We kept on walking slowly for a few minutes, and the zombie was walking in an odd way. I guessed that was what happened after being stuck in the same position for so many years. He led me too the outer wall, but behind the groundskeepers’ shed, so the people on the street couldn’t see us and the crowd we had left behind wouldn’t be able to make out the cold dead flesh on his face. I could have called him ‘it’ but he had a male voice and was probably man on the inside… minus the organs. He took off his hat and turned down his collar, revealing a face just like the rest of his body- cold, grey and dead. He didn’t say anything, so I grasped up some courage and spoke.
“Who are you?” I demanded, trying to sound strong, but failing to sound anything but weak and pathetic.
“You really don’t remember me, do you?”
“What do you think, Sherlock?”
“Last night? You resurrected me from the dead, but I must say, it is easy to see that you are definitely a novice. You even got hit by the lightening!” He ranted away, but I didn’t understand a thing he was talking about, except for the bit about being hit by lightening. I didn’t like him calling me a novice and patronising me.
“But I wasn’t in control, how was I supposed to avoid it?” I shouted.
“Keep your voice down!” Reynald hissed, “I’ll explain what happened. I was in my grave, when suddenly I was ripped out of my coffin, my hand sticking out of the ground. Then you came, and summoned the ‘Bolt of life’, as I like to call it. Unfortunately, you took half of the blast, so I had to climb up one of those poles and zap myself on the mains line! Perhaps the electricity hurt some of your brain cells. But you did get a bit hysterical when you saw me.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he put a hand up to silence me.
“It’s understandable, all of my masters were like this when we first met.” He explained.
“Your…masters?” I asked.
“Let me explain just a little more. I am dead, or to use the popular term, undead. So a necromancer can use my spirit. Now, I have the privilege of being a ‘marked’ zombie. That means that I am the top priority of this graveyard, so if any necromancer comes here, I will be the first one that they bring back. After that, you have the choice of any grave. So I’ve had many masters, most of whom had never even seen an undead, let alone commanded one.”
I was confused by pretty much everything else, but I knew what that meant.
“So…you have to do what I say?” I ask. Reynald nods and I smile devilishly. He wasn’t that scary, once you got used to the flesh, but I didn’t want to go too close to him.
“Okay then, my first command is to…” I thought for a moment, and suddenly saw Ricky over his shoulder, entering the cemetery.
“Hide!” I shouted. Reynald darted at me, and I flinched, but we didn’t collide. I looked behind me but he wasn’t there. I could feel something weird inside, like a ball of energy ready to explode. Ricky heard me and came running over. I smiled weakly at him, worried I might give something away.
“Hey, Logan. I heard you shouting ‘hi’.”
“Hey, Ricky. Why are you here?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant. He grinned.
“The same as you, checking out that tomb. It freaked me out a bit, but I must say, I’m dead curious about those clothes you were wearing.”
I winced at the mention of the word dead, but he didn’t notice, looking over at the tomb.
“By the way, who’re all those people?” He frowned.
“There’s been a grave robbing of the one behind the tomb. Weird thing is, they even took the body.” I explained.
“It must have been those crazy relatives of yours.”
I peered at him quizzically.
“The one with the book, who set us up to coming here. They said it was a surprise party for you.”
“Oh yeah…I never thought to put two and two together. Anyway, no need to waste time, let’s go.” I declared. He nodded and we set off, towards the tomb. I could still feel that weird energy inside.
“Did you have growing pains last night?” Ricky asked me, completely out of the blue.
“No. Why?”
“You’ve grown, definitely.” He stated.
“Really?”
“Mmm-Hmm. I’m positive.”
“Oh.” I replied. Ricky huffed.
“Problem?” I asked.
“Walking’s boring, let’s race!”
“Nah…” I hated running. Ricky was at least good at sports, and Greg could do level sevens in all his subjects. I was awful at both.
“Oh come on. Well, I’m off in three…two…one…go!” He shouted, laughing over his shoulder at me. I groaned and tore off after him, darting between graves, concentrating on not crashing. I was about halfway when I realised that something was wrong. I had caught up with Ricky! He looked as amazed as I did for a moment, before leaning forwards and giving it his all. I copied, and began to take over! I left him behind, whizzing past graves. I got to the tomb and slowed down, remembering where I was. A few seconds later, Ricky caught up and doubled over, breathing heavily.
“How did you do that?” He panted. I wasn’t even out of breath. I frowned, feeling the weird energy inside buzzing when I realised what was happening. It was Reynald! I told him to hide, and he did! He hid inside me, lending me strength. Maybe being the master of a dead man wasn’t that bad. Maybe it could be good.
*
We looked around, just in case the mob saw us and accused us of grave pinching, which was ludicrous but they seemed to be in a frenzy, so… Ricky led the way, and I followed him in, to see the cape and the gauntlets lying there, in the exact same place as before. I looked at Ricky, who was shaking. Why was he so scared?
“Ricky, are you o-”
“I’m gonna be sick.” He mumbled, and darted outside to puke. I looked around.
“Er…you can come out now.” I said to myself. Reynald stepped out of me and I flinched.
“Well done, Logan. You have already learnt how to use my strength. You can also command me to boost your brainpower somewhat. The more undead you use, the stronger you will get. However, your abilities- not to mention lifespan and height- have been boosted by the lightening.”
“Cool…” I said absently, already imagining being the all round brilliant superstar, the one who would run fast enough to put J.C Owens to shame and could put down the intelligence of even Einstein and Marilyn vos Savant.
“But there’s a limit to how many zombies you can take. Some of my masters were too greedy to be great, and absorbed too many souls. They exploded, so be careful. By the way, your friend said that you’d grown. That was probably because of the lightening too. He seemed scared of this place. I suggest you hide the cape and gauntlets from him.”
“What! I can’t take them, they belong to Aage.”
“Not anymore,” Reynald argued, “Since your relatives forced them onto you, they became yours. Do you know what they are?”
I shook my head.
“They are necromancial artefacts, the things that give a necromancer his powers. Without them near, you’re powers could go haywire. You need them.”
“Is necromancial even a word?” I asked, trying to sound normal and cool in the face of all these overwhelming discoveries.
“Not anymore, seeing as the last of the necromancers died 10,000 years ago.”
“Ah.” I answered, only because I couldn’t think of anything smart to say.
“You better get back inside me…er before Ricky came back.” I said.
“Right,” Reynald said, walking into me, but I screwed my eyes shut. I grabbed the cape and gauntlets and took my shoes off, stuffing one gauntlet in each. I thought about how to hide the cape for a moment, before pushing it into my trousers, folding the top into my underwear. It was uncomfortable and wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny, but nobody would look, so I left the tomb and escorted a pasty faced Ricky home.
*
I didn’t feel like letting Reynald loose again. Nothing he said seemed to make much sense to me, so I spent my time mulling everything he said over, unwilling to take on any more information. I decided to go to bed at about 9:30 out of boredom so brushed my teeth and then let him out. He looked around for a moment, and then looked at me.
“Yes, master?”
“I just need to know one more thing. Am I going to be taken back to the cemetery tonight?”
“Definitely, but you may have your choice of grave.”
“Good. Would it be a good idea to let the lightening hit me again?”
“No! Never, ever let it even touch you! It will over load you and destroy you.”
“This job seems to be all about trying not to explode…” I grumbled.
“That isn’t what matters. It’s what you do with your gift that is important. Why don’t you like the idea of being a necromancer? It seems stupid that you would want to stop it. Okay, we look weird and sometimes it takes work but the rewards are extraordinary!”
I thought about it. It seemed perfectly reasonable that I should be over the moon about my ability, but…
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll get used to the weirdness soon…I hope. By the way, will I need the cloak and gloves?”
“They will let you move around freely, unless you try not to go to the cemetery. Anything else?”
“Nope. Thanks, Reynald. You better hide again.” I suggested.
“Okay then, close your eyes.” He advised. I did and soon felt the energy glowing inside. I changed into some warm clothes and the cape and gauntlets before going to sleep.
*
I was having a dream. I knew that it was a dream because everything was foggy and I couldn’t see anything except for some people.
“Who are you guys?” I asked them, but it wasn’t in my voice.
“My name’s Genghis Kahn.” Said one.
“What?” I stared at the blurry shape of a person. I then noticed somebody next to him.
“He said Genghis Kahn, you know, the emperor?” The man said. He was holding a spear and wearing leather armour.
“Well who are you then?”
“My named,” He declared dramatically, “Is Achilles!”
“This doesn’t make sense!” I whined. Suddenly I was in my history classroom and my teacher, Mr Nale, a huge man with a short temper, was writing one the blackboard.
“What are you writing?” I said, but he didn’t hear me.
“I said what are you writing?” I shouted, and he turned around.
“I was writing that you should recognise this as a metaphor for ultimate power!” He roared back, and I noticed Genghis Kahn and Achilles sat patiently on either side of me.
“Should my English teacher by talking about metaphors?” I asked Achilles, who shrugged. I looked back at Mr Nale, but I was now looking at my English teacher, Miss Blue.
“Well what do you think I’m doing, Logan?”
“I dunno.”
“I’m teaching you about metaphors!” She exclaimed. Genghis Kahn shook his head in pity.
“Idiot…”
“What’s idiotic about all this? You can’t talk, you’re dead.”
“How does that make me an idiot?” He snapped.
“That’s beside the point!” I complained.
“You made it the point!”
“I thought the point of this entire dream was to teach me that I can have as much power as I want!” I cried.
“Exactly,” Mrs Blue cut in, “So why are you calling Genghis an idiot?”
“Because he said it to me…”
“Then use a better retort, otherwise you are simply reinforcing the fact that you’re an idiot.”
“Is she allowed to call me an idiot?” I appealed to Achilles, who shrugged again.
“If you are one.”
“And am I?”
“Yes.”
“That’s it, just shut up, shut up all of you!” I stood up, and suddenly they all screamed and fell to the ground, wailing in pain. I knelt down and tried to check Achilles’ pulse, but when I touched him he crumbled into ash.
“What the hell is going on?” I roared at the sky, falling over onto my back. I started yelling with my eyes closed and my hands on my head. I felt myself falling and falling, until suddenly…I woke up. I stretched and climbed out of bed. I let Reynald out and started walking towards the stairs.
“It’s time to go, I can feel it.” I whispered back up the stairs to him.
“Right.” He replied, seeing no point in whispering, probably because everybody else was asleep. I checked that I still had the gauntlets and cape, despite having made certain that I had them before I even went to sleep. I wanted to take a quick detour into the kitchen to look at the time, as if it were significant, like midnight or something, but the same power as the night before inhibited my body, dragging me away.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” I grumbled at it, as if it had ears. Then I had an idea.
“Reynald, what’s the time?” I asked. He hurried backwards as I crossed the lounge towards the front door. As I opened it, he slipped through before I shut it.
“It’s thirteen minutes past one.” He answered.
“Oh.”
We continued in silence along my road, me wondering whom I should resurrect. Perhaps I could search for a relative? But would I really want somebody I was related to following me around? No, not really. I gasped. Who better to teach me how to use my powers than the last true necromancer, Aage!
“Problem, sir?”
“No, a brain wave. And please don’t call me sir, it sounds weird.”
“Sorry. Do you want to share your thought?”
“Yeah. What if I brought back Aage? He could teach me how to-”
“No! You mustn’t!” He cried, “Just my opinion, sir.” He added hastily.
“Why not?” I demanded.
“Would you mind if I explain why later? You would be better off like that, sir.”
“S’pose I’ll take your word for it.” I huffed. I had better be a good reason because I wanted to meet him. It suddenly struck me just how surreal my predicament had become. Here was a zombie out of the blue and I was acting normal, except for that night time visit.
“By the way, is it possible for me to put some kind of spell on somebody to stop death?” I asked.
“You are talking as if that’s a normal question.” Reynald answered.
“It is. In fact, I am certain that you will say no. Another thing, how come you don’t tell me straight away?”
“First of all, no, you cannot prevent death. Secondly, I am unique compared to the other undead, because I am a marked zombie I have a little bit more free will until you command otherwise, just because it is required in order to teach you how to use your power.” He explained.
“Of course. It’s a shame," I sighed, "If I could stop death, I would have used it when my…” I stopped dead in my tracks. Reynald cried out in shock.
“You can’t stop, that’s impossible! You have to go to the graveyard!” He shouted.
“I am.” I smiled at him, “But a different one.”
He cocked his head in obvious confusion.
“Get inside me, I’ll show you.” I commanded, still beaming. He obliged, and I turned around and ran home.
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