Fluff

Chapter Sixty-Five - Single With End Unseen

Emily’s classes had gone well enough. She was still in the early phases of the school year where half the lessons were simplified to the point of near-absurdity. She found her mind wandering a lot more than it once had, but in her defence, she had more things to ponder about.

Trinity was… a lot.

She had a little less than two thousand dollars from Handshake, and another thousand owed to her. That was… not nearly enough money to do anything. She was essentially a single mother of five. When buying clothes for herself, even with her rather conservative tastes, she could rack up a two hundred dollar bill with no issue. Food for herself probably cost about ten to twenty dollars a week if she indulged mostly in ramen noodles and cheap meals.

If she took all that, and multiplied it by six to count herself and her sisters, that was… a significant amount of money. She could maybe cut some corners here and there. Maybe find a part-time job. Those were popular for students… she hoped.

Class ended and she wasn’t sure she had absorbed even half the lesson. More reason to find time to study later.

Emily had about as many friends now as she did when she started the school year, and twice as many reasons not to speak to anyone. So she rushed back to her dorm. She’d need to feed her sisters, threaten them into taking their showers, then do some homework, and maybe study ahead. She needed to call Alea Iacta too.

And then she opened the door to her room.

On her desk was an empty jar of peanut-butter, next to a shiny silver toaster marred by peanut-butter-y fingerprints. A bread bag was left on the floor, seemingly licked clean of crumbs.

The suspects to that particular crime were all conveniently piled up on her bed, with exposed tummies and arms and legs poking out every which way.

“What the heck?” Emily asked quite reasonably.

Trinity… one of Trinity at least, popped up over the others and grinned. “Hello Best Sister!” she cheered. “Do you want to join?” Another Trinity wiggled over to the side, exposing a more or less Emily-sized space on the bed.

“No,” Emily said. “No, I don’t think I do.” She closed the door. “Where did the toaster come from?”

“Found it,” Trinity said.

Emily made a note never to let them talk to a police officer. “And where did you find it?” Emily asked.

Another Trinity rubbed at her eyes. “Downstairs?”

“You stole the communal toaster?” Emily asked.

“It was just there,” Trinity defended herself. “The bread and butter too. It’s ours now.”

Emily forgot some of her troubles for a moment, mostly because she had much bigger ones to deal with. “Alright, everyone off the bed,” she said.

There was a lot of grumbling at that.

Emily pointed to one of the dirty Trinitys, then to the bathroom. “In the shower.”

“Shower!” the girl said before running over. Emily was expecting a bit more trouble there, but she could live with not having to fight over that.

“Right. Teddy, you remember when I showed you the washing machines?”

Teddy slumped. “I don’t want to clean stuff, it’s boring.”

Emily pointed to her bedsheets, currently stained with what she dearly, dearly hoped was only peanut butter. “Then you should have said something before eating on my bed. You’re the oldest here.”

Teddy grumbled, but she started pulling the sheets off.

“Athena, go wash up, then help Teddy,” Emily said. She turned to the remaining Trinitys. “You two, pick up all of this mess.”

“Aww,” she said in stereo.

Emily glared, then noticed that the toaster was missing. “Where is the toaster?” she asked, quite sensibly.

That’s when a loud sparking snap sounded from the bathroom and the lights flicked out.

“Oh no,” Trinity said. “I died.”

“You what?” Emily asked. The room was quite a bit darker now, but not so much that she couldn’t see the confused look on both of Trinity’s faces. A form started to glow next to Trinity, and another body, dressed the same as the other two, appeared. “What?” Emily asked again.

Did she have four Trinity’s now?

“I died,” All three said. “Mister Toaster didn’t like the water.”

Emily walked over to the bathroom, threw the door open, and took in the room at a glance. The shower was still running, water splashing down onto the smoking form of a very shiny, very soapy toaster. “What?” Emily repeated. She almost absently shut the faucet.

“It’s okay,” the Trinitys said. “I can’t die while I’m still alive.”

Emily was developing something of a headache.

“Does this mean I don’t need to do the laundry?” Teddy asked.

Someone knocked at the door.

Taking a deep breath to cool down, Emily stomped over and opened the door just a crack. She came face-to-face with Sam, the girl from one room over. “Yes?” she asked.

“Yo! Power’s out for you too huh?”

“Yeah,” Emily said. “Do you, uh, know what happened?”

Sam shrugged. “Someone tried to charge too many toys at once? I dunno. I’ll take the stairs down a level. There are a bunch of dudes there that would love to show how manly they are by resetting the breaker.”

“Do you know how?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot. But I’m not crawling through this place’s basement with no lights either. I’ll let some bonehead do it for a smile and a wink.” She looked past Emily. “You alright? You look frazzled.”

“I’m… perfectly alright,” Emily lied.

“Right… well, stay safe and all that.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Emily said. She closed the door and turned to stare at five entirely unabashed girls. She couldn’t even find it in her to chew them out. “Nevermind the laundry,” she began. Teddy cheered. “For now. At least until the power returns.” Teddy pouted. “We… need to figure things out for Trinity, and… yeah.”

“Oh!” Trinity said. “My power is that there’s always three of me. So when I die I get to live again. I don’t have to do laundry or anything, I just need to die and I’ll have clean clothes again.”

Emily didn’t know where to begin with that. She decided not to.

“You know what? I’m fine with that. Does it always spawn a new you… near you?”

“It’s not a new me, it’s just more of me,” Trinity said. “I think I get a bit more dumb when there’s less of me. Maybe. It’s really hard to tell.” All three of her held their chins. “Should I die two more times so that I don’t have to shower?” She frowned. “But I like showers.”

Emily considered the value of suicide as a way to avoid having to take a shower, then nixed that plan. “No, no please don’t do that. In fact, try not to die?” She didn’t expect to have to add ‘no dying’ to the house rules, but there she was.

The power came back on, the lights switching on with a snap. “Aw, dang it,” Teddy said. She grumbled and started picking up the blankets again.

Emily eyed Trinity up and down. “Do you know what all of you sees?”

Trinity blinked all six eyes. “Yeah?”

“Even when another you isn’t around?”

“But all mes are me.”

“Right,” Emily said. “So, can one of you go with Teddy and Athena, just to keep an eye on things, and another… part of you can stay here and tell me if there’s trouble?”

“I can do that!” Trinity cheered. “Can we hug while we do that?”

“How about one of you showers while the other you stays with me, then you switch.”

“Whoa, I’ll be doing three fun things at once!”

Emily was worried.

She found her way over to her bed and sat down with a sigh. Trinity climbed up onto the bed, then shifted around so that she was sitting on Emily’s lap, both hands around her waist. “Comfy,” Trinity muttered.

Emily started patting Trinity’s head, as if the girl was an oversized, boney cat. She did have very soft little ears. She had… a lot of things to take care of. A whole heap of them, really. Emily wasn’t sure where to even start.

Still, things were relatively quiet at the moment, and she enjoyed quiet, quiet was good.

“We need to get you a costume,” Emily said absently.

Trinity gasped and looked up to Emily, eyes wide and almost glowing with excitement. “Can I be a bandit?”

“A… bandit?” Emily asked. “Like, the house robbing kind?”

Trinity nodded. “Bandits are cool because they find all sorts of things. I can be a great bandit. With a big bag to put all the things I find in.”

Emily paused in her patting of Trinity’s head to rub at the bridge of her nose. “You know what. We’ll see.”

***