DOWN FOR THE COUNT

     Luke Samson was the defending champion in the Great Lakes Wrestling Tournament in his weight class. He was 28, 5’8” and 158 lbs with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. The tournament was next weekend, and he’d been practicing relentlessly so that his body was in the best shape of his career. He intended to successfully defend the title. Tonight, he was at home watching tape of another young, strong wrestler, Barry Davis. Barry had come in second last year, and was widely regarded as Luke’s greatest threat. Barry was 26 with jet-black hair, brown eyes, and was 5’9” tall and 165 lbs. He was quick and fast, but was totally out-classed by Luke when it came to talent.

     Barry was with his older brother Kevin. Kevin was also a wrestler, but was 30 years old with brown hair and eyes, and was 6’ tall and 195 lbs. He was also a champion last year in his weight class, and was heavily favored to win his belt again this year. They were sitting around discussing moves, when Barry mentioned Luke.

    “Kevin, I want to win a belt this year, too! But that damn Luke Samson’s in my weight class, and there’s no way I can beat him! He’s way too fast. What can I do?”

     “Barry, everyone has a weakness, and Luke’s no exception.”

    “What do you mean?”

    “Luke is head over heels in love with Laura. He’d do just about anything for that girl!”

     “Well, yeah. Just like I would for Sarah. But how does that help me win a title?”

     “Do you still have Luke’s cell phone number?”

     “Yeah, but what good is that? Surely you’re not suggesting I call him and ask him to throw the match?”

     “Barry, trust your older brother. Give me the number, and I guarantee you Luke won’t show for the match!”

     “But how can you guarantee that, Kevin?”

     “Just give me the damn number!”

     “Okay, here it is!”

     Kevin used the number to send a text to Luke. The text read as follows.

     “Luke, it’s Laura. I went out on old route 384, and I ran out of gas. A nice farmer let me borrow his phone to send you this text. Silly me, I forgot to charge my phone and it’s dead. Please be a dear and come bring me a can of gasoline. I parked my car in the barn, and I’ll meet you there. There’s a sign by the entrance that reads “The Two D’s”.  That’s the farm. The farmer’s such a nice man; I know you’ll love him! See you soon, Luke!”

     Luke saw the message and immediately jumped into his black convertible Corvette. He made a quick stop at a gas station, and then headed out on old route 384, which at one point had been a major highway, but was now a two-lane road, with only farms and woodlands along its path. It took a good two hours to reach the farm. The barn was about a mile down a dirt path. He drove down the path, and parked his Corvette. Then he grabbed the gas can, and headed for the barn. He opened the doors and called out Laura’s name. In the dark, he couldn’t see anything. Suddenly, the barn lit up, someone had thrown a switch, turning on an overhead bank of lights. Luke was temporarily blinded, but as his eyes adjusted he saw Barry Davis wearing a wrestling singlet.

     “What are you doing here, Davis? And where is Laura?”

     “Oh, she’s not here, Samson. And I’m here to ask you not to defend your title.”

     “What are you smoking, Davis? There’s no way I’m going to miss that tournament! And it will be a special pleasure pinning your sorry ass! And Laura sent me a text that she was here, so once again, where’s my girl?”

     Barry read the text word for word to Luke, and it suddenly dawned on Luke that he’d been tricked! He was still confused, though. He knew Barry Davis very well, and the man didn’t have two working brain cells to rub together! But Luke would have no time to ponder that. With a roar, Barry charged at Luke, who was dressed in street clothes, not wrestling attire. But even in street clothes, Luke was twice the wrestler that Barry was. He sidestepped the charging bull-headed man, and quickly put him in a chokehold. Barry was struggling for air, but Luke clamped down even tighter. He was solely focused on knocking out Barry, and then heading back to town. Unfortunately, he was so pre-occupied with Barry, that he didn’t even realize Kevin was in the barn until it was too late. Just as Barry’s knees began to buckle, Kevin stepped behind Luke and brought his arms up under his armpits, and then locked his hands behind Luke’s neck. Luke was totally taken off guard and was instantly immobilized. Barry pulled away from Luke’s struggling fingers and took a few deep breaths of life-giving air. Now it was time for phase two of the Davis brothers plan.

     As Luke continued to struggle, Barry donned a special pair of weighted gloves. With an evil smile on his face, he delivered a solid punch right to Luke’s abs. Luke grunted in pain, as the wind was knocked out of him. Then he looked at Barry and said, “Is that the best you can do? No wonder you’re such a loser as a wrestler!”

     Barry didn’t reply to Luke, he instead addressed his reply to his brother. “Hold him tight, Kevin! I want the son of a bitch to feel every punch!”

     As Barry approached again, Luke realized that the man holding him was Barry’s older brother! This was serious!

     Barry sent another flurry of blows to Luke’s stomach. Luke’s well-defined abs were turning black and blue, and losing a lot of their sharpness. Barry worked non-stop on Luke’s abs for the next 15 minutes. By the end of the time, Luke was visibly sagging in Kevin’s arms.

     Kevin then spoke up. “Barry, we need to wrap this up soon. I know you’ve had a lot of fun beating Samson’s abs to a pulp, but now we need a knockout blow. Take your right hand and drive it into the bottom of Samson’s chin, just like I taught you! One nice strong uppercut, little brother!”

     Barry followed suit, and instantly put Luke’s lights out. Once Luke was no longer a threat, they took Luke further into the barn, stripped him naked and tied his hands over his head with a rope dangling from the ceiling. They now waited for Luke to awaken.

     Thirty minutes had passed and Luke was still out cold. Kevin looked at his little brother and said, “Man, Barry, I hope you didn’t kill him! We don’t want him dead, YET! HAHAHAHA!”

     Before Barry could reply, both brothers heard a groan, and looked over to see a bruised and battered Luke begin to stir. They also noticed that blood was dripping from a split lip Luke had suffered when Barry delivered his uppercut!

     Luke slowly focused his eyes, as he regained consciousness. He realized immediately that he’d been stripped of his clothes.

     “Hey, you motherfuckers! What’s the meaning of this? I’ll see you both in prison for kidnapping!”

     Kevin replied, “Hey, Barry, Samson’s threatening to send us to prison! Are you scared, Barry?”

     “Of course I’m not scared! How can he send us to prison when he’ll be rotting in HELL!”?

     “What the fuck are you two assholes talking about?”

     “Samson, it’s like this. I asked you real nice to not show up to defend your title and you refused my very reasonable request. So now, we have no choice but to kill you!”

     Luke realized that both men were serious; they actually planned to kill him! He also realized that naked and bound, there was very little if anything that he could do to prevent it!

     Luke began screaming, “HELP!!!! MURDER!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!”

Kevin looked at Luke and said, “Go ahead and scream, Samson! My brother and I use your fear as motivation and energy to kill you, and the closest farm is ten miles away!”

     Luke asked how they knew where the nearest farm was, and Kevin explained that their father had farmed this land for decades, and when he died last year, Kevin and Barry inherited it. It had been kept out of the papers, and they hadn’t even used the farm since their father died. In fact, they had planned on putting it up for sale, until they realized it would be a perfect setting to murder Luke.

     “Enough talk for now, Samson! My little brother and I have work to do.” With that, both brothers donned weighted gloves, and began using Luke as a punching bag; hitting him in the abs, lower back, genitals and ass. Soon, Luke looked like he was wearing a belt, but not a championship belt. It was a belt of black and blue marks that totally encircled Luke’s waist. At first, Luke was crying out in pain, and even cursing his killers from time to time. But about midway through the beating, Luke lost consciousness and sagged in his bonds as the beating continued. Satisfied with the effects of the beating, both men took a well-deserved break to wait for Luke to once again awaken.

     This time, it took about an hour for Luke to awaken, and when he did, he found he was in constant pain, regardless of how he moved his body. He looked at his captors and saw nothing but hatred and vengeance in their faces. “Guys, be reasonable, there’s no way you’ll ever get away with this. Laura will have the cops looking everywhere. Just let me go. I’ll even promise to stay away from the tournament. I’ll say I got a bad cold, and I have to withdraw. What do you say, guys?”

     Kevin grabbed Luke by the face! “Listen, Samson, there’s no way you’re leaving this barn alive! You’d turn us in the first chance you got! Now, you better say your prayers, because when you wake up next time, it will be dying time for you, asshole!”

     Luke said, “What do you mean?” but before he could say anything else, Kevin had delivered a vicious uppercut, knocking out Luke once again!

     The two men untied Luke from the overhead rope, and then dragged him to a spot about ten feet away. They stood him on the back of a farm wagon and tied his ankles together, then his knees, and then bound his arms behind his back. Finally, Kevin brought the noose over Luke’s head, cinching it tight with the knot at his left ear. Barry held Luke upright, while Kevin took the free end and dragged it to a nearby pole. He pulled it taut, so that Luke was forced to stay upright, and then tied it to the pole. Luke woke up, and instantly saw that he’d been noosed! He saw that he was on a wagon, with Kevin in the driver’s seat and two horses pulling the wagon. Barry was by the door to the barn, opening it. Luke started to cry out, “NO!” but his words were cut off as Barry cracked the whip and the horses and wagon began to race towards the door. Within seconds, Luke was hanging free, trying in vain to find the floor of the barn. Kevin knew what he was doing, he’d set the noose so that there was no drop, and Luke was left to slowly strangle to death.

     With Kevin and Barry watching intently, Luke’s body began to jerk and twitch. Within a few minutes, they saw his face begin to turn from a healthy tan color to orange and then red. His mouth began to open and close, trying in vain to bring life-giving air into his lungs.

     Kevin looked at Luke as he struggled, with Luke’s muscles bulging against the restraints, and said, “Hey, Samson, what’s wrong? A strong man like you with all those muscles can’t break the ropes binding you and free yourself? Man, you’re one sorry ass excuse for a wrestler!”

     Barry was also caught up in the excitement of watching Luke die. He yelled out, “Hey, Kevin! Maybe after Samson’s dead, you can console his girlfriend Laura. At least with you, she’ll see what a REAL man is like, not this wimpy asswipe!”

     In a few minutes more, his face and extremities took on a bluish tint, as his heart stopped circulating the blood through his body, and his tongue, also blue, protruded between his split lips. Then with a final sigh, Luke’s body became still for the final time. Kevin and Barry left his body hanging for another hour. Then they cut the rope, letting the corpse fall to the floor. The body was placed in the wagon, and they took the body out to a field. There, Luke was fed into a woodchipper, reducing his body to unrecognizable bits of flesh and bone. Now all that was left was to get rid of Luke’s car.

     Barry drove Luke’s Corvette, with Kevin following in their car. They went out to a cliff face in the country. Once there, they took the can of gas that Luke had brought with him, and doused the car with the gasoline. They also put a rag in the gas tank and lit the rag, then pushed the Corvette over the cliff. A few seconds later, they were rewarded with a very loud fireball and explosion.

     As they got in their car, Kevin turned to Barry and said, “That’s the end of that! Now, let’s get ready to go win us a pair of belts!”

     That weekend, the entire arena was abuzz. Defending champion Luke Samson had been missing for three days, and there had been no sight of him. Suddenly, the announcer called for Laura to report to security. She raced off, hoping that it meant that Luke had been found. Her hopes were soon dashed, however! “I’m sorry, Laura. We just found Luke’s car. You know that bad curve on county road 495? It looks like Luke was out in his Corvette, and took the curve too fast! He went over the cliff and the car exploded in a fireball! I’m afraid he’s dead!”

    Laura flew into hysterics, but eventually composed herself enough to ask when she could claim the body. “I’m sorry, Laura. We didn’t find his body. It probably got all burned up in the fireball! Please accept our condolences!”

    Meanwhile, up in the ring, the belts were being awarded. Kevin and Brady Davis stood arm in arm, both proudly wearing their championship belts, a repeat for Kevin and the first of many that Brady would win over the years!