Pop…. Crackle…. Hiss.
The cremator burns hot before Tombstone and Igor Mortis. The temperature is enough to make a mortal sweat. Neither are bothered by the heat. They watch the flames roar through the industrial sized furnaces window.
“Some people believe that cremation is a whole life turned into two point four kilograms of ash.”
“Here in one moment and gone in the next.”
Igor looks at Tombstone and laughs beneath his breath quietly.
“Because when an inferno does its job, there’s nothing left but remnants of what was. Ninety minutes of consumption and an entire person has been reduced to a mere pile of what the fire couldn’t consume.”
Tombstone closes in on the window to check on the cremation, whilst Igor stands behind him, now talking.
“Those of us in the business of death know the truth.”
“Death is all consuming of the visceral form. It eats away at the carcass, whether beneath the ground or in the flames, it matters not. It leaves behind bone. It leaves behind ash. Everything death touches, it consumes, and discards what it cannot. Through fire and flame or earth and nature, it acts.”
The Ferryman rises, returning to Igor.
“When the fire consumed your visceral form, you must’ve felt like it ate away at you, Maxell. It took parts of you that you could not replace. It melted flesh from your skin, seared away your features and replaced them with the stench of death.”
“It must’ve made you feel like the world had ended. I cannot imagine the pain, nor can I imagine the emotional damage of feeling such a way. I cannot image feeling as if you’d died, because I do not and cannot.”
“But you did not die.”
“Some people believe that cremation is a whole life turned into two point four kilograms of ash.”
Igor interrupts.
“And those believe would be mistaken.”
Tombstone nods.
“Not only weren’t you reduced to ash, but your whole life is more than the carcass that carries you through it. Your existence is more than the visceral form, Maxwell. Your existence is made of intricate details, such as your emotions, personality, and soul. It’s made of the memories you’ve created with your boy and your wife; Zeus rest her soul.”
“Yet you’ve behaved as if the fire consumed you and turned you to ash. You behave as if you were cremated and all that remains is into two point four kilograms of ash.”
The fire on the cremator slowly fades away.
“On Monday Night at NXT Level, the flames will surround us. They will beckon, beg, and plead to assault us, to consume us, to ravish the carcasses we use to carry us forward.”
“Only one of us is the undertaker, Maxwell.”
“And if you wish to behave like you’ve been consumed, then I will undertake the task of turning you into ash.”
“When I do, that’ll be your end.”
“You should never fear the end, Blaze. The end is where we meet…”
“And I will send you on your way.”