ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
literature
Zilong the Zombie DAY 9
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
DAY 9
My mom hadn't pestered me too badly about my obvious damage. I'd gotten into a lot of fights in elementary school, so she wasn't too surprised. My father was more concerned about whether I gave as much as I'd received. I told him I had and he was satisfied. Mom was a little worried about a possible concussion, because of the repeated blows to the head I took, but I assured her I was really feeling okay.
"I just worry. I don't want to have you wake up dead tomorrow," she said. "I don't think your father would care for a repeat of that."
I nodded solemnly and promised if I felt anything bad like that, I'd let them know. I'd had a concussion or two in my childhood, and my mom was always worried about the possibility of me falling asleep and never waking up.
The next morning, Sunday, I checked on Stranger Cat's remains. The aweful sort of chemical, sort of burnig flesh stench hit me again, but once I'd cleared the scummy surface, I could see a lot of Stranger Cat's skeleton. I'd leave his body there until later in the afternoon, and then dump out the mess, and scrape whatever flesh was left off with a knife. My plan was coming together. This way, it would be less messy than when I'd originally envisioned it.
Stranger Cat was roaming about my room, not really doing anything. He watched when I started playing video games. He seemed fascinated by the TV. I guess he'd been a stray all his life, so this wasn't something normal for him. I remembered how Spike used to watch TV too, and when my brothers would play games in the living room, how he'd watch us and the screen at the same time. Thinking about Spike made me feel sad. I wondered if I could summon him, and if I should. I missed Spike, but at the moment, my revenge was a little more on my mind than anything else. That and my newly discovered ability to borrow some of Stranger Cat's energy I guess it was. I clearly paid a price for the feat, I'd been hungry since the day before, and had stuffed myself as full as I could, and I'd STILL been hungry, though incapable of eating. It had gotten better, but I was still eating heavier than I normally would have. By noon, I'd already had breakfast, and gone through four sandwiches. Now it was lunch, and time for some potato salad. We were out of sandwich meats.
Around 2:30, I dumped the pool acid and, ehhh ick out o the ground, took the bucket around to hose it and the skeletal remains off. Mom was reading, dad was watching something on TV and my brothers were off doing who knows what. I was unlikely to be seen playing with a cat skeleton. After hosing everything out, I went into the garage. I was kind of surprised that Stranger Cat's skeleton seemed so dainty. Stranger Cat was BIG.
After dumping the skeleton onto the work bench, I saw that most of what was left was the tendons and things that held the skeleton mostly together. All I really wanted was one of his front paw bones, and his skull. The jaw didn't want to stay attached. It didn't matter, I took the top of the skull and the jaw. The rest I put in a hefty sack and looked for someplace to hide it. I might need it later, I figured, so I didn't want to just chuck it into the dumpster. I finally hid the bag in the center of some tires in the back of the garage. We'd had the tires for who knows how long, and had never used them for anything. I didn't even think they went to any of the vehicles we currently had. Seemed safe enough.
I took out the red and black rabbits foot I'd got the other day. It looked like a perfect match for the one my evil exboss had on his keychain. I cut it open and removed the plastic peice inside. I substituted it with Stranger Cat's front paw. The fit wasn't going to be perfect, I realized, but hopefully, it wouldn't be noticed. If I arranged the cotton well enough, I was confident that my work would pass muster. The sewing was the hard part, I was never very good at it when I'd had to take it in home ec during seventh grade, and I still wasnt good at it. It took quite a long time, but I finally managed to sew the foot back together, and it looked okayish. At least I hoped it did. I knew I'd taken a long time to do that, and I was sick of it.
I took my work inside, into my room. So far, so good. Locking the door behind me, I brought out my Ouija board. Stranger Cat was looking suspiciously at me... after all I had his skull, his jaw bone, and his paw inside some cheap fake lucky rabbit's foot. I'm not sure what was going through my head, or why I'd thought what I was about to do would work, but it seemed to be the right path to take. I cut my finger and smeared a bloody S on the skull. I looked at Stranger Cat and said "That 'S' means you." I sucked the blood off my pinky and took the planchette.
"When I summon you in the store soon, you'll go there, right?"
YES
"When I get your foot attached to my bosses keys, you'll go there, too, right?"
YES
"Will you do your best to scare him?"
YES
I wondered how much of this Stranger Cat understood. Of course, being a cat, I'm certain he knew all about cat and mouse games, at least from the point of view of the cat. the boss, well, he'd be the mouse. I grinned. I lit up a white candle, and dripped the wax over the skull to seal the blood. Stranger Cat was still looking at me, but not suspiciously any longer. I held up his jaw bone, and said "I'll keep this so you'll have a link to me, okay?"
YES
"I'll use it if I want to call you."
YES
I found a small velvety feeling pouch I'd had, probably for role playing game dice from a long time ago. I dropped the jaw bone in the pouch. I got the chain from my dog tags, and ran it through the drawstring, and hung the jaw around my neck. I grinned. "Look at me, I'm some kind of shaman!" I chuckled, even though when said out loud, it didn't sound funny. I put the skull and unlucky cat foot in my desk drawer. I wondered when Jerry was going to call me with information about dinner. I was feeling hungry again.
Awhile later, Jerry called. Dinner was instead going to be in a few days, probably Wednesday night. He still sounded weird, and I wasn't sure why.
"You alright, Jerry?" I asked. I didn't want him to be nervous about my plan, since it pretty much revolved around him. I knew I was using him for my own selfish ends, but it didn't really matter to me. It's not like I was putting him in danger or anything, I was just using him to further my nefarious scheme for revenge. I thought about that for a second. I wondered if that was how Hitler had gotten his start.
I shook my head, Jerry had answered, but I hadn't heard what he'd said.
"What'd you say, buddy?" I asked.
"No, I'm alright. I guess I'm just feeling a little weird, is all."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, when's the next time you open the store by yourself?"
"Tomorrow, Monday morning. Are you going to tell me your plan tomorrow?"
I laughed. He sounded enthusiastic after all. "Yeah, I'll show up around opening and let you in on it."
"Cool."
I laughed again. Jerry would be alright after all. "Alright, see you tomorow, man." I hung up. Things would work out. I was pleased.
The next morning I woke up late. I felt dead tired. My face hurt worst than it had on Sunday. I remembered that I had class with Darkling Jess. That was always good. I'd have to explain what had happened to me. That might be bad. I aslo rememebred that I wanted to be at the store when it opened at 10am... and I had class at that time. I had PSYCHOLOGY class with Jess at that time. What had I been thinking the night before? It was clear I HADN'T been thinking. The mall wasn't far from school, but it was hard to find parking at that time on campus. I didn't really have the time to go between Psychology and Statistics either... only twenty minutes between classes. But I really really wanted revenge... and I really really wanted to be in Psychology the whole time to be near Jess. I wanted to be near Jess more than I wanted revenge, so it was clear I couldn't ditch Psychology.
I realized while I was pondering, time was passing, and I'd likely just BARELY make it to class on time. I could think about it on the drvie, I decided, so I grabbed the skull, grabbed the paw, grabbed my backpack, and dashed out the door. I dashed back in to grab the left over pork chop we'd had, and a package of hotdogs. They were probably for dinner, but I was HUNGRY. They probably wouldn't be very good uncooked either.Still, they'd sate my craving for meat hopefully. Or at least meat like substances.
I was fortunate enough to find a parking space quickly as I dashed to class. I wasn't late, but it was close. I made it through the door just as our professor was getting ready to call roll.
"Barely made it," Jess whispered, as she turned to lok at me. She did a double take remarkably similar to the one the clerk in the Circle K had. "What HAPPENED to you?"
"I'll tell you later, I promise," I whispered back. She looked dubiously at me then turned back in her seat. She glanced over her shoulder at me again, as if making sure it was really me and I was really there. She shook her head and faced forward.
After class, she made me sit down by the fountain with her while she looked over my face. "Alright, tell me what happened. Tell me you DIDN'T try and beat up your boss and he did this to you."
I shook my head and grinned. "No, that's something for me to deal with pretty soon, actually. I got jumped Saturday."
"Who jumped you?"
"A couple punks. They tried robbing me."
"Tried?"
"Well, I got the better of them in the end and made them replace my sandwich."
Jess was slightly confused, clearly, so I told her the story about how I'd gotten jumped coming out of Circle K eating my sandwich, how they'd knocked it on the ground, how I'd gotten in a few good hits until I got hit from behind, and how I borrowed the power of the dead to kick some serious ass in the end.
Jess was wide eyed. "You're really serious about this summoning the dead stuff?" she asked. "I know you said you were going to try and haunt the place, you really CAN do that? Not just some sort of trick?"
"Would you be afraid if I told you 'yes'?" I asked in return.
She shook her head. "No way. I've been through enough so that I'm not afraid of ghosts and boogeymen and stuff like that."
I nodded. "You don't have any class right now, right? Do you have time to come to the mall with me? I have something to do, and it involves summoning the dead."
"You have class."
"I'm going to be late."
"Let's go then," she said firmly.
In the parking lot back at my truck I made sure we were reasonably alone.
"I'm going to show you something now. Ehh, do you like cats?"
She laughed. "What does that have to do with anything?" She asked.
"You'll see," I responded cryptically, taking the pouch with Stranger Cat's jaw out from under my shirt.
"I'm cool with cats," she answered, eyeing the bag.
"Good," I responded. "Stranger Cat? Please come to me and show yourself."
"Stranger Cat?" she inquired, amused. Then she stared wide eyed as Stranger Cat shimmered into translucent existance on my shoulder.
She blinked and her mouth opened as if to say something, but now words came out.
"Stranger Cat, this is Darkling Jessica. Jess, this is Stranger Cat. He is our ghost that's going to haunt the evil Derrick, my former employer."
Jess jointed at Stranger Cat. Stranger cat hopped off my shoulder onto my lap. I was amazed once again of the feeling of not so much weght, but presence leaving my shoulder and settling on my lap. Stranger Cat eyed Jess with seeming indifference.
"A... a ghost CAT?" she finally managed.
I grinned and nodded. "For now. He's kinda scary don't you think?"
She looked at me and blinked. "You didn't use your Ouija to summon him. How did you get him to just appear like that?"
"I have his jawbone with me. Well, also his skull and one of his feet. An unlucky cat's paw, to replace a lucky rabbits foot. I don't think I need the jawbone, either, I just have it because it felt like it might come in useful."
"Can I touch him? Or will my hand just pass through him?"
I thought about it for a second. I'd never really tried touching Stranger Cat, he'd only touched me, but there was an undeniable feeling that he was actually THERE, some sort of spectral solidity, if such a thing were possible. "I'm not sure, why don't you give it a try?"
Jess put her hand out, hesitated, drew it back then reached out as if to pet Stranger Cat. He didn't move, just stared at her. Her hand passed through him without resistance. She quickly drew it back.
"Wow." She paused, then said again "Wow. That was... different."
My eyebrows furrowed. "Different? What do you mean?"
She looked down, shaking her head. "I'm... I'm not sure I know how to explain. The cat... he flet like he was THERE, even though my hand passed through him... I felt... SOMETHING, but..." She shook her head again. "I just don't know how to explain it."
I looked down at Stranger Cat. He blinked and looked up at me. "I'm going to pet you, Stranger Cat," I announced. I reached down as if to pet him, and I was shocked when he felt solid under my hand. I could feel the solidity of him, even though I could see the light of the day shining through him. He wasn't solid, and yet... he FELT solid to me. I could feel the sort of rough short fur he had... not smooth and soft like an indoor cat. I petted him unbelievingly.
Jess was looking at me with disbelief in her eyes. She reached out and put her hand on mine as I petted Stranger Cat. Then she tried to toouch him herself, and her hand passed through as before. She once again jerked it away.
I looked at her eyes, and shook my head. "I don't know how this works," I tried to explain. She just looked at me. I couldn't read her thoughts from her expression. I hoped she wasn't thinking bad things or suddenly afraid of me. "Are you alright?" I asked. I didn't know what else to say.
"I'm okay, I think," she answered. "I think I'm just in shock. I mean, I know you SAID you summoned the dead, but I expected some sort of parlor tricks with your ouija board or something. I know you said you were going to haunt your boss, but I just thought it might be some sort of hoax perpetrated by your Jerry friend, or something. I'm not really sure what I expected, but I know I didn't expect a ghostly cat. You're full of surprises. I don't think I should call you Psychoboy anymore," she finished.
I didn't think this was a good thing for me, but I tried not to let my face betray any emotion.
She looked up and me and smiled then, and relief flooded through my system. "You're my Zi Kill, now." She winked. "Let's get out of here before the Ghostbusters come after you. We have a haunting to set up."
The mall was fairly empty when we got there, a little before noon on a Monday. I was hoping that the store would be empty, but it probably wouldn't. On the plus, the boss was unlikely to be there for at least ninety minutes or more.
Jerry saw us walk in and looked frantic. "Where have you been? I expected you at ten!"
"I had school, I forgot when I talked to you yesterday. Is the coast clear?"
He seemed to notice my face for the first time. "What happened to you?" he asked in a state of hushed awe.
"My high speed Samurai here had to kick some ass, that's what," Jess answered for me. "Now is the coast clear or what?"
Jerry looked at Jess, back at my face, back to Jess. He didn't seem to be able to take everything in very quickly.
I hastily made introductions to hopefully bring Jerry up to speed. "Jerry, this is Darkling Jess, Jess, this is Jerry. So, the backroom, can I go in and set up or what?"
Jerry nodded, mouth open. He was still staring back and forth between my face and Jess. I pulled Stranger Cat's skull out from my backpack and made my way into the backroom. "I'll be back in about two minutes."
Jess waited out front with Jerry as I closed the door behind me. I placed the skull on the counter in front of me, touched it, and concentrated on bringing Stranger Cat. As expected, he arrived, seated next to his skull. Good. I took the roll of packing tape and adhered Stranger Cat's skull to the bottom of the desk way in the back, where it was unlikely anyone would see it.
"Stay here," I ordered Stranger Cat.
I pulled the unlucky 'rabbit' foot out of my pocket, and went out to the front of the store. I placed it in Jerry's hand. He looked at it and then looked at me.
"When Derrick comes in, and goes to the back room to take care of shipment, I want you to swich his rabbit foot for this one," I told him. "And if you'll come to the back of the store, I'll show you something, just so you'll be prepared."
Jerry nodded mutely and followed into the back room. He saw Stranger Cat and pointed. "What... what's THAT doing here?"
"Stranger Cat, when we give your foot to Derrick I want you to scare him occassionally. Not always, but sometimes. Jump out at his face, scratch his nose like you did Dean's, that kind of thing." I looked at Jerry. He was staring, dumbfounded. "Stranger Cat, we don't need to se you right now. Disappear, and wait for me to give you instructions."
Stranger Cat obliged by fading from view. Somehow, I could still feel his presence. I guess I'd been spending a lot of time with my former feline nemesis. Odd that we'd be working together like this.
Jerry was still staring at the spot where Stranger Cat had been.
"C'mon, let's go back to the front," I instructed him.
Jerry followed mutely back to the front of the store, before he finally found words.
"Wha... what just happened?" he stammered. "What was that? What's going on?"
"Ghost cat, revenge," Jess answered for me again. "It's all under control. You know what your scumbag boss did to Zi here?"
Jerry was lost again. "Zi? Is that the cat? Ghost cat? What?" He was looking back and forth between Jess and I and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
"Zi, Your former coworker, currently standing before you and harnessing power over dead cats," Jess explained. "The cat, Zi calls him Stranger Cat. He's a ghost cat. He's going to torment your boss. You're going to slip the foot on his keychain. Are we clear?" I leaned against the wall watching Jess take charge. At that moment, I was pretty sure I loved her. Known for a week or not, I was pretty sure. And I still had so much to find out about her... I wondered how she felt about me just then, and I hoped it was pretty close to what I was feeling.
I pushed myself off the wall. "Look, if you need to know more, we can talk about it when we go eat. Wednesday, right?"
Jerry looked at me and nodded. I noticed he couldn't make eye contact though, and I wondereed if I'd freaked him out about the whole ghost cat haunting thing. I cocked my head and looked at him.
"Hey, are you okay with what I'm doing?" I asked. "You look like, I dunno, man, uncomfortable."
Jerry shook his head and looked up. "No I'm okay with that. I mean, I heard what he said about you to whoever called here checking on your work history, so I mean I know why you're doing it too. That was pretty messed up and I know it's not true." He looked me in the eye this time. "He deserves what he's going to get, you know?" His tone was feirce. That was good, then.
"So we're cool, right?" I asked. "You know what you're going to do and don't have a problem with it?"
"Switch the rabbits foot on his keychain for this one," he replied. "Simple."
I nooded. He seemed okay after all, then.
"I need to talk to Stranger Cat one more time before we leave him here to do his work," I said, excusing myself to go back to the back room.
Once there, I called Stranger Cat back. He appeared at once.
"I'll be leaving here now. Stay here, stay hidden until Derrik has your foot. Once he does, he's your mouse. Play with him as you will. Jerry is with us, though, so leave him alone. I'll call you if I need you. Do you understand?"
Stranger Cat had no means of communicating with me at that moment, but seemed to understand what was required of him. I nodded, and Stranger Cat faded from view.
"I'll call you tomorrow, Jerry," I said as Jess and I took our leave.
Instead of heading back to school to go to class, I asked Jess if she were hungry.
"Not especially," she replied. "I usually don't eat for a few more hours, but if you are, I could go for something."
I was hungry. I wanted more sandwiches, so I drove to Subway.
"Zi Kill?" I asked.
"It's a band," she answered. "But I always liked the sound of the name. So far, you're the first person I think who deserves it."
I felt a surge of pride that I deserved a name like that, even if I didn't know what it meant. I DID like the sound of it, anyway.
"Did Jerry's parents name him that because they knew he was going to turn into such a mouse?" she asked me. I chuckled. Jerry wasn't ever going to be a predator in the world of men, that was for sure. She went on, "Then again, he's not like the mouse from the cartoon, always getting the better of the cat."
I couldn't help but grin. "Jerry's alright. He's not tough, but he'd like to be, at leas that's a start, I guess."
She looked skeptically at me, then grinned. "If you say so, killer."
Inside Subway, I ordered a footlong Italian BMT and another footlong Meatball sandwich I promised to share with Jess. As we sat down, she marvelled at the quntity of food I was going to eat. "How can you eat so much? You're not exactly the biggest guy around, but you eat like you were."
"I'm just really hungry, that's all," I answered around a mouthful of sandwich.
"Didn't you eat breakfast?"
I thought back, and then nodded. "Yeah. But I'm still hungry."
She shook her head and took a bite of her half of our Meatball sandwich. I HAD been eating more than usual lately, I thought. I shrugged and wolfed down the rest of my sandwich and started in on my half of the meatball sub. I ended up ordering a second meatball sub. Jess just stared in amazement.
"Do you ALWAYS eat this much?"
I just shrugged and kept eating.
"Your family must be rich to afford to feed you," she mused.
I grinned around a mouthful of meatball and cheese.
She shook her head. "I want to see you summoning the dead," she told me.
The sudden change in topic caught me a little off guard, but I nodded in the affirmative as I finished chewing. "Sure," I said after swallowing. "When?" What had I thought a week ago? If I couldn't abuse my power to win the lotto, using it to get girls was the next best thing. I smiled to myself as I thought about that.
"How about tonight?" she answered. "I have to work the closing shift, but I'll be done at ten. How about after that?"
"Sounds good to me," I said. "But I live kinda far our into the middle of nowhere. About a forty minute drive far. Are you up to it?"
"I'll be fine as long as you give me good directions."
I nodded. She handed me a peice of paper and a pen from her bag purse thing. I wrote directions out for her.
"Right before the last turn before the main road, watch out for Ghost Dog," I warned. "He likes trying to scare you into running off the road."
She looked at me as if to see if I were joking. "When someone like you wanrs me about a ghost dog, I'm not sure if you're kidding or not," she said.
"I sort of am, but there really is a dog that likes to run out in front of your car," I explained. "He might even BE a ghost dog now, instead of just called that. Whatever he is, when he pops out in front of you, keep in mind NOT to panic and swerve into a ditch, just keep driving straight, and you'll miss him and be fine. I wrote my phone number on the directions, just in case. If you do run into any problems finding the place, back track to the AM/PM gas station back on the highway and call me. That's pretty much the last marker of civilization out my way."
She nodded, looked at my directions, folded them and tucked them away into her bag.
She grinned. "Should I bring you sandwiches tonight to help you battle the spectre of hunger?"
I laughed. Inside, my heart was soaring. I was having a good day. After all, I deserved the name Zi Kill, right?
My mom hadn't pestered me too badly about my obvious damage. I'd gotten into a lot of fights in elementary school, so she wasn't too surprised. My father was more concerned about whether I gave as much as I'd received. I told him I had and he was satisfied. Mom was a little worried about a possible concussion, because of the repeated blows to the head I took, but I assured her I was really feeling okay.
"I just worry. I don't want to have you wake up dead tomorrow," she said. "I don't think your father would care for a repeat of that."
I nodded solemnly and promised if I felt anything bad like that, I'd let them know. I'd had a concussion or two in my childhood, and my mom was always worried about the possibility of me falling asleep and never waking up.
The next morning, Sunday, I checked on Stranger Cat's remains. The aweful sort of chemical, sort of burnig flesh stench hit me again, but once I'd cleared the scummy surface, I could see a lot of Stranger Cat's skeleton. I'd leave his body there until later in the afternoon, and then dump out the mess, and scrape whatever flesh was left off with a knife. My plan was coming together. This way, it would be less messy than when I'd originally envisioned it.
Stranger Cat was roaming about my room, not really doing anything. He watched when I started playing video games. He seemed fascinated by the TV. I guess he'd been a stray all his life, so this wasn't something normal for him. I remembered how Spike used to watch TV too, and when my brothers would play games in the living room, how he'd watch us and the screen at the same time. Thinking about Spike made me feel sad. I wondered if I could summon him, and if I should. I missed Spike, but at the moment, my revenge was a little more on my mind than anything else. That and my newly discovered ability to borrow some of Stranger Cat's energy I guess it was. I clearly paid a price for the feat, I'd been hungry since the day before, and had stuffed myself as full as I could, and I'd STILL been hungry, though incapable of eating. It had gotten better, but I was still eating heavier than I normally would have. By noon, I'd already had breakfast, and gone through four sandwiches. Now it was lunch, and time for some potato salad. We were out of sandwich meats.
Around 2:30, I dumped the pool acid and, ehhh ick out o the ground, took the bucket around to hose it and the skeletal remains off. Mom was reading, dad was watching something on TV and my brothers were off doing who knows what. I was unlikely to be seen playing with a cat skeleton. After hosing everything out, I went into the garage. I was kind of surprised that Stranger Cat's skeleton seemed so dainty. Stranger Cat was BIG.
After dumping the skeleton onto the work bench, I saw that most of what was left was the tendons and things that held the skeleton mostly together. All I really wanted was one of his front paw bones, and his skull. The jaw didn't want to stay attached. It didn't matter, I took the top of the skull and the jaw. The rest I put in a hefty sack and looked for someplace to hide it. I might need it later, I figured, so I didn't want to just chuck it into the dumpster. I finally hid the bag in the center of some tires in the back of the garage. We'd had the tires for who knows how long, and had never used them for anything. I didn't even think they went to any of the vehicles we currently had. Seemed safe enough.
I took out the red and black rabbits foot I'd got the other day. It looked like a perfect match for the one my evil exboss had on his keychain. I cut it open and removed the plastic peice inside. I substituted it with Stranger Cat's front paw. The fit wasn't going to be perfect, I realized, but hopefully, it wouldn't be noticed. If I arranged the cotton well enough, I was confident that my work would pass muster. The sewing was the hard part, I was never very good at it when I'd had to take it in home ec during seventh grade, and I still wasnt good at it. It took quite a long time, but I finally managed to sew the foot back together, and it looked okayish. At least I hoped it did. I knew I'd taken a long time to do that, and I was sick of it.
I took my work inside, into my room. So far, so good. Locking the door behind me, I brought out my Ouija board. Stranger Cat was looking suspiciously at me... after all I had his skull, his jaw bone, and his paw inside some cheap fake lucky rabbit's foot. I'm not sure what was going through my head, or why I'd thought what I was about to do would work, but it seemed to be the right path to take. I cut my finger and smeared a bloody S on the skull. I looked at Stranger Cat and said "That 'S' means you." I sucked the blood off my pinky and took the planchette.
"When I summon you in the store soon, you'll go there, right?"
YES
"When I get your foot attached to my bosses keys, you'll go there, too, right?"
YES
"Will you do your best to scare him?"
YES
I wondered how much of this Stranger Cat understood. Of course, being a cat, I'm certain he knew all about cat and mouse games, at least from the point of view of the cat. the boss, well, he'd be the mouse. I grinned. I lit up a white candle, and dripped the wax over the skull to seal the blood. Stranger Cat was still looking at me, but not suspiciously any longer. I held up his jaw bone, and said "I'll keep this so you'll have a link to me, okay?"
YES
"I'll use it if I want to call you."
YES
I found a small velvety feeling pouch I'd had, probably for role playing game dice from a long time ago. I dropped the jaw bone in the pouch. I got the chain from my dog tags, and ran it through the drawstring, and hung the jaw around my neck. I grinned. "Look at me, I'm some kind of shaman!" I chuckled, even though when said out loud, it didn't sound funny. I put the skull and unlucky cat foot in my desk drawer. I wondered when Jerry was going to call me with information about dinner. I was feeling hungry again.
Awhile later, Jerry called. Dinner was instead going to be in a few days, probably Wednesday night. He still sounded weird, and I wasn't sure why.
"You alright, Jerry?" I asked. I didn't want him to be nervous about my plan, since it pretty much revolved around him. I knew I was using him for my own selfish ends, but it didn't really matter to me. It's not like I was putting him in danger or anything, I was just using him to further my nefarious scheme for revenge. I thought about that for a second. I wondered if that was how Hitler had gotten his start.
I shook my head, Jerry had answered, but I hadn't heard what he'd said.
"What'd you say, buddy?" I asked.
"No, I'm alright. I guess I'm just feeling a little weird, is all."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, when's the next time you open the store by yourself?"
"Tomorrow, Monday morning. Are you going to tell me your plan tomorrow?"
I laughed. He sounded enthusiastic after all. "Yeah, I'll show up around opening and let you in on it."
"Cool."
I laughed again. Jerry would be alright after all. "Alright, see you tomorow, man." I hung up. Things would work out. I was pleased.
The next morning I woke up late. I felt dead tired. My face hurt worst than it had on Sunday. I remembered that I had class with Darkling Jess. That was always good. I'd have to explain what had happened to me. That might be bad. I aslo rememebred that I wanted to be at the store when it opened at 10am... and I had class at that time. I had PSYCHOLOGY class with Jess at that time. What had I been thinking the night before? It was clear I HADN'T been thinking. The mall wasn't far from school, but it was hard to find parking at that time on campus. I didn't really have the time to go between Psychology and Statistics either... only twenty minutes between classes. But I really really wanted revenge... and I really really wanted to be in Psychology the whole time to be near Jess. I wanted to be near Jess more than I wanted revenge, so it was clear I couldn't ditch Psychology.
I realized while I was pondering, time was passing, and I'd likely just BARELY make it to class on time. I could think about it on the drvie, I decided, so I grabbed the skull, grabbed the paw, grabbed my backpack, and dashed out the door. I dashed back in to grab the left over pork chop we'd had, and a package of hotdogs. They were probably for dinner, but I was HUNGRY. They probably wouldn't be very good uncooked either.Still, they'd sate my craving for meat hopefully. Or at least meat like substances.
I was fortunate enough to find a parking space quickly as I dashed to class. I wasn't late, but it was close. I made it through the door just as our professor was getting ready to call roll.
"Barely made it," Jess whispered, as she turned to lok at me. She did a double take remarkably similar to the one the clerk in the Circle K had. "What HAPPENED to you?"
"I'll tell you later, I promise," I whispered back. She looked dubiously at me then turned back in her seat. She glanced over her shoulder at me again, as if making sure it was really me and I was really there. She shook her head and faced forward.
After class, she made me sit down by the fountain with her while she looked over my face. "Alright, tell me what happened. Tell me you DIDN'T try and beat up your boss and he did this to you."
I shook my head and grinned. "No, that's something for me to deal with pretty soon, actually. I got jumped Saturday."
"Who jumped you?"
"A couple punks. They tried robbing me."
"Tried?"
"Well, I got the better of them in the end and made them replace my sandwich."
Jess was slightly confused, clearly, so I told her the story about how I'd gotten jumped coming out of Circle K eating my sandwich, how they'd knocked it on the ground, how I'd gotten in a few good hits until I got hit from behind, and how I borrowed the power of the dead to kick some serious ass in the end.
Jess was wide eyed. "You're really serious about this summoning the dead stuff?" she asked. "I know you said you were going to try and haunt the place, you really CAN do that? Not just some sort of trick?"
"Would you be afraid if I told you 'yes'?" I asked in return.
She shook her head. "No way. I've been through enough so that I'm not afraid of ghosts and boogeymen and stuff like that."
I nodded. "You don't have any class right now, right? Do you have time to come to the mall with me? I have something to do, and it involves summoning the dead."
"You have class."
"I'm going to be late."
"Let's go then," she said firmly.
In the parking lot back at my truck I made sure we were reasonably alone.
"I'm going to show you something now. Ehh, do you like cats?"
She laughed. "What does that have to do with anything?" She asked.
"You'll see," I responded cryptically, taking the pouch with Stranger Cat's jaw out from under my shirt.
"I'm cool with cats," she answered, eyeing the bag.
"Good," I responded. "Stranger Cat? Please come to me and show yourself."
"Stranger Cat?" she inquired, amused. Then she stared wide eyed as Stranger Cat shimmered into translucent existance on my shoulder.
She blinked and her mouth opened as if to say something, but now words came out.
"Stranger Cat, this is Darkling Jessica. Jess, this is Stranger Cat. He is our ghost that's going to haunt the evil Derrick, my former employer."
Jess jointed at Stranger Cat. Stranger cat hopped off my shoulder onto my lap. I was amazed once again of the feeling of not so much weght, but presence leaving my shoulder and settling on my lap. Stranger Cat eyed Jess with seeming indifference.
"A... a ghost CAT?" she finally managed.
I grinned and nodded. "For now. He's kinda scary don't you think?"
She looked at me and blinked. "You didn't use your Ouija to summon him. How did you get him to just appear like that?"
"I have his jawbone with me. Well, also his skull and one of his feet. An unlucky cat's paw, to replace a lucky rabbits foot. I don't think I need the jawbone, either, I just have it because it felt like it might come in useful."
"Can I touch him? Or will my hand just pass through him?"
I thought about it for a second. I'd never really tried touching Stranger Cat, he'd only touched me, but there was an undeniable feeling that he was actually THERE, some sort of spectral solidity, if such a thing were possible. "I'm not sure, why don't you give it a try?"
Jess put her hand out, hesitated, drew it back then reached out as if to pet Stranger Cat. He didn't move, just stared at her. Her hand passed through him without resistance. She quickly drew it back.
"Wow." She paused, then said again "Wow. That was... different."
My eyebrows furrowed. "Different? What do you mean?"
She looked down, shaking her head. "I'm... I'm not sure I know how to explain. The cat... he flet like he was THERE, even though my hand passed through him... I felt... SOMETHING, but..." She shook her head again. "I just don't know how to explain it."
I looked down at Stranger Cat. He blinked and looked up at me. "I'm going to pet you, Stranger Cat," I announced. I reached down as if to pet him, and I was shocked when he felt solid under my hand. I could feel the solidity of him, even though I could see the light of the day shining through him. He wasn't solid, and yet... he FELT solid to me. I could feel the sort of rough short fur he had... not smooth and soft like an indoor cat. I petted him unbelievingly.
Jess was looking at me with disbelief in her eyes. She reached out and put her hand on mine as I petted Stranger Cat. Then she tried to toouch him herself, and her hand passed through as before. She once again jerked it away.
I looked at her eyes, and shook my head. "I don't know how this works," I tried to explain. She just looked at me. I couldn't read her thoughts from her expression. I hoped she wasn't thinking bad things or suddenly afraid of me. "Are you alright?" I asked. I didn't know what else to say.
"I'm okay, I think," she answered. "I think I'm just in shock. I mean, I know you SAID you summoned the dead, but I expected some sort of parlor tricks with your ouija board or something. I know you said you were going to haunt your boss, but I just thought it might be some sort of hoax perpetrated by your Jerry friend, or something. I'm not really sure what I expected, but I know I didn't expect a ghostly cat. You're full of surprises. I don't think I should call you Psychoboy anymore," she finished.
I didn't think this was a good thing for me, but I tried not to let my face betray any emotion.
She looked up and me and smiled then, and relief flooded through my system. "You're my Zi Kill, now." She winked. "Let's get out of here before the Ghostbusters come after you. We have a haunting to set up."
The mall was fairly empty when we got there, a little before noon on a Monday. I was hoping that the store would be empty, but it probably wouldn't. On the plus, the boss was unlikely to be there for at least ninety minutes or more.
Jerry saw us walk in and looked frantic. "Where have you been? I expected you at ten!"
"I had school, I forgot when I talked to you yesterday. Is the coast clear?"
He seemed to notice my face for the first time. "What happened to you?" he asked in a state of hushed awe.
"My high speed Samurai here had to kick some ass, that's what," Jess answered for me. "Now is the coast clear or what?"
Jerry looked at Jess, back at my face, back to Jess. He didn't seem to be able to take everything in very quickly.
I hastily made introductions to hopefully bring Jerry up to speed. "Jerry, this is Darkling Jess, Jess, this is Jerry. So, the backroom, can I go in and set up or what?"
Jerry nodded, mouth open. He was still staring back and forth between my face and Jess. I pulled Stranger Cat's skull out from my backpack and made my way into the backroom. "I'll be back in about two minutes."
Jess waited out front with Jerry as I closed the door behind me. I placed the skull on the counter in front of me, touched it, and concentrated on bringing Stranger Cat. As expected, he arrived, seated next to his skull. Good. I took the roll of packing tape and adhered Stranger Cat's skull to the bottom of the desk way in the back, where it was unlikely anyone would see it.
"Stay here," I ordered Stranger Cat.
I pulled the unlucky 'rabbit' foot out of my pocket, and went out to the front of the store. I placed it in Jerry's hand. He looked at it and then looked at me.
"When Derrick comes in, and goes to the back room to take care of shipment, I want you to swich his rabbit foot for this one," I told him. "And if you'll come to the back of the store, I'll show you something, just so you'll be prepared."
Jerry nodded mutely and followed into the back room. He saw Stranger Cat and pointed. "What... what's THAT doing here?"
"Stranger Cat, when we give your foot to Derrick I want you to scare him occassionally. Not always, but sometimes. Jump out at his face, scratch his nose like you did Dean's, that kind of thing." I looked at Jerry. He was staring, dumbfounded. "Stranger Cat, we don't need to se you right now. Disappear, and wait for me to give you instructions."
Stranger Cat obliged by fading from view. Somehow, I could still feel his presence. I guess I'd been spending a lot of time with my former feline nemesis. Odd that we'd be working together like this.
Jerry was still staring at the spot where Stranger Cat had been.
"C'mon, let's go back to the front," I instructed him.
Jerry followed mutely back to the front of the store, before he finally found words.
"Wha... what just happened?" he stammered. "What was that? What's going on?"
"Ghost cat, revenge," Jess answered for me again. "It's all under control. You know what your scumbag boss did to Zi here?"
Jerry was lost again. "Zi? Is that the cat? Ghost cat? What?" He was looking back and forth between Jess and I and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
"Zi, Your former coworker, currently standing before you and harnessing power over dead cats," Jess explained. "The cat, Zi calls him Stranger Cat. He's a ghost cat. He's going to torment your boss. You're going to slip the foot on his keychain. Are we clear?" I leaned against the wall watching Jess take charge. At that moment, I was pretty sure I loved her. Known for a week or not, I was pretty sure. And I still had so much to find out about her... I wondered how she felt about me just then, and I hoped it was pretty close to what I was feeling.
I pushed myself off the wall. "Look, if you need to know more, we can talk about it when we go eat. Wednesday, right?"
Jerry looked at me and nodded. I noticed he couldn't make eye contact though, and I wondereed if I'd freaked him out about the whole ghost cat haunting thing. I cocked my head and looked at him.
"Hey, are you okay with what I'm doing?" I asked. "You look like, I dunno, man, uncomfortable."
Jerry shook his head and looked up. "No I'm okay with that. I mean, I heard what he said about you to whoever called here checking on your work history, so I mean I know why you're doing it too. That was pretty messed up and I know it's not true." He looked me in the eye this time. "He deserves what he's going to get, you know?" His tone was feirce. That was good, then.
"So we're cool, right?" I asked. "You know what you're going to do and don't have a problem with it?"
"Switch the rabbits foot on his keychain for this one," he replied. "Simple."
I nooded. He seemed okay after all, then.
"I need to talk to Stranger Cat one more time before we leave him here to do his work," I said, excusing myself to go back to the back room.
Once there, I called Stranger Cat back. He appeared at once.
"I'll be leaving here now. Stay here, stay hidden until Derrik has your foot. Once he does, he's your mouse. Play with him as you will. Jerry is with us, though, so leave him alone. I'll call you if I need you. Do you understand?"
Stranger Cat had no means of communicating with me at that moment, but seemed to understand what was required of him. I nodded, and Stranger Cat faded from view.
"I'll call you tomorrow, Jerry," I said as Jess and I took our leave.
Instead of heading back to school to go to class, I asked Jess if she were hungry.
"Not especially," she replied. "I usually don't eat for a few more hours, but if you are, I could go for something."
I was hungry. I wanted more sandwiches, so I drove to Subway.
"Zi Kill?" I asked.
"It's a band," she answered. "But I always liked the sound of the name. So far, you're the first person I think who deserves it."
I felt a surge of pride that I deserved a name like that, even if I didn't know what it meant. I DID like the sound of it, anyway.
"Did Jerry's parents name him that because they knew he was going to turn into such a mouse?" she asked me. I chuckled. Jerry wasn't ever going to be a predator in the world of men, that was for sure. She went on, "Then again, he's not like the mouse from the cartoon, always getting the better of the cat."
I couldn't help but grin. "Jerry's alright. He's not tough, but he'd like to be, at leas that's a start, I guess."
She looked skeptically at me, then grinned. "If you say so, killer."
Inside Subway, I ordered a footlong Italian BMT and another footlong Meatball sandwich I promised to share with Jess. As we sat down, she marvelled at the quntity of food I was going to eat. "How can you eat so much? You're not exactly the biggest guy around, but you eat like you were."
"I'm just really hungry, that's all," I answered around a mouthful of sandwich.
"Didn't you eat breakfast?"
I thought back, and then nodded. "Yeah. But I'm still hungry."
She shook her head and took a bite of her half of our Meatball sandwich. I HAD been eating more than usual lately, I thought. I shrugged and wolfed down the rest of my sandwich and started in on my half of the meatball sub. I ended up ordering a second meatball sub. Jess just stared in amazement.
"Do you ALWAYS eat this much?"
I just shrugged and kept eating.
"Your family must be rich to afford to feed you," she mused.
I grinned around a mouthful of meatball and cheese.
She shook her head. "I want to see you summoning the dead," she told me.
The sudden change in topic caught me a little off guard, but I nodded in the affirmative as I finished chewing. "Sure," I said after swallowing. "When?" What had I thought a week ago? If I couldn't abuse my power to win the lotto, using it to get girls was the next best thing. I smiled to myself as I thought about that.
"How about tonight?" she answered. "I have to work the closing shift, but I'll be done at ten. How about after that?"
"Sounds good to me," I said. "But I live kinda far our into the middle of nowhere. About a forty minute drive far. Are you up to it?"
"I'll be fine as long as you give me good directions."
I nodded. She handed me a peice of paper and a pen from her bag purse thing. I wrote directions out for her.
"Right before the last turn before the main road, watch out for Ghost Dog," I warned. "He likes trying to scare you into running off the road."
She looked at me as if to see if I were joking. "When someone like you wanrs me about a ghost dog, I'm not sure if you're kidding or not," she said.
"I sort of am, but there really is a dog that likes to run out in front of your car," I explained. "He might even BE a ghost dog now, instead of just called that. Whatever he is, when he pops out in front of you, keep in mind NOT to panic and swerve into a ditch, just keep driving straight, and you'll miss him and be fine. I wrote my phone number on the directions, just in case. If you do run into any problems finding the place, back track to the AM/PM gas station back on the highway and call me. That's pretty much the last marker of civilization out my way."
She nodded, looked at my directions, folded them and tucked them away into her bag.
She grinned. "Should I bring you sandwiches tonight to help you battle the spectre of hunger?"
I laughed. Inside, my heart was soaring. I was having a good day. After all, I deserved the name Zi Kill, right?
Zi shows Jess that he can summon the ghost of a cat, and eats a lot of sandwiches.
© 2004 - 2025 Vampic
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In