The Bloody Beginning

********
Present Day
********

The camera fades in upon Skull sitting upon the steps to Waverly Hills. The only illumination from the outside is the moonlight pouring in from above.
Skull's head is hung low as he speaks to us.

[color=red]Skull: I have told the story of what has brought me back to life. I have told the story of me endless searching for the purpose behind my resurrection. I have told the story of me descent to Hell, and my ascension to Heaven.
There are two things left to be told.
One being what brought me to seeking Johnny Styles out once more. And the second, is my beginning.
I'm not talking about my beginning in this career. I'm talking about the beginning of Crimson Skull.
In my past, I've told tales of how my beginnings were that due to a biohazard accident in Nevada or some other place I care not to remember.
But the truth really has never been told.
My beginnings have always been told as some horror movie script just for the satisfaction of the federation owners that I have came across in my career.
Consider yourselves lucky, for what you are about to witness is the explanation to my appearance and the explanation to my lifestyle.
It is the first time any of this has been shown in history.

********
September 1st, 1967
*********

The camera cues in on an incredibly more-pleasant looking Waverly Hills Sanitarium.
The trees and flowers are in bloom, the building looks like it has had some upkeep, and there are numerous people on the outside of it.
It is back to when the last stint of this facility was ran.
It is back before the incident.
Skull's voice can be heard over all of this.

Skull: My father was a locally famous psychiatrist back in this time. People would travel from several states just to see Dr. Faith as they called him. His testament of God's word as a healing power as well as his way with his patients was renowned.
Countless days I had spent in this facility as a child, I even grew up here.
My mother passed away when I was very young, so all I knew was this Sanitarium.
There were times where I was left to be babysat by the many nurses and caretakers here, and there were also times I was left in the daycare center where the children of the visitors or workers would leave their children.
My father truly loved his work, more than his child.
Perhaps it was his neglectiveness to be close to me to save himself from the heartache he felt from losing my mother in case something happened to me. But, this distance we kept made it more clear to me as my father's madness grew.
You can look throughout history and see how many psychiatrists have went insane themselves, pushed to the breaking point dealing with the many patients' eccenticies and mental illnesses.

The scene switches to the sanitarium at night. We can see the man who is Skull's father, Dr. Damien Hale is in the middle of the observatory room.
Moonlight pours in through the paned window in the ceiling.
Dr. Hale is praying on his knees with his bible in his hand.

Skull: Contrary to what you might believe, my father didn't go insane on his patients. No, he went insane upon his only child, his son.
You see, he became so enveloped in his faith, that he felt that I was impure. That I was an evil child.
He began to blame me for my mother's death.
He began to punish me by keeping me locked up inside the sanitarium at night instead of taking me to our home.

The camera pans through the halls until it finds a room. Inside that room we see a younger version of Crimson Skull. He does not wear a mask, but it is too dark for us to make out any features of his face.

Skull: The majority of my teenage years were spent inside this facility.
The sounds that I would fall asleep too were the echoes of my father's constant praying through the air vents into my room, and the echoes of the maddened cries and screams and moans from all the patients of this facility.
It was somewhere shortly after I turned 16 that I made my decision on what to do about my horrid life.
My father had finally done something to send me over the edge, and I had to put a stop to his madness, but at the same time, I wanted my revenge.

The camera switches to show Skull subdued upon an operating table. Dr. Hale stands at his head, holding a bloody scapel.
Skull's dry sobs of pain can be heard.
The camera zooms in and we can see tiny crosses have been carved onto the teenage face of Skull.

Skull: In order for me to get my revenge, I knew that I had to show my father the pain of losing the only things he had to love. I had to take away from him those stark-raving lunatics that he loved so much.
Then, I had to rid the world of him before he went completely mad.

The camera switches to show Dr. Hale bound and gagged in a wheelchair, his eyelids taped open and his bible open inside of his lap.
Skull is wheeling him into a room of a patient. Skull takes a syringe and sedates the patient.
The camera moves angles to where all we can see is the shadows on the wall of Skull slicing away at the patient with a large scapel.
Dr. Hale's muffled cries of agony can be heard from underneath the duct tape.
The camera shows his face again and tears have begun to stream down his face.
The camera follows Skull as he goes from room to room, mutilating each of the patients while his father is forced to watch.
Eventually Skull has went to each and every room, finally he stands before his father in the observatory, covered in many different people's blood.
He takes the blood on his hands and wipes it on his father's face, he cuts the ties that hold his father to the wheel chair and rips the duct tape from his mouth. Skull places the scaple into his father's hand and walks away.

Skull: After that night, I felt invigorated as if nothing could ever stop me. The next shift of nurses came in that following morning and found the only person alive in that sanitarium was my father.
But as they found him, he had taken that scapel and sliced his wrists open, as well as taken the blood from his wound and painting crosses all over his body.
He had lost too much blood by the time they tried to stitch him up and transfuse him some new blood.
That was the day the rest of my family died.
They shut down the sanitarium directly after that and kept it closed for decades, until people started seeing things on the grounds.
They believed it was haunted. Which, that is true. The ghosts of all those patients that I murdered that night still linger in that place, as well as the ghost of my father.
It is why I remained here, far beneath the Sanitarium. No one would look for his son to still be in the sanitarium. Eventually they believed that my father and killed me and stored my body somewhere inside this facility.
Soon after all of this occured, I began to wander the streets of the closest town at night, I would hear people talk of the tale of the Skarecrow of Reaper's field.
I did my own research of it, and I decided that is what I must do, try to make the Skarecrow into reality rather than just a tale.
The more I entered the town, the more I was noticed, and the more I frightened the locals by my scarred face.
So, that is when I crafted my first mask. This one.
Eventually, the more I played into the role of the Skarecrow the more I began to live his lifestyle.
I began to seek out teenagers that would run off to the fields in hopes of midnight romance.
There I would murder the young boys on sight, and sometimes the girls too. But mostly, the girls, I would torture, or occasionally rape.
I began to become too confident in my abilities.
That is when I had my first death.
I had thought a boy to be dead, but I had only fatally wounded him. As I was "tending" to his girlfriend, he shot me point blank in the stomach. My death was slow and painful.
The authorities could not find my body.
To this day I do not know what happened to my body that night, but I do remember what happened to my soul.
In the deepest fires of Hell, I was given a second chance.
I was sent back to Earth to carry on the devil's bidding.
He informed me that if I chose a career inside movies or something televised that I could get away with a lot more of his evil deeds, because society would believe it to be fake.
So, that is how I made my journey into professional wrestling.
It did not take me long at all before I was dominating the sport.
And it did not take me long at all before I was carrying out the devils orders right there on the screen, and no one knew any different.

Skull finally stands up and begins walking up the steps to the facility and enters.

Skull: But now that you know my history, maybe all of you can start taking me just a little bit more serious.
Maybe all of you that are like Hostyle Jones can see that it's not just a gimmick that makes me this way.
This is the way I was born to be.
I understand what having a damaged home can do to someone as they get older, I also understand the pressure it puts upon one's mind.
But you see Jones, I was given a purpose after all the things that happened to me in my life. I was given a mission after all the things that had been done to me, and also because of the things that I had done.
It is very sad for you however, because all you're going to go throughout your life is feeling that anger and that hate for your father and once he dies, then what?
You will have nothing going for you in your pathetic life.

Skull keeps wandering through the halls as he speaks, until finally he reaches the observatory, the room where it all started.
In the room we see the surgery table in the center, and there is a body chained to it.
The camera zooms in until we can see who exactly it is chained to the table, and upon further inspection, it is Tamara, his wife.
She is twisting and turning every way possible trying to free herself from this predicament, but it is to no avail.

Skull: You claimed that I had a fascination with women. But you see, you make judgments that are completely wrong and ignorant.
There is only one woman that I have ever loved besides my mother, and that is the bitch that lies on this table before you.
You see, women aren't a necessity in this life for me. For a time, I believed that I would be nothing without her.
It is that weakness that had broken me years ago.
The more I fell in love with this sultry creature, the weaker she made me, the more she tightened her iron grasp around my black heart.
It has taken me some time to figure out what exactly went wrong with me years ago, but I finally came to a conclusion.
I did not start falling into this weak state that I have been in for years until she began to stray away from me.
It is the moment that she betrayed me that completely broke and destroyed my heart and soul. I was never complete again after that, and I never truly recovered.
Until now
I wasted away until there was nothing left inside of me, I felt no desire to prevail in anything that I did.
I merely withered away to ash over time.
The betrayal that I speak of, happened 3 years ago. She attempted to take my life, and tried to run away from me for one of my former friends, Hallow Wicked.
In doing so, she completely dismantled every fiber of my being and took away every ounce of strength and motivation.
So, In order for me to continue my career, I believe that she must be dealt with accordingly.

Skull walks over to Tamara and rips the duct tape that has bound her mouth together off of her mouth, she squeals in pain, then begins to sob heavily.

Tamara: Why? Why are you doing this Victor? I thought we were ok now? I thought you had forgiven me? You brought me back to this world with you?!

Skull chuckles softly.

Skull: So many questions, so little time. First, the reason I brought you back to the mortal plane, is because I couldn't really do anything to you in Limbo. If I did, I would be trapped there permanently.
So, I let you believe that I was going to trust you again, and I let you come back with me.
Now, I can take out my revenge on you, and I can remove the hold you have had on me for years.
And your pitiful spirit will be left to roam this world, with nowhere to go.

Skull starts laughing again. He takes the duct tape and reapplies it to her mouth.

Skull: Oh my dear queen, how I had missed you. But you see, the queen that I miss is the one that I had at the beginning of the Crimson Dynasty, 5 years ago. That queen was new and fresh, and she was always scared to death of me.
She would have done anything that I asked or said for her to do.
This one, is useless. A conniving, deceitful bitch.
Although, you are the same person, you have changed completely. That is why I cannot allow you to be my wife, my queen, and quite frankly; I cannot allow you to live any longer.

Skull walks over to a table beside of the operating table. We can hear metal clinging together as Skull comes back to Tamara. There is a flash of light as the metal glistens in the moonlight and we can see a scapel in his hand.
He lowers his hand and takes his first incision to cut Tamara's clothes off of her. She now lies naked upon the operating table.

Skull: Hostyle, I have faced numerous kids like you in that ring.
All have tried the same bullshit, all have fell before me.
You see, I'm not just your every day darkie, or movie monster. I am everything you have ever feared.
I can and will be Hell on Earth for you come Battlegrounds.
You can stake as many claims as you want about you being better than what you really are, but honestly where's the lengthy career to back that up?
So, Syco Angel took your poor Marley? Good. Maybe he will kill the little whore.
Did you ever stop to think that maybe your precious Marley wasn't taken? Did you ever stop to think that maybe she went, willingly?
Of course you didn't, because you're foolish enough to believe she is just a little angel.
You know, I don't hold anger for your father like you do, I feel pity.
I mean, look at the offspring he bore into this world! That is enough to make any man an alcoholic.
Of course, that would be the perfect premise for a set up wouldn't it Hostyle? Daddy's a drunk, so daddy can be blamed for anything.
Oh, it makes perfect sense now. Your obsession with finding your sister, it borders on the unordinary.
Maybe, the story has been told wrong? Maybe instead of your father raping your sister, maybe....maybe it was you?
Yes, it is very possible. You do the dirty work of molesting your sister, while your father is drunk, then make her post the blame on him so you won't harm her any more.
I don't blame her for running to Syco Angel.
Or perhaps, she seduced him?
Just like she seduced your father. Women can be very strange creatures, you know. Has she seduced you yet, Hostyle? Maybe that is why you're so lost without her, you've lost the only woman you care about intimately as well as platonically.

Skull's twists to the side as he lets out a sinister laugh.

Skull: It feels so invigorating to be back.

He raises his hand high above his head, then jabs the scapel down into the bicep of Tamara. Her muffle scream of agony is barely audible under the duct tape. Skull pulls the scapel down the muscle, tearing sinews and ligaments as he goes. Blood is pouring everywhere.
Skull removes the scapel and walks down to her feet. He jabs the scapel into the bottom of her feet and makes a few long incisions there.

Skull: Hostyle, boy there really is no limit to your ignorance. I never once said your pain was a gimmick, I just said that you were an attention whore. I do believe the term for this day and age is "emo".
Your constant whining and self-absorption is probably what led Marley to run off with Syco Angel.
He's probably fucking her right now, just imagine it. Your innocent little sister is probably doing some of the nastiest things you have ever seen with one of Hell's Henchmen.
Did I strike a nerve?

Skull laughs again. As he goes around slicing and dicing on Tamara, he begins to feel more proud of himself as he goes along. She has passed out from the pain. Now Skull begins to cut the webbings in between her toes, and soon, he moves on to do the same in between her fingers.

Skull: You're in for a rude awakening, boy. You can sit there and be arrogant all you will like, but it's not going to help you.
For weeks, I have been telling the story of what has brought me here to the IWF, those intelligent enough will have figured it out by now, but morons like you are clueless.
For weeks, I have been trying to get this entire federation ready for what is to come.
None of you are ready to face the Reaper. None of you are prepared for what I can bring upon you.
I am something of legend! I am not just some new rookie trying to make a name for myself! I'm not just some flash in the pan like you are.
Whenever you can carry on this "pain" that you feel that feeds you to do the things that you do for 8 years in this business, then I might believe it.
Your pain will soon turn into something cliche, and Hostyle Jones will just waste away and be lost in the annals of time in the categories of talent well wasted.

Skull now steps back and appreciates the artwork he has done upon Tamara's once beautiful body. It seems as if she has died from loss of blood.
Skull nods in approval for what he has done. He walks close to the body, takes his hand and trails it up and down her body. He caresses her large breasts, he runs his fingers through her hair.
Slowly, he bends down and kisses her one last time.

Skull: And this is how I shall remember you. Only in death do you look anything like the one you used to be. Only in death are you the beautiful creature I fell in love with years ago. Only in your death can I go on.

Skull takes the scapel and sinks it into the skin of her chest. He meets some resistance when he encounters the bones of her sternum and ribcage, to which he cracks open with his hands once the wound is open.
He pushes his hand into the gaping hole inside of her chest and rips her heart from her chest.
He holds it for a moment in his hand, studying it, appreciating it.
Until finally, he clenches his hand together to make a fist, smashing her heart as blood pours down his arm from doing so.
He begins to hum.

[color=red]Skull:My chains are gone, I've been set free. My love my saviour has ransomed me.

He softly sang his own version of a famous church hymn.
He takes his hands and wipes the blood covering them upon his face. He turns to walk away, as we can hear the caws of ravens flying in to examine the corpse lying in this room.

Skull: Now, there is nothing to hold me back, nothing to hold me down. I am free.
My resolve has been uplifted and there is literally nothing that can stand in my path any longer.
There will be minor setbacks and bumps in the road, like Hostyle Jones, but they're just going to be something that will keep me sidetracked until I reach my ultimate goal.
My ultimate goal can only be reached with the help of Johnny Styles.
You see, Johnny Styles and I are from a completely diferent generation of wrestlers. Hell, we are a completely different league above each and every one of you.
Whenever we have our iminent battle, you're going to see what true wrestling is all about, and you're going to see an all out war to the likes of which you have never seen or ever will see again.
In the end, I will be standing tall once more.
Maybe then, you poor unfortunate souls will realize just exactly what you need to be weary of. And you will also see exactly what I have warned you about.
The End of Days is nearing us, oh so soon it will be.
And when it comes, the Crimson King will ascend back to his throne, and every single one of you will be forced to bow before me.

Skull turns and takes one last look at Tamara's corpse lying there on the table. The camera zooms in to get one last look. Then pans back out to Skull's face smirking at the camera.

Skull: Who's crazy now, Jones?

He laughs histerically as the ravens circle Tamara's body, the camera cuts to static.