Necromancer

Of Monsters

。O  。

I stood before my ex-classmate, the real-life zombie, armed with a heavy branch and trying to muster my courage. The sun was almost set, the colour draining from the surrounding landscape. Now that Simon and I had stood still, silently assessing the one obstacle between us and the sleeping vampire we were here to kill, I noticed that we could smell him. The repugnant scent of death and decay. Did Angela really love Tommy enough to bring him back as this? Though she had been the one to kill him to begin with; how warped had her mind become after her transformation anyway?

"Tommy..." I tried reasoning again. "Angela wants to kill us. She's going to keep killing people. We have to put her down. Just move."

"Leave this place!" it snarled.

"He's not going to back down." Simon murmured from beside me.

"So be it then. Simon, get out your stake."

Tommy roared again, inhuman. I gulped, and then charged at him with the branch. Tommy raised his arm and staggered under the blow, but kept upright. He was not as strong or agile as he'd been when alive, but he was mobile enough. Tommy swiped and lunged, howling with fury. His attacks were quick like a venomous snake. I was scrunching my nose against his gag-worthy smell, moving quickly away. Simon still hadn't tried to get around and into the cottage, and we were running out of time.

"Move!" I yelled, desperate and frightened.

"Give up. Joining us isn't so bad."

I gave a shout of my own and dived forward, smacking the branch against his head. The crack of withered bones. I clubbed him with an overhead swing and he went down. I stared while panting, the zombie stayed down. Unmoving. Could zombies be knocked unconscious? He looked proper dead now. The sun was down. I looked back at Simon who still hadn't moved, eyes bright.

"Go now! What are you doing?"

We looked at each other and when he didn't move I cursed, dipped down and unslung my bag. Keeping the motionless Tommy in my peripheral in case. I reached in and pulled out my stake. Simon's hand clenched my shoulder.

"She's already awake..."

The distant horizon, beyond the tips of the forest still burned with the light of the setting sun. Here we were in darkness. The two of us raised our heads as Angela drifted upward like a quiet balloon, through a hole in the roof. Her pale feet came to rest on the tiled edge toward us. Angela's white face looked unmistakably furious for a moment before settling into mean satisfaction.

"You were too late."

"Angela..." My voice was despaired.

"Angela." Simon unreadable.

The vampire was as pale as a ghost, wearing that old-fashioned underdress. Short, honey-coloured hair that framed her face. Red eyes. She seemed dainty, graceful in her weightlessness. As ethereal as a nightmare. Looking at Angela was like gazing through a lens into the ethers. Not a ghost, but a bridge. Partly physical but also a being of magic. In-between worlds, the Undead.

She hooked an arm, curled her fingers. Tommy was raised, tugged upward by his chest with an invisible string. He stood again, alertness back on his face. There was rustling from inside the cottage, three more corpses walked out the open door, one after the other. These zombies, two men and a woman, were thin-limbed with sunken cheeks. They'd been well and truly drained of blood before Angela chose to keep them. Unlike Tommy they had no alertness in their faces, these corpses were nothing more than mindless puppets.

Holy shit. I couldn't speak. Terror didn't even begin to cover it.

With a cruel scowl Angela dissolved, grey mist rolled off the roof and swirled in two directions so as to surround us. In a few seconds we were trapped, I turned to Simon and saw Angela's blurry form moving for his back... hands reaching. They lost their shape when they tried to grab him, an angry scream; Simon whirled around.