Meeting The Face Of The Devil (Without Flinching)(Re-Upload)

Looking at the bed mattress stacked against the door, the multiple bras and women’s underwear scattered around the room and the many bottles of absinthe on their sides, Ethan sat up and just then noticed where he was. Nodding at the state of chaos and carnage in seeming approval, he stood and walked over to the bed side dresser, holding the mattress up against the door. In fact both of them were stacked together. He reached in and grabbed the complimentary pen and paper. Sitting down in the bathtub he began to write things down. Not satisfied he crumpled the paper up and began to write anew. Satisfied having found his muse, he nodded and tore off the first paper and walked over to a wall with a staple gun retrieved from his travel bag and stapled the poem to the wall.

Once, there was a maiden...
... who lived in a tomb, and the tomb was made in her image.
Because she lived in a tomb, she became like the dead,
She slept, and dreamed,
And sometimes woke, and walked within the confines of her tomb.
"Why do you move?" her own ghost asked. "Why walk at all?"
"I am not trapped while yet I run", said she.

Why he had a staple gun as part of his travel bag at all was really anyone guess. Walking past some leftover pizza, from last night dinner he figured, he snagged a slice and kept walking back to the bathtub. Finishing the pizza slice, he banged out four more poems. Satisfied he returned to the wall and stapled them as well to the wall, in order of how he wrote them.

Once, there was a maiden...
... who fled a shadow, in the company of a friend.
They travelled through strange places, and among strange people.
"How can you trust me", he asked, "with such horror behind you?"
"Love endures", she said.

Once, there was a maiden...
falling forever in the water. She reached for purchase, but found nothing; her arms swung through the sea.
The water did not slow her, nor the chill,
but she could not breathe.
Each time she gasped and found no breath, a human child died; and thus, she lived.
"Survival is acceptance," she said.

Once, there was a maiden...
... and before her came all the peoples of Creation, and knelt.
They set aside their petty squabbles in her name.
They acclaimed her with many shouts.
Not one of them struck free her chains.
"To know the world..."
"Is to own it", she said.

Once, there was a maiden...
... who was the living embodiment of everything right in the world.
While she lived, no real harm could come to anyone. Oh, wounds, disease, even death, sure. But she stood between the world and anything worse.
"Except," she said, "I'm going to die." And no one listened.
"I'm going to die tomorrow," she said. And no one heard.
Into the silence, she said; "There's always an ending, after all."

Walking out to the balcony and lighting a clove cigarette he pulled out his phone and made a call.
“531 Henley Street” is all he says to whoever picked up.

~ELSEWHERE. SAME TIME~

Nico Salvatore couldn’t get his mind off of what had unfolded at March Misery just a couple of days ago. Fucking. Bullshit. He thought to himself as he pulled himself up, twisted, laid back down and repeated the motion. He was hanging backwards off of his hotel bed - legs fastened down by a tie down strap he’d procured from the equipment staff. They were being used to keep him in place as he laid back with his upper body off of the bed and performed twisting sit ups. He lost count of how many he’d done, by now. 50? 60? Maybe more. His abs were on fire but it took away the dull pain from the cut on his eyebrow which Takashi Sugiura had used as an ashtray for his cigar in front of the Knoxville audience. Gonna fucking kill you, old man. Nico thought, inwardly, as he continued his crunches. He only stopped when the sound of his cell phone going off broke his concentration. Nico sat up and looked at the buzzing device as it screamed an excerpt from Nathaniel Dawkins’ “Bring It On” at him. Who the hell was calling him now? Nico loosened the tie down strap from his legs so he could slip out and get his phone. He picked it up and looked at the screen. Ethan. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised, given Ethan Skinner’s latest state of mind. He tapped ‘Accept’ and brought the phone to his ear. “Yo.”

"531 Henley Street." It was all Ethan said to him over the other end before hanging up. Nico looked at the phone, puzzled. What the fuck does that mean? He set the phone down and headed into his hotel bathroom to wash up real quick. If Ethan wanted him to meet him somewhere, it had to be for a good reason.


After cleaning up, Nico threw on a simple pair of cargo pants, his running shoes and a baggy white t-shirt. Just how he liked it when he wanted to be comfortable. The taxi pulled up to the address. Nico looked up at the entrance of the Tennessean Luxury Hotel. So this was where Ethan was staying? [i]Fancy ass.[/font] He thought as he walked into the front lobby and up to the desk. Thankfully, the clerk was already there waiting for guests.

“Hey boss.” Nico greeted the elderly man. It was New York City terminology that tended to confuse a lot of people. Why did they call people ‘boss’? “Looking for Ethan Skinner’s room. He asked me to meet him here.” After a little bit of going back and forth with the desk clerk - including having to show his identification - Nico headed up to Ethan’s room, knocking on the door. “Ethan! It’s Nico! Open up!”

Walking across the room and literally throwing the two bedside tables and the mattress across the room he opens the door and walks back to the poems staples to the wall and stands there, with his right foot sickles wrapped in a bra he stood there oblivious to it. Not saying anything after he walks away from the door he stands there silently, patiently waiting for a member of his close family to enter the room.

One might have thought Nico was walking into a horrific crime scene with the way he looked around at the poems and photos stapled to the wall. The man did a full, slow 360* turn as he looked around him before settling on Ethan Skinner again. “Bro...what the fuck is going on?”

“Drug fueled orgy, mushrooms and absinthe are better than viagra.” was the reply. Ethan continued ”All things come to an end Nico. All things. I intend to be that agent of change. I intend to do many things here in the N*FW. I intend on forming a tag team with you and going after the tag team belts. I intend on being one half of the mixed gender tag team champs. I intend on winning the silver mountain belt from Shelley to make up for her tossing me out of the battle royale. I stand by ready to win the heavyweight championship, if Judas ever loses it, just to keep it in the family.

My feud with the Retrogrades is over, when one door closes, another opens. Another has placed the targeting reticule locked solely on them. All things come to an end” Ethan turned to look at the man and smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be back, when I choose to be, not a moment before”.

Nico just stood there, listening to Ethan as he talked about...whatever the hell he was getting at. One door closing? Another opening? An agent of change? Did the attack from Andrew Payne really affect him that much? “You talking about Andrew Payne?” Nico shook his head, unable to hide just a small smirk on his face. He had to give Ethan credit and balls, definitely. Not that he doubted him, or anything. But… “Look, bro. Don’t beat yourself up over that. You called him out. He answered. You both got your licks in. You got a couple of scrapes and a busted back window and if I know injuries when I see one, I’m pretty sure you cracked him in the nose pretty good. Busted his lip, too. Last thing your crew needs is you up and bouncing on them. I may not be a part of it, directly, but I still have mad respect for what Lara and Judas wanna do. Lara’s starting a war. She’s gonna need all of her troops in line.” He went quiet and looked at Ethan. Was he even reaching the man?

“Not mad at Andrew at all.” Ethan sits down on the floor in the corner or the room by the exit to the balcony. “Are you familiar with the butterfly, because you look confused. Would you like me to elaborate on anything, everything?”

Nico just stared at Ethan, trying to wrap his head around the way the man worked. He always found the man to be a little…”different” from the norm. Wasn’t that what the “goth” society was all about? Nico didn’t know. But he had an odd feeling about what Ethan was getting at here. “You gonna try and sell me some creepy shit about a caterpillar evolving into a better life form?”

“Precisely. The caterpillar forms a cocoon and literally digests himself, and then spends time reforming into a winged creature from the leftover soup. Then the butterfly fights to break free from the chains that hold it in. Andrew did me a favour. So about us forming a tag team, thoughts? Are you in favour of becoming Lucifer’s Chosen? We’ve talked about this off and on, I just need to know, are you prepared?” Ethan looks up at the man, who is still standing in the ransacked room. “Your boot is caught up in a bra my friend.”

Nico’s posture went laxed, as he listened to Ethan’s proposition. Yes, they had talked on and off behind cameras about a tag team. Nico wasn’t certain where he wanted to take his career, though. As it stood, he was caught up in a war with AKI and Connor K against Suzuki-gun. Well...he and AKI were. Connor K was going to be gone for gods only knew how long. Nico looked down at the floor, lifting his foot and pulled a black lace bra off of his sneaker. He looked at it, then around the empty room. Vacant of anybody but himself and Ethan. Then, he looked back to Ethan and nodded at the bra. “You kick these girls out in their birthday suits or something?” He tossed the bra to the side and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Look, man. The tag team thing? I need more time to think about it. It ain’t off the table. Believe me. But I need to sort out this other shit I’m mixed up in before I can think about anything else. You just worry about getting your own head straight.” He brought up a finger to point at the man, stressing his point. “Judas needs you focused. Lara needs you focused. Me and A? I don’t know where we stand. I don’t know where her and Pop stand.” He shrugged. “But I know when Lara left her ex in a puddle of her own blood last week, she hit a switch in my sister’s head that was like opening up Pandora’s Box. I care about Lara and I care about you’s all in the Dominion. That’s why I’m telling you. I know my sister better than anybody. She ain’t right upstairs. Shit, I ain’t right upstairs, but A’s been through shit that makes my problems look like a housewarming party. When she gets set off? She goes out for blood. And she ain’t gonna stop until she gets the specific person’s blood she’s sniffing for.”

Standing as soon as he gets pointed at and his eyes narrow. Letting the man finish. “Nico, know that I love you, this is me at my most masochistic.”

Reaching out and quickly popping a few knuckles on the finger pointed at him.

“SHIT!” Nico shouted as he felt the knuckles on his index finger pop. He grabbed his hand, tucking it against himself as he turned his back to Ethan while the man continued speaking.

“I have said before, if you mess with Lara, you mess with me. So your sister is mine enemy as well. I had intended to mess with Andrew with purposeful no shows but your right, they need me. There once was a maiden who hade a face she showed the world. She found herself to be imperfect…. until the day she cut her face away, so she could be what was needed, when it was needed. “Perfect” she said. I will return with you, and together we finish what got started for us then we claim what should be ours by birthrights. Deal?”

Nico nodded, still with his back to Ethan. “Yeah, sure, bro.” He hissed in pain as he reset his finger joints himself, muttering curses under his breath with each one. He kept that hand tucked against himself. “Just one more thing, before we go.” With the quickness taught to him through legit boxing and not so much wrestling, Nico spun around with his good hand and clipped Ethan right across the jaw with a solid right cross, knocking the man flat on his ass and stepped back. “Now we’re even. Don’t ever pull this shit on me, again.” He said, raising his other hand as a demonstration. “Now get up, pack your shit and let’s get the hell out of here. We gotta hit the road to Birmingham tomorrow, anyway. I’ll wait outside.” Nico said, looking at his finger with the shake of his head as he stepped out of the room to let Ethan get situated. At least his finger wasn’t broken. “I’ll give you props on the Kill Bill, though!” He called back before he stepped out of the room and closed the door.

Standing up with a smirk and a nod, glad the man retaliated. He couldn’t be the God Of War if he just took that one on the chin. Shrugging at the mess he was leaving behind. The bras. The underwear. The empty bottles. The plastic bags with mushroom residue. The damage to the mattresses and bed side tables. Ethan put on a shirt and socks and shoes and grabbed his bag and met Nico in the hallway.