Black Mirror

Interlude 2 - Life Is Full Of Black Holes

"Yo! Fionna, wake up!"

She growled and buried her face in the pillow - wait, that wasn't her pillow. It didn't smell like it...then she remembered. She was in some hotel room somewhere on the outskirts of her new hometown, which itself was somewhere on the outskirts of Silicon Valley. It had been a long drive from Bearville, long enough that the Lees elected to check in to a hotel for the night. And now, today was, at last, Official Moving-In Day.

(Capital letters hers.)

"Fionna! Come on!" Her little brother, that gangly thirteen-year-old speed weed they called Kevin, tugged on her arm and even managed to budge her an inch or two, despite her being half a foot taller and thirty pounds heavier.

Her eyes flashed open, telling Kevin he was screwed. He was fast, but she was faster. She sat bolt upright quickly enough to give herself head rush, and as for his head, she had it firmly locked in the crook of her elbow. He thrashed, a freshly-caught trout, his eyes bulging as he pretended to choke.

She stood up, thwarting his efforts to escape. Inclining her head, she whispered menacingly in his ear, "I. Need. Beauty. Sleep." Then she spun him around and kissed the top of his head. She hadn't yet gotten used to him not having long, anime-ready hair anymore, though at least he still had enough hair on top to tickle her nose. "Tell Dad he doesn't gotta wait up for me for breakfast, all right?"

"That's what I told him," Kevin said as Fionna sat back down on her bed. "He said I'm supposed to stay here until you're ready to come out and eat, so...you better need to eat, Fionna. I'm hungry as hell!"

"Of course you are." She buried her head in the pillow again, but only for a second - the smell was just musty enough to repel her. "You're a growing boy."

"And you're a growing girl," he countered.

"I think I finished puberty, like, a year ago. But you, your voice has barely changed."

"But I have armpit hair now!" he cried.

"I'd say, 'prove it,'" she muttered, "but..." He shucked off his gray hoodie and pulled one arm back through the sleeve of his T-shirt. "No!" She hid her face behind her hands before he could show her the stinking evidence.

"I got a nice big curly one," he sang. "I'm calling him Spencer!"

She growled again, wondering why the hell some boys felt the need to name their body parts. "At least you're naming that and not your balls."

"Actually-"

Shit, did she say that out loud? "If I come to breakfast," she said in measured tones, "will you stop showing off your weenie armpit hair and talking about your raisin nuts?"

"Hey, I don't got any raisins! They're juicy grapes!"

"Eww-"

"Man-berries, happy sacks, wrecking like Miley's-"

She reached out blindly, bat-sonaring to the best of her ability until she came within a hair of socking her dirty little brother in his dirty little mouth. "I will pay you to shut up."

"C'mon, I'm just fucking with you," Kevin said. "Not literally. But you know...you know, I miss your laugh."

"Hahaha, what are you talking about?"

She looked up at him and saw him looking at her with concern as he shrugged back into his hoodie. "You fake laughed."

"No, I-"

"Look, Mom and Dad think I don't know anything, but I know you're mad about moving." He sat next to her, laying his head on her shoulder. "Mad, sad, whatever. But if I can make you laugh, I think it'll help."

She laughed - genuinely. "Why are you so sweet?"

"I knew you loved me," he said, pulling her to her feet. "Can't you hear my stomach growling? We gotta eat!"

"I'd hear it if I wasn't busy hearing mine," Fionna says. She followed Kevin out the door, but as they walked, she couldn't help but feel that he was wrong. She'd had such a close call the other day, before they'd left home forever.

She still didn't believe what she'd seen that convinced her not to leave this mortal coil.

Then again, it wasn't as if you saw a cool, battle-scarred reflection of yourself every day.

But still, in the back of her mind, she knew she hadn't lost her urge to end it all. She hadn't escaped the black hole.

Not completely.