Gooseland

She shivered. "Glad I never sent you any nude selfies. I almost did one night, a year and a half ago or so. I got drunk and stupid and wanted to show someone my piercings. I thought I was being funny, but I sent them to the wrong phone. My cousin, Leeanne, still blushes whenever she talks to me." She gave a hapless shrug. "So what did you find in Des Moines?"

"About half of what she told me was a lie. Her parents died in a suspicious house fire when she was thirteen. She spent a couple years in a mental ward, but I couldn't get the records."

"That's not much for almost five weeks of looking."

"Cash was the pro at this, not me. But I think I found out what I needed to know."

"What was that?"

"Her step-father's name wasn't Keith like she told me." I shut my eyes for a second. "It was Frank. And there were some allegations that he'd... abused some young women."

"Oh." Missy stared straight ahead at the road.

"Yeah. He died before he was actually charged though, so, you know..."

She kept her eyes locked on the road. "Did he... He looked like you, didn't he?"

I nodded. And felt myself cringe inside. Frank had looked almost exactly like me.

We were wordless for the next several minutes, right up until we pulled up in front of the house. Ribbons of yellow police tape still hung haphazardly by the door.

Missy twisted her mouth. "You really ready to go back in there?"

"Not really, I'm still having nightmares, but I need to sooner or later, and where the hell else..."

She shoved the car into gear. "Later then. You can stay at my place for a while."

"Hey. You don't have to do this."

"You're not the only one waking up in a cold sweat Lee."

I considered it for a second. "You still have that old couch?"

"Nah. I bought a better one."

"Good, that thing was uncomfortable as hell."

Missy started to say something, but she stopped. "Lee, you know it's going to get better. You'll eventually get over this and find someone."

"I'm not exactly batting a thousand here."

She tried not to, but a snort of a laugh escaped. "You actually got WORSE at picking women. Jesus, we need to get you a class or a manual or something. You know, maybe there's a 'ho and crazy bitch identification chart' or something."

"I don't think there's anything like that out there.

"We'll check Amazon, they have everything." She grinned.

We slid to a stop in front of her apartment building. I sat there for a moment, but Missy just hopped out and pulled my door open. "C'mon, let's get your bags."

I started to get out stiffly. "My hip is still sore."

Missy helped me stand. "I can't believe she shot you in the butt."

"The hip."

"Tell everyone else whatever you want. I had to stop the bleeding. With all the clothe I had on. She nailed you right in the cheek."

We limped up to the building. I managed to get up the two flights of stairs and waited while she pulled her keys out to open the door.

As soon as I walked in, I noticed two easy chairs and a coffee table in front of the TV, but nothing else.

"I thought you said you had a new couch."

"I lied. You know I do that. We couldn't help each other with bad dreams with you out here and me in there, could we?"

"This isn't really a good idea."

Missy reached over and grabbed my hand. "C'mon Lee. I'm going to make you smile again. We're getting you back in the saddle. Best medicine for you. I got some new tricks to show you."

"My hip..."

"My ass. I promise, you won't even be thinking about the pain."

"Look, Missy...I really appreciate everything you've done. Everything. Hell, I wouldn't even be alive, but you know there's no way we..."

"Seriously? You think...." Her voice gave way to delighted laughter. "Come on Lee, you know me. I'm not going to be anyone's Miss Right. I don't even want to be. We both know I'd be lousy at it."

I let her drag me two steps and it was obvious she was still pulling me toward the bedroom. "Why..."

"I may not be 'Miss Right,' but I am 'Miss Right Here, Right Now.'" She let go of my hand long enough to peel her t-shirt off and step out of her jean shorts in an impossible single motion.

She paused to stick her tongue out at me to show me that her tongue stud matched her earrings and nipple piercings. I gave an involuntary glance down to her bubble-gum pink panties, remembering that she'd mentioned a matching "six-piece set" of body jewelry. She arched one eyebrow wickedly with a very mischievous grin and yanked me back into motion, pausing only long enough to shoot me a lurid smile. "I'm going to be the most awesome Rebound Girl in the entire history of rebound girls!"

I couldn't resist a smile at that.

"Later, when you're ready for her. I'll help you find Miss Right." She laughed musically. "I swear to God, I will find you the best Miss Right ever."

I tried to find something to even say about how crazy that sounded, but she cut me off. "Why don't we both just sleep on it tonight? I believe in the morning you'll begin to see the light."

Then she kissed me.

There was something in that cinnamon and care-free heat.

And I realized she probably was right.

Post Production Notes:

We wanted to do something a bit less heavy than the last one -- "The Low Road" was awful close to home for us, we've seen some of that pain too close up. The Missus has been wanting to do a slasher story for some time and it just seemed to fit this one for some reason. We had a blast talking through it, then toning it down enough to post. This one was a popcorn movie, just a little bit of fun with a few dark shadows, some crazy characters and a couple jump scares.

Things are still crazy around here. Work and home have been hectic. We're still scraping out time to write in bits and pieces. Got a number things in the works and we're getting a lot closer to finishing them so hopefully things will let up a bit.

As always, thank you to everyone who takes the time out of their day to read these. With everything going on in the world, we hope you've gotten a little bit of distraction and entertainment from this. The Missus and I are story tellers much more than writers, so for us, there honestly wouldn't be much point to this without readers.