Scene opens.

The Moda Center, roughly 30 minutes after Havoc has concluded.

You’re moving through the corridors that lead from your locker room and towards the secured lot where your rental car is parked.

The last few hours have had you on autopilot with only brief flashes of being in the here and now.

No, you correct yourself.

It’s been the last few weeks, if not months.

Being in the HWA is now as far removed as the joyful homecoming it was back in the early months of 2023 as it was possible to get.

Now?

Now it was a sentence.

A punishment.

What was that show again? The one with the children and the monsters…? What did they call it?

It was on the tip of your tongue…

Ah, ‘the upside down’, that was it.

Where a good deed went to die. Where evil reigned.

Your eyes flash to the large ‘HWA’ logo adorning the wall, the graphic standing out starkly against the pale grey concrete.

Where evil reigned indeed.

Your mind returns to the final moments of your match.

The scratch at the back of your throat a sign of the hoarseness that was coming from the yelling that you’d done…

How your ears burnt at the sound of that voice coming across the PA.

”He’ll do it Maniac….he’ll break your neck and leave you paralyzed for life. Even I won’t have use for your body. Say yes… say yes and I’ll help you. I help you… you help me. I want the first born sons. I’ve already had you… I want Kai, James, Jesse… I want…”

You were right there, back in the moment, practically begging Wolfy to dare come for you and end things.

Only to see him just stare back and grin that awful grin.

”He’s so…..succulent………… your Kai”

Your heart thundered at that even now, muscles flexing in your hand, curling your fingers like pistons pulling tight a metal claw upon an object… only Wolfy… Dream Master… whoever... no one was within range to grip and to tear apart…

The sound of a steel chair meeting the boots of the descending body of Jeremy Branson and a fraction of a second later the jaw of Maniac jolts you back towards the scene on the mat behind you.

You turn, you’re in a scrum of reporters desperate for answers.

Mics are thrust in your face while flashes from cameras do their damndest to blind you.

”Hans! What happened out there? Where did Maniac go?”

”Why did you let Jeremy assault Maniac?”

”Is your son safe?”

”Hans! Did Maniac really deserve that?”

You stop in your tracks.

That last question…

You turn your head, focusing on the face of the reporter that had said it.

”Jah.”

You swallow… feeling the proverbial knives and nails cutting at your throat as you do so.

You nod your head.

”Jah. He deserved it.”

Your gaze swivels around the room.

”I dare you to say that Jeremy doesn’t deserve his pound of flesh from Herr Chaos… und I dare you to ask me the same thing when I’m done with Wolfy.”

”Excuse me, it’s not Wolfy, it’s Dream Master and h…”

You cut the reporter off.

”Fick dich! Wolfy, Dream Master, whoever the f*ck wants to crawl out of a hole und come for me next… Jeremy has had the right idea this whole time… HWA has gone to the dogs und I won’t stand for it…”

You push through them like the bow of a ship cutting through the water.

The sound of that infernal flash photography mixed with their incessant questioning follows you all the way through until you’re ensconced within your car.

Eyes forward, you turn the ignition and make your exit.

End scene.