❝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 BARRETT HAD always thought of herself as in control of her emotions, but when she woke up from an involuntary slumber with throbbing pain all over her body and the discomfort of restraints digging into her wrists, she was no longer so sure about that. Maybe she had been wrong all along, thinking that the lack of romantic love and heartbreak stemming from unspeakable tragedies counted as being in control, because as she slowly came to and everything crashed down onto her at once — from the horror of being suddenly involved with murderers, the loss of not one, not two but three people to the shock of figuring out the dark base of Elliot and Julian's love story — all she wanted to do was cry.
She was always easily excitable, just like she was easily frustrated, too, but whatever life had thrown at her, she had always bounced back from. Yet now, when her blurry eyes slowly but surely divided the grim sight of a butcher shop, matched with the stench of death, she felt utterly and profoundly broken.
"Oh, look!" a cheerful voice teetering towards sheer danger piped up from another room, and before Freja could even try and croak out any pleas or questions, an already familiar mess of platinum hair peeked from the doorway. "Sleeping Beauty is awake", Blaine announced in a way that resembled happy, as did the wide arms he gestured at her with, but she supposed that he wasn't the least bit satisfied — if he was, she wouldn't have been dangling from the irritating ropes in the back of Meat Cute with blood dribbling down her cheek.
Gulping down whatever emotion had threatened to spill over the edges, Freja stared at Blaine in silence, all the while he stepped closer to her with a hint of a smile. "Hey, settle something for us?" he piped up casually, and for a second, Freja was unsure who he was referring to, only for the Candyman to appear from around the corner and her heart to sink with complete dread — even when she was now convinced Blaine was the one pulling all the strings. "You don't think I'm a terrible cook, do you? Because he thought that's why you never got back to me about a second date", he frowned, as if genuinely offended, "I think the whole zombie thing was the dealbreaker. Or the doctor. Gee, I hope he's not having an awful time on his own."
A surge of nausea and panic rushed into Freja's stomach, seeping onto her face as she remembered her plans with Ravi, now indefinitely on hold. But, perhaps, the worst part was the idea of him thinking she had stood him up, grown to regret their budding relationship and walked away. And he had sounded and looked so excited, too.
"Yeah, no, I don't mind the zombie part. It's more the fact that you kidnapped and murdered dozens of kids", Freja retorted back, her anger and fear bubbling up in a toxic mixture of snappy remarks, a glare sent at both Blaine and his goon as they loomed over her. "You killed Lowell", she added, the determination in her voice faltering as misery swung at her chest and the memory of the man she hadn't even gotten to know so well stung in her heart.
Ready to argue with a lifted finger, Blaine sighed. "Hey, I wasn't happy about that, either. Guy had a sick guitar and everything but he tried to kill me, so you know, eye for an eye and all that", he defended himself, not necessarily plagued with the guilt Freja had hoped to see, but almost disappointed that he had had to get rid of a guy like Lowell. "Anyway", Blaine cleared his throat then, "the doctor, I kinda get. But Ken over there? That would have been downright ridiculous", a chuckle rumbling from his chest as he made a haphazard wave at the door next to Freja — seemingly leading to a large freezer.
