Part 3 - Meeting Your Match
It had been a horrible day, capping off the absolute worst week in a fucking terrible month.
Kaylee Hutchins could scarcely believe how completely everything had fallen apart since that day four weeks ago when she discovered her husband cheating. There'd been arguments, shouting, and days of silence. Then lawyers, depositions and divorce proceedings.
And that was just the start of it. One vile rumor after another about her had spread like wildfire. She'd heard about them fourth- or fifth-hand, and only after they'd injured her reputation. So-called "friends" began avoiding her at meetings, ghosting her texted requests and disconnecting on social media. She was no longer considered a good-enough "ally" by certain disadvantaged groups, they said. She'd received accolades in the past about how she ran organizations like a tight ship, but now her style was "problematic" and had "oppressive" overtones. In one arena then another, her presence in a leadership role was deemed "counterproductive" to diversity and inclusion, despite all the work she'd done breaking barriers and becoming the first woman to hold those positions.
"Stupid, back-stabbing bitches!" she fumed. In her hand were two letters, one from the charity that sponsored the running events she poured so much time into, and the other from the homeowner's association. Her services were no longer needed, they said. She'd sensed this coming, and had gone in person to head them off. But she'd been stopped at the door both times and turned around without being able to say a word. All of her written protestations of innocence were taken as proof that she had yet to come to terms with the "harm" she had done. And now the final shoe had dropped. Bureaucratic weasel speak painting her as toxic waste to be disposed of.
There'd even been flyers -- couched in guarded language but obviously aimed at her. They'd littered the lamp posts and humiliated her at the neighborhood pool. One had even been stuck on a stake and planted in her front yard.
So Kaylee stayed cooped up at home, an empty one now that Charles was off in a hotel as part of their separation. Once, she had been so proud of livng in it. Now, it only reminded her of everything that had gone wrong. She had nobody to talk to. Nowhere to go. And nothing to do but sit and stew.
Just make things worse, the power went out.
"Fuck!" she yelled. She crumpled up the letters and flung them across the living room. She looked out her window at the setting sun. She had no idea how she would come back from this.
But she would, she promised herself. Kaylee Hutchins was smart, resourceful, and driven, she reminded herself. She would rise up above all those petty worms who cowered in fear of being canceled alongside her. She'd show them all. She'd craft an invincible plan, and execute it to perfection. They would look up and envy her, as they always had. It was simply a matter of time...
Kaylee tilted her head in confusion. The porch light across the street at the Watsons was on. She'd complained about it numerous times and got them to stop leaving it on constantly, but now they obviously felt free to regress to their old habit. What bothered Kaylee now was that it was on at all. If they had electricity, then why didn't she? If this wasn't a neighborhood outage, then what was the reason everything in her house was no longer working? She'd paid the bill. She was sure of it. Had there been a mix-up? Had someone doing digging nearby severed the underground line to her house?
"Fuck people who can't do their job properly!" Kaylee marched into the kitchen where her phone sat on the counter. She reached for it. Her fingers were almost on it when it lit up.
A message appeared. Black block letters on a warning-yellow background surrounded by a thick red border, topped off with a grinning skull with demon horns. Three descending bells rang out ominously.
[Your Nemesis is nearby!]
The feeling of uncontrollable horror that gripped Kaylee Hutchins in that moment was like nothing she ever thought possible to experience.
A key slid into the lock on the back door that connected the kitchen with the deck. The lock clicked open and the door swung wide. Standing in the entryway was Jane Carter, dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans, black gloves and a pair of cross trainers. She pocketed the key and cracked an evil smile.
"Miss me?" Jane asked.
"How the FUCK did you get a key to my house?"
"How else? Charlie gave it to me. It's still his house, too."
"And when exactly did he... oh, god." Panic gripped Kaylee. The world tilted beneath her as if the universe itself was out of control. Never had she felt so helpless, so stupid, so outplayed.
"All this time and you never figured out who was making your life a living hell? Really? You thought that the beating you gave me in the motel would make me just give up? Or you didn't think I was capable of playing at your level? I warned you that I'd dealt with stuck-up busybodies like you before. I know exactly how to bring your kind low." Jane leaned casually against the door jamb. "Are you willing to at least admit that I'm a worthy nemesis now? Huh?"
"You're lying. There's no way you could coordinate all the people and organizations that have fucked me over unfairly recently. You're a nobody, a nothing. Who the fuck would pay the slightest attention to you?"
Jane studied Kaylee, watching for any dangerous movement. The woman wore a simple white blouse over blue capri pants. Her blonde hair had seen better days and she'd hardly applied any makeup. Jane allowed herself a self-satisfied chuckle. "You see, Kaylee, you look at power from the top, where you've always been. To you, it's a game of manipulation and control. But I see it from the bottom. I see the people you walk all over. You only care about what they can do for you. Without them enabling you, you're left with nothing. I understand exactly how they feel. All it took was the right words planted here and there, and they had an excuse to abandon you. Now no one listens to your orders anymore."
"What, you think they'll follow yours? Don't make me laugh."
Jane shook her head 'no'. "I'm not trying to take what you had. I just crushed all the support you relied on to prove a point, and to isolate you so you don't have any backup. And now that the boring setup work is done...." She raised her gloved hands and curled them into fists. "It's time to finish the job."
Kaylee's face was beet red like a boiler about to blow steam. "I will end you." She reached over next to the stove to pull out a chef's blade from the knife rack.
But it wasn't there.
"Forgot that those are one of the things Charlie took with him to storage, huh?" Kaylee whipped her head around to stare daggers at Jane. "The guns, too. He's been such a good help." Fuck, Jane was enjoying this. "Nothing but you and me here, girl. And I've been looking forward to this for such a fucking long time."
A freight train of female fury that was once Kaylee Hutchins barreled straight at Jane, screaming incoherently and lashing out wildly with grabbing fingers. Jane landed a solid right to Kaylee's ribs, but it had absolutely no effect. The two women collided together in a crazed tangle. The force of Kaylee's impact sent them flying out the open door and onto the hardwood deck. They tumbled over and over, clattering across the boards and nearly reaching the railing.
Jane slugged Kaylee, a left to the upper arm. The blonde was in no mood for warm-ups. She yanked Jane's brown hair and delivered a rapid-fire salvo of punches to Jane's face. Jane kneed them apart and rolled away. Kaylee got to her feet quickly and kicked Jane hard in the side. She lifted her foot to stomp on her hated rival, who was now trapped against a picnic table leg. Jane caught the raised leg by the ankle and twisted it. Kaylee spun and fell down on the deck.
Both combatants stood up in a flash. They faced off a few paces apart, fists ready. Determination burned in their eyes. First blood had been drawn. Neither would back down now. Not until the bitter end. The source of each woman's pain and humiliation was standing right in front of them, a nemesis more than willing to go at it with them toe to toe in an all-out catfight. Both were eager to give and take punishment until only one remained victorious to prove once and for all who was better.
No time elapsed between Jane and Kaylee reaching their feet and the resumption of their hostilities. The two hellcats threw themselves at one another, punching and kneeing with complete abandon. They battled this way and that, crashing into the patio furniture and the large propane grill as their fight ranged from one end of the deck to the other. Again and again they closed to hurl fists at sides and arms and heads, then backed off to reset for another assault.
Kaylee rammed Jane into the railing, bending her backwards over it, one palm jammed into the brunette's chin and the other pinning Jane's left wrist to her side. "Stinking bitch!" she growled and pressed the advantage. Jane grunted and squirmed beneath her grasp, unable to escape. Yes, Kaylee thought with glee, she did miss this. As much as she hated Jane, she had to admit that the man-stealing slut had done her a favor. Never before now did she realize how much she enjoyed taking her frustrations out in a violent brawl with another woman. The feeling of physically dominating a rival, fighting through the pain she received in return, thrilled her like nothing else. She was going to ride this vicious high until Jane was whimpering in utter defeat.
The two females wrestled upright for over two minutes. Their fingers dug into each other's skin. Their bodies twisted and swayed in a contest of sheer strength and will. They pulled hair and slapped, clawed through one another's clothes and groaned with exertion. Jane forced one knee between them, then a second. With a mighty yell, she pried herself and her opponent apart.
Every sense Jane possessed was fully alive. The sight of Kaylee's snarling face filling her vision. The feel of her fist rifling into the blonde's gut and the grunted sound of pain it elicited. The scent of the bitch's neck as they fell once more into a clinch. She wasn't supposed to enjoy this, leaning chest to chest with her chin on another woman's shoulder, her arms encircling in a rough embrace, trading punch after punch with a hated rival. She wasn't brought up to settle differences this way. But fuck, did she love it! She answered every fist Kaylee flung at her, matched each increase in power and speed. Jane knew she was more than Kaylee's equal. She'd shown it by humiliating her socially. Now that the two of them were duking it out, scratching, slapping and pitting their bodies and determinations to win against one another, there was no other way she wanted this duel to end.
The pair clattered down the short set of steps to the back yard, gripping each other's top with one hand and pummeling repeatedly with the other. They danced in a chaotic circle, slamming punches and slaps into their heads, cheeks, and sides. They almost lost their balance, but stumbled into a clinch where Jane tried to trip Kaylee up and the blonde kicked the brunette's shins in retaliation. Locked as one, they weaved drunkenly in the grass for some time. Their arms wrapped tighter around their bodies. Fingers yanked at hair. Grunts of exertion cracked the air as the battle spiraled further and further out of control.
Staggering near a well-tended flower garden, their shoes hit the plastic border that marked its edge. Kaylee twisted away, but Jane tilted sideways, pulling her down with her. They landed side by side and immediately set to grappling in the dirt and mulch. Back and forth the warring females rolled, crushing a row of begonias and staining their clothes and skin with soil. Fists rose and fell, landing with harsh impacts. The two traded top position again and again as their brawl reached a fever pitch. Over and over they tumbled, pulling hair and kicking as they went.
Their wild scuffle came to a halt suddenly against a bush. Jane howled in pain and arched her back. The thorns of a rose vine had dug into her. The agony distracted her enough for Kaylee to deliver a series of solid blows to Jane's left cheek. Jane slugged back, but Kaylee tackled her and pinned her wrists to the ground on either side of her head.
Face to face, Kaylee and Jane hissed at each other. "You made the biggest mistake of your life messing with me, you bitch!" Kaylee said.
"Really?" Jane retorted, kneeing Kaylee in the stomach. She clambered out of the rose bush, straddled her foe's hips on her knees, and sat her butt down on Kaylee's pelvis. "I don't know about you..." Jane slammed a series of punches at her prone opponent's face, who blocked them with her forearms. "But I'm having a blast kicking your ass!"
Kaylee bridged, throwing Jane off backwards into the grass. Before the blonde could leap atop her, Jane rolled to the side and got to her feet. She watched Kaylee stand up and shake the dirt from her hair.
"Keep lying to yourself, you dumb cow. You'll never beat me!"
"Oh, yeah, ya stuck up piece of shit?"
"Yeah. I'm going to enjoy the hell out of pounding you into the ground."
"Bring it, bitch!"
Kaylee charged, swung at Jane's head, and missed.
Jane dodged under the blow at the last moment and rifled a fist deep into Kaylee's side. The impact folded her over and left her face undefended against Jane's follow-up. The next punch that cracked across Kaylee's jaw resounded in the evening air and spun her a half turn. Jane advanced, sensing a golden opportunity. She landed hit after hit on Kaylee's upper arm and back as her nemesis broke into a stumbling run.
Kaylee halted her retreat abruptly and flailed, ramming an elbow into Jane's shoulder. The women clattered into one another. Kaylee grabbed at Jane's tousled brown locks of hair, but quickly let go after receiving a trio of belly punches that knocked the wind out of her. She didn't remember Jane hitting so hard before, and she began to get scared. She blocked valiantly, feinted a jab at Jane's nose, then dashed up the steps to the deck and headed for the back door.
Jane caught up to her midway there. She tried to tackle Kaylee, but the other woman wouldn't go down. As one, they crashed into the door jamb. Tugging hair in a violent embrace, the warring women careened into the kitchen, spinning out of control. They bashed into the refrigerator, slid against the stove and ended up at the sink, where Jane bent Kaylee over backwards toward the faucet.
Kaylee fought back hard, kneeing Jane in the crotch and pushing the brunette away across the floor. Having freed herself, she leaped for the island that separated the kitchen from the dining area. Her fingers had just closed on her smartphone when Jane grabbed her hands. They settled into a tug of war over the device, fighting for it side by side in the center of the kitchen. After a few dozen seconds, the two reached a stalemate. Kaylee had her shoulder barged into Jane' chest, pressing her into the fridge door, but was no closer to wresting her phone from Jane's grasp.
"Give it up," Kaylee panted, "You're going to jail."
"Hah!" beamed Jane. "Realizing you can't win, huh?" She glared into Kaylee's eyes. "Admit it, then, out loud, that I'm better than you."
Kaylee's face lit up with renewed fury. "I'll NEVER..."
Jane's goading did the trick. Kaylee's grip on the phone had slackened, and when Jane brought the blonde's hands down onto her knee with a mighty shout, it slipped from both of them and hit the ground. Kaylee pushed away, but before she could reach down to retrieve it, Jane kicked underneath the refrigerator.
With a howl of rage, Kaylee slammed herself into Jane and grabbed at the other woman's wrists. Jane twisted away, but not fully free. Locked body to body in a loose hug, the ferocious females clawed and slapped and tried to hurl the other to the tile floor. Weaving crazily this way and that, the battle between the two nemeses sent them colliding painfully with one appliance then another until it hit the cluttered island.
Jane was thrown onto the counter top, scattering papers, salt and pepper shakers, a napkin holder, and other debris off and onto the hardwood of the dining room. Hell-bent on destroying her, Kaylee climbed up onto her and set about pinning her down. Jane wrestled with her, fingers tearing at Kaylee's blouse and yanking her hair for half a minute. Eventually. she worked her rival's weight off of her and trapped her with her left leg.
Laying side by side on the smooth granite, Jane and Kaylee smacked and pinched, screamed and grunted. Never before had anyone driven them to these extremes. Never before had either encountered someone so intent and resilient, with seemingly limitless ability to match her in willpower and strength. It drove them further and further into a whirlwind of mutual destruction, without care and without pause.
Hair completely disheveled, cheeks red, and skin lined with scratches, the fearsome woman fought on and on until pain and exhaustion forced them to a temporary pause. Kaylee's arms and ribs stung. The punches Jane had rattled her skull with left her slightly dizzy. "Fuck you," she spat. Jane slugged her. "Fuck you," she said again. Jane whacked her but good in the bicep. "Fucking ouch!" Kaylee wailed.
"I'm going to make you give up, you stuck-up whore. Sooner or later, I will." Jane said, her voice husky and out of breath.
"You don't even realize how stupid your plan was, do you? You spent all that effort hurting me socially only to throw it away by coming here and giving me the chance for revenge."
Jane snorted. "Hardly. You'd never stay down unless I beat you physically, ain't that right?" Jane caught and held one of Kaylee's wrists before that hand could deliver a slap to her cheek. "Besides," she snarled into Kaylee's face, "I want to see the look in your eyes when you admit defeat."
"Never happen, you deluded cxnt. I'm going to pound you until you're a whimpering wreck."
"Joke's on you, bitch. I'm stronger than you are now. Not only did I quit smoking, I've been hitting the gym." A light dawned in Kaylee's expression. Jane took it for surprise. "Yeah, that's right! Taste this!" She released Kaylee's wrist and gave her a strong clout on the forehead with her fist.
But Kaylee shrugged it off. She rapidly disengaged herself from Jane and slid away across the counter top. With a thud, she plunged off the island and down onto the dining room floor, and began running for the hallway opposite the kitchen. Jane got a really bad feeling in her gut and pursued with all the speed she could muster.
Kaylee slowed down to travel the five steps down into the lower portion of the split-level house. Jane merely leaped them. Her fingers caught Kaylee's blouse at the neck. It tore as Jane wrenched her fleeing foe around. Kaylee roared with fury and swung an elbow into Jane's forehead. Jane held on, arresting Kaylee's momentum and ripping the woman's top wide open.
Jane grabbed Kaylee's hair to prevent her escape. Kaylee responded with a pair of blows to Jane's chest. They landed weakly due to the fact that Jane had tugged her head downward to the point where she was bent over at the waist. Frustrated, she charged and bulldozed her rival into the wall. Jane stood her up and kneed her in the midsection, then shoved her into the opposite wall.
There, the two females tangled in a clinch. They wrestled with their arms and kicked with their legs. Staggering in a violent embrace, the duo careened from one wall to the other as they squeezed and clawed and yanked hair. Back and forth across the hall they battled. Pictures fell. Dents appeared in the drywall from the impacts made by their bodies. Kaylee went for a headlock, but Jane slipped out at the last second. The brunette got her foot up onto Kaylee's stomach and pushed. The women flung apart, each being flattened with their back against one wall. They paused for but a brief moment, panting and wiping sweat-slicked hair from their brows, before leaping at one another once more.
Jane dodged under Kaylee's right hook and plowed the top of her head into Kaylee's chest. She barged forward, seeking to pin her nemesis, but Kaylee swiveled and flung her past. With a loud thud, Jane's head hit the drywall, making a small crater and leaving a jagged crack in it. She spun, slightly dazed, and lifted her hands defensively.
The attack she expected never came. Out of watery eyes, she saw Kaylee vanish through a nearby doorway. "Shit," she said. "Ger back here, you bitch!" She forced her legs into motion and followed her prey.
The room she entered was dimly lit by the setting sun filtering in through a short, foot-high window. Below the window sat a treadmill. Between Jane and it, the floor was covered in a thin, honeycomb-patterned exercise mat. In the wall next to the door was a full height Internet-connected mirror for doing workouts.
And at the far end of the home gym with her back to Jane stood Kaylee. Jane's heart sank to the pit of her stomach at the sight of the rack of dumbbells her foe had just reached down to. Kaylee turned around. In each of her fists was a pink hand weight, the number 3 painted on their ends.
"You are NOT better than me," Kaylee growled. "And you'll get that through your thick skull even if I have to knock it into you!"
Jane steeled herself. "You don't frighten me. You think those are going to do you any good?"
Kaylee swung with one arm, then the other. Jane avoided them both, carefully judging the distance between her and her opponent. Kaylee missed with a haymaker. When she brought her right hand down again, Jane dodged towards Kaylee's left. With a yell, Kaylee aimed the dumbbell in her left hand at Jane's face.
The extra weight kept the blow from its target. It bounced off Jane's shoulder instead and the momentum carried Kaylee around a half turn to face away from her enemy. Shrugging off the sting from the impact, Jane lunged at her from behind. Her arms encircled Kaylee's at the elbows and hauled them backwards. The blonde thrashed to get loose, but Jane secured her hold. Panting and grunting, the two women fought a contest of strength, teetering this way and that. Kaylee groaned as she strained against Jane's attempt to dominate her. Her forearms were still free, and she managed to deliver a few hits to Jane's thighs.
The metal weights slamming into Jane's legs hurt fiercely and threatened to turn them into jelly. With a yell, she tried to lift Kaylee's feet off the ground and toss her sideways to the floor. Kaylee twisted, throwing her off balance. With a thump the pair hit the mat and broke apart. Kaylee flung a wild swing in Jane's direction, catching the brunette in the ribs. Jane quickly grabbed both that wrist and the other one. She reared up on her knees and pushed Kaylee onto her back. Leveraging all her weight, she forced Kaylee's hands downward.
They collapsed suddenly, flattening Jane out atop her nemesis. Kaylee wasted no time bucking her hips to dislodge her. Jane wrapped a leg around one of Kaylee's, blunting the move and mashing their bodies against one another. Hissing face to face, the two vicious females struggled mightily. They rocked back and forth a few times before settling into a tight grapple. Arms fought for control. Legs grapevined. Gradually, inch by inch, they rolled across the mat, trading places gradually. Sweat beaded on bare skin. Their grunts of exertion and groans of weary pain echoed from the walls in the waning twilight as their battle drove both to the limits of their endurance. On and on their slow motion war waged, each woman's body writhing and pitting every muscle against its counterpart.
After an exhausting three minutes of evenly matched fighting, Kaylee finally freed her right hand and bashed Jane's arm with its dumbbell. Jane howled and tried to recapture that arm, but Kaylee reared back and set about mounting the prone woman. Jane feared the damage Kaylee could rain from above and drew her knees to her chest. Though Kaylee whacked her shins with glancing blows, she was able to plant her shoes on Kaylee's stomach and kick her off.
The blonde flopped backwards, hitting her head on the wall. She watched as Jane started getting to her feet. In an attempt to pick herself up, she slammed her left arm against the wall next to her for leverage. The weight in that hand hit the mirror, cracking it irretrievably. Jane winced and chuckled. The fury that raged through Kaylee shot her to a stand in a flash.
Swinging one windmill attack after another, Kaylee drove Jane back until she had nowhere further to go. A sweeping right caught Jane in the left shoulder. Jane's knees buckled, and Kaylee raised her arms to deliver twin finishing blows. When they came down again, Jane had encircled Kaylee's waist with both arms and lifted her off balance. Her left wrist hit the handrail of the treadmill and the weight in that hand slammed into the belt and rolled off. With a cross between a yell and a scream, Jane lurched forward and tackled her nemesis to the mat. Kaylee immediately bucked her to one side and belted her with the remaining dumbbell. Jane retreated, nursing an injured left elbow.
Kaylee staggered to her feet. She was getting tired, both physically and mentally. Nothing in her entire life had been as troublesome as the brown-haired, lowlife cow creeping away from her on the floor. It was time to end this, to break Jane Carter and make her pay for everything she'd done to her. She approached her crawling foe, lifted the one hand weight she carried, and aimed a clout right in the middle of Jane's back.
Pain shot through Kaylee's left knee suddenly, causing her to stumble backwards a couple steps and land on her rear. A few feet away from her now sat Jane, the other 3 lb dumbbell in her hand, arm extended after delivering a surprise strike. The two women glared at each other. No words were exchanged. None were needed. Willpower alone drove them on.
They stood up wearily and faced off, each with an identical weapon. Eyelids dropped with approaching exhaustion. Mouths hung open, exhaling hot breaths from their heaving rib cages. Their clothes were torn. Faces marked with scratches and bruises. Their hair was wild and matted with perspiration. Their expressions, however, broadcast their steely determination. Each would do whatever it took to prove that she was the better of the two. Victory over the other woman was their single-minded goal, regardless of soreness or injury.
Jane and Kaylee shuffled into one another. With twin thuds, the dumbbells found their targets. Identical gasps of agony exploded from their lips. Again they swung, again they struck. Sagging in aching misery, their chests collided and their left hands latched onto their opponent's top. A pair of thumps followed by matching moans rang out. Then twice more, the wallops no longer in unison. Ferocity propelled them. Their assault sped up. Metal rammed into hips, sides and backs in a crescendoing storm. Fingers resonated with the shock from each impact. Tears leaked from their eyes at the torment. Still, the catfighting duo fought on, battering each other incessantly until tortured cries bellowed from them both.
How long they pounded each other, neither could reckon. The battle had dragged on to the point that the hits all blended together into a single, drawn out sensation of suffering. Inevitably, though, their furious pace finally slowed. Hands grasped wrists and twisted. The weights fell to the ground. Grimacing eye to eye in pure hatred, Jane and Kaylee slowly lifted their arms. With malicious intent, four sets of fingers reached out and dug into tousled hair. The pair wobbled this way and that, bending and twisting their aching bodies as they began hauling one another around by their hair. Thrashing and stumbling about the room, they yanked and pulled with their remaining might. Their feet tangled abruptly, sending them toppling once more to the mat. There, the scuffle continued, bodies grinding and limbs embracing in a rolling ball of violence.
The nemeses slapped and groaned, tumbled and wrestled, too exhausted to inflict enough damage to finish the bout, but too stubborn to quit. They screamed every profanity they could think of in each other's ears. Kneeing crotches and kicking shins, clawing breasts and pinching nipples, Jane and Kaylee tore into one another without cease for five, long, interminable minutes. Lost in the haze of combat, their tightly entwined bodies squeezed with every last ounce of animosity left in the two equally matched women.
Then, a hand found one of the fallen dumbbells. An arm raised, weight held fast in its grip. It descended hard,
One final time.
----------
Kaylee regained consciousness on her back. Her arms were underneath her, wrists locked in handcuffs. Her ankles were similarly shackled and a wire linked the two restraints together. She couldn't get up, and could scarcely roll onto her side. She was still in the gym room in her house. Her blouse and pants lay in a pile next to the treadmill. Jane crouched nearby, digging in a large camping sack. Kaylee let out an incoherent, almost animal growl at her.
Jane spun, then relaxed, seeing her foe still bound securely. She sighed, then sat cross-legged next to the blonde. She opened her mouth, but Kaylee interrupted her.
"Fuck. You."
Jane pursed her lips. "So this isn't going the easy way, huh?" She reached into the sack. "Suit yourself, bitch."
"You're going to jail for this! Forever! You can't keep me... wh- what are those?"
Jane held up a clear plastic bag filled with numerous squiggling nightcrawlers. "What does it look like?"
"N-No! Don't you dare-!" Kaylee shrieked as Jane dropped the bag onto her naked stomach. "Aaieee! Get them off of me, get them off!"
"Two conditions," Jane began.
"Fuck you, you fucking slut! Get them off!"
"Listen you stupid shit! Shut up, or I'll pour the bag out." Kaylee fumed, her eyes burning with both anger and terror. "Good. Like I said, two conditions."
Kaylee's glare could kill a bird in flight. "What?" she spat.
"First condition: after this, we're done. We go our separate ways and never see each other again. You do nothing to me, legally or otherwise, and I leave you alone, exactly the same. Agreed?"
Kaylee squirmed, obviously in absolute disgust of the worms crawling around in the bag on her belly. "Ugh! Fine! Yes, if you'll take this infernal mass of gross..."
"Second condition," Jane interrupted. She held up Kaylee's smartphone. "I fished this out from under the fridge for you because there's something you need to do with it." Jane brought out her phone and tapped a few times on it. On Kaylee's screen, the Nemesis app took over the entire width and height with a single notice:
[Your Nemesis is demanding your surrender.]
[Say "I Give Up" clearly into the microphone to admit defeat.]
[Press Cancel to reject the demand.]
[Speak CANCEL]
"It's the only way to unmatch," Jane said.
Kaylee snarled. She said nothing.
"Admit it, Kaylee. I beat you."
"Never," she whispered.
"You're only going to make this worse for yourself." Jane repositioned the bag of worms between Kaylee's breasts.
"Uk," the blonde gagged. "Fuck. When I get out of these cuffs, I'm going to..."
"You don't get it, do you?" Jane gave Kaylee a few seconds. "Okay, you asked for it. Don't say I didn't warn you!" From the sack, Jane pulled out a large white Styrofoam carton with dozens of tiny holes poked in it. A label on the side read 'Live Bait - Crickets'. From inside came the sound of dozens of insects scrabbling and hopping about, bashing into the sides of the container. "Charlie said you hated worms but really didn't like these, so..."
Kaylee went mute. Her face turned ashen and her eyes widened in abject terror. "Please..." she begged feebly.
"Say it. Say the words, Kaylee. Do it and this will be all over with." Jane watched the war between fear and pride play out in her nemesis's quivering lips for a bit, then, frustrated, stood up and readied to open the top of the box. "Say it, bitch, or I'll pour every single one of these onto your face!"
Whimpers burst from Kaylee's mouth. "i giv.." she muttered.
"Louder, you miserable cxnt. Or I'll make you repeat it all night!"
"I give!" Kaylee croaked. "I give up! I..." The beaten woman turned her head away and collapsed into in a fit of uncontrollable sobbing. Tears of total humiliation streaked her formerly beautiful features.
Jane's phone trumpeted victoriously. The full-screen notification proclaimed the text Jane had long hoped to read:
[Your Nemesis Is Defeated!!!]
The triumphant emotion that filled Jane Carter at that moment was beyond expression.
----------
Some months later, and a few days after returning home from her honeymoon as the new Mrs. Charles Hutchins, Jane's cellphone emitted a sinister chime.
[Your next Nemesis has been found!] read the accompanying message.
Jane sat down on the porch swing at the house where she'd beaten Kaylee and dismissed the notification. A new chapter in her life was beginning. She sighed contentedly and hoped it would be as thrilling as her last one.
Then she smiled a devilish grin,
And opened the app.
The End
