The dark sky was above us as cold froze my breath. I stumbled forward, grabbing Dieter's arm for balance. He turned to look at me, causing the moonlight to shine on his face. The pine trees shadowed us, blocking out most of the night.

"Sorry," I said, pulling my hand away from his arm. "I tripped over a rock."

"Red," he said smoothly, sealing my new name. "I don't think vou realize how powerful your new body is."

I stepped back, waving my arms in the air, mocking him with an accent. "Ved, you don't vnow how powerful vour vody is." I stomped around, then glared at him. "You took me out here in the chilly woods just to tell me something I already know." I motioned down to my new body. "Mr. build a bear is now voicing his opinion about the endless shit I don't know." I stepped closer to him. My face was only inches away. I looked down at his lips and then whispered. "You can now continue."

Dieter huffed out in anger. "Woman," he said while turning around and walking away from me. "You save vhem, and what do you get out of it?" he questioned toward the sky. "Them velling at you like you are the one that villed them."

I rolled my eyes, then stepped abruptly forward, bringing my palms to his back and shoving him to the ground. "Fuck you!" I yelled at him. "And the word is killed."

He rolled around, kicking my legs out from under me. I landed hard on the ground as my right pointer finger bent backward in an awkward position with a pop sound. I looked down to see it completely fell off, rolling away from me towards Dieter.

He scrambled on the ground toward it. "Vorry, Red," he said, grabbing it.

I brought my palm closer to my face and looked at my hand with only four fingers on it. There was zero blood, and there was zero pain. My finger just fell off like I'm some lizard that loses body parts when attacked by a predator.

"Red, there is a lot I still need to explain to you." Dieter stood up from the ground, pocketing my finger, saying that sentence superbly.

I sat on the wet ground with a leaf stuck to my cheek. Dieter was looking around, trying to figure out where we were. I laughed at him as he gave me a concerned expression. When he pulled off his glasses, I laughed even harder. How did I get myself into the situation? I was in the woods with some mad scientist, lost, trying to bring us God knows where, and to add to it, I'm a zombie with my body falling apart right in front of me.

"Vhy you laughing?" he asked me, crouching down closer with his hand out. "Vere, let me help you up."

I grabbed his hand with my now four-fingered palm as he pulled me off the ground. He turned around and started on his way, walking into the darkness. I followed behind him in silence until an apple tree came into view. I knew then where he was taking me.

I shoved past him, pushed him to the ground, and kept walking toward the apple tree. "Why didn't you just tell me?" I asked over my shoulder as he scrambled on the ground.

Dieter stood up from the earth, brushing off his pants. He pointed down at the enormous pile of dirt. "Mr. Voyfriend of the month stabbed vou multiple times, then buried you here." He walked around, picking an apple from the tree and tossing it to me. "I valked up when he was in the viddle of burying you, and he ran off." He pointed toward the way Roy ran off. "I didn't vink anything of vit until I discovered he was trying to bury you."

"Why didn't you call the cops then, Dieter?" I wondered why he didn't just do what every human would have done.

"Vis is where you realize," he said, stepping toward me. "I'm not the good guy." He smirked at me. "Vi am a genius, but that doesn't mean I do it vor the good of humanity."

I stepped back away from him. "What?" I asked.

"Apple Red, I do vings that aren't acceptable to Heaven, but that doesn't mean I do it to good people." He smiled at the moon, then looked back at me. "Murder isn't something I shy away vrom."

I swallowed hard. Hearing that this man who brought me back to life was also evil. He murders people, so why did he need to rescue me?

"Why bring me back if you don't care about the life of a human?" I asked him.

"Vi only vill the ones that deserve it." He stepped up next to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me closer to him. "I vill the ones that murder the innocent woman." He brought his face only inches from mine. "Vi brought you back to be my minion. I already have the virst job lined up for you," he said as his warm breath danced along me. "Royce isn't a good guy. He is capable of vore than you know."

I swallowed hard, shoving Dieter away from me. Murder Roy like he did to me. The thought came out smoothly, like I didn't have a soul anymore. He made me see darkness and I will make him see darkness as well. The nothingness, disappearing. Me being the last face he sees.

"That fucker is going down," I said coldly back to Dieter.

"Vood, vood," he smirked my way.

"Good," I corrected him.

He glared at me. "I said that, vood."

"You have got to be kidding me," I replied, shaking my head.

I watched as he tracked his way back to the house. But I looked back at the pile of dirt, seeing the rotten apple that Roy whacked me with. Next to the mud, covered in leaves, was the backpack Roy had on him. I reached down, setting my knees on the ground. The bag was wet from being out here for so long, and the knife was still in it. I stood up, picked apples from the tree, placed them in the bag, then followed Dieter back to his house.

Love blinded me. All I saw was the shiny ring at the end of the tunnel, and not for a moment did I notice all the red flags. Everything was fake. Roy never had good intentions with me. He was evil from the beginning, hiding behind the cute smile. Two years of hoping he would want more from me, but why did I even think there would be a ring, knowing we never even lived together?

Justify if I even loved him back. Two years of wondering if it fully committed me to him or did I only love the idea of a husband? If he was this kind of person, murdering was the answer. I never knew him, not his true self, anyway.

Roy hid behind his lying smile, fooling me he was the good guy. The guy that worked hard for everything he had. The guy that thought of our future together. But he was far from it.

Dieter kept quiet as we walked back to his house. The wind picked up, blowing my hair around. Porch lights glowed in the distance as a white cat with patches jumped up the stairs, waiting for us. It looked like Dieter had constructed the cat to resemble a Doodle bear.

"Oh, Duff," I whispered, thinking of my little fur baby, wondering if Roy was taking care of him.

My mind went to the worst, thinking he probably killed him too. That bastard is going to die. Not a peaceful death. A slow, painful one. My eyes darted to the car parked nicely in the graveled driveway.

I ran past Dieter, opening the door. The door swung around, banging hard on the wall. He had a well-organized house, so I guess this lunatic would have them hanging off a couple of hooks that say keys above it.

I spotted his keys next to the front door. My hands gripped the silver ring just in time for Dieter to wrap his long, annoying fingers around my hand.

"Where vare you going?" he asked, ripping the keys from my hands.

"I'm an adult, so I can wander my ass anywhere I want to," I responded, looking over at him.

His eyebrows arched up high in shock. "Adult, yes, but taking my var, no."

I rolled my eyes, huffing out like a teenager. "Okay, can you drive me?"

He looked down, bobbing his eyes around, trying to decide if this was a good idea. I never even told him where we were going, so I didn't blame him if he decided no. He pulled at his long sleeve shirt, bringing it over his head as he turned to walk away.

My palms went in the air, shocked he was stripping off his shirt randomly.

"Vet me change my muddy shirt virst," he said, showing his bare back to me.

Okay, the random strip show was just for changing.

Surprisingly, under the baggy shirt was a very fit man. His defined back muscles stretched to the two dimples on his lower back. My head tilted to the side, leaning to get a better view as he walked away. Dieter disappeared for a couple of minutes, then reappeared with a new outfit and leather jacket.

"Clean up nice," I told him.

"I vould say the same, but-" he responded, pointing at the mud-covered outfit I still had on.

"I will ignore your insults until you start speaking correctly." I waved my arm in the air, opening the front door. "Let's head out, Dr. Frank."

Thank you for reading.

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