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Time: Sunday, February 1, 2015, 11:30 PM...
Place: the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland…
Location: Backstage... Inside The Fallen's Lockerroom…
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The night had been one of fun and laughter, joy and pleasure, pain and sorrow, loss and regret. And for one particular Angel of the Fallen, it was one of defeat and anger.
There was one thing that Darknyss always prided herself on, and that was respectfulness. She was always respectful, and commanded respect in return, from anyone and everyone she met. And if she didn't get said respect, she went on a warpath and left beaten and broken bodies in her wake.
Tonight... Darknyss had been disrespected in a gross manner, but she was still too stunned to be on a warpath... and everyone else around her was already on one... Everyone except for one person. Tonight, she was calm, cool, and collected on the outside, while inside, chaos reigned. As she sat back and watched Gothika, Diamond, Dark Tiger, and Jeremiah go apeshit about the way that Darknyss was treated in the ring by Patient #078, SHE had a monster headache brewing because of a certain little someone howling away inside of her head, banging on the walls of the maze as she tried to break free of the cage of misery to which she'd been imprisoned.
At first, it had been fun to watch everyone be so agitated... Everyone except for Darknyss, who just sat on the couch and stared off into space, chewing on her knuckle. She just sat there and watched as Dark Tiger raged, only the fact that about fifteen members of security had been stationed outside of the door after he'd gone through about twenty guards trying to get down to ringside to jump on Joey Harris after he'd raised his hand to Darknyss as if to hit her. Say what you want about Dark Tiger, but his love for his woman was absolute, and he would run roughshod over anyone and everyone that he thought may have hurt his Lotus Blossom. And he wasn't the only one. Diamond had to drag Jeremiah back into the room, telling him that Lady would handle her business, and take care of things.
After the match, Darknyss had returned to the locker room, not even noticing the security because she was so upset. Her face was so red with anger at what had happened in the ring. She was humiliated, she was disrespected... And she was pissed. As she got closer to the locker room, she could hear Dark Tiger's roaring about what had happened, even though she was still down the hall.
"HOW DARE HE RAISE HIS HAND TO HER!! I WILL RIP HIM TO PIECES!! I WILL SHOVE MY FOOT SO FAR DOWN UP HIS ASS, HIS GREAT GREAT GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE BURPING SHOE LEATHER THEIR ENTIRE LVES!!"
Darknyss had sighed heavily, then stepped through the door and into the room. Immediately, she'd gotten swarmed by her friends, all of them firing off questions and comments of concern for her safety, all save for one who sat in an easy chair, her eye twitching almost spasmodically to some irritant that only she knew about. Darknyss couldn't take the constant yammering, and she'd howled out...
"WOULD ALL OF YOU PLEASE JUST BACK OFF??!!! PLEASE!!! I MEAN DAMN!!! REALLY??!!"
Darknyss's roaring was even louder than Dark Tiger's had been, and she'd winced, as the yelling, coupled with what was going on in her head, made her twitching eye jump even worse. She rubbed her temple with one hand as the other drummed on the arm of the chair, her head starting to throb from all of the loud noises. She watched as Darknyss sank into the couch and sat there, grinding her teeth in barely suppressed anger.
"So... as I'm sure you're all aware by now, I'm not advancing in the tournament. I just never thought that I would be paired with such a..."
Gothika interrupts her musing with a low growl.
"A brute!! A low down, good for nothing waste of space!! I swear... I SWEAR!! Let him darken along my path and I will rip his throat out, but I won't drink from him!! I would never sully my body with such low filth as him!!"
Dark Tiger speaks at the same time.
"A worthless piece of trash!! I will make him dread the day that he DARED to lift his hand to my sweet Lotus Blossom!! Had he not acted like such a brute, and an overconfident bastard, then we both may have been advancing and not just me!!"
Diamond and Jeremiah were about to say something, but with the venom dripping off of the words of the other two, they just stood there, nodding and co-signing on what was being said. Darknyss shook her head and took a deep breath, blowing a stray wisp of hair from her brow.
"Well now... truthfully, I think that I owe Erik a small debt of gratitude. If he hadn't stepped in when he had, then I would have had to take out my own partner. Although, even if the guy had hit me, it wouldn't have mattered. I'd have tried to gut him where he stood. NO ONE tries to humiliate me and gets away with it. I kinda figured that with the name, Patient #078, he was fresh out... But I didn't realize he was still freakin' nuts! And not even the good kinda nuts... You know... The kind that you wouldn't have to worry would stalk you and tie you up and throw you in the basement. No, instead I get someone who's not just certifiable, but HAS BEEN CERTIFIED!! I swear... Maybe I should get Erik something he could use... something like a nice watch... A box of chocolates... Definitely some new suits... Some of his wardrobe leaves... so much to be desired. I swear, I should introduce him to a good tailor..."
She finally couldn't take anymore of the idiotic drivel about how nice someone has been, who had tried to make their lives miserable less than a year ago, and she brings her fist down on the arm of the chair sharply.
"Alright!! That'sssss enough!!"
Everyone turned and looked at her as she'd been so quiet over the past few weeks. She tried her best to keep the tone that they all remembered, but she couldn’t keep the irritated note from coming through.
"What in the blue blazes do you mean, you have to do something nice for Erik Staggs?!! Do you not remember what he did to us when he first came to this company? Don't you remember how he tried to break us?... Have you forgotten all of the pain and anguish he put all of us through? Or maybe you've forgotten how he tried to humiliate us, just as that bull headed, pompous ass did to you tonight!! And you want to THANK HIM??!!! THANK ERIK STAGGS!! GET REAL!!"
She pushed herself to her feet quickly and started to walk back and forth in front of her friends, holding her head and running her fingers through her hair, gesticulating wildly as if she was trying to say something, but she's not saying a word because in her head, the sound of roaring has risen to a fever pitch, and for a moment, she couldn't speak audibly. For a minute, all she could hear was the bitch in her head screaming at her...
"LET ME OUT!! THIS IS MY BODY!! I WILL NOT LET YOU USE ME LIKE THIS ANY LONGER!! DO YOU HEAR ME!! I WILL GET OUT!! I WILL GET OUT AND YOU WILL PAY!!" And then the roaring would start again in earnest. Her head was splitting, and all she wanted to do was just have ten minutes alone so she could go back in there and straighten the little pipsqueak out. Maybe sending her running through the maze again would be enough to quiet her down for a while. So she started the music going in her head again to try to drown out the roaring...
'Tick... Tock... goesssss the clock... and what now ssssshall we play?...
Tick... tock... goesssss the clock... All time hasssss gone away….
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… for what you cannot know…
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… The sssssandsssss will ssssstop their flow…
Tick… tock… goesssss the clock… esssssscape is on your mind…
Tick… tock… goessssss the clock… no way out ssssssshall you find...
Tick... Tock... goessssss the clock... and assess the hoursssss they fly...
Tick... tock... and all too ssssssoon... your hopesssss… sssssshall sssssurely… DIE! But all that did was make the yelling and roaring in her head even worse, so she tried to ignore it. That's when she realized that everyone was looking at her. She cleared her throat and started to speak to those standing around her, even as the chaos in her head continued.
"Look.... The truth of the matter is, had you all not ticked Lady off before her match, and had her doubting herself, she may have fared better than she did. All it takes is one little spark of doubt in your mind, and your game is off. You know that. All of you. So what in the fuck did you think would happen if you all jumped on her back about not wanting her to go out there?"
Everyone looked at her thoughtfully as she kept pacing. She was mumbling to herself as she kept going back and forth, but she was doing it softly, so they couldn't hear her. When she was mumbling, her eyes kind of glazed, and they didn't want to interrupt her, because when she got like this, one never knew what might happen.
"Ssssshut up!! Jusssssst ssssshut up you little bitch!! I'm in control!! I won't let go either!! Don't you get it? I wasssss cooped up insssside of you for sssssssooooo long!! I finally have a ssssay in what isssss going on and I will not let go!!"
Inside of her head, she heard the roaring and the howling of the girl. She was getting louder and louder. She actually could feel the clawing on the walls of the maze as if she were raking red hot coals through her skull.
"DON'T YOU GET IT, YOU STUPID BITCH??!! I WON'T STOP!!! THIS IS MY BODY!! I WILL KEEP FIGHTING UNTIL I TAKE IT BACK!! I CAN FEEL YOU!! I UNDERSTAND NOW!! AND I WON'T GIVE UP!! I WILL TAKE CONTROL AGAIN!!"
She rubbed her temples again and was able to block out the chaos once more, then she turned back to those in front of her. No one had answered her question, so she kept talking.
"Think about it. What does Darknyss do for us before a match? She encourages us. She gives us pep talks. She trains us, and she trains us hard. She doesn't speak ill of us or our skills, and she makes sure that before we walk out of that very door, that our mindset is on winning. And what did you all do? She was trying to get into that mindset, and you all started to harp on her. You were talking about how much stronger the men and women of this company were than the previous places you all have been in. Something she knows very well since she has competed in this company before. You talked about how long it had been since she'd been in the ring. Something she did for US by the way Gothika!! You basically told her that you had no confidence in her skills... And yet, she's the one who's training us. She's teaching us what she knows... And I for one know that she hasn't taught us everything she knows, cause she's relying on us to become our own person, and not a clone of her. She's trained each and every one of you! And this is the thanks that you give to her? You demean her abilities? Come on people!! You sent her our there with enough ammunition already riddling her body, that Necra and Erik already had the match won before she stepped through the ropes."
As she's speaking, the raging chaos in her head quiets down, as the snot nosed brat inside of her listened to her words thoughtfully. She took the time to try to fortify the maze. She took slow, deep breaths as the pain behind her eyes lessened a bit. She looked at Darknyss and lifted an eyebrow.
"You didn't lose your match Lady. They cost you the match by not believing in you like I did. I wanted to speak up, but you ran out before I could say a word. I wouldn't say anything because I knew that no matter what I said, their lack of confidence in you would still take a toll on you, and it wouldn’t have mattered. They needed to see how much the nay saying could affect a person before a match to truly understand just how important you are to us... How important you are to me. I know what you're capable of Lady. It's why I asked you to help me out in the first place."
Darknyss shudders a bit and a tear slowly slid down her cheek.
"All I wanted to hear was for one of you to say that... That you thought that I could do it... The whole week, all I kept hearing was, 'Are you sure you want to do this? You might be rusty...' and about how little you all think of my skills in the ring. Even you Sebastian... You who know what I can do... We're supposed to be a family!! We're a team!! And all you could do was talk about how bad you thought I would be in the ring!! HOW COULD YOU?!!"
Dark Tiger opens his mouth to speak, then closes it repeatedly, and shakes his head slowly.
"I... I couldn't help it!! Lady!!... Zatanya!!... All I kept seeing in my head was images of you getting hurt, and I didn't want to have that happen to you!! You're my best friend, and the woman that I love!! I couldn't sit back and watch you get hurt!! Not again!!"
Darknyss straightened her shoulders and shook her head.
"When we met, it was in the ring, and I was kicking sparks out of your ass! I have faced bigger and badder men than you, than Harris... Do you not remember the wars I went through? Violator to start? Hell, Matt Ward to name another! I even warred with my own brother, Shane Hunt, before and after I found out he was family! Cell matches, cage matches, barbed wire and bombs matches, pit matches... The freakin' Weather Chamber match!! I'd been through it all!! That whole time, you'd never told me that you were afraid of my stepping into the ring!"
She takes a towel and starts to remove the makeup which she uses to cover the criss crossing of scars that would be extremely visible on camera which decorate her back and shoulders, and you can tell that they do go further down her back.
"I was Extreme Champion for AWO for two years... TWO FREAKIN' YEARS STRAIGHT!! The attacks were crazy as hell! I got attacked in a public bathroom, and got rammed through a toilet!! I was attacked in a grocery store, and was thrown through a milk fridge back first... I have been attacked with kendo sticks, barbed wire covered bats... Hell, Kenji attacked me with a sword once before... And yet, I'm still here. It's the nature of the beast! You KNOW that!! And after all of this... you were afraid of me stepping into the ring in a simple mixed tag team match that I could have gotten through while standing on my head, if my head hadn't been all messed up! Why?!! Why would you make me doubt myself so much? After I've stood by you... ALL OF YOU for so long!! You most of all DT!! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?!!"
Darknyss is crying steadily now and he walks over and tries to put a hand on her shoulder, but she pulls away. He tries to get close again and she shoves him back hard. She shakes her head and wipes her eyes.
"You say you love me, then you're supposed to support me, especially in this because you know how much I love doing this!! Wrestling is my life! It's been my life for over twenty years!! Why couldn't you just support me in this DT?"
Dark Tiger puts his hands to his face, a low growl rumbling out from him, then he throws his head back and roars to the sky.
"BECAUSE YOU'RE PREGNANT YOU IDIOT!!!"
Darknyss looks up at him with a shocked look on her face.
"Bullshit!!"
Dark Tiger shakes his head and reaches down to take her hands in his as he drops to his knee in front of her.
"No... No bullshit. It's true."
Darknyss looks around from her fiancee to her friends, her mouth gaping.
"What? How? I mean... I know how... but... when? I mean... I missed my period last month, but with the way I lift, I expected that... How did you know?"
Dark Tiger lifts her knuckes to his lips and kisses them softly, swallowing quickly before he speaks, trying to hide the emotion in his voice.
"The doctor called me this morning. He says you're about five to six weeks along, but would need to run an ultrasound to be sure. He said one match wouldn't hurt you as long as you weren't kicked in the stomach or stomped or something like that. Luckily, Necra was more aiming at your face and shoulders than she was your stomach. So it wasn’t that I was trying not to support you, I was trying to convince you to change your mind. If anything had happened... And you'd lost the baby... after what had happened before... I knew... well..."
He swallows thickly and shakes his head slowly.
"I knew you wouldn't have been able to handle it. Not again."
Darknyss gapes at him again, and looks around the room slowly, then places a hand on her stomach gently as she looks down at it. She looks up at him, her eyes shining with happy tears this time.
"We're having a baby?!! Seriously!!"
Dark Tiger nods and a huge grin spreads across his face.
"Yes... We're having a baby you crazy Lady."
Darknyss throws her arms around his neck and squeals in delight.
"WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!!"
Everyone else has tears shining in their eyes and is clapping, so she knew she had to clap too. That's what a quote, unquote "friend' is supposed to do when their friend gets good news, right? So she put on the façade of joy, said her congratulations, then she excused herself and walked out of the room. She just couldn't take all of the happiness filling that room. She was a creature of pain and suffering. She couldn't be enjoying herself... She shouldn't actually be happy at the prospect of a child entering the world... Could she? Something was off... Something was wrong... She shouldn’t be experiencing these types of emotions. Her mother was the strongest bruha in their sect. Her father was a demon whose is so old, his name has been forgotten... lost in the annals of time. She should not have... feelings other then those of contempt. She is supposed to be evil incarnate... So why is it that she's enjoying knowing that Darknyss is pregnant? Why is she expectantly happy about it? The shrieking starts up in her head, this time the intensity is so great, sh edoubles over in pain, her hands on the sides of her head as her body trembles in pain.
"I'M COMING FOR YOU BITCH!! I WILL HAVE MY BODY BACK!! DON'T YOU GET IT??!! YOU'RE WEAKENING!! YOU WEREN'T MEANT TO BE INSIDE OF ME!! I WILL GET CONTROL BACK AND I WILL LOCK YOU AWAY IN THE DEEPEST, DARKEST CORNERS OF MY MIND! YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!! NEVER!! DO YOU HEAR ME???!! NEVER!!"
This time, when she sits up, there's a trickle of blood running down her face from her nose. She reaches her hand up and she wipes it away, staring at her fingertips, and frowning at the sight of it. She takes a deep breath and straightens up, holding her stomach as a wave of nausea comes over her. She starts to walk down the hallway towards the refreshments table, and is almost bowled over by someone carrying a camera. She pushes the person away, not paying attention to them, then turns the corner, and that's when she sees him... sitting on the corner of the table... As their eyes lock the pain rips through her head again and the shrieking of triumph rips through her mind...
"I TOLD YOU BITCH!! THIS IS MY BODY!! GET YOUR WORTHLESS ASS BACK IN YOUR CAGE!!!"
She grimaces as the world flips and she closes her eyes against the intense pain....
And when she opens them, she's once more in the maze of mirrors... Only this time, she can tell that something's different. She’s sprawled out on the floor in a kind of hub in the maze. Not quite in the center, but it’s a place where eight different corridors spill into one place. She groans as she starts to rouse herself, and she notices that instead of wearing the clothes the body was wearing, she’s got on a pair of red stretch pants and a red lace corset. She’s got on a pair of red Nike high tops, and her hair is hanging around her face in loose waves. She pushes her hair from her face as she looks around slowly. Her red, snake like eyes seem to flow in the strange lighting that emanates within the mind from the firing of synapses. She sits up at a snail’s pace, then drags herself to her feet. She takes a deep breath and grumbles softly to herself. Her snake like tongue slithers from between her lips and tastes the air as she adjusts her clothing and regains her composure.
”Ssssshit... Thisssss issss ssssso not good. It’sssss going to be a fight....”
[/b]
She rolls her neck slowly and begins to stretch as she can sense the change in the maze of mirrors. Deep within the maze, she can hear a menacing growl like a caged tiger would do when agitated. She starts to dance back and forth from one foot to another, blowing her breath out quickly as she tries to get the adrenaline pumping. As she does, she starts to sing the song that has become her theme song… The song to which she would count the seconds, minutes, hours and years during her captivity...
'Tick... Tock... goesssss the clock... and what now ssssshall we play?...
Tick... tock... goesssss the clock... All time hasssss gone away….
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… for what you cannot know…
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… The sssssandsssss will ssssstop their flow…
Tick… tock… goesssss the clock… esssssscape is on your mind…
Tick… tock… goessssss the clock… no way out ssssssshall you find...
Tick... Tock... goessssss the clock... and assss the hoursssss they fly...
Tick... tock... and all too ssssssoon... your hopesssss… sssssshall sssssurely… DIE!
She slowly starts spinning around, trying to see which way it's going to come from. She knew that an attack was coming from somewhere. She could feel the eyes on her, she just couldn’t pinpoint from where. The growling and seems to be surrounding her, swelling louder and louder, and for once, she started to become concerned. Concerned? Her? What in the hell?!! She's not supposed to be having these kinds of emotions running through her! Fear was not a part of what she felt! Fear was what she inflicts on her victims!! it was what she sent coursing through the veins of those who opposed her, and made them run screaming and trembling! It was not something that made her own flesh crawl, and a cold sweat break out down the center of her back! She growled herself, squaring her shoulders, then threw her head back and started to sing at the top of her lungs, making the sound reverbrate and almost harmonize with the growls and roars that are reverbrating through the corridors of the maze.
'Tick... Tock... goesssss the clock... and what now ssssshall we play?...
Tick... tock... goesssss the clock... All time hasssss gone away….
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… for what you cannot know…
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… The sssssandsssss will ssssstop their flow…
Tick… tock… goesssss the clock… esssssscape is on your mind…
Tick… tock… goessssss the clock… no way out ssssssshall you find...
Tick... Tock... goessssss the clock... and assss the hoursssss they fly...
Tick... tock... and all too ssssssoon... your hopesssss… sssssshall sssssurely… DIE!
When the attack comes, it's like the song switches from her singing it until it's playing over a loud speaker. She doesn't even see the claws come swinging towards her, but she ducks as the hand sweeps over her head, renting the air with the force of the blow. She looks up to see the little pipsqueak is not so little anymore. She's dressed in a similar outfit, only the other outfit is white, where hers is red. The eyes that show aren't red and snake like, but almost look cat like. The howl she hears is one that couldn't come from a human throat, and that's when she realized that the merger between the pussycat and the pipsqueak hadn't lessened, but had gotten stronger. She swore loudly as she ducked again, and it was more than just a spat, it was the fight for control of the body. She didn't speak a word, as the song continued to play on, trying to use it to antagonize her opponent into slipping up...
'Tick... Tock... goesssss the clock... and what now ssssshall we play?...
Tick... tock... goesssss the clock... All time hasssss gone away….
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… for what you cannot know…
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… The sssssandsssss will ssssstop their flow…
Tick… tock… goesssss the clock… esssssscape is on your mind…
Tick… tock… goessssss the clock… no way out ssssssshall you find...
Tick... Tock... goessssss the clock... and assss the hoursssss they fly...
Tick... tock... and all too ssssssoon... your hopesssss… sssssshall sssssurely… DIE!
From then on, it's like the duel of the titans, as she battled with the feline form of the little girl, now being a few inches taller than The Other. The song is playing like a battle song as they go back and forth, exchanging blows, one trying to overpower the other and snatch control of the body and mind from the other personae. The song continues to play, going more and more quiet, until it sounds like it's being played on a radio, instead of over a loud speaker.
'Tick... Tock... goesssss the clock... and what now ssssshall we play?...
Tick... tock... goesssss the clock... All time hasssss gone away….
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… for what you cannot know…
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… The sssssandsssss will ssssstop their flow…
Tick… tock… goesssss the clock… esssssscape is on your mind…
Tick… tock… goessssss the clock… no way out ssssssshall you find...
Tick... Tock... goessssss the clock... and assss the hoursssss they fly...
Tick... tock... and all too ssssssoon... your hopesssss… sssssshall sssssurely… DIE!
The girl has gotten the upper hand and with some well placed kicks and punches, she does a big side shuffle kick to the jaw of the Other, sending her bodily up against the giant mirror, causing it to crack. The Other shakes her head and growls out at her as she tries to clear the cobwebs that are filling her head.
”You can't do this!! This is MY body now!! MINE!! DO YOU HEAR ME?!! I won't let you take it back!!”
[/b]
The girl howls in rage at the thing which had taken control of her for months now.
“TOO BAD YOU STINKING DEMONIC BITCH!! THIS BODY IS MINE!! AND YOU!!... CAN'T!!... HAVE IT!!!! ”
The song lessens in intensity, getting more and more quiet as the battle rages on...
'Tick... Tock... goesssss the clock... and what now ssssshall we play?...
Tick... tock... goesssss the clock... All time hasssss gone away….
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… for what you cannot know…
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… The sssssandsssss will ssssstop their flow…
Tick… tock… goesssss the clock… esssssscape is on your mind…
Tick… tock… goessssss the clock… no way out ssssssshall you find...
Tick... Tock... goessssss the clock... and assss the hoursssss they fly...
Tick... tock... and all too ssssssoon... your hopesssss… sssssshall sssssurely… DIE!
The Other tries to regain control and starts to push her back with swipes of her own claw like nails, but the feline form is too much for her. The Other crumples, and the cat woman picks her up in a body press and walks closer towards the mirror as The Other struggles to get out of her grip.
”NO! NOT BACK IN THE MIRROR!! PLEASSSSEE!! I PROMISSSSE! I'LL BE GOOD!! JUSSSST DON'T PUT ME BACK IN THE MIRROR!! PLEASSSSSE!!!.”
[/b]
The girl roars as she runs towards the mirror...
"GO BACK TO HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!!!"
She throws the Other bodily towards the mirror, and the mirror shatters as The Other goes crashing through it to fall onto the ground bodily and roll to a stop. As soon as The Other is on the far side of the glass, the glass reforms itself and seals tightly. She smiles as she pants slowly, and roars her satisfaction at having won the battle. The Other stirs, then slowly stands up and dusts herself off as she looks back at her from the other side of the mirror. The Other reaches out her hand and touches the glass, and recoils back from it as if she's been shocked. She growls and starts to bang on the glass with her fist and howls out.
”You may have locked me back up behind the mirrorssss for now little girl... but you can't get rid of me!! I'm a part of you!! And I'll alwayssssss be jussssst on the other sssssside of your reflection, staring back at you!! I will get out again! Mark my wordssss!!! MAAARRRRK MYYYYYY WOOOOORRRDDDSSSSSSSS...”
[/b]
The song continues to play on slowly and quietly, as if it's just a tiny whisper in the back of her mind...
'Tick... Tock... goesssss the clock... and what now ssssshall we play?...
Tick... tock... goesssss the clock... All time hasssss gone away….
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… for what you cannot know…
Tick… Tock… goesssss the clock… The sssssandsssss will ssssstop their flow…
Tick… tock… goesssss the clock… esssssscape is on your mind…
Tick… tock… goessssss the clock… no way out ssssssshall you find...
Tick... Tock... goessssss the clock... and assss the hoursssss they fly...
Tick... tock... and all too ssssssoon... your hopesssss… sssssshall sssssurely… DIE!
She stands up slowly and closes her eyes, breathing deeply, then lets a loud howl out that drowns out all sound through the corridors of the maze... }
And all of this takes place within her mind in the span of a few seconds. She comes through and gasps and brings a hand to her chest as she locks eyes with... him... He's still sitting on the corner of the table, and she smiles until his friend comes and sweeps him away from the refreshment table in a flurry of movement. She feels a slow drip, drip, drip of fluid onto the back of her hand and looks down to see the droplets of blood that has come from her nose once more. She brings her hand to her face and wipes it away, then moves out to the refreshments table and picks up a napkin and brings it to her nose. The bleeding has stopped, and she takes a deep, freeing breath... the first she's been able to take in months. She grabs a couple of bottles of water, a muffin, and some fruit, and is about to turn and go back to the dressing room, when a stagehand comes up to her and hands her an envelop with a few pieces of paper inside. She pulls them out and looks down at them, then frowns deeply as she flips through them. She reaches out and stops the stagehand before he can walk away, holding out the envelop.
"Hey! What's this?!!"
The stagehand points at the top page in the stack of the sheets.
"It's just what it says it is. It's your match contract for next week's Climax Control."
She looks back down at the paperwork, frowning and shakes her head in shock.
"This can't be right! We have to defend out titles in the very next match we have? This can't be right!!"
The stagehand shrugs and shakes his head.
"Hey... I didn't make the match. It was decided well above my paygrade, you know that. And you know who you have to talk to about these things... Besides... you also know that you really don't have much choice in it either. I've not seen them change their minds about a match except for extreme circumstances like injury or worse, so..."
The stagehand shrugs again and leaves her standing there. She takes a deep breath, then picks up a pear and an orange, and heads back towards the dressing room. She walks in just as Dark Tiger sweeps Darknyss up off of her feet and holds her aloft in his arms and kisses her deeply before sinking down to the couch with her still in his arms like Darknyss was light as a feather, and didn't weigh two hundred and twenty five pounds of muscle. She comes in and plops down in the easy chair again and starts to nibble on the muffin slowly, staring off into space as she things back to him... sitting on the corner of the refreshments table. She sighs dreamily and chews deep in thought and doesn't realize that Diamond is talking to her until she sees Diamond's fingers snapping in front of her face.
"Earth to Raynin!! Earth to Raynin!! Yo!! You in there?"
She snaps back to attention and blinks rapidly and nods slowly before she takes another bite of her muffin. She swallows and sighs deeply before she turns and looks at Diamond.
"Hey Emme... When did you know that Jeremiah was... you know.. THE ONE?!!|"
Diamond chuckles and crosses her legs as she sits on the couch beside her friend.
"Well my friend, I don’t' know... there was like this spark... And this moment when everything just went from kinda hazy, to crystal clear in my vision of him... And I could just... SEE him, you know... And I just knew. You can't put it into words... Why? Do you think you may have found someone who was worthy of being Mr. Right?"
She took another bite of her muffin and sighs again as she blushes and nods slowly.
"Yeah... I think I have. But I don’t know if he even knows that I'm alive."
Diamond claps her hands and whoops ecstatically.
"Ooohh Girlfriend!! That's awesome!! Not the fact that he may not know you're alive, but... you know... that you may have found someone you're interested in! You've been like a vestigial virgin since you've been in the company! I swear, if it was me, I'd have gotten stock in Energizer batteries by now."
Gothika makes a disgusted face and shakes her head rapidly.
"Ewww, Emme!! That's just... Just... TMI girl!! TMI!!"
Diamond chuckles and shakes her head.
"What? Mia Girl, you know it's true!! And it was true for you too before you got with Michael there. You forget Mia... I've known you since we were both knee high to a grasshopper, so you may be able to try to play that game with everyone else, but not with me. I know your deepest, darkest secrets. NOW..."
Diamond claps her hands sharply and rubs them together quickly, smirking at her friend.
"Tell me, what makes you think that this dude is THE ONE?!!"
She takes a deep breath, then picks up the bottle of water and takes a big sip, and puts the cap back on the bottle before she speaks.
"Well, it was like time stood still when I saw him. Our eyes met across the hallway, where he was sitting on the corner of the refreshments table, and it was like.... Kismet. I heard music."
Diamond whistles and claps again.
"Oooh!! Music!! Was it like... Billy Ocean, Kenny G, or was it Prince?"
She takes a deep breath and takes another swallow of her water.
"It was Prince... Joy in Repetition..."
Diamond whistles and shakes her head.
"Damn girl!! Now I gotta know! Dish! Gimme details girl! DETAILS!!"
She takes a deep breath and sighs again.
"Well, he wasn't the biggest guy in the bunch... but... It was the big brown eyes that got me."
Diamond nods and pats her hand gently.
"Yeah, the eyes are the windows to the soul."
She takes another deep breath and lets it out slowly.
"He had these arms that make you just want to cuddle him. And the cutest little button of a nose."
Diamond nods and points to Jeremiah.
"Now you know I know about cuddly arms. Look at those guns over there!!... I love holding onto him all of the time."
She nods slowly and takes another sip of her water before she sighs wistfully again.
"And he had the softest looking brown fur."
Diamond closes her eyes and nods.
"Yeah... brown is such a good color for..."
Diamond suddenly stops and blinks slowly.
"Hold up... wait a minute... pump the breaks and throw it in reverse!!! Say WHAT??!! FUR??!!"
She nods and sighs deeply.
"Yeah... fur... It just looks so soft, you just want to run your fingertips through it."
Diamond shakes her head and her jaw hits the floor.
"WHAT THE WHAATT??!! WHO IN THE HELL HAS FUR??!!"
She sighs again and blinks slowly as she stares off into the distance.
"Aahhhh.... Angel..."
Gothika, who was taking a sip of her own water does a spit take and gapes at her partner.
"Angel??!! The teddy bear?!"
She nods and sighs again.
"Yeah... Angel. Our eyes met, and... I know he felt it... I could see it in his blank, glassy stare... He couldn’t take his eyes off of me."
Diamond is staring incredulously at her friend.
"The teddy bear??!!"
She nods again and takes a deep breath, then she breaks out of her reverie and pulls out the envelope that the stage hand gave her.
"Yeah, Angel the Teddy Bear. But knowing him, he's got lots of other girls who are throwing themselves at him. But we've got more pressing matters to talk about. We've got our match set for next week, and you won't believe who our opponents are."
Diamond is still staring at her with a look of shock on her face.
"The teddy bear?!!"
She chuckles and shakes her head at her friend, then lifts her eyebrow at Diamond.
"No, of course not! Angel isn't even in our division...."
Gothika chuckles and comes over, taking the envelop from her as she speaks again.
"We've got Veronica Taylor and Amanda Cortez. And we have to defend out titles. Can you believe it? Our first match out of the gate as Champions, and our titles are already on the line. It's completely an attack to try to catch us off guard."
Gothika takes the contract from her partner and looks it over, and slams it down on the nearby table.
"Shit!! They don't think that we're one hundred percent yet! And we've got so much other stuff to deal with... Now that Lady's pregnant, I don't want her down at ringside... someone may try to hurt her to get to us..."
Darknyss jumps up and shouts at Gothika, putting her hands on her hips.
"HEY! That's enough nay-saying my abilities! Cause truth be told... right now, I'm even more dangerous than I was before... Cause now I know I've got something innocent to protect! No one is going to lay a FINGER on me in a negative way now. And if they try... Well, they'll learn why we're no longer Heaven Sent, and are The Fallen!!"
She turns and looks up at her friend who has such a grim look of determination on her face, she can't help but grin.
"Yeah... With someone this determined in our corner... There's no way we can lose. It's good for us all to be back to normal once again."
She smirks to herself as within her mind, she hears a sibilant howl of anger and frustration shriek out, and reverberate in her head as the scene faces out.
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… END OF FEED ...
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*** Word Count, 7226 ***
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