Dia of the Dead (9 page)

I shot Kaci a quizzical look. “Maybe?
 W
e
hav
e
to get her some hel—“  

Amber rolled onto her back, her eyes rolling back in their sockets; she started to convulse.

Reagan, Kaci, and Taylor moved closer—gathering around Amber’s flailing body—screaming their heads off. Brendan joined their half circle, his eyes wide and his fingers running through his dark hair as he repeated “Oh, man” over and over to himself.  I wanted to help but I was frozen, completely overwhelmed by panic.

Mason was the only person not freaking out.
 He sprang into action, kneeling beside Amber as she jerked. He made sure not to put his knee in the black puddle on the rug and leaned over her.

“AMBER!” He s
houted in her face and leaned back waiting for her to respond.

She continued to shake.

He leaned in closer to her. “HEY! AMBER!” 

Still nothing.

“Amber!” He gave her a quick smack to the face. He poised his hand to give it another go when Brendan yanked him backward by his shirt, away from her and dropped him on his butt.

“Dude!
 What the hell are you doing?” Brendan asked angrily.

“Trying to hel
p,
” Mason huffed, picking himself up from the floor and straightening his shirt.

Amber’s head hit the floor with a muffled crack. More black liquid oozed from her mouth, spilling down the sides of her cheeks and trickling toward her ears.

“She’s going to suffocate!” Taylor exclaimed, shaking a trembling finger at the girl on the ground.

“We have to move he
r,
” I said. Adrenaline finally began pumping through my veins and thawed my limbs.

“Mason, help me move her so she doesn’t hurt herself. Get her legs and I’ll get her shoulders.” I directed him. “Ready?”

He nodded and positioned himself over her.

"One—two—three—lift.”
 

Together we hoisted Amber up.
 She had stopped shaking but was unresponsive. Her eyes were slightly opened with only the whites showing.  Her thin body was limp in our hands as we carried her away from the dangers of the furniture and laid her on the floor in the space at the center of the room a few feet away from the door. 

“We have to roll her on her side.
 In case she pukes agai
n,
” I said, reaching toward her. I rolled her onto her side and extended her arm on the floor to cradle her head. 

“Amber?” I said softly. Her breathing was shallow and her skin was clammy to the touch. It was mottled by the blue ras
h,
which had spread up her arm, across her upper body and was beginning to overtake her face like moss on a tree trunk. I recoiled, removing my hand from her skin and wiping it on the front of my jeans.  I didn’t want to take any chances if the rash was contagious.  

“She still has a pulse but she needs help like now,” I announced to the group.

Everyone pulled out their phones, angling them in different directions.

“There’s no signal down here, remember?” I reminded them.

“Hang on,” Brendan said. “I think I have a bar.” He was the tallest of the bunch; therefore, the closest to the ceiling. He swept his arm above our heads, pointing his phone in the opposite direction. 

“I guess not.”
 He slipped his phone back into his pocket.

“I’m going to get hel
p,
” I said. “You guys stay here and watch her.”  

“I’ll go with you.” Mason stepped forward.

Mason and I left to look for help while the others stayed behind with Amber.

Mason and I knocked on every door on the floor looking for help but got no response.

“Upstairs,” I suggested when we reached the end of the hallway. If we were still hanging around here, I was sure there were others. Mason nodded and headed toward the door with me. My hand had just landed on the handle when a commotion drifted down the hall from his dressing room. I rushed back toward the noise with Mason a few steps behind. 

“Guys, what’s going o—“ I stopped just outside of the room. In the few moments we were gone, everything had been wrecked.
 The mirror wall had two large rippling cracks in it; magazines littered the floor; the make-up chairs were toppled over onto their sides; and one of the gamer seats was lying in the space where Amber once was.

“What’s wron—“ Mason stopped at my side and peered into the room. “OH HELL NAW!”
 He clenched his hands into tight fists and pushed past me as he marched inside with a frown. He looked around and threw his hands in the air.

“My stuff!” he yelled and snapped his head to the left.
 “Hey! What the hell—“ His other gaming chair went flying across the room. He ducked just in time for the chair to whiz over his head. “OH. NO.”  He balled his hands back up and dashed to other side of the room, out of sight.  

A new chorus of screams erupted. Another piece of furniture flew across the room and crashed to the ground. Mason zipped past the open door and out of view again. I ran inside and saw what he’d run from.
 Amber wasn’t on the floor, barely conscious. She was up and on her feet—her back toward me—swaying from side to side in front of a very frightened Brendan, Taylor, Kaci, and Reagan. Brendan had a busted lip, and Kaci sported a fresh red welt on her cheek that looked pretty painful. Taylor and Reagan both shouted for help. Amber let out a low hiss. 

“What’s going on?” I yelled over the racket.

“Brendan tried to give her CP
R,
and she snapped at him. She’s gone crazy!” Kaci screame
d,
pointing at Amber who stalked back and forth slowly like an animal hunting prey.

Amber lunged at Kaci with unexpected speed. Kaci moved, running into Reagan at just the right moment to avoid the impact of Amber’s blow.
 Amber hit the wall, sending several of Mason’s portraits crashing to the floor. Kaci latched on to Reagan’s arm in a panic and the two of them ran to join Mason who stood behind me yelling about his broken stuff. Taylor tripped over Mason’s game console and fell. Amber recovered quickly, unfazed by the oozing gash on her forehead left from where her head had met the wall…hard.  

All of the color had drained from Amber’s skin, leaving it gray save for the patches of blue rash and veins. Her eyes had become two dangerous-looking black voids, the same color as the liquid that dripped from her mouth.
 It covered the front of her teal t-shirt in a trail of thick goo. I shuddered as she gnashed black-stained teeth.

Taylor scrambled to her feet but wasn't quick enough. Amber’s hand locked on her leg like a vise. Taylor pawed the wall—hopping on one foot—trying to free herself and gain her balance.
 More of Mason’s pictures hit the ground. 

“Help me!” Taylor pleaded.

I searched for something to use to free her from Amber’s grip and spotted one of the game controllers on the floor nearby. I used my foot to nudge it toward me, keeping an eye on Amber. An iPod whizzed past my ear, thudding into the wall a few inches left of her head.

“Nice throw, Abe Ruth.” Reagan said from behind me.

“It’s
 
Bab
e
 
Rut
h,
” Mason corrected her. “And at least I’m trying to do something instead of just standing around. Now grab something and throw it!”

A blender, a remote, and a bust of Mason’s head went flying across the room.
 The blender cracked into pieces on the floor. The remote sent Taylor back to the ground, striking her smack in the center of her forehead and leaving a red mark. The bust smashed into Amber’s back. It should’ve taken her down but she maintained her kung-fu grip on Taylor’s leg.  

Another wave of items went across the room, but they did nothing to stop Amber. I reached down for the controller.
 Amber let out a guttural growl. Taylor yelped in pain. Everyone behind me screamed. I looked up. Amber had torn into Taylor’s leg with her stained teeth and ripped away a piece of flesh. She chewed as if she were nomming on a honey barbecue chicken wing. Taylor shrieked in agony, swatting at Amber.

I stared at the scene in wide-eyed disbelief.
 Amber had just taken a chunk out of someone’s leg with her teeth and was leaning in for another. I wrapped the controller’s cord around my hand a few times with enough length to use it as kind of a mace. 

Fear crept over me as I stared into Amber’s soulless eyes which were now locked on me.

“Guys,” I said, not taking my eyes off of her. “We have to leave. Like right now.”

“You can’t leave m
e,
” Taylor cried.

“We’re not. I promis
e,
” I assured her. “I just want to make sure everyone makes it out of here safely. She’s not paying you guys any attention yet, so you need to go. I’m going to free Taylor,” I said out of the corner of my mouth, my eyes still fixed on Amber.

Taylor was doing a pretty good job of keeping Amber’s clacking teeth from sinking into her skin again.

“We’re not leaving you here.” Brendan’s voice was stern.  

“I got thi
s,
” I said over my shoulder to him. “You guys just go.”

Reagan and Kaci didn’t wait for me to tell them twice. They hustled out of the room like their butts were on fire. Mason lingered for a moment, his head going back and forth between me and the door, an internal struggle written all over his face.
 

“Dia, you’re a real nice gir
l,
” Mason said, taking small steps toward the door. “And while I’d totally like to stay and help I…I…I have to go. I’m too beautiful to be nibbled on like a piece of prime rib by Annabelle Lecter over there. Good luck and God speed my friend.” Mason ran from the room calling for Kaci and Reagan, begging them to wait for him.

“Hurry up, pleas
e,
” Taylor droned like she was already over the attack as she punched Amber. The blow didn’t deter Amber. She held tightly to Taylor’s leg.

“Right.” I snapped back to reality and gripped the cord in my hand. “Brendan, you still here?”

“Y-y-yes.” His voice was a little shaky but he was there.

“I have a plan. I’m going to try to get Amber’s attention—“

“—What? No! That’s dangerous!”

“Don’t worry. I can handle this.
 You get Taylor out of the room while I distract Amber. Okay?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Brendan, okay?”

“Okay,” he reluctantly agreed.

The plan wasn’t fully formed inside my head yet. In fact, I don’t think what I had pieced together could be considered an actual plan. But it was the best I could come up with under the circumstances. I wrapped the cord around my hand once more and charged Amber—screaming like a banshee.

I swung the controller with all the strength I could muster, sending it twirling around over my head.
  I unraveled the cord once as it spun around. It hit Amber with enough force to make her drop Taylor’s leg. The girl fell to the floor, landing on a bed of broken picture frames. 

I was Amber’s next target. Her shoulders hunched forward and her hands were ready to claw and scratch.
 She looked nothing like herself. She chomped her blood stained teeth at me and leapt forward, knocking me backward onto the ground, pinning me to the floor by my shoulders. I wiggled and squirmed beneath her, trying to keep those teeth away from my face. I tried to push her off of me but those bony arms of hers seemed to have the strength of a hundred body builders. Every time I lifted my upper body, she pushed me back down, blowing a rotten stench into my face. 

“Dia, I’ve got Taylo
r,
” Brendan called from somewhere in the room.

“Get…her…outta…her
e,
” I grunted as I continued to grapple with Amber. 

I still had the cord wrapped loosely around my hand but the controller was out of reach. I groped at the cord, grabbing at it until the controller slid into view.
 I got a good grip on one of the handles and hit Amber in her head over and over. My attack did nothing but tire my arm. I couldn’t keep on like this for much longer. As I felt myself weakening, it seemed like Amber was only getting stronger.  

I wasn’t going to make it out of this room. I was going die in Mason Jackson’s shrine to Mason Jackson. Eaten alive by a fellow actor.
 What a way to go. At least a pretty interesting made-for-TV movie could come from the story. I closed my eyes, ready to accept my fate, and allowed the gross stench coming from Amber’s mouth to envelop me.

It’ll all be over soon.

A sound that was like an eggshell crackling amplified a million times over ripped through the air. Amber’s growling stopped and her grip on me loosened. Another cracking sound—like bones breaking—and Amber groaned, her grip slacking even more
.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack
!
 
Her weight lifted from me. I opened one eye then the other. The room’s ceiling came into focus. There were a few more cracks. Then silence. I shot up, looking around the room wildly.