What if R and Julie hadn't met outside the city? What if R had been captured, to be used to train the children inside the fortified city of the Living? A different version of the R/Julie story, one where they meet in her world, not his.

Isaac Marion owns Warm Bodies. I just enjoy playing with the characters.

Dark Negative of Love

Chapter 5 - First Conversation

The wind brings a tantalizing whiff of a Living to me, making me tense, ready to attack and eat if possible. A blonde head appears at the trap door, peering cautiously into the darkness, checking before she climbs up onto the roof. As she turns around, I see it is the girl from Perry' memory, the same girl I saw yesterday with the group of children. It's Julie. I try the word "Julie" out on my slow lips, savoring the feel of it as it leaves my mouth.

I relax as I realize she has come alone. Since I'm partially shielded behind the open door, she doesn't see me right away in the semi-darkness. As I watch her finish climbing onto the roof, she begins whispering frantically, "Perry? Perry!"

I relax from my predatory crouch and sit back on my heels. For some reason, I don't want to hurt her. It takes a minute, but finally she sees me. Immediately she dashes over to stand in front of me. She appears cold, hugging her arms tightly to her chest, shivering slightly. I see she is only wearing a light denim jacket over a floral print top, and the valance of the top is blowing in the breeze around the waistband of her jeans. It must not be warm enough for the early morning air.

"Perry!" she says in an exasperated tone, kicking my foot when I don't respond. "They're all looking for you! What are you doing up here?"

Sighing, she plops down next to me, reaching for my hand. As I still have the glove on, I extend it to her. She takes it, and starts to tug at the glove, removing it.

I grab her wrist, preventing her.

"What is it? You know, you're starting to freak me out," she says softly.

You aint' seen nothing yet, I think, and I raise my face visor. Julie jumps up, backwards, her hand over her mouth.

"Ju-lie," I say out loud, trying hard to let her know I won't hurt her.

But I can see she's too close to the edge of the roof. I lean forward, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the edge of the wall, as she struggles against my grip.

But though we Dead may be slow, we are still strong. I hold onto her, and I don't let go. I pull her down next to me, making my best soothing shushing sound. It doesn't come out quite right, though. I think it sounds more like a hiss, actually. So I put my finger to my lips.

Her scent is strong and appealing, all the things the Dead in me longs for. But some other part of me starts to stir. I look at her, and see, in her eyes, the loathsome thing I have become. My heart drops with unexpected disappointment. What did I think she would feel? And why would I care? Still, I push my Dead feeding instincts back, and give in to the draw towards Life I'm suddenly feeling while next to her.

"Ju-lie," I repeat softly.

After a moment she seems to realize I'm not going to kill her.

"You can talk?" she finally asks.

I nod. Oh, right. It matters if I answer. "Yes, I…can," I enunciate carefully.

"I don't understand. How do you know my name? Where's Perry?" she demands.

I shake my head. My limited speaking ability isn't up to answering that question. His body is in me, yes, but his memories are in me, too.

"You're wearing his clothes. Yet," and she reaches out to touch them, "they're not torn. There are no holes. How did you get them?"

How can I tell her that he took them off, before walking into our enclosure?

"You were in the holding pen, weren't you?" she asked. "That's the last place he was seen."

Finally a question I can answer with a nod, so I nod.

She stares at me, and then looks down at her hands. "They said he was walking slowly when he left. Did he leave, or did you?"

Another question I could answer. "I…left. His…clothes."

Her eyes began to tear up.

"How?"

"Removed them…then…" here I motioned with my hands, opening an imaginary gate in front of me "…came…to us."

"How is that possible? Why would he do that?" she asked softly.

Using my index finger and thumb like a gun, I mimic Perry's actions, putting the gun in his mouth, removing it, and then opening the gate again.

"He wanted to die, didn't he?" she said slowly.

Well, I'm not sure he wanted to die right at that moment, I thought, but I did see something in his face that made me think he was ready to die. I was just the…catalyst, I guessed. No, I killed him. I gave him the bite that sent him to us.

Julie dropped her face into her hands and started sobbing. Clumsily, I put my arm around her, and patted her shoulders. She flinched, but kept crying, eventually lying down on the red blanket, exhausted.

I heard the sound of something being tossed at the wall. I crept to the edge, not letting go of Julie's hand, and looked over. M was back in the parking lot below me, throwing rocks at the wall. He was taking a big risk, I thought, coming back in near daylight. He had a long rope in one hand.

Now how was he going to get that up to me?

I heard a movement behind me, and saw Julie had come to look over the roof's edge next to me. "Is that your friend?" she asked, surprised. "You have a friend?"

I nodded.

"How does he know you're here?"

I shrugged. "Looking…I guess…"

"Is he like you?" she wondered, more thinking aloud than talking to me. But why would she talk to me, really? I'm Dead, after all.

I looked at her, waiting for her to clarify what she meant. It felt…good somehow to be next to her. And I realized that I hadn't felt good in a very long time.

"Can he talk?" she asked excitedly.

I nodded, and then looked back down at M. He was looking up, holding one hand over his eyes as if to shade them. "Does she… have friend?" he was saying, then pointing to himself. That was M, always on the look-out for the ladies. Fortunately, Julie was looking behind us just then, starting at the trap door, and missed his question. I shook my head at him, before looking back at her.

When I looked over the wall again, M gave me a thumbs-up sign and started to shuffle off, taking his rope with him, pointing to the rising sun as he left. I understood. He was signaling the old saying about "survive to fight another day". Or night, in our case.

I turned to Julie, who had taken a seat on the red blanket I had spent the night on. She looked so puzzled. "I don't understand this. I don't know why you haven't tried to kill me. But you're my link to Perry, somehow. Of that, I am certain."

Thinking of Perry, I pulled the ear plugs out of my pocket, and held one out to her. She reached out and took it, puzzled. I selected one of the songs under "Julie's Playlist," a song called "Leave Out All the Rest," by Linkin Park. When I had been listening to it last night, I wondered about the tired look on Perry's face. Her comments, about not being surprised that he would choose to die, seemed to make this song appropriate.

When my time comes /

forget the wrong I've done /

help me leave behind some /

reasons to be missed…

"Perry," I say, pointing to the little music machine.

She listened for a minute, then turned and looked at me. "What are you?" she breathed.

I shrugged, as I was no longer completely sure myself.

"Well, whatever else you are, you are my link to Perry," she said firmly.

Yes, I was. And while it was better she didn't know exactly how, this link was deeper than she thought…

PLEASE REVIEW. I WILL SEND A PREVIEW OF THE NEXT CHAPTER TO ALL REVIEWERS.

Also – please note, I have started using my story Seeking Life as a place to sketch out characters for this story. All of the characters, beginning with Chapter 3 of Seeking Life, will feed into this story. (I'm not sure on the Boney soldier yet.)