Alice Stone was almost certain her room was clean now. She had scoured the surfaces of her furniture while wobbling upright, and was pretty sure she got to every part of her floor while crawling around on all fours.

“Hey, Alice?” Her collar gave her just the sense of hearing. She liked being headless the most this way. She stopped scrubbing her hands across the carpet and sat up. She heard faint giggles. “Do you want to go out with the girls tonight?”

Alice gave two thumbs up and hoped Natalie saw them. She took a moment to stagger to her feet. Her fingers twitched as she raised her arms and searched for something to let her know what direction she was facing. It took a second, but she was wandering towards her door pretty swiftly for someone missing her head.

“Oh, you’re going to need a couple more things before we go out. You can’t leave the house like that!”

Alice shrugged. She had no idea what Natalie could mean. She heard laughter from Natalie and Jasmine.

“Well, you need a shirt and shoes, of course! You’re only wearing a bra and mini skirt with nylons. Get an outfit together.”

Alice mimed hitting herself in her absent forehead. Natalie and Jasmine (and others?) laughed at her little misstep. She turned around slowly, then navigated blindly to her closet. It took her a few minutes to put together an outfit by touch alone. A couple more minutes passed as she struggled into a tight top and changed her mind on wearing heels. She still stumbled on her way back to the door.

Alice’s head (or was this Alice?) watched all of this from the corner of the floor under her computer desk. She had pushed herself under there when putting her rolling chair back a few days ago. Her body would have picked her up just a few minutes ago if Natalie hadn’t interrupted.

Alice’s hands found someone’s back. That person turned around and Natalie’s laugh rang out again. “Great, you’re finally dressed. Are you sure there’s nothing else you’re missing before we leave?”

Alice was mute - her vocal cords were all on her body. But she stared daggers at Natalie. Natalie smirked back at Alice over her beheaded body’s vacant neck stump.

Alice patted herself down, even touching the flat top of her neck, then stopped. She raised a finger and turned around.

At first, Alice’s head beamed and Natalie’s look soured. But then Natalie, Jasmine, and the other girls all howled with laughter as Alice grabbed her purse and stumbled back to the door.

Alice didn’t understand what was so funny. Being headless made thinking harder, though. Maybe she should ask them? Oh, right, she couldn’t. It wasn’t too important to her, anyways. She held on to one of the girls and they walked out of the apartment. Only then did she realize that being beheaded for a night out was a bit inconvenient, but Natalie only mentioned she needed more clothes. Surely having a head wasn’t necessary, right? She swayed along with them for a long night on the town.

Alice, for yet another night, sat in boredom on the ground of her room. Yet the only regret she had to give her body when they rejoined was this: (Make sure my head is inert next time!)