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“What the actual fuck?” I snapped. Wiggling my eyes, I tried to roll my head across the ground to reattach it to my neck, but that wasn’t working. I stuck out my tongue, but was too far away to scoot myself.
“Why is my arm squirting blood like this?” Jackson asked. “Is anyone else bleeding in unusual places?”
“Me,” Chance groaned. “But I can’t raise my hand because it’s no longer attached.
“I’m literally shooting blood out of my arm,” Jackson said in disbelief.
“Have you ever seen a talking head?” I asked, unable to see him.
“You’re missing your head?” Gabe asked. “I’m pretty sure my dick is gone. Does anyone remember what happened?”
I thought back for a moment, and then I remembered how we were torn out of the IT room when Giulia started writing. I remembered turning around to talk to the guys when a rocket fell on us.
“That bitch!” I shouted. “She killed us off.”
“Giulia?” Gabe asked. “That can’t be right. She wouldn’t kill us. We’re main characters.”
“Oh, so I guess I’m expendable,” I retorted.
“Hey, this is all your fault anyway,” Chance snapped. “Everything was fine until you decided you couldn’t go on without your jungle woman by your side. We don’t even know her name!”
“And that makes her superfluous? What if she decides to kill off all your kids?” I asked. “Are you going to be okay with that?”
“Yes! I didn’t even have any kids when Reed Security ended. Morgan was pregnant. It’s not like I lived that out.”
“That’s such a selfish answer. Some of us still have a lot of time left in this…alternate universe. I’d like to enjoy it.”
“Then maybe you should try playing nice,” Chance retorted. “Stop getting all of us killed.”
“You wouldn’t be dead if Giulia wasn’t a psycho bitch out to destroy our lives.”
The burning car suddenly exploded, lifting at least twenty feet off the ground before it flew over my head and hovered for just a moment before falling to the ground.
“Here we go again.”
The crushing pain was nothing compared to the fire that melted the skin off my face. Then suddenly, it was gone and I was back to having my face perfectly detached, but no car on me.
“What the fuck was that?” Gabe asked. “Did you see that? One minute, you were crushed by a car and then it was gone!”
“Yes, I felt it,” I grumbled. “I don’t—” But then I realized what was going on. “Giulia’s at the desk again.”
“What?” Chance asked.
“Giulia,” I growled. “She’s trying to make this as painful and humiliating as possible to prove to me that she can do whatever she wants in a book. Well, I’m not having it!”
Summoning all the strength I had in my mind, I willed my body parts to come together. Even by my standards, this was insane. But slowly, I felt my body stitching itself back together again. When I was whole, I grinned down at my body.
“Damn, I did a good job.”
After seeing what I was able to do, the rest of them put in the effort until their bodies were back together also. Soon, we were standing around the blown up Jeep feeling pretty damn good about ourselves.
“What about your lady?” Chance asked.
“Shit!” I ran around the area looking for her, but there was no sign of her anywhere. “I don’t get it. Where could she have gone?”
“Maybe her body parts are in the trees,” Jackson grinned.
All of us searched the trees, but there was no sign of her. It was as if she had never existed. My nostrils flared in anger as I thought of Giulia laughing behind her computer. She thought she was so clever. I’d show her.