“You’re in for a treat, class” Freddie says as he rolls up to the teacher’s desk. “Mister Morecroft is here.” He always says my name with the most annoying emphasis. Mis-ter Morecroft. He does it on purpose.

  “Still not my name,” I say evenly. Same thing I said to him last semester. And the semester before that. Freddie has been the TA in at least one of my classes every semester almost since I started at Hollow Hills University.Don’t try looking for some inciting incident in his feud against me: there isn’t one.He just walked into my first class on my first day of freshman year and thought to himself “yeah, that kid.I’m going to hate that kid especially.”And it’s been like that for the last three years.

  “He obviously has a crush on you,” Wrath says. The demon’s sarcasm is noted but I otherwise ignore him.

  “Mister Morecroft comes to class every semester with a stuffed animal that he can’t bear to be parted with,” Freddie says, with even more theatrics. I hear a low growl come from said stuffed animal. Wrath doesn’t actually like being called a stuffed animal. “I’m brimful of demonic energy. A brimful demon, if it were,” he would say.

  This is a good time to point out that Nico has finally noticed that I’m in the classroom, but it’s literally the last thing I want. If anything, I would like very much to just walk out of this room and never see any of these people ever again. But Freddie would just follow me and call down terror upon my next class.

  The problem with Freddie’s announcement is that at least half a dozen other kids in the class have a stuffed animal pinned to their bag. It’s become a thing at school, where everyone brings something along to class with them. I don’t know if most people think it’s a good luck charm or what, but I have Freddie to thank for it. Last fall, he made a big production about Wrath, and the rest of the class responded by bringing in stuffed animals of their own.

  “I would very happily feed his balls to an incontinent shark,” Wrath says quietly, though no one else can hear him.

  I suppress a laugh, but the only thing that does is call attention to Freddie that I’m laughing at him. That never goes well. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Winter smirking, and I can only imagine she’s thinking something similar.

  Freddie is one of those people who has never had a real friend in their life, was picked on mercilessly in school, and has now found a way to turn the tables by treating other people like human garbage. There are any number of professors at HHU that would rather not spend their time on actual classes, and for whatever reason they’re all happy to hire Freddie as their TA.

  They get time back to hide in their offices working on whatever dark pacts are required for tenure, and he gets to lord over the underclassmen. I don’t even think he’s even still a student at the school. He has to have graduated by now, he was at least a senior when I was a freshman and that was three years ago. There are some majors at HHU that are so esoteric that they take longer than four years, but he doesn’t strike me as one of those.

  “What’s wrong with having something that makes you feel more comfortable in class,” Winter asks loudly. She has a light, melodic voice that is more animated than her goth couture would suggest.

  Freddie doesn’t react for a long moment, and he definitely doesn’t look at Winter.He addresses the rest of the class instead.“One thing you’ll learn, class, is that if anyone has a question, they raise their hands and wait to be called on.”

  Unaffected, Winter continues, “You’re talking about me, so you can look at me when you do. My pronouns are she/her.”

  “I don’t care about your pronouns,” Freddie responds “as you’re undergrads, and therefore aren’t human to me.”

  “He’d better watch out before his pronouns become was/were,” Wrath whispers. “Are you sure I can’t start chewing on a leg or two?”

  I don’t respond out loud, I know better than that. But when I look away from Freddie, I notice Nico staring over at me. He offers a too-friendly smile, and I flinch away. Why is he being so nice all of a sudden? First this morning, and now this?

  “Relax, he’s trying to be nice,” Wrath continues.“That’s normal.People are allowed to be nice to you.”

  Freddie continues his list of rules for the class. They’re archaic and draconian sort of things that never get put down on paper. The only thing that complaining ever does is gets Freddie riled up. There aren’t enough TAs to go around that the administration would care enough to replace him. I think the bar is basically as long as no one dies, he can continue teaching.

  “This course is will delve into the socio- and political ramifications of reanimation,” Freddie continues.The snotty tone gives way to something more academic.It almost feels like he’s reading from the professor’s notes rather than his own personal grudge list.“When we think of zombies in fiction, it’s a plague.A menace.A way to confront the horrors of the end of the world and the us versus them mentality that humanity suffers from.But what if we turn that question around.What can zombies do for us?Plague labor, a term that I coined, is just one concept we’ll begin exploring this semester.”

  From there, Freddie goes into a personal story about where he was when he thought up the concept of “plague labor” and how incredible the idea is, and that he’s waiting for someone in the administration to let him co-author a paper on the topic.

  I tune out for long enough that I only look up when I hear the sounds of movement around me. Isaac and Winter have scooted their desks closer together. All around the room, other groups are pairing up.

  “What’s going on?”

  Demonic laughter rolls up from my back.“You weren’t paying attention to your best friend?”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Isaac looks over at me with an apologetic glance. “We’re supposed to partner up and talk about how necromancy is a Green initiative and what labor markets would be ideal fits.”

  “What?” I gulp, because partner projects are the worst and how did I not grab Isaac before he had a chance to go with someone else.

  Nico is staring at me from Winter’s other side, looking meaningfully in my direction, but I’m still in the midst ofearly-stage panic so I can’t absorb that information just yet. Partners. As in getting into small groups. Together. With someone I don’t know.On the first day of class!

  When I look around the room again, it seems like the rest of the class has already paired up. Somehow, Freddie notices my distress and begins to move towards me. It’s like he can smell blood in the water or something, his eyes alight with delicious cruelty as he pursues his prey.

  Unfortunately, he’s interrupted by the scrape of a desk pushing close to mine as Nico slides in next to me. “Partners?” he says an exhale, slumping in his new seat.

  “What?”

  Freddie pulls up short, while I try to understand what’s going on.

  “Come on, you need a partner. I need a partner. It can’t be that bad.”

  Freddie narrows his eyes at the two of us while I slink down in my seat a little. The worst part of dealing with Freddie is that his contempt is like an unyielding wall, and I only have so much resistance in me. It’s better to just not provoke him than to continue to fight.

  “So I was asking around this morning,” Nico continues, leaning towards me, “and mentioned how crazy that rain was early. No one even seemed to remember it. It was like it never even happened.”

  Of course it happened. Wait. I squint a little. “So you’re saying we remember it, but no one else does?”

  “Didn’t you say that everyone will just act like nothing happened? Maybe it’s because they don’t actually remember.”

  “Does that sound right?” I say out loud, but it’s not a question for Theo. I always assumed that people just pretended not to see it, but Nico’s making me wonder if they really don’t remember.

  “I don’t know,” Wrath admits. “You know we don’t like going into town if we can help it. Everyone always acts like we’re so weird.”

  Says my invisible demon best friend. I can’t imagine why anyone in town thinks I’m weird.

  “Supernatural phenomenon aren’t usually hard to forget,” Nico continues. “Just hard to document. I took some photos before I came over but you can’t even tell that it was anything other than rain. It was clear in the pictures on my phone when I went back to them.”

  Nico is really more interested in the supernatural than I let myself realize earlier. He mentioned going to other haunted houses - like real, head spinning three hundred and sixty degrees haunted - and he knew about Doom Clocks, but I didn’t think he was actually invested.

  So maybe Nico wasn’t scared off by what happened in the Manor that day. Maybe he was just… what? Biding his time? Researching what happened? Waiting for some other supernatural occurrence to happen before he reappeared?

  “You’re staring,” he says, and I realize that I have been staring. At him.

  I feel the blush start and hurriedly look away.

  “Why are you being so quiet?” Wrath whispers in annoyance. “This is your shot. Ask him to talk about himself. Invite him over after class. Grab his pecs!”

  “Wrath!” I whisper in embarrassment. It’s not as quiet as I think, though, as several groups around me look back at me.

  Nico’s forehead creases a little. He leans a little forward, and looks to the stuffed animal sitting at the desk in front of me. “I saw a lot of kids with stuffed animals. That’s really a thing here, huh?”

  I shrug. I didn’t start it intentionally, but it’s definitely caught on over the last couple of years. Even new students know if the trend, and bring their own stuffed animal along. “People like Freddie try to ban them from their classrooms, but no one ever listens. They like having something comforting around, I think.”

  It’s actually surprising how well that took off. It’s not like there was an initiative to get people to do it, or a movement, or anything. I brought Wrath because I needed to, and then over the course of a semester, more and more people brought animals of their own. And they continue to do it semester after semester.

  “Anyway, we’re supposed to talk about zombies but I don’t actually know a lot about them,” Nico continues. “Do you?”

  Do I know anything about reanimating corpses? “Only the theoretical.”

  “What?”

  I flush. “What?” Wait, that sounds like I know how to raise zombies. “No, I mean, only what I’ve seen from TV and movies and stuff.”

  “What’s your favorite zombie movie?” Nico presses.

  “Oh thank god,” Wrath whispers.

  The problem with bringing Wrath to class with me is that I can’t talk back to him whenever I want. So he can egg me on, or torment me, or encourage me to do something stupid, and I can’t respond. Sometimes I forget, like I have today. Other times I just have to sit there and take it. Also like today.

  The problem is that he absolutely could be seen by people. He could look human if he wanted to, and actually be a person and not an imaginary creature in my peripheral vision. But every time I suggest it he gets offended and huffy and I have to bake him pastries until he calms back down. It would make my life so much easier though!

  Nico has changed into a different shirt, but I still remember the way his wet tee shirt this morning clung to his skin, and how defined his muscles were. I already knew he had a nice body on account of the shoulders and seeing his biceps, but seeing through his shirt was another thing entirely. Even now, I can’t stop picturing it.

  My face must be on fire.

  “I don’t know. There’s an new one supposed to come out on Friday. Wrath and I…” I cut off, remembering that no one else can actually see Wrath, so it sounds like I’m making plans with my stuffed animal. “Uhm, I mean, I was going to watch it when it came out. It’s called Nec-Romance. It’s about zombies who have to feed on the brains of their true loves or something.”

  “That sounds… interesting,” Nico says politely. I deflate a little but Nico continues. “It might be good research for class. Maybe I could come over and we could… make a night of it?”

  My heart stutters to a cold and empty stop as I process his words. A slow warmth of hope and expectation begins to roar to life in my chest just as Isaac says, “Party at Theo’s?”

  “It’s not a party—“ I start.

  “I’ve always wanted to see the inside of the Manor,” Winter muses.

  “That’s not exactly what I—“ Nico says, his face coloring.

  Somehow over the rest of the hour in class, the idea of a quiet night at home with Wrath suddenly becomes a party for four. Winter and Isaac are so excited that by the time I can manage to get a word in edgewise, I feel too self-conscious to say anything.

  “Don’t worry,” Isaac promises, “you’re hosting, so we’ll bring the food and drinks.”

  “But I don’t drink,” I protest weakly.

  “Neither do I,” Winter says warmly. “We’ll do themed drinks. I know a girl who made this amazing lemon-lime spritzer with a green tint that would be an amazing zombie cocktail. We’ll just substitute something for the alcohol.”

  “Like liquified brains?” Isaac laughs theatrically.

  “No, I—“

  Nico looks helpless at my side. For the rest of the class, Winter and Isaac divide and conquer plans for a night at Morecroft Manor. They don’t plan to invite more people, which is my only worry, but seem more intent on just hanging out the four of us. Or maybe just hanging out at Morecroft Manor. I know its a local legend but most people are simply afraid of it, because that seems easier. Their excitement is a little off-putting.

  “I feel like this is going to backfire,” I say under my breath, just as Freddie pins me with a slow, malicious smile.