My Zombie Girlfriend

Chapter 23

Dead silence. Harmony sat back on her heels and smirked at everyone.

"You... killed her?" Zane asked, since no one else seemed to know what to say. Zane was really beginning to wonder if his choice in women was seriously flawed.

Tamiko nodded.

"Not that I really blame you," Rebecka said, "But how did you do it? And how did you not get thrown in jail?"

"I did exactly what she did to me. Pretty much. Only it was a cupcake, not a brownie, and I didn't put laxatives into it. I put hemlock in it."

"Shit," Hunter said. His laughs were all gone now.

"I folded the cupcake into a little box and put it on her doorstep and rang the doorbell, then hid in the bushes until she opened the door and found it.

"Hemlock doesn't kill you right away. It puts your body into a deep paralysis that eventually shuts down your respiratory system. I waited until Harmony had eaten the cupcake and gone into paralysis, then I went inside. I told her how much I hated her. I gave the whole villain monologue. At some point she died, and I left.

"I waited to hear about Harmony's death. I watched the news, read the paper, eavesdropped on my parents' conversations. I was fully expecting the whole, 'She died so young' thing, 'Oh, she was such a beautiful girl, beloved by many,' et cetera.

"I didn't hear anything. I rode my bike past her house, and no one was home. Lights out, car gone. This being the middle of summer, I wasn't going to hear the gossip at school. I waited and waited. Then, one day a couple of weeks later, I was at the grocery store picking up some stuff for my mom when I heard someone saying Harmony had taken a vacation with her parents to New Orleans.

"I honestly thought something had gone wrong. I thought her parents might have come home early and found her and were able to get the hemlock out of her system. I don't know. I tried to reason through it, but the truth is, I watched her die."  Tamiko looked at Harmony.  "And when you came back, it quickly became obvious to everyone that you're different." 

"Oh, yes. I am different," Harmony said.

Wilson stood up. "New Orleans. They took her to New Orleans."

"Yeah, that's what I said."

Harmony watched Wilson carefully.

"New Orleans is the capital of voodoo," Wilson said. He looked around at everyone, waiting for them to make the connection.

Zane made the connection. He was, after all, a smart guy. "In Haitian voodoo, one of the most powerful spells is that of the zombie."

"Yes! You get a gold star, Z. Tammy, seriously, you didn't know that?"

Tamiko shook her head. "It's one thing to hear about something like that, something that doesn't feel real, and another to connect it to what's really happening. Harmony looked like she was alive. She looked more bored than usual, flatter, but hey, I had tried to kill her. I figured she was just a little sick from the poison."

"You people are totally effed up," Rebecka said.

"Shut up, Becky," said Harmony. She stood. "Yes. There is my secret. My parents took me to a voodoo queen in New Orleans and now I'm a zombie. See, I have to wear this stupid charm on me at all times." She held up one wrist and Zane noticed her delicate charm bracelet for the first time.