Chapter One
Aria:
“Are you sure they won’t mind?” Felicia’s maple syrup voice fell on my ears just like a feather scuds in the hollow wind. I pirouetted on my toes to face her and found her slumped on the bean bag, her bracelets dangling like wind chimes from her wrists, a magazine crumpled in her hands.
“Who?” I asked, throwing my arms up in air in confusion. Felicia seemed smug as she got up from her position on the bean bag and burrowed her hands deep into her jeans’ pockets. Before replying, though, she shrugged.
“I don’t know. You tell me? Would the zombies of the people owning this house like if they found you gallivanting with their wardrobes on?”
I felt my flesh quiver at the very mention of ‘zombies’ and I clapped my mouth shut, my stomach rolling sick with fear. It was a good minute before I could find back my voice.
“It’s not they, but just Mrs. Jenkins. But hey thanks, Felicia, for reminding me ‘bout the zombies,” I said bitterly. Felicia curtseyed funnily as if to say ‘mention not’. I wanted to smash her face, but then it would only hurt me, so there was no point in it.
I knew what she was up to. She believed she could pull me away from the abysmal truth that kept haunting me every second of the day and twist it into a mere joke, make me face it. But despite her lovely efforts, it was a truth that lingered at the back of my brain like a waspish mosquito intruding on its prey’s nose. It was another thing entirely that by now I had found a suitably perfect façade to veil my real thoughts. But Felicia was a tough nut to crack, and she could see right through my mind.
I returned to admiring myself in the full-length mirror, when I saw Felicia’s eyebrows curved into a thick tuft of hair as she raked me from the screen.
“What?” I let out a shaky nervous laughter feeling exactly like being paraded naked through the streets. The reason I had decided to get dressed up was to, even if for an hour, be in the lap of safety and feel the intense heat of mortal lives seep through my body.
“Nothin’. But honestly, what makes you like such ancient costumes? I mean even those old ladies didn’t love wearing them back then, so why do you?” I sensed little vexation in her voice as she threw down the magazine she had been reading. It landed with a soft thud on the couch and opened up to one of the sparkly pink pages. Even from a distance I could make out the almost bare body of a model, covered with only thin strips of clothes. I averted my gaze from it to Felicia who had found another piece of fantasy to be obsessed on.
While I watched her, she took out a cell phone from her pocket and with a flip opened to its screen. She mashed her lips under the pressure of her teeth as her eyes browsed the screen.
“No signal, yet?” I asked nervously, as if the answer could wither my heart.
“Nah, no luck.” She parted her lips slightly and with a mere shake of her head further continued, “The Internet seems to work but not the mobiles.” She clapped shut the phone and thrust it down her pocket. She was definitely annoyed, if not scared, like I was.
I turned around again to face the mirror. I couldn’t let these talks ruin my dress-up-game, which really existed to keep me away from these talks.
The loose folds that had formed themselves near the waistband of my dress were really annoying, so I went ahead and straightened them out. The cerulean Victorian ball gown imitation I was wearing had an iridescent upper half, with a low neckline ending up right where it should, without revealing much. The flair of the gown bloomed up and the folds in it stretched out like long branches of the trees, spreading all around me like a thick cushion of cotton. I loved the way wearing it made me look like some gangly model. Not that almost bare one, though.
“God, you look like a walking monster.” Felicia laughed dryly, slouching down on the bean bag again. From the corner of the mirror, I saw her face landing on her palms. As seconds passed, her disgust from looking at me was actually blooming in intensity. I didn’t really get the reason for her getting so melodramatic.
“At least I just look like one. It’s a lot better than actually being one,” I retorted. I couldn’t understand Felicia’s problem; was she really determined to pull me away from the track of normalcy that she didn’t recognize my efforts of trying to lead a normal life, or she was just insane?
I saw Felicia’s face almost drop the moment I had finished and she reclined back, folding her hands on her lap. As soon as the reply had been formulated on my tongue, I felt a twinge of guilt. I shouldn’t have crossed that territory. To think that was one thing, but to speak it out brazenly was a different matter altogether.
“It’s not like I had a choice.” Felicia’s face twisted into a mask of agony. I stopped doing whatever I was with the dress, and with a heavy sigh, walked towards her. Though I didn’t forget to notice how the high heels created the clip-clap sound or how my dress’s fall plopped up and down in grace with each of my steps. My lovely distraction.
Bending down on my knees, I stroked Felicia’s hair. Gosh, what shampoo is she using? The one with just a fragrance and no nutrients? Then the realization hit me; of course, she was a vampire and it was natural for them to have straggly hair that looked more like an undergrowth of a Tropical forest than anything else. Of course.
“Sorry, Felicia!” I apologized, untangling my fingers from her hair. Her face was bent down, and the thick veil of her hair covered it from my view.
“It’s fine.” Felicia said heavily, her face resembling a piece of smashed potato as she lifted it up and finger combed her hair towards the back.
I smiled a weak smile and soon started scanning her face diligently. She was not like any fictional vampire they bragged about. Her features weren’t porcelain, and neither did her skin shine of fluorescent bulbs. In my opinion, her skin tone was like a normal white American’s. Although I had to admire the way her eyes had turned out after Transformation, they seldom changed colours for a vampire, but when they did, it was enough to send a ghost into its grave. They were unlike any other set of eyes I had ever seen and in that context I could not agree more with Stephenie or L.J. James.
“By the way, was Mrs. Jenkins a walking clown?” Felicia remarked light heartedly, as she stroked the ends of the ribbon tied around my waist. I felt glad she had actually forgiven me for real. Puzzled, I looked down at the emerald ribbon and then made a mocking hurt face. “I mean ribbons? For real?”
“It’s fashion. You won’t get it,” I teased her. Just then Felicia bursted into a giggly laughter and I couldn’t help but join her on this laugh riot. But right then something clouded over me.
“Felicia, Mrs. Jenkins can’t be ‘was’. She’s not dead,” I pushed words out of my mouth. “You know, right?” I smiled expectantly.
“Of course she is not dead, just a zombie. It’s a lot different,” Felicia said as a matter-of-fact. My mood clouded over further.
“Mrs. Jenkins was my mom’s best friend,” I said through my clenched teeth.
Felicia’s face turned taut, and with that she looked me in the eye. Her eyes were grim, like two discs of copper black, with a tiny iris hiding behind both of them. If her eyes were changing colours, that meant danger.
“Look, Aria, I know it’s tough. But the truth is that the whole town is wiped off,” she began. She pushed me lightly so I was farther away from the couch and she knelt into my position, holding my shoulder blades strongly in her metal tough hands. I shook my head. Her eyes turned solemn, a streak of vibrant red liquid running to surround her iris.
“Aria, you’ll have to understand. The only people with senses are you and me. The whole town is clad with zombies. And then I’m a vampire. So if you ask me, you’re the only human being. Mrs. Jenkins was from the town, wasn’t she?”
Reluctantly, I forced my head into a nod even as tears welled up in my eyes. My vision started getting blurred, and my heart itself plundered into my stomach. I knew where Felicia was headed.
“So, she’s a zombie, too.” Felicia completed. “She’s probably waltzing in the streets, tearing down houses, and hunting for prey.” My heart twisted with pain not merely at the fact but more at the easiness with which Felicia announced it. Callous, dark, and cold. Just like a typical fictional vampire.
But I knew she was right; I knew even before that. I had known it all along from the last three days, seventeen hours. Before that, everything had been normal, just the kind of normalcy you’d find in Forksville. But knowing was one thing, and getting my mind to register and act accordingly to this was a task altogether. Like my sappy little town could be ravaged by the ruthless attacks of these zombies?
The spring fresh memory from the previous night roused in my mind like the ripples formed when a kid throws a stone in a lake. The thin match-stick figures, all painted up in sick daunting shades of brown had been walking towards us like automatons, their eyes plugged with nothing but a void. A hurtful, big void. As if there was nothing in them, just a deep black abyss to which there seemed no end.
Aria, they’re after you, not me. They can smell your blood. Felicia’s voice again to rang in my ears, and I could feel my breathing constricting in my present.
Shaking myself out of that ghastly memory, I looked Felicia in the eye. Her eyes were brimming with concern for me. She could manage this situation, and in comparison to her, probably these giants were nothing. Her powers, her strengths could outnumber whole of the zombies in Forksville. It was another thing that she didn’t really ever talk about trying that out. I wondered why.
“What we do now?” I questioned Felicia, to which her lips curved into a thin smile, tipping downwards.
I loathed the idea of leaving the warmth and protection of this house; Mrs. Jenkin’s house. I had spent a good part of my childhood here, parading with Tiffany, their daughter, in her mother’s Gothic Halloween costumes' collection. And somehow being here sent a flushing sensation of relief down my body, like a frisson charging its way. So it really didn’t come as a surprise that I was reluctant to leaving this place.
When Felicia and I had forced ourselves in by cracking down the windows, I had a definite belief that it was going to end. That this was just a funny trick, which though wasn’t funny, had been pulled by our friends. I mean, I’m no Emma Stone, and this is no Zombieland. So why these tortures were were lain down at me? A normal mortal human!
I knew if I tried hard enough, I’d find Mrs. Jenkins hiding inside a room we had never really thought existed and when we she’d see us, her plump arms would coil around me and she would peck us with relief and love. Then she’d turtle down and retreat into her kitchen and an hour later surprise me with her chocolate pies.
“Aria, I’ll think of something. Till then, go try on another dress.” Felicia laughed wryly as she shot upwards and walked towards the dining table.
But I just sat there, dumbstruck. Those pools of eyes…red, ruthless, and senseless…
For the time, I forced my attention on Felicia. She was walking towards the kitchen, which was exactly opposite to where I sat. Her tight jeans folded at each of her curves as she walked, and her pencil heels grated against the floor. My trepidations aside, I almost watched in awe the creature she had been transformed into; an object of grace. She wasn’t really pretty, and if to be real precise, my looks faded hers. But the gait she had acquired, the cat-like eyes hers had become could really outshine mine.
“Don’t worry, I’d be back soon,” I heard her voice fade as she walked into the kitchen.
Nervously, I replied, “Hmm, I won’t.”
I don’t really remember when she had started flocking out of our clique. I don’t really know why she had left us. But just the fact that she had found a piece to dote on, namely Michael, could very well be the reason. That nerd-who-in-actual-was-a-vampire. He had…
“Aria, you’re still sitting here?” Felicia’s voice burst my thought bubble and moments later her hands were circling my arms as she tried to hoist me up. I politely resisted, and just kept sitting
“Don’t fret. We’ll find a way out. Would you like some coffee?” Felicia pouted her deep red plush lips due to which I noticed an animated twinkle in her coal-black eyes.
She pushed forward a brewing cup of coffee, which suddenly sent aromatic wafts across the room. I must have been really trapped in the miserable circuit of my thoughts to have missed that aroma. But I wondered how she had got the coffee ready for me so quick, but I left that for some other time.
I carefully took the cup in my hands. I changed my position to the front of the couch so that it bolstered my back with its softness, and then carefully folded the sleeves of the gown. I really didn’t want the zombie of Mrs. Jenkins to blame me for being irresponsible with her clothes. With the couch padding my back, I took in a sip from the mug.
Felicia settled down on the floor opposite me. Her eyes were smoldering with thick orange flames. But a fraction of second later, she composed herself and I saw the same humour crinkling in her eyes again.
“What would you wear next?” she asked, looking for once, interested.
“Felicia, I actually ain’t planning that,” I slowly replied, as I took another of sip of the burning liquid. “And for the record, this coffee is irritably high on caffeine.”
“What?” Felicia made a disgusting face and questioned me. She started looking at the cup foolishly as if that hid any of her answers.
“I mean, no sugar, girl?” I explained stressing more on the word ‘sugar’. I’d definitely need more of the sugar if I am to continue loping in the streets without getting any sleep. She punched me lightly on the arm.
“Should’ve told you were interested in candies. Would’ve brought you some of those instead,” she replied complacently.
“You never really asked,” I shrugged.
“Look, Aria.” She began reluctantly. I looked up at her to find her eyes turning to those orange flames again. A deep pain burned at the back of my throat by merely looking at her.
When I didn’t reply, Felicia took the liberty to continue with her point. “I’m starving, and I think I should feed.”
I felt my voice turn low in its frequency. “Feed? But where?”
“I think it’s necessary I eat, or else you could…We’ll go to the forest.” Her face brightened up at the second line as if she had just cracked the world’s funniest joke.
“Now?” I asked, perplexed.
“Sooner the better. I don’t wanna take any risk,” Felicia spoke quietly.
The very thought of stepping out of this house was disturbing. I couldn’t convince myself to face those demons, which definitely was going to happen if I were to leave this house. Besides, it wasn’t an attractive option to go out in deathly darkness into the bushes where dreadful animals lurked.
I caught Felicia looking at my neck and then my arms. I shifted lightly in my place, my eyes now looking down.
“What do you think?” Felicia asked again.
“The forest?”
“But even staying here won’t do you good. I can’t…control myself that well. I would’ve vouched for going alone but leaving you here doesn’t fit well with me. I’ll take care of you. You won’t be harmed, ‘kay?”
***
Felicia:
Alright, I won’t lie. I was damned. I was worried, but not for myself, but for Aria.
See, she wasn’t the best of all when it came to displaying gallantry, and knowing very well from some dreadful past experiences I knew she was not taking this all too well.
Besides that, I was losing control. Watching her veins throb under the snow white sheet skins of her made my stomach do somersaults. I couldn’t help clench my teeth, no, fangs. The fragrance her blood contained was magnificent, just the perfect mix. Not too salty, and not too sugary. And then the flesh…
“I’d do some research and make sure you’d be safe and shielded from these monsters,” I said. I almost laughed at the mention of the word ‘monsters’ for I myself qualified for one.
“I don’t know,” Aria replied. Although she had been trying her best to avoid the situation, to shift her mind towards considering everything normal, she was sucking at it. And I couldn’t let her play games with her mind and that’s why, whenever possible, I tried to push her towards the truth. Though I tried to mix humour with it.
“Take my word for it, and go on try more clothes,” I said affably.
***
Good thing the net was still working. I couldn’t imagine zombies munching down on those lifeless Internet cables wired across the town and spitting them in the gardens.
I was sitting in the study of Mrs. Jenkin’s house, searching for tips or accounts from other people on how to tackle zombies. Aria wasn’t ready to go anywhere, and I was certain that I’d soon go berserk with hunger and attack her. So going to the forest was a must and so was taking Aria along with me. So, I somehow convinced her that I had read an article on how to kill or shield humans from zombies (in my dreams) and that I could read it again if she liked. That way she’d be safe.
I remember her being unsure of it at first, but then, after probably weighing her options, she had reluctantly agreed. It was this or confinement in this house forever. Although I doubted she really resented the latter option, as long as she got to play dress up and feed on cream muffins. It wasn’t like we had a way out of this place-the phone lines were jammed, the Facebook didn’t open and my e-mail server just didn’t agree to give away access. It was like somebody had purposefully trapped us in such a place; somebody who didn’t want us to inform people from other towns of this catastrophe.
The Internet was loaded with a glut of information about the zombies, and for the first time I regretted not applying for ‘Picture memory’ at the Vampire Learning Uni. It was a kind of power you got, which you could use to register any walking, readable memory in your brains forever. If I had that, I wouldn’t have to waste time reading this whole stuff. It would just be printed in my memory forever.
Just then I sensed tremulous, frantic voices nettling my ears. As the voices grew in frequency, the hollow space inside my ribs intensified. I bolted upright, scanning the room until I was sure I was the only one whose breathes pumped in the air.
I had been sitting in the study, a small stuffed room, full of wrecked bulbs. I’m definitely positive I had seen a crack in one of the bulbs. Out of the four walls, the three were papered with a mellow shade of cherry red and on the remaining one was a wallpaper of cheap floral designs. On my right stood a plain looking mahogany rack in which books ran from top to the bottom. All in all, the room did little to impress.
Once I made sure the voice wasn’t coming from within the room, I padded towards the window. Pulling the curtains, and prising open the window, I peeped outside with my eyes wide until I heard my breath explode with shock. Down, on the road, was a mob of mutinous zombies. Looking at those hideous creatures, my thoughts instantly ran for Aria. Where was she? She had been alone. God, how could I be such a twit to have left her alone?
As my thoughts kept circling my mind like first threats of hurricanes, I snapped my attention back on the group. One of them was holding a fire torch, from where burnt the luminous flame of destruction, powered with a hungry desire for immortality. Towards the right of that zombie stood another whose hands held a burning flag. Or what I thought had been a flag. To darken the atmosphere, out of their mouths voices came so chilly, sounds so disturbing in nature that even a vampire like me juddered.
As for the rest of them, they gamboled on the streets mindlessly, mechanically turning their heads. One thing which remained common in all of them was the vividly shocking shade of blood licking the edges of their wardrobes. It made my stomach lurch with hunger.
I gazed at the conflagration dumbly, my eyes tracing the pattern of the orange flames and noticing how it interspersed with the yellow ones. It was almost magical, though heart wrenching.
I backed away and shouted Aria’s name. She had been scouring for other historic costumes in the attic and had promised to keep herself safe. Meanwhile, I had taken upon the task of working on the internet and find a cure for these attacks, or some solution to our escape.
But now, with these zombies so near the house, I couldn’t have Aria loitering around, trying on some ridiculous stuff, even if I had been the one suggesting that to her.
I advanced for door when a tilted piece of mirror kept on the floor and stacked between the computer table and couch caught my eye. Catching my glimpse in it, I almost shivered.
My hair was tied in a messy bunch of straw thick strands with dirt dark as chocolate between them. My stilettos (yeah I’m a bimbo to have worn such stuff) were soaked up in mud from running and their heels had turned angular and I knew it could anytime give away. I crossed the sitting space and went out of the study, repeatedly calling out for Aria.
But there was not a voice besides mine that stirred in the air, and which made me mad with worry.
What if…?
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