Dark Flutters: Stories for a Moonless Night

Tainted Love

 

Tainted Love

 

We strolled along the path, hand in hand, under the pale moonlight. Our fingers curled around each other, as if clinging to life itself.

I glanced over at Matt, at the glint in his eyes reflected by that pale light. He was happy, too. That much was obvious.

“I love you,” I told him, my voice husky as the night air.

He smiled slightly. “I love you, too, Tiff. Now and forever.”

His words made my chest swell as we passed the others who were out as well. They nodded to us as we went, acknowledging our shared nocturnal activities.

Matt’s stomach growled as I felt his fingers twitch against mine.

I looked at him. “Are you hungry?”

He nodded his head slightly. “Yeah, I am. It feels like hours since we last ate.”

“I could go for a snack as well,” I told him, looking around. “I just don’t know where we’ll find something decent to eat this late.”

He stopped and looked at me, the gleam in his eye even brighter now. “Don’t worry, Tiff. I’m sure we can find something.”

I giggled as we headed on, looking for our late night feast.

We passed more of our kind, all in search of the same thing. My eyes followed them as they shuffled on by. “I don’t think there’s any left.”

“Don’t worry so much. Look, there’s one now,” he said and pointed at a house off to the side.

I watched as something ran across the porch. I smiled. There was some food left. It was a good thing, too. Suddenly I was starving.

We closed in on the porch, towards the creature that cowered in the shadows. She didn’t move. She just sat there and let us come, too terrified to do anything else.

We advanced on her and started to feed, our teeth ripping into one of the few humans left. They were growing scarcer everyday since the change. It was getting harder and harder for a zombie to get a decent meal anymore.

But that didn’t matter to me, I had what I wanted, and we would get by. I was sharing my unlife with the man I loved. That was the important thing.

I ripped out the heart and set it aside for later as we dined on the human. Once I had sated my hunger, I sat back and watched Matt finish his meal.

He turned and looked at me, his lips moist from the juices of our feast. He smiled and looked down by my hand. “Are you going to eat that?”

I followed his eyes down to the vascular organ I had sat there and giggled at his appetite.

Pushing it to him, I smiled. “Of course, my love, you know my heart always belongs to you.”