Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Playing with fire

Norman plopped himself back on the couch. He had changed out of the uncomfortable clothes and back into his regular attire. He ran his hands tiredly through his hair and sighed. His life was spiraling out of control all because he had let his small head do the thinking.

He knew Charise was trouble but it had always been small shit. Norman had never experienced something like this complete betrayal. Especially not after he had helped her out. The fact that she had not bothered to tell him about these videos told him all he needed to know. She knew he was on borrowed time at his work and decided to take advantage of that situation.

Norman yelled in frustration, he needed something to calm himself down. Norman had two bags left but one was earmarked for Toby and he realized he might have to sell the last for some quick cash. With a groan, he sat up and began the arduous and disgusting process of pulling apart the leftover roaches lying around in the ashtrays on the table. Eventually, he cobbled together enough to roll a single joint.

“It’ll have to do,” he lamented as he lit the end.

He immediately coughed on the bitter smoke. After the coughing fit ended, he rubbed his sore chest. While the stuff he was smoking was leftover dregs, he quickly felt the narcotic effects kick in.

Norman laid back and tried to forget the awful day he had. He didn’t know how long he had been like that before Toby plopped down next to him. Had he really spaced out that much?

Toby looked at him, “you ok man? You look fried.”

“Hmm…oh, I’m fine, just had to smoke some leftovers. Got into a fight with Charise. I think it's finally over, over between us.”

Toby winced, “yeah, that’s rough. Sorry to hear about that. Oh, hey, I got some news that might cheer you up.” Toby plucked the mostly finished joint from Norman’s hand and gave it a tentative puff before making a face and handing it back. “You remember Kevin?”

“Kevin?”

“Yeah, that weird Jedi wannabe kid.”

“Um… is that the one that got dragged off by a rycor during the first month?” Norman vaguely recalled a guy that liked star wars disappearing after an attack.

“No, that was Gavin. Kevin is the guy obsessed with the mind trick stuff.”

“Oh right,” Norman chuckled. “That was the guy that got his face slapped when he tried to use it on that woman so she would sleep with him right?”

“Yup, that’s the one. Well, get this, he actually managed it.”

“No shit, really? So what, he's got himself a harem now?” Norman couldn’t quite picture the pimply-faced boy with a harem of women, it was just so offputting.

“Well, that seemed to be his goal, but he fucked up. Turns out his first conquest was the daughter of someone important, someone from the less than savory parts of town. When they found out what happened they raided his place and made sure he wouldn’t be harming anyone ever again.”

Norman had considered setting up a harem of faithful protectors and maids early on instead of going the undead route but decided the problems outweighed the risks. Turns out he had been right.

Norman shrugged. “Play with fire, get burned.”

The world had been cruel before the apocalypse, but now if you had the power, you essentially made the rules. It’s why Norman didn’t associate with the criminal elements and maintained a low profile or tried to. He had thought he had been maintaining a low profile until he saw the videos his boss had been making.

Toby slapped Norman on the shoulder, making him jump. “I got that thing you asked me for.” Toby kicked a beat-up blue cooler that he happened to be sitting on, you got my payment?”

Norman didn’t even recall Toby moving from the couch. He glanced at the remains of the joint in his hand and decided he was good for now.

“Yeah, help me up will ya?” Toby helped hoist Norman off the couch.

Norman went to retrieve the bag from his hiding spot. When he returned, he tossed it to Toby who easily caught it.

“You sure you wanna keep going down this road? If you succeed and people find out, you are probably going to end up like Kevin.”

“Kevin was a perverted asshat that fucked with other people’s lives. I don’t see how we are at all similar. Besides, it's not like I’m raising the dead.” Not yet anyway.

Toby raised his hands in submission, “just trying to give some friendly advice and keep my sister safe.”

“What’s Anna got to do with this?”

“Gee, could it be the fact that she has a huge crush on you? People are going to notice and try to take advantage of her to get to you. If you would just stop leading her on, I think it would be for the best.”

Norman was shocked, “what, I have never led her on.”

“Well, you certainly didn’t tell her to stop either. Look, man, I’m just trying to protect my sister. She isn’t exactly the most stable of people. You only see the sweet and nice version of her and not the other side.”

Norman was feeling very uncomfortable about this conversation. “Can we talk about something else?”

Toby rapped his hands on the cooler and stood up. “I said my piece. If you need anything else, let me know. Oh, by the way, what are you gonna do with the bodies anyway? Undead vermin don’t seem very useful.”

“I didn’t plan on raising them, I wanted to test out a spell that might allow me to peer into the memories of the dead.” The words slipped out of Norman's mouth before his foggy brain realized what his mouth was up to. Norman decided it didn’t matter. If Toby did blab about it, who would care if he was reading the memories of rodents?

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“As fascinating as that sounds, I gotta run. I got a courier mission outta town so I won’t be around for a few days. I’ll try to tell Anna to stay out of your hair, but you know how well she listens.”

***

Norman forgot most of the conversation he had with Toby after he sobered up. He did remember the cooler full of corpses though.

Norman dragged the heavy cooler to the garage. He could hear the clink of ice and slosh of water as it banged down the back steps. At least Toby had gone that extra step. Not that having corpses floating in ice-cold water was good for them but it was better than them baking inside a hot cooler.

The cooler banged down onto the garage floor as Norman let go of the handle. Before he started, he wanted to be as prepared as possible for any issues that might arise this time around.

He set a bunch of cushions and pillows around the work area in case he passed out again. He also dug around the back of the garage and found an old grilling apron with the words ‘Kiss the Cook’ across the front in faded letters.

In a box of old painting supplies, he found a dust mask. He slapped the mask into place, stuck his oversized mirrored shades over his eyes, then pulled on the thick dishwashing gloves he had taken from the kitchen.

“Alright, let's get this show on the road!” he clapped.

Unfortunately, his preparations were a bit over the top. With the thick gloves, he had no fine control or ability to carve the sigils that he needed to carve in the body. He tossed the first failed test into the backyard and threw the gloves away. He also had to remove his shades as it made it hard to see in the low light of the garage.

He set a giant rat on top of the bench. A rivulet of water made its way to the edge of the bench and started dripping onto the floor from the water-logged rodent but Norman ignored this as he scrapped away the belly fur with his pocket knife.

It was easier to carve into the skin if the fur was out of the way. Norman wasn’t squeamish about blood or body parts, it was the smell that got to him. He would have to figure that out at a later time though, perhaps using skeletons instead of zombies if possible.

He completed the circular design and paused. He wasn’t sure what to do next, it wasn't like there was a step-by-step instruction book on this. Logically he needed to activate the runes somehow.

“Here goes nothing.” Norman took a tiny dusting of the blue powder and sprinkled it over the design.

The dust glowed with an inner light as it fell onto the corpse. Norman waited for something to happen. And waited.

“Hmm, maybe I need to maintain contact for it to work.”

Norman reached for the dead rat's head and his fingernail brushed against the creature's rotten eyeball, puncturing it. The sensation of dripping eyeball fluid was unsettling. But that sensation lasted for only a moment before Norman’s vision was washed away.

***

Norman’s heart was racing as he tried to escape his pursuers. He could hear the giant's footsteps and their mocking chitters as they chased after him. Norman dodged as a rock larger than his head slammed against the ground next to him.

He darted around the next corner and skidded to a stop, looking around in a panic. It was a dead end. He ran towards the corner of the wall and tried to climb but something hard slammed into his back.

He squeaked in pain and fell off the wall, his back legs motionless as his front legs twitched frantically to try and pull him to safety, but it was too late. The giants had come, three of the giant kin had surrounded him and were poking at him with a stick. They seemed to grow bored with their torment before walking away and leaving him to die.

***

Norman sucked in a deep breath as his mind returned to himself followed by a wave of nausea and the phantom pain of having his spine crushed by a rock as three teenagers sated their sick curiosity by tormenting a helpless rat.

Needing to sit down, Norman grabbed one of the old lawn chairs and set it out. He collapsed into the chair, it creaked ominously under him as he fought to get his racing heart under control.

The spell had worked… sorta. It should be a time to celebrate but instead, Norman was left reeling.

It certainly didn’t allow him to read the minds of the dead, but he did get to witness them die. He wasn’t so sure that was a good thing though. The feeling of having his spine broken was not something he wanted to relive.

After his heart rate returned to normal, Norman got back off the chair and pulled out the next test subject. Despite the pain, Norman realized he had to keep pushing forward if he wanted to progress in his field of magic. The next rodent looked like a gopher or groundhog. Norman inspected the body, but couldn’t tell how it had died.

Drumming his fingers on the counter, Norman decided to try simplifying this process. He put a light dusting of powder on both of his thumbnails and tried to poke them into the eyeballs of the rodent.

He found this a lot more difficult than he had thought it would be based on his first success. After thinking for a bit, he used his knife to sharpen the nails on his index finger into a point to better help penetrate the tissue. He wanted to use his thumbs but the nails just weren’t long enough.

With a deep breath, he held the animal's skull between his hands and shoved the sharpened nails into the eyes. The reaction was immediate as the garage disappeared and Norman found himself in the body of the animal.

There was no pain this time around, which turned out to be a good thing. Norman found himself squeaking indignantly as he was shaken violently about by something. He tried to bite back but whatever had him, had him by the back of the neck and he couldn’t turn to get his mouth into a position to retaliate.

Norman spotted the furiously wagging tail of a yellow dog as its head shook him about. The shaking was so violent that he flew free from the dog's mouth. By that point, the damage was done though. While Norman didn’t feel the pain, he had heard the tiny bones breaking inside his body.

Still, Norman tried to scurry away, only for the dog to bark and run after him again. Norman could hear someone yelling for the dog to stop but that didn’t seem to help. Eventually, his body went limp and the dog seemed to lose interest as it dropped him just as its owner came to collect it.

Norman felt the human pick him up and toss him over a fence and into the woods where he eventually died from the wounds inflicted in the brutal attack.