The Zombie Who Couldn't Die Inside

Maya's zombie makeup was actually pretty good, if she said so herself. The green face paint had taken forty-five minutes and three YouTube tutorials, but the cracked skin effect around her eyes was on point. Too bad her hands were shaking so badly she'd probably smudge it before she even got to Tyler's Halloween party.

"You look... dead-ish," her little brother Leo commented from the doorway, clutching Mr. Whiskers—their ancient, blind terrier who'd developed a concerning habit of walking into walls.

"That's the point, genius." Maya adjusted her fishnet gloves. "Zombies are supposed to be dead."

"Mr. Whiskers ate your zombie hat," Leo said casually.

Maya froze. "MY FEDORA?"

"The one with the fake brains on it. Yeah. He's been chewing on it for like ten minutes."

In the kitchen, Mr. Whiskers looked guiltily up at her, the fedora's brains now a soggy, half-eaten mess scattered across the linoleum. Maya's phone buzzed:

***[EMMA]:** party's lit everyone's here where are youuu*

Her stomach did that familiar flip—the one that felt less like butterflies and more like angry hornets. This was it. Her chance to finally talk to Tyler, who'd smiled at her in chem lab last week. And now she had no hat. No confidence piece. No armor.

She could just not go. Stay home, rewatch The Walking Dead, answer tomorrow that she'd gotten "sick." It would be so easy. So safe.

Mr. Whiskers waddled over and nudged her ankle with his wet nose, tail thumping against the cabinet door. Even brain-fedora-murdering dogs knew when you were about to bail on your own life.

"You're literally the worst," she told him, scratching behind his ears. He licked her wrist with his gross little tongue.

Maya grabbed her phone. *

***[MAYA]:** omw*

The fedora was gone. So what. She was still a zombie, and zombies didn't need confidence. They just kept walking toward things they wanted, no matter how many times they got shot down or had to eat brains to survive.

"Leo! Take a picture!"

"You look so stupid," he said, but he was already aiming his phone.

Maya fixed her zombie eyes on the camera and smiled, showing all her teeth. She felt ridiculous. She felt terrified. She felt like maybe, finally, she was waking up.