SIZZLE… SIZZLE…

“How did you sleep, Brian?”

Valerie Calvin, Brian’s mother, flipped the bacon on the frying pan and turned the sausages slowly. Brian always did love the breakfasts his mom cooked for him.

He sat at the dining table, already fully dressed at 10:00 in the morning. He had to leave in a little more then a half an hour if he wanted to be on time for his reunion with his brother, Adam. To answer her question, truthfully, he had slept awfully. But he wasn’t about to add to his mother’s problems by telling her that he had spent half the night lying awake, thinking about whether or not he was going to have to kill his older brother at 12:00 that afternoon. She had enough on her mind as it was.

“Fine, mom.” He sipped at his coffee, hoping the caffeine would jolt him to some state of awareness.

“Any specific plans for the day?” She looked over at Brian with dead eyes, and he could tell she was only feigning interest.

“Not too much, mom. I’m going to do a little bit of preparation for the Birthday Brawl, I think. I’ll probably head into town around lunch time and work out at the gym for a few hours. Nothing major.” He tried to sound as light and as general as possible, but he wasn’t too worried about her sensing something was wrong anyway. She had a lot on her mind already, especially with her husband still being in the hospital, and he really didn’t think she would pick up on the nervous edge in his voice.

“That’s nice, dear.” Valerie commented lifelessly. She picked the pan off of the burner and scooped some of the meat onto Brian’s plate. “Eat up, Brian. You’ve obviously got a big day in front of you and you need your strength.”

She had no idea.

------------

A half an hour later Brian was on his way, speeding down the Interstate towards his fate, whatever that may have been. A couple of times he thought he might have been acting foolishly, refusing to tell anyone where he was really going. If something happened to him when he was out there, no one would have a clue where he was.

But this conflict didn’t involve anyone else; it was between him and Adam. Maybe there was the possibility that Adam would pull a gun on him or something , not giving him a chance to defend himself, but he didn’t think that was Adam’s style. People who murdered with guns did it because of a burst of uncontrollable rage and anger. They did it in the ‘heat of the moment’. Adam had spent the last twenty-five years planning this meeting between him and his brother. Twenty-five long years of plotting. This wasn’t a ‘heat of the moment’ type of ordeal; this was a calculated plan of attack.

He marveled at Adam’s logic. His thinking process was the complete opposite of Brian’s. Adam thought that it was him who had been treated unfairly. He thought that it was him who deserved the revenge. But how could he come to that conclusion? Adam was the one who had murdered Brian’s dog, not the other way around. Adam was the one who destroyed everything Brian’s parents had ever given him. Their parents had treated Adam and Brian equally. But Adam obviously thought differently.

Brian figured that Adam’s problem was jealousy. All people are jealous, but his brother took it to a completely different level. He just couldn’t handle living with another person… he couldn’t handle someone else ‘stealing’ some of his thunder. Adam had been the numero uno for six years before Brian was born, and his personality just couldn’t deal with sharing the spotlight with anyone else. The feelings of jealousy and hate for Brian had just built, and built, and built… Soon there wasn’t room for anymore bottled up emotion. He had snapped… and left. And for twenty-five years he had been dealing with that emotion. It must have driven him off the wall by now. The person that he was going to meet at the farm was most likely just a shadow of the Adam he had known before. Whatever good that had ever been in that hardened shell was bound to be gone.

‘Stop it, Brian. Don’t kill yourself by trying to make this more complicated then it has to be.’

And so he just drove, counting the miles down and trying to focus on anything else then his brother.

------------

‘Here we are.’

Brian stepped out of the car, slamming his door. He surveyed the deserted area, not seeing any sign of human life. That was to be expected, though. After Brian’s grandfather passed away his father sold the farm and the house to a neighbor, but they only visited the farm during the hunting season. He didn’t expect them to be home for that reason, and of course, he figured that Adam had already made sure that it was just going to be Brian and him. Like Brian, he was sure that Adam didn’t want any involvement from anyone other parties.

He walked through the front yard of the farmhouse, taking a look around. To his right was the actual farmhouse; it was an old-fashioned, two story building that seemed to be crumbling a little bit as it was left unattended to. Adam may have been in the farmhouse, looking down from behind the corner of some curtain, and Brian made sure to stay on his toes.

To the left was the barn, an old wooden structure painted red like most barns in America were. The barn was around twenty-five feet high and very wide; it had been used to store all sorts of farm tools and tractors that took up a lot of room. The red paint was peeling quite a bit, though, as the barn had been left unused even longer then the farmhouse. The flat roof of the barn also looked to be in fairly bad shape; he could see some places where the wood had rotted through already. The front doors to the barn were wide open, but there wasn’t anything worth stealing inside, so Brian didn’t register that as abnormal. As he peered into the open doors all he saw was a large pile of hay, and nothing else.

He kept walking. Past the barn was the old garden that his grandmother used to keep. The garden was full of weeds now, and little of any real flowers still remained. On the side of the barn there was an old steel fence that bordered the garden. He couldn’t remember why his grandfather had put it there, but what he did remember were all the times he and Adam had climbed the long fence all the way to the top of the barn and looked down at the farm below. Neither of them had ever dared to try and climb onto the actual barn roof, as there was a bit of a gap, but it still had been pretty scary.

Past the garden was the farmland. One hundred acres of land that had seen all sorts of crops over its time. It, like the garden, was mostly weeds and wild plants that the new owners had planted to attract deer.

On the other side of the farm was –

“Hello, Brian. Glad you could make it.”

Brian turned around. Leaning against Brian’s car, with a sneer on his face and his arms crossed defiantly, was his older brother, Adam.

At forty-six years of age, Adam really did look like the years had been rough on him. His hair wasn’t gray, but it was pure white, almost as if he had dyed it that color. His face was covered with wrinkles and blemishes, and his teeth were visibly yellow. No, it didn’t look like Adam had put much of an emphasis on hygiene for the past twenty-five years.

What he had put an emphasis on, and it was very surprising to Brian, was his build. Adam hadn’t been scrawny when he was twenty-one, but he had definitely not been a person who regularly hit the weight room. But now… Adam was enormous. His arms were twice the size that they were when he had left, much bigger then even Brian’s, and his chest puffed out quite a ways. The muscles on his shoulders had also been increased tremendously, and it was a shocking sight to behold. Adam seemed to sense the shock on Brian’s face as well, and he grinned.

“Like what you see, Brian? I had to do it; you didn’t expect me to wait all this time and then show up unable to defend myself. I know all about your career as a ‘great professional wrestler’. Well, you weren’t about to leave me in the dust.” He flexed a massive bicep.

Brian gaped, unable to speak for a second. He finally swallowed, and then managed to get out, “What do you want, Adam? What can you possibly want from me?”

Adam’s grin widened. “Revenge, Brian. But you knew that all along, didn’t you? The question isn’t, ‘What do I want’, it’s, ‘Why do I want you here, at this pathetic little farmhouse?’ And that, little brother, is something that I can answer. You see Brian, it was here, at Grandfather Joe’s farm, when I first realized that you and I would never be able to coexist under one roof. There wasn’t any specific event that triggered this realization; I just knew. When I realized that I’d never be able to get our parents to side with me over you, I had to leave. But I knew that one day I’d get my chance for redemption, and I thought that this place would be a fitting place to do so.”

Adam took a few steps forward, his eyes never leaving Brian.

Brian paused, a million thoughts running through his head. “What do you want, Adam? You want to fight me, man to man? Because I can guarantee that you won’t walk away from this farm, if that is want you want.”

Adam laughed out loud. “I seriously doubt that, little brother. But no, that’s not what’s going to happen. I want to play a little game. It’s a fun game, one I’m sure will probably be a little familiar to you. Ready to hear the rules?” He smirked, as if this was all just a real big joke.

Brian frowned. “Don’t screw with me, Adam.”

“You must know that I broke into our parent’s house to steal mom’s locket and dad’s watch, don’t you?”

Brian began to fume. “Dad’s still in the hospital, you sick bastard.”

Adam ignored him. “Well, take a look up on top of the barn, Brian.”

Brian gazed up at the barn, shading the sun with his eyes. He didn’t see any – wait… At the very end of the barn he saw something black, like sweatshirt or a duffle bag. “What did you put up there?”

“That’s a black backpack you’re looking at, Brian. Inside are three items; Dad’s watch, mom’s locket, and a nine millimeter gun.” Adam spoke the words stoned faced. “The first to scale the steel fence on the far end of the barn is going to have access to all three. As for me, I won’t try to hide my intentions. If I reach the backpack first I am going to smash the locket, destroy the watch, and shoot you.”

Brian swallowed, hard. “And what if I decide that I’m not going to stick around?”

Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny, dangling key chain. The keys to Brian’s car.

‘What a time to leave the keys in the car… Nice job, moron.’

Adam continued, “And if you decide that you don’t want to play my little game, and you decide to run for it before I can get to the backpack, well, you know I’ll be back, Brian. And next time I won’t be so ‘nice’ to whoever gets in my way. You’d be much better off dealing with the situation now.” He grinned a toothy, disgusting grin, liking his lips.

Brian knew that Adam was baiting him into playing his game, but he didn’t see many other options that he had. He had no car, for one. And even if he did manage to run away before Adam could get to the gun, well, what was that going to prove? There would be no way that he would be able to concentrate on anything. He’d always be looking behind his back, waiting for Adam to make his eventual return. No, he had no option other then to take care of business here and now.

“Let’s do it then, big brother.” And without another comment, Brian took off on a dead run for the fence.

Brian took Adam by surprise with his speed, and he managed to get a pretty substantial head start. Maybe he was being cowardly by trying to get an advantage this way, but this wasn’t a wrestling match. There wasn’t any ‘pride’ on the line here; he was fighting for his life.

Brian reached the fence and leaped, grabbing onto the cage-like structure and beginning to climb as quickly as he could. After five or six steps up the cage he stopped rushing himself; with a lead like that is wouldn’t be very smart to take a chance and fall when he practically already had won the –

“WOAH!”

Brian nearly lost his grip on the cage. He managed to steal a look down, and he was shocked to see Adam had managed to get a hold of his ankle.

‘How did he catch me?’ He thought, wondering desperately.

Adam gave a tremendous jerk with his arm, yanking Brian back down to the ground. Brian hit the ground and quickly did a reverse somersault, rolling back to his feet. Adam turned towards him, smiling that sick smile once again. “Going somewhere, little brother?”

Brian scratched his head, not believing that his brother could have caught up with him so damn fast. He didn’t have much time to consider, however, because Adam didn’t wait around for Brian to make the first move this time. He charged Brian, knocking him over with a big running forearm smash. As Brian hit his head on the ground he went black for a split second, a flash of images filling his head.

~FLASH~

Jimmy: Ooh, and Calvin is pulled back down off the WWATron, knocked to the ground with a big running forearm!

Fat Tony: This is for all the marbles, Jimmy, he’d better not screw this up! Birthday Brawl 2004, the World Title is on the line! It’s practically life or death!

Brian leapt to his feet as Adam charged again. This time Brian was ready, and he ducked under his brother’s massive arm. As Adam’s momentum carried him past Brian grabbed the back of Adam’s neck and leaped forward, taking him to the ground in a bulldog type maneuver. This didn’t keep Adam down for long, though, and both got to their feet, gathering themselves quickly.

Adam stomped forward, delivering a big right hand to the side of Brian’s face. Brian bounced back quickly, however, and he managed to land a punch of his own, directly to the side of the head of his older brother. This stunned Adam, and he fell back a few feet, dazed.

Brian continued his assault, hurrying forward and unloading a solid knee to Adam’s sternum. Adam hunched over, in serious pain, and this gave Brian a prime chance to put his brother in a headlock, dropping him down to the grass in a DDT type maneuver.

~FLASH~

Jimmy: Calvin gets off the DDT, and it looks like he’s regained some of the momentum!

Fat Tony: It’s down to just two men, Jimmy. One of these two is going to be crowned your next World Heavyweight Champion, and I can only HOPE that it isn’t Brian Calvin.

Brian got to his feet first and proceeded to snap kick Adam in the gut three consecutive times. On the fourth attempt, however, Adam turned over and caught Brian’s foot with his massive arm. It didn’t take too much for Adam to pull Brian’s legs out from under him, dropping him to the grass and onto his butt.

Both of the Calvin brothers scrambled to be the first to their feet, and they ended up getting up almost at the same time. This time Brian moved to go on the offensive, and he rushed forward at Adam, looking to hit him with a clothesline under the neck. But Adam ducked under the clothesline and grabbed Brian under the legs, picking him up like a rag doll. Brian struggled feverishly to free himself of Adam’s grip, but the strength of his brother was just too much. Adam spun around to where he was facing the fence, and he began running towards it. Brian, sensing what was about to happen, began pounding on the back of Adam’s head with his fists, but it was too late. Adam slammed Brian up against the wooden side of the barn and then threw him off to the side. Brian landed in a crumpled heap, his world spinning.

~FLASH~

Jimmy: Oh my God! Brian Calvin has just been manhandled, slammed off the side of the WWATron. He looks to be unconscious, Jimmy. I think this may have spelled the end for Brian’s World Title dreams.

Fat Tony: He won’t be getting up from that shot, that’s for sure!

Jimmy: It’s just too bad that he had to go out like this, when he was so close!

Adam brushed his hands off and began climbing the cage. He was halfway up the barn before something awoke inside Brian’s head, jolting him to a state of semi-consciousness.

‘Get up. Now. Get up, or you’re going to die.’

Brian moaned, turning over onto his back.

~FLASH~

Jimmy: I don’t believe this, but Brian Calvin has just moved! It looks as though he is –

Fat Tony: No, it can’t be! It just can’t be!

Jimmy: Yes, ladies and gentlemen! Brian Calvin is on his feet!

Fat Tony: There’s no hope for him, Jimmy.

Jimmy: Yes there is! Hurry Brian, you can still do it!

Brian willed himself to reach the caged fence, and when he did, something inside him suddenly roared to life. It was like a part of him that had been turned off all this time had suddenly awoken, and, before Brian even realized it, he was filled with a rush of energy that had seemingly come from nowhere. Within seconds he had scaled half the barn, right on the heels of his brother Adam.

~FLASH~

Jimmy: I can’t believe it, Tony, look at Brian Calvin go!

Fat Tony: I haven’t seen someone scale a fence that fast since I worked for the border control in Texas!

After a few more seconds Brian had reached the top of the barn, just after his brother. There was a scramble to get onto the barn first, with Adam just a quarter of a second in front of Brian. It was then foot race to the left side of the barn where the backpack was lying, and --- Adam got there first. Brian pulled up short, nearly letting his momentum carry him right over the edge.

‘No! No, damn it! I won’t let him win this way.’

Brian put his hands up as Adam picked up the backpack, victory in his eyes. “Looks like this is it, Brian.” His fingers fiddled for the zipper. “I always knew this day would come, and it looks like it has finally happened. Are you ready for the end, Brian?”

Brian stared down at Adam’s feet, knowing that he was defeated. That was when he noticed the large crack that was running down the center of the board, right on the edge of the barn, just where Adam was standing.

‘This barn is so old and rotten… Of course.’

“Brian, I asked you a question. Are you ready for the end?”

Brian took a small step to his right and brought his left leg up, prepared to bring it down in one big smash. “Yes, Adam, I think I am.” Adam’s expression turned slowly from one of puzzlement, then of horrified realization, but it was too late. Brian thrust his foot down as hard as he could. The rotted board immediately gave way. Adam slipped, losing his balance, and he toppled off the edge of the barn, dropping the bag back onto the barn as he tried desperately to grab on to something solid.

Brian fell to the right and landed safely in the middle of the roof, afraid that he might lose his own balance and slip as well. He didn’t see his brother hit the ground. After several seconds of silence he managed to sit up, and he crawled carefully so that he could steal a glance over the edge. Adam was lying on his back in the middle of the yard, completely motionless. Brian reached over and grabbed the bag that Adam had dropped, tears welling up in his eyes. He crossed himself.

~FLASH~

Jimmy: HE DID IT! BRIAN CALVIN DID IT; HE IS YOUR NEW WWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION!

Fat Tony: I can’t believe it! It’s a travesty!

Jimmy: Brian Calvin defeated the odds, came back from a seemingly impossible situation, and it is he who is holding the WWA Championship this evening! It was a hard fought battle… No, it was a hard fought WAR! The competitors of this match should be proud of themselves; every one of them busted their asses preparing this week, hoping that they would be the ones to take home the biggest prize. Unfortunately, only one man could do it, and he is your new champion, Brian Calvin!

Fat Tony: But at what price did it come?

And as Brian began to climb back down the fencing from which he had climbed, black backpack (world title) still in hand, a faint ‘Cal-vin! Cal-vin!’ chant could be heard in the distance.

The scene fades to black.

(End of Part 3)