Disclaimers: The Vampire Diaries and Matt belong to LJS.

This is crack. Utter crack. Not to be taken seriously.

-=-

"Braaaaaaains..."

Matt frowned, glancing into the shadows. He'd only gone down there to find his dad's old wrench set (Bonnie had ruined his own while demonstrating her ability to bend spoons and other objects), and had an unsettling feeling the whole time that he wasn't alone. He hated the basement at the best of times, and never usually ventured this far back.

"Maaaaaaaatt...?"

He swung the flashlight in the direction of the moan, and then yelped in horror at the slack, dessicated face that was staring it him. He dropped the torch in shock, and made a frantic run for the door to the yard. No way was he sticking around to work out what the hell he'd just seen. He lunged out into the afternoon sunshine, not daring to take the time to shut the doors shut behind him, and made a beeline through the kitchen entrance. Slamming that door shut, he leaned up against it, panting. A quick peek out of the curtains showed him that the creature had followed him out, and was now shuffling its way onto the street. That wasn't good, but right now he didn't care, so long as it wasn't going after him. It looked kind of like a walking corpse, now he could see it in daylight, and he shuddered at the though.

He turned round again to find his mother staring at him quizzically. "Are you alright, Matthew?"

No, no he wasn't alright. The damn thing had known his name, for god's sake! That was just far too disturbing to deal with on a Sunday afternoon. He finally found his voice to ask, "Mom, why is there a... uh... zombie in the basement?"

"Oh, no! You weren't supposed to find out about that!" Matt's mother exclaimed in horror, rushing over to him. She clasped his hands in hers, turning her sorrow-filled eyes to his. "Matt, honey. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that's... that's your father."

"What the hell?" His dad was a zombie? That was insane! "But dad died! Years ago!"

"He came back, love. From the grave."

"But... that's..." His brain back-pedalled, latching onto an important fact. "Hang on. You keep him in the basement?"

"I have to. Otherwise he keeps trying to eat people. When he first rose from the grave, he ate five people in a whole night. It was dreadful, and I almost didn't manage to get him away from the scene of the crime. It's best for everyone that he stays down there."

Matt opened his mouth to tell his mother the bad news, then shut it again. It was probably best for her that she didn't know his zombie dad had escaped. He was sure that Stefan must have a few ideas on how to catch and contain the walking dead. With any luck they could get it sorted and be home again before his mom even noticed his dad was gone.

Fin.

End note: In my head, the Henderson brothers from The Secret Circle swoop in to save the day. Because everyone knows that pair were born to be the stars of a zombiepocalypse. :D