[Gravedigger sits in the darkness. We can hear him breathing but not see him.]

“Hello darkness, my old friend.”

[He sighs.]

“Do you know what they say about the dark? The longer you stare into it, multiple things happen. At first, one could easily convince themselves that something stares back. The mind in its terror begins to play tricks on you.

It’s tough at first. If you close your eyes, you won’t get to phase two. Seeing terror in the dark is phase one, but it’s a necessary phase. Without going through it, you can’t get to the next one.”

[Gravedigger can finally be faintly seen.]

“The longer you stare into the darkened abyss, the more your eyes adjust. That once pitch black somehow becomes a lighter shade of gray. Even though nothing has changed around you or in the environment, it begins to feel like it has.

You begin to see more than you did before. Whereas there was nothing but black, there’s now outlines of shapes and the beginnings of something else.”

[We can now see him fully, his eyes open looking at us.]

“And the final phase is light. Because eventually, as it always does, the dawn follows the dark. The light will peer in and make its presence felt. One way or another, that light will beat down the door until it invades every space and illuminates it all for you to see.

When that happens, you’ve made it. The darkness is no longer terrifying. It no longer exists, even.”

[Suddenly, a small glimmer of light appears.]

“I’ve spent my entire life in the darkness, waiting for the light. At the first, throughout my entire teenage years, I had my eyes closed, trying to fumble my way away from it. I didn’t want to see the horrors before my eyes, so I refused to open them. That just led me to being there longer and the time being harder.

When Tombstone finally saved me, he wrenched my eyes open and forced me to see. He made me look into that darkness and refused to let me look away.

That’s when things started becoming clearer.

Old School Wrestling appeared. Chain Reaction came to fruition and now I find myself in the Semi Finals of the historic Ring King tournament, my name forever etched into the history books for being more than the piece of shit I’d always been.”

[Gravedigger watches as light engulfs the room entirely.]

“Ring King is that light, finally shining through. It’s the break of the darkness and the beginning of the dawn. It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of and it comes for me in one week. Becoming King, just like my mentor did before me is everything. It’s an end to the darkness…

I haven’t been more ready to let the light in.

And now, my eyes are wide open. Nothing terrifies me. Nothing will make me close them.

For now, the time has come to truly see.”