It's Complicated: A Zombie Romance Novel

Dummy

I knew where to go. That was the important thing. Now it was a matter of how to get there. I was safe for the moment. The last trap had given me space to retrieve the next treasure, but I was going to use that time for something else.

"Michael, how much time do I have now?"

"Just under a minute. You'll have to double back through the second to last room."

"No, not that. Anything but the doll room."

"Sorry Princess, that's the only way." I cringed. I wasn't looking forward to experiencing that room again, but if it was the only way.

"Why are you stalling?" Michael asked into my ear.

"I'm not stalling, I'm praying really, really hard," I whispered back at him. On his cue I stepped out into the hallway and back into the doll room. The eyes hit me first. I could feel the chills rising up my arms.

"Let this one be a dummy. Please, God, let them all be dummies this time," I prayed.

"No active signatures registering on my end," Michael reassured me. But there was the off chance he was wrong.

I approached a dummy. I side stepped out of its reach just to make absolutely sure that it could not get at me if it turned out it was undead. "Get caught and the game is over," I reminded myself.

I wasn't about to get caught. Not when I was this close to getting answers. Not all the people here were drunk or drugged college students. Some of them were older. Some of them had been here for a while. They must be like my brother. Trapped. Their mindless bodies left to rot in this twisted place.

Is that how I wanted to end up? All of my efforts and dreams trapped in whatever sick demented mind game this was?

No. There was no way that this was going to be my end. I took a moment to flush out my fear and headed straight at the open door. It was safest by the exits, and the most dangerous, too.

"I'm just so tired," I said. Now that I knew for sure that nothing in this room could come after me I'd taken a moment to breathe.

"Look Mae, I have to be honest with you. From this point on it is only going to get worse," Michael confirmed. "So you might as well take a moment."

"Yeah, why not sit back and enjoy a cup of tea with a bunch of de-headed broken china dolls?" I replied. "I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off up to this point," I told Michael. "No pun intended, now you're going to help me." I pointed at the girly table I'd upended to secure the door. The tea set was still scattered across the floor. A part of me felt sorry for how it had ended up. It didn't deserve to be here in this house getting used as a disposable prop to a game.

"This is only a game," I reminded myself. "And games can be won."

The way to win this game was to play by different rules. I had beat them back. I had played scared. I'd even run like hell. Each strategy had got me further into the game, but now it was time to try something new. Something only fools try. If I was right, it just might work.

And if it did, I was going to shoot the zombie straight through the head. Metaphorically speaking, of course.