Page 36 of The Beast's Heart

Geoff cuts in with, “It was lame. You should have gone with crushed glass. Or flames.”

“I told you at the time, flames were gimmick infringement,” Adam says. “That’s The Sheik’s thing.”

“What’s a gimmick?” Ben asks.

Ray is all too happy to explain that it’s the role that you play. “I was this sorcerer. I was brought in to try to vanquish The Beast. But it never took off on pay-per-view and so the promotion pitted him against Tombstone instead.”

“Because Tombstone is legit scary,” Geoff says. “He’d never use lame ass glitter.”

Ray kicks him again. Geoff pulls a rude sign at him.

Ray then proceeds to talk through The Beast’s apparently infamousfeudwith a wrestler named Tombstone who had been a heel but turnedbabyfacewhen his “brother” was murdered by a wrestler named Demon.

The children are enthralled and the jargon doesn’t seem to bother them in the slightest. Maybe the trouble with getting them to understand Shakespeare was always that it wasn’t violent enough. I definitely shouldn’t have started with Midsummer Night’s Dream. Titus Andronicus is clearly more their speed.

“The Beast and Demon teamed up for a few tag matches before it was revealed I was behind the whole thing,” Ray finishes.

Adam laughs and it’s such an unexpected sound that it startles me. “You were only brought in because?—”

Ray makes a dramatic hushing noise, “Don’t break kayfabe. It was I, the Sorcerer, who’d cursed you and made you kill Tombstone’s brother.”

Adam turns to me to explain. “Demon was injured. Broke his clavicle in a misdirected frog splash.”

I pretend I understand what all of that means. “I see.”

“He was supposed to have this big face off with Tombstone, where Tomb would avenge his brother. They’d been building up to it for weeks. But Demon couldn’t do it. So, it was revealed, that instead of vanquishing me, The Sorcerer had cursed me to look like Demon and it was I who had killed Tomb’s brother.”

“Your lucky day,” Geoff says.

Adam looks a little abashed, gaze dropping to his knees again. “Yeah.”

“Beast versus Tombstone,” Ray says. “You must have heard of it?”

Before I have to admit I haven’t, Meredith tuts. “Not all of us areau faitwith your particular craft.”

“That matchmadeThe Beast.” Geoff protests. “Everyone knows about it.”

Fortunately, the children’s keen looks show I’m not alone in being unfamiliar with it. Ray proceeds to fill us in on all the gory details, which include The Beast being dropped off the top of a cage and thrown against barbed wire. Eventually, Adam starts correcting them and then filling in some of the details.

“You knew the ropes were on fire and you let him push you into them?” I ask as he nears the climax of the tale.

“Let him? It was my idea.”

“Woah!” Mal says, clearly impressed.

“How?” Ben asks, which I’m also wondering.

Ray explains how they’d put together the matches beforehand, mapping out every ‘spot’, with the assistance of the producers. “This was a main event so it had to be especially epic.”

“Pyrotechnics were The Demon’s thing,” Adam provides, “So flaming ropes were a way to pay homage to him and bring the whole story back to the theme of me being him.”

It really is a craft.

“How injured were you after?” Mal asks.

Adam chuckles again. “Quite.”

“Did you know you would be?” Alisha asks.

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