Both Alice and I stared at the portal as some kind of grim reaper came out. I sighed, “Of course, we summoned that person. For some reason, we have summoned Ankou here.”
He put down his scythe on the floor, “It is not often I hear my name this many times in a short period of time. While I do have reapers under me, and I am not the only person to guide souls. I decided to investigate this matter myself.”
Alice started wiping away tears. Ankou looked at me, he came closer. “I can see, your future.”
I let out a smile in the corner of my mouth, “Let me guess, I end up in a fantastic little house with Lorraine and a baby?”
Ankou let out a sly smile, “Your final death shall be at the hands you love the most, now you should leave this room. I need to speak with,” he turned around, “What is your name?”
“My name is Alice.”
Ankou turned back to me, “I need to speak with Alice.”
I raised my hands, “Alright, good luck with the reaper, Alice.”
I left her alone, I am not going to stand up to that person and say I am staying. What did he mean, final death? Will I die more times? Is it some weird cryptic shit? I shook my head and tried to forget it.
I walked back to Lory, she smiled at me, “And did she tell you what was going on?”
“No but that legend? Not a legend, he is in our bathroom as we speak.”
Lory scratched the back of her head, “Is this some kind of prank?”
“Nope. We should be careful with talking about things like him when in front of mirrors.”
Lory sighed, “I am going to take a look.”
I sat down near the fire. “Alright.”
Lory walked away and after a few minutes she came back. “Yep, she is speaking with the grim reaper and the power emanating from him is insane.”
She sat down on my lap and I wrapped my arms around her. “I told you it was not a prank. Did you hear anything interesting? No, they were just making small talk.”
I sighed, “of course she is. There has to be a different reason for that thing coming to visit us.”
I lay down on a small bed of pillows, and took Lory down with me. She giggled, “What is the big idea here?”
“I am tired, and I am going to sleep, you are warm, soft, and cuddly.”
Lory settled down, I closed my eyes. “Goodnight Lory.”
She whispered softly, “Goodnight Steve, I still need a nickname for you.”
“As long as you won’t call me Stevie.” It did not take long for me to fall asleep. We were not dead so, I was not afraid of Ankou attacking us. When I woke up, I felt Lory nestled against me and I saw Alice on the other side of the fire sleeping on another stack of pillows. “Hey Alice?”
She grumbled, “Yes?”
“What did you talk about with the Ankou?”
“Just private matters.”
“What?”
“How can you talk about private matters with a grim reaper?”
Alice turned around, “It is none of your business.”
Lory yawned and stretched, she sat up, “Is it day already?”
I looked at her, “Yes, we should go find Abby. The zombies should be sleeping now.”
Alice got up and started cleaning up. “She is acting a bit distant.”
Lory whispered into my ear, “Something is up with her.”
I nodded, “Yes, but let it go. I think she is our friend, she will come to us if she wants to talk.”
We started cleaning up our mess and subsequently, I looked out of the front door. The zombies just lay on the ground. They did not even make any sound. I removed the barricade and opened the door. Lory looked over my shoulder. “That looks a much better than last night when they were banging on our door.”
“Yeah, I have to agree, they are not even interested in me opening the door.”
Alice walked over, “I am ready, where do you think Abby is hiding?”
I smiled, “I have a good idea where she is.”
We walked outside, avoiding stepping on any zombie. I looked at one, “Are you confident, he is not dead?”
Lory looked at the zombie, “I think he is dead, whether he moves or not.”
I gently kicked the zombie, it moaned for a second, but it did not do anything else. Alice sighed, “Are you done with fucking around?”
Lory giggled, “I hope so, we have some ground to cover.”
I nodded and started walking towards my house. Or what once used to be my house. Lory took my hand and Alice slowed down to walk behind us. When I looked around, this place seemed desolate, only the wind interacted with the broken down vehicles and buildings. There were holes in the road and we walked around them. This place is bringing me down, but when I looked at Lory, it just faded away and I felt happiness. Maybe this is what Abby was talking about, the man under the self loathing crap. Lory seems to be doing an impressive job at digging me out of this emotional pit.
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Eventually, we came across the safe haven. From this point, it would still take some time to walk towards my old home. I sighed, this is taking too long, that car rides were not that long. “Wait up. I have an idea.”
I ran over to a car that seemed to be in working order, a small Toyota. The door seemed to be open, when I looked inside, I saw a zombie. After dragging the zombie outside, I stomped my foot down on his head and it exploded. Then I checked the back seat and the trunk. They were clear, it would kind of be dumb to sit down without checking the whole car. I sat down in the driver’s seat and started to hot wire the car.
Lory sat down next to me, “Where did you learn this, Steve?”
I smiled, “If you are a depressed man, you do plenty of dumb things, like steal a car for a joyride, a couple of times”
Alice sighed and sat in the back seat. After about ten minutes, I had started the car. “See, Alice, it worked.”
She waved it away and let her head fall down. I sighed and tried to address her formally, maybe that will make her laugh. “Kindly notify me once you are done with your depressing mood.”
Lory giggled, “Something is up, alright.”
As I drove, there were many bumps in the road. Mostly zombies, potholes and what not, you could smell the zombies from miles away. While checking if there was anything useful in the car, I found a joint. Lory looked at me, “What is that?”
I opened the car window and threw it away. “Nothing important. All I need, is you, Lory. Damn, I sound clingy. If you need me to back off a bit, just let me know.”
Lory put her hand on mine, “You are not being too clingy. I like you, the way you are.”
Alice grunted, “stop it with the icky stuff, he chose you over me, alright, but do you need to rub it in my face?”
I looked over my shoulder, “Yes, you tried to kill me.”
Lory laughed, “burn!”
Alice grunted, “Just keep your eyes on the road, there are enough bumps.”
After a while, my house came in sight, it seemed to be mostly in one piece. Lory gasped, “Holy fuck, is that really your house, Steve?”
“Yes, why?”
“It is fucking huge, as in, why do you need such a big house?”
“To be frank, I have no idea.” I drove up to the garage, “Alice, do you mind opening the door?”
She got out without complaining and opened the garage door. I drove inside, and then I heard Alice close the garage door. I turned off the engine and got out. Lory walked over to a door, “Does this lead to the living room?”
“Yes, but I think Abby is in the bedroom.”
Lory scratched her nose, “Why?”
“It was her go to place in my house.”
Alice sighed, “Good luck explaining that to Lory.”
She growled at Alice, “Only Steve gets to call me that.”
Alice held up her hands, “Sorry, Lorraine. I did not mean to step on your tail.”
I sighed, “Play nice, both of you.”
As I walked into the house, I made my way to the kitchen, it seemed to be in a fairly regular state. As I walked to the bedroom, the door was locked. And clearly something shoved against the door on the other side. I sighed, “I hate my soundproof walls at this time.”
“Abby?” After a while of banging loudly, the door opened up and a shotgun pointed got pointed at my face. I held up my hands. “Woah, put down that shotgun, Abby, and put on some clothes.”
She smiled, “I figured you would find me here.”
“Abby?”
“Yes?”
“Why are there pizza crumbs on you?”
She giggled, “I ate the last pizza’s, they were in the freezer, the power was on with your backup generator.”
“Goddammit, Abby, I was getting excited about those pizzas!”
Abby started getting dressed, and I saw Square sitting on my bed. Lory sighed, “She seems to be just chilling here, naked, may I add.”
Alice laughed, “That is funny, you almost died Steve, and your friend was here doing nothing.”
Abby walked over towards me, “What happened, Steve?”
“One of those zombies bit me.”
“Oh, that sounds bad.”
“Yeah, it appears that the zombie infection does not work on magical beings. However, it got me real sick. Oh, and I almost killed Alice.”
Abby chuckled, “How?”
“I shot a bullet at her face.”
Abby nodded, “Alright.”
Alice sighed, “That is not the proper response.”
Abby looked at her, “You did try to kill him, remember?, I am thrilled you are not dead, but you had it coming, shall we go back?”
“Abby?”
“Yes?”
“Your dad, he is alive.”
“What? For real!?”
“Yes, shall we go see him, friend?”
Abby smiled, “That would be lovely.”