We lay in the IKEA parking lot, sprawled across one of those tiny, pointless landscaped grass patches that shopping centers insist on maintaining-because apparently, a single, depressed tree surrounded by cigarette butts and despair is supposed to make a strip mall look classy.
A flickering streetlight buzzed overhead, casting the same soul-sucking energy as a gas station bathroom at 3 AM.
I was staring at the sky, my very essence attempting to astral-project out of my body.
Harold was adjusting his mid-calf socks.
I couldn't believe the first sexual encounter we had happened in the middle of a busy IKEA. I swear at one point, I saw my gynecologist out of the corner of my eye. Pretty sure Harold made love to me so vigorously that my gyno would need therapy after my next annual.
A single, haunted-looking IKEA employee had still been clutching his clipboard when security arrived-mid-climax-and one of them had immediately vomited into a potted plant upon laying eyes on us.
I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply.
"Are you distressed, my delectable zucchini bread?" Harold's voice was gentle, yet deeply unsettling, because he was stroking my hair with his foot.
I sat up violently. "Harold, we are banned from IKEA. Forever."
Harold's glowing red eyes blinked.
"Not the first," he muttered.
I whipped my head toward him. "I'm sorry
—WHAT?"
But before I could demand elaboration, Harold scooped me up in his surprisingly soft yet questionably sticky arms and launched into the sky.
The familiar sensation of cold night air whipping against my shame-filled body barely registered because—
Harold began humming.
Then humming turned into full-blown singing.
Nickelback.
"LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH-"
I groaned. "Harold. Harold, no."
"EVERY TIME I DO, IT MAKES ME LAUGH”
I fought the urge to violently fling myself from his grasp. "HAROLD!”
He sighed dramatically. "You never let me have any fun."
"That's what you consider fun?
Nickelback?"
He cleared his throat, then whispered,
"Barbie Girl by Aqua?"
"I swear to God-"
Thankfully, before I could be subjected to Harold's full karaoke setlist, we descended, spiraling toward the yawning, rocky mouth of his cave. He landed gracefully, setting me down with unsettling tenderness.
The inside of the cave was damp, mysterious, and smelled vaguely like a Jiffy Lube waiting room.
Harold turned to me, his massive red eyes glowing with purpose.
"I shall prepare the nest."
That was a sentence I heard with my human ears.
I watched, transfixed, as Harold began fluffing a pile of what I can only describe as 'foraged materials' —mostly shredded newspaper, crumpled CVS receipts, and a single ratty pillowcase with a faded print of Guy Fieri on it.
A single moth wing stuck out from the pile.
I did not ask questions.
Instead, I sat stiffly on a nearby rock, still emotionally reeling.
Harold-ever the attentive and devastatingly horny host-knelt before me, his massive, clawed hands resting on my knees. "Do not be distressed, my luscious butterscotch crumpet. You are safe now."
I let out a laugh that sounded a little too close to a cry. "Safe? Harold, I am banned from IKEA. Forever. Do you even understand what that means? I can never experience the joy of Swedish meatballs again."
Harold's antennae drooped in what I assumed was empathy. "I do not understand, but I am deeply sympathetic."
I groaned, rubbing my temples. "I am going to fling myself into the void."
And then. It happened.
A deep, rumbling sound echoed through the cave.
A heavy, lumbering footstep.
A deep, familiar voice.
"Well, well, well."
I froze.
Harold went rigid.
Because emerging from the shadows of the cave was my ex.
My massive, hairy, seven-foot-tall Bigfoot ex-boyfriend.
Harold muttered under his breath.
"Spencer."
I gaped. "Wait. SPENCER?"
Spencer-my Bigfoot ex (yes, I have multiple cryptid exes, I am the Jane Goodall of unhinged supernatural dating choices, shut up)-crossed his massive arms over his impossibly broad chest.
"Didn't think l'd ever see you back here, Harold."
Harold let out a weird, glitchy moth noise.
"It was not my intent."
"Oh, I'm sure." Spencer's sharp green eyes flicked to me, his smirk oozing dangerous
ex energy. "And you brought... her."
I immediately wanted to implode into dust.
Because it was only now dawning on me that I had dated both Mothman and Bigfoot and failed to realize they apparently knew each other.
Oh. Oh, God.
OH GOD, WHAT IF THEY WERE ALSO EXES?
I slowly turned to Harold. My mouth opened. But before I could say anything, he immediately shoved a hand over my lips.
"Do not say it," he rasped.
I licked his palm. He yanked it away with a hiss.
"Harold," I said slowly, "Did you and Spencer date?"
Spencer let out a deep, disrespectfully sexy chuckle.
"Oh, honey," he purred. "Not just date."
The air in the cave was now a solid block of sheer, suffocating awkwardness.
I was in a love triangle with two cryptid ex-boyfriends.
I was the plot of a bad CW drama.
Spencer leaned against the cave wall, his sheer lumberjack energy radiating through the damp space.
"Funny seeing you here," he said lazily.
"Didn't think you'd be back so soon, after how things ended."
"How things—" | started, then realized what he meant.
I gasped.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO LEFT THE NOTE THAT SAID 'SORRY, GOTTA GO, I'M BEING HUNTED'?!"
Spencer shrugged. "Hey, it was true. The government's always after me."
Harold groaned, rubbing his temples. "I am going to fling myself into the void."
I sighed. This was fine. This was normal. I would simply lie down and let the earth reclaim me.
But before I could do that, Spencer smirked.
"You know," he said, his voice dripping with Bigfoot Bastard Energy, "we never did have our... final conversation, Harold."
Harold's wings bristled. "I will screech."
Spencer grinned. "Do it, coward."
And Harold did.
He screeched at full volume.
It was the exact sound a tea kettle makes.
I could not believe this was my life.
And then-to make everything EVEN
WORSE-Spencer joined in.
And what did Spencer's scream sound like, you ask?
A DEFECTIVE DOLLAR STORE ELK CALL.
So there I was. Sitting in a damp cave.
Watching my ex-boyfriend and my current cryptid lover scream at each other like feral barn animals in heat.
And I realized something.
I had hit rock bottom.
And I was pretty sure my tiny vagina had bottomed out due to Harold's thermos-sized penis.
Between hitting rock bottom and wanting a bag of frozen peas to ice my extremely dainty and tiny vagina, I just wanted the earth to swallow me whole.
For the love of God, why do these things always happen to me?
WHY?
The two massive, unhinged cryptids finally stopped screeching, both panting heavily, their chests rising and falling like two sweaty, overgrown beasts locked in an ancient, primal battle.
Harold's wings twitched. "I yield."
Spencer let out a cocky, ex-boyfriend scoff, crossing his massive, hairy arms over his ridiculously broad chest. "You always do."
I glared. "Oh my God. Stop. You guys are exes, not rival mob bosses. This isn't a forbidden romance novel where one of you is a reformed hitman and the other is a morally gray art thief."
Spencer smirked. "Sounds like you've thought about it."
l ignored him.
Harold looked away, guilty.
"Look," | said, rubbing my temples, "I don't care what unresolved cryptid tension you two have. I just need to lie down, ice my wrecked vagina, and forget that my first sexual encounter with Harold happened in the middle of a busy IKEA."
Spencer perked up instantly.
"Oh yeah, about that-" He grinned, pulling out his phone.
OH NO.
He turned the screen toward me, and I felt my soul detach from my mortal form.
The headline read:
"IKEA CUSTOMERS TRAUMATIZED AFTER CRYPTID-RELATED SEX INCIDENT IN BEDROOM DISPLAY SECTION. SECURITY GUARD VOMITS IN PLANTER.
ON A TOTALLY UNRELATED NOTE, ELDERLY CUSTOMER ENJOYING SWEDISH MEATBALLS SUFFERS HEART ATTACK AT SAME MOMENT."
I froze.
Because directly under the headline, in crystal clear, high-definition horror, was a photo of the elderly customer in question.
A frail woman, mid-heart attack, clutching at her chest, a Swedish meatball skewered halfway onto a plastic fork.
My blood ran cold.
"Oh my god, that's my nana."
Harold blinked. "Your what?"
I grabbed Spencer's phone, zooming in with mounting dread. There she was—my sweet, 89-year-old Nana, a matriarch, a pillar of our family, going into full cardiac arrest at the exact moment I got railed by Mothman in an IKEA showroom.
"I KILLED MY NANA WITH PUBLIC CRYPTID SEX."
Harold let out a low, distressed moth noise.
"This is unfortunate."
Spencer snorted. "Damn. That's—" he gestured vaguely at the screen. "That's wild."
"WILD?!" I screeched. "WILD?! SPENCER, MY NANA DIED BECAUSE OF MY FIRST SEXUAL ENCOUNTER WITH HAROLD.
Spencer shrugged. "Hey, at least she went out eating Swedish meatballs. Not the worst way to go."
"Not the—?!" | whipped around, frantic, barely hearing Harold mutter, "They are very good meatballs."
But as I was hyperventilating over my dead
Nana, my stomach dropped further.
Because while looking at Spencer's phone, something horrible dawned on me.
I didn't have my phone.
Or my purse.
Or my fucking car keys.
"Oh, holy fucking hell," | whispered.
Harold's wings twitched. "What is it, my sweaty little croissant?"
l ignored the very upsetting pet name.
"I-" My throat closed up. "I left my phone.
And my purse. And my entire sense of dignity. At the IKEA."
There was silence
Spencer squinted. "Wait, so you're telling me-"
"I left everything at the scene of the crime," | croaked.
Harold made a guttural sound. "This is deeply
unfortunate."
"NO SHIT IT'S UNFORTUNATE, HAROLD."
Spencer burst out laughing. "Oh, this is so much worse than I thought."
"It gets worse." | grabbed his arm, manic, unraveling before their eyes. "That purse had my work ID in it. My work ID."
Spencer leaned back, grinning like a bastard. "Ohhh shit."
"MY WORK ID WITH MY REAL NAME."
Harold clicked his mandibles. "Oh. That is... not ideal."
I ran both hands down my face. "I CAN NEVER GO BACK. EVER."
Spencer nodded. "Yeah, nah. You're gonna have to change your name and flee the country."
Harold tilted his head thoughtfully. "I hear Canada is nice."
Spencer snorted. "She can't go to Canada.
IKEA is even bigger there."
I let out a noise. A helpless, broken, human noise.
And as if on cue, Nickelback started playing softly from Harold's fanny pack.
"LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH-"
I screamed into my hands.