Eve Taylor sat against the wall next to a rather large window, leaning back as her legs arched into the sky, bending at the knee before resting against the floor. Not much could be seen outside as the darkness had truly set in the outskirts of Milan. Only scattered lights of Italian residences in the distance and Eve's partial reflection were present across the glass. She wasn't paying much attention to what was outside, but rather looking down into her lap where her hands were playing.
"Are you ready to unmask yourself?" Eve asked herself, a slight grin forming on her face.
Her fingertips were slowly caressing, trying to get a feel of what she was playing with in her lap. Slowly, she brought it up into view, looking directly at it. It was the mask of John Doe.
"That was the question you haunted me with, John Doe."
She slid her hand inside the mask and opened it up, as if a face filled the mask. She brought it up close to her, almost face-to-face with the mask. She did not need to sniff the mask for the stench to penetrate her nostrils, nor did she need to lick the mask to taste John Doe. Most people would've cast aside the mask or at the very least, pulled it away from their senses. For Eve, however, she found it oddly satisfying to be this close to the mask of the man who stole her championship.
"It's funny, I should be asking you the same question since I've got your mask." Eve remarked, still slyly grinning. "Seeing you stand out there exposed, unable to hide yourself..." Eve let out a chuckle. "Perhaps I should give Mikey that second date for giving this to me? What do you reckon, John? Maybe I'll wait until how the World championship match goes before I answer."
Her eyes darted everywhere, looking through the details of the intentionally poor stitching and slits. With her free hand, she pressed one finger and slowly trickled down the mask, letting the rough exterior guide her down. She patted the top of the head before she lovingly cupped the side of the mask, staring into the eyes of Doe's mask.
"I'll give it you, John. This mask gave me nightmares." She said, as she closed her eyes. "Every time I went to sleep, every time I blinked... I saw your face. The terrifying image of your glaring eyes and wicked smile, ripping Senshuken away from me. It was all I could think about. You sent my emotional and mental state into a downward spiral, one that almost destroyed all hope of recovery. Taking away the one thing that defines me..."
Eve paused for a moment, not wanting to think about Senshuken for the moment. She continued examining the mask, looking to shift her focus.
"You know the main reason I chose to use Eve Taylor as my name? Most people elect it was my affinity towards Elizabeth Taylor, paying homage to someone who inspired me. She did inspire me and I have said this in interviews, but that was mainly to humanise me. Bring me down to Earth with everyone else. The truth of the matter is because of my talents for tailoring when I was child. I spent a couple of years working illegally as a tailor, honing my craft to create some unique dresses. I could tell you many stories and discuss ethics on my involvement here, John, but I'm not here for that. The point of this little anecdote is to share my love for great detail when it comes to all things fashion, including masks."
She turns the mask around, discovering all these details on the back.
"I can tell by the craftsmanship that this mask meant a lot to you. The terrible stitching and repairs done to this mask tells me you've fixed it up yourself. Nobody fixes broken clothing when they've ripped, unless you can't afford it or it means something special to you, John. You don't strike me as the kind of person to care about money. I'm sure you have plenty stored away to employ a professional to fix it or make a new one, but no, you repaired it yourself... this butchered piece of material is almost beautiful in a sentimental sense. I'm almost in awe, inspired even."
She removes her hand from inside the mask, holding it limp. She caresses it once more.
"You must feel ugly without your mask, John, like a part of you is missing. You feel like you're nothing, wandering around the world like a lost, homeless child searching to fill the hole in their heart. The more you wander, the bigger the hole gets. Every day, every hour... every second, it grows deeper. You might find something along the way to distract you from or replace the hole, but it's only temporary. No matter what you do, that hole will always remain..." Eve trails off for a moment. "It's almost how I feel right now, John. When you took Senshuken away from me, I felt lost. It was the only thing I had left. Cerberus is gone. I can never get my modelling career back. My friends are no longer around. Hell, I'm in Milan right now and I can't even see my own family."
Eve turns her head towards the window, looking out. She points to a particular glow in the distance, one of the few lights left on.
"Can you see, John? See that light? That's my family home. They're celebrating my eldest sisters' birthday tonight. Everybody is there. My parents, all three of my sisters and their husbands... even my grandparents. Birthdays are a big celebration for my family. We used to go on for hours into the night. I remember, when my great grandmother turned seventy, we celebrated until morning. I even got to try my first sip of wine at the age of seven." Eve let out a laugh. "I'd love to be there tonight, but this apartment is the closest I can get without violating court orders."
Eve puts her whole hand up to the glass. Every time Eve was in this apartment, staring into the distance at her family home, she always came to tears. Tonight, however, when she instinctively went to wipe her eyes, they were dry. She had no tears to shed.
"I've lost all this, more than any person... and yet, you still take Senshuken, my Elite Openweight championship, from me and ask me strip myself away? You rip the one thing I have left just to play your little game of 20 questions? Just to ask me... 'are you ready to unmask yourself?'..."
She drops her head down, shaking her head as she laughs. She grabs the mask of John Doe again and looks directly at it, laughing and waving her finger.
"Ah, that's funny, John." Eve continues to laugh. "You did the one thing that would grab my fullest attention and that's the question you ask me?! That is the one question you want answered the one question you feel would break me from the inside? You're hysterical, John!"
Eve cannot seem to stop laugh. She roars from her belly, doing her best to hold it down as the laughs are overtaking her body. It takes Eve a minute to calm herself down, still letting out chuckles. She gets up from her position and begins walking through the dark apartment.
"Wow, I haven't laugh this hard in years!" Eve says, wiping away tears of laughter. "You couldn't have chosen a more moronic question to ask! If you haven't noticed John..."
Eve flicks the light on, throwing her hands up in the air to reveal what was in the apartment... or whatever happened to it.
"... I'M A FUCKING SUPERMODEL!" Eve yells at the top of her lungs.
This apartment was less of an apartment and more like a converted storage loft of clothes, the world's biggest walk-in wardrobe in the entire world! There are clothes upon clothes, shoes upon shoes, accessories galore... it was every girl's dream palace! Eve skipped over to one of the racks and let her fingers flutter through the dresses, like a windy breeze bellowing through an old oak tree. She keeps the mask of John Doe on her hand, letting him see everything.
"Look at this, John! I've transformed a two-bedroom apartment into the fashion sanctuary! Every outfit I've ever worn in my entire life is in this building. Every single time I've had a photo shoot or a party or an event, that outfit is in here." Eve walks up to some specific clothes. "This red dress? I wore this on the red carpet when my then-boyfriend was up for an award. Or this two-piece bikini I did for the cover of Maxim when I first broke out? How about this stiletto design I made famous for Cosmopolitan? There is no one event where I wore the same outfit. There is no one place I had the same face, or hair style, or shoes."
Eve turns back to the mask of John Doe.
"You ask me to unmask myself? Look around us, John! I put on a different every day. New clothes, new face... every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I looked like a new person. I had to become a new person every day. I had to put on a new mask... every... day. This was my job, this was my life, this is my life... EVERY... DAY!"
She takes pauses, looking around at her collection. Slowly, she walks through everything again. She walks everywhere, searching through her catalogue of clothes as if she was walking down memory land. She feels the fabric and smells the material of some of her dresses, walking through familiar territory. Slowly, she gets to the most recent of outfits, her wrestling attires. Her debut attire, her Cerberus attire, her Kingdom Come attires... slowly walking to the end.
"I'm already unmasked, John... I have been ever since I became Eve Taylor. Many people like you say that when I became this godly supermodel that I put up a wall, when in fact I tore it down. Everything Eva Pellegrini was, no longer exists. No family, no friends... Eva Pellegrini is merely an alias I use to book flights and hotels to evade any fanfare of my arrivals. Eve Taylor is who I am and she's just a clean slate, ready to be manipulated to whatever she needed to be for that day. Eve Taylor put on these costumes and masks for the camera but in the real world, she was just the lost, homeless child wandering around looking to fill that hole."
Eve stops to the part of the wardrobe where the lights do not shine upon, covered in some darkness. Eve puts the mask of John Doe on a rack, looking down at her. She begins to remove her clothes, one item at a time until she has nothing left. She looks at the mask of John Doe.
"See why I laughed at you, now? I'm still the same person. There is no difference. I took off everything and yet, I see no mask lying around. The same thing happens when I put on a new attire, too."
Eve turns to the rack and begins putting on the attire at the end, starting off with the stilettos.
"If I could wrestle you naked at Gold Rush to further prove my point John, I would. I'd go out there in front of the world and beat you in the middle of that ring if it wasn't inappropriate. You could call me an exhibitionist but you asked for it, it'd be your fault... but since I can't do that, I'm going to redirect the question at you, John. Are you ready to be unmasked, John? Are you ready to face the entire world without a mask and walk around exposed?"
Eve adjusts the last of her clothes before checking herself in the mirror, making sure everything fits well.
"Stunning, aren't I, John? I'd look a lot better when I finally reclaim Senshuken and have my title hang from the shoulders of its rightful owner. A proud woman with her prestigious championship, once again defending it against all comers... but until then, you wear my Elite Openweight title."
Eve turns to the mask, removing it from the rack and feeling it once more.
"So, would it be fair to say that I wear your mask, too?"
She kisses the hole where the mouth would be and begins putting on the mask, pulling her long blonde hair through. She lifts her head up high, breathing in heavily through her nose to take in the stench and licking around the outside of the mask, tasting John Doe. She turns around, her eyes glaring more into the looking glass. A wicked smile forms on her face as she stares at herself, appreciating the look more and more.
"Wow! It's almost like you couldn't tell it's me... like a real Jane Doe." Jane says, turning around in the mirror, giving a smile. "You might not recognise me, Senshuken... but mommy's coming for you, and she's going to teach daddy a lesson."