The house was not fully lit. Ajia was hesitant to enter at first, but when she slowly looked to the direction where she came from she saw the fog rising and shadows being reflected. It momentarily gave her cold chills down her spine.
"Come Ajia, inside, come come!" shouted the old lady.
She immediately walked inside the house. "How did you know my name?" asked Ajia. She can now see in closer view the face of her neighbor. She suspects that she is around 60 to 70 years of age. Youth already left this lady she thought to herself. Her hair was all white with no trace of dyes to hide the age. She is one graceful old lady.
The old lady replied, "You are now 15 years old tonight. That's why your parents already left you."
Bewildered, Ajia rampantly asked the lady, "Who are you? How did you know? Where's my parents? Why are there zombies in our house? Are my parents safe?Where are they?" tears are forming in her eyes, while trying to keep her cool while asking the old lady.
But the lady was quite relaxed. "You see Ajia, I know because we are..."
Ajia interrupted, "What?!"
The old lady smiled and said, "..neighbors." Ajia was a bit irritated by the nonchalant attitude of the lady.
"Would you like some tea, Ajia?" asked the lady calmly.
"How can I enjoy the tea when I don't know what happened to my parents? What the hell is happening?!" She stood up and scratched her head as if answer will fall down from her hair. Then she walked back in forth and in circle when the old lady said, "Ok enough, stop it, follow me. I'll tell you what happened."
The old lady walked pass the kitchen and motioned to Ajia to follow her to her room. She was mumbling some words that Ajia barely heard as she follows her. It was only then when Ajia realizes that the house was quite neat for an old lady. The scent is not a decaying log or scent of dirt and old cabinet. It was a scent of baby powder and clean satin. She was quite impressed.
The old lady reached for the door and opened it. The room was naturally illuminated by the moonlight. The old lady walked slowly to sit at the edge of her bed and turned to face Ajia. A portion of her hair was touched by the moonlight and Ajia was surprised that it was sparkling. She was mesmerized by the glow in the old lady's hair.
"Your hair.. it's glowing, sparkling.."
"I know right." The old lady said while smiling. "Sit there my child." and pointed a vacant chair. "Your parents had to leave you. It is the rule. I can't tell you where they are. It's for you to find out."
"What rule?" asked Ajia.
"You will have to sleep somewhere but here, Ajia." said the old lady. "You can't go back to your house. It is now infested with the undead."
"Where will I go then?" flustered and confused even more Ajia asked in frustrated voice.
The old lady stood up and glanced to the window and said, "They are here." Just as she finished uttering the last word, the house and lady vanished with no trace while she was once again shocked of the disappearance of the lady. Few seconds after, she heard the weird sound of the ghouls walking at a normal pace. The undead have catch up with her.
She couldn't be more thankful for her shoes. Good thing she did not take it off. She started to run again away from the the growing noise of the zombies. She can feel that the zombies are quite close now. And so she sped up to the hills, trees and some farm lands.
"I can see now the third neighbor's house. Oh, it's well lit. Maybe I could stay for the night?" She plans to ask the owner to let her stay. She already arrived at the front gate when she heard a loud scream coming from the house. She froze thinking what could have happened inside. She hid herself in the bushes as she noticed someone opened the window of the house.
"OMG!" Ajia was seeing her neighbor's mutilated hands are being eaten by the one who opened the window. She couldn't believe it. Zombies are not friendly creatures, her worry came back for her parents. What if they were eaten by the zombies? A picture is starting to form in the mind of Ajia, where her parents were victimized by the flesh eating zombies. A cold hand caught hers and cut her imagination. It was a man with black eyes. You can see that he is not also friendly. Ajia was confused for a minute when she noticed that the man was a part zombie!
The man dragged her inside the house where the lifeless bodies of the humans are laid on the floor. She wanted to scream but no voice came out. She just wanted to get out of there in an instant. This must be the end for me, she thought. After she got in, she can already felt the stench of the blood and body parts somehow scattered in the living room of the house.
The half zombie released her and went to another zombie. They were communicating silenly about their new prey. The half zombie lets out his disagreement with another zombie. It erupted into a fight. Although Ajia never understood what they were fighting for, she thought that they wanted to start eating her flesh. The noise between the two zombies grew louder and stronger and finally it erupted to a commotion between the two.
Ajia took this chance to escape but the key to go out dangles in one of the zombies fighting in the kitchen. So she went their discreetly without a possible sound that would disturbed the two fighting zombies. She noticed a kitchen knife on the floor. Ajia took it and hid behind the refrigerator while checking on the two zombies. I must make escape now. One of the zombies gave off a loud scream of pain when the half zombie struck the other with its fist while clenching for the heart. It was the most excruciating and painful thing for any zombie.
Ajia grabbed this opportunity and rushed to the other zombie and struck the head of the zombie with a kitchen knife until it was almost detach. Blood is dripping down Ajia's schoo/uniform. When she regain her composure, she then left with quickly with the keys she got from killing the undead. She run endlessly while tears are flowing out.
She didn't notice that the forest was ever changing, it was slowly disintegrating and changing. Her body was so tired to even notice some changes. Her mind just exploded thinking of the unthinkable creatures that have spawned and have infested their neighborhood. She couldn't think clearly of what to do first. While in search of a secure place to sleep she murmured to herself. "I will find you Mama and Papa!" said Ajia while running and trying to catch her breath.