Tales of Nicky

Beware

I hummed to myself and screwed up my face as I painted the wall. I was steadily running out of doors to give a spark of Nicky-ness. I figured I would eventually run out of walls too, but no one seemed inclined to stop me, so it was getting painted whether it wanted to or not.

Occasionally someone would pass by, shaking their heads at my antics but mostly just ignoring it. That was fine as long as they didn't tell Daniel what exactly I was painting. It was meant to be a surprise! I still memorized everyone who passed, having done things like this too many times to not understand the value of getting revenge on those who couldn't keep their mouths shut.

I picked up a vibrant green paint and an orange, then a pink, trying to get the shapes and colors right as a silent presence appeared behind me. I ignored her, too focused on painting over a piece that was slightly too blobby and had finally dried enough to fix.

"What are you doing exactly?"

I turned my head toward her, three different colored paintbrushes in one hand, a big paint roller in the other, and the entire carpet below me covered with specks and splashes of color.

My assailant in comparison was the exact opposite. Trinity liked pretending to be a vampire, and in order to do that properly she had to wear black, dark grey, and sometimes other colors if they could blend in with the shadows right. I'd once seen her wear a pair of camouflage shorts on a trip after I hid all her clothes in my bag, but that was probably the brightest color ever.

I grinned at her, going back to my painting, "It's a warning sign."

"And why does it look like a squirrel with a gun?"

I rolled my eyes, looking for the brown I'd mixed earlier and settling for orange. Yeah...the light could come from this direction instead. "Because that's what it is! I haven't found any in the wild yet, but mark my words, they're out there!"

"Nicky, I doubt there are very many humans with guns anymore. How did a squirrel get one? Let alone ammo?"

"Don't underestimate the squirrel. They can be vicious creatures."

Trinity sighed in that gustily way that annoyed sane zombies liked doing it. "Alright, have fun."

She was gone a moment later.

I resumed my humming and focused back on the paints. The big red BEWARE at the bottom was dripping all over, which wasn't intentional, but it made it look like blood which was cool so I fixed the dripping in a way that embraced that idea. It still had to dry before I could shade it, but I still had plenty to do.

Some folks might wonder why I specifically wanted Daniel to not know about this until later, but the fact that it was on the wall right beside his door might change that fact. If nothing else the paint fumes would annoy him for weeks.

What should we do after this? GLITTER???

Of course glitter, I'd bribed too many people to get that big thing of it not to use it on Daniel eventually! Planning that far ahead was usually pointless, but it was a very effective tactic to keep people in line. That energy drink was still in reserves for if Ben ever told Daniel the truth about the tomato soup...

I continued humming, my mind going into a sort of meditation as I fell back into my art.