Chapter 10: Zombie Tag

I dart through the garden to the gray brick building that houses the necromancy and dark magic classes. My breaths lodge in my chest as I cross the threshold. A strange prickling like tiny raindrops dances across my skin.

Even though Melanie is helping out teachers here with some problem, I need to speak with her. Get her to come to my room and exorcise or whatever it is that witches do to ghosts to get them to go away.

A pang hits my chest at imagining Kiarr's face when he realizes he can't stay here. It isn't his fault that the spell backfired and brought him to me. If I wasn't dating Lance and if Kiarr wasn't a ghost?

At the corner, the stench of rotten eggs and meat slam into me. Fuck! What is that smell?

I cover my nose and mouth, breathing shallowly. Bile rushes into the back of my throat. Part of me debates turning back, running outside, but I have to see Melanie.

Clacks grow louder as I approach room 212. The scent is strangling now. With my hand trembling, I push open the door.

There in the middle of the room is Melanie facing a rotting corpse. Around her are a cluster of teachers and a few other students. The dead body is standing on his feet, swaying.

"Ad leviter dormit, et revertetur ad sepulcrum nemo amplius noceat," she chants over and over. Her hands emit a greenish-glow.

The creature moans sounding like all the zombie movies I've ever watched. It looks toward me, mouth hanging open, its eyes dark and hollow. I stifle a scream, scurrying back toward the door. I can't find the handle. Can't get out of this room fast enough.

"Sorry, I'm sorry." I fumble for the doorknob.

Shouts echo behind me along with a crash and I'm afraid to look. Screams follow and a shuffling sound. I look over my shoulder to find the creature has knocked everyone away from him. Melanie lays on the linoleum floor.

Blood coats the side of her face, but she meets my stare. "Go! Run!"

I don't want to leave her. The creature doesn't attack her though, it's fighting its way toward me. A sense of dread punches me in the stomach. Somehow, I'm its target. I know it deep in my bones.

If I can lure it away, Melanie and the others can set a trap or something for it. I just hope I don't end up as a Zombie's midnight snack.

I throw open the door and sprint out. Sure enough, a few moments later, the zombie tears through the doorframe. Its eyes glowing with a sickening yellowish-green color.

The creature stomps after me through the garden. I run faster. How is it gaining on me? My breaths turn to pants and my side burns. When I get to the dorm, the doors are locked. What the hell?

"Open up!" I yell, pounding on the wood.

"Can't." Gwen leans down from a second-story window. "It's protocol whenever there's a magical being on the loose that can't be controlled or isn't contained."

"Fine, then lower a rope and pull me up." I glance over my shoulder, the zombie is only a few yards away. Panic squeezes my heart and I try to climb up the brick wall, but I can't. "Hurry!"

She pursed her lips. "Afraid that's not possible."

"Is this because of your stupid initiation? Fuck that and let me in."

"Looks like you unleashed the zombie, so no, I won't be letting you in." She cocks her head to the side. "Good luck. But I secretly hope you fail, cause your human boyfriend is hot. Think I'll do a love spell on him after the zombie eats your brains."

I slap my hand against the brick building and she laughs, closing the window.

Hopefully, she is full of shit. I doubled back toward the necromancy building. Love spells don't work like that, do they? Surely she is just trying to mess with me. Get me so upset that I slip up and the zombie does attack me. I shove down the terror pressing into my throat as I run. The undead creature groans as he shuffles faster after me. Is he gaining speed?

Shit!

Where are Melanie and the teachers? Did they all abandon me to this horrid fate? One less human to deal with?

The necromancy building is locked as well and all the lights are out. Still, I bang on the door, then one of the windows.

"Help! Somebody help me!"

I dive forward for the graveyard. The fairy statue. If I can make it there, I can teleport to France. Get to safety. And I hope that the zombie can't travel the leylines after me.

The creature swipes at me, its claws scrape across the back of my shirt. I scream. Terror squeezing my chest so hard I can't breathe.

My hand touches the statue's hand, but nothing happens. Shit! I dodge behind the marble fairy as the zombie reaches both hands toward me. The statue blocks its path. I scramble backward unable to take my eyes off the rotting flesh and snapping teeth.

Somehow it snatches my ankle. I crash into the grass.

"No!" I kick, trying to get away. My hands digging into the dirt for purchase to escape.

Its shadow darkens over me. I twist, hitting the ghoulish figure in the face with my elbow, but nothing phases it.

Snapping teeth come closer to my head. Its grip on my leg is like a bear trap. I punch the zombie in the head and throat, but it only gurgles. It stares at me with empty, dead eyes.

My life flashes in blips before me. This is my end. Of all the things I thought might kill me, being eaten alive by a zombie was never one of them.

A whimper catches in my throat as I press my hands against its chest to keep its mouth from me. The zombie's weight holds me down. It's only a matter of time before my efforts aren't enough.