The Weight of the Quiet
Wolfslair wasn’t silent tonight.
The hum of the lights, the steady rhythm of jump ropes hitting the mat, and the faint echo of gloves striking heavy bags filled the air. But for Aiden, the noise felt miles away. He sat in the locker room, still wrapped in his training gear, staring at the open gym bag beside him. Inside, under a towel and a change of clothes, was the bottle. Half full. Mocking him.
He hadn’t touched it since that night with Austin. Two weeks. Maybe three. He’d stopped counting because numbers made it feel like a countdown instead of progress. But today…..today the whisper in his head was louder than usual. The bad day had started early. A rough spar. Missed timing. A rolled shoulder. Then the look Alex had given him when he stumbled on a transition, sharp, assessing, like he could see right through him. And now Aiden sat here, staring at the bag, wondering if the bottle would shut up the noise again.
The door opened.
Footsteps. He didn’t need to turn to know who it was. The sound was deliberate, heavy, carrying authority that didn’t need to announce itself.
Alex.
He’d hoped it’d be Austin.
“You planning on sitting there all night?”
Aiden flinched. The voice wasn’t angry, yet, but it was close. The kind of calm that came before the storm. He took a slow breath, staring down at his shoes.
“Just cooling off,” he muttered.
“Uh huh.” Alex stepped closer. The air seemed to thicken. Aiden could smell the faint scent of cologne and chalk dust. “You were off again today.”
Aiden forced a shrug. “Bad day.”
“No,” Alex said flatly. “A bad day is when you forget a combo. This—” he gestured vaguely toward him, “—this is something else.”
Aiden’s stomach knotted. He tried to play it off, but his throat felt dry. “Guess I’m just tired.”
“You’ve been ‘tired’ for a while now,” Alex said, stepping closer. He leaned against the opposite locker, crossing his arms. His eyes, sharp and unreadable, studied Aiden like he was dissecting him. “I’m not Austin. Don’t bullshit me.”
The words hit harder than they should’ve. Aiden glanced up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I know.”
The silence that followed was brutal. No sound but the hum of the lights above.
Aiden blinked. His chest tightened. “Know what?”
Alex tilted his head. “Don’t make me say it.”
Aiden looked down again. The air felt too thick to breathe. His heart thudded in his chest. “Austin told you?”
“No,” Alex replied. “He didn’t have to.” Aiden froze. “You think I don’t notice when one of my guys is slipping?” Alex said. “I saw the bottle cap in your locker last week. Saw the way you hesitated in drills. The tremor in your hand when you laced up your gloves. You might be able to hide it from the others, but not from me.”
Aiden’s jaw clenched. “It’s not like that—”
“It’s exactly like that.” Alex’s tone sharpened. “Don’t insult both of us by pretending it isn’t.” The words sliced through the space between them. Aiden wanted to fire back, to defend himself, to say something, anything, that would make this moment pass. But Alex’s eyes were steady, unrelenting.
“You think I don’t get it?” Alex continued, voice rising just enough to cut through the tension. “You think I don’t know what it’s like to hate yourself every time you lose? To feel like you’re stuck in the shadow of everyone you train with? You think you’re the first person to drown their mistakes in a bottle?”
Aiden’s breathing hitched. He looked up at him, meeting those hard eyes. “Then why are you acting like I’m the only one who—”
“Because you’re supposed to be better than this.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Aiden stared at him, the words echoing in his head. They weren’t cruel, they were heavy, loaded with disappointment that stung worse than anger ever could. “You think I don’t want to stop?” Aiden shot back, voice shaking. “You think I like being this way?”
“No,” Alex said. “I think you like the excuse it gives you. ‘I drink because I’m lost. Because I’m behind. Because I can’t catch up.’ That’s not a reason, Aiden. That’s a story you keep telling yourself so you don’t have to look in the mirror.”
Aiden pushed off the bench, standing to face him. “You don’t know what it’s like in my head.”
“You’re right,” Alex said. “I don’t. But I know what it looks like from the outside. You’re not broken, you’re scared. And you’re letting that fear make your choices for you.”
Aiden’s fists clenched at his sides. His voice cracked. “It’s not that simple.”
“It is,” Alex snapped back. “You either pick up that bottle, or you don’t. You either stay down, or you get up. Everything else is noise.” The words hung between them like thunder. Aiden’s shoulders slumped. His breath came in shallow bursts. He turned slightly, eyes darting toward his bag, the bottle hidden under the towel. Alex’s gaze followed, catching the movement instantly.
“Go on,” he said quietly. “If that’s what you want, go ahead. Take it out. Have a drink.”
Aiden froze. “What?”
“You heard me,” Alex said, stepping aside. “You want to make that choice, make it. But understand something—if you do, you don’t step back in that ring tomorrow. You don’t come back here and pretend you’re okay. You drink that, and you’re done until you’re ready to face the man you’re trying to drown.” Aiden’s throat went dry. He stared at the bag like it was a loaded gun.
“That’s not fair.”
“Fair?” Alex laughed once—humorless. “You think any of this is supposed to be fair? You think the world stops spinning because you’re hurting? It doesn’t. It never will. You either fight through it, or it eats you alive.” The words hit like punches. Aiden blinked rapidly, vision blurring. He wanted to scream. To cry. To tell Alex he didn’t understand, but deep down, he knew he did. That was the problem.
The two men stood there, silence stretching like a wire between them.
Aiden looked at the bag again. His fingers twitched. The urge burned through him, sharp, familiar. It would be so easy. One drink. Just to shut the noise up. Just to breathe. But then Alex spoke again, quieter now. “You’re not weak for wanting it,” he said. “You’re weak if you let it own you.”
Aiden’s chest tightened. His hand hovered near the bag. He could feel his pulse in his fingers. Then, slowly, he sat back down. He stared at the floor. The sound of his own heartbeat filled his ears. Then, with shaking hands, he reached into the bag. Alex didn’t move. Didn’t say a word. Aiden pulled the bottle out. The amber liquid caught the light. For a long moment, he just looked at it. The label was creased, worn, familiar. It smelled like comfort and shame all at once.
He uncapped it.
The smell hit him hard, sweet, sharp, like memory. His throat ached. His fingers trembled.
Alex watched silently. Aiden lifted the bottle halfway, his reflection distorted in the glass. He could see himself, tired, beaten, small. The version of himself he hated most. He took a breath. And then he lowered it. He screwed the cap back on, slow and deliberate. Then, without ceremony, he set it on the bench between them. “I don’t want it.” His voice was barely a whisper.
Alex’s jaw tightened. He nodded once. “Good.”
Aiden let out a shaky breath, his shoulders collapsing forward. He felt hollow. But in that emptiness, there was something new, something like quiet. Alex stepped forward and picked up the bottle. He didn’t pour it out. He just held it for a moment, studying it, then looked at Aiden. “This isn’t over,” he said. “You’ll think about it again. You’ll want it again. You’ll probably screw up again. But next time, you remember this moment. Remember that you can stop.”
Aiden nodded slowly. His eyes burned, but no tears came. “I’m sorry.”
Alex shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. Be better.” He turned, walking toward the door. Just before he stepped out, he glanced back. “You’re still one of mine, Aiden. Don’t make me regret that.” The door shut softly behind him. Aiden sat there for a long time, staring at the closed door. The gym was quiet now. The kind of quiet that didn’t suffocate, it just existed. He reached for the water bottle in his bag. The same kind Austin had handed him weeks ago. He twisted the cap open, took a small sip, and let it settle in his chest. It wasn’t relief. It wasn’t victory. But it was something else.
Control.
For the first time in a long while, that was enough.
He didn’t need the bottle to breathe tonight.
GFY
”Yeah… so, I’m not very happy about this entire situation. Do you people think I enjoyed crushing LJ’s dreams? Do you think I enjoy giving him the honest truth that I also know is going to break him in half?”
Aiden sighed heavily and ran his hands through his hair.
”For months, I have been doing everything I can to prove to everyone that nice guys finish last. That the happy-go-lucky, smiling, joking version of me was never going to become world champion. And that isn’t what you want, is it? You people don’t want happy, smiling people. You want broken people. Angry people. People who are ready to just destroy everyone else’s confidence and entire lives at the drop of a hat. Sure, you might say that you support people like our current world champion Carter, but at the end of the day, you crave having a man or woman holding one of the world championships who is going to verbally and physically eviscerate the entire roster. That is the kind of thing that you’ll get off on because you are all a bunch of sick fucks.”
“And hey, I’m a little bit sick too. But at the end of the day, I know who I am. I know what I want to accomplish. And I just beat LJ down so I could get to this point, so I could earn my way to facing Carter again because I know given the chance one-on-one, I can beat him.”
“But the first obstacle was Liam Davis, the second was LJ. And I will be completely honest, both of those men are great competitors in this company and deserve all the respect in the world…”
“But….”
“They have never been on the same level as people like me. As people like Alex. Hell, even like Carter. Liam Davis would make a good Internet or Roulette Champion, LJ the same. But as world champion contenders, it’s just not feasible that they should even be anywhere near that championship. It is not fair to the company, it is not fair to the title, and it isn’t fair to the real stars of this company that do everything they can week in and week out to make sure that eyes and ears are focused on SCW. Could you imagine Liam Davis as the world champion? Could you imagine LJ winning it before his brother? Certainly not. But now ask yourselves, with everything I’ve accomplished over the last few months, could you see me being the world champion?”
He smiled and shook his head with a laugh.
”I know that some of you are nodding and some of you are shaking your heads. The truth is that I haven’t really proved myself, have I? As good as I have been, as competitive as I have been, I have not really been able to prove that I deserve to be the world champion. And because of that, I can’t stake my claim, and I can’t tell you all that I’ve been dominant. So, I had to earn my way through this tournament. I didn’t deserve to be here, and I told you all that because I am nothing if not honest. But, I have earned my right to be here by beating Liam and by beating LJ, and I look around and I question, who else is left?”
“What top stars do we have now that certain others took their ball and went home? Who do we have now that J2H threw his little tantrum and decided to walk? Who do we have now that both the Harris Brothers are gone and that other tattooed idiot walked out? Who is worthy to face the world champion and become a star?”
“Austin is hurt, Finn is healthy but has fallen out of love with this business and this company, Alex is being ignored...so I’ll ask you again, who should be facing Carter for the world championship?”
“Apparently, it is down to myself and Alexander Raven.”
“And when I first saw that Alexander had returned, I had to do a double take. Because honestly? I thought he was dead. I know that might sound extreme, but the kind of person that Alexander Raven is, you’d either see him flying around the ring and trying to brawl with everyone in sight while spouting some pretentious nonsense, or you’d envision him swinging from a ceiling fan. But luckily, he’s alive, and he’s now trying to resurrect his career, which died a long time ago in this company because he could never quite reach the heights that he believed he should have been at.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle again. He stood up, moving across the room and folding his large arms over his chest. His bright blue eyes burned as a few strands of his light brown hair floated across them.
”But, as many times as you’ve failed, you’ve stood back up, haven’t you, Alex? A lot of people might make fun of you because of that. But I won’t. I’m not going to throw you under the bus for that particular sin, because it shows a lot of pride, a certain lack of ego, to get beaten down and fail time and time again, only to come back and do everything you can to try and reach your dreams. And they are dreams, Alex. You might stand there and talk about this as some kind of lofty purpose in your life, but the truth is that becoming a world champion is an accomplishment and a dream. A dream that you haven’t reached in this company.”
“Other companies? Sure, you have. And unlike our current world champion, I’m not going to discount the fact you’ve been a world champion. Yes, I saw that whole conversation on the social media platform known as X. I watched as Carter belittled your world championship, I watched as he badmouthed you and tried to make everything you have accomplished mean nothing. And I don’t agree with it. And I also don’t think that’s how our world champion should act.”
“Your accomplishments and accolades matter. You, Alexander Raven, matter.”
“However, I will throw you under the bus for something else—for being a coward. You see, bird boy, I can’t help but notice you made your return to SCW after some of the bigger names left. Austin, Finn, J2H, Harris...all gone. And now you decide to return. And why? Because you believe you have a free ride toward the SCW title?”
Aiden wagged his finger back and forth and shook his head.
”Sorry, Tweety, Sylvester says no.”
He shrugged and paced back and forth.
”And it also just occurred to me that you are going to be coming into this match believing that you are facing the same guy who you saw last time you were here. The thing is that I’ve changed. Many people would say for the better, some would say for the worse. But the fact remains that you still have no idea what you are in for. You see, Raven, the last few months I’ve gone from being someone who could barely be bothered to turn up in this company to someone who is taking it all a little bit too seriously. I was the Roulette Champion, and I’ve beaten some of the best this company has to offer. I’ve already gone one-on-one with Carter before, and now I’m looking at dragging myself back up that hill again.”
“And you think that you have a dream and a challenge? You think that you have a right to be able to go after that championship? Why? Because you’ve been owed a shot at it? Because you think the entire world owes you something? Buddy, this business and this company don’t owe you shit.”
“And I’m here to remind you of that.”
“I’m here to be a world champion. I am here to become the SCW World Champion, and I’m here to realize my dreams and my destiny. I am sick and tired of being treated like I’m irrelevant. I’m sick and tired of people believing that I am in the shadow of those who came before me. I want to take that world championship home to my wife, to my son. I want to be able to show my unborn child a picture of me holding it and tell them how their father was a world champion. Not just a world champion—the world champion. I want to be able to do this for my family, for me, and for everyone who has ever believed in me, as well as everyone who has never believed in me. So what do you fight for, Alex? Your own ego? Your wife who also couldn’t cut it in this company? What do you fight for? Because near as I can tell, with everything you have ever said and everything you have ever done, all you fight for is the idea of yourself.”
“Not the idea of being a better champion, not the idea of being a good champion or making your family or yourself proud. You just fight for your own ego because of the fragility of everything you have ever been and everything you ever could be. So I have to stop you from getting your hands on that championship. Because I deserve to face Carter. I deserve to be able to face him again one-on-one, and I deserve a shot at becoming the world champion. And you.....you deserve to try and stop me.”
