Victor Kall
in
Sometimes, Dead is Better
A rustling sound is heard before we get a shot of inky waters against a gunmetal, dusk sky. The field of vision casually bobs up and down, giving off a sense of serenity that lasted a mere few seconds before a voice cut through from behind the camera.
"Well, at least it's a nice night."
The camera pans out slowly as the horizon recedes. A rearview mirror fills the frame, followed by a dashboard, the right half of a steering wheel and the interior frame of a car. In front of where the hood is, a wooden deck and railing show the camera and its holder to be sitting in a car that's traveling on a boat.
"Yeah, nice night. Who the hell knows where we're going to wind up tonight, but at least it'll be nice and breezy."
Another male voice to the camera's left piped up. The point of view moved the slightest, but didn't show the person who was speaking. Those who may have seen a previous misadventure of Victor Kall may recognize the voices belonging to the cameraman and driver that tried to interview Victor near a makeshift desert concert. That night ended with Victor nearly starting a riot.
Cameraman: "Why do you have to be so negative all the time?"
Driver: "Seriously? Do you not remember what happened the last time we were sent out to find this guy and put something together for the WarTime Rumble?"
Cameraman: "Yes I was there, right with you and we came out of it relatively unscathed."
Driver: "I busted my knee up trying to avoid frantic concert-goers in a pitch black desert!"
Cameraman: "I said relatively, didn't I? And I wouldn't call it a desert, it was more like an oasis."
Driver: "What?"
Cameraman: "An oasis. It's a place in the desert that has trees or grass."
Driver: "That's not what an oasis is, it has to have water there."
Cameraman: "No that's an archipelago."
Driver: "An archipelago is an island cha…what the hell are we talking about?! This guy is unhinged. I mean why were we given this assignment again? There's plenty of other crew in ECWF."
Cameraman: "The bosses said we did a good job of finding him last time. The guy doesn't stay in hotels or motels so tracking him down is apparently tough. I mean, look at us now. We're on this boat because we found out where he was."
Driver: "We were told where he was. The cops called the offices and said that arrived yesterday on Catalina Island. It's not like we had to figure out where he was, we were literally directed here with ferry tickets."
Cameraman: "Yeah but….well, we're still going to be the ones to find him.
There was just silence from the left, silence in front. The calmness of the ocean, the noise from the steady roll of the waves pouring in through open windows in the car.
Cameraman: So, is Catalina Island an archipelago?"
Driver: "No."
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The camera cuts to a scene of a large ferry docked with two cars side by side on the large deck. One of the crewman are in the process of detaching a thick, brown rope that hangs across the stern. Another crew member sets up a ramp that seamlessly connects the boat from the dock, eliminating the space between the boat and the dock. A red car slowly rolls from the boat as the camera pans to the right, stopping on a black and white police cruiser that says SHERIFF on the side.
Panning to the left, the red car that arrived is pulling up next to the police car. The camera begins to move towards the vehicles. The driver of the red car, a thin, short man with brown hair, gets out and walks around the front of the car as a young looking police officer gets out of the cruiser. They meet in front of the vehicles as the cameraman catches up to them. The officer gives a wary glance at the camera, looking between the two men.
Officer: "You gentlemen are with the ECWF?"
Driver: "Yeah, are you Officer Sullivan?"
Officer: "Yes sir. Thank you both for coming out."
Officer Sullivan and the driver shake hands, and the camera shifts a little bit as he shakes the cameraman's hand.
Officer: "Yeah, my captain said you guys might be filming some of this. You can follow me in your car, the station's only about a mile away."
The officer turns to get into his car.
Driver: "So it's a little unclear on what happened with Mr. Kall."
Turning back, the officer's face scrunches as he squints into the sun.
Officer: "We can go over the details formally down at the station if that's ok. Come on."
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At the next cut, the camera shows another officer, a middle-aged female with auburn hair pulled back into a tight bun. She has a document in front of her and wears a tight smile. Our view is slightly askew left, the officer looking slightly past the field of view. The driver of the crew speaks up.
Driver: "Thank you for meeting with us, Captain Ramirez."
Captain: "Yes, well as I explained on the phone, Mr. Kall advised that someone from ECWF could pick him up today. To reiterate, we had to hold him overnight in what is essentially our drunk tank, so he's free to go today."
Driver: "Was he drunk?"
Captain: "He was not, but his behavior was…eccentric, I guess you could say. Disturbing the peace would probably the closest thing we could charge him with, however, he's not being formally charged at this time."
Cameraman: "Before he's released, we would like to get a rundown of exactly what happened that got him locked up overnight. Could you shed some light on that?
Captain: "Yes I actually have the report that one of my officer's typed up here. Bear in mind that this is a detail of events."
The police captain puts on a pair of reading glass and grips either side of the document.
Captain: "On Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at approximately 6:30 PM EST, officers responded to a 9-1-1 call from the manager at Buffalo Nickel restaurant. Officer Sullivan and Officer Corso arrived on scene to find the front left window broken, glass on the interior floor of the restaurant and three men injured. All three men were identified as locals, one of the men, Mr. Donald Streck, had a broken nose, Mr. Kenneth Yung suffered a gash on their chin and on their palm that EMT's stated would need stitches, and Mr. Leonard Smith had moderate bruising on their face, but no apparent injury. The manager, Mr. Robert Ferland, stated that the three men started crowding another man, who was later identified was Victor Kall, where he sat at the bar. They started raising their voices at one another, at which point Mr. Streck grabbed Mr. Kall by his shoulder and Mr. Kall headbutted Mr. Streck in the nose. Mr. Kall then grabbed a steel napkin dispenser and hit Mr. Smith in the face. Mr. Ferland stated that Mr. Kall screamed, 'I'm not the crow, I'm the mother effing cock of the walk!' Then Mr. Yung grabbed Mr. Kall from behind, but Mr. Kall bit Mr. Yung's palm. Mr. Ferland stated that Mr. Yung screamed 'like a bastard'. At this point, multiple patrons either fled the restaurant or tried to break up the fight by getting between Mr. Kall and the other three men. Less than a minute later, Mr. Kall left the restaurant after throwing cash on the bartop equivalent of two-hundred dollars."
Captain Ramirez looked up at the two recording her and put down the piece of paper.
Captain: "That's the incident portion. Charges are not being filed as Mr. Ferland and multiple other patrons of the restaurant confirmed that Mr. Kall was acting in self-defense. Mr. Kall also neglected to press charges at this time."
Driver: "If Victor was acting in self-defense, then why is he being held in a cell?"
Captain: "Well he was found later that night at the Catalina Pet Cemetery…"
Cameraman: "You have a pet cemetery?"
Captain: "Yes. And no, it's not built on cursed Native American land. Anyway, Mr. Kall was found at the pet cemetery in the course of digging up several burial plots. He didn't actually desecrate any of the remains, however, Officer Sullivan, whom you met previously, said that he looked frantic and could be on drugs. He offered to take Mr. Kall in. Apparently Mr. Kall nodded his head and said, 'sometimes, dead is better', and went willingly. He hasn't said much since. If one of our other officers wasn't a wrestling fan, we wouldn't have even known to call you."
A heavy silence hung between the two parties for a mere ten seconds that felt like two minutes.
Cameraman: "Thank you, Captain. May we see Victor now?"
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The next shot is walking down a short hallway with two cells on each side. The camera casually glanced through the bars along the right, seeing a square room with a long bench across the back wall. The room was empty, and given the lack of beds, this seemed to be a holding cell. Moving along on the right side, the next square cell has two different occupants. One of them is an older man, who sits against the wall near the bars and stares at the other inhabitant. Still wearing his black clothes from yesterday, Victor Kall sits on the center of the wooden bench against the back wall, his head down, hair hanging over his face. Hearing footsteps approach, Victor shortly raises his head to look up at the camera.
Victor: "If it isn't my favorite ECWF camera crew. They sent you to get me out of here, huh? Say, when's the last time someone cut a promo from a jail cell?"
Captain Ramirez stepped into frame, getting her key out.
Captain: "C'mon Mr. Kall, your stay at the Catalina Island sheriff's station has come to an end."
Victor: "Wait."
The captain stopped for a moment as Victor raised his hand.
Victor: "Just a few minutes. Let me address my audience. To start, I'll add by saying how hospitable the police officers are Catalina Island have been. Not once was I threatened with bodily harm or rape. I whole-heartedly recommend getting arrested here."
The captain looked at Victor, then back at the camera, then back at Victor. She let out a sigh.
Captain: "Whatever. I'm getting a coffee refill. When I come back, you're outta here."
The captain passed the camera in front, Victor's eyes momentarily following her as she left.
Victor: "Thank you, ma'am."
Man in the cell: "Can you at least let me out?"
Victor: "Oh hush up Jefferson, you're already late for the Catalina wine mixer as it is."
The man just shakes his head slowly as Victor looks into the camera.
Victor: "I appreciate you guys getting me out of here. I have a match tomorrow against Sam Steele, my first taste of horror-core rules since arriving. People have called this a tune-up match, something to get me ready for the StarrCade main event. I don't see it that way at all. Sam Steele…finally, someone who isn't going to be a pushover. Someone that's going to put up a fight. We have something in common in the fact that we've been at odds against The Age of the Fall. In another scenario, another card, another battle, we may even find ourselves being allies at one point. Of course, he'd have to be fine working with a freak like me."
Victor: "I have expectations going into this match. I expect to get bloodied. I expect to be beaten, but not defeated. I expect that the Age of the Fall is going to get involved somehow. They'll be in the arena, and they'll probably insert themselves into my match. I expect they'll want to attack me and stand over my fallen, broken body as the show fades to black. I'm going to say this only once. Age of the Fall…if you interfere in my match on Friday night, then you will get a receipt. It'll happen at StarrCade, or maybe before. One of you will be in my crosshairs. One of you won't make your match. There's so many of you that you'll never be able to guess who it will be. Or when it will happen. I have business with Jay Reynolds at StarrCade, that's a given. We're going to beat the holy hell out of each other in Madison Square Garden. But if you think about attacking me before…"
Victor softly chuckles, lowering his head again as he stands up. He slowly walks towards the camera, reaches the bars and puts his hands on the vertical iron near his head.
Victor: "Things are going to get violent, real soon. I can't wait. You won't have to wait long. Steele, I'll see you Friday. Age of the Fall, bring out your best, bring out your toughest…just don't bring out anyone that you want back."
With that, the camera cuts.