Page 50 of Perfectly Perplexing Zombie

God help me, I chewed. Feral sounds came from somewhere, and I only distantly realized they emanated from me. Ray’s blood tasted salty-sweet, but that wasn’t the real prize. Firm muscle met my teeth and tongue, and I sank into my meal.

“Got it!” I thought Peaches yelled, but I couldn’t have cared less while I continued tearing at the tissue beneath my mouth.

I felt a tug on my head, and my growls intensified. I had no intention of letting go. Another firmer tug tried again, but I just latched on harder.

“Wendall! Release.” Muriel’s order stabbed through my brain, and my jaws instantly went slack.

I whimpered as someone dragged me away from Ray’s bloody, shredded flesh. I keened, desperate for food. Something infinitely better than Ray’s flesh was shoved into my mouth. The bits of brain came faster and faster. It was an endless stream that filled me and returned my conscious thought.

The pain subsided, and I sagged in relief. That feeling was short-lived as horror flooded in to take its place.

Ray.

I’d never seen anything so macabre, and it was made all the worse at the realization that I’d been the cause. Images flashed through my mind, and it was as if they were a movie with characters I didn’t recognize filling the role of fairy prince and zombie monster. I knew which player I was in that film, and my stomach turned.

Ray’s shoulder looked like it had been put through a meat grinder. His shirt was blood-soaked, and the tissue was ragged and torn. It looked like he’d been attacked by a wild animal, and I needed to look no further than the nearest mirror to see the face of that beast.

No pressure built behind my eyes. Tears were something I could no longer produce. Had I been able, they would have streamed down my face in a never-ending flood. The feeling was there with no actionable release.

My mouth opened and closed repeatedly. I needed to speak. I was capable of it again. I needed to use my words to try to explain the unexplainable. At the very least, I needed to apologize, and yet I couldn’t think of a word or phrase adequate enough to apologize for what I’d done.

My gaze flicked around the room, searching for the voice I didn’t have. In a way, I found it. No one seemed as horrified as me. Pity. That’s the emotion I saw shining through. Johnny and Peaches’s expressions were pinched by it. Mr. Moony hugged Peaches a little tighter, and I knew it was meant as comfort. Muriel just looked apologetically sad.

And then there was Ray. I had no idea what he thought. He just sat there, knees bent and on his haunches. He didn’t even raise a hand to cover his gnawed shoulder. He didn’t ask for a towel or the biggest Band-Aid in the world. No. He just remained where he was. Flames no longer lit his eyes, and yet they were anything but dull. Crimson encircled his blown pupils. He didn’t blink. He just stared, his face an impassive mask of nothing.

No one spoke. Trinket was even silent. I wasn’t sure when she’d moved from my shoulder to my lap, but she sat there, eyes wide as she looked up at me.

“Ray, I—” Nothing. A big fat, nothing came out of my mouth before I wailed like a wounded, dying animal.

Slapping my hands over my mouth, I felt the wetness of Ray’s blood. Quickly pulling my hands away, I stared at my crimson-splashed palms and repeated that earlier sound. Since my reanimation, I’d known what I was. I didn’t hate Muriel for it. I hadn’t even hated myself.

Until now.

Throwing myself out of my chair, I pushed past Muriel and Johnny. I heard shouts behind me, but I didn’t listen. I just ran. The stairs to my apartment were closest, and I clamored up them. The door slammed behind me, barely missing Trinket as she dashed through. After throwing the lock, I ripped my bloody shirt over my head and scrambled for the bathroom.

The shower was scalding hot, and yet I barely felt the heat. I scrubbed every inch of my skin. Fresh patches of necrotic skin sloughed off and plugged the shower drain. I was crouched on the shower floor, water running over me and building up from the plugged drain, when Muriel found me.

“Well, aren’t you a sight.”

She reached in and shut off the water. I just stared ahead. I couldn’t have cared less about my nudity. Muriel had seen a hell of a lot more than my bits in her lifetime, and I figured to her, parts were just parts by now.

The filthy water I was sitting in drained away. Muriel must have cleared the tissue away. A pale blue bath towel appeared before me.

“Come on out of there, sugar. Let me dry you off, and we’ll sit and talk a bit.”

It wasn’t a command, but I still did as Muriel asked. I got up on shaking legs and wiped the water from my flesh. Muriel tsked when she saw what I’d done to my skin.

“Your flesh is precarious enough as it is, Wendall. I don’t imagine you did it many favors just now, but I can’t see how I can blame you much either. I imagine if I were in your shoes, I would have acted about the same. Go on and get dressed, and I’ll meet you in the living room. We’ll have us a nice chat.”

Muriel shuffled out of my bathroom, which was far too small for two grown humans to be in at the same time. Trinket was sitting on the bathroom counter, and her large, worried gaze followed me around the room as I put on a fresh pair of underwear, lounge pants, and a t-shirt.

“Sorry, girl,” I offered. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” I hadn’t meant to scare anyone, including myself.

I stood there, staring at the bedroom door. I was dressed, and Muriel was in the other room. I didn’t want to speak to her. My feelings were so mixed up, I hardly knew where to start. I was scared, worried, and perhaps most of all, embarrassed. I’d used Ray as a chew toy, and I’d liked it. More than liked it. I’d been desperate, and if someone hadn’t pulled me off, I could have easily killed him. His flesh wouldn’t have been enough. I’d wanted something more, something that was safely locked away beneath his skull.

“Stop starin’ at the door and get your ass out here, Wendall.” Again, it was an order I could refuse. “You’ve got nothin’ to be ashamed of, sugar.” Muriel shot a verbal arrow at the heart of the matter, and with a final run of my fingers through Trinket’s fur, I reached for my bedroom door, pulled my big boy pants up, and headed into the living room.

ChapterNineteen

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