A Reanimated Kind of Forever Read online

  “Aren’t you going to kiss him?”

  I gulped at the thought. Kiss him? But... but...

  “Go on. Give him a kiss. You won’t be infected or anything. I made sure of that as well. Besides. Death got in the way once. Do you want it to get in the way a second and final time?”

  My eyebrows formed a V. Was that a threat?

  Zeke grinned. “Kiss.” Poor thing. So youthful in the way I wouldn’t have typically preferred. Granted, he wasn’t exactly a child, but this death thing had truly taken its toll on his emotional and mental maturity, or so it seemed.

  I sighed with my eyes watering again, almost wrinkling my nose from Zeke’s breath. And why did Granter have to stay here, anyway? Couldn’t he leave already?

  “What are you waiting for? Kiss already.”

  I’d had enough and turned back to face Granter. “Why are you so persistent about this?”

  Granter sported his most serious face. “Because I gave you a gift, a very special gift that forced me to put my life at risk just for you, which I won’t get into until you kiss him to start the process. But the point is, you’re not taking advantage of your gift. That insults me. That truly insults me.”

  I bit my lower lip. What process? Either way, maybe Granter had a point, as odd as it seemed. I turned back to Zeke with a weak smile playing on my lips. Ignoring his breath, I leaned closely enough to meet his lips for the first time.

  Zeke returned the tongue-free kiss at a slower pace, his lips feeling lukewarm. At this rate, breathing through my nostrils was something I couldn’t control for longer than a few seconds each time. Ugh, this chem-meat stench, topped with the kind of breath that resembled hunger or morning, or both. This wasn’t supposed to be how our first kiss would go, but eerier things happened.

  Nevertheless, I couldn’t let go. I had Zeke back in my life, and Granter was beyond generous. Maybe death had felt sorry for me and had wanted to loan me Zeke for the night—or for eternity?

  “Very chaste.” Granter’s tone had the most inappropriate amount of intrigue that caused my spine to shiver. What was going on inside his mind? “Keep going. Don’t stop.”

  But I had to break the kiss, and my eyes darted at Granter. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, because I really am thankful for what you did, but can we have some privacy?”

  Granter looked down with lowered mouth corners, the first time of such an expression. But why? The request was reasonable!

  “Please?”

  Zeke grinned. “Please?” Was he serious, or was he just acting like a parrot?

  Granter let out a deep breath. “Very well. But before I leave, I must tell you the purpose of Zeke’s reanimation.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “As a gift, right?”

  “Oh, but my gifts come with steep prices.”

  I swallowed. What could that mean? Wasn’t the purpose of a gift to show unconditional compassion? “Oh.”

  “Now that I know you’re able to get acquainted with Zeke in a whole new way, I need to record you two as part of a scientific study among me and the members of my coven.”

  “Coven?”

  “What, did you think I was a human? How else could Zeke be reanimated?”

  I could’ve smacked myself right about now. “Right.”

  “My coven and I want to study Zeke’s daily behavior, how he reacts to his environment, how he interacts with you, how he shows affection—or not.” Then, Granter smirked with a slightly raised eyebrow. “How he tends to all your gratifications.”

  I sported a blank face at the latter. “You mean, like, sex?” Hopefully not, since even Zeke had never expressed interest in that sort of thing.

  “That may happen. That may not. It’s up to you whether you want to make each other happy in that sense, which was why I loosened the stiffness without giving him too much relaxation. But we need everything recorded for our study. After all, we’ve never performed a corpse reanimation because the death gods didn’t always allow it, since it intervenes with the natural design of death. Now that we’ve come to an agreement on this study, I plan to fulfill my end of the bargain.”

  I swallowed, and I spied Zeke who looked even blanker than I did.

  “Don’t worry. He knows. I already informed him about his purpose before he knocked on your door. I even taught him how to move and walk with some ease, hence the three hours needed for extra certainty. Though, he’ll still lumber and find it challenging to flex his joints, but that’s to be expected in his condition.”

  I shifted my focus back on Granter, shaking my head. “I don’t know. This doesn’t seem right.”

  “Well, if you can respect Masters and Johnson’s historical sex research, surely you can do the same with ours, except it’s not all about the sex, rather, the daily life of a reanimated corpse.”

  I didn’t know who Masters and Johnson were, but I might as well have entered a reality show from this moment forward. “But... that means my life would be recorded, too.”

  “Yes. But do you think I’d dare anger the death gods by abusing what they agreed to when they otherwise wouldn’t have? This is confidential and it stays among us. We are solely focused on Zeke and his interactions with you and the world. You alone are irrelevant to our study. It must involve Zeke.”

  “Me?” It was as if Zeke had finally gotten it. Or was he parroting again?

  Wow. Zeke and I being recorded together. It would involve being naked, taking a dump, taking a shower, peeing in the shower, burping, farting—no-no-no! Those were personal behaviors. “What if I decline?”

  Granter smirked. “I was afraid you’d consider that.”

  “Well, you’d basically be invading my privacy and Zeke’s.” Wow. So, Zeke had moved in already. Then again, where else would he go? If his family were to see him in this state, there’d be no telling how they’d react.

  “I understand your concern. It’s a very reasonable one, in fact. But understand what your declining would do to me. I made a life-threatening deal that I cannot back out on.”

  “Life-threatening? How so?”

  “I could be punished severely and eternally if I defy the death gods. It’s an experience I’ll do anything to avoid.”

  I lowered my head with drooped mouth corners. “Oh.” But was it really my concern? Sure, I liked to make people happy, but why something like this?

  “And if that should happen, so be it. But you’d have to say goodbye to Zeke.” Another smirk. “Forever.”

  The Agreement...

  My heart flipped at the thought of Zeke being perished a second and final time, just after I’d finally gotten him back in my life. “No, Granter! Don’t hurt him! Please! He did nothing wrong!”

  “You’re right. It’s always the innocent ones who suffer. In fact, if you want to be precise, he’s suffering as we speak.”

  I turned toward Zeke. “Are you?”

  Zeke cocked his head as if oblivious of the concern. “Me?”

  Granter sighed. “He barely registers everything we’re saying because of our fluency. You have to speak in the most basic manner, and even then, a slow pace works best. Think of it as communicating with someone who’s learning English.”

  I swallowed. “But he doesn’t seem like he’s suffering.”

  “Not physically... yet. But in twenty-eight days, give or take a day because I like to throw in a bit of mystery, he will decompose, and it’ll have been your fault for rejecting my study.”

  “No! You wouldn’t do that! Would you?”

  “Foolish human. He’s a reanimated corpse. Of course he’s going to decompose, and worse that it’s summertime, which is not going to be pleasant.”

  My jaw dropped.

  “Actually, I have the ability to accelerate the decomposition process to however quickly I see fit.”

  My breathing increased.

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t want him to rot in as little as three minutes, would you?”

  Zeke started groaning. “Ow... ow...�
�

  I dropped my mouth open and watched him.

  Granter glared his eyes at Zeke. “With agonizing pain like the boiling of liquid.”

  Zeke groaned louder and whimpered.

  I watched in horror. “Stop it!”

  “Two minutes, perhaps? Or how about one minute just to get it over with?”

  Zeke screamed in agony.

  I shook my head with bulging eyes while cupping a fist with my other hand against my chest. “No, no! Stop! Please! And if I agree to the study?”

  Granter glared at Zeke to cause the pain to subside, and he smirked. “That’s more like it.”

  Zeke sighed as if alleviated, looking a little disoriented for a moment. I gave him the tightest hug I could and fearfully looked at Granter with my undivided attention.

  “If you agree to the study, I’ll prolong the decomposition process for as long as the study needs to be, and I’ll reward Zeke with his life by the end of it. He’ll be human again, a very special condition I was able to make as part of the deal with the death gods.”

  I broke the hug and released a gasp. “R-really? You’ll make him human again?”

  Granter nodded. “It wasn’t easy to convince the death gods, but yes.”

  I wrapped my arms around Zeke again, my face beaming. “You hear that? You’re going to be brought back to life the way you should be!”

  Zeke exchanged faces with me, somewhat. “Life.”

  “Oh, Zeke. You are my life. I know we’ve never had the chance to tell each other how we feel these past few years, at least not in great detail, but every day, my feelings for you grew stronger and stronger. Now? It’s love. I know it is. It has to be because I never felt this way about anyone till you came into my life, and I didn’t think I’d ever fall for anyone. I’ll do anything for you, Zeke. Anything.” I kissed him lightly, ignoring the stench. What had happened to someone like me who’d never cared for romance until my feelings for him had changed over time? I had even been convinced I was broken the way most teens weren’t, but I wasn’t, and especially not with Zeke in my life. It was only him I could ever want.

  Granter cleared his throat. “I take it you’ve made your decision.”

  I frowned. If only I could decline with no penalty, but I’d never forgive myself if I allowed Zeke to decompose, especially after having witnessed a horrifying preview in the flesh. No, no, I didn’t want to remember that—I couldn’t.

  I gave Granter a reluctant nod. “Okay. I have no choice but to trust you won’t abuse this study.”

  “I won’t. My eyes and the eyes of my coven and the death gods will be the only ones to witness this. Neither of us will ever abuse the study. You have my word.”

  “But do you have enough recording equipment to capture an endless amount of footage?”

  Granter gave me a face-palm look. “I can assure you my coven and I do not need such things.”

  I nodded in a rush and muttered, “Right.” Stupid.

  “The study begins now and ends when my coven and I decide so. May it be successful. Happy living.” Granter poofed.

  I let out a yelp with a mild loss of balance before standing back on my feet. What just happened? How could Granter have done that?

  Zeke shushed me in a gentle tone. “Poof.” How could he not be fazed by the poof?

  “One last thing,” said an unseen Granter in heavy reverb.

  I jumped with my eyes all over the room. Why did Granter keep startling me like this?

  “Make that two things. First, don’t forget to feed him once a day. He only drinks water and only eats brains, nothing else. I stored a large container of brains inside your embarrassingly half-empty refrigerator.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Brains?”

  “Yes, brains. And don’t ask how I provided them. That’s not your concern. Just do as I say.”

  “O-o-okay.”

  “And finally, do not under any circumstances let Zeke look in any mirror or capture his reflection in any other form. Don’t even let him out into the world without a disguise. It could negatively affect him and ruin the study. I’m warning you. Don’t.” The last word echoed longer than the others.

  I scoped the room. “Wait! Don’t go yet! What else should I know?”

  Silence.

  “Granter?”

  More silence.

  Zeke sported another blank look as if he hadn’t heard a thing. Had he?

  I shrugged it off. I lifted both corners of my mouth at Zeke’s presence. How would Zeke react if he were to capture his own reflection?

  Grinning again, Zeke removed his hoodie with minor struggles to reveal major bedhead and a kind of thinness that made my medium build seem bulkier. There was a sutured incision just above his navel and slightly to the right. Other smaller sutured incisions randomly decorated his hairless torso, probably from the gunshot wounds. I fought the urge to express sympathy. What I’d give to have him healed at this moment. Who knew how long the study would be? And who’d dressed him in those rags that were different from his burial suit? Was it just a disguise to get to my apartment?

  As Zeke was ready to unbutton his jeans for whatever reason, his eyes pointed at his arms, widening at the sight and shifting to his torso. His jaw looked as if it could drop, and he inspected himself.

  Uh-oh.

  Zeke let out huff after huff.

  I rushed toward him and grabbed his hands, controlling my nose from wrinkling as soon as the odor returned, the kind that only seemed apparent when at a certain nearness. “Shh, shh, it’s okay, Zeke, it’s okay.”

  More panting on the verge of hysterics. Zeke’s eyes blinked at random, rolling all over his surroundings. He groaned.

  I shook my head rapidly at him and grabbed him by the chin to make him lock eyes with me. “Look at me, Zeke. Look at me. Look, look!”

  After a few seconds, Zeke did as he was told with increased breathing, his misty eyes speaking louder than his sudden grumbling.

  I tried to breathe through my mouth by default. “Zeke, you’re still beautiful to me. You only look this way because you were embalmed after your death to avoid rotting sooner than you would have, but my feelings for you haven’t changed, okay?”

  A frown spread across his face. He probably didn’t grasp all of that. “Why...?”

  “Why what?”

  He pointed at his incisions.

  My heart took a dip in a pool of sympathy. “Oh, Zeke. I don’t know.” I tried to speak in a slower pace. “I mean... you were dead. And Granter—the old man who was here—revived you somehow. You came back to life, and I still can’t figure it out.”

  The corners of his mouth wilted, and his eyes watered a bit more. “Ug-ly,” he muttered.

  I gave him a rushed headshake, and I held the sides of his distraught face. “No, no, Zeke! No! You’re not ugly!” I leaned closer to him with another watery-eyed whiff, but I fought the nausea to avoid making him feel worse. I placed my lips on his and smiled. “I love you.”

  He raised one corner of his mouth to form a lopsided grin. “Love.”

  I nodded, chuckling. “Love. True love, right? I hope?”

  “Hope.”

  We cuddled while standing for many minutes until I yawned. “Well, Zeke? I think I’m ready to turn in. Maybe you, too?” I stroked his cheek. “Want to sleep on my bed or on the sofa?”

  He gave me a blank look. What was it with his selective memory when speaking slowly? It wasn’t as if I weren’t speaking in layman’s terms.

  I faked a yawn with a hand over my mouth and pointed at the bed and sofa.

  The blankness faded away, and he smiled. “Sleep.”

  Seriously? But I chuckled with a nod. “Yep. Sleep. But which one?” I repeated the gesture.

  He pointed at the sofa. He kicked off his shoes and undid his jeans, remaining in his underwear. Black, too? And skimpy? What had Granter been thinking when dressing him?

  “Okay. Sofa it is.” But as soon as I was about to turn around, the though
t of my bed sheets crept into mind. “Oh, I forgot. I only have my sheets since I was the only one who lived in this apartment, albeit it for a few hours.” If only it were easy to remember to speak slowly each time. The reminder came in spurts.

  Another blank look.

  “Never mind.” As cozy as the sheets were, as adapted to them as I was whenever the air conditioner was on, I couldn’t keep them for myself. I approached the sofa with Zeke lumbering behind, and I encouraged him to lay on it, which took extra time. I grabbed all the sheets minus the mattress cover and wrapped them around his body.

  He formed a smile that stole my heart, stinky and all, because of all the memories I had of our unbreakable bond.

  I hunched over and gave him a peck on the forehead, on the nose, and on the lips. “Love you.”

  “Love.”

  My heart tickled and forced a wider smile on my face. I sauntered to my bed and almost forgot I didn’t have sheets to slide under. I crawled on top and lay on my side in slight shivers, facing Zeke. “Night.”

  “Night.” That crooked grin never got old. The more I laid eyes on him, the more the creepy aesthetics faded away. After all, I had him back in my life, and I wasn’t going to depart from him ever again.

  The Process...

  I moaned gently. A stiff arm was wrapped around me. A stiff body was pressed against my back. The sheets provided warmth that didn’t exist the night before. Wait, wait, sheets? How did—?

  The familiar nose-pinching smell caused me to force-wake and turn around.

  Zeke formed his signature smile, his eyes fastening with mine. How did he manage to climb the wall side of the bed when the bed was against the wall? He patted the sheets and pointed at me with an exaggerated pout. “Cold.”

  My heartstrings were pulled. Had I been shivering all night even after I’d fallen asleep? “Aw, that was sweet of you. Thanks. And you slept with me, too, huh?”

  He responded with another smile.

  “Had I known you wanted to sleep with me, I would’ve offered. Oh, well. There’s always tonight, and tomorrow night, and... yeah, you get the point.” And who knew how much longer?

  The same response.

  “Well, I think we both need to brush our teeth, which means I’ll have to help you relearn. Come on, let’s go.”