I watched the red melt from his eyes as he fell to his knees in front of me. "Liv?" he breathed.

I opened my mouth, but found I couldn't say anything.

"Are you okay?" he asked, shielding his eyes from the glare of the flashlight.

"So you're a zombie." I lowered the flashlight.

"And so are you."

"But... your hair." I said lamely.

"I dye it. I also have a spray tan. I'd give you the details of my tan place if I didn't think you looked gorgeous in porcelain."

Despite the situation, the compliment made me all all warm and fuzzy inside. "You don't seem very surprised to see that I'm a zombie. When did you know?" I asked.

"I suspected it the day you came to school with white hair. When you ate sandwiches with weird pink stuff on them for lunch one day, I knew."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wasn't completely sure. Also, how would I start?"

"Hi, are you a zombie? Because I'm one too," I suggested. "You had plenty of time when I came over to listen to your song."

"I was going to." He shrugged. "But I didn't want to make things awkward if I happened to be wrong."

I glanced at Julian. "Do you think he's dead?"

"Did you get him in the head?"

"No."

"Then he's still alive."

"What do we do with him?" I looked around. "And where are the others?"

"Hiding, probably."

"Do you think they saw much?"

"I took martial arts for years when I was a kid. I'm hoping they'll believe I remembered some of what I learned there. What's your excuse?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Martial arts as well, if you don't mind. And a medical condition that gives me abnormally high adrenaline levels."

"Is there such a thing?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? I haven't been to medical school. Yet."

"Lowell? Is that you?" I recognised the voice as Holly's.

"Yeah," he called and stood up. "Liv's here too."

"What just happened?" she asked and emerged from the bushes, supporting a limping Ren. I heard a rustling to my left and saw Eliza crawling out from under a bush. There was a deep cut in her one arm and blood dripped from her fingertips. "Did he scratch you?" I asked.

"No," she said in a huff, clutching her arm. "I fell against a tree."

I breathed a sigh of relief and began to explain. "We were coming to join you guys when we saw this guy following you. He was holding a knife." My voice trembled.

Lowell and I continued our version of the story, improvising as we went along. Luckily it was dark and nobody noticed the knife sticking out of Julian's throat. We convinced the others that Lowell had knocked him out with a branch.

We made our way back to the tents, assessing damages as we went. Lowell pulled out his phone and stood to one side to 'call the police'. I cleaned up everyone's wounds and diagnosed Ren with a twisted ankle. Other than that, they were all fine. Once everyone had calmed down, I came to a full realisation of what I'd done.

While I was washing the blood off my hands, my phone rang. When I saw it was Blaine, I let it ring. I had nothing more to say to him at that moment.

I found Lowell sitting on the steps outside the bathroom. "So," he said, standing up. "How did you know we were going to be attacked by a zombie?"

I didn't want to have to tell him in the same place where we kissed, but it had to be done. I began with the boat party and how I'd agreed to Blaine's conditions. I didn't let Lowell speak at all until I'd finished off with a desperate apology. "I understand if you hate me." I put my head in my hands, feeling sick. "Hell, I hate me. I don't know how I could have ever..." It felt like there was a boulder in my throat.

"Hey," Lowell said gently and placed a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay," he said. "I understand that desperation. When I was... turned, I..." He swallowed. "There was nobody there to feed me. To stop me." He shuffled closer and wrapped his arms around me. He buried his face in my hair and I felt tears dripping through the white strands.

Without realising it, I had started crying too. I was hungry and that just made me cry harder.

"I have a friend who works at the morgue," he said, voice thick. "He only takes enough to feed me, but I'm sure we can arrange something."

I remembered the empty skull of the body at the graveyard. "That explains it."

"That explains what?" The closeness of him, his voice and his warmth comforted me in a way that I never thought possible.

I told him about the night at the graveyard. "I had to raid a few graves. That's how I found the guy who works at the morgue," he said.

"And you trust him?" I asked.

"He's an absolute zombie nut. Couldn't believe his luck when he found me digging up a grave one evening."

"What's his name?"

"Ravi. You'll love him. He's also taken it upon himself to cure me. He'll be very happy to have another specimen to work with."

I laughed through my tears. "Can't wait to meet him."

We went back to the campfire and found the others shoving everything hastily into the car. "There is no way I'm staying here," Eliza said. "How long did the police say they'd take to arrive?"

"The nearest town is an hour away, Lowell answered.

Eliza pursed her lips. "There is no way I'm waiting here that long. This place is boring anyway." The ordeal had sobered her up considerably, but she was still clearly out of it. I wondered how much she would remember of the night.

"Let's go," I agreed. Blaine - or at least a few more of his lackeys - would probably still be hanging around and the last thing I wanted to to was to run into one of them. "But only if I drive," I added to Lowell, watching her stumble away.