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Literature Text
Jersey Red: Part One
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Jersey City, New Jersey
1997
"I guess I'm just curious. I heard the rumors about you."
Rumors?
"How come you never go to school?"
I'm home schooled. Daddy says it's easier on him. Ever since mommy died.
"Oh. I'm gonna be in 6th grade next year. Did you really bring that baby bird back from the dead?"
Yeah.
"Whoa. That's so... awesome!"
You're not... scared of me?
"No way! Nothing scares me! Although I just had to see if the rumors were true. The kids say you're a ghost."
... ouch! What was that for?
"You can't pinch a ghost, can ya? A ghost can't feel pain. You're just as real as I am."
They make fun of me, don't they?
"... why are you crying?"
I always wondered what it might be like outside. But everyone makes fun of me...
"Hey! Anyone makes fun of you from now on, I'll kick their butts! You'll notice I'm a pretty big girl... bigger than some of the boys. Nobody makes fun of the Jersey Ghost anymore!"
The Jersey Ghost? Is... that what they call me?
"You don't like that name? Alright. I'll go back there and tell them what you're really called. And that you're a real girl, and you're my new real friend. My name's Jersey Red. Because I was born here in Jersey, and my hair's really red. So I'm Jersey Red! What's your name?"
My name? My name is...
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
The last vestiges of that other world known as sleep began to flutter away as the living corpse girl began to open her dead, grey eyes, and half-stared in front of her. She wasn't all that sure where she was, and that alone began to scare her. This certainly wasn't her hotel room... there was some sort of large window in front of her, and to her right side. Her scarred hand instinctively went for her boxcutter, and her frail muscles tensed as she got to her senses... and tried to sit up as best she could. But she was restrained... held fast by some long strip of coarse fabric going diagonally from hip to shoulder, affixing her tightly in her seat.
Her trusty, rusted-over boxcutter, still stained with the blood she still couldn't stop drawing, no matter how much Kikyo begged for it to stop, nearly went to shredding the fabric strap in front of her, until she realized just what it was.
A seatbelt.
It began to come back to her in a slow, painful haze. Made painful, mostly, by the blaring morning sunlight Ellis had rarely dealt with. Morning... she was nocturnal. Corpses abhorred sunlight. But the tiniest little ray of sunlight, Ellis' dearest Kikyo Daioh, the tiny Japanese prodigy, insisted that this was the best time to take care of this pressing business. Ellis didn't know why it was so pressing... this woman had been waiting for nine years. What would another twelve hours have been?
The corpse slowly leaned back again, releasing the grip on her boxcutter as it clattered uselessly onto her lap...
---
Miami, Florida
Two Days Ago
"You should be so proud, Ellis. You really should!"
If Ellis could smile, she would have. She didn't care about her own accomplishments... as far as she was concerned, the PWA was a place to bide her time until her corpse finally rotted away to nothingness. But Kikyo-chan, that tiniest ray of sunshine that shone upon the heart of the dead, seemed to beam so brightly.
That's my goal now, Ellis thought to herself. My little activity to bide my time until my body finally collapses upon itself. To make Kikyo-chan happy. To avenge what I've done to my tiny Ambellina. And to kill all who would do her harm. Whomsoever would cost Kikyo her innocence, she would cost them their life. You're my drug, Kikyo, she thought.
Kikyo, however, was beaming. The bright yellow swimsuit she wore while she floated around peacefully in the pool matching her bleached-blond hair. Ellis' own deathly black swimsuit matching her emotion, her constant feeling of worthlessness, especially when Kikyo wasn't around. The tiny prodigy smiled at the corpse child, as Ellis simply sat on the deck, rifting through a few old photographs. Memories of a happier time... not a happy time, by any means, but still happier than...
"I mean, look at it!", Kikyo's voice chimed out as it cheerfully cut through Ellis' inner shade, commanding her to listen to her tiny angel. "You've only been here a month, and already they love you so much that they want to give you a title shot! You're undefeated, you're invincible! Nobody else in the whole company can say that they've got four wins and no losses under their belt... and next week, you make your huge Pay Per View return, and you're gonna kick JP Rivers' butt, and win that Heavyweight title!"
Ellis meekly nodded, her attention kept on the photographs.
"I mean, it's just too bad that Halbeard couldn't be here to see it. If he hadn't gotten himself hurt... Ellis, remind me to call him and see if he's alright."
Ellis simply nodded again. Kikyo, seemingly out of her chattering trance now, swam over to Ellis and emerged from the pool, turning her attention in the same direction Ellis did, towards the slightly faded photographs. It was hard at first to recognize the grey-haired girl in the photographs... the young child bore almost no resemblance to Ellis Davis. But it took Kikyo a while to remind herself why... because the child in the pictures, while sharing Ellis' dead grey eyes and stringy grey hair, wasn't covered from head to toe in scar tissue. That would come later...
The photograph that caught Kikyo-chan's was a photograph from what Kikyo-chan had recognized on her numerous trips with Ellis to her native New Jersey, as the classic Jersey Shore. Ellis, very young, actually smiling, while a young red-haired girl wrapped an arm around her shoulder. A small signature marred the otherwise plain white back of the Polaroid...
"Cassie and Red- Jersey Shore 98"
"Cassie and Red... well... the girl with the red hair must be Red... so the girl with the grey hair must be Cassie. I thought it was you for a minute."
"It was.", the corpse girl croaked out, barely above the din of the hotel patrons hanging around the pool, enjoying the last vestiges of summer.
"Well... then who's Cassie?", questioned the tiny Kikyo. It was at this moment, a moment that should have been more apparent to Kikyo-chan in the past, that she'd never asked Ellis about her past. Anything before the time Ellis was locked in a closet for three years and beaten violently every day by her father, was all a mysterious blur.
"That was me."
"Ellis... your name... is Cassie?"
"It was... back when I was alive..."
---
Jersey City, New Jersey
1998
The young red-haired girl smiled brightly as her feet dangled off the boardwalk. She blew on the Polaroid, shaking it slowly. The grey-haired girl reached up a hand, almost trying to grab it, then slowly drawing it back away.
"Blowing on it won't help it any, Red. There are crystals in there, they have to form the picture on their own. Shaking won't help."
Red smiled brightly, turning her attention to the grey-haired girl as the two began to dig into the foot-long hot-dogs Red claimed she'd actually paid for this time.
"That's what I'm talking about! You're just so darn smart, Cassie! Come on... say something else smart!"
"Um... well... I don't feel very smart right now, Red. I feel like I'm gonna do something dumb. I'm... gonna run away from home."
Red quickly crammed the rest of the hot-dog down her gullet, chugging down a cola to aid it's path as she kept her attention to Cassie.
"Well, why the heck would you do that?"
"It's... my daddy. He... beats me up sometimes. I don't want him to hurt me anymore, so I'm gonna run away."
"Why don't you tell the cops?"
"Don't you remember?... daddy is a cop."
Red sighed for a second, letting the picture fall to the boardwalk. "Darn. Well, you know, if he tries anything, I'll beat him up for you."
"You don't have to beat everyone up for me, Red."
"I know... but that's what friends do! I beat up people, and you do my homework! So tell me, how is your home schooling going?"
Cassie looked down with a sigh, slowly drawing up the picture as she reached for a pen from her jeans pocket, scrawling a few words on the back. "I'm done. Daddy said that test I took... that GED... was the same as graduating high-school."
"WHOA! You can go to college at twelve? I told you were super smart, Cassie!"
"Yeah... I figure if I go to college, get a dorm there, then daddy wouldn't..."
The wailing of violent police sirens pierced through the once-jovial atmosphere of the boardwalk as the two 12-year old girls stood up. Deep in Cassie's heart, she knew who it was. And knew that she'd have to go. Or he'd cause a scene. And blame her for it afterwards. And just hit her that much harder.
"I've gotta go", Cassandra whispered, staring at the cop car, and recognizing the overweight, bearded figure crammed behind the steering wheel. Unconsciously, Cassandra slid the photograph into her pocket as she slowly made her way to the car. The obese cop behind the wheel recognized this, and the sirens abruptly cut off. Red stood behind her... she knew there was nothing she could do, and hated herself for that.
What she didn't know, was that this was the last time she'd ever see Cassandra Ellis Davis.
Or the last time anyone would see her, for three years.
---
Miami, Florida
Two Days Ago
Kikyo-chan was almost in tears... she'd promised herself to try to control herself a bit more around Ellis. But until that day, until seeing that photograph of her and Red at the Jersey Shore, Kikyo forced herself to admit that she never really thought of Ellis as a full human being. But Ellis had a life before the abuse, before being locked in a closet for three years... she had dreams. She had aspirations.
She had a name... Cassandra. What a beautiful name, she thought. Cassandra Ellis Davis.
"Why didn't you tell me about your real name before, Cassie?", questioned the tiny angel.
"Please... don't call me Cassie anymore. It's Ellis. I'm always going to be Ellis, and not Cassandra, just like you're always going to be Kikyo, and not Jun."
"Oh... I'm sorry, C... I'm sorry, Ellis. So... do you know what happened to Red?"
Kikyo could almost see the tears welling up... or at least, where tears would have welled up, had Ellis any left to shed. "No... I never even knew her real name... they just called her Jersey Red."
"Hm... well... we have about a week until your Pay Per View match with JP Rivers... I think that should be more than enough time to find her."
"Don't tease me", Ellis croaked out. "Please... how the hell could we find a little girl almost a decade later, with just a nickname?"
Kikyo's face scrunched up with determination as she made her way to her stylish yellow purse, pulling out a tiny cellular phone. With one flip and the flick of a button, Kikyo brought the phone to life.
"With a phone call to my daddy!"
---
Tokyo, Japan
Two Days Ago
The old, grizzled, balding man with the Fu-Man-Chu moustache and classy business suit closed his cell phone. Pointing his finger ahead with strict determination, the old man stared forward... twenty snappily dressed businessmen, all with "Daioh Entertainment Industries" logos on their desks, gave this old man their full attention.
"Alright, gentlemen! You have your information! LET'S GET TO WORK!"
"Yes sir, Mr. Daioh!", the band screamed in unison, and immediately began clanging away on their computers. The next few minutes were a series of choreographed documents, spreadsheets, cross-references, and shouts of discovery.
"Sir! A human rights story about a middle school girl sneaking into a high school dance in Jersey City, and fitting in because she was as tall as the boys! Nickname of Jersey Red! Real name, Ruby Calloway! Matches the physical description!"
"Sir! Ruby Calloway shows up on a list of graduates from a high school in New Jersey! Long red hair, and a nickname! Jersey Red! Matches the physical description and age!"
"Sir! Ruby Calloway's name shows up on a list of registered professional bodybuilders! 20 years old! Matches both the information and Ellis' age! She also owns a gymnasium in Orlando, Florida called "Ladies' Muscle and Fitness"! Tax receipts also show the gym as her home address!"
"Sir! The "Ladies' Muscle and Fitness" website shows the gym is similar to a studio apartment, meaning she could live on the relatively smaller second floor! Also shows that she's 6 feet tall, and close to 200 pounds, and fire-red hair! All information and data matches!"
The grizzled old man gave a wide grin and reached once again for his cellular phone. "Great work, boys. Tonight, I'm treating everyone to KARAOKE!"
"SIR! WE LOVE YOU!"
---
Miami, Florida
Two Days Ago
Kikyo shut off her phone with a smug little grin, looking over at Ellis.
"Guess what?"
---
End Part One
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Jersey Red: Part Two
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Tokyo, Japan
2001
Aren't you gonna come and say goodbye, big sister? Your eleven-year old sister is going to college in America! I'm so proud!
"You should be, Jun. You should be."
Come on, sister. You've been in here for days. You sick?
"Jun... go into my dresser... take out the locket."
The gold one? The one you told me not to touch?
"Take it. It's a gift. I want you to keep it."
Big sister is so nice!
"I'm pregnant, Jun."
Pregnant? You're gonna have a little baby! Today is the happiest day ever! So many good...
"It's bad, Jun! How is father going to react when he finds out? I never married, this is going to ruin my body and my wrestling career... I can't have this child, Jun. I've... dishonored the family."
Well... what are you gonna do, big sister? What... are you gonna do with that knife?
"I love you, Jun."
BIG SISTER!
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
Now it was Kikyo's turn to wake up in a cold sweat. However, she was unhampered by her seat belt, as she flailed by herself in the back seat. Immediately, her hand went for her chest as she gasped in terror, and clutched at her tiny chest... her hands finding the small, golden locket attached to her necklace. The necklace itself was nothing special, a simple faux-gold charm-necklace starter. But the tiny locket held ever so dear to the tiny girl's chest, cradled inside it closely a small picture of a young, white-haired woman with a sadistic grin and a silver mask covering half of her face... and in the other half, the same white-haired woman with a gentle smile and warm, caring eyes. As far as Jun "Kikyo" Daioh was concerned, her older sister... the original Kikyo Daioh... was the duality of life. A sadist in the ring, cruel and unmerciful, but when she was at home...
The tiny prodigy was startled again, this time by the sliding side door of the elegant and insanely well-equipped PT Cruiser Kikyo called her home away from home. And emerging from the sliding door, the face and horribly scarred visage of the living corpse, Kikyo's current charge, Ellis Davis.
"I saw you sweating and panting from outside", croaked out the corpse girl in a dead voice barely above the level of a massive semi-truck backfiring it's way upon the highway. "What's wrong?"
"It's... nothing. Just a bad dream. That's all. How long have I been asleep?"
"A couple hours. I just had to pull in and get some gas."
Kikyo seemed to have returned to some level of normalcy, releasing her death-grip on the tiny necklace hidden under her sun dress, as the corpse girl, wearing her leather jacket in the blistering 100 degree weather and not showing a drop of sweat on her cold, scar-ridden flesh, looked at her deeply.
"I've got to go in and pay. The debit card slot on the pump's been jammed. Do you want me to get you something?"
"Yeah... iced tea, please."
The corpse nodded, and once again closed the door, leaving Kikyo-chan to her thoughts. She hadn't dreamt about her sister in a while now... part of the reason she decided to go to college in America, aside from America's seemingly higher level of acceptance of students who had skipped grades, was to get away from those memories. Of seeing the blood spilling out of the throat of the one she'd grown up emulating.
Although she only took enough psychology as was required as a base for getting her degree, Kikyo was pretty sure part of the reason she tried to hold on so hard to Ellis, was because of what her sister did all those years ago. Maybe if Ellis could find the strength to triumph over the same kind of crippling depression that the original Kikyo Daioh had fallen prey to, and find it in the tiny prodigy... maybe she'd be alright, too.
Ellis returned to her position behind the wheel, handing Kikyo-chan her canister of tea, and starting in on her own bottle of water as the jet black Cruiser made it's way back down the road. It took a little tampering with the built-in GPS system... about the only paid perk the cruiser had that had some practical use, built-in plasma television screens with satellite television, and Sirius Satellite Radio, be damned... before Ellis was familiar enough with the three-dimensional layout to start making her way towards "Ladies' Muscle and Fitness", the gymnasium where Ellis hoped to find this link to her past.
Fears and doubts had riddled the corpse girl from the beginning, but as the arrow indicated that the two were getting dangerously close to the end of their road trip, she realized she wouldn't have long to voice them. One last stop came to mind, as Ellis spied on the horizon, the black-and-white checkered institution that she and Kikyo-chan was a huge fan of.
"Hey... you hungry?"
"Hm? Oh... now that you mention it, my tummy is kinda rumbling."
"There's a Steak 'n' Shake up ahead."
"Yay!"
Ellis was about to shut the car off and make into the restaurant, when the tiny prodigy put down her tea, and placed a gentle hand on the Sirius Satellite receiver, bringing the satellite radio to life.
"I wanna hear something first..."
---
Miami, Florida
Present Day
It was a little hard for the large, hulking Samoan man to work both the control panel and microphone at the same time, and try to hold a decent show together. But fate had dictated he'd be alone this week... fate, and a mistimed DDT. So a clip show, hosted by producer and co-host Marcus Lane, had replaced the regular show for a while. The show drew to a close, with fifteen minutes to spare, Marcus noticed it was time to get down to business. The business, at least, of paying the bills.
"Once again, ladies and gentlemen", boomed the massive Samoan, "we thank you for tuning into Straight Shooters, only on WBL 200, only on Sirius. Don't forget to catch our talent out there every week... Ryoko, the infamous 'Pirate Bitch' makes her debut this week on ASW... catch Mary X and Father Leopold Goenitz on IPW... and this week, PWA programming goes to it's first Pay-Per-View, "PWA Inaugural Brawl". Catch WBL Studios' own Ellis Davis, in one-on-one action in the main event against Jeff Rivers. It's the PWA's Savior against the Suicide Queen in a last man standing match. Winner takes away the inaugural PWA Heavyweight Title. Everyone show up in your WBL Studios gear and support our own Corpse Girl. That's gonna do it for me. Streets is watching, boppers."
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
Kikyo wrinkled her nose as she killed the radio, and Ellis killed the ignition.
"Streets is watching?"
"It's from The Warriors. It was a landmark mindless action flick."
Kikyo nodded... she wasn't much into American cinema. She'd almost gotten back into the genre, when she'd found out that Snakes on a Plane had actually been filmed into existence. All hope for American cinema that hadn't been dashed by the creation of "Spice World" vanished.
The two made their way into the Steak 'n' Shake and took their seat, Kikyo-chan enjoying the refreshingly cool breeze that accompanied the walk into the restaurant. Ellis was slightly surprised when, during the middle of what had to be a horrid Labor Day Weekend dinner rush, a young waiter hurriedly made his way over to their table. The young man could only stare...
Immediately, Ellis began to feel that sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Someone else to pity her. To hate her. To stare at the scarred flesh and scrawny body that barely kept in check, the soul of the rotting corpse girl. The feeling stuck with her, even after she realized that the waiter was staring at Kikyo-chan.
"Hey... I know you. You're... Matchbox Kikyo!"
Kikyo wore a small look of surprise for a second. Matchbox Kikyo. She hadn't been called that name since...
---
Tijuana, Mexico
2005
The 6 foot tall, blonde amazon woman, grinned sadistically as she adjusted her ice-blue mask, matching her black wrestling attire and blue fringed boots and gloves perfectly. The Tijuana crowd was more than lavishing their praise upon the amazonian blonde, and for good reason. The infamous Jo Phoenix, Mexico's premiere wrestling goddess, had over the course of the last few months, given them some of the most phenomenal matches they'd ever seen. Border City Circuit Pro loved their heavyweight champion... and had more than a measure of respect for the woman who stood beside her in that ring that night. A young girl with long, auburn hair, dressed in a very sophisticated business suit and a pair of blue-tinted sunglasses. The tiny businesswoman took the microphone to her lips, and the crowd died down in respect.
"So... the offer still stands, Roshi Rich. Any wrestler you can put up against the world's premiere Mexican wrestling goddess, my client, the great Jo Phoenix. Anyone you think can wrestle this title away from her. I've got 50,000 pesos that says nobody can put out the fire, that is the eternal flame, the blond bombshell, Jo Phoenix!"
Challenges were meant to be answered, bounties were meant to be cashed in upon, and tables were meant to be crashed through, as the mysterious leather-clad ghost rider Skull King, masked himself with his trademark skull mask, burst through the crowd, and immediately started wailing away on the champion. Matchbox Kikyo, the tiny businesswoman, knew her place, and immediately went right for the lighter fluid... much to the chagrin of the color commentators who got the hell out of Tijuana as soon as the tiny prodigy poured the thick liquid all over the immediate area.
The one critical problem, however... she'd forgotten to keep an eye on the action going on in the ring behind her. Forgotten to keep an eye on Skull King... and now Skull Queen... and Skull Jack... and Skull Jester... and a host of other skull-masked hooligans, all enjoying the violent beatdown the champion was a victim of. By the time Matchbox Kikyo had set the table ablaze, it was too late, as Skull King took a hold of the young girl's throat...lifted her into the air...
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
"I've still got the scar from that one!", chirped the tiny prodigy, showing the eager young waiter a nearly-imperceptible scar on the back of her neck.
"Whoa... awesome. Can I get your autograph?"
One tiny signature and a tiny smile later, Kikyo had unwittingly scored the two a free meal. Kikyo slurped down her strawberry milkshake with her mile-wide smile that could melt even a dead girl's heart. Ellis merely looked at the tiny prodigy, her dead grey eyes clouding over as her thoughts churned back to her own past wrestling experience. Her own time spent with Jo Phoenix, wrestling together as reluctant allies in the WCF, wasn't one of the more pleasant memories Ellis had. Jo was a diva, even back then. But Jo had proved herself, winning two titles simultaneously, and even helping Ellis achieve gold herself, before Jo's mouth, and the truth about her former bosses, set the gang formerly known as "A Favor House Atlantic" free.
Now Ellis had a chance to win a title on her own. Certainly, Halbeard had given her the rub, but now he was out of the picture. Now it was Ellis, and Ellis alone.
Well, not totally alone, she thought. I have my Ambellina to guide me. Plus if this woman truly is Jersey Red... The end of dinner brought about the end of Ellis' hesitation.
"Kikyo... I'm not too sure about this."
Kikyo paused mid-milkshake, looking calmingly at the living corpse. "Why?"
"Well... suppose this woman, this Ruby Calloway, really is the Jersey Red I was friends with all that time ago. Back before... well... what is she gonna say? I mean... when we finally get face-to-face with her? When she sees what I've become? I'm thinking this was a mistake... I'd like for her to remember her as I once was. Back before I became this rotting... thing."
Kikyo sighed, looking deeply into the abyss that was Ellis' cold, dead eyes. "Ellis... if this Jersey Red is the woman you say she is... then she won't care what you are. Just... that you are."
"Are you... sure?"
"Of course."
Kikyo-chan's judgment had never steered the rotting corpse wrong before. She just prayed there wasn't a first time for everything as the two left a more-than-generous tip for their young fan, and left. Within the same complex, a mere five minute drive from the Steak 'n' Shake, loomed the massive gym known as "Women's Muscle and Fitness". Drawing up her courage as much as she could, Ellis opened the door, and cut the sacred ribbon on this part of her past that had stayed silent for so long.
Even if the crowd hadn't swarmed around Ruby Calloway, Ellis could have spotted her in a second. It was the hair... the flame-red hair. That's what had startled her when the two were young, two tiny girls against the world. Only now, the rest of her body stood out just as much as her flaming locks. A combination of amazing genetics and violent dedication to herself, had given birth to a 6 foot tall, 195 pound wall of solid, powerful, feminine muscle that drew the applause and adoration of the crowd around her as Ruby replaced the 400 pounds back on the rack and sat up from her massive bench press, wiping away the sweat matting her waist-length, flaming red locks to her face. The red sports bra and tight red workout shorts revealed every muscle group on this burning babe.
She's every bit as perfect, as I am a freak, Ellis thought mournfully. She's going to look at me and see what a freak I've become. Kikyo's judgment didn't seem so sound anymore.
But before Ellis could tear herself away from the crowd, to disappear into the darkness as she was apt to do these days, Ruby Calloway's flaming red eyes locked with her own dead grey ones. Flaming red eyes that recognized those dead grey orbs. That recognized the body within whom they resided. The burning muscle woman's jaw dropped to the floor. Miss Calloway seemed like she'd seen a ghost.
Or more specifically, a zombie.
One word made it's way up from her hulking chest, through her powerful neck, and out her pouty red lips.
"Cassie..."
---
End Part Two
/////////////////////
Jersey Red: Part Three
---
Warning: reader discretion is advised. This chapter is rated 18+.
---
Jersey City, New Jersey
September 11th, 2001
I'd been in that closet for three years.
I'd lost all track of time at that point. Lost all rational thought. By now, I was so emaciated that I could easily have slipped through the handcuffs. My wrists hurt, my stomach hurt, my head hurt. I'm sure, in that time, I'd gone mad a million times. Gone horribly insane. With nobody to talk to but this darkness, nowhere to move shackled to this wall. It was hard in the past to pinpoint the exact second I died, became this rotting pile of flesh you see before you. But now, I'm pretty sure. I lost my life on the day where, miles away, thousands upon thousands lost theirs in a death just as tragic.
I knew that the 9/11 attacks were going to happen a few hours beforehand. Because it told me.
I tried to reach out and touch it, there in the darkness, but didn't try too hard... over the course of those three years, the only times I'd been free enough to move around down there were when my father came to beat the hell out of me before tossing me a scrap of food, or sliding a ceramic bowl under me so I could use it like a toilet. I knew that it'd be useless to try to touch it, that if I did, it might evaporate.
I'd long ago lost all senses. I could see nothing there but a thin crack of light where the door didn't completely open, illuminating my own scarred flesh. I could hear nothing but my own tortured sobbing. The sensation of touch was overwhelmed and rendered useless by the constant waves of pain that had driven me mad. The smell of my own sweat and urine blocked out everything else. I could taste nothing, not even the meager scraps he'd force fed me in order to appease his own wretched soul.
I hate him. I fucking hate him. But back then, I was such a shell that whenever he stepped into that closet, the light of whatever time of day it was illuminating his fat, disgusting frame, I almost thought in my hallucinations that he was God. But God doesn't cram his cock down your throat.
I cried for you at first, Red. You were the only thing I'd recognized as anything close to a caring, loving influence. Then I cried for God. How could he let this happen to a little girl he supposedly loved? Then, after a while, I stopped crying at all, and let him shove his fat, hairy, hideous cock wherever he wanted. I didn't care at that point. I was as good as dead.
I couldn't remember what day it was. I didn't even know what year it was, what planet we were on, or even my own name at that point. Until it reminded me. It came to me. It talked to me. For a while, I thought I was going mad again. Just having a hallucination. But I didn't care at that point. Whether it was with something from deep inside my own head, or truly the ethereal figure it appeared to be, it was the first meaningful conversation I'd had since that night on the Jersey Shore with you, Red.
-Do you wish to be free, child?-
Free... the word had lost all meaning long ago, along with nearly every other word other than 'bitch', which at that point, I was convinced my name was. But the thing that spoke to me... it didn't really talk. It was more of a psychic sensation. Like it could empathize with me, and send me signals somehow.
-Yes-, I replied in kind, not really noticing that my lips weren't moving. Either this thing could read my mind, or I had really gone mad. Either way, at this point, the carrot had been dangled in front of my face, and I was willing to rip an arm off to grab it.
-There will be very soon, a great tragedy. A great release of souls. Many dead.-
-What... does this have to do with me?-
-When a rift like that opens, child, when so many die at once, the gates between the living and the dead, jar open for a second. Long enough for things to slip through. Would you like to slip through?-
Death... this thing was offering me death.
-Yes.-
-Then let your body go limp, little one. Close your eyes. Relax your tired muscles. Let your soul go.-
I did as commanded.
-Will I... die?-
-Temporarily. But the gates should be open more than long enough to allow you to pass back through when the time is right.-
-Why are you... helping me?-, I asked without asking.
-Because it's only right that I give this gift to my ...-
To this day, I still can't remember the last word it said. Because that's when the door flung open, and my father, pants around his ankles and a half-empty beer bottle in his hand, stared at the corpse of his little girl.
---
Leonardo, New Jersey
September 11th, 2001
That day in American history will go down as one of the most tragic, most chaotic, and most painful days in recorded history. I almost feel bad for that day when so many thousands of souls were ushered to the other side of that ethereal gate, that that particular day was one of the best days of my life. But the thing in the darkness deemed it my time, and I wasn't going to argue.
I could see it without seeing it. My father ripping my hands from their cuffs, rolling me haphazardly into the carpet where I used to learn my lessons and take my beatings. Cramming it into the back of his police car. Barreling off down the highway. A cop car going at high speed was normally nothing to suspicious of, especially when the world had been distracted by the airplane that had just slammed into the second tower. But two men sitting in their own car had been generous enough to switch their radio back from reports of this incident, to the traditional bandwidth needed to communicate with the cars staked out around my father's house.
Who polices the police? In so many movies, Internal Affairs are often maligned and seen as bad guys. But that day, they saved my life. Or at least my body.
And it was there, in the dumpster behind a Christian bookstore, that my body was dumped, and I watched without watching as Internal Affairs dropped the hammer on my father. Slammed him to the ground as he'd slammed me so many times. Cuffed him as he'd cuffed me. Punished him as he'd punished me. Smacked him around a bit for the things he'd done. Watched as one of the IA men's vomit covered the ground as he saw just what was in that dirt-stained carpet.
-Should I enter now?-, I asked the thing. -Is the door still open?-
-The door will be open for several hours, child. Take your time.-
I hovered there for a little while. I wanted to see them beat the shit out of my father.
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
"And that's when I woke up. A couple of hours later. I decided to wake up after the rain had started falling. I thought it'd be poetic. So regardless of what they may have told you, Red, I didn't abandon you. I just... didn't have a choice."
The corpse girl, staring blankly at the wall of muscle that had once been her friend, had long ago ushered Kikyo out of the room. She knew the tiny prodigy was still listening at the door... she just didn't think she could finish her story seeing Kikyo cry. She stared at Ruby Calloway, the wall of solid female muscle with the flaming red hair, as the two sat alone in Ruby's bedroom in the second floor of the studio apartment-esque "Women's Muscle and Fitness".
"Do you... forgive me?"
---
Orlando, Florida
Early 2001
The elderly man hung up the phone and sighed slightly. Still no response, other than Wayne Davis' gruff and crass 'don't call here again', as he made his way over to his crimson-haired daughter, who was cheerfully making her wrestling action figures beat the hell out of each other.
"Sorry, sweetheart. I still can't get in touch with her. She probably won't make it to your sweet 16 next week."
The girl dropped The Undertaker and Sabu and stared up at her father.
"Is she in trouble? Is she sick or something?"
"No. It's just... sometimes when you move away, sometimes you lose contact with people. I mean, when I got this new job running this gym down here, I lost a couple of friends myself. I mean, sure, these days there's the internet, but sometimes people just... lose touch." The old man tried to speak calmingly, but deep down inside, he truly felt something was wrong. He'd be sure to make a couple of calls after his daughter had gone to bed.
The red-haired girl crossed her arms under her chest with a huff. "Well. that's just fine. If she's gonna act like that, I hope I never see her again."
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
Ellis closed her eyes slightly. There'd been no response from the muscled woman for nearly a minute. This was a mistake, she thought. I've poured my heart out to a stranger. This whole trip was...
She could feel something painful constricting around her. For a second, she thought she was having another panic attack. Then her other senses kicked in. The scent of sweat and strawberry-scented dime-store perfume. The sound of soft weeping that, for once, wasn't her own or Kikyo's. And the sight. As Ellis opened her dead grey eyes, all she could see was that mountain of flaming red hair. Then she realized that that powerful constricting feeling was Ruby Calloway's powerful arms wrapping around her and giving her the tightest hug she'd ever had.
Ellis couldn't describe the feeling. She'd been hugged by Kikyo many times before, in the tiny prodigy's efforts to make the corpse girl feel that much better. But this hug was different... a strong, powerful hug. The kind a father would give his son or daughter, if he loved them.
"I don't know what I...expected to find by coming here, Ruby. But Kikyo insisted that..."
"Shhh. Just call me Red."
---
Jersey City, New Jersey
1997
"You don't like that name? Alright. I'll go back there and tell them what you're really called. And that you're a real girl, and you're my new real friend. My name's Jersey Red. Because I was born here in Jersey, and my hair's really red. So I'm Jersey Red! What's your name?"
The tall, attractive, flaming-haired girl who just introduced her sat beside the small, frail, grey-haired girl on the front steps of the old two-level house, and gave a bright, wide grin as she eagerly expected an answer.
"My name? My name is... my name is Cassandra."
"Cassandra, then, is it? Then I'll call you Cassie. That's hip! Hey, you wanna come over to my house and play with us? My friend's brother got some tapes of something called ECW, he says it's really cool."
"Are you sure... that they wouldn't mind?"
"I'll ask!"
The red-haired girl dashed over to the group. The conversation couldn't be heard all that well over the droning music coming from in front of the nearby barber shop, but Cassie watched as the Red pointed to Ellis, then looked at her friends. Her friends started laughing, and Ellis almost broke down in tears, until Red grabbed one of the boys' bookbags and proceeded to beat the ever-loving crap out of him. A few seconds later, Red returned to her seat next to Cassandra Ellis Davis.
"Or we could just hang out. No big deal."
---
Miami, Florida
Present Day
Phone numbers, beeper numbers, E-mail addresses, and tearful hugs were exchanged as Cassandra Ellis Davis and Ruby Noble Calloway parted ways. Night had fallen over Florida, and a long drive was ahead. Although her body was tired and weary, the tiny Kikyo-chan insisted on driving the entire way back to the hotel, allowing Ellis to let the events of the day sink in. She'd gone to find an old friend, and she'd found... she still wasn't sure. But it was more than a relief to finally tell her story. Get that massive burden off her frail chest. Afterwards, she'd almost felt stupid for baring her soul like that. Stories about ethereal figures and astral projection, she really did sound crazy. And she wasn't too entirely sure that she wasn't. But the message was clear... Ruby was glad to see her again. And Ellis was glad to see that Ruby was doing well. Phenomenally well. Red had always been a tall girl, it was probably nothing to pack some muscle onto that frame. And pack she did.
She didn't even bother exchanging words with Kikyo, just a tender hug, before the living corpse shambled on back to her own hotel room. A long, hot shower gave the corpse time to decompress after what had been an insanely emotional day. She would have loved to stay with Ruby a bit longer, but duty called. Duty, in the form of the PWA.
The Heavyweight title... Ellis thought about it offhandedly as she pulled on her nightshirt and pajama bottoms, and loaded the "Second Stage Turbine Blade" album from her favorite band, Coheed & Cambria, into her CD player, skipping ahead to Time Consumer and allowing the opening guitar solo to overtake her as she laid down, eyes closed. She realized that she'd been lax on that front. She had a massive title match... the biggest match in her relatively short career, a main event at an inaugural Pay-Per-View... Inaugural Brawl, in fact, a name that Kikyo wouldn't let anyone forget that she made. A title match against JP Rivers, a man who'd made waves in the company, just like she had, and had apparently had been having his own problems while Ellis was away. The only difference was that she was undefeated. Four victories in as many matches, even helping carry the injured Hal Johnson to victory in what was destined to be his final match. And now, after two decades of abuse, months of wrestling hell, and weeks of finally getting an ounce of respect from the locker room for her talents, Ellis Davis was finally in a position to take the world stage.
World Heavyweight title... the title would have been somewhat odd for the corpse girl. Heavyweight, because Ellis was barely above a hundred pounds, and world... she wondered idly how many people out there held world heavyweight titles, and considered themselves as best in the world. Such simple thoughts, she allowed her mind to fill with, and then flutter away with, as she let the Ambien kick in and take her to sleep.
The last conscious thought Ellis had before dozing off was that if Rivers was going to have a son, that he'd better damned well be a better father this Wayne Ian Davis was, or he was going to get a personal visit from the corpse girl.
Then she thought... how could he be any worse?
Sleep came peacefully for the first time since the early 90s...
---
End Part Three
---
Jersey City, New Jersey
1997
"I guess I'm just curious. I heard the rumors about you."
Rumors?
"How come you never go to school?"
I'm home schooled. Daddy says it's easier on him. Ever since mommy died.
"Oh. I'm gonna be in 6th grade next year. Did you really bring that baby bird back from the dead?"
Yeah.
"Whoa. That's so... awesome!"
You're not... scared of me?
"No way! Nothing scares me! Although I just had to see if the rumors were true. The kids say you're a ghost."
... ouch! What was that for?
"You can't pinch a ghost, can ya? A ghost can't feel pain. You're just as real as I am."
They make fun of me, don't they?
"... why are you crying?"
I always wondered what it might be like outside. But everyone makes fun of me...
"Hey! Anyone makes fun of you from now on, I'll kick their butts! You'll notice I'm a pretty big girl... bigger than some of the boys. Nobody makes fun of the Jersey Ghost anymore!"
The Jersey Ghost? Is... that what they call me?
"You don't like that name? Alright. I'll go back there and tell them what you're really called. And that you're a real girl, and you're my new real friend. My name's Jersey Red. Because I was born here in Jersey, and my hair's really red. So I'm Jersey Red! What's your name?"
My name? My name is...
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
The last vestiges of that other world known as sleep began to flutter away as the living corpse girl began to open her dead, grey eyes, and half-stared in front of her. She wasn't all that sure where she was, and that alone began to scare her. This certainly wasn't her hotel room... there was some sort of large window in front of her, and to her right side. Her scarred hand instinctively went for her boxcutter, and her frail muscles tensed as she got to her senses... and tried to sit up as best she could. But she was restrained... held fast by some long strip of coarse fabric going diagonally from hip to shoulder, affixing her tightly in her seat.
Her trusty, rusted-over boxcutter, still stained with the blood she still couldn't stop drawing, no matter how much Kikyo begged for it to stop, nearly went to shredding the fabric strap in front of her, until she realized just what it was.
A seatbelt.
It began to come back to her in a slow, painful haze. Made painful, mostly, by the blaring morning sunlight Ellis had rarely dealt with. Morning... she was nocturnal. Corpses abhorred sunlight. But the tiniest little ray of sunlight, Ellis' dearest Kikyo Daioh, the tiny Japanese prodigy, insisted that this was the best time to take care of this pressing business. Ellis didn't know why it was so pressing... this woman had been waiting for nine years. What would another twelve hours have been?
The corpse slowly leaned back again, releasing the grip on her boxcutter as it clattered uselessly onto her lap...
---
Miami, Florida
Two Days Ago
"You should be so proud, Ellis. You really should!"
If Ellis could smile, she would have. She didn't care about her own accomplishments... as far as she was concerned, the PWA was a place to bide her time until her corpse finally rotted away to nothingness. But Kikyo-chan, that tiniest ray of sunshine that shone upon the heart of the dead, seemed to beam so brightly.
That's my goal now, Ellis thought to herself. My little activity to bide my time until my body finally collapses upon itself. To make Kikyo-chan happy. To avenge what I've done to my tiny Ambellina. And to kill all who would do her harm. Whomsoever would cost Kikyo her innocence, she would cost them their life. You're my drug, Kikyo, she thought.
Kikyo, however, was beaming. The bright yellow swimsuit she wore while she floated around peacefully in the pool matching her bleached-blond hair. Ellis' own deathly black swimsuit matching her emotion, her constant feeling of worthlessness, especially when Kikyo wasn't around. The tiny prodigy smiled at the corpse child, as Ellis simply sat on the deck, rifting through a few old photographs. Memories of a happier time... not a happy time, by any means, but still happier than...
"I mean, look at it!", Kikyo's voice chimed out as it cheerfully cut through Ellis' inner shade, commanding her to listen to her tiny angel. "You've only been here a month, and already they love you so much that they want to give you a title shot! You're undefeated, you're invincible! Nobody else in the whole company can say that they've got four wins and no losses under their belt... and next week, you make your huge Pay Per View return, and you're gonna kick JP Rivers' butt, and win that Heavyweight title!"
Ellis meekly nodded, her attention kept on the photographs.
"I mean, it's just too bad that Halbeard couldn't be here to see it. If he hadn't gotten himself hurt... Ellis, remind me to call him and see if he's alright."
Ellis simply nodded again. Kikyo, seemingly out of her chattering trance now, swam over to Ellis and emerged from the pool, turning her attention in the same direction Ellis did, towards the slightly faded photographs. It was hard at first to recognize the grey-haired girl in the photographs... the young child bore almost no resemblance to Ellis Davis. But it took Kikyo a while to remind herself why... because the child in the pictures, while sharing Ellis' dead grey eyes and stringy grey hair, wasn't covered from head to toe in scar tissue. That would come later...
The photograph that caught Kikyo-chan's was a photograph from what Kikyo-chan had recognized on her numerous trips with Ellis to her native New Jersey, as the classic Jersey Shore. Ellis, very young, actually smiling, while a young red-haired girl wrapped an arm around her shoulder. A small signature marred the otherwise plain white back of the Polaroid...
"Cassie and Red- Jersey Shore 98"
"Cassie and Red... well... the girl with the red hair must be Red... so the girl with the grey hair must be Cassie. I thought it was you for a minute."
"It was.", the corpse girl croaked out, barely above the din of the hotel patrons hanging around the pool, enjoying the last vestiges of summer.
"Well... then who's Cassie?", questioned the tiny Kikyo. It was at this moment, a moment that should have been more apparent to Kikyo-chan in the past, that she'd never asked Ellis about her past. Anything before the time Ellis was locked in a closet for three years and beaten violently every day by her father, was all a mysterious blur.
"That was me."
"Ellis... your name... is Cassie?"
"It was... back when I was alive..."
---
Jersey City, New Jersey
1998
The young red-haired girl smiled brightly as her feet dangled off the boardwalk. She blew on the Polaroid, shaking it slowly. The grey-haired girl reached up a hand, almost trying to grab it, then slowly drawing it back away.
"Blowing on it won't help it any, Red. There are crystals in there, they have to form the picture on their own. Shaking won't help."
Red smiled brightly, turning her attention to the grey-haired girl as the two began to dig into the foot-long hot-dogs Red claimed she'd actually paid for this time.
"That's what I'm talking about! You're just so darn smart, Cassie! Come on... say something else smart!"
"Um... well... I don't feel very smart right now, Red. I feel like I'm gonna do something dumb. I'm... gonna run away from home."
Red quickly crammed the rest of the hot-dog down her gullet, chugging down a cola to aid it's path as she kept her attention to Cassie.
"Well, why the heck would you do that?"
"It's... my daddy. He... beats me up sometimes. I don't want him to hurt me anymore, so I'm gonna run away."
"Why don't you tell the cops?"
"Don't you remember?... daddy is a cop."
Red sighed for a second, letting the picture fall to the boardwalk. "Darn. Well, you know, if he tries anything, I'll beat him up for you."
"You don't have to beat everyone up for me, Red."
"I know... but that's what friends do! I beat up people, and you do my homework! So tell me, how is your home schooling going?"
Cassie looked down with a sigh, slowly drawing up the picture as she reached for a pen from her jeans pocket, scrawling a few words on the back. "I'm done. Daddy said that test I took... that GED... was the same as graduating high-school."
"WHOA! You can go to college at twelve? I told you were super smart, Cassie!"
"Yeah... I figure if I go to college, get a dorm there, then daddy wouldn't..."
The wailing of violent police sirens pierced through the once-jovial atmosphere of the boardwalk as the two 12-year old girls stood up. Deep in Cassie's heart, she knew who it was. And knew that she'd have to go. Or he'd cause a scene. And blame her for it afterwards. And just hit her that much harder.
"I've gotta go", Cassandra whispered, staring at the cop car, and recognizing the overweight, bearded figure crammed behind the steering wheel. Unconsciously, Cassandra slid the photograph into her pocket as she slowly made her way to the car. The obese cop behind the wheel recognized this, and the sirens abruptly cut off. Red stood behind her... she knew there was nothing she could do, and hated herself for that.
What she didn't know, was that this was the last time she'd ever see Cassandra Ellis Davis.
Or the last time anyone would see her, for three years.
---
Miami, Florida
Two Days Ago
Kikyo-chan was almost in tears... she'd promised herself to try to control herself a bit more around Ellis. But until that day, until seeing that photograph of her and Red at the Jersey Shore, Kikyo forced herself to admit that she never really thought of Ellis as a full human being. But Ellis had a life before the abuse, before being locked in a closet for three years... she had dreams. She had aspirations.
She had a name... Cassandra. What a beautiful name, she thought. Cassandra Ellis Davis.
"Why didn't you tell me about your real name before, Cassie?", questioned the tiny angel.
"Please... don't call me Cassie anymore. It's Ellis. I'm always going to be Ellis, and not Cassandra, just like you're always going to be Kikyo, and not Jun."
"Oh... I'm sorry, C... I'm sorry, Ellis. So... do you know what happened to Red?"
Kikyo could almost see the tears welling up... or at least, where tears would have welled up, had Ellis any left to shed. "No... I never even knew her real name... they just called her Jersey Red."
"Hm... well... we have about a week until your Pay Per View match with JP Rivers... I think that should be more than enough time to find her."
"Don't tease me", Ellis croaked out. "Please... how the hell could we find a little girl almost a decade later, with just a nickname?"
Kikyo's face scrunched up with determination as she made her way to her stylish yellow purse, pulling out a tiny cellular phone. With one flip and the flick of a button, Kikyo brought the phone to life.
"With a phone call to my daddy!"
---
Tokyo, Japan
Two Days Ago
The old, grizzled, balding man with the Fu-Man-Chu moustache and classy business suit closed his cell phone. Pointing his finger ahead with strict determination, the old man stared forward... twenty snappily dressed businessmen, all with "Daioh Entertainment Industries" logos on their desks, gave this old man their full attention.
"Alright, gentlemen! You have your information! LET'S GET TO WORK!"
"Yes sir, Mr. Daioh!", the band screamed in unison, and immediately began clanging away on their computers. The next few minutes were a series of choreographed documents, spreadsheets, cross-references, and shouts of discovery.
"Sir! A human rights story about a middle school girl sneaking into a high school dance in Jersey City, and fitting in because she was as tall as the boys! Nickname of Jersey Red! Real name, Ruby Calloway! Matches the physical description!"
"Sir! Ruby Calloway shows up on a list of graduates from a high school in New Jersey! Long red hair, and a nickname! Jersey Red! Matches the physical description and age!"
"Sir! Ruby Calloway's name shows up on a list of registered professional bodybuilders! 20 years old! Matches both the information and Ellis' age! She also owns a gymnasium in Orlando, Florida called "Ladies' Muscle and Fitness"! Tax receipts also show the gym as her home address!"
"Sir! The "Ladies' Muscle and Fitness" website shows the gym is similar to a studio apartment, meaning she could live on the relatively smaller second floor! Also shows that she's 6 feet tall, and close to 200 pounds, and fire-red hair! All information and data matches!"
The grizzled old man gave a wide grin and reached once again for his cellular phone. "Great work, boys. Tonight, I'm treating everyone to KARAOKE!"
"SIR! WE LOVE YOU!"
---
Miami, Florida
Two Days Ago
Kikyo shut off her phone with a smug little grin, looking over at Ellis.
"Guess what?"
---
End Part One
/////////////////////
Jersey Red: Part Two
---
Tokyo, Japan
2001
Aren't you gonna come and say goodbye, big sister? Your eleven-year old sister is going to college in America! I'm so proud!
"You should be, Jun. You should be."
Come on, sister. You've been in here for days. You sick?
"Jun... go into my dresser... take out the locket."
The gold one? The one you told me not to touch?
"Take it. It's a gift. I want you to keep it."
Big sister is so nice!
"I'm pregnant, Jun."
Pregnant? You're gonna have a little baby! Today is the happiest day ever! So many good...
"It's bad, Jun! How is father going to react when he finds out? I never married, this is going to ruin my body and my wrestling career... I can't have this child, Jun. I've... dishonored the family."
Well... what are you gonna do, big sister? What... are you gonna do with that knife?
"I love you, Jun."
BIG SISTER!
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
Now it was Kikyo's turn to wake up in a cold sweat. However, she was unhampered by her seat belt, as she flailed by herself in the back seat. Immediately, her hand went for her chest as she gasped in terror, and clutched at her tiny chest... her hands finding the small, golden locket attached to her necklace. The necklace itself was nothing special, a simple faux-gold charm-necklace starter. But the tiny locket held ever so dear to the tiny girl's chest, cradled inside it closely a small picture of a young, white-haired woman with a sadistic grin and a silver mask covering half of her face... and in the other half, the same white-haired woman with a gentle smile and warm, caring eyes. As far as Jun "Kikyo" Daioh was concerned, her older sister... the original Kikyo Daioh... was the duality of life. A sadist in the ring, cruel and unmerciful, but when she was at home...
The tiny prodigy was startled again, this time by the sliding side door of the elegant and insanely well-equipped PT Cruiser Kikyo called her home away from home. And emerging from the sliding door, the face and horribly scarred visage of the living corpse, Kikyo's current charge, Ellis Davis.
"I saw you sweating and panting from outside", croaked out the corpse girl in a dead voice barely above the level of a massive semi-truck backfiring it's way upon the highway. "What's wrong?"
"It's... nothing. Just a bad dream. That's all. How long have I been asleep?"
"A couple hours. I just had to pull in and get some gas."
Kikyo seemed to have returned to some level of normalcy, releasing her death-grip on the tiny necklace hidden under her sun dress, as the corpse girl, wearing her leather jacket in the blistering 100 degree weather and not showing a drop of sweat on her cold, scar-ridden flesh, looked at her deeply.
"I've got to go in and pay. The debit card slot on the pump's been jammed. Do you want me to get you something?"
"Yeah... iced tea, please."
The corpse nodded, and once again closed the door, leaving Kikyo-chan to her thoughts. She hadn't dreamt about her sister in a while now... part of the reason she decided to go to college in America, aside from America's seemingly higher level of acceptance of students who had skipped grades, was to get away from those memories. Of seeing the blood spilling out of the throat of the one she'd grown up emulating.
Although she only took enough psychology as was required as a base for getting her degree, Kikyo was pretty sure part of the reason she tried to hold on so hard to Ellis, was because of what her sister did all those years ago. Maybe if Ellis could find the strength to triumph over the same kind of crippling depression that the original Kikyo Daioh had fallen prey to, and find it in the tiny prodigy... maybe she'd be alright, too.
Ellis returned to her position behind the wheel, handing Kikyo-chan her canister of tea, and starting in on her own bottle of water as the jet black Cruiser made it's way back down the road. It took a little tampering with the built-in GPS system... about the only paid perk the cruiser had that had some practical use, built-in plasma television screens with satellite television, and Sirius Satellite Radio, be damned... before Ellis was familiar enough with the three-dimensional layout to start making her way towards "Ladies' Muscle and Fitness", the gymnasium where Ellis hoped to find this link to her past.
Fears and doubts had riddled the corpse girl from the beginning, but as the arrow indicated that the two were getting dangerously close to the end of their road trip, she realized she wouldn't have long to voice them. One last stop came to mind, as Ellis spied on the horizon, the black-and-white checkered institution that she and Kikyo-chan was a huge fan of.
"Hey... you hungry?"
"Hm? Oh... now that you mention it, my tummy is kinda rumbling."
"There's a Steak 'n' Shake up ahead."
"Yay!"
Ellis was about to shut the car off and make into the restaurant, when the tiny prodigy put down her tea, and placed a gentle hand on the Sirius Satellite receiver, bringing the satellite radio to life.
"I wanna hear something first..."
---
Miami, Florida
Present Day
It was a little hard for the large, hulking Samoan man to work both the control panel and microphone at the same time, and try to hold a decent show together. But fate had dictated he'd be alone this week... fate, and a mistimed DDT. So a clip show, hosted by producer and co-host Marcus Lane, had replaced the regular show for a while. The show drew to a close, with fifteen minutes to spare, Marcus noticed it was time to get down to business. The business, at least, of paying the bills.
"Once again, ladies and gentlemen", boomed the massive Samoan, "we thank you for tuning into Straight Shooters, only on WBL 200, only on Sirius. Don't forget to catch our talent out there every week... Ryoko, the infamous 'Pirate Bitch' makes her debut this week on ASW... catch Mary X and Father Leopold Goenitz on IPW... and this week, PWA programming goes to it's first Pay-Per-View, "PWA Inaugural Brawl". Catch WBL Studios' own Ellis Davis, in one-on-one action in the main event against Jeff Rivers. It's the PWA's Savior against the Suicide Queen in a last man standing match. Winner takes away the inaugural PWA Heavyweight Title. Everyone show up in your WBL Studios gear and support our own Corpse Girl. That's gonna do it for me. Streets is watching, boppers."
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
Kikyo wrinkled her nose as she killed the radio, and Ellis killed the ignition.
"Streets is watching?"
"It's from The Warriors. It was a landmark mindless action flick."
Kikyo nodded... she wasn't much into American cinema. She'd almost gotten back into the genre, when she'd found out that Snakes on a Plane had actually been filmed into existence. All hope for American cinema that hadn't been dashed by the creation of "Spice World" vanished.
The two made their way into the Steak 'n' Shake and took their seat, Kikyo-chan enjoying the refreshingly cool breeze that accompanied the walk into the restaurant. Ellis was slightly surprised when, during the middle of what had to be a horrid Labor Day Weekend dinner rush, a young waiter hurriedly made his way over to their table. The young man could only stare...
Immediately, Ellis began to feel that sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Someone else to pity her. To hate her. To stare at the scarred flesh and scrawny body that barely kept in check, the soul of the rotting corpse girl. The feeling stuck with her, even after she realized that the waiter was staring at Kikyo-chan.
"Hey... I know you. You're... Matchbox Kikyo!"
Kikyo wore a small look of surprise for a second. Matchbox Kikyo. She hadn't been called that name since...
---
Tijuana, Mexico
2005
The 6 foot tall, blonde amazon woman, grinned sadistically as she adjusted her ice-blue mask, matching her black wrestling attire and blue fringed boots and gloves perfectly. The Tijuana crowd was more than lavishing their praise upon the amazonian blonde, and for good reason. The infamous Jo Phoenix, Mexico's premiere wrestling goddess, had over the course of the last few months, given them some of the most phenomenal matches they'd ever seen. Border City Circuit Pro loved their heavyweight champion... and had more than a measure of respect for the woman who stood beside her in that ring that night. A young girl with long, auburn hair, dressed in a very sophisticated business suit and a pair of blue-tinted sunglasses. The tiny businesswoman took the microphone to her lips, and the crowd died down in respect.
"So... the offer still stands, Roshi Rich. Any wrestler you can put up against the world's premiere Mexican wrestling goddess, my client, the great Jo Phoenix. Anyone you think can wrestle this title away from her. I've got 50,000 pesos that says nobody can put out the fire, that is the eternal flame, the blond bombshell, Jo Phoenix!"
Challenges were meant to be answered, bounties were meant to be cashed in upon, and tables were meant to be crashed through, as the mysterious leather-clad ghost rider Skull King, masked himself with his trademark skull mask, burst through the crowd, and immediately started wailing away on the champion. Matchbox Kikyo, the tiny businesswoman, knew her place, and immediately went right for the lighter fluid... much to the chagrin of the color commentators who got the hell out of Tijuana as soon as the tiny prodigy poured the thick liquid all over the immediate area.
The one critical problem, however... she'd forgotten to keep an eye on the action going on in the ring behind her. Forgotten to keep an eye on Skull King... and now Skull Queen... and Skull Jack... and Skull Jester... and a host of other skull-masked hooligans, all enjoying the violent beatdown the champion was a victim of. By the time Matchbox Kikyo had set the table ablaze, it was too late, as Skull King took a hold of the young girl's throat...lifted her into the air...
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
"I've still got the scar from that one!", chirped the tiny prodigy, showing the eager young waiter a nearly-imperceptible scar on the back of her neck.
"Whoa... awesome. Can I get your autograph?"
One tiny signature and a tiny smile later, Kikyo had unwittingly scored the two a free meal. Kikyo slurped down her strawberry milkshake with her mile-wide smile that could melt even a dead girl's heart. Ellis merely looked at the tiny prodigy, her dead grey eyes clouding over as her thoughts churned back to her own past wrestling experience. Her own time spent with Jo Phoenix, wrestling together as reluctant allies in the WCF, wasn't one of the more pleasant memories Ellis had. Jo was a diva, even back then. But Jo had proved herself, winning two titles simultaneously, and even helping Ellis achieve gold herself, before Jo's mouth, and the truth about her former bosses, set the gang formerly known as "A Favor House Atlantic" free.
Now Ellis had a chance to win a title on her own. Certainly, Halbeard had given her the rub, but now he was out of the picture. Now it was Ellis, and Ellis alone.
Well, not totally alone, she thought. I have my Ambellina to guide me. Plus if this woman truly is Jersey Red... The end of dinner brought about the end of Ellis' hesitation.
"Kikyo... I'm not too sure about this."
Kikyo paused mid-milkshake, looking calmingly at the living corpse. "Why?"
"Well... suppose this woman, this Ruby Calloway, really is the Jersey Red I was friends with all that time ago. Back before... well... what is she gonna say? I mean... when we finally get face-to-face with her? When she sees what I've become? I'm thinking this was a mistake... I'd like for her to remember her as I once was. Back before I became this rotting... thing."
Kikyo sighed, looking deeply into the abyss that was Ellis' cold, dead eyes. "Ellis... if this Jersey Red is the woman you say she is... then she won't care what you are. Just... that you are."
"Are you... sure?"
"Of course."
Kikyo-chan's judgment had never steered the rotting corpse wrong before. She just prayed there wasn't a first time for everything as the two left a more-than-generous tip for their young fan, and left. Within the same complex, a mere five minute drive from the Steak 'n' Shake, loomed the massive gym known as "Women's Muscle and Fitness". Drawing up her courage as much as she could, Ellis opened the door, and cut the sacred ribbon on this part of her past that had stayed silent for so long.
Even if the crowd hadn't swarmed around Ruby Calloway, Ellis could have spotted her in a second. It was the hair... the flame-red hair. That's what had startled her when the two were young, two tiny girls against the world. Only now, the rest of her body stood out just as much as her flaming locks. A combination of amazing genetics and violent dedication to herself, had given birth to a 6 foot tall, 195 pound wall of solid, powerful, feminine muscle that drew the applause and adoration of the crowd around her as Ruby replaced the 400 pounds back on the rack and sat up from her massive bench press, wiping away the sweat matting her waist-length, flaming red locks to her face. The red sports bra and tight red workout shorts revealed every muscle group on this burning babe.
She's every bit as perfect, as I am a freak, Ellis thought mournfully. She's going to look at me and see what a freak I've become. Kikyo's judgment didn't seem so sound anymore.
But before Ellis could tear herself away from the crowd, to disappear into the darkness as she was apt to do these days, Ruby Calloway's flaming red eyes locked with her own dead grey ones. Flaming red eyes that recognized those dead grey orbs. That recognized the body within whom they resided. The burning muscle woman's jaw dropped to the floor. Miss Calloway seemed like she'd seen a ghost.
Or more specifically, a zombie.
One word made it's way up from her hulking chest, through her powerful neck, and out her pouty red lips.
"Cassie..."
---
End Part Two
/////////////////////
Jersey Red: Part Three
---
Warning: reader discretion is advised. This chapter is rated 18+.
---
Jersey City, New Jersey
September 11th, 2001
I'd been in that closet for three years.
I'd lost all track of time at that point. Lost all rational thought. By now, I was so emaciated that I could easily have slipped through the handcuffs. My wrists hurt, my stomach hurt, my head hurt. I'm sure, in that time, I'd gone mad a million times. Gone horribly insane. With nobody to talk to but this darkness, nowhere to move shackled to this wall. It was hard in the past to pinpoint the exact second I died, became this rotting pile of flesh you see before you. But now, I'm pretty sure. I lost my life on the day where, miles away, thousands upon thousands lost theirs in a death just as tragic.
I knew that the 9/11 attacks were going to happen a few hours beforehand. Because it told me.
I tried to reach out and touch it, there in the darkness, but didn't try too hard... over the course of those three years, the only times I'd been free enough to move around down there were when my father came to beat the hell out of me before tossing me a scrap of food, or sliding a ceramic bowl under me so I could use it like a toilet. I knew that it'd be useless to try to touch it, that if I did, it might evaporate.
I'd long ago lost all senses. I could see nothing there but a thin crack of light where the door didn't completely open, illuminating my own scarred flesh. I could hear nothing but my own tortured sobbing. The sensation of touch was overwhelmed and rendered useless by the constant waves of pain that had driven me mad. The smell of my own sweat and urine blocked out everything else. I could taste nothing, not even the meager scraps he'd force fed me in order to appease his own wretched soul.
I hate him. I fucking hate him. But back then, I was such a shell that whenever he stepped into that closet, the light of whatever time of day it was illuminating his fat, disgusting frame, I almost thought in my hallucinations that he was God. But God doesn't cram his cock down your throat.
I cried for you at first, Red. You were the only thing I'd recognized as anything close to a caring, loving influence. Then I cried for God. How could he let this happen to a little girl he supposedly loved? Then, after a while, I stopped crying at all, and let him shove his fat, hairy, hideous cock wherever he wanted. I didn't care at that point. I was as good as dead.
I couldn't remember what day it was. I didn't even know what year it was, what planet we were on, or even my own name at that point. Until it reminded me. It came to me. It talked to me. For a while, I thought I was going mad again. Just having a hallucination. But I didn't care at that point. Whether it was with something from deep inside my own head, or truly the ethereal figure it appeared to be, it was the first meaningful conversation I'd had since that night on the Jersey Shore with you, Red.
-Do you wish to be free, child?-
Free... the word had lost all meaning long ago, along with nearly every other word other than 'bitch', which at that point, I was convinced my name was. But the thing that spoke to me... it didn't really talk. It was more of a psychic sensation. Like it could empathize with me, and send me signals somehow.
-Yes-, I replied in kind, not really noticing that my lips weren't moving. Either this thing could read my mind, or I had really gone mad. Either way, at this point, the carrot had been dangled in front of my face, and I was willing to rip an arm off to grab it.
-There will be very soon, a great tragedy. A great release of souls. Many dead.-
-What... does this have to do with me?-
-When a rift like that opens, child, when so many die at once, the gates between the living and the dead, jar open for a second. Long enough for things to slip through. Would you like to slip through?-
Death... this thing was offering me death.
-Yes.-
-Then let your body go limp, little one. Close your eyes. Relax your tired muscles. Let your soul go.-
I did as commanded.
-Will I... die?-
-Temporarily. But the gates should be open more than long enough to allow you to pass back through when the time is right.-
-Why are you... helping me?-, I asked without asking.
-Because it's only right that I give this gift to my ...-
To this day, I still can't remember the last word it said. Because that's when the door flung open, and my father, pants around his ankles and a half-empty beer bottle in his hand, stared at the corpse of his little girl.
---
Leonardo, New Jersey
September 11th, 2001
That day in American history will go down as one of the most tragic, most chaotic, and most painful days in recorded history. I almost feel bad for that day when so many thousands of souls were ushered to the other side of that ethereal gate, that that particular day was one of the best days of my life. But the thing in the darkness deemed it my time, and I wasn't going to argue.
I could see it without seeing it. My father ripping my hands from their cuffs, rolling me haphazardly into the carpet where I used to learn my lessons and take my beatings. Cramming it into the back of his police car. Barreling off down the highway. A cop car going at high speed was normally nothing to suspicious of, especially when the world had been distracted by the airplane that had just slammed into the second tower. But two men sitting in their own car had been generous enough to switch their radio back from reports of this incident, to the traditional bandwidth needed to communicate with the cars staked out around my father's house.
Who polices the police? In so many movies, Internal Affairs are often maligned and seen as bad guys. But that day, they saved my life. Or at least my body.
And it was there, in the dumpster behind a Christian bookstore, that my body was dumped, and I watched without watching as Internal Affairs dropped the hammer on my father. Slammed him to the ground as he'd slammed me so many times. Cuffed him as he'd cuffed me. Punished him as he'd punished me. Smacked him around a bit for the things he'd done. Watched as one of the IA men's vomit covered the ground as he saw just what was in that dirt-stained carpet.
-Should I enter now?-, I asked the thing. -Is the door still open?-
-The door will be open for several hours, child. Take your time.-
I hovered there for a little while. I wanted to see them beat the shit out of my father.
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
"And that's when I woke up. A couple of hours later. I decided to wake up after the rain had started falling. I thought it'd be poetic. So regardless of what they may have told you, Red, I didn't abandon you. I just... didn't have a choice."
The corpse girl, staring blankly at the wall of muscle that had once been her friend, had long ago ushered Kikyo out of the room. She knew the tiny prodigy was still listening at the door... she just didn't think she could finish her story seeing Kikyo cry. She stared at Ruby Calloway, the wall of solid female muscle with the flaming red hair, as the two sat alone in Ruby's bedroom in the second floor of the studio apartment-esque "Women's Muscle and Fitness".
"Do you... forgive me?"
---
Orlando, Florida
Early 2001
The elderly man hung up the phone and sighed slightly. Still no response, other than Wayne Davis' gruff and crass 'don't call here again', as he made his way over to his crimson-haired daughter, who was cheerfully making her wrestling action figures beat the hell out of each other.
"Sorry, sweetheart. I still can't get in touch with her. She probably won't make it to your sweet 16 next week."
The girl dropped The Undertaker and Sabu and stared up at her father.
"Is she in trouble? Is she sick or something?"
"No. It's just... sometimes when you move away, sometimes you lose contact with people. I mean, when I got this new job running this gym down here, I lost a couple of friends myself. I mean, sure, these days there's the internet, but sometimes people just... lose touch." The old man tried to speak calmingly, but deep down inside, he truly felt something was wrong. He'd be sure to make a couple of calls after his daughter had gone to bed.
The red-haired girl crossed her arms under her chest with a huff. "Well. that's just fine. If she's gonna act like that, I hope I never see her again."
---
Orlando, Florida
Present Day
Ellis closed her eyes slightly. There'd been no response from the muscled woman for nearly a minute. This was a mistake, she thought. I've poured my heart out to a stranger. This whole trip was...
She could feel something painful constricting around her. For a second, she thought she was having another panic attack. Then her other senses kicked in. The scent of sweat and strawberry-scented dime-store perfume. The sound of soft weeping that, for once, wasn't her own or Kikyo's. And the sight. As Ellis opened her dead grey eyes, all she could see was that mountain of flaming red hair. Then she realized that that powerful constricting feeling was Ruby Calloway's powerful arms wrapping around her and giving her the tightest hug she'd ever had.
Ellis couldn't describe the feeling. She'd been hugged by Kikyo many times before, in the tiny prodigy's efforts to make the corpse girl feel that much better. But this hug was different... a strong, powerful hug. The kind a father would give his son or daughter, if he loved them.
"I don't know what I...expected to find by coming here, Ruby. But Kikyo insisted that..."
"Shhh. Just call me Red."
---
Jersey City, New Jersey
1997
"You don't like that name? Alright. I'll go back there and tell them what you're really called. And that you're a real girl, and you're my new real friend. My name's Jersey Red. Because I was born here in Jersey, and my hair's really red. So I'm Jersey Red! What's your name?"
The tall, attractive, flaming-haired girl who just introduced her sat beside the small, frail, grey-haired girl on the front steps of the old two-level house, and gave a bright, wide grin as she eagerly expected an answer.
"My name? My name is... my name is Cassandra."
"Cassandra, then, is it? Then I'll call you Cassie. That's hip! Hey, you wanna come over to my house and play with us? My friend's brother got some tapes of something called ECW, he says it's really cool."
"Are you sure... that they wouldn't mind?"
"I'll ask!"
The red-haired girl dashed over to the group. The conversation couldn't be heard all that well over the droning music coming from in front of the nearby barber shop, but Cassie watched as the Red pointed to Ellis, then looked at her friends. Her friends started laughing, and Ellis almost broke down in tears, until Red grabbed one of the boys' bookbags and proceeded to beat the ever-loving crap out of him. A few seconds later, Red returned to her seat next to Cassandra Ellis Davis.
"Or we could just hang out. No big deal."
---
Miami, Florida
Present Day
Phone numbers, beeper numbers, E-mail addresses, and tearful hugs were exchanged as Cassandra Ellis Davis and Ruby Noble Calloway parted ways. Night had fallen over Florida, and a long drive was ahead. Although her body was tired and weary, the tiny Kikyo-chan insisted on driving the entire way back to the hotel, allowing Ellis to let the events of the day sink in. She'd gone to find an old friend, and she'd found... she still wasn't sure. But it was more than a relief to finally tell her story. Get that massive burden off her frail chest. Afterwards, she'd almost felt stupid for baring her soul like that. Stories about ethereal figures and astral projection, she really did sound crazy. And she wasn't too entirely sure that she wasn't. But the message was clear... Ruby was glad to see her again. And Ellis was glad to see that Ruby was doing well. Phenomenally well. Red had always been a tall girl, it was probably nothing to pack some muscle onto that frame. And pack she did.
She didn't even bother exchanging words with Kikyo, just a tender hug, before the living corpse shambled on back to her own hotel room. A long, hot shower gave the corpse time to decompress after what had been an insanely emotional day. She would have loved to stay with Ruby a bit longer, but duty called. Duty, in the form of the PWA.
The Heavyweight title... Ellis thought about it offhandedly as she pulled on her nightshirt and pajama bottoms, and loaded the "Second Stage Turbine Blade" album from her favorite band, Coheed & Cambria, into her CD player, skipping ahead to Time Consumer and allowing the opening guitar solo to overtake her as she laid down, eyes closed. She realized that she'd been lax on that front. She had a massive title match... the biggest match in her relatively short career, a main event at an inaugural Pay-Per-View... Inaugural Brawl, in fact, a name that Kikyo wouldn't let anyone forget that she made. A title match against JP Rivers, a man who'd made waves in the company, just like she had, and had apparently had been having his own problems while Ellis was away. The only difference was that she was undefeated. Four victories in as many matches, even helping carry the injured Hal Johnson to victory in what was destined to be his final match. And now, after two decades of abuse, months of wrestling hell, and weeks of finally getting an ounce of respect from the locker room for her talents, Ellis Davis was finally in a position to take the world stage.
World Heavyweight title... the title would have been somewhat odd for the corpse girl. Heavyweight, because Ellis was barely above a hundred pounds, and world... she wondered idly how many people out there held world heavyweight titles, and considered themselves as best in the world. Such simple thoughts, she allowed her mind to fill with, and then flutter away with, as she let the Ambien kick in and take her to sleep.
The last conscious thought Ellis had before dozing off was that if Rivers was going to have a son, that he'd better damned well be a better father this Wayne Ian Davis was, or he was going to get a personal visit from the corpse girl.
Then she thought... how could he be any worse?
Sleep came peacefully for the first time since the early 90s...
---
End Part Three
THIS IS A PPV CHAPTER
All original characters are property of William Bischoff Law and are not to be used by anyone else. Non-original characters are property of their respective companies.
Character: Ellis Davis
Date: September 2006
Parts: 3
Federation: PWA
Managed By: Kikyo-Chan
Appeararances By: Jersey Red, Josephine Miyazaki (flashback)
Match: PPV: Last Man Standing Match for the Vacant World Heavyweight Title: Ellis Davis vs. J.P. Rivers
Match Result: Rivers won the match
Notes: This story itself is the Origin story that the Studios never had the chance to write in the WCF. A full, comprehensive look at Ellis' tragic past, including being locked in a closet by her father for three years, the physical and emotional abuse, the violence and loneliness, and her link to the world of the dead, as well as the last living link to Ellis' past. This is held up by the Studios as possibly the best work ever put out by the Studios.
Yet, regardless, Rivers actually won the match. The reasons were sketchy, and were cause for speculation. Originally they claimed Ellis lost because the Studios didn't mention Ellis' match, and Rivers did. This was proven to be false, as Rivers went with a canned story about being a father that didn't even mention Ellis or the PWA, and Ellis' story includes, among other things, a blatant reference to the match (Marcus Lane's appearance in the story). After being called out on this lie, Watkins then claimed that it was because Ellis was a woman, and women didn't deserve to be Heavyweight champions. The fact that she was booked in this match whatsoever would mean she was doomed to fail from the start with this explanation. In the end, the only reason the Studios lost the match with its best writing thus far, was because of politics. Politics that Rivers and Watkins would use to try to get the Studios banned from professional wrestling period (not just banned from the PWA, banned from all e-feds, via a popular e-fedding hub message board that's since fallen into obscurity).
This attempted humiliation of Ellis would include the match intro, where she was refered to as a 'he' throughout the whole intro.
Evidence of this was made clear in a later federation. After Rivers lost cleanly to Studios client Galaxy Heart (Kid Galaxy) in the ICE, he led a campaign to get her kicked out of that federation, including offering to rewrite a match ending in order to humiliate her (This being on the same board where Teej would eventually write a hateful diatribe against the Studios, doing it after Galaxy Heart was pulled from ICE as he tried to make sure the Studios never read it). Watkins was also in manipuating and humiliating the Studios as well, later on in the DEW with Kid Trinity, writing her off in a humilaiting fashion that made no sense. Once again, the Studios got the last laugh, when Kid Midnght beat Watkins as part of a triple-threat match in a later federation, a loss that made him close the federation down that day.
Jersey Red would come back for a very brief time later in 2007. Her appearances were covered in the "Flash in the Dark" compilation.
As for the story itself, and Ellis' real name... just read.
All original characters are property of William Bischoff Law and are not to be used by anyone else. Non-original characters are property of their respective companies.
Character: Ellis Davis
Date: September 2006
Parts: 3
Federation: PWA
Managed By: Kikyo-Chan
Appeararances By: Jersey Red, Josephine Miyazaki (flashback)
Match: PPV: Last Man Standing Match for the Vacant World Heavyweight Title: Ellis Davis vs. J.P. Rivers
Match Result: Rivers won the match
Notes: This story itself is the Origin story that the Studios never had the chance to write in the WCF. A full, comprehensive look at Ellis' tragic past, including being locked in a closet by her father for three years, the physical and emotional abuse, the violence and loneliness, and her link to the world of the dead, as well as the last living link to Ellis' past. This is held up by the Studios as possibly the best work ever put out by the Studios.
Yet, regardless, Rivers actually won the match. The reasons were sketchy, and were cause for speculation. Originally they claimed Ellis lost because the Studios didn't mention Ellis' match, and Rivers did. This was proven to be false, as Rivers went with a canned story about being a father that didn't even mention Ellis or the PWA, and Ellis' story includes, among other things, a blatant reference to the match (Marcus Lane's appearance in the story). After being called out on this lie, Watkins then claimed that it was because Ellis was a woman, and women didn't deserve to be Heavyweight champions. The fact that she was booked in this match whatsoever would mean she was doomed to fail from the start with this explanation. In the end, the only reason the Studios lost the match with its best writing thus far, was because of politics. Politics that Rivers and Watkins would use to try to get the Studios banned from professional wrestling period (not just banned from the PWA, banned from all e-feds, via a popular e-fedding hub message board that's since fallen into obscurity).
This attempted humiliation of Ellis would include the match intro, where she was refered to as a 'he' throughout the whole intro.
Evidence of this was made clear in a later federation. After Rivers lost cleanly to Studios client Galaxy Heart (Kid Galaxy) in the ICE, he led a campaign to get her kicked out of that federation, including offering to rewrite a match ending in order to humiliate her (This being on the same board where Teej would eventually write a hateful diatribe against the Studios, doing it after Galaxy Heart was pulled from ICE as he tried to make sure the Studios never read it). Watkins was also in manipuating and humiliating the Studios as well, later on in the DEW with Kid Trinity, writing her off in a humilaiting fashion that made no sense. Once again, the Studios got the last laugh, when Kid Midnght beat Watkins as part of a triple-threat match in a later federation, a loss that made him close the federation down that day.
Jersey Red would come back for a very brief time later in 2007. Her appearances were covered in the "Flash in the Dark" compilation.
As for the story itself, and Ellis' real name... just read.
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