Monster Project

24.Zombie

     Her humming was quite obnoxious, filling the vacant, vast halls with the annoying song.
     "Would you kindly cease singing? Unlike you I cherish my sleep."
     "She's fine, Belial. Leave her be."
     "Absolutely not!"
     Azriel reached over and swatted at his counterpart. "Don't be rude!"
     She cackled at the display, even if she couldn't see it. "He's tolerable, Azriel. At least for now until I need another subject."
     She walked over, sandals slapping against dusty marble floor. As Belial tried to scurry away with Azriel, she snatched one of their many legs, leaving them both to dangle in the air idly.
     She lifted them even closer to her mouth, smiling gruesomely. Her breath smelled of vanilla and death.
     "How does that sound, Belial? Testing a concoction meant for the dead? Or how about one where you can get a third head?"
     Belial began to protest loudly along with smaller complaints from Azriel, both just as equally anxious.
     She threw her head back and laughed, throwing her regard for them out the window as she dropped them to the ground.
     They landed with a loud thud.
     "That was painful, Mink! And what did you consume this morning? Your breath smells like something crawled in your throat and died!"
     Mink ignored Belial as she stepped on his front foot, to which he cried out in discomfort. She guffawed meanly as she went to fetch another book. "Would you believe me if I said boiled fetal duck?"
     "I would."
      Another deranged giggle. "Then believe so!"
     Despite the last five minutes of abuse, Azriel and Belial leisurely made their way towards her. "What book are you looking for now?"
     One by one Mink would remove the books from the towering bookshelf, inspecting each one with black, sharp nails. Every wrong book was tossed aside.
     "Why are you throwing the books?! You know damn well we'll be the ones picking them up later!"
     "They're not the ones I'm looking for, Belial. For Azriel's question, have you two seen that book with the sheepskin leather?"
     Azriel shook his head. "I'm afraid not."
     "Skeleton on the front, made of mice bones? Skull of a faerie?"
     The next book she took off had a horribly distorted face, eyes pupil-free and a bloodshot, milky white, the mouth full of knife-like teeth.
     It caught sight of her and growled, wriggling out of her grasp to try and bite her.
     "Ow!" It was successful, grinning wickedly as her thumb began to bleed a bright violet. Mink huffed and whacked it on the bottom shelf. "Naughty book!"
    She chucked it across the library, the book landing with an ear piercing screech. Mink rose her hand and drew a pentagram, leaving red, sparkling smoke in her wake. On the third point she drew a simple triangle and the sigil lit up with a bright cherry as she finished.
     "Fiat lux!"
     The book bursted into flames, screaming in agony as it slowly disintegrated, all that left of it being rising smoke and a pile of ash.
     It was finished in a mere five minutes. "Mink! You can't go around burning books like that! What would happen if you actually need that book?"
     The gentle plop of a blood drop hit the floor and Mink raised her hand to her lips, sticking out her tongue to lap at the blood on her finger.
     "And that's vile!"
     "Azriel."
     "What?!"
     "Am I looking for that pile of ash at this moment?"
     "Well, no. Bu-"
     "Exactly. Now do me a favour and keep quiet, fetch me a pink potion, and clean the mess that cursed book left behind, would you?"
     Both Azriel and Belial sighed, trudging off to do their duties.
     "I've seen the book, Mink."
     "You have, Belial? Tell me, where have you seen it last?"
     "On the second floor, in the sitting area."
     She walked over, squatting down to roughly pat Belial on his head. "Good kitty!"
     He snarled, and Mink laughed. She got up again and began to make her way towards the grand staircase.
     She reached the second floor, turning left then right to try to sense where the area was. The sitting room was indeed to the right and at the end of the extensive hallway.
     Mink practically skipped to the sitting area for the book, and when she got there the elusive book laid on the seat of a chair made from the skeletal remains of an unfortunate incubus.
     "There you are! Trying to hide from me, are you?"
Waiting on the first floor was Azriel and Belial wiping away the ashes of the once-book, Belial grumbling with exasperation.
     Mink strided past them to take the bubbling, pink elixir that rested on a glass table.
     She popped the cork off with her thumb, and let it bounce to the floor carelessly.  Azriel watched with disbelief as she gulped the whole potion in a mere two swallows. Belial on the other hand, gazed at her blankly.
     "Was it that necessary to drink the whole bottle? It was a simple slice!"
     As a rebuttal, she dropped the bottle with negligence. Watching with a blind eye as glass shattered and the loud noise filling the absent library.
     "Hm? What was that, Belial? I couldn't hear you just then." Mink sounded unconcerned as she continued through the open library doors to her observatory room.
     The room was massive in height, a total of 50 feet, and the top was covered in a glass floor for easy access to see the abominations Mink would make from time-to-time.
     And that, "time-to-time" was quite frequent.
     This time it was a small experiment to see if she could resurrect a corpse to have conscious thought and intelligence unlike the hell spawn that come from Baratrum Abyssus.
    The subject in this case was the body of a deceased girl, no older than nine. Her skin was a sickly pale colour and her arms rest folded on her still stomach. She was apparently an apprentice and a good friend of the undertaker's. She was a sweet child, the only reason he donated her body to Mink was for the possible chance that she might come back.
     Mink took a gander at her body before the experiment. The girl was dressed in a strapped green cloak, a simple buttoned grey vest on top of a crisp, cuffed shirt paired with a small, black ribbon tied carefully around her neck, and a stiff grey skirt with a black, lacy trim that reached her knees. Paired with her large framed glasses and her rose-themed stockings, she resembled a fragile doll one would keep on a shelf.
     As much as Mink would like to keep her, this was a very generous favour that only came in a blue moon, no one in their right mind would offer a loved one's body for such absurd and gruesome experiences.
     The final thing she checked before she left was the child's arm. The undertaker said that her name was supposed to be somewhere on her ar-
     He wasn't kidding.
     The girl's name was carved into her arm.
     "GORDANA."
     Mink also noticed how four lines encircled her neck, three more ran diagonally down her neck; one directly beneath her chin and the other two just below her ears.
    She remembered these markings. They were of the Stamme Tapperhed; an elfin tribe notable for their skin markings, she even had the ears. 
     Although now, Mink stood on the second floor of the observatory, Gordana's body placed on the cold stone floor below.
     She thumbed through the book, eyes gazing impassively at old, weathered pages. She stopped around the halfway mark, the two pages she paused at were cryptic. It was written in an unrecognizable language long forgotten by the later generations. The first page held the the crudely painted picture of the demon Astarte. Her arms laid outstretched by her sides, dozens of doves swarmed on each side of her, on her sternum was the brand of Venus, and loosely wrapped around her body was the skin of a lion still dribbling blood. The other page held the scripture of the spell at hand; the spell that would bring back Gordana.
     Mink studied the sacred scriptures and after stood in the middle of the glass floor. She coughed to clear her throat before striking her left hand into the air dramatically.
      "Peleus! Conspectu tuo hodie petam! (Queen Astarte! I ask for your presence here today!)" The body came to glow a bright amethyst, but went by Mink unnoticed.
     "Vocati estis resurrectionem mortuorum! (You have been summoned to resurrect the dead!) Quaeso, date hoc desiderium et replete cadaver quia haec vitam cum cadavere magis! (I beg you grant this desire, and fill this corpse with life once more!)"
     The body raised from the floor, arms dangling uselessly. Gordana's eyes shot open however she remained still.
     Mink practically screamed at this point, her left arm waving frantically in the stale air like she got her point across even more with wild gestures of the hand.
     "Nunc mihi respondeat , haec corpus usui esse potest, et aliquando rusus! (Now answer me, let this body be able and serviceable once again!)"
      A dark purple mist - almost black  - surrounded the body, a shriek ripped itself from her lungs and Mink smiled wickedly. She slammed the book with an awfully loud thump and sashayed down the dingy steps with the book tucked safely under her arm.
     She reached the magically barred room where Gordana's now alive and growling body stayed. Rapping twice, she asked out chirpily.
     "Gordana? Are you feeling okay?"
     "Gordana? Gordana?! Do you take me for a spineless little girl? By Queen Astarte I'll rip your tongu-"
     "My, my. What language for a small child, do I need to speak with the undertaker?" 
     This thing hissed again, trying desperately to break free. Alas it proved futile and the only thing it was able to do was rattle the door and make unbearable noises to which it did a rather fine job of doing.
     "This isn't correct... I was supposed to receive Gordana's soul, not some insufferable hellspawn..."
     More relentless banging. "Danko, you vapid mortal! Danko! Danko! Danko! Dank-"
     A harsh kick to the door caused Dank to roll back and hit the opposite wall, stunned into silence that this mortal was able to do something of this magnitude.
     "Quiet! If I had enough mind I'd send you back to Baratrum!" Her tone was piercing and nothing short of terrifying."
     Mink quickly flipped through the pages to see what went wrong. "Everything was correct... How could've I plighted the spell?"
     Dank chortled meanly. "Reading a spell wrong? What kind of sorceress are you if the tome's right in the front of you?!"
     She mindlessly turned each page, only stopping once to give him a deadpan response.
     "The blind assortment."
     Danko immediately ceased his sinister cackles.
     Mink found the problem.
     She was supposed to summon Amon, not Astarte. While yes, they both had the ability to bring back the dead, both went about different ways of getting these souls.
     Amon brought back the body's specific soul while Astarte sat at the top of soul hierarchy, the queen of souls.
     Mink sighed and let the book droop in her loose fingertips. "Danko, answer me this."
     "No."
     "Danko."
     "Did I stutter, witch? Leave me be!"
     "Did I stutter either? No. Answer me this question, and I will dismiss you."
     "What?!"
     "How would you feel if I took you in as a kind of slave?"
     "You're crazier than I originally thought! And as a slave no doubt." Danko scoffed. "You must take me for a fool."
     Mink rested her head upon the wooden door, eyes closed.
     "Is there anything I could possibly do to change your thoughts?"
     An excruciatingly long pause. "I value nothing that you can offer me."
     "If you're a good boy, maybe I'll think of releasing you."
     "Keeping me here as your captive? By Queen Astarte when I'm freed of this prison..." His tone was menacing but Mink didn't fear him one bit.
     "You'll do no such thing. I've summoned you, you'll do my bidding, and I'll free you when the time comes. Understood?"
     "And what gives you the reassurance that I won't attack you?"
     A sweet giggle lit the echoing room, unbefitting of her next sentence. "I'll give you a fate worse than death, demon. And I can promise you that. I have the power to bring you here, into the mortal world. What says that power can't be used for other means?"
     Danko screamed in anger, hitting the wall to have it dent and crumble. "Fine... Fine! You insufferable witch I'll serve you! But be warned, if you choose not to exempt me I am not afraid to-"
     "Yes, yes, I've heard it all before. Suffer a thousand deaths and burn in the deepest depths of Baratrum Abyssus. Jolly, now come along. I've a trip to the market I must make and I need a helping hand."
     She opened the door, the rusty metal hinges creaking loudly. Dank prowled out and once blue eyes were now a candy red, opened pupils now angry, dark slits.
     "Why are you hunching? To my knowledge I wasn't aware you were half animal."
     "Shut it, witch. I walk as I please."
     "To each his own. Come now, the market should be closing soon and I don't wish to be late." Mink grabbed him by a bright blonde braid and yanked him along, Danko clawing at her hand as she did so. 
     This was going to be a long trip.

     A/N: DONE WITH 2,264 WORDS, FINALLY!!!! :D I'm extremely proud of this one, and I've come to love Mink so much. The next oneshot will be out sooner than this one, because I already have an idea! The demons mentioned are real, and I had some trouble with them because different sources said different things, and when she's summoning Astarte, I used Wordhippo (Thanks to that site! They're lovely and I've used them throughout this story.) to translate that so if anything's wrong, please let me know. (The whole spell is in Latin.) Translations will be posted below and as always, I hope you enjoyed! :D

Fiat lux - Let there be light in Latin

Baratrum Abyssus - The Deep Valley in Latin

Baratrum - Hell, the valley, or infernal region in Latin

Stamme Tapperhed -  Tribe of Valour in Danish (Edit: This was the actual translation I wanted. Holy crap am I picky.)

ALSO THANKS FOR 370+ VIEWS!!!!! IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY PEOPLE WANT TO READ MY STUFF! :DDDD