Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

XII: something joyful (Part II)

Ch. 12: Something Joyful (Part Two)

After class, Mara went back to her room. She tried her best to act normal and control her racing mind. Still, the image she had seen was now etched in her memory, burned into it as if the blisters, cuts, and the dark ooze in the photo were pieces of a hot iron pressed to her skin.

Mirtes's words came back too. A zombie.

Increased strength, higher tolerance to physical exhaustion, anger, necrosis of body tissues, and, above everything else, constant hunger. They are still alive, yes, but barely. According to the Sents' books, zombies are the disgusting creatures on the brink of death who need a nibble out of living flesh to keep their organs functioning—or, rather, to keep the infestation controlled. If not treated, zombieism kills the host at some point; the leftover corpse is overtaken by the fungus, which uses the husk in whatever way it wants. Most of the time, it's for eating and procreating through their ravenous bites.

Because, yeah, zombieism is a damned fungus infection.

"Ugh! Goddess." Mara huffed.

Who would've thought athlete's foot could be so dangerous, huh.

"Goddess, stop making fun of everything, Mara. This is serious!" She groaned and rubbed her face. Mara refused to be a Madeleine Short in all this. She refused to believe there was anything this wrong with her. Sure, she was not in the best moment of her life—this much was clear—but that didn't mean she was a half-dead monster pinning for other people's brains, right?

Mara rested a hand on her chest and waited. There it was. Can you feel it, Mara dear? It's your heart. It's beating fine! No zombies here, you crazy diamond.

She let out a sigh and rested her arms beside her body. It was five in the afternoon, and she was already exhausted.

Hers wasn't that type of tiredness that people feel in their muscles after running a marathon or working the entire day lifting boxes. The kind of tiredness she was feeling was deeper, denser, and heavier. Her exhaustion was mental, first and foremost, and emotional, to make it even better. She'd been through too much in the past few days or years, and the feelings attached to that started to weigh on her shoulders.

It was something that she never thought she would feel again, but here it was. And as a result, here she was, lying on her bed, feeling as her heart beat gradually slower, gradually weaker, and gradually colder.

A tear prickled her eye. What was happening to her?

"Everything will be okay, Mara," Kiki said.

Mara's shoulders jumped. When Kiki's sweet voice pierced her ears, the blurriness and stillness went away for a moment. Mara blinked a few times and looked up to meet Kiki's white-colored eyes.

"Hey, Kiki. I haven't seen you there." Mara rolled to her side and propped her chin on the palm of a hand.

"That's because you were on the moon, you crazy diamond."

"Pfft. Right. Where are you going, kiddo?"

Kiki wore her yellow and pink bathing suit and a big, pink swim ring around her waist. Sunglasses, flip-flops, a beach hat—Kiki looked like a living ad for a children's swimming camp.

"I'm going to meet my friends in the swimming pool. Did you know we have a swimming pool, Mara? I love this place."

Mara scoffed. Usually, she would laugh and try to say something witty to challenge her baby sister, but today was just one of those days. Her smile disappeared. More than that, Mara had just received a death threat; what would she do if someone tried to use Kiki to get to her?