I let Jonah in my house. I brought him around my family. I should have known, nobody so anal couldn’t have been a serial killer. Justin is the only reason I tolerated his smug ass. He was never anything but someone hanging on. I could see the jealousy in his eyes. Every time Justin would accomplish something he’d be right there, trying to kill the joy. Seven hundred and thirty-two jobs we did together. We carried you right through every single one.

I knew he was jealous. An immature coward at heart. Fear and jealousy ruled his life and that’s why he did it. He was still just a little ass boy, afraid to sleep in the dark. Justin told me stories about Jonah coming into his room, scared to sleep alone. He did nothing but protect him from the world. Try to make him his own man. He encouraged him to be everything he is. Without Justin, Jonah is nothing. He doesn’t have the heart to do this.

A scream comes from the basement and I know Rythe is in trouble. If that bastard Jonah is here, he’s going to sleep in Hell tonight. I rush down the stairs and spot Rythe right away. There’s nothing I can do for him. He’s being devoured. Demons, half dead people. I don’t know. All in different stages of decomposition. I watch as they rip through Rythe’s trachea and put an end to his screaming. The gurgling as he chokes on his own blood sends a chill down my spine, I might die here today if I don’t move.

I turn to run up the stairs but my chin meets a step as my leg is snatched back. They’ve finished with Rythe and moved on to me. I stab and slice at them. Destroying the brain works on some. Stabbing through the heart works on others. But there’s too many. I just fight to get to a standing position. Maybe I can walk backwards up the stairs fighting. Give myself a chance to get away. I just need to get to my car. The problem is, there’s just too many. No matter how many I kill, more keep coming.

“Get the fuck off me,” I hear myself yelling.

The blood shoots from my wounds piercing the half dead monsters that fill the basement. Is this what Jonah has been doing with his victims? Necromancy? Forcing them back to life. If this why he didn’t want me to bring Jonah back? Because he already had. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill every last one of these monsters. Then I’ll find Jonah, and I’ll rip his head from his shoulders with my own hands. If he runs he will never sleep. He will walk this Earth knowing I am behind him. Knowing I will be coming. A curse, a plague. It doesn’t matter, nothing will compare to what I’m bringing to him.

With my bearings it doesn’t take much to kill them. At this point I feel as if I’m crawling over corpses. How many people has he killed? How long has he been at it? He could never kill anyone face to face, always lurking in the shadows. I remember he was afraid to stake a vampire that had been preying on children at an orphanage. But he had the nerve to be a serial killer.

“Baby, please stop,” Justin stands in front of me.

Half of his face is rotted away and his wings are nothing but cartilage and bone at this point. The six pack I loved so much has been replaced with decaying and transparent flesh showing a window to his intestines. But the eyes, the eyes tell me everything I need to know. Justin is still in there. Beyond the twisted beast he has become he’s still there. His soul is beyond those eyes, still there. It never left Earth, it couldn’t because it was trapped here. Resurrection is a fate worth of death. Jonah told me, and he knew, because this is what he had done.

“Hey baby,” the words come from my mouth before I can think.

“I missed you.”

“We’re going to get you out of here.”

“I can’t go back. Look at me, I’m a monster,” he looks away from my face.

“No, you’re still the man I love.”

“I can’t be him anymore. I’m something different now. I don’t even know if I’m a man anymore.”

“You’re enough for me.”

“You’ve always been more than I deserved.”

“Don’t say that, you were always my guardian angel.”

“But I let you down,” he balls his fist, tears may have fallen if he was alive.

“No, you didn’t let me down. Jonah killed you. He let me down. I should have never believed in him.”

“But you only believed in him, because I asked you to.”

“What else were you supposed to do? Hate your brother? You’re too good for that.”

“I’m only as good as you made me,” he walks closer.

Every warning sign in my body tells me not to do it. You should never kiss the undead, attraction to the undead only leads to one thing, more dead. But Justin isn’t dead, he’s alive and right in front of me. I lean in for a kiss, expecting him to meet me. A true fairy tale ending to our story. We’ll kill Jonah and find somewhere cool to live where he won’t decompose.

Then I feel it, his teeth rip through the flesh of my shoulder. I know I should I just stab him in the head but I can’t fight back. I’m helpless to Justin’s touch. Even as a zombie he could do whatever he wanted to me. I never felt this way about a man before him, and I never felt that way after. Here I am being devoured and clawed at by him, willing to let him have his way with me, just so I can feel his touch again. It doesn’t take long before more attack. I try to fight them back, but not Justin. He takes my arm and places it to my side, I resign myself to my fate.