"wasteland"

A couple months ago, I yelled at Jonathan Collins for taking David Zinkus and just running off to New York to see Rachel Foxx and discuss things. I didn't understand what he was doing then.

Here I am, on my way to Las Vegas, to deal with a man simply known as Aiken.

To understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, you have to put it all into context.

My life has changed at what some people would consider a break neck speed. They were peripheral at first, as I started dealing weed to a guy named Tom Higashikata. Next thing I know, I'm the guy Tom gets his from and he's selling my stash for me. And then after that, I meet his wrestling buddy who accidentally introduces me to a broad named Payton James. Payton James becomes my dame and then gets into a coma, and I wind up being emotionally attached enough to the broad to go try to murder the guy who did this to her. I fly from San Diego to Japan to do this, get arrested, get bailed out, then start taking wrestling lessons from Jonathan Collins and his secret army intent on helping fix some of the biggest crimes in pro wrestling and saving the sport from one monster at a time. I get to know Chris Strike as one of the few people who knew he was WEAPON, and it led to me building a relationship with a crew known as The War Machines. Michael Sharp, Phats, Muramasa...those are my people. They're rowdy fucking rednecks...or at least it seems. Sharp? He got me. He also taught me I didn't need to swing a pipe to be a bad mothertrucker, but I learned the art of the crowbar from him.

Cue Cailey Carter. In my attempt to learn from Jon and Chris, I met Cassidy Carter and got a little flirty with her...by flirty, I mean that I totally would've put it in her if she would have let me. One day, she got KO'ed and taken from Knoxville by Jaina Frost and Celeste Archer, reemerging weeks later as a sociopath and sadistic, willing to hurt anyone. I wanted to save her, feeling remorse that I couldn't avenge Payton. Over time, Cailey started to bond with Tommy and me, and someone who thought we were incompetent became our friend and became my dame...I guess.

You want the truth? I've never had a lot of friends. I'm a military brat, so friends arrive in your life with an expiration date. A family gets transferred or deployed, and suddenly they're not there anymore. I don't know how to cope with having friends that stay with me so long. However, this isn't about me as a person; it's about me as a story. So let's continue.

The Sisters of Sin have been relentless. They've attacked Cailey, Tommy, and me at every turn. Just recently, I was stunned to have the support from Daniel Lanning and Shinji Uchikawa. Everything in my career has been a one man war until now.

Because as much as I've found a team in the ring, my one man war now becomes what's outside of it.

And that's what you've fuckin' missed on Glee.

The reality is that the long and uncomfortable ride to Vegas with this guy Gabriel. It's not the first time I've been in a car with this guy, and something tells me it won't be the last. There's no such thing as conversation in this car. From what I can gather, this whole thing with Aiken is very measured and rehearsed. This has all been done before. From someone with a military father background, I can tell when something has been practiced and done as a routine. If Jon is organized, Aiken has this whole thing down to a science. This seems to be something Jon is just starting, while Aiken has been doing this for years.

Which makes me wonder just how old this guy really is and if calling him the devil is more fact than opinion.

Sitting in the car, I try to think of a song to have some form of music or something outside my head. Right now, pretending the only thing on my mind isn't the fact that I'm about to do something really fucking stupid would be nice to have.

See, the problem in my life is doing something stupid and thinking about it. Not thinking about doing something stupid typically works for me (and that depends on who you ask), but the reality is that I'm so good at what I do because I literally do not think of the consequences. And maybe, for the first time in my life, I have to think about what I'm doing because asking everyone to bum rush to save me is going to put more people in danger. I put Cailey and Tommy into danger by taking up this war with Jaina, Celeste, and Cassidy. I put Jon in the cross hairs by poking the bear, and I didn't even realize it until I actually stopped what I was doing.

"He'll be expecting you. Try not to be so...you," Gabriel says to me as I can start seeing the lights from the Vegas strip in the distance and I simply nod. This isn't about me anymore. At some point in time, your actions have to be something that are far bigger than you. At some point, you have to make decisions that are good for not just you, but the people around you. So doing this is to protect everyone that matters and some people who don't.

Some people think it's over dramatic to say lives are at stake. The problem is the moral dilemma of which lives are more important.

At the risk of sounding like a fucking nerd, there's a test in Star Trek called the Kobayashi Maru. It's a test that's designed to be a no win scenario. You get put into a scenario where you can either abandon a ship and be forced to watch the crew die, or you go to rescue them and directly put yourself in a line of fire and get decimated by the enemy. The test is my situation in life right now. I can abandon people and watch them die, or I can keep diving in. The truth is, no matter what choice I make, I'm going to lose something or someone that matters to me, so I have to choose what means more.

It's either my past, or my present.

Deep within the neon of Vegas, I wonder just what Aiken could or would do in a place like this. They say it's a city of Sin, and people don't realize I've quietly watched what he's done from afar. Mika Kozlov, Jade, Red Rayne, a group known as New Eden. I've backtracked and seen the differences in these girls from before Aiken got his hands on them until now. They're bloodthirsty and even worse than what Rachel's done to Cassidy, and I didn't think I'd ever see that. It's a moment like this I wish I was gifted with Sharp's silver tongue, just to see if I could talk my way out of this. I doubt I could, because Aiken doesn't seem like a guy someone like me outsmarts. The devil could go down to Georgia to look for my soul, because I sure as shit don't have the fiddle skills to outdo him.

Getting out of the car after Gabriel pulls up to the hotel, I look to see if he's coming with. He's not, and I'm ready to walk in. It's not in the seedy part of the strip, but I keep looking and I wonder how many people he has his fangs in here. I look around for people with nothing but black in the eyes, wondering if it's true that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If it's real, then I wonder just how much evil and darkness he's put into those people, and the more I think about it, the more I realize I'm psyching myself out as I walk through the hotel lobby, a slip of paper telling me what floor and what room. The more I look, the more I think I see these things and then it's the vibe that I have literally found myself in the wolf's den. It's gonna take a lot of balls to do this, but I step in the elevator and I start to make my way up before I get a text message. Looking at my phone, it's Cailey, and she has one simple question for me.

"What is he holding over you?" it reads.

"nothing, let me handle this," I type back. I'm lying.

Elevator music playing what seems to be a muzak version of "Sympathy for the Devil" plays and as I step out of the elevator, feeling like I'm taking the longest walk down this hallway. There's a lot to think about as I keep taking step after step and I stop responding to Cailey's texts as I approach the door. When it opens, they're all there. Silk, Rayne, Mika...

...and Aiken.

"Mr. Caldwell, have a seat," he says, his black eyes looking up at me. I feel like I'm dealing with Jonathan Collins if he gave into his dark side, the price of the suit multiplied by five. Jon's a good man that lives a modest life, and Aiken is a more lavish side than even I imagine. Taking a seat but not taking my eyes off the man and his servants, I look at him and I try to keep my composure. It's not every day you have to stay evil in the eyes. "Drink?" he asks.

"Just water," I say back and I realize I probably would be better off asking for brandy or vodka, anything to take the edge off. Within a moment, Mika reaches for a water and hands it to him, Aiken giving it to me. "Now...why I'm here," I say.

"Yes, why you're here," he responds, his lips curling to a smirk.

"Show me Payton and my dad," I say.

Within moments, he opens up his laptop to show me security cameras rolling. Payton in her hospital bed, an undisclosed location, my father in New York.

"I can help them, Carey. I can make them well again," he tells me.

"So you keep saying," I reply. "What's the cost?" I ask.

"Join me."

Kobayashi. Maru.

EXODUS Pro, you have no idea who I am, so this is going to be a real fucking wake up call for you. My name is Carey Dean, and I'm the goddamned Son of Disaster.

For the past few months, I've been butting heads with the biggest, baddest, and bitchiest in (R)Evolution Wrestling. Deacon Jeremiah? Flattened him. Aries Reed? Knocked him to fucking hell and back. Kylar Stark? Ask him how it feels to be hit by the oncoming train that is Carey Dean. Now you're putting me into trios action against one of your biggest bad guys and two people I've been itching to put in a choke hold on?

THANK. FUCKING. GOD.

Sometimes, we all need a soul that needs a little venting, and holy shit I need this. See, I'm familiar with your bad guy, Daisuke Iwakuma. Daisuke seems to have a hold on Eve, who I don't think is a real bad person at all. Evie just does what she's told, but I have a feeling that hold on her is loosening, Daisuke. See, HATE? HATE is weaker than you want to give it credit for. I've beaten Oliver Creed. I've beaten Kylar Stark. I've been a one man HATE-wrecking machine in RW and I'm looking forward to proving to the rest of the world just how weak your group really is when I cut the head off of the serpent itself. The problem with what I want is the fact that Jon wants you alive. I don't know how deep it runs with you two, but if it's as deep as what I have with the Sisters of Sin, then he's going to have to know I'm leaving him just enough to finish off at The Autumn Effect 2. Maybe you guys need to finish it your way, but trust me...you are NOT going to last long against either one of us or the old man's wife. You've pissed off a lot of people in important places, so don't be surprised when you finally have to pay the piper for your misdeeds.

Daisuke, if you think I'm going to go down without a fight...it's not happening. I believe that it's time to put you down once and for all, and if I can't, I swear to holy hell I will watch as Jonathan Collins puts you down once and for all for your sins!

But you're not my demon. It's the other two.

Celeste, you've been the quiet one of the group and that's fine. I know it's the quiet ones you need to keep look out for, and trust me when I say I recognize the threat you and Cassidy are to me, to (R)Evolution, and possibly to EXODUS if you guys get on that roster. If you don't get stopped, then you guys could finish the job someone like Christum Furor started, and that's not something I want. You've not been around much, Celeste, but I can guarantee you that in the biggest match of your career in EXODUS, you won't win. Not when I have The Golden Sentinel! Not when I have the Stardust Seraph! You're coming into the RIMAC to take us out and when you're standing up to the unstoppable force of three people who believe in EXODUS Pro, WE WILL. NOT. FAIL!

Cassidy, I've been saving the worst for last, and we both know how real personal this is. The mind games with your sister, the head games with Jon...the problem with you is that you seem to think that getting into people's heads with words and threats work. The truth is that to play a head game, you need someone who you can get into the head of.

That's not me, sister. Not me by any stretch! I AM FUCKING OUT OF MY GODDAMN MIND AND IT DON'T BOTHER ME ONE FUCKING BIT!

Cassidy, I'm fucking over your goddamn games and your threats, because I'm fucking ready to fight! I have been through everything to defend this company from you and the Hot Topic Twins and now you're right in my crosshairs! You've been really good and you've done a smart thing traveling places and learning your craft, but you know something? We're all equal when it comes time to throw fists. You can be as quick and flexible as you like, but the minute the business end of my left hook cracks your nose, YOU WILL BE MY GODDAMN VICTIM! AND I WILL VICTIMIZE YOU LIKE YOU DID TOMMY! LIKE YOU DID CAILEY! LIKE YOU DID JONATHAN COLLINS! I WILL MAKE YOU FEEL PAIN YOU DIDN'T KNOW WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE I AM GOING TO FUCKING DESTROY YOU FOR ALL THE HURT YOU'VE CAUSED!

Daisuke...Celeste...Cassidy...this is my moment to make an impact to the world of EXODUS Pro. This is my one opportunity to show them what the future of the business looks like. And this is my one opportunity to get my life back on track. I'm not gonna let it slip.

I'm going to make my mark by ending the terror of the S.O.S. and HATE in one night. Then I'm coming for the rest of my demons. Come Monday night, you three can expect to get wrecked. Count on it.