The night sky is ablaze with various shades of tangerine, bright orange-red, and dark copper, contrasted by the occasional blue-violet hues associated with this time of year. Though the landscape is distinctly 18th century, the displays made of thousands of pumpkins are quite modern. Everything from a pseudo Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton to a train to a simple tunnel lined with pumpkins have been designed.

Visually, it is all very intrusive. Orange tends to be a color associated with energy. In fact, many sports franchises have chosen the color orange because it brings to mind feelings of enthusiasm, excitement, it is seen as high energy. Perhaps someone should send that memo to the Cleveland Browns.

Orange is also known for bringing feelings of joy and happiness. So many positive memories tend to equate themselves with the color; majesty of the rising sun, the romance of sun as it sets, the simple relief of quenching your thirst with a glass of orange juice in the morning.

For Antonio Ricci, it is more spiritual. Though his philosophy does not generally align with that of the Buddhist monks, one way that Ricci’s mantra does fall into attunement with theirs is the symbolism of the hue.

In the oldest temples of Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks used to make their robes using the remnants of unwanted cloth that they dyed using vegetable and spices such as turmeric and saffron, to the point where their vestments are referred to as saffron robes. To them, the orange symbolizes simplicity and letting go of materialism. THAT is where the two mentalities intersect..

Still, Ricci does maintain a great number of material possessions. When you think of men with his particular hobbies, you think of people such as the Golden State Killer, also known as the Night Stalker, the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist and the Diamond Knot Killer. That man was a police officer. You think of men such as “The Milwaukee Cannibal” Jeffrey Dahmer, who was a machinist in a chocolate factory. You think of military veterans or religious figures. You know who you don’t think of? Teachers. It was for that reason that Antonio Ricci chose his original profession. Should he ever choose to act on his urges, he would be one of the last people that people would look at. With his inheritance, he wanted for nothing. He became a teacher and a professional wrestler so he could claim to be doing what he loved, which to a degree was the truth. In wrestling, he could legally hurt people without concern for repercussions. Should he choose, he could indulge himself, like a homicidal Bruce Wayne, another man that no one ever suspected, like an average person could afford all those wonderful toys.

While taking in the sights and sounds of the The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, the sky in the historic Hudson Valley is, as mentioned earlier, alight with the colors of Autumn. Ricci is here not for the festivities, but to partake in his favorite activity, watching people.

Wearing a black sleeveless hoodie with his now signature omega symbol printed in a light metallic rust color, a chill runs up his arms, the small puckers on his arm reminiscent of a fresh plucked good. Goosebumps were always an interesting thing to him. People get them when they are cold, overly emotional, and oddly, when they are sexual arroused. Such different sensations with the same result, but all tied to some primal reaction to the fight or flight instinct. Walking through the throng of people, Ricci is content to do neither, merely observe. He finishes off a pumpkin beer from the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. Though alcohol is not normally his drink of choice, he felt the cliche of walking around, sipping hot cocoa was just a little too Hallmark for his liking.

Speaking of the greeting card company and their notoriously convoluted and cheesy films, approximately thirty yards away from where he stands, is his ex-girlfriend Michelle. He disposes of his now empty beer bottle in mid stride as he makes his way over to her. I smile crosses his face as he sees a man with brunette hair, cut in your typical business appropriate haircut, holding her hand. This is going to be uncomfortable, for them at least. If there was one thing that Ricci truly enjoyed, it was schadenfreude. Schadenfreude was a word that was truly one of the most German feelings ever conceptualized. It was a word invented to describe the happiness when you see or hear about the misfortune of others.

“Long time, no see,”

Michelle noticeably jumps. It wasn’t surprising, in all fairness. The break up was clean, from Ricci’s side. Michelle was an attachment, a liability, most importantly, a potential loose end. She was, of course, devastated. To her, Antonio had portrayed himself a caregiver, provider, and a passionate lover. Michelle was playing two truths and a lie. Antonio gave her care and provided for her, but when it came to intimacy, Michelle was just a body to him. As he looked down at her now, seeing her with a new partner, he remembered the words of his Nona. “Always give your old toys to the less fortunate.”

“For fuck’s sakes, Antonio! You’ve got some balls. You know that?”

“Yes,” he says matter of factly.

“Who’s your… friend?””

Ricci allows the pause to hang in the air long enough to let the man know there was something between himself and Michelle, but telling him exactly what that was. The man extends his free hand, which Michelle immediately pulls away.

“He doesn’t deserve your respect and he doesn’t deserve our time.”

“Why so bitter, Michelle?” Antonio says coolly as he extends his hand to the man. “Ricci, Dr. Anontio Ricci.”

The man is obviously sizing Ricci up, the typical would be alpha male bullshit. Even if this were to turn physical, Ricci wouldn’t throw the first punch. He could take a hit and with the sheer amount of witnesses, it would certainly be self defense should he need to react.

“A doctor, you say?”

“In education., Michelle interjects as though that should somehow diminish the accomplishment.

“Six years of hard work and dedication.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t gaslight me for four years. Don’t act like everything between us is okay.”

“Listen, Michelle, I know you didn’t feel the same way I did, but the spark just wasn’t there for me anymore.”

“Wasn’t there? For four years, years I will never get back, I put up with you disappearing for weeks at a time with little to no explanation. Then, you one day decide that it is over with no warning or indication.”

“Listen, man, I’m sorry you have to deal with this, I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

“Bullshit, Antonio! Bull-fucking-shit! You don’t do anything without a reason. What did I do to you that you have to come and bother me?” Michelle puts her hand up before Antonio can even answer. “Don’t even bother. You aren’t half the man you think you are. Mark is three times the man you will ever be.”

“That’s what every woman says when she’s been scorned. What you are doing is projecting what you perceive to be Mark’s beta state and I’m not going to lie, I’m sure he finds your insecurity to be quite the turn off.”

Ricci turns to Mark before continuing.

“Mark, when you’re ready to stop feeling like you’re a loser and start acting like you’re a winner. You will realize that some people will always be objectively better than you. That’s a fact of life. Deal with it. The good news is, you can ditch the dead weight and your confidence should ultimately derive from your character not your material success. Only then will you be free of your need for validation and have a stable sense of self, and not rely on a woman using you as a pawn to make you feel important.”

Ricci claps the much shorter man on the shoulder and walks away, knowing that if looks could kill, he’d be a chalk outline. The hairs one the back of his neck no longer stand on end, for the moment has passed.

“What crawled up his ass and died?”

“Hopefully something that will kill him from the inside out, as slowly and painfully as possible.”

“As we are standing on a dazzling cliff, overwhelmed by a blizzard of unanswered questions, the alarming immaterialities of our living may cry out to us and our consciousness may ask us to account for what we are doing or for what we have not done. This may be the instant we might engineer our future with destiny.” ― Erik Pevernagie, “Sisyphus on the Hill”

“I remember my first opportunity at the Final Boss Championship, it was the same as yours, Blizzard. The date was March 9th, 2021. I had already made history by beating Bert MacAlroy in Level Up Wrestling’s first Last Man Standing Match. Then, there was the Last of Us Gauntlet match. Though I came up short, I still showed that I was the most dominant force in the company by eliminating five competitors in that match. It could have been six, however, I allowed Lex Collins to pick the bones of one competitor. Do you remember that, Blizzard? Do you?”

“Here’s a little refresher. So, you’re sitting there, doing your standard big man bullshit. You’ve got Lex Collins by the throat. It’s glorious. You’ve got him right where you wanted him, until half a second later when he put that submission on you. You’re a fucking sasquatch, you’re gonna use the chokeslam. I’m just as tall as you. I use it. I get it. But of course Lex saw it coming. Stevie Wonder could have seen that shit coming. You throw him off you and then pull out Generic Big Man Move Number Two, the big boot! Lex sees that coming and ducks it. Then, that spry little bastard jumps on your back. You’re sitting there, you’re flailing your arms around like you aren’t three hundred pounds and capable of just dropping on your back and crushing him. He lets go and you think that his given up, then, BOOM! COMA-TOES! The lights go out. Lex hits you with something else to make him feel important and pins you. He may have gotten the pin, but I put you out. I want you to remember that.”

“When I started here in Level Up, I wanted to the be the face of this company. Instead, I became the workhorse. Someone dropped out of a tag match? Sign me up. Two matches on the first pay-per-view? No problem. I had six matches in the first four shows. That is what because I aspire to greatness. I was the first person to cleanly take down our dearly departed inaugural Final Boss champion because I embody greatness. The Final Boss Championship was like an unrequited love, a woman I could only admire from afar. When I finally had my opportunity, it was taken away from me, just as it was at Last of Us.”

“While I was away, I knew the landscape would change. The fact that in my first match back was against an unknown opponent showed two things. The first of which is that the landscape is still changing. The second was that no matter what the landscape looks like, Antonio Ricci truly is the Omega. I don’t need to be the Alpha. I don’t need to be the Final Boss. I need to be better than that. I don’t want to be the standard. I want to be the man that if anyone manages to defeat, people will tell the tale by telling people how fortunate they were to ”

“Blizzard, prepare yourself for the worst. Prepare for the harsh reality that I could put your lights out once again. Prepare for this because God put me on this earth to be a weapon of mass destruction. Look at who the Omega Weapons is. Look at what the Omega Weapon represents. I don’t respect anyone. I don’t call anybody ‘Mister’ or give them any kind of superiority. What I do is show that hard work and dedication, mixed with the proper amount of disrespect, goes a long way in this business. That’s why I’m not a very good yes man, because I follow my own direction. Right now, my direction is straight to the top of the leaderboard and you stand in the way of my trajectory. When this is over, people will be able to follow me there, not by the string of victories, but by the trail of bodies, including yours, Blizzard, that I in my wake.” – Ω