Title: All Hallow’s Eve
Prompt:
writerverse challenge #36 quick fic amnesty (‘ghouls and beasties’)
Word Count: 379
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: original (
Zeke Jones ‘verse)
Summary: Zeke and Howell deal with a batch of not-zombies on Halloween night.
Note(s): originally posted to the
writerverse wv_library All Hallow's Eve
“You know, I used to love Halloween,” I muttered, pushing another zombie-costumed punk into the overnight holding cell. “I loved dressing up. And candy.”
“You’re dressed up as a cop,” said Howell. He glared at the wannabe zombies, and several of them shrank back from the bars. “Maybe you could act like it.”
“Will you give me candy if I do?” I asked- I was used to my partner’s glare by now.
“No,” he said, flatly.
“Um… officers?” asked one of the not-zombies.
I looked up from the reams of booking paperwork. “Yeah?”
It was one of the college kids we’d brought in for drunk and disorderly- they’d really been more of a danger to themselves than a nuisance to others, and we were planning to release them when they sobered up- and he kept glancing nervously over his shoulder at another not-zombie passed out on the cell’s bench.
“Um… I just… could you… I think that’s a real zombie!”
“That’s not a real zombie,” said Howell and I together, in exactly the same exasperated tone. I grinned at him, and he scowled back at me.
I leaned on the wall beside the drunk tank. “Look,” I said. “As much fun as it must be for you to dress up as one, I can assure you that there are no such things as zombies.”
“But-” the kid began, glancing back again. The other not-zombie, sprawled in an uncomfortable-looking position, gave a loud, wretched moan. “He-!”
“-is drunk,” I interrupted. “Probably well on his way to being hungover, actually. And not a zombie.”
“How do you know that?” the kid demanded, nervously. Up close, he didn’t even look old enough to have been a college student- either he was an early admission, or somebody’s younger brother.
“There are no such things as zombies,” I repeated. “Sir, back me up here.”
Howell didn’t look up from his own paperwork. “Young man, the world is full of breathtaking wonder and fathomless horror, but I have never seen any evidence to suggest that the dead may rise again.”
The kid looked dumfounded, but I smiled. “There you go. What he said.”
He frowned. “Are you… are you sure?”
I smiled wider, showing the pointed edge of my fangs. “Quite sure.”
THE END
Current Mood:
geeky