Part 19 — Illusion

"And... I'm dead. Well, this is hell, huh?" Zap looked at the bright, blue sky, the white clouds above him, and the green grass below him. "Sure doesn't feel like it."

"It's not hell, you fucking idiot." Xin was walking up to him, behind him. "This is the peaceful world no-one can have. It's all an illusion. It's not hell, but it may as well be."

Zap didn't know how to respond. "Well... at least this seems nice, doesn't it?"

"Sure," Xin said. "I mean, what's there to cause any inconvenience?"

"Falling on the grass?"

"Nope. The grass is soft and dry."

"Staring at the sun?"

"You can try it. It won't do much."

"Forcing yourself to stop breathing?"

"Wow, you got it." Xin looked up at the sky, away from the sun. "Obviously in a perfect world, the only inconvenience is yourself. So there really is no perfect world."

"And you're a philosopher because...?"

"What? It's pure common sense."

"Right... well, I guess death is better than life anyway."

"Shut up. Sure, heaven may be better than earth, way better than earth, but earth is where we create our own desires and experience them for a short time."

"Okay, can you stop being a philosopher? You're freaking me out. Be normal."

"Fine..." Xin took a deep breath. "Just enjoy life, you little shit. Death is far away. Don't worry about it. Be the idiot you are on earth and worry about the rest later."

"Much better." Zap smiled.

"You know, you're smiling at the weirdest possible personality, idiot."

"Well, when you live with it for two months..."

"Right. Like I have to live with an idiot for two months and it reduces my intelligence."

"Exactly!"

"Okay, you are an idiot. Anyway, I'm done talking. Bye."

"What? Where's there to go to?"

"You'll see."

Part 20 — The Other Side

Xin took a seat near Zap's hospital bed. She looked at his bandaged head. "And now I'm fucking paying for the most expensive bill I'll ever pay for, and it's not even for myself. You fucking idiot, Zap. Why didn't you just do it earlier and save us all this trouble?" Xin thought back to the few hours leading up to this event:

As she was chasing Grace, she thought back to how Zap and Blake were. Zap had just been tripped by Blake, which wasn't good, but Blake had an injured shoulder as well. Xin figured they would be fine, until she realized that he had fallen on the rifle hard and wouldn't be able to get up. And all Blake had to do was recover from a cut on his shoulder. Shit... Xin forgot about Grace and ran for Zap and Blake.

When Zap and Blake went into her sight, she saw one big figure composed of two: One person had his gun on the other person's head, who was on the floor. She ran closer until she saw that the person on the floor had a familiar orange shirt. "You piece of shit..." She dashed towards Blake. "BLAKE, YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT!!"

Blake, in confusion, had forgotten to fire at Zap and had looked toward the blurry figure rushing towards him.

"FACE MY ANGER, MOTHERFUCKER! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH ME!" She stopped running and tossed the knife at Blake. It struck his good shoulder, leaving him with two injured shoulders, one with a knife in it. She ran slower but still quickly. When she reached Blake, she pulled out her knife, which was now stained in blood. "Dammit..." Using Blake's shirt. She wiped off the knife. Grabbing his gun, she slammed the point into the ground and fired all the shots in its equipped magazine. Running to Zap, she pulled out her phone and dialed the ambulance.

"Well... that was fun," Xin said to herself, smiling. Then she looked back at Zap. "But I guess everything has a price..." She turned to the door, which just opened. A doctor walked in. "He'll be fine. Bruises won't hurt him bad. Though, we'll have to keep him here for the remainder of the month."

Xin looked at the calendar. It was the seventh day of the month. "Great. Thanks." She thought for a moment. "Hey, is it okay if I spend nights here?"