Scene One

Three Years Ago

"Spread your legs for a moment please," the nurse told her, her palms already on her bare knees and moving to spread her legs before Melissa could give a refusal.  The back of a latex sheathed hand grazed the inside of her thigh, the cotton swab gently wiping the area of her cunt underneath the fabric of the hospital gown.  She turned her head, biting her bottom lip until the examiner reemerged and dropped the swab into a small paper bag.

"You're positive you didn't shower when you got home right?," the detective to her right asked for the what had to be the fifteenth time.  "How many times do I have to tell you?  I didn't," a hint of agitation in her voice.  Detective Kyrk ignored her irritation and pressed on, "Did he use a condom?"  "I didn't take time to look at it, sorry," whether or not her sarcasm was picked, she could care less right now.  She just wanted to get this over with and some sleep for the first time in days.

The examiner held a camera in her hands, giving a motion with her hand, "Turn you head to the right."  A flashbulb went off, letting off a bright burst of illumination, giving extra light to the photo taken of the bruise around her left eye.  He had punched her after kneeing him in the nuts trying to fight back.

The examiner held her right hand straight out, shining a small flash light over her nails, then followed with the her left hand.  "No DNA under the fingernails," she said with a shake of her head at the detective.  "Did you try to fight him off?," she asked as if it were a serious question.  For a moment, she remembered trying to scream through the tape over her mouth, kicking at him trying to spread her legs.  "The fuck do you think?," she said rather curtly, annoyed by the idea that she would answer the negative to such a question.

"Hold your hands out for me," she was told.  Another flash with the click of a photo documenting the ligature marks on her wrists created by the tape.  "Can you give a description of him?," she was asked.  "No," was her short and simple response, not bothering to think about telling her.  "How?," the detective asked.  "Were you blindfolded?"

As much as it pained her to think of him, she remembered his face clear as day, but they would never know that.  "I wasn't exactly thinking of what he looked like at the time, you know," she responded sarcastic.  That was true enough, the pain flowing through her was distraction enough.  The shame of violation, only to endure the whole ordeal again in a hospital.

She would not go through a trial and reliving what had happened to her, she would see to that.  She was sure Xavier was already thinking about avenging her.  However much the idea of him being raped himself in prison pleased her, he deserved death.  All a trial would do was expose the fact that it was all her fault to begin with.  She was the one stupid enough to make herself so vulnerable, so gullible.

"I'm having a problem digesting all this, Miss Michaels," Kyrk said with a shake of her head.  "You have no idea who he was and don't know where you were when it happened."  A single tear rolled down her cheek, her head tilting downward, "What do you expect of me?  I've told you everything I know."  "A story that made sense would be nice," she said accusingly.

"Where's my brother?," she asked looking up and around.  "I want him here."  Kyrk looked almost surprised by such a request, "Miss Michaels, you're hardly in the right position for him to see you.  Maybe once we finish this and get you dressed."  Melissa shook her head, refusing the give up.  She needed him now as a small child needed a security blanket for a sense of safety, "I don't care if he sees me like this, I just want him here and I'm done with your questions without him."

Detective Kyrk released a sigh of resignation before stepping away from Melissa.  She looked down the hallway, giving a wave of her hand and yelling, "Mr. Michaels, she's asking for you."

Scene Two

The earthen trail before her was blurred slightly, trees and bushes flew past both sides of her.  Running sneaker slamming into the ground underneath and bending to push her off followed by the other foot, propelling her forward.  The rushing pair she tore through whipped through her brown hair tied back, bouncing with every step and change in the pressure through her legs.  Her lungs sucked in an intake of air, exhaling it just as suddenly.

Melissa's body was running through the forested trail, her mind was concentrated on anything but.  Had she lied to her brother for the first time in her life?  Was she over the events that led to his darker side rearing its head?  Was she still afraid?  It was times such as this that her thoughts were allowed to drift to such chasms of her soul.  It was not as traumatic of one might think, even helpful.

Fear could be a powerful ally, giving an extra boost of strength when a threat is perceived.  It would be times such as this that she would permit the possibility that he was still alive and after her now, giving her that shot of will to push herself to an extra level.  Her fear of him would aid her in her training routine and refining her body to better conditioning and endurance.

Conditioning she was going to need in her blossoming wrestling career.  Xavier was trying to help were with her training, showing her the ins and outs of a wrestling ring, how to pull off a wrestling move maximizing its fullest damage.  His experience would fill her mind with what she would need to know in the ring, but he could do nothing for her to increase what her body could do.  That task would be up to her alone.  She had no where near the muscle mass for weight lifting to be a viable option, so she would stick to her strengths rather than her weaknesses.

Last week at Chaos, she was playing to one of her strengths again, her boldness.  Her brother had taught her on how to play mind games.  Physical ability was only one aspect of what happened in the ring, psychology would sow the seeds of self doubt in her opponents, stripping them of their confidence and the match would pretty much be over.  The body did what the mind ordered, corrupt the master and the slave would become useless.

What she did after the conclusion of the "women's" match had merely been phase one, the intimidation of her likely opponents.  It was all about letting the rest of them know just how serious she was about being the dominant female.  At the end of the exercise, Sabrina had been left out cold in the middle of the ring, Kim scared away with a look.  That was power not readily available to just anyone, something Xavier had taught her.  How to frighten someone with a glimpse into the darkness within them.

It seemed Kim had gotten the message, backing away and leaving herself the only conscious person left in the ring, Sabrina on her back at her feet.  Some people it seemed were simply too proud to admit defeat by a superior opponent, not giving up when faced with the prospect of loss.

Sabrina would not accept the fact that there was someone better then her, that much was clear.  She was still of the opinion that Melissa did not intend or have the ability to follow up on her plan, and she was a fool for believing such.  Sabrina had gotten the message of what she intended, that she wanted to be crowned the women's champion, but she had yet to understand.  More drastic action was going to be required before the point finally sunk it, and she was going to prove it this week at Chaos.

She slowed her run to a jog, turning to her right, the sole of her sneaker finding an asphalt surface as she emerged for the tree lined area.  She continued along the paved path, passing people she had never seen in her life and probably never would ever few feet, reaching a low brick wall with an entrance/exit of about twenty feet.

The traffic of Fifth Avenue and  Seventy-sixth Street rush hour stood in front of her, business-looking men and women of midtown, the occasional mother pushing a stroller with a mewling infant inside passing her on both sides.  She liked the park here because it was so distant from home, yet easily accessible.  She turned south and jogged down towards Penn station.

Parking in the city was a nightmare, so she always relied upon the train to get back home after this.  Yet the area was growing on her.  She going to have to talk to Xavier about real estate options as she was sure he wanted to get out of that house where they lived now and start over.