Residence of William
Prydor (Baltimore, Maryland)
July 10, 2008, 6:00 a.m.
It's been two months since our first Legacy title match. One would think that with all the other
matches I have had since then, there would be some things I'd either forgotten
or possibly glossed over. Somehow,
somewhere, there would be some sort of trash-talking that I missed.
Hate to burst your bubble, but that is far from the
truth.
You see, Draco, I could spout nearly every word you
said about me, verbatim. God
complex? Not here. Just a habit of putting one's nose to the
grindstone, as the expression goes. I
can already tell that you don't believe a word I'm saying. Even from this distance I can hear your
derisive scoffs of laughter. You think
I'm blowing smoke out of my ass, aren't you?
So…proof. *ahem*
"Hell, my ex-girlfriend already beat your ass. I
wore the pants in that relationship so where do you think that leaves you in
our match? I would do a nice little formula, but I doubt it would sink in. You
look like the uneducated type. Well, the uneducated down syndrome my ma and pa
were bruder and sistah type."
Ring any bells?
Yeah, I thought it might.
You see, Draco, there is more to me than what you think
you see. Just like this two out of three
falls stipulation. With the way the
rules are crafted for Legacy bouts, I find it next to impossible to think that
you can beat me twice in one night.
Once…OK, I will give you that, seeing as it has happened before. No chance you can do it twice in a
night. For someone who 'looks like the
uneducated type,' it seems to me that with one simple challenge I've given
myself the advantage in this contest.
Unlike you, though, I will provide a formula. I'll even dumb it down so anyone--even Jake
Steel--can understand it. It goes
something like this:
Snowball's Chance in Hell > Chance of Buffalo Bills finally
winning a Super Bowl Chance of Draco retaining his title at Uprising.
...Oh, is that anger I sense coming from you now? Anger that I talked about His Holiness's
favorite football team?
Sorry, Draco, but sometimes the truth hurts like a
bitch, doesn't it?
It was still fairly cool as he looked over his backyard at
Interstate 95, already busy early on a Thursday morning with people making
their commutes to work. Will knew that
later on today, he would be doing the same, heading to the End of Nowhere to
see Elyssa after he took care of some business first.
He was going to analyze the match from Uprising 8 in every
detail, just to make sure he saw where he went wrong on the first
encounter. Then it would be off to Bone
Breakers to fine-tune his game, to make certain that he would be ready for
anything come July 20. That would be
followed by endurance conditioning. It
would be then (and only then) that he would go to see Elyssa. She understood what this meant to him, and
what was at stake both professionally and also personally.
Taking a deep breath, he turned to walk inside, heading to
his projection room. The earlier he got
started, the earlier he could go see Elyssa.
In his book, that made it worthwhile, and a smile crossed his face as
the match footage started. It was time
to get to work.
The End of Nowhere
July 10, 2008, 1:45 p.m.
He was stripped to the waist, tirelessly working in the
near one-hundred degree heat as he carried rocks back and forth. Endurance was something he was going to need
for this match; with the possibility of it going to three falls it could well
enough be the longest match of his professional career. It was with that thought in mind that he came
to the End of Nowhere to work on his endurance training, knowing that in the
end it could possibly come down to simply who was still able to keep going a
half-hour into the match.
He had been doing this for well over forty-five minutes
when he saw a glint of sunlight off metal closing in on him. Without pausing, he continued to move rocks
as Elyssa pulled up next to him in an electric golf cart he had put in the
garage for this purpose. Finally
stopping by putting the last rock on the pile for the fifth time, he turned to
Elyssa, gratefully taking the thermos full of lemonade-flavored Gatorade she
offered. "What brings you out here,
hon?"
"Was just coming to let you I'm heading to the store
for a bit. I've been feeling a bit ill
and need to go get some medicine."
Will nodded as he took another small mouthful of Gatorade,
and handed the container back to Elyssa.
"All right, dear. Be careful
out there and I'll see you when you get back, all right?"
She nodded and leaned out to give him a brief peck on the
cheek before driving the cart away.
Sighing, Will turned to the west, where he could see the drop-off of the
cliff a good half-mile away. With weary
determination moving his body, he began to run to the cliff, figuring to go
from there back to the house at the opposite end of the property. On a good day, this would take him about a
half-hour to jog that distance, just over a mile and a quarter.
As he turned to make the long trek to the house, he saw a
figure in the distance, near the cave Aph had looked in recently. It served as a subtle reminder that things
were forever changed in his life, and there was no way to return to the
carefree life he once had. With a small
shake of his head, he forced that thought aside and concentrated on simply
getting back to the house under his own power.
The run back to the house took him about forty minutes,
which was not bad at all given all the exertion he had endured. When he stumbled in the front door, Elyssa
still had not returned. Thinking nothing
of it for the time being, Will hopped into the shower and took a quick one to
cool off a little and refresh himself before emerging from the guest bathroom.
As he stepped out, he saw Elyssa sitting at the dining
room table, staring at something. He
closed in on her and embraced her from behind.
"Elyssa? Is there a
problem?"
She picked up the thing she was staring at--a piece of
plastic--and silently handed it to him.
He was confused for a moment until he saw what it was. Or more accurately, what it said. The feeling that accompanied that glance was
akin to being gobsmacked.
Somewhere in the darkest corner of his mind, he could hear
Scott Bakula echo the same sentiment he had on every episode of Quantum Leap
that Will ever remembered watching.
Right now, Will was tempted to agree.
For in small, bold blue letters, the future was spelled out for both
himself and for Elyssa. As the letters
burned into his mind, he began to wonder what he would have to do to make
things right. For those eight letters
said it all: Pregnant.
And just like an echo of the past, he heard the voice of
Bakula in his mind: Oh, boy.
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