C4 The Zombie Man Part 2

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there was a zombie who woke up from his hundred years of sleeping. Looking back on why he chose to sleep for that long, he remembers that it is because of the cruelty of the world.

I immediately flipped the book to read the next page.

A long time ago, his wife was killed by humans, for zombies are monsters. But, they didn't know that it was their cruelty and their fear of something that they did not know was much more monstrous.

I moved to the next page again.

With that, the Zombie Man chooses to live a simple life away from other people. Day by day, the Zombie Man chooses to pretend to be a human but fails.

I was about to turn to the next page of "The Zombie Man," the book I'm rereading. But I was immediately taken aback by the arrival of a new guest today.

"How are you, Hailey?" Asked by the man who's checking my vitals. He was Dr. Charles Perelman, Hailey's father.

Ridiculously, it seems like me and the zombie man in the children's book that I am reading right now have the same situation. I am now pretending to be someone I am not.

Not even once or thrice when I tried to convince myself during the few days I stayed here that maybe I was really Hailey and not Mary Sean. I might just be confused, but no! I could not convince myself of that nonsense.

"I am fine, D-Doc." I quickly answered. In recent days, I have been trying my best to get along with them. Until now, I have been pushing myself to get used to them calling me Hailey.

It's hard. I'm having a hard time.

Sometimes I feel dumb and think that maybe this is just a dream. Sometimes, I just think of my dad and what is happening. I am very depressed and I don't know what to do anymore.

But, somehow, these past few days have been fine. Nothing bothered me much, and they all thought that I had short-term memory loss. They said that I have been lying here for six months, I did not die, and it is a miracle that I survived. That is their story.

I asked where I was. They said I was in Adelaide Hospital, a private hospital and one of the wealthiest hospitals in Manila. That is when I remembered that Hailey was the granddaughter of the owner of Adelaide Academy in Plamour City.

But, what really happens? How come that I am inside this body? What nonsense is this? Hasn't God finished torturing my life? After he gave me the ability to see human death, then this? Why didn't he just kill me?

"My daughter, I am your dad, so don't call me Doc, just Dad. Is it okay for you? " I just nodded in response. He smiled and added, "By the way, someone wants to pay a visit to you. He said he misses you very much. " The doctor said while checking my vitals. I looked at him in surprise.

"W-Who is it?" I feel like I should ask.

"Your boyfriend, Albus, comes in." That's when my eyes widened at what Mr. Perelman said.

So, Albus and Hailey are alive? Then the only dad died.

What a trick of nature!

I immediately turned my gaze to the door when suddenly someone came in. Albus Wesley, to be precise.

The Zombie Man thought he could fool everyone, but not until he met the woodcutter. The woodcutter saw the Zombie Man eating a white deer in the middle of the forest.

My eyes widened, not because I saw him again, but because I could see the black aura on him. Only now have I seen something like this. From my bed, I could see with my bare eyes the black smoke all over Albus Wesley's whole being.

At that point, my hand started trembling. He's not Albus, I'm sure he's not this.

When the Zombie Man finds out that the human woodcutter has found out his true identity, the Zombie Man tries to kill the woodcutter.

"Good day, Doc." Albus was polite and seemed very formal. Far from the usual. “Hi, babe!” When he looked at me, I almost averted my eyes. Especially when he smiled at Mr. Perelman while the latter smiled back. But when he noticed my expression, his gaze went straight on me. I could feel by now how my throat had started to become dry.

Oh, please no!

"Hailey, are you all right?" The doctor suddenly asked me I immediately grabbed his hand, so he wouldn't leave. He seemed to feel the trembling in my hand. So he was alarmed.

"D-Don't—"

I did not finish what I was about to say when suddenly the evil spirit, pretending to be Albus, spoke again.

"Sir, I will take care of her." When the impostor said that, Mr. Perelman immediately trusted him.

No! No! No!

"All right, I'll leave you two. But—"

I was about to stop Hailey's dad from leaving when his cellphone immediately rang. He answered it and then bid his goodbye to us.

I was so frightened that I squeezed myself into bed when I was left with the evil spirit. This gives shivers to my whole body.

"Are you okay, babe?" He asked.

With that, I felt like crawling into his face in an instant.

Did he think that he could fool me?

"Whoever you are, get out of that body!" I threatened him. That's when the smile on his lips disappeared and was replaced by a grin.

"It's good that you knew right away. I thought it would take a long time for you to guess," he said that playfully as he sat on the sofa before closing his eyes.

What is he doing?

But the zombie plan to kill the woodcutter did not materialize when the woodcutter came to the front of the zombie house to give him another deer to eat.

I squeezed even harder onto the bedsheet as I witnessed how the spirit left Albus' body. And I almost swallowed all my saliva when I saw Albus' body, which was now decomposing and smelling so bad.

I held on tightly to the bedsheet of the hospital bed. I was so scared. That was the truth. But despite struggling to stare at the evil spirit, I had to fight the fear to let him know he could not frighten me.

But I was beyond shocked when I realized he was not a bad spirit because he was a Grim Reaper.

The man in front of me now is very posed with his dark coat overlaid with a black cloak and black all over. He's even wearing a black Pandora hat. However, I could not help but wonder because he was different from all the grim reapers I had ever seen.

I can say he was very handsome. Starting with his narrow eyes' blue color, down to his sharp nose that seems to have been moulded by a very good sculptor, and his reddish lips too. You'd think this was a normal, living person who happened to have a beautiful face. Without his black cloak, I would have thought he was an angel from heaven.

But I knew it was nearly impossible.

However, he has no expression or any reaction on his face. His blue eyes were strange. I could not fully stare at them.

What the heck is this?

"Who are you? What do you want from me? " I asked him.

This is the first time I have seen the face of a Grim Reaper. In my eyes, they always cover their faces with their hats, or they are just black smoke.

My grip on the bedsheet tightened as he slowly approached me.

"I am Saint, and I'm here to hunt you down, but only because I am sure that you can't get off that body. The Death ministry assigns you to be a living reaper. No buts or anything suicidal. You want your death, right? So then, accept our offer. I want you to die peacefully, Mary Sean Ivanovich. Did I answer your question?"

That's when my forehead furrowed.

W-Wait, what? He's named Saint, and he's here to hunt me down? Can't get out of this body? Death Ministry? Assign? L-Living Reaper? What the fucking heck?

In the end, the woodcutter and the zombie man become friends and live with a smile on their faces.

The End!

I think what the title, The Zombie Man, wants to teach us is that being different is not bad at all. If we are different from others, we don't have to pretend for them to accept us. Because in life, there will always be someone who will accept you for who you are, sooner or later. All we have to do is to just wait. Or maybe this book is trying to say that we should stop being foolish about something we didn't know or understand.

After all, the world is too big for us to conclude that some things are impossible.

Change your mindset, people!

Perhaps I should do the same, a living reaper? Damn it!