Pam and I had been sitting in dead silence on our phones, corpses in coffins, when James burst through the door and slammed it shut with his back. “Thought you forgot about us.” I said then let my eyes fall back to what I’d been doing.

“That’s dumb.” He forced himself into the space between Pam and I on the couch, “Neither one of you care why I just came in here like that?”

“Nope.”

“Huh?”

The sound of a zipper, rustle of paper, thump on coffee-table; I looked up from screen to a wad of green bigger than I’d ever seen. “3000 dollars enough to buy your attentions?” That did get us looking, “I know it looks like more but it’s mostly 20’s.”

“Why?”

“Marsh is good at saving money but I’m his only client that buys more than a gram at a time.”

I dropped my phone. “You stole that?!”

“You do care.” James smiled at me.

“Tell the damn story.” Pam demanded, eyes still on the stack.

James cleared his throat, wriggled deeper into the couch cushions, “I didn’t anticipate such a captive audience.” Pam and I groaned. “Alright, alright,” James lifted a bag of weed and square of foil out of his bag, set them beside the money. “This is all I got:

We smoked everything I had so I went to Marsh’s to get more; after his usual paranoid q and a he lets me in, sits me down, offers to smoke.” He paused, looked at Pam like she should know what that meant but her face remained blank. “I expected more out of you, a dealer like Marsh never wants to smoke unless someone is matching.

Anyways, we get to smoking, talking, he brings up acid but instead of trying to sell it to me he insists I take some, right there.

I say no, I got shit to do, but he disappears and comes back with that and that,” James pointed at the money and package of foil, “So things were getting fucked on. I asked him why he ever thought to keep money in the freezer, you guys know that’s where you supposed to store acid, what was I saying?

Right, I asked about stashing money in the freezer and he said that even if people got hot on his trail at least his money would stay cold. Fair of me to assume his brain was gone to the energies at that point or whatever, right?” Pam nodded and James continued, “As if that wasn’t enough though, he says he has a gun, and that he’ll shoot me if I don’t eat the entire sheet in front of him; like he wanted me to get rid of it.

I just kicked him in the nuts grabbed what I could then sprinted here.

You remember, Eddy, when the Muses were saying about acid-”

Six quick bangs interrupted the speech; the door to my room creaked open and all six of Fates’ servants walked out laughing, patting each other on the back. “Congratulations.” Neil said as the Muses surrounded my friends and I.

“What happened to the fighting?” I wanted to be surprised but no longer felt capable.

Ernest shook his head. “Conflict does not automatically equate to hatred.”

“Did it matter what I did? At all?”

Chuck raised an eyebrow. “Appreciate the luck that got you here.”

“We ain’t gonna let-” Pam tried to jump in the conversation but K opened a window; wind blew in so strong that it forced James, Pam, and I to the ground, pinned like wrestlers.

“The world does not need permission to turn.” K yelled over the blowing.

Douglass crouched next to me, used his towel to wipe away the tear that’d run down my face. Ray, on the other side of me, said, “You’re an author after tonight; no need to be sad.”

End

Episode 10: The End