Ver Rojo Significa Dread

Everything seemed to hurt, her head was absolutely pounding in her ears, the new signals was sending her entire body into a fit. Fighting the urge to puke again, trying to keep herself conscious, Camilia was terrified. Was Catarina(Zoey) ever this strong before? There’s no way, as many times she kicked her butt this shouldn’t be happening, this had to be a bad dream, it just had to. The Latina was just about to sit up, scoot back and try to gather her bearings but that attempt was quickly dashed, she didn’t even see Zoey coming. Just as her back left the cold ground it was driven right back down as their heel drop dug into her chest forcing her down.

She turns to her side, coughing harshly practically hacking up what little air she had left. Her back was wet and the rain falling soaking her face and hair was sending her sense into overdrive. It was hard to think, her anger was getting the best of her again but it didn’t have a target, not one should could get to anyway. Her hands clutch her chest, attempting to help her breath even if just for a moment. Tonight seemed to go from good to bad to even worse. Another wave of coughs filled the alley as the rain began to pick up, her hoodie was beginning to get drenched as she made a bid to roll onto her knees and push herself up.

Soft pants leave her lips as pushes up off the cold ground, she leans over just a hair to look for the wall for support. Her hand reaches out looking for bricks, her fingertips extending to meet the rough material for her salvation. She had to get up and defend herself from this, she couldn’t let herself get pushed around and beaten up without getting another lick in.

”Son of a..” Was all she could say, her mind wasn’t coming up with any comebacks, no strategies to get her out of this. The only thing she could really think of was getting herself on her feet and staying there.

Zoey was a simple woman of simple pleasures. She liked long walks on the beach, mint chocolate ice cream, and kicking people in the face. Sometimes she got to do all three of those things at once, but even one was enough to bring a lasting smile to her face. It was the smallest things that made her days brighter.

Now, this? This was far from a simple pleasure.

This was mindless self-indulgence at its finest.

There was no sight greater for her at this moment than when that heel came down Camilia's stomach and she saw her entire body spasm all at once. All those weeks hanging in these shadows, hugging these corners and alleyways, were so worth it now.

Zoey reeled her leg back and hopped up to a low squat, looking Camilia over with a self-satisfied smirk before she rose to two feet. Her hand met her hips as a crack of lightning flashed the pristine white of her smile through the sinister dark. This was it. It had to be. What real power tasted like.

"That's right, Cam. ‘Damn it.'" Zoey reached down and gripped the Latina by the collar of her hoodie, hosting her up to two feet. It wasn’t easy keeping her balanced but she didn't need her up for long. "You see me? You hear me? Better, because you've had this coming for a long damn time."

With the same regard, she’d give a hefty bag of useless garbage, Zoey tossed Camilia up against the brick wall. As Camilia rebounded off the masonry, Zoey would raise her left leg and shoot it forward up against her adversary’s throat, pinning her to the side of the building with nothing but her foot.

"You were thinking you were such a hot shit back in our match." The Korean-American leaned into her impressive display of flexibility, grinning from ear to ear as she looked the drunk pugilist in those glossy eyes. The rain poured heavier all around them by the instant, soaking into the fabric of their clothes and dancing the neon light off their skin. “Now lemme hear those sweet screams. Come on, beg for mercy. I know you want to.”

She placed her palm to the cold, wet ground, slowly attempting to push herself up. Camilia felt weak and defenseless and it wasn’t a feeling she liked all to often. Catarina was never this strong, never this athletic, something was different. She felt the tug of her color, the string of lightning racing across the dark, cloudy skin. Rain batters her face as she finally sees her attacker, able to visably see and know just who it was that was tossing her around. Her teeth grit, even in this drunken stupor, she could never forget the face of someone she hated so deeply. Her Ruby pools furrow as anger crosses her face. Unable to even make a move as she’s ragdolled toward the hard brick behind her. She ricochets back from the impact only to get pressed back towards the wall with a well placed foot against her neck.

Another cold streak of lighting flashes across the sky. The neon lights beaming off their skin as the pair stare each other down. Camilia was a tad sober now, burning with hate as Zoey spoke. Her Ruby pools were locked onto the Korean, she’d prepare to move. ”I hear you…” She states coldly, digging her sole against the damp asphalt beneath her feet, she’d make a bid to topple Zoey. Her shoulder would aim to catch the pit of their knee, she was going to practically throw them to the ground with a sudden upheaval into the pile of garbage behind them.

If the Latina had managed to do that, she’d stumble on top of Zoey, pressing them down with her weight as she ready to enact her symphony of violence. Her tanned appendage tight, clasping into the shape of a fist as she stared down with fire in her core. If the Tae-Kwon-Do woman didn’t react in time, Camilia’s fist could connect to the downed woman’s face. Her left suddenly strikes down after. With an erupting cry, she’d throw another and another. Throwing punch after punch she could feel all her pent up aggression seeping out like a waterfall of malcontent. Even now, with her fists stinging with each impact, even in this drunken state of hers; she couldn’t help but hate herself for letting it all go like this.

Bone against bone, flesh swelling and skin breaking, perhaps a few years ago this would have been euphoric for the Latina. Things were different now, she wanted to step away from the Bull she was so famously know for. She had always tried to come to terms with these facts but as time went on, she felt more and more distanced from the carnage her younger self indulged in. She closes her eyes, she doesn’t want to see anymore of what she has to do. She raises her fist, one last punch ought to give her the satisfaction she’d need to walk away from this. She noticed all to late that most of her attacks had either missed or hit debris from her wild barrage.

This.

Months and months of training. Weeks of getting her ass beaten into the ground. Hours of being tormented and ravaged by Moon Sin-Jae and her incredibly warped sense of mentorship. Countless amounts of time that she’d spent suffering and straining just to get a taste of what so many had retaken from her time and time since she’d started professional fighting in this stupid country of suit-and-tie jackasses.

Finally, karma was paying it back. The sight was worth a million pictures all on its own. Even with the rainfall eclipsing them so densely, Zoey’s eyes stayed fixed and unmoving on the Latina pinned beneath her boot. This same pugilist beat her into the dust and left her bloody for the entire world to see. Camilia was the helpless one, completely at her mercy. A rare flicker inside of her bosom pushed the Korean-American even further. The smile on her face grew even further as she leaned in and pushed her hated adversary’s throat further into the brickwork.

Yes. Fuck yes.

This was what she needed. Now, with the city quieting down all around them, Zoey leaned in and pressed down on her knee, starting to crush the Latina’s foot against her heel-

“Hey whoa, what the f-?!” Backward, the kicker fell. Zoey almost chomped her tied tongue in half when the back of her head suddenly hit the pavement, splashing stars across her vision. Through the haze, she could make out the blurred afterimage of a fist the instant before it collided with her face.

White. Camilia’s knuckles met the Korean’s face with the force of a flashbang and sent Zoey into a deep haze void of sense and feeling. It was a prison she wouldn’t escape for the longest moment, not until the second fist came down and knocked her back into harsh and cruel reality. The third and fourth strikes made her fully awake again. Instinctively, the Taekwondo fighter raised her arms and turtled. Showered with blows, however inaccurate, Zoey was trapped underneath and unable to lift a finger. She had no idea where this vigor had come from or what Camilia was doing. All she knew was this; helplessness.

Desperately, Zoey’s hands reached out for something. Anything. Far off to the right, her fingertips felt something elastic on the ground. She gripped it tightly and turned as she swung it overhead. A garbage bag; packed and seeping with waste, food scraps, and half-empty beer cans, all thirty pounds wrapping around to the back of Camilia’s exposed, sloshed skull.

Camilia’s fists began to ache, throwing them blindly to beat the life out of Zoey had her striking the asphalt beneath. The skin of her knuckles was cut open, the area around the bone began to turn a dark hue, she was already beginning to bruise. She couldn’t bring herself to stop or perhaps she didn’t want to, she was going to make Zoey uglier then ever with what she had planned. Even in her drunken stupor she was competent enough to deal with a threat like this…well, sort of. The rain only continued to pour into the both of them, showering them with cold rain as lighting raced overhead, almost watching the two rip each other apart. Cam’s blurry attention was glued to the Taekwondo woman’s guard, pelting their defense wildly to get it to break under her weight.

She huffs with hate as she rears her fist back to break through, the belligerent drunk was keen on ruining this woman’s day now. Neon lights brighten up the damp alley way, showing just the damage she had caused to her attacker, bringing to light the woman she suspected (although there were only two suspects she could think of.) ”It’s you! Zoey!” She exclaims, throwing another fierce hook into their guard. ”Couldn't deal with me in the ring  huh?” another punch digs into their boney guard ”You coward!” She roars firing another in her drunken rage, the Latina was to absorbed to notice them grab a trash bag.

She hears the tumble of metal and glass, startling her to look in the direction of the sound. It was far to late to guard and she was in no state to do so. Her drunken rage failed her in this very moment and the contents of the bag collided with her face, sending her flying off Zoey. A scream rips from her throat, as her hand covers her left eye, the all to familiar feeling of warmth runs along her cheeks as she can’t help but shriek in agony. A stream of red began to mix with the running rain water, a clap of Thunder mixes with her scream of pain. She curls into a ball, her vision jumping from neon lights to darkness and then red. Camilia can’t bring herself to properly function, the fierce sting and burn in her left eye made it impossible for her to move.

The Latina didn’t cry when she received a permanent reminder across her face during her run in the Underground. She didn’t cry when she broke up with her boyfriend or girlfriend. She didn’t cry she lost her toy bunny, the only time tears graced La Tora Blancas face was when she lost her Abuelo.  This was to much for her, in spite of everything she overcame with her old friend, the pain was just to much. In the cold, dark rain, Camilia began to cry, her shrieks of pain only added to her woes as she was truly and utterly broken. The Latina had no more fight left in her, she wasn’t even sure if Zoey was still there anymore. She could only wish she were home right now, safe and sound, instead she laid in the pavement crying and blinded.