Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Dia de los Muertos

Norman didn’t question why the bounty of food was left in the house as he scooped out a handful of the sugary goodness and popped it into his mouth. The marshmallows were a bit stale but Norman didn’t care. For him it was heaven.

He made quite a bit of a racket as he walked through the mansion while dragging a blanket piled with the rest of the food behind him. Going by the fact that Toby didn’t pack any food in the van, Norman assumed Anna was going to be pretty hungry.

It was too bad the house was on well water though. Since the power was not working, there was no way to get water from the tap. He supposed they could boil water from the lake if they were really thirsty. Not that Norman was thinking about water at the moment as he eyed the bottle of wine sitting on the blanket.

The house had a whole wine cellar but Norman wasn’t that much of a fan of wine. He only snatched this bottle to help him decompress after today.

“I’m back,” he called out as he entered the garage, “and I brought gifts.”

Anna peaked her head out of the van and spotted the food. “Oh, thank god. I’m starving.”

“Help yourself,” he gestured to the bounty.

She hurried over and started digging through the food, eventually she pulled out a can of peaches. “Oh, man. I haven’t had canned peaches in forever. Is there a can opener in here?”

Norman reached into his pocket and handed her the can opener he had snatched from the kitchen.

“Thanks.” She paused and glanced at the bottle Norman had tucked into the crick of his arm. “What’s that?”

“It’s wine. Did you want to try some?”

She nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright, just don’t tell your brother.”

Norman pulled the corkscrew out of his pocket – another item he had snatched from the kitchen – and removed the cork from the bottle with a satisfying pop.

He realized a small issue, he didn’t bring any cups, totally intending on just drinking the entire bottle himself. He shrugged, tipping the bottle back and taking a long drink from the deep red liquid. Then he handed it to Anna.

“Go easy, this stuff is strong.”

She just rolled her eyes and tried to copy him only to cough and sputter after only a moment.

Norman chuckled, “I told ya.”

“Blech! You actually enjoy drinking this?”

“Not really. But the drink options were limited. Did you want any more?”

She shook her head, “I’ll pass.”

Norman continued drinking while Anna scooped out peach slices with her fingers. He probably should have brought some silverware as well.

“How’s your brother doing?” he finally asked after he was feeling the warmth of the alcohol coursing through him.

“Still sleeping. Do you think we can move him to one of the bedrooms? I don’t wanna sleep in the van.”

Norman honestly didn’t know and said as much. “I don’t think it would do him any good to be dragged around the house. It’s probably best if we leave him in the van. But if you want to go sleep in a bed, go ahead. I can stay with him.”

“You sure?”

Norman waved away the girl’s concern. “I’ll be fine, not the first time I’ve slept in a vehicle.”

Soon Anna was yawning. And Norman was pretty sure her face was flush from the little she drank. ‘Lightweight,’ he chuckled internally.

After Anna left to find a room to sleep in, Norman moved back inside the van. It was late summer so there wasn’t any need for blankets. But that didn’t mean the blanket he had dragged through the house was useless. He folded it up and used it as a makeshift bed. It wasn’t much more comfortable but at least he wasn’t laying on the cold metal floor of the van. As for Toby, Anna had shoved a bunch of clothes under him to keep him off the floor while he was gone.

It was probably good she did, the man felt like ice when Norman checked his pulse. It felt slow but Norman wasn’t a doctor. He figured it was because of all the blood he lost. Norman eventually fell into a dreamless sleep after finishing off the last of the wine.

***

A stinging slap across the face brought Norman back to consciousness. He was conscious but his mind was sluggish from the wine and his body wasn’t responding properly. Norman realized he was still drunk but that didn’t explain the cold sensation on his shoulders or the violent shaking he was experiencing.

Blinking through bleary eyes, Norman spotted Toby looking down at him. “Toby, you’re awake.”

The words were hard to speak and came out distorted. Norman chalked it up to the alcohol. He reached up to try and stabilize his head as all the shaking was starting to make him ill. His arms finally responded. Only his arms impacted something solid on both sides.

This barrier confused his sleep-deprived and inebriated mind for a moment and Norman tried to focus on what was stopping his hands. His eyes eventually focused on the obstacle, finding they consisted of Toby’s arms. A flush of adrenaline forced its way through Norman’s hazy mind, giving him a brief moment of clarity. Toby was violently shaking him and screaming incoherently.

Instinct kicked in and Norman struggled under his friend. The man’s weakened grip easily tore free during the struggle and Norman tucked his leg up under the man and kicked.

He heard Toby grunt as he was thrown from the back of the van and onto the concrete floor of the garage.

“What the fuck!” Norman rasped out, his body still trying to piece itself together from just waking up and the violent shaking.

“You fucking asshole!” Toby said, climbing back to his feet and brushing himself off. “Do you have any idea what you did?”

“Man, fuck off! I’m getting sick and tired of this unwarranted aggression from you. I saved your fucking life. The least you could do is be grateful.”

Toby let out a manic laugh. “Grateful, for saving my life? You turned me into a fucking monster. I told you not to give me that fucking potion, but no. Norman knows best. The biggest fuckup on the planet knows better than me!”

“What the fuck are you going on about?” Norman demanded, his mind still a bit fuzzy from the alcohol.

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“This, you fucking idiot!” the man gestured to himself.

Norman just blinked in incomprehension.

That only seemed to make Toby even angrier. “Don’t fucking tell me, you don’t know what you did, I swear to god.”

Norman decided to remain quiet, seeing as nothing he said here was likely to make the situation any better.

“I’m fucking dead, you dumb shit!”

“…”

It took Norman’s inebriated mind a moment to process those words. Then his eyes went wide and he screamed while trying to back away. Yea, probably not the best response a necromancer could do when encountering his first undead but Norman blamed it on the wine.

“Where’s my gun,” Toby murmured angrily.

Norman was saved from Toby’s ire by a ninety-pound girl screaming in delight and running over to hug-tackle her brother. “I thought I heard yelling. I’m glad you’re awake.”

The girl didn’t seem to notice her brother was…undead. Norman wasn’t sure what this new undead Toby was going to do to her, so he looked around for something to defend the two of them.

It didn’t seem to be needed though as Toby’s face softened and he hugged his sister back. “I’m fine, you don’t need to worry.”

Now that the adrenaline was burning through the remaining haze of alcohol in Norman’s brain, he got a good look at Toby. Other than the man looking a bit pale, and his lips being a bit blue, he looked perfectly normal. He also sounded like Toby and not a mindless zombie. Was Toby a vampire? Norman didn’t think so, With as much blood as he lost, he should have been sucking the both of them dry by now, assuming what he knew about vampires was accurate.

“How bout you go back to bed? Norman and I were just discussing where to go next.”

“Shouldn’t you two be getting some sleep as well? I can tell you aren’t completely recovered, you look like the walking dead.”

Norman couldn’t help snorting at that, drawing a glare from Toby.

“We won’t be up much longer.”

“You better not be,” she yawned.

The two stared at each other in uncomfortable silence until they heard the distant click of a door shutting.

“I want you to fix what you did to me, now!” Toby hissed through clenched teeth.

Norman stopped himself from outright admitting he had no idea how to fix Toby because he didn’t even know how Toby had become undead in the first place. Another reason Norman didn’t admit this right away is that he wanted answers. It was obvious that Toby was lying to him about something and he wanted to know. So he took a page out of Toby’s playbook.

“No. I’m not going to do shit until you tell me the entire truth about what's going on.”

“This isn’t a fucking game, Norman!” Toby started to raise his voice but thought better of it.

“Doesn’t feel good being on the receiving end, does it?”

Toby ground his teeth but sat back on the floor of the van looking defeated. “Fine, but I want you to promise on Anna’s life that you won't just leave after I tell you.”

“What, why would I do that? Just fucking tell me.”

Toby just shook his head.

“Fuck sake, you would rather stay this way than tell me without a promise? Fine. I promise, we good?”

“I need you to say the full thing, Norman. I know you think of Anna as a sister and wouldn’t do anything that would hurt her.”

Throwing his hands up in surrender, Norman said the whole stupid promise.

Then Toby began his fucked up tale. How he was a junior undercover DEA agent. How he had orchestrated a whole bunch of fucked up stuff in town. And the part about how he was practically trying to get Norman implicated if not outright killed.

That had made Norman so mad he actually punched Toby. It was the first time Norman had hit someone since he had been in junior high school.

He just couldn’t believe the man that spent years pretending to be his friend would be so callous.

Toby just let the hit happen. Not that the man had a choice. If Toby had tried defending himself or returning the hit, Norman would have walked away and never looked back. But Toby knew he needed Norman more than Norman needed him if he ever wanted to get back to normal. Assuming Norman even wanted to help him. He wasn’t sure he even should.

At least now Norman understood why Toby demanded the promise from him. Had it not been for those few words, Norman would have left then and there and walked back to town.

The whole situation was fucked up and Norman needed time to process everything so he walked out of the garage to think. He ignored the impassioned pleas from Toby to hurry up and fix him. Fuck that guy. Even if he could fix him, he would have been inclined not to after the shit he pulled. The only reason he was even considering it was for Anna’s sake.

Norman had another problem going through his mind and the feelings were mixed. On one hand, he was pissed at Toby, on the other, he was giddy with excitement. How could Norman not be excited to bear witness to the first undead? And not some shambling corpse or some shitty ghost but an intelligent undead.

Honestly, the man had gotten what he deserved for trying to enact such a convoluted scheme. At least Norman knew what those potions or should he say poison were for now. Apparently, Toby hadn’t ever heard the phrase ‘keep it simple stupid,’ these were words that Norman liked to live by. Mostly because the more complicated you made something, the more likely it was to fail. And Norman had enough issues with failures in his life.

Thinking back on his anger, Norman realized most of it was misplaced. Sure Toby deserved a good heaping of it but Norman deserved some of the blame as well. He had played the fool and Toby did what Toby always did and took advantage of that situation to his advantage. That wasn’t something new for Toby, Norman knew that was how he was from the beginning. He just deluded himself into thinking that Toby wouldn’t do that to a friend, never realizing that Toby wasn’t his friend.

Norman slapped his head in frustration. He didn’t want to dwell on these spiraling thoughts. Normally he would self-medicate to get his mind off of them. Seeing as that wasn’t an option, Norman wanted to work on his magic. Only he couldn’t do that either because Toby had destroyed most of his supplies. And what little he had left needed to last.

That sent his thoughts back into a cycle of hate and self-loathing as he kept pacing around the mansion. Eventually, Norman found a room as far away from Toby as he could get and just passed out there.

There was no worry about Toby leaving him behind. Norman could practically taste the man’s desperation to be normal again. Boy, would he be in for a surprise when Norman told him he had no clue how to fix him.

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