10-25-2018, 07:30 PM
10-30-2018, 03:57 AM
10-30-2018, 07:56 AM
OOC: I'm making a mental note that getting an earlier jump start on these is definitely a good answer to a lot of my problems with trying to get these done against my ever-shifting schedule, because I'm very happy with how this one turned out and I can happily say I have a complete effort to present. Because I did get a jump start on it (mostly because my workplace is asking staff to wear costumes today and tomorrow for Halloween and I needed the extra time to get myself ready) the promo portion of this was done before Adam posted, so anything that seems like a direct response to Allocco is purely coincidental. Best of luck!
-------------------------------------
There were times when Aaron truly wished that life could be exactly like the worlds he created within his imagination… worlds that weren’t exactly perfect, but where stressful scenarios at least made sense and could be overcome so easily as long as you knew how to proceed, or were devoid of such toxicity entirely. Even if he couldn’t have it both ways, would it be too much to ask for at least a little bit of balance in the middle of the chaos? Even creativity was at its best when one could find a way to put meaning behind whatever it produced, and there were very few better at finding meaning to even the most nonsensical situations than Aaron Blackbourne.
Unfortunately, even he was having a hard time figuring out what was going on with the nightmare he seemed to be trapped in for the past couple of months now.
He wanted to believe things were starting to look up. He’d been able to have a match in Fatal Fortunes even if it wasn’t for a title, and despite losing he managed to put himself at peace knowing he made it to the final two and only really lost because of the blind interference of another. He’d been scheduled for a match against the red hot Blake Mason. He even found out after a conversation with some of the road agents that they’d heard about the therapist who’d been desperately trying to force him into an appointment and made her back off on the grounds that they could verify he had shown no reason to need to see one, and Liane’s employers had followed suit to give her a job to return to whenever she wanted to take a break from being on the road with her boyfriend.
Lately, however, there always had to be a darkness draining the life out of the silver linings, and that darkness was named Scarlet Grey. Despite Aaron trying as nicely as he possibly could to very clearly get her to back off as he just wasn’t interested in her, this obsession she’d developed with him was beginning to create some very severe problems that were trying his last nerves. Clearly her partner Ruby even saw enough amusement out of the issue that instead of trying to get Scarlet back on track to curb her own frustrations, she was lending a helping hand to get even further under his skin. It was bad enough that the aforementioned match with Blake had been cancelled because officials were trying to protect him the longer Scarlet wanted to keep playing these games, but the incident at Under Attack had not only finally introduced Liane to the world as well as to Scarlet, but also resulted in her getting banned from attending SCW events from the foreseeable future, something Aaron was trying desperately to fight against with little luck thus far.
There felt like very little reason to try and celebrate, even with his favorite holiday on the horizon, but he was still going to give it a try anyway. After all, those that knew him could tell you that Aaron not indulging in Halloween in some fashion was akin to an alcoholic deciding out of the blue to quit cold turkey… it’s just not something you’re likely to see. Besides, anything that could provide him with both a well-needed distraction from the Scarlet headache and a chance to spend more time with Liane was always worth a shot.
It was that very reason why instead of heading to Oklahoma right away for the next Breakdown, Aaron and Liane had taken a detour out to California to attend the annual Halloween party hosted by SCW Hall of Famer Kelcey Wallace, which he’d heard was always a fun time even if she’d planned on hosting a smaller party this year than what she usually did. Sure, it sounded like this might be a bad idea while the creative soul was still dealing with an obsessed woman who wasn’t entirely all there, but he’d been assured by Kelcey over Twitter that if anything happened, especially should Scarlet decide to crash the party, she’d be shown the door immediately. Plus, Owen would be there to back him up, and the idea of him formally getting to meet Owen’s girlfriend face-to-face while introducing Liane to his good friend made him feel a thousand times better about this decision.
While dressing up like a character that already existed didn’t really sound too much like him, Aaron was never one to shy away from the challenge of figuring out how he could pull off such a character with his own unique flair, and considering the internet was currently abuzz over the recently released final chapter of the acclaimed indie horror adventure Bendy and the Ink Machine, he found the perfectly relevant excuse to indulge in a little ‘inky horror’ for the occasion. He’d already gone the whole nine yards in getting ready: black slacks and dress shoes as well as a black sweatshirt, white gloves and a white bow tie… he’d even gone to the trouble of using some of that temporary Halloween hair spray to dye his hair black for the night as well as creating a pair of large demon horns to wear and painted his face white and black to imitate the face of the titular cartoon demon at the heart of the game. Eager to join him, Liane was complimenting his Bendy outfit by portraying fellow character Alice Angel, also dying her hair black in the same way and letting it flow freely for the first time out in public as far as she could remember. She already had on her strapless dress with it’s own white bow, black gloves long enough to cover most of her arms, black thigh-length stockings and black boots. Smaller demon horns and an angelic halo left her own face paint as the only missing piece to the puzzle, which was what Aaron was slowly working on now as she sat in a chair positioned before a mirror so she could see how it was coming along whenever Aaron stepped aside to get a fresh coat of paint.
“This is incredible Aaron. I almost feel like I’ve actually become the Alice Angel character. How’d you get so good at this?”
“Years of practice. I already had the experience from traditional painting, so it really became a matter of learning how to work with the shape of the face. Thankfully, my own made the perfect test canvas.”
“I know how good of an artist you are, but I always figured whenever you did this that your friend did it all and you just came up with the design.”
“Nah… Pete could if he really wanted to, but I know how to do my face to match the idea and he lends a hand since I can’t accurately paint my body.”
Aaron went back to work as Liane tried to relax. Thankfully, since she was going as more of the ‘normal’ Alice Angel as opposed to the monstrous one that served as an antagonist for part of the game, her paint didn’t need to be as elaborate as his ended up being, but he would make sure the work would be extraordinary nonetheless. As he applied the finishing touches and pulled back to admire his work on his girlfriend’s face, he caught her frowning as her eyes lowered to avoid having to gaze into his.
“You alright Liane? We don’t have to do this is you don’t want to…”
“No Aaron, I really want to be able to spend my first Halloween with you and get to share in what makes you the guy I love. It’s just… I… I’m sorry about Under Attack.”
Aaron sighed as he set his brush aside, making a note to clean it off before they left for the party. Even though it had been about a week since the incident, they hadn’t really talked about it. Aaron had given Liane time to calm down before he willingly opened those doors, and when she didn’t feel like anything needed to be said they’d both decided to move on. Clearly she hadn’t been as comfortable with it as she’d claimed, and since there was still time before the party would be getting underway they could afford to sort things out.
“It’s alright Liane-”
“No it isn’t! I can’t deny that it felt good getting to literally knock some sense into her at long last, but I got myself banned from being able to be by your side backstage! I know I don’t have to worry since you’ve kept Scarlet at bay long before that, but I threw away a golden privilege because I let my temper get the best of me!”
“Liane… alright, yeah, we played right into her hands on that one, but if you ask me you did the right thing and she got what she deserved. This situation sucks, I’m not going to argue that, but it’s going to be resolved. She and Ruby can’t hold this over our heads forever… after all, you still have me and nothing Scarlet will ever do can change that. And if they really want to try and pull the ‘legal action’ card… I let them get away with it at Under Attack because I didn’t want to do anything rash when I was angry with her, but I’ve studied the law pretty well since I have to make sure anything I create for sale is legal and I’ve got one hell of a counter if they really want to try and drag this into a courtroom.” Aaron knelt down and placed a gloved hand on Liane’s shoulders to comfort her. “This isn’t over Liane, not by a long shot. And the longer Scarlet wants to try and drag this out, the more I’m going to stop being polite about this and strike back if I have to. Besides… I think Scarlet at least knows better now than to pick a fight with a comedian who can deliver a literal punchline if necessary.”
Liane looks up at him as a smile graced her lips once again, and Aaron can’t help but return it seeing the sunshine in his life back to being happy. Aaron’s attention is soon diverted, however, by a loud chime coming from his tablet that he’d been using for reference while he painted, and as he grabs it his eyes almost light up like a starry night sky.
“Awesome! Sorry Liane, I need to respond to this email quick because this is a big design job I’ve been waiting to hear back on. I’ll take care of that quick, clean off my brushes and then we can get going.”
Liane nodded as she chuckled to herself while her enthusiastic boyfriend wandered off a bit in the hotel room to focus on giving a proper reply to whatever the email’s contents were. She turned her head to the mirror to take in the sight of his finished work, almost being unable to recognize herself with the phenomenal job he’d done. Grinning from ear to ear in a way that worked for her and her alone, she found her eyes slowly drifting down to the brush still covered with black paint and could suddenly feel the smile fading. It wasn’t that she’d suddenly become unhappy, but something else seemed to have come to mind that wasn’t really sitting well with her.
It took perhaps a few minutes longer than he’d intended, but soon Aaron had his response email on its way. If things fully fell through, this project was arguably going to be the biggest one he’d worked on yet and was one that would make him name truly known throughout the world on the artistic and design end of things, which was a huge step forward towards his ultimate goal as far as he was concerned. Softly humming one of the fan made tunes for the indie horror game his costume had seemingly jumped out of, he returned to where Liane was to retrieve his brushes so the paint wouldn’t dry and ruin them for future use.
“Alright, now let’s get this brushes cleaned… up?”
Aaron nearly dropped his tablet at the sight that greeted his eyes. Liane had gotten out of her seat and one of his brushes was in her hand, but it looked like even she was horrified despite all signs pointing to her as the cause. The large mirror in this hotel room had been vandalized, and Aaron was already cringing at the idea of being billed for damages because of it. Painted onto the reflective surface in black grease paint was the following message:
“I… I don’t know what happened, I swear Aaron. One minute I’m sitting here admiring the work you did, then the next I’m standing here with your brush and… and… I think I hear her voice laughing about this…”
Aaron restrained himself from his usual habit of biting his bottom lip, knowing it would ruin part of his own paint job. It had been some time since anything regarding Liane’s ‘darker side’ had surfaced, but if he were to hazard a guess she saw the perfect opportunity to cause some problems with the stress Liane was feeling over the ongoing issues with Scarlet, and anything to torture Liane over the very untrue prospect of the man she loved actually wanting to have anything to do with that toxic witch only interested in a good time beneath the sheets made for a good time as far as she was concerned. Aaron carefully looked over the paint before holding out his hand as Liane gave him the brush, but before she could pull away he pulled her in for a tight hug that helped in putting her back at ease.
“This mess is taking its toll on both of us… don’t worry, I’m sure Kelcey would understand if we’re ‘fashionably late’ to the party by a couple of minutes. I’ll get this wiped off while it’s still wet and then we can get going, and if the staff asks I’ll just say it was a small mishap while we were getting painted up for this party. It’s alright Liane… this party might be the distraction we both desperately need right now.”
Liane gave Aaron an unsure smile, but his genuine one was all she needed to start tuning out the voice in her head and slowly resume her zen before Aaron set about getting everything cleaned up. Truth be told, he still had his own doubts about doing this, and he knew some of the demons lurking within his own imagination were just waiting to exploit this for their own gain, but he had to remain strong in the face of this nightmare. If he gave up now, he knew he’d lose everything he’d worked so hard to gain that set his life up for a happiness he’d been sorely lacking for years once he was old enough to begin tackling the issues of the adult world.
A life without Liane…
A life with his creativity and progress being stifled by an eccentric succubus of a woman…
Those were more terrifying to him right now than any monster you could find associated with Halloween or anything Alistaire Allocco would be capable of doing to him when Wednesday night rolled around, and if he was to have any hope of preventing this catastrophe he had to prove he was truly capable of rising above it all to live his life the way he wanted to, without any toxic cesspools threatening to drown him and take it all away.
Somehow, someway, he was going to overcome all of these tricks and treat himself to a life most people truly don’t get to experience, but so many honestly deserve.
What frustrates me, and many others like me in the world, more than anything else… is not even getting the chance to share our talents with the world around us.
You’ve heard me vent my frustrations about how stagnant the world has become time and time again, and those that fear the concept of change know the best way to keep from having to deal with it is to simply never acknowledge someone capable of introducing it. It’s never that open-and-shut because ignoring us doesn’t just make us go away and give up, but the more our ideas are kept within the confines of our imaginations, the harder it becomes to truly share it against the word of the men and women with the power to simply keep the world locked down in whatever state will allow them to thrive at the cost of countless steps backwards that may ultimately be our undoing one day. For some of us, it’s not a case of trying to make money or forge our own path, it’s the endless battle to open the minds of the masses to what they are truly capable of if they just think a little outside the box for a change, all for the sake of a truly better world that won’t lead us to ultimately press the reset button on life as we know it for a third time following the end of the dinosaurs.
I look at my standing in SCW right now, and it’s really not that different. Ever since I lost the TV Title, I’ve only had one actual match that I lost because someone else intervened to indulge in their senseless vendetta against the one person left standing between me and a chance to start turning things around. Even sadder is the fact that I’m left feeling as though the only reason I had that match at all was because Fatal Fortunes meant everyone had at least one match guaranteed, because outside of that I’ve either found myself left off the card or, in the case of my last scheduled match before Under Attack, having it cancelled. I can’t blame SCW officials and say they’re trying to hold me back, otherwise they’d have never tried to book me to begin with and probably left me to rot, because they’re doing their best to diffuse a situation I never asked to be a part of.
Before I talk about my match on Breakdown, assuming it remains intact with this nonsense still trying to drag me under, I have to address a certain someone that I know is probably listening to me while doing things I’d rather not think about.
Scarlet, I know you’re no doubt real proud of yourself for what you did at Under Attack. Yeah, you and Ruby fell short in your Chamber Match and have no tag title shot, but you at least got to finally meet my girlfriend and promptly get her backstage access revoked to all future shows. Congratulations… I really hope the next stage of this plan wasn’t to try and exploit that, though, because in case you’ve forgotten I’ve resisted all your tricks and games without Liane around long before that little incident and this just strengthened my resolve on that front. Plus, it doesn’t change the fact that she and I are still together without SCW involved and will continue to spend that time together whether you like it or not. As much as many people claim this industry is their life, that statement is never as literal as they could claim when we all have family, friends and other people and interests that don’t require a canvas with ring ropes surrounding it.
I do want you to pay very close attention to this part though, because if you and Ruby think you’ve hatched a foolproof plan than you overlooked one very crucial detail: yeah, you could press charges against my girlfriend for being a fan attacking a wrestler, but I don’t recall ever giving you permission to forcefully invade my personal space and attempt to kiss me. When you add that to willingly exposing yourself to me some time ago and every single implication you haven’t been subtle about, I can very easily build a sexual harassment case that I don’t want to go through with, but you’re giving me less and less of a choice with each passing week. The damage I could do with that FAR outweighs anything you could hope to gain from pressing charges against my girlfriend, so I would suggest that if you’re not as ‘sexually-minded’ as the picture you’re trying to paint for everyone, you start backing off now so I can actually continue with both my career and my life the way I want to go about it: without you.
We can even start that process off very easily: don’t show up to the Chesapeake Energy Arena with any reason to alarm officials and let me face Alistaire Allocco in peace.
Alistaire, I owe you an apology that I even had to waste that much time trying to sort that out, because that’s not what either of us need. It’s unfortunate that I feel like I even need to give the matter any attention, though, because otherwise we could find ourselves in a scenario where our match just doesn’t happen because of whatever she’s up to, just like how I had no match with Blake Mason weeks ago. I’m tired of not having chances to prove myself in the ring and attempt to push forward towards bigger opportunities like my friend Owen and even you have done because I’ve become the obsession of a woman with far more than bats in her belfry, and knowing the kind of competitor you strive to be I think it’s safe to say the last thing you want, especially when you’ve made it no secret that you want to be World Champion once again, is to lose out on an opportunity to regain some momentum following Under Attack to start rebuilding that case.
While I know we can both establish that fact, this is where I begin to run into a problem with figuring out where this chapter of my story goes next while you’re playing a key role.
On one hand, I can see things going in a direction where we both acknowledge this as two faces that haven’t been in SCW as long as many others throwing down to find out who the better man is on this particular night, each giving our reasons as to why we will prevail over one another. I will make this clear Alistaire: I have a tremendous amount of respect for you and what you bring to the table, and I know both from your status as a former World Champion and watching the way you operate in the ring that trying to overcome you is not going to be an easy task for me. I also can’t help but respect the fact that you’re in the same boat I am whether you want to believe it or not, because you have a vision for what SCW should be and you’re tired of not being able to bring it to life because no one wants to listen, giving all their attention to whoever stands at the top with the most power even if it’s not necessarily the World Champion. All you want is a chance and you feel like no one will give it to you, perhaps out of fear of what a more ‘pure’ SCW might be like without considering all the facts.
On the other hand, I could also see you having a problem with me and not showing me the same respect I have for you. My issues with Scarlet aside, you’ve made it clear what kind of competitor you are and I would not be surprised if you took issue with me just because I’m not ‘exactly’ like you. Yeah, maybe I’m not as obsessively dedicated to the wrestling business as you might be, and I might have an affinity for getting a little more creative than someone like you may feel comfortable with because it gives you the impression that I’m not out to make myself the best, bar none, and may perhaps not take this as seriously as you do. It doesn’t change the fact that I have a deep passion for this business and it’s not just some stepping stone for me to some other project… if that were the case, then I wouldn’t even be here as I have all the recognition and money I could ever need for a stable life through my creative endeavors outside the business.
It all boils down to the message… we both have one we wish to spread, and mine happens to apply to far more than just SCW.
I understand how much you feel you need this match Alistaire. Unlike me, you’ve been World Champion before and you even made it clear heading into Under Attack that you truly believe there is no other prize acceptable for you, so you HAVE to keep winning until you find yourself challenging for that crown again and can’t stop until it’s where you feel it rightfully belongs. Unfortunately, I can’t let you overcome me on Wednesday night, not because this particular show falls on my favorite holiday or because I feel desperate about having yet to topple a former World Champion in order to really get myself moving in the right direction… I need this victory far more than you will likely ever acknowledge BECAUSE of that lack of opportunity lately, BECAUSE of this mess I never asked for but found myself lost in anyway. As much as I know it’s not over, this is the first time in what feels like an eternity where I actually feel like I have some control over my career again, and I can’t forgive myself if I allow this chance to slip through my fingers should it end up being perhaps the only one I’ll have for a very long time once again to compete at all. I need to reclaim control over my destiny, and I can’t let you prevent me from rising above it all and finally escaping this darkness all because you feel your desires to be the best outweigh anything I could ever possibly have to say or do.
You will always have a voice Alistaire, and you will always have the power to make it heard, one way or another.
Halloween night, however, is the night where my voice is going to be just a little bit louder and my story just a little more important to tell.
It had been hard to remember anything from the past few hours… all Aaron could remember was waking up in this strange location that seemed so familiar at the same time. Everything around him was lit up in a fashion that just made the whole scene look like an old sepia tone production, and there was an odd mix of wooden structures and more mechanical pieces that creaked on with a haunting sound that almost felt like whatever they were working with wasn’t supposed to be on at all. To add to the mystery, there were various desks scattered around that almost looked like ones you’d find in some kind of studio, though it was hard to make out any exact details as everything, especially the walls, seemed to be covered in a think ink that even dropped from the ceiling like droplets of water from a leaky pipe. There was a haunting presence about this place, and Aaron knew part of the reason why.
This almost looked like a setting straight out of a certain horror game.
The last thing he could honestly remember was going to the Halloween party with Liane as they were both dressed as characters from the game. For some reason, everything about the party itself was a blur and the more he tried to draw a conclusion, the more his head seemed to hurt. As his eyes began to adjust to the bizarre lighting as people may be used to seeing an image or film in sepia, but not actually find themselves surrounded by it, he started walking around to try and make sense of the location. There were no windows or doors, but wherever he was did open up to a larger room beyond, though there was just more of the same. He could feel his lungs constricting as the stench of the thick ink clogged his airways and made him want to cough up every internal organ he had, but he did his best to fight the feeling and press onward.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if I dreamed about Bendy and the Ink Machine… I’ve spent way too long studying the game to make sure I pulled off my costume effectively enough.”
A few more steps forward as he pondered to himself about his predicament, and he found himself halting as an unearthly roar began to echo throughout the room, and though it sounded distant it still sent chills down his spine. He tried to steel himself for whatever he would have to deal with, but his determination immediately left him when he felt a gust of wind at his back from something he could sense had just rushed past him with reckless abandon. He whipped around to find no trace of anything, but a thought had crossed his mind in that moment that suddenly had him terrified.
“I could actually feel that… the force behind it, how cold it is ripping against my skin… no dream I’ve ever had actually made me FEEL an experience…”
In that brief moment, Aaron’s sense of logic had left him. Dreams could feel very real, but when you could actually FEEL something like you would in the waking world, that’s where the line becomes blurry. He didn’t know what had rushed past him and he was probably better off not knowing, but as impossible as any of this seemed in terms of being real, he couldn’t deny that nothing about this felt right if he was actually asleep right now. Eyes darting around the room in case there was a repeat performance from whatever seemed to be lurking around, Aaron cautiously continued forward step by step, fists clenching in case he would actually find himself in a fight. If he was right and this was all part of a very elaborate dream, he wouldn’t doubt if he came across Nemesis trying to make him suffer for his own gain, or even put something this grandiose past Dreambender and Gleeful, who had been oddly quiet as of late since trying to pick a fight with Ferrugo months ago over the chance he got to emerge at Rise to Greatness.
“Aaron?”
As if things weren’t beginning to get to him already, he halted again when he heard the familiar voice of his girlfriend, though it carried with it none of the happy tone he’d prefer to hear if this truly was a dream. Instead, it sounded terrified, though he couldn’t blame her if there truly was more to this than he wanted to believe. Despite what he heard, he saw no sign of the voice’s owner, making him even more uneasy. Almost as if his surroundings wanted to answer his unspoken questions, he noticed a puddle of ink a few feet away from him beginning to bubble, and slowly after that a humanoid figure slowly began to rise out of it. More than familiar with where this was going if this was accurate to the game in any sense, Aaron quickly tried to find a weapon to arm himself with but had no such luck, so he got himself in a familiar stance to launch his dreaded knee strike if he needed to at the abomination as it finished its ascent and began to take shape, though the survival instinct left him once it finally settled on what it wanted to be.
Standing before him was none other than Liane… at least, it looked like Liane did all dressed up in her Alice Angel Halloween costume, but not only was her face missing the paint he had applied before the party they’d attended, it looked like it was actually disfigured to show part of her left cheek ripped away to expose the muscle and bone underneath. Her left eye was also missing, leaving nothing but a pitch black void that seemed to be leaking ink from it. The look she gave him seemed to be a mix of fear and hatred, though it was hard to truly know for sure with the disfigurement. Still, Aaron carefully reached out his hand towards her, his heart driving his decisions while his mind was still trying to make sense of everything.
“Liane? What… what happened to you?”
“Why don’t you tell me? After all, you seem to have no problem with hurting me. I’m not beautiful enough for you, am I? How could I be? I’m nothing more than a hideous MONSTER that can’t have what she has!”
He recognized that tone… the darker shift that carried the horrendous mix of malice and traces of humor had to be Liane’s darker personality that had been plaguing her for so long, and hearing it made him flinch. He had no time to try and figure out a response before he could feel arms gently wrapping around his shoulders in a hug as something large and soft pressed against his back. He glanced back and his fears were confirmed when he saw Scarlet, dressed exactly like Alice Angel herself but without any of the imperfections Liane seemed to be sporting now, holding him close. Instinctively he tried to rip himself away from her, but to his horror he realized his body was barely moving a muscle, as though it refused to want to escape from this predicament. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to make any movement whatsoever, and his mind grew more and more panicked, especially when he saw Liane turn her back to him and start walking away.
“No… no, Liane, wait!”
“…I hope she makes you happier than a twisted freak like me ever could Aaron…”
That was Liane’s true voice, sounding broken beyond all belief as she’d paused only to deliver that line before she continued to walk away, Aaron’s desperate attempts to move still not meeting an agreement between his brain and his body. When he felt Scarlet lean in close and whisper in his ear, her hot breath actually lighting his nerves on fire in a way that no dream had any right to produce, he could literally feel his skin crawling.
“Come on Aaron… let’s go have some real fun.”
The next thing he knew, he felt like he was sinking, and as he managed to regain enough control over his body to at least look down, he was horrified to find that an ink puddle had suddenly materialized at his feet, and he and Scarlet were both sinking into the abyss. Try as he might though, Aaron still couldn’t seem to get his body to budge, his head pounding as he strained himself to try and find any way out of this mess he didn’t want to be in. Liane had disappeared… all he was left with was this creature he didn’t want to be anywhere near dragging him somewhere he clearly didn’t want to go, but he could actually feel how powerless he was right now as nothing seemed to be able to get him moving to freedom no matter how badly he truly wanted it.
Once his stomach began to sink into the inky void, he could feel another wicked presence nearby, and as he managed to convince his head that it needed to look up, his eyes went wide as he found himself staring at a hulking monstrosity that seemed to be made entirely of ink, all except for one part… its face, which peered through the ink and made Aaron wish he was already dead. It was his own face, though this wasn’t the twisted visage of Nemesis… the face was too much of a match to be him masquerading as more of an abomination than he already was, although when the mouth opened all he could see were rows upon rows of viciously sharp teeth, ready to start tearing away at him without a second thought. With a twisted laugh and a voice that sounded so unnatural even for whatever your mind could concoct for a demon to sound like, the creature couldn’t resist taking a verbal jab while Aaron was still somewhat unclaimed by the ink.
“You claim she means the world to you, yet she gets punished for trying to help you and you have proven incapable of doing anything except validate her worst fears. Who’s the real monster here?”
Aaron couldn’t respond even if he had one, the sinking having picked up speed as his mouth was now lost, any attempt to even scream threatening to fill his lungs with the thick substance that would surely choke him. He could only watch in horror as the malicious inky demon that mockingly wore his face raised one of its giant claws and brought it down with a force that felt like a knife cutting through butter…
Aaron suddenly shot up, his body in a cold sweat and his heart racing so fast you’d swear he was on the verge of a heart attack. His eyes frantically moved a hundred miles a minute around the room, his panic seeming to worsen when he realized he’d been laying in bed as he assumed the worst, but even with the dimmed lights he felt himself very slowly regain his composure when he recognized the hotel room he and Liane had booked. As his eyes moved to the mirror he’d cleaned off earlier, he saw that he had long since removed all trace of his Halloween costume but he looked like a mess, and after what he’d just went through he couldn’t blame himself.
“That was a dream… but it seemed too real, it felt real…”
“Are you alright Aaron?”
Aaron turned towards the source of the voice, and when he realized it was just Liane he felt his paranoia seem to slip away again, though his nerves were still very much shot right now. Judging by the fact she was wearing nothing but a rube and her hair had a towel tied around it, he managed to piece together that whenever they’d come back from the party he’d jumped in the shower to wash off all the dye and paint and had fallen asleep while Liane did the same, likely needing more time to do so due to her hair being far longer than his. He had no idea how late it was or how long he’d been out, but right now those were irrelevant as long as he could regain his sense of sanity with the realization that this was truly real.
“I’m fine… just… passed out while you were getting cleaned up and had a really horrible nightmare I’m still trying to wrap my head around.”
“It must have been a bad one if you look like you’ve seen a ghost. You want to talk about it?”
“…maybe in the morning if that’s alright with you honey. It’s probably late and we need to get to Oklahoma City tomorrow so SCW officials don’t get antsy about me possibly missing Breakdown. Besides… you could probably use some privacy.”
Aaron couldn’t help but blush at that last part, and Liane did too when she remembered what she was wearing. She just nodded in agreement but gave him the kind of look that indicated she didn’t want him hiding this from her, and he silently nodded in response before closing his eyes and trying to go back to sleep so he wouldn’t see any more of Liane than he was truly ready to yet. Besides, he had a more concerning thought run through his mind he needed to sort out before he tried to make sense of why that horrific nightmare felt the way it did:
I need to end this soon… the longer Scarlet keeps trying to ‘win my affection,’ the worse Liane and I begin to feel. She’s going to destroy us both without realizing it… I can’t go back to that abyss again, and I can’t let Liane be lost in it either…
-------------------------------------
There were times when Aaron truly wished that life could be exactly like the worlds he created within his imagination… worlds that weren’t exactly perfect, but where stressful scenarios at least made sense and could be overcome so easily as long as you knew how to proceed, or were devoid of such toxicity entirely. Even if he couldn’t have it both ways, would it be too much to ask for at least a little bit of balance in the middle of the chaos? Even creativity was at its best when one could find a way to put meaning behind whatever it produced, and there were very few better at finding meaning to even the most nonsensical situations than Aaron Blackbourne.
Unfortunately, even he was having a hard time figuring out what was going on with the nightmare he seemed to be trapped in for the past couple of months now.
He wanted to believe things were starting to look up. He’d been able to have a match in Fatal Fortunes even if it wasn’t for a title, and despite losing he managed to put himself at peace knowing he made it to the final two and only really lost because of the blind interference of another. He’d been scheduled for a match against the red hot Blake Mason. He even found out after a conversation with some of the road agents that they’d heard about the therapist who’d been desperately trying to force him into an appointment and made her back off on the grounds that they could verify he had shown no reason to need to see one, and Liane’s employers had followed suit to give her a job to return to whenever she wanted to take a break from being on the road with her boyfriend.
Lately, however, there always had to be a darkness draining the life out of the silver linings, and that darkness was named Scarlet Grey. Despite Aaron trying as nicely as he possibly could to very clearly get her to back off as he just wasn’t interested in her, this obsession she’d developed with him was beginning to create some very severe problems that were trying his last nerves. Clearly her partner Ruby even saw enough amusement out of the issue that instead of trying to get Scarlet back on track to curb her own frustrations, she was lending a helping hand to get even further under his skin. It was bad enough that the aforementioned match with Blake had been cancelled because officials were trying to protect him the longer Scarlet wanted to keep playing these games, but the incident at Under Attack had not only finally introduced Liane to the world as well as to Scarlet, but also resulted in her getting banned from attending SCW events from the foreseeable future, something Aaron was trying desperately to fight against with little luck thus far.
There felt like very little reason to try and celebrate, even with his favorite holiday on the horizon, but he was still going to give it a try anyway. After all, those that knew him could tell you that Aaron not indulging in Halloween in some fashion was akin to an alcoholic deciding out of the blue to quit cold turkey… it’s just not something you’re likely to see. Besides, anything that could provide him with both a well-needed distraction from the Scarlet headache and a chance to spend more time with Liane was always worth a shot.
It was that very reason why instead of heading to Oklahoma right away for the next Breakdown, Aaron and Liane had taken a detour out to California to attend the annual Halloween party hosted by SCW Hall of Famer Kelcey Wallace, which he’d heard was always a fun time even if she’d planned on hosting a smaller party this year than what she usually did. Sure, it sounded like this might be a bad idea while the creative soul was still dealing with an obsessed woman who wasn’t entirely all there, but he’d been assured by Kelcey over Twitter that if anything happened, especially should Scarlet decide to crash the party, she’d be shown the door immediately. Plus, Owen would be there to back him up, and the idea of him formally getting to meet Owen’s girlfriend face-to-face while introducing Liane to his good friend made him feel a thousand times better about this decision.
While dressing up like a character that already existed didn’t really sound too much like him, Aaron was never one to shy away from the challenge of figuring out how he could pull off such a character with his own unique flair, and considering the internet was currently abuzz over the recently released final chapter of the acclaimed indie horror adventure Bendy and the Ink Machine, he found the perfectly relevant excuse to indulge in a little ‘inky horror’ for the occasion. He’d already gone the whole nine yards in getting ready: black slacks and dress shoes as well as a black sweatshirt, white gloves and a white bow tie… he’d even gone to the trouble of using some of that temporary Halloween hair spray to dye his hair black for the night as well as creating a pair of large demon horns to wear and painted his face white and black to imitate the face of the titular cartoon demon at the heart of the game. Eager to join him, Liane was complimenting his Bendy outfit by portraying fellow character Alice Angel, also dying her hair black in the same way and letting it flow freely for the first time out in public as far as she could remember. She already had on her strapless dress with it’s own white bow, black gloves long enough to cover most of her arms, black thigh-length stockings and black boots. Smaller demon horns and an angelic halo left her own face paint as the only missing piece to the puzzle, which was what Aaron was slowly working on now as she sat in a chair positioned before a mirror so she could see how it was coming along whenever Aaron stepped aside to get a fresh coat of paint.
“This is incredible Aaron. I almost feel like I’ve actually become the Alice Angel character. How’d you get so good at this?”
“Years of practice. I already had the experience from traditional painting, so it really became a matter of learning how to work with the shape of the face. Thankfully, my own made the perfect test canvas.”
“I know how good of an artist you are, but I always figured whenever you did this that your friend did it all and you just came up with the design.”
“Nah… Pete could if he really wanted to, but I know how to do my face to match the idea and he lends a hand since I can’t accurately paint my body.”
Aaron went back to work as Liane tried to relax. Thankfully, since she was going as more of the ‘normal’ Alice Angel as opposed to the monstrous one that served as an antagonist for part of the game, her paint didn’t need to be as elaborate as his ended up being, but he would make sure the work would be extraordinary nonetheless. As he applied the finishing touches and pulled back to admire his work on his girlfriend’s face, he caught her frowning as her eyes lowered to avoid having to gaze into his.
“You alright Liane? We don’t have to do this is you don’t want to…”
“No Aaron, I really want to be able to spend my first Halloween with you and get to share in what makes you the guy I love. It’s just… I… I’m sorry about Under Attack.”
Aaron sighed as he set his brush aside, making a note to clean it off before they left for the party. Even though it had been about a week since the incident, they hadn’t really talked about it. Aaron had given Liane time to calm down before he willingly opened those doors, and when she didn’t feel like anything needed to be said they’d both decided to move on. Clearly she hadn’t been as comfortable with it as she’d claimed, and since there was still time before the party would be getting underway they could afford to sort things out.
“It’s alright Liane-”
“No it isn’t! I can’t deny that it felt good getting to literally knock some sense into her at long last, but I got myself banned from being able to be by your side backstage! I know I don’t have to worry since you’ve kept Scarlet at bay long before that, but I threw away a golden privilege because I let my temper get the best of me!”
“Liane… alright, yeah, we played right into her hands on that one, but if you ask me you did the right thing and she got what she deserved. This situation sucks, I’m not going to argue that, but it’s going to be resolved. She and Ruby can’t hold this over our heads forever… after all, you still have me and nothing Scarlet will ever do can change that. And if they really want to try and pull the ‘legal action’ card… I let them get away with it at Under Attack because I didn’t want to do anything rash when I was angry with her, but I’ve studied the law pretty well since I have to make sure anything I create for sale is legal and I’ve got one hell of a counter if they really want to try and drag this into a courtroom.” Aaron knelt down and placed a gloved hand on Liane’s shoulders to comfort her. “This isn’t over Liane, not by a long shot. And the longer Scarlet wants to try and drag this out, the more I’m going to stop being polite about this and strike back if I have to. Besides… I think Scarlet at least knows better now than to pick a fight with a comedian who can deliver a literal punchline if necessary.”
Liane looks up at him as a smile graced her lips once again, and Aaron can’t help but return it seeing the sunshine in his life back to being happy. Aaron’s attention is soon diverted, however, by a loud chime coming from his tablet that he’d been using for reference while he painted, and as he grabs it his eyes almost light up like a starry night sky.
“Awesome! Sorry Liane, I need to respond to this email quick because this is a big design job I’ve been waiting to hear back on. I’ll take care of that quick, clean off my brushes and then we can get going.”
Liane nodded as she chuckled to herself while her enthusiastic boyfriend wandered off a bit in the hotel room to focus on giving a proper reply to whatever the email’s contents were. She turned her head to the mirror to take in the sight of his finished work, almost being unable to recognize herself with the phenomenal job he’d done. Grinning from ear to ear in a way that worked for her and her alone, she found her eyes slowly drifting down to the brush still covered with black paint and could suddenly feel the smile fading. It wasn’t that she’d suddenly become unhappy, but something else seemed to have come to mind that wasn’t really sitting well with her.
It took perhaps a few minutes longer than he’d intended, but soon Aaron had his response email on its way. If things fully fell through, this project was arguably going to be the biggest one he’d worked on yet and was one that would make him name truly known throughout the world on the artistic and design end of things, which was a huge step forward towards his ultimate goal as far as he was concerned. Softly humming one of the fan made tunes for the indie horror game his costume had seemingly jumped out of, he returned to where Liane was to retrieve his brushes so the paint wouldn’t dry and ruin them for future use.
“Alright, now let’s get this brushes cleaned… up?”
Aaron nearly dropped his tablet at the sight that greeted his eyes. Liane had gotten out of her seat and one of his brushes was in her hand, but it looked like even she was horrified despite all signs pointing to her as the cause. The large mirror in this hotel room had been vandalized, and Aaron was already cringing at the idea of being billed for damages because of it. Painted onto the reflective surface in black grease paint was the following message:
KEEP YOUR LOVED ONES CLOSE AND THE BACKSTABBERS CLOSER
“I… I don’t know what happened, I swear Aaron. One minute I’m sitting here admiring the work you did, then the next I’m standing here with your brush and… and… I think I hear her voice laughing about this…”
Aaron restrained himself from his usual habit of biting his bottom lip, knowing it would ruin part of his own paint job. It had been some time since anything regarding Liane’s ‘darker side’ had surfaced, but if he were to hazard a guess she saw the perfect opportunity to cause some problems with the stress Liane was feeling over the ongoing issues with Scarlet, and anything to torture Liane over the very untrue prospect of the man she loved actually wanting to have anything to do with that toxic witch only interested in a good time beneath the sheets made for a good time as far as she was concerned. Aaron carefully looked over the paint before holding out his hand as Liane gave him the brush, but before she could pull away he pulled her in for a tight hug that helped in putting her back at ease.
“This mess is taking its toll on both of us… don’t worry, I’m sure Kelcey would understand if we’re ‘fashionably late’ to the party by a couple of minutes. I’ll get this wiped off while it’s still wet and then we can get going, and if the staff asks I’ll just say it was a small mishap while we were getting painted up for this party. It’s alright Liane… this party might be the distraction we both desperately need right now.”
Liane gave Aaron an unsure smile, but his genuine one was all she needed to start tuning out the voice in her head and slowly resume her zen before Aaron set about getting everything cleaned up. Truth be told, he still had his own doubts about doing this, and he knew some of the demons lurking within his own imagination were just waiting to exploit this for their own gain, but he had to remain strong in the face of this nightmare. If he gave up now, he knew he’d lose everything he’d worked so hard to gain that set his life up for a happiness he’d been sorely lacking for years once he was old enough to begin tackling the issues of the adult world.
A life without Liane…
A life with his creativity and progress being stifled by an eccentric succubus of a woman…
Those were more terrifying to him right now than any monster you could find associated with Halloween or anything Alistaire Allocco would be capable of doing to him when Wednesday night rolled around, and if he was to have any hope of preventing this catastrophe he had to prove he was truly capable of rising above it all to live his life the way he wanted to, without any toxic cesspools threatening to drown him and take it all away.
Somehow, someway, he was going to overcome all of these tricks and treat himself to a life most people truly don’t get to experience, but so many honestly deserve.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you guys want to hear something interesting? I don’t know if I can necessarily call it a secret, because if you know someone similar to me than you already know what I’m talking about when the words leave my lips. Do you want to know what one thing in the entire world frustrates a creative-minded individual more than anything else? I’ll tell you right now: it’s not the fear of failure, because those who truly embrace this mindset and everything that comes with it not only have more than just that one potentially failed idea to fall back on or can concoct several more in due time. Even in the wrestling business I can accept falling short of victory in a match because it just shows me how much farther I still need to go, how much harder I have to push forward to get that win the next time around… maybe I already have all the tools I need and simply have to approach a certain competitor with a brand new game plan next time.What frustrates me, and many others like me in the world, more than anything else… is not even getting the chance to share our talents with the world around us.
You’ve heard me vent my frustrations about how stagnant the world has become time and time again, and those that fear the concept of change know the best way to keep from having to deal with it is to simply never acknowledge someone capable of introducing it. It’s never that open-and-shut because ignoring us doesn’t just make us go away and give up, but the more our ideas are kept within the confines of our imaginations, the harder it becomes to truly share it against the word of the men and women with the power to simply keep the world locked down in whatever state will allow them to thrive at the cost of countless steps backwards that may ultimately be our undoing one day. For some of us, it’s not a case of trying to make money or forge our own path, it’s the endless battle to open the minds of the masses to what they are truly capable of if they just think a little outside the box for a change, all for the sake of a truly better world that won’t lead us to ultimately press the reset button on life as we know it for a third time following the end of the dinosaurs.
I look at my standing in SCW right now, and it’s really not that different. Ever since I lost the TV Title, I’ve only had one actual match that I lost because someone else intervened to indulge in their senseless vendetta against the one person left standing between me and a chance to start turning things around. Even sadder is the fact that I’m left feeling as though the only reason I had that match at all was because Fatal Fortunes meant everyone had at least one match guaranteed, because outside of that I’ve either found myself left off the card or, in the case of my last scheduled match before Under Attack, having it cancelled. I can’t blame SCW officials and say they’re trying to hold me back, otherwise they’d have never tried to book me to begin with and probably left me to rot, because they’re doing their best to diffuse a situation I never asked to be a part of.
Before I talk about my match on Breakdown, assuming it remains intact with this nonsense still trying to drag me under, I have to address a certain someone that I know is probably listening to me while doing things I’d rather not think about.
Scarlet, I know you’re no doubt real proud of yourself for what you did at Under Attack. Yeah, you and Ruby fell short in your Chamber Match and have no tag title shot, but you at least got to finally meet my girlfriend and promptly get her backstage access revoked to all future shows. Congratulations… I really hope the next stage of this plan wasn’t to try and exploit that, though, because in case you’ve forgotten I’ve resisted all your tricks and games without Liane around long before that little incident and this just strengthened my resolve on that front. Plus, it doesn’t change the fact that she and I are still together without SCW involved and will continue to spend that time together whether you like it or not. As much as many people claim this industry is their life, that statement is never as literal as they could claim when we all have family, friends and other people and interests that don’t require a canvas with ring ropes surrounding it.
I do want you to pay very close attention to this part though, because if you and Ruby think you’ve hatched a foolproof plan than you overlooked one very crucial detail: yeah, you could press charges against my girlfriend for being a fan attacking a wrestler, but I don’t recall ever giving you permission to forcefully invade my personal space and attempt to kiss me. When you add that to willingly exposing yourself to me some time ago and every single implication you haven’t been subtle about, I can very easily build a sexual harassment case that I don’t want to go through with, but you’re giving me less and less of a choice with each passing week. The damage I could do with that FAR outweighs anything you could hope to gain from pressing charges against my girlfriend, so I would suggest that if you’re not as ‘sexually-minded’ as the picture you’re trying to paint for everyone, you start backing off now so I can actually continue with both my career and my life the way I want to go about it: without you.
We can even start that process off very easily: don’t show up to the Chesapeake Energy Arena with any reason to alarm officials and let me face Alistaire Allocco in peace.
Alistaire, I owe you an apology that I even had to waste that much time trying to sort that out, because that’s not what either of us need. It’s unfortunate that I feel like I even need to give the matter any attention, though, because otherwise we could find ourselves in a scenario where our match just doesn’t happen because of whatever she’s up to, just like how I had no match with Blake Mason weeks ago. I’m tired of not having chances to prove myself in the ring and attempt to push forward towards bigger opportunities like my friend Owen and even you have done because I’ve become the obsession of a woman with far more than bats in her belfry, and knowing the kind of competitor you strive to be I think it’s safe to say the last thing you want, especially when you’ve made it no secret that you want to be World Champion once again, is to lose out on an opportunity to regain some momentum following Under Attack to start rebuilding that case.
While I know we can both establish that fact, this is where I begin to run into a problem with figuring out where this chapter of my story goes next while you’re playing a key role.
On one hand, I can see things going in a direction where we both acknowledge this as two faces that haven’t been in SCW as long as many others throwing down to find out who the better man is on this particular night, each giving our reasons as to why we will prevail over one another. I will make this clear Alistaire: I have a tremendous amount of respect for you and what you bring to the table, and I know both from your status as a former World Champion and watching the way you operate in the ring that trying to overcome you is not going to be an easy task for me. I also can’t help but respect the fact that you’re in the same boat I am whether you want to believe it or not, because you have a vision for what SCW should be and you’re tired of not being able to bring it to life because no one wants to listen, giving all their attention to whoever stands at the top with the most power even if it’s not necessarily the World Champion. All you want is a chance and you feel like no one will give it to you, perhaps out of fear of what a more ‘pure’ SCW might be like without considering all the facts.
On the other hand, I could also see you having a problem with me and not showing me the same respect I have for you. My issues with Scarlet aside, you’ve made it clear what kind of competitor you are and I would not be surprised if you took issue with me just because I’m not ‘exactly’ like you. Yeah, maybe I’m not as obsessively dedicated to the wrestling business as you might be, and I might have an affinity for getting a little more creative than someone like you may feel comfortable with because it gives you the impression that I’m not out to make myself the best, bar none, and may perhaps not take this as seriously as you do. It doesn’t change the fact that I have a deep passion for this business and it’s not just some stepping stone for me to some other project… if that were the case, then I wouldn’t even be here as I have all the recognition and money I could ever need for a stable life through my creative endeavors outside the business.
It all boils down to the message… we both have one we wish to spread, and mine happens to apply to far more than just SCW.
I understand how much you feel you need this match Alistaire. Unlike me, you’ve been World Champion before and you even made it clear heading into Under Attack that you truly believe there is no other prize acceptable for you, so you HAVE to keep winning until you find yourself challenging for that crown again and can’t stop until it’s where you feel it rightfully belongs. Unfortunately, I can’t let you overcome me on Wednesday night, not because this particular show falls on my favorite holiday or because I feel desperate about having yet to topple a former World Champion in order to really get myself moving in the right direction… I need this victory far more than you will likely ever acknowledge BECAUSE of that lack of opportunity lately, BECAUSE of this mess I never asked for but found myself lost in anyway. As much as I know it’s not over, this is the first time in what feels like an eternity where I actually feel like I have some control over my career again, and I can’t forgive myself if I allow this chance to slip through my fingers should it end up being perhaps the only one I’ll have for a very long time once again to compete at all. I need to reclaim control over my destiny, and I can’t let you prevent me from rising above it all and finally escaping this darkness all because you feel your desires to be the best outweigh anything I could ever possibly have to say or do.
You will always have a voice Alistaire, and you will always have the power to make it heard, one way or another.
Halloween night, however, is the night where my voice is going to be just a little bit louder and my story just a little more important to tell.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He didn’t know why he was here… all he knew was that there had to be a reason behind it.It had been hard to remember anything from the past few hours… all Aaron could remember was waking up in this strange location that seemed so familiar at the same time. Everything around him was lit up in a fashion that just made the whole scene look like an old sepia tone production, and there was an odd mix of wooden structures and more mechanical pieces that creaked on with a haunting sound that almost felt like whatever they were working with wasn’t supposed to be on at all. To add to the mystery, there were various desks scattered around that almost looked like ones you’d find in some kind of studio, though it was hard to make out any exact details as everything, especially the walls, seemed to be covered in a think ink that even dropped from the ceiling like droplets of water from a leaky pipe. There was a haunting presence about this place, and Aaron knew part of the reason why.
This almost looked like a setting straight out of a certain horror game.
The last thing he could honestly remember was going to the Halloween party with Liane as they were both dressed as characters from the game. For some reason, everything about the party itself was a blur and the more he tried to draw a conclusion, the more his head seemed to hurt. As his eyes began to adjust to the bizarre lighting as people may be used to seeing an image or film in sepia, but not actually find themselves surrounded by it, he started walking around to try and make sense of the location. There were no windows or doors, but wherever he was did open up to a larger room beyond, though there was just more of the same. He could feel his lungs constricting as the stench of the thick ink clogged his airways and made him want to cough up every internal organ he had, but he did his best to fight the feeling and press onward.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if I dreamed about Bendy and the Ink Machine… I’ve spent way too long studying the game to make sure I pulled off my costume effectively enough.”
A few more steps forward as he pondered to himself about his predicament, and he found himself halting as an unearthly roar began to echo throughout the room, and though it sounded distant it still sent chills down his spine. He tried to steel himself for whatever he would have to deal with, but his determination immediately left him when he felt a gust of wind at his back from something he could sense had just rushed past him with reckless abandon. He whipped around to find no trace of anything, but a thought had crossed his mind in that moment that suddenly had him terrified.
“I could actually feel that… the force behind it, how cold it is ripping against my skin… no dream I’ve ever had actually made me FEEL an experience…”
In that brief moment, Aaron’s sense of logic had left him. Dreams could feel very real, but when you could actually FEEL something like you would in the waking world, that’s where the line becomes blurry. He didn’t know what had rushed past him and he was probably better off not knowing, but as impossible as any of this seemed in terms of being real, he couldn’t deny that nothing about this felt right if he was actually asleep right now. Eyes darting around the room in case there was a repeat performance from whatever seemed to be lurking around, Aaron cautiously continued forward step by step, fists clenching in case he would actually find himself in a fight. If he was right and this was all part of a very elaborate dream, he wouldn’t doubt if he came across Nemesis trying to make him suffer for his own gain, or even put something this grandiose past Dreambender and Gleeful, who had been oddly quiet as of late since trying to pick a fight with Ferrugo months ago over the chance he got to emerge at Rise to Greatness.
“Aaron?”
As if things weren’t beginning to get to him already, he halted again when he heard the familiar voice of his girlfriend, though it carried with it none of the happy tone he’d prefer to hear if this truly was a dream. Instead, it sounded terrified, though he couldn’t blame her if there truly was more to this than he wanted to believe. Despite what he heard, he saw no sign of the voice’s owner, making him even more uneasy. Almost as if his surroundings wanted to answer his unspoken questions, he noticed a puddle of ink a few feet away from him beginning to bubble, and slowly after that a humanoid figure slowly began to rise out of it. More than familiar with where this was going if this was accurate to the game in any sense, Aaron quickly tried to find a weapon to arm himself with but had no such luck, so he got himself in a familiar stance to launch his dreaded knee strike if he needed to at the abomination as it finished its ascent and began to take shape, though the survival instinct left him once it finally settled on what it wanted to be.
Standing before him was none other than Liane… at least, it looked like Liane did all dressed up in her Alice Angel Halloween costume, but not only was her face missing the paint he had applied before the party they’d attended, it looked like it was actually disfigured to show part of her left cheek ripped away to expose the muscle and bone underneath. Her left eye was also missing, leaving nothing but a pitch black void that seemed to be leaking ink from it. The look she gave him seemed to be a mix of fear and hatred, though it was hard to truly know for sure with the disfigurement. Still, Aaron carefully reached out his hand towards her, his heart driving his decisions while his mind was still trying to make sense of everything.
“Liane? What… what happened to you?”
“Why don’t you tell me? After all, you seem to have no problem with hurting me. I’m not beautiful enough for you, am I? How could I be? I’m nothing more than a hideous MONSTER that can’t have what she has!”
He recognized that tone… the darker shift that carried the horrendous mix of malice and traces of humor had to be Liane’s darker personality that had been plaguing her for so long, and hearing it made him flinch. He had no time to try and figure out a response before he could feel arms gently wrapping around his shoulders in a hug as something large and soft pressed against his back. He glanced back and his fears were confirmed when he saw Scarlet, dressed exactly like Alice Angel herself but without any of the imperfections Liane seemed to be sporting now, holding him close. Instinctively he tried to rip himself away from her, but to his horror he realized his body was barely moving a muscle, as though it refused to want to escape from this predicament. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to make any movement whatsoever, and his mind grew more and more panicked, especially when he saw Liane turn her back to him and start walking away.
“No… no, Liane, wait!”
“…I hope she makes you happier than a twisted freak like me ever could Aaron…”
That was Liane’s true voice, sounding broken beyond all belief as she’d paused only to deliver that line before she continued to walk away, Aaron’s desperate attempts to move still not meeting an agreement between his brain and his body. When he felt Scarlet lean in close and whisper in his ear, her hot breath actually lighting his nerves on fire in a way that no dream had any right to produce, he could literally feel his skin crawling.
“Come on Aaron… let’s go have some real fun.”
The next thing he knew, he felt like he was sinking, and as he managed to regain enough control over his body to at least look down, he was horrified to find that an ink puddle had suddenly materialized at his feet, and he and Scarlet were both sinking into the abyss. Try as he might though, Aaron still couldn’t seem to get his body to budge, his head pounding as he strained himself to try and find any way out of this mess he didn’t want to be in. Liane had disappeared… all he was left with was this creature he didn’t want to be anywhere near dragging him somewhere he clearly didn’t want to go, but he could actually feel how powerless he was right now as nothing seemed to be able to get him moving to freedom no matter how badly he truly wanted it.
Once his stomach began to sink into the inky void, he could feel another wicked presence nearby, and as he managed to convince his head that it needed to look up, his eyes went wide as he found himself staring at a hulking monstrosity that seemed to be made entirely of ink, all except for one part… its face, which peered through the ink and made Aaron wish he was already dead. It was his own face, though this wasn’t the twisted visage of Nemesis… the face was too much of a match to be him masquerading as more of an abomination than he already was, although when the mouth opened all he could see were rows upon rows of viciously sharp teeth, ready to start tearing away at him without a second thought. With a twisted laugh and a voice that sounded so unnatural even for whatever your mind could concoct for a demon to sound like, the creature couldn’t resist taking a verbal jab while Aaron was still somewhat unclaimed by the ink.
“You claim she means the world to you, yet she gets punished for trying to help you and you have proven incapable of doing anything except validate her worst fears. Who’s the real monster here?”
Aaron couldn’t respond even if he had one, the sinking having picked up speed as his mouth was now lost, any attempt to even scream threatening to fill his lungs with the thick substance that would surely choke him. He could only watch in horror as the malicious inky demon that mockingly wore his face raised one of its giant claws and brought it down with a force that felt like a knife cutting through butter…
Aaron suddenly shot up, his body in a cold sweat and his heart racing so fast you’d swear he was on the verge of a heart attack. His eyes frantically moved a hundred miles a minute around the room, his panic seeming to worsen when he realized he’d been laying in bed as he assumed the worst, but even with the dimmed lights he felt himself very slowly regain his composure when he recognized the hotel room he and Liane had booked. As his eyes moved to the mirror he’d cleaned off earlier, he saw that he had long since removed all trace of his Halloween costume but he looked like a mess, and after what he’d just went through he couldn’t blame himself.
“That was a dream… but it seemed too real, it felt real…”
“Are you alright Aaron?”
Aaron turned towards the source of the voice, and when he realized it was just Liane he felt his paranoia seem to slip away again, though his nerves were still very much shot right now. Judging by the fact she was wearing nothing but a rube and her hair had a towel tied around it, he managed to piece together that whenever they’d come back from the party he’d jumped in the shower to wash off all the dye and paint and had fallen asleep while Liane did the same, likely needing more time to do so due to her hair being far longer than his. He had no idea how late it was or how long he’d been out, but right now those were irrelevant as long as he could regain his sense of sanity with the realization that this was truly real.
“I’m fine… just… passed out while you were getting cleaned up and had a really horrible nightmare I’m still trying to wrap my head around.”
“It must have been a bad one if you look like you’ve seen a ghost. You want to talk about it?”
“…maybe in the morning if that’s alright with you honey. It’s probably late and we need to get to Oklahoma City tomorrow so SCW officials don’t get antsy about me possibly missing Breakdown. Besides… you could probably use some privacy.”
Aaron couldn’t help but blush at that last part, and Liane did too when she remembered what she was wearing. She just nodded in agreement but gave him the kind of look that indicated she didn’t want him hiding this from her, and he silently nodded in response before closing his eyes and trying to go back to sleep so he wouldn’t see any more of Liane than he was truly ready to yet. Besides, he had a more concerning thought run through his mind he needed to sort out before he tried to make sense of why that horrific nightmare felt the way it did:
I need to end this soon… the longer Scarlet keeps trying to ‘win my affection,’ the worse Liane and I begin to feel. She’s going to destroy us both without realizing it… I can’t go back to that abyss again, and I can’t let Liane be lost in it either…