4. The Walking Living

"You what?" Fred backed away, clearly concerned that Kairi was out of her mind.

"I'm serious. I swear!" Kairi took a step toward Fred. "I know it sounds too crazy to believe, but a magical, time traveling book brought us here. You have to be able to believe there are other magical things out there too."

Fred relaxed slightly. "I've never thought about it."

Kairi nodded. "Oh yes. There's all kinds of things out there!" She calmed down a little. "I just don't know if I should tell you about them all."

"What do you mean, you don't know? I want to hear all about these magical things. Are there more books out there? Or more universes? Could I be a real hero?" Fred had managed to get right up in Kairi's face during his interrogation.

"Um… it's not really up to me to decide. The gods are very particular about who can know what. I probably shouldn't even know as much as I do."

"Gods? There are gods? Like Zeus or Hades?"

Kairi clamped her mouth shut. She had said too much already.

"Oh, please. Tell me something!"

Kairi vigorously shook her head.

"At least explain to me what you meant when you said you used to live here but died. You couldn't have actually died. You wouldn't be here right now if you did, and when you said you used to live here, you meant like in the future right? Like, our present?"

"No." Kairi sounded very unsure of herself. "I meant that I used to live here, same time and everything. I'm not sure exactly when we are and I have to be careful that no one recognizes me considering I'm supposed to be dead."

"There's that 'dead' thing again. What are you talking about?"

"I mean dead. Like was not living." Kairi sighed. "There's a lot to explain about my life and the world I come from. The main point is, that I used to be dead, but was brought back by… someone. I can prove it too. My grave is just outside of town!" Kairi pointed down the street towards a less occupied area of land. "

"So, you're like a zombie?"

"No-"

"You're not going to eat my brains or anything, right? Because trust me, if you saw my grades, you'd know there's not a lot to eat." Fred spoke quickly, trying to protect himself.

"I'm not a zombie, and I'm not going to eat your brains, but I'm sure there's a lot more in there than you think."

"That's exactly what a zombie would say."

"Zombie?" Sienna had apparently finally found a dress that suited her and had rejoined Fred and Kairi. "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing, just uh," Kairi looked down and noticed Sienna was still wearing her Jimmy Choo's. "You're going to need to change shoes too."

"No! These are staying with me."

"They just don't really go with the rest of your outfit."

Sienna huffed and stomped off back into the shop to look at shoes.

"She's not making this easy."

"She's not the type to live like a peasant." Fred eyed Kairi. "Now about this whole zombie thing..."

Kairi closed her eyes and took a deep breathe. "Let me explain. I was born Novella Ricci here in Ischia. The reason I know this must be sometime near my death is because I used to buy food from the old man who runs and owns Mancini's all the time. When I was about eleven I got the bubonic plague and died. Speaking of which, we should be extremely careful because people around here probably still have it and trust me, that's not something you want to go through. Anyway, when someone's death is special, in my case I was the first one to die from the plague, they aren't fully killed. They get a drastic change in appearance and get the ability to travel to the Land of the Dead. We basically become Death's little helpers, we're called Returners. We are sworn to protect Death and aid him whenever he wants us to."

"Death? Like the Grim Reaper? Guy who wears a black robe and has a bony hand, and if he touches you, you die? That Death?"

"Not exactly. The myths people have developed about him are far from the truth. He's still a scary guy though. Not someone you want to mess with." Kairi looked at the store to make sure Sienna was still occupied. "In certain circumstances, Death can reverse what he's done and bring one of his helpers back to life, like fully-living life. I was one of those special circumstances. So, here I am. Alive again."

Fred blinked. He tried to understand everything that was just said to him. "So… you're not a zombie?"

Kairi smirked. "I'm not a zombie."

"So, I still have a billion questions. Like, if you've died and seen Death in person, why are you such a happy person? No offense, but it seems like someone would come out of that really messed up in the head."

Kairi shrugged. "I guess I've just seen a lot of terrible stuff. I've learned you can never let anything get you down and if you stay positive, good things will happen for you in return. When you've seen all the bad, all that's left to see is the good." Kairi nodded towards Sienna. "I'm not that different from her. I'm still a preppy person who loves fashion, bright colours, princesses, and lots of other preppy things. I just-"

"Don't suck?"

Kairi laughed. "No. I just like them for different reasons I guess. I see them as beautiful and good things in the world. A new hair-do can change someone's life and make them feel better about themselves. A splash of pink on a black canvas can symbolize hope in the darkest times. A kind-hearted princess can save her whole kingdom from a monster if she tries hard enough and cares."

"You're a very interesting person, Novella."

Kairi looked at Fred, muddled. "Novella?"

"You said that was your birth name, right? I like it. It's unique, like you."

Kairi giggled. "I guess it is. When I died I had to change my name. I remember reading the name Kairi in a book once and I liked it. No one's called me Novella in thousands of years. I almost forgot it was my real name."

Fred was about to speak again, but Sienna interrupted, "Okay. I found some stupid shoes. Can we go now? I'd like to get home. The cheerleaders can't practice without me."

Fred scratched the back of his head. "We still have to look for The Book. We can't go home until we find it."

"The what? Never mind. Just find whatever it is and take me home!" Sienna stomped her foot. "This place is filthy and someone I saw looked like they had the plague or something."

Kairi and Fred both went wide-eyed. "Kairi? Do you have any idea where they would keep books around here?"

"There's one library, but it's really small. The only other place would be-" Kairi froze.

"Would be what?"

"The bookstore. Owned by," Kairi glanced at Sienna out of the corner of her eye, luckily she wasn't paying attention. She was too distracted by a coughing man on the side of the street. "Owned by my father."

A/N - sorry for the update delay, but I was on vacation for NYE and then I had to take some time to deal with some personal stuff that I'm still kind of going through. Updates should be a little more regular now.