Page 16

PING PING

Looking down, I notice that my car is almost out of gas. How odd. I had just filled it two days ago. I guess I’ll go to the garage tomorrow to see what’s going on. It’s not like anyone else had access to the car, and my keys were still in my pocket exactly where I left them.

I’m almost home anyway.

I look at my phone again to see if I have any messages from my wife but I guess she’s still sleeping. When I left, she was in a very deep sleep, barely stirring when I gave her a good morning kiss.

I wish I could sleep like that. Everytime I close my eyes, another nightmare begins, and I end up waking up covered in sweat. It’s one of the reasons I get up early.

Well, that and I don’t want her to find out what I do for a living; she might not agree with the fact that my job is to stalk people. I guess in some fucked up way that is why I did the same to her. I also think it’s because I don't have the greatest people skills—usually, they just ignore me or leave me.

I don’t want her to do the same thing, but I feel like the reins are slipping while we haven’t even really had a chance to bloom yet.

I place the key in the door and hold the handle to open the lock, but the door shoves open by itself. Panic is rising in me while I grab my gun from under my jacket and slowly move inside. I hadn’t gotten an intruder alert. How odd, did I forget to lock the door? What if Taylor got hurt, again?

I see something moving to the left, and I move, pointing my gun to the living room, ready to shoot whoever it is.

WHAT THE FUCK! I move the gun down and rub my eyes because no fucking way this is what I’m actually seeing. Is this a fucking prank?

“Babe?”

I shout, not moving from the spot. Am I tripping?

“Ryan? What's wrong?”

Taylor’s gruffy morning voice comes from behind me, and I can feel her hand on my shoulder as a small gasp leaves her throat.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

I whisper to her. I don’t know why I am saying it so quietly because I shouted before and that fucking thing is now looking at me. And yes, I’m calling it a thing because no fucking way that, that is the actual fucking Mara sitting on my fucking couch, covered in dirt and some—I don’t want to know what it is—wet stuff, eating a fucking pack of raw meat with her bare dirty fucking hands.

“Mara! Your back, it worked!”

Taylor shouts excitedly, running over to the thing on the couch. What the fuck? What worked? Why is she hugging that? I need a drink, yeah, I need a lot of drinks.

I grab Taylor’s arm, pulling her back. I should've done it earlier—what if it tried to bite her or something.

“Ryan, what the hell?”

I pull her out of the room, closing the living room door.

“Are you crazy?”

she screeches at me, trying to open the door again. I hold her firm against me.

“Am I crazy? Last time I checked she was six feet under. Why would you fucking hug whatever the fuck that’s supposed to be? Do you want to die? It could be a zombie for all we know!”

I don’t care, I'm shouting loudly at her at this point. She needs to stop being so na?ve and start thinking rationally.

“HAHAHAHAHA!”

Taylor laughs like a maniac, tears rolling down. She slides out of my arms and down onto the floor. Fuck, is she losing it right now?

“I don’t see what’s so fucking funny, TAYLOR!”

She wipes the tears from her eyes and tries to get back up, ignoring my stretched-out hand.

“A zombie, this isn’t a movie, babe. She is just reborn because of the cemetery,”

she blatantly states, like it’s a normal thing.

“This isn’t a movie.”

I sarcastically say back.

“Babe, there’s a fucking dead person on my damn couch covered in god knows what!”

I hold my head with my hands, trying to wrap my head around what the hell is happening.

“What did you do?”

I keep repeating the same question over and over again, like a broken record. I guess maybe Felix wasn’t so crazy after all. Maybe I should call him and ask for help. I mean, he’d believe me, right? I don’t think anyone else would.

“You didn’t believe me, so I had no choice,”

she answers softly after a while. What the hell is that supposed to mean.

“I brought her back,”

she whispers.

How does that even work? I mean, did she do it Frankenstein style, oh god, I’m definitely losing it, no way that this is actually happening.

“How did you bring her back?”

I grit out the words like they’re poison, unsure I want to know the answer to it.

“I buried her in that old cemetery.”

She what now?

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard that correctly. Could you repeat that answer?”

I ask, looking down, while really, really hoping she did not just say that.

“Does it even matter? Look, she’s back! That’s what we wanted, isn't it?”

she says happily.

God fucking damn it. That’s what you get for stalking a girl and making her believe we are married, when in fact, she didn’t even know me. It’s just a cruel joke from whatever god there is. A punishment for my crimes.

I need to think logically and get rid of that thing, but I can’t just do it in front of her. She’ll never forgive me. She’ll go mad. I mean, see what she just did.

“It’s not natural, who knows what it’s capable of.”

I try to reason with her, but it’s all in one ear and out the other.

She just scoffs, fucking scoffs at me, and opens the door and goes to sit with that supposedly-dead-person sitting on my goddamn couch.

“How are you feeling, Mara?”

she asks it. I laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, making her look up angrily at me, brows furrowed.

“What’s so funny?”

she asks. I can’t believe her. She's not just crazy, she's deranged.

“I can’t believe you, this! God woman, you need help.”

I pick up the gun I dropped on the floor while I was trying to make sense of it all, and sit behind them on a chair holding the gun in front of me. Friend or not, if she even looks funny at me or Taylor, I’m blowing that thing's head right off. I’ll pay for Taylor’s psychologist, I don’t care anymore.

Taylor keeps asking it questions, but all that thing does is make grunting noises. I guess the saying that the dead don’t speak has taken a whole new level now.

I grab my phone with my other hand and dial Felix, because what else can I do?

He picks up instantly after the second ring, knowing I don’t just call for no reason.

“Hello? Ry, what’s up?”

“Dude, I’ve got a problem.”

How the hell do I even explain this, like for real. I’m pretty sure he’s going to either think I’m pulling a prank or that I lost it, so I grab my phone and click on the FaceTime button, pointing the camera in front of me at Mara.

“Uh, dude? Who is that? Is she okay?”

It takes me a bit too long to reply to answer because I have no freaking clue how to explain this. Making him repeat the question.

“That’s Mara, she, uh… she died,”

is all that comes out of me.

“Yeah, right, she seems very alive to me. Are you drunk or something?”

He laughs. I wish I were.

“Or something. Taylor, uh, well, she… Taylor dug her back up.”

There’s a silence on the line for a couple of seconds before Felix answers me.

“Could you repeat that? Because I sure as fuck didn’t just hear that.”

I clear my throat before continuing the conversation.

“No, she dug up the corpse and reburied it, and now it's back. And on my couch,”

I say in a louder tone to him.

“That’s not fucking funny, Ryan!”

he shouts at me.

“I fucking know that! Do you see me laughing, Felix? DO YOU?”

I feel like we're just in a shouting contest now, and I know I’m supposed to be nice when asking for help, but it’s better than losing it at Taylor, I guess.

She is sitting there, and I know she can hear us but she is deliberately not listening.

“Okay so fucking kill it! I don’t need that shit anywhere near my wife!”

Taylor and that thing both turn their heads at me and I guess the camera too.

“Oh shit, that’s fucking creepy man, get out of there!”

Felix says on the phone.

I’m not leaving without Taylor, no matter what he says. She's crazy, but she’s my crazy woman. But now it looks like I might have to use my gun sooner than I thought.

“He’s just kidding.”

I laugh nervously at both of them.

“The fuck I am dude!”

he shouts out.

Taylor walks over to me, her back straight, taking confident steps, it’s almost like it’s not really her.

Even though I don’t think she’s walking over to me to tell me that she’s now realising how fucked up this really is, there still a small spark of hope flying through my chest.

She grabs my phone and throws it to the floor, lifts her foot up, and starts to stomp on it. As if the million pieces on the floor weren’t proof enough that it was damaged beyond repair.

“She is not to be harmed.”

She seethes at me, and I swear I see a small smile play on that thing’s lips from afar. Like it’s enjoying this.

Shocked, I stay frozen in my chair, while Taylor turns her back on me and walks back to Mara, talking to her like that didn’t just happen. Not getting any answer back from that thing.

What the hell am I supposed to do? Do I call a priest? Would that even work?

I can hear the sound of Taylor's giggles. It’s all she’s been doing ever since Mara came here, talking and laughing at it. It’s been hours and that thing still hasn’t said a word back. It looks like some kind of scene from those horror movies where the woman slowly turns mad, only this isn’t a movie, and she’s really turning mad right now.

I don’t think it bothers Taylor, that thing not speaking I mean. She just seems glad Mara is there and acts like it’s her job to protect it or something. I don’t think she’s fully herself anymore either.

I still don’t trust it. I have this bad feeling, like this is not going to end well.

I really need to do something about all of this before I lose her to it.

I’ve been messaging Felix through my laptop since I don’t have a phone anymore. He agrees with me; we need to get rid of it.

Which brings me to the next question—how do you kill what is already dead?

I made an appointment at the local library tomorrow evening and I should probably also go and visit the cemetery, but I don’t like leaving Taylor alone here with that thing, and I’m pretty sure it would just follow us if we would leave since they haven’t left each other's side ever since it got here.

How can she not see how insane the whole thing is? Maybe if I kill it, it'll release the hold it has on her. But the way she reacted to my phone proves she’s going to do anything to protect that thing. I need to get them separated first.