## Leslie POV There's a video rental store in Marlowe. Some time ago, when I was new to this place and settling in seemed more worthwhile, I paid a visit there and checked out a movie I hadn't seen in a long time. It turns out *Little Shop of Horrors* has a second ending: one where the girl dies from her wounds, and the boy, too late to undo what's already been done, dies, too, in the belly of his beast. According to the DVD jacket, this was actually the original ending, but it didn't test well, so it got replaced with something more pleasant. Tiger would have liked this ending better. Or, well— maybe *liked* is the wrong word. But she would have thought it better fit the story, given everything that came before. I should have liked it better, too; I’d certainly agreed with her, back when we first watched the version that ends in a white picket fence, that it felt as though something had gone terribly wrong. But I couldn't linger on the thought. When the movie was done, I put the disc back in its case, turned the case face-down, and returned it the next day. I remembered that fence, briefly, as I bled onto the tile. And I found I could finally think it: that yeah, this way is better.