A Shady Terror

Lollipop

The next day, Greg's phone was blowing up with frantic text messages from parents and students alike. Greg hadn't gotten much sleep. He dreamed that a ghostly girl and a puppet from his cupboard were sitting on his living room couch laughing hysterically. He was already feeling on edge, but the dream left him feeling more anxious than before. Finally around noon, he made up his mind. It took another 3 hours to work up the courage, but he finally headed over to his neighbor's house and knocked on the door.

There was a long pause, but finally the door cracked open and the female zombie's eyeball appeared through the crack.

"Yes?"

"Hi, it's Mrs. Potter, right?"

"...Yes."

"My name is Greg. I'm your next door neighbor. We've met in passing, but I haven't had a chance to formally introduce myself."

Mrs. Potter looked thoroughly confused, but the door opened a bit further. "You... you mean you aren't mad that your neighbors are zombies?"

Greg took a deep breath. "It was really nice to have your son, Nathan over. The other kids really like him... and he seemed to be having fun too."

Mrs. Potter seemed to relax and she opened the door all the way. "Really?

"Absolutely!"

"And he wasn't a problem?" Mrs. Potter's was smiling, revealing yellow, crooked teeth. "Please, why don't you come in?" She stepped back, allowing Greg to enter. He took a deep breath and followed. The inside of the house looked normal enough, aside from the family photos of zombies scattered throughout the room. Greg suppressed the sudden urge to run out the front door.

"Charles! Come down here! There is someone I want you to meet!" Mrs. Potter called up the steps.

"Just a moment!" Mr. Potter's muffled voice replied. He came hurrying down the steps. His usual hat and sunglasses were missing, revealing his zombified face.

Greg suppressed a shudder. "Hello, I'm Greg. Nice to meet you." He reached out to shake his hand, trying to ignore the rotting skin hanging off Mr. Potter's hand.

Mr. Potter's eyes widened and his face broke into a huge grin. "Hello! This is an unexpected surprise! You must be dinner!"

Dinner? Before Greg could react, the front door slammed behind him and Nathan appeared. He grinned, revealing razor sharp teeth. "Oh yes, dinner."

"Help!" Greg yelled. He glanced around frantically for an escape route, but there was nowhere to run.

CRASH!

"WOOF WOOF!"

The sound of shattering glass and barking causes the three zombies to duck and run for cover as a very annoying Lollipop came flying through the front window.

"Dumb Greg! Zombies!" Lollipop yelled, though to Greg it just sounded like agitated barking.

"Lollipop! How did you-"

"No time! Run while I hold them off!" Lollipop growled and snapped at the zombies who were just beginning to recover themselves and were shambling to their feet. Greg didn't understand a single word Lollipop said, but he didn't need to. He turned and made a break for the front door. As he did so, there was another loud crash and the front door flew open, revealing Tim, sword gleaming in the lamp light.

"Aww yeah! Its zombie slaying time!" he yelled as he charged past Greg. Greg didn't wait to see what would happen next. He sprinted back to his house faster than he had ever moved in his life. He was so frightened, he didn't even see his puppet Jerry, leaning against Lolipop's window jumping up and down in excitement. Instead, he raced to his room and barricaded the door.

A few minutes later, Lollipop emerged from the neighbor's house with a satisfied look on her face, followed by Tim who was covered in zombie gore.

"Thanks for the heads up, Lollipop. I couldn't have done it without you." He said, patting her on the head.

Woof!" Lollipop wagged her tail. "I help Greg!"

They parted ways and Lollipop reentered the house through the open front door and sat herself outside of Greg's bedroom. It would be two full days before Greg dared to emerge, but that didn't stop her from whining and scratching at the door the whole time.

Tim alerted the Zombie Hunter authorities to the event, and within a few hours they had come by and cleaned up the neighbor's house, leaving no trace of zombies or anything out of the ordinary. By the following day, the newspapers were printing reports of an elaborate prank that was played involving a bunch of undercover actors in zombie costumes. By the next Campus Life meeting, most of the students were teasing Greg for falling for such an obvious ruse.

Greg seemed to laugh it off. Zombies aren't real, after all! Ha! Ha! Ha! For unrelated reasons, Lollipop got extra dessert for the next few months.

Everyone knew that Greg and Lollipop had a special bond, but few knew the unspoken debt they owed each other. When she was a puppy, Greg had saved her life. Lollipop was happy to return the favor. He was a good human, even though he was a bit silly sometimes.

The End