Land Of Rot

Pre-Apocalyptic

"Mom, do you have the balloons?"
"Yes, and-"
"And also the party popper? Please tell me you have the party popper, mom."
"Sweetheart," she whispers, brushing a lock of my curly brown hair behind my ear. "You're worrying about this even more than I am. Everything will be fine."
"But-"
"Nope. Shush," she mutters, putting a hand over my face.
I proceed to lick it, eliciting a disgusted sound from Mom as she wiped my saliva on my jacket sleeve.
A laugh freezes in my throat as I hear the screen door to the trailer swing open.
Mom and I exchange looks of "I'm so going to get you back for that later," and "Ha ha but you can't get me right now!", then turn to our target.
My little sister steps out in her pajamas, looking around. "Guys!"she yells, "Where are you! I need your help with the shower. It's being stupid again."
She goes down the steps to the trailer, stepping onto the cold concrete of the lot we were renting.
"Seriously, guys. Are you here?" Her six year old voice is turning shrill. She is panicking.
"Guys, are you-"
"SURPRIIIIIIIIIISE!!!!!!!" Mom and I leap from behind the azaleas, pulling our party popper's strings and showering confetti onto Ash's head. She lets loose an ear splitting shriek, then looks at me and mom, morning hair sticking up in all directions, me dressed as a grim reaper and mom as a zombie. A grin spreads over her face, wide and bright as a fat baboon's butt.
"You look so scary! I LOVE IT!!!"
She rushes us and tackles us both to the ground(which was not too difficult, considering Mom and I were tired enough to be as unsteady as drunken giraffes.), hugging both of us as tightly as one might hug Han Solo.

She loved scary stuff. Horror movies, Goosebumps, folk tales of monsters, even the concept of being scared in itself appealed to her. Her favorite movie? The Ring. Favorite animal? Hellhound. Favorite show? Supernatural, for God's sake.
She was a freak among our three person family of freaks. So she would, of course, have a freak birthday party.
A zombie cake awaited in the fridge, having been picked up at one hour before the buttcrack o'dawn. The Exorcist waited in the DVD player. And Mom, Ash, and I rolled around on the grass, laughing and probably waking up a neighbor.
Hopefully, that would be Dan from next door. He had a meeting to go to, and I didn't hear him rousing. He was a good guy, and mom thought he was hot. She never said so, but I just kept seeing the glances she took at his butt as he walked to his car and deduced. Sometimes they talked, the usual adult stuff. Politics, weather, dinner plans, the usual. When they did, mom always brushed his arm with her fingertips, bit her lip every now and then. Believe me, I'm close enough to my mom to tell when she likes someone.
Anyway, the three of us calm down, standing up and brushing grass off of our dew-soaked clothes.
"This is the best day ever! Thank you so much!" Ash says, her sweet, little girl voice soothing my ever fraying nerves.
"I'm turning six! I'm gonna be all grown up, now! No more five year old stuff!"she says, apparently on a never ending supply of oxygen."Right, Nixy?"
She looks to me with her heterochromic eyes, one blue and the other a strange, beautiful gold. Like a Dwarven treasure hoard.
"That's right! And do you know what else it means?" I ask, pointing my scythe at her.
Her eyes grow to the size of silver dollars. "Do I get to watch the...the Exorcist?"
She looks at me, so hopeful for a yes that I don't hold out my answer too much.
"Yes!" I cry, raising my weapon to the sky. "Scary movie marathon!"
Leaping with joy, Ash runs back into the house. Mom and I watch her go, then give eachother a high five. Instead of letting my arm fall after she slaps my hand, she grabs it, pulls it to her, then drags her tongue across my forearm.
"Eeeeeeeeew." I whine, dragging my contaminated arm across her shoulder.
A scream broke our peace, and I immediately turned to the source. A little boy stood on the front steps of his porch, his eyes wide in terror.
"MOMMY! MOMMY HELP ME THERE'S A SHE ZOMBIE TRYING TO EAT NIXY AND I DON'T WANNA GET EATEN!!!"
Ha zips into his double wide, screeching even when he was out of sight.
I look at my licked arm, then at zombie makeup clad mom. At the same time, we both say, "RUN!"
Laughing our heads off, we dash inside before the little boy's(Randy's) mom came outside to find my mom as a zombie, trying to eat my arm.