Page 42 of By Rude Strength

The movie played on and they traded bits of trivia between singing the popular hits that comprised the soundtrack. Thoughthe story was set in medieval times, there were songs from Queen, David Bowie, Heart, and more.

“You know, the director said he wanted to use modern music to show audiences what people back then felt about their music!” Cass grinned. “I read that on IMDB! Isn’t that neat?”

“Yeah, something about when real Renaissance music is used in movies, it doesn’t pack the same emotional punch.” LA chuckled. “I actually had this soundtrack on CD forever ago.”

“Oh! You mean back like when jousting was popular?”

“Ouch.” LA laughed. “Guess I shouldn’t tell you about my cassette collection, huh?”

“Positively archaic.”

“I still have a few of ’em around here somewhere.” LA pointed to one of his paintings. “Those trees there? Made from an old Beatles cassette I had. My Walkman fuckin’ ate it but I held on to it and used the tape.”

“That’s nifty!” Cass smiled warmly. “You’re so very creative.”

“Thanks.” LA squeezed Cass’s paw.

The credits were rolling now, but LA didn’t want to reach for the remote. He was very comfortable and he didn’t want to lose this—whateverthiswas. Cass purred quietly, the touch of his paw so comforting, and the pain gnawing at LA’s spine had been reduced to a nibble.

“So.” Cass fidgeted. “The cakes are probably cooled now.”

“Right.” LA made no effort to move.

“Do you want to watch another movie?” Cass asked hopefully.

“Yeah.” LA nodded at the table. “Can you reach the remote without getting up though?”

“Of course.” Cass’s tail slithered over to curl around the remote and then offer it to LA.

“Ha! Nice.” LA clicked a few buttons, exiting the DVD menu and navigating over to a streaming service. “Still in the mood for something mushy?”

“Are you?” Cass chuckled. “I was definitely expecting you to be a horror movie fan.”

“I do like horror movies too.” LA scrolled down a few screens. “They don’t really scare me anyway. Shit always looks fake to me.”

“Because… Oh! Because of your job?”

“Yup. Seeing someone slashed up by Jason or Freddie doesn’t really compare to, say, seeing the real end result of man versus eighteen-wheeler.”

Cass cringed and rubbed LA’s chest. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?”

“That couldn’t have been easy. To see those things.”

“I…” LA honestly didn’t know what to say to that for a few seconds. “Comes with the job. Most people think it’s wearing a suit and driving a fancy hearse around or whatever. And yeah, that’s a small part of it, but there’s so much more. Working all night and then the next day too, wading through rotten shit with hordes of maggots, learning to absolutelyloathestairs, and ah, my personal favorite, getting left alone to move a body by yourself ’cause they’re too fucking cheap to hire anyone else but still somehow want everything doneright fucking now.”

“Is… Is that how you got hurt?” Cass asked quietly.

LA blinked.

He had been at a loss for words and then promptly followed that up by verbally vomiting. He hadn’t meant to let it get that personal so quickly, and he wrapped his fingers around Cass’s thumb as he tried to decide how to reply.

“It’s all right,” Cass soothed. “You don’t have to talk about it right now if you don’t want to, Elly.”

LA nodded, still scrolling through movies and eager to change the subject. “So, uh, if we watch a horror movie, are you going to scream?”

“That is very likely.”