Phantoms and Rebels

Ruby in Zombieland

Now I know this is corny but I swear it started as a normal day. I got up at 10 am, made myself breakfast while watching Spongebob reruns, took a shower, slipped on my ass in that shower, and got my newspaper before heading to my studio.
To be honest, the lack of voices in my head should have tipped me that something was off. But I was just enjoying the peace too much to care. It could have been the lack of appetite that morning, but honestly, I don't usually get hungry in the mornings anyway. It could have been that fall in the shower and how I didn't feel any pain when my butt hit the floor, that also had a suspicious lack of adhesive ducks.
I always say that I can either be unnaturally observant or as dense as lead and nowhere in between. But what was front page in the newspaper on my front porch could make even the densest person alive realize some idiosyncrasies.
Last night someone was torn apart by an unknown assailant and the victim had their picture as big as day. That picture was of me and my dogs Bandit and Eachy.... Why did they have to use that picture? I look like shit in that one. Well, to be honest, I look like shit anyway.
I was brought out of my thoughts by a couple banging noises upstairs. So being the curious, possibly already dead cat I was I went to go check. It could just be a mistake... Possibly?
Heading up the paint splattered staircase as quietly as I could, skipping the sixth step from the top to avoid squeaking, I listened to anything that could be someone. I tried to talk to Malin, Seda, or even just Adley but they just wouldn't answer. Silence I've never known before echoed in my head. I guess I'm alone on this.
Following a creak from my bedroom, I slowly open the door. And there bending down to look out the window was a squiggly black humanoid with its extended arms, legs, torso, and fingers. I must have made a noise because its head whipped around to have it's glowing white eyes borrow into my dark brown ones.
"...Malin?" I asked with eyes wide.
"Ruby." His familiar deep gravely voice shook my chest.
"I think we really are dead..." I confessed. How else could I physically see one of the personalities that were only in my head just yesterday?
"I know." He simply replies. Malin never really was one for conversation.
"Do you know who did it?"
"I remember last night when we had a phone call. From there, I know nothing. I regained consciousness here, in my own body." He answers fairly monotone. A man talking about the weather from the 1920's would have sounded more enthusiastic.
"Did you see the paper?" I don't know if it was a good idea to tell him about us being murdered. Malin has anger issues and problems with over-protectiveness.
"No." He says as if expecting me to elaborate. But instead, I handed the paper to him. His spider-legged fingers wrapped around it. The squiggles that took up most of his body, I could now tell were dormant black centipedes. But as he saw the picture, they started crawling. Just like my skin.
The temperature in the room dropped and an icy breeze started picking up. The window wasn't open and it was near the dead of summer. I was wondering what it was until I started hearing a low growl coming from Malin. His white eyes blazed as he read.
Taking a leap of faith I put my hand over his making him pay attention to me. Surprisingly his hand was soft. Where there weren't centipedes anyway. "We're fine Malin. I'm fine, you're fine. I'm sure the others are fine too. You probably want to get revenge, but right now at this moment everything is okay."
Others in this situation would have been freaking out. But we all have been ready to die since we were nine years old. We never had a good life so we were already dead on the inside. Save for the few things we actually cared about. Like our animals and our art. That was pretty much it. We didn't like to socialize. Not even Seda could handle too much and he was the most sociable of all of us.
I've had these other personalities since as far back as we all can remember. Which is about half a year old when we first met our grandmother. We couldn't tell if she was a male or female because she had short hair like a mans but had boobs like a woman. But luckily we don't remember when our mother almost drowned us.
"Where are the others?" He asked dropping the paper and stepping out into the hall, having to duck to get through the doorway.
"I don't know. They might be in other parts of the house" I mention as I watch him morph into a large black wolf. This was more his style.
He sniffed the air and took off down the stairs. I followed him into the kitchen and saw Seda standing in front of the open fridge looking up. He looked over his shoulder and gave a bright smile. "Well, it's about time you showed up."
He had black wavy hair down to the top of his caramel shoulders. His slim figure wore a bright pink loose crop top and cut off grey sweats. Another thing about him is he's the gayest and brightest unicorn anyone will meet.
"Malin!" He screams and hops over to reach up and hug him around his neck. Malin, in turn, licked Seda's face.
"Seda, we're dead," I mentioned.
"Uh, duh. Why else would I be out and about and in such a nice body." He squeals as he kicks his leg on the counter, "I mean look at these legs! Legs for days! You should see my butt!"
"Um, no thanks." I cringed just thinking about it. They all were like my brothers and though I could look at their butts if needed to I'd really prefer if I didn't. "Have you seen Adley?"
"Yeah, he went to the studio." He said as he went to rustle around in the fridge more.
Leaving them in the kitchen, I went to the studio. It was really just a two car garage we repurposed for half. The other half held the only car we've ever owned. We saved up for it because it was our favorite since we first saw the show Supernatural when we were seven when it first aired. It was a 67' Impala. Black with silver trim, of course. Cost us a damn fortune for it obviously receiving mediocre care for most of its life.
The other side was so used it had paint, cooled metal, clay, and ink sprayed and splashed everywhere. Needless to say, we had a tarp to cover the car. And there Adley was. Covered in paint and finger painting.
Adley's platinum curls weighed down by globs of red and blue. His amber eyes squinting in concentration.
"Adley, you're a mess." I scold the five-year-old before attempting to find a decently clean rag. Despite being around as long as the rest of us he stayed five. Most of the time anyway. Once in a while he would sound and act his actual age. Which is the same as us at 26.
"RU! I'm painting Ruru!" He grinned stamping his paint-covered hands on the canvas for emphasis.
"I can see that Adley but you're a mess now." Why can't a find a clean rag?
"It's okay Ru. Lookit!" He exclaimed and then makes a face like he ate something sour. I was about to ask what he was doing but then with a poof, all the paint disappeared leaving him in a clean black sweater with a white cat face and black jeans.
"How'd you do that?" I asked amazed.
"When I got messy the first time I thought about how great it would be if I could wish the mess was gone instead of actually cleaning and I concitrated really hard and it worked!"
"Concentrated." I corrected, "And don't show Seda that trick or he'll start trying to do other things."
"It's okay Ruru. I won't." He whispered while giggling. Then he got quiet and thoughtful. "We're dead. Aren't we?" He asked.
"Yes," I said after a pause. "How did you know?"
"Well, I have my own body. I don't hear the others anymore. And I can do whatever I want without fighting others before doing it. I can just do it." He can be pretty smart. Smarter than me anyway.
"Just make sure you be good still and not get into trouble," I warned.
"Of course, Ru! I'm a good boy!" He grinned grabbing my hand and running off with me to the kitchen.