Relief and realisations

Sam propped herself up on one elbow smiling at Beth. “How are you feeling? You must be exhausted!”

Andy answered in Beth’s voice, “I’m OK.” Andy dutifully relayed everything Beth’s voice said in his head. “I mean it’s weird having your boyfriend inside me, but apart from that, I have to say, the love you have for each other and for that matter, the love you both showed for me, is truly heart warming. I feel safe.”

“Cool. Now we have to figure out how to get you back in one piece and my lunk of a boyfriend out from inside my girlfriend.” said Sam with that sparky smile back on her face. “Andy, what did the stuff on the internet say about reversing this?”

“It didn’t say anything” said Beth’s mouth. “To be honest, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that what we did would work, but OK, it did work. So let’s think about this. How would the ancients have done it?”

“No idea” said Sam helpfully. “I need coffee if we are going to have to think. And you are going to need some fresh clothes my lover.” said Sam, as she got out of bed. Andy wasn’t entirely convinced Sam was just talking to him, given the wicked grin on her face.

“Can we take a shower” Beth asked Andy inside his head. “If that’s alright with you? It’s just that I feel like I need to wash away what happened last night....... not this morning”.

“Oh my....... When did you wake up?” Whispered Andy under Beth’s breath so Sam wouldn’t hear.

“About the time you two first kissed.......”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry...... but you could have let me know.... we would have stopped!”

“I know. That’s why I pretended to be asleep, silly! It was a bit special to be part of that, even as a passenger.....”

The only thing Andy Could think of to do, was hug himself and head into the bathroom to undress for a shower.

“Hey! Is that OK with Beth?” called Sam from the bedroom. She had returned with some clean underwear and a pair of her jeans and a top for Andy to wear.

“Yes! It was Beth’s request - what kind of boyfriend do you take me for?” replied Beth’s voice over the sound of the shower.

A little while later Andy walked into the kitchen still towelling off Beth’s hair, wrapped in a big fluffy bath sheet. “Mmm. Coffee! And bacon! Perfect!”

“Which one of you was that?”

“Both of us!”

“Of course it was, here you go.” Sam handed Beth a mug of coffee, black, like Andy liked it and a plate of bacon and eggs. Beth took a deep swig of the coffee and sat down at the kitchen table.

“So. We were thinking in the shower, that if the weird knife thing caused this shit to happen in the first place, then maybe we need to use it again to open Beth’s body up once more and let me out. That was the implication from the story online. Once the shaman had cured the person from within, then they were restored back to normal. Right?”

“Yes. But are you saying I need to stab you in the back? I can’t do that!” cried Sam.

“I know it sounds like I’m asking you to hurt us, but I have a feeling the blade may well show us the way, as long as someone is holding it near our back. We have to try something, Sam! I’m not asking you to go Psycho and plunge it repeatedly into Beth. Just move the tip close to our back and see what happens. OK?”

“OK.” agreed Sam. Finish your breakfast and your coffee. If this does kill you, then at least you’ve had a decent last meal.

Beth’s voice laughed, but it was Andy’s laugh that came out. Sam hoped that this would be over soon, so they could get back to normal. Having Andy inside her best friend was proving to be unreasonably erotic for Sam.

Beth’s hand wiped a dribble of coffee from her lips as she sat back in the chair. “OK. Let’s do this thing” they said.

Sam picked up the blade and looked at the strange lettering on the handle. “What if there is supposed to be some kind of spell or incantation before you use this thing?”

“Then we’re gonna need some fucking big sticking plasters. Look. I didn’t hear that thing, whatever it was, say anything last night before Beth was struck by the blade. I’m not even sure who he was aiming it at, it all happened so fast.” said Beth’s voice.

“Alright Andy, I’m just nervous, OK? I’ve never stabbed anyone before.”

“I’ve never worn one of your friends before!”

Sam couldn’t help but crack a smile at her smart-arse boyfriend’s comeback. She loved the way he could diffuse the situation like that, but she would never admit it.

Sam stood up and moved behind her friends body. With a deep intake of breath she moved the knife up to the base of Beth’s neck and placed the point against her skin. To Sam’s complete surprise and relief the blade glowed slightly as a seam opened up beneath it. But it stopped opening up just beneath the blade. Sam moved the blade down Beth’s back and the seam continued to follow, opening as it went. Beth’s towel fell away as Andy moved Beth’s body to stand one last time.

Inside Beth, Andy could feel a cool breeze on his back. “His” back, not Beth’s, but his. He knew that it was working and so he whispered to Beth, “Thank you for this morning. It really was special. I’m glad I had a chance to get to know you like this.”

“I’m glad it was you that saved me” came the reply.

Sam was now giggling uncontrollably as the blade reached the base of Beth’s spine.

“It worked! I knew it would!”

Beth’s voice groaned in reply as her hands reached up to the back of her head and heaved her hair forwards. To Sam, who hadn’t seen Andy going in to Beth, this looked like he was trying to rip her friends head off. But with Beth’s head free, Andy quickly pulled off Beth’s arms like expensive silk evening gloves and began to step out of Beth’s back. With Andy back to his normal size, he held a deflated Beth in his hands.

“Could you pass me the knife, please?” he asked Sam, hearing his own voice for the first time in what felt like ages.

Sam was very happy to pass the weird object over to her lover. Andy carefully placed Beth on the sofa face down and gently ran the blade back up the seam to her neck. To his and Sam’s massive relief, they watched as Beth’s body re-inflated itself before their eyes.

For a moment, nothing happened. Sam started to move forward to her friend just as Beth took a huge lung full of air and rolled over onto her back.

“I really must stop making a habit of being naked in my friends living rooms. People will talk!”

Sam flung herself on her friend and hugged her mercilessly. Sobbing uncontrollably, Sam managed a snuffly “I’m so glad you’re back” to her friend. Then Sam turned and said the same thing to Andy with a huge smile.

Once Sam had finally let go of Beth, she went back to the bedroom to put on the borrowed clothes and pick up her things. She came back into the living room to see a tired looking Andy holding hands with Sam and chatting about something just out of her hearing. They both stood up as Beth came over.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I think I need to go home and sleep this off. Andy looks like he might need some quiet time as well. I called an Uber from the bedroom, it should be here in 3 minutes.”

“Hey, no worries” said Sam. “But call me later, so I know you’re alright. Promise?”

“Sure! Take care of you”

“Nah. You take care of you” and with that Beth headed out the front door just as her Uber arrived.

“So what the hell do we do now?” said Andy from the couch. “I mean, even for us, that was some Friday night. I’m just glad it’s Saturday and we don’t have to worry about work in the morning.”

Sam moved round behind Andy and began to massage his neck.

“Relax, my lover. We’ve got the whole weekend to have some fun.”

Andy smiled and shucked his shoulders at the tender way Sam was opening up his shoulder muscles.

“Mmmmm. It must be nice to have such strong shoulders and arms” whispered Sam into his ear.

“Yeah, you know, I try and keep myself in shape...... wait! No! Let’s talk about this....”

But just as Andy realised what his devious girlfriend was about to do, Sam swung the blade down his back.

Andy’s flat face looked up at his girlfriend from the floor and thought “Oh boy...... this is going to be interesting....”