Lauren’s dog, Thumper, woke up before sunrise the following day. He wanted to curl up on his couch and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, he really needed to pee. He flopped himself over and slid off of the couch. He had to wake up his human.

He strut up the stairs. He crossed the small landing for the millionth time in his life and nudged open the door to Lauren’s room. Thumper was tall enough to lay his muzzle on the bed. His human’s hand was the closest, so he started licking it.

Lauren reflexively closed her hand. She recognized it was her dog’s abrasive tongue. She reached towards Thumper and rubbed his chin. [he needs a walk,] she thought. She propped herself up with her arms to sit up on her bedside.

He shoved himself between her legs as she rubbed and scratched his head. This was another method on his long list, “Favorite Ways To Be Pet.”

[buddy buddy, good boy, need walkies,] Lauren thought. She stood up from the bed. She felt Thumper step back as she stood, then felt him rub against her as he went for the door. She took short, groggy steps away from her bed to follow him out.

Lauren’s head slept on. The noise made was not loud enough to wake her. The throne of pillows was not disturbed when her body sat up. Lauren snoozed as her body acted on her own.

Lauren walked down her stairs. She liked how the thick carpet felt on the arches of her feet. The banister was smooth; the wallpaper was textured and waxy; both felt supportive. [im coming buddy buddy, open door for walkies,] she thought.

Thumper was sitting at the sliding backdoor. His tail did a great job of sweeping the small section of the floor behind him. He turned back to see his human shambling to the door. She was always slow in the morning, but she was slower today. He wondered why she didn’t bring her head with her.

[cold floor cold floor,] Lauren thought. She entered the kitchen with her hands in front of her to grab the door when she found it. She nearly jumped when her dog’s tail thwacked her ankle. Her open palm found the thick glass of the sliding door. Lauren slid it open. Thumper bumped against her knees to get out the door.

Lauren was standing stock still. Something about the door was bothering her. It felt like it was broken, somehow, but it worked just fine. She felt a cold morning breeze blow through the opening. Goosebumps flared across her arms as a chill raced around her neck. Lauren turned away from the wind. She rubbed her arms to warm them up. Her hip bumped the kitchen island. [coffee time, warm coffee time,] she thought.

Thumper had his nose to the ground. He was combing the back lawn for a place where his smell was weakest. His eyes were trained on the grass and leaves as he wandered. He squatted down by dirt-patched grass close to where the fence and the deck met.

Lauren had the filters and coffee grounds stacked by her coffee maker, which was all next to her sink. She placed a filter, scooped in the grounds, filled the glass coffee pot with water, dumped it into the top of the brewer, replaced the pot, and started the brewing cycle. She grabbed the coffee container and its lid. She was slow to put the top back on. [something different, what different, door wrong, water wrong, coffee wrong... what wrong?]

Thumper felt relieved. He began sniffing around again. It was a good idea to scout the lawn for future spots to cover. He heard a rustle of leaves and scratches on tree bark above him. He looked up. His tail stood straight up. His B.A.R.K. system (Buddy Awareness Response Kinetics) started up. The noise level of the backyard went up furthest of all.

Lauren in the kitchen was oblivious to the noise - Thumper, the morning birds, the dripstream of coffee. Her hands were on her hips. Why did it feel like something was *off*? She threw up her hands and shrugged. She opened the cabinet over the coffee maker to get a mug.

However, Lauren in the bedroom began to stir awake. She heard Thumper barking outside. ‘ugh, thumper,’ she mouthed without sound. She let her eyes sink closed, hoping to fall asleep again. A thought crept in that opened Lauren’s eyes wide - ‘How is Thumper outside?’ She tried to get up. ‘huh? thumper? what, I, I-‘ she mouthed again. She was trying to yell but there was no breath behind her words. She couldn’t feel her vocal cords. She couldn’t feel her body at all.

Lauren in the kitchen had her hand on the handle of the coffee pot. [when coffee done? how...wait. wait,] she thought. The pieces of the puzzle started to click together. The door slid, but made no sound. She could not smell the thick aroma of the coffee grounds. She could not see to know when the coffee was done brewing.

Her free hand rose from her side, sliding on her shirt around the swell of her breast. Her knuckles, gripping the pot handle, were bone white. Her nipples were hard. As her fingertips reached her neck, Lauren let go of the pot. She rushed her hands to her neck. She had forgotten she was still decapitated. Worse, she couldn’t feel her head.

Lauren stumbled back into the island. Her fingers curled as she panicked. She turned to her right and staggered forward with her arms waving over her stump neck. She smacked into the laundry room door. She staggered back a few steps with waving arms, lost her balance, and fell. She sat up with her back against the island. Anxiety overpowered her. Her chest rose and fell with her rapid gasping breath. She swatted and grasped at the emptiness over her neck.

Both Thumper and Lauren’s head heard the loud slams of Lauren ramming the door and falling over. She heard Thumper stop barking, then heard the signature plonking sound of his paws on the back deck. ‘did my body fall?’ Lauren still mouthed out. There was a puzzled, worried expression on her face. Why couldn’t she feel her body anymore?

Thumper was quick to the backdoor when he heard the loud sound. He recoiled; the smell of his human’s morning potion was too strong for him to stand. He glanced into the kitchen. From his angle, no one was there. He darted through the kitchen into the hall to the front room to avoid the smell. He didn’t find the sound source there either. “hurrrrooooooooo,” he grumbled. He turned to the stairs and climbed.

Lauren was still against the kitchen island, hidden, when Thumper came in. [oh no, oh god, what happen, oh fuck, oh god,] she mindlessly thought. Why couldn’t she think this through? She sat back down every time she tried to get up, afraid of falling again. Lauren wound up on her hands and knees. She crawled around the kitchen in near random directions on shaking limbs. [oh no, oh fuck, oh god,] kept going in her thoughts.

The time between Thumper barking and Thumper walking into her bedroom felt infinite to Lauren’s head. She couldn’t see the door from where she was. She heard him trot into the room. She heard his panting. She was startled by his bark. Her lack of control was maddening.

Lauren managed to crawl a serpentine path through the hallway. Her shoulders and hips bumped and bounced against the walls. [my head, where...my bed? my bed, my head,] she managed. It distracted her long enough to send her neck-first into her front door.

The thud got Thumper’s attention. Lauren heard him dash back and forth from the top of the stairs to the bed. ‘Where is my body? Am...I...almost here?’ Before she could consider if her body was still ‘her,’ Thumper jumped onto the bed. He clobbered her head’s pillow throne. Her head tumbled to the edge of the bed, balanced for a brief moment, then fell and rolled across the floor. Thumper was already licking her face before she could come to a complete stop.

Her headless body was upright on the stairs. One hand vicegripped the rail. The other slapped the wall repeatedly as she used it to keep her steady. [keep up, step up, get head, almost there]

Lauren’s head had a new worry; Thumper closed his mouth down on a ball of her hair and picked her head up. ‘No no no Thumper no put me down Thumper,’ she tried to yell. She was as mute as ever. Her head swayed in dizzying circles as Thumper began walking out of the room.

She saw her headless body at the top of the stairs. As she walked forward, Thumper stepped to the side. Lauren watched in shock as her body passed by inches from her face. As her searching body entered the room, Thumper headed down the stairs. The bouncing hurt her scalp. She tried to scream as Thumper waltzed around downstairs with her head at his mercy.

[pillows fell...my head, not here?!] Lauren swept her arms across the bed in a panic. She fell over as she sidestepped by her bed. She scampered around the bedroom floor in rapid fashion. She only found the pillows she had knocked to the ground. She knelt. Her hands took spasmodic swipes on her neck stump. [where?! where!? my head!! Lost head!! Gone!!]

Lauren heard her own stomping feet above her. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. She was hardly aware that Thumper had put her down on his couch until he curled up around her. Her face was buried in the fur on his belly. Tears of worry leaked out of her closed eyes as she listened to herself banging around the second floor.

The lack of sight. The lack of sound. Lauren jammed her finger and bruised her knuckles in her wild waving. She lost track of where her wandering took her. Doors and cabinets were flung open. Clothes, towels, and toiletries were strewn across her rooms. An errant step slipped her down the first two stairs but she stayed standing. [where it go? Did I put somewhere? Where my head? Oh my head...]

Thumper stared at his human as she came downstairs. Her hands were all over her neck. Maybe she wanted her head after all. He barked at her, but she ignored it. She walked off towards the kitchen. Thumper faced his human’s face. It looked very sad. He licked it, then got a grip of her hair with his mouth once more.

She was frozen at the sliding door. The cold air was numbing her feet and freezing her nipples solid, but she stayed there to face the weather. [Did...Thumper take...oh no...not outside], she feared. Before she could gather the strength to venture outdoors, she felt something bump the back of her legs.

Lauren turned around and bent over. She felt her dog’s head. She felt hair that wasn’t fur. [is it...it...my...]

Lauren smiled and sighed as her body gripped her face and lifted her up. She was smothered in between her breasts as her body wavered to the kitchen island. Her head was man-handled as her body moved it around. It took a minute, but Lauren managed to get her head back on her neck stump. She held it in place for a full minute.

To Lauren’s head, the reconnection felt like her whole body was asleep and tingling back to life. To her body, it felt like she was waking up from a dream. To both halves, the connection felt like two squished sponges that were expanding back into each other. Even after Lauren realized she could feel herself as whole again, she kept her hands firmly on her head. She stood with her eyes closed. She let herself breathe and calm down. Her separate experiences merged within her.

“That was...oh hell that was something,” she said. It felt good to be able to speak again. It was freeing to see her surroundings and to move around. Lauren smelled the brewed coffee like it was her first time. She let her hands drop from her head as she walked to pour herself a cup. Her mundane morning routine had a rejuvenating weight it had never had before. Her next ten minutes gave her a calm she had not felt in years.

Her eye caught the mirror on the kitchen island. Mixed thoughts and emotions flooded her. Excitement. Worry. Arousal. Fear. Gain and loss. Instants and eternities. Should it stay? Should it go?

“I should talk to the girls,” Lauren said. She looked down to Thumper. “We might need to use a webcam instead, buddy.”

He barked, then stood on his hind legs. His human bent forward. He licked her face enthusiastically, bumping his snout against her head.

Lauren felt something odd in her neck as Thumper head-bumped her. Before she knew what was happening, her head fell backwards and rolled off of her back. “What the- oh god what’s wrong with my neck?”

She was thankful she still had control of her body. She was quick to retrieve her head. But it seemed like her head troubles were only just beginning.