We crossed the street and ended up in the opposite alley. I saw her before I realized what I was looking at. There, behind a dumpster, was a pair of legs that I could have sworn just twitched. By the time we got to her she was trying to stand up. There was a gaping hole in her neck where she had been attacked. She looked at me, in much the same way the other zombie had, as if I were the most delectable steak waiting to be carved into. I really didn't like that look. I immediately tried to give her a command, before she could attempt to eat me. "You are not to hurt me." I said, but she continued to look at me as though I was her next meal. "Come stand over here." She moved to take up a position where I had pointed. A little bit of the tension fell from my shoulders as she listened. Then I remembered that she wasn't the only one. I noticed that the zombie-bum was sniffing the air. He was already walking again, down the alley further. We walked back behind the shops that lined Broadway. There in the back alleys of Baltimore was a miniature tent city. My heart broke, seeing how these people had been living. Some lived this way by choice, others out of sheer necessity. Either way, it was just as painful to see for an outsider looking in. The sight became so much worse when I realized what I was really seeing. There were five people sitting around the campsite, which consisted of a shopping cart full of supplies and a few cardboard boxes. Only, the people weren't living anymore. They must have been the first meal my zombie-bum had. One right after another.
"Is this all of them?" I asked the zombie-bum, hoping he could communicate the way Adrianna had. I was mistaken though. These bums definitely were unable to communicate on any intelligent level. I did manage to get a head nod out of him. I would have to take him at his word, or lack thereof. I asked each of the other bums in turn if they had any victims we should know about. They all just stared at me, lifeless nothingness reflecting back at me from their eyes. I took a good look at each one of them, and while they were all filthy, I couldn't see the tell-tale blood staining them anywhere, outside of their own wounds.
"All of you must follow me. You will harm no one." I began walking away, winding my way back to the Bohemian Cemetery. Stephen stayed behind the zombies so he could shout out a warning if something went wrong. I wondered how I must look to other people, if they had been paying attention. Here I was, a sixteen year old girl, playing pied-piper to seven zombie-bums. I was leading them to their end, or perhaps to their salvation. Sadly, each one of their lives, the loss of them, landed squarely on my shoulders. It was my fault that they had all died. I stumbled a little with that thought and Stephen called up to me.
"Seraphine, are you okay?"
I managed to choke out a yes as I wiped the tears from my eyes. I couldn't get them to stop falling, despite my many attempts. It was all just a little too much for me to fathom in that moment. After what seemed like forever, we managed to make our way to the cemetery. I took them all over to the place just beyond the other graves where we had first seen the bum laying there lifeless. I figured it was the closest I was going to get to a grave for him, and I couldn't very well disturb the concrete ground in the city, so this would have to do for the rest of them as well. I sat them all in a circle facing inwards, looking at one another. Then I walked the circle behind them, making my salt line of protection. It was unfortunate that I had to be inside the circle with the zombies. I was more than a little scared by the prospect that if anything were to go wrong I was in the middle of seven, very hungry, walking dead. A shiver stole over me.
"Are you okay? Are you sure you can do this?" Stephen wasn't purposely trying to deflate my confidence, but he managed to diminish it just a bit anyway.
"I'm okay." I looked around at the dead and went back to work. With the protective circle in place I took out the other implements I needed from my backpack. A pewter bowl, some herbs, bones, and my knife. I followed the same ritual I had used to put Adrianna back in the ground. I sprinkled the herb powder and a bit of my blood on each of them. I spoke the words that would send them into the ground, felt it rumble under my feet, and watched as those bodies were absorbed into the earth around them. In the end I spilled the ash in a circle around their new grave site to seal their bones in.
I walked out of the circle when I was done and went to stand near Stephen. The tears were back again. "They are my fault. Every one of them, they are dead because of me." I shook with the onslaught of wracking sobs that began to hammer through me. For his part, Stephen looked for all the world as though he wished he could throw his arms around me. I wanted that more than anything, but it couldn't happen.
"I'm sorry, Seraphine." He spoke in a gentle voice that was nearly a whisper. "I know this is hard for you, but look." He nodded back towards the circle where I had just laid the dead back down to rest. There was a ring of purple flowers sprouting inside the salt ring I had put down. A small smile escaped me as I saw that. "You didn't mean for this to happen. I think whatever is out there beyond this life, those people who were infected, they all know it wasn't your intent to harm anyone. I know it wasn't what you wanted. I can't hug you and make everything better, but I am here to talk when you need me."
As if I hadn't cried enough already, Stephen's words filled me up with so many things, the guilt I already held, the acceptance for what had already been done, the hope that I had a great friend in him, and the sadness that settled in with the knowledge that my only friend here was dead and incapable of so much as a hug. It made matters so much worse because my feelings for Stephen were a little more than just friendly. Now that there was zero chance that I could ever act on those feelings, I was kicking myself internally for not noticing him while he was still alive. We had been in the same French class and I hadn't even noticed.
Stephen and I walked back to my house in silence. I think he understood that there was a lot going on in my head and he didn't bother trying to interrupt. As we got closer to the house I remembered to call Auntie Perrine and let her know how things turned out.
I hung up the phone as we got to the house. "I guess we need to talk about everything huh?"
Stephen shrugged, as he always did. "Maybe we do, but not today. You have got to be tired after all that and you never stopped to eat, so I think you need to take care of you, get some food and rest and then we'll talk."
I nodded in agreement and went inside. Before doing anything else, I turned the power on my phone off and stuck it in a drawer in the kitchen as my Auntie Perrine had suggested earlier. Then I rummage around in the fridge looking for something to eat. Nothing really appealed to me so I just picked an apple up off the counter and began eating it without much thought to the juices that now dripped down my chin. I thought of how I must look a little like that zombie with the blood dripping down his own chin. My appetite was gone from there. I tossed the rest of the apple in the trash, wiped my face at the kitchen sink, and thought about Stephen as I made my way to my bedroom and fell into my bed. I imagined Stephen outside all alone and wondered where he went when he wasn't with me. It was the last thing to cross my mind before I fell into a deep, much needed sleep.
***
Things That Go Bump
I watched Seraphine as she slept, hoping that her mom wouldn't come in and find me here. I didn't want to get her into any more trouble than she already was, but I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. She looked so sad today when we said goodbye that I just needed to watch over her and make sure she was okay. If I could stand by and catch her bad dreams for her, then that was what I would do.
It killed me today, not being able to hug her. She needed someone to lean on. She needed another warm body to be able to press against and take strength from. I didn't think her mom could be that person under the circumstances. Seraphine had mentioned that her mom would have just given her an "I told you so" lecture if she had explained what was going on with the zombies.
I watched as Seraphine turned away from me, falling deeper into her sleep as she got comfortable.
I wandered around her room taking in all the different thing
s that made this place uniquely hers. The walls were a cream color that she accented with splashes of color from art work and posters. She had posters up of some of the same bands I listened to when I was alive. All Time Low and Motionless in White were the largest of the posters. The Motionless in White poster had been signed by the band members. I wondered if we had been at the same concert. I also began to think about what things may have been like if I hadn't died and gotten trapped in this in-between existence. What if she had finally noticed me in French class? Maybe we would have been going to those concerts together.
I moved away from the posters and walked towards Seraphine's dresser. 'It's so girly,' I thought to myself. 'Here's a girl that just put seven zombies in the ground and her dresser is white with little pink rose blossoms all around it.'
I looked at all the pictures she had adorning her mirror and wondered who the people were. It seems that in Seraphine's other life she had been popular. No wonder she was always so sad and distant in school. She came to a town where the kids all grew up together and knew one another. She was the outsider. Now, I was beginning to see why she had never noticed me. I thought back to all those classes where she kept her head down and in her book. I remember the girls in class giving her the eye, and not really speaking to her. I think they were probably threatened by Seraphine's natural creole beauty. She had that exotic look to her that you only get when you mix races together. Her hair was a wild mess of curls, but it suited her. I found a picture of her with a woman that very closely resembled her mother. This woman had the same unruly curls that Seraphine sported, unlike the straightened hair her mother wore. 'It must be her Auntie Perrine,' I thought. And then I looked over and saw a picture of Seraphine with a boy. They were posed together in front of a set of lockers. She was laughing and looking up at him, her hand resting on his chest. He was laughing into the camera with an award winning smile. Jealousy roared up inside of me at the thought of her and this guy together. I had no right to be jealous of anything or anyone and yet, I couldn't help myself. I wanted to be that guy in the picture. I wanted to make her laugh like that. I had my fill of the sad expressions and tears.
I stole another look at Seraphine, sleeping with her mouth slightly open. I thought about what it would be like to kiss that mouth and then I hated myself for it. I would never know because I was a ghost, not even a ghost. I had run into a couple of ghosts since I died and I was something entirely different from them. I was about to go sit back down when my hand happened to hover above a notebook on Seraphine's dresser. It wasn't much to look at, just a spiral bound one subject notebook. It wouldn't have even caught my attention except, something strange happened. As my hand hovered over the book I could see the images of each page in rapid succession. I realized, too late, that I was reading Seraphine's diary. She would kill me if she ever found out. Well, I was already dead, so technically she would only want to kill me.
I wish I could have seen my own face when I got to the part where she wrote that I was cute. I must have had a wicked grin on my face. So, she had noticed. I wanted to read more, but I felt bad at the same time for invading her privacy like this. Instead, I took my hand away so that the images stopped coming. At least I knew she thought I was cute. That was something.
I wandered back over to the chair beside Seraphine's bed and watched as she slept. I was still smiling to myself because I now knew she thought of me as more than just Adrianna's friend. Then I remembered I was dead and she knew that now. I wasn't sure if I had any right to tell her how I felt about her, but that was the one thought that kept rolling through my head. I was too much of a coward to tell her when I was alive. Too much of an imbecile to take advantage of the life that was right there for me to have. Now, I’m sitting here looking at her, so close, but unable to touch her cheek, unable to kiss those lips. I laughed to myself because when I looked at her lips I realized she was drooling. 'Okay, maybe when she's not drooling on herself,' I thought.
I leaned down to kiss her forehead, or get as close to doing that as I could. She shivered so I backed away and whispered to her, "tomorrow, I am going to tell you all about how I used to drool over you in French class. Maybe not actual drool like you have going on there, but I want you to know what I was too afraid to say when I was alive. I can't bear to be a coward in death too."
***
The VooDoo Follies
Part Three: The Unknown
Original Publication Date:
Aug. 23, 2011
I am Seraphine LaLande, voodoo priestess in training, and last week I avoided the zombie apocalypse with my friend's help. Now I just have to figure out what to do about Stephen, his condition, and my growing feelings for him.
Things appeared to be getting back to normal until I ran into my principal at school, literally, and met the new guy. A couple weeks ago I was invisible to everyone, now both the dead and the living were suddenly interested in me...
***
The Quiet Truth
I awoke to chills running along the nape of my neck and that feeling deep down inside that tells you someone's been watching you. Normally, that sort of impression scares me to no end, but I assumed this time that it may have been Stephen looking over me last night. I got up and ready for school quickly so that I could talk things over with Auntie Perrine.
"Auntie, where have you been? I've been trying to call all morning."
"Some of us sleep in, child. Please, tell me you haven't found another zombie running around." Perrine sounded exhausted, and now that I thought about it she probably was. She kept late nights as a voodoo priestess in New Orleans. Even when she had no voodoo clients, she still ran a shop that catered to tourists who thought it best to head to her store in the middle of the night. I had been there many times listening to their drivel about how much more atmosphere a place like my Auntie's shop had after dark.
"Sorry, Auntie." I apologized, meaning it. "I have to talk to you about Stephen. I need to know if there is anything that can be done to help him."
"Help him how? What kind of trouble has your friend gotten himself into?"
"Stephen was in the same car accident as the girl I raised from the dead, only he was stuck in a coma. At least, he was until his parent's pulled the plug on the machines a few days ago. He's stuck here as a spirit, Auntie. He deserves better than that. I just don't know what to do for him."
"Hmmm, you say he was in a coma first?" Auntie Perrine sounded thoughtful, which made me hopeful. "Do you know if he was spirit bound before the plug was pulled or only after?"
"He says he was wondering long before his parents pulled the plug. He was there watching when they did it."
"Your friend sounds like one of the Unknown, my love." Auntie Perrine's voice was even more drained, if that was possible. "I'm not sure I can help you, or your friend. I will have to consult someone else. The Unknown roam this Earth before they die, a very few are pulled over, for reasons unknown to the rest of us, just before death. It's not a true death. The body may continue on, and even if it doesn't, the spirit gets stuck. Seraphine, I will see what I can do, but maybe you want to keep this to yourself for now. Stephen might not be able to hear that he is stuck this way forever."
"Okay, I won’t tell him, yet."
"Seraphine, The Unknown, once they loose their bodies, are bound for eternity, as far as I know. I will check for a remedy of sorts, but I don't want you to get your hopes up. The magic community don't speak of them because they are considered taboo and even feared. Nothing can harm them and they have been known to affect the physical world around them. That is what people fear the most. They may have more power and influence over our world from their realm than many give them credit for."
"Auntie Perrine, I’ve never seen Stephen touch anything, let alone move it. I’m not sure how reliable your sources have been. Can you give me a call when you hear anything?"
"You know I will little one. You better be scooting off to school, before your momma has my hide for keeping you."
"Yeah, Don't worry, my bag's already packed for the daily trip into hell."
"Seraphine!"
"Sorry, love you."
"You too, baby girl."
The worst part of my day is always the part where I have to go to school and drown in the knowledge teachers try to stuff into our wee little brains while all the other kids completely ignore me. For the longest time, I didn't mind being left alone, because I was so bitter about having to move here. Stephen was teaching me something about myself, whether he realized it or not. It was beginning to dawn on me. I missed having a friend I could talk to about things. There's something to be said for a person being there to hear about your zombie raising screw ups, or how your mom and step-dad are conspiring against you. That part of my life had been missing for a long time, since I came to Rosedale. Now that I had it back, I wasn't sure I wanted to loose it. There was a part of me that hoped Auntie Perrine couldn't find a way to put Stephen to rest. He was the only person in the world making me smile these days, and he wasn't even of this world. "What does that say about me?" I asked my own reflection and just stared stupidly back at myself for a minute before my mom yelled to me.
"Seraphine, you are going to be late if you don't get going."
"Because that would be a tragedy!" I yelled back, but then thought better of it and hustled my butt out the door before my momma could have a swat at me.
Stephen was waiting there for me, on the porch, as usual. I couldn't help myself when I stood a little straighter, and smiled instead of frowning. He had to flip his head back to get the hair out of his eyes again, but that smile was melting my insides.
VooDoo Follies Page 5
