Zombie Dance chapter 2! Dedicated to KBerry, who left me an awesomely funny review! This is for you! :)

WARNING: contains a zombie, a girl with very low self esteem, an Evra (FINALLY!) and talk of eating squirrels! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Eclipse: All rights reserved to Mr. Darren Shan!

I love taking walks with Sissy. She knows how to pick locks like an expert thief. Which is awesome.

We walked along an overgrown trail that I had discovered the first time I ran away when Brent was being Brent. It was especially pretty, since all of the trees were beautiful shades of red and orange and yellow. Sissy had finally calmed down, and was joking about how we needed to find her a squirrel to snack on. I looked over, studying her as she attempted to tackle a tree. She passed completely through it, landing hard on the ground. I really can't lie, she's disgusting. If I wasn't so used to her, I probably would've thrown up by then. I can't remember exactly when Sissy first came around. It was when we were at one of the more abusive orphanages. I remember exactly how it happened, too…

"Hey, didja hear somethin'?" She suddenly said, jumping up. I frowned and strained my ears. I couldn't hear anything.

"What do you hear..?" I asked. Sissy kept her ears trained then pointed to the right.

"Over there," She grabbed my hand and took off. It was harder for me to keep up since I'm not a predator. Finally, we came to where the bushes were thinning and we dropped to our bellies. We crawled army-style until we saw what seemed to be impossible.

In the clearing before us there were 2 boys. One had black hair, green eyes and was wearing some weird pirate getup. He had what looked like a very worn out soccer ball between his feet. And the other, oh my god the other one was amazing! He had scales, real, green and yellow-green snake scales! His hair was dark yellow-green and his eyes where yellow and slanty like a snake. He had on a white tank top and a tattered pair of jeans. He was the one I couldn't keep my eyes off of. I knew Sissy was eyeing the other boy with hungry eyes. But the snake boy had my full attention. I had never thought there could be someone so unique in the entire world, but here he was, laughing at something the other boy said. He couldn't've been older than 13 or 14, meaning he was older than me. He was the most interesting, intriguing person I had ever laid my eyes on. At the moment, I wanted nothing more than to go and meet him. But that would mean introducing Sissy. And that normally didn't settle well with others. I was about to tug on Sissy so we could leave when their soccer ball came flying towards us. It passed through Sissy, but hit me in the stomach before I could get away.

"I'll get it!" I heard the snake boy call. Sissy and I shared a frantic look and began to scramble away. 'Go! I'll be fine, get outta here!' I thought to her, waving my arms at her. Immediately she disappeared. I tried to get to my feet, but being a clumsy dork, I tripped over a root. Then I heard the gasp from behind me. I slowly turned, and was looking right at the snake kid.

We sat there, staring. He was probably not expecting me to be there and was shocked. I was just scared out of my mind. Something clicked in my head and I began to get up again.

"No, wait a sec!" I looked back at him hesitantly. He slowly stood up and offered him my hand.

"You need help?" He asked kindly, smiling. I looked from him to his hand and back again before timidly taking it. He helped me up, and my breath got caught in my throat. He was radiating kindness.

"What's you're name?" he asked, his smile not wavering in the slightest.

"E-Eclipse," I shyly stuttered, looking away and blushing hard. I was always like this with new people, especially nice ones.

"That's pretty," He kept smiling, "Mine's Evra. Do you live around here?" I nodded, trying to smile. Evra nodded and looked like he was going to say something else, when his friend came bursting through the brush, yelling,

"C'mon, Evra, we don't have all day!" That just scared me senseless, and I bolted. I heard Evra calling after me, but I kept going. That is until the dork that is me yet again fell down. I felt a pair of hands grab me from behind, and looked up. 'Ditz, c'mon!' Sissy thought to me. I got up, but just like my lack of luck, Evra and his friend had caught up by then. Once they caught sight of Sissy they stopped dead cold. Both of their faces got pale. Sissy half growled, getting ready to attempt to jump them. I got in front of her, shaking my head furiously.

"Don't, they didn't do anything, leave them be," I began streaming off my usual rant about how Sissy needed to leave them alone. Her eyes snapped furiously back and forth between me and the boys. Then she relaxed a little.

"Tell them to stop staring," she said gruffly. I gave Evra a pleading look, and he nodded, muttering to his friend to stop.

"Who's this, Eclipse?" He asked, trying hard to not stare.

"This is Sissy. She's…" How in the world was I going to explain her? "She's… my… other half…" Sissy nodded, wrapping a dead arm around my shoulders. Evra nodded.

"I'm Evra. This is my best friend, Darren." Darren blinked, then waved.

"Um," he started, "What do you mean, 'other half'?"

One very, very long explanation later, and I had thoroughly explained Sissy. And Evra and Darren didn't seem to be creeped out. If anything, they were really interested. The part they seemed to like the best is how Sissy eats living things. She seemed to like all of the attention she was getting, although she got mad when I got in her way every time she tried to get closer to Darren. I was talking to Evra most of the time. He was really sweet, like some of the parents that come to adopt, only in more of a friendly way. He made me feel happy. That's not really something I'm too terribly used to feeling. Normally I'm sad, or angry, sometimes even maniacal when you tick me off enough. But not happy. Sure, my 2 books and Sissy make me happy, but this happy felt… Different. A different I kind of liked.

"So you said you live around here, right? Do you live with your parents?" He suddenly asked while we were watching Sissy run through trees, making Darren roar with laughter. I blinked in surprise, then shook my head.

"No. I'm an orphan. We live at the orphanage a few miles from here." I laughed my usual humorless laugh, "Besides, who would want a kid like ME?"

"What do you mean? You seem like a nice kid," Evra asked with a frown.

"Because I know what I am," I said thickly. I could feel my heart beating a little faster. I don't like talking about stuff like parents and adoption.

"No matter what people say, they know I'm a monster; no matter if they think I'm cursed or have the ghost of my dead twin following me around, they find some reason to call me a freak and pass me by. No one wants to adopt me." I curled up into a ball, burying my face in my scraped up knees.

"I know this, and I don't care. I got Sissy, and I don't need anything else." I could feel myself choking up, but no matter how much spit I swallowed it wouldn't go away. I didn't want to start crying, because then Sissy would, too; right before she killed Evra for making me cry. It wasn't his fault; I'm just a crybaby. I didn't want her thinking it was. Evra was quiet. Then, very slowly, he slid his arm around my shoulders.

"I don't think you're a monster," he said quietly. I looked over at him. He had a weird look in his eyes. It was sort of sad, but at the same time, not completely. It's hard to explain, even for me. He looked away, up through the trees. I looked up. It looked like it was near dusk… Dusk…

"Oh my god!" I screamed, bolting up. We'd been gone for too long. WAY too long. This was not good, this was very not good. I frantically apologized, saying they were expecting me back by now. 'SISSY! WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!' She looked over at me and nodded.

"Hey! Maybe we'll see you tomorrow?" Darren called after us. I didn't answer. At this point, we would be lucky to still BE here by tomorrow, knowing that Ms. Nevelson was trying to find ANY excuse to get us transferred again. I didn't trip running back. I didn't fall behind Sissy at any point. I ran like it was the last time I was ever going to run again.

We finally got back. And all hell broke loose onto me.

DU-DU-DUUUUHHH! Sorry about the cliffy (I think?)! R&R and get a chapter dedicated to you! If you don't, I'll sick my zombie on you!

Sissy: Rawr.