My Life As a Teenage Zombie

Snow Falls

The day of the scheduled fight arrives, and all of us group up to participate. Henry lets us into the otherworldly palace he's built, which I've dubbed the Dimensional Palace. It's an endless row of all sorts of rooms inside, all connected by corridors and stairways that twist against the rules of gravity, with some going up, others going down, and some being sideways. You could walk on them all just fine, and you wouldn't fall. That's part of why we're fighting here; We've all spent the day before getting used to it. Now, that doesn't exactly make us masters, but we'll be thrown off less than the other ones.

When Henry puts everyone in their specific parts of the Palace, the other door opens, and I see three figures stepping through it.

"Think this'll work?" asks Savannah, since it was decided she'd be fighting alongside Serena and myself.

"It has to," I reply, not taking my eyes off the door. We're watching them from above, and the four to greet them are Daniel, Mason and Sam, as the three of would are the fastest among us, and will lead them into their traps. We're still not sure what their trap would be exactly, as this place doesn't offer them much. Still, we're being cautious, since we're also trying to get as few of ours killed as possible.

The first to step through is Bell, and he's waving at Henry in a friendly way. "Oh, wow. Jonah won't be fighting his own battle? How scandalous!"

Henry smiles right back at him, containing all that poison I know is within right now. "Why don't you just roll over and die, Bell?"

The snow-man laughs heartily, then gestures to his left. "This young man here is Carson," he says, and a plain-looking guy with black hair comes in, and I immediately notice his skin. "Yes, he's a zombie, too. Isn't that just lovely? I thought I'd make it a zombie one-on-one, but Jonah seems to be too much of a coward. A shame." He then slaps his teammate on the shoulder, earning himself a glare. "He'll never admit it, but Carson here was sooo excited to get to fight another zombie. He didn't even sleep last night!"

"Don't touch me," the young man says, swatting the hand away. He's wearing nothing but a pair of kimono pants, and he's barefoot. He definitely seems better suited to fighting than I do. Do our strengths when we were human affect our abilities as zombies? If so, I'm in trouble. If we were both human, that guy would beat my ass no problem. Good thing we're not playing fair.

"So friendly, right?" Bell teases, and then a white-haired girl walks in from his right, wearing very, very little. I mean, she makes Serena look modest by comparison. Her hair is as strange as Henry's, and her eyes are a weird yellow. She's wearing a purple bra with purple thongs. How she didn't freeze by now is beyond me. "This lovely little thang is Darla. Be sure not to stare. It embarrasses her so."

She sticks her tongue out at Sam. "Dibs on the cutie."

"I believe that's all of us," Bell states, but I keep expecting someone else to come through the door. It closes, however, so I know Henry's plan is working. They won't be getting reinforcements here.

"By all means, then," Henry replies, "start."

Sam, Mason and Daniel all break off into different directions, Daniel taking a corridor, Sam pouncing on a beam leading way up high, and Mason rushing to the nearest staircase. Their three opponents deadpan, and then Bell and Darla burst out laughing.

"Well, nothing to do but take the bait," Bell says, and Carson is already on his way, chasing after Mason, probably since he looks like the toughest opponent. Good. I don't want a demon fighting him. He can at least run away quickly enough right now. The stairs disorient Carson a bit, but he's quick to get the hang of them, and continues pursuing his target. I want to get involved, but I can't. I need to save myself for the fight against Bell.