Cry little sister
New York City
Last year
He could hear her weeping when the house was quiet and she thought everyone else was asleep she would cry. Austin got up to go and get a glass of water, he paced back-and-forth through the kitchen. His sisters room was downstairs, and he could hear her behind the door. Part of him wanted to go in and give her a hug. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay. But Austin didn’t know exactly what the problem was. Amy was smile and nod and talk like everything is fine during the day. But there was a sadness behind her eyes.
He stepped up behind her door his hand reaching up to knock something stopping him. He took a long deep breath and closed his eyes. Before he could open them again the door clicked, Amy opened it, sadness in her eyes that she could no longer hide. Tears still wet on her cheek. But she still offered her younger but much bigger brother a warm smile.
Austin couldn’t help but smile back, he looked over Amy’s shoulder seeing his young nephew Kristian laying in his crib asleep. It made Austin smile even more having his family under his roof. He had his wife Lisa, their two children, his sister and her son. I gave him a sense of something to fight for something to keep the roof over their heads with motivation. A motivation to keep going to work despite the fact he had felt he needed time away. But forcing himself to keep going was reigniting that fire and his family was responsible.
”Aus?” Her Boise was low as she asked a question with one word. His name. He gave her a nod and motioned for her to come out away from his sleeping nephew. They moved out into the hallway and sat down in the kitchen.
Austin couldn’t help but smile, Amy had come along way since Austin had found her in Briarcliff mental hospital. She had become a functioning member of society, able to hold down a job and be happy. She was even a great mother raising Christian with the kind of love and security that they both wish they had as children. ”How are you feeling Amy?” it was a foolish question, Austin already knew the answer he just wanted to see if Amy would tell him the truth, or lie to him. Part of her had to know what he was doing. There was a small silence between them as they stared across the small table at one another.
”You heard me crying, didn’t you?” He gave her a small nod of acknowledgement. She let out a deep, sad sigh. ”He reminds me of his father..” Her eyes trained passed Austin to her bedroom door, she swallowed hard and looked back down at the table. Austin turned and pulled open the fridge before sliding a bottle of water to her.
She took a sip and Austin reached out grabbing her hands. ”What happened?”
Amy took a long deep breath in, she held it for a moment before letting it out and opening her eyes looking at her brother trying to draw strength. Austin squeezed her hands and smiled trying to coax her into telling him everything. ”What does it matter? Christian will never know his father.” Austin shook his head and pulled his hands back. Amy folded her arms over her chest and looked awkwardly around. ”He was a great guy. But, bad with money…” Her voice trailed off.
”Go on...it’s ok”
She pulled out her phone, unlocking it before spinning it around and sliding it towards Austin. They were text messages, pages and pages of text messages threatening her and Christian. ”I had to leave him. I don’t even know if he’s alive” Austin handed her phone back. He got to his feet and moved around the kitchen staring out the back window.
It all made sense now, why she returned, why she was so nervous and why she struggled when going out into public. It wasn’t because any of her mental issues have returned, it was because she was legitimately paranoid about something might happen. ”That’s why you came back. You were scared” Amy nodded as Austin turned to look at her. She almost burst into tears again. Austin moved over and dropped to one knee taking his sisters hand. ”It’s ok. You’re safe Amy. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He meant it, she felt it. He got to his feet and folded his arm over his chest. ”But...you need to tell me everything…”
Clearing the storm
Austin slowly smirked, his large arms falling over his chest. He wore a tightfitting black and red Wolfslair shirt and jeans. Standard attire. He gave a small shrug before starting.
”So, are we ready to admit that I was right about Vinnie?. I told you all that if he got his hands on the Internet championship that all of my hard work was going to suddenly disappear. That that championship was going to become a joke. Six months of hard work, raising that championship back up to a position that it needed to be completely undone by one person and the fact that they cannot take what we do in that ring seriously. I take the professional wrestling world seriously, I take my job seriously. But some here, they just don’t. They would rather be a joke. Someone who talks to a goddamn cactus, someone who speaks in a stupid accent. I put on accent I might add. He held that championship for two weeks did nothing with it and then lost it to Teddy Steele Warren.”
“Teddy has been a better champion than Vinnie ever could be. And while that bar was set low, Teddy has done a good job. So let me reiterate Senor Vinnie, firmer world champion and self proclaimed best ever is nowhere near as good as Teddy Steele Warren…”
“And part of me wants to go back after the Internet championship. Part of me wants to take it from Teddy, raise it above my head, and go on another great run to raise that championship back to where it deserves to be. But, the truth is there’s another championship that I want to get my hands on. I want my world championship back. And just think, just think about how great Wolfslair is. Right now, Alicia and Johanna are both champions in the bombshells division. Alex was just the world champion, I was in a champion, we’ve had the mixed tag titles in our group. It’s time to continue that dominance.”
A small smile comes across his lips, he moves his hands up and through his head pulling it back tying it up into a bun to keep it out of his face.
”But, I am under no illusions that I need to earn my way back up to that world championship. So I’m like Alex, I’m not gonna get angry enough to throw a tantrum. I understand why Alex is so mad, I mean he basically sat there while Jack Washington repeated everything he said back to him, and brought up a whole bunch of relevant shit from 10 years ago. That’s gonna put anyone off the game having someone study them that much and confused the waters. So while I understand why Alex was so angry, I’m not going to condone it. Alex will get over it and he’ll be back as one of the most dangerous man in this company. Meanwhile, i’m gonna start climbing that ladder back up to where I need to be.”
“And it starts this week with Caleb storms.”
“Good old Caleb storms. Everyone’s favourite gatekeeper into sin city wrestling. It’s almost like I’m having to start from the ground up. And I get it Caleb you probably hate being thought of in that way right?. But it’s a good little position for you Caleb, it’ll keep you getting paid and keep you in employment. The days have you actually being serious championship contender for anything have long since passed. Even as much as I’ve buried the Internet championship after what Vinnie has done to it you wouldn’t even be good enough to win that one.”
“And that is kind of sad isn’t it?“
He laughs to himself again and shakes his head. His hands move down sliding into the front pocket of his jeans as Austin steps forward.
”I’m not saying you’re a bad wrestler Caleb. In fact you can get in the ring and be kind of impressive, bouncing around the way you do. But you cannot hang with the elite level talent that we have in sin city wrestling. You can’t hang with O’Malley, you can’t hang with Jack Washington, you can’t hang with Me or Alex Jones. You’re the person that sin city wrestling turns to when they need a warm body, in the ring, with one of the best. And that’s what’s happening at this climax control. Since he needs everyone to remember the kind of wrecking ball that I am, they need people to remember the kind of champion that I was in the kind of danger I can be.”
“That's where you come in Caleb you are that warm body that is being put in front of me that I can demolish and destroy to show the entire world why I deserve to be remembered as one of the best. I am a six foot six 265 pound beast of a human being.”
“It’s basically my brand, I’m tall, I’m jacked, and I can move around the ring just as fast as someone like you. I am a marketable style Caleb, I am someone who is legitimate just by look alone not to mention what I can do when I’m in the rain. But you? You are someone who just exists in my world. And after this match you will continue to exist, you will continue to be a part of sin city wrestling but the difference between us Caleb is that I am going to keep climbing that ladder back to the top, back to the world championship, back to greatness. I will hold that title over my head and do you know where you will be?. Right here. In the same place. Doing the same thing.”
“And again, that’s a good little spot for you Caleb. I’m .” not trying to discredit or disrespect you. The wrestling world needs people like you. Not everyone can be the world champion, not everyone can be looked at as a legit legend or human wrecking ball in this business. We need people like you to make people like me look even better than we are. And for that alone I respect you, and I thank you. But on climax control when I step into the ring with you, and I destroy you and beat you down before power bombing you through the mat and covering you, you need to realise that there is nothing personal in it. I don’t hate you and there is nothing here that indicates that”
“I’ll shake your hand before the match, and I’ll shake it after the match. But you need to take your place. Beneath my boot.”
