"Yeah. Back at the old motel."
"I haven't thought about that place in a long time. You think it hurt when you killed him?"
"Definitely."
"Good."
I take a puff of the Malediction and let Kasabian finish it off.
I say, "Maybe us being stuck here isn't the worst thing imaginable."
"No, it is. It really is."
"I've felt so guilty about everything that's happened. Then I remembered that half of this shit is just because humans are jokes to Heaven and Hell. We're the punching bags in their family psychodrama. I know I can't change that, but I can make it more fun. A mosquito can't kill an elephant, but it can drive it crazy. Maybe that's enough. Fucking with Lucifer's bullyboys and God's Pinkertons. Maybe that's a good enough reason not to be dead."
"That's really beautiful. Why don't you go and knit that on a sweater, Heidi? Here's an even better idea-don't talk anymore. Put on a movie."
"What do you want to see?"
"Porn."
"There's no way I'm watching porn with you."
"You're such an old lady. What's on top of the player?"
"Master of the Flying Guillotine and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly first. Then The Flying Guillotine."
I take Kasabian to the bedside table, hit on, thumb play on the remote, and lie back on the bed. The no-copying warning comes up.
"Can we order in pizza later?" asks Kasabian.
"Can you eat?"
"I can chew."
"I'll put a bucket under you."
"Shut up. The movie's starting."
END
>"It's dreamy weather we're on
You waved your crooked wand
Along an icy pond with a frozen moon
A murder of silhouette crows I saw
And the tears on my face
And the skates on the pond
They spell Alice."
My legs are good and numb when the last of her drifts out of sight. I'm not even cold anymore, but I can't stop shaking.