The sound of jovial music played as the camera faded into what appeared to be a full on party. Men and women dancing around a fire dressed in costumes and the sound of their laughter accompanied the instrumental beckoning. A familiar shape sensually moved amongst them. The dim flickering light from the flames pulled the attention toward the half painted visage. A sombrero adorned her head. A soft smile played at the young woman’s features as she turned to the witnesses at home. Those shimmering, smoky pools danced with a dangerous delight. “Is this what you see when you look at me?” The singsong voice called like a ghost in the midst of the chorus of laughter and conversation. La Reina tipped her hat before tossing it to the side. The music stopped for a moment as the sound of thunder seemed to echo in the distance. “You see.. Some seem to have things twisted. One heritage is not exactly like the other.”

La Reina took a deep breath as the first flash of lightning made her fellow revelers jump. “It is truly quite simple. I am, as I said, Venezuelan and African American. Not Mexican.” The young woman paused for a moment. “Unlike my next opponent.” A small smirk formed on La  Reina’s face. “You see HGH. You think, but I know you are nothing more than just another dime a dozen, arrogant, self-absorbed, mentally challenged, and entitled pendejo.” She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth with distaste.  “You think the world owes you a debt. The number of FORMER world champions that you have faced and beaten means little when your attitude leaves so much to be desired. You are what my mother and father would have referred to as a clout chasing reprobate. A little worm that barely holds the right to be used as bait..”

“I am better than you and you know it?” She let the words sit on the air for a second or two as lightning flashed to reveal the colorful face paint that once was, had been replaced with a much darker and skeletal motif. “You don’t take me seriously when in all honesty. You think I should be afraid of you?” La Reina shook her head as another flash and the crash of thunder reminded those watching on of the approaching storm. “Your wins and losses don’t impress me. Your presence does not challenge me.” As if to prove her point the woman raised her arms and a bolt of lightning landed at her feet. “You are merely an egotistical man while I am your superior in every way.”

La Reina tapped her chin. “They say women run the world. That should be more true than it is. Men have no real threshold for pain. Men have no other goals than to conquer and reap. Women are the brains to their brawn..” She stopped as if an idea had suddenly struck her. “That is part of your issue isn’t itr HGH? You are sexually frustrated and your attempted display of machismo is little more than overcompensation of your… Shortcomings?” The Latina stood still for a moment. “Let’s see… I have questioned your manhood. I have called into question whether your inept attempts to strut around like an overly voicerous peacock is just further proof of your stunningly low intellect. Your blatant racism has been noted.”

The woman snapped her fingers and where the sombrero had once been sat a crown made of thorns. A painful reminder of old. The barbs cut into her skin without resistance. La Reina barely even appeared to flinch. “Just a reminder, I am willing to put my body through the worst things one could imagine. I have before and will at a moment’s notice. Can you say the same, HGH? My mother and adopted father were among the most violent when it came to this sport. They taught me how to endure. How to recover from the most barbaric things one could do to themselves or have others do unto them.” La Reina pressed her hand into the jagged crown upon her skull, digging it even deeper into her own skin. “Life is pain, that is what my father told me. That people, if allowed, would break someone down at any chance.” Her words seemed even more distant, a soft call to arms. A sonnet written in her own life essence. “And though my career here is far beyond what I expected of myself. I refuse to allow myself to sink into blaming others or into some form of self-degradation. And I still find it hard to believe that someone like you can still find a way to put yourself on a pedestal when you have and likely will never reach the heights that I have in such a short time.This storm is nothing compared to what I will bring unto you HGH. For little more than your own idiosyncrasies. Your own imaginative accomplishments. Your own greed, lust, and pride. All of which are not deserved.”

The woman let her tongue wet her lips. “One moment.” She moved to a table as the occupants scattered in all directions. She picked up the bottle of spirits they left behind. She took a couple of quick swallows and set the bottle back onto the flat surface. “Oh yes. I remember where I was now. I was discussing the personal sins of HGH. PRIDE, LUST, and GREED. Greed for the material. Greed for that which he will likely never obtain. Lust for not only bodily pleasures, but for egotistical wanting. The two seem so similar do they not? Then there is that oh so prevalent, `In the end you have been weighed, measured, and found wanting.” A flash of light and La Reina was gone. The camera tried to find her again, but to no avail. Suddenly another flash and she was face fully in the lens, blood oozing. “See you soon, my incompetent, overreaching friend.”