Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. ~ Edgar Allan Poe ~

Mindless, Teal sunk her teeth through the squishy, soft tissue and questioned for the third time in twenty-five years of death, if this was what living was all about. Tearing at the flesh in her hands, she yanked and pulled taking her time to chew, similar to the goats she'd seen at the farm her mother worked at.

The first time her mind wandered, she'd been four, and questioned her parents the reason why they did not go out during the day.

"You see our very pale almost paper-like skin?" her mother asked. "It cannot withstand the sunlight."

"Is mine like that?"

With a puff, Morgan exhaled and patted her offspring's hand which rested on her forearm.

"Not really, honey."

"Can I go out? With the sun?"

Morgan grimaced at her child's words. "No. Only humans can. We can't risk something happening to you since your dad, nor I can go out and help if it did."

Wrinkling her face, Teal persisted. "What are humans?"

"They're the inhabitants of the other half of this planet. Beyond the gates."

"Can I meet one?"

Her mother's crystal blue eyes bounced from her daughter's excited face to her husband's muted one, hesitating.

"Can we?" she insisted.

"Shut up dummy!" her brother Jax's mocking tone reached across the table. "Pff, who cares?! Humans die."

"I do!" she retorted wide-eyed. "They ... die?!" Teal turned her attention back to her mother.

Before the conversation heated, their father, Javier, interrupted with a commanding, "Eat-your-brains!" The discussion ended, and the siblings fell silent for the rest of the night.

The second time Teal questioned her existence, she'd been fifteen and rebellious, or as unruly as one can be in the Felix family. Tired of unanswered questions, she tried her luck again.

"But I don't understand why we have to be in seclusion?" she complained. "Why can't we live among the living? It's not like I'm gonna jump on one of them, smack 'em over the head, and eat their brain while they're still alive! Gross!" She shivered with abhorrence.

"The disease is easy and quick to spread. Humans are not interested in turning into us. They're afraid of how we look, what we eat ..." her mother trailed off.

"Let's make them understand! Tell them we eat the hearts, livers, and brains of deceased animals or humans, not live ones! They must know we not only eat human brains, and when we do, they are already dead!"

"That's the way people are, Teal. Full of misconceptions and wrong ideas because they have the wrong information. They don't bother to learn the truth. And--and don't care to find a cure as long as they can keep us away." Disgusted, Morgan looked away in the distance, "It's like anything in life, people don't like what they can't understand."

Her mother's words were bitter as they spilled out of her mouth, and there was discontent in her eyes.

"Why ask stupid stuff, Teal?" Came here brothers' gruff voice. At eighteen, it would appear he was handsome and popular with the female zombie population. Heading to one of his usual parties, he couldn't wait to finish up his brains. That was all he ever thought of--food, sex, and parties.

"Teal, eat. Do you know how many starving zombies there are in America?" Her mother gave an attempt to change the subject. "Jax, empty your plate, and stop asking for trouble."

Both she and Jax glared at each other from across the table. She stuck her tongue out at him in distaste, he stuck his middle finger at her like an ass.

"I want to know! And no, I don't know how many zombies are starving. You won't talk about it, and we don't own a TV, so ...!" In typical teenage fashion, Teal's sarcastic tone was thick in her mother's ears.

"Eat. Brains. Now. Then, bed." Her father scolded.

"But it's 2:00 a.m.!" she moaned. "It won't be daylight for hours!"

"Teal!" her father warned.

Teal understood it was the end of the conversation. Unlike her mother, Morgan, her father wasn't a great communicator but could get his point across.

"Yes, Sir," she mumbled, never questioning family, or friends again.

Teal followed instructions as expected, not doing much of anything except look at what was in front of her. Today, yet again, she felt different.

Looking down at the brains in her small hand made her stomach churn. They didn't taste as good as they had all these past years no matter how delicious her mother prepared them on this special day.

Teal was born a corpse unlike her parents and brother, who were infected. Her little fetus was fed of brains and blood. What else was she to know but survival? She'd always felt something was missing from her life, but her family assured her the questions were unnecessary. She is who she is. An undead. A brain-eater. A zombie. Period.

Before tonight, thoughts of change and life, in general, were fleeting. Never had she considered them a challenge. But for the past few hours, while she stood in the dark, she wondered if a different life was possible. One she'd be content with. One where she could be unique, maybe feed on something else.

Earlier, she'd mentioned her doubts to her best friend, Samantha. Her response, yet again, was unsatisfactory.

"Teal darlin', there's nothing better to soothe our soulless bodies than brains, music, and sex. You shouldn't be thinking of anything else."

"Why not?"

"Because it'll bring nothing but trouble and heartache."

'What do you mean by that?"

In popped Jax's smiling head, interrupting them. "Ready, querida mia?"

My love, being the only two words he'd ever remembered in Spanish, no thanks to the condition which fated them. Teal was proud of his accomplishment of remembering such a thing she'd taught him many years ago. Something she'd read in one of the many books she adored.

"Hey," he greeted as if she were a second thought. In the dark, a few blue veins at both sides of his temple, visible. His eyes, a beautiful dull, light, honey-brown color, almost yellow.

"Yes, Love. Did you congratulate your sister on her birthday?"  Samantha hopped off the bed.

"Huh?" He narrowed his eyes.

As part of Jax's zombie-ism, his brain lost concise amounts of information, forgetting words and remembering impactful experiences in his life, regardless of whether they were new or old memories. His mind was jumbled, and besides things that came to him with ease, everything else was a hit or miss. His flashes of clarity, unpredictable.

Turning his head to look at his sister, he cocked an eyebrow. "Wanna go?"

"Where?"

"Club."

"Hmm. Nah."

"It's fuuun."

"I don't care much for that sort of thing. You know that."

He bobbed his head from side to side unsure. "Even birthday?"

She nodded, and he shrugged. 

"See ya later, Squirt!"

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "You've become so charming. You used to be such an ass when we were little."

He gave her shoulder a playful push. 

Teal giggled. "See you, guys. Have fun!"

With a quick kiss on the cheek and a comforting hug, Samantha whispered happy birthday in her ear. Teal muttered an unhappy thank you under her breath and watched them leave hand in hand. 

Laying back on the bed had she stared at the cobwebbed ceiling. Happy freakin' birthday, she thought with misery. What was a birthday without adventure? Without growing up? Without answers? Why was she named after a duck if she wasn't meant to fly?

Facing the crackling fireplace, she sighed in discontent still chewing on the same piece of fat, as if it were rubber.

"Sweetheart, is something wrong?" Her mother's faint voice interrupted her solace. Noiseless, she paced into the large, dark chamber. Abandoned long ago, by humans. A reading room with scattered dust and prominent spiderwebs. Once a luxurious, bright room where people met and watch television. Today it sat deteriorated, raggedy and dirty.

Zombies were not ones to gather except perhaps around a dinner table. When her family took over the house, not much was done to it. Over time, it worsened. At one point, at the age of three or four, a broken TV lived in the middle of the wall. If she stared at the spot long enough, she could see the marks left from it being there.

"Sweetie?"

Taking her time, Teal turned her head towards her mother's voice. The flicker of the candelabra glowed lights, casting dark shadows on her faded visage. It displayed a resemblance of what her mother must have looked like as a human twenty-five years ago.

Her mother's beautiful, translucent facade, stared back at her, and she noticed how much they looked alike. The blueness and brightness of their eyes, the raven hair, and the fine mouth were almost identical. Except her mother's features resembled those of a cadaver more. The bone and skin around her soothing eyes were hazy and skeletal-looking. Yellow scleras surrounded clear-turquoise eyes, and her thick hair was long and ever-growing. Purplish, slim lips encased the outline of stained teeth under the attenuated surface. Her mother's face displayed a deep hollowness over the tightness of her cheekbones, leathery in texture.

If people paid attention, they would recognize her mother to be something more than what she had become. If they stopped to look, they would realize, pieces of her human mother still lay under all that physical tatter.

"Why do we live in darkness? Why is dad simple-minded and Jax forgetful? How come I can have a decent conversation with Samantha and an exceptional one with you?"

The questions took her mother by surprise. Teal knew because she knew her mother.

"Sweetheart, why don't you come to the kitchen and get new fresh brains? Those you're nibbling on might not be tasty any longer. You've been chewing for hours."

"Stop! Please stop," came her small, firm voice. "Why?!" She turned her body in exasperation. "Why are we not able to question what we are? Who we are? Why do we do what we do?"

"I thought I answered your questions last time."

"Last time," Teal interrupted, "you didn't. Both you and dad ordered me to eat my brains as you are doing now."

Her mother sighed.

"Tell me," she implored. "Tell me how you both turned. Why and how we were cast out of the human side of the country and why we live like rats and roaches even though we are not."

Gentle fingers and pleading eyes reached out to her mother. "As my gift?" A teasing smile lingered on her lips, lightening the mood. "In case you hadn't figured it out yet, brains, are not." 

"We can talk." An apprehensive chuckle and a nod ensued. 

Music By:
Adam Lambert*Mad World