The Not-So-Spooky Zombie

Lily loved autumn walks with her golden dog, Sunny. The leaves crunched under their boots like potato chips, and the air smelled like cinnamon apples. One afternoon, something orange flashed behind the old oak tree.

A fox! But not just any fox—this one wore a tiny blue vest.

"Hello!" the fox said. "I'm Finnegan. Are you brave?"

Lily nodded. Sunny wagged his tail so hard his whole body wiggled.

"Good!" Finnegan's tail twitched. "Because there's a zombie in the garden, and he needs help."

Lily's eyes went wide. A zombie? Like in her brother's video games?

Finnegan led them to a forgotten garden behind the library. There, stumbling between pumpkin vines, was the saddest "zombie" Lily had ever seen. His clothes were covered in paint, his hair stuck up everywhere, and he moved like a marionette with tangled strings.

But then Sunny ran up and gave the zombie's hand a big, slobbery lick.

The zombie jumped—and his face fell right off!

Lily gasped. Underneath was... a boy about her age, wearing a papier-mâché mask.

"That's my Halloween costume!" the boy cried. "The paint made it stick to my face! I've been trying to get it off for an hour!"

Finnegan the fox giggled. "I told you he needed help."

Lily dug in her backpack and found her water bottle. She and the boy splashed water on the mask until—pop!—it came loose.

"I'm Oliver," he said, rubbing his cheeks. "Thanks for helping. I thought I'd be a zombie forever!"

"I'm Lily, and this is Sunny." She pointed to her dog, who was now napping on Oliver's foot.

Finnegan smiled. "You know, zombies aren't scary when they're just friends in sticky costumes."

Oliver showed them his secret garden, full of pumpkins he'd grown for the neighborhood. Lily realized that sometimes the scariest things are just misunderstandings—and sometimes, all it takes is a brave dog's lick to reveal the truth.

That Halloween, Lily, Oliver, Sunny, and Finnegan (who turned out to be the librarian's magical pet fox) handed out pumpkins together. And Oliver's zombie costume? He fixed it with special paint that never stuck—though Sunny still gave him an extra slobbery lick, just to be safe.