BASTARD.

The opening camera shot begins in a hotel within the town of Biloxi, Mississippi. This is where we’ve met with the man known as Devon Ryker, covered in stitches from his last match the previous night in a “No Disqualification Match” that went the wrong path it was supposed to go for, he paces back and forth in his hotel room as he waits for someone to enter the room. There’s a sudden knock at the door and Devon opens the door, finding a young light blonde woman at the door. She looks straight up to his head and brings him into the room, planting him down onto the bed and checking his head to see the stitches placed in from the night before.

“Good god, you said stuff like this wasn’t going to be happening anymore, Dev.”

Devon simply shrugs his shoulders at her comments as she stands up in front of Devon.

“Are you even listening to me, Dev?”

Devon looks up to the woman and laughs, she doesn’t take this too kindly and proceeds to head for the door.

“Where are you goin’, Lauren?”

“You’re not even going to listen to me, Dev, what’s the point of being here? I’m just trying to help you but you’re out here sacrificing your life AGAIN after promising me this would be different.”

Devon shakes his head from side to side.

“So one fuckin’ night shit hit the fan is when you get pissed off at me…”

“One night, Dev? Do you remember back in December when you fell off a twenty-foot ladder in the ring and through the announcer’s desk?”

Devon remembers back to that night and begins to laugh once again.

“...Yeah, that was fun.”

“No, it wasn’t, Dev.”

“Oh please, it’s not like I’m dyin’ anytime soon, I don’t see why you’re so protective of me when you knew what you were signin’ up for by dating a fuckin’ hardcore wrestler.”

Lauren lowers her head, looking down to the ground. Devon walks over and lifts her head up with his right hand, his index finger resting under her chin as he tilts her head up to face him.

“You need to seriously stop takin’ this as bad as it may look, you knew damn well what I was going into and you knew damn well what would happen on the other side. If anythin’, Lauren, this is just the end of one path and the beginnin’ of another.”

Lauren slowly nods at Devon’s remarks.

“I don’t know when this path is goin’ to be shown to me, but my options are wide and limitless. Who knows where the fuck I’ll end up… but wherever it may be, shit’s about to go down fuckin’ hill for them.”

Devon says this with his signature smirk on his face and Lauren chuckles as she heads out of the hotel room whilst Devon grabs his bags. He stops to look into the mirror, brushing his hair back to check on the stitching in its entirety. Fourteen stitches going up along his skull and into his hairline. He smiles to himself in the mirror and then grabs the keycard off the desk before heading out the door and leaving the camera shot to the scene fades out.


As the camera shot reopens to a new day, nearly a whole month later than we last left off with, we’ve found ourselves with Devon Ryker sporting a more casual look of light blue denim jeans and a white slim-fit shirt. We watch him open the door to a new apartment within the heart of New York City, fully furnished and nicely tidied, he rolls his suitcase into the new home and leaves it within the middle of the main room. Devon looks over to the front door and sees Lauren entering the home with her own two suitcases, he walks over and grabs one of the suitcases before bringing it over to where he left his suitcase.

“This is perfect, Dev, just look at this! It’s a new beginning for us, and maybe soon, you can move away from that other place.”

“I’m sure as hell ain’t ever goin’ back there, not even book me for a whole fuckin’ month without any rhyme or reasonin’ to it. Such bullshit.”

“Dev, baby, calm down. This is where things are going to change for us, for you as well.”

“How come you’re so sure of this being changes for me? I’m yet to even look right now, not even debatin’ on gettin’ anywhere near or far right now.”

“If you have faith in yourself and you don’t have that right now, Dev, you need to begin having faith in yourself once again. What happened to the man I once screamed at within a hotel room over the blood he was pouring out of his head for nothing but a brawl?”

“You told me to get rid of him because you wanted to make sure I was safe.”

“Yeah… well… I want him back!”

Devon looks on at Lauren, who he thinks is now parading around the home like a mad person.

“You want the bloodsheddin’ lunatic back?”

“Yes! Is that too much to ask for?”

Devon raises an eyebrow.

“You need to get your standards straight.”

“What do you mean?”

“You need to realize what you actually need, and not pick it every so often which one you want.”

Lauren lowers her head and crosses her arms. Devon lets out a sigh and then walks over to a nearby window as he looks out to see the empty streets of New York. Lauren lifts her head up and looks to Devon.

“I’m just looking for what you want, I know you want to bring back the bastard in you and I know it’ll make things so much easier on you when trying to get back into the ring.”

“How so?”

“Because that’s what you are! Dev, you are The American Bastard, it's what you've always been. That's how people know of Devon Ryker, can't you see that?"

Devon continues to look out the window, Lauren is seen walking up to him from behind, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Be who you really are, be that man I know you really are."

Devon lowers his own head before shooting it right back up, turning around and grabbing his suitcase. Lauren looks down at Devon, confused as to what he's doing as he opens up the suitcase and begins to take out clothes from it.

"Dev, what the hell are you doing?"

"You want me to be The American fuckin' Bastard again, don't you?"

"Well... yeah-"

Devon shoots up to his feet with a black leather jacket in his hands, he holds it out whilst staring at the back of it. Lauren's confusion begins to grow on more.

"You get what you wished for, Lauren, and he's comin' back."

Devon turns the jacket around where the blood-red skull with the lettering "AMERICAN BASTARD" is seen, and with that, the scene finally ends with a fade to black.