Juno Sawyer vs Sayumi Arai: The matters of loss and pain!

The click had escaped her notice as did many simple things when she wasn't strictly focused on them. She gave the door a curious look, as if it were a person playing games with her that for over her head. A small jingle of the knob, a light shove and pull just to check she was trying to open the door the right way… it was things like this people took for granted until something went wrong. She had used this door so many times before, now that it wasn't working she had a brain fart to how it normally opened.

"Helloooooo? Can anyone hear me? The door is uh, stuck or something I think!" She brought a closed fist to the door to give it a few soft thumps. Her ears perked at the hum of the monitor in the corner. Normally reserved for announcements and match queues if any of the women with more intricate costumes or makeup needed to use it for keeping track of how much time they had left. With a furrowed brow she glanced its way, just was curious as the people in the arena watching the same feed on their larger screen.

She wasn't exactly sure what she was watching at first. A promotional video for the holiday? It had all the crappy markings of it with the maddening pace and horrific images… she didn't even put two and two together who she was seeing until the slide depicted the crime scene more openly. In that instant she was there again, watching the paramedics wheel away a dying stranger, someone she would moments later to out was her girlfriend. She could hear it now, the ringtone and vibration of Cicilia's broken phone in an evidence bag. Her skin crawled as invisible hands grasped at her, the hands of police and first responders holding her back as she screamed for her lover.

The jack-o'-lantern slipped from the crook of her elbow, striking the hard floor to send its contents cascading act the ground. The hollow plastic pumpkin face rolling to the side before it found a home against the wall, wild grimace facing the ceiling. Sayumi stumbled away from the door, bumping into lockers, nearly tripping over the bench that split the room. Her locker, sloppily dialing in her combination… no, wrong… again… wrong… why wouldn't it open?!

Click.

She tossed the lock aside, throwing open the door. Her eyes flicking between the video on the screen and her gym bag shoved in her locker as she rooted through the pockets. She produced her phone, navigating the menus with shaky fingers, dialing Cicilia.

No signal.

"No no no, come on." She stepped away from the locker, frantically swinging her arm about the room to try and get even a single bar that would let her dial out, all the while being drawn to the images on the screen. When were there taken? Who were these people? Why were they doing this to her, to them?! "Stop it!"

And just like that, the lights, the television, everything went black. The sudden we of it all caused the young girl to scream. White knuckled phone gripped so tightly it slipped from her grasp, bouncing between fumbling hands before clattering against the floor and sliding face up under the lockers. The only source of light like a beacon called to her. She needed it now more than ever.

The darkness was her enemy. It encompassed all that was unknown, all the troubles, the worries and things that went bump in the night. Monsters that wanted to hurt her, torment her, drive her to madness. She had a crippling fear of the void, so much so she kept her apartment well lit leaving no nook or cranny cast with shade when left alone. She couldn't even remember the last time she had dared to leave her home at night without an escort… even to come to work she would have a driver Maria specifically hired to ferry her there and back. It was an irrational fear but one her scarred mind chose to give life to and now she was stuck within it… save for her last remaining glimmer of light.

Here alone, the fear gripped at her like a noose making her choke up and find breath hard to find. There was no match, there was no place for her to return to, did Cicilia even exist in this moment? All she knew, all she needed was that line light beneath the lockers.

A clumsy step forward had her cracking a knee against the bench she didn't even notice, toppling head over heels to the floor with a hard crash. She let out a cry of pain but wouldn't let it dissuade her. She reached, squirming her hand into the small space, fingers clawing… then the device went dark. The screen had idled due to power setting. She made one last attempt for it, bumping it with her fingers and hearing it slide even further away…

"No no no nononono…" Her eyes darted around through the murky blackness as she withdrew her hand, scrambling to sit her back up against the lockers with a hard metallic thud. She could hear movement around her… but was it real? Was she hearing things again? She closed her eyes, curling up into a protective ball with her knees tucked up to her chest. She clapped her hands to her ears, shaking her head, trying to convince herself this wasn't real, that is was normal, that nothing was going to hurt her… but she couldn't. Her mind poisoned her attempts making her feel crawling on her skin and flashing back to the horrors she had witnessed.

The lavender haired girl began to cry hysterically, long web sobs. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be anywhere. If only she could just blink from existence and cease to be at all then this would be over. She threw her head backwards, striking the locker. Despite not even knowing someone was there watching her, she appealed to the darkness, assuming someone was… someone was always there. "Please… please go away, please!"

Her mind was unraveling, breaking in the dark room before her silent double. But when the door creaked open, her reddened eyes snapped open in an instant. On her hands and knees she crawled to the opening, and escape from the darkness. Trampling candies intended for the crowd, she spilled out into the hall, collapsing onto the cold floor a sobbing mess. Her arms wrapped themselves around her as she cried, drawing the attention of passing members of staff and other wrestlers who stopped at a distance before jogging over to check on her.

Someone was always there…

How true those words were. As Sayumi wept like a broken child, many people were drawn to her. They came to her aid, investigating the dark room while some stayed to comfort the weeping woman. With only a single entrance to that particular changing room, the entire interior was swallowed up in darkness. Those that walked in to investigate could see nothing after only a few steps into the void. The tiny crinkling of candy wrappers being trampled underfoot was all that could be heard before they came out, unable to find anyone inside.

But, as if fate itself was there to prove them wrong…the lights inside suddenly flashed to life…a scene of targeted horror spilled around the room.

An effigy of the Lavender lover stood in the center of the room. It’s pale white skin and dress clashed with it’s prim and proper hair. Sayumi’s image in the effigy was distorted, twisted to a point of horror. The monster had no eye, and no mouth…Just three black circles fiercely etched in to the creature’s face. Black paint had been used to fill in the holes, and as a result it wept long black tears down it’s perfectly created cheekbones. The black hole that was it’s mouth curved into some twisted perversion of Sayumi’s heartwarming smile, black drool dripping on it’s white dress, as though the paint were still wet.

A twisted creation the onlookers didn’t want Sayumi to see, but it would be impossible to hide from her. It was simply too large, and too out in the open.

While those that surrounded dear Sayumi, and tried to comfort her there was one that did no such thing. A single figure, near the back who had a very different purpose for being there. A figure that knew well what horrors lay in that room without even entering. Her purpose there was to simply document the commotion. To record and seize the opportunity of a lifetime.

She was discreet. A shadow within the crowd. Few would ever see the recording device even without all of the chaos surrounding her. She slipped by everyone, simply to get close to Sayumi. The woman was huddled on the floor, hugging herself as the more caring individuals around her held her and tried to comfort her. That was not the shot this predator wanted. She ad gotten such a delicious video of Sayumi crawling out from the darkness, but what she was missing was that face…The hunter needed that face~

She moved in, so much so she was only a few inches away from her subject. Her client paid handsomely for the best shot she could get, and there was only one that could really strike what it was she was after.

The others needed help tearing don the twisted sculpture. Those that held Sayumi fled to help clean up the changing room, leaving only the subject with the hunter.

There it was!

A broken face…teary eyes…the absence of comfort of care. That which tried to comfort the world, finally experiencing what a hellish place it truly was. No warmth…

Only the chill of failure. Failure to conform…failure to protect the ones you loved…failure to stop the wolfs from getting into the sheep’s den.

__

The twisted video that had played was over…It had been over for the past few minutes, and yet Sayumi was no where to be found. The audience, still a bit disturbed by the specifics of the video, began to grow restless…What had happened to their adorably sweet and sexy wrestling idol? Why wasn’t her music playing? Surely, she would lighten the mood with her upbeat personality and charm, making even the most introverted person in the audience feel welcomed and involved just by her adorable antics alone!

She was the one so many people wanted to see…so much so few had even noticed the cloaked figure standing in the ring. Entering in the middle of the twisted video, the woman hid her face inside a hood, the only thing visible underneath such a large cover was her purple boots, and the medical mask on her face. No one could see the device hidden in her ear, nor her empty, baleful glare she cast to the floor as she silently spoke through her two way radio.

“Is it done?”

*“Of course…Some nice, even beautiful videos and shots. Can’t say the same for our dear Sayumi.”*

”Stick with the plan.”

*”I know. I’m on my way out now. I’ll turn the cell service back on once I’m out. Cicilia will get an email with the vids and pictures, then they will be online tomorrow afternoon. After that, The device I used gets busted…and all traces erased.”*

The cloaked Figure only nodded to herself, her glare rising up to the walkway where Sayumi was supposed to enter from.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please excuse the interruption. A minor incident has occurred backstage, which has caused a brief delay in our match schedule. Please excuse us as we…"

The hooded woman sighed, shaking her head silently as she rolled out of the ring…and began to climb up Sayumi’s ramp.

“Guess I will go get her myself.”