Ray abandoned me. He ABANDONED me for Amanda- for a girl who I used to like. A girl I THOUGHT I could call my friend. I really did like Amanda while she was here. I even liked her for a few years afterward, too. But the sicker and more distant Ray grew, the more obsessive he became about her, the more I resented her.

I hated her for coming between Ray and I. As if things weren't strained enough already. I died in the early seventies. Ray in the late eighties, when the gas leak killed the town and resurrected the already deceased. We're confined to the bodies of children, but we're also from different eras. Sometimes our mindsets didn't gel. And somehow, despite him being younger, he was always comforting me. Reassuring me. Coddling me. It was embarrassing. But I think being "kids" took the edge off of it. Physically, we're both eleven.

Truthfully, Ray is eighteen.

I'm thirty-five.

Yeah, so maybe I shouldn't be pining after Ray. Maybe I shouldn't want him. Maybe we shouldn't be lovers. Maybe, under normal circumstances. But right and wrong don't really apply to the undead the way it does to the living.

I didn't truly believe Ray intended to finish her off. Truthfully, I don't know what he intended to do. First and foremost, we had to track him down. Track him, then find Amanda. I'd finish the job myself. I'd wrap my pale little hands around her creamy neck and savor her death throes. I'd grin above her body as her weak, mortal hands pathetically tried to pry me off. I'd feel her warm, ragged breath against my wrists. And her pulse fade along with the light in her eyes as she winks from existence. I win, you little bitch.

The thought of the young, beautiful Amanda made me sick. I could only imagine how she'd developed in the past few years. I still remembered her. Her chestnut brown hair. Her chocolate brown eyes. Her fair skin. How I envied her appearance. All the while I'm confined to this scrawny, unimpressive body.

She's only fifteen or so by now. If anything, Ray CAN'T be with her. But he and I are both adults. WE can both consent. WE can be together.

It was just a matter of making the child, the BOY, really, understand that I'm the grownup and I know what's best. He may have been appointed the Watcher, but there were times he looked to me as a mother. There were times he sought me out for guidance. Sometimes, he even favored me over his own parents. That's something Amanda couldn't give him.

Compton Dawes, the town "realtor" lived alone. He'd been appointed leader not long after the incident that killed and revived us. He was in charge of bringing fresh blood in. He dictated our daily affairs. He was the one who approved or denied all important affairs here. Everything ran by him.

Except for Ray's act of defiance.

I knocked urgently on his door, expecting to wait a few minutes. To my surprise, the door opened almost immediately.

"Karen?" His blue eyes brightened above the crinkles below them. "What brings you here? What's wrong?"

"Ray," I choked it out. His face hardened instantly.

"What about Ray?" His tone was confusing. Angry, almost as if knowing. Was he suspicious of Ray well before I was? Had Ray told him something?

"He fled the tow-"

"That's impossible. Even if he tried, he couldn't have wandered far. When did he leave?"

"Just ten or twenty minutes ago. I tried to follow him. I tried, but-"

"He can't have made it far..." He repeated to himself. His eyes were focused, but distant. They seemed to peer past me as he considered something.

"Why did he leave? What did he say?"

"Amanda. He wants to- he said he wants to-"

"Amanda Benson? That family that escaped? That stupid boy... Can't have made it far..." There was that repetition again.

"I thought the same thing, but the pain... It crippled me. I couldn't get past it. But Ray kept going. I watched him keep going. He-"

""Keep going"?" Compton Dawes was incredulous in his awe. ""Keep going"?" He repeated in disbelief. "How far?"

"Until I couldn't even make him out anymore. A mile. More."

"Nobody's ever... Jesus."

"What do we do?"

"Why did he leave?" Dawes repeated urgently. There was a fear in his eyes. There was this constant undercurrent of fear, but why?

"To kill Amanda." I couldn't resist grinning as I uttered the words. There was some perverse pleasure in hearing it aloud. The idea of Amanda's death becoming that much more tangible.

"That fool-" Dawes jogged into an adjacent room in his house. I could hear him jostling papers and scouring file cabinets.

"Mr. Dawes?"

"We keep- WE KEEP EVERYTHING!" I could hear him banging the walls with his fists in frustration. "In this town! If he goes out into the world- one misstep! One fuckup and we're all screwed!" I'd never once herd Compton Dawes so angry and shaken in all the years I'd known him. It made me uneasy. Almost scared.

"We'll find him." I offered from the doorway, where I still stood. "I don't think he'd- he's too soft. Too attached. He won't kill her. But we could finish them off if we find him. I never liked Amanda anyway." There was a long pause as he considered this. The cabinets and rustling of papers had all but stopped.

"Impossible." His voice was a defeated whisper from the other room.

"I know it'd be difficult—"

"We aren't strong enough to withstand leaving. It's impossible Ray managed to. He's not wherever Amanda is right now. He can't have gotten that far- wherever that far might be." But he was wrong. I knew he was wrong. I knew Ray. He was stronger than that. If he could push past the initial wave, I knew he was out there.

"Ray's strong..."

"Impossible..." It was an utterance only to himself now. And his disbelief made it that much clearer: If I was to find Ray. If I was to kill Amanda. If I was to make Ray mine and force it if I truly had to, it'd be by myself.

I knew I could make him see things Mama's way. But it was going to take some discipline. And a little elbow grease.

Amanda was the smear. The smudge on an otherwise perfect happy little ever after.

And unsightly little blemishes are so easily rubbed away.