“You may not want to do it, but you will do it.
It’s for your own good.”
Flashback.
The Slums. Tombstone finds a man slumped against a brick wall; his face drained of all color. His eyes are vacant, and there’s vomit staining his near purple lips.
The Ferryman reaches down to check for a pulse. It’s there, but feint.
He scoops the man up into his arms.
Flutter.
“I’m not sure what came over me on that day. I never intervene in the order of things. But when I saw you slumped against that wall, something inside of me snapped.
I could’ve been you.
I was tempted. There were times when I was at the end of my rope, my life hanging by a thread that seemingly refused to break.
I was dangling there, for longer than I could ever care to remember.
Until Fernicus. Until I wasn’t.”
Flashback.
Tombstone looks at the man led in his morgue. He has IV’s and medicine, and slowly awakens to see the Ferryman. With a gasp, a choke and a vomit, his eyes finally meet that of the man who saved his life.
He asks him if he’s dead.
Tombstone shakes his head.
As the man falls back into unconsciousness, Tombstone sighs. Igor Mortis walks into the room, disgusted.
“Your duty is to ferry the dead, not bring them back to life.”
The Ferryman pays him no mind.
“Some people just need saving, Igor. Some people have purpose.”
“It would’ve been easier to let you die. It would’ve been apt, but I saw myself in you – just like Igor had seen something in me.
I could’ve waited for your body to find the embrace of death and taken you on your way. I could’ve watched as you met your end.
It would’ve been the right thing to do.
But it didn’t feel right.”
Flashback.
Tombstone hands the man a shovel in the middle of the cemetery and walks away, leaving him to get on with his work.
He looks back at him, watching from afar with his arms folded.
What didn’t feel right, now does.
“I know you won’t want to stand opposite me at Vendetta, Gravedigger. You’re loyal. I pulled you back from the brink of perdition and to salvation. I saved your life and your soul.
I know exactly what you’ll be feeling.
But you can’t beat CJ Thorpe.
You’re not built for it.
Not yet.
You can’t become the OSW World Heavyweight Champion.
Not Yet.
That’s why you will fight me. That’s why I will make you. To become what you’ve always been capable of being, to rise to the top, you need to beat the best.
That’s not CJ fucking Thorpe, Gravedigger.
That’s me.
I had the opportunity to watch you meet your end. I could’ve taken you on your way. I didn’t. I won’t.
Because deep down in my soul, I knew you had a purpose. I knew you had a reason. This is it, Gravedigger.
If you want to beat CJ Thorpe at Bad Blood, you will fight me.
And then you’ll send him on his way.”