Ultimately, her mother and father add the stairs and enter her bedroom.
" Amelia, sweetheart, are you okay?" her mom asks.
" I'm all right, Mother. Did you know that the zombie horse in the town is my horse?"
" What?" her dad asks. "How is that possible?"
" I know it is, Dad."
" Well, anyway, it left the village. Thank goodness for that," her mom says.
" It's my horse," Amelia says, "and I want to go find it."
" No," her dad says. "It's too dangerous. Even if you would, then how do you know you could communicate with it appropriately? You have seen that monster. It's dead ... it's undead."
" I know, but perhaps I could still talk some sense into it."
" I wouldn't suggest it, honey," her mother says. "What if it does not even recognize you?"
" But I saw it," Amelia insists. "It acknowledged me when I was standing in the entrance. Come on, please."
" No means no," her father says. "I am done having this discussion. We are fortunate that we didn't get hurt. Leave it for what it is, Amelia. I know you saved up a lot of cash to purchase this horse, and it's a big loss, but you can't just go out there and risk your life. After all, it's still just an animal."
" You don't understand," Amelia says. "It's unfair."
She diminishes the stairs and heads outside. When she opens the front door, she can barely actually believe what she sees. Plants are overturned, sheds are broken, windows are shattered, and some of the residents in the village are faltering, as if they got wounded in some way.
" What happened here?" Amelia asks the first man who walks by.
" That zombie horse ... it damaged a lot of stuff here. Some people got hurt, but no fatalities. It's a disaster though. I am glad it's gone."
" Where did it go?"
" Into the mountains. That way. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go examine the kids."
Amelia doesn't wait any longer. She knows into which direction to go now, and she leaves immediately, ignoring her dad's counsel.
Chapter 5: Pursuing It
Aurora is being in the corner of a street, behind a trashcan. She is shivering. She understands that she didn't know what she was doing when she turned Amelia's horse into a zombie horse. The impacts are worse than she expected. What she actually wanted to do, was to make it look ugly, odor bad, and have it stay the same way. The aggressive side has been an undesirable surprise.
When she looks up, she concludes that the threat is gone, and as she walks through the village, she is revolted by the damage she has caused.
" Oh my goodness," she says. "The horse did all this? Wow."
Fences and walls are broken, trees are lying across the streets, and bushes have been ripped from the yards.
" I must put an end to this," Aurora says to herself. "Hey, you! Where did that zombie horse go?"
" It's gone!" a little girl yells back. "They say it went into the mountains."
" Okay," Aurora says. "Then that's where I'm going too."
She hurries home and gets some food without her mother and father noticing her. Then she runs into the open, wanting to find her own horse and the one she cursed.
She walks for hours. The sun is slowly setting, and the town is in sight, but it's a long walk from the point where she is at. Aurora burns out. She looks at the valley which she left. Thoughts of anger, regret, and hope gone through her mind. It dawns on her that the battle has intensified into something that is being overplayed.
It has to stop.
Chapter 6: The Last Time They Fight
Amelia's journey is a long one as well. She realizes that when she sees the sun hide behind the mountains on the others side of the valley. It's getting dark, and it is beginning to rain. Within minutes, her clothes are soaking wet.
" Great," she grumbles. "If only I had my hairbrush now. Ughh ... I hate the rain."
Nonetheless, she keeps pushing forward. She continues to walk uphill till she sees a shade in the distance.
" Huh? Another person? Up here? That's odd."
After she says it, she hides behind a huge rock. She waits and looks, trying to discover the identity of the better half. The mists and damps originating from the ground disguise the said person.
Then it ends up being clear.
She sees who it is.
Fuming with rage, Amelia jumps away from her hiding place. "Aurora," she says in a low but determined voice. "It's you! I could have known. It was your idea the whole time, wasn't it? You turned my horse into a zombie horse, didn't you?"
" Err ... yes, I did," Aurora replies, "but now I am looking for it."
" Ha! That's the least you should do, you, witch!"
" Take that back. I am not a witch."
" Oh, you're not a witch? Then what do you call cursing an innocent horse and turning it into a zombie? You are pure evil, Aurora, and you know it."
Braaaaoooom! Brom! Brom!
The thunder in the distance is loud and lightning flashes enhance the significant feel of the situation as the two girls look one another in the eyes and yell allegations at each other. The air is covered in a thick fog, and the rain magnifies.
" It's all your fault anyway!" Aurora says, defending herself. "If you would have just let me use your hairbrush, I would not have stolen it."
" Oh, so now you're justifying that too? Wow. You're so innocent ... and loaded with yourself."
" Do not give me that. You're not so good yourself. Why did you have to be all over the one man I like, huh? You knew I liked him, and after that you just toss yourself into his arms in front of everybody. Let me ask you this, Amelia. Do you even like Axel?"
" Obviously not! I just did it to get back at you. Axel is a loser!"
" How dare you? Take this, you, tramp!" With those words, Aurora jumps to Amelia's waste and pins her to the ground. When she has her there, she starts to beat Amelia up, who holds her hands in front of her face and kicks Aurora off.
" You think you're better than me?" Amelia asks. "I'll show you how to put up a fight!"
She pushes Aurora over, who slips and falls with her face into the mud.
Amelia pulls her head up by grabbing her hair and is going to pound her hard, but then Aurora says something she didn't expect.
" P-please, Amelia. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please ... let's stop this rubbish."
Amelia's facial expression changes. As she checks out Aurora's eyes, all she sees is the best friend she really missed so much during their outrageous argument. A tear appears in her eye, and Aurora stays up. "I'm sorry," she reiterates. "I was jealous of your perfect hair. I just wanted to be more like you. I appreciate you. And yes, I have practiced more magic, but what do you think I try to compensate for? And are you jealous of the fact that I got my horse totally free? Do you think I am proud of myself? You are the one who worked long and hard to pay for your own horse. I do not think I could ever do that. You're my heroine, Amelia. Whenever I am with you, I try to compete as you're so proficient at so many things. That's the truth."
Amelia looks at her, with the rain still pouring down on their faces. "Do you mean all that?" the older girl asks her friend.
" Obviously. You help me find a purpose in life. You have actually always been a motivation to me."
It touches her, and without hesitation, Amelia gives her more youthful good friend a hug. They accept each other for several seconds. Then she looks Aurora in the eyes and says, "I forgive you. I am sorry too, Aurora. Please forgive me as well."
" We're fine," Aurora says. "I feel terribly guilty for what I've done. I didn't know menstruation would have such a powerful influence."
" Well, let's go find the horses. You do have a spell to reverse the curse, don't you?"
" Yes, I do. I just didn't use it at the time I saw the zombie horse, as I was so scared."
They stand up and brush themselves off. When they see how pointless this is, since they are both covered in dirty mud, they begin to laug
h. Their friendship has been restored. Now all they need to do, is find those two animals.
Chapter 7: Friends Forever and Ever
Before they go any further, the two friends hide under a tree. They speak about hair, about Axel, about the weather, and the destruction in the village. They are friends again, never to be separated by anything.
When the rain is gone, they continue on their journey.
" Do you want a treat?" Aurora asks.
" Naturally. I am starving," Amelia says.
Aurora reaches inside her bag and finds two sandwiches. She gives one to Amelia and starts chewing on one herself. They walk up the mountain and have a look at the foggy view.
" Hey, what's that?" Aurora all of a sudden asks.
" That appears like 2 horses," Amelia says. "Let's go check it out."
As they approach the two shades in the distance, they begin to see something odd: The 2 horses are peacefully eating grass, standing beside each other.
" We found them!" Aurora yells joyfully.
" Isn't my horse supposed to be aggressive?" Amelia asks.
" Well, at first, it attacked my horse. But now, they have become friends." She looks at Amelia and adds, "Just like us. Ha-ha!"
But the zombie horse is still not as it used to be, so Aurora raises her arms and hands and says, "Zombie, zombie, change your fur; change back to the way you were."
The magic works. Within seconds, the zombie horse turns back into a routine horse, smelling and looking better and more alive.
" It worked!" Amelia exclaims. "Thank you, Aurora!"
She gives her horse a hug and says, "I am happy that you are back, Autumn. Say, Aurora, isn't she looking great?"
" She looks terrific. Oh yes, and I almost forgot ..."
Aurora puts her hand in her backpack and takes out the pink hairbrush, the thing that started all of it.
" You brought it here? Why?"
" I do not know," Aurora admits. "Maybe it reminded me of you. Anyway, here it is. I am giving it back to you. My hair is so muddy and messy that even this brush won't do any good."
" You're right," Amelia says laughingly. "It probably takes more than a magic brush to make us look good again. But since we have it here ... have you ever seen it being used on a horse?"
" No, I didn't think about that," Aurora says. "Can we brush the horses?"
" Yes, we can. And after we're done, we'll ride home together."
" That sounds like a great idea," Aurora agrees.
THE END
Zombies Will Die
Chapter 1: What I Do
My name is Titus, and I am a zombie hunter.
I've been doing it for years.
And I don't care about anything else.
This is the life that I am familiar with. I wait, I kill, and I get paid. I protect the residents of this great country against the spontaneous invasions of the undead. You never know where they are going to appear, and you never know how many of them there will be.
I don't know what turns people into zombies; I actually don't. That's not my field. Scientists and laboratory guys have been interested by this their whole lives. To each his own, right? If they want to sit in a laboratory throughout the day, then that's their decision.
Not me though. I make sure those disliked derelicts stay in the status they should be in: Dead.
How do I do it, you ask?
Oh, I got my techniques. I slice them, shoot them, chop them, stab them ... it's an art and a profession of decision and anticipation. You need to fast. Some of those zombies were probably warriors themselves before they became the unclean monsters they are today, and so their alertness and fight skills are remarkable ... well ... for a zombie.
I use different weapons. I don't like to stay with one specific favorite. Differentiating makes a difference. It keeps the job fascinating and it challenges me to improve and expand my expertise. Let's go through the list, shall we? I have pickaxes, swords, fight axes, shovels (to bang them on the head), knives, bows and arrows, and maces. Okay, all right, I don't use them all the exact same amount of time, and I think I primarily end up with a sword and a few knives, if nothing else, but you get the point. My home is a weapon room, and I really love it.
I was never good with emotions. It used to bug me when kids sobbed all the time. I've learned to be difficult in life. My parents were still together, but they were hard on me. I learned to just deal with issues, not to whine about it and sympathize with myself. I think that's why I chose the profession that I did. People who are too delicate or wimpy, don't take this job. They know that somehow, one day, they will see a zombie that has way too much of a resemblance to somebody they know, and after that they think twice.
I never hesitate.
Never.
When a zombie comes running to me, I go for the kill. I don't question. I do not fluctuate. I know what has to be done, and I am more than willing to do it.
So now you know a little something about me. I am single, and I wish to stay that way. I am young, and I just want to get some money. Eliminating zombies is an exceptional way to do that. Can you guess how much the city or town mayors are willing to pay me to eliminate the zombies that assault their towns? Do not even think you can guess. Let's just stop talking about it. Suffice it to say that I make a decent living. It's incredible.
Awesome is exactly what I want to be. It's what I always desired become, nothing less. And being incredible is something you can't do by talking or making claims. Talk is inexpensive. Taking action is the only way to enhance yourself, and that's what I have been doing my whole life.
Now, are you all set for an amazing story? A story where I faced one of my biggest difficulties? Brace yourself. Here it goes ...
Chapter 2: The Hardest Kill I've Ever Made
You may expect a heroic narrative of epic battles and fast, action-packed scenes when I tell you that I want to share with you the most difficult kill I have ever made. You might expect a monstrous, gigantic zombie who was unbreakable and 3 times the size of the others, but it wasn't. My toughest kill wasn't such a really tough persona. It was tough for me because, for the last time, I had a hard time with my decision to do the right thing.
Why? My emotions got in the way. It was actually type of terrible. If you can't stand a little sadness or suffering, then stop reading at this point, because this is an unfortunate story. Remember how much I dislike sobbing? So toughen up and let it go. Things happen, and happy endings are practical, but they can be disrupted by the occasional misfortunate occurrence.
It was one of my buddies ... well, he was kind of annoying, but he still didn't deserve to die. He was the kind of man that would burp loudly in public and hit on the ladies with only a disgusted reaction awaiting him. No, he wasn't a nice dude. He was a jerk. But for some reason, we got along rather well. And no, he didn't be worthy of to die, especially not the way he did.
It was on a Friday. Both he and I had been in the pub for a few hours, and we were just joking around. I came to learn that he was a skeleton hunter, and that his regular is visiting to the Underworld matched my trips to distant towns to solve the zombie problems there. I remember it so clearly.
At a certain point, he said, "Titus, with your job, you can't try to link to others way too much. It will kill you mentally."
" What do you mean?" I asked.
" I mean that sometimes, you'll need to choose between what's right and what's simple. You cannot save everyone. You understand that, don't you?"
" I didn't expect you to be so serious," I said. "You are always offending people with your indecent jokes. Why are you lecturing me?"
" Look," he said, "I am not happy. I am waiting on that glorious moment when I can be released from the catastrophes of this life. The afterlife is waiting on me. Do you know why I do what I do?"
" I don't have the tiniest idea, so inform me," I said.
" My partner got killed by a skeleton. Do not worry ... no kids were left, but I can't tell
you how much anger I am still holding within me towards those creatures. The best way I knew how to handle it, was to begin eliminating them for a living. I have been to the Underworld, a hellish, infernal place, and I have saved several people from being gotten rid of by the same fate, but often, I am too late."
" That must be hard."
" Are you listening to me ?!" he asked, as he got my shoulders and shook me a little. "It will happen to you. You need to live with the disappointment. You cannot let yourself go soft, pal."
" Okay, I get it. I will keep it in mind," I said.
After that, we didn't speak another word. I felt for him. I knew he had wanted to die so many times, but that he survived to protect others, an honorable thing to do.
But then it took place ...
It took place so quickly that I still remember the astonishment and the rush I felt. Zombies were assaulting the village. Oh, and by the way, did I mention that there were only about 30 people in that town? Yes, it was more like a fork in the road than an actual village, more like a hamlet.
Anyway, as always, I carried around a number of weapons. I had a knife in my pocket and a pickaxe on my back. I never go anywhere without something to defend myself with, and this day was no different. And that night, I made sure to use them, as when the zombies assaulted, I had no time at all to run home.
They stormed in.
" Wraaaaah!”
The ones in the bar were first, and I heard people shout and shout from the houses in that little hamlet. I drew my pickaxe from my back and held it in front of me. I looked at my friend, the skeleton slayer. He already had a sword ready and had killed a number of zombies before I could even blink my eyes. What a tough guy!
" Come and get it, zombies!" I screamed, and I took a step forward, cutting one of them in half.
" Great to see us working together," my friend said. "I'll tell you what: You secure the male zombies and I'll secure the female zombies. It seems like you care a bit more about who you kill anyway."
Anthology of Horror Stories Page 18