"...What if you were the unclean Zoo?"
It all started with a fire, a mad scientist, and a successful experiment. Now this mad scientist is a retired man; an uncle to two, a brother to one, and a step-brother to two. And then there were screams and blood. Though, that was before he was an uncle. The scientist burned half his face off-of which is now charred-and fled, only to be confronted by his half-brother.
In the 21st century, August 14th, a young boy named Quincy was introduced to this mad scientist. Now, that scientist was his uncle. Quincy knew the man was bad news, that something more evil than a tattoo saying "Zoo" in cryptic writing, or his face. Quincy knew...what this man had done. And, he was the only one, beside for the man himself, who knew the real truth. Of what happened to cause the fire in this zoo.
Threatened to not tell anyone, Quincy had kept quiet for a decade about what he saw, of what he was involved in. Still being haunted by his past and the past of another's, he finally breaks down.
"...Then I simply would have to get away from myself, wouldn't I now, Julio?"
Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld.
*****
When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying!
[[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]]
[[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]