Dia of the Dead (13 page)

They screamed. I shushed them.

“Who the hell is this?” I whispered.

“Dia?” they whispered back.

“Mason?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He faced me, a slant of light shining on him from above.  He brushed a stray dread aside.

“Where’s Kaci?” I asked, noticing he was alone and still shirtless.

He looked behind him. “She was with me a minute ago—”

A metallic clang rang out in the room followed by the rustling of movement and a low growl. Taylor hadn’t gone anywhere. I covered my mouth, slinking back into the shadowy corner and tried to be as silent and still as possible. 

“Dia, where are you?” Mason whispered craning his neck as if I’d disappeared into thin air.

“Shhh
h,
” I hissed. “I’m like two inches away from you. Be still.”

Instead of staying put, he moved closer to me.

“I said ‘be still’. Stop. Moving.” I reached out toward him, putting my hand on his shoulder.

There was another rustling noise closer than the one before. I went stiff as a boar
d,
too afraid to blink.

A door creaked open and slammed shut. I waited another beat, listening for movement. The room was quiet.

“I think the coast is clear,” I said.

Another clang made me freeze again. 

“Maybe we should wait a bit longer.” I slunk back toward the corner.

Mason moved a little closer to me. “Thanks for having my back back there with Taylor.”

“No problem,” I said, wishing he’d shut up. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Friends,” Mason chuckled quietly. “About that.” He inched closer, brushing his hand against my arm. “What’s up with us?” He motioned from himself to me.

“Excuse me?” I recoiled. 

“Us. You….and me.” He filled in the space between us with his body. 

“What’re you talking about?”

“I’ve seen you checking me out, Dia. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of me while we were running through the halls and—“

“—Where’s this going?—“

“—Where do you want it to go?” He winked.

“Let me stop you right there.” I put my hand up, accidentally touching his chest. I snatched it away and dropped it at my side. “This is definitely not going where you want it to go.” I moved back again.

“Why not?” He pouted.

“Mason, you’re a nice-ish guy—I guess—but as I’ve said before, I’m not interested. At all. In no way, shape, or form do I think of you
t
ha
t
way. I don’
t
lik
e
yo
u
like you.”

He chuckled to himself. “You’re hilarious, Dia. I didn’t know you had such an awesome sense of humor. You are as funny as you are beautiful.” His voice dropped an octave when he said “beautiful.” It was almost as if he was about to croon one of those smooth R&B tunes my mom forced me to listen to whenever I was in the car with her.

“Is this a joke or are you being serious?”

“I’m one hundred percent serious.  We’d make a nice-looking couple, don’t you think? Look at all of this.” He motioned to his abs, making one of his pecs jump then the other.

“Stop while you’re ahead, Mason. This isn’t the time for this kind of nonsense—“

“It isn’t? Seems like the best time to me. If w
e
ar
e
dealing with zombies her
e,
then this is usually the time people go for it. Attractive teenagers with raging hormones and junk in a stressful situation…this is when they get it on. Or at least when hot make out sessions happen. That’s how it works in all of the zombie movies I’ve seen. It’s very possible that we could be the last two people left on Earth. The fate of mankind or whatever could rest on our shoulders, Dia. Let’s get weird.” He inched even closer, staring at me with a hint of creeper in his eyes. 

“Oh my god.” I was completely grossed out. I curled my hands into fists as I tried to move farther away but I had nowhere left to go. I was backed into the wall. If he came any closer, I’d definitely deck him.

“I’m not intereste
d,
” I said through clenched teeth. “Even if you were the last man on Eart—“

My rant was cut off with a pair of soft, plump lips. Instead of the fireworks or foot-popping I expected to accompany my first real kiss, my face burned with anger. I pushed Mason away, wiping the taste of his cherry lip balm from my mouth in disgust. He fell over one of the beams but got right back up, smiling in the darkness.

“I like my Latinas like I like my curry. Spicy.” He moved closer, puckering his lips. “You are Latina, right?”

I drew back a fist, ready to punch him.

“This is why you wanted me to forget about Mason, huh Dia?  You wanted him all to yoursel
f,
” a voice said. Mason turned around toward the opening. Kaci stood beyond him, glaring at me with accusing eyes.

“What? No. Kaci, I—“

She held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. We’re no longer BFFs.”  She spat and ran off.

“Kace, wait.” I pushed Mason aside, stumbling over a beam and took off after her.

She ran down the hallway. “Stop following m
e,
” she snapped.

“Kaci, no. Wait up. I can totally explain everything.” I jogged to keep up with her pace.

“I don’t want to hear it.  I knew you were after him. I knew it.”

“Oh my god. What’s with everyone today? I don’t like Mason. Like at all. He’s shallow, self-centered, self-absorbed and— and—I think he’s gross. Ugh. Why would I want to date him of all people?” 

Kaci slowed down into a jog. 

I sped up to catch her then matched her pace as her jog became a brisk walk.

“He kissed me. I was gonna give him a black eye but you popped up and started accusing me of trying to steal him. He’s all yours, honey. I want no parts of that. I don’t even think you should want any of that either to be honest.”

“Hmph.” She folded her hands across her chest and put her nose into the air.

“I’d never ruin our friendship over a guy. And definitely not over Mason Jackson. You have my word on tha—” 

A growl stopped me mid-argument. I stretched my arm to stop Kaci from walking. She huffed, moving it out of her way and marched on with her nose still high in the air like she hadn’t heard anything. Another growl was finally enough to shake her. She stopped.

My stomach knotted. “Kaci, I think we better go.”

A snarl ripped through the air.

“This isn’t like some elaborate prank that’s being filmed and gonna be aired on TV in a couple months?” she asked.

“I doubt it.”

“We’re going to have to run again, aren’t we?” she whispered.

“Uh-huh.” I nodded.

“I need to do more cardio,” she sighed.

We turned and ran.

“Let’s go find Mason and the others. I think we’d be better off together,” I said. Kaci agreed.

We returned to the set, walking toward the graveyard, quietly calling for Mason. With Taylor, Joe, and who knows what else roaming the building, we had to be careful. Mason didn’t answer us. Kaci and I turned to each other. From her worried eyes, I could tell we were thinking the same thing. And it wasn’t good.

I tiptoed farther into the graveyard with Kaci not far behind. 

“Mason?” I called in a hushed tone, carefully walking across the fake grass toward the spot where I’d last seen him.

I peeked behind the mausoleum. No Mason. We searched the rest of the cemetery and found nothing. 

“Maybe he went off to find the others already,” Kaci said. 

“Maybe.”

I took a few steps backward and scanned the graveyard. The hairs on the back of my neck rose as the feeling of being watched crept over me.

“Kaci, it’s time to go. Mason’s probably with the others by now like you said.”

“But what if he isn’t. If he’s still here, we can’t just leave. He may be a jer
k,
but I don’t want anything bad happen to him.”

“Maybe we should find the rest of the group first then go look for him together. I think that’d be a better idea.”

I didn’t have to say anything else to Kaci to get her out of the graveyard.  She agreed that finding the group would be best. Taylor hadn’t been sighted but that didn’t mean she wasn’t somewhere looking for someone to gnaw on. I had to be on my toes as we headed off the set.

“There he is!” Kaci pointed at the doors leading into the hallway. 

I looked through the glass. Mason stood in the hallway staring at himself in one of the large mirrors that were placed in the most random places in the halls of the building. He tilted his head left then to the right then he pressed his lips against his reflection, kissing it…kissing…himself.

“I don’t think we should be watching this,” I said. “This seems pretty…uh…private.”

Mason pressed his lips to the mirror again. Then again and again, each time with a little more intensity. He was extremely close to full on making out with the mirror before I had to look away.  Kaci, on the other hand, moved closer to the glass to get a better look.

“Maybe we should go get him now,” I said.

“What was it like to kiss him?” she asked, not looking at me. Her eyes were locked on Mason’s Mason-on-Mason make out session.

“Gross.”

“What? Gross?  He’s not a good kisser?”

“He’s not a bad kisser. He’s just—I— I don’t really want to talk about the kiss anymore. I’d very much like to repress the memory and pretend it never happened.”

Kaci sighed, fogging up the glass. “I was hoping Deuce and Addison would get a kiss next season. It would be a Bixby Network first, an actual onscreen kiss. Then maybe he’d like it so much that he’d ask me out in real life.” She sighed again.

I made a face. “Uh…let’s go get him so we can go find the others.”

She pushed the door open and ran over to Mason who was still planting kisses on the mirror. I followed.

“Mason,” Kaci said. “I’m not mad at you for kissing my best friend or anything. I promise. I mean, this was probably all just a big misunderstanding,” she chirped.

Mason ignored her.

“Mason, I said I’m not upset. I’m totally not mad at you for making out with Dia.” Her tone could give someone diabetes.

“Though I probably should b
e,
” she muttered.

Mason kissed himself again.

“Hello,” Kaci sang. “Earth to Mason. I’m over here talking to you and you’re ignoring me. Mason!” Kaci touched his arm. “Mason?”

He lashed at her, leaving a reddening line down the length of her arm. She screamed and took a few steps away from him, running her fingers down her arm where tiny beads of blood began to appear on the surface of the scratch Mason left behind.

Mason turned toward us with a moan.  Kaci and I backed away from his black-eyed gaze slowly.

“We have to do something, Di
a,
” she said quietly.

“Yeah, run!”

Mason was a runner. He was on our heels as we headed back toward the set, snapping his teeth and growling fiercely. We passed the graveyard and barreled through the doors to the other side of the building.

“We need to split up, Kaci.”

“Uh…no we don’t.”

“He can only chase one of us at a time. If we split up, then maybe we’d have a better chance of losing him.”

“That sounds crazy.”

“It’s better than him catching both of us. We need to decide and quickly,” I said.

We were headed toward the end of the hallway. If we were to go left, we’d circle around to the other side of the set. If we were to go right, we’d head toward the stairwell leading to the basement. 

“Fin
e.
” Kaci slowed down to turn right.

I crashed into the wall. Something in my shoulder popped. I didn’t have time to harp on the pain shooting through my arm because I had to keep running. I pushed myself away from the wall a split second before Mason slammed into it and ran, clutching my arm with him after me.

“Even as a zombie he doesn’t want me,” Kaci whined from the opposite direction. Her cries—along with the rest of her—disappeared down the stairwell.

I kept moving— adrenaline numbing the pain—and took another left back toward the set. As I passed the mirror covered in Mason’s lip prints, I noticed that I no longer heard his growling over the thud-thudding of my terrified heart. I turned my head, half-looking over my shoulder and half-watching where I was going to see where he was. He’d stopped chasing me. He had become distracted by his reflection in the mirror once more.

“That was easy.”

Mason was handled, at least for now. I didn’t want to stick around to see who popped up next. I slowed down a bit to save some of my energy and went off to look for Kaci and the others.