Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time

September 2014.

The world was much more different than to what we're used to seeing today. There was no concerns of a virus spreading around the globe and people having to social distance themselves from one another. Things were so much different and in the small town of Wexford, there was much of a difference in the man we'd come to know as Maverick. Sixteen-year-old Jason Long was a lifelong wrestling fan with the ambition of a lifetime as he wanted to become a Professional Wrestler but the problems soon came to fruition. His family were poor- Jason's mother having to leave work to take care of her mother and father as they had gotten more ill over time and Jason's stepfather having no work at all but just some part-time plastering when needed. Any sort of revenue that cane into the family came from the Job Seeker's Allowance or even the Children's Benefit money provided by the government. Jason had worked part-time in retail and handed half of his earnings to his mother whenever he could, no matter the amount he made that week.

This particular day, Jason was sitting in his bedroom of their home as he laid on a single bed with white bedsheets and was listening to music as a way to calm himself. As a child, Jason was diagnosed at a young age with anxiety and depression, having multiple medical conditions that kept him away from others. He was also the subject of abuse from others, being beaten up when his back was turned simply because they could, it's how rough the other children in their school were. It was a few months since Jason was forced out of his school after a fight within the school that left his skull cracked open- since then he never went back and was left anxious that he'd never get to complete the education he always wanted to have.

"Jay, you okay in there?"

The soft-spoken voice of his mother, Louise Rogan, came out of nowhere to Jason due to him not hearing the door creaking open. He had glanced over to the door to see his mother's head peering into the room with a smile on his face. Jason nodded his head which led to Louise entering the room and closing the door behind her, she takes a seat at the foot of his bed, the loud creaking of the wooden four by four planks of wood that could break away anytime soon. Louise smiled at Jason, placing her hand along his leg and gently shaking it to get a smile out of him but all she could get was a sigh.

"What's wrong? I know there's something on your mind."

"I've been doing too much thinking again, kind of ruining myself overthinking about my education than just being safe at home."

"I had a feeling it would be that."

Louise sighed, having to deal with this for a while since dropping her son out of school in the middle of March.

"I'm sure we'll get you into another school to be enrolled so you can finish your education. I know that in your head that means a whole lot more than anything, but when you were in that school, you were picked on and abused like no other. The school did nothing for you but look the other way when something happened."

"Was it true that they watched me get beaten up and have my head cracked open against a table?"

Though she didn't speak anything, it was Louise's slow nodding that makes Jason's head lowered, as if afraid to look up to his own mother's face. Louise moved up and gotten close to Jason's head, grabbing him by the hand and holding it tight in her grasp.

"That's why I did what I did, but it wasn't going to be long until I did it either way. You were never going to finish the fifth year in that school."

"It seems now I'll never finish the fifth or sixth year of school, I'll never have my chance to fully complete my Leaving Cert."

"I know, Jay. What that school did was distasteful, they shouldn't have forced their hand to make sure you never get an education anywhere else. But I promise that it'll all come together and we'll work this out soon. That's a promise I am willing to keep for your sake, baby."

Louise leaned in and held Jason close to her, a last-ditch effort to break a smile out of him but the damage was done and on that same night, Jason would attempt to run away and give in to the temptation that he could not live anymore. A Garda Síochána searched all night long before finding him walking along the bridge of Wexford Town in the hopes that he'd jump over the railing and down into the high-speed waves below. Jason scratched and clawed to try and get out of the grip of the Gardai's hands but there was too many that held him back. He found himself more vulnerable than before, a feeling that he'd never have again over the next six years.



October 2020.

A whole six years to the day since his last suicide attempt, since then, he stayed out of trouble and focused on making sure his mental health increased to the point where he wouldn't dare consider anything like suicide again. Jason started training a year after the events of six years ago, still pursuing his passion for the sport he was a die-hard fan of. The story of what Jason had become since then was history, winning championships all over the world and wrestling in the biggest promotions around. Facing the best of the very best. Jason walked through the main street of Wexford Town as he scanned his surroundings, hiding behind his face mask in the hopes of being unrecognised by the public eyes, seeing the lack of social distancing procedures that were put in nationwide as they reached a level three with the risk and threat of a level five lockdown, shutting down everything and closing down the entire country. Maverick soon found himself walking through the small alleyways of the town and making it onto the quay of Wexford Town. Jason leaned against a wall as he looked out to the rough waters that blew with the wind, to his left was the same bridge that he tried to jump off of six years ago- the more he looked to it, the more he thought back to that night.

“What’s that saying you have there, Kevin? Be still and know that you are a god?”

Jason simply laughed at the thought of facing another self-proclaimed god once again, remembering back to the last “god” he had faced and how that turned out for him.

“For once in my life, I find myself a little bit vulnerable and with good reason, because to tolerate your facades and illusions- I have to lower my own standards to get a feel of what it is like to look up to someone that claims to be a god. I have to give in to that feeling and knowing you, Kevin, you’re grinning from ear to ear with that notion that I have to look up to you. You’re smiling- you’re fucking laughing at the thought. I know you are. To think that you are somewhat of a powerful force, I find it very fucking amusing to know that in a world with you- there are gods and there are monsters. That, in itself, is a joke and I’ve faced your son, a supposed ghost of what he is. So fucking scary, I’m so scared.”

There was no change in tone or the way he spoke, he kept that same monotone voice throughout the whole duration of that line.

“Give me a reason as to why I should believe why there are Gods and Monsters on this earth, Kevin, give me a good fucking answer to everything, because right now- the only thing you’re doing that’s consistent unlike what your son had done was talk right through your fucking arsehole. To me, I am sick to bastard death about hearing you think that you are so much better than me and all you did to show it, Kevin? You powerbombed me through a table, that’s all you have against me, and that somewhat gives you the reasoning to think that I am some weakling in your eyes but I digress, you’re a god after all, and all gods should be looked up to. But the old saying asks what is a king to a god, and what is a god to a non-believer but simply, Kevin- what if you’re none of those at all? Knowing your son’s rich history, he turned into a liar when I forced my hand and sealed his fate for good. He thought that he was invincible, he thought that with such an ego, he’d topple over everyone in his wake including me. But Kevin, he didn’t and now he resides in his sister. He has entered his sister.”

There was a moment of silence as a smile slowly grew onto Jason’s face but he held in his laugher, taking a deep breath to make sure he doesn’t break out in tears of joy.

“The Devione family- well, yeah- That’s a thing. Oh, how your sole claim is to be a family with a force to be reckoned with but in reality, your entire family is nothing more than a laughing stock- a joke in itself and you, Kevin, are the only successor by a milestone. Think about it for a second, Kevin, you’re a family full of riches with a delusional grandfather who might be apart of the mafia and snorted cocaine like Scarface, a son who enters his own siblings as a g- g- g- ghost, a daughter who… is the one entered by her brother because she never found fame at all, another son of yours was at my show and that’s all he can account for doing right, and then there’s you. A man who acts like a god but talks like a fucking imbecile. Then you have the audacity of trying to question why I hunt down scum like you? As a king of Wrestleworld Island, it’s in my best fucking interest to make sure that I don’t have shit like that on my island. I’m the one who looks over it when Jaywalker is too fucking lazy to get off his arse and do it himself.”

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head from side to side and sighed with the rambling thoughts that enter into his head.

“Do you know why I’ve kept my silence, Kevin? Because I never wanted this match to happen, and I told you before, that this match was given to you because of who you were. You wanted this, I never did. I told you that I was more focused on other things, I was more focused on taking the American Dream Championship from Stephanie Matsuda, and I still have that intention because win or lose this match- as if there’s any doubt what that end result may be, I still chase that championship. How does it feel knowing that you’ve gotten everything handed to you, I know I’ve said it before but I ask, how does it fucking feel, Kevin? Having everything that you were given just spoonfed to you because you were born to a family of riches, you were born to a family with less logical sense and coping brain cells to make a fucking guess as to what you’re talking about. Take a look at yourself and then take a look at me, we are very much different in our own ways. You see, where you were handed everything on a silver spoon, I had to grow up with cuts and scars going along my fucking arm. I had to live with the age-old fact that I was never good enough for this world and sometimes, to this day, I still think of it because at the end of the day, we’re all human and we’re all able to be broken down to nothing but emotions that can easily break.”

He exclaimed with a harsh tone to his voice.

“I can attest you to the multiple accounts I’ve had with trying to end my own life because I thought I wasn’t good enough to live in this world. It’s true, Kevin, even a king can find himself ever so vulnerable at times because we’re fucking human. We’re no gods, immortals or everlasting lives. We are fucking humans, but your mind is stuck in this theory that you cannot live like a god anymore, and your body is beginning to fucking crumble from underneath you. How can you call yourself a fucking god when your body is giving up on you. Think of it this way, Kevin, you remind me of the term ‘mary sue’ because every single thing about you is pure fucking bullshit and makes zero fucking sense whatsoever. There’s no logic to what you are, who you are, what you’ve become. Anyone can tell you that and would they be wrong, Kevin? Would they be wrong with that? For the man who lives to think that god and monsters exist to stand taller than me, do you see why anyone could ever call you unrealistic? Because trust me, you don’t have any shot to my name, to my family, to my business, to anything that I fight for. No billionaire can take anything from me, no billionaire that is a corrupted fucking cunt like you and a fucking snake can take anything from my name. To think that this is my one chance but at what, Kevin? Do I have to take great pride in beating a man like you? Do I have to add it to my many and many accomplishments I’ve earned throughout my career? Etch that in for me, I beat Kevin Devastation in a match.”

Jason blatantly mocked that quote and began to pretend to write Kevin Devastation in the air with a cocky laugh that followed.

“Do you hear how fucking downright ridiculous you are?”

A rhetorical question escaped Jason’s lips as he tuts and shakes his head.

“Listen to yourself, grasping at anything just to one-up me on something, look at how fucking desperate you’ve become. This is the exact fucking reason I’m actually trying to shut you the fuck up. I’ll admit, I’ve not trained once, I’ve not pushed my body to any extreme lengths, I’ve looked at you and thought to myself what do I get myself into. For someone who wants redemption on what I’ve caused to your entire family, you make zero fucking sense as to why you really wanted this. I know why and you know why- it all comes down to the fact that I’ve no patience with you. I’ve not got the time, the effort or even the attention span to give you what you want. Right now, you’re facing me at… fifty or sixty per cent? Maybe a forty-five, give or take. I can beat you at twenty per cent if I really wanted to but I thought I’d give you the benefit of the doubt and at least give some effort into this match. For what it’s worth, this is to just please you and I’ll take the fucking loss but the thing is that you won’t beat me at all. You could never. You could NEVER come anywhere near as close as to who I am. Kevin Devastation is nothing more than a fucking joke, the entire fucking Devione family is a fucking joke and under my boot is where they lay to fucking rest because do you realise who exactly I am?”

Jason points right at himself, more specifically- his heart.

“I’m the man that’s been calling himself the Devione Killer, and with good reason. I’ve headhunted the entire clan and made sure they all fall to me. I’ve dropped your own father and gave a visual of killing him in cold blood, I made sure your son’s body is to never be seen in one piece again and I left that soul to become a little bit of an incested ghost when he entered his sister and now- I have the head honcho of the clan, the man that’s made the name what it is today, I have you in the palm of my fucking hand. I could crush you but you know what I’ll do instead? I will toy with you, I will mess with your head and then I will you apart limb for fucking limb because I can and I fucking will. Everything that’s led to this match, it’s on you, Mary Sue. It’s all on you. Kevin, you have bitten at the hand that fucking feeds you because trust me, you’re in this for the attention and seeing the hype that both your son and I made for Dreamworld, you wanted a piece of that pie but lightning doesn’t strike twice, Kevin, and this match is nowhere near the levels of excitement than the one Dreamworld drew.”

With one hand raised up higher than the other, as in a gesture for a chart. Jason shook the higher hand as he spoke of the word “Dreamworld” before lowering his arms.

“The spotlight is on you, Kevin, take it from me and use it to your own advantage because right now, I’m giving you what you need. I’m giving you something and I want to see how you can handle under severe pressure and when your legs give in from carrying around all of that pressure, I will pounce and I will fucking take everything from you. I stand before you as your fucking King and you will kneel at my fucking command, Kevin. You will bend the fucking knee for me, YOU WILL KNEEL FOR ME! Or I will force you to kneel in front of me before I deliver the final blow and Jaywalker will have no choice but to give in and give up because you’re not facing a fictional persona or alias, you’re facing the real me, you’re going face to face with Jason Long- a fucking King Assassin in his own right. There’s no Maverick, there’s no King, there’s just me so if you still can’t beat me as such then you truly have shown that the Deviones are weak and pathetic. You hold their name up high, Kevin, because soon it’ll be all over and soon, you get your spotlight and you get the public attention.”

Another sigh before a smile grew onto his face one more.

“Be still and know that you are not worth shit. The Last Real Icon... out.”

Jason took a smile and in one swift motion going past his face, his smile quickly disappears to a more serious demeanour. Jason began to walk along the quay again, enjoying the scenic setting around him as he takes his time. There was tension between the two, but with a King bearing to take his opponent seriously, it’s a question of if he can perform better than him when not at his peak performance. Jason didn't give a singular fuck and it showed with this match, does it matter if he lost? Not at all, but right now-

Kevin Devastation was nothing more than a whining fucking bitch.