Flash Fiction #25 - Jeff Harvey

The Hardy Party had come to an end.

Matt found himself on the receiving end of a hellacious beating from seven men. A short time ago, he would've called those men allies, but now those men have opted to excise him from the group. Each blow came down fast and hard, with Matt taking the brunt of each blow with stride. Eventually, the men grew tired of using their fists and feet to beat up the failure that had brought them so many losses and opted for some hardware. Steel chairs, brass knuckles, and pipes were the weapons of choice for these men, who continually pounded upon the limping body of their former ally.

Just as things looked bleakest, the blaring notes of stock rock music is heard throughout the arena and the audience, familiar with this tune for years, broke into uproarious applause and excitement. After what seemed like a period of waiting, Matt's brother Jeff - fresh off his "questionable" departure from a rival organization - came out to the delight to the crowd... and in a moment driven by adrenaline and the kinetic energy of the crowd, he broke into his routine dance number. The same number he would perform to the delight of the crowd time and time again. He missed this energy. He needed this energy. He craved it.

Meanwhile, Matt's former allies picked up his limp body and took turns drilling his chest with repeated blows from spiked clubs and barbed-wire baseball bats that they found laying around. By this point, Matt was clearly bleeding and on his last legs. And to make matters worse, he could still see in the distance Jeff dancing to the notes of their theme music, all the while his men start pulling out assault weapons.

Jeff, slowly but surely, made his way down the ramp, continuing to jam to the music and feeding off the live crowd. Loud banging noises broke him from his adrenaline-fueled stupor and he charged his way to the ring, taking on the men who were beating up his brother. The men fled and Jeff raised his hands in triumph, but the crowd did not cheer in response. Jeff looked around, wondering what he did wrong, and then saw the bloody corpse of his brother on the ground. Jeff shook his head in shame; he danced for far too long and it cost Matt his life.

And then the music played and Jeff danced some more, much to the delight of the crowd... and then Matt no-sold his horrible injuries and embraced his brother.

Somewhere in Louisville, an old man shouts at the clouds about the business being killed yet again and records it on his podcast.