For Dave and Chris

Bad Guys Need Flowers - Pt. 10
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In one of the far corners of the building, there was no exit. Bump. Bump. Bump. There was only darkness. Loneliness was there, too, but loneliness is lonely, so it’s alone. The exit was never going to appear. Nothing was ever going to appear.

“Leave it!” Cal shouted at Midnight, who’d prepared her pole for yet another final blow. “I think it’s blind.”

Midnight: “Which means it can still kill us, especially if it senses us in any other way, such as noise, like your shouting.”

Cal: “Give me one minute.” Midnight tightened her grip. Cal tightened his eyes, and told her once more to “Hold on” before rushing away.

Midnight remained coiled, a mouse trap ready to snap. The mouse in this case was a scorpion - a scorpion that (as has been foretold) had no idea what it was doing and was hissing quite upsetly about this fact. Despite the commotion, it continued in its hopeless attempt to walk through a wall.

Cal rushed back holding… a terrarium? Taking off the top, he carefully placed it over the scorpion. He then slid the top underneath, flipped, and presented to all his prisoner.

Midnight: “Two questions.”

Cal: “Yes?”

Midnight: “One: Did you bring that terrarium from home?”

Cal: “Nope. It was in the second closet.”

Rog , who’d been observing the occurrence, muttered to himself: “Why didn’t I choose the second one…”

Midnight: “Weird. Two: Why the hell did you do that?”

Cal: “Well, in the event that we can’t interrogate it…”

Midnight sarcastically ha-ed.

Cal (responding and continuing): “Ouch… we can at least save ourselves.”

Rog: “We could have saved ourselves by killing it.”

Cal: “That’s not what I meant. Look, maybe I felt bad for the guy. We just turned his whole family into kebabs.”

Rog (incredulously): “Except that they attacked us, meaning they asked for it.”

Midnight: “Let me ask another question.”

Cal: “Yes?”

Midnight: “Do you eat kebabs?”

Cal: “Sometimes.”

Midnight: “Well, the times that you do, you are choosing to do what you were just forced to do to survive.”

Cal: “I only eat chicken and fish.”

Midnight: “You’re a saint, and that’s irrelevant.”

Cal: “I know, to both. Alright. I can’t explain myself. How about this, then: It might come in handy.”

Rog: “It might escape and kill us all.”

Cal (finally commenting on the goggles in Rog’s wardrobe): “Were you planning on swimming?”

Midnight (opting to conclude the conversation): “Keep the scorpion. The goggles are dumb. There’s another note in my pocket.”