Hello! I'm so sorry for this being so late! I just haven't known what to write! And I still don't exactly, so this might seriously suck. Anyway, thank you for all those who have read and reviewed! I love reading what you think and please keeping do that! Also, I sadly don't own a single thing here besides my twisted story :)
"Get… Off." I grunt, flipping my hands over to push my nails into M's meaty arms. He yelps, dragging his weight off my body as he stands.
"Then don't run." M replies, lifting a hand to point down at me lazily. "You'll get… Killed."
I shake my head furiously. Why am I the weak one? The one they all look out for? A gun would kill them as well. I am not the one with the desperate touch of humanity, so I am not weak. My mind yells at me, thoughts push forward and I continue to shake my head to clear it. You have humanity. You're human in a weird as hell way. Don't you know? Don't you? That isn't my voice and I frown. Perry has returned to drive rational thoughts into my head, force me to acknowledge something I don't want to realize. Listen to me, corpse. You've got a brain, it thinks and it works. Kind of. But I'm here, talking to you through it, so it must work a fraction of the time. And you reply back with your own ideas and thoughts. That's thinking, corpse. You're human. Remember? You told me that once.
"I didn't tell you anything." I whisper, the words flowing effortlessly from my parted lips. I raise an eyebrow at myself. Is this what it feels like to think and hear the words come out fluently? To have your ideas shared with the rest of the people you know are listening? And they are. Every person hovering above me, their eyes tracing over my features as I lay on the ground... They're all listening. I can tell Julie is more concentrated than the rest. Her eyes are dilated and I am her focal point.
"Did you just speak? As in a full sentence?" This voice does not belong to Julie. It contains a permanent trace of sarcasm and strength I have only heard from Julie's father. I turn my head to the side, glancing at the dark haired woman. Her hands are on her knees and she is watching me with a squint. Nora, this is Nora. Has someone told me her name? Have I seen her face?
Yeah, a few times before. And in that vision thing you had earlier. She was fine, no thanks to you. Why do you have to be so damn curious about everything? Only thing that saved you, you know. Stopping and staring at us all until I knocked you down. But that bald friend of yours made it really hard to run. Perry sighs and I recall the memory I had to endure by eating the man's brains. You were like an animal.
Animal. I was acting like an animal, feasting on that man. Wasn't I just called human? Humans are animals. We fight, we eat, we drink; we all live, somehow and in some way or the other. We mate, we embrace, we leave, and we all die. Yet we call ourselves humans to make a firm statement that we're "not like them"; humans are not animals and humans are not… Like me. But what makes an animal an animal? What makes a dog… A dog? A cat a cat? We make up words and label things. I am a zombie to them. They are human to me. We are all animals, acting out of instinct with no rational thoughts.
How is this a better, more educated species? A species that I cannot seem to be a part of?
And we all kill. Humans kill animals for food, animals kill animals for food. I kill humans for food, and it is wrong. Are the Living zombies to animals?
"Hello? Earth to zombie boy?" Nora's face shields the sunlight from my eyes as she appears above me. I blink and she moves back slightly. "You totally zoned out. Julie was getting nervous."
Julie's face appears beside Nora's, taking up half of the space looming over me. I am engulfed by the shadows they bring with themselves and I mentally sigh. Shadows are dark, shadows aren't safe. But I stay in my place, obediently listening to M's suggestion. No running, because Julie wouldn't let me go. She would follow, I know this.
"R? What are you thinking?" Julie asks and I count how many times she has asked me this in my head. I settle on 'many times', because I can't seem to get very far in my counting.
"Humans." I say, my eyes wandering over her face as I drag my thoughts back over to my conscious mind. Humans are like animals, corpse. Whether dead or alive, in your case.
"What about them?"
"Like animals." I shut my eyes, sensing her smile as the energy of it vibrates off and soaks into my skin.
Julie laughs and I feel her hand on my cheek. "Animals aren't so bad. Yeah, we're a lot like them, but we're…" She trails off and I open my eyes. She looks lost for words, trapped in an explanation that won't leave her lips.
"Like animals," I repeat and she nods.
"Yeah… Yeah, we're like animals. But you know what?"
"What?" I ask, confusion striking my face as my lips curve into a frown and my eyebrows scrunch together. I wait for her next sentence with the anticipation a child would have with a new episode of their favorite television series.
Julie beams at me and brushes a hand over my forehead. She acts as if no one is watching us, like I didn't just try to run away. "Love is universal. It touches every species, R. Did you think of that?" She pauses and I shake my head. "Animals love too. So would it be that bad to be an animal?"
I feel my spirits lift and I rise to a sitting position. Julie moves with me and I finally return her bright smile. But I don't reply, I don't have to. M steps forward, patting my shoulder with a clumsy strength. "Animals… Naked." He says into my ear with a chuckle and I resist another smile. "Humans… You… We wear clothes." He stops his joking and for a moment his face is unreadable, until his lips part again to speak, "some… animals wear clothes. Looks stupid."
It's a bit short, but I'm having writer's block with this right now. Which will hopefully pass very soon! Review please!