“Hope you’re glad I saved your ass.”

“Yeah, but it was only after I pulled the trigger.”

“And almost shot me in the head!”

Me and Rose were bickering like usual, but this time, we couldn’t wipe the dumb smiles off our faces. Maybe it was the near-death experience jitters, or maybe all the electric shocks fried our nerves—but whatever it was, we were feeling a kind of relief neither of us had ever had before. Biologist gave us some basic first aid with stuff she had in her purse, but we should probably still go to the ER soon. But not tonight, we’ve done enough.

Biologist and Bunny were slumped over onto each other on the back seat of my car, probably asleep. They’ve had a rough day, they can rest. After Rose regained her consciousness after the incident, I corralled the three of them over to my car. Now that the lightning part of the lightning-storm was gone, the walk back wasn’t dangerous; just wet.

“Mina, are you really sure you killed that thing? How do you know it’s not going to come back to life?”

“Trust me, I’m certain of it. It’s over. I guess I need to check off one of the beasts on the whiteboard back home. That means just indigo, violet, and a third color are left.”

“Since this was silver, the last one is likely gold.”

“I’m not as worried about them now, either way. Once I got my weapon to work its magic, the metal mouth thing was a total push-over. This sword must have fallen from the heavens. Maybe God hasn’t left me uncounted after all.”

“You said you found it on the road, right?”

“Yeah, it was in the asphalt. I can’t imagine anyone strong enough to put it in there by themself, and it wasn’t in cleanly enough to seem like it was done with a machine. It really must have fallen out of the sky. Strange that it landed hilt-down, though.”

“Hilt-down? Like, the tip of the blade was pointed upwards? Mina, that sword didn’t fall down from heaven. It rose up from hell.”

“No, it… It, uh… Alright, maybe. But it saved us, that’s all that matters.”

“Must be Choronzon’s doing. I guess he’s not as useless as Biologist’s book said. And if anyone can make uselessness work in their favor, it’s you.”

“Thanks, Rose. That was almost a compliment!”

“Want another? Here goes—I’m sorry I’ve been an asshole with everything lately. I was getting mad at you, even though I was the one hurting you. I just didn’t think you were capable of handling all this. You seem like you’re the kind of person who needs protecting. Like a small animal.”

“You put me through some shit, but… Apology accepted, I think. We’ll see what future Mina has to say after the jitters wear off.”

“How much time until then?”

“Probably ‘till the burns start hurting again. I’d give it a couple hours, at least.”

“Well, since we have the time, wanna hit up that 24 hour breakfast place we used to go to?”

“Rose, that’s like twenty miles away.”

“Well, I don’t think anywhere around here is gonna be open for a while.”

“Half an hour ago I was getting shocked in the face by a monster, and half an hour from now I’ll be eating pancakes and bacon. God, today is a weird day.”

I put the car in drive, ready to roll out of the closed diner’s parking lot. The surroundings were still black as night, with shines of blinding white where the puddles of water reflected moonlight. It was almost like space, a dazzling dance white dots in a sea of black. And now, after just a few minutes of driving, the sun was starting to come up; returning color to the world. It felt like I was lost in monochrome lights and darks and greys for too long. Maybe after wielding the zebra-striped longsword, part of me wondered if my world was going to be black and white forever. But now, I think I understand it a little more. You can’t admire these warm colors—the pigment of dawn-lit highways along green grass and pastel flowers—if they weren’t all black and white first.