Post by NATHAN O'CONNOR. on Feb 12, 2022 18:16:24 GMT -5
FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022 | PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
These past few days Nathan has taken a toll for the worst on him– to find out the hard way that his own brother was taken away from him and there’s no trace of his body around anywhere, it’s a hard toll that he’s had to take on his life. Hell, he’s not been able to tell his own father that Jason was gone, he just didn’t have the courage or even the guts to tell him. Truthfully, ever since the previous episode of Fallout, he’s been keeping his emotions locked away and keeping them under lock and key– hoping to make sure that he’s able to keep his head held high for Jason, wherever he might be, and pray that the day comes where he’s brought back to life and he’s brought back to the same reality that he’s supposed to be in. Luckily enough, he’s been given the day to spend training and having that opportunity being spent inside of the OWT Performance Center. To try and clear his mind of what’s been happening and help him focus on bigger matters at hand– a Clash of the Titans Match and a debut match for Project: Underground. Two big nights for him to try and prove himself some more, to try and make sure that he’ll make this year a standout year for him, and to make sure that everything that he’s worked hard for through the past year has been worth it.
Within the Performance Center, there stood Kit Darling alongside her husband– trying to be that bit of motivation that’ll keep his mind off of everything that’s gone down and made sure his only focus was set on landing every single strike along the bag. Nathan continued to land every punch, bare knuckled, and was just ripping into the leather with every single blow and strike that he was giving into the punching bag. Months of frustration, weeks of wondering whether his brother was safe or not, days of built-up anger being lashed out in one sitting. All of it was becoming too much pressure being let out in a single run. The punches were only getting harder and harder and harder as every second passed, Kit continued to call out to Nathan but it was no use– he was seeing red. Better, he was seeing the entity right in front of him. The same bastard that had took the life of his brother, the same bastard that took the life of his mother, the same bastard that has tortured his family for years and years and has always constantly came back to haunt them again and again without any kind of failure. Nathan simply wanted to punish him, he wanted to hurt him extremely, he wanted to make sure that he feels the same suffering that Nathan had felt for the past two whole fucking years—
“NATHAN!”
The loud yell came from almost halfway across the Performance Center; that yell came from Michael Bishop himself, his trainer for both OWT and for Project: Underground. The loud tone was enough for Nathan to stop within his tracks and finally come to his senses of what he was doing, leaving him taking some very heavy deep breaths as he glanced over to his wife, before falling down onto one knee and being left breathless and panting heavy. Bishop had walked over to Nathan and looked to pick him up– but Nathan simply did not want to stand back up.
“Is everything alright?” she questioned. “I know you’ve not been the same since– well, you know, but still. I’m worried for you, I’ve not seen this aggression from you ever. These past few weeks have made me see a different side to you that I just—”
“–that you don’t recognise, I know.” Nathan almost sounds ashamed to even answer that for Kit, it’s like that he was even noticing the changes he had with himself. “I’ve noticed the changes in myself too, and I’m feeling pretty damn disgusted over them. Everything’s been a pain to my side for so long it feels like and… I’ve just been bottling things up, not being honest with myself. I only want to just punish myself until I cannot move anymore. There’s times where I just never ever wanna wake up and I just wanna… I just don’t feel like doing anything anymore. This ain’t even me giving up on what I want to do– but I wanna give up everything to make sure that everything is back to the same shit as it once were.”
“Hey…” Bishop knelt down right beside Nathan and placed his arm around him. “I know exactly how you feelin’, mate. I want to make sure everything is back to normal as well. Things haven’t been the same since just a few months ago and– whilst changes are permitted for some people, there’s times when these people choose the wrong changes and they cannot help themselves to change back.” There were tears beginning to build up in the eyes of Nathan, but Kit was soon able to wipe away those tears with her thumb as she took a seat right in front of her husband. “I promise you this, Nathan. For as long as you keep your head straight with me and you keep to your word that you’ll work your ass off to make this year yours for the taking? I will fight, scratch, and I’ll fuckin’ claw to make sure I will get your brother back. There’s no way that he’s head, I refuse to believe it, and once I’m done with that entity fuck– we’re going to live our best lives without any of that shit to disturb us again.”
Nathan takes a moment to give himself one final deep breath before picking himself up, giving a quick look to Bishop and beginning to nod his head ever so slightly. “You have my word. My trust is with you, Mike. Please bring him home in one piece if you could—”
The silence that filled the room seemed to come all of a sudden as the three of them soon looked around the room to see where the silence soon came from– and that’s when it became clear what had happened, the whole performance center was completely emptied. Not a single person was inside of the building, which was already strange enough to think about because only seconds ago, it was already a busy day within the building. The windows to the building were blacked out, there wasn’t an ounce of sunlight entering into the room. Nathan brings his arm out in front of Kit to protect her, and as Bishop notices the movement that Nathan made– it clicked in his head as to what was happening. Though, it was too late to make any kind of warning as the flash of something went off inside of the room and temporarily blinded the three of them for only a second… but once opening their eyes?
“Nathan James O’Connor… it’s about fuckin’ time I’ve come to find you.”
There stood the entity, in the flesh, and making a beeline for Nathan from across the performance center. Nathan looked to stand his ground and made sure that Kit was a good distance away from him– but Michael was about to make sure that the entity wasn’t going to put his hands on Nathan at all, charging in and looking to boot the entity right in the face– but there was that moment where the entity had seen it coming, dodging the boot and grabbing Bishop by the neck, and in one swift motion he was able to pick up Bishop and send him ten feet across the building and right onto some of the gym equipment that was there. The entity watched Bishop crash and burn but then turned his focus back onto Nathan and Kit standing right in front of him, only a few feet away from him.
“Kit, run.” he soon exclaimed.
“I’m not leaving you! I’m not leaving you with him! Not like this, Nathan, please!”
“JUST FUCKIN’ RUN, KIT—”
The time that Nathan used to warn Kit of the oncoming danger was enough time for the entity to catch up and grab onto Nathan, slamming him into the glass mirror wall right behind him as it shattered upon impact, and then the entity chucked Nathan into the air with a powerful Biel Toss. The blood was dripping down along the back of Nathan as those broken glass shards that he fell onto had pierced his skin and cut into his flesh. Kit watched on in horror, standing a good distance away from the entity as he just stared right toward Nathan– trying to get back to his feet but finding it to be a struggle with all of the pain that he’s feeling.
“I fuckin’ warned you before about getting into my business, Nathan. I fuckin’ warned you about you getting in my way of things, trying to interject yourself into places that you simply do not belong in.” a pause to allow a smile to grow along his face. “And now, look at you— you’ve become weak, you cannot even stand up for yourself, and those around you? They’re nothing to you. They have nothing to help you with. They cannot provide you with the things that you need to try and beat me down! How many more times do I need to put that into your head, Nathan? How many more fuckin’ times do I need—”
THUNK.
Kit snuck up behind the entity and cracked him over the head with a sixty-pound dumbbell, dropping him down onto his knees and leaving him on the ground as he shakes off the attack from behind– the entity stood right back up to his feet and slowly turned his head to see who it was that attacked him from behind. Nathan was able to look up and see the sight of the entity and Kit locking eyes with one another, she stood there in complete fear and desperately tried to back away as the entity got closer and closer to her. The fear that Nathan felt was strong, he tried his best to bring himself back up to his feet but he couldn’t find the strength in his legs to even stand up, opting to get on his knees to scream at Kit to run away from him– but it was no use, she was caught in the grasp of the entity by the hair and she was dragged right in front of Nathan so he could watch his wife squirm in his clutches.
“YOU GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF HER, YOU CUNT!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, tears beginning to fall down his face as he continued to fear the worst for his partner, the mother of his unborn child. “IF YOU DO SO AS MUCH AS HARM HER, I SWEAR TO FUCKING CHRIST ON EVERYONE THAT YOU’VE HURTED IN MY FAMILY—”
“OR FUCKING WHAT, NATHAN?!” The voice of the entity echoed throughout the building as he shouted back in response. “This is what I meant about going that little step further the next time that you’d come and involve yourself in my business, this is what I meant about taking things too far for you to handle if you even dared to try and involve yourself in any of my matches, and now– look at you fuckin’ squirm because I came to do what I fuckin’ promised you I’d do.” The entity’s hand soon reaches down into his jeans pocket, grabbing onto a handle that was sticking out of the pocket. “Now, here’s the thing– I’m giving you a chance to redeem yourself, if you give me a date and a time for something that I’ll need. Provide me the date of when Savannah had first met Jason, considering you’ve known your brother so well to know who he is and who he isn’t– and if you do so? I’ll spare the life of Kit and your child.”
“You…” Nathan brings himself to one foot, trying to lift himself back up but continuing to fail once more. “...you wouldn’t fuckin’ dare. You wouldn’t harm her when you could simply put an end to me, leave the rest of my family in tears because you’ve collected another one of theirs to your fuckin’ hit list.”
The entity chuckled to himself and pulled out the handle that he was holding onto in his pocket– revealing it to have been a switchblade knife of his, the same knife that was lodged into his neck over a year ago, and Nathan’s heart soon sank upon seeing the entity beginning to play around with the knife in his hand. The entity glanced towards Kit, who had begun to cry heavy tears knowing her fate was decided on Nathan making the right move. That’s when he stopped playing with the knife and pointed it right down towards the bump of Kit’s stomach, pulling his arm back and swung the knife down into the direction of her stomach and her child—
“ALRIGHT! I’LL TELL YOU! I’LL TELL YOU!”
That valiant roar from Nathan made the entity stop the blade only a few centimeters away from puncturing into the stomach of Kit Darling, making him glance back at Nathan with a twisted and sick smile on his face. The entity soon let go of Kit and let her free from his grasp, placing the switchblade knife back into his pocket and makes a few steps forward to Nathan, standing right at where he was down on his hands and knees, seemingly pleading for something under his breath as he lifted himself up and looked up to the entity. “Please just stop hurting everyone. Please just stop, I’m begging you to fuckin’ stop, man. I just can’t do this anymore.”
“You’re going to tell me that date?” he questioned.
Nathan takes a deep breath, more so like a sigh, before he speaks softly. “...the date was February 18th of last year.”
“See? That wasn’t so hard on you to tell me, wasn’t it? I could’ve gotten that so much quicker if it wasn’t for your simple stubbornness.” The entity knelt down right beside Nathan and wrapped his arm around him.
“Now, how about we take a little trip down memory lane–”
Before he could even finish that sentence, the entity had clicked his fingers and just like how he arrived– a flash filled the room and time itself stood still, bringing Nathan with him on the journey to find himself back into the past of Jason Long.
TO BE CONTINUED.