Chapter 17 : The Aryan

When Kelly was young she used to have a friend named Katherine. Katherine had been an epileptic most of her life and being close to her Kelly had learned what to do during a seizure. She imagined this wasn't much different than an epileptic crisis. Epilepsy comes from the ancient Greek word epilepsia which literally means ''taken over by an evil spirit''. Watching Sabrina convulsing on the floor she only had time for this thought to flash through her head, the feeling of something so awful happening that it almost looked like someone had taken over her friends body in a very violent, forcible way.

Kelly knelt next to her on the floor and kept her jaw shut, in order to prevent her from biting her tongue off. She knew there wasn't much else she could do for her, other than keep her head from hitting the floor and wait until the seizure passes. She kept her eyes on her watch, timing the seizure, while holding her friend's head between her palms. Suddenly, three minutes and twenty seconds later, life seemed to leave Sabrina's body and she finally went still. Kelly checked her pulse just to be sure.

Unbearable moments of silence and stillness went by. She leaned over to hear her breath, found it quiet, and calm. Everything was returning to normal, but lowly. Sabrina moaned, and muttered something.

Kelly tried to wake her. ''Bri?''

Sabrina moved and turned to her side, facing away from Kelly. Her breathing had changing now, reminding Kelly of a diver surfacing. She helped her to a sitting position and sat crossed legged, facing her. Sabrina kept her eyes shut for a few minutes then looked up to Kelly.

''Hi there...'' she croaked. She lowed her head in her palms and rubbed her temples.

Kelly stood quiet for a while. She couldn't find something to say to her at the moment. ''I'm sorry Bri...'' She finally managed to say, but wasn't sure what she was sorry about. Sorry about Sabrina's current position or sorry about her own anger towards her friend? She now felt that anger lose its previous spark and dissolve into feelings of pain and sadness. From the moment Sabrina had talked to her, her plan was simple. Stop, and get clean. She was sorry, she decided, for being foolish enough to believe it was easy.

Sabrina sighed and got up on her own. ''Think I'm gonna be sick.'' She muttered and stumbled to the bathroom. Kelly didn't offer to help her, mostly because she was still a bit frozen to her spot on the floor.

Kris was outside the school, in a local club, accompanied by her new ''friends''. The girl from her dorm, Hailey and the twins staying in the dorm to her left had taken her to what was supposed to be a ''class gathering'' but it turned to be just an excuse to get wasted. As soon they entered the club the two local bouncers shut the view of the exit with their massive backs. They were supposed to keep people out, not people in, she decided and it calmed her a bit.

She was finishing her first drink, paying attention to the conversations around her while looking innocent as a lily, when one of the girls smiled and gave her a small poke.

''Well, Krissy hun, lets go downstairs and watch the show now, eh?''

Kris frowned, but the immediately switched to a grin. Don't wanna get wrinkled from my twenties, she decided. ''What show Hailey?''

''You mean you don't know? Ain't that charming?!'' She giggled loudly and Kris smelled the alcohol in her breath.

''C'mon, c'mon, c'mon princess, lets go, I'll show ya!'' she pulled her by the sleeve, mingling into the crowd of drunk and semi-drunk people going down the stairs.

At the end of the stairs a large basement, enough for 150 people to be comfortably standing, met her. She was startled because the space above wasn't half that big. She quietly noted that there was a square with ropes around it, that seemed to be serving as boxing ring in the middle of the open space. A door opened and the crowd cheered, yelling and whistling. A man with a mic hoped inside the ring and spoke.

''Well hello, hello, hello everybody! Welcome to the opening of the fifth MMA tournament of the Death Valley! My name is Mike Tomas and I will be accompanying you to this match!''

His voice was drowned momentarily by the frenzied cheering but quickly the crowd hushed to hear his next words.

''Two of the contestants have agreed to open the night with an exhibition match only for your pleasure! Without further ado, welcome The Beast!''

Another door opened and a woman in her mid twenties walked through it, wearing a tank top and Thai shorts. She lifted her right arm and roared to the crowd and if Kris wasn't supposed to be undercover she would've yelped out loud. What the hell was Hope doing there?! Yet she kept it to herself and just opened her eyes wide. A girl with her hair cut short, blond and blue eyed followed Hope and mimicked her moves. The crowd cheered and the man spoke again .''And welcome last year's champion, The Aryan!''

There was a wave of mixed up chatting and whispering while the two of them entered the ring, both wearing no-fingers kick-boxing gloves. They stood in opposite corners and eased into a semi-crouched position.

''Ready?!'' Mike spoke through the microphone. When both women nodded there was a rough metallic sound, following his voice. ''One, two, three, GO!''

It was the blond girl that made the first attack. She rotated herself on her left leg, delivering a fierce strike with her right. Hope didn't have time to move out of the way, so she was forced to block with her right arm. She abruptly deflected the blow, causing the other girl to lose her balance and fall directly on her fist.

The crowd went quiet for a few seconds and started cheering again when they pulled apart. Kris noticed that even though she blocked the blow, Hope's wrist was taking an odd shade of red. Seems like The Aryan was out for blood, she thought. It made her frown. Turns out The Aryan had noticed Hope's hand as well, because her next blow was aimed there. This time the taller woman did not block the roundhouse aimed at her stomach, she too had realised her opponent was aiming her good hand. She let the kick find its target then grabbed her opponent's leg, still in contact with her stomach.

There was a small second where she had all the time in the world to smile and look at the other woman's eyes, watching the terror sink in, just before she steadied herself and delivered a very high kick, that rocked The Aryan's jaw back and forth. If she was a man, Hope knew a kick like this would be dangerous, because being so close to her opponent it left the groin area unprotected, but right now it was a safe move. She let go of her leg and stepped back.

The kick had left the blond girl dazed momentarily, but without losing a heartbeat she dashed forward, grabbing Hope by the waist and pushing her to the concrete floor. The air whooshed out of her chest, but Hope kept thinking about an escape route. She had found one, before she realised that The Aryan wasn't looking for a KO. The blond woman, trapping her under her weight, held her right hand on the floor and smashed her knee into it.

How bout y'all gimme some nice warm reviews uh?!

LK