Matthew jumped as the voice cut through the darkness, spinning around with a look not unlike a teenager whose mom had caught him looking at boobies on the family computer. "Uhhhhh..." he started, trying to come up with an excuse that didn't sound like he was cracking up, but he couldn't find anything to say except the truth. "You know, just keeping busy." He said, jumping up and sitting in front of her on the counter. "Trying to stay out of the way." He gestured over his shoulder to poor, freshly trepanned Kilroy. "Maybe do a little good. Probably not. I don't know."

Come to think of it, she was pretty far out of the way herself. In fact she didn't look all that different from how he felt. "It's just that every time I close my eyes I can see it. The cops, the centipede, the violet dawn, and it's all perfect. [i]Perfect[/i]. Like I'm living it again. It's weird, I've never had anything I wanted to forget before."

He flipped the key between all his fingers, then held offered it to her. "You want to give it a try? It's been making me feel a little better."

[@Bazmund]