The Zombie Who Loved Rainbows

Lily skipped along the edge of Crystal Lake, her bare toes wiggling in the cool sand. She loved coming here after school, especially when the sun painted the water in shades of pink and gold.

Today, something glinted in the shallows. Lily reached in and pulled out a shiny silver rectangle — it was an old iphone, covered in algae but still somehow glowing.

"Hello?" she whispered, wiping the screen.

Suddenly, bubbles erupted from the deep water. A green figure rose up, dripping wet, with seaweed in its hair and one eye slightly closed. It shuffled toward her, arms stretched out.

"A zombie!" Lily gasped, dropping the phone.

But the creature didn't moan or scare her. It simply picked up the iphone with trembling green fingers and tapped the screen. Rainbows burst from it — swirling, magical rainbows that danced across the water.

"I'm Zara," the zombie whispered. "I'm not scary. I just fell asleep in the wrong cave a hundred years ago."

Lily's eyes widened. "You can do MAGIC?"

"Only with happy things," Zara said, tapping more rainbows onto the surface of the lake. "My zombie curse goes away when I make beauty. Want to help?"

For hours, Lily and her new friend created wonders together — rainbow bridges, glowing fish that sang, flowers that bloomed and withered in seconds. The more beauty they made, the more Zara's green skin turned pink and healthy.

"I have to go home," Zara said as the sun set. "But I'll leave you something."

She tapped the iphone one last time, and a tiny rainbow fairy appeared, no bigger than Lily's thumb.

"She'll show you magic everywhere," Zara said, stepping back into the water. "Remember: the scariest things sometimes just need someone to see their beauty."

Lily watched her friend disappear beneath the waves, the iphone still glowing in her hand. And from that day on, she saw magic in everything — even in things that seemed strange at first.

Because kindness, she learned, is the most powerful magic of all.