Pericolai, Talisha Elizabeth Thompson [phonics reader txt] 📗

Prologue

Some things you don't believe until you actually see it. You think of it as a legend, rumor, a figment of imagination. Some are horror stories meant to scare you when you're young. Back then, you did get scared. In fact, you had nightmares about it, but as you grew older, you understood that those stories weren't real, only a myth. But if those stories turn out true, you're more scared than before.
At least that's how it was for me. My parents were fond of telling me and my younger brother, Jakob, stories about zombie invested towns and vampire prophecies. I was 8, he 6. Like much younger kids, we got scared, wanted to sleep with mommy that night. But the next day, we were perfectly fine. Somehow, in our little childish minds, we knew. We knew that there were no such thing as monsters.
Eight years later, we were at a Mexican cafe, just the two of us. A guy two tables away asked a nearby waiter, a tall man with cropped black hair and a silver tie, if he could have "la carne humana". The waiter's eyes widened to the size of saucers and stepped back. The man smiled pleasantly, but we could see the desire in his eyes. The customer grabbed the waiter and shoved his teeth into the man's neck. I grabbed my brother by the wrist and bolted out of the cafe, before we became a meal too.
Once we got home, I looked up what la carne humana meant. "Human flesh." I whispered to my brother, whose eyes got as big as the waiter's. Well, I thought, I guess the customer got what he ordered.

1 Year Later...

I sat on the roof of my apartment, watching the busy street. It was Monday around 5PM. Adults in suits and neatly pressed skirts rushed through the bustling crowd, trying to get home before dinner. Kids chased each other, much to the parent's disapproval, with such glee that only the young would have. All were oblivious to the horror that was thrust upon them. I longed to be one of those people in the street, not knowing what was going on around me.
Ever since the incident in the cafe, my way of living changed. When mom heard the news report about the customer, she went to her room and packed. I tried to get her to tell me what was going on, but she only shook her head. She knew something we didn't. After a long and quiet discussion in their bedroom the night before, mom and dad told us that they were leaving the city, leaving us to fend for ourselves. They moved to Ontario, Canada. I rented an apartment with Jakob, and to this day I don't know why our parents left.
I gazed at the building across the street. Teenage men and women were crammed inside, dancing. Strobe lights seemed to dance with them, moving about the room with an unusual grace. They were having fun, and they were oblivious.
A door opened behind me. I turned to see Jakob standing in the threshold. "C'mere," He said. "You gotta see this."
I got up and followed my brother down the steps and into our living room. The TV was on and playing a news report from KWCH12. The headline read, 'Cannibals loose in New York?'
"....Police rushed to the scene to see corpses strewn across the room, all with a gaping wound in the back of their neck." The host was saying. "They are still trying to figure out who could have done this much damage in such a short amount of time..."
"Do you think..." Jakob started, scratching his chin.
"...that it's the same man we saw in the diner a year ago?" I finished. "Who knows. I think it's zombies. Ask me 3 or 4 years ago I would've agreed that it was cannibals, but times have changed. We have changed."
We sat on the futon and watched the rest of the report in silence. The camera caught a view of a man with thinning hair and a raggedy nightgown run down the street with a piece of flesh dangling from between his lips. He looked like he had been burned to a crisp.
I've thought a lot about that day in the cafe. I guess you'd never forget seeing your first zombie -- or cannibal, as most professionals would insist. He fitted the appearance of the undead in movies, books, and television shows. I leaned back and played with a strand of golden hair.
No one else knows it but Jakob and I. No one knows that the line between reality and fantasy had snapped, and now we're stuck in a world where we're not sure what is truth and what is fiction. No one knows that we're entering a new era, an era where you have to fear for your life whenever you go somewhere, like you're the most wanted criminal in a western town. I looked at Jakob. He was staring intently at the TV screen, although it switched to a weather report. His light brown hair fell over his eyes, and he constantly readjusted them. I promised myself that I would do whatever it takes to protect my baby brother.
Jakob noticed I was staring at him. "Hey, don't worry about me sis. No zombies is gonna touch this flesh." He pointed at his neck and flashed his cocky grin. I couldn't help but smile back.
"I sure hope not." Even if Jakob and I got in frequent arguments, some to the point where we said we hated each other, at the end of the day one would die for the other. I draped an arm around Jakob and switched the channel to something more pleasant, something to get the undead off our minds.
When it felt like only an hour has passed, the clock above the kitchen door, much to my surprise, read 10PM. "Hey," I said, nudging Jakob, who was asleep on my shoulder. "You hungry?"
He stirred a little, slightly sitting up and looking around the now dark room. I got up and went to the kitchen. He followed soon after, getting bread out of the pantry. "You should make mom's signature grilled cheese." He said, smiling. "I know you're good at it."
I nodded and started cooking.

~

After eating, we sprawled ourselves on my bedroom floor, playing a game of cards. I was starting to wonder whether they will cancel school, which is scheduled to start in a couple of weeks. I was scared that my friends won't believe my story, that the world we're facing is crawling with the supernatural. Leaning against my closet door was the backpack I've had since 5th grade, crammed with the supplies needed.
"Speed." Jakob remarked, beaming. I looked down at the pile and, in fact, he had used all his cards. I placed my cards face down and sighed. Things aren't what they used to be. I can't even play a full game of cards with the person I love most, that's how much this paranoia and fear has gotten to me. Jakob seemed to notice, for he draped an arm around my back and whispered that it was going to be okay. I smiled halfheartedly and crawled into bed. The clock read 11:42.
At 2:22AM, I woke up to a knocking noise coming from another room. Being careful not to disturb Jakob, I quickly changed and grabbed the baseball bat in the corner of the room. I walked to the door and put an ear against the cold wood. The knocking stopped. Before I could catch my breath, I heard the clinking of pots and pans. Then a voice. "Are you sure this is the girl's house?" The voice belonged to man, who sounded like he'd been smoking for many years. Something dropped.
"Shh! Do you want to wake these people up?" Another voice, female this time, whispered feverishly. She, I assumed, picked up whatever had dropped and set it on the counter. They walked down the narrow hall that led to our room and the bathroom. My hands started to sweat, my heart pounding so loud I was sure they could hear it. The bathroom light turned on.
"Harley, I don't think this is a good idea." The man said nervously. "I mean... shouldn't we have waited until they left or something?"
"Shut up Freeman." Harley whispered back. She opened the shower curtain. "If we see them, we kill them. Simple as that."
For a minute, it seemed like my world had stopped. I suddenly had no control over my body. I carefully put down the bat and went over to my little brother. Picking him up, I carried him to the closet. The voices were right outside the door. I placed Jakob on the floor, grabbed the desk chair, and put it under the knob. Sure enough, one of the trespassers tried to open it. "Shit!" Harley whispered, trying again. "They're on to us. I blame you, Freeman. If you weren't being so annoying..."
The woman's rant drifted off into darkness. I went back to the closet and opened the trap door between racks of clothes. I jumped down, it was only about 3 feet deep, and lugged in my brother, who was surprisingly heavy. I closed the door, put a hand over his mouth, and waited.
A boom reverberated around the room as they barred down the door. "Someone has definitely been here." Freeman said.
Harley made no response. She went straight into the closet and looked around, humming. I moved to the darkest corner of the room, hand still over Jakob's mouth. The trap door opened, spilling in light around the woman's figure. She chuckled, and made her way down. "I know someone's in here." She sang, glancing about the room. Her eyes landed on our hiding spot.

Publication Date: 11-20-2011

All Rights Reserved