“Thank god you’re back.”

Elise jumped. She had just come home to a dark house, and assumed Charles wasn’t home yet. She tracked his voice to the living room, and found him sprawled out on the couch.

“What on earth are you doing in the dark?” she asked, flicking on the light.

The Universe heaved a heavy sigh. Metaphorically, of course; as it was a universe, it didn’t have lungs to sigh with. It had been working for such a very long time, expanding, creating new stars and planets, and hadn’t had a break in, well, ever. Maybe it was time to check in on some of the planets it had made in the early days, when, if it was being honest, it didn’t fully know what it was doing.

“What do you mean, you’ve never baked before?” he asked incredulously, as they skidded around another corner.

“Really? You still want to continue this conversation?” she shouted back over the roar of motorcycles closing in behind them.

“Of course we need to finish this conversation! How can you be, what, 30, and never baked before?” he panted, abruptly pulling her aside into an alley. Their chests rose and fell, brushing against each other with each breath, as they waited for their pursuers to zip by them.

“Lilly, I told you not to – Lilly! What did you do?!” Aria surveyed the room, taking in the pillows leaking feathers, the paintings askew on the walls, and the stain blossoming on the carpet.

“In my defense, he was already dead when I got here,” Lilly said, raising from a crouch next to the crumpled human form on the floor.

She rolled the handle of the knife in her hand, considering the situation before her. Where to make the next cut? She needed information, so nothing too deep or bloody. She wanted to make sure he knew she meant business, so it had to have some bite. He whimpered slightly, and her mouth curved into a smile, as sharp as her blade.

“This can end quickly, you know,” she said softly, almost kindly. “Just tell me what I need to know, and you can go. The pain will stop.”

“Do you ever have that feeling, like something is wrong with your life? Like you’ve made all these choices, done all these things, to get to where you are, and you look around and think, what the hell happened? How did all of that lead to this?

“You grow up, in a fairly happy home. Great. You have a blast in elementary school, middle school is iffy, high school sucks. Then you hit college and it gets a little better. You find things and people you are interested in. You make friends, fall in love, get your heart broken, and do it all over again. Everything kind of feels like elementary school again.

Another bullet whizzed by, shattering the window and raining shards of glass down on their heads.

“Are you always this prone to bad luck and violence? If so, that’s kind of sad,” he yelled over the gunshots.

“Pretty much, yeah,” she shouted back, reloading her pistol.