Chapter 129 - 128: Owen Grey

Chapter 129: Chapter 128: Owen Grey

Years ago, a younger Cedric Grey who at the time had a black tee, jeans and shoes worn, stood in the alleyway in front a teenage Owen.

Owen at that time had a choppy blue hair that faded into pale blue tips while his skin was void from tattoos.

His scleras were white and his irises were still purple.

Owen had a white top with blue accents and wore blue jeans and black sneakers.

"I heard you did better than everyone in your class, Owen?" Cedric asked with a proud smirk, "Got a ninety nine over hundred in all of your subjects and the teacher still don’t believe you when you say you didn’t cheat."

"It was too easy. Everything." Owen said, "Never needed to read for tests. Just paid attention in class, picked everything important and wrote it... Just like the exams."

Cedric chuckled and placed his hands round his waist.

"I heard that you were once giving so much answers that you kept asking for more answer sheets." Cedric said, "It got to a point your classmates had to stop more from coming in. That’s one hell of a brain."

"Yet, I’m still not good enough." Owen said as he turned his face away.

"Hm?" Cedric said in confusion as he arched a brow.

"I know this might seem odd, but... I want to be like you, father." Owen said, "I want to be able to do the things you do. Walk in your shoes.

I want to make you proud."

Hearing Owen’s words, Cedric’s face went still.

Silence hovered in the atmosphere for a while until Cedric sighed.

"No." Cedric said.

"Hm?" Owen said as he turned his gaze towards Cedric.

"You don’t have to be like me." Cedric said, "Owen... You don’t need to follow my footsteps.

You have it... The things I lacked when I was your age: brains, a home, a chance at a better life and guidance.

I was simply a fool when I was your age. No one to guide me. Made a lot of terrible mistakes and ended up doing something that I don’t like talking about neither can I confidently beat my chest and say what I am."

"Owen... You don’t need to be me. You don’t have to... Because you’re better." Cedric continued with a warm smile, "And I can see a bright future for you."

Hearing those words, Owen smiled at Cedric.

"Now..." Cedric said as he wrapped his right arm round Owen’s neck, "What are we going to eat? Pick a restaurant."

"But uhm... Whatever you do, don’t pick Madame Clancy’s place." Cedric continued speaking as he was profusely sweating, "I had an altercation with her husband... So.. Uh... We’ll have to skip that place even though it’s your favourite."

Owen chuckled and placed his arm round his father’s neck.

"Alright, father. No Madame Clancy." Owen said.

Currently in MM-20 as Caesar was leaning against the wall with her phone on her ear.

"So what happened? What turned Owen into that thing?" Caesar asked.

Cedric sighed over the phone and spoke.

"Many years ago, I was having some difficult times with my wife and she wanted a divorce.

She also believed having my kid away from me was best for him because of what I was... You know... An ero-wrestler.

So to deal with my issues, I drank a lot and ended up having a one night stand with a random person in a club."

"One night stand?" Caesar asked with an arched brow.

"Yeah. Natasha. Beautiful beastfolk lady." Cedric said, "Her wings were something else.

Well, as I was saying, after that night, there was nothing between us again... Or so I thought.

Turns out that Natasha was pregnant and she chose to keep the baby."

Cedric scoffed bitterly.

"She hid the information and I went around not knowing I had another kid.

However, Natasha, herself was far from a good person. She was all kinds of fucked up and she had a lover that was fucked up as well."

"They were abusing Owen, weren’t they?" Caesar asked.

"Yeah... Yeah, they were." Cedric answered, "It got to a point that Owen ended up having a pigmentation graft to save his life."

Caesar’s eyes widened in horror and disbelief hearing those words. Her irises glowed and her hand she used in holding her phone slightly shook.

"Pigmentation... Graft?" Caesar asked.

"Yeah. It’s a surgery given to a victim who received injuries so severe to their layers that a new skin - lighter or darker is required to save the victim’s life." Cedric answered, "The tone of the skin depends on how severe the injury is or what their body can accept at the moment."

"I know what a pigmentation graft is..." Caesar replied, "I just..."

Caesar recalled herself as a child who had a fair skin, laying on the ground with blood covering her body.

Her vision slowly faded as her parents stood over her; her beastfolk father glaring down at her with a belt in his hand while her human mother smiled down with both arms crossed.

Caesar also recalled herself as a child staring at herself in the mirror, observing how her skin that was once fair had become as white as a ghost.

"Caesar?" Cedric’s voice cut through her memories.

Caesar regained herself and rubbed her forehead with her fingers.

"It’s just... I thought people who received pigmentation grafts are not allowed to even get a tattoo because it has deemed extremely hazardous for their health? So why is Owen’s body covered with them?

How is he not dead?"

"That... Is something I don’t know." Cedric answered, "Maybe he was just too bitter and angry to die after our fallout."

"What happened?" Caesar asked.

"I’m getting there." Cedric answered, "When I finally got the call about a kid I knew nothing about and learnt everything... I didn’t know how to feel. I didn’t know what to think."

A memory pours in of years ago with a younger Cedric staring down at a preteen Owen who stood timidly before him, wearing a baggy yellow tee, blue shorts and brown sandals.

His tiny hands came together and wings shook. After staring at Cedric for a while, he quickly brought his head down.

However to the beastfolk boy’s surprise, Cedric placed his hand on the boy’s head and slowly patted it.

"I felt bad... No... Awful." Current Cedric said to Caesar through the phone, "To think I had another kid all this time and I knew nothing about it.

I tried to make it up to him. Gave him the same opportunity I gave his older brother."

"Despite Owen being an illegitimate son, I loved him as much as I loved my first kid." Cedric continued as Caesar softened, "And the beautiful thing is that they both got along very well.

Owen had a very rare mind and was perceptive of many things.

Many saw him as one with a bright future. I saw it and even my ex saw it and felt I’d be the corrupt it... And it turned out she was right."

"Cedric..." Caesar softly said.

"We had a very good relationship, but where it began to fall apart was the moment he decided to become an ero-wrestler... Like me." Cedric said.

A quick memory took place as Cedric and a grown Owen stood in a room, staring at each other.

Owen grinned brightly with his eyes closed but Cedric stared at him with no emotions but stillness on his face.

Despite his lack of facial expressions at the moment, his eyes were filled with fear, anger and disappointment.

To the surprise of Owen, Cedric walked past him in silence and closed the door.

"And you didn’t like it?" Caesar asked current Cedric.

"Was I supposed to?" Cedric asked, "I remember you saying something about protecting someone or people after your brutal defeat at the hands of Nero, tell me, those people... If you heard they wanted to become ero-wrestlers like you especially with everything you have experienced, from the brutality to the disgusting acts we have to do with each other in the ring... Would you agree to that?"

"No. No, I wouldn’t." Caesar answered, "When I heard I heard Owen was your son yet an ero-wrestler, I was confused because you never struck me as the type that would allow his kid to participate in this kind of thing."

"Most of us wouldn’t." Cedric said, "There is an unwritten rule in the locker room: the curse of the ring is for the adult to bear and never to be passed down to the child."

"That’s quite the quote." Caesar said.

"A lot of ero-wrestlers don’t let their kids, kid siblings or even people they deeply care about into the business because we know what this ring is... What the company does to us and how it changes us." Cedric said, "From the brutalities to us using our hands and mouths on others people’s genitals and still shoving their mouths on ours, down to us playing people we really aren’t just to get the audience to care and in the end, we start loosing ourselves to those very roles.

Hell, some of us were just like that but the ring just gave room for our worst behaviours to manifest.

So tell me, why would I let my kid into that very company I’m aware has the potential to destroy him?"

"Not saying I blame you, though. After all, I just admitted I wouldn’t let my family step into this kind of business." Caesar replied, "So, yeah, I understand.

But was it just your disapproval that shattered the relationship between you and him? You’ve said it over and over again that it was your fault he became like this, so what happened?"

Cedric stayed silent for a moment and sighed.

"When I disapproved of Owen entering EBW, I found out he went behind my back and entered the development centre Tough Enough." Cedric answered.

"Oh..." Caesar said flatly, "I had a feeling that happened. And I guess you didn’t take that news too well?"

"No, I didn’t. I was livid and yet so scared." Cedric responded, "Owen was a unique guy but he inherited my stubbornness and zeal to do and finish something.

He wanted to prove himself to me even when I didn’t want him to. I saw him as someone who had potential to be a better than me."

"No matter what I tried to say, he wouldn’t listen. He kept going and was doing so well. So, I... I..." Cedric said with difficulties as Caesar furrowed her brows, "So I did what I ’had to’ to get him out."

"What you had to... What you had to..." Caesar said as she was trying to understand what Cedric meant behind those words and tone.

Suddenly, her eyes widened in shock while her grey irises glowed.

"You sabotaged him?" Caesar asked.

"Yeah, I tried to. Over and over again." Cedric answered with a solemn tone, "I did things to my son... Said things I was so ashamed of just to either get him kicked out or have him to quit, but neither happened. All it did was make him try harder."

"Remember when I first met you and asked what you thought about the company and you called it a porn company pretending to be a wrestling industry?" Cedric asked as Caesar tilted her head down, "I didn’t disagree with what you said but I also explained that it was food, shelter, rent and medicine for people who had nowhere else to go.

While all of that is true, ero-wrestling is a poison that consumes you yet keeps you alive. One you take when you have no other option left.

I took it because I was young, foolish and desperate, and I wanted to keep Owen away from that poison. Push him away by giving him a better life and the things I never had... But it seems I pushed him too hard."

"He eventually succeeded despite all my efforts but the relationship between us had become fractured." Cedric continued speaking as Caesar gently closed her eyes.

A swift recollection unfolds as Owen stood a bit afar from his father, glaring at him while having his fist tightly clenched at his sides.

Blood dripped out of Owen’s hands due to how hard he had tightened his fists.

Tears streamed out of Owen’s eyes while his irises were glowing.

His scleras were pale red due to the heavy tears shed despite the glare at his father.

Without a word, Owen turned his back on Cedric. His wings sprouted out and he flew away.

Cedric stepped forward and

stared down at a picture that laid on the ground which contained the image of his younger self and little Owen smiling in it.

’Yeah, it had become fractured but our issues were far from over.’