It's Complicated: A Zombie Romance Novel

Guided out of the house

It took a while and two more up chucks to find my way to the door. It seemed different from the door I thought I'd entered this place from. More gold, less glass than I remembered. But my memory was a bit shaky given I'd been scared half to death, it was darker on this side of the hall away from the constant party lights, and well, those same lights really weren't doing a good job of illuminating squat.

"Can I help you?" said a familiar voice. "You look lost."

I tried to look up from another one of my upchucks but failed to see past the guy's legs. I recognized the shoes. It was the guy from earlier. The cute one from the stairs. At least it, sounded like the same guy and he had on the same pair of men's loafers. Not that popular a choice for people our age.

"Yeah," I croaked, "Do you know how to get out of this hell hole?"

He laughed bright and cheerfully in a 'so not creepy it was a little bit creepy' kind of way. Good. I wanted him to laugh. I was trying for funny. At least I hadn't lost my touch.

"Yeah, I mean. Yes, I do," he said, "Follow me." He extended his hand outward toward the promise of an exit.

The ornate golden doors swung open of their own accord into another one of those never ending hallways of terror. Except this was devoid of people. Weird. I wouldn't be surprised if there was the glimmer of eyes at the end of it, but really it was too dark to see such things. It must have just been my imagination.

I was reluctant to step across the threshold and out of the light of the party, but this guy had helped me before, and I was out of options. It was either this or the mob of angry college zombies I'd thrown up on behind me. I chose the creepy corridor.

Every time I went to look up the room spun and I felt like I'd hurl again. Most knights in shining armor don't like to have their clothes covered in sick, so I stopped trying to look at his face or anything else in this dark place. My focus remained on not being sick, one black and white floor tile at a time. I could tell what color they were every time we'd come up to one of the slits this place called windows. Flashes of moonlight illuminated our journey every few feet, but only in a small radius.

Why did gothic castle remakes have to have those kinds of windows, anyway? They were too wide to be realistic, but too narrow to be of any use. No one was ever going to shoot arrows out of them at invaders, so why have them? Still, the translucent quality of my knight could all have just been in my head. He had a well shaped backside; really, what more could a girl ask for? That was the only reality I cared about in the moment. Not the stupidity of the house's window design.

The alcohol was still playing tricks on me and my stomach was getting ready to expound out the front end again. I knew that whatever was going on, this guy knew the way out and that's where I wanted to be. Out in the fresh air, as far away from here as humanly possible.

Brian had been right all along. Parties weren't worth it.

That's when I tripped over the dead body.