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Josh is wearing a red hoodie and gray camouflage cargo pants. It is a chilly Friday in December, even in Kentucky. Josh Konnely is preparing for his National Championship match this Sunday on Strike Towers Wrestling.
"In God is our trust... as long as there's a benefit for us.
Fort Knox... the home of heavy armor and solid gold.
It's the best of America.
It's the worst of America.
It is the twenty-four karat, iron-plated, cold and unfeeling heart of the United States. A living momument to what makes America great; and a living monument to what makes America pathetic.
Twilight wants us to fear the reaper. What for, exactly? A wise man once said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Perhaps it is Twilight's conflicting hatred and affinity for his living hell of Jeville that makes death imposing. I believe, to the contrary, that with the horrors that exist in life- war, disease, hunger, drugs and alcohol, the literal and figurative demons that haunt our planet- that death is in fact a kindly peaceful and merciful end to the truest terror: human life.
This Sunday I meet Twilight in a National Championship rematch that has been long awaited and long overdue. After I won the title from Big T on ten-ten-ten, Twilight upset me at October Pain: Hallowed Hell to become the new champion.
Truth be told, I had put everything I had in me at the time into first earning the shot at Big T and then defeating him to become champion. What Twilight faced at October Pain was a broken down shell of my former, normal self. Don't get me wrong, I will never make any excuses. At the end of the day, the sad truth is that Twilight beat me on Halloween. For that one night, he was the better man.
BUT that is ALL it was. It was only ONE tiny little insignificant night. It was a Halloween aberration. A dark deviation from reality that could not have been framed more perfectly than to occur on Halloween day."
Konnely stands and begins to walk along the side of the street, just wandering wherever his feet take him.
"Aberration. A state of abnormality. An oddity. A peculiarity. A strangeness. A weirdness. Different from that expected. That is what occurred on Halloween Night when Twilight defeated me at Hallowed Hell. Now the abnormality is gone. There is no divergence or diversion. There is no deviation from the norm of reality. The status quo has been reestablished, and on Sunday night I will finally take back my National Championship.
But ya' know, I also heard Twilight say something about missing his father. I have to say, that hits a little bit close to home. I'm not exactly sure whether to be sympathetic to him, or to be enraged by the selfish indulgence. I have shown and mentioned before that my own father died on December 7, 1996. This Tuesday will mark the fourteenth anniversary of that traumatic loss, which has left me scarred to this very day. I doubt the burning, gaping wound of that tragedy will ever fully heal. I was eleven years old, and he was not only my father, but my best friend in the world. Losing him, I lost all that I felt truly close to. With him gone, I felt that nobody cared about me. If nobody cared about me, I refused to care about them or about myself. That date of December 7 will truly live in infamy in my pierced, broken, and blackened heart.
Still, I will never forget 7 December 2006. The ten year anniversary. On that day, just five days before I graduated Advanced Individual Training with the United States Army, a drill sergeant from another platoon within Whiskey Company had us outside in formation at probably four-thirty or five-thirty in the morning, before the sun even came up. In that formation, this drill sergeant made the entire company sing Frosty and then Rudolph, threatening to drop us for failing to remember the words or to sing out loud and proud. A weird thing happened on that day in that formation. On the previous nine anniversaries, I had been bitter and angry and depressed, feeling far from any Christmas cheer. But as all of us soldiers, our newfound family, stood there in the chill Virginia morning singing those carols- those completely agnostic and religiously ambiguous carols- I found myself smiling and laughing. It was just so out of place and random, temporarily leaving the mental and physical torture designed to break down and then build back up a soldier's body and mind to stand there in formation singing Christmas carols.
In fact, I just remembered his name. Drill Sergeant Malubay. Yes, I will never forget Malubay and Christmas carol formation. It was on that day that I began to realize that the holidays were a time not for looking back in pain and resentment at the things you've lost or never had; they are for looking ahead to new gifts, new life, and new experiences as you head into a new year.
At the end of December, Strike Towers has a Christmas and New Year's tradition of its very own. An institution known to the world as Everything Ends. The reaper, whom causes Twilight to tremble in terror, is the ultimate finality. The ultimate ending. Indeed, everything does end.
The problem is, we people, in our weakness, see every end as something to lament and fear. That lamentation and fear only grip our hearts and refuse to let us go, holding us back from moving forward. An end is not something to rue or fear. The end of one day, one week, one month, one year, one life... the end is only the beginning.
I have grown to see the end as a sorce of optimism. The end of one year means the possibility for new life and new hope in the new year. Death? The end of life? The end of life is just as much a cause for optimism. The reaper brings the end of life, and with the end of life comes a new life; a life free of pain, stress, strife, war, hunger, and disease.
And so, as we march into a new year, I walk with my head held high. I see a new year ahead, one which brings the hope of new championships, new life, and New Beginnings.
With Everything Ends looming, I have no fear or trepidation. I see myself walking into Everything Ends as the NEW National Champion, back upon the pedastal where I should have been going back to Halloween. I will take a wrong and set it right, and I will begin the new year with gold around my waist."
Konnely walks on in silence for some time, watching as the sun begin its descent into the west.
"Twilight is still a few hours away," he thinks to himself. "Still early."
"Sunday night, Twilight, you and I meet in a ladder match. Do you also have a fear of heights, or do you only fear the reaper, contrary to the advice of the Blue Oyster Cult? Ya' know, falling off a ladder could cause a visit from the reaper. Maybe you should be afraid of heights. After all, dropping from great heights can cause intense pain. The reaper, on the other hand, is the end of pain. Why should you fear the end of pain, when the many causes of pain are far worse?
I can say that I pity you for at least one thing, Twilight. I saw you visiting your friends' house, but your friends were not there. I saw you e-mail your missing fallen buddy TK Money, clinging to a hope that you'd get some response while you were there. Truly you are all alone in your boring little world of gray. Three friends, all missing in action, leaving you all by your lonesome little self.
Now you find yourself standing in the path of War, and like that poor stupid fella in Tian'anmen Square, you are standing in the way of a rolling tank with no friends at your back. The crush of the steel, and the misery of Revelation await you.
Sunday you will find that it is not the reaper, Death, that you should fear; but rather the living Hell of War. I am what you should truly fear.
But take solace, little Twilight. Take comfort. Be not afraid. I will make your suffering brief. I shall strike you down swiftly and mercifully. Rather than the slow misery of the steel, I will end your pain and fear- along with your National Championship reign- with the Consuming Fire of God's everlasting love. Your end will we quick and painless, and you will see that all your fear was in vain, because life goes on and new beginnings abound from every end.
Twilight, on Strike Towers Wrestling, on December 5, 2010, I will break through your armor and SEIZE your gold. Welcome to the school of Hard Knox."
The scene fades to black.
THE END
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