“You call that fightin’?” shouted Tony, looking at the two of us with disgust.
“That’s what you call that? I tell ya what I call it…..I call it shit, that’s what I call it. Youse two better get your bony asses in gear, unless you both want me to beat the shit out of youse myself!”Uneasily, Jonica and I looked at each other. I didn’t want to fight her…..and she didn’t want to fight me, either. We didn’t ask to be here, that’s for sure. We were friends and wanted to stay that way. Upon hearing Tony issue the order to fight, Joni and I had tentatively locked hands and pushed lightly against each other. We motioned as if to lock up and tangle…..but then we both backed off and stepped apart. That’s what made Tony holler at us in frustration. We exchanged uneasy glances again, then looked back at him.
”Shit!” he said again.
“I’m tellin’ you bitches you better start throwin’ punches in bunches, like, right now! You know what’s gonna happen if you don’t.”Yes, we knew. We stared at Tony, resplendent in his expensive suit. He was a bully and an entrepreneur…..and he controlled all the rackets on the east side of town. He had already explained why he had us kidnapped earlier that day, cloth bags placed over our heads to prevent us from seeing where we were being taken. The henchmen who had abducted us were sitting with their backs against the wall, ready to enjoy the girl-on-girl fighting action.
Tony had informed us he had been commissioned to get two girls of approximately the same size and put them in a room with orders to have them “fight for their freedom.” He represented a group of investors who wanted to gather a stable of girls to stage fights for their viewing pleasure and Tony was to “recruit” the girls, two at a time…..and have them fight it out: the loser would be sold to the syndicate to work future fights. That girl would be “bid on” as if an object in an auction and sold to the highest bidder. The idea of it revolted me. Today, Tony had promised that the winner of this fight between Joni and I would get to go home, free of any obligations to Tony and his “investors.” The loser becomes the property of the syndicate and would fight for them until ….well, presumably for the rest of her life, however long that might be.
”Man” said Tony,
“I woulda thunk the syndicate would’ve wanted the winner of the fight to be the girl who goes to work for them. But they said the two girls would try harder if they knew that winning meant they get to go free. Well, shit, I can understand that.”“Laurie” said Joni to me.
“I don’t want to do this. You and I have been buddies for too long. I don’t want to hit you.”You all know me; I’m Laurie Breeze. I’ve been a fighter for a long time, but I do it for glory, not at someone else’s behest. No one’s gonna turn me into a fighting slave……and jeez, if it means having to beat the hell out of Joni to gain my freedom, I don’t want any part of it. Looking at the tentative expression on Joni’s face, I knew she was feeling the same.
Still, what choice do we have? Whether we like it or not, Tony isn’t going to let either of us leave until we fight and one of us is beaten to a pulp……and there’s no kidding ourselves about trying to go easy on each other; Tony is standing right here watching us and I know the only way to avoid being sold to a group of thugs who want only to watch women beat the living hell out of each other is to beat up Joni today. I hate it, and I’m sure Joni does, too. But what’s the difference how we feel about it? Face it; if the choice between freedom and enslavement means beating up your good friend, there ‘s actually no choice at all choice, is there?
We’d heard vague rumors about this fighting ring Tony sells women to. There’s heavy wagering on the outcomes and a lot of girls are beaten nearly to death because they can’t simply surrender the fight to their opponent…..they know that further punishment awaits a girl from her “owner” if she tries to quit. These guys figure they paid a lot of money to “own” the girl, so they want a return on their investment. Therefore, in addition to the pain of losing her match, she also suffers further agony and degradation from the guy who’s backing her. The only way to avoid this is to win…..and the girls go to any length possible to achieve this, which furthers the enjoyment of the creeps watching. It’s a vicious circle…..and the only way for me to avoid becoming part of it is to knock Joni senseless now……as she’s going to try to do to me.
I hate it…..I
hate it. There’s more incentive for me to win than in any fight I’ve ever engaged, but I still hate it because it will involve hurting someone I truly like. But the inevitability of this makes it necessary I do it; after all, the loser of this fight is being sold into virtual slavery, one way or the other…..and since there’s no chance of both of us getting out of this, I’m determined that the one whose fate is sealed will be Jonica. Friendship is great, but personal freedom is precious.
As I ponder this, I look at Joni. She must be thinking the same thing as I, yet she stands there, looking pretty and sexy as hell…..yet, not meeting my eyes with her own. I can guess why. She isn’t an accomplished fighter and she knows I am. She’s well-conditioned, but has never possessed the fighting mentality needed to dominate an opponent, particularly in a winner-take-all fight. At 5’1, we’re the same height. She’s blonde and I have curly brunette hair, but that’s the only apparent physical difference between us.
Yet, I’m better suited to battle. Yes, I’ve certainly lost my share of fights, but I’ve never had the incentive I do now. When it counts, I come through. When I fought Marie, she was thoroughly dominating me until she taunted me during the fight, awakening a killer instinct even I didn’t know I possessed…….which caused me to turn the tide in my favor. I wiped the floor with her tiny body until forcing her to verbally acknowledge my superiority. I remembered how I loved that feeling and how it instilled confidence in me for the fights in which I subsequently engaged. And now, I vowed to use it to decimate Joni.
But Joni had beaten Marie, too. In a tag team match against two accomplished opponents and a highly skilled partner, Joni had stolen the show, pounding Marie into submission and winning the challenge match for her team, which surprised everyone…..Joni included. Okay, beating a twerp like Marie isn’t exactly winning a world championship, but I had to keep in mind that Joni had experienced the same success doing it as I. It never pays to underestimate your opponent.
"Jesus, youse two!” thundered Tony, stamping his feet in anger at our inaction.
”If youse two bitches don’t get with the freakin’ program and start fightin’, I’m selling BOTH of youse to the fight club, y’hear me?”Suddenly, Joni spoke:
“
It’s not gonna be me, Laurie, you bitch” she growled, ominously. “
It’s gonna be you who gets sold to the highest bidder.”
The threat of those words drove home to me the inevitability of our plight, but Joni was quicker to react. As I took a cautious step toward her, she completely surprised me by lashing out with a right-left volley of punches that cracked against my forehead and left cheek. Her eyes narrowed as she continued to drive forward, ramming a knee to my stomach and instantly following with a punch to the bridge of my nose. It stung and I couldn’t help lifting a hand to cover the bruised area for a moment, stunned by the ferocity of her attack.
Joni saw the gesture…….and a slight smile crossed her face. It wasn’t a happy smile; it was more derisive and taunting……and the insult it conveyed woke me up. Obviously, Joni had been a second quicker to size up the situation than I, and did what had to be done. Now, I reacted, but the stinging blows she had delivered made me just a step slow….and Joni came forward, launching a two-fisted attack that sent me reeling back across the dirty warehouse floor, attempting to throw punches back at her but winding up doing nothing more than trying to cover up from her relentless fury.
I tried to tangle my arms with hers to stop the punches and thought I was succeeding, but she freed her right hand and threw a straight shot that thudded against my jaw and dropped me to the hard floor, my head spinning. As I sat there, with dust from the dirty floor getting up my nose, I had the presence of mind to remember that Joni’s usual tactic after knocking an opponent down would be to stand there and admire her work.
With the stakes being freedom or slavery, though, she did no such thing. Instead, she dropped to her knees, straddling my body with hers and pinning me to the floor. Lying on my back, it was hard to return fire as she thudded punches to my face and shoulders. As she pounded away , I couldn’t believe how fast she had changed from reticent to super-determined, but I guessed that Joni had quickly realized that it was she or I….and she wasn’t ready to sacrifice herself for me, any more than I would for her. If only one of us was going to be captured and forced to fight for a group of lecherous men, it wasn’t going to be her. I was mad at myself for letting her take the play away from me in so vicious and decisive a fashion.
Eyes narrowed to slits and teeth gritted, Joni slammed punch after punch at my head, many of the shots missing in her haste to finish me off quickly, but others connecting solidly, hurting me. As in the times I had seen her fight other women, she completely disregarded defense, leaving an opening that represented my only chance. Even from her kneeling position over me, her upper body remained straight up and Joni was taken totally by surprise when I raised my legs behind her and brought them forward, crossing my ankles around her chest and pushing with all my might. Caught off-guard, Joni was bent backward and when I saw the opening, I used my arms to push her stomach, somersaulting her backward off of me.
As we rose to our feet, I caught the look of discouragement on Joni’s face. She thought she could make quick work of me and go home while Tony dragged me into his clutches and took me away. The fact it didn’t happen that way caused her lips to tighten and disappointment to show in her eyes. I figured she had shot her wad….and that the fight was now mine.
Confidently now, I moved toward her and was again taken by surprise when she came at me with both barrels, punching and kicking with wild abandon in an effort to take me down. Yes, in a normal fight she might have lost her will already, but this was different: her freedom was at stake and she was determined to keep it. She was throwing everything she had at me, not pacing herself; risking it all to achieve a quick victory and an exit from the clutches of Tony and the syndicate.
As Joni waded in, the last thing I wanted to do was take a step backward to give her encouragement, but her attack was too fierce for me. She punched repeatedly at my face and chest….and her accuracy was frightening. I tried to match her punching power but was still being driven in reverse, wilting under her assault. Trying to stem the tide, I got as close to her as I could, looking to tie her arms up with my own to stem her attack. Joni shocked me again by extending her hands and, with fingers curled like talons, started raking my eyes. Thank heavens her fingernails were short, or she might have scratched my eyes out then and there. As it was, I screamed in pain as her nails scraped across my face, leaving painful welts and scratches.
As before, I tried not to back up; it was a weakness I didn’t want to show, but her will was too strong and I couldn’t help stepping backward in a desperate effort to escape her clutches; Joni responded by launching a screaming fist at my left ear. The punch knocked me off balance and caused me to drop to the floor again, even as I tried with all my might to remain upright.
Again flat on my back, Joni jumped on my stomach, knees first, driving the breath from my body. From there, she again straddled me, her legs on either side of my prone body. I tried to prepare for more of her relentless punches, only to be shocked by her grabbing my head with both hands and repeatedly slamming it on the cold, hard concrete.
The pain was incredible; Joni’s viciousness terrified me. I heard small, breathless growls escaping her throat as she banged my head over and over on the floor. With each slam, her body thrust upward and as a last resort, I jammed my hands against her chest and pushed .....and aided by her own momentum, sent her flying backward, a look of shocked surprise on her face. Joni landed flat on her back with a resounding thud and I tried to get up as quickly as I could to jump on her…..but as soon as I approached her prone body, she lashed out with her foot and caught me squarely on the chest, knocking me back down.
I was growing frantic; unable to handle Joni’s intensity and viciousness. We both sat up and despite my fear and discouragement, I saw the one thing I hoped to see: Joni was breathing hard, her chest heaving and a single tear falling from her eye. It was if that teardrop was sending me a message, signaling my chance to take over this fight. Joni had shot her wad; she had given everything she had to give, knowing her only chance was to overwhelm me quickly, achieving victory before I could recover and take it all away from her.
”That’s more like it, youse bitches” said Tony.
”That’s what I call fightin’. But you been lookin’ like shit, Laurie. You gotta make a better showin’, or you're gonna be fightin’ the rest of your life for the benefit of my investors.”Yeah, well, making a better showing is what I intended to do now. As Joni saw the encouragement on my face, she started crying harder, knowing her strategy of risking everything on a quick win had blown up in her face. I figured she didn’t have much more to give.
As for me? Well, I was hurting from her assault, no question there…..yet I wasn’t in as bad shape as she needed me to be. In fact, I was more hurt than tired, but I’ve fought through pain before; it’s still easier than trying to come back from weariness….when your body and soul are so wiped out you can’t raise your arms.
I could still raise mine, and that’s just what I did as Joni and I stood up at the same time. I raised my fists …..a slight smile on my face as I watched Joni plod slowly toward me, discouragement on her pretty face and her arms at her sides…. a sure sign of exhaustion. Every movement of her approaching body seemed to fortify the notion that she was finished.
To show her I had more than enough strength and energy left to take her down, I actually bounced on my toes a couple of times as I fronted Joni, my spirits rising as I resolved to clean her clock.
Therefore, no one was more shocked than me when Joni charged forward, bulling past my brandishing fists and grabbing me by the throat with both hands. Her eyes wild, Joni choked me, her fingers digging into my neck, cutting off my air as she constricted my windpipe with hands that felt like talons.
My hands clawed at her fingers, trying to break her grasp. Her teeth were gritted in fury and her eyes burned into mine as she strangled me. My legs had turned to butter, unable to hold up the rest of my body as I sank to the ground under Joni’s brutal attack. My mind started to lose coherent thought and spots appeared before my eyes as Joni choked me toward unconsciousness.
Illogically, I felt like crying out to Tony: “
No fair, Tony. She’s choking me! Choking isn’t fair!” even as I knew in my heart that a fight with stakes such as this didn’t have any “rules.” You win any way you can…….and Joni was winning; I was losing.
As Joni lowered me to the floor, my eyes closed and my mind wandered again….. and I started to accept that I was going to lose this fight…..and started to accept what my fate would be for losing. I would no longer be free. I would no longer date, go out with friends, see my family…..do
anything I wanted to do.
No, instead, I would be “kept” by a bunch of sadistic, chauvinistic men who would make me fight other women, wagering on the outcome, and turning me into an object. I would be given enough food to live on and nothing else…..except maybe the means to keep training toward the next fight…..then, the fight after that…….no more freedom.
**************************
No more freedom?” No more? Ever?
My mind rebelled. In the last seconds before I would have passed out, my mind truly did rebel at what awaited me.
And, for what? Because I lost a fight to Joni? Face it, I respect her as a woman, but she’s not the fighter I am, and never was. I knew I could beat her any day of the week…….and
this was a day of the week, wasn’t it?
My eyes snapped open, seeing the weary, but still-determined Joni strangling me. Her intensity hadn’t waned at all…..but mine suddenly returned. My will to live a free and happy life kicked in at the last possible moment……and from my position sitting on the floor with her kneeling before me, I unfolded my legs and thrust them forward, wrapping them around her waist.
When I squeezed, she gasped, her slitted eyes suddenly widening as she felt the pressure of her guts being compacted. I squeezed harder and felt her hands loosen slightly around my neck.
With a third, even harder squeeze, I was able to raise my own hands and pry hers from my throat
Realizing she was losing the victory that was literally in her grasp, Joni started punching me about the face and shoulders, frantically trying to re-secure her advantage, but the tide had suddenly turned against her. I loosened the grip of my legs for a moment and used my arms to spin her suddenly pliable body around so that my stomach was pressed against her back. This way, she couldn’t punch me ….and with me controlling her from behind, she was now barely resisting. I had been right; she had given all she had to give and now had no more left. I congratulated myself on my presence of mind to have thought of this after enduring such punishment from my valiant foe.
And Joni
was valiant…..now that I had her at my mercy, I could applaud her courage and desire to be free….even though she was soon going to spend the rest of her life fighting for the syndicate.
I giggled at the thought….and then got back to business. With my legs wrapped around Joni’s waist from behind her, I now wrapped my arms around her throat……and squeezed tight.
Now,
I was the one doing the strangling….and there was no escape for Joni. When she used her hands to try and pry my arms from her throat, I squeezed viciously with my legs around her midsection, causing her to groan with nausea……and when she tried to loosen the pressure from my legs with her hands, I tightened the choke hold with my arms. Her entire body was squirming in agony and desperation, but as I increased the pressure and her ability to resist weakened, she started to go limp. Her body was still moving, but it was mere reflex.
Soon, her struggles had ceased entirely; her tortured body motionless in my grasp. That delicious feeling I get after defeating another woman and holding her helpless was gripping me now. I heard tiny, strangled sounds coming from her throat and knew she was choking to death. Still, I didn’t stop…..at this point, after all the agony I had suffered at her hands, I didn’t know
how to stop…….
Suddenly, I heard Tony, exclaiming:
”Whoa there, Laurie! Shit! Hold up; I didn’t say you gotta freakin’ kill” the girl youse fightin’, did I? Let Joni go. You won, Laurie.”I won? Hell yes…..
I won!I released Joni, who was now unconscious. I was so elated at my victory that I rose to my feet and screamed defiantly at Tony:
“
There, you fat fuck! I played your fuckin’ game and beat up the girl you put in front of me. She’s out cold! Now, I get to go home!”
Tony looked at me, amused, and said:
”Go home? Do you really believe that, Laurie? Shit, you gotta be kiddin’ me. Did you really think we were gonna take the best fighter and let her go?”My mouth dropped open in astonishment as the truth slammed home to me. It had all been a lie.
”Use your head, bitch” said Tony, smiling.
”Shit, both youse girls are comin’ with us. Shit, if anything, it’s you we want more than Joni. You’re gonna be givin’ the syndicate guys a lot of entertainment for a long, long time. We just told ya the winner would go free so youse would fight that much harder. And youse did, didn’t you?”How could I have been so naïve? Why would I have taken the word of a cheap hood, anyway? I looked at Joni to commiserate with her, but she was still knocked out….courtesy of me.
Tony’s henchman put bags over our heads again and dragged us toward our fate, in which we would be sold at auction to the highest bidder and forced to fight battle after battle for them. In truth, no bag was needed for the unconscious Joni…..but my horror was just beginning as I was hauled away, kicking and screaming.
It was the first of many screams in store for me.
