An Undead Boy

The day at the shopping center went as smoothly as it could have. No one glared at me, or jumped away, or took off screaming. Maybe it was because I had friends with me? Maybe I didn't give off a creepy, zombie vibe when I was flanked by two of the most unlikeliest people?

We probably looked like an odd trio. Danielle, small and blonde with her round eyes, me and my pale skin and haunted face and Arthur - well, there's no describing Arthur. His energy seems to be unlimited. He dragged me and Danielle to every shop in the town, even the toy store so that he could buy a hula hoop - "It's excellent exercise, Charlie. Don't turn your nose up at it!" - and by the end of the day, we were loaded down with bags and bags of stuff I wasn't sure he even needed.

When we had said goodbye to him at the bus stop, he pulled me in for a bear hug and ruffled my hair. As I watched him waltz Danielle around the darkening street, I thought that even in life I'd never seen anyone quite as enthusiastic or as passionate about being alive than Arthur. To have had the chance to witness it - to become friends with someone like him - was, I realised, an incredible thing.

I felt like I needed to tell him.

"You're incredible." I'd said.

He had looked at me, all traces of humour gone, and with an astonishing amount of sincerity that I thought he could never possess, replied with three words.

"No. You are."

In that moment, my gaze had snapped onto Danielle and I saw her smile wondrously at Arthur. I think, after those three words, he'd made the best and greatest impression on her in less than four seconds than he had the whole day.



It's Monday morning and I'm standing at the gates of the school, waiting for Danielle. We're going to walk in together, something I've wanted to do for a long time. After the day with Arthur, we agreed that it was time to try this out. We owe it to ourselves. We deserve it, I think.

The other students are studiously ignoring me, something that I got used to months ago - it's practically normal life for me now. They break around me, leaving me in a large circle of space. At least when Danielle arrives, she can spot me easily enough.

With nothing else to do, I take to staring about. There's nothing really here to interest me but I catch a glimpse of familiar red hair and my spirit lifts. James is stood away from me, and everyone else, paying extraordinary attention to the mobile phone in his hand. He must know that I'm here and I don't hate him for pretending otherwise. I'm fine with it - I hope that maybe one day, we can get past this and be friends again. He can't be afraid of me forever.

"Charlie." greets a bright voice.

I turn and Danielle is coming to a halt beside me, her bag swinging from her arm. She seems cheerier than usual and I don't know if it's the nerves kicking in and she's trying to hide it. I reach for her arm and the moment my hand touches her, there's a unified sharp intake of breath from everyone around us. James is looking over at us, a faint smile twitching his lips. He's the only person not standing in frozen horror.

Danielle's shoulder bumps into mine and I feel her breath against my cheek.

"Everyone's watching." she whispers.

I give a final, comforting squeeze on her arm.

"Might as well give them something worth watching then."

We walk past the school gates but the world we're in seems to be detached from us. It's familiar and strange all at once; I feel like me and Danielle are suspended in some sort of parallel universe, going through such simplistic actions but not quite knowing how they're going to turn out. Everything will never be as it used to.

Nobody else has moved an inch. We're winding our way through a courtyard of statues and I try and not let the way their eyes are trailing after us freak me out.

With a last glance behind me, we push through the doors into the school and as soon as it swings shut, Danielle gives off a shriek. We both know that everyone outside has sprung back to life and are discussing what they just saw.

"Did you see their faces?!"

I grin at her because she looks so thrilled. I never expected this reaction from her - maybe a breakdown and lots of crying in a corner and demands to shut ourselves away in the library again - but this is what I should know about Danielle by now, that she always does the unexpected.

"It was great."

Danielle shakes her head, giving me a crooked smile.

"No; finding out there's one more sweet left in the packet when you thought it was empty is great. Re-reading your favourite book and seeing something you missed the first time around is great. But this - this is exhilarating."

"You're exhilarating."

I clamp my mouth shut. I didn't mean to say that out loud and I'm embarrassed by it. In hindsight, it sounds cliche and cheesy and so nauseatingly bad that I want to dissolve into a puddle.

Danielle doesn't say that it's any of those things though; she has a glint in her eye and she leans in until we're almost nose to nose.

"Not half as much as you are."

She's suddenly gone from in front of me and it's a while before I realise she's walking away, her ponytail swinging.

"I have class - see you at break time! We'll meet in the usual spot." she calls. I know what place she's referring to - the library. I smile dazedly after her before mentally slapping myself. I have class too but I'm stood here like an idiot.

I hurry down the corridor, lost in my thoughts. Mostly about Danielle. Was I right in turning her away that day in her room? I wanted to kiss her and she definitely wanted to kiss me. I thought I was being selfless, that it was the right thing for her. Am I being cruel by still being her friend? By keeping her with me nearly every day? Is this fair, what I'm doing? I'm not sure what I should be doing anymore.

I turn the corner and I see a group of students clustered around the classroom door. Usually, I'm careful about turning up to class - I can time it just as the bell goes so that I won't have to stand around with my peers but today, with mine and Danielle's public breakthrough and my new found desire to submit myself back into society, I guess I thought it was about time to get back into old habits.

Still, it doesn't help that there are so many people here. Maybe if I just shuffle to the back and hope they don't notice me? I start to move but a noise distracts me, the sound of shoes clattering against the wooden floor.

"The corpse." drawls a voice. A gaggle of girls chuckle and I know who they find funny, even if I don't want to turn and see him there. I have to though.

Mark. He's taller than I remember, managing to look effortlessly cool instead of being a mass of awkward limbs like the rest of the boys his age - he easily has at least five inches on me now. He was always handsome, better looking than me or James. Even with his features screwed up with loathing like they are now, there is something terrifyingly beautiful about him. The grey in his eyes is flat, dead. There was a time when they blazed, like there was a storm encapsulated behind his face but it has calmed - or maybe, the storm just smashed and tore through everything inside of him, destroying whatever it was that made him human.

He grabs my shirt and shoves me into the wall, the crowd around us gasping and whispering. I hear the loud thunk as my head collides with brick but feel nothing except a slow, creeping dribble down the side of my face.

Mark's mouth twists into a sneer and I can only guess that he is seeing my green-tinged blood. He leans in, being obvious about avoiding the blood, and lowers his voice until it's barely a whisper.

"You're daydreaming, Corpse. You think that this can work? You think hanging out with that girl is going to do you good? Because it's not." he hisses, his face inches from mine. I've never seen him lose control like this before; his eyes bulging from the sockets, his lips thin and white. He looks - he looks insane. "Wherever you go, I will watch you. You will never be safe."

When I blink, it feels like it takes an eternity for them to open again. The collision with the wall must have affected my head somehow - can I get concussion? Mark is still there in my direct line of sight though, tilting his head at me.

"You'd do well to tell the girl that too - Danielle, is it? I heard about what happened at the gates. I knew there was something funny going on between you two. It makes me sick."

"Mark - " I try and say but he slams me against the wall again.

"Don't talk to me. You're not Charlie. You killed him long ago. You know, he was my best friend? I relied on him and he had to get himself hit by a car. The dumb bastard never looked where he was going - always walked into walls or chairs or - "

"The mirror in your room." I murmur, hearing him suck in a breath. His eyes have gone wide and he looks desperately stranded in the corridor, torn between his two selves - the one who knows me from the inside out and the one who wants to rip my insides out. I'm trying to think of what else I can say to convince him I'm still the same kid but he's already pulling away from me, shutting off whatever he was feeling a moment ago.

"Shut up!" he spits, blinking hard. "Shut the hell up!"

He lets me go and my legs crumble beneath me. I hit the floor heavily but he doesn't show any sign of caring. He just watches me, that spine-chilling blankness in his face. Neither of us move.

"Mark?" calls one of his friends. From the tone of his voice, I can tell that even he is spooked. "Come on, Mark. Let's go. He's had enough."

Mark rips his eyes away from mine and turns to address the cluster of students around him. The all inadvertently take a step back, even the girls who laughed have shrank into the crowds.

"If I see anyone talking to this - " he pauses, as if there isn't a bad enough word that can describe me. "Well, I guess I should just say that if you talk to him, I might see you around."

Of course. He can't just threaten people outright - he has to do it in a subtle way. The meaning is clear enough though.

The bell rings and everyone rushes into the classroom after Mark and his friends, not daring to let their curious gaze flicker towards me. As soon as the last person files through the door, I scoop up my bag and take off for the library.



"Oh my God - Charlie! Is that - is that blood on your face?" Danielle cries, moving closer to look at my face. I self-consciously hold a hand over the blood, and jerk away from her. She frowns, looking betrayed and confused but I don't want her to see me like this - to see what makes me different.

She found me crouching behind a table with Frankenstein in my hands. I don't know how it came to be there, I must have grabbed it from the shelf when I limped past. I think the thought of having something Danielle had touched close to me helped while I waited for her.

"What's going on? Someone did that to you, didn't they?" she says, her eyes narrowed.

I nod, knowing it will be pointless to lie to her, even if I could. The news about Mark will spread around and she'll hate me for not telling her myself if I leave the question hanging between us.

"It was Mark. He really scared me, Danielle. He hates me. All those secrets I've told him, or he's told me, and teasing James and sticking up for each other in fights. I don't know him anymore and all that time counts for nothing."

"Wait until I see him!" she seethes, jumping up and looking towards the library doors. "Where is he? I'll go and find him and I'll - "

"NO!" I shout, standing to grab her arms. Frankenstein drops onto the floor, long forgotten. "No, you can't do that - please stay here."

"He attacked you and you're my friend. I have to go and defend you because no one else in this God forsaken place will! I have to show you that you're not alone."

I'm positive that on any other occasion, these words would fill me with pride and awe and, if possible, more love for her. But right now, there's nothing worse in the world because I'm so, so petrified that Mark will take her away from me if I let her leave.

"You can't. You didn't see him, he was crazy! He'll hurt you, Danielle!"

"I'd like to see him try. You saying that isn't a deterrent, Charlie - it's an incentive."

I fall back against the book shelf and touch a hand to the blood on my face. The air has started to dry it and when I pinch my forefinger and thumb together, it feels tacky. The nightmare with Danielle is on my mind again and I shudder, knowing that it could easily be her blood if I let her go to Mark.

"Look, we're - we're daydreaming. It was a stupid idea to do this and I've put you at risk. It was thoughtless of me and I shouldn't have suggested it."

"This is what you wanted - what we wanted." her voice is small and I know that I'm messing her around again.

I shake my head, staring vacantly at Frankenstein.

"Not anymore."

It is a lie but a necessary one if I want to keep Danielle from harm. Giving up on my dream for acceptance seems like the smallest price to pay when it comes to ensuring her safety.