“What are you up to?” he asks.
“I’m watching Night Walkers. I’m just about finished.” Ask me over. I’ll come. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.
“Okay, bella.” He sighs. “Your house alarm is set, yes?”
“Yep.” I frown to myself. He isn’t inviting me over. It’s fine. It’s not like the three of us would be down for freaky sex while we’re worried about Seth’s parents. But being together without the sex wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Maybe that’s not what Damiano and Seth are interested in, though.
“I apologize,” he says. “It was a patronizing question. It is only that…I worry for you. Especially after all you’ve been through the past two months. While many things have been more than wonderful, some have been truly dangerous.”
I stare at the laptop screen, at the parted lips of the actors, their closed eyes…and then I notice the zombie lurking at the very edge of the frame. “It’s okay to remind me to be safe. Do you…do you know when I might see you again? Or Seth?”
“I wish I could tell you, because I already miss you fiercely. But I’m needed here at Nove. We have regular operations to run, and tomorrow Seth has to go to his parents’ house to investigate.”
“I understand.” I feel like a clingy girlfriend for even asking the question to begin with, but surely asking when we might see each other isn’t out of order, after the conversation we had last night, and after the night we spent together.
“Tomorrow,” he says, “I’ll call you again, and we can talk some more. Does that sound good?”
“It sounds great.”
We say our goodbyes. Halfheartedly, I turn Night Walkers back on. The lovers’ lips barely touch before that waiting zombie bursts into the scene. I knew it would happen—I was expecting it.
What I wasn’t expecting was for the zombie to go after the woman first, and the man to jump in the way, sacrificing himself to save her.
The woman kills the zombie and turns to her lover, only to find him already in the throes of the zombie change. She has to kill him, too. As she raises her knife, the end credits roll.
“Damn, that got dark.” I turn off my laptop. Now the only light comes from the moon shining through my back window.
It’s early for bedtime, but after everything that happened yesterday, I’m exhausted. I wish the episode ended on a higher note. Now I’m just bummed. Bummed about Damiano, bummed about Seth and whatever his parents are going through.
Bummed for myself—for my loneliness.
As I head upstairs to the bedroom, the house creaks beneath me. Tiny hairs raise on the back of my neck. When I said I was “lonely,” that didn’t mean I wanted creepy ghost company. Or zombies.
Calm down, Madison. You set the alarm, remember?
The house creaks again. It isn’t constant or rhythmic, but awkwardly repetitive. Almost as if someone is walking around on the first floor.
In my zombie shows, it’s always the person who goes to investigate that gets chomped first.
But I just need to make sure. I know everything is fine. You have an alarm, dummy. There is nothing to fear.
Spinning around on the stairs, I tiptoe back down, as quietly as I can.
The creaking stops for a moment, before resuming. Mustering up all of my courage, I shout, “Hey!”
The creaking stops.
Fuck.
It isn’t supposed to stop, because my shouting shouldn’t have any impact on random noises from an old house settling at night. My lungs freeze as ice-cold fear holds me in its grip.
I don’t know what the hell to do. If someone is here, hiding in my house, the alarm is useless. All I’ve done is lock them inside with me.
Just as I’m about to grab my phone and dial 911, the creaking resumes.
“Hey!” I shout again.
This time it continues, unaffected.
