My name is Kristos. Kristos Zatania.
I look out of my hotel room window, at the scenery that Brooklyn offers me. And I smile, nodding wordlessly to myself. Who else would I be communicating with non-verbally? I have no one in my life currently.
My best friend in the whole world, Abishiek, is enjoying the wonders of married life and no doubt plundering his new wife non-stop. My younger sister, Helena, is probably partying away at some rave in the Czech Republic and flashing her chest at whoever shows her the slightest interest -- or promises her a taste of whatever new drug's making the rounds.
No, I have nobody in my life. Just myself and my memories of the past. A past that haunts me. It's an unfulfilled past. I've lived a life of very little consequence, with nothing to show for myself. I've just turned 32 not a week ago, and as I try to remember what I've done that I can brag about, I come up empty.
10 years ago, I had the bright idea of becoming a wrestler. I was fit enough, I thought. And since I had money, I purchased some fake documentation to validate myself as a professional. Those few months? I deserved an Academy award for managing to shield the fact that I was wounded pretty badly after every match.
Still, the thrill of the sport enticed me greatly. I became a wrestler as a form of earning some pocket change and also as a way to kill the time, since I wasn't doing anything else. However, I fell in love with the business. And I decided that I would dedicate myself to becoming good. Great, even. Stupidly, I vowed to become the greatest wrestler that ever lived.
How foolish I was. I look back now not with rose-tinted glasses, but with absolute disgust. Stepping away from the window, I walk toward the shower, cringing at the stench of my own body odor. I take a peek at the random girl I'd picked up the night earlier after much partying and felt proud. I pounded her ass well and good.
Reaching the shower, I turned on the water heater and looked myself at the mirror. My beard was growing back after simply two days of not shaving. Not a surprise.
What is a surprise is looking down and finding my reproductive organ completely flaccid. It should have stiffened by now. Just as well, what's-her-name isn't awake and I'm not one to literally poke and prod somebody in a state of slumber. Although, as I walk out of the shower and approach the side-table next to my side of the bed, I take a glance at the calendar and make a mental note about going to a doctor to get a routine check-up.
I'll be needing it, now that I've found what I've been looking for.
It all began three months ago. It culminated last night. And the best part about it is that every time I think about it, I become so happy. So much so that I wrote it down on a piece of paper.
Placing my bare ass back on the bed, I look at the folded piece of paper laying in between the calendar and my pack of menthol cigarettes. I pick up the piece of paper, my right hand trembling in excitement. I haven't been this hyped since I thought I'd won a million dollars, only to later realize that I was scammed.
This time, however, I can feel it. The electricity in the air is intense. That one single word written down on the piece of paper in my hand will change my life forever. I just know it.
I open up the folded piece of paper, and the single word written on it makes my lips curl upwards. I'm beaming from ear to ear, and everything I've seen the previous day about this particular project makes my heart swell. I know, in that instant, that this is what I've been needing.
It's what my whole life has been building up towards. Oh yes.
L E G I O N
And my eyes twinkle with delight.
"This is it. This is what I am meant for."
I make a conscious choice not to look back from here on out. The past would forever be the past. The future would be unwritten until it happened.
The present, however? The here and now?
It would be the only thing I have control over. And I will therefore steer myself towards the Church of Fight, believing in myself. My heart. My soul.
I believe.
... And that's all I shall need.
