The Baffling Case of the Dying Souls

Chapter 6

~Halloween morning~

I couldn't sleep the whole night and I was becoming restless by the second. Word had got out that Logan had gone missing. His parents were devastated, his "cool" friends didn't care, and Rachel was also worried. The police had gone to search for him, they even went into the whispering willows, but no body was found. I didn't know what to do, everybody talked about him, but it wasn't like I could confess what had actually happened.

I was sitting on the couch gazing at ceiling when the phone rang at four in the morning.

"Um hello?" I picked up the phone and asked.

"Hello is this the girl I spoke to at the library," The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't think straight on who it was this early in the morning.

"If her names Leslie, then yes."

 "Oh hello Leslie, listen I'm one of the librarians at your school, remember we talked? And you asked for this mans phone number who could help you with that zombie information you needed? Well I was searching for his phone number and I finally found it, so if you still need it..."

"You were searching for that number till now? Don't you have something better to do? Do you even have a family?" I suddenly jolted fully awake once I realized I had said my thoughts out loud.

"I meant  yes please give me the phone number!" I said before he could respond to my mindless remark.

"Okay well it is..." he told me the phone number then hung up.

 Once he told me I quickly gave a call to the man he told me about.

I waited two to three rings until he finally picked up, "What?!" he sounded cranky.

"Hello I'm Leslie and I heard you have some background knowledge on mystical creatures such as zombies so-"

"Don't you have something better to do? For gods sake it's only four, come to my place in the evening and we can talk then, by the way, my name is Stewart" I had forgotten that it was still just four in the morning.

After he gave me his address, I apologized, and he hung up.

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School passed pretty slowly for me. Everyone was excited for the Halloween dance except for Rachel. She was granted free tickets to it since she helped the most to decorate for it, but she declined the offer. At break Rachel sat beside me but none of us talked. After finally handing in my assignment school had ended and I came home and got ready to go to that Stewart guy.

I told my mom that I needed a ride there since it was a bit too far. She got a bit suspicious, but when I told her it was to get English tuition since my teacher suggested it, she agreed. I realized I was starting to lie a lot these days, but hey, it was only for the best.

When we arrived there I told my mom she could pick me up in fifteen minutes, so she left heading to the nearest grocery store.

Stewart's house was small and from the outside, I guessed he lived alone. I rang the doorbell and before I could spell Mississippi, he answered.

"Oh hello there Leslie, fancy meeting you here," the fact that he acted as if I knew him long before but didn't call before coming, got me a bit creeped out.

He wore this giant turban on his head and had a thin long pale face. His grey widened eyes were also fairly creepy. Inside his house were old books cramped into shelves, and pictures of kids here and there hung up on the walls. The house itself was musty and a mess since papers were lying everywhere.

"Um hi, I was here to find out some information on zombies, would you know?" I curiously asked.

"Why of course, please take a seat," for a second I thought he was faking and I was going to be asked for money before being given "information."

I pulled my bum all the way down so it sat on the bean bag chair he had.

"Before I can tell you anything I need to know what you know about zombies," he asked, which then made me wonder if we were just going to exchange our knowledge then leave.

I didn't know if I should have told him about my experiences or not, so far no one had believed me.

"Well I went into the whispering willows and I saw a zombie, then my friend came with me and the zombie took him away," The way I talked looked as if I had met a cat instead of a monster, but even then he seemed to understand.

"Oh yes, I had a child who once came to me telling me that he met a zombie. That was when I first became interested in them. He died few days later, I suppose he went back into the forest and they killed him. But not everybody can see zombies, only some, he was one of them, can you?" He questioned.

"Yeah I suppose, but my friend didn't see him and just walked straight into him!" I told Stewart.

"Oh I see, are you going to do anything about it?" He asked.

"Well for one thing I'm going back in there. I feel as if I need to make things right, I cant just leave him there," for a second I saw a smile on his face after I said that, but it soon returned back to the concerned look.

"I actually came here because I wanted to know what I could do to perhaps, destroy them?" Not that it was actually possible for me to do.

"Oh now that's easy, light," After coming all the way here this was all he was going to say?

"Light? Are you saying that to destroy zombies you need light?" I raised an eyebrow, obviously this man didn't have any real information.

"Why yes dear, it's all you need. Now, would you like something to drink?" He jumped off the bean bag and offered.

"Sure," I thought I might as well get something after coming so far and getting bland, useless knowledge.

He went out of the room and into the kitchen. After a few minutes I decided to explore his jungle of messed books. I picked up each one, seeing the tittles then letting them go if they weren't useful. This went on for a while until I finally came a book called "how to kill zombies." I had finally gotten the sunken piece of treasure.

I flipped to the first page, there I read useless things about them such as warding them off by swinging a bat in front of them. Soon my head started to get dizzy by reading all the words and the words started dancing again. I was about to close the book when I noticed actual sentences forming on my page. It read:

"It is fairly hard attacking a creature who is already dead. Since it would be useless attacking a body, the target would be the brain since it unconsciously controls the body. The most effective method of killing zombies is with a chainsaw attacked to the head."

I wanted to read more but at that moment Stewart came in with tea in his hands, spotting me with his book.

"Oh I see you found that book, it's quite useless really," he snatched the book out of my hands and threw it into the fireplace then smiled.

I wanted to argue that I was reading it and I wanted it, but by that time it was already burning in the flames.