A Beating for the Ages

With the sound of the buzzer, Alma wasn't going to allow Imogen to play her stupid games again. First of all, she'd robbed her of the last round by running away for nearly all of it. Secondly, she had then accused her of cheating. She hadn't stacked the deck in her favor. She didn't even know how to play cards, let alone cheat at them. This time she was going to crank up the pain.

Imogen attempted to repeat the same trick again as she dodged around the table. Alma simply stood on top of the table and launched herself like a missile at Imogen. The thick dancer tried to dodge, but Alma soon backed her into the corner of the room. Alma threw her shoulder into Imogen and crunched her against the wall.

Alma drove her fist straight into her abs. Imogen quickly fell to her knees as the blow caught her by surprise.

"Get up. You think you're going to accuse me of cheating?" Alma dragged Imogen back to her feet again. "Just because you can't take losing?"

Alma didn't wait for a reply. She fired another shot into her belly. This time she allowed her to sink to the ground. Imogen was coughing and spluttering as she tried to get her breath back. Once again, Alma took her back to her feet. This time she pushed her over the low table, the deck wobbling as Imogen tripped and landed in a heap once again.

Imogen groaned as she turned over. She glanced at the clock. Little more than 30 seconds had passed. There was still so much time to go before she'd have a chance at turning the tables. Imogen turned onto her front and attempted to crawl away on her hands and knees.

"Oh no," said Alma. "I don't think so."

Imogen attempted to crawl toward the kitchen just to get some distance between the two. Her hands met the tiles when Alma seized her by the right leg. She found herself turned over on her back with Alma smiling up at her. Imogen kicked with both feet to try to get her to release the grip. With her free leg, her sneaker collided with Alma's fingers.

"Oww." Alma dropped her leg and examined her stricken pinkie finger. "Fuck."

Imogen tried to turn over again to get away. She barely made it a couple of feet before Alma was on her again. This time she wrenched her back by the leg and put her full weight down on her struggling limbs.

"I think it's time to get rid of these, don't you?"

Alma popped off one of Imogen's green sneakers and hurled it from point black range at the top of her head.

"Hey, wait." Imogen covered her head. "I need those."

Alma ignored her and continued to go to work. She removed the black sock underneath before shifting her position to access the other leg. Once again, Imogen tried to scramble away, but she didn't get far before Alma caught her again. The other sneaker left her foot, followed by her sock, and now she was barefoot.

It didn't sound like much, but there was something about having anything taken off against her will - and by Alma, of all people - that made her feel vulnerable. This could get really bad if she let it.

Still just under half the time remaining.