He didn't like the chair. Or the table. Or the "lovely family pictures" on the wall. He didn't like the whole room, at all. But for the owner of the room, he had as much respect as he could have. Because doctor John Morrow saved his career... and maybe his life. It was year 2008, Friday the 13th symbolically, when he came to Morrow's house with bloodied hands and asked for help. No, he didn't ask, he begged him. Morrow was the first man (and possibly only one) Adam Stryker begged for anything.
He remembers it as if it was yesterday.
"Mr. Stryker..."
"Adam. Call me Adam. By this time I don't feel worthy enough to be called mr. anything."
"Okay then... What is you problem, exactly, Adam?"
"I... don't know. Not yet. You're here to tell me the problem..."
"Well MY problem is that on a cold winter's night, The Problem Child of pro-wrestling comes knocking on my door, with hands of blood."
"Okay... then I think my problem is I tried to kill Ricky Ian Pearce with my bare hands."
"You tried what?! Who is Ricky Ian Pearce?"
"Ricky, or The RIP as he is known in the wrestling world, was my opponent this evening. Falls Count Anywhere match, anything goes. And... can I get a glass of water? I'm kinda... not feeling fine now."
"Sure, here you go. Continue, please, what happened in the match?"
"We were scheduled to do a moment when I take a barbwired chair and hit his back several times."
"Well I as a wrestling fan don't think that counts as a murder attempt."
"No, it doesn't. But when something snaps in me, I destroy the chair while hitting his head like million times and then I kneel over him and try to choke him and start a rain of fists on his bloodied face... does that count?"
Morrow went silent for few moments.
"Well... it, it does. I hope I'll be able to help you, my dear friend..."
Morrow finally entered the room. Their traditional saturday session started. Stryker felt fine, he felt that he can handle everything now... he was happy for these sessions in the beginning, but they made him feel sick now.
"Today, we're going to make a simple Rorschach test, all right, Adam?"
"Whatever, doc..."
"Okay, what do you see in... this picture? Be creative, I know you can."
"It's butterfly."
"What does that stand for?"
"It stands for fucking flying bug, doctor. How the hell am I supposed to know?"
"I've seen your videoblogs, Adam, you can do better... what about this?"
"I dunno... two people... getting into a fight, or something like that..."
"Why are they fighting?"
"People fight because they're pissed off at each other, Johnny. Fuck this, this is not for me..."
"Wait Adam, give it a last shot. What about this?"
Something happened in Adam's head. His brained turned from the uninterested mode right to Adam's role. The nightmare came alive.
"I see... people. Weakened people. Weakened by their fears. It's a mess, they're trying to... probably find their place, something to do, but they can't, fearing the failure. The line in the middle... it's got something like a wound on it... it's their leader. It's a guy who tries to lead a cult, maybe a human race as a whole, but he's not strong enough, he's wounded, and if something goes wrong, it will cost him his life. Either he dies or he goes bananas and turns into a freak..."
Morrow was impressed. But Adam didn't end his speech. His face turned red and he started to whisper in a scary way.
"Those people are against me. They always were. The so called leaders have led them that way. Therefore I need to snap the leader, get into his head... and then cut it off..."
"...and take his place, perhaps, Adam?"
"No. People don't need a leader, John, they need a motivation. Their worst nightmares are their biggest motivations, overcoming those nightmares, in fact, is. I was never a leader, but I'm that damn good at scaring the living fuck out of people.
I am their biggest fear, the biggest threat, the dream you cannot wake up from, the monster under their bed and the skelton in their closet.
I am their next worst nightmare."