❝THAT HEART OF YOURS WILL NEVER CHANGE.❞
In which Freja Barrett, an enthusiast for all things supernatural, makes the life-altering decision of reconnecting with an old friend in the midst of her mission to prove the existence of zombies.
[iZOMBiE...
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FREJA HADN'T SLEPT a wink. The only thing she had been able to do all night was thinking until her head ached, and although she had been hopeful, the aspirin she had given into hadn't lulled her to a peaceful slumber — instead, it had given her the opportunity to keep going, her meeting with the anonymous woman playing over and over again in her head, running to the end until it scrolled right back to the beginning.
She had welcomed her into her apartment and offered some tea, but the frantic lady had insisted on getting her speech out as quickly as possible, plagued with evident discomfort. Freja no longer wondered why, not after hearing about how one of the people closest to her had shown up to her home, sickly pale with her usually dark hair adorned with a white streak, eyes bloodshot and her temper more irritable than normal. And yet, afterwards, the same person had returned with her skin back to lively and glowing, her hair a shiny brown, seeming every bit like the person she had always been, until the mood swings kicked in and the woman that had just become Freja's most valuable source had found brains in her fridge. All after the boat party. The friend she had always relied on had changed irreversibly, cutting all ties to who she had once been, and those weren't even the most startling things Freja had quickly typed up on her laptop.
And somewhere between thanking the woman for coming forward and rereading the notes she had written for the millionth time, Freja remembered the one person in her life that ticked off at least some of the boxes — a drastic update of appearance, inconsistent personality shifting from one point to another, radical life choices seemingly out of nowhere. Like a career change or calling off an engagement.
Freja was sucked deep into her own thoughts until her phone rang, and for a moment, she questioned who would call her in the middle of the night, only to check the time in the corner of her laptop and realize that it was well into morning by now. "Yes, hi, Freja", she cleared her throat into the phone without checking who was on the other side of the line, throwing her glasses aside to rub her eyes and stifle a yawn into the greeting.
"Did you hear?" Matilda's familiar, warm voice whispered into the speaker, strained with anguish, and that, if anything, earned Freja's attention. She didn't get to ask anything, however, when the Dean had already proceeded. "Holly White, from your sorority. She was in a skydiving accident", she elaborated, a sigh crackling through the call, "I got a call from Peyton. I'm so sorry, Freja."
Unsure whether to contemplate how a former friend was suddenly gone or how Matilda had ended up on Peyton's speed dial, Freja didn't get much more than a huff out. The news kicked at the bottom of her stomach, still, even if she and Holly hadn't talked in forever — they certainly hadn't stood eye to eye on many things, a classic case of party girl versus geek, but she had been a wonderful person, nonetheless. Not to mention, the timing was almost ridiculous, as if Freja's attention was trying to be steered away from the headline sitting in front of her: zombies.
