Satan Be Gone

February 21
Orlando, Florida

The good thing about living in the same city that PWE held their Victory show was that Lachlan was able to be home that very night. After the show had wrapped up for the night, he made a beeline for his car and was the first one out of the parking lot. Despite the fact that he didn’t have a match on the show, he felt completely drained. He hadn’t expected to run into Eddy - Edwyn - tonight, and the encounter had brought a lot of emotions to the surface. Anger, first and foremost, but there was also a pang of regret as well.

‘You know exactly what you did to deserve all of this.’

Edwyn’s words echoed in his mind as he drove through the downtown core of Orlando. He rolled up to a red light and tapped the brakes, the scene playing over in his mind.

The truth was…Lachlan did know. And he was ashamed of it.

A car horn honked behind him, startling him out of his thoughts. He glanced up and noticed the light had changed to green, and he put the car back into motion. He came to another intersection, and normally here he would turn left to continue on his way home. He hesitated for a moment, before pressing the indicator switch and making a right turn. He drove for a few minutes before he arrived at Peninsular Park, pulling into the empty parking lot and shutting off the engine. He sat for a few moments before climbing out of the car and heading towards the edge of Lake Conway, where he found a picnic table right up near the water’s edge. Hopping up to sit on the edge of the table with his feet hanging down, he stared out across the water’s rippling surface, distorting the city lights that danced across it. He let his mind wander, back to a time when the world seemed so full of promise and the future looked bright for two up and coming wrestling stars…

—----------

2015
Tokyo, Japan

“Another five-star match, mate! We keep this up, we’re gonna be running this place in no time!”

Clapping Lachlan on the back, Eddy grinned broadly through the sweat pouring down his face. Lachlan returned the smile as the two made their way up the entrance ramp after their tag team match. The crowd was still cheering loudly for the two foreign wrestlers, and they made sure they stopped at the top of the ramp to look out and give the crowd a wave before they disappeared behind the curtain to the backstage area. They grabbed water bottles and towels from a nearby table and headed to their locker room.

“I’m telling you, we’re the hottest thing going in this company,” Eddy said as they burst through the door. He dumped the remaining dregs of water over his hair, running a hand through the sandy brown lengths. “The two of us separate are one thing, but this tag team we got going is something else. I have a feeling we’re gonna be champs soon enough.”

Lachlan laughed slightly, toweling off the sweat from his chest before slipping a black T-shirt over his head. “Mate, we’ve only had like four matches as a team. The current champs have been a team for years. We gotta build up a little more momentum before we get to that point, I think.”

Eddy waved a dismissive hand through the air. “Nah man. You hear the crowd out there tonight? They absolutely love us. This place will make money hand over fist if they put the belts on us.”

“Well, let’s not go planning our championship celebrations just yet,” Lachlan smirked, pulling on a pair of jeans and slipping his feet into his Vans sneakers. “Let’s just keep focus on our matches, and we’ll see where the chips fall down the road.”

Eddy finished dressing as well, shoving his equipment back into his duffel bag. “Alright, alright. How about we at least head out and celebrate tonight’s good night. I’ll ring up the guys and see who’s all in. Sound good?”

Lachlan nodded, shouldering his bag. “Sounds great.”

A few hours later…

It was just after one a.m., and the bar showed absolutely no signs of quieting down. It was a familiar ritual now for Lachlan and the other members of the training dojo he was a part of, all of them hitting the streets of Tokyo after a successful night of wrestling. There were a few bars they regularly patronized, and the one they currently found themselves in was a particular favourite. And while on any other night Lachlan would be the centre of attention, tonight he found himself hanging back from the crowd, sitting at a table near the wall and watching his friends cavort drunkenly with a smile on his face. He sipped at his own glass of beer, only his second of the night. His eyes traveled across the group and landed on Eddy, not a hard feat considering the Welshman stood a good six inches over almost everyone else.

But tonight, something was different. Sure, the two had become fast friends in the eight months since Lachlan had arrived in Japan, but over the last few weeks he could feel the dynamic in their friendship changing. After the unpleasant end to his ‘arrangement’ with Lili, Eddy had been doing everything he could to keep Lach’s mind distracted. They had been putting in extra time both at the gym and the training dojo, and most days Lachlan would be too exhausted afterwards to do anything more than collapse into his bed and get a solid 8 hours of sleep. He appreciated it, and it helped to get his mind focused back on his career.

But lately, he found himself with new feelings towards Eddy. Feelings that were both exhilarating and confusing. While Lachlan long held suspicions that he wasn’t exactly straight, it was the first time he’d had feelings for someone he knew personally. Most of the time it was just crushes on celebrities and the like. But whenever he looked at Eddy lately…he felt that same kind of warmth blossom in his chest. He was careful to play it cool around Eddy because he didn’t know if the Welshman would reciprocate the feelings, and he didn’t want to put their friendship into an awkward position. So he would just push the feelings down and act like nothing was wrong.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, glancing up to see Eddy looking down at him. The telltale sheen of inebriation was present in his hazel-green eyes, and he grinned in a way that had Lach’s stomach doing flips. “Ya alright there, Lach?”

Nodding a little too enthusiastically, Lachlan lifted his glass and drained the last of his beer. “Yeah, I was actually just thinking about heading back to the dorm. Exhaustion just hit me like a freight train.”

In a flash, Eddy’s face turned to a look of concern as Lachlan got up from the table. “Everything OK?”

“Yeah, for sure.” He smiled reassuringly. “Just more tired from that match than I thought. But don’t let me stop you from having a good night.”

In a flash, Eddy downed the rest of the drink in his hand and slammed the glass on the table. “I’ll walk back with you. Don’t want you getting lost or anything.”

Lachlan chuckled and shook his head. The dorm was only a ten minute walk, one that they had all made hundreds of times over the months. “Really, Ed, it’s fine -”

Eddy put his hands up to shush him. “Nope. It’s happening. Let’s go.”

With another shake of his head, Lachlan followed Eddy as they waved to their friends and headed out the door. It was late summer, but the night air was still warm as they wandered along the narrow streets to their dorm. Eddy kept up a stream of chatter about their training, how he thought their careers were about to skyrocket, and if they should get matching ring gear. Lachlan tried to listen in and respond appropriately, but he was distracted with the feeling of his heart thundering beneath his rib cage. He kept his hands in the pockets of his jeans to hide how badly they were trembling, and somehow, some way, he knew…

Something was going to happen tonight.

The dorm building came into view much to Lachlan’s relief, and he turned to let Eddy know that he was more than welcome to head back to the bar and rejoin their friends. But when he did, he saw Eddy giving him a curious look, arms folded across his chest. “Something’s been off with you for a while now, Lach. And I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.”

Shit.

Lachlan rubbed at the back of his neck, grateful that the darkness would conceal the blush he felt spreading across his face. “Nothing. Just that whole thing with Lili, it kinda…well, I dunno…”

Eddy stepped closer, his eyes now burning into Lachlan’s as he shook his head. “That’s not it. Stop bullshitting me, Lach.”

As he looked up at the man he now considered one of his very best friends, Lachlan knew there was only one thing to do in this situation, and the thought had his heart feeling like it was simultaneously leaping into his throat and plummeting into his stomach. Finally, after a long stretch of silence where the two men just stared each other down, Lachlan threw all caution to the wind, leaned up, and gently pressed his lips against Eddy’s…

—---------

He snapped out of the memory, his blue eyes focusing on the camera in front of him. The nighttime sounds of crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl lent some background ambient sound to the scene as Lachlan hopped down from the picnic table, his hand sliding into the pockets of his leather jacket.

“Kevin Hunter…You certainly came into the company and made an impression. Too bad you couldn’t follow up and get that all-important debut win, though. Kinda leaves you floundering a bit, doesn’t it? I mean, you come in with all this pageantry and fanfare, making that bold claim about becoming the next Victory champion…only to fall flat on your face right out of the gate.” He winced a bit. “Not a great look, mate.”

He paced a few steps, his feet kicking up small clouds of dust as he did. “You know, this whole ‘dark demonic vessel of Satan’ or whatever it is you’ve got going on is…well, it’s something. I mean, it’s a tad overdone in my opinion, but there are some who can take that premise and absolutely run with it. You, on the other hand? Well, if I can be honest…it comes across as more of a community player’s production. A poor man’s Shakespeare in the park, as it were. It’s kind of hard to take someone seriously when they use the term ‘Beelzebub’.” A low snicker fell from Lachlan’s mouth, which he tried to cover up with a cough.

“But, I’ll give you some credit. I will say that you certainly have skill and talent in the ring, and I’m not overlooking that by any means. You may not have picked up the win in your debut, but that doesn’t mean that you weren’t put on a few radars. Thing is, maybe if you focused a little less on the theatrics, maybe you could go far in this company.” He gave a little smirk. “Granted, this week’s gonna be a repeat of the last Victory, I’m afraid. I’m a man on a warpath right now, and I’m looking to bulldoze any obstacles that get in my way. And this week it just happens to be you. Sorry about your luck, mate.”

He gave a shrug of his shoulders and turned on his heel to head back to his car, the camera soon fading out to black.