Quick OOC Note: I'm stuck at work thanks to that snowstorm
making its' way up the eastern coast of the US, and will
likely be here until sometime Sunday afternoon, eastern US
time. Thus, this is why this RP is not in my usual layout
(as I can't access it here...). Apologies in advance for
any formatting errors, and thanks to Matt for helping me out
by posting this because of the aforementioned schedule. And
now onto the RP itself....



FLASHBACK
Gravesite of Elyssa Anderson
Bel Air Memorial Gardens—Bel Air, Maryland
November 26, 2009, 6:31 a.m.

'And on that day, the world changed.' A line most people
who had the joy of playing Final Fantasy VI would not
remember, as it wasn't very memorable. Yet for that point
in the game, it was quite fitting. The world as the
characters—and as the player—knew it was gone, replaced by
something totally different, yet eerily similar.

Exactly one year ago, at this very moment, my world changed
forever. The woman I was going to marry, the mother of my
twin children...gone in a fiery conflagration that ripped my
heart from me, and left my soul in tatters. At the time, I
had nothing left to fight for save revenge, and it was Trent
Steel who felt my wrath just two nights later. I look back
at the tape of that match, and I swear it's nothing like I'd
ever expect to see from me.

The calculating, defensive-minded wrestler everyone had come
to know was gone, replaced by someone who only wanted one
thing: to make others feel his pain. I had become a person
that not only looked out for just himself, but didn't care
what happened to those who got in his way.

Tess, bless her heart, did everything she could do to draw
me back out of the shadows I'd fallen into. By the time
February had rolled around, I was the same person I had been
before. Yeah, I was a little more mellow than what I used
to be, and had a bit more deliberation to my in-ring
approach, but I was back where I should have been all along.

And then March 29 came along. The day I thought my life had
ended. All it took was one second, one moment of impact to
send my life into shambles. One flaring moment of impact
from a man who had to have been scared of what I
represented, of what I could have—should have—done that no
one in nearly a year had done before. A single impact from
a man who was too much of a coward to meet me in an
honorable fight, and instead tried to end my life a month
later when again, I had him dead to rights.

It's been nearly nine months. Time heals the physical
wounds, but the ones of the heart, of the mind...they
remain. My next step is clear.

Jesse Williams must die.

\___(^)___/

Bynum Run Park
Bel Air, Maryland
December 14, 2009, 11:11 a.m.

People, no matter who they are, hate admitting that they are
in the wrong. Will was no exception to this rule. But as
he completed his third lap around the small lake on the
outskirts of the town of Bel Air, he had to admit that Tess
was right, in the end.

It was her parting shot the first time that got to him: was
it worth becoming an NLW version of Jesse Williams? He
could actually hear the quote from Friedrich Nietzche's
'Beyond Good and Evil' ring true in his mind: 'He who
fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become
a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss
gazes also into you.'

That's exactly what had happened to Will, and once again it
took an outside perspective to make it clear to him. Tess
was right. He had become so focused on what he wanted to do
to Jesse Williams that he had let himself nearly become the
very person he wanted to defeat. It was a sobering thought,
for certain, and as Will stopped to look out over the lake
he sighed.

I've been doing this for far too long to let myself fall
into that sort of predicament. I wasn't even this bad when
Jason Webb broke my ankle in 2001. What did I do then? Go
out two weeks later, still recovering from that injury, and
won my first singles championship. So why am I still
plotting the crippling of someone I likely won't encounter
again except in a worker/supervisor capacity?

No answer was forthcoming, and Will knew why: there was
none. He had fallen into one of the most common traps in
the book, and now had to extricate himself from it before
anything else happened that would further damage his career
and his mental state of mind.

Would that mean that he had done what everyone had been
saying all along, to forgive and forget? Hell, no. Had he
come to accept what happened as fact and try to move on? To
a point, yes. Will knew he would always be wary around
Jesse, much like during his time in the LWF/LWA he was
always wary around Jason Webb: once bitten, twice shy. He
wasn't about to let himself be put into position for the
same thing to happen again.

Though as Will walked back to his truck, he couldn't help
but chuckle at the irony of his situation. In 2002, Will
had been lined up for a LWA Championship match against Webb;
it was supposed to be the show that catapulted the
federation into the national spotlight. Two weeks before it
happened, however, the promotion closed down for good. Some
thought the owner had gone crazy and just walked away;
others speculated that there were pending legal issues that
forced the closure.

Now, here he was in NLW, as their Commissioner returning
from injury. The man who injured him is considered by many
to be the favorite to win the tournament, and Will knew that
down the line, he would be due another title shot. Wouldn't
it be ironic if this time out, he could actually pull out
the win and finally claim that elusive world title that had
been taunting him for nearly a decade?

\___(^)___/

Residence of William Prydor
The End of Nowhere—Bel Air, Maryland
December 14, 2009, 4:46 p.m.

The smell of ground beef cooking on the stovetop greeted his
nostrils as he walked into his home. His Russian Blue
rubbed circles around his legs before taking off in search
of his black cat. Hanging up his jacket, he walked into the
kitchen where he saw Tess busy preparing spaghetti for their
dinner that evening.

Just like most other times he saw her, he was quiet for a
moment, asking whatever power that was in charge just what
had he done to deserve her in his life, after everything
that had happened to Elyssa because of him. He still felt,
even after all of the hardships they both had endured
together, that he wasn't worthy of her.

Smiling, he walked towards her and embraced her from
behind.. 'I'm sorry, hon. You were right.'

'I know. You just needed to see it from a different angle,
is all. So are you over this obsession yet?'

'I...think so. Hard to say until things actually happen,
you know, but I think that thanks to you, my head's in the
right place.'

'Good. Dinner will be ready soon, why don't you get cleaned
up and relax a little?'

He smiled and kissed the top of her head before heading off
to the shower. Little did he know, however, that the span
of another day would make him wonder if his head was truly
where he thought it needed to be....

\___(^)___/

Residence of William Prydor
The End of Nowhere—Bel Air, Maryland
December 15, 2009, 10:11 a.m.

The Tuesday morning mail run only netted four junk mail
pamphlets, a utilities bill, and one piece of mail that Will
Prydor was examining closely, almost as if to judge where it
would be biting him next. Especially given the return
address at the top of the envelope:

McDonald #292187
MD Correctional--Hagerstown
18601 Roxbury Road
Hagerstown, MD 21746

Despite puzzling over this for a minute or two, Will
couldn't make any headway on figuring this conundrum out,
and it was with a shrug that he stuffed the envelope into
the front pocket of his sweatshirt. It was something he'd
look at later, when he had a spare moment. Call it a bit of
morbid curiosity on his part.

At the moment, his primary concern was what would be
happening at Uprising. The Board of Directors had once
again given the entire company off for the holiday season,
but they had decided on an end-of-year championship
tournament. While Will was still intending to let his
intentions be known as an alternate entrant should one of
the seven scheduled competitors end up being unable to show,
he was still dealing with the ghosts of his past. With
visions of his last tournament coming to mind, Will knew
that this could likely be his last chance—he was pushing the
age of thirty, and by this time a number of well-respected
wrestlers had won at least one world title in their career.

He didn't need anyone to remind him that he had yet to do
so. That thought nagged at him more and more in recent days
—that despite the Legacy title reign still considered the
longest in NLW, the Public Display of Aggression reign that
remained the longest in OWF, and the admittedly brief run
with NLW's Anarchy X title, people would still look at him
and say that he accomplished nothing. That was the sort of
professional legacy that he could do without.

Sighing, he walked back into his house, dodged a bullet of a
cat that raced by his feet, and hung up the sweatshirt on
the nearby coat rack. The edge of the envelope remained
visible, but Will paid it no mind as he headed into the
kitchen where Tess was sitting. She smiled and briefly
embraced him as he sat down next to her. 'So, Will...this
is it, huh?'

'Yeah. This is it. Excuse me if I don't feel too confident
given what happened before.'

'Will, you'll be fine. I've got faith in you. Anyhow, what
took you so long coming back in?'

'Just something that came in the mail, wasn't sure if it was
a sick joke or something. It's a letter from
Hagerstown...from Brandy.'

It was as if someone had hit a switch as Tess' face darkened
in anger. 'What in the hell is she doing writing to you? I
thought you made it clear that you wanted nothing to do with
her!'

'Does it look like I was asking her to write, Tess? I have
no idea what the issue is.'

'Well, what did the note say?'

Will shrugged. 'Never opened it. Debating on whether I
should.'

'What you should do is throw the note away, unopened, and
not let her get to you. You have enough to worry about as
it is without letting your entire mental state get totally
unbalanced!'

At this, Will turned towards Tess, head tilted slightly to
one side. 'What's got you so riled up, Tess? I don't think
I've ever seen you this angry.'

'I...it's...' she sighed. 'I just know what she did to you
in the past, how it affected you. I do not want to see you
go through that again.'

He simply nodded and smiled at her. 'I see your point.
Anyhow, I've got a few errands to run in town; need
anything?'

'No, I'm good. Hurry back, all right?'

Again, Will nodded and embraced Tess before turning on his
heels to exit the house. With his back turned, he never saw
the angry flash in Tess' eyes as he walked out of the door.
Nor did he hear her whisper, 'Should have finished it when
the chance was there.'