“Fuck this,” Vanessa mumbled loudly, dragging herself out of the room and slamming the door behind her.
The air was still for a few seconds. Charlize watched the singer leave, still shaking and glaring a hole in the door. A whole bunch of threats and promises all stormed up in her head but even then she couldn’t think of anything that matched how pissed off she was for even having to LOOK at her. It finally bubbled over in a wordless moan of rage.
“AUGH! Catherine.” Charlize clenched her fists in and out. “What the fuck was she here for?”
“I bet I know why,” Kristen said, flopping on to the sofa and immediately whipping out her cellphone. “Trying to escape this fucking beating she’s got coming to her. LOL.”
Catherine gritted her teeth together. Did she just say “el oh el” out loud, like it was a word?
“She’s not enjoying herself,” Catherine said simply. She very stiffly placed the pen down and pulled herself up from her chair. Charlize was still shaking with rage and if she decided to vent – emotionally or physically – these other two girls sure weren’t going to have to deal with it.
Thinking fast, she rifled in a box for a few seconds, produced the key to the office and crossed over the room (making sure to stay as far away from Gwen as possble) and locked the door. She draped the key to her office around Charlize’s neck and hugged her.
“Do you wanna talk?”
Charlize pressed their necks together and sighed, gently tracing a hand up and down Catherine’s spine. It felt… weird.
Charlize had done a lot of wild things to her over the years – and vice versa – but this seemed… worse somehow. More calculated. It wasn’t that Charlize didn’t have a sadistic side – all the really great fighters did. But this seemed like a larger game, and only she knew where it was supposed to go long term.
And it wasn’t a game that was limited to the two of them and the occasional friend – it felt like everyone in Vegas would be caught in the crossfire.
But either way, she was getting paid a LOT of money to sit around an office and tell other people what to do. And it was based on the idea that she could keep all the girls relatively under control.
If she went to anyone with what Charlize was doing to her, it would probably be the end of a cushy job. As much as she didn’t like the situation, her best move was to try to keep things under wraps and try to be a voice of reason. Wasn’t it?
“I’m fine,” Charlize finally answered grimly, kissing Cat on the cheek. “I’ll get over it.”
“Oh my god.” Kristen rolled her eyes. “She’s about to ask for something.”
Cat cringed – had she really been that transparent? But Charlize just gave her a very deep bedroom stare and a dazed, goofy smile. If she could bring her from being that pissed off to being that giddy in a few seconds, what was the harm in asking for something? “Can we talk, uh… in private?”
“Absolutely not,” Charlize said absentmindedly. After a couple of seconds she realized that what she said was a bit puzzling and cleared her throat. “Look, there’s four of us in the room. You, who I’d honestly LOVE to catch sharing our little conversations. There’s Kristen, who is just the best ever and I love her all the way to infinity –”
Kristen (newly blonde to match her new buddies) looked up from the phone with a wide, genuine smile and shot Charlize a big thumbs up.
“And there’s Gwennie. She really enjoys putting down little problems, but she’s also very sensitive about being respected for her other qualities. If I have her stand outside the door like some goon, it’ll probably hurt her feelings.”
Catherine tilted her gaze towards Gwendoline Christie, who gave their leader a wry expression but didn’t comment on it either way.
Charlize never really called herself that (she’d been VERY into this weird friendship thing lately), but she was officially the best fighter in the world, she’d brought them all together and both girls did what she said – what else would you call it?
“And on top of all that, if we’re going to be in charge of things for the entire year, and you are going to anticipate my every desire, we need an open, trusting environment.” Charlize gave a broad, waving gesture with her hand, and both of her girls nodded a little, seeming satisfied with her display of wisdom.
“So, what is it?”
Catherine leaned back and tried to act casual. “This thing with Vanessa is kind of a foregone conclusion.”
Charlize beamed. “It’s great, right?”
“But I mean, getting so worked up about fighting her seems… a little crazy.”
“Oh my god, how can you even say that?” Kristen shook her head disapprovingly, barely looking up from her text message. “She’s supposed to be your friend. Do you even know what she said?”
Charlize thought about it for a second, and then leaned into Catherine and folded their hands together, taking a deep, dramatic breath.
“So what? That sounds like a great plan to me! Unreasonable, unfriendly, unfair and fucking crazy. So many people were so cruel to me when I started fighting. I mean… even me!” Charlize pointed up and down her obviously gorgeous face, as if even the concept of picking at her looks was insane. “I was this dumb gangly blonde beanpole slut with no tits and… every other name in the book. And you have to make your own little crazy world to block those things out or else you’d just destroy yourself.
And I’ve never been satisfied being fair to all those people. I always thought that if I won enough fights and had enough success and was perfect in every way, people would eventually… stop, and just appreciate me. But the more powerful you are, the more shit you have to let slide to be considered ‘good’… and for what?
The fact is, people will only respect you if you make them afraid not to, and this is part of it.”
Catherine sighed and blinked very slowly. Not that anybody in this room was going to take her seriously, but - “I… I really think you should read Dianetics.”
Kristen booed and chucked a hard piece of candy at her skull. “Stop trying to make us worship Xenu. I wanna watch this fight. Go make yourself fucking useful and pull it up on the computer.”
Catherine blinked incredulously and took a very loud, deep breath. She’d been slapped, scissored, beaten to tears, and humiliated this week – but having fucking punk-ass Kristen Stewart talk down to her was some fresh hell she’d never imagined. She slowly pivoted towards her desk, but Kristen sprang up from the couch and grabbed her by the hair.
“Did you just roll your eyes at me?” Kristen wound back and slapped Catherine as hard as she could with her free hand before heaving with all her strength and throwing her over her hip. Cat winced as her hair felt like it was being ripped out of her skull – she hit the carpet and landed on her back with a hard thud. Kristen immediately jumped up and crashed her knees on the taller woman’s ribcage.
All the air went rushing from Cat’s lungs and she tried curling into a ball just to get a quick breather and figure out how to deal with this situation. Kristen pulled herself up to her feet and repeated the knee drop, making sure to hit her sore midsection again before crawling on top of her and swinging fists at her like a demon.
Charlize clapped her hands and watched the action with an amused smile, like she was opening Christmas presents or watching a couple of her pets fight. “Catherine, you better not hit my girl. That’s not respectful!”
Catherine was completely exasperated at the order/threat/whatever and let a frustrated moan through her teeth. Kristen wasn’t a bruiser, but Cat’s midsection hadn’t recovered from the beating that Gwen had given her – and Charlize cheering her on had given Kristen a burst of energy. She was swinging wildly with both fists and she was in a completely dominant position, comfortably perched on top of Cat’s chest, her right arm pinned between her thighs, her left arm pinned uselessly against the floor, raining down punch after punch to Catherine’s head and chest.
Catherine hadn’t gotten this far in her career without knowing how to think under pressure – she wildly started bucking and twisting to the side until she was flat on her back, and then started pressing her legs against the carpet. Kristen wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to punch her at full strength for minutes at a time, so –
“Look, she’s about to throw you off,” Charlize said, laughing hysterically. Catherine pursed her lips together. This was already hard enough without Charlize giving fucking coaching, too. “Press down on top of her.”
“Grind your knee on her fuckin’ chest,” Gwen crowed. “She’s still busted up down there.”
Catherine gritted her teeth stoically as Kristen gleefully followed their instructions and dizzying waves of pain shot up through her ribcage.
“I’m not fucking scared of you,” Kristen panted. “Not scared of you, Miss Big Tits. I’ll come in here and torture you every day. And I don’t need any help.”
Well... it made sense. All this time for being picked on as Charlize's useless sidekick last year had to bubble over somewhere. She just wished it hadn't been here.
Cat didn’t bother wasting her breath – this was already embarrassing enough without dignifying this tyke with a response. She focused on digging her legs into the carpet and pushing upwards, and after a few seconds, she managed to throw Kristen off and roll away. Her head was thudding like a second heart – the bitch had probably knotted it.
Kristen was already trying to dive on top of her – this time she rolled with the attack and tried to wrap her legs around Kristen’s midsection. Even if she wasn’t allowed to wind back and knock the brat upside the head, she could control her and stop her from doing any damage. TECHNICALLY she was fighting Kristen, but really Charlize was in charge of things – if things got boring for a few seconds, she’d break things up and look for some other kind of entertainment.
Kristen threw a couple of punches, but Cat locked the scissors on and held on tight – most of the blows were glancing. Finally she let out a heave and rolled to the side, looking to take Kristen with her and climb on top.
But Kristen showed a surprising amount of technical skill, pressed against Cat’s knee and broke the scissors, whirling around and climbing onto the general manager’s back for a second.
Cat’s stomach flopped insider her – what a stupid mistake, and one she couldn’t afford. “Kristen, stop!”
Kristen wrapped her toned, slender legs around Cat’s bicep and wrapped her hands around her face, brutally crushing her teeth and nose, and setting her shoulder on fire at the time time. “Fuck you! You EVER roll your eyes at me and I’ll break your neck.”
Tears welled up in Cat’s eyes as a crippling pain rocked her – with Kristen punching her, she could roll around and cover her head and protect herself. Manage the worst of things, but Kristen had this hold perfectly smiling wildly as she tormented her - there was no “managing” pain like this.
Cat pounded her fingertips against the carpet.
“There’s no referee, you stupid bitch.” Kristen ignored her. She didn’t get people in this position every day and clearly she was going to enjoy it – no matter how much Catherine didn’t! “I’ll pull your neck until I hear it crunching.”
Kristen snarled and slowly leaned back on the hold, cranking on the pressure. Catherine whimpered in complete misery as her neck twisted back. In desperation, she tried to bite down on Kristen’s hand, but the hold was too tight – she could barely think, let alone bite anything.
Cat kicked her feet miserably as the little sadist poured it on, grinning cruelly, enjoying her superiority and bullying the joints in Cat’s shoulder and arm.
Finally, she broke the hold for a moment, only to wind back and slap Catherine with her free hand. Maybe sensing it wasn’t doing that much damage, she tugged at Catherine’s hair and cracked her across the face as hard she could, again and again, really working up a rhythm.
Catherine tightened her jaw and let all of the painful blows land. There wasn’t much she could do about it anyway, and Gwen was leaning forward in the corner of her eye, eyes wide and glittering, looking for any excuse to jump in and tear her up again.
“Oh my god, look at all this *aggression*!” Charlize clapped at the sight of another one of her girls destroying Catherine Bell – not that it was anything resembling a fair fight. “It’s really making me hot. Remind me to get you two some play partners so you can work out all this energy. Anyway if you want to watch Vanessa’s thing you need to let her go.”
“Fuck that. She owes me an apology.” Kristen took a very deep breath and spat into Catherine’s flushed, numbing cheek. “Who the fuck do you think you’re dealing with?”
Jesus Christ. Getting it from Charlize or Gwen was one thing…
Still, she swallowed and looked down at the carpet, she was flushed with humiliation and racked with pain and very, very glad she’d locked the door before any of this had started. “I’m sorry, Kristen.”
She slapped her a couple more times, looking around the room with pride and bucking up as if she’d done all the work herself. “I don’t believe you.”
Cat’s arms dangled as she accepted the brat’s punishment. “I’m sorry for disrespecting you, Kristen!”
Finally satisfied, Kristen let her go, sent a kick across her rear and pointed to the computer. “Start marching, bitch! You’re lucky I don’t beat your ass right here.”
“Thank you, Kristen.” Cat deadpanned.
“Some people just never learn. I heard Gwen fucking crushed you a few days ago, like it was nothing.” Gwen slapped her thigh and gave a loud, snorting laugh at the memory. Catherine pouted and pulled up the stream, slowly swiveling the monitor towards them. “Are you one of those bitches that need regular lessons? Hey. Fucking answer me!”
She swallowed. Her throat was dry, she felt a couple of knots growing on her skull, her neck was still in agony and she wanted to go home. Experience in both middle-management and bottoming spoke for Catherine now: “I know better, Kristen. When I act like that in front of your friends, that reflects on you. I promise I will learn how to behave and I promise I will make it up to you.”
Kristen thought about this very detailed apology for a second, and decided that she couldn’t get any more vindication out of the situation. She mumbled, “Well, you better,” and went back to jabbing at her text messages with an angry pout.
Charlize rolled her eyes as the stream came up. “Look, we missed it. She’s already finished. Titty smother.”
“Is she… pinning her?” Gwen frowned disdainfully. She’d taken most of her fights in London before Charlize called on her. The scene in England was famously savage, and the air conditioning and referee and endless scheming in Las Vegas still seemed like an entirely different world to her. “The fuck is the point of this.”
“Look at how tired she is.” Vanessa fought out of the smother and the two girls brawled outside of the ring. “She’s going to be a zombie by the time she’s in the conference room.”
Cat sank down in her soft leather chair behind the computer. Vanessa wouldn’t be the only person who looked like they’d been in a fight.
By now, Vanessa was turning the tables of Hayden, hammering her with knees and legdrops.
“She’s all right,” Gwen said laconically. Charlize shot her a nasty look. “Ah, you know. For a cxnt.”
“Yeah, okay,” Charlize said dryly. With a sigh, she crossed her legs and pointed to Cat and Kristen. “The two of you need to… go and fix your hair or change clothes or something. Here’s what I want when you’re done.”
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