Missing Heart

Chapter 7: Kelly

Dear diary,

Despite this only being my third entry... This will probably be my final entry.

Something unexplainable, and awful happened. It will affect us permanently, we're going to be moving far away. Somewhere safe. I feel like writing about what happened. I'm trying so hard not to cry right now... My life is over. I may be 11, but my life is already over! Everything is over. All of my ambitions and dreams, and even my mother... they're all gone now... forever...

This morning I woke up to hear Julie screaming bloody murder. I'm surprised her lungs didn't explode. I thought she might have just seen something about some famous celebrity, so first I ignored it, but it became increasingly obvious something was wrong. I went to go check it out... and I was not expecting what I saw.

A man with a half exposed brain, green, rotten skin, yellow teeth and ripped up dirty clothing was trying to eat her neck! He looked like a zombie! That would have been the last thing I would have guessed! I started screaming bloody murder too, it fell from my lips (cool metaphor). I couldn't believe my eyes. My first reaction was to grab a chair and smack him in the head with it. Well... he stopped attacking her, but it was so gruesome... his head flew off and blood gushed everywhere... I wanted to throw up, but there wasn't time for that.

"What in the actual fuck was that!?" Julie screamed

"How am I supposed to know!?".

"You didn't do this?".

"How would I do this!?".

"OK, so a random dude somehow got in my room, tried to eat my head off and then just died from a gentle tap with a chair... what the fuck is going on!? What the hell is happening!? Why now!? Why me!? Why so suddenly!?".

She was having a complete mental breakdown. I couldn't blame her, I wanted to fall to my knees, sink into the floor and let someone else handle everything. But I wanted to be in charge, I wanted to be mature, so I stood up straight and continued in my bravest voice.

"Calm down, the situation isn't going to solve itself, we should discuss this like adults, think like mother and father would, and come to a reasonable conclusion. Perhaps afterward, we must also report this to the police". Said like a true adult! I felt proud of the way that came out... although I was shaking inside...

Julie looked at me shocked at my response and fancy wording, but she didn't argue, she needed to hear some instructions. She could worry later. She took some deep breaths and stood up.

"I hate admitting things like this, but you're right. Let's try to piece together what the fuck this is about and come to a reasonable conclusion. But I don't think we should go to the police... what if they arrest us for murder!?" she replied.

"No, that's wrong! We can't hide this, this is serious!".

"Yes, unfortunately you're right... my head is all clouded up from panic... you seem calm, I should leave the thinking to you, I can be the brawl!".

Oh please... as if someone as flimsy and weak as her could be the brawl. I should, can and will be both, but at least she called me smart... I think?

"I think that must have been some kind of pervert... unfortunately some people do things like that...".

...ew...

"To be honest... I don't think that's a human, his skin is green-ish, and his head flew right off!".

"Oh, so you think it's some kind of zombie or something? Huh... maybe you're more stupid than I thought you were...".

"What!? You think that's a human!?It's literally green!".

"Maybe it's algae...?".

God she's stupid! How in the holy hell was she in secondary school!?

I decided to make a risky decision. I got to my knees and started poking and prodding at the corpse of the... zombie?

It felt squishy and slimy. It made my fingertips red because of the blood. I wanted to throw up, it was so gross! But I had to do it... If I wanted to even have the slightest clue of what was going on...

"Ew! Why are you touching it!?".

"... I want to... figure out... what it is...". I had to say it slowly to prevent myself from gagging.

"It's clearly a person!".

"With a half-exposed brain, green skin and so delicate? I don't think so!".

"...".

It seemed like it was finally starting to click. I could practically hear the cogs whirring in her brain.

Fortunately, I didn't have to touch the corpse for too long, and Julie didn't have to think for too long, because Nick stormed in with the most terrified expression I've ever seen on his face. His face was always so blank and boring... it was like he was feeling emotion for the first time in years, knowing him, it may very well be true. This wasn't the kind of thing even he could ignore. It was oddly refreshing, but also oddly terrifying.

"Guys..." He said barely above a whisper, his voice shaking

"I... know this sounds stupid... but... apparently starting from yesterday... there was a zombie apocalypse... um... it was on the news... and... uh... it seems real... I remember hearing strange noise-". He couldn't finish because Julie interrupted him.

"WAIT, YOU'RE SAYING THAT THIS THING HAS BEEN IN MY ROOM SINCE YESTERDAY AND I WASN'T AWARE OF IT!?".

"...Huh...?".

It wasn't until then that Nick noticed the zombie dead on the floor headless.

"...Holy fuck...". Nick only ever swore when really surprised, which was very rare, I don't blame him for being shocked though! I was too!

"Yeah we get it..." I told him.

"Ok... and now what do we do?" Julie asked.

"I guess... wait for mother to come back home from work this evening..." Nick replied.

"That long!?". Julie replied.

"What other choice do we have?".

"Going out! Duh!".

"That would be suicide. Apparently for every human in our town, there are 5 zombies. We'd be dead before 8".

"It's 08:10...".

"Exactly!".

Umm... sure...

...

I had something to say but... should I say it? That was the question... but there wasn't any point in saying it... we were all thinking it...

Then Nick broke the silence with it.

"Do you guys think mother is alive...?".

...No... I doubted it. No-one replied, but we all thought the same thing...

I prayed... so hard... I never believed in God. If he existed, why were mother and Nick so depressed? Why did my father die for my uncle who didn't give a shit? Why did he get a heart disease in the first place? Why...? Why...?

But please God... Let mother be Ok...

Bye diary... forever...