Often her love would stop in the early morning by the gate and just look into the grounds, normally for only a minute or so, but sometimes more. When her beloved did this, she would sneak as close as she dared, a few times almost seen, but she always hid away in time. When her sweetheart turned and walked over to the cake shop, she would sit there wishing she had let herself been seen. But she knew the truth deep down, her cake lady would be repulsed by her and blame her sadness upon her.

One cold winter morning when her love had stood there at the gates looking in, she swore they had met eyes. She had gazed into her cake lady’s eyes, and they had gazed back into hers. The moment felt like it lasted forever, and in that time they learned everything they needed to know. She saw how her decaying flesh did not matter to her beloved, that the love her cake lady felt was beyond the putrid skin and open wounds. There was forgiveness for killing and feasting upon an only child, a daughter who had run away after an argument with her mother, no time now to say sorry. None of this mattered, for the cake lady understood and blessed the monster that she was. Suddenly, her beloved turned and wandered slowly over to the cake shop as if nothing had happened. Why? She asked herself. Why had she left so suddenly? Yes! That was it, she had to follow, prove her love by leaving her home, her safe place. She ran as best she could, stumbling, arms outstretched, as she tried to scream “I’m coming”. Her throat racked with pain as decayed vocal cords vibrated. She finally made it to the gates of the graveyard and stopped.

She hesitated, the street empty this early in the morning. With a cry she threw herself past the iron gates and out onto the road. She willed her limbs to carry her, steadily she got ever closer to the little cake shop. Finally at the door, she watched her love walk through the beaded curtains into the kitchen. She continued inside and around the counter, following her love with a lifted heart, a sense of relief that she need no longer hide in the shadows. She reached the beaded curtains and looked through – she could see her. She was facing away from her as she arranged her tools on the desk, ready to begin decorating the large cake on the table. The sound of moving through the curtain caused her beloved to look around into the doorway

Her cake lady screamed. It was a moment of joy for she knew it was a scream of happiness. Her mouth wide not in terror, but of rapture that finally they could be together. She watched as her love steadied herself on the table, wanting her to join her, to love her, to kiss her, to seduce her. Her sweetheart had raised her arms in the air, open to receive her dead lover. She moved from the doorway, the curtain beads catching in the exposed bone of her shoulders, ripping small pieces of rotten flesh and muscle away. Throwing herself towards a loving embrace, trying to utter the words “I love you”, she saw the glint of metal in the hands of her lover.

The knife swung down in a forceful arc, cutting through the flesh and muscle like it was icing, deep into her neck. It smashed through the weakened neck joints and erupted out the other side like it had cut a rotten apple. Her body collapsed instantly, her head fell to the floor and rolled a few feet before coming to a stop. She could see her body, her legs making a thumping sound as they twitched. Her love stood over her, the knife now falling to the floor as she brought her hands to her face, crying and screaming. A tear began to form in the eye of the severed zombie head.

Part 1 | Part 2

Authors Note:
This short was a result of working through a book of how to write short stories. Like at school, you read the book then you do the homework. This particular brief was simply ‘Begin with ‘Once there was…’ and complete your story in four sentences’ so I did begin as it asked and I completed in four sentences. I did not take it seriously, I used to bring out my juvenile side and it was the ludicrous idea of an infatuated lesbian zombie. But the following brief was to make a thousand word story. As I wrote this piece of pulp it started to grow a serious edge, dealing with the death of a child and the dangers of the human mind when obsessed. So here are  those four sentences as some kind of DVD extra.

1. Once there was a girl zombie who was in love with the lady who sold cakes in town.
2. She tried to tell the lady how she felt about her, but as her vocal cords have almost rotted away only groans came from her mouth.
3. The cake lady thought that the zombie girl was going to eat her brains, so pulled out the chainsaw that she kept under the counter and chopped the zombie girl’s head off.
4. As the zombie girl’s head rolled across the floor and came to a stop, a tear fell down her decomposing cheek.

He looked directly at me, well as best as I could tell he was. “I’m not selling watches, knocked off or otherwise. I am offering you time, time to experience life, time to enjoy the curves of a naked lady in your bed, time to be dancing to the rhythm of your favourite band or time to be reading that book of yours.” I stared at him, now quite confused, thinking is he a time share salesman wanting me to buy a bit of house on an island now too full of British tourists? “What is that you reading anyway?” He lent over and fingers adorned with gothic silver jewellery grabbed the book from my hands and pulled it over to him. He closed the book, losing my page and began to read the front. “The Wanderings of Alha…, Alhazzz, Alhazzz red?” he gave up trying to pronounce the title and offered the book back to me. As he lent over, the short sleeve of his shirt lifted up his arm and revealed a tattoo, which seemed to be a stylised octopus, tentacles reaching out from the cotton material that masked most of the head. “Well,” I remarked as I took the book back with annoyance at him losing my page, “I did have time to read my book until you showed up.”

“OK, lets begin again. I’ll tell you what, I’ll get us a couple of drinks and then we can have a proper chat.” As he stopped speaking he pulled a ten pound note out from his jeans pocket and put in on the table. I looked at him blankly, wondering if he was about to ask me to go get the drinks? “Look, you’re a regular and the bar is three deep with students who have all the time in the world. You and me, well, you are not so fortunate after all this time. You’re a regular, you’ll get served quicker than me.” I could not disagree with his reasoning that I would get served quicker, but his remarks about my time left me curiously unnerved. Partly for the free drink and partly for the chance to get some time away from this man, I grabbed the tenner and was about to ask what he was having when he spoke: “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

“Pint of Shoggoth it is then,” I remarked as I walked away and began to work my way to that one point at the bar where regulars get served and others get told to move out of the way of the glass collector. Well, in truth, regulars get asked to move as well, but we have learned to move first or expect an insult before being asked to move. The punk barmaid, dressed in tartan, black, green, pink, red and numerous other colours, hair to match and advertising a zombie film from the days when horror still shocked and got banned on her ripped t-shirt, served my requested two pints of Shoggoth with a bubbly smile before moving on to serve the ever increasing numbers of students wanting to drink booze, who themselves had elements of a zombie mob about them. Grabbing the two pints and with a skill only years of pub life can hone I made my way back to my seat, avoiding drunken youths dressed in golfing outfits, without spilling a drop.

*Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar – Hops grown by HP Lovecraft and brewed by Neil Gaiman

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4