Make me wonder why I'm really here....


"Well that blows."

Aaron was still shaking off the effects of Drakus and his sudden assault, not to mention the strange, cryptic words of the guys lawyer Pryce.

"My kind?" Aaron kept mumbling to himself as he made himself ready for the match at hand. "What the hell does "my kind" even mean?"

He checked to make sure his laces were tight and snug, ring attire flexible, wrist bands secure. Yup, he was ready. Drakus wants to throws punches at him? Well, Drakus can throw all the punches he wants, Aaron Keening will still get the pinfall. A couple of quick hops and stretches, and the kid was ready.

"Okay meathead." still talking to himself. "Let's see how this goes when we are both on an even playing field."

Aaron walked slowly backstage, still shaking off the attack and mentally preparing himself for the match at hand. He went over the training, the advice from Matt, everything he knew about Drakus and his "wrestling" style. Shouts and heavy foot falls echoed behind him and, thinking it might be another attack from Drakus, Aaron turned around quickly, arms up and ready for the assualt.

His arms dropped, same time and speed as his mouth, when he saw what caused the commotion. Running down the hall in his direction was Matt Strikmore. And following him was about 4 large men dressed in security outfits.

"Matt?"

"Heya kid!" Strikmore said as he ran by. "Good luck tonight!"

And with that, Aaron's hero in TCW kept running. A devilish smirk crossed the young Keening's face. He turned around quickly and, with direct purpose, got right into the path of the Strikmore's panting pursuers. The first man stopped, briefly. His co-workers lacked such "stop on a dime" reflexes and barreled right into the leader of the pack. Aaron used his innate agility to casually side step and missed being the very unhappy bottom of a sweaty pile of overweight Rent-a-cops.

"Thanks Aaron!" Matt shouted as he kept running and turned a corner leaving view.

"What.....the....fuck...kid?" The pack leader said inbetween large gasps for air. His cohorts were beginning to untangle themselves from each and slowly rising to their feet. "Why did....you do...that?"

"Huh? Look man, you guys should really watch were you are going."

"You fucking....brat.."

"Whatever, I got a match. Matt went that way, maybe you can still catch him."

And Aaron left before anymore could be said, a wide smile on his face. Sadly, that smile faded a few minutes later when he reached the Gorilla Position. The stage manager put his hand on Aaron's shoulder, a sour look in his eye.

"Keening, your match is canceled."

"Canceled?!?!" was all Aaron could say.

"Came from upstairs. Boss isn't happy with what Drakus tried to pull with you earlier so she pulled the plug. Sorry kid, better luck next time."

"So now..." but the Stage Manager was already dealing with the next problem at hand. "..what do I do?"

Sullen, and a bit letdown, Aaron turned around and headed back to the locker room to change.

"Well fuck."

After a long walk in the corridors of the arena, Aaron walked into the locker room. He was upset, sure, but also a touch relieved. While he had confidence that he could pin Drakus, he was always confident. And over confidence loses matches. But still, after that attack earlier, Aaron wanted to at least stick it to the big guy in the ring. Get the fans cheering and all that stuff. After his brief shower, though he didn't need one considering he didn't have a drop of sweat on him, Aaron was surprised to see a note on his locker.

Friction Matches

Freya v Inferno
Jason Dante v The Hunter
Ivan & Steelfist v The RoXoRz
Aaron Keening v Mark of Silence v Jude

"A triple threat match? This could be fun."

And with that, Aaron forgot all about his disappointment.

In the TCW arena Raja sits on a bench waiting on someone to give her a call. She taps her purple painted finger nails ageist her phone just wondering where this soul could be. Her phone starts to ring she picks it up.

"Where are you....... Oh you're here... At this arena?... Good we have some business matters I need to take care of."

Raja hangs up her cell phone and heads out of the room. She shuts the door roughly behind her. She walks past a bunch of production members and out to the parking lot. There is a long black limo, the passenger opens the back and Raja slides in to talk to.


Meanwhile

Somewhere in the streets of Brazil walks The Mark of Silence. His eyes look like he hasn't slept in a fair amount of days. He looks like he hasn't been to the TCW arena since the last time Raja saw him. He walks down the streets which are filed with litter. Children are no where to be found oddly enough today, cars are not passing by. There are no adults that can be accounted for. The Mark of Silence fells the felling of being alone. His head then flashes to a flashback.

FLASHBACK

Now somewhere in Pat's memories he remembers what happen when his ex wife Mary Hendrix took there son Pat the 3rd with her. He remembers sitting on his knees with tears falling down each cheek. He remembers how everything in motion just stopped. Thinking to himself he failed and he betrayed the ones who believed in him and loved him. He then flashes back.


BACK TO NOW

Pat then finds himself coming out of the flashback and he looks around. The stop light seems like it has been in the state of a red light forever. One of the slow turn lights, that when it turns it only lasts for a few lousy seconds. The Mark of Silence begins to wait for the light just waiting to turn. That light just had to turn, for his sake and the sake of others.



BACK AT THE ARENA

Raja steps out of the car and the limo just sits there Raja walks down towards the ring area. Hate Me Now by Nas featuring P Didddy blares over the PA. The fans stand up to see if it happens to be The Mark of Silence or Raja. Raja comes out and the fans greet her with loud boos. Raja walks down the ramp telling some fans to shut there filthy mouths. She walks down the ramp and walks up the stairs and enters through the bottom rope. She quickly pauses and the music dies. The fans in the audience have signs such as Hardy hit this, I fear Darkness and Freya the hungry like a wolf. They also where t-shirts, they boo and scream bitch, slut and other such insults at Raja.

"Shut your mouths for a second I have something to say you pieces of trash."

The fans roar even louder with boos as Raja just laughs and speaks again.

"You know something I never found a group of more intelligent people than people from Brazil. You all cheer the dumbest wrestlers possible and you all think the Mark of Silence is going to listen to you all. You all have hope in that idiot don't you?! Knowing him he is probably sleeping with the fishes somewhere!" She laughs to herself as the fans boo even louder and start a slut chant. "That's right 97% of your women are sluts!!!!" The fans boo as Raja just laughs again. "You just hate it because you all know I'm right. Now let's talk business. The Mark of Silence is supposed to fight Keening and Jude. Now I don't know who either of them is and to be honest I don't give a damn. But that idiot The Mark of Silence is supposed to be here! But he is no where to be found. WELL SINCE HE IS NOT HERE, IT MEANS HE PROBABLY GOT HIMSELF INTO SOME TROUBLE! HE IS PROBABLY BREAKING INTO TO ONE OF YOUR GARBABE REAKING HOMES RIGHT NOW!!!!" The fans erupt in boos and start to flood the ring with trash. Raja yells to security. "GET THOSES PIECES OF S*** OUT OF MY BUILDING NOW!!!! REMOVE THAT PIECE OF TRASH WITH THE WHITE CAP FROM THE BUILDING." They remove the man from the building. "So that I DON'T LOOSE THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY I HAVE INLISTED SOME HELP WHO ALWAYS SEEMS TO MAKE THEM COME AROUND!!!!" Raja drops the mic and heads up the ramp with no music. The fans boo but at the same time wonder what she met by that.


BACK TO THE STREETS

Pat finally crossing the street when a black limo pulls up. Two men step out both older men one has grey hair and seems to be a fatter man, the other has brown hair. They jump the Mark of Silence then a hand pulls him in. We hear a voice say. "WE FINALLY MEET MR. WOW!!!"

The Limo then speeds away.

Let's see how far we've come..

"Well, she is certainly one charming gal." Aaron mutters to himself watching Raja's little rant from backstage.

The house show gauntlet towards Friction already started days ago. Despite having the free time in between interviews, and appearances, and the required matches with local independents, Aaron found little interest in his preferred hobby as of late. Sure, he loved the music, and Brazil was world renowned for it's delicate yet powerful balance of Spanish, Local, and American influences, but a part of him couldn't quite shake the fact that the big reason he had only the occasional low card match over the past few months was due to his lack of focus towards TCW. In fact, he was certain of it. So now, the talented young man spent most of his time at the various arenas and circuits to correct this problem. And today was no exception.

When he heard Raja was going out to the ring, Aaron made sure he was watching. He wasn't really sure even what this Raja's role was to Mark of Silence. Promoter? Manager? Lover? Aaron couldn't really make sense of the tense and abusive relationship. But, she;s connected to Mark, so Aaron paid attention.

"And how does she not even know who I am? Well, that needs to be corrected." Aaron said with a devilish smirk on his face. The normally good and upstanding boy, Aaron got a bit of a rush from his past "involvement" with security personnel on the behalf of Matt Strikmore. So why not push a bit more? After all, it seems the guys who make it around here like Darkness, Hardy, and Bam, don;t exactly play by the rules. Sure, tripping some rent a cops or provoking a verbal backlash from his opponents...something, sure that's not really up to the level of the big boys, but you have to start somewhere.

-----------------

Raja seethed as she walked off the ramp and into the backstage. Mark of Silence will listen to her, one way or the other. How dare he ignore her. How dare he refuse to do what she says. The nerve. In her haze of mental anger, she never say the young man standing before until she damn near ran into him. He was average looking, wearing average clothes, and had a decidedly not average smile on his face. He looked happy?

"Pleasure to meet ya!" he said extending his hand. "Name's Aaron Keening!"

"Like I fucking care." she retorted with a edge in her voice.

She tried to keep moving towards her destination, only to find her way blocked again by this smiling young man.

"Well you should. Out there you said you didn't know who I am, so I figured I would correct that."

"Get the hell out...." her mind made it's full escape from previous anger and then the name became clear. This was Mark's opponent for Friction. She stared long and hard at him.

"Well Miss, the least you could do is shake my hand." said a still smiling Aaron, his out and ready.

"Like you're worth it." she spat back "Listen kid, I don't know what your game is, but it really doesn't matter. I don't give a damn about you, and other than the fact that Mark of Silence will rip you apart, I don't want to know you. Clear?"

"Awww that's just plain not nice. I'm here, trying to be friendly and all, and you just...."

"LIKE I SAID!" she shouted. "I....don't.....care."

She brushed right past Aaron and continued to head out the arena to her car. But young Aaron, with mischief on his mind, could not be so easily defeated.

"So, where ya headed?" asked Aaron, as he fell in step behind her.

No response.

"Going to see some sights maybe? I hear Salavdor has the largest coastline in Brazil. Maybe you should go swimming! I always say, a relaxing swim can really do a lot to take the edge off. You see once, a few years back, I was feeling a bit burned out and so..."

And the straw broke.

"What the FUCK is your problem!" Raja screamed as she turned around sharply on Aaron.

"Well I'm getting to that. So I go down to the beach right and then.."

"Listen kid. If you don't shut up and leave me alone, I fucking swear you will find yourself swimming in that ocean, just not as a living breathing man. Got it?"

"Well how can you swim if you aren't breathing? Unless you mean like holding your breath, which I can do for about a minute and a half, maybe two."

"Are you retarded?" Raja was quite surprised that her veiled threat didn't sink in. After a quick glance to make sure there was not anybody that could overhear, she leaned in close to Aaron. "It means" she whispered "That you are dead."

"But I'm not dead, as you can plainly see."

Raja felt a small stab of pain in her temple at Aaron's seeming stupidity. She needed to get out of here before this average guy made her IQ drop to below average. With haste, she briskly walked away from the still talking Aaron. Yet being the persistent annoyance he was trying to be, Aaron followed.

Talking about nothing the whole way.