Drugs and Hurting People

Close-up of Alice’s black lips snarling and her white fangs poking through.

“I hate this.”

A metal chair is launched across the room and smashes up against the stone wall.

“Why am I like this?!”

She screams at the top of her lungs and complete silence follows behind. She stands in her bedroom in a white nightgown and her hands bleeding from clenching her fists so tightly. She looks at herself in her reflection and she sees her wet hair dripping, her eyeshadow smeared, and in the corner of the room with his legs crossed… He sat there with a smirk and it seemed as if he was enjoying the tantrum Alice was having. She turns to him with malice in her eyes and tightens her fists even tighter which causes much more blood to drip down to the floor.

“This is your fault! Everything that has happened to me is your fault.”

He tilts his head and uncrosses his legs and adjusts his nice suit and gets to his feet. He still has the same smirk across his face as he slowly approaches her and she snarls her lips as he now stands in front of her.

“Liars have no place in war, Alice. I hand you a grenade to throw and you promise me you’ll throw it at the enemy when the time comes, you remove the pin and then look back and blame me for not throwing the grenade, thus we both die from the explosion because you were too afraid to do what is needed.”

He places his hands on each of her shoulders and tries to lock eyes with her but she continues to snarl while avoiding eye contact with Him.

“You’re my favorite, Alice. I think you have all the potential in the entire world but the way you view it prevents you from reaching the levels I know you can. Shut that off. Lock away your mortality and throw away the key and the streets will run red with the blood you will spill. No attachments, no love, no feelings. You do this, you reclaim what’s rightfully yours.”

“I don’t know how…”

He grabs her wrist firmly and drags her across the room and shows her the sledgehammer she has used in the past.

“I want you to tell me exactly what you’ve done with this. Hold nothing back from me or I’m leaving.”

She stares at him with concern and a smile slowly crawls across her lips.

“I’ve had a lot of fun with this girl. Serenity knows her really well when I smashed her own mother’s grave with it. That felt soooo good when I did that.”

His expression doesn’t change and he raises his eyebrows expecting more.

“I… I was going to smash Lissie’s brother's headstone too. I didn’t know it was her brother though! I was going through with a plan to get in Johnny’s head and I followed him to the graveyard thinking it was someone related to him. That was just one of the few mistakes I’ve made and I’m not exactly proud of that moment.”

He removes his hands from her shoulders and his smile returns to his face.

“You do know how. You have a match with two individuals trying to break their way through to the top of CULT and if you lose to one of them, you should just quit. Bring that same Alice that smashed Serenity’s mother's grave with no remorse... The task I need from you specifically is that of breaking the hold that Elizabeth Hope has on you.”

---

You know what I get for being the backbone of this show? For being the literal reason why people always tune in every single time? I get saddled with the job to welcome some new kids in. That’s what the world champion of CULT gets… I held my tongue and never questioned the actions of Mr. English because it didn’t involve me and I just simply didn’t give a fuck. Now that it’s actively affecting my livelihood, I’ve grown angry and impatient with my employer and myself. I can’t get the job done anymore perhaps? Lack of confidence? Or maybe there’s a full conspiracy against little ol’ me because of who and what I am and what I represent. A Vampire Arsonist running a deathmatch show suspends disbelief a bit too much huh? I know those refs were counting too fast, I know it. I kicked out and I felt it! I should have my world title back around my waist because no way in hell does Serenity cash in her title successfully on me like that.

In the world of sports, they call a moment like this, “Ball don’t lie” and that’s where a bullshit call goes way too favorably for the wrong team and on the very next play something happens to rectify that mistake. I hate Serenity Holmes with all of my being but Johnny absolutely deserved every bit of that. Johnny thought he could just steal a win over me like that and just walk away with that shit-eating grin? Serenity made the right call by deciding she no longer needed you in her life. Hopefully, soon, more will realize how useless he is to keep in your life. He drags you down so he can elevate himself. The fall of Johnny Bacchus is going to be a beautiful thing to watch.

Who the fuck picked up ‘Martin Flashbang’ up at the Gamestop around the corner? Someone like this doesn’t deserve to even be in the presence of myself let alone be in a contested match against me. I feel so insulted that my name should even be next to this fat slug of a man. I’ll dispose of him just as quickly as the others who thought they could even be considered in my league. A dork that was pulled into a van by English while he was walking home is not a competitor and I advise against putting me against these abominations next time.

Now, Addison Stockton is a perfect example of exactly what I hate in a person! A blonde bitch with a shitty rich girl attitude thinking she can do whatever the fuck she wants and that includes getting into pro wrestling to try and get her name more out there. We’ve seen a thousand of these girls and we’ll see a thousand more. You’re not special and you never will be no matter how much your daddy tells you you are. When you wake up and suddenly you don’t know where you are and your face is red and purple and you can’t feel it, just know you had the chance to avoid this by realizing Alice Gemini is a nightmare for girls like you. Just ask Serenity Holmes, who can’t beat me.

I don’t know who these new victims are and why I have to deal with them in the first place but I tell all of you now, they’re both going to die. I’m going to avoid manslaughter charges yet again because what I do in the ring is fully sanctioned and the outcome is not my fault because they could’ve walked away. They enter that ring, they don’t walk out.

I’ve been craving some fresh blood anyways.

---

Alice, followed by Him descends the dark stairs to the basement of her castle. The echoing of their footsteps sends waves to the prisoners that awaited them and they scurried up against the wall as much as they could. Alice lunges at the first group of prisoners and they all flinch in pure fear. She giggles and continues walking with Him just watching her actions and how she moves. They stop at on cell who had one man inside with a bag on his head.

“And this is him?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. Hopefully, I didn’t kill the right one!” She laughs and tilts her head while he allows her to unlock the cage door. Once the key began to unlock the door the man with the sack on his head began panicking and trying to slither away.

“Come here you dirty junky rat!” Alice kicks him hard in the ribs and yanks him up to his feet. He wails in fear.

“Cookie here no longer has a tongue because he wouldn’t stop begging for his life when I first captured him and his voice was unbelievably annoying. Asking him questions is kinda pointless now but hey, it’s more leverage against The King of the Rats.”

“No tongue? Alice, this man is completely useless to us now.”

“No, because he’ll see that video and try and rescue his ex-lover, and then I’ll kill him and spike his head in the middle of the courtyard!”

“This man is a junkie. Johnny is embarrassed of this part of his life so why would he risk his life for a man with track marks in a castle surrounded by vampires? No one is going to drink from this body. Dispose of him for real this time. You’re wasting a perfectly good cell on bad meat.”

“No- No, this plan will work. I couldn’t take care of him at the cemetery because of that slow motion bullshit he has in his rainbow eye. You seem to know something about that and won’t tell me.”

“Alice, I don't know anything specific about that eye. I just know of its existence and to be cautious of it. I want this tongueless corpse disposed of, I mean it.”

“I need him. He’s my key to killing Johnny.”

He shakes his head disappointingly and turns away from Alice and walks off back to the upper levels of the castle. Alice remains with Cookie and she sits up against the wall next to him while he still panics through the sack on his head.

“Ya know, I get what you’ve been through in a way. I was a young girl just trying to figure out who she was and the kind of people she wanted to be around. I went through hell just trying to grow up because of my father. Heard you got sent to a conversion therapy camp when you were younger. I never got sent to one but that might only be because when my dad found out I liked girls, he killed my mom. He threw things around, breaking so much stuff. He screamed and screamed and it felt like he was never going to stop and he eventually smashed a pottery project I had made for art class across my mom's head. Fucked up huh? He strangled her right after and he looked into her eyes the entire time he squeezed her throat. I tried to stop him but he just slapped me and I couldn’t move. I watched him kill her and then cry about it like a little bitch. The police arrived and took him away for the rest of his miserable life. They told me he tied a bed sheet around his neck and took his own life but I know better. I know he’s probably still in there laughing about what he did to his family. I never saw a body so I’m gonna live thinking he’s still alive. I feel for you and your addiction, Cookie. Drugs and hurting people are the only things that help me feel more alive. I do things my way. He can’t tell me what the fuck to do. You’re my lure, Cookie and you’re gonna be lucky enough to stay alive until I don’t need you anymore.”

She gently pats him on the head and hops up with a smile and twirls her nightgown and spins her way out of the cell.