“Now you just hush, this is as safe a place as any. Be good or I will make a demonstration out of you again.”
Karina is at her work desk. The wall of monitors are on, as always, but she seems to be mostly ignoring them. She is working on closing a cardboard box with tape. She is careful yet excessive with the scotch tape. Her left hand twitches slightly as she works. After the box is sealed she starts to wrap the box in shiny purple and black striped paper. Once the box is wrapped perfectly she looks it over for any imperfections.
The images on the monitors are different then the last time we visited Karina. Instead of showing matches from nine different wrestlers the focus is on one....Kittie. There is video of her win at Into The Void. There are also clips from her time GCW and GXW. Matches where she fought on her own and fought as a team. One TV has her match with Karen Might on a steady loop. Karina has spent hours watching these tapes but she has other projects on her mind.
Once the box is to her liking she stands up and pulls out her phone. She presses one button and flips back her hoody so she can talk.
“I have a package I need you to send for me. Also I need you to clean up the mess I am going to make....yes a demonstration.....well you are not my fucking therapist.....no you won’t see me I am leaving for California.”
She hangs up the phone, turns around and walks to the large open space of the warehouse. A strange display has been created in this space. Karina looks at it for a moment, just taking it in.
Two large trunks rest on the hard concrete. Chains are attached to them and reach up to the ceiling. There appears to be a series of pulleys connection these chains to a mannequin that is being suspended an equal distance between the two trunks. The chains are connected to the wrist of the mannequin who is dressed in a hoody similar to Karina’s. A single chain that is connection to this strange contraption hangs down close to where Karina currently stands.
She turns to her audience. Her audience is a crowd of shadowy figures that mostly don’t have faces. You can’t see them just like you can’t see the stage that Karina is on. But she would assure you that it looks lovely and elegant. She does not have her hoody on either, but is dressed in a fancy purple gown. She has no scars. She has no trouble finding words here. This is the place for demonstrations.
“Ladies and gentlemen I present to you The Warriors Dilemma”
With a flourish of the wrist Karina walks to the trunk on the left. In this place it is a large iron contraption, with spikes and many locks. Inside are weapons soaked with blood. Rusty chains. Needles. Pieces of wood shaped like skulls that have nails pushed in all over. Karina pulls out her trust black bat from inside her sleeve.
“A true warrior is one well versed in the art of giving pain. They know how to provide large booming pain that can bring down another soul in one hit. Or tiny little pains that can wear one down to the point where anything will cause them to shatter. They know a thousand different pains for a thousand different days. They know that brute force is not what wins the wars. It is the threshold of pain that wins the wars.
I know pain. I know how to cause it. I have learned a thousand different ways and I have no restraint when it comes to causing it. To be honest I love to cause it. I love to look at a soul and figure out how best to cause them pain. I know...I know...I know that does not make me that good a person, but I am a warrior. A real warrior cares not what kind of person others might think they are.
Karina drops the bat in the trunk and seals it up. The crowd applauds her. They always do. She dances and twirls to the other trunk. With a flourish she reveals a trunk that looks like the kind of thing a kid would take with them to camp. Inside are photos of Karina through her life. Scarves from Romania. ID bracelets from the hospital and bandages. Treasures from her childhood.
“To know pain you have to be human. You have to have experienced pain. You can’t know how to shatter someones soul unless you have almost been broken yourself. You have to be beaten, stripped away of all your layers and left screaming all alone. More than that you have to know what joy feels like. What the sensation is like when you are free of all pain. Only then will you be able to cause real pain to another.
THERE LIES THE DILEMMA!"
Karina yells and her voice echoes in this place. The applause follows her statement. She walks to the center of the stage. There is no longer any mannequin just dangling chains. These chains start to wrap around Karina as she talks. They wrap around her wrist and her ankles. They wrap around her neck and her middle.
Karina: To be the best warrior you must know pain and forget your humanity. To know pain you have to be human. Being a warrior will slowly kill the human you use to be but then you also slowly forget all you learned about pain. By this logic anyone who tries to be a warrior is fucked.
The chains start to lift her up off the ground. Then both trunks get lifted off the ground. Karina is smiling through this whole process. A large mechanical noise can be heard and the trunk filled with weapons starts to fall back down but we see it is now connected to Karina’s chains and pulls her to the left. She grunts in pain but otherwise does not seem distressed that half her body is getting pulled apart.
Karina: I am a warrior. I have battled in the ring and out. Against terrible odds I have found a way to survive.
We hear another click and the second trunk drops. Karina now gets pulled in the other direction and returns to the center. This time the chains are slowly pulling herself apart. She yells out in pain but is smiling.
Karina: I am human. I have bled and I have suffered. I have loved before and had my heart ripped out. Against terrible odds I have found a way to survive. Do you want to know how I solve the Warriors Dilemma?
The crowd starts saying YES! YES! YES!....of course the audience is not real. Very little of it is but in her head Karina is slowly being torn apart by this Demonstration.
Karina: Every time I enter the ring I know that I will not leave without out dying at least a little. I bring all my skills, all my scars and all my humanity. I go in knowing that I need to be broken. I never forget my weakness. I let myself be torn apart because I know what parts of me that survive will be stronger. I never get so cold that I forget what pain is and I never get so lost in the pain that I am soft. I enter the ring ready to die so that I can born again...a victor.
Her body starts to tear, but no blood comes out. It is almost like her body is made of heavy fabric and that fabric is about to rip to shreds. Then a blinding white light comes from inside her....all we see is white.
Then we are back to the real world. With a heavy crash two trunks slam into the concrete as the mannequin gets broken in two. The clamor is terrible for a moment as metal, chain and wood all break. The floor is littered with shards of wood, chains and various items from inside the trunks. Karina looks at it all with a strange look in her eye. Then she nods and walks out of her strange warehouse home.
It is a bright sunny day in Vegas. The city is busy with people. It is a short walk from her front door to her motorcycle, but being out in the world seems to cause Karina quite discomfort. She moves to avoid touching or looking at anyone. She reaches her bike and quickly gets on. She revs the engine and pulls out nearly running over three people. She starts to drive through the streets of Vegas on her way to California.
I am a warrior. I will walk into the ring on Sunday ready to face any type of match. If the fates are with me they will give me a submission match. But who knows what luck will have. Does it really matter. When it comes down to it, both Kittie and I are badass bitches that can handle any type of match. If you want blood we will give you blood. If you want a cage then we will get right in. I have seen her eyes when she does battle and those eyes don’t back down. There is no match that will slow either of us down.
I am human. I don’t want to fight Kittie. I like her. She amuses me and her aura is pretty. We are more alike than we are different. We both fought back against the odds. We both love to cause stunning beautiful pain. Neither of us play those silly stupid games the other ladies do. They call us crazy but I know that we are free. Why does this match have to happen so soon? All we have ever done is fight and I don’t want to hurt you.
Karina drives out of the city onto the open road. She heads west...
But I do want to hurt you because we have a match and that is the whole fucking point. I don’t step up for a fight ready to go dancing, I step up ready to tear the person apart, To find every weakness and defeat them. I want to cause you pain. I want to make you angry, so that you fuck yourself up. I want to take every little mistake you make and turn it into a disaster. I don’t want to pin you, I want to break you. I want you to cry out in pain.
I want us to be friends. Fuck! Why couldn’t they let me beat on one of those mean girls!
She speeds up her bike, trying to drive ahead of all her confusing thoughts.
Fuck it all. Lets just have ourselves a fight. Lets bring all the burdens of our humanity. Lets hurt each other, lets hurt ourselves. Lets kills ourselves in that ring and get born again. I don’t even care if I win. As long as we battle, and sister we will battle. We will die terrible, lovely deaths in that ring and what rises from the ashes will scare the shit out of everyone. Won’t that be fun.
