Page 28 of Slayer Mom
“Have a good night at work. Stay safe. You never know what kind of crazies you’re going to run into.”
I smiled at him and headed out. There were so many kinds of crazies, the Grand Master, Gloria, zombies, which were on the menu tonight?
I went to Tom’s place, parking my car in front of the nearest hotel and then walking the two blocks to the theater. It wasn’t a nice hotel, old, run-down, but respectable enough.
When I got to the movie theater, I leaned on the ledge outside the box office window and smiled at Erin, the old lady who I swear had retired years ago. “Is Tom here?”
“Who’s asking?”
“Lucky. Don’t you remember me?”
She scowled at me, and then the scowl dissolved and she grinned, showing several missing teeth. “Look at you! All grown up and old. Why are you wearing a suit?”
“I have business with Tom. Do you know where he is?”
She leaned closer to the window, glanced both ways, and then whispered, “He’s on a date.”
I wouldn’t have been more shocked than if she’d confessed that she was a zombie, or a Greek goddess. “A date? Are you sure?” Maybe he called slaying a date.
“Sure. Your old friend, the frizzy red hair, that one, he’s out with her, well, technically he’s in with her. They went to a movie together, the only two in the theater, if you know what I mean.” She wiggled her brows, which she’d tattooed on black, but the ink had turned purple over time.
“Oh. Gloria and Tom are on a date? Wow! I guess I won’t disturb him then.” Except that I had to tell him about the Grand Master. “Actually, it will only take a minute.” I knocked on the door until she buzzed it open and I walked in.
“They’re in theater one, if you remember where that is.”
I sure did. Shiver. I nodded at her and walked briskly down the dark hall, past the theaters with muted thumps and bumps. I walked into the theater boldly and then had to stop when I saw the movie. It was Gloria’s favorite, Arsenic and Old Lace, but Tom resembled Boris Karloff much more than he did Cary Grant.
I sat down right behind them and poked Tom in the shoulder. He didn’t move from his position next to Gloria, frozen in place while she snuggled against him, head on his shoulder, only turning to nuzzle his neck every once in a while.
I poked him harder. “Tom,” I whispered under my breath. He shook his head imperceptibly. He wanted me to leave? I needed to talk to him about serious stuff. If he was going to drag me so happily into his slayer mess, I was going to ruin his date. And Gloria thought I was having an affair with him, so she was seriously cheating on me with him as far as she knew. So I was justified.
I cleared my throat loudly and Gloria sat up, whirling around to stare at me with big purple eyes. Shouldn’t she be tired of the purple by now? She usually changed up the contacts more often.
“Sorry to break up this adorable little episode, but I need to have a conversation, Tom.”
Gloria smiled brightly. “He doesn’t want to have a conversation with you. He’d rather stay here with me.” She turned around and went right back to snuggling, rubbing her cheek on his neck in a really icky way. You only did that at home, in your bedroom, not in front of your childhood friend with her slayer partner, or sensei, whatever.
“Tom, I need to talk to you about that herbal supplement you gave me. What are the side-effects?”
He didn’t answer, so I walked down the aisle and came back in the row in front of them. I knelt on the seat in front of Tom and then I really looked at him. He didn’t look all there, and his shirt was unbuttoned. When I pushed back the fabric, his chest was liberally covered in swollen, oozing bites.
Gloria laughed and slapped my hand away. “He’s mine now, just like Gloria is mine. Just like you are mine.”
For a second, my mind froze. She wasn’t my Gloria. Oh. No.
I punched her face as hard as I could. My fingers cracked and her nose smashed, then I bashed her face with my forehead. I needed her unconscious, because I couldn’t deal with her while I had to focus on the zombies that had quietly entered the movie theater while I’d been distracted by Tom.
This was not on my menu. Was she Gloria at all, or was she turned? She seemed human, but I didn’t know what freshly turned zombies looked like. Then again, maybe she was possessed by a ghost or whatever else possessed people.
With Gloria slumped unconscious, I pulled my knife and turned just in time to rip through the skull of one of the zombies that had been gathering around me.
“We are here for you,” a zombie hissed before I slashed through his brains.
“We are here for you,” two more groaned before I ripped them apart.
More and more took up the chorus, and the more that said those obnoxious words, the faster I moved, working hard as the Grand Master’s zombie executioner.
I worked hard and fast, efficiently, and finally had space to move, and then more space until the entire room was littered with dead formerly undead corpses, and Gloria and Tom.
