Valentine's Day of the Undead

by Stacey Jay

  Addison must have moved me to another car—the better not to be tracked down by Settlers Affairs as he flees the scene of his wickedness. And now he’s probably driving me back to his wretched, slimy, witch lair, daydreaming about all the horrible spells he’ll be able to cast with access to my tainted blood!

  No. Wait. Not driving. The car isn’t moving. There’s no rumble or hum. We must be parked somewhere.

  I hold perfectly still, straining to hear voices, movement, any sound from outside that might give me a clue where I am or who’s around. But I can’t hear a thing. I kick the roof of my prison a few more times and scream for help, just in case there’s someone friendly around or Addison didn’t hear me kick the first time.

  I don’t care if he knows I’m awake. Let him come for me. I can’t fight back physically with my arms and legs tied, but—seeing as he’s had the lack of foresight to leave me gag-free—I can certainly whip out a few Settler commands on his evil butt.

  I was too freaked out by seeing him on fire to make use of the knowledge that zombie magic works on him the first time around, but I’m ready to make use of it now. I’ll slam him with a reverto terra and put him six feet under the ground. I’ll literally bury him alive and let him dig his way out, while I bust out of this trunk and hop to safety.

  “Help!” I scream, my voice loud enough to prick at my ears in the confined space. “Help me!”

  Nothing. Not a sound. Either there’s no one out there, or I’m being ignored.

  “Help! Please!” I cough and give a very convincing gasp for air. “I’m suffocating! I can’t breathe!” Still nothing, and now I’m really starting to feel like I can’t breathe.

  Darn the power of suggestion!

  I pull in one slow breath and then another, fighting the urge to start panting for air. I guess I could suffocate in here if I’m left alone long enough. Is that my evil father’s plan? To wait until I asphyxiate and then pluck my dead body from his trunk? Maybe put me in a deep freeze somewhere to keep my corpse—and my blood—fresh for years to come?

  The thought makes me even angrier. I don’t want him to own me, not while I’m alive and not while I’m dead. I want out. Out! The dark power that is my father’s horrible legacy rises inside of me again, humming like a swarm of locusts. If I could get my hands around his throat and squeeze right now, I know I would. Instead, I slam my feet into trunk again and roar “LET ME OUT!” at the top of my lungs.

  Megan? Is that you? Where are you?

  “Cliff? Cliff! I’m in here! In the trunk!” I scream. It’s not until he speaks again that I realize I’ve heard him with my brain, not my ears.

  In what trunk? Where are you? Me and Kitty and Ethan are just past mile marker seventeen. We found Ethan’s car, but we can’t find you.

  I take a deep breath and try not to panic. I didn’t realize that Cliff could still hear my thoughts. I knew he could right after we shared my body, but in the weeks since then we haven’t tried to communicate telepathically, and I haven’t heard anything from his brain. But what if he’s been hearing me all along?

  I’m tempted to indulge in a minor freak out as I consider all the embarrassing things I’ve thought in Cliff’s presence, but remind myself that—much like my newly cropped hair—I have bigger things to worry about.

  I don’t know where I am. I send the thought out, hoping Cliff will hear me. But you have to be careful. My da… Addison Strain is the one who took me. He disguised himself as Ethan with a spell. He might still be close. He has to be the one who locked me up in here.

  Don’t worry. We’re ready for him, and more Enforcers are on the way, Cliff says. Do you remember which way he took you when you left Ethan’s car?

  No. I passed out. I just woke up a few minutes ago. I’m tied up in the trunk of a different car, but I don’t know where it’s parked.

  Okay. Hold on. We’re going to find you.

  How? My anger begins to bleed into terror, and the feeling that there’s not enough air to breathe returns. I have no idea where I am. I could be anywhere. I can’t hear anything or anyone outside. I’m going to suffocate before you—

  No, you’re not. Cliff’s voice is as steady and calming as always.

  He’s a rock. A zombie rock who is always there for me, and I haven’t been nearly as nice to him as I should have been. Ever since the kiss and the heart-ripping I’ve let my own guilt make me hold Cliff at a distance, punishing him when the only person who really deserves to be punished is me.

  I’m sorry, Cliff. I never meant to be a jerk. I care about you so much. I’m glad you’re my friend.

  Don’t give up on me, Megan Berry. Don’t you dare. I swear I can hear the hitch in his voice even though it’s beaming directly into my brain.

  Beaming…into….my brain. The only other times we communicated this way, we were pretty close to each other, less than a hundred feet for sure.

  Cliff, have you been able to hear my thoughts the past few weeks?

  Yeah. Some. He sounds guilty, but we don’t have time for guilt any more than embarrassment.

  All the time, or only when we’re close to each other?

  He hesitates for a second. Only when we’re both in the house. A couple of times at school, and once or twice at the dance tonight. But yeah, mostly when you’re close.

  I pull in a deeper breath. Hope makes my lips tingle. So I must not be that far from Ethan’s car. Look around. Do you see any other cars close by?

  A longer silence this time and some mumbled mental words that I guess is Cliff talking to Ethan and Kitty.

  Ethan. He’s really here. If I were out of this damned trunk, I might even be able to see him. The thought makes my heart squeeze in my chest. There’s so much I want to say to him, so many things I want to know.

  Why hasn’t he called? Is he the one who texted me saying that he loved me? Or did my evil bio dad already have his phone at that point? Ethan must have made the decision to come to Carol on his own—Kitty said Addison ran his car off the road close to town—but was he coming here to see me, or for a family visit, or on Setttlers Affairs’ business, or what?

  I have to live to find out. I just have to. If I die without knowing, the suspense will follow me into the afterlife and kill me all over again.

  Megan? Cliff’s voice is clearer this time.

  I’m still here. And I can hear you better.

  Okay, good, but… Well, we’ve looked, and none of us see anything except trees and water. Are you sure you’re in a trunk?

  I thought so, but I guess it could be something else. I kick the roof again. It’s definitely metal.

  Maybe if I could see I’d have a better idea where I am, but it’s still pitch black. I lift my hands over my head to feel the metal above me and the cardboard-feeling stuff beneath my head, but neither one gives me any clues. All I manage to do is stir up another wave of stink.

  I pause, wrinkling my nose, dissecting the smell in my prison. Burned hair is the worst, but there’s also that dead fish smell, the one I noticed when I first woke up. And all Cliff, Ethan, and Kitty can see is trees and water.

  And where there’s water, there are fish. And where there are fish, there are fishing boats. And where there are fishing boats, there are places to keep fish after they’re caught.

  Cliff, I think I might be on a fishing boat. I hold still for a second, double-checking to make sure I’m still motionless. It’s not moving, so it’s not in the water, but I can smell fish. Do you see any—

  Hold on! Ethan sees something. There’s a dock further down. We’re headed that way. We should be there in five minutes, tops.

  Be careful. Addison could be waiting for you. This could be a trap.

  This could be a trap…

  I freeze, dread creeping along my suddenly cold skin.

  This has to be a trap.

  Why else would Addison have allowed me to call Kitty and give her an idea where to find me? Why else would he have locked me up and seemingly disappeared, if not
to lure the people he knew would come to look for me into a trap?

  I was so freaked out by waking up in the dark that I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I’m thinking clearly now.

  Cliff wait! Leave me here! I scream, praying he hears me in time. Go back to the road and wait for the—

  No way, Megan. We’re not— His voice shuts off so abruptly it makes me flinch. It’s like a door slammed closed somewhere in his head, severing our connection.

  Cliff? Answer me. Cliff!

  But I know he can’t hear me. I came to my senses too late. The trap has already been sprung. I’m sure of it, even before I hear soft, male laughter and a horribly familiar voice whispers from just outside my prison.

  “I always said you were the stupidest smart person I’d ever met.” She/he snorts with exquisite derision. “I can’t believe you have a 4.0.”

  Even coming from a boy’s dead body, my ex-best-friend’s voice is unmistakable.

  It’s Jess, still trapped in Aaron’s corpse. She/he’s here, and I don’t need even half my stupid-smart brain to know that’s very, very bad news indeed.

  February 14th, 10:41 p.m.

  The lid of the metal box flies open and a floodlight shines straight into my face. I wince, taken by surprise long enough for someone to reach in and shove a rag into my mouth. Seconds later, frigid hands grab me beneath the armpits and haul me to my feet.

  I struggle to stay standing as I’m hit by a wave of dizziness.

  “Told you she didn’t need to speak.” Jess’s words stab at me through the speckled air as my eyes try to adjust. “That zombie can hear her in his head.”

  “Smart girl.” Addison’s voice comes from behind me. He sounds pleased, proud, confirming my suspicions that he and Jess are partners in crime.

  How does she keep convincing people to help her with her wicked schemes? How? When she is so obviously not only crazy, but crazy and repeatedly unsuccessful in both her wickedness and her scheming?

  Once I stop weaving back and forth, Addison lifts me out of the fish storage container and sets me on the deck. I shrug him off with a growl the second I can. If he’s hurt Ethan or Cliff or Kitty, I swear I’ll find some way to kill him, even if I have to do it with my elbows.

  I blink as my eyes recover from the glare and the deck of an old wooden pontoon boat swims into focus. It’s a cloudy night and there isn’t much moonlight, but I can just make out the faint rippling of water beyond the boat’s railing. We seem to be dry docked on a pier, but we can’t be that far from the road. I hop in a circle, trying to see more, and catch Jess—or Jess’s soul in Aaron’s progressively decaying corpse, if we’re being technical—setting the flood light back on a table to my left.

  Beyond her, propped against the front railing of the boat, are Ethan, Cliff, and Kitty. Their eyes are open, but they aren’t moving, and they don’t say a word when I start hopping toward them. I make it close enough to see their terrifyingly deadpan expressions before Jess grabs me around the waist and shoves me into a chair.

  “Behave yourself, Berry.” She leans down, sticking Aaron’s rotted face close enough for me to smell how ripe she’s become. I hold my breath, knowing I’ll yarf and choke on it if I get another whiff of her. “Do exactly what I say or your friends are dead meat. Got it?”

  Thank god. Whether she meant to or not, Jess has banished some of my panic. If she’s threatening to kill them, then Ethan, Kitty, and Cliff must not be dead. At least…not yet.

  “Get it?” Jess asks with a gurgly laugh. “Dead meat?”

  She reaches back to the open hole in her skull and pulls out a wriggling white thing. It takes me half a second to realize it’s a maggot, and less than that to feel like I’m going to throw up all over again. I start to gag even before Jess brings the worm within an inch of my face, and makes it do a dance in front of my nose.

  “Jessica, be nice,” Addison warns.

  “Why should I?” Jessica doesn’t like being told what to do, but thankfully she tosses the maggot to the floor instead of shoving it up my nostril and cheering it on as it makes a beeline for my brain. “This is all her fault. She’s the one who did this to me!”

  “And now we’re going to undo it, sweetie, and everything will be fine.”

  “It won’t be fine. I’ll still be trapped in a boy’s body. My life is never going to be fine. I don’t want hers to be fine, either!”

  “And I don’t want you to try to hurt Megan again,” Addison says, his voice cold enough to make me shiver. Apparently his Don’t Talk Back To Me tone works on Jess, as well. She backs away, allowing me to pull in a breath without getting a whiff of her rot. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you myself after that stunt you pulled,” Addison continues. “Sacrificing your sister to save some dumb human kid with a brain tumor was never part of our agreement.”

  What? What did he say?

  “Sorry,” Jessica mumbles, milky eyes trained on the boards at her feet.

  “Now, come help me and stop fighting with your sister.”

  There it is again. What the hell is he talking about? “Shh ishnt mah shsher,” I say, talking as clearly as I can around the rag in my mouth.

  “She is your sister,” Addison says, apparently able to understand me just fine. But then, unfortunately, I’ve had practice talking while gagged and bound. “Your half-sister to be specific, but you share the blood that matters.”

  This man really is insane. I turn to glare at him, but forget to look menacing when I see the flaming cauldron now settled on top of my fish box prison. He and Jess are casting a spell. I have no idea what kind of magic they’re about, but I know it can’t be good.

  I do another scan of the boat, hoping to find anything I can use to cut myself free. I have to get me and the good guys out of here before whatever is cooking in that cauldron goes live.

  “Jessica’s mother and I met shortly after your mother and I ended our relationship,” Addison continues, conveniently leaving out that he’d nearly ended Mom’s life in the process. “At first it was a casual affair, but eventually she decided to leave her husband and she and I were married.”

  What?

  “I hope you’ll have the opportunity to meet her one day soon.” He throws something that looks like a dead mouse in the cauldron, and the fire inside burns brighter. “I know you two would have a lot to talk about.”

  What?! Like what? Like how many times her daughter has tried to kill me? This is crazy. Jess can’t be my half-sister. It would just be too wrong. And sad.

  Back when we were best friends, finding out we were also family would have been a dream come true. It would have made the pain of learning my mom cheated on my dad so much more bearable knowing something amazing like a sister had come out of it.

  But instead I learn the truth after Jess has tried to kill me twice, and I’m responsible for the death of her body, if not her soul. The body she was born into, the one that held the same genetic material as my own, is gone. Her heart stopped beating a few days after I killed Aaron and trapped her in his corpse.

  I turn back to Jess, but she’s still looking at the ground. Guess she’s finding this moment as uncomfortable as I am. Or maybe she’s hunting for the maggot she dropped. Who knows?

  Not me, that’s for sure. I know nothing. That becomes more abundantly clear with every passing day.

  “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, Megan,” Addison says. “Unfortunately, we don’t have much time. I’m sure your friends called for reinforcements. But I’ll be in touch. Don’t worry.”

  As if I care. If I never see his face again, I’ll consider myself the luckiest girl in the universe.

  “Jessica, get the knife. We’re nearly ready.” As Jessica shuffles away, Addison stands and crosses to my chair, a swagger in his step that reminds me of all the senior studs at school.

  The evil bio dad is supremely confident and was probably a pretty decent looking guy when he was younger, but I still don’t understand how my mom could have been sucked
in by his alleged charms. I see nothing charming in him. When he crouches in front of me all I see is Bad and Scary and Cold.

  So, so cold. His fingers brush my skin as he plucks a burned chunk of hair from my neck, and I feel like my entire head is turning to ice.

  “My apologies for your hair,” he whispers, making me shiver. “I needed a large portion of hair and some blood from the wound at your neck for the first part of the spell to help your sister. But you’re just as lovely with short hair. You remind me of my mother, actually. She was a legendary beauty.” He cups my cheek in his hand and my shiver transforms to a full body tremble.