AV 13 Loser Leaves Friction Match: Cassie Vs. Dark Angel

Cassie gritted her teeth, hugged Talia's ankle tightly against her body, and twisted like she was trying to rip the girl's knee in half. "Please, please, please," she repeated, just waiting to hear her give or to feel a tap, for the ref to pull her off and tell her that it was all over.

"Break!" The ref announced, and put a hand on Cassie's shoulder to signal her to let go. It was too much.

"FfffFFFUCK!" Cassie screamed, and then caught herself. Had she really just said that? And she knew her dad would see this match, too...

She stood up, holding on to Talia's ankle and dragged her slowly toward the middle of the ring, limping heavily on her bad leg and only just keeping her balance enough to stay upright.

"I'm gonna... I'm going to..." She panted, but without the presence of mind to finish the sentence.

The time between grabbing the rope and the referee forcing the break felt like ten minutes. Talia breathed a sigh of relief when the pressure let up. But in no time at all, Cassie was already dragging her away towards the center of the ring. Out of reach of the ropes.

"N-No..." Talia pleaded before realizing she couldn't let that happen. Despite the pain in her ankle, she began kicking wildly to make Cassie release her. She couldn't let her gain any ground. Cassie was always one hold away from winning any match. Talia couldn't afford to give her even one opportunity.

Cassie desperately clung to Talia's ankle while the girl kicked and thrashed and tried to pull away, and she quickly dealt with it by sharply kicking the toe of her boot into the back of Talia's thigh and swinging her leg over to roll the girl onto her stomach. She tucked her foot under her arm and bend her leg back toward her head in a single-leg boston crab.

Without being able to put much weight on one foot, and as dizzy as she was, Cassie knew Talia could knock her off if she wasn't careful. She opted to put her bad knee in the small of Talia's back while she did her best to bend the girl in half.

Despite having her opponent in a compromising position, she knew she didn't have the strength to make her quit just from this hold. She tried thinking of something else she could use to put her away, as quickly and safely as possible.

Talia kicked and kicked but Cassie still managed to hang on. She flipped her over and pulled up on her leg. With Cassie's knee in her back, Talia immediately groaned in pain. She remembered the hold. It was the same one Johnny had put her in in their first match. Back then it was used to humiliate her into giving up. This time, on the other hand, it was meant to hurt.

And it did. Talia tried to crawl away but the weight of Cassie's knee hurt too much. She had to escape the hold somehow. She didn't want to unceremoniously lose her career like this.

Cassie's whole body strained against Talia's leg to bend it further back. She felt the red-haired girl under her, stuck, and knew she couldn't let her go no matter what. She pulled until her body started to fade, and then relaxed to take a breather, Talia's foot still trapped securely under her arm.

Just getting air into her lungs was hard work. Her chest heaved and her head leaned weakly to one side. Sweat beaded on her forehead and ran down her face, down the length of her nose to form a bead at the end that hung on until it grew to heavy and it fell down onto Talia's knee. She drew one last breath and summoned the will to wrench back on the leg again, leaning back like she was going to make the girl stomp on her own head, the angle steep enough to lift her hips off the mat.

"Hhhaaaaaaa!" She howled up at the lights while she poured everything she had into trying to break Talia's leg off.

Talia struggled underneath the weight of Cassie. She raised her arm, reaching for the ropes which were still too far away. For a moment, it looked like she was going to tap out. She wanted to. Both her spine and leg were being horribly bent and Talia found herself screaming involuntarily. At the very moment it looked like she was going to give in, she grabbed her arm with the other one was if to hold herself back. She put them both to the mat and pounded her head on the ground in pain. She had to escape. Now.

Then, in a sudden burst of energy, she pulled both arms up and to the left at the same time to give her some push to flip Cassie off while she was off balance. It had to work. If it failed, something was probably going to break.

"Give uuuup!" Cassie wailed. Why couldn't Talia just tap out?

Then the girl under her shifted suddenly, and her knee slipped off the small of her back. She lost her grip on Talia's leg as she began to fall backwards, putting one hand behind her to keep from ending up on her back.

Just like that, she was back to the beginning. She tried to stay on Talia, go after her with another hold, but she couldn't find the strength. She sat flattened out on her elbows and knees, her back moving up and down with every heavy breath. Her sweat-damp orange hair hung down toward the mat and stuck to her reddened face. She hoped Talia was as slow to get up, because she didn't have anything left.

After she managed to remove Cassie from her back, Talia rolled several feet away from her. She had to escape from Cassie's wrath. But even despite that fear, she couldn't stand up. Her back felt like it had been mangled and her right leg felt like it was broken. She took a moment just to catch her breath before even attempting to stand. The referee had already gotten to "Four!" by the time Talia had gotten one foot on the mat. As she straightened the leg, however, her quad gave in and she fell back to the mat. "Five!"

She didn't think she could even stand up. Cassie's hold must have torn something in her leg. Desperately, Talia slowly crawled over to where Cassie was laying down. She had to stop the count somehow. Still breathing heavily in and out, Talia grabbed Cassie's right arm and pulled it along with her head between her legs. She clamped them down as best as she could around her opponent's neck but her right leg shook in agony everytime she tried to strain it. She prayed it'd be enough. It had to be. She wasn't sure if she could even stand up after this. "Tap...tap damnit..." she pleaded to Cassie as she tugged on her arm.

Cassie offered no resistance when Talia wrapped her up in a triangle choke. She might as well have been a rag doll.

Still, she automatically clasped her hands together and pulled her arms in close to her body to lessen the effects of the choke. Mercifully, Talia was also in bad shape, so she hung in there and focused only on resisting enough to stay conscious. It was the best she could hope for.

The look on Talia's face made it seem like the move was hurting her as much as it was hurting Cassie. But still, she kept it on as much as she can. She choked Cassie as much as she could because she had to. Because she needed to. Because she...kinda wanted to. Sorta. She wanted to show Cassie what this was like. And she could only do that by hurting her. Cringing, Talia whispered to her. "Don't you wish someone could help you?" Talia tightened as much as she could but it only made her cringe more in pain.

"Don't you wish someone would help you right now? There's so much on the line for you and here you are...alone...gasping for air." Sort of. Every few seconds, Talia had to release pressure from her right leg. It wasn't even a matter of choice now. She legitimately thought something was torn. "Now you know...what every single match for me was like." Talia inadvertently released Cassie's arm but tried to put it right back. "When I needed help...when I needed someone...no one was ever there." Her words had gotten much louder but still not enough for people in the audience to accurately decipher. "Everyone had someone when they needed help most...but not me. Everything I did to beat you here...it was all on my own doing. No support...no friends...no family...nothing."

"Just like you're about to have no one."