Decay (2 page)

A smile formed on his lips. Every negative thing he had ever thought about her disappeared from his mind. “How sweet, you've certainly been busy.”

“Part of the best Christmas ever, is getting the chance to be a real kid,” she explained. “It's the beauty of the holiday. Seems to me, you've missed out on a lot of your childhood. So I'm going to give you some of it back. Come on, let's go outside.”

Still holding her hand, he followed her back out of her bedroom, and for a moment he let himself forget that they were enemies. There would be plenty of time to remember that another day.

 

 

Nia Verbane walked through the cold cemetery, her coat pulled tightly around her as she made her way to the Heeton family mausoleum. A beautiful structure made for one of the richest families in the state, and the whole building was dedicated to the one son the family had lost. It was made from white stone and had elaborate Grecian columns at its entrance.
Time to visit my bestest buddy in the whole world.
A smile formed on her face as she picked open the lock to the mausoleum like she always did.
One of these days, I should just get a key. It'd be a lot easier. One would think these things had better protection.
But only disrespectful idiots bothered the dead.

Once inside of the mausoleum, Nia locked the door behind her again. She didn't need to be disturbed, and she especially didn't want anyone coming by and seeing something they shouldn't. The inside was beautiful. Simple in decor, the floors were white marble, creating unity with the stone found on the outside of the structure. The walls were white as well. Candle shaped electric lights illuminated the room, creating a soft, comforting atmosphere. Towards the back of the twenty-foot, by twenty-foot, square shaped building, was the resting place of its sole occupant.

Dallas Heeton, age fifteen at death. If he were still alive today, he'd be the same age as Nia.
Soon, he'll be back soon,
she vowed and walked towards the marble encasing which held his coffin. Dallas sat on top of the coffin, waiting, and smiling at her.

“I was wondering if you were coming over for a visit tonight,” he said, and jumped down. He winced a little as his ankle buckled slightly under his weight.

She rushed over to his side to offer her shoulder for support. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine. Still not quite as strong as I feel I guess,” he said with a sheepish shrug. Dallas rotated his ankle, and she listened to it crack a few times. Not something she was all too used to yet, but when it came to him, there were lots of things to get comfortable with. After all, Dallas was a reanimated corpse. Not something a girl saw every day.

Nia helped him to sit back down and joined him. “Don't push yourself so hard. I'm glad you're feeling good, but the reconstruction of your body isn't happening as quick as I'd like it to. I'll get better with my powers, I promise.”

He laughed, giving her a slight nudge with his elbow. “I don't have a hole in my face anymore. My organs are solid again. Your powers are working just fine. So it takes time to resurrect a corpse. Trust me when I say, I'd rather you take your time and do it right than rush it and mess something up.”

“I get that, but it's important to me. Plus, I don't know if my powers are going to be strong enough to make you alive and whole again. It's taking so much of my energy. Especially since you're supposed to be living your own life, you know? You're not one of my mindless puppets to play around with. Those I can make with a snap of my fingers, but since I want you to actually have a brain...” With a sigh, she put her head on his shoulder. “You've done so much for me these past few weeks. I want to give back to you. Somehow I'll find a way to make you alive again.”

“Nia,” he whispered. “I'm dead, and have been for a while. Though, it is nice to know you like me for my mind and not my amazing, partially rotted, body.”

“Yes, I know, but I can still try. This was a gift I was born with, and it must have been for a reason. I refuse to believe it's only to make an army of zombies to fight the other Alturan tribes with. There are ways for me to help people. You're one of those people.”

Dallas gave her a half smile. “I haven't done that much for you.”

“If I hadn't come here looking for comfort, I think I would have hurt myself,” she said in all seriousness. “Your resurrection was an accident, but I'm so glad it happened. Being my guinea pig is something I appreciate as well.”

“It's not like you can make things worse,” Dallas teased.

“True.”

“I'm glad it happened too,” he said. “That you came here when you were sad and accidentally brought me back. But I don't know if I believe in accidents. There's a reason for this. I don't know what or why, but I'm not going to complain.”

Me either
, she thought. That night was still so vivid in her mind. School had been a hard day for her again. Hardly anyone at Lunar Falls understood her. Nia wasn't exactly normal, and it was obvious with the black clothes she wore as well as the heavy eyeliner. She didn't expect people to want to be like her. She was morbid and crass and had peculiar interests. What she did want was respect. Just because people didn't like the same things she did, didn't make it okay for them to pick on her. Most of the time she could ignore the bullying, but it didn't help that she went home and suffered the same kind of emotional abuse from her parents. Sometimes she thought she would snap. When the yellow tribe from Altura had chosen her to be one of its Earth charges, she finally had a feeling of purpose and belonging. She didn't have to be alone anymore. They gave her supernatural abilities, and she would gladly use them to help their cause of finding peace.

There was a lot about the Alturan war she didn't understand. The alien who had found her and unlocked her powers, went by the name of Nehihe. He was kind, gentle, and overall even tempered. For the most part, he did his best to explain things the best he could. His tribe, the yellow tribe, was attacked by the green and blue tribes. The yellow tribe by nature loathed violence, so they were at a disadvantage for war and allied with the purple and red tribes. Some day she would learn the real names of the nations of Altura, but for the time being she would stick to the colors for simplicity's sake.

The nations had decided to fight their war on Earth, to stop the turmoil it was causing on their home planet. Not something she approved of, and she could tell that Nehihe agreed. But that was part of the reason she had been recruited, why many of her peers had been. Nia hated the idea of such a wonderful group of people being picked on. It reminded her all too much of her own situation.

Dallas touched her face with one of his cold fingers, brushing away a tear she hadn't even realized she'd shed. “They don't matter. If they don't love you for who you are, they don't matter.”

She pulled away so she could dry her eyes and face. While she appreciated and desired his affection, having him touch her was still unnerving. His skin was still so cold, and the smell of decay still present. It wasn't as bad as when she'd first brought him back from the dead. The process of decomposing was stopped for the time being, but if she couldn't find a way to keep reversing the after effects of death, she'd lose him. Her powers weren't strong enough on her own.

Forcing a smile on her face, Nia reached into her coat pockets and pulled out a scissors. “I came over to give you a haircut.”

“I appreciate it. Think you can make a miracle from this disaster? Not like I'm vain or anything, but even I know bad when I see it.” Dallas pointed at his hair which existed on his head in sporadic patches. For the most part, it was intact in dirty tufts, but there were places where it had completely fallen out.

Taking out a comb as well, she stood behind him, and carefully began to move the comb through his hair. If she tugged too hard on the knots, she might end up pulling his hair out. Then she began to work on making what remained on his head, all an even length.

“I may have found a way to make you come back all the way,” she whispered. “The other day I was out and about and noticed a squirrel that got hit by a car. Poor guy was suffering on the side of the road. What was weird though, was I could feel his energy or whatever. Like it was pulling at my heart, begging for me to put it out of its misery. So I touched it, and I did as it asked.”

“You touched a squashed squirrel?”

“I'm touching
you,
and you're a lot more gross than a road kill rodent.”

“Meanie. I look a lot nicer than road kill!”

Nia laughed, and so did he. “Will you let me get to my point?” Dallas nodded, and she continued. “When I touched it, I was able to take away its life energy just like I can give dead things life energy. Reverse the effect, and it made me feel stronger. So I think if I used the life energy of something else, it'll help bring you back. Then I won't get so tired from using my powers on you.”

“Something tells me it'll take a lot of squirrels to bring a person back.”

“Maybe I could use another person,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “You're not killing someone else to bring me back.”

“I'd make sure they volunteered for the position. I'm not a selfish, heartless murderess. Though there are a number of criminals on this planet that we could do without. I mean, I could find an evil drug lord and do the world some justice.”

Dallas put a hand over hers to stop her from combing his hair. He then turned to face her, and his dark eyes met her gaze. “You're sweet, but I don't think anyone would ever do such a thing.”

She smirked. “Your old BFF might.”

“Orlando has a lot going on, and I don't want him to take my place.”

He deserves to.
But Nia held her tongue. There was a lot she didn't understand about the relationship between the two teen boys. She hoped someday Dallas trusted her enough to elaborate some more. For the most part, Orlando Holmes seemed like an okay enough guy. He was clearly a bit selfish, but most rich kids were. Dallas had a bit of the same brat-like qualities on occasion, so it must come with the territory. Orlando liked to be aloof and pushed her away. She'd break down his walls and earn his trust – for Dallas.

Instead of talking about it more, she gave his shoulder a squeeze. “I got you some new clothes. Now you don't have to wear the same ol' boring suit. That style is so two years ago anyway.”

“Ha,” he said. “But I'd like something not so stiff. My sense of feeling is slowly starting to come back. Rough isn't doing good things to my skin either.”

Nia handed him a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and sweatshirt. Not the warmest thing to wear during the winter, but he didn't have a sense of temperature at the moment. “Give it a try. If you like it, I can get more for you later. I should go now.” She'd spent a good deal of time there already. If she didn't hurry back, her parents might have a meltdown.

“It's probably late, but thank you for the visit. It makes things a lot less lonely and boring. You know, since I'm stuck waiting in here.”

“Not for much longer, I promise.” She reached into her bag and grabbed a couple of thick fantasy novels. “To help keep you occupied until I return. Next time I'll work on putting you back together some more. I'm just so tired.”

“Don't worry about it,” he said. “Death has nothing but all the time in the world.”

Nia knew he was right, but she was never one to be patient. Reluctantly, she left the mausoleum and locked it again. No one from the cemetery staff would be visiting him, and certainly not anyone from his family. Sad for him, but it worked out well in the end. Then he didn't have to get back into his coffin and wait for her in the dark. Nor would she have to struggle with moving the marble slab resting over it again. That had taken hours to get off the first time. She'd rather not repeat the experience.

Soon, I won't have to worry about any of it.
He'll be back, and Orlando is going to help me do it whether he wants to or not.

 

 

Cadence watched JD button up his shirt, admiring the way its soft brown color brought out a glow in his hazel eyes. As much as she would have loved to admire his bare chest all day, she knew he also had to return back home. He had a curfew, and even though they were still in the last remaining days of winter vacation, he had family obligations to fulfill in the morning.

Once he was clothed, he leaned over to where she was lying in bed, and gave her a firm kiss. “I'll call you when I get home. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to you just yet. Maybe I can even come back tomorrow after dinner.”

“I'd like that,” she said softly. The words “I love you” lingered at the tip of her tongue, wanting to be said, but she couldn't quite make herself actually say them. Instead, all she did was smile and continue to watch him intently. Part of her knew she should climb out of bed, make herself decent, and walk him out the door. It would be considered the polite thing to do, but she couldn't bring herself to do that either.

He gave her one last kiss. “Okay, good, because I'd like that too. There's only five more days until school starts again, and I want to make the most of them. It could be even less of a break depending on if Alan decides he wants us to go back to work soon. You never know when he's going to pop in.”

“No, we don't.” She could feel her cheeks growing warm at that thought. What would Alan think if he had teleported into her bedroom thirty minutes ago? He might have had a meltdown on the spot. She certainly would have wanted to die of embarrassment.

JD laughed. “You're funny. Anyway, I'll call you.” And then he walked out the door.

She laid back in bed with a heavy sigh, pulling the covers over her head so she could further linger in her privacy. There was something comforting about hiding under her bed sheets. It reminded her of the old days when she'd build blanket forts with her father on his days off. She kicked the bedspread up into the air and smiled as she watched it float down over her.