Existing Dead

wooden chair. Kyle noticed him and closed his eyes again. The last thing Kyle remembered hearing was the rain thrashing outside and the sound of snapping wood.

* * *

Kyle’s eyes fluttered open, looking at the ceiling. He didn’t know where he was. Slowly raising his head, everything suddenly came to him. He was in the room that he shared with Mary. He looked over to her side of the bed. It was empty, but he could smell the coconut scent she liked to wear. Kyle rolled out of bed and put his feet onto the ground. His slippers were there, waiting for him.

“Kyle?” Mary called out from outside the room. “Are you up?”

“Yeah,” he said, still a bit disoriented.

Was Kyle only dreaming about the dead or was he dreaming now? He pinched himself and it hurt. He actually felt the pain. He slapped himself on the face a few times and felt every last bit of it.

It was all a dream, he thought as he slipped his slippers on. It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt relieved that it had all been a dream. Any second now he would get up and find his son, Eddie. When he did, he would give the boy a tight squeeze and a kiss. Most importantly he’d promise his boy that he’d never leave his side, ever again. Not for his mother, not even for Jasmine.

Kyle stood to his feet with a huge smile on his face.

“Mary?” he called out.

There was no reply. He walked through the open door and turned down the hall toward the staircase. He walked down the stairs slowly, carefully stepping over Eddie’s toys that were scattered on the steps. Normally this kind of carelessness would have angered Kyle, but after waking up form that terrible nightmare, nothing would take his happiness away from him.

“Eddie?” Kyle called out.

“In the kitchen,” Mary hollered.

Kyle quickly ran for the kitchen. The smell of eggs and bacon were so potent in the air he could literally taste them. He walked through the doorway, and sitting near the small round table was Eddie. Light shone in through a small rectangle window above the sink. The blinds over the sliding glass door were still closed. The boy was eating a large slice of bacon. Kyle was delighted. He ran, almost skipping, toward Eddie, and gave him a huge hug, causing the boy to drop his bacon.

Eddie laughed and said, “Dad, I’m trying to eat.”

Mary turned from the stove with a pan in her hand. “Sit down, Kyle. I’ll get your breakfast.”

Kyle let go of Eddie, still smiling. He took a seat at his usual spot. There was already a plate in front of him. Mary walked over with the skillet and served three sunny-side-up eggs onto Kyle’s plate. She walked back to the stove and using tongs, she grabbed a few strips of bacon. She put them on Kyle’s plate.

“It smells wonderful, thank you,” he said grabbing a fork and digging in.

Two slices of bread popped out of the toaster. Mary took them out and placed them on Kyle’s dish. He put eggs and bacon between the two slices and made a toast sandwich. He bit into it with much delight. Yolk from the eggs dripped out of the sandwich and onto his fingers.

There was a coffee pot in the middle of the table. Kyle poured himself a cup of the delicious black liquid. He stirred in cream and two sugar cubes. He smelled the coffee before taking a drink. The liquid burned his mouth, but it was manageable.

Mary put eggs and bacon onto her plate and brought it to the table. She sat on the third empty chair in the breakfast nook.

Mary and Eddie didn’t speak. They just continued eating their food and never looked up.

Kyle finished his food and took the dirty dish to the sink. He rinsed it out and left it in the sink to be washed later.

“Thanks for the wonderful breakfast, Mary,” Kyle said as he walked back to the table. “It’s Saturday right? What do you want to do today, Sport?”

Eddie didn’t reply. He didn’t even move. He stayed staring into his plate like he was in a trance.

“Eddie? Did you hear me, bud?” Eddie didn’t respond.

Mary stopped eating and looked at Kyle. She had a ghostly expression on her face as she said, “Eddie can’t answer you, Kyle.”

“Why not?” Kyle asked, squinting his face in confusion.

“Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what?”

“Eddie can’t talk. He can’t go anywhere.”

“What do you mean? I just heard him talking.”

Mary’s tone quickly changed from her normal voice to a low drone that echoed, “Eddie can’t talk anymore, he has no face … he is dead.”

Sorrow filled Kyle’s body. He quickly went to face Eddie. The boy raised his head to reveal the large gaping hole that now replaced his face. Kyle stood to his feet and backed away from the table, knocking over the chair he was sitting on.

“Don’t you remember, Kyle? I’m dead, too,” Mary said.

Kyle’s gaze met Mary’s. A large hole appeared at the top of her head. Tears made from blood began to fall down from her eyes. Bits of bone and gore rested on top of her head near the open wound.

“You did this to us, Kyle,” she said.

Eddie and Mary both stood up from the table. She extended her hand out toward Eddie. The faceless boy swung his arm around the area until it locked on to Mary’s. She walked around the table, guiding Eddie like a seeing-eye dog. They stood a few feet in front of Kyle now.

His heart raced a thousand beats per minute. Standing in front of him was his family, his dead family. He hadn’t awakened from a nightmare; this was the nightmare. Mary and Eddie slowly walked toward Kyle.

“You made us like this. You could have just stayed with us and everything would have been fine. But you wanted to be selfish,” Mary said.

“Stay back,” Kyle said, pinned up against a wall.

“Don’t let this happen to Victor and Jasmine,” Mary said.

Hugging the wall, Kyle edged over toward the sliding glass door. Mary and Eddie quickly followed. Kyle pulled the chain on the blinds. They moved out of the way, revealing the backyard. The sky was red and every house around the area was on fire. Smoke and soot blew into the air from the flames. The grass was no longer green, but as dry and dead as Kyle’s wife and son.

Dead bodies began to flow in from a break in the wooden fencing. Their faces were grey with brown dried blood around their mouths and clothes. They stared at Kyle as they slowly shambled toward him. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the dead weren’t looking at him, but at a kid sitting on the ground in front of him. The fires had caught his attention before he could notice the boy.

The boy turned his head toward Kyle. It was Victor. He got up to his feet and banged on the sliding glass door.

“Let me in, dude!” he yelled.

Kyle reached for the lock and flicked it open. He tried pulling on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. It was as though the door was welded shut.

“Come on! Open the door,” Victor continued.

No matter how hard Kyle tried, the door wouldn’t open.

Mary and Eddie stopped a few feet behind him.

“What are you doing, Kyle? Open the door and let him in. You need to save him,” she said in an echoing, eerie voice.

“I’m fucking trying. The door won’t budge!” Kyle yelled, enraged.

The dead continued to walk toward Victor. He kicked and punched the glass door, screaming to be let in. The Existing Dead closest to him was naked, not only of clothes, but of skin as well. His half rotting stomach was split open. The dead man’s penis was fully erect. Kyle yelled as the monster wrapped its arm around Victor’s neck, putting him in a choke hold. The creature proceeded to unbuckle Victor’s belt. His pants and boxer shorts fell down