Backstage Tears (For Cicilia)

"*Sniff...sniff...*, uuugh...", Clara would quietly let out in the locker room, once she made sure no one was inside. Maskless, she let tears slowly drop down her cheeks.

It was a short 10 minutes after her match with Cicilia De'Reignhartd...if one could even call it that. Her time in AFW was not as good as she imagined it would be. Slowly but surely, her old role of that one girl who would appear once in a while and get her ass handed to her in a squash was creeping back to her. This happened with Alaina a few weeks back, where she barely gave the Amazon any fight...and it happened this week, where the Juggernaut beat the snot out of her for a minute or so, won, and attempted to take her mask off...in which case Clara had to beg to keep the one thing that kept her wrestling - her character...

"*Sniff*...maybe...it's time to finally call it quits...", Clara would ask herself. Things didn't work out in UK...things aren't working out in AFW, and only go well by small margin elsewhere...should she just hang her boots and quit wrestling for----

"Hey, wazzup, loser?"

Clara would feel a very light, painless punch on top of her head, and as she looked up, she saw her sister, Alice, standing over her, chipper as ever.

"A-Ali? *sniiff*", she would quickly wipe away tears in the Pale Rider's presence: "Why are you..."

"Felt something could be off if you fought a big girl like her, and felt you would need my magic to feel better", Alice would stick her tongue out at Clara:

"O-oh..."

"Now, come on. Cheer up, go take a shower, and I'll wait for you here, we are going to grab some dinner"

Nodding, Clara would leave to go to the shower, while Alice sat down, and exhaled a deep breath. She felt Clara was going to lose the match. The confidence damage after their match, and a match against their shared rival was something that the Pale Rider had to keep in check with her sister...else she would actually leave wrestling for good, even if she was improving after her losses in UK indie scene...

Cicilia walked back into the Locker-room not long after Clara fled to the shower, the Juggernaut less than satisfied with that match. The poor girl was so pathetic and pitiful, it almost made her feel BAD that she'd cleaned her clock so thoroughly! She almost felt like a bully, pushing around that tiny girl like she deserved it or something... Bah. Maybe there was something she could do to make up for it... Maybe offer to help her get stronger or something... She didn't know. There had to be something she could do to make this right.

The Juggernaut went back to her locker near the showers and began stripping off her wrestling outfit, dawning her black hoodie and short-shorts. She couldn't help but think back on all those punches, those brutal attacks she had laid upon the smaller girl, how much they reminded her of how Elfrida used to treat her when they fought... No mercy... but at least this girl had the sense not to get back up... It was almost nightmarish the similarities... The abject violence that came with the Juggernaut almost scared her... She never approved of crushing ants... of hurting people too much... Her sister might've but she was not her, DAMN IT!...

She couldn't be...

She sighed heavily, noticing another girl sitting on the bench nearby that separated the rows of lockers. Someone else having a bad day? It didn't seem like anyone was enjoying themselves tonight. Without a word or sign of acknowledgement, the Juggernaut just scooped up her wrestling outfit and made for the locker exit, more than eager to get out of this place...

Alice quietly sat in on the bench, playing with her phone as she waited for her sister, sometimes taking note of people coming into...and then leaving the locker room. Nothing special, but one could never know when a fight or the like could break out...

...or when one could see a person they really needed to talk to.

And this was the example of the latter, as the Pale Rider's eyes shot to the site to see her sister's foe tonight heading for the locker room exit.

Very quickly, she would jump to her feet, and call out to Cicilia:

"Oi! Stop right there, you big bitch!", intentionally insulting the woman to make sure she would follow the command...

And as she was commanded, Cicilia stopped, freezing mid step as her sanguine eyes, once staring down at the ground in thought now locked on the girl who had called her out. ...The hell? Who was this? And who did she think she was that she had the right to talk to her that way? The Juggernaut wasn't necessarily offended, more surprised than anything else. Cicilia had something of a thick skin when it came to personal insults and "bitch" was probably down there with "dummy" at this point. The things that she'd been forced to adapt too, to bear with just to make it here... They put such a petty little insult to shame.

Still, that didn't stop her from glaring in the direction of the person who said it, impatient... She wanted to go home and crawl into bed... not linger in this musty little locker-room... Whatever this girl had to say, she'd better say it fast or the only thing she'd be speaking to is the German's back.

"What do you want?" She huffed in aggravation, rolling her eyes as if to brush off her insult. "I got stuff to do so if you're going to go on a tangent, save it." Clearly, Cicilia had done something to wrong her too... somehow, despite never having seen her before. What was her deal? Couldn't she just send pissy emails or something to her work-account like everyone else that had an issue? Why bother her here? Cicilia turned to fully face Alice, leaning against the doorway.

Alice could tell she didn't have Cicilia's attention for too long. If she left, she was fully prepared to force her to listen to her, but brawling with someone backstage wasn't her style.

She easily found the words she wanted to say within a second:

"Simple? Sure. You beat the shit out of my sister. I want to beat the shit out of you for this...no...we both will beat the shit out of you for this! Not now. Say...next week?"

Cicilia blinked, surprised that the weird-masked girl had siblings... even more so that she would rush to defend her honor! Even more to her surprise, the first thing the Juggernaut felt was... Jealousy...? It stung her deep to see another sibling so passionately, feeling an empty hole where true recognition should've been. It didn't make her mad either... Just... sad. Guilty almost, even if she didn't outwardly show it. Alice made her demands right then and there and, for a minute, Cicilia didn't respond. She just stood there, stared at her, observing in great detail...

"...Next week." She agreed with a nod, glancing off to the side slightly, revealing if only a glimpse of what she was feeling.

Shame

She didn't want to look this girl in the eyes... She might just see a certain fantasy in them, a fantasy where Elfrida hopped to her defense whenever she was beaten down, a fantasy turned on her in the cruelest possible circumstance.

Alice expected the look of shock, maybe mixed with anger, on the strikers face...only for her to see in her something she didn't expect...yet, she couldn't put the finger on what it was exactly.

With a quiet sadness, she left Alice in the locker room while agreeing to the handicap match...

"Huh...w-weird...", Alice said to herself, as she went back to the bench in the locker room, to wait for Clara to break her the news...