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Something takes a part of me
Life's kinda always been messing with me
Sometimes I cannot take this place
Something takes a part of me
Feeling like a freak on a leash
Sometimes I cannot take this place
Something takes a part of me
Something takes a part of me
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The salt-and-pepper haired man sits up slowly in his bed, slapping at the buttons to silence the irritation of his alarm clock. A dull throb pulses in his skull, and he wearily rubs his temples. Today he has turned 49. Just one more year until the big Five Oh, he begrudgingly recalls. Outside it is still dark, and the glowing red lights on the clock read 4:30. He rises with a great deal of effort, gritting his teeth in anger as he realizes that he should still be too young to be this frail and sore. Surely a man twice his age might have reason to be sluggish, having endured nearly a century of life, but a man not yet half a century down the road of life should seemingly be far more able bodied.
This man had spent the past twenty-five years working as a construction worker under a family run contractor. When he started on, he was hired by the founder of the company, Jax M. Offaly. Jax was ten years older than he was, and earlier this year had turned the company over to his twenty-five year old son Jed. The company was struggling under the strain of the recession, and with Jax's sixtieth birthday approaching the burden was just too great.
Jed was a fair and quality boss, and he was as talented as- if not better than- his old man. However, Jax had become a close personal friend over the past two and a half decades. It was Jax who had made this man a supervisor twenty years earlier, and who had virtually accepted him into the family, though they were not related. Though Jed was a good man and every bit as loyal, the economy was taking its toll on the family company. As a result, our man had been forced to accept a rather generous early retirement.
After twenty-five years of reporting to work at 6:00 every day, this man- Carl, by name- was now retired. For the last six weeks Karl has woken up at the same time every morning, only to spend the day searching for a way to pass the time. He felt bored and alone without his work to occupy his time. He had been married and had one daughter, but his wife had left him fifteen years earlier due to his alcohol problem. Carl was now ten years sober and had overcome depression, but the boozing combined with his violent temper had already driven away anyone and everyone who had ever been close to him. Only Jax had stood by him, and had provided him with the help to straighten out his problems.
Over the next month, Carl spent his days pacing around the condominium he called home. He spent his days pondering how his life had gotten to this point, where he was a broken down middle-aged man far older than his years and without a purpose in life. Carl slowly began to feel more and more bitter and angry, feeling that the selfish greed of others had brought him to this point.
One night he sat in a bar, drinking Coca-Cola and fighting the urge to turn back to alcohol. Finishing off the soda, he slammed the glass on the bar and stood up. As he headed for the door, he bumped into a waitress. Stepping to the side, Carl bumped into a man who was playing pool. The man turned around, a clear scowl on his red face.
"Hey clumsy, you got somethin' you wanna say to me?"
"Ummm... I don't think so," Carl replied.
"How's 'bout sorrry? I believe you owe me a apology," the drunk man responds.
"Okay, I guess I'm sorry. It was an accident."
"Oh, I'll make you sorry," the red-faced man says with a dry laugh. "REAL sorry."
The drunk pool player raises his cue stick overhead, and swings it down at Carl. Carl steps to the side, and grabs the stick as the blow misses. He kicks the other man in the knee and pulls the cue stick away. The drunk man pushes Carl, who retaliates by taking a home run swing that connects right alongside the left temple, snapping the cue stick in two. Furious at the unprovoked attack, Carl grabs a beer bottle off the edge of the pool table and smashes it over the drunken attacker's forehead. The man falls to the floor, bleeding and whimpering softly.
Carl grabs another bottle from the edge of the pool table and throws the bottle down onto the felt, shattering the glass and sending the beer splashing over the table. Without a thought, Carl pulls out his cigarette lighter- he occasionally smokes to resist urges to drink- and lights it, then tosses it onto the table. The flame catches with the beer, and the felt of the pool table goes up in flames.
An hour later, Carl is in police custody. He is later found guilty of assaulting the man with the beer bottle, which left the bar patron blind, and of attempted arson for lighting the pool table on fire. As a result, he is sentenced to nine years in a hospital for the criminally insane, where he serves his time in quiet solitude.
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Backstage at Strike Towers Wrestling, Josh Konnely sits alone in his darkened locker room. Unseen, his soft low voice is heard in the still darkness.
"I have on many occasion condemned mankind for its brutal and animalistic nature. There are not many men in this world that I can respect, because we are a savage race that incessantly denies the reality of our primal killer instincts.
There is one man in Strike Towers that I do respect. That man is my opponent tonight, Dameon. Not because he does not sin- we all know he does- but because he openly admits and embraces it.
For this reason I look forward to meeting The Beast in the ring again on this night. Dameon, you reflect the way I see all mankind. You call yourself The Beast, but I call you The Man. You are The Man because you personify the TRUE human nature, and do not attempt to hide behind any false convictions or morals. You are morally devoid, as are all man. The Beast is merely the reality of human instinct that most men try to hide away and deny. That is all you are in my eyes: the brutal truth of mankind.
I say this as no disrespect. I say it in the highest respect. Dameon, you are a real man. You are honest and true. The Beast lies in the heart of us all. Only men like you and I can see this fact and accept it for what it is. That is why you will always have my respect.
Tonight, I will fight you. It does not matter who wins or loses. We will hurt each other and we will enjoy doing it, because that is the nature of our race.
See you then."
Fade into the darkness.
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