An annoying tapping sound woke me up from my dreams of Jordan, and I wanted to bite whatever had disturbed them. Though when I opened my eyes and saw James staring at me through the car window, I decided not to go through with that threat. Biting his face probably isn't gonna solve the whole problem we've caused.

I went to unlock the door, but found that my arms were stuck underneath something. Or someone. Jordan was draped across my lap, arms wrapped around my neck in a tight grip.

Well great. I can't get up.

I managed to maneuver an arm around the lock button of the car and unlock it, and soon after the door swung open.

I watched as the figure in front of me hunched down so he was staring directly onto my eyes, his lips formed in a tight line. "I wanted to talk to you about something," he said dryly. Jordan didn't stir, he was in a deep sleep. I brushed his hair out of his face and played with the small messy curls in it. He's beautiful.

"What?" I asked gruffly. I was still angry at him.

"I haven't been truthful with you Syndi. Not at all. And you had a right to be curious as to why I never spoke of my past."

"I did."

"I was...afraid of what you'd do if I told you who I was."

"Why?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair stressfully. "It's difficult to explain."

"Then explain it."

He raised an eyebrow at me, probably because of how articulate I was all of the sudden. I didn't have an explanation for that, except for maybe Jordan giving me the confidence I needed to be able to speak well. However that works.

"Well...Tom, I used to know you in your past life."

It took me a minute to realize what he'd just said. When I did finally wake up from whatever trance I was in, I felt my heart smash against my chest violently. It took my breath away. "W-What?"

He smiled apologetically. "I didn't know you well, but I knew you. I worked at a place you visited often. We became friends after awhile. That's all I can say, really."

I was confused. Why couldn't he tell me more? I'd been waiting my whole existence as a flesh eating monster to find out who I was in my past, and now he knew that and he wasn't going to tell me? Why the hell not?

"Why can't you...s-say more?" I demanded.

"It isn't my place to say anything else. Please understand, I would tell you everything if I was in the right. But I'm not, and I apologize. I want you to have a new start with Jordan. Your past life wasn't perfect and I want you to have that opportunity now. And look at how happy you are! Does your past even really matter when you've got such a wonderful present and future?"

I didn't know what to say. What could I even say? He was sort of right. My life was amazing right now. Why does my past even matter if I'm happy right now? And I had no idea what James meant by the whole 'it wasn't his place' to tell me about my past. But I trusted him. He would never do anything to hurt me intentionally. He just wants me to be happy.

"Okay," I replied quietly. "So...so w-what about Kelsie?"

"She was my fiancé," he said. "She never came back from her trip to the store. And I regret the decision of not going with her every single day, because she was my everything. The reason I left so long ago was, selfishly, because I wanted to go look for her. But I never found her. And I'm sorry I left you alone like that. I can't imagine how betrayed you felt after I left you. I...I believe Jordan is stirring." He pointed at the man in my lap who'd just begun to squirm around in his sleep. I knotted my fingers through his hair and gently massaged his curls while he struggled to wake up.

"I should go," James said quickly. He turned on his heel and walked off in the direction of the hotel. I watched his retreating back until he was gone. Why couldn't he tell me more? I didn't understand.

"Hi."

By the squeaky tired tone of the sound, I knew it was Jordan. He was gazing up at me with the sweetest adoration in his eyes. I kissed his swollen lips in greeting. "Hello."

"That was amazing," he said dreamily. "You're amazing, Tom."

~

Again, the dead don't dream. I'd been doing a lot of dreaming lately.

That night, I dreamed something different from usual. There were lights, people dancing, loud cheers, and slurred talking. Nothing was focused. It was like somebody had put a blur over my vision. A song began to play. I knew it's familiar chords and faint words.

Jordan's face appeared, slightly blurry, but I could tell he was smiling. We were dancing, it felt like. Except I wasn't stiff. I felt warm all over and I could feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest. Jordan giggled. I tried my best to twirl him, and it worked, so when he turned back to face me I decided to dip him. His waist felt softer than usual. He wasn't wearing his usual polos with the scratchy fabric, for whatever the reason. I didn't let it slow me down, pulling him up to his feet again for a small kiss. He tasted alive. Of course he always tasted like that, but this was just different.

Orange juice. He tasted like orange juice and syrup and cinnamon and it was exhilarating.

Have I found you? Flightless bird...

"Don't just stand there. Dance with me."

"That was amazing."

"Who took your wings, Tom?"

My chest jolted uncomfortably. It woke me up, the warm pulse that flickered through my body like a tidal wave. But then it was over as soon as it came. Why did that dream make my weak ass heart beat? Nothing made sense. I barely saw Jordan. I've already listened to that song a bunch of times. Nothing was different in that dream, it was like most of the others.

Except I tasted something during it. Orange juice. And other things too, things that I'd already forgotten. I had never drank orange juice before, not as a dead person at least. It had to be the nostalgia of being with Jordan. He was human and since he's been here, I've been feeling human. I've been doing human things. Am I turning human? Or is my poor decayed body letting off the last of its life? Flooding out the memories to get rid of them completely?

I didn't want to be a skeleton. I didn't want to be a Boney. Bonies were the dead that were completely in every sense of the word. Skeltons with black, leather-like skin. Most didn't have skin. They moved and they ate and they could smell. Maybe they could hear, too, but those were the only characteristics the dead and the Bonies share. Bonies don't have eyes. Or lips, or ears, or noses, or souls. And though I'd only seen one or two in my lifetime (deadtime), one or two was enough. Sometimes they ate us when food got scarce. That was a lot of times, nowadays. Traveling in armies and preying on lone dead, they were the only things the dead feared other than guns. But guns don't compare to Bonies. Guns are quick.

Bonies always savor their food.

I didn't like to think about them. It depressed me that my future consisted of either getting killed by a gun or becoming a Boney. I would take a bullet to the head any day over the option of becoming a soulless clattering of bones.

Jordan stirred beside me. The first few nights he spent here were uncomfortable for him, I knew. It would be hard to trust a creature of a kind that killed your family, friends, and neighbors. He slept peacefully tonight and the night before that. He even let me turn the lamp off. That was something new for him.

I wondered faintly how long I would be with him. Would he outlive me? Or would I outlive him? I had no idea how long I'd been alive and dead, or how long the world had been in complete chaos. I couldn't be that old. Not older than Jordan. Oh god, what if I was like 40? Jordan was way too young for me. And too alive for me. What the hell does he see in me? I was a walking corpse.

"Tom?" There was a hand on my back. Great, I'd woken him up. My breathing is louder than a damn air horn. Why couldn't I have lungs that didn't suck at being lungs?

I huffed and collapsed back onto the pillows. "Yeah?"

He was clinging onto my arm in an instant. I knew if I looked at him, I'd see worry in those cute little lines on his forehead. "You're sweating."

I glanced down at my chest and felt of the skin around there. It was slick with sweat. How am I sweating? I don't even feel hot. I don't feel temperature. Corpses don't feel temperature. What's happening to my body?

"Didn't r-realize," I said breathlessly.

The hold on my arm became loose and soon fingers were tracing the skin. I tried not to squirm. His touch is like electricity to me. It's hard not to react when he touches me.

"Somethings up with you," he murmured sleepily. "You feel warm. And look at your arm."

My arm? I looked down at it, eyes focusing in the dark on the places Jordan was tracing.

Veins. I could see my veins. They were everywhere, like blue and purple strings connecting beautifully to form one large web. I'd never seen them before. I'd only seen pale skin. Why were they here?

Jordan was mesmerized by the webs. So was I.

"Pretty," Jordan whispered.

"Pretty." I agreed. I wasn't really talking about the webs.

Our eyes met. "Are you scared?" He asked.

"K-kind of. But what...should I be...scared about? Isn't this...good?" It's good, isn't it? I'm not turning into a Boney.

"I don't know. I've never seen this before. I don't think anyone has, actually. But what if you were getting better? Like, healing? That would be...completely unreal. I wish I was a doctor so I could study you or something."

"Don't...have to be a d-doctor. Study me."

He smiled excitedly. "Okay."

~

This is humiliating. When Jordan said he wanted to study me, I thought it meant him poking me or sticking out my tongue for him to look at or anything besides what I was doing right now.

I was naked. Jordan's seen me naked before. That wasn't what I was embarrassed about. It was the fact that he invited James down to help 'study me' while I was naked. James had the absolute nerve to silently laugh at me whenever Jordan had his back turned. It made my blood boil.

"Is this...necessary?" I pointed at the marker he'd drawn across all of my limbs, and I mean all of my limbs. I didn't see the point in it. But he nodded and kept scribbling away on his little pad of paper that James brought down for him.

"It's super important, thank you very much. I label all of my research like a professional. Now wiggle your toes for me again." He poked my foot with the end of his marker. With a sigh, I wiggled them. It went on like this for an hour. He made me move all of my limbs twice, three times if they were slow the first two times. James had this smug look on his face that I wanted to bite off. The urge to cover my private areas was strong, but the constant reminder to keep still for Jordan was stronger.

So I endured.

On the second hour, he started testing sensations. He poked me, shocked me with his stupid wooly socks, poked me again with the end of a pen, scratched me with his nail, slapped me on the arm, pinched me. I was ready to run out of that room. Eventually it stopped, then he started with less embarrassing stuff. He tested how fast it took me to run around the room (he let me put on underwear before that, thank god), timed how quick I was when copying hand movements, he timed how long it took me to read words and piece big sentences together.

One thing I got particularly frustrated with was alliteration. Jordan gave me a simple sentence: Sally sales seashells by the seashore. He told me to say it five times as fast as I could. And I couldn't even say it once without messing up. It was pathetic.

Then he measured my height and dug out a rusty old scale, which he measured my weight with. I was 5'2 and 108 pounds. I'm guessing the numbers weren't good, since Jordan frowned when he looked at them. Was I too fat and short, or too tall and skinny? Or too short and skinny? Too tall and fat? It hurt my head trying to figure out why he didn't like the number.

We were in the middle of testing my eyesight when I asked him. "What's...wrong with my numbers?"

He cocked his head to the side, confused, and put down the flashlight he'd been shining in my eyes. "Nothing's wrong with them."

"You frowned. Why...why did you frown?"

He scratched the back of his head nervous, contemplating the answer. "We're the same height. You're thirty pounds lighter than me."

I scrunched my eyebrows up in confusion. "I-I don't get it."

He frowned again. "You don't eat well enough, Tom."

Well of course I don't eat well. I went vegetarian ever since I met your ass.

"He has been avoiding his usual diet, Jordan," James chuckled. "Healthy dead feed once a month. When is the last time you've went on a feed, Tom?"

I couldn't remember. It was the day before I bet Jordan. How long ago was that?

"Day b-before I met you?"

His eyes widened. "You haven't eaten anything for two months?"

I shook my head. What else was there to eat?

He looked back at James with wide eyes. "Is that bad? Could he die?"

"He's already dead," James mused. "But there are worse things aside from death that could come from not feeding."

"Worse than death?" Jordan asked me worriedly. I nodded dreadfully. He may like me now, but I'm willing to bet he'll drop my ass when I start peeling and losing hair.

"What can we do? The only things he can eat is, well...the obvious option, and Nutella. There might be a store around that has Nutella. James, could you-"

"Already on it," the man assured him. "I will be back by nightfall. Be safe you two. Armies travel around at this time of month." He gathered his coat and left quickly. Armies. That was a scary thought.

"What's an army?" Jordan asked. "A bigger hoard?"

"Armies don't have d-dead...they have Bonies."

"Bonies?"

"What we...turn into, if we don't feed. Ske...skeletons. No eyes, no skin. Soulless. Worse than me."

"Worse?" He choked.

"Don't think. Don't f-feel. Just feed, always. On dead and alive. No re..morse."

He paled a shade whiter. "I didn't know those existed."

"Rare," I assured him. "Never see them...around here. Unless it's time...of the month. They hide."

"That's horrifying."

"Yeah."

"Is James gonna be okay?"

I grinned. "James is fast. Faster than...anything."

"Are...are we gonna be okay?"

I knelt down next to my bed and pulled out what James had stashed under it long ago, a fully loaded gun that could easily take down a few Bonies. He'd given it to me before he left, in case they showed up for me. I didn't think it could kill a whole army, but at least it would make Jordan feel safe.

He stared open mouthed at it. "You have an assault rifle? When did you get this? Have you always had this?"

I nodded, not entirely sure what an assault rifle was, just that it was a pretty big gun. Jordan took it from me and flicked a small switch on the side, the safety I'm assuming. He laid it cautiously against the wall and drew his hand back quickly, like the thing burned him. "I hate guns."

"Why?"

"You have no idea how many times I've woken up by gunshots. All night. Ever since I came to that stupid place, all they ever did was fire guns and train at all hours. I'm never going back."

"Don't have to. Stay with...m-me."

"That's the plan. But I do expect them to come back. If not captain, then Sonja and Tucker."

"Why...is that?"

"Captain is sort of close to me."

"Close?"

"Yeah. It's complicated."

"Explain."

"I will," he laughed. "Give me time. We used to...well, we still-...at least before I left we did, but now I just...can't anymore."

"Can't what?"

"We dated for awhile. It wasn't anything serious, just...you know, the world was ending. I thought he was good looking. Under certain circumstances it seemed necessary. I think it lasted for a month and it was horrible. He still hangs it over my head and acts like he can have total control over what I do. Like, the soldiers for instance. He wanted me to be a soldier. I didn't want that. So unless I became one and he got his way, I was gonna be kicked out. He's a total control freak. "

"Freak," I agreed. "You...date anyone else in...your life?"

He shook his head before I could even finish the question. "No. And never again. You're the one. You always will be. If anything happens to you, then...I'll die on my own."

"You shouldn't...say that. I w-want you to move on...if something h-happens."

He smiled sadly. "Tom. I could never replace you."

~~~

If you payed very close attention to the hints I placed in the chapter, you might stumble upon something quite controversial *chuckles intelligently even tho is not intelligent*

If you don't find it, it's kool! I'm probably gonna reveal the big plot twist of this book soon anyway and I just wanted to see if y'all could catch it before I told you about it :3

Give me your theories on who you think Captain is btw *rubs hands together like super villain* I shall read them silently and give you no answers bc I'm evil

I'm gonna go :DD thank u for reading lovelies <3

- Lee