Bullets & Spells

''Between Us''

🌿💀🌿

I wake up at the same time as Larkspur, but Kapudul is already awake. She's scrolling on her phone and spins her lighter in her other hand.

"It's really hard to masturbate in a bed with two other people," she posits first thing in the morning.

"You ain't flickin' the bean in my bed,'' I say as I sit up. I don't know if she's joking or not.

"And what if I already did? What're you gonna do?"

"Might set you on fire."

"Can you two shut the fuck up?" Larkspur interjects. They might wake up at the same time as me, but they always ask for five more minutes of sleep.

"No one tells me to shut the fuck up in my own bed."

"Not even as dirty talk?" Kapudul ponders.

"How is that dirty talk?" I counter. She chuckles.

"You have a lot to learn, young one." I groan, not dignifying that with a proper response. She takes a spliff out of her pocket. "Can I smoke this in here?"

"So I can get a contact high every time I lay my sweet head? I don't think so."

Larkspur shoots up.

"I will murder both of you and even Tamara won't be able to find the bodies."

"Someone's crabby," I nip back. "I'm gonna take a shower." I climb over Larkspur and grab a towel.

"You're showering without me?" Kapudul prods.

I present my middle finger which gets a laugh from her.

I'm not as sore as I was yesterday. I stretch, letting the hot water relieve some of the tightness. I know that my body will recover; fatigue, soreness, bruises, and cuts all fade with time. But this pain in my head, I feel like it's something else. I sense that it's not just a regular headache, the way it sharply occurs and dissipates almost feels like it's attacking me.

I should get it looked at with an MRI or CT scan, I've never been sure what the difference is between those two.

Then again who has time for all that?

I finish showering and get dressed.

"Y'all can take a shower if you want," I say to both of them. They start playing rock paper scissors for who gets to go first. While that's going on I walk into my living room. I look at the spot where I woke up from my two-week-long blackout.

It's surreal to think about.

I try to pick some clues from my surroundings. There are imprints in the carpet from something heavy and rectangular being there. The lines don't match any cases I have to store weapons, so it's from something else. If I had to guess I'd say they belong to a trunk of some kind. Question is, whose trunks were they?

The clothes I don't recognize in my drawers let me know I went shopping during the blackout. They aren't exactly my style, but who knows what I was thinking then?

I could go wherever I bought them, and see if I could gain any info that way. But a minimum wage employee probably wouldn't care enough if I didn't do anything crazy, which I don't believe I did. I probably paid with cash too.

That's a dead end.

Kapudal walks up next to me.

"Doing a little detective work?" She accurately guesses. Her joint rests between her lips, unlit.