It's in the Cards Baby.

[Stephen]

Scene One: A Reading

The scene opens outside of a store that sits at the end of a strip in Boston, Massachusetts. On the tinted glass windows reads in reasonably sized white letters, "Madame Duvale's Psychic Readings". On the door to the shop, the same words rest near the bottom while a large symbol rests on the middle area. The symbol appears to be a circle with two crescents on the left and right sides of the circle. The open areas of the crescents are facing away from the circle. A man dressed in a black v-neck shirt, dark blue jeans, and boots approaches the door. He smiles at the people passing by the shop, some wondering why he would even bother to go into a place, before opening the door. The sound of chimes clanging together is heard throughout the store as soon as he opens the door. The actual store area is considerably small, consisting merely of a few displays, the desk where purchases were rung up, and a lone table off in the corner. The man looks around the store, seeing no one that looks like the shop owner anywhere in the store area. He raises an eyebrow as he walks up to the desk, a bell, the register, and a purple cloth to sit them both on it's only occupants. He hits the bell once and waits. Silence. He looks around the store again before hitting the bell again. Silence.

As if thinking that the saying that "the third times the charm" was a load of shit, he walks away from the bell. Instead of heading for the exit however, he walks over to the lone table in the corner. Two seats facing each other sit at both ends of the table. On top of the table is a blue cloth that holds a deck of what appear to be tarot cards, two candles, and a crystal ball. The man takes a seat at the table and pulls a book of matches from his left jean pocket. Taking one of the matches out, he strikes it against the striking area only once to light it. He reaches over the table and lights the candles before waving the match out. He then picks up the tarot cards and places them in front of him. Placing a hand on the top of the deck and closing his eyes, he begins to murmur something inaudible before shuffling them. Still murmuring, but with his eyes somewhat open, he shuffles the deck for exactly one minute before placing the deck back on the table and pulling six cards from it, placing each one on the table before picking up another. The cards are spread out in what is called a Simple Celtic Cross tarot spread.

He reaches over to flip the card that in the first position but before he does, he seems to reconsider it. He stares at the table before a grin come to his face. "You of all people should know not to interrupt a tarot reading, Madame Duvale." The camera flashes to a middle aged woman standing over the man's shoulder. She wears a green dress with a brown sweater, and frown upon her face. Her arms are folded as she glares at the back of the man's head. "And you of all people should know not to mess with a witch's tarot table, Jacques Mercier." Jacques chuckles as Madame Duvale walks over to the chair in front of him and takes a seat. "I haven't seen you in over three years, and if I recall correctly you thought my practices were 'just a cheap gimmick and a load of bullshit'." Jacques leans back in his seat and folds his hands on his abdomen. "Three years is a long time Madame. One could change their views in that amount of time, don't you think?" Madame Duvale eyes Jacques suspiciously before nodding to the table. Jacques reaches over to the card he was originally going to flip over and flips it. The Fool.

A scoff is heard from the other side of the table. Jacques eyes the woman in front of him, but keeps a grin on his face. "I'll admit, I've made a few stupid mistakes in the past." Madame Duvale raises an eyebrow, "A few? Please!" Jacques laughs at this before flipping the second card. The Emperor. Another scoff is heard, but this one seems to be in disbelief. "Whatever your goals may be, I highly doubt you have the authority, much less the wisdom, to achieve them. Knowing you, you probably have some kind of outlandish goal like ending world hunger or taking over the world. I never could tell what went on in that head of yours." Jacques lets a sincere smile cross his lips. "Maybe that was for the best." Madame Duvale eyes him suspiciously once more as he flips over the third card and fourth card at the same time.

The World. Judgement. This time it's Jacques' turn to scoff. "Well would you look at that. Looks like my recent career choice will have the benefits I'd hoped." Madame Duvale almost lets her jaw drop. "Career? You?" "The doubt you have in me, or have had for that matter, makes me wonder why you're surprised you haven't seen me in three years." For the first time, Jacques' face is without a grin. The seriousness on his faces causes Madame Duvale to tense up and look away as he flips the fifth card. Justice. Madame Duvale eyes the card, then Jacques. "This... Now I see it." Jacques eyes Madame Duvale suspiciously, "What? Madame Duvale shake her head before nodding to the final card, a look of concern on her face. Jacques sighs as he flips the final card.

Death. This brings a sly grin to Jacques' face which makes Madame Duvale even more uneasy. "What... What exactly have you been doing these last three years?" Jacques looks up from the card. "Practicing." Madame Duvale leans over the table and looks Jacques deep in the eye. "For what?" Jacques opens his mouth as if he's about to respond, but instead he just laughs. Madame Duvale jumps to her feet. "This isn't a joke, Jacques! You know as well as I what things like this truly means! What was the focus of this reading?" Jacques sighs as he gets to his feet. "You worry too much about things you don't even know about." Madame Duvale walks up to Jacques and get in his face. Well, as close to his face as she can get with her being on 5'3. "No, I worry that you don't fully understand what you're getting into sometimes. Even when you were younger you..." Jacques holds up a hand. "The focus isn't what you're thinking, trust me. The focus was my wrestling career."

Madame Duvale takes a few step back as she processes what was just said. "Wrestling career?" Jacques nods. Madame Duvale takes a look at the table. "I don't understand..." Jacques grins, "That's because it wasn't your reading." With that, Jacques walks towards the exit. "Just pray for Scott Reave Madame. You're probably his only hope at this point." Jacques walks out of the store leaving Madame Duvale, confused. The camera zooms back to the table where the cards are still flipped over. It zooms in on them as the scene fades to black.



Scene Two: The Meaning

The scene opens in the middle of a street in Boston. It's dusk, so the street lights are on. The street is empty save for a lone figure that stands with his head bowed. The camera zooms in to reveal Jacques Mercier mumbling something under his breath. He looks up and faces the camera, a grin on his face. "Hello Frontier Grappling Arts. I'd like to take this time to introduce myself to all of you, but to be quite honest I have other pressing matters that conflict with that. So I'd like to specifically introduce myself to Scott Reave, my upcoming opponent. Apparently, this guy is a top contender in FGA. I've seen some his matches and I have to say, I'm quite impressed. I mean, look at your track record. James Weck, Blaine Harrison, and Michael Tomkins? All in the span of three weeks to start you off at 3 and 0? You're on fire! So I'd like to extend my sincere congratulations to your success thus far. Jacques begins to clap for Reave, a smile on his face.

As he slows down his claps, the smile on his face turns to a look of seriousness. "Unfortunately, a fire can't burn forever. It has to be put out sometime, whether by human hands or it just coming to an end naturally. In your case, it's both. See your success is about to run it's natural course, and that's me. Jacques reaches into his pocket and pulls out six tarot cards. He shows all six to the camera: The fool, the emperor, judgement, the world, justice, and death. "I recently did a tarot reading for our upcoming match, and the cards couldn't be anymore in my favor if you ask me. Your's? Yeah, not so much. Let me explain. The fool is my past, the emperor is my present, judgement and the world are my near future, justice is my hopes, and death is the outcome of it all. No need to explain my past to you. The emperor however indicates, to put it simply, that I'm better than you. I would explain, but as I said, I don't have the time and I highly doubt you could comprehend it all anyway. Judgement means that I determine whether or not you receive any type of punishment for your recent attacks after your victories. You will. The world indicates that soon, very soon, I will be the top dog in FGA. There's no way around that anyway, cards or not. Justice is the punishment you shall receive after the aforementioned judgement. And death.. Lucky for you, this is only talking about you losing the match. Under any other circumstances, you should be afraid for your life." Jacques begins to think as he stuffs the cards back into his pocket. "Who am I lying to? You honestly should be afraid for your life because the punishment I have in store for you will be one the likes FGA has yet to see and probably will rarely ever see again. So fans, you're in for a treat. Scott Reave, I hope you enjoyed your last meal. I'll see you on Wednesday. The smile returns to Jacques' face as the camera fades to black.