A skull with it's jaw hung open slightly was the first visual shown to the viewing audience. The camera lingered on the shot for some time but eventually panned backwards. There was a body connected to this skull. It was a full body skeleton costume. Draped over the back of a leather couch where the arms of the person inside lifelessly hung downwards. A hand reached downwards and dug tightly into the side of the mask and pulled it's head upwards, cranking the neck slightly. It was Brian Kendrick. His hair swung in front of his face as he spoke in a low tone of voice.
| Brian Kendrick | For months everyone's been calling me washed up. They've called me meaningless. They called me a worthless drug addict.
He cranked back the neck of the hapless and probably unconscious costumed figure.
| Brian Kendrick |And maybe some of that's true to a degree.
Kendrick leaned his head down a little closer to see if there was any life from the person in the undead costume.
| Brian Kendrick | But guess what? Only I get to say that. Not any of these buzzards circling around my head that have been waiting for me to drop dead so they can take my spot. These flesh eating bastards who haven't accomplished even half of what I've been able to.
He yanked the mask off to reveal a scrawny gent with medium length brown hair who slumped downwards after he was released. Kendrick held the grim visage towards the ceiling.
| Brian Kendrick | That's how this business works. One second your on top of the world and your on the tip of everyone's tongue. The next, they tell you don't have it anymore and try to pick your remains clean. But they don't seem to understand that this happens to everyone. From jesters..to kings.
The mask was tossed over his shoulder and we finally got to see exactly what his location was. Adam Rose's Exotic Express. Which had really seen better days. The inside was totally wrecked. Various pieces of furniture were smashed of flipped over. Glass from different, once vibrant and flashing lights littered the floor. There was no loud or bass heavy music playing. The bodies of costumed Rosebuds laying sprawled out in various positions and in various locations. One of them gave a groan. A guy in a cheap looking luchador mask. Kendrick pounced onto him, rolling him over onto his back, while gripping the collar of his shirt tightly.
| Brian Kendrick | You remind me of someone I used to know. Just can't quite put my finger on it.
He looked upwards, trying to latch onto whomever it may have been that was slipping from his memory before snapping the fingers on his free hand.
| Brian Kendrick | Oh yeah. Sami Zayn. I remember when I first met the kid. He was running around in mask like this. Pretending to be a Mexican. When he's really an ugly, ginger Canadian. Should have kept the mask. And they call ME crazy.
The Rosebud didn't offer a reply and his eyes were practically rolled into the back of his head.
| Brian Kendrick | That's who I've got to get through first. Who I've got to get through to make sense of all of this. And, quite honestly, I should be thanking him. He took out Brock Lesnar so I didn't have to. Pretty surprising. Sami Zayn doesn't really look like much but he was able to beat a giant monster like that. Not going to lie to you. I was NOT looking forward to having to wrestle Lesnar. Especially one free TV. Pretty sure the guy outweighs me by 300 pounds. But I don't have to worry about that now because Sami Zayn did the impossible. Like I said, I should thank him.
Kendrick peeled the discount lucha libre inspired mask off and roughly shoved the man behind it to the ground. He stared at the mask his fingers were coiled around and made the "mouth" part of it move up and down a few times.
| Brian Kendrick | But I'm not going to. Brock would have either legitimately murdered me or I would have found a way to beat him in spectacular fashion. Either way it would have been memorable. But now I'm stuck with this..guy. This goodie-goodie, everyman, hero type who..
His eyes suddenly lit up as a revelation struck him right in the face.
| Brian Kendrick | Holy shit. He might be it. Sami Zayn might be that huge, paragon of justice that John Cena's punk ass only pretended to be. A true, honest to God white knight! Someone that shakes hands with old people and fights for good! Someone I can bring to the point of total insanity and corrupt and..
He paused as his shoulders lowered backwards and he dropped the mask. Rubbing at the side of his head, he gave his head a couple of shakes.
| Brian Kendrick | ..he would probably just let me down too. If I threatened his family or something, he would probably just show up to Warfare the next week with a grenade launcher, screaming profanities. His type is all the same. The whole Captain America routine, or Captain Canada in his case, that's completely batshit crazy just underneath the surface. But I can't take him lightly. Somehow, he beat Brock Lesnar and I'm not careful he'll beat me too. I don't usually care about wins and losses but god damn I need this one. Maybe he'll slip and break his neck coming down to the ring, doing that stupid little dance of his and I can just move onto Gabriel or Ambrose. I don't imagine I'm going to get that lucky. I'm going to have to beat every inch of fight out of him. He's got that whole "plucky underdog" thing down to an art and if I don't damn well cripple him he's going to keep trying.
He shrugged. That was not a task he had any problem with whatsoever. No surprise given his track record.
| Brian Kendrick |Sami Zayn wants to be wheel chair bound in pursuit of the crown? So be it.
Resting his hands on the now stained floor beneath him, Kendrick scouted his next target like a tiger stalking a wounded deer. He crawled his way on over to a man in a tattered werewolf costume who was weakly trying to inch away, flat on his back. Kendrick took his ankle and pulled him over, clearly toying with the man.
| Brian Kendrick| You look just like Justin Gabriel's "I jump out of high things, BMX is my life" looking ass.
He snickered, like the stoner he is, and allowed a few fingers to come to a rest on his forehead.
| Brian Kendrick | I'm never going to get tired of calling him that. Justin Gabriel is another one of my potential opponents. He's not a newer cat like the other two. He's been doing his flippy shit in this place for years. And I think he beats his girlfriend or something? Not in a foreplay kind of way, but, in a Chris Brown kind of way. I've never raised my hand to a woman and I've certainly never given one the GTS so I wouldn't know anything about that. I've had plenty of matches with him and I think it's about 85% me to this 25%. But there's always margin for error and if I'm not careful he'll raise his percentage. I've been up and down with him, I know what he's capable, I know what he can do, I just can't get complacent and let him get on a roll..
Kendrick toyed about with one of the ears on the werewolf mask as he pondered his past with the daredevil.
| Brian Kendrick | Last time we had a singles match I won. But, technically, the last time we met, he won. Or..his girlfriend that he may or may not be abusing pinned Emma. Who I never abused not a single solitary time. So, I would think he's got the advantage over me. Since beat me. Kind of? Truth be told, I hate Justin Gabriel. Way, WAY too much of a pretty boy. He looks pretty, he moves pretty, even his finisher is pretty. Even though it hurts like all hell when he comes crashing into you. I really don't want to go through that shit. Getting all the way to the finals and being beaten by flips and his Cirque du Soleil garbage. Not happening. If I get that far he's going to have to learn a new rotation the world has never seen before or leap out of the rafters to stop me.
After delivering a stiff elbow to the lower back of the werewolf, Kendrick snatched the mask off. He stared at the teeth, the fur and the empty eye holes.
| Brian Kendrick | Nah. This doesn't look like Justin. It has fangs and it's scary. Gabriel's about as threatening as stained windbreakers in hurricane's. Dude can go though. That much is very clear. And--
Suddenly, he looked very pissed off. Extremely so.
| Brian Kendrick | Justin Gabriel beat Randy Orton. Justin Gabriel BEAT Randy Orton! That was another HUGE part of my revenge tour! And that South African bitch took it away from me!
Randy Orton, like many of participants in the KOTR, had violent run-in's with Kendrick in the past. Specifically, the last time the two faced off, it was in the main event of Wrestle Mania in a career altering Hell in a Cell
| Brian Kendrick | Do these people have no common decency!? I've got scores to settle and things I need checked off my list! And these idiots keep screwing it all up! Just for that, if I EVER see Heath Slater, I'm chopping off some of his fingers and I'm sending them to Gabriel in envelope. I'm so mad about this that I might punch his girlfriend too! Or have sex with her.
He began to get a little more worked up as this all went along. He rose to his feet and stomped over the bodies of Rosebuds, kicking one or two for good measure, before finding one dressed like a mental patient. Complete with unbound straight jacket and medical scrubs. Kendrick sped over and gave the already downed man a low dropkick to the face which sent him pin balling against a corner of the bus.
| Brian Kendrick | You. You're just like Dean Ambrose. That lucky little prick beat me the last time we fought. 'Cause he's that type that gets off on pain and you have to drop a house on him to pin him. I never got that type. A special kind of crazy, I guess. Getting punched in the dick with a barbed wire bat has never gotten my rocks off but he's all about that kind of thing. He's dangerous enough to be a serious threat but still stupid enough to make everyone fall in love with him. ..Makes me sick. I'm hoping Justin Gabriel runs him over with a truck and I don't have to deal with this lunatic moron.
A few nudges were given to the ribs of the Rosebud in the mental patient get-up.
| Brian Kendrick | Seriously. If I get past Zayn and I have to face him it's really going to suck. Because that means he'll have already had one match and his pain boner is going to be at it's most erect. Dealing with guys that have pain boners is NOT my ideal way of becoming King. I just want to massacre Sami and Justin without having to peel someone's eyeballs out to get a victory. That kind of thing is supposed to be for fun. Not necessity. Dean Ambrose is where I might have ended up had things not turned out differently. If I hadn't been trained by Shawn Michaels I might have been tempted to go down that death match route to get attention. Luckily, I was completely adorable and hot. I didn't have to bleed all over the place and eat glass. ..That came much later. Dean Ambrose went off the deep end WAY earlier than I ever did. So, he's got way less time remembering what it was like to wake up and NOT have your first thought be about some kind of perverse violence. ..I've got the edge. The experience. I learned from our first match and I won't take him so lightly this time..
A deep breath was taken and he closed his eyes.
| Brian Kendrick | Zayn, Gabriel and Ambrose. All of them are going to want this as bad as I do. Or so they think. They have no idea. I don't want to walk around with a goofy ass crown and cape. I just need this for some kind of clarity. So I've got some kind of purpose. So I can feel like myself again. I don't even know what my identity is anymore. But I'll find it by taking a piece or a whole, bloody chunk out of those three until I can remember.
There was a reason he stepped onto the Exotic Express. And it wasn't to party. Nor was it to beat the hell out of Rosebuds. He reached from behind one of the turned over couches and retrieved a can of gas in a red container. A hacking, coughing noise could be heard. He looked back over his shoulder to find Adam Rose seated in a corner. Bloody and disoriented. Kendrick didn't look too sympathetic to his plight since he was the one who put him there in the first place
| Adam Rose | W-What the bloody..hell, man? W-Why are you doing this? I gave you drugs. I gave you women.
| Brian Kendrick | You're right. You did. I was living like a king. But I wasn't a ruler. I was just pretending. Having everything just handed to me..it made me soft. I forget what it meant to have to scratch and claw your way to something. Nah. I wasn't a king. But I'm going to be. And I've got to get rid of everything that reminds me of when I was WEAK. That includes you and this bus. It's selfish but don't take it personal. I'm just burning down the past.
The camera made a cut to the outside of the bus. It was dark outside, with a sky full of stars. Perfect night for a fire. Kendrick slowly walked a good distance away from the Exotic Express, leaving a trail of gasoline before he discarded the empty container. Rosebuds could be seen scrambling out of the bus, some climbing and falling out of the windows, including Adam Rose himself. Once he was far enough away, Kendrick lit a match and dropped it onto the trail he had left behind. It ignited and set a trail of fire towards the bus which soon caught ablaze. He took a seat from his safe distance and hugged his knee's to his chest. Some crackling and popping ensued before a large explosion took place. A fiery wheel went rolling past as he continued to stare at the blaze, illuminated by colors of orange and red. He still looked vacant and empty but at the last moment, just before the scene faded, he began to smirk..
Burning Down the Past
Re: Burning Down the Past
I bloody loved this. I want Ambrose/Kendrick to headline something at some point. THAT'S MA GOAL.
Re: Burning Down the Past
I would like an Ambrose/Kendrick angle very muchly!
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"You can't blame a writer for what the characters say." - Truman Capote
