[Gravedigger sits in a dark room, on a chair, wearing only a black pair of boxer shorts. A light above his head swings ominously.]
“When I was eight years old, I became homeless. My mother was a drug addicted whore who spent her days strung out and my father died with a needle in his arm. One day, my mom went out for her latest fix and never came back.
The landlord took back the abode we were squatting illegally in and kicked me to the curb. I had absolutely nothing. No clothes, no money and no-where to go. I walked away from what was my home with nothing but the ragged clothes on my back.”
[He leans forward, placing his hands together.]
“I thought I was doomed.”
[Gravedigger shakes his head.]
“And then I went deeper into the Slums and learned how to survive. I was raped, tortured and abused at every turn. I spent my entire childhood begging for scraps just to see another day. I took those scars, those lumps, and wear them on my body in remembrance of exactly how it felt.
Every ounce of pain, every pang of hunger, every depraved act I performed or was performed on me, they form these tattoo’s and scars you see before you today. But I didn’t always feel that way. At the time, did you know what I felt?”
[His body is littered with former wounds now scarred, hidden amongst his black tattoos.]
“I felt doomed.”
[Gravedigger stands up and lets us look at his broken body.]
“I felt doomed when I was hungry.
I felt doomed when I was sad.
I felt doomed when backed into a corner and forced to do things no-one should ever have to do.
I felt doomed when I couldn’t escape that life that had been thrust upon me and I felt doomed when I was caught in the criminal enterprises, I had to be apart of just to survive.”
[He smiles.]
“I know exactly what it feels like to feel doomed…
…and there’s nothing you can say to me, do to me, or threaten me with that will ever compare, Stubbins.”
[Gravedigger once again takes his seat and leans forward, looking into the camera.]
“The true meaning of doom is different for everyone, I’m sure. For you, it might be The Burned Man and Destructo Boy turning their backs on you and trying to set your laboratory alight. That might feel like doom is on the horizon.
It might be that Malakai Midnight and I are coming to take those Tag Team Championships. Perhaps that fills you with a sense of dread and doom?”
[He smiles.]
“But for me?”
[His eyes narrow.]
“I’ve suffered the kind of doom men like you are accustomed to handing out, not receiving. I’ve knelt before doom, opened wide and taken him in. I didn’t want to, but I didn’t have a choice.
Now it’s your turn, Stubbins.
Because I know where all the bodies are buried…
… what’s one more?”