a fourteen year old girl over a bet he lost fair and square?
As he writhed around on the ground like the worm he was, I threw my calling card on to his chest - The Ace Of Spades - I thought it was rather poetic since the news reports had alleged that Jack Diamond left the Jack of Diamonds as his own calling card to his victims though it was never proven conclusively.
I made a vow to Louise that day...
I would defend her forever. Because I loved her. Cross my heart and hope to die.
And I almost did - because that was the day The Ace was born.
That was the day Jake Conway was reborn.
And this is who I will be until the day I die all over again...
This is the world I believe in.
This is the path I've chosen.
This is the choice I have made.