ZA Chapter 9: The Truth Behind the Tears

Meg sobbed in Virgil's arms. He held her, stroking her completely uncharred long blonde tresses, cooing sweet murmurs about how she was going to be okay.

Damn straight she was. Very okay, now that the annoying tartlet Lucy had been incinerated. She got what was coming to her for emasculating Selig Retsuc, the little slut.

Meg wasn't crying, she was laughing. But she continued making it look like a good cry, drawing it out. She kinda liked having those long mantis arms wrapped around her, and those spindly fingers patting rhythmically on her back.

In truth she was a little sad that Lucy was gone. Lucy was unique, in a gross, creepifying way. Meg had been looking forward to seeing what kind of Zombie Queen she'd grow up to be. Now the dream was in cinders. Literally. Now her only hope of being a stage-mom to the Queen of the Dead lay with Lizzie, Lucy's twin sister who had been kidnapped at birth and raised by wolves.

Done with the sweaty, clingy drama--at least for now--Meg pulled back from Virgil's embrace.

"Now, now, dear. It's going to be okay," she said, wiping his tears of empathy from his angular face.

"But our sweet Lucy! She's gone forever!" he wailed.

Mentally Meg rolled her sparkly blue eyes. Get a backbone in that long skinny back of yours, you angsty, philosophising, melodramatic Zombie killer, she wanted to say. But instead she said, "Oh, Virgil. What will we do without her?"

"I know, I know. I will miss her so," Virgil said. Meg wondered if he even realized he sounded like one of the ridiculous rhyming Romeos on the soap opera Lucy used to like to watch back when there were soap operas, televisions and Lucy.

"We'll all miss dear Lucy. Me most of all," Meg said, with more than a grain of truth in it. Was her dream of the future lost forever? Or would she find Lucy's twin, Lizzie?

"Oh, if only," Virgil said with a sigh. "If only there was someone who could replace Lucy in all the important ways, minus the corpsified severed cock in her 'special place.'" Virgil looked wistful and disgusted at the same time. "Did, by chance, Lucy have a long-lost twin who was kidnapped at birth and raised by wolves, unbeknownst to us all?"

"No, of course not! Why would you even think such a thing?" Meg exclaimed.

Virgil. There was more to the lanky Lothario than met the eye. Damn rhyming Romeo.

Meg inwardly turned her sparkly blue eye on Cam. Perhaps he deserved a little more attention. He'd be extremely unlikely to see through her evil subplot. He'd never cry tears of empathy on her hair thus compromising the flame-retardant hair spray. He'd certainly never rhyme. And his arms were long enough. Yes, Cam was definitley on her radar. No, more than on her radar. He and his Cleaning Lady were in her sights. But first she had a little Virgil to take care of.

"Virgil," she said, running her fingers through his hair. "The fiery death of my ONLY daughter, and my own close call with Selig Retsuc, have left me empty. The only thing I can think of to make me feel better is to properly thank you for saving me from almost-certain zombification. Will you come with me to the abandoned house nextdoor and...let me bake you some homemade chocolate-chip cookies from scratch?"

Virgil raised his eyebrows and, with a knowing look in his hazel eyes, took Meg's hand.

Meg smiled, wondering exactly what Virgil thought he knew.