End of the road
Dallas, Texas
13 Years Ago
He had never been so angry. Not even when he would get into arguments with his father. He understood, Charlie wanted to protect Dylan. She and Alex got into an argument, yelling back and forth. She believed Alex was being to hard on Dylan, that Alex needed to be more understanding. And he’s tried. For weeks and months Alex had tried to get his brother on the straight and narrow. The drugs have been an issue, Dylan using them to deal with whatever mental anxiety he had. Using them to forget and to run away.
Run away.
Alex ran away once. The second he turned 18 years old he was out the door and ready to leave. After saving up almost every single sent from working from the age of 16 he needed to leave Texas. He needed to leave the house that he shared with his family. To get away from his father. He didn’t see it is running away. He saw it is getting it to live his life. But in leaving, he abandoned his brother, abandoned his sister. And all of those feelings have come to ahead in their argument. He was certain Dylan heard them yelling back-and-forth. But he didn’t come out, he didn’t come to speak to them or to make his feelings heard.
But the argument had pushed Alex over the edge. He felt like Charlie had been blaming him. Like all of Diylans issues were his doing. So he grabbed his car keys and stormed out of the house speeding away. He needed time to think, time to cool down. As he drove further away a sick feeling into the pit of his stomach but he pushed through ignoring it. He came to a nearby park stopping getting out with a bottle of water needing to move around. He paced back-and-forth, his head hurting from being so angry. How dare Charlie say the things that? How dare she blame him? As much as he understood her worry for Dylan and wanting him to sort his life out blaming him wasn’t the way. Or so he thought. He needed to close his eyes and breathe deep, let all the anger go.
He was lost.
He had no clue what he was going to do. How he was going to change everything. His brother was in deep and Alex had no idea how to relate to him. How was he gonna get him out of this? How was he going to make sure his brother knew that he had so much more of his life to live?. Maybe he needed to be better, calmer, more understanding. His hands drifted up to his hair as he ran them through looking up to the sky. He needed to breathe and calm himself down. His phone buzzed, he sighed and pulled it out from his pocket. It was Charlie. He answered it pulling it to his ear and straight away he knew something was wrong.
He couldn’t understand her. Charlie was crying and screaming. ”What? You need to calm down. I can’t hear..” He made out a few words. A chill went up his spine and he realised what was happening. Alex started to panic. ”Call 911! Charlie hang up and do it now!” Alex ran back towards his car, He unlock the door and got in. He started it up and had to get home as fast as he could. He sped down the street. He turned left, he came to a screech the ambulance was already there. Alex pushed the car door open rushing into the house. ”Charlie?. Charlie?” He pushes his way down the hallway and up the stares towards the bathroom.
Paramedics were moving Dylan out. He wasn’t moving, one of them using a pump as the others carried him, Alex moved into a door frame so they could get by. Charlie stepped out, tears streaming down her face. ”He...he wasn’t moving. He wasn’t breathing. I tried..I couldn’t.” She was shaking, she could barely keep herself together. Alex swallowed hard and reached out wrapping his arms around Charlie. She squeezed him tight and Alex shook his head. He had bonuses what to say. He was still lost.
”Come on, we have to get to the hospital…
. He tried to seem like he was strong. He tried to seem like he knew what was going to happen and that he was confident. But right now Alex was terrified. He wanted to be strong for his sister, he wanted to be strong because he thought it would fool himself into believing that Dylan was going to be fine. But now all we could think about was Dylan being carried past, his eyes were open. And there was nothing there. But now Alex had to lie, had to lie to himself and lie to his sister. Because he had no other choice
Are you happy now?
He was angry and frustrated. Who wouldn’t be? Alex Jones has spent the last 18 years working on being the best of the best. Priding himself when he won a championship that the person who beat him would earn it. That they would have to fight tooth and nail to get that championship off of him. But now, he was. His first match after losing the sin city wrestling world championship. And he honestly had no idea what to do. This is the first time ever happened, the first time he lost a championship this fast. And it made him sick to his fucking stomach.
” so, I bet you are all very happy right now aren’t you? So many of you are grinning ear to ear, laughing at my expense. Because 14 days is all I could do to hold onto that championship. 14 days where I got to call myself the best in this goddamn company. And then I came face to face with Jack Washington. Jack beat me, I have never once said that he didn’t, I never tried to take away from his victory. But, as time has gone on I’ve just gotten angry and angry about this entire situation. A kid, who is batting just over 50% was able to get in the ring with me at violent conduct and beat me. He didn’t earn that championship match, I earned mine because I just came off a successful run as a champion, I have a history of being the best. “
“10 world championships. 10 of them. Countless other championships, wins over some of the best names in this business. I have earned the right to go after any championship I choose. But Jack Washington? He was a cocky little shit who got lucky you’re gonna spend Jordan. He shouldn’t of even come close to beating Ben Jordan. But because he put in one good performance and Ben seems to struggle with the kid he ends up being able to write a cheque and faced me at one of the biggest shows of the year.”
“And now, instead of having a respected legend as you’re well champion you have this cocky arrogant little shit, this little parrot who if you didn’t say anything about him he had nothing to say because he can’t come up with an original thought. Someone who would rather dredge up someone’s dead past and lie about it and actually do anything of note.“
“Congratulations Sin city wrestling, you don’t deserve me as your world champion. You don’t deserve me as one of your best competitors. And I’m no longer going to fight to make sure this company is taken seriously because now? Now I’m going to get in that rain and I’m gonna beat the hell out of anyone you put me in there with, and I’m gonna do it to expose you. Mark Ward, Christian Underwood… You are both going to run out of challenges for me. And whether Austin or I end up earning our way back to that world championship..Wolfslair will rise again.”
Alex smiles, dressed in a well fitting black suit. He unbuttons the jacket opening it up putting it to the site before adjusting the tie.
”But my my, what an amazing event we have lined up. Our Halloween special, where all the matches have spooky stipulations. Just in case any of you don’t realise this, I am a 36-year-old-man. Not a child. I don’t care what kind of stipulation gets put on this match. I’m more interested in my opponents. One of them is a giant, A well put together mad man who seems to have an affinity for certain Victorian era serial killer. The other one, is the whipping boy of sin city wrestling. Interesting match. At least it would be interesting if it was just Caleb versus Jack one on one. But this is the first match you have me and after losing the world championship? Is this a joke?”
“Are you people trying to drive me insane? Maybe you think treating me like this is going to get me to quit this company. I know that’s what the majority of you want. I know you want me gone. Do you think with me gone then maybe the dominos will fall and suddenly Austin, Alicia and Johanna will be easier to handle? Face it. Wolfslair is the measuring stick. We hold championships, they matter. We lose them...they fade…”
“But now, well now your former world champion is in a match with two people who aren’t fit to tie my boots.”
“Jack is someone who is rarely seen in sin city. He’s not a regular here, he doesn’t deal with the week in week out running of this company. Why is he in a match with me? How did he earn the right to share the ring with a god?. Last time anyone remembers seeing him in the ring was against Austin. Everyone wondered, can Austin go against someone who is just as big as him? Austin beat him like he was nothing. And now he is being put in a match against myself and Caleb storms? Jack, I don’t care if you’re 6’8 and 278 pounds. That just means you’re a big, strong, inept moron. And I’m going to enjoy making an example out of you.”
Alex shrugs and lost him self before pushing up to his feet and adjusting his suit and tie.
”But then, there’s Caleb Storms. It’s funny but I just got done talking about how the last time we saw Jack he was being beaten up by Austin. And the last time we saw you Caleb, what happened? It’s almost like I’m facing the ghosts of Austin’s past. But Caleb you are a very special case. While Jack is used sparingly in this company and at least looks intimidating you seem to be always in sin city wrestling’s business. Week after week you get booked, you turn up. And fail. It really is incredibly endearing Caleb. Some people would say it’s worthy of respect and part of me does. Part of me respect you for having the kind of grind and heart to turn up week after week knowing that you aren’t actually one of the best in this company but willing to try and get better and try to improve.”
“With that being said Caleb the way you try and improve doesn’t work. You try and improve by turning up and sounding more confident every single week and in the end when you do inevitably fail instead of growing and getting better, admitting your faults, you stick your head in the sand like some kind of weird arrogant ostrich. I mean shit, before your match with Austin you started talking about how the Internet title rain would’ve ended against you, when he already destroyed you defending that title against you. You went on a weird tangent about putting in 120% effort.“
“Mathematically impossible by the way but also extremely redundant“
“At this point no one really gets anything from beating you Caleb. You don’t get a reputation boost, you don’t get a boost in the rankings here in sin city wrestling. In fact, what most people get when they beat you, is a sense of dread and sadness. They feel sad because they have beaten someone like you who should be so used to loss at the moment we should call you the New York jets. And I’m not going to coddle you Caleb, I’m not going to go easy on you. Instead Jack and you are going to know what it’s like to feel the wrath of a disgruntled world champion.”
