Kenzie held her breath and closed her eyes. She was hiding inside of a closet, not daring to make a peep. Outside, there were scratching and clacking sounds. Occasionally, there’d be a loud thump, the reverberations from the sound almost enough to make her heart stop.

“Kenzie,” a raspy voice said. “Where are you, Kenzie? Come out….”

Tears threatened to fall from Kenzie’s eyes, and she covered her mouth with her hands. Although the voice outside sounded like her father’s, she knew it wasn’t him outside. It was a creature that looked like him but was actually a bloodthirsty monster. She had seen him bite her mother’s throat apart with her own eyes, and the look her mother had given her was burned into her mind.

There was a thumping sound. “Kenzie….”

Thump, thump.

“Where are you, Kenzie?”

The footsteps grew louder and louder. Kenzie opened one eye. Underneath the closet door, there was a slit for light to pour in. A shadow covered the light, and a squeak involuntarily escaped out of Kenzie’s mouth. There was a rustling sound, and from what little light there was in the closet, Kenzie could see the knob to the closet turning. Her eyes widened, and she rose to her feet, lunging at the knob. She grabbed it and leaned back as hard as she could, determined to keep the door shut.

“Kenzie! I know you’re in there, Kenzie!”

The door creaked open, but Kenzie pulled, slamming it shut. She pressed her feet against the doorframe while keeping her hands on the knob. Although she couldn’t stop the beast outside from pulling open the door, she managed to slam it shut every time it did. Her arms burned, and her fingers hurt, but she maintained her grip. “Please, please, go away. Please, stop. Please.”

“Open the door!”

Kenzie could see the creature sporting her dad’s face staring at her. Its eyes were red, and veins bulged on its face like giant pulsating worms. Its lips were bloody, and bits of flesh were dotting its beard. Saliva flew out of its mouth, landing on Kenzie’s face as it roared while pulling on the door. A skeleton appeared over the creature pretending to be her dad, and Kenzie was sure she was going to die. Why would a messenger from the cult of death be here otherwise?

“Whoa there,” the skeleton said. “Let’s take it easy with the door. What if it breaks? Do you know how expensive wood is nowadays?”

The creature that masqueraded as Kenzie’s dad stopped pulling on the door. The closet slammed shut, and Kenzie took in a deep breath. She didn’t dare relax lest the door sudden fly open. She maintained her position, her feet firmly planted against the doorway. There was a roar, and a clanking sound. It sounded like metal striking against someone’s head. Then, there was silence. A few seconds later, there was a gentle knock on the closet door.

“Hello, are you doing alright in there?” a voice that sounded like two stones grinding together asked. “Were you bitten or scratched?”

Kenzie wasn’t sure what to do. Should she respond to the messenger of death? Ignore it? Neither seemed like a good option.

“I’m here to help,” the skeleton said. “I already knocked your dad out. It’s a bit tricky to get the right amount of strength to disable these berserkers without killing them, but I’m getting better at it. I disabled your mother too.”

Kenzie gulped. “My mom is still alive?”

“Yep. Once people are bitten, they turn into berserkers too, and their injuries heal really quickly. Her throat might’ve been torn, but it’s better now—a bit scarred though.”

“Are you here to take my soul?” Kenzie asked after thinking for a bit.

“Well, that wasn’t my original purpose in coming here, but if you don’t want your soul anymore, I don’t mind taking it from you,” the skeleton said. “Have you heard about our lord and savior, Lindyss the Corrupted One?”

“I’ve heard of her,” Kenzie said. “I’m not interested, but … what exactly was your original purpose in coming here?” She was pretty sure the skeleton broke into the house since neither of her parents were in any state to open the door.

“I’m here to help stop the spread of berserkers,” the skeleton said. “I heard some sounds in this direction, so I decided to check it out. Good thing I did, eh? If you don’t want to come out, that’s fine, but if you do, we undead are in the process of setting up a safe zone where the berserkers can’t get in. I’m taking your parents there, so we can examine them to find a cure; I can bring you along too if you’d like.”

Kenzie frowned. “Why are the undead helping us?”

A strange grinding sound came from outside the door, and it took a while for Kenzie to realize the skeleton was chuckling. “This berserker infection is a problem. With it, people go around infecting other people with a disease that damages their minds a little but lets them survive fatal injuries. If everyone lives forever, where will the undead get more people? Eventually, we’ll be outnumbered.”

***

“This is boring,” Ramon said and made a face. He was sitting at a table, which was a rectangular block, with a stone tablet on top of it. “Why do I have to learn this?”

Gloria glanced at her brother before focusing her attention back onto her tablet. She was sitting at a different table than Ramon, but the reading material was the same.

“A dragon has to be knowledgeable,” Grimmy’s mom said. “Knowing how to read is essential to living a good life.”

“But no one uses this language anymore!” Ramon said and pouted. “Why do we have to learn how to read dead languages? No one’s ever going to write in it again.”

“It’s important to know how to read so-called dead languages,” Grimmy’s mom said. “Do you know how ancient evils are brought back upon the world? Civilizations defeat a great enemy but aren’t able to completely eradicate them, so they seal their enemies’ souls and leave behind instructions on how to keep them contained. Eventually, the civilization fades away into history, and another civilization takes their place. They don’t know how to read the instructions left behind by the first civilization, and they end up doing something to resurrect the ancient enemy.”

Ramon rolled his eyes. “Who cares if an ancient thing gets free? If it was sealed once, it can be sealed again.”

Grimmy’s mom stared at Ramon. “You don’t want to learn?”

Ramon shook his head.

Grimmy’s mom nodded. Then, she went to the corner of the room and opened a hidden compartment. She pulled out a massive stick, which was basically a log, and lifted it with one paw. She swung it and slapped it against her other paw, making a cracking sound. She repeated the action a few more times while staring at Ramon. “Are you sure you don’t want to learn?”

Ramon’s eyes widened. Wasn’t this grandma supposed to be nicer than the other one? Why was she threatening to hit him with a stick!?