"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...

For now."

At last there is a blindingly bright flash of yellow, after which the scene settles back into focus. Josh Konnely is found sitting alone on the floor of a one room studio which he has begun renting in Newburgh, New York. He is seated in front of a fully lit and decorated Christmas tree which almost touches the roof. The fake tree is completely white with all white lights. Konnely himself is dressed in a Freddy Krueger style Christmas sweater with red sweat pants and a Santa hat on his head. The so-called "gay apparel" of "Deck The Halls" fame is a stark contrast to Josh's normally dark and brooding personality, and in fact his demeanor is clearly anything but joyous. His eyes are bloodshot as though he had been crying, and his teeth are gritted in anger.

The ever demented and conflicted SFT World Heavyweight Champion speaks again. As he talks, his expression softens from pure anger to something more contemplative.

"Today may be a day for joy... but the problem with happiness is that it often proves to be all too fleeting. Why is it that pleasure so commonly dissipates just as quickly as it comes, while pain lingers for days and months and even years?

I think the problem is that happiness comes only from momentary distractions. From material things. From a mental stimulation... and/or a physical stimulation. Someone or something that entertains us.

That stimulation cannot last for ever. Entertainment comes in a wisp, and then we lose interest. Or it is forgotten in the frantic busyness of our daily lives. It gets stowed away in a box deep within the recesses of our subconscious, only to be dug out some day down the road as a distant memory of that time we were truly happy. We derive a brief glimpse of pleasure from the recollection, and it soon passes.

Pain differs greatly from pleasure. Pain, too, can come from an emotional or a physical stimulation. It can be caused by the cut of a knife, or the burn of a stove. It can be caused by the emotional strain of loss, whatever form that loss may take: whether it is a love never acted on; a break up or divorce; or the death of a loved one. Parent, child, sibling, friend, or lover. Too easily, too suddenly, and entirely too often these pains can cut deeper than the flesh: they cut clear to the very soul.

You'll notice that it is the the non-physical pain that most calmly lingers in all of us. Even the deep gash of a sharp edge, or the painful snap of a broken bone, or the severe burn of a flame is easily forgotten once the injury has healed. But the horrors endured from an emotional tragedy? Those are the ones that leave their scars much deeper than those of the flesh. Those are the ones that burn into your mind and into your soul, the images and memories of those darkest of moments lingering on forever, living in your thoughts and in your dreams. When you're awake, and when you're asleep. The pain hovers over your head. The sadness and the depression become an ebb and flow. They can fade into remission and seem to disappear, but like the tide of a vast ocean they will creep back into your heart and mind, their icy grip squeezing and crushing you once again.

So let us be merry today, for God sent us salvation this blessed Christmas morn.

But next week... Everything Ends.

Almost as a rule, all joy must pass. Even by tomorrow morning when we've opened all our presents and stuffed ourselves to the max on Christmas dinner, we will wake up from our food comas and rush to the stores to return the presents we deemed not good enough. The thrill of opening the gift and seeing what we received quickly passes, and we decide that what had made us smile less than twenty-four hours ago is actually... a disappointment.

Well, I say 'we' mostly in irony. I personally have never experienced the vane self-interest and contemptible ingratitude that would necessitate returning a gift. This is why the happiness never lasts. We'll read the book, then stow it on a bookshelf or in a box in the attic. We'll watch the DVD once or twice, and once the story becomes old hat we'll stick it at the bottom of the pile. We'll play the games until they fail to appease us. We'll wear the clothes until they become faded or torn. Even the best gifts will either become obsolete, useless, or just such a part of our lives that we'll come to take it for granted- like that plasma screen TV and the 360.

Where is the flaw? We fail ourselves, and miss out on the lasting joy, because we cherish the present and not the presenter. We embrace the gift, and forget the 'gifter.' We take our joy in the PRESENTS from our loved ones, rather than the PRESENCE of the ones we love. Will you remember this time next year that it was grandma that gave you that Wii Fit, or will you only remember that you couldn't motivate yourself to keep playing it? Now granny has passed away, and you've traded in the Wii Fit at GameStop.

Perhaps it is for this very reason that the gaping wounds of sorrow and loss become permanent scars, whereas physical pleasures and pains pass. Because we take for granted the people who matter most to us, and what they do for us, until they are no longer there. Once they leave us, or move beyond our reach, we become bitter and resent what we have lost. We miss the joy that they brought us, and agonize over how much we overlooked that joy.

Think about this as you open your holiday gifts and eat your holiday meals, and squeeze out all the joy you can from them. It was on this day that God gave people the ULTIMATE gift. For, in the words of John, 'God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten son that those who believe in Him shall not perish from this Earth, but shall have eternal life.' Excuse me for paraphrasing, I'm not exactly a biblical scholar.

The Father gave his Son as a gift of hope. As a gift of peace. As a gift of joy. And as a gift of LOVE. He gave his Son to suffer and die so that we may have all those things: hope, peace, love, and joy. So that we may have all those things and more.

Even in this, we miss the point. We embrace the gift of the Son, but often times we forget the presence of the Father. And for this reason we turn our eyes away, and we question what meaning our life has. We forget the hope and joy of the Son because we fail to see the peace and love of the Father. If only we could see the deeper meaning. The gift of the Son tells us that the presence of the Father is here with us and will never leave us. He gave the gift out of his love, and love that strong will never die.

And so, as you all unwrap all your beautifully wrapped boxes and open those nicely designed gift bags, stop a moment to think of the greater significance. The deeper meaning. Ignore the tags that say 'From: Santa' and take just a second to realize that what it really is saying is 'From: Somebody who LOVES you.' Maybe then you won't be in such a hurry to fight the traffic and the crowds to return that inedible fruitcake and that painfully ugly sweater. Maybe then you will feel the true joy of Christmas for more than just five minutes."

Josh stands and stretches, shaking out his legs, then sits down again cross-legged on the floor.)

"Christmas Day also means that on this day next week the world will be welcoming in a new year and saying good-bye to the old. It will be New Year's Day, the first of January, 2010. The start of a new year and a new decade. The arrival of the new year is always one of mixed emotion: some sadness and regret at opportunities lost or failed ambitions in the old, but the hope of better things to come in the new.

In Strike Towers, New Year's has come to mean only one thing: Everything Ends. Just the name alone suggests a sorrowful finality. Everything Ends implies that everything we know is dying. But as we always say, every end is just a new beginning. Which ultimately raises the question, did anything really end? It hasn't so much ended as it has changed, and started over. Something new has begun, and that too will end. Something new has risen, which will in time fall as something else rises in its place. It is an ebb and flow again, one which is beyond our control. But the more things change we ultimately find that the more they stay the same.

If we wish to maintain the happiness that passes in the hours and days after Christmas- which typically ends at about seven thirty or eight on Christmas night- it is important that we do not dwell on the ends, but take hope and comfort and joy in what that end will begin. A new day. A new life. A new opportunity. A chance to become something better than what we are, and what we have been."

(He pauses for a long moment, his facial expression once again growing more intense.)

"Twilight, as the only one of my three championship challengers to speak, is a perfect example. He is a man living in the past, and dwelling on what may or may not be ending. The world is supposedly going to end in 2012, should we all stop living? It's said that no good fantasy ever has a truly happy ending, Twilight. Why is that? It's because nothing is ever completely ended. Nothing is ever entirely resolved. There will be life after the book is over. There will be conflict and tragedy and climax after the story ends. Death is the only true finality, and life does continue even after death.

Consider 'Romeo And Juliet.' Once the Montagues and Capulets find their beloved offspring dead in the tomb, they bury the seeds of their former hatred, and a new life is born between their families. From the deaths of Romeo and his Juliet springs a new life for their families. A new peace and respect grows from the tragedy and sacrifice. One thing has ended, but something new begins as the curtain falls on Shakespeare's play.

Twilight, you live and die on what has happened and what has ended, while ignoring what will happen and what will begin. You say I lost my title weeks ago? Whatever that means. Well what happens if I choke you out next Friday at Everything Ends on New Year's Eve in the state where I was born? I will walk out of Madison Square Garden and my native home of New York State still World Heavyweight Champion.

You dwell on defeating Kyle Murphy for the SFT Championship seemingly an eternity ago. Sure, you beat him for the title on that one night. Yeah, and then what happened after that? You lost it the next month to Brass Martin, who is now a footnote in Strike Towers history. Kyle Murphy has won the SFT World Heavyweight Championship not once but TWICE since that night, and you never have. You never have and you never will. Because as long as you continue to live off that one triumphant night, that one glorious end, you will never have what it takes to begin that glory anew.

What, is the truth a little too inconvenient for you? You told us that you had drowned, that you had DIED, and that paramedics brought you back to life. In that light, you should understand better than anybody that one end is not and never will be THE end. The odds are against me keeping the title next week. All it takes is for one of my three opponents to pin or submit one of the other two. I understand that as well as anyone. But I've won the SFT Championship once before, and I've lost the SFT Championship once before. I've been to the top of the mountain and fallen back down. So I know- better than you do, apparently- that the measure of a champion is not in how he triumphs, but in how he's able to pick himself back up when he falters and soldier on. I have done it before, and I can do it again if necessary.

Jesus Christ died on the cross. He returned to earth to visit his disciples. He descended into the abyss of Hell for three days. Only then did he ascend and rejoin his Father in the kingdom of Heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father.

If this is to be the end, I have no regrets. The Beast shall not devour me. The Standard shall not crush me. The Twilight shall not cast me into darkness. The sun will always rise like a phoenix from the ash of death and destruction. I too will fight until the end. I too will fight beyond the end, if necessary, to rise again. There is no end that will end the Park City Punisher. There is no end to The Dark Bard's song. My 'symphony of destruction' will play on. As one verse ends, a new chorus shall arise. As a final chapter is written, the life and the story go on.

They say that Everything Ends. But I say... Nothing Ends!"

(Josh Konnely reaches under the Christmas tree, pulling out one lone present, wrapped in Nativity designed wrapping paper. A twisted grin appears on his face, and he begins to tear open the oddly shaped gift. Once all the paper has been torn away, the object is revealed to be a black baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.)

"A little present for myself. Because none of this means that I won't fight like Hell to keep the end which you all seek from coming to pass. If the end is to come, it will only come with a trail of blood and broken bodies left in its dark wake. For Twilight, the night will fall at last. The Beast will be cast out and banished from this Earth. The Superior One... The Standard... The Legend will finally die. Pain and suffering is the only means that will accomplish my end. Be ready, boys. Come out and play. The darkness awaits.

Hehehehe.... hehehe...

(Josh rocks ever so slightly, holding the bat up in front of his face. His rocking becomes more violent as his wicked giggle grows to a sinister cackle. Even as he laughs, tears begin to fall from his eyes.)

"Never die... never going to end..."

Fade to darkness.