.././.\\.\//.///\...//>>>

Luis picks himself up off the driveway. A damp stamp on the asphalt outlines where he rolled out of the van.

Pixie screams. "Luis!"

Luis flops back down onto the driveway. At the front door, Pixie pushes past Zandra and Bexley in a sprint toward the van.

"No. Stay back," Luis says between labored breaths. Sweat pours off his face. Pixie stops in the front yard, gun covering her mouth as she gasps in horror.

I wouldn't recommend that, Pixie. By the way, that's a lot of sweat, Luis.

Zandra watches for movement in the van. The open sliding door offers a good view inside, except for the spot the man in the van usually sits.

No movement anywhere in the van.

Bexley puts Zandra between her and the van, sneaking peeks at the unfolding drama from the sides of the purple gown. Chad remains oblivious to his surroundings in Ray's car.

"I...I don't want...to get blood...on you," Luis says to Pixie from the asphalt. He rolls so he can get a grip on his side.

Zandra keeps an eye on the van. Still no movement.

Fighting isn't like the movies. There aren't these long, drawn out battles. It takes a lot of exertion, and it's over quickly. It's like shoving a 60-minute workout into 60 seconds. Lots of twists and contortions. Good time to have a hernia.

"Is the driver still alive?" Zandra says to Luis from the front door.

I'm not getting any closer to the van than this.

Luis swallows and shakes his head.

Then why'd Luis come out through the sliding door?

Bexley picks up on this, too. She leans into Zandra's ear from behind and says in a whisper, "This doesn't feel right."

Zandra nods.

I bet that isn't Luis's blood on Luis.

"What about the other one?" Zandra says, hoping to finally put a name to the man in the van.

Luis shakes his head again.

"Oh, thank god. It's over," Pixie says. She kneels on the lawn and tries to rein in the heaving in her chest.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Zandra loses face. She throws her hands up in the air and lets them fall to her sides with a slap. Bexley dodges the exasperation with a hop to the side.

"Shhhit," Zandra says just loud enough for everyone else to hear.

"Huh-what?" Luis says. He scoots himself up against the side of the van.

No man in the van means no one to sell the score from the Curd Queen to. I am fucked. Fucked. All this running around, all this bullshit, was for nothing. The next contraction is going to be me filling out an application at a gas station. I am never leaving Stevens Point. Fuck me. Fuck. Me.

Not that I'd expect you to know any of that, Luis, but, sincerely, fuck you. You were supposed to come to a stalemate with the man in the van about who the father was, and then come here together. That meant you both arrived at the same time. Fewer variables to sort through.

Pixie can't take it anymore. She rushes over to Luis and cradles him in a hug.

"It's mine," Luis says.

"What, baby?" Pixie says and kisses Luis's forehead. The peck leaves an outline of lips, but it's not from lipstick.

"Yeah. The baby," Luis says.

Now Zandra moves closer to the van. She takes a couple steps to get a better look at where the man in the van's final resting spot may be. Pixie and Luis block the view.

Damn.

"He knows about the pregnancy," Zandra says and coughs into her sleeve.

Pixie looks into Luis's eyes. "But how? I wanted to tell you after we left together."

Luis smiles. "I just know."

No. You're not going to control this narrative. You already fucked it up.

"Sorry to ruin this touching moment, but I told him. I knew it after my visit with you, Pixie," Zandra says. "I know about it. Luis knows about it. The corpses in the van knew it. Bexley over here knows it. The fucking owls in the woods know it. Everyone knew."

But does anyone know the real father?

Zandra moves again, stepping off the porch. Now she gets a clearer view into the spot where the man in the van usually sits.

Wait a minute.

"It's OK, baby. Doesn't change a thing, does it?" Pixie says.

Luis swallows. "I love you."

Zandra rubs her eyes.

Am I seeing that right?

"Hey, Zandra," Bexley says and tugs at the purple gown.

"Not now," Zandra says. She takes another step toward the van.

The man in the van isn't there.

"Zandra, there's a, uh, something...," Bexley says, again trying to pull Zandra's attention away from the van.

Zandra brushes off Bexley. She's too focused on what isn't in the van.

Luis spots Zandra peering into the van. He slowly looks over his shoulder. Pixie follows suit.

Were Luis and the man in the van the same person? How the fuck did I miss that?

Out comes the lawnmower knife. Zandra points the tip at Luis. "Tell us again what happened in there."

Luis and Pixie turn back toward Zandra.

"He said the baby was his, but that it didn't matter," Luis says, speaking clearer now that he caught his breath. "Everything was going to end today, he said. Too many loose strings."

You can talk again. Convenient timing.

By the way, how's that driver really doing?

"Bexley, go check on the driver," Zandra says. She doesn't get a response. "Real quick, see if the driver is there."

Bexley still doesn't respond. Zandra glances behind her.

She's gone.

She's gone?

Luis continues from the side of the van. "But it's my baby. And my Pixie. I couldn't let him do that."

Pixie nuzzles her forehead against Luis's.

Zandra only half listens. She makes a tight circle, searching for Bexley.

"I don't know what came over me," Luis says. "I just, I just lost it. Never done anything like that before in my life. I just saw our future slipping away."

"Love you," Pixie says and kisses Luis on the cheek.

"Love you, too," Luis says.

And I'd love to know where the hell Bexley went.

"I'll never say his name again. I never want you to have to hear it after what he put you through," Luis says to Pixie.

Not that I need to know it now, but thanks for nothing once again, Luis.

Pixie weeps and squeezes Luis even tighter. Somewhere between the tears, Zandra hears Pixie say, "I wanted this for so long."

Wait a minute.

Luis can't be the man in the van. If that were true, why is Pixie putting on this act?

Something rustles in the woods nearby. Zandra spots brush shake between two tree trunks, but the foliage blocks her view.

Squirrels sometimes sound bigger than they really are when they hop through the woods.

Pixie hears it, too. She releases Luis.

"I got rid of his body. I didn't know what else to do," Luis says, still occupied with recounting what happened in the van. "I dumped him in the woods, right over—"

A bullet drills a drain into Luis's neck. A pop of blood covers Pixie's face.

Oh, shit.

Zandra drops to the ground. There's zero cushion aside from the grass. She takes the fall with her face. Her bad ankle would normally protest such a sharp twist, but it makes an exception this time. Zandra keeps her arms outstretched so the lawnmower knife doesn't unintentionally catch her body, so her hands offer no support against the fall.

That fucking hurts. I hate being this wrong.

The fall hurts, too.

Pixie screams with an intensity that seems to call forth other voices from within her lungs. She throws herself into the van, but the hysteria only grows when she sees the body of the driver in the front passenger seat. She slams the sliding door shut behind her.

The closing door rolls Luis back onto the asphalt. He slaps at his neck with weaker and weaker hands in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding. Even if that had a chance of working, a second shot from the woods finishes Luis off.

I hope the door was thick enough to stop the bullet from going inside the van.

Pixie's screaming continues unabated.

Good.

Zandra wiggles toward the porch, although she's an easy target. She sees the front door of the house between her rolling and twisting, and then she sees the front door open. Bexley steps out and raises a pistol at the woods.

"Get inside!" Bexley shouts to Zandra and cracks off three shots.

That little shit picked my pocket. She must've seen something in the woods and took the gun I got at Omino's.

Nicely done.

Zandra grins as she hobbles to her feet and drags herself to the front door, free from any further fire from the woods. Bexley closes the door and locks it once Zandra is in the house. Even inside, they can still hear Pixie screaming.

"Wait. What about Chad?" Bexley says.

"Still in the car, I think," Zandra says.

"We've got to wake him up," Bexley says.

"What? Let him sleep. No one else knows he's in there," Zandra says.

And if he's sleeping, he won't do anything stupid.

It's too late for that. They hear the distinct noise of Ray's car's horn and Chad shouting, "Is everything OK out there?"

Dammit, Chad. You just signed your death certificate.