****CONTENT WARNING****
This story is extremely violent, and extremely graphic, and results in death. It is a family story, so it landed here. Please do not proceed if you are not okay with graphic content.
LEGACY
The facility was abnormally quiet when Nora arrived. The 38 year old woman surveyed the scene in front of her and groaned. Three people, two men and a woman lay dead on the floor. She paced back and forth, considering what she was seeing, and seething with rage as she thought about the consequences that would come with this. Eventually, she pulled out her phone and placed a call.
“Hey mom.” The voice on the other side of the phone answered. She sounded smug, confident.
“Luna this is NOT what I told you to do.” Nora growled. “You were supposed to be negotiating with these three, not killing them. How stupid do you-“ she was cut off as Luna laughed.
“I know what you said. I told the girls you sent with me something different. Don’t worry, I made it look like they jumped us first. Besides, now we have the cash and the product. So what are you worried about?”
“You had orders.” Nora hissed as her grip on the phone tightened. “Do you know how much trouble this is going to cause?”
“Oh I know. I just didn’t like your orders. The girls agreed with me. Besides, I stopped taking your orders forever ago. I think you’ve kind of lost your touch mom.” Luna said, and she sounded arrogant to a degree that infuriated Nora to no end.
“If you weren’t my fucking daughter, I’d have you beaten for this shit do you hear me?” Nora raged.
To Nora’s fury, Luna laughed. Actually laughed at her. “It has nothing to do with me being your daughter. You won’t do it because you know the club respects me. Probably more than they do you at this point. I’m making things better.” She said.
Nora scowled and felt her body begin to shiver with cold fury. “We’ll discuss this later.” She said and immediately ended the call. “FUCK!” She bellowed, kicking over a chair in her rage. Nora had been the head of The Lotuses, a notorious street gang, for five years now. She had led them to be the most prosperous and successful they had ever been. They eclipsed most of the other gangs in the city to the point that none ever dared attempt conflict with them.
It had been a point of pride when her daughter Luna had joined. She had been, without a doubt, one of her best underlings, and Nora had given her some authority once she had proven herself. Lately though, Luna had become arrogant and believed that she more often than not, knew better than Nora herself. Luna was 18 now, and had been a Lotus since she was 15. As she had grown, and been given more power, she had begun to challenge her mother’s authority more and more frequently. Disobeying orders was just one part of it. She had, on more than one occasion, openly questioned Nora’s decisions during club meetings, and on runs.
Nora could have punished her, but thus far, she hadn’t. And Luna had been right. She knew that a lot of her other subordinates liked and respected Luna to the point that if Nora called for any punishment, there was a possibility that it would cause some divide among the Lotuses. And that, she was not willing to let happen. Taking one last look at the scene, Nora turned on her heel and walked out of the old building, slamming the door behind her.
Back at the Lotuses clubhouse, Nora stormed through the door, startling a few of the members who were milling about inside. Her eyes locked onto her daughter within seconds and she marched quickly up to her.
Luna looked startlingly like her mother. She was tall and slender, with pale skin and bright blonde hair that reached just past the base of her neck, with one strand of blue dyed into her bangs. Her chest was perky and firm, and her body had a little muscle tone to it, though she could not be described as overly muscular. Nora was much the same, the only differences really being that she showed a few signs of her age in her face, and her hips were very slightly less narrow than her daughter’s. She kept her own blonde hair about the length of her daughter’s, but hers was down, whereas right now, Luna’s was pulled into a ponytail.
“You IDIOT girl!” Nora raged as she stormed up to her daughter, standing about an inch taller. “You’re going to get us into a war with this, you know that right?” She yelled. The room fell silent as the other Lotuses turned to watch what was going on.
“Duh.” Luna rolled her eyes. “That’s the point. We’re twice the size of the Falcons. They don’t stand a chance. We’ll take their turf, and their products. It’s a win win.”
“Don’t you realize you’ll get our people killed too? And the attention that’s going to bring down on us? It’s unacceptable! You stupid, stupid little bitch!” Nora screamed. Luna scowled back at her in response, and shoved her mother hard in the chest. The entire room tensed, ready to spring as the two women grabbed each other by the shirt and tugged, about to come to blows. Seeing the reaction of the other’s however, they stopped, and let go, though they continued to glare at each other.
“Face it mom.” Luna scoffed. “You’ve lost your touch. It’s about time you start letting someone else make the calls around here.” And before Nora could respond, Luna walked past her and stormed out of the clubhouse.
Nora looked around the room, now completely silent, at the stunned faces of her fellow members, all of them looking at her. Some of them looked merely surprised or awkward, but still others had looks of defensiveness or looked ready to act if something happened. She groaned quietly to herself and waved her hand in the air dismissively.
“Don’t worry about it. Nothing to see. I need to see a few of you later about this situation with the Falcons, but not right now.” She sighed, and made her way up the stairs of the safe house where she kept an office for herself in one of the spare rooms.
For the next week, Nora and Luna didn’t speak. Luna opted to stay with one of her friends from the club while Nora returned home each night, contemplating how to handle all of the problems in front of her.
She had met with the Falcons’ boss the day after the incident with Luna, and sure enough, he was ready to declare an open war. The Lotuses had killed three of them with no provocation and no reason other than to rob them. It was unacceptable. Nora had tried everything to avoid it. Flattery, apologies, offers, and finally, intimidation. She had made it clear to him that they would stand no chance in a war with the Lotuses, and that he needed to back off.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He had said. “But we are not going to let this go. We can’t. And nothing you say is going to change that.”
Now, Nora had spent all of her free time struggling, trying to think of some way to fix everything in front of her. She loved her club more than anything. She would not see it divided by the fact that her own daughter was trying to worm her way into running the show. And while she knew that by sheer numbers, the Lotuses could destroy the Falcons, the outcome still wasn’t certain. In the end, if it came to war, she knew that Luna would still defy her at every turn, and the Lotuses would become disorganized and fall apart. That could lead to them actually losing far more than she was willing to let happen. She didn’t see a way out…
Until that is, on Saturday night, when she was just getting ready to head into her bedroom for the night, something clicked. She hadn’t even been thinking about the Lotuses, or her daughter, or anything more important than what she would do for breakfast the following morning. Still, all of a sudden an idea came to her. One thing…one little thing that could make all of her problems go away. It would close the rift that was growing in the club, avoid war with the Falcons altogether, and put an end to her daughter’s defiance of her authority once and for all. The cost and the risk of what she was now planning was HUGE, but again, Nora loved her club more than anything else, and she was willing to pay whatever price she had to in order to save it.
She went to bed that night with a wicked smile on her face.
The next morning, before she did anything else, she sent out a text message to her 12 officers, including Luna.
“Emergency meeting. Tonight, 7pm” the message read as she hit send. One by one, the officers sent back their confirmation that the message had been received, including Luna’s, who, to Nora’s frustration, had simply been an eye rolling emoji. She growled to herself, but otherwise put the thought aside. That would be over soon, one way or another.
Luna arrived at the clubhouse ten minutes late. It was intentional of course. She could’ve gotten there on time if she had wanted, but her mother had told her to. The fact was that Luna knew good and well that she could run the Lotuses far better than Nora ever could. Her mother had gone soft. The Lotuses had been brutal, ruthless enforcers of their will on the city for a long time before Nora took over. Nora had focused on growing the club’s numbers and keeping negative attention away from them. It had worked, and they had profited greatly. But there was no risk to it.
When Luna had decided to do things her own way, she had made the club far more money, and kept any rivals even further away from them than they had been before. What was the point of having power if you didn’t use it after all? Her mother had amassed the club’s power, but she didn’t know how to use it. That, Luna felt, was where she would come in. If Nora didn’t have the stomach for using force, she would just have to let Luna do it. She allowed herself a little smirk as she opened the door to the clubhouse and walked inside, taking her seat at the table at her mother’s right hand. The seat she had earned about a year ago.
“You’re late.” Nora scowled.
“And?” Luna shrugged.
One of the other officers shifted in her seat as if to speak, but Nora put up a hand and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We can get started now.”
“Make it fast mom.” Luna sighed as she kicked her feet up onto the table and leaned back in her chair. “I’ve got things to do to get us ready for war.” She smirked.
To Luna’s surprise, Nora didn’t look angry at her comment. In fact, her mother actually laughed. Luna raised an eyebrow and looked at her questioningly.
“It’s good you brought that up.” Nora smirked as she stood from the table and put her hands on the back of her own chair. “Because that’s exactly what we’re here to talk about.” She looked around the assembled men and women in front of her and smiled. “For five years, I’ve sat at the head of this table. For ten before that, i served this club in other ways. I’ve fought, I’ve killed and I’ve sacrificed over and over again. When I took over, I admit, I wanted to do things differently. I grew our power quietly, and kept us in the background for a time, until finally, we were too powerful to resist. I grew our turf from a tiny corner of the city into a massive area of land that no one could touch.” Here, she paused and looked at the faces of her officers again, looking for any sign of a reaction. She wanted to know who was with her and against her before she proceeded.
As she expected, most of the officers were nodding or smiling at her words, but four were either staring at the table, frowning or otherwise gave no sign of reaction at all. She continued, “I brought my daughter into our midst a few years ago, and she has been an excellent soldier. I won’t deny that. In a very short time, she earned herself the seat at my right hand, and not because she is my daughter, but because she earned it. I even let all of you vote on this decision, so that it couldn’t be said that I chose her out of favoritism. And ten to two, she was elected. I won’t pretend she hasn’t done well.”
Luna’s eyebrows went up high on her forehead as she listened. She wasn’t sure where her mother was going with this, but for now, she would just stay quiet herself and wait for her chance to speak.
“She’s done so well…” Nora said “that some of our number think she might even be a better leader than me.” She waved her hand dismissively. “That is neither here nor there, and it isn’t what I’m here to discuss, it’s just a fact.” Her hands squeezed the back of the chair, just a little, but enough that Luna could see it.
“Lately however, there’s no denying there has been a rift. A divide that is no one’s fault but ours. Your two top leaders. That is unacceptable, and because of Luna’s actions, and my lack of action in response, we are now standing on the edge of war with a club who was once a huge ally of ours. A war that I don’t think we can avoid.”
“And a war we can’t lose.” Luna scoffed, speaking up now. “They can’t beat us. We’ll crush them, and our turf will almost double. What’s the point of all of this?”
“The point..” said James, one of the other officers, and one of Nora’s biggest supporters. “Is that any war is going to be bloody. And the cops aren’t going to ignore that much bloodshed either. We’ve kept off of their radar for the most part, and we would lose a lot of lives, win or lose.”
“Sounds to me like both of you are scared. That’s what this life is about. We take risks, we fight, and we die so that we can keep control. If we crush the Falcons, no one…no one would ever think about trying us again. Besides. We can’t avoid it now.” Luna smirked. “There’s not a thing anyone can do to stop it. So we might as well just get ready for it, and focus on winning instead of bitching and moaning about it.” With her words, Luna expected to force her mother to rise to fury, maybe even take a swing at her. Again however, Nora remained calm, though her face darkened a bit.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Nora smiled menacingly. “I think it can be avoided. I know exactly how to fix that problem, and handle the issue of this divide in our ranks all at once….you have to be punished Luna.”
The tension in the room grew incredibly thick at her words. The four who had looked disapprovingly at her earlier sat bolt upright scowling at her, and the others either shuffled in their seats, reached under the table, or nodded in agreement.
Luna laughed, a harsh, wicked sound of dark humor. “What are you gonna do mom? Have me jumped? Brand me? Try to have me forced out? Go ahead I fucking dare you. You’ll have a mutiny on your hands and you know it. That’s why you haven’t done it yet. You know a lot of the Lotuses won’t have it. So go ahead.” She stood then, and stepped up to Nora, standing face to face with her. “Pass your sentence and see what happens.”
Again, infuriatingly, Nora just smiled and shook her head. “No.” She said simply. “You’re right. Like I said, there are some who approve of your actions. I won’t have my club fighting among itself. So I’m proposing something very different.”
“Spit…it…out…bitch.” Luna growled at her mother. “Stop nesting around the bush and tell us this oh so wonderful idea you have.”
“Fine.” Nora shrugged and took a step back from her daughter. “Here it is….you and me Luna, one week from today….in the pit.”
The room erupted into babbling talk, as everyone gasped or spoke up, struggling to be heard. All the while, the mother and daughter stared at each other. Luna glaring, and Nora smirking.
The Pit was what the Lotuses called the place where members of the club could go to settle disputes. They could fight in any way they wanted, and anyone from the club was welcome to watch, though no one, save for the two chosen as seconds for the fight was allowed to participate. And the only purpose the seconds served was to make sure that any agreed upon conditions for the battle were followed.
As the clamor in the room finally slowed down, Luna raised her chin and looked back at Nora, and smiled to match the defiant look on her mother’s face.
“Fine with me. But the loser has to leave the Lotuses. For good.” She said. Nora laughed at that, and shook her head.
“You’re a stupid, stupid little girl. I said I was going to solve all of our problems with this, remember? No, the loser isn’t going to leave the club. Even if I won, that wouldn’t stop a war with the Falcons. No Luna…”. And here, Nora stepped up to her daughter again and lowered her voice into a dangerous whisper.
“One week from tonight, you’ll meet me in the pit, and we’ll fight until one of us is dead on the floor.” She finished, letting the last words fall heavily on the room.
Silence. No one spoke or made a sound for several seconds as Nora and Luna stared into each other’s eyes. If Luna accepted the challenge, there would be no going back. If she didn’t, then there could be no doubt that Nora had already won the power struggle between them. Luna would lose the massive support she had gained because she was unwilling to fight for it. This, everyone had to admit, was a master stroke for Nora.
“I accept.” Luna said through gritted teeth. Still, the room remained silent, though the tension in the air grew again.
“I challenged you, so you get to pick how we do it.” Nora smiled. “What do you want? Knives? Clubs? Chains? Guns?”
Luna widened her face in a menacing grin and shook her head. “No mom. Hand to fucking hand. No weapons. I want to feel you break under me. I want you to beg for your life in front of everyone.” She said in a tone of almost insane glee.
Luna saw something almost like pride light up in Nora’s eyes at that. Her mother nodded, then said “Get the word out. Midnight, next Saturday. Anyone who wants to watch, meet us at the pit, and we’re going to settle this issue once and for all.”
A woman stirred in her seat and cleared her throat. It was Valerie, one of her other officers. “I am curious about one thing, Nora. Why did you want to do this with all of us here?” She indicated everyone at the table. “You could’ve done this in private, and gotten the word out later. I mean, not that I mind. I’m just curious.” She shrugged.
Nora smiled and nodded. “You’re right. But this is a major thing. Your leader and second in command fighting to the death. It’s not been done before, so I wanted you all to be able to speak your minds if you wanted to. Does anyone have any objections to this? Or another alternative?” She asked, looking around the room. No one spoke for a while, until Lucas, one of the others finally said
“No. I think you’re right Nora. This really does seem like the only way to solve it. And it does address every problem we have right now. So…I think it’s safe to say that we approve. Whoever wins, the detractors won’t have much room to oppose.”
Nora nodded. “Good. Does everyone feel the same?”
Murmurs of agreement filled the room, and everyone nodded or shrugged. Luna watched as her mother turned back to her. “See you in a week.” She said and without taking her eyes off of Luna’s, said “meeting adjourned.”
The week passed in a flurry of emotions for both women. They hadn’t spoken even once during the time that passed, but they had thought of nothing but one another, and what was going to pass between them. They managed to assuage any of their anticipation by working furiously to arrange their affairs should they happen to be the loser of the fight, even though neither woman was willing to admit that it could be them that lost. Both of them very much expected to win.
The Lotuses “Pit” which had long served as a proving ground and a place to settle in club disputes, was actually an old barn nestled in the distant outskirts of the city, out at the end of an old dirt road in the country. It was the perfect place for the club to make plenty of noise and clatter without worrying about nosy cops or citizens roaming by. Inside was a large makeshift ring comprised of bars and chain link whiche was banded along the sides in barbed wire to discourage anyone attempting to flee from a fight.
When Nora and Luna arrived, they parked their vehicles on opposite sides of the building and entered through opposite doors as was the custom.
Nora took a deep breath as she walked in from her side, and smiled as she saw her second, Ira, waiting for her.
“Are you ready?” Ira asked, giving Nora’s shoulders a quick rub down as Nora rolled her neck. Nora didn’t respond with words, her mind too set on the task at hand. She simply nodded and looked toward the door leading out into the pit area.
“Nearly everyone is here. It’s crowded as fuck in there, but there’s enough room for most everyone to see what’s going on. Go ahead and get ready. And Nora?”
“Hm?” Nora responded as she began to strip out of the street clothes she had worn.
“Good luck.” Ira grinned. Nora gave her a wink.
“Don’t need it. But thanks.” She said as she continued to disrobe.
In the opposite stall on the other side of the barn, Luna was likewise getting herself ready. Her second, a boy named Ryder was grinning at her as she changed.
“Isn’t it a bit weird that you’re about to fight your own mom to the death?” He asked, a smirk on his face.
Luna scoffed. “No.” She said as she pulled her white sports bra over her bare chest. “She’s my mom, but she’s in my way. I’m going to kill the bitch, and I’m gonna do it slow so that everyone here knows I deserve her place. Not her.” She smirked at Ryder and gave him a wink. “And if you keep staring at me like that, I’m not sure if I’m gonna break your nose or make you do something about it.” She chuckled as she headed for the door.
Ryder laughed. “Go get her ass.” He said as they walked out together toward the ring.
The chatter of the crowd quieted a bit as the two women made their way toward the brutal looking makeshift ring that dominated the center of the dirt covered floor. They wore similar outfits, Nora in a tight black sports bra and Lycra biking shorts trimmed with blue, and Nora in the same style outfit though white with black trim. Both of them wore solidly built sneakers on their feet. The crowd whispered among themselves and chattered quietly, where usually they would be roaring and screaming for blood. Neither woman could blame them of course. This was different from most any fight they had witnessed here. Of course there had been a fair share of death fights, but none had been between their top two officers. It was natural to not know how to behave.
Ryder and Ira opened the doors at the opposite ends of the cage and let the two inside after they frisked both fighters for any weapons. Once the cage doors were locked and chained, the two were free to begin, but for a time, the mother and daughter only glared at each other across the dirt floor.
They surprised everyone as they walked calmly toward the center of the ring and faced each other, defiant snarls on their faces.
“I’m giving you a fair warning.” Nora said. “There’s going to be no question about anyone getting a lucky shot when this is over. So I’m not going to end this quickly.”
Nora gave a little laugh as she sneered in her mother’s face. “Like mother like daughter I guess. Because I was just telling Ryder the exact same thing.”
No one in the crowd could hear what the two women were saying, as they spoke only loud enough for each other to hear.
“Shall we begin?” Luna smirked, spreading her hands out as she stared into her mother’s eyes. Nora said nothing…but she grimaced as if disgusted, and before anyone saw it coming, she spat right into Luna’s face.
“AUGH! You BITCH!” Luna screamed and lowered her shoulder, driving it into Nora’s stomach as she tackled her.
Nora grunted as she was driven back a few steps, but she had expected no different. She dug her heels into the dirt beneath them just as the crowd finally began to goad them on in earnest, stopping herself from being driven into the barbed wire walls. Wrapping her arms around her daughter’s chest, she began to drive her knee up into Luna’s stomach as hard as she could muster, trying to wind her younger opponent. Luna tensed her abdominal muscles to avoid this but still the impact caused her to wince and let out a grunt with each of the three strikes.
Seeing she wasn’t going to drive her mother any further backward, she drew her right arm back and slammed it home into Nora’s side, barely missing her kidney. The dull thud sounded across the room where those at the edge of the ring could hear it over the commotion.
“Oof!” Nora gasped, then took a second hit in the same spot and knew she needed to let go. The older fighter let out a growl of effort as she pivoted and threw Luna away from her, sending her daughter staggering back, though she did not fall as intended. Still, it was enough of an advantage for Nora to pop two quick jabs into Luna’s face, followed by a quick kick toward her stomach.
Luna reacted quickly, and though her head was snapped back and forth from the punches, she was just able to sidestep the kick and answer with a powerful elbow to her mother’s cheekbone.
Nora shouted and staggered, though she too kept her footing, and pivoted back around to face her opponent again.
“Y’know.” Luna scowled as the two of them began to circle each other warily, looking for an opening. “I kinda always wondered who would win if you and I ever got into it. Even thought about asking you to go a few rounds once or twice.” She threw a jab which Nora barely deflected in time, and in turn had to throw her free arm down to block a kick aimed at her liver.
The two began to circle again just as the assembled gang members began to cheer for either or both of them, properly getting into the action.
“You always did like to fight. It’s why you were perfect for the club before you became an insubordinate little shit.” Nora sneered and feinted with her left. Luna took the bait, and Nora smashed her other fist directly into Luna’s mouth, busting her daughter’s lip. “HA!” Nora shouted triumphantly as she saw a trickle of red come from Luna’s mouth. “First blood is MINE. I want MORE!” She railed, grinning almost animalistically as Luna stepped back to gather herself.
Before Nora knew it, Luna had stepped back up and spat a mouthful of blood and saliva into her face.
“UGH!” Nora shouted, disgusted.
“Fuckin payback!” Luna wailed back at her before aiming a swift and solid kick at Nora’s stomach. Her sneaker sunk into her mother’s belly and the older woman let out an all too satisfying retching noise as she was thrown backwards into the dirt, the wind knocked out of her.
“First one to eat the dirt too cxnt!” Luna screamed as she raised her foot and brought it down, stomping Nora’s stomach to further keep her out of breath.
Nora thought she was going to vomit as Luna’s sneaker buried itself a second time in her abdomen, but with her literal life on the line, and more importantly, the future of the Lotuses, she knew she could not give in to the urge to curl herself into a ball. She forced herself to keep her eyes open instead of screwed shut in pain, and made sure to watch for Luna’s next move.
Luna felt a sense of elation as Nora groaned in pain. She was sure she had her now. Feeling confident enough to go for some humiliation, Luna reached down and grabbed her mother by the roots of the hair, intending to drag her to her over to the barbed wire walls.
“Come here, I wanna- OHH FUUUCK!” She wailed as Nora planted her foot squarely between Luna’s legs. Luna crumpled and screamed in pain and frustration as a cheer went up from the crowd.
Nora gasped and felt her stomach muscles seize as she was granted the much needed reprieve, and as she gasped for air, feeling the ache begin to subside, she got to her feet.
“Get up.” The older woman growled. “I SAID GET THE FUCK UP!!!”
Luna obliged, getting to her feet with a strange mixture of pain and pure, unbridled fury on her face. Again, the women screamed and came at each other, fists flying into faces and bodies with reckless abandon. The members of the club screeched for more, calling for blood.
As Nora and Luna pounded away at each other, it became increasingly clear that neither woman was looking to end the fight quickly.
Luna caught an elbow to the cheekbone, just as she struck Nora with a cross to the jaw. Luna gagged on a knee to her abdomen, and repaid the blow with an uppercut that almost doubled her mother over.
They came to grips suddenly, snarling in each other’s faces as they grappled and tried to throw each other to the floor, sneakers shuffling and kicking up dust. It was futile. Both women were too evenly matched in strength for either one to over power each other by sheer force. They pushed and strained, neither giving an inch for very long.
Finally, filled with a burning frustration at their stalemate, Nora stamped down her feet and reared her head back. Luna saw what was coming the second before it happened as her mother’s head SLAMMED into her face. The crowd roared at the sight of Luna’s nose as it began to gush blood down her lips.
“Oh GOD!” She shouted as she staggered off of Nora, but the older woman was still on her. Grabbing Luna by the straps of her sports bra, the older woman pushed her daughter hard and fast into the chainlink wall of the cage. The one side with barbed wire linked through the inside.
“AHHHH!” Luna wailed as Nora cruelly pressed her daughter’s back into the barbs, almost drunk with the savage pleasure she was feeling at causing this much pain.
“This club is MINE!” Nora screamed as she drove a fist into Luna’s abdomen. “You will NOT…” another punch. “TAKE IT FROM ME!” She was bellowing as she pounded her daughter’s stomach, gratified to see Luna’s eyes begin to tear up.
“RAUGGHHHHHHH!” Luna roared as she kicked off of the wall, and drove her body into Nora’s. She pivoted, and grabbed her mother by the hair, and rammed the older woman’s head into one of the metal corner posts. Nora’s vision blurred and she saw stars as Luna pinned her into the corner and began to bury her right fist into her mother’s face. The punches were hard and savage, and each one was delivered with the intention of doing real damage.
THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD. The punches were audible through the air in the barn as the Lotus club members cheered the two dueling women on.
Nora groaned as Luna screamed, the blow to her head making her too sluggish to respond in kind, but her adrenaline was rising as her nose, mouth and eyes took repeated abuse from her daughter’s fist. She knew she had to act fast. This was a fight to the death, and allowing Luna to continue would mean her life.
She waited until Luna raised her fist for the eighth blow and made her move. Grabbing Luna by the head, Nora lunged at her and sank her teeth into the side of her daughter’s neck, aiming for the jugular. It was the first real attempt that either of them had made to end the other’s life. She screamed, a muffled noise of rage and hatred as she bit down, shaking her head back and forth as if she were a wild animal who had caught their prey. She tasted blood and wondered whose it was as she broke the flesh, and tried to tear the younger woman’s throat out.
Luna felt a surge of agony that overrode everything else as her neck was attacked. She was forced to wrap her arms around Nora’s body as she cried out in pain. If she pulled Nora’s head off of her, it could do more damage than good, and she knew that. Instead, Luna began to hammer her fist into the back of her mother’s head, trying to force the older woman to back off. Nora’s screams were interrupted with each blow, punctuated by groans of pain as Luna tried to beat her off of her neck. With a gasp, Nora finally let go, and mother and daughter stood in the center of the pit, arms around each other tightly.
Sobs came from both women, and pain was only part of what brought them to tears. They were enraged, and frustrated, and for the first time since the challenge had been issued, a little afraid. There was a lot of blood at this point, and neither woman had thought for a second that their opponent would keep pace with them.
After almost a minute of their standing embrace, Luna made a move and shoved her weight into Nora’s, bringing them to the ground.
They rolled and punched in the dirt, scrambling over each other as they attacked and wrestled to stay on top, though neither was very successful. Nora made an attempt to kick out of the tangle with her daughter,and her heart skipped a beat as her foot slipped in the dirt. She fell onto her stomach and Luna let out a sound that was half surprise and half elation. The younger girl mounted Nora’s back and planted her knee into the place between Nora’s left shoulder and the shoulder blade. She grabbed her mother’s arm and began to crank on it savagely, doing her best to dislocate or break the joint.
Nora wailed and kicked as her muscles screamed in protest. The pain was enormous, and Luna was cranking it on, shouting along with her mother, though her screams were those of victory being in sight.
There was a collective gasp as Luna felt the joint pop. She let out a savage, awful laugh as Nora began to scream so loudly that everyone in the audience looked on in horror.
The pain was awful, and Nora was panicking. Her daughter had only dislocated the joint, but her arm hung limp, unable to be used. She was crying openly now, and she didn’t even care that half of her club was standing witness to it. It hurt so badly, she couldn’t stand it, and Luna was laughing as she continued to twist and pull at the arm. Desperately, she reached out and grabbed a handful of dirt, throwing it backwards, and wanted to sob with relief as she heard Luna begin to cough and sputter, forced to get off of her.
As Luna cleared her eyes with her hand, Nora steeled herself and let out a cry of pain as she forced her shoulder back into socket. She desperately crawled away from the coughing and cursing Luna, and sat up, back against one of the cage walls as she tried to recover herself.
Luna crawled to the opposite side and blinked dirt and tears out of her eyes. The two women sat staring at each other for a moment before getting to their feet. The movement was slow and shaky as members of the club screamed encouragement at them, the words mingling so they they did not know who was cheering for who.
“KILL HER!”
“SNAP HER NECK!”
“CHOKE HER!”
“BASH HER SKULL IN!”
They stumbled toward each other, shaky on their feet as they glared at each other.
“I…fucking…hate…you.” Nora said as she grabbed Luna’s bra and gripped it like a schoolyard bully.
“Fine…by…me…dead..bitch.” Luna gasped in response as she too gripped Nora by the bra, and they held each other in place. They pressed their foreheads together, and growled low in their throats threateningly as they held each other in place.
As if by mutual agreement, the two women let go and swung a fist, cross countering each other’s blows as they hit each other in the jaw with savage force, causing them both to stagger backward a step.
When they came at each other again, they began to scratch and claw at each other’s faces as they screamed and squalled, both opening deep furrows in the other’s skin, it was about pain. More and more pain as they drew each other’s blood and screamed their defiance in each other’s faces. Again, they were against the barbed wire, trading places again and again as they tried to do as much damage with it as they could.
Nora gasped as Luna grabbed her by the throat, and began to strangle her. She scrabbled and grabbed at the fingers digging into her windpipe, as all oxygen was cut off. Luna wrestled her to the floor and pinned her head down as she straddled her mother’s waist.
The crowd roared as Nora kicked and choked underneath her daughter, and Luna looked down on her with a shockingly blank look. There was no emotion in her eyes as she attempted to end the fight and strangle her own mother to death.
WHAM! Luna picked up and slammed Nora’s head to the floor.
“It’s over. Stop fighting me. You’re going to die.” Luna said to her, again, with very little emotion.
WHAM! Again Nora had her head driven into the floor.
“You fought good, but I win. The more you fight me, the longer it’ll take for you to die.” Still, Nora fought, desperately trying to escape as Luna pinned her to the floor.
“You hear me? It’s OVER mom.” Again, Luna slammed Nora’s head into the ground.
Nora felt her limbs begin to tingle, and she could sense her struggles slowing. Her traitorous heart beat desperately as she looked into her daughter’s eyes. She was going to die. She had lost.
“It’s better this way.” Came Luna’s blank voice again. “You’re just passing the torch to me. Your club is mine. Give it up.”
That last statement caused a surge to run through Nora’s limbs. It awoke something in her. She didn’t care anymore if her own daughter killed her. But she wasn’t going to let the Lotuses fall to anyone’s hands but hers.
With an almighty effort, Nora wrenched at the hands clutching her throat and pulled one free. She bit down on the soft flesh between Luna’s thumb and forefinger and clamped her jaws down like a vice as she screamed her defiance until her voice broke with the strain of it. Luna wailed and began to pull at Nora’s hair out of panic, desperately trying to dislodge her.
It worked, though Nora took a piece of Luna’s flesh with her. Fresh blood dripped into the dirt as Luna looked on, horrified. Nora, now free, pulled her leg up and kicked Luna away from her with a thrust of her foot into the younger fighter’s mouth.
Luna rolled with the impact and tried to cradle her mutilated hand, but she was too slow. Nora was up on her feet, her breath coming in wheezes as Luna only managed to get to her knees. Again, she was sprawled to the floor as Nora threw a roundhouse kick that slammed into Luna’s already broken nose.
The pain was too much. Luna wailed and clutched at her nose until her body went into defense and completely shut down. The younger woman’s eyes rolled back, and she blacked out.
Luna felt a sense of peace as her eyes opened again. She didn’t know where she was, and she didn’t remember a thing.
Until she made to move her arms. She gasped as she felt hot blood drip down her wrists. She remembered everything then.
“No. No no no no no!” She began to panic as she took in her surroundings. She was in a sitting position, and her arms were spread wide at her sides. When she had been out, her arms had been wound through the barbed wire of the cage wall, and any movement opened new cuts and gashes. She looked up in horror at her mother. She was bloody, gasping, and she looked livid. The older woman looked down at her, and lifted her foot, half kicking, half stomping down on Luna’s mouth. Luna screamed.
“Take MY club?” Nora hissed as she kicked Luna in the jaw, slamming the poor girl’s head against the cage. “No you fucking won’t.” She kicked again. Luna cried, screamed, cursed and pulled at her arms, which only caused her to scream even louder. Another kick, this time between the legs. If Luna could have, she would have curled into a ball.
SMACK! This time an open handed slap as Nora dropped to her knees, straddling her daughter’s waist. A fist to the right eye. Another to the rib cage, and then another, another, another, ANOTHER, until Nora felt Luna’s ribs give way under her aching fist.
Nora stood again, and this time she grabbed the cage wall to brace herself as she slammed her knee into poor Luna’s already battered and ruined face.
The agony was so much that Luna could barely feel the individual blows anymore. All she knew was pain and panic as her own mother continued to dismantle her.
When Luna tried to raise her knees protectively to her chest, Nora screamed “NO!” And stomped down on her knee joint. The leg gave under her foot, and Luna whimpered, unable to even muster a scream as she felt her body fall into a form of shock. Again, Nora grabbed the cage wall, and this time. She pressed the younger girl’s face with the sole of her sneaker. Luna whined and felt the barbed wire bite into the back of her neck, her face screaming in protest.
When Nora lifted her foot after grinding it into Luna’s face like stomping out a cigarette, Luna was crying. Tears poured down her face as she looked at the floor, the tears mingling with blood and sweat.
“Nora…for god’s sake finish the poor girl.” Nora looked up in shock at the voice and saw Ira looking at her through the fence, tears in her own eyes.
Nora looked at her, then down at her sobbing daughter, then back up at Ira. She snarled and spit onto the ground.
“Shut the fuck up.” She said to Ira, and put her knee across Luna’s face again, eliciting a bit of a gasping sob from her friend.
The club watched as Nora spent ten more minutes taking Luna apart. The room fell silent save for the sobbing of the beaten girl, and the thuds of Nora’s blows as she beat her daughter to death with her hands, feet, elbows and knees. At last, when Nora could barely lift her arms and was standing on trembling legs, she stopped and looked down at Luna.
The girl was ruined. Her face was unrecognizable, her body covered in cuts and gashes and so much blood, it didn’t seem possible. There was no more fight in her as she slipped in and out of consciousness.
It was almost with an air of tenderness that Nora knelt, and freed her daughter’s body from the barbed wire. The younger girl did not fight. She couldn’t.
“It’s y-y-y-your cl-cl-club m-mom.” Luna sobbed.
Nora took Luna by the shoulders, and guided her gently to the dirt floor. She straddled Luna’s waist and placed her hands on Luna’s throat. She squeezed.
Luna only offered small resistance as she kicked and thrashed under her mother’s grip.
“It’s okay honey. I’m proud of you.” Nora whispered as she pressed her fingers deeper into Luna’s windpipe. “It’s over now.” She said, again, with an air of tenderness as she felt Luna’s thrashing slow to a twitch. The young fighter’s eyes rolled back and then closed, and Nora waited.
It took almost three minutes, but Nora sighed as she felt Luna’s body succumb to the death throes. Violent jerking and releasing of pent up energy in the limbs that meant for sure, she was dead, and the fight was over. Nora held onto Luna’s throat a few seconds more as her body settled, then let go and stood.
She looked around the room, and saw a mixture of emotions on the faces looking back at her. There was surprise, anger, sadness, elation, and respect looking back at her. They had all seen cruel ends to people before, but this one was a bit different.
“You get her out.” Nora nodded at Ryder as the cage door was swung open for her to exit. Ryder looked left and right as if confused. He shrugged and began to walk into the cage.
“You could’ve let me have some time with her before finishing it.” He smirked. He thought he was making a joke. Thought she might laugh. But Nora was different now. That fight had changed her. It had changed everything. Ryder balked as Nora grabbed him by the shirt and looked furiously into his eyes. She then grinned, seeing the perfect opportunity to test just how loyal her people would be to her after this.
“Never mind.” She nodded to two other men in the crowd who looked terrified of her at that moment. “You get her instead. Kill this one. Now.” She said, never taking her eyes off of Ryder’s, who now looked absolutely terrified as the Lotuses began to close in on them immediately.
Nora let go of his shirt and winked at him as she made her way for the door. As it closed behind her, she dug in the bag she’s grabbed from the place beside the door and fished out a cigarette. She lit it just as Ryder began to scream, and she smiled to herself.
The Lotuses were hers. And nothing was ever going to challenge that fact again.
She plucked her phone out of the bag, and found thu number she needed.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve calling m-
“Watch your mouth.” Nora hissed back, interrupting the Falcons’ leader mid sentence. “I’m calling to arrange the drop off of my daughter’s body. I killed her because she killed your people. Her body is my peace offering.”
There was silence on the other end of the line for a heavy moment.
“You killed…”
“My own daughter, yes.” Nora snapped. “And if you don’t want to be stamped out like the cockroaches you are, don’t take that tone with me again Alan.” She hissed. “I may have done this to avoid a war, but don’t think I won’t call one anyway just to teach you a lesson. One hour from now, I’ll drop her off. You had better say nothing but thank you.” She said, and disconnected the call as she walked into the warm night air
