I wake up while it’s still dark outside. The fire has died down a bit, but Wrath tends to it carefully. He’s crouched down on his haunches, talons carefully gripping the fire poker and waving it a bit like a conductor, playing more with the flames themselves than the wood.

  “They’re still out there,” he says quietly, just as the room is punctuated by a weary, beleaguered moan from outside. I climb to my feet slowly and then creep to the front hall where I can peer through the windows. There’s just enough light from one of the streetlights to see the shadowed form still at the front gate.

  “You weren’t worried. The Manor wasn’t either. How come?”

  “Zombies?” he scoffs. “Don’t make me laugh.”

  When Pox awoke, the Manor went into lockdown and nearly killed me. Wrath sometimes overreacted when it came to threats - I’m still convinced he terrorized the Dread-Ex delivery guy because he thought he was some kind of monster. But neither had done much than close the gates out front. Why not?

  “So we weren’t really in danger?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Wrath turns to me, the expression in his eyes unusually somber. “The Manor knew it could keep them out. You did the right thing, keeping everyone here overnight. Just be careful. Whoever sent those zombies may start hunting for them, too.”

  “Wait, it sounds like you’re saying—“

  He rolls his eyes. “They’re obviously looking for you, yes. I thought you realized that already.”

  The zombies were coming for me? “Then why were they chasing someone I go to school with? And why was he on the path here?”

  “Lots of kids use that path, remember?” Wrath and I used to play in the woods a lot as children, and so did the rest of Hollow Hills. However, we were one of the things the other children ran away from. Just like the zombies apparently.

  I head into the kitchen and line up my medications one by one, ending with the vial stopper filled with stars. It will be easier to take them before everyone else is awake and asking questions.

  Even though the night ended the way it did, I still feel weirdly accomplished, and don’t fight down the smile that comes across my face. I had friends sleep over. All night long! Sure, maybe Isaac was a little freaked out about the zombies, but Winter and Nico took it well enough. And no one really freaked out about the television leaking blood.

  “Something weird happened last night.”

  I head back into the front of the house, giving him a strange look. “I was there, remember. Zombies? Bloody television?”

  “No, not that.” Wrath frowns. “Something else. I remember thinking it was weird.”

  “There were people in the house for the first time in forever. That was pretty weird.”

  He gives me a dirty look. “That’s not it.”

  I shrug, then yawn abruptly. It takes nearly a minute for the yawn to subside.

  “Go back to sleep,” Wrath says eventually while still on guard. “I’ll keep an eye on everything.”

  It doesn’t take much convincing, so eventually I lie back down in my spot. Winter got one of the couches by default, and then since Isaac was still so shaken, I offered up the other to him. This left Nico and I on the floor, though I made sure to put some distance between us.

  When I finally lay back down though, I see his eyes open, looking to me.

  “You okay?” he whispers.

  “Go back to sleep,” I say with a smile. And eventually, we do.

  By the time I wake up in the morning, there’s the smell of fresh bacon that pulls me up from my spot on the ground, and by the time I make my way into the kitchen I notice with an unhappy surprise that the smell of coffee being brewed is from Wrath’s loathsome coffee machine.

  Nico stumbles in a few seconds after me, as though he was waiting for me to get up, and his eyes light up when he sees the coffee machine working again.

  “You fixed it!”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “It’s fixed,” I agree, though much less enthused.

  Through the sounds of percolating liquid, the coffee machine suddenly expels a ton of steam and noise that resembles a disrespectful raspberry sound. Of all the things in Morecroft Manor that have some semblance of personality and independence, the coffee maker is my least favorite. It might very well be my nemesis.

  “Don’t start with him,” Wrath says from the side, but it’s not clear which one of us he’s talking to. Knowing Wrath, he’s probably talking to me. Even before the disaster in the kitchen, he was overprotective about that stupid machine. I don’t know why. The thing was half a step from blowing the house up at any given moment.

  “Oh, she’s good as new,” Nico coos, running a gentle hand along the metallic exterior. “Oh no, you’ve got some spotting,” he says, and I’m not imagining the stress in his tone. He looks around and finds a dishtowel, which he uses to wipe carefully at the coffee maker’s surface, polishing to a perfect gleam.

  It’s a bit of a benefit, because I know that the Diabolos won’t brew anything drinkable for me, but it worked for Nico before. And from the cooing sounds it makes, it sounds like he’s good again. Sure enough, it churns together a perfect cup of coffee with the tiniest effort. It even whips together a heart into the foam without being prompted.

  “Stupid jerk,” I mutter.

  “Don’t be jealous,” Wrath responds.

  “Did you say something?” Nico asks.

  I shake my head.

  “Oh, I thought you called me a stupid jerk for some reason,” he says with a chuckle. Wrath abandons his coffee, which I take up as my own and Nico and I move to the kitchen table, which offers a look over the back garden and a peak into the side yard.

  Wrath sighs and vanishes into the house, waving a claw in goodbye.

  “Everyone else still asleep?” I ask awkwardly.

  Nico sips at his coffee and makes a blissful face. It’s enough to force me to give the coffee maker a dark look. How dare it make my crush make that face. The machine chirps happily as it turns itself off automatically.

  “I’ve missed this,” Nico says. Then he straights and starts to lean across the table. “So… zombies.”

  I lean back in response and give him a confused look. “Zombies?”

  “Has this happened before?”

  “A party I’ve attended disrupted by the strangest segue I’ve ever seen?”

  He fixes me with a serious look. “You know what I mean.”

  Of course I did. “They’ve never shown up at my house for Trick or Treat, but I’m sure they’ve roamed around the city before. I told you. Weird things happen here.”

  His eyes light up, which is a far cry from his response when the house went into lockdown. I don’t get it. Is he an adrenaline junkie or not. Or is he one of those supernatural snobs who only likes certain types of phenomenons. That might make more sense.

  I study him a little closer. Are you really a snob? Is it zombies that do it for you? That was disappointing, wasn’t it? Dead things are not a kink I’m a fan of.

  “Don’t you think it’s weird that we were talking about zombies and then some of them showed up?” he presses.

  “I think if we’d been trying to watch a show about dragons, I’d be praying the Hollow Hills fire department was more than a couple of drunk volunteers who don’t have a valid driver’s license between the two of them.” Before I know it, my coffee is gone, and I barely remember taking a sip. It’s that good. I glare at the Diabolos again. Stupid thing.

  “You think?” Nico’s forehead scrunches up with effort. “It just seems…”

  I shrug. “Maybe you’re right. But I don’t think we know enough yet to say for certain. It’s going to take at least two or three more attacks before we have any real proof.”

  “I might swing by the library anyway, and start doing some research.”

  I make a gesture to indicate you do whatever you think is best just before Winter and Isaac stroll into the room.

  “Do I smell bacon?”

  I nod, gesturing towards the stove. “There’s bacon, maybe some scrambled eggs and some hashbrowns.” I don’t say anything about where they came from. Some people are a little picky about whether or not they’ll eat food cooked by demons.

  “Did I hear you say you’re going to the library?” Winter asks, pulling up a chair next to Nico. He immediately gets up, though, and heads over to the Diabolos and sweet talks it into pouring two more cups of coffee. He waits until the second is done before he slides them over to the new arrivals. Winter grabs a plate of just the hash browns, while Isaac goes all in on breakfast.

  I’m not hungry, so when Nico gestures me towards the stove, I shake my head. I’m not really a breakfast person. My normal breakfast route is whatever caffeine I can scrounge up and a cornucopia of medications.

  “Why? Interested in helping out?” Nico asks. “I’m thinking about doing some research about zombies. Less fictional and more real world applications.”

  Winter’s eyebrows lift up slowly. “Necromancy really is as green a movement as you can get. You know the old saying: Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate.”

  I exhale slowly, partially covering my face with one of my hands. They’re treating it like a joke, but what the zombies did last night to a college student can’t really be ignored. But at the same time, I’m not sure about what to do next. Do I call someone? Is there a hotline for supernatural murders?

  “We could make a day of it,” Winter says, eyes alight. “I could put together a picnic.”

  “Like Night of the Living Dead. We could do a fifties’ sort of theme.”

  Nico gives me a speculative look. “I don’t think Theo is jazzed about the idea of cosplay zombie research.”

  Winter rolls her eyes. “Theo is a buzzkill. Isaac, you’re in drama. You’re in, right?”

  Isaac is busy shoveling food into his mouth and doesn’t respond right away. Eventually he lifts his head up and stares at her blankly. “In for what?”

  “Zombie research.”

  “I thought we did the research last night. Watching the TV show. We were going to write about it, weren’t we? Did we decide not to?”

  There’s a definite emptiness in Isaac’s expression that doesn’t really mesh with the hot mess of a person he was the night before.

  “Zombies. Death. Chaos?” Nico says carefully. “Does any of this ring a bell?”

  “Yeah, we watched the show about zombies on the college campus,” Isaac responds. He’s still acting far too calm.

  “Your crush Severn Reilly,” Winter prompts.

  “What about him?” Isaac asks.

  The three of us stare at each other in confusion. Isaac has no memory of the night before.

  What the hell is going on?