It was Halloween night; Dianne had been dishing out candy to kids all night admiring their costumes, and her own. She decided she would be Cinderella this year. She wore the long, blue, silky ball gown, and her bright blond hair was gracefully pulled back to match Cinderella’s. She saw popcorn, grape bunches, cats, and a lumberjack. She loved seeing all of the different costumes and getting a chuckle out of them. Her favorite one though, was a zombie. She loved the idea of someone returning from the dead. She loved everything about it; the fact that they’re dead, but still roaming around, that they can devour people’s brains, and that they can turn other people into zombies. Without things like zombies, Dianne wouldn’t believe in Halloween. She even had her kids dress up as zombies. She did their make-up and bought them shredded clothes and splashed red paint all over them.

The kids returned home, full pillowcases of candy in their hands.

“Hey guys, how was it?” Dianne asked.

They stopped and looked at her with a blank stare, nodded, dropped their bags on the floor with a loud thud, and treaded up the cold wooden stairs. Dianne yelled goodnight after them, and realized it was happening all over again. Her heart sank. She recalled back to before Shawn left; the kids were always so excited to be with him. She would yell goodnight after them and they would continue to walk away and not even acknowledge her. They barely even looked at her. The kids hated her. They wanted to be with their dad, she was sure of it. She felt defeated. She went up to bed by herself. Lulu, Dianne’s Pomeranian, scampered after her up to bed. She always knew how to make Dianne feel better, especially after Dianne’s husband, Shawn, divorced her. She could still remember the last words he said before he walked out of the door for the last time: “Goodbye, you selfish woman.” Those words stung her heart, but she knew it was true. She would always do things for herself, that’s why the kids barely speak to her anymore, no matter how hard she tries.

Dianne and Lulu nestled up together in bed and she flipped on the television. There was a scary movie marathon going on, they were intrigued by The Zombies Returned. They quickly dozed off with the movie still on.

Dianne was startled awake by the smell of a wet dog barfing into a litter box. When she peered through the slight crack in her eyelids, there was an eyeless, bloody, returned from the dead, zombie three inches from her face. Its mouth was hanging open, breathing down her neck. It was dripping, like it had just crawled out of a lake, or swamp, or abyss. His cheeks and eyes were sunken in.
He’s done this before, she thought.
She rolled over just as it was about to bite her face off. Lulu jumped off the bed and started barking frantically at the zombie. The zombie picked her up and bit her. Lulu began to shake violently, barking at nothing, lying on her back and twitching. She was changing quickly. The zombie was trying to get a taste of Dianne too.
I need to get out of here. Her hands were trembling as she grabbed the alarm clock and thrust it at the zombie trying to buy herself some time. Her heart racing, she threw back the covers and sprinted out of there. The zombie quickly recovered and chased after her. He seemed to know Dianne’s house better than her. He was hunting her down, moaning nonsense words. Lulu trailed not far behind, like hunting dogs do out in the wild. They had cornered Dianne in the basement. She was trying to escape, but she did not want to get near the zombie. There was no way out. The kids were still asleep.

As the zombie pounced at her face, Dianne ducked, jumped over Lulu, and broke free. She raced out of her house with the zombie not far behind. She threw herself into her car and squealed out of her driveway. The zombie seemed to have stopped chasing her. The zombie headed back towards the house. Dianne, too far away to realize this, kept speeding away, wondering how the rest of the small neighborhood was not awake already.

Lulu trailed the zombie by a few inches and darted up the stairs of Dianne’s house after him. He walked straight into the teal door to the kid’s bedroom, smashing it into pieces. The kids were immediately jolted awake and nearly jumped out of their skin. They didn’t know what to do.

“Mommy!” they screamed frantically. “Mommy come save us!”, but she had already disappeared. She found herself speeding away to the place she never thought she would go.

The trees that lined the small country roads seemed to pass by her faster and faster. Out of the corner of her eye she saw what seemed to be a person sprinting through the woods. It’s three in the morning, what are they doing? she thought. I cannot slow down. I need help.

“I can’t believe this is happening” she whispered to herself. “Why did this happen to me? What about the kids? Where did the zombie go?” She would have to explain all of this to her ex-husband. I’m going to sound crazy, she thought.

When she got there, he opened the door, confused.

“Dianne,” Shawn said startled. “What are you doing here?”

“Shawn, you know I wouldn’t come to you unless it was absolutely necessary.”

“Okay, well what’s your problem now?” he questioned.

“This is going to sound crazy, but just get in the car we have to go” she said frantically.

They got into Dianne’s car and she sped away.

“Tell me what is going on!” Shawn demanded.

“I had just gone to sleep while watching The Zombies Returned and I woke up to a zombie breathing down my neck. He bit Lulu and now she’s a zombie. They chased me all throughout the house and tried to bite me too. The only thing I could think of was getting in the car and getting out of there. I don’t know what he’s doing now, but you have to get rid of them.”

“I’m not sure how I can help, but I guess I can try” he said hesitantly.

Once they pulled in the driveway, they saw broken windows, open doors, and tattered curtains. What they saw frightened them, but they crept into the house anyways. They saw that the kid’s bedroom door was smashed and in pieces, flung across the hallway and the bedroom, and darted up the rest of the stairs to help. When they peered inside, they saw blood, and hair, and pieces of ripped up clothing. No kids. . The covers were torn back and there was an empty feeling to the room. She could smell the rotting flesh of the zombie, but she didn’t know where he was. She thought she was being paranoid, until Shawn said he felt that way too. There was no way out. They felt trapped.

Dianne began to weep into Shawn’s shoulder. He comforted her, but didn’t have any words to say. They heard footsteps and muffled moans behind them.