2:10 Overshadowed

Jackson popped in to visit Mercedes one evening. Summer started talking to him and was excitable as always. She announced that she was starting school on Monday, and wanted to know when Taylor would start. Jackson laughed.
"Summer, Taylor isn't even one yet! Not for a while!"
"When can I come play with her?" Summer seemed disappointed. She often referred to Taylor as her baby cousin, Mercedes and Jackson were like brother and sister, and even had keys for each others houses.
"Well, we're having an early birthday party for her tomorrow, you're coming aren't you?"
"Of course I am!!" Summers face lit up. "Who else is going to be there?"
"Well, there's your mummy, Lisas' parents, her three brothers and her sister. Her younger brother is only a year or two older than you, maybe you can play with him?" Summer pulled a face.
"EW!! Cortez Bunch?? Ew, no, he's yucky!! And he's a boy!!" Jackson laughed and challenged her to a game of rock, paper, scissors.

They were mid-game when Mercedes came into the room.
"How long have you been here, Jack?"
"Only about 20 minutes"
"Summer, bedtime!" Summer grumbled and stamped her feet as she went to her room - Jacksons old room. Jackson and Mercedes sat on the sofa, and talked for about half an hour, before Jackson had to leave, agreeing they'd see each other the next afternoon at Taylors' birthday party.


_____

It was early evening, Lisas' father and one of her brothers had left after dinner, claiming they had a lot of work to do around the house. Everyone else was catching up in the open-plan living space. Summer was getting bored, and was uneasy around Cortez. She wasn't sure what it was about him. He dressed smart and his skin was almost grey. She tugged on Mercedes' arm and convinced her to go outside to play with her.

Cortez followed the girls outside, and said he wanted to play too.
"Mummy!! You can't let him play!!"
"Don't be so rude, Summer! He's not going to bite you, he only wants to play tag!" Summer scowled and stormed inside, angry at her mother for playing with him instead of her.

She sulked in the rocking chair in Taylors room. Taylor was asleep and she didn't want to wake her up or her parents might get mad at her.
"I can't wait until you're old enough to talk to me and be my best friend." She muttered to the sleeping baby.



_____

The next day was Taylors first birthday. Overshadowed for Lisa by the fact it was a full moon. She spent the day fumbling and dropping most things. She tripped a few times and wished that Jackson hadn't gone to work that day. What if today was the day the witch came back? She didn't dare even go to the garden to check on her plants, so instead she spent the day busying herself as best she could.

Moonrise came quickly, Jackson had arrived home a few hours earlier and had spent most of the early evening trying to calm Lisa. Would she be like this for the rest of her life? It had been over 2 years and they went through this every month, it was definitely worse now they had a baby too. She would spend almost the entire night up just holding the baby, and would rarely sleep while the moon was up.

Lisa glanced out the window and saw movement. She shouted to Jackson to go and check it out.

As Jackson rounded the corner, he expected to see nothing, but was confronted with... Something.
"What is it?" Lisa opened the window a crack and called out to him.
"Just a stray dog." Jackson didn't dare move. What was it? It was the same shape as a man, a man he was sure he'd seen in the town at some point, but... He didn't look human, or rather, he didn't look alive. He heard the window close just behind him. "Who are you?" Jackson demanded of the being. His voice more confident than he felt. The man just stared, his eyes seemingly staring straight through him. "Why are you here?" He asked, less confidently this time, this whole thing was very unnerving. The man still didn't say anything. He had barely moved since Jackson had approached him, and he began to wonder if this was even real. He gave up and went inside, thankful that Lisa hadn't seen any of it.

Her parents had almost forgotton, but it was still Taylors birthday. She was too young to understand the events that happened on full moon night, or why her parents were on edge.

Not wanting her to know anything was different about tonight, except that it was a milestone in her young life, Lisa spent the majority of the night in the rocking chair. Taylor fought to keep her eyes open, as her mothers steady rythm pulled her into sleep.

Eventually, Lisa decided she should get some sleep. It was 3am and nothing had happened. She tucked Taylor into her crib, and headed to join Jackson in bed.

And so nobody was awake to witness the small crowd of undead gathering outside.



Yes, that was the same zombie that was peeking in the patio doors the first night Jackson moved in. Great for story purposes, but freaky all the same.


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