Page 126 of Inbetweeners
Phoenix chuckled. “No.”
“I had my head cut off and you can’t lie?”
Emmett tried to get up and failed. Phoenix windmilled his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting ready to catch your head.”
“Ha bloody ha.”
Phoenix wrapped a clean towel around Emmett’s shoulders. Not looking at the blood on his shirt made Emmett feel a little better.
“Just sit still for a bit,” Phoenix said. “You might be fine but I need to get over the trauma.”
Emmett rolled his eyes. “I’ve worked how they found us. Mo. The one who sneaked out.”
“You’re probably right. They either stumbled across him or the idiot went back to them. What they don’t know is that we might have their other address. I had a response to one of the emails. Sophie has a store just off Tottenham Court Road.”
“Great!” Emmett smiled. “Let me try and get up.”
Phoenix pulled him to his feet and didn’t let go until Emmett stopped wobbling. It took a few minutes, partly because Emmett was enjoying being held.
“Take your clothes off here. The floor’s easier to clean.”
“Not—take your clothes off here because I can’t wait to see your gorgeous-if-slightly-bloody body with a gorgeous head?”
“You still want compliments? You are so needy.” But Phoenix helped him out of his clothes. Nothing looked salvageable, not even his shoes.
Emmett was careful to stand away from the blood that was still on the floor.
“I’m a bit disappointed you’re not overcome with lust,” Emmett said.
“It’s going to take time to get over seeing your headless corpse.”
Emmett thought how he would have felt seeing Phoenix and wondered if he’d have been able to try and reassemble him. Would he have thought to do that? “I think you had the worst of this.”
“No, I didn’t. I’ve seen…”
“Seen what?”
“Decapitations in Hell. And dismemberment. But seeing it had been done to someone I…”
“Vaguely know? Was faintly acquainted with?” Emmett gasped. “Not—Had almost come to like?”
“Don’t go too far. You know you’ll only be disappointed.”
Emmett smiled.
“Sure you’re okay?” Phoenix asked.
“I have a headache and a pain in my neck.” And in every other part of his body. “I’ll be fine. You haven’t eaten all the croissants, have you?”
Phoenix gave a choked laugh. “No. I suddenly wasn’t hungry.”
“I’m starved. Make the coffee. Switch the oven on and heat them up, please, current slave. Though considering your ability to reattach heads, I do want to keep you around.”
Emmett turned and headed for the bathroom. He was shakier than he wanted to admit. And he hurt a lot more than he wanted to admit. Not just his head and neck. His entire body ached. Though Greyson had sliced his arm and his side too.Fucking hell. My head cut off?
