Back on the road for the first time in five years, the Turners were thrilled, yet saddened. They had to leave their two children with Tootie's parents, and Tammy was especially inconsolable, crying and hanging onto her parents. Loretta had graciously driven in from Shreveport to assist in any possible way, especially with Tammy's mental rehabilitation. She was concerned, considering that it was a high powered demon that possessed the young girl. With tears, hugs, and kisses all around, they had pulled out and taken off, having received numerous tips from their sources on Veronica's whereabouts.
The strongest lead was the one they followed, all the way to Lawrence, Kansas. They rolled into town on the heels of a massive surge in demonic omens. It seemed that Veronica had turned the town into her own personal playground. But within two hours of their arrival, the omens suddenly evaporated, with no rhyme or reason. Both hunters figured that she had gotten wind of their arrival, and booked it out of town before they could find her.
Before they gave up and lit out of town, they decided to visit a famous cemetery that was rumored to be haunted by an honest to goodness friendly ghost. No one had dared hunt her, because the legend was that she only appeared to push lonely children on a swing set in an adjacent park. Unfortunately for them, it was a school day, so the chances were very slim of a sighting.
The walked through the cemetery, a peaceful grove with beautiful shade trees and winding paths that led to a babbling stream. Hand in hand, they walked down one of the paths, when they came upon a patch of dead ground in a ten foot radius of a freshly dug grave. The lack of grass around the temporary headstone wasn't surprising; it was the dead flowers all around and the dead tree that once shaded that specific spot that shocked them. Seeing no one around, the couple made their way over to investigate.
"Amanda Audrey Ennis, born May 2nd, 1988...died April 12th, 2009. Poor girl died before she could turn twenty-one." Tootie said sadly, reading the basic information on the card staked into the ground. The grave was so fresh, that there wasn't even a permanent headstone set yet. Tim was investigating the area around the grave, and he didn't like where it was leading.
"Sad as it may be babe, this whole area has been turned into unholy ground. Something seriously wicked has happened here. I'll bet I even know what." he said, straightening to his feet. She looked expectantly at him, but all he did was grab her hand and nod. The pair left, and headed back to their motel to regroup. She set up her new and more powerful laptop, searching for info on the girl in the now unholy grave.
"Take a look at this." she called out, finally hitting pay dirt. "So, apparently Amanda was killed when she wrapped her Mercedes around a telephone pole doing about ninety-five in a thirty-five. The kicker is, she was having a massive fight with her ex-boyfriend, who had cheated on her, at the time of the accident." she finishes, pointing to the photo of a destroyed Mercedes nearly sliced in half.
"Whew, now let me guess, she had a best friend who just happened to be secretly in love with her right? Now, he or she hasn't been seen much since Amanda's death." he asks, having a sinking feeling on where this was going.
She looks at him, kind of shocked. "Uh, yeah…Peyton Brady is his name, her best friend since grade school. He's quoted here as saying: "She was too good for him, and for this world. May she finally find the peace she was denied in this life." But, you have something in mind don't you?" she asks, eyeing him suspiciously.
His eyes never leave the screen, scanning for any more information on Mr. Brady. He sighed, when in the course of the article, he found out the piece of info he needed. "Damn it, just as I thought. He's the resident T.A. for an Ancient Greek course taught by the deceased's own father at the University of Kansas."
"What's so bad about that babe? So he helps out with her dad with his class. I'm sure he's getting credits for it." she replies, stretching out her sore back.
"It's bad, because I know of only a handful of things that can turn cemetery dirt into unholy ground. My theory is that we have a love struck young man, using ancient Greek necromancy to bring Amanda back as a damn zombie." he says, shutting the lid of the computer.
"A zombie? Great, should be an easy hunt, with how slow and plodding they are. But, why the Hell…she began, before seeing where he was going with his train of thought. "…ew! Timmy, you think he reanimated her for that?!"
"First off, this isn't Dawn of the Dead sweetheart. Second, it wouldn't shock me if that's exactly the reason to tell the truth. Unrequited love plus that kind of power equals our friend Peyton doing the ultimate nasty." he replies, disgusted. "Humans, I swear are the most disturbing creatures."
She rubs his back as they slip into bed, having already checked on their kids and were satisfied that they were handling things well. The two promised that they would never pull their kids into this life, and that when they turned eighteen, they would sit and talk with them, weighing the pros and cons of being a hunter.
In the morning, they headed for campus. They needed information, and decided to go right to the source, though both knew they had to treat the situation with kit gloves. Once there, they asked around until they were directed to Amanda's father's office. Inside, they found him sitting in his chair, staring out a window and downing a Scotch in one gulp. Following a rousing game of rock-paper-scissors, Tootie slowly walked in, after knocking on the open door.
"Professor Ennis?" Tootie asked softly, sounding genuinely sympathetic. He looked up, and poured himself another glass.
"Yes my dear, please come in. Do you need help with your term paper?"
"Uh, no sir. I just wanted to personally give you my condolences over Amanda. It's such a shame that such a beautiful person was taken far too soon.
"Yes, thank you dear. I'm still in shock to be honest. She's…she was all I had left. Her mother passed on in childbirth, so we were always very close."
"I understand that professor." she said solemnly. The two talked for an additional five minutes, in which he gave her the name of Amanda's ex-boyfriend: Angus Johnson, and the girl he cheated on her with…her own cousin Abby McGee. The professor was understandably upset with both young people, and wished death upon them several times.
The couple left, then sat in the Charger, Tootie furiously tapping away at the keys. She was trying to find Angus's home address, since he lived off campus. Timmy rightfully theorized that since Amanda was back from the dead, her first order of business would be eliminating him. She finally found it after an hour, and they raced towards his apartment.
They arrived, and went to bust down the door, only to find it unlocked. Cautiously, they entered and swept the room. In the middle of the kitchen, they found Angus lying in a giant pool of his own blood, his throat literally ripped wide open from ear to ear. His eyes had frozen wide in terror, and a hand was on his chest like he was having a heart attack.
"Damn it, she got to him first. Looks like the professor got one of his wishes. I bet ole' Angus here didn't even see it coming until it was too late." Tim said, kneeling to examine the body.
"You know as well as I do what happens to a soul rebound into its body babe. She's going through intense psychosis, because her body is continuing to decompose around her, and she can feel the tug of the afterlife. It's driving her so insane, that she will soon turn against the very person who brought her back." Tootie called from the living room.
Tim nodded, looking through Angus's address book and finally finding Abby's home address. He understood implicitly what she meant, and it sounded worse then death itself. They had to find Peyton, and fast, or else he would soon end up like Angus. The Amanda he brought back was not the Amanda he knew or loved. She was now a stark raving lunatic, hell bent on revenge. That would mean…
"Oh shit, that means Abby's the next target!" he yelled, racing out the door. His wife was hot on his heels, as both jumped in the car and Tim revved the engine. The Charger kicked up a cloud of dust as they sped off to the address they uncovered. Neither knew what to expect out of the recently reanimated.
The muscle car screeched to a halt in front of the house. They heard screams and shouts, and both rushed inside. What they found shocked them. Amanda and Abby had their hands wrapped around each other's throats. Soon though, Amanda had the advantage, trying to claw the other woman's throat out.
That was, until Tootie fired a shot from the Desert Eagle that grazed Amanda's ear, causing electricity to crackle all around the wound. She screamed in pain, and took off out the broken window she came in through.
Tim gave chase, but the zombie outran him easily, and soon he returned to find his wife trying to console the young woman as she tried to regain her breath. They helped her get into a sitting position, and checked her over for any injuries.
"I thought…I thought she was…dead." she said between short, gasped breaths. Tootie rubbed her back, and gave her husband a look. He could only shrug, and help the shocked young woman onto her couch.
An hour later, they were back at Peyton's townhouse. This time, they were sitting on his couch, trying to reason with him that this course of action was madness. He was doing both himself and Amanda a major disservice by bringing her back.
"Peyton, you have to understand that this is not truly Amanda. She's corrupted and rapidly descending into insanity!" Tootie said forcefully.
"I don't care ma'am. I was the only guy who treated her decent! I deserved her, and she deserves me!" he growled back.
"Dude, first off this could be considered necrophilia. Second, it's only a matter of time before she turns on you, and you end up like Angus. Do you really want to wind up dead over this?" Tim interjected, seeing the anger build in his wife and partner.
"You know what, screw you both. Neither of you understand what real love is. Amanda and I are destined to be together, and I won't let a couple of freaks tell me what to do!" he yelled, forcing them out the door. "Oh, and Angus got what he deserved, and Abby would've as well if not for you two. Now fuck off and stay out of my life!" he screamed, slamming the door in their faces.
"It's your fucking funeral then asshole!" an enraged Tootie screamed at the door. Tim grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her off the porch. He nearly had to throw her into the passenger seat and crawl over her to drive off. She screamed in frustration, and pounded her fists into the dashboard. Her husband laid a soothing hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.
Meanwhile, Peyton had jumped into his own car and sped towards campus. In a darkened parking lot, he slid to a stop and hopped out. He leaned against the car as a figure sauntered out of the shadows. She was dressed in a long, white burial gown, and her strawberry blonde hair hung loose below her shoulders.
"Hi baby." she said, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him.
"Hi my love." he replied, a smile playing at his lips. Amanda smiled, hugging him closer to her, even with her skin turning a light grey from the normal rose tinted alabaster. The unorthodox couple stood there against the car, kissing and cuddling.
"Oh I was such an idiot for dating Angus when I had the greatest guy in the world right under my nose." she cooed in his ear.
"Baby, I forgave you a long time ago. I'm just thrilled to have you back and in my arms. Now we can live happily ever after." he replied, nuzzling her neck. The couple continued to blissfully make out, unaware of the blacked out Charger approaching their position. It parked on the other side of the lot, and the two hunters silently weaved through the darkness.
"Baby, let's run away together. Find a place where it can be just the two of us for the rest of eternity." Peyton said, taking her cold, clammy hand into his.
"We can't let that happen Peyton." a male voice rang out. Side by side, Tim and Tootie walked into the pale yellow light of a solitary street light, Tim had a two foot silver stake in his hand, while Tootie had the Desert Eagle trained on the undead woman's forehead.
"You led them here to kill me? I thought you LOVED ME Peyton!" she shrieked, lunging at him. The pair struggled, with Peyton doing his best to fight her off. With her inhuman strength, she was able to overpower him and sidestep behind him. She took his head into her hands and twisted it hard.
Both hunters flinched when they heard the wet snap of his neck. She threw the now dead body to the ground and stood before them, hands on her hips, and a defiant, deadly look in her soulless, pale green eyes.
"Who the hell do you two think you are?" she demanded, advancing on them slowly.
"We're the two that are going to forcefully help you back to the afterlife you undead bitch!" Tim snarled at her, raising the stake in a fake salute. Tootie didn't say anything, she kept the barrel of the gun trained on her prey, ready for the kill.
At her first twitch, both hunters took off running. Amanda gave chase, but halfway down the parking lot the couple split off, Tim going left and Tootie going right. With a howl of rage, she took off to the left. Through a wooded area, the two dodged and weaved; unknown to Amanda he was leading her back to the cemetery.
Tootie had sped off to the right, but after half a breath she reversed course and tailed Amanda and Tim, bent on testing out her handiwork in case her husband got into trouble. She crept as quietly as she could, hearing grunts and yells coming from about a hundred yards to the right of her position.
Tim had indeed led her back to the cemetery, and thought he had a sizeable lead on her. That fallacy was shattered, along with his right wrist, when she abruptly tackled him from behind at full speed. His dominant hand now incapacitated, he could barely fight back, trying to gain the leverage to not only throw her off of him, but to also maneuver her into her grave and stake her into it, ending this nightmare.
He threw punches with his left hand, knowing they weren't phasing the zombie much, but it was buying him time he desperately needed. She was still trying to wrap her hands around his throat, but the punches were forcing her to take the defensive. The two rolled around in the dirt, Tim's wrist now numb, allowing him to throw hard punches at her face. The flesh began to come off her face with every blow, and this only caused her to become angrier.
Her anger became her weakness, as she lunged at him just like she had with Peyton. However, Tim sidestepped, and she went flying into the nearby tree. The sound of bones shattering were overlapped by her inhuman screams of agony. She dropped to the ground, and rolled away when the hunter stood over her.
Her rolling motion carried her back into her open coffin (which Tim had exhumed after their encounter with Peyton), and she thrashed around, trying to scratch and claw her way back out. He jumped in, and raised the stake over his head, aiming for her heart to deliver the final blow. Her final attempt at freedom was a sharp kick between his legs, which dropped the hunter with a terrific grunt.
She used her good hand to grab him by the throat and lift him up, until his head was above the ground line of the grave. She was choking the breath out of him, taking her revenge on him for forcing her to kill the man of her dreams, her best friend, and her one true love.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and a bullet penetrated Amanda's skull. He body quivered, as energy spider webbed from the entry wound and down through her entire body. Electricity sparked up and down her decaying flesh, as she slowly collapsed, releasing her grip on Tim. Small explosions racked her body as she breathed her final breath, and fell back into her casket, dead once and for all.
Tim gasped for breath, and peered up and out of the grave. His swimming vision was filled with his wife holding a smoking Desert Eagle, with a satisfied, yet righteously angry look on her face. He held out his good hand, and she pulled him up and out, after holstering the gun. On his feet, he held his injured wrist close to his body, and wrapped his good arm around the woman he loves.
"Thanks for the save babe." he said, kissing her softly.
"No problem, though why I went along with this hair-brained scheme, I'll never know." she began, kissing him back. "Are you alright? I heard the yell, what happened?" she asked, noticing him favoring his right arm.
"The bitch tackled me from behind, and I went down awkwardly when she landed on top. She was a lot heavier then I thought she'd be." he replied, now rubbing the violated body part. She laughed, and helped him back to the Charger. He got an air cast put on, until a real one could be installed after the swelling went down. The two packed up and set a course back to Dimmsdale, Tootie behind the wheel, since the doctor said it would injure the wrist further for Tim to drive.
On a lonesome highway in the middle of nowhere, Tootie was deep in thought, Tim had fallen asleep, the pain pills finally kicking in. He told her to press on until they hit the California line. The long, winding road was like her life…in the fact that it had taken a strange and difficult path to get to this moment.
She glanced briefly at the wedding ring on her finger and smiled. When she was little, she had dreamed of one day being called 'Mrs. Timmy Turner', and though she nearly gave up on that dream, here she was…Tiffany Turner, married to a wonderful man, and mother to two amazing and gifted children.
Outside Reno, she noticed that they were almost out of gas, so she pulled into a twenty-four hour station. As she pumped the fuel, she felt a cold breeze on her neck. When she turned around, she was met by an attractive redhead, who was grinning at her.
"Hi there Tootie." the woman said, her eyes turning steel blue.
Tootie's hand instantly went to where she had the Desert Eagle holstered on her hip, but was stopped by a sinister chuckle. Her hand twitched, aching to hold the cold steel in it again, and ice the bitch once and for all.
"Easy there Quick Draw, I'm just here to have a little chat." Veronica began, gazing lovingly into the Charger. "Nice to see you taking such good care of my man." she finished sarcastically, noticing the cast on his arm.
"What do you want, and why shouldn't I just end your pathetic existence here and now?" Tootie demanded, getting between the demon and the car.
"All business aren't we Tootie-fruity? You think you have all the time in the world to spend with Timmy don't you? You think you won, just because you have that shiny rock on your finger. A word of warning: you're not going to see those brats graduate high school, because I'm going to drag you to Hell myself." she sneered.
"Oh, I figure you're going to try and kill me, just to spite Timmy." she began, he hand patting the gun on her hip. "But mark my words Shadow Girl, I'll kill you before you ever get a taste of my blood bitch." she finished. The two stare each other down, before Veronica turns and walks away.
Tootie quickly finished washing the windows, went inside and paid for the gas and sodas she bought, and took off. With the car pointed back home, she longed to hold her babies again, Veronica's threat chilling her to her core.
A/N: Read and review. Veronica's sending a strong message to Tootie: watch your back. Up next, another lead, and another MOTW. Thanks again to all you who have followed this story faithfully, and to my Beta MisterBlue.
