The name I most often go by is La Serpiente Negra.
The arena falls silent. Her opponent's face pales slightly.
"La... La Serpiente Negra?" he asks, unsurely, to confirm her identity. CJ scoffs at the fearful expression plastered on his face.
"Yeah, that's me." She winks coyly at the sweating man.
"OK, cast your bets: El Segador or this lovely little lady here?"
"La Serpiente Negra," CJ corrects, venom dripping from her voice. She raises her eyebrows as a few of the gang step forwards with wads of cash.
Mikey, Adrian, and Leo motion to 'The Reaper' showing their absolute faith in their new leader. Dennis, however, disagrees, throwing in a $100 bill, almost shouting CJ's stage name in the man's ear, to be heard over the clamours of the crowd.
"I'd say keep it clean, but when is cage fighting ever considered 'clean'?" The referee laughs at his own 'joke', if you could even consider it that. The two fighters circle each other, using age-old intimidation tactics to plant seeds of fear in their opponent's mind.
Suddenly, the brute charges maniacally at CJ, who sidesteps gracefully, kicking his legs out from beneath him. Without missing a beat, she positions her knees on either side of his torso, reaching for one of his arms.
At that moment, El Segador rose to his feet, the young woman still clinging to his back. Her arms moved strategically around his neck, cutting off his airway. His hands, which had previously been focussed on delivering hits to CJ's face, immediately went to unclasp her vice-like grip.
In his desperation, the fighter began to throw his back, with his attacker on it, into the barbed wire fence. Despite the sharp edges of the chain link, she was relentless in her hold on the man. Groans and cheers sounded periodically from the middle of the crowd.
Soon, CJ felt her adversary struggle for breath, dropping onto all fours, gasping despairingly for enough air to allow him to continue the fight. To not lose to a girl. Her hold on the man didn't loosen until he slumped, unconscious, to the ground, with her sitting victoriously upon his sweat-drenched back.
Dennis chuckled lowly as he pocketed his winnings. The whole arena remained silent as they watched this new fighter in awe.
"Oh yeah," she directed her speech at Leo, "I did some cage-fighting, way back when. My nickname was The Black Snake. I was world-famous-" she chuckles at the distant memory "right up until my father found out. El Segador seemed pretty surprised I was alive." Leo looked up at the woman in a mixture of bewilderment and fear.
"Anyone here think they can beat La Serpiente Negra?" the commentator asks once more.
"I do."
☆☆☆
Leo steps confidently into the ring.
"Let's see what you've really got, Cara." CJ contorts her face into a look of disgust at the mere sound of her name.
"I thought you said there was a reason behind me being in the crate you shoved me in! No one else is in a crate," she hissed.
"Yeah, well, we needed an excuse..."
"Jackass."
"Whatever, just fight me... Julia."
That's all it took for her to snap. In under a second, CJ was on top of Leo, delivering punch after punch to his unprotected face. The occasionally concerned shout for their friend would come from the gang, but none of them dared make an actual move to help.
Leo had succeeded in his goal to see how anger affects CJ's fighting. Unfortunately for him, her negative emotions only fuel her power, she used it to inflict the most pain every hit. After a minute of wresting on the cold metal floor, Leo flipped the pair, pushing her underneath him on her front.
Thick blood dripped from his upper lip onto her back, as he twisted her arm into the air. Somehow, his challenger still made no sound of pain or even discomfort, save for the way her muscles relaxed as she stopped fighting against Leo's hold on her. Feeling the change, he alleviated the pressure he was exerting on CJ's arm.
Wrong move.
Soundlessly, she crawled out from under him, sprung to her feet, and delivered a vengeful kick to his face. Spitting her own blood from her mouth, CJ watched the struggling man remorselessly.
"That was a low blow, Leo, even for you."
Without another word, she swung out of the cage and pushed her way through the crowd, not looking back.
☆☆☆
3 hours later
The door to the house was thrown open obnoxiously, a crash indicating the destruction of yet another potted plant. CJ lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling, as she had been for a while, awaiting the return of her fellow members.
Before long, she heard her name being called, by none other than Dennis. Reluctantly, she walked downstairs, to be greeted by a grinning group of 20+-year-olds.
"We have a surprise." CJ groans audibly as those cursed words leave her uncle's mouth.
"A good surprise," Iago reassures her. she continues to watch the men warily.
"The last time Dennis said that, I ended up with a room full of spiders and pink hair."
Aiden started coughing violently.
"Pink hair?" he squeals incredulously, "and he lived to tell the tale?" Dennis grins smugly.
"Yeah, well, he was under my father's protection back then. We'll see after this surprise."
Paulo led the way out of the house to a garage almost twice the size of CJ's apartment in London.
"Holy-" she began in wonder, before she was interrupted.
"Mind yo' profanities," Adrian exclaimed, laughter erupting from everyone.
Slowly, the metal door slid up, revealing a row of dust-free black vehicles. Her eyes ran carefully over each car before her eyes settled on something on the far right of the building. She shrieked in excitement, as the men brought their hands up to cover their ears.
"My bike!" she cried in obvious elation. A bright smile lit up her face as she ran her hands across the seat, looking thoroughly for any signs of damage. Positioning her legs on either side of the machine, she relaxed into the pillion, seeking comfort in the familiar feel of the worn, leather.
"Surprise?" Dennis questioned, "I knew you would be missing it so..."
"Thank you so much," she sighed, looking at each man in turn, "Thank you, for everything."
YOU ARE READING
The Mafia Queens
Action"I came because your father passed two days ago. Drew is dead. You know what this means, right? You're next in line." - - - CJ Dickson is pulled out of her life in England and thrust into the USA, where she is supposed to assume her father's positio...
