Lies
Lies forge reality.
I understand the statement is strange and might seem like a contradiction. But reality is something that can be bent, turned and twisted. The way we view the world can be skewed and change from one person to another or one moment to another.
What is real and reality to you is different to someone else.
Lies, stories, they can slowly slide into your mind and change it, change the way you think and view the world and your opinions and ideas. Deep down to your core, lies can forge a new reality in which you are the hero instead of the villain. No matter what you do.
We all lie to ourselves.
We all believe we do the right thing, sometimes for the wrong reasons.
But what happens when the lies are so outlandish they turn you into someone or something that can be viewed as a monster? Where do you go from there? How will your mind protect you? Skew your view and change your mind?
We all have our secrets…
He looked outside. The light summer breeze moved through the quiet suburban street. The leaves rustled, the branches swayed, and a pair of eyes were scanning up and down the area. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched, that they were being watched. He heard his kids playing, his wife moving around the kitchen and his sister and her son in their room as they had left the door open.
The last few weeks had been quiet, serene, not many arguments to speak of. This is the kind of life he wanted, that he needed. The stress had been getting to him over the last few months. Home, work, traveling and now this. The watching, the waiting, the constant feeling that someone unseen could see them.
Austin had enough, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing the police could do, not without proof.
Or so they said.
Today felt different, from the moment he woke up, from the moment he opened his eyes and walked downstairs to see his family, it felt as if whatever was watching them was closer. Closer than they had been. He could feel them, watching as he walked down the hallway, watching as he had a shower, took out the garbage, made toast. Every movement, every word spoken, every breath. It was all there being watched. Listened to, heard and maybe even recorded.
Lisa knew it, she felt it to, Amy wasn’t as convinced.
Austin sighed heavily, shaking his head as he moved from the window. The whole thing was getting tiring, watching the windows, watching the streets, making sure he was checking his phone while at Wolfslair and at an arena in whatever part of the country, religiously making sure there was noone there through the doorbell camera. He was sick of it. Angry about it, frustrated and just wanted it to end.
He moved through the kitchen to the back door, smiling as his children played in the small backyard. Austin tilted his head and his eyes narrowed, past the kids, past the trees and to something in the distance.
Eyes.
In seconds he ripped open the door so hard it almost came off the hinges, he growled and moved faster than someone his size should be able to, He moved across the grass, to the fence sliding up and over with ease before landing over the other side in the middle of the sidewalk of the street that ran behind his home. No one was there.
No one was watching. Austin turned to the right, to the left and looked across the street finding no one, no one running, no one hiding. Just cars, dogs, people living their lives. He growled feeling the anger rise up in his stomach, feeling it all about to burst out of his mouth.
Then he heard it. A scream.
A loud, shrieking scream.
Austin turned, going back into the house, running up the stairs, bursting into the bedroom and stopping, his heart beating through his chest.
”Lisa…”
His eyes opened, the blur of those first moments when dreams and reality merge and there’s a moment of wonder. The eyes focus and adjust, the sun streaks light through the room from beside the blinds. Austin turns and rolls from the bed, his feet hitting the floor as his hands run up the through his short brown hair. He looks up, across the room to the mirror. The reflection still not looking like he remembered.
His chest tattooed, his hair short. Austin had changed, done everything possible to be different, to look different. He let out a deep sigh, standing up to get ready for his day.
Alone.
Caged Wolf
”You were tougher than I thought you know”
Austins voice was deep, almost groaning as he seemed pained to admit it.
”Alexander Raven, the failed philosopher bird. You’d think looking at him that he would be one of those scheming types that has to use cheating tactics over brute force to get anything done but this, thing, this scheming little winged rat, he took the fight to me and he not only stopped me from beating him he survived me. He stopped me from doing the type of damage to him that could end not only his title run but his career and that, well that is worthy of attention and respect.”
He clears his throat, clearly being made to feel sick by the entire situation.
”I threw everything I could at him, I have no excuses, I should have ended him, ended his reign ended his career but I failed. And when it was all over I had to drag myself home, look myself in the mirror and come to terms with it. My failure.To know that all conventional wisdom says that I should have ended him and walked away with that championship. And believe me, that isn’t me being arrogant.”
“You look at my past. My history in wrestling, not just what I have done in SCW, what I have done everywhere. I have been a man who, when I get in the ring, is a force of nature. I have beaten some of the best that SCW has to offer and I have been to the top of the company. I have been a champion, I have been one of the best of the best and I have stood tall every single time I have tried to face and beat someone like you Alexander.”
“But this time, I didn’t.”
“I stepped in the ring with you, I went at you and in the end it was a draw. A fucking draw. I didn’t lose, I didn’t win. It was just…nothing. And that was infuriating. I’m sure you felt it to. It must have eaten away at you like it did me. And the truth is that SCW needed to find a way to make sure this timer we get a winner. So they have decided to put you in a cage match with me…or rather…voted the cage match…”
Austin shakes his head and lets out a small laugh.
”And what do you think is going to happen Alexander? In that cage? What do you think is going to be the outcome? Can you survive me in that cage and still win? Yeah, of course you can. I’m not one of these delusional pricks who believes themselves to be unbeatable and infallible. That has never been my MO to sit there like Mac Bane or even my friend and mentor Alex Jonea and tell the world that I am going to win no matter what and I am unbeatable”
“Everyone is beatable, everyone is able to be bested in that ring.”
“So, when I sit and look in the mirror and ask myself. Can Alexander Raven enter a steel cage and beat me, the answer is. Yes.”
“But will you?”
“That is the more intriguing question. And that is what everyone wants to know, to see. They want to see if you caen not only survive if you can thrive and you need to not only be mindful of that but also rise above it. You can’t let them get inside your head you need to do it for you. Just like I need to be mindful of what the world sees when they see me fail. They see a has been, a man who came back from time away looking different and looking like a bad ass who didn’t deliver.”
“I need to rise above that. To rise above the stupidity and futility of it and focus on one small detail…one small thing…”
“Being better than you..”
