“Allow me to tell you another story..”

“The story of a man who wished for a shield.”

“He saw the chaos that surrounded his every day life. He saw the terror that crawls through the deepest and darkest walkways of Arcadia.”

“He was no stranger to the dangers that go bump in the night..”

“Yet he knew that should those terrors come for him, he was defenseless.”

“He wished for protection.”

“He searched all throughout Arcadia, testing each and every shield he could find..”

“But none of them would withstand the pressure he placed on them and they cracked and broke to pieces under his wrath. They simply would not serve as a shield worthy of protecting him.”

“In order to find such a shield, the man would have to create it.”

“And so, he spent countless nights locked away, forging the metal that would become his shield.”

“Through trial and error, he forged that shield to be the strongest in all of Arcadia.”

“It withstood anything that he threw at it. Never cracking under the pressure.”

“Behind this unbreakable shield, he was free to flex his power.”

“Until the day that his iron grasp grew too loose.”

“The shield slipped from his hand.”

“And for the first time, he found himself completely defenseless against the world around him.”

“No shield.”

“No protection.”

“Completely exposed to the wonderful, horrible, agonizing pain that he feared so much.”

“When you found me, Klaus, I was weak.”

“I was broken and I had nothing left to live for.”

“You gave me the hope that someone still cared about me.”

“You gave me hope that even though my true family had been ripped away from me, I could find that same companionship within your circus.”

“You fed me a plate full of bullshit and lies, making me think that I had to become the shield that would protect our little family of freaks and misfits.”

“But really, you only wanted me to protect you.”

“How many nights have you held a hot steel poker to my bare skin? How many times have you stood over me while bashing my head in with an assortment of different objects?”

“How many times have you sent me into your war?”

“You forged me to take the pain and abuse that you knew you could not.”

“But you no longer have a hold of your shield, Klaus.”

“At Ring of Dreams, you will face retribution for the abuse that you put me through.”

“The shield that once endured every bit of misery that came your way is now free from your grasp.”

“And I plan to make you suffer the same beautiful agony that you’ve put me through for years.”

“Of all people, you know that I will not break. I will not chip and I won’t crack under pressure.”

“And as you lay broken at my feet, you’re blood splattered all over the face of the shield that’s protected you for so long..”

“It will finally be my time..”

“Let me ease MY pain, Klaus.”