Post by hawkeye on Nov 9, 2020 2:30:58 GMT
The AHE feed cut from Joanna and Gordy to the Madhouse’s vaunted floating camera already speeding through the depths of the cavernous training facility. Following half a dozen quick, disorienting turns down a series of poorly lit industrial hallways the camera veered into a freight elevator of distressingly antique vintage. The darkened confines of the elevator were actually quite prosaic save for a small sign plastered above the rows of buttons. The sign was bone white, with deep red letters that looked almost wet to the touch. It read:
The descent is longer than you think. Much longer.
The camera bobbled in place so the viewers could read and contemplate the sign, which most were still doing when the door shut with a loud groan and the elevator chugged down, down, down, nearly a full minute of down before rattling to a stop. The camera wasted no time escaping the narrow confines and despite coming out in the grimiest hallway yet, it showed no hesitation in blazing a trail. Half a dozen more turns followed and then the journey ended in front of a door with a brass panel that read:
Nevermore
Brave, foolish or some combination thereof, the camera barged its way through in search of an audience with the lady, or rather, the Queen, of the Madhouse.
As luxurious as the name would indicate, the ‘Queen’s Chambers’ were large enough to include a second floor that was reached by means of a wide staircase at the center of the room. The paneling was all dark wood, the carpet was deep midnight blue pile featuring thin sworls of gray, green and purple. The décor was simultaneously elegant and ominous. To the left of the staircase were several shelves full of antique books and dozens of small object d’art. Lining the walls were a number of paintings, most of them bleak autumnal or winter landscapes, though there were a few inconspicuous depictions of famous FAWN violence, most of it seeming to favor the exploits of the Black Court and a certain Raven in particular. To the right of the staircase laid a relatively warmer area with a large glassed in fireplace ringed by a few overstuffed couches. Another interesting detail on this side of the room was a curious set of double doors, which seemed to vibrate and tremble in their frames if you watched them long enough. For a moment it looked like the camera might go exploring, but was distracted by the arrival of one Al Carpenter. Resigned to another year of overseeing one of FAWN’s most, ahem, unique, matches, the perpetually put-upon zebra offered the camera a discrete nod to let the brass know he was as ready as he’d ever be.
From somewhere deep in the recesses of Harrenhal, the disembodied voice of the Announcer called, “Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is scheduled for one fall and the winner will be crowned Queen of the Madhouse until All Hallows Evil 2021! Introducing first, representing the Black Court, hailing from Glen Echo, Michigan, she stands five feet seven inches tall and weighs in at one hundred and thirty one pounds, she is the reigning and defending Queen of the Madhouse, I give to you the Fair & Radiant Maiden, LENORE LEMARCHAND!”
A door on the second floor swung open and Lenore appeared from the gloom at the top of the stairs. Eschewing the robe favored by the previous owner, Lenore arrived to meet this year’s challenger in nothing but her battle attire, a strappy bra and equally sturdy briefs both in a dark, royal purple. Temporarily alone save for Al, the Raven padded her way down the steps to take up a position beside the zebra.
LENORE LEMARCHAND:
“Drew the short straw again, huh Al?” Lemarchand asked with a small smile.
“They’re not even subtle about it anymore.” was his deadpan reply. “Merle won’t go anywhere beyond the basement and Craig always claims claustrophobia. Reggie said he would, but the office put me on it because I,” he raised his hands for air quotes around the next two words, “sort of, know my way around this place.”
“Then you’re doing better than me.” Lenore admitted. “I swear the rooms in this place change every--”
The entry doors swung open and Lemarchand’s opposition didn’t so much stride in as she did sweep through like a chill wind. Clad in a sleek black set of matching bra and panties (the latter edged with festive orange trim at legs and waist) the tawny brunette stunner strolled to within five feet of the lady of the house without actually setting eyes on her, the visitor choosing to appraise her surroundings instead. Eventually her eyes went to Lenore and she smiled. “Weird place you’ve got here, Len. Bit of a fixer-upper, but I like challenging projects. Now, where are my keys?”
Lenore opened her mouth to answer, then shut it when the Announcer interrupted with, “And introducing her opponent, hailing from Fox River, New York... she stands five feet six inches tall and weighs in this evening at one hundred and thirty pounds. She’s the Pintrest Pin-Up, the TikTok Terror and a Black Hat extraordinaire, this is LYSSA ZAHN!”
LYSSA ZAHNl
Lyssa didn’t offer up a pose for the absentee crowd, she did however stretch her arms wide and step that much closer to Lenore, the Social Media Sadist brazenly daring the Raven to enter her personal space. Lemarchand obliged her at once, the pair of longtime rivals going nose to nose for a round of soft spoken trash-talk before Carpenter prized them apart for a last minute description of the admittedly nebulous house rules.
With no need of the traditional pre-match inspections, Al Carpenter tossed a discrete signal to the producers in the Madhouse control room to call forth the wailing groan that served as an opening bell within the confines of the Queen’s Chambers. Lyssa heard it, rolled her eyes and started toward Lenore who matched her pace to draw them both into a slowly tightening spiral. Noting the irritation on her rival’s face, Lemarchand arched an eyebrow and asked, “Something bothering you, Lyssa?”
“The aesthetic of this place is just ridiculous.” Zahn replied at once. “It’s like you and Adelaide both believe the horror genre begins and ends with Charles Addams. It’s sad, is what it is.”
Lenore raised her hands to shoulder level, the Raven’s talons twitching in anticipation of the inevitable clinch. “First off, while I appreciate Addams, this place is far more Edward Gorey. Second, you’re welcome to contribute to the décor, sweetie. Adelaide, Elise, Amara and Syd have all left their briefs behind, for example.”
Lyssa’s dark eyes narrowed, the TikTok Terror bristling at the thought of being reduced to another curio in the Courtier’s admittedly impressive collection. She narrowed the gap and raised her hands, even flicking a few testing slaps at Lemarchand’s arms, all of which were briskly swatted aside. “Never gonna happen, skinny. This is your last night in this place and I hope you enjoy it because after all the hair-pulling, wedgies and ya know, general humiliation, I’m gonna get a team in here to scrub out EVERY TRACE of your presence,” she paused, smiled slightly, “’cept maybe for a nice portrait of your terrified face for right over the mantle. It’ll be the start of a brand new Wall of Shame to commemorate my reign.”
They were close now, well within slapping, clawing or hair-pulling range, though both brunettes remained content with those probing arm swats for the moment. “Bold talk, Lyssa.” Lenore’s voice was cold. “You’ve always been great with the talk, backing it up is always where you fall flat on your face, isn’t it? Because when the pressure’s on you can’t NNGH!”
Zahn had enough and shut Lenore’s mouth by slapping it as hard as she could. She followed her opening salvo with a massive handful of hair and white-knuckle fish-face clamp on Lemarchand’s cheeks that had the other brunette shifting from foot to foot in pained indignation. “Not tonight, f*ck face.” Lyssa hissed. “Tonight I take my place as Queen of the Madhouse and you take your place as my OOOFFFHHH!”
Lenore slammed a Kneelift into Zahn’s belly just below her navel and just above the line of her briefs. Swatting the grip from her face immediately thereafter, the Fair & Radiant Maiden snatched hold of her challenger’s hair at the nape of the neck, all the better to wrench her head back for a trio of scintillating face slaps! Then she doubled down on the hair-hold and backpedaled across the plush carpet and torqued her hips to tear Lyssa off her feet with a Hair Mare that THWHAMMED her down on the low coffee table in front of the overstuffed couch by the fireplace!
The defenseless furniture gave way beneath Lyssa’s weight, the brunette arching her back in surprised agony before she rolled clear of its devastated remains. She’d just made it onto her belly when Lenore hurried in and planted one knee in the small of her back. Another angry fistful of hair wrenched Lyssa’s neck at a painful angle, but this wasn’t so much a Camel Clutch as it was an excuse to drag her nails from Zahn’s right cheek to the curve of her left breast no less than half a dozen times. Stopping only when Lyssa managed to grab hold of the wrist, Lemarchand ground her plant knee in a little deeper and growled, “You want this place, Lyssa? Think you can make yourself the new queen?”
“It’s already mine. You‘re just too dumb to realize EEERRRHH F*CK!”
Zahn gouged and clawed Lenore’s wrist but couldn’t stop the Courtier from dragging those dangerous nails from Lyssa’s navel to the underside of her breasts. “Bullshyt. You’ll never own the Chambers because you’d rather TAP OUT than do what it takes to make them your own.”
Seething at the Raven’s talons and taunts in equal measure, Zahn braced her right elbow against the carpet and brought that knee up to get some better leverage in exchange for an unpleasant bit of rug burn. Knowing that Lyssa would squirm out from underneath in moments if she wasn’t careful, Lemarchand balanced on her left foot, rose most of the way up and THUMPED her right knee into the small of the other woman’s back. Zahn cried out in pain but didn’t collapse, rather she pulled herself to an angry penance and reached up and back to bury both hands in the leggy bendy-back’s dark locks. Lenore snarled as Lyssa’s grip wrenched her head to one side, but her expression grew considerably harder when the Tweeting Tyrant threatened, “Gonna own this place…your ass…and your soul, maybe not in that ord--”
CRA-CRA-CRAAACK!
Lemarchand abandoned her own hair-hold for a Half Chinlock that kept up the strain on Zahn’s neck while she flattened her free hand into a paddle and a blistering volley of slaps against Lyssa’s tawny tummy. “These are the only souvenirs you’re taking tonight.” Emily’s Lady in Waiting said of the bright pink welts her nails left on the challenger’s chest and belly. “And you’re finally gonna leave that shytty, unearned arrogance in returAAARRRRRHHHHHHH!”
Zahn let one hand leave Lenore’s hair so she could raaaaaaaaaaake her from cheek to throat to chest before settling in to an claw grip on the Courtier’s modest bust. “Yeah bytch, feel that?” Lyssa smile cracked through an otherwise pained grimace. “That says I squeeze harder than NNNNGHHH!”
Lemarchand didn’t mind the tit-for-tat, but she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to jam a quick Kneelift into the base of her opponent’s skull! Zahn’s head jolted forward at whiplash speed, her chin striking her breastbone hard enough to ‘clack’ teeth! Didn’t break either of her holds though, at least not until Lenore reared back and delivered her second knee in less than a minute. Lyssa’s hands fell away from their offensive positions to defend her head against more bludgeoning, which worked until Lenore traded her claws for cuffs, the Raven catching Zahn’s left wrist in her right hand and vice versa. Drawing Lyssa’s forearms tight under her own chin, Lemarchand set her knees against the other brunette’s back, then dropped to her butt and puuuuuuuuuulled back on the Straightjacket to bend the Social Media Sadist’s spine over her knees while simultaneously throttling her with the Straightjacket.
Feet planted in the pits of Lyssa’s knees, Lenore tugged her hold back ‘n forth, then cranked back to make her foe sputter and gasp. “Where’s the banter now, Lyssa?” she asked. “Or do you call it excuses when you’re getting your ass stret--”
“Keep your f*cking mouth shut.” Zahn grunted. “God knows how Allard tolerates you, I’ve had deeper conversations with an answering machNNNNNNNGGGGHHHH!”
Lemarchand shut down the sass by upping the pressure, the Fair & Radiant Maiden raising the Staightjacket to the trapped wrestler’s mouth and nose. “I’ve had enough of your shyt, honey. All you are is bluster and threats and neither is going to get you anything but beaten in here!”
Another sharp yank on those captured wrists earned groan from Lyssa and question from Al. “How you doing, Lys? Need me to call it?”
“NNNRRRRHHHH!” Zahn’s response was muffled, albeit undeniably negative.
“Don’t go far, Al.” Lenore told him. “She’ll submit as soon as she realizes she’s losing follo--”
Lyssa wrenched her right leg out from underneath which eased the pressure on her back a great deal. It also meant she could breathe a little easier in the Straightjacket so she didn’t have to gasp for air while she was fighting to one knee. Didn’t mean her return to verticality was easy by any means, quite the opposite actually. Even with both hands occupied Lenore managed to pile on the punishment by mashing Lyssa’s nose with her own forearms and regularly grinding the dagger of her chin into the exposed curve of the other brunette’s forehead.
“F*ckin’ let go.” Zahn snarled once she’d regained her feet without escaping the Straightjacket. “I said get your goddamned hands offa NGH! NGH! NGH! NNNRRRRHHHH!”
Lenore pumped half a dozen Kneelifts into Lyssa’s backside, a left-right-left combo that put her opponent on tiptoe until she put a knee into the small of her back and began to grrrrrrrrrrrind. “You’re gonna have to make me let go, Zahn.” Lemarchand told Lyssa as she continued to work the simple body-bending holds. “You could actually try to wrestle your way out. And if that doesn’t work you could take the quitter’s way--”
Lenore had to give up that posted knee to pull her plant foot away when Zahn tried to crush it beneath her heel! Angered by the failed escape attempt, Lemarchand planted her feet in a wide ‘V’ so she could yoke back on the straightjacket and yank her rival back ‘n forth in a near rag-dolling that continued until Lyssa lost her balance and collapsed to her knees. “Still trapped, sweetie.” Lenore chided the red-faced battler. “What’re you going to do now?”
“Grrrrrhhhh… gonna beat your scrawny ass into the OOOOOWWWWW!” The Fair & Radiant Maiden leaned down and chomped on her penitent pray’s forehead! Lyssa continued to yowl, but biting wasn’t against the (admittedly nebulous) rules of the Chambers, so the only thing Al said was, “How are you doing, Lyssa? Need me to call it?”
“Stick it up your ass, stretch!” Zahn yelped. “I’m never gonna AAARRRRHHH BYTCH!”
Lenore leaned in a little closer to bite the bridge of her opponent’s nose! Squirming and squealing as she tried to prize herself from the beak of the feasting Raven, Zahn finally jerked her head away only to snap a quick backward Headbutt into Lemarchand’s chin. Even that wasn’t enough to break the Straightjacket, but it allowed Lyssa to clamber to her feet and throw herself into a full speed backpedal, the Black Hat charging blindly until she THWHUMPED Lenore against a stretch of wall just to the right of the roaring fireplace.
The grips on her wrists finally loosened enough for Zahn to turn the tables on her foe, the TikTok Terror getting her arms out of her face so she could draw a few deep breaths while simultaneously driving her ass into the pit of Lemarchand’s stomach almost half a dozen times. Grinning as she felt the other brunette’s breath puff against the side of her neck, Zahn dug her nails into the undersides of Lenore’s wrists and continued to swipe and smash her glutes against that gulping belly. “This is where is starts, Lenny.” Lyssa growled. “I’m gonna smash you into, off of, and through every piece of tacky furniture in this plaARRRHHH!”
Lenore made Lyssa pay for the proximity and the presumption by biting down on soft flesh between the base of her foe’s neck and right shoulder! Zahn lurched away from the wall, threw herself backward, then repeated the process two more times. That got the teeth out of her neck but she stomped out one more time and went up on tiptoe before dropping to one knee to flip Lemarchand over her shoulder and onto her butt with a heavy THWHUMP! Lenore grimaced, put a hand to her tailbone and would’ve twisted to one knee if Lyssa hadn’t snatched a handful of hair and pulled hard enough to bring tears to the Courtier’s eyes.
“Not going anywhere yet, bytch.” Zahn wrenched Lenore’s head from side to side to keep her grounded. “Not until…” Planted on her left foot, Lyssa drew her right leg waaaaaaaaay back and thum-thum-THUMPED a trio of Soccer Kicks into the curve of the other brunette’s spine!
“RRRRRGGGGGHHH!” Lenore’s hands flew up and crooked into claws that didn’t settle on anything until she clamped onto Zahn’s forearms when the Tweeting Tyrant went to haul her up with a double handful of hair. Lyssa answered the grip with a Kneelift smashed into Lemarchand’s tailbone, then did it half a dozen more times because she liked the pained little ‘NGH’s’ coming from the other brunette.
“Lookin’ a little bowlegged, beeyotch.” Zahn taunted when Lenore tried to stumble her way outta kneein’ range. “You need to sit down for a second, catch your breath? Here, this one’s got your name on it.”
Switching from the hair-hold to a grip on the other brunette’s waistband, Lyssa reeled Lenore in close and dipped her head to wedge it beneath Lemarchand’s left arm. Snaking her right arm around the Raven’s waist while the left braced against the back of her left thigh, Zahn muscled Lenore onto the ball of her shoulder, then stomped up behind one of the overstuffed couches and THA-WHUMPED her down in an Atomic Drop that left her seated astride the back of the couch!
“Nnnnnnggggghhhh!” Lemarchand slumped forward, her hands braced against the top of the-- “AAAAHHHH BYTCH!” she straightened up with back arched and chest thrust forward because Lyssa raaaaaaaaaked her back from shoulders to buttocks!
“That’s no way to speak to the incoming Queen of the Madhouse, slut.” Zahn CLAPPED Lemarchand’s stinging back as repayment for the sass, then circled around and grabbed a handful of hair to haul her mostly upright. “This is the beginning of the end, asshole. The moment where I start to run away with NNNNGHHH!”
Lenore slapped her challenger across the mouth, Lyssa’s head flying back in a cloud of dark brown locks. “I don‘t think so, honey.” the Courtier huffed. “This is the moment you start to regret ever walking through my dooOOOFFFFFHHH!”
Zahn popped up in a high vertical leap and THWHAPPED her bare feet into Lenore’s face in a Dropkick that sent the other brunette tumbling to the carpeted floor! Back on her feet while Lemarchand tried to clear the cobwebs, Lyssa grabbed hold of the Raven’s wrists and cavewoman dragged her around to the short side of the couch. A single stomp to the belly left Lenore huffing and puffing long enough for the Tweetstormtrooper to clamber onto the couch. Placing one foot on the armrest, Lyssa took a moment to make sure the couch wasn’t gonna tip over on her. When it didn’t she boosted her way over the armrest and dropped into a full weight Zahn Bomb, every bit of her hundred and thirty-plus pounds THUMPING down on ass-first on her opponent’s chest!
Lemarchand’s legs popped up without disrupting Lyssa’s seat, in fact the TikTok Terror set her elbows on her knees and told Carpenter, “Ask her. Bytch sounds finished.”
“What do you say, Lenore? Need to call it a night?”
Lenore didn’t answer the official, instead she put her hands to Zahn’s encroaching haunches and shoved her away on what would’ve been a solid ‘TWO!’ count. “Guuuhhh…get your sloppy ass off meMMMRRRPPPHHH!”
Lenore’s demand was interrupted by an Iron Claw grip that covered the whole of her face! Lyssa could and did bounce the base of her rival’s noggin against the floor three or four times, but the principal reason for this mug squeezin’ was to haul Lenore to her feet for more punishment. A couple Kneelifts to the midsection kept Lemarchand from mustering any offense of her own or even creating any separation until Zahn switched over to a two-handed Wristlock and slung her toward the sidewall of the staircase. Cringing at the inevitable collision, Lenore twisted around in a half circle and THUNKED against the well polished wo--“OOOOOFFFFFHH!”
Lyssa crowded the Madhouse Queen’s suffering with an Avalanche Splash that buckled Lemarchand’s knees. Didn’t mean she hit the floor though, as Zahn wasn’t about to allow such laziness in her prey. Catching hold of the other brunette’s wrists, Lyssa tugged them up overhead and pinned ‘em together with one hand so she could crook her other arm into a ‘V’ and thwhap-thwhap-THWHAP several heavy Forearm Smashes into Lemarchand’s pert bust. “You’re not gonna quit on me are you, Len?” Zahn leaned all her weight into that grinding forearm so she could keep the Courtier huffing and puffing. “I mean the tour’s not over, right? You haven’t even shown me the upstairs, yeNNNGGGHH!”
Lenore showed her a Headbutt instead, the short strike catching Zahn between the eyes. Lyssa reeled in place and pulled her forearm away to press that hand to her aching face, meaning there was only one hand keeping Lemarchand’s wrists in “OOFFHH-RRGGHH!” A sharp Kneelift to Zahn’s navel freed Lenore’s hands, which she promptly flattened into paddles and clapped behind Lyssa’s head to SMACK her forearms against the Tweeting Tyrant’s ears! Now Lyssa did stumble away, or at least started to. She made it all of two steps before Lenore caught her by the nape of the neck and yanked her forward while simultaneously twisting to one side so Zahn bounced into the wall face-first!
“You think you’re ready for the second floor?” Lemarchand snuggled in from behind Zahn and trapped her arms overhead in Full Nelson that let her scraaaaaaaaape the challenger’s face and chest against the well-polished hardwood. “I’m not sure you can handle it, sweetness. That’s where things get really scarAAAHHHH GAWD!”
Lyssa couldn’t push clear of the wall with Lenore trying to mash her into the décor so she lashed her right leg back and up in a low blow that THWHUMPED her heel into the bendy-back’s undercarriage! Wrestling free of Lemarchand’s grip, Zahn spun ‘round behind her opponent and wrenched her left arm behind her back in a quick Chickenwing, then hooked her right arm around Lenore’s neck and clasped her hands so they were pressed tight against the Raven’s left cheek.
With Lemarchand’s legs weakened by her shot below the belt, Lyssa pulled her away from the wall, then lunged in once, twice, three times, each progressive impact earning a louder ‘OOOOFFFHH!’ from the Fair & Radiant Maiden. “Yeah, I think I’m ready, are you?” Zahn cooed in her foe’s right ear. “Seems like you’re feeling a little weak in the knees. Or maybe you’re just slowed down by that sagging ass?”
“Huuuhhh… who are you talking to?” Lenore grimaced. “You got an ass like a garbage bag filled with puddNGH! NGH! NGH! NNNGGGGHH!”
The Social Media Sadist tenderized Lemarchand’s haunches with a whole flurry of Kneelifts before peeling her away from the wall with a convulsive yank. “Ask her! Ask the whiny bytch!” Zahn barked at Carpenter even as she marched the struggling brunette toward the foot of the stairs.
“What do you say, Lenore? Hanging in there? Need to call it--”
“No.” Lenore grunted. “ She wants to see the Queen’s Chambers, she’s gonna see the Queen’s HHGGGGHH!”
Lyssa bounced Lemarchand’s forehead against a newel post carved to look like a nymph, then bent her over and forced her cheek against the banister to ensure a real painful shriek-squeak combination when Zahn started marching ‘em both up the stairs. “Who’s the Queen of this place? Who is she, Lenore? Say her f*cking name!”
“You KNOW my name, Melissa.” Lemarchand hissed. “And we both know you’ll never forget it because you’ll never BEAT AAARRRRGGGGGGHHH!”
Lyssa bounced her head harder than before, then leaned in with all her weight as she continued to draaaaaag Lenore’s wailing face up the banister. “That’s right bytch, SCREAM! Scream for the next Queen of the MadhouOOOHHHH BYTCH!”
Their awkward progression up the stairs made a retaliatory Mule Kick impossible, so Emily’s Lady in Waiting settled for stamping a heel down on her attacker’s toes! Lyssa forgot all about the Chickenwing in favor of protecting her feet against more punishment, the Tweeting Tyrant staggering back and up as she lurched her way toward the second floor landing.
Elsewhere, Lenore rounded on Zahn and started after her, the Courtier reaching for the hobbling brunette with crooked claws. “Back off, bytch.” Lyssa grabbed at Lemarchand’s wrists to keep those damned talons from away from her hair and face. “I said back OFFOOOWWW!”
Lenore stamped Lyssa’s toes again and would’ve done it a third time if New Yorker hadn’t lost her balance and ‘thumped’ to her butt! “Yesterday on the stairs, I met a bytch who wasn’t there.” Lemarchand murmured as she dropped a knee in the center of Zahn’s gulping belly. “She wasn’t there again today,” Lenore leaned in to force more breath from Lyssa’s lungs with that gouging knee, then grabbed a massive double handful of hair and used it to drive her face into a pair of balusters, “oh how I wish she’d go away.”
“AAAARRRRRHHH F*CKING PSYCHO, LEGGO OF ME!” Zahn wailed to high heaven as Lemarchand tried to force her skull between the unyielding balusters.
Lenore slipped a hand between those narrow supports, hooked that hand around behind one to snatch hold of Lyssa’s battle damp locks. Pulling hard enough to bounce the crown of Lyssa’s noggin again, Lemarchand wrapped her opponent’s hair around that baluster a couple of times, then bore down on her plant knee and leaaaaaaaaaaaaaned back like she meant to take Zahn’s scalp! “Isn’t this what you wanted, Melissa?” Lenore continued to pull even as the Social Media Sadist raked bright red furrows in her forearms. “Didn’t you want to see EVERYTHING the Chambers have to offer?!”
“Whhuuuu…why don’t you show me where you put the trash.” Lyssa reached for Lenore’s face, couldn’t grab it and settled for a white-knuckled grip on her left breast. “Because that’s where you’re going to end the FAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
Unwilling to cede any ground in this increasingly catty encounter, Lenore pulled a hand away from Zahn’s hair so she could test Lyssa’s mettle with a malevolent nipple pincer. “You gonna quit on me, honey? I’ve never had a challenger quit on the stairs, that would make you were actually first at something for once in your lazy, self-entitled lirrrgggggghhhh!”
Zahn narrowed her focus to an answering pincer and for several seconds the rivals remained silent, neither willing to drop her eyes or ease her tweak while-CRACK!
Lenore broke her grip to slap Lyssa’s mouth, then mashed her cheeks together for a short fish-facing before she went right back to the rack ravaging clamp. “Nnnnnngggggghhhhh bytch.” Zahn had one hand cupped under Lemarchand’s chin and another tugging at the Raven’s wrist in a tacit admission of defeat in this contest of terrible tweaking. “Get off of my f*cking titSRGH!”
Lenore used the hair-hold to bang Lyssa’s head against the baluster one more time, then doubled down on the Breast Claw. “Quit?” Lemarchand’s lips barely moved for the one word question. Zahn went back to her counter-grip but the deficit was such that she could do little more than squeeze while the Raven continued to maul. Even so, she managed to snarl, “Not on your f*cking lifAAAAAAWWWWWW GAAAAAAWD LEGGO DAMMNNGHH!”
Lenore released the claws, swiveled Lyssa’s head with a savage slap, then THUMPED a knee into her belly to keep the other brunette under control when she finally stood up and forced Zahn to turn over onto all fours. With Lyssa transformed from vixen to victim by her time on the stairs, Lemarchand strutted her way to the second floor with Zahn trailing a few steps behind. Welcoming the TikTok Terror into a Standing Headscissors, Lenore gave the hold a long squeeze, then curled her hands and raaaaaaaaaaked her rival’s buttocks from bottom to top no less than half a dozen times!
Teeth gnashing as she endured that ten-tined torment, Zahn cupped Lemarchand’s calves and dug in hard enough to make the breath hitch in her opponent’s throat. “You vile piece of trash.” Lyssa growled. “I’m gonna paint these walls with your OOOOWWWW F*CK!”
More than happy to pour it on when she held the high ground, Lenore slipped her fingers into the leg-holes of Lyssa’s bottoms and yanked ‘em in a wedgie that transformed them from brief to downright scant! “Take a look around if you can, tuff girl.” the Raven snapped. “This isn’t some Reddit forum where you can just run your mouth with no repercussions. This is the Queen’s Chambers, and in here your words mattOOFFFHH!”
Zahn slid her hands south from calves to ankles and yanked Lenore’s stems out from underneath with a Double Leg Takedown that THUMPED her down flat on her back! “What were you saying, words matter here?” the Black Hat hissed in the midst of prizing her rival’s legs into a wide ‘V’. “Then here’s a few to take to heart. Eat shyt and die, Lenore.”
Lyssa raised her right foot and brought it down in a stomp that would’ve smashed the Courtier’s groin if Lemarchand hadn’t hunched forward and caught the other brunette’s ankle in both hands. “Eat shyt and live, Lyssa.” The words were barely out of Lenore’s mouth when she shifted her grip and jabbed both thumbs into the sole of Zahn’s floating foot!
“GAAAHHHH DAMMIT!” Lyssa released Lemarchand’s ankles so she could grab onto the banister and wrest her stinging foot loose. She accomplished the deed without losing her balance, but the effort left her doubled over in close proximity to the Fair & Radiant Maiden, an arrangement that cost her dearly when Lenore stuffed both feet into Zahn’s tummy and sent her tumbling overhead with an impromptu Monkey Flip!
Lyssa landed flat on the carpet, then rolled onto her stomach and clambered to one knee as Lenore did the same a short distance away. “I cannot WAIT for the next Archive episode.” Zahn hissed as she gingerly adjusted her distended bottoms. “Allard may be a geek, but he knows how to ask the right questions even when he doesn’t want to know the answer. And I plan to go into GREAT detail about how I tore your ass--”
“Tell him how it felt when I slapped you at will.” Lemarchand interrupted. “And go into detail about how you couldn’t defend your tits back there on the stairs.”
Eyes narrowed to black slots, Lyssa got to her feet and bade Lenore join her. When she had, the Social Media Sadist murmured, “You’ve f*cked with me for the last time.”
“You started it, Melissa.” Lenore’s answer was just as soft, just as pitiless. “You’re an obnoxious, preening shyt-heel of a bully and it’s not my fault that you’re too proud to admit when you’re so badly outclas--”
CRAAACK! Zahn slapped Lemarchand’s face hard enough to raise a welt and earn immediate cheek-warming retaliation from the Raven. “You think you’re better than me?” Lyssa asked after the exchange of Bytch Slaps. “Prove it.”
“Gladly.”
Lenore came in high only to go low at the last second, Emily’s Lady in Waiting DRIVING the ball of her right shoulder into the pit of Zahn’s midriff to fold her over as they both barreled down the narrow hallway to the left of the main stairs. Resisting a strong urge to drive a fist into Lemarchand’s ribs over and over and over again, Lyssa crooked that arm around Lenore’s head and bore down while simultaneously throwing one leg backward to plant like a kickstand. Grinding to a halt a few steps later, Zahn yoked up on the Front Facelock, then slung the other brunette’s near arm across her shoulders and grabbed hold of her waistband. Hooks set, she dipped her knees and popped her hips to take the Raven up, over and down with a THWHUMPING Vertical Suplex!
The narrowness of the hall didn’t allow Zahn to kick her legs up for a proper roll through so instead she floated over into a Crossbody, then scrambled into a mount and grabbed a handful of hair so she could fire a whole lotta short punches into the Courtier’s forehead! Lenore groaned with each and every impact, though she managed to establish a guard quite a bit sooner than Lyssa would’ve liked. To that end the Black Hat grabbed hold of the other brunette’s wrists and prized her forearms apart just to bash them against the carpet no less than half a dozen times. Even then Lemarchand refused to stay defenseless, bringing her legs up one after the other to drive her knees into the curve of Zahn’s lower ba--“HUUUFFFFHH!”
Lyssa went up high on her knees and dropped down just as suddenly for a miniature but no less effective Zahn Bomb to the pit of her foe’s stomach. These usually came in sets of four, (one from each point of the compass rose) and this proved no exception at least in terms of quantity. In no mood to bother with standing, let alone turning one way or the other, Lyssa delivered her second pulverizing payload to Lemarchand’s tummy, then scooted north and delivered two more to the vulnerable slopes of the Raven’s décolletage. Still holding onto Lenore’s wrists, Zahn slid higher still until her shins were heavily astride Lemarchand’s biceps and the fork of her crotch was snug to the point of her chin.
“Finally got you right where you belong.” the Tweeting Tyrant rolled her hips to make sure Lenore knew her place.
“Doesn’t mean you can keep me here for--” the bendy-back kicked both legs up to get them under Zahn’s arms, but Lyssa pressed her thighs together and leaned forward, her forehead touching the carpet to deftly avoid one attack while dishing out another!
“Don’t think I’m gonna finish you in the middle of this hallway.” Lyssa exclaimed as she continued to swish back ‘n forth against her rival’s protesting features. “No, no, no, you don’t get off that easy, loser. This is just to wear you out, make sure you’re breathing’s nice and labored before I march us through that door down there. Sounds like a carnivOOOWWWW DAMMIT!”
Lenore planted her feet and bridged up, it didn’t free her from the smother, but it did shift Lyssa’s mount to the point that she could sink her teeth into the other brunette’s inner thigh! Zahn scrambled to her feet with Lemarchand only a couple steps behind, yet it was plenty of time for Lyssa to line up, then PWAK a quick Back Kick into the pit of Lenore’s already fluttery stomach.
“C’mon bytch, if you don’t want to tussle on the carpet we can always go exploring!”
Twisting around so she could snag Lenore’s noggin in a Side Headlock, Zahn dragged Lenore’s cheek across her hip, then spun in a wide circle that drove the Raven’s right hip and leg against the wall with a meaty SMACK! Zahn paid this no mind however, the whole of her focus was the door she’d mentioned earlier, an ornate wooden affair showing a trace of warm yellow light beneath and… “Carnival music, I f*cking knew it.” she yoked up on the Headlock, swerved to the right and THWHUMPED Lemarchand against the elegant wallpaper while simultaneously draaaaaaaaaaaaagging her toward that out of place calliope.
“So what the hell is this supposed to be, Lenny?” Lyssa was a guest in the Madhouse, she could’ve gone in unannounced, yet she chose to announce their arrival by BWONKING the crown of Lemarchand’s skull against the door. “I’ve watched all the tape for this damned place, the master bedroom should be right through here, so what’s with the NNRRRRGGGHHH!”
Lenore stamped on Lyssa’s foot and ground away until she could free her head from the New Yorker’s brawny grasp. Stuffing a shoulder into Zahn’s back, Lemarchand plowed forward to drive her adversary’s face, chest and belly into the door and kept right on grinding. “Luuuhhh…love it when idiots strut in her talking about how they’re going to remodel this place, how they’ve got it all mapped out.” she huffed in Lyssa’s ear. The chambers change all the time. One year this was the bedroom, once it was an extension of the library. This year, well, let’s see.”
Doubling Zahn over with a Headlock of her own, Lemarchand turned the knob, then hip checked the door open and walked through to reveal… a carnival midway, just like Lyssa had suspected. Not a whole carnival mind you, but the midway was all here with half a dozen games on either side of a wide grassy (what the hell?) aisle that led off to what was presumably a painted backdrop of a circus tent, Ferris Wheel and roller coaster.
Genuinely amazed by what the FAWN techs did inside this place year after year, Lemarchand grabbed a handful of the other brunette’s hair and pulled until Zahn whined and stamped her feet against the last six or so inches of carpet. “Check it out Lys, they’ve got Whac-A-Mole.” the Fair & Radiant Maiden chirped as she set off toward the collection of booths.
As flummoxed as Lenore by the presence of grass beneath her feet, Zahn continued to pound at her foe’s lower back and tummy while occasionally raking a thigh just because it was within reach. Didn’t get her out of the Headlock though, in fact her predicament grew that much worse when Lenore got fed up with the scratching and pumped a trio of Kneelifts into the New Yorker’s belly.
“Fine, you don’t want to play Whac-A-Mole?” Lenore sniped. “Then let’s play a round of Plant-A-Bytch.” Emily’s Lady in Waiting took off at a good clip with Lyssa stumbling along in her wake, the tethered brunettes reaching the first of the games before Lemarchand sprang into the air and-- the TikTok Terror caught a Half Waistlock while her other hand cupped the back of Lenore’s thigh. Rearing back as hard as she could allowed Lyssa to muscle Lemarchand onto the point of her shoulder which meant the Raven was quite under control when Zahn pivoted around on one foot and laid out to THWHUMP Lenore on the back of her head and shoulders with a huge Backdrop Suplex!
Folding like a suitcase in the aftermath of the brutal landing, Lemarchand came to a rest stretched out facedown while Lyssa sat up and took in her surroundings with wide, incredulous eyes. “How the f*ck…” Zahn cast a glance overhead and eventually confirmed the ‘stars’ were simply LED’s but it took far longer than she cared to admit. A groan from beside and a whistle from behind earned Lenore a claw buried in her hair and Al Carpenter a glance of annoyance that might’ve been tinged with relief.
“Still got my phone in your fanny-pack, Carpenter?” Lyssa chided as she doubled down on the hair-hold to get the both of ’em back on their feet.
“If by ’fanny pack’ you mean ’pocket’, then yes I do.” the official replied. “Really Lyssa, just because it’s AHE doesn’t mean you have to be hurtf--”
“Hey, they DO have Whac-A-Mole!” Whereas Lenore led with a Headlock, Zahn settled for a grabbing the scruff of her foe’s neck, thus ensuring both ladies were moving full speed ahead when Lyssa hit the brakes and BWANGED Lemarchand’s forehead against the score panel of Whac-A-Mole. Lenore sagged and collapsed to her knees only to get hauled up set atop the bottom panel. “I have no f*cking clue why there’s a midway on the second floor.” Zahn admitted as she helped herself to the oversized mallet hanging beside the game. “But I know exactly how I’m going to kick your ass across every inch of it.”
“Guuuuhhhh…give it your best OOOFFFFHH! OOOFFFFHH! NNNNNGGGHH!”
Lyssa did that and then some with a pair of shots to Lenore’s tummy followed by a forehand smash across her chest and a backhand that threatened to slop her from the cabinet entirely. But Zahn hadn’t hit a high score yet so she braced one hand against Lemarchand’s sternum to ensure she remained seated through no less than ten mallet shots THWHUMPED between her eyes! She finished the terrible Talpidae-inspired trouncing with a gaudy bop to the base of the skull that dropped Lenore from the cabinet to her hands and knees.
For a moment it looked like Lyssa would continue the bludgeoning, but then something across the midway caught her eye. “Hey, the Duck Pond! Can we go check that out? Hey, listen to me, asking like you’ve got a f*cking choice. C’mon bytch,” she bopped Lemarchand’s butt with the mole mallet, then tossed it aside so she could catch a handful of hair, “we’re gonna go look at the ducks.”
Lenore didn’t respond with the proper enthusiasm, so Zahn doubled down on the hair-hold and powered her to verticality just to smash a broadside Kneelift across her tummy. With the Courtier huffing and puffing, Lyssa strut-marched ‘em across the grassy aisle to the Duck Pond booth and promptly bounced Lenore’s forehead against the wooden edge before dunking her head into the depths of the shallow pool!
“You know what you’ve got in common with this game, Lenny?” Zahn’s tone remained calm though everything else about her posture and body language was taut with the effort of keeping the thrashing Raven submerged. “You’re both f*cking lamOOFFFHH!”
Lenore couldn’t get her head out of the water but she could drive an elbow into the New Yorker’s gut and that’s exactly what she did, once, twice, three times! The grip on her neck got loose so Lemarchand ripped her way out of the water and greeted Lyssa with a Back Elbow to the chin that sent Zahn rocking back on her heels. Resting against the lip of the pond, Lenore reached in, grabbed one of the plastic ducks without looking and flung it at her opponent. It hit Lyssa in the chest with a soft ‘pwak!’ that couldn’t have hurt despite the look of ferocious incredulity that blossomed on the Tweeting Tyrant’s face.
“Why’d ya hit me with a duck, assNGH!” Lenore pegged her with a second one that struck flush on the forehead!
“Hey, did that one have a star on it?” Lemarchand huffed. “I want to make sure you have a nice consolation prize for almost becoming Queen of the MadhouEERRRGHH!”
Lyssa rushed in and lowered her shoulder to drive Lenore back against the unforgiving edge of the counter. The force didn’t drive either wrestler into the pond proper, it did however create a miniature tidal wave that swept to the far end and back again before soaking both brunettes from the midriff on down. The resultant surprise threw Lenore off balance long enough for Zahn to jab a thumb into her eye, then snatch a Headlock and drag her over to the next booth. “Oooohhhh, dart toss!” Lyssa bounced Lenore’s head off the counter a few times before she turned her around and bent her backward across the pitted surface.
“Popping your skull like a balloon is a bit more permanent than I prefer,” Zahn admitted as she kept Lemarchand glued in place with forearm across the chest while she grabbed one of the darts from a nearby cup, “But that doesn’t mean I won’t have a little fun using your snotty face as a bullsRRRRGGGHHH!”
Lenore couldn’t squirm free of the Social Media Sadist’s grasp, so she flattened her hands into paddles and boxed Zahn’s ears as hard as she could! Lyssa reared back, hands flying to the sides of her head as she tried to muffle the raucous ringing. With Zahn otherwise occupied, Lenore snatched up a few darts in one hand, buried the other in Lyssa’s hair and jabbed / gouged ’em into her rival’s forehead!
Lyssa went down like a felled tree, the TikTok Terror oddly quiet as she dazedly wiped at the rill of blood running down the bridge of her nose. “Bytch, you don’t know what you’ve f*cking done.” she groaned. “Sticking me with darts, hitting me with f*cking ducks? You won’t live to see the sun come OOOFFFHH!”
Lenore Lemarchand was no one’s idea of a heavyweight, but that didn’t stop her from Splashing down full force on Zahn’s gulping midsection! The heavy belly on belly bludgeoning brought a smile to Lenore’s face, but that didn’t mean she was satisfied with a single serving of Splash. Indeed, she pressed her palms to the grass, rose up and dropped down, rose up and dropped down, rose up and dropped down the bendy-backed Raven proving she could pile on Destroyer class punishment when properly motivated.
Rearing back on her haunches with a heavy sigh, Lemarchand tucked some loose hair behind her ears, then raised both hands overhead and CRAAACKED them down on Zahn’s tummy with a Double Slap that curled the Social Media Sadist into a near fetal ball. “What’re you going to do to me, Melissa?” Lenore rasped. “You trailed off there at the end.”
“Yuhhhh… you’ll find out soon enough.” Lyssa pressed her forehead and palms to the ground, forced herself to all fours with an audible groan. “You’re never gonna see the inside of this place agOOOOFFFFFHHH!”
Lemarchand got up, stepped away, then swooped in and THWHUMPED a Soccer Kick into the pit of Lyssa’s roiling stomach! Well and truly gut-shot, Zahn rolled a little beyond the center of the midway where she came to a stop on her back with both arms draped across her aching abdomen. “Give up!” the Fair & Radiant Maiden demanded as she stomped over to her challenger and stamped a heel down on her navel. “I mean it, Melissa! Tap out before it gets worse!”
“F*ck you!” Lyssa slapped the Courtier’s leg away and pushed to a near-seat but couldn’t muster anything in defense save for one extended hand. “You wanna win? You’re gonna have to get a stoppage from the ref, which you won’t because that asshole knows I’ll DESTROY his life if he NGGHHOOOOFFFFH!”
Lenore smashed right through Lyssa’s guard with a Low Kick that knocked the seated brunette flat once again. Twisted around so her back was to the Black Hat, Lemarchand sank into a deep crouch and launched herself skyward, Emily’s Lady in Waiting soaring through a gorgeous Standing Moonsault that dropped her hundred and thirty-plus pounds atop Zahn’s increasingly nauseated tummy.
Burying both hands in Lyssa’s hair even as she got to her knees, Lenore yanked her rival up so she could hiss in her ear. “Just keep telling me what I’ll never do, Lyssa. Because I love clearing a high bar. Come on, let’s hear it.”
Lyssa’s answer was a round of nigh unintelligible cursing, so Lenore turned the hair-hold into a Side Headlock that kept her in firm control of the other brunette’s noggin while she returned the both of ‘em to verticality. “Been playing a lot of games at my expense, Melissa.” Lemarchand admitted as she pointed herself at the far side of the Midway. “Let’s see how you fare when--” Lenore left the end of her thought a mystery as she broke into a run that took both wrestlers across the grass on a sharp diagonal that ended with the crown of Zahn’s skull THUNKING against the narrow edge of the counter of the ‘Plate Break!’ booth.
Lyssa shuddered from stem to stern but didn’t drop to her butt when Lemarchand relinquished the Headlock, instead she rose to her full height and stumbled away with both hands pressed to her throbbing noggin. Lenore noted this only vaguely, as she’d turned away from Zahn to help herself to one of the old fashioned white dinner plates from atop the pile on the counter. “What’s the matter, Melissa? Eyes bigger than your stomach?”
“Whuuuhhh… what’s the matter, Lenore? Mouth bigger than your UUUGGHH!”
The Raven hurled the plate like a Frisbee and couldn’t help laughing when it hit Zahn in the stomach with a loud PWAK! Lyssa staggered, looked at the plate in confusion, then lifted her head and snarled, “Plates? Who the f*ck do you think you--” The Tweeting Tyrant got her arms up fast to swat down the plate Lemarchand whipped at her chest. “Miserable bytch, I swear I’ll--”
CRASH!
No throwing the third plate, Lenore stepped in and brought it down two handed to shatter on Lyssa’s forehead! Zahn swung around and toppled to the grass with both arms swaddling her skull. “Hope you’ve enjoyed your time in the Queen’s Chambers, Melissa.” Lemarchand muttered in the midst of brushing some plate fragments from her palms. “Help yourself a to-go plate, on me.”
The answering silence allowed the Courtier more than enough time to ‘flick’ her briefs into place, smooth down her hair and circle ‘round into the perfect position to draw the woozy brunette into a Standing Headscissors. Rather than claim a basic Waistlock, Lenore leaned over and reached through Zahn’s parted stems to claim a wrist in each hand. These she pulled back through Lyssa’s thighs in a Double Pumphandle that earned a raucous cheer from the Basement Dwellers a few levels above. Drawing in a deep breath even as she tugged Zahn’s forearms into her undercarriage, Lemarchand bent down, then yanked up to lift / spin the TikTok Terror onto her shoulders for-- there was a THWUNK followed by a startled “NNNNNGGGGGHHH!” from Lenore as she was stricken from behind!
Caught flatfooted by the blindside assault, Lenore dropped to all fours which inadvertently PLANTED Zahn on the back of her head and shoulders instead of flat on her face, as the Raven had intended. Either way both brunettes were left sprawled on the grass with Al Carpenter standing on one side and the interloper on the other. Already startled by the intrusion, Al’s attention was drawn to the newcomer’s oversized mallet, one she’d presumably cadged from the Test of Strength tower at the far end of the Midway. It wasn’t until she raised it overhead that the zebra shook clear of his stupor and asked, “Elise? What the hell, how did you--”
ELISE WINTERREST
“Get in here?” Miss Murder interrupted. “Really Carpenter, I was hoping your first question would be something interesting like, what are you going to do with that mallet?”
“Umh, what ARE you going to do with that JESUS!”
Winterrest THWHUMPED her weapon into the pit of Lenore’s stomach to draw the Courtier into an agonized ball in a single stroke. “Put that damned thing down, Elise!” Al barked, “You’ve gone too OOOFFFHHHH!”
Elise jabbed the handle into Carpenter’s sternum, dropping him to one knee. With the official dispatched, the Icy Manipulator kicked Lenore onto her back and planted a foot on her fluttering chest. “Did you think we were finished, little bird?” she hissed. “Did you think I’d allow you to inflict such a… a desecration without extracting my pound of flesh?”
“Buuuuhhhh…buhhhh…bytch.” Lemarchand moaned. “This wasn’t your fighRRRRRGGGGGGHHH!”
Elise brought the mallet down on Lenore’s stomach again, albeit broadside. Pleased by the nauseated spasm that wracked her nemesis’s body, Winterrest raised her weapon a third time only to pause when she heard a voice grunt, “Don’t even think about it, f*ck face. I did the heavy lifting, that means the kill is miNNNNNGGGGGGGHHH!”
The Icy Manipulator whipped around and drove the broadside of the mallet’s head into Zahn’s chest, then hefted it overhead and THWHUMPED it down between her shoulders when the Black Hat rolled onto her stomach! Lyssa sobbed in anguish, started to crawl away and got her face stomped into the grass for her efforts. “The little bird is MINE.” Elise hissed through clenched teeth before she returned her attention to the retching Raven.
Spinning the mallet around in her hands, she stalked over to Lemarchand and planted a foot on her shoulder. From there she wedged the end of the handle into Lenore’s throat and puuuuuuuussssshed down with all her considerable spite. “BEG MY FORGIVENESS!” Miss Murder screamed. “AS LOUD AS YOU CAN, TWAT! BEG MY FOREGIVENESS!”
Lenore heard this without actually hearing it, as all her attention was focused on getting the goddamned handle away from her neck. Clutching it with both hands she pushed as hard as she could, but she was exhausted and her position was terrible. “GUUUHHHRRRRHHHHK… AAARRRRRRRRK… HHHHRRRGGGHH!” She tried to kick at Winterrest, a valiant, ultimately doomed effort that only earned a hateful smile from her tormenter.
“BEG, I SAID!” Elise shrieked like a woman possessed. “Oh, don’t think THAT little act of contrition is going to save you.”
Lenore reached out with one hand and frantically slapped at the grass, the Raven hoping that someone, anyone, would see it and pull Winterrest away.
Alas, it did not.
“Mere submission is no longer an option, little bird.” Elise explained. “I am your own personal Montresor and thus you will BEG ME LIKE YOU BLOODY WELL MEAN--”
The unearthly groan that’d started the match sounded all around them and was immediately followed by the traditional clattering ring bell, the FAWN brass suitably concerned to break with AHE tradition. Looking around in startled disgust, Winterrest honed in on the lone cameraman just as the Announcer broke in to proclaim, “Ladies and gentlemen, this match has been--”
Elise pounced on the cameraman, grabbing the rig in one hand so she could hold it steady on her furious face. “Don’t you do it, don’t you f*cking dare. There is only one Queen in this asylum and if I don’t hear her name echoing in the rafters in the next five seconds I PROMISE that I will make a ruin of both of these pretenders. Do I make myself clear?”
The silence spun out long enough to make Elise heft the mallet onto one shoulder. She was in the process of honing in on Lenore when the Announcer called, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via submission… and the NEW Queen of the Madhouse, ELISE WINTERREST!”
Breaking into a beatific smile at this proclamation, Elise tossed the mallet down and stretched her arms wide to better bask in the shock and disgust of the AHE crowd. “I’ve taken her pride and now I’ve taken her house.” Winterrest said of the red-faced semiconscious brunette sprawled helplessly in the background. “Last but not least, I take her career. And heaven help any insolent trash,” she paused to spare a glance in Lyssa’s direction, “that tries to keep me from my prey.”
The descent is longer than you think. Much longer.
The camera bobbled in place so the viewers could read and contemplate the sign, which most were still doing when the door shut with a loud groan and the elevator chugged down, down, down, nearly a full minute of down before rattling to a stop. The camera wasted no time escaping the narrow confines and despite coming out in the grimiest hallway yet, it showed no hesitation in blazing a trail. Half a dozen more turns followed and then the journey ended in front of a door with a brass panel that read:
Nevermore
Brave, foolish or some combination thereof, the camera barged its way through in search of an audience with the lady, or rather, the Queen, of the Madhouse.
As luxurious as the name would indicate, the ‘Queen’s Chambers’ were large enough to include a second floor that was reached by means of a wide staircase at the center of the room. The paneling was all dark wood, the carpet was deep midnight blue pile featuring thin sworls of gray, green and purple. The décor was simultaneously elegant and ominous. To the left of the staircase were several shelves full of antique books and dozens of small object d’art. Lining the walls were a number of paintings, most of them bleak autumnal or winter landscapes, though there were a few inconspicuous depictions of famous FAWN violence, most of it seeming to favor the exploits of the Black Court and a certain Raven in particular. To the right of the staircase laid a relatively warmer area with a large glassed in fireplace ringed by a few overstuffed couches. Another interesting detail on this side of the room was a curious set of double doors, which seemed to vibrate and tremble in their frames if you watched them long enough. For a moment it looked like the camera might go exploring, but was distracted by the arrival of one Al Carpenter. Resigned to another year of overseeing one of FAWN’s most, ahem, unique, matches, the perpetually put-upon zebra offered the camera a discrete nod to let the brass know he was as ready as he’d ever be.
From somewhere deep in the recesses of Harrenhal, the disembodied voice of the Announcer called, “Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is scheduled for one fall and the winner will be crowned Queen of the Madhouse until All Hallows Evil 2021! Introducing first, representing the Black Court, hailing from Glen Echo, Michigan, she stands five feet seven inches tall and weighs in at one hundred and thirty one pounds, she is the reigning and defending Queen of the Madhouse, I give to you the Fair & Radiant Maiden, LENORE LEMARCHAND!”
A door on the second floor swung open and Lenore appeared from the gloom at the top of the stairs. Eschewing the robe favored by the previous owner, Lenore arrived to meet this year’s challenger in nothing but her battle attire, a strappy bra and equally sturdy briefs both in a dark, royal purple. Temporarily alone save for Al, the Raven padded her way down the steps to take up a position beside the zebra.
LENORE LEMARCHAND:
“Drew the short straw again, huh Al?” Lemarchand asked with a small smile.
“They’re not even subtle about it anymore.” was his deadpan reply. “Merle won’t go anywhere beyond the basement and Craig always claims claustrophobia. Reggie said he would, but the office put me on it because I,” he raised his hands for air quotes around the next two words, “sort of, know my way around this place.”
“Then you’re doing better than me.” Lenore admitted. “I swear the rooms in this place change every--”
The entry doors swung open and Lemarchand’s opposition didn’t so much stride in as she did sweep through like a chill wind. Clad in a sleek black set of matching bra and panties (the latter edged with festive orange trim at legs and waist) the tawny brunette stunner strolled to within five feet of the lady of the house without actually setting eyes on her, the visitor choosing to appraise her surroundings instead. Eventually her eyes went to Lenore and she smiled. “Weird place you’ve got here, Len. Bit of a fixer-upper, but I like challenging projects. Now, where are my keys?”
Lenore opened her mouth to answer, then shut it when the Announcer interrupted with, “And introducing her opponent, hailing from Fox River, New York... she stands five feet six inches tall and weighs in this evening at one hundred and thirty pounds. She’s the Pintrest Pin-Up, the TikTok Terror and a Black Hat extraordinaire, this is LYSSA ZAHN!”
LYSSA ZAHNl
Lyssa didn’t offer up a pose for the absentee crowd, she did however stretch her arms wide and step that much closer to Lenore, the Social Media Sadist brazenly daring the Raven to enter her personal space. Lemarchand obliged her at once, the pair of longtime rivals going nose to nose for a round of soft spoken trash-talk before Carpenter prized them apart for a last minute description of the admittedly nebulous house rules.
With no need of the traditional pre-match inspections, Al Carpenter tossed a discrete signal to the producers in the Madhouse control room to call forth the wailing groan that served as an opening bell within the confines of the Queen’s Chambers. Lyssa heard it, rolled her eyes and started toward Lenore who matched her pace to draw them both into a slowly tightening spiral. Noting the irritation on her rival’s face, Lemarchand arched an eyebrow and asked, “Something bothering you, Lyssa?”
“The aesthetic of this place is just ridiculous.” Zahn replied at once. “It’s like you and Adelaide both believe the horror genre begins and ends with Charles Addams. It’s sad, is what it is.”
Lenore raised her hands to shoulder level, the Raven’s talons twitching in anticipation of the inevitable clinch. “First off, while I appreciate Addams, this place is far more Edward Gorey. Second, you’re welcome to contribute to the décor, sweetie. Adelaide, Elise, Amara and Syd have all left their briefs behind, for example.”
Lyssa’s dark eyes narrowed, the TikTok Terror bristling at the thought of being reduced to another curio in the Courtier’s admittedly impressive collection. She narrowed the gap and raised her hands, even flicking a few testing slaps at Lemarchand’s arms, all of which were briskly swatted aside. “Never gonna happen, skinny. This is your last night in this place and I hope you enjoy it because after all the hair-pulling, wedgies and ya know, general humiliation, I’m gonna get a team in here to scrub out EVERY TRACE of your presence,” she paused, smiled slightly, “’cept maybe for a nice portrait of your terrified face for right over the mantle. It’ll be the start of a brand new Wall of Shame to commemorate my reign.”
They were close now, well within slapping, clawing or hair-pulling range, though both brunettes remained content with those probing arm swats for the moment. “Bold talk, Lyssa.” Lenore’s voice was cold. “You’ve always been great with the talk, backing it up is always where you fall flat on your face, isn’t it? Because when the pressure’s on you can’t NNGH!”
Zahn had enough and shut Lenore’s mouth by slapping it as hard as she could. She followed her opening salvo with a massive handful of hair and white-knuckle fish-face clamp on Lemarchand’s cheeks that had the other brunette shifting from foot to foot in pained indignation. “Not tonight, f*ck face.” Lyssa hissed. “Tonight I take my place as Queen of the Madhouse and you take your place as my OOOFFFHHH!”
Lenore slammed a Kneelift into Zahn’s belly just below her navel and just above the line of her briefs. Swatting the grip from her face immediately thereafter, the Fair & Radiant Maiden snatched hold of her challenger’s hair at the nape of the neck, all the better to wrench her head back for a trio of scintillating face slaps! Then she doubled down on the hair-hold and backpedaled across the plush carpet and torqued her hips to tear Lyssa off her feet with a Hair Mare that THWHAMMED her down on the low coffee table in front of the overstuffed couch by the fireplace!
The defenseless furniture gave way beneath Lyssa’s weight, the brunette arching her back in surprised agony before she rolled clear of its devastated remains. She’d just made it onto her belly when Lenore hurried in and planted one knee in the small of her back. Another angry fistful of hair wrenched Lyssa’s neck at a painful angle, but this wasn’t so much a Camel Clutch as it was an excuse to drag her nails from Zahn’s right cheek to the curve of her left breast no less than half a dozen times. Stopping only when Lyssa managed to grab hold of the wrist, Lemarchand ground her plant knee in a little deeper and growled, “You want this place, Lyssa? Think you can make yourself the new queen?”
“It’s already mine. You‘re just too dumb to realize EEERRRHH F*CK!”
Zahn gouged and clawed Lenore’s wrist but couldn’t stop the Courtier from dragging those dangerous nails from Lyssa’s navel to the underside of her breasts. “Bullshyt. You’ll never own the Chambers because you’d rather TAP OUT than do what it takes to make them your own.”
Seething at the Raven’s talons and taunts in equal measure, Zahn braced her right elbow against the carpet and brought that knee up to get some better leverage in exchange for an unpleasant bit of rug burn. Knowing that Lyssa would squirm out from underneath in moments if she wasn’t careful, Lemarchand balanced on her left foot, rose most of the way up and THUMPED her right knee into the small of the other woman’s back. Zahn cried out in pain but didn’t collapse, rather she pulled herself to an angry penance and reached up and back to bury both hands in the leggy bendy-back’s dark locks. Lenore snarled as Lyssa’s grip wrenched her head to one side, but her expression grew considerably harder when the Tweeting Tyrant threatened, “Gonna own this place…your ass…and your soul, maybe not in that ord--”
CRA-CRA-CRAAACK!
Lemarchand abandoned her own hair-hold for a Half Chinlock that kept up the strain on Zahn’s neck while she flattened her free hand into a paddle and a blistering volley of slaps against Lyssa’s tawny tummy. “These are the only souvenirs you’re taking tonight.” Emily’s Lady in Waiting said of the bright pink welts her nails left on the challenger’s chest and belly. “And you’re finally gonna leave that shytty, unearned arrogance in returAAARRRRRHHHHHHH!”
Zahn let one hand leave Lenore’s hair so she could raaaaaaaaaaake her from cheek to throat to chest before settling in to an claw grip on the Courtier’s modest bust. “Yeah bytch, feel that?” Lyssa smile cracked through an otherwise pained grimace. “That says I squeeze harder than NNNNGHHH!”
Lemarchand didn’t mind the tit-for-tat, but she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to jam a quick Kneelift into the base of her opponent’s skull! Zahn’s head jolted forward at whiplash speed, her chin striking her breastbone hard enough to ‘clack’ teeth! Didn’t break either of her holds though, at least not until Lenore reared back and delivered her second knee in less than a minute. Lyssa’s hands fell away from their offensive positions to defend her head against more bludgeoning, which worked until Lenore traded her claws for cuffs, the Raven catching Zahn’s left wrist in her right hand and vice versa. Drawing Lyssa’s forearms tight under her own chin, Lemarchand set her knees against the other brunette’s back, then dropped to her butt and puuuuuuuuuulled back on the Straightjacket to bend the Social Media Sadist’s spine over her knees while simultaneously throttling her with the Straightjacket.
Feet planted in the pits of Lyssa’s knees, Lenore tugged her hold back ‘n forth, then cranked back to make her foe sputter and gasp. “Where’s the banter now, Lyssa?” she asked. “Or do you call it excuses when you’re getting your ass stret--”
“Keep your f*cking mouth shut.” Zahn grunted. “God knows how Allard tolerates you, I’ve had deeper conversations with an answering machNNNNNNNGGGGHHHH!”
Lemarchand shut down the sass by upping the pressure, the Fair & Radiant Maiden raising the Staightjacket to the trapped wrestler’s mouth and nose. “I’ve had enough of your shyt, honey. All you are is bluster and threats and neither is going to get you anything but beaten in here!”
Another sharp yank on those captured wrists earned groan from Lyssa and question from Al. “How you doing, Lys? Need me to call it?”
“NNNRRRRHHHH!” Zahn’s response was muffled, albeit undeniably negative.
“Don’t go far, Al.” Lenore told him. “She’ll submit as soon as she realizes she’s losing follo--”
Lyssa wrenched her right leg out from underneath which eased the pressure on her back a great deal. It also meant she could breathe a little easier in the Straightjacket so she didn’t have to gasp for air while she was fighting to one knee. Didn’t mean her return to verticality was easy by any means, quite the opposite actually. Even with both hands occupied Lenore managed to pile on the punishment by mashing Lyssa’s nose with her own forearms and regularly grinding the dagger of her chin into the exposed curve of the other brunette’s forehead.
“F*ckin’ let go.” Zahn snarled once she’d regained her feet without escaping the Straightjacket. “I said get your goddamned hands offa NGH! NGH! NGH! NNNRRRRHHHH!”
Lenore pumped half a dozen Kneelifts into Lyssa’s backside, a left-right-left combo that put her opponent on tiptoe until she put a knee into the small of her back and began to grrrrrrrrrrrind. “You’re gonna have to make me let go, Zahn.” Lemarchand told Lyssa as she continued to work the simple body-bending holds. “You could actually try to wrestle your way out. And if that doesn’t work you could take the quitter’s way--”
Lenore had to give up that posted knee to pull her plant foot away when Zahn tried to crush it beneath her heel! Angered by the failed escape attempt, Lemarchand planted her feet in a wide ‘V’ so she could yoke back on the straightjacket and yank her rival back ‘n forth in a near rag-dolling that continued until Lyssa lost her balance and collapsed to her knees. “Still trapped, sweetie.” Lenore chided the red-faced battler. “What’re you going to do now?”
“Grrrrrhhhh… gonna beat your scrawny ass into the OOOOOWWWWW!” The Fair & Radiant Maiden leaned down and chomped on her penitent pray’s forehead! Lyssa continued to yowl, but biting wasn’t against the (admittedly nebulous) rules of the Chambers, so the only thing Al said was, “How are you doing, Lyssa? Need me to call it?”
“Stick it up your ass, stretch!” Zahn yelped. “I’m never gonna AAARRRRHHH BYTCH!”
Lenore leaned in a little closer to bite the bridge of her opponent’s nose! Squirming and squealing as she tried to prize herself from the beak of the feasting Raven, Zahn finally jerked her head away only to snap a quick backward Headbutt into Lemarchand’s chin. Even that wasn’t enough to break the Straightjacket, but it allowed Lyssa to clamber to her feet and throw herself into a full speed backpedal, the Black Hat charging blindly until she THWHUMPED Lenore against a stretch of wall just to the right of the roaring fireplace.
The grips on her wrists finally loosened enough for Zahn to turn the tables on her foe, the TikTok Terror getting her arms out of her face so she could draw a few deep breaths while simultaneously driving her ass into the pit of Lemarchand’s stomach almost half a dozen times. Grinning as she felt the other brunette’s breath puff against the side of her neck, Zahn dug her nails into the undersides of Lenore’s wrists and continued to swipe and smash her glutes against that gulping belly. “This is where is starts, Lenny.” Lyssa growled. “I’m gonna smash you into, off of, and through every piece of tacky furniture in this plaARRRHHH!”
Lenore made Lyssa pay for the proximity and the presumption by biting down on soft flesh between the base of her foe’s neck and right shoulder! Zahn lurched away from the wall, threw herself backward, then repeated the process two more times. That got the teeth out of her neck but she stomped out one more time and went up on tiptoe before dropping to one knee to flip Lemarchand over her shoulder and onto her butt with a heavy THWHUMP! Lenore grimaced, put a hand to her tailbone and would’ve twisted to one knee if Lyssa hadn’t snatched a handful of hair and pulled hard enough to bring tears to the Courtier’s eyes.
“Not going anywhere yet, bytch.” Zahn wrenched Lenore’s head from side to side to keep her grounded. “Not until…” Planted on her left foot, Lyssa drew her right leg waaaaaaaaay back and thum-thum-THUMPED a trio of Soccer Kicks into the curve of the other brunette’s spine!
“RRRRRGGGGGHHH!” Lenore’s hands flew up and crooked into claws that didn’t settle on anything until she clamped onto Zahn’s forearms when the Tweeting Tyrant went to haul her up with a double handful of hair. Lyssa answered the grip with a Kneelift smashed into Lemarchand’s tailbone, then did it half a dozen more times because she liked the pained little ‘NGH’s’ coming from the other brunette.
“Lookin’ a little bowlegged, beeyotch.” Zahn taunted when Lenore tried to stumble her way outta kneein’ range. “You need to sit down for a second, catch your breath? Here, this one’s got your name on it.”
Switching from the hair-hold to a grip on the other brunette’s waistband, Lyssa reeled Lenore in close and dipped her head to wedge it beneath Lemarchand’s left arm. Snaking her right arm around the Raven’s waist while the left braced against the back of her left thigh, Zahn muscled Lenore onto the ball of her shoulder, then stomped up behind one of the overstuffed couches and THA-WHUMPED her down in an Atomic Drop that left her seated astride the back of the couch!
“Nnnnnnggggghhhh!” Lemarchand slumped forward, her hands braced against the top of the-- “AAAAHHHH BYTCH!” she straightened up with back arched and chest thrust forward because Lyssa raaaaaaaaaked her back from shoulders to buttocks!
“That’s no way to speak to the incoming Queen of the Madhouse, slut.” Zahn CLAPPED Lemarchand’s stinging back as repayment for the sass, then circled around and grabbed a handful of hair to haul her mostly upright. “This is the beginning of the end, asshole. The moment where I start to run away with NNNNGHHH!”
Lenore slapped her challenger across the mouth, Lyssa’s head flying back in a cloud of dark brown locks. “I don‘t think so, honey.” the Courtier huffed. “This is the moment you start to regret ever walking through my dooOOOFFFFFHHH!”
Zahn popped up in a high vertical leap and THWHAPPED her bare feet into Lenore’s face in a Dropkick that sent the other brunette tumbling to the carpeted floor! Back on her feet while Lemarchand tried to clear the cobwebs, Lyssa grabbed hold of the Raven’s wrists and cavewoman dragged her around to the short side of the couch. A single stomp to the belly left Lenore huffing and puffing long enough for the Tweetstormtrooper to clamber onto the couch. Placing one foot on the armrest, Lyssa took a moment to make sure the couch wasn’t gonna tip over on her. When it didn’t she boosted her way over the armrest and dropped into a full weight Zahn Bomb, every bit of her hundred and thirty-plus pounds THUMPING down on ass-first on her opponent’s chest!
Lemarchand’s legs popped up without disrupting Lyssa’s seat, in fact the TikTok Terror set her elbows on her knees and told Carpenter, “Ask her. Bytch sounds finished.”
“What do you say, Lenore? Need to call it a night?”
Lenore didn’t answer the official, instead she put her hands to Zahn’s encroaching haunches and shoved her away on what would’ve been a solid ‘TWO!’ count. “Guuuhhh…get your sloppy ass off meMMMRRRPPPHHH!”
Lenore’s demand was interrupted by an Iron Claw grip that covered the whole of her face! Lyssa could and did bounce the base of her rival’s noggin against the floor three or four times, but the principal reason for this mug squeezin’ was to haul Lenore to her feet for more punishment. A couple Kneelifts to the midsection kept Lemarchand from mustering any offense of her own or even creating any separation until Zahn switched over to a two-handed Wristlock and slung her toward the sidewall of the staircase. Cringing at the inevitable collision, Lenore twisted around in a half circle and THUNKED against the well polished wo--“OOOOOFFFFFHH!”
Lyssa crowded the Madhouse Queen’s suffering with an Avalanche Splash that buckled Lemarchand’s knees. Didn’t mean she hit the floor though, as Zahn wasn’t about to allow such laziness in her prey. Catching hold of the other brunette’s wrists, Lyssa tugged them up overhead and pinned ‘em together with one hand so she could crook her other arm into a ‘V’ and thwhap-thwhap-THWHAP several heavy Forearm Smashes into Lemarchand’s pert bust. “You’re not gonna quit on me are you, Len?” Zahn leaned all her weight into that grinding forearm so she could keep the Courtier huffing and puffing. “I mean the tour’s not over, right? You haven’t even shown me the upstairs, yeNNNGGGHH!”
Lenore showed her a Headbutt instead, the short strike catching Zahn between the eyes. Lyssa reeled in place and pulled her forearm away to press that hand to her aching face, meaning there was only one hand keeping Lemarchand’s wrists in “OOFFHH-RRGGHH!” A sharp Kneelift to Zahn’s navel freed Lenore’s hands, which she promptly flattened into paddles and clapped behind Lyssa’s head to SMACK her forearms against the Tweeting Tyrant’s ears! Now Lyssa did stumble away, or at least started to. She made it all of two steps before Lenore caught her by the nape of the neck and yanked her forward while simultaneously twisting to one side so Zahn bounced into the wall face-first!
“You think you’re ready for the second floor?” Lemarchand snuggled in from behind Zahn and trapped her arms overhead in Full Nelson that let her scraaaaaaaaape the challenger’s face and chest against the well-polished hardwood. “I’m not sure you can handle it, sweetness. That’s where things get really scarAAAHHHH GAWD!”
Lyssa couldn’t push clear of the wall with Lenore trying to mash her into the décor so she lashed her right leg back and up in a low blow that THWHUMPED her heel into the bendy-back’s undercarriage! Wrestling free of Lemarchand’s grip, Zahn spun ‘round behind her opponent and wrenched her left arm behind her back in a quick Chickenwing, then hooked her right arm around Lenore’s neck and clasped her hands so they were pressed tight against the Raven’s left cheek.
With Lemarchand’s legs weakened by her shot below the belt, Lyssa pulled her away from the wall, then lunged in once, twice, three times, each progressive impact earning a louder ‘OOOOFFFHH!’ from the Fair & Radiant Maiden. “Yeah, I think I’m ready, are you?” Zahn cooed in her foe’s right ear. “Seems like you’re feeling a little weak in the knees. Or maybe you’re just slowed down by that sagging ass?”
“Huuuhhh… who are you talking to?” Lenore grimaced. “You got an ass like a garbage bag filled with puddNGH! NGH! NGH! NNNGGGGHH!”
The Social Media Sadist tenderized Lemarchand’s haunches with a whole flurry of Kneelifts before peeling her away from the wall with a convulsive yank. “Ask her! Ask the whiny bytch!” Zahn barked at Carpenter even as she marched the struggling brunette toward the foot of the stairs.
“What do you say, Lenore? Hanging in there? Need to call it--”
“No.” Lenore grunted. “ She wants to see the Queen’s Chambers, she’s gonna see the Queen’s HHGGGGHH!”
Lyssa bounced Lemarchand’s forehead against a newel post carved to look like a nymph, then bent her over and forced her cheek against the banister to ensure a real painful shriek-squeak combination when Zahn started marching ‘em both up the stairs. “Who’s the Queen of this place? Who is she, Lenore? Say her f*cking name!”
“You KNOW my name, Melissa.” Lemarchand hissed. “And we both know you’ll never forget it because you’ll never BEAT AAARRRRGGGGGGHHH!”
Lyssa bounced her head harder than before, then leaned in with all her weight as she continued to draaaaaag Lenore’s wailing face up the banister. “That’s right bytch, SCREAM! Scream for the next Queen of the MadhouOOOHHHH BYTCH!”
Their awkward progression up the stairs made a retaliatory Mule Kick impossible, so Emily’s Lady in Waiting settled for stamping a heel down on her attacker’s toes! Lyssa forgot all about the Chickenwing in favor of protecting her feet against more punishment, the Tweeting Tyrant staggering back and up as she lurched her way toward the second floor landing.
Elsewhere, Lenore rounded on Zahn and started after her, the Courtier reaching for the hobbling brunette with crooked claws. “Back off, bytch.” Lyssa grabbed at Lemarchand’s wrists to keep those damned talons from away from her hair and face. “I said back OFFOOOWWW!”
Lenore stamped Lyssa’s toes again and would’ve done it a third time if New Yorker hadn’t lost her balance and ‘thumped’ to her butt! “Yesterday on the stairs, I met a bytch who wasn’t there.” Lemarchand murmured as she dropped a knee in the center of Zahn’s gulping belly. “She wasn’t there again today,” Lenore leaned in to force more breath from Lyssa’s lungs with that gouging knee, then grabbed a massive double handful of hair and used it to drive her face into a pair of balusters, “oh how I wish she’d go away.”
“AAAARRRRRHHH F*CKING PSYCHO, LEGGO OF ME!” Zahn wailed to high heaven as Lemarchand tried to force her skull between the unyielding balusters.
Lenore slipped a hand between those narrow supports, hooked that hand around behind one to snatch hold of Lyssa’s battle damp locks. Pulling hard enough to bounce the crown of Lyssa’s noggin again, Lemarchand wrapped her opponent’s hair around that baluster a couple of times, then bore down on her plant knee and leaaaaaaaaaaaaaned back like she meant to take Zahn’s scalp! “Isn’t this what you wanted, Melissa?” Lenore continued to pull even as the Social Media Sadist raked bright red furrows in her forearms. “Didn’t you want to see EVERYTHING the Chambers have to offer?!”
“Whhuuuu…why don’t you show me where you put the trash.” Lyssa reached for Lenore’s face, couldn’t grab it and settled for a white-knuckled grip on her left breast. “Because that’s where you’re going to end the FAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
Unwilling to cede any ground in this increasingly catty encounter, Lenore pulled a hand away from Zahn’s hair so she could test Lyssa’s mettle with a malevolent nipple pincer. “You gonna quit on me, honey? I’ve never had a challenger quit on the stairs, that would make you were actually first at something for once in your lazy, self-entitled lirrrgggggghhhh!”
Zahn narrowed her focus to an answering pincer and for several seconds the rivals remained silent, neither willing to drop her eyes or ease her tweak while-CRACK!
Lenore broke her grip to slap Lyssa’s mouth, then mashed her cheeks together for a short fish-facing before she went right back to the rack ravaging clamp. “Nnnnnngggggghhhhh bytch.” Zahn had one hand cupped under Lemarchand’s chin and another tugging at the Raven’s wrist in a tacit admission of defeat in this contest of terrible tweaking. “Get off of my f*cking titSRGH!”
Lenore used the hair-hold to bang Lyssa’s head against the baluster one more time, then doubled down on the Breast Claw. “Quit?” Lemarchand’s lips barely moved for the one word question. Zahn went back to her counter-grip but the deficit was such that she could do little more than squeeze while the Raven continued to maul. Even so, she managed to snarl, “Not on your f*cking lifAAAAAAWWWWWW GAAAAAAWD LEGGO DAMMNNGHH!”
Lenore released the claws, swiveled Lyssa’s head with a savage slap, then THUMPED a knee into her belly to keep the other brunette under control when she finally stood up and forced Zahn to turn over onto all fours. With Lyssa transformed from vixen to victim by her time on the stairs, Lemarchand strutted her way to the second floor with Zahn trailing a few steps behind. Welcoming the TikTok Terror into a Standing Headscissors, Lenore gave the hold a long squeeze, then curled her hands and raaaaaaaaaaked her rival’s buttocks from bottom to top no less than half a dozen times!
Teeth gnashing as she endured that ten-tined torment, Zahn cupped Lemarchand’s calves and dug in hard enough to make the breath hitch in her opponent’s throat. “You vile piece of trash.” Lyssa growled. “I’m gonna paint these walls with your OOOOWWWW F*CK!”
More than happy to pour it on when she held the high ground, Lenore slipped her fingers into the leg-holes of Lyssa’s bottoms and yanked ‘em in a wedgie that transformed them from brief to downright scant! “Take a look around if you can, tuff girl.” the Raven snapped. “This isn’t some Reddit forum where you can just run your mouth with no repercussions. This is the Queen’s Chambers, and in here your words mattOOFFFHH!”
Zahn slid her hands south from calves to ankles and yanked Lenore’s stems out from underneath with a Double Leg Takedown that THUMPED her down flat on her back! “What were you saying, words matter here?” the Black Hat hissed in the midst of prizing her rival’s legs into a wide ‘V’. “Then here’s a few to take to heart. Eat shyt and die, Lenore.”
Lyssa raised her right foot and brought it down in a stomp that would’ve smashed the Courtier’s groin if Lemarchand hadn’t hunched forward and caught the other brunette’s ankle in both hands. “Eat shyt and live, Lyssa.” The words were barely out of Lenore’s mouth when she shifted her grip and jabbed both thumbs into the sole of Zahn’s floating foot!
“GAAAHHHH DAMMIT!” Lyssa released Lemarchand’s ankles so she could grab onto the banister and wrest her stinging foot loose. She accomplished the deed without losing her balance, but the effort left her doubled over in close proximity to the Fair & Radiant Maiden, an arrangement that cost her dearly when Lenore stuffed both feet into Zahn’s tummy and sent her tumbling overhead with an impromptu Monkey Flip!
Lyssa landed flat on the carpet, then rolled onto her stomach and clambered to one knee as Lenore did the same a short distance away. “I cannot WAIT for the next Archive episode.” Zahn hissed as she gingerly adjusted her distended bottoms. “Allard may be a geek, but he knows how to ask the right questions even when he doesn’t want to know the answer. And I plan to go into GREAT detail about how I tore your ass--”
“Tell him how it felt when I slapped you at will.” Lemarchand interrupted. “And go into detail about how you couldn’t defend your tits back there on the stairs.”
Eyes narrowed to black slots, Lyssa got to her feet and bade Lenore join her. When she had, the Social Media Sadist murmured, “You’ve f*cked with me for the last time.”
“You started it, Melissa.” Lenore’s answer was just as soft, just as pitiless. “You’re an obnoxious, preening shyt-heel of a bully and it’s not my fault that you’re too proud to admit when you’re so badly outclas--”
CRAAACK! Zahn slapped Lemarchand’s face hard enough to raise a welt and earn immediate cheek-warming retaliation from the Raven. “You think you’re better than me?” Lyssa asked after the exchange of Bytch Slaps. “Prove it.”
“Gladly.”
Lenore came in high only to go low at the last second, Emily’s Lady in Waiting DRIVING the ball of her right shoulder into the pit of Zahn’s midriff to fold her over as they both barreled down the narrow hallway to the left of the main stairs. Resisting a strong urge to drive a fist into Lemarchand’s ribs over and over and over again, Lyssa crooked that arm around Lenore’s head and bore down while simultaneously throwing one leg backward to plant like a kickstand. Grinding to a halt a few steps later, Zahn yoked up on the Front Facelock, then slung the other brunette’s near arm across her shoulders and grabbed hold of her waistband. Hooks set, she dipped her knees and popped her hips to take the Raven up, over and down with a THWHUMPING Vertical Suplex!
The narrowness of the hall didn’t allow Zahn to kick her legs up for a proper roll through so instead she floated over into a Crossbody, then scrambled into a mount and grabbed a handful of hair so she could fire a whole lotta short punches into the Courtier’s forehead! Lenore groaned with each and every impact, though she managed to establish a guard quite a bit sooner than Lyssa would’ve liked. To that end the Black Hat grabbed hold of the other brunette’s wrists and prized her forearms apart just to bash them against the carpet no less than half a dozen times. Even then Lemarchand refused to stay defenseless, bringing her legs up one after the other to drive her knees into the curve of Zahn’s lower ba--“HUUUFFFFHH!”
Lyssa went up high on her knees and dropped down just as suddenly for a miniature but no less effective Zahn Bomb to the pit of her foe’s stomach. These usually came in sets of four, (one from each point of the compass rose) and this proved no exception at least in terms of quantity. In no mood to bother with standing, let alone turning one way or the other, Lyssa delivered her second pulverizing payload to Lemarchand’s tummy, then scooted north and delivered two more to the vulnerable slopes of the Raven’s décolletage. Still holding onto Lenore’s wrists, Zahn slid higher still until her shins were heavily astride Lemarchand’s biceps and the fork of her crotch was snug to the point of her chin.
“Finally got you right where you belong.” the Tweeting Tyrant rolled her hips to make sure Lenore knew her place.
“Doesn’t mean you can keep me here for--” the bendy-back kicked both legs up to get them under Zahn’s arms, but Lyssa pressed her thighs together and leaned forward, her forehead touching the carpet to deftly avoid one attack while dishing out another!
“Don’t think I’m gonna finish you in the middle of this hallway.” Lyssa exclaimed as she continued to swish back ‘n forth against her rival’s protesting features. “No, no, no, you don’t get off that easy, loser. This is just to wear you out, make sure you’re breathing’s nice and labored before I march us through that door down there. Sounds like a carnivOOOWWWW DAMMIT!”
Lenore planted her feet and bridged up, it didn’t free her from the smother, but it did shift Lyssa’s mount to the point that she could sink her teeth into the other brunette’s inner thigh! Zahn scrambled to her feet with Lemarchand only a couple steps behind, yet it was plenty of time for Lyssa to line up, then PWAK a quick Back Kick into the pit of Lenore’s already fluttery stomach.
“C’mon bytch, if you don’t want to tussle on the carpet we can always go exploring!”
Twisting around so she could snag Lenore’s noggin in a Side Headlock, Zahn dragged Lenore’s cheek across her hip, then spun in a wide circle that drove the Raven’s right hip and leg against the wall with a meaty SMACK! Zahn paid this no mind however, the whole of her focus was the door she’d mentioned earlier, an ornate wooden affair showing a trace of warm yellow light beneath and… “Carnival music, I f*cking knew it.” she yoked up on the Headlock, swerved to the right and THWHUMPED Lemarchand against the elegant wallpaper while simultaneously draaaaaaaaaaaaagging her toward that out of place calliope.
“So what the hell is this supposed to be, Lenny?” Lyssa was a guest in the Madhouse, she could’ve gone in unannounced, yet she chose to announce their arrival by BWONKING the crown of Lemarchand’s skull against the door. “I’ve watched all the tape for this damned place, the master bedroom should be right through here, so what’s with the NNRRRRGGGHHH!”
Lenore stamped on Lyssa’s foot and ground away until she could free her head from the New Yorker’s brawny grasp. Stuffing a shoulder into Zahn’s back, Lemarchand plowed forward to drive her adversary’s face, chest and belly into the door and kept right on grinding. “Luuuhhh…love it when idiots strut in her talking about how they’re going to remodel this place, how they’ve got it all mapped out.” she huffed in Lyssa’s ear. The chambers change all the time. One year this was the bedroom, once it was an extension of the library. This year, well, let’s see.”
Doubling Zahn over with a Headlock of her own, Lemarchand turned the knob, then hip checked the door open and walked through to reveal… a carnival midway, just like Lyssa had suspected. Not a whole carnival mind you, but the midway was all here with half a dozen games on either side of a wide grassy (what the hell?) aisle that led off to what was presumably a painted backdrop of a circus tent, Ferris Wheel and roller coaster.
Genuinely amazed by what the FAWN techs did inside this place year after year, Lemarchand grabbed a handful of the other brunette’s hair and pulled until Zahn whined and stamped her feet against the last six or so inches of carpet. “Check it out Lys, they’ve got Whac-A-Mole.” the Fair & Radiant Maiden chirped as she set off toward the collection of booths.
As flummoxed as Lenore by the presence of grass beneath her feet, Zahn continued to pound at her foe’s lower back and tummy while occasionally raking a thigh just because it was within reach. Didn’t get her out of the Headlock though, in fact her predicament grew that much worse when Lenore got fed up with the scratching and pumped a trio of Kneelifts into the New Yorker’s belly.
“Fine, you don’t want to play Whac-A-Mole?” Lenore sniped. “Then let’s play a round of Plant-A-Bytch.” Emily’s Lady in Waiting took off at a good clip with Lyssa stumbling along in her wake, the tethered brunettes reaching the first of the games before Lemarchand sprang into the air and-- the TikTok Terror caught a Half Waistlock while her other hand cupped the back of Lenore’s thigh. Rearing back as hard as she could allowed Lyssa to muscle Lemarchand onto the point of her shoulder which meant the Raven was quite under control when Zahn pivoted around on one foot and laid out to THWHUMP Lenore on the back of her head and shoulders with a huge Backdrop Suplex!
Folding like a suitcase in the aftermath of the brutal landing, Lemarchand came to a rest stretched out facedown while Lyssa sat up and took in her surroundings with wide, incredulous eyes. “How the f*ck…” Zahn cast a glance overhead and eventually confirmed the ‘stars’ were simply LED’s but it took far longer than she cared to admit. A groan from beside and a whistle from behind earned Lenore a claw buried in her hair and Al Carpenter a glance of annoyance that might’ve been tinged with relief.
“Still got my phone in your fanny-pack, Carpenter?” Lyssa chided as she doubled down on the hair-hold to get the both of ’em back on their feet.
“If by ’fanny pack’ you mean ’pocket’, then yes I do.” the official replied. “Really Lyssa, just because it’s AHE doesn’t mean you have to be hurtf--”
“Hey, they DO have Whac-A-Mole!” Whereas Lenore led with a Headlock, Zahn settled for a grabbing the scruff of her foe’s neck, thus ensuring both ladies were moving full speed ahead when Lyssa hit the brakes and BWANGED Lemarchand’s forehead against the score panel of Whac-A-Mole. Lenore sagged and collapsed to her knees only to get hauled up set atop the bottom panel. “I have no f*cking clue why there’s a midway on the second floor.” Zahn admitted as she helped herself to the oversized mallet hanging beside the game. “But I know exactly how I’m going to kick your ass across every inch of it.”
“Guuuuhhhh…give it your best OOOFFFFHH! OOOFFFFHH! NNNNNGGGHH!”
Lyssa did that and then some with a pair of shots to Lenore’s tummy followed by a forehand smash across her chest and a backhand that threatened to slop her from the cabinet entirely. But Zahn hadn’t hit a high score yet so she braced one hand against Lemarchand’s sternum to ensure she remained seated through no less than ten mallet shots THWHUMPED between her eyes! She finished the terrible Talpidae-inspired trouncing with a gaudy bop to the base of the skull that dropped Lenore from the cabinet to her hands and knees.
For a moment it looked like Lyssa would continue the bludgeoning, but then something across the midway caught her eye. “Hey, the Duck Pond! Can we go check that out? Hey, listen to me, asking like you’ve got a f*cking choice. C’mon bytch,” she bopped Lemarchand’s butt with the mole mallet, then tossed it aside so she could catch a handful of hair, “we’re gonna go look at the ducks.”
Lenore didn’t respond with the proper enthusiasm, so Zahn doubled down on the hair-hold and powered her to verticality just to smash a broadside Kneelift across her tummy. With the Courtier huffing and puffing, Lyssa strut-marched ‘em across the grassy aisle to the Duck Pond booth and promptly bounced Lenore’s forehead against the wooden edge before dunking her head into the depths of the shallow pool!
“You know what you’ve got in common with this game, Lenny?” Zahn’s tone remained calm though everything else about her posture and body language was taut with the effort of keeping the thrashing Raven submerged. “You’re both f*cking lamOOFFFHH!”
Lenore couldn’t get her head out of the water but she could drive an elbow into the New Yorker’s gut and that’s exactly what she did, once, twice, three times! The grip on her neck got loose so Lemarchand ripped her way out of the water and greeted Lyssa with a Back Elbow to the chin that sent Zahn rocking back on her heels. Resting against the lip of the pond, Lenore reached in, grabbed one of the plastic ducks without looking and flung it at her opponent. It hit Lyssa in the chest with a soft ‘pwak!’ that couldn’t have hurt despite the look of ferocious incredulity that blossomed on the Tweeting Tyrant’s face.
“Why’d ya hit me with a duck, assNGH!” Lenore pegged her with a second one that struck flush on the forehead!
“Hey, did that one have a star on it?” Lemarchand huffed. “I want to make sure you have a nice consolation prize for almost becoming Queen of the MadhouEERRRGHH!”
Lyssa rushed in and lowered her shoulder to drive Lenore back against the unforgiving edge of the counter. The force didn’t drive either wrestler into the pond proper, it did however create a miniature tidal wave that swept to the far end and back again before soaking both brunettes from the midriff on down. The resultant surprise threw Lenore off balance long enough for Zahn to jab a thumb into her eye, then snatch a Headlock and drag her over to the next booth. “Oooohhhh, dart toss!” Lyssa bounced Lenore’s head off the counter a few times before she turned her around and bent her backward across the pitted surface.
“Popping your skull like a balloon is a bit more permanent than I prefer,” Zahn admitted as she kept Lemarchand glued in place with forearm across the chest while she grabbed one of the darts from a nearby cup, “But that doesn’t mean I won’t have a little fun using your snotty face as a bullsRRRRGGGHHH!”
Lenore couldn’t squirm free of the Social Media Sadist’s grasp, so she flattened her hands into paddles and boxed Zahn’s ears as hard as she could! Lyssa reared back, hands flying to the sides of her head as she tried to muffle the raucous ringing. With Zahn otherwise occupied, Lenore snatched up a few darts in one hand, buried the other in Lyssa’s hair and jabbed / gouged ’em into her rival’s forehead!
Lyssa went down like a felled tree, the TikTok Terror oddly quiet as she dazedly wiped at the rill of blood running down the bridge of her nose. “Bytch, you don’t know what you’ve f*cking done.” she groaned. “Sticking me with darts, hitting me with f*cking ducks? You won’t live to see the sun come OOOFFFHH!”
Lenore Lemarchand was no one’s idea of a heavyweight, but that didn’t stop her from Splashing down full force on Zahn’s gulping midsection! The heavy belly on belly bludgeoning brought a smile to Lenore’s face, but that didn’t mean she was satisfied with a single serving of Splash. Indeed, she pressed her palms to the grass, rose up and dropped down, rose up and dropped down, rose up and dropped down the bendy-backed Raven proving she could pile on Destroyer class punishment when properly motivated.
Rearing back on her haunches with a heavy sigh, Lemarchand tucked some loose hair behind her ears, then raised both hands overhead and CRAAACKED them down on Zahn’s tummy with a Double Slap that curled the Social Media Sadist into a near fetal ball. “What’re you going to do to me, Melissa?” Lenore rasped. “You trailed off there at the end.”
“Yuhhhh… you’ll find out soon enough.” Lyssa pressed her forehead and palms to the ground, forced herself to all fours with an audible groan. “You’re never gonna see the inside of this place agOOOOFFFFFHHH!”
Lemarchand got up, stepped away, then swooped in and THWHUMPED a Soccer Kick into the pit of Lyssa’s roiling stomach! Well and truly gut-shot, Zahn rolled a little beyond the center of the midway where she came to a stop on her back with both arms draped across her aching abdomen. “Give up!” the Fair & Radiant Maiden demanded as she stomped over to her challenger and stamped a heel down on her navel. “I mean it, Melissa! Tap out before it gets worse!”
“F*ck you!” Lyssa slapped the Courtier’s leg away and pushed to a near-seat but couldn’t muster anything in defense save for one extended hand. “You wanna win? You’re gonna have to get a stoppage from the ref, which you won’t because that asshole knows I’ll DESTROY his life if he NGGHHOOOOFFFFH!”
Lenore smashed right through Lyssa’s guard with a Low Kick that knocked the seated brunette flat once again. Twisted around so her back was to the Black Hat, Lemarchand sank into a deep crouch and launched herself skyward, Emily’s Lady in Waiting soaring through a gorgeous Standing Moonsault that dropped her hundred and thirty-plus pounds atop Zahn’s increasingly nauseated tummy.
Burying both hands in Lyssa’s hair even as she got to her knees, Lenore yanked her rival up so she could hiss in her ear. “Just keep telling me what I’ll never do, Lyssa. Because I love clearing a high bar. Come on, let’s hear it.”
Lyssa’s answer was a round of nigh unintelligible cursing, so Lenore turned the hair-hold into a Side Headlock that kept her in firm control of the other brunette’s noggin while she returned the both of ‘em to verticality. “Been playing a lot of games at my expense, Melissa.” Lemarchand admitted as she pointed herself at the far side of the Midway. “Let’s see how you fare when--” Lenore left the end of her thought a mystery as she broke into a run that took both wrestlers across the grass on a sharp diagonal that ended with the crown of Zahn’s skull THUNKING against the narrow edge of the counter of the ‘Plate Break!’ booth.
Lyssa shuddered from stem to stern but didn’t drop to her butt when Lemarchand relinquished the Headlock, instead she rose to her full height and stumbled away with both hands pressed to her throbbing noggin. Lenore noted this only vaguely, as she’d turned away from Zahn to help herself to one of the old fashioned white dinner plates from atop the pile on the counter. “What’s the matter, Melissa? Eyes bigger than your stomach?”
“Whuuuhhh… what’s the matter, Lenore? Mouth bigger than your UUUGGHH!”
The Raven hurled the plate like a Frisbee and couldn’t help laughing when it hit Zahn in the stomach with a loud PWAK! Lyssa staggered, looked at the plate in confusion, then lifted her head and snarled, “Plates? Who the f*ck do you think you--” The Tweeting Tyrant got her arms up fast to swat down the plate Lemarchand whipped at her chest. “Miserable bytch, I swear I’ll--”
CRASH!
No throwing the third plate, Lenore stepped in and brought it down two handed to shatter on Lyssa’s forehead! Zahn swung around and toppled to the grass with both arms swaddling her skull. “Hope you’ve enjoyed your time in the Queen’s Chambers, Melissa.” Lemarchand muttered in the midst of brushing some plate fragments from her palms. “Help yourself a to-go plate, on me.”
The answering silence allowed the Courtier more than enough time to ‘flick’ her briefs into place, smooth down her hair and circle ‘round into the perfect position to draw the woozy brunette into a Standing Headscissors. Rather than claim a basic Waistlock, Lenore leaned over and reached through Zahn’s parted stems to claim a wrist in each hand. These she pulled back through Lyssa’s thighs in a Double Pumphandle that earned a raucous cheer from the Basement Dwellers a few levels above. Drawing in a deep breath even as she tugged Zahn’s forearms into her undercarriage, Lemarchand bent down, then yanked up to lift / spin the TikTok Terror onto her shoulders for-- there was a THWUNK followed by a startled “NNNNNGGGGGHHH!” from Lenore as she was stricken from behind!
Caught flatfooted by the blindside assault, Lenore dropped to all fours which inadvertently PLANTED Zahn on the back of her head and shoulders instead of flat on her face, as the Raven had intended. Either way both brunettes were left sprawled on the grass with Al Carpenter standing on one side and the interloper on the other. Already startled by the intrusion, Al’s attention was drawn to the newcomer’s oversized mallet, one she’d presumably cadged from the Test of Strength tower at the far end of the Midway. It wasn’t until she raised it overhead that the zebra shook clear of his stupor and asked, “Elise? What the hell, how did you--”
ELISE WINTERREST
“Get in here?” Miss Murder interrupted. “Really Carpenter, I was hoping your first question would be something interesting like, what are you going to do with that mallet?”
“Umh, what ARE you going to do with that JESUS!”
Winterrest THWHUMPED her weapon into the pit of Lenore’s stomach to draw the Courtier into an agonized ball in a single stroke. “Put that damned thing down, Elise!” Al barked, “You’ve gone too OOOFFFHHHH!”
Elise jabbed the handle into Carpenter’s sternum, dropping him to one knee. With the official dispatched, the Icy Manipulator kicked Lenore onto her back and planted a foot on her fluttering chest. “Did you think we were finished, little bird?” she hissed. “Did you think I’d allow you to inflict such a… a desecration without extracting my pound of flesh?”
“Buuuuhhhh…buhhhh…bytch.” Lemarchand moaned. “This wasn’t your fighRRRRRGGGGGGHHH!”
Elise brought the mallet down on Lenore’s stomach again, albeit broadside. Pleased by the nauseated spasm that wracked her nemesis’s body, Winterrest raised her weapon a third time only to pause when she heard a voice grunt, “Don’t even think about it, f*ck face. I did the heavy lifting, that means the kill is miNNNNNGGGGGGGHHH!”
The Icy Manipulator whipped around and drove the broadside of the mallet’s head into Zahn’s chest, then hefted it overhead and THWHUMPED it down between her shoulders when the Black Hat rolled onto her stomach! Lyssa sobbed in anguish, started to crawl away and got her face stomped into the grass for her efforts. “The little bird is MINE.” Elise hissed through clenched teeth before she returned her attention to the retching Raven.
Spinning the mallet around in her hands, she stalked over to Lemarchand and planted a foot on her shoulder. From there she wedged the end of the handle into Lenore’s throat and puuuuuuuussssshed down with all her considerable spite. “BEG MY FORGIVENESS!” Miss Murder screamed. “AS LOUD AS YOU CAN, TWAT! BEG MY FOREGIVENESS!”
Lenore heard this without actually hearing it, as all her attention was focused on getting the goddamned handle away from her neck. Clutching it with both hands she pushed as hard as she could, but she was exhausted and her position was terrible. “GUUUHHHRRRRHHHHK… AAARRRRRRRRK… HHHHRRRGGGHH!” She tried to kick at Winterrest, a valiant, ultimately doomed effort that only earned a hateful smile from her tormenter.
“BEG, I SAID!” Elise shrieked like a woman possessed. “Oh, don’t think THAT little act of contrition is going to save you.”
Lenore reached out with one hand and frantically slapped at the grass, the Raven hoping that someone, anyone, would see it and pull Winterrest away.
Alas, it did not.
“Mere submission is no longer an option, little bird.” Elise explained. “I am your own personal Montresor and thus you will BEG ME LIKE YOU BLOODY WELL MEAN--”
The unearthly groan that’d started the match sounded all around them and was immediately followed by the traditional clattering ring bell, the FAWN brass suitably concerned to break with AHE tradition. Looking around in startled disgust, Winterrest honed in on the lone cameraman just as the Announcer broke in to proclaim, “Ladies and gentlemen, this match has been--”
Elise pounced on the cameraman, grabbing the rig in one hand so she could hold it steady on her furious face. “Don’t you do it, don’t you f*cking dare. There is only one Queen in this asylum and if I don’t hear her name echoing in the rafters in the next five seconds I PROMISE that I will make a ruin of both of these pretenders. Do I make myself clear?”
The silence spun out long enough to make Elise heft the mallet onto one shoulder. She was in the process of honing in on Lenore when the Announcer called, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via submission… and the NEW Queen of the Madhouse, ELISE WINTERREST!”
Breaking into a beatific smile at this proclamation, Elise tossed the mallet down and stretched her arms wide to better bask in the shock and disgust of the AHE crowd. “I’ve taken her pride and now I’ve taken her house.” Winterrest said of the red-faced semiconscious brunette sprawled helplessly in the background. “Last but not least, I take her career. And heaven help any insolent trash,” she paused to spare a glance in Lyssa’s direction, “that tries to keep me from my prey.”