Post by Glenn Owen on Dec 3, 2017 16:08:24 GMT -5
I Guess It's Time To Rise Again
And so on this broken shore we see Ghost slowly and gently walking along a baron and forgotten beech somewhere out in the world. It would appear to be twilight, that special time of day where it is neither day nor night. Form the looks of it we would guess that night is slowly turning into day…. But in truth who can really be sure? Ghost certainly does not know! For after all, is there really any difference between the dark and the light anymore? Certainly not in this world!
As he gently walks along with his face fully hidden from view, he hears a voice in his head…
Voice: It’s time…
Ghost: Time for what?
He’s fed up with answering random questions in his mind. The mysteries that he is surrounded by appear to be fooling nobody anymore…. Perhaps they never did!
Voice: Why don’t you tell me…
Ghost: Tell you what? Exactly what is it you expect me to say?
That’s one thing that Ghost is truly fed up with. People expect answers from him, it’s the very nature of the world in which we fight, yet how can one answer correctly when nobody really knows what the question is! It’s like trying to explain the purpose of life…… that answer depends totally on who is asking the question……
Voice: Why don’t you answer Redd’s questions! Is he not the man you are about to fight?
Ghost: Redd has posed me no questions! He has simply stated who I am not…..and told me what I can never become and what I have never been…..
And isn’t there some truth to that statement… for Redd poses no questions, only statements. In truth this Ghost can never truly fight someone like Redd…. They are on two completely different planes of existence. Ghost is a man who questions the world…. Redd is someone who knows the world in its absolutes….. There is nothing that anyone can say that will convince Redd of anything other than what he already knows himself. So why bother talk at all…..
Voice: If you are who you think and say you are my friend…. You will at least give it a try!
Ghost: Why should I?
Voice: Because it’s what you do!
Ghost: Says who?
Voice: Says me….
Ghost: And who the hell are you to tell me anything?
Voice: Who is Redd to tell you anything! Are you going to educate me but let his words go un-challenged….
Ghost: I’ve had enough of you….
Voice: Well if that were truly the case, you know how to get rid of me don’t you!
And those words at least are true. Because Ghost knows exactly how to quiet the voice in his head. After all who is Ghost really? I think we all know that now don’t we?
He stops for a moment and looks out upon the ocean. He can see the moon fading, yet he can’t yet see the sun starting to rise! Maybe this phase of the twilight is going to last much longer than he expected it would. Just as so many things in life can turn into a much longer journey than you ever dared to dream when you first took your first step upon the path….
Ghost: For you Redd, and only for you I will break my promise to myself and speak directly two you. And I’ll start by asking a simple question….. what is a Ghost?
I’ll tell you shall I old friend? A Ghost is an entity that for some reason simple won’t pass on from the world of which he once inhabited. That at least is what I understand a ghost to be! That my firend and that alone is why I decided a ghost is all that I now am……. The very existence of a Ghost is a truly sad thing don’t you think? After all, it doesn’t belong where it lingers…. It’s time has come and gone…. It no longer belongs in the place of which it dwells….. yet it lingers on still…… existing, yet not able to play a part in the world of which it was once part of! It’s a figment of a past that has long since been forgotten, a relic of a former time, a simple shadow of what it once was….. That my friend is what a Ghost is…..
So a question I pose to you old friend…. Who is the true Ghost among us…. Is it me…. Or is it you?
He pauses for a moment, and whilst keeping the hood on his face enough to conceal his identity, he reaches into the pocket of his cloak and brings out a cigarette, of which he lights up and takes a long drag….
You think I do this to honor Shadow…. If that’s the case then you Redd…. you are wrong. And whilst I may well be eventual, let me quote some more words from our dearly departed friend……
“Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are”
Would you believe me Redd if I told you, and I really am not kidding when I say this….. Would you believe me if I told you I actually printed those words off and they now hang on the wall of my son’s bedroom! It’s a lesson that I will teach him, because if we know who our friends are, we know deep down who we are….
And let me tell you who you are Redd….. You my friend, you are the real Ghost! It is you my friend…. Not I…. of whom I can say exactly how you will be remembered!
You Redd, you and others like Jude don’t want to look towards the future, you want to remain squarely in the past. You choose to be a Ghost…. And it took someone like me to pretend to be a Ghost for you to actually realise exactly what you are…
For months now some of us have been begging for a new day. We’ve hoped and prayed that you and others like you would for just one second let go of what is behind them and look towards what can be in front of them. But you just won’t do it will you? For some reason you have decided to dwell forever in the past, and accept that this…. this broken relic of a federation is all that you will ever have, and dwelling in it like a Ghost is all you will forever be.
You surround yourself with people like Rumpke, guys who like yourself are old timers and who although are shadows themselves, deep down they give you some comfort… like the past somehow is still alive. Some of us have begged you, begged Joey, begged Cassandra to simply honor the past, but for the love of God move on and take SFT somewhere new, somewhere fresh...…
But people like you….. oh no! We don’t want that do we? Better to peruse the return of those who have forsaken us rather than recruit fresh blood and forget a new brighter future for us…..right Redd?
But I understand now…. I understand what I deep down always knew…. Living in the past is all that will make you happy……. I dare you to prove me wrong! You don’t want SFT to be what it can…. You want to be what it was…. Your personal little playground of darkness so that you…. And a select few others can dwell forever more in the darkness…..
You are all ghosts Redd….. So before you ask me if I want to play the game, bear in mind that it’s because of old timers like me that you still have a game to play……
Ghost throws down the cigarette onto the stones that line the ocean shore, and whilst turning his back to us he slowly drops the hood for the first time. He lights up a second cigarette, and after taking his first drag turns directly towards us….
And in what he is sure it no shock to anyone, we see that the man who stands in front of us is actually Glenn Owen….
I’m tried my friend, very tired. I failed to get through to Shadow, and that lives with me to this day.
For I failed to make him understand….. and now he is dead!
But you my friend, you still live. And I think you know that my love for you will not change based on the simple result of a match or the words that we speak to determine its outcome. So I have a favour to ask you Redd….
End me……
Glenn takes another drag of the cigarette and he slowly starts to walk up the beech once again….
I’ve done all I can my friend. I’ve done everything within my power to make SFT live again. You’ve seen the results, you’ve seen our portal to the world…. I’m proud of it. I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours re-creating your playground, but I’m afraid I don’t want to play the same old game anymore….. So I have to end Redd, and you my friend, you are the one that has to end me.
My path in the future has to be bright, it has to have meaning, and it has to have purpose! I have child, a family, I have a life to live and I cannot live it in darkness my friend! My son deserves a father than inspires him and encourages him to be the best he can be, not a father that dwells in a world long forgotten that’s only purpose has become to week in and week out preach what is bad about the world, tell us what is unfair and tell us how life will never be fair or just……. If you ever decide that SFT has a future, a future that is more than just an old run down playground for you and a few more old timers to dwell within, well by all means give me a call. I was prepared to go there with you Redd, hell I would have lead you there……..
But deep down my friend…. That’s not what you really want is it?
Because since our rebirth I’m afraid to say that you have done nothing to convince me that SFT is anything other than just a shrine to Shadow, a small place for you and others like you to dwell within and cast darkness upon all our hearts.
I couldn’t convince Shadow, and I can’t convince you. You win…. Well played. I guess unlike the game of monopoly that last for 2 days, this game lasted 17 years…….. but there can only be one winner Redd, and that winner should be you…..
And you’re correct, I will be forgotten! But that’s ok…… I’d rather be forgotten in a dying world and find a new one rather than die along in a small corner of darkness and just fade away. So become the Ghost Redd. But please…….. Please…..
End me……
You my friend are probably the greatest wrestler bar one that I have ever known. If you choose to, your words can and have destroyed the greatest we have ever had. I’d like to think I’m worthy of being one of the greatest, and so it’s down to you to finish me off. So do me that one last favour my friend….
Make me forgotten….. and then once day in a new and more prosperous world far away from here, it will have been you that will allow me to one day rise again…..
Glenn walks away up the ocean shore as the scene…..
Fades to darkness……
