Jack Lantern: Dead or Alive: Jack Lantern, #2

By Vance Smith

Life after the zombie uprising should have been easy.

Mia Lannigan thought they'd won. They beat the evil Baron von Reich and stopped the Sons of Coffins Croft in their tracks. Finally reunited with her family, everything should have returned to normal.

But Mia has had a taste of Magic, and she can't make herself let go. When her mentor Jack Lantern takes on a missing persons case, Mia jumps at the chance to help out. However, it's no coincidence that it all bears a striking resemblance to Mia's disappearance a year ago. Things take a dangerous turn when they discover the perpetrators: the Croft and their newly surfaced master, a hideous beast known as The Horror.

Jack and Mia will need to be at the top of their game as they face enemies new and old. Will they learn how Mia fits into the Croft's twisted endgame before it's too late? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ravania Entertainment
• Release date: Sep 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386914624

Book preview

JACK LANTERN 2

Dead or Alive

Vance Smith

Copyright 2015 Vance Smith.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Jack Lantern 2: Dead or Alive is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Ravania Entertainment and the Ravania Entertainment logo are Copyright 2015 Aaron Michael Smith.

Preface

A Very Stupid Hobby

Mia Lannigan lost her grip on the ledge and plummeted. In a flash the rooftop rushed into her. She crumpled on impact, the shock spiking through her. Dazed, and aching all over, she fell back, her head dropping onto the ground.

She lay there for only a moment, struggling to regain her breath. Her black jeans were torn, as was her faded plaid shirt. Her red hair was tied back into a ponytail, and her speckled green eyes blinked slowly and heavily as the memories flooded back to her.

Her head swirled and she wondered what on earth she was thinking. The fall had twisted her ankle while her whole body ached for her to stop. Scraped and bleeding, she looked around at the mix of tar and gravel she had crashed down onto. It was particularly nasty and sharp, and Mia cursed herself for being so careless.

There was a cry from somewhere beyond, and without a moment’s hesitation, she was rolling to her left and scrambling to her feet as a man dropped down heavily where she had been.

She knew him. She had seen pictures of him on the news. Kale Glympse, they called him. He was some kind of deranged, homicidal psychopath. He lunged at her, a dagger flashing in the lambent night. Mia moved, but was slow. The blade slipped through her shoulder, and she cried out.

She moved back, under another wild swing from the man, and pushed heavily against the space that separated them. She tried to imagine that he was just a weightless thing, and even a quick blast of air would send him flying away.

He didn’t move. Instead, he let his fist fly, catching her in the stomach, stealing away her breath. She fell to the rooftop and gasped.

Maybe this had been a bad idea.

Mia tried to ignore the voice in her head that was scolding her. Telling her she was putting herself in needless danger.

But I need this! She told herself.

Almost a year ago, Mia had gained powers. She didn’t know how her magic worked... but she had used it, and it had saved her life.

Ever since her harrowing incident with the living head Baron von Reich, however, her powers had been fading. She could hardly ever move things through force of will anymore. Now, when her power did return, which was a rare event, Mia was usually in danger.

The man cackled and danced back a pace or two as Mia struggled to her feet. She took a moment to get her bearings as he continued to laugh.

She was on a lower rooftop now, maybe a pub from the sound and smell of it. The city spread out all around her, shining and blinking in the night as she fixed her eyes on the wiry man before her. He had a mop of unkempt grey hair that sat like an old birds nest atop his head. His face was long, and he had a pronounced chin. His wild eyes glared at her with an amused rage and he cackled as he looked around. He was a lot bigger than her, and he wasn’t opposed to killing her. She knew that. The deep cut in her arm kept reminding her of it.

‘Youngsters these days!’ he half laughed, half snarled. ‘Troublemakers! Do you always just attack people you see on the street, little girl?’

‘Only when they’re trying to kill somebody!’ Mia managed to shout in a shaking voice.

He laughed, ‘But she needs to die! How else will the chaos come?’

‘...Okay, that I don’t follow...’

The man’s eyes grew suddenly wilder and he took a step forward. ‘I have to bring chaos!’ he insisted. ‘Why else would I exist?’

Mia faltered and took a step back. She could feel fear starting to trickle up her spine.

This was a bad idea.

‘Chaos is wrought from senseless death...’ He suppressed a laugh unsuccessfully and pointed at Mia. ‘Your death!’

Check. This was a horribly stupid idea.

But she needed this. Despite the sick feeling that had rooted itself in the pit of her stomach, Mia needed this.

‘Come here,’ he said, failing to sound serious, ‘I wanna cut your throat.’

Mia swallowed, her eyes scanning about the rooftop. There wasn’t a whole lot of room to manoeuvre, and she still wasn’t sure if she could protect herself.

The man narrowed his eyes and sneered, ‘Whatsamatter? Not so brave now?’

Her eyes were wide, her heart beginning to pound, she knew she could do little to keep the man at bay.

He moved toward her and Mia just managed to duck under a swing of the blade. He laughed as he spun around, moving after her. She turned to face him and thrust out her palms once more.

Nothing happened.

He stepped right up to her and kicked. She managed to catch the boot, but it didn’t really do any good. The force of the attack slammed into her, forcing the air from her lungs. She winced and cried out as she fell to the ground again.

He bent down, practically giggling the whole while. Mia set her face and thrust out her fist. It hit him square in the nose. His head jerked back and he wrinkled his face, so Mia hit him again.

This time he almost yelped, so Mia hit him again. He growled and pushed her arm down. ‘Stop that!’ he insisted. ‘You don’t have any idea how annoying that is!’

He lifted his free hand, the blade raising into the dim light. He thrust it down and Mia lifted her knee into his stomach. He recoiled for a moment as Mia desperately scrambled away.

She was on her feet in a moment, but so was he, stalking towards her, and now the smile was gone from his lips, the laughter silenced.

Mia backed away, her eyes wide. She looked around, the only escape seemed to be a narrow structure that looked like a shack standing on the top of the roof. It was, most likely, the roof access that led down into the building. The man stood between Mia and escape.

She was in trouble, and she knew it. Behind her, the edge of the roof was far closer than she felt comfortable with.

‘I’m gonna kill you!’ he vowed, gripping his knife tight as he advanced. She stumbled backward, deciding that if she lived through this... she’d never look for trouble again... Or at least, she’d never put the edge of the roof to her back.

Her foot lost purchase on the edge, and she gasped as she struggled to regain her balance, her feet tingling from the height. Her head swooned with vertigo.

Before she could take time to notice just how high three storeys were, the man had reached her, his hand roughly grabbing her by the scruff of the neck. He moved in quickly, driving the blade to Mia’s throat, but it didn’t slide into her flesh as she feared. Mia had been bracing herself for it, resisting the idea of the knife with absolute focus of will. As she dared to look, she could see Kale struggling with all his might to force the blade through a minuscule bit of air.

Without hesitation, Mia thrust out her hands in front of her and Glympse was blasted back, as if he had been impacted by some horrible, unseen force. He tumbled across the rough rooftop. When he skidded to a stop, Mia managed to reaffirm her balance, but she never let her eyes leave the form of Glympse.

He lay there for a moment or two in silence. Then, he began screaming and beating his hands against the rooftop in a furious rage. Mia took a step forward, but only to remove herself from the edge of the roof.

Kale climbed to his feet and she looked at him, eyes wide. His face was scraped, badly. The rooftop had ripped and rolled the skin, and even now Mia could see blood running from several places. He looked horrible.

He looked mad.

He was gripping that knife in such a way, and there was something of a twisted, unhealthy smile that was coming over his face that made Mia feel sick. She knew he was bigger than her, stronger than her...

But then... It happened.

A shiver ran up and down her spine and a horrible knotting, lurching feeling flashed through her stomach.

In a rush she could feel a tingling behind the air. She hadn’t even noticed it all those months ago, but now... It had grown more pronounced every time she had been able to use her power.

The shiver ran through her again and she felt cold. She always felt cold... but this was different. She didn’t just feel cold. She felt the cold. She could feel it moving about creation, like a living thing.

That was new.

The man rushed forward, the knife raised above his head. Mia stepped, curling her hand around empty air, like she was grabbing hold of something. Then she snapped her wrist to the side and opened her palm.

The knife in Glympse’s hand flew from hims grip, as if Mia had reached out with her own hand and thrown it away. The blade clattered across the rooftop, and Mia pushed at the space that separated them, making it shoot across the rooftop at speed, disappearing over the edge and into the night.

Glympse let out a howl of frustrated rage and lunged at Mia, but she was ready for him. A wave of nothingness hit him from the side and threw him off course. He faltered, but remained upright, pushing himself forward. In another breath, he was upon her, his fist hurling toward her face. She ducked the wild swings, and moved further from the edge of the building.

Kale swiped at her as he followed and Mia spun. A shiver ran down her arm and she lifted her hand without a thought. The man lunged, but his feet slipped out from under him and he crashed down onto the rooftop. Mia instinctively threw out her hand, curling it into a fist. As she did, the ground around the man began to change suddenly. He was shaking in a matter of seconds as frost began to creep onto him from the surrounding rooftop. It crawled out of the air, like a wave of swarming ethereal creatures, clawing into the man and spreading over him.

As Mia spread her fingers, the frost increased, making Glympse a little blue. He gasped, a silent scream dying on his lips as he struggled to move enough to shiver.

Mia snapped her hand back, and to her side. She was quite sure he wouldn’t be getting up any time soon. She took a moment to steady herself. She looked at her hand, trying desperately to stop it from shaking.

A new power? Her thoughts were racing faster than her pulse.

A loud cracking sound shattered the settling silence and Mia’s eyes snapped to the roof access. The door was open, and as far as she could tell, someone had kicked it open. The man who now walked out onto the roof was what made Mia start.

‘Garda! Stay where you are!’ the man insisted, his hand outstretched as if to hold her there. Mia chided herself. This wasn’t good.

Her eyes darted from the Garda to the man who lay shivering at her feet. She couldn’t be taken in by the police! If her parents found out she was out of the house at this hour, she’d be in big trouble. If they knew she was purposefully putting herself in mortal danger by fighting criminals, just so she could connect with fading supernatural powers... She was pretty sure there would be something of a monumental punishment. This was completely mental! She took one last look at the Garda, his eyes narrowed and he shook his head as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

Mia bolted.

She heard him shouting after her, she heard him running behind her, but she was already at the wall; above it was the roof of the next building. If she could make it up the ladder, she knew she was safe. She knew the building’s roof access was only a quick sprint from the ladder. She knew that inside that building, there were at least a dozen rooms on each floor, with windows. There were just too many ways she could avoid the Garda inside.

She reached the ladder and bounded up. Her legs were burning, but she couldn’t stop, not when she was so close.

‘Hey! Stop!’ the Garda was calling, but Mia ignored him. He wasn’t going to catch her. She was going to escape! Her smile faltered as quickly as it had come. She stopped climbing immediately, almost losing her grip on the ladder in the process.

Above her, just at the top of the ladder, another Garda officer stood. His arms were folded across his broad chest as he looked at her with a disapproving expression.

This was really not good.

Mia forced a smile on her lips. ‘Nice one, boys!’ she complimented. ‘You’ve just passed the citizen’s test... Gotta have that civilian oversight, am I right?’ She knew it was as bad as it sounded. She abandoned the smile and shrugged, looking to the police officers in turn. ‘So, should I just finish climbing up, or...’

The Guard at the top of the ladder beckoned her up and Mia sighed.

This wasn’t going to be very fun.

Chapter One

The Not Fun Part

She tried to ignore the look on Inspector Barry Richard’s face. He didn’t seem to be in a very good mood.

Mia sat at a poorly aged desk, with a computer sitting precariously close to the edge. Her bandaged arm throbbed with a dull pain, but it wasn’t enough to pull her attention away from more important matters. Just removed from her, the narrow form of Inspector Richards shifted, grabbing up some paperwork from a nearby desk. His severe features were turned up in a look of annoyance as Jack Lantern tried to pull his attention back to him.

‘Listen, Bull... I’m asking you to do me a solid here!’

Jack was a sight, weaving his words, never giving the detective much room to manoeuvre away from him. She would never tell him this, but she had to admit, at least to herself, that Jack knew his game. She admired his skill, even if she couldn’t understand how he came up with the answers he did. She smiled to herself. One day, she would be doing the same as him. Helping people. The whole Private Investigator thing. She would do it all... Though, she made an exception about the pumpkin for a head thing.

Jack glanced to Mia and he pointed at her. ‘Come on, this is stupid, even for you guys! You can’t charge her with anything! What have you got to gain from it?’

‘She was witness to a crime, which she didn’t report...’ Inspector Richards was saying, but Jack cut him off.

‘She was attacked by a flipping lunatic! What, do you expect her to drop everything and call you guys while someone’s trying to kill her?’

‘Jack, it’s not just that...’

Jack cut the man off again, ‘Barry, what is it you’re doing here, anyway? She was attacked! Are you guys running a police station here, or aren’t you?’

‘Yes, Jack! We’re running a police station here!’ He looked into Jack’s carved, pumpkin eyes with a cold stare. Mia found it a little amusing how normal the man acted around Jack. In fact, everyone in the station seemed, not terrified by the sight of Jack and his impossible features, but simply annoyed. Like he was just some fool with a pumpkin on his head.

Inspector Richards stepped past Jack and walked to the desk where Mia sat, still addressing him, but looking away. ‘And because this is a police station, I have to write her up. She ran.’

Jack ran a hand over his orange face and grumbled in frustration, ‘Come on, Barry! You’re supposed to be my friend! I’m asking you, do me a favour here!’

Mia jumped as Inspector Richards slammed the papers down on his desk, his eyes as cold as ice. ‘I already did you a favour, Jack! I didn’t have to call you, I could have gotten her parents down here just as easy. But you’re a friend, so I’m keeping her out of the frying pan as much as possible... For you!’

‘I appreciate that, by the way...’ Mia put in, but the glare she was shot, not only from the Inspector, but from Jack, made her wary to say anything more.

Jack took a slow, calming breath, his hands covering his carved nose. He nodded, letting his hands drop to his sides as he sat on the edge of the desk.

‘So, how long is this going to take?’ he asked. His brow furrowed.

‘It’ll take as long as it takes!’ the Inspector snapped. He turned back to the papers and with a battered old pen, began to write things down. Mia couldn’t make them out, but she assumed they were police sorts of things. There was a long silence in which none of them looked to each other. It was Jack who finally broke the tense silence.

‘This is boring and stupid!’ he snapped.

Detective Richards slammed the pen down on the table and ran a hand roughly through his short dark hair.

‘If you’re not going to be quite, I’m going to throw you in a holding cell Jack, I mean it!’

‘For what, exactly?’ Jack asked, his own voice growing hard. ‘You’ve got nothing to charge me with!’

‘I’m sure I could find something!’

Jack stood up in a flash and nodded curtly, ‘That’s fine! No, you know what, that’s perfect!’ he leaned on the desk, towards Barry, ‘Just go ahead and charge her with that ridiculous… charge! Don’t even take into account that she was fighting a known psycho and probably ran from your boys on pure instinct!’

Mia tried to keep her features blank. She had certainly not run from the police on instinct. She just hadn’t wanted to deal with a situation like the one she was now in.

‘Just… keep on slugging away, like you are!’ Jack encouraged sarcastically. ‘And remember that you might just be the flakiest friend I’ve ever had!’ He tuned, starting to walk away. Mia sat up in her chair quickly, her eyes frantically following Jack.

He hadn’t gotten very far when Inspector Richards called out in a harsh, low voice.

‘Jack... Jack, wait!’

Jack turned, his arms folded across his chest. His brow furrowed.

The Inspector took a quick look around the room, then motioned for Jack to return.

Jack looked bored. He slipped his hands into his trouser pockets, gave a long glance around the room himself, and walked slowly back towards the desk.

Mia couldn’t help but smile. He was good!

Jack stopped beside Mia and looked at Barry. His face set as he gave a shrug, as if waiting for the Inspector to prove him wrong.

His voice still low, Barry rubbed tenderly at his shoulder. ‘Jack, I want to help you, honest I do...’ he paused, anger seeping into his face, ‘but I can’t just let you two walk out of here!’ He leaned closer to Jack. ‘You know, when we found the suspect, he had frostbite?’

Jack narrowed his eyes. ‘What’s that got to do with Mia?’

‘What’s that got to-’ he shook his head, flabbergasted. ‘Jack, I know you’ve got your own little world you play in, but don’t act like I’m some moron punk off the street! She wasn’t just defending herself, she was fighting him, and she was using magic!’

His voice had risen, nearly to a shout, and he looked around quickly, making sure no one had really noticed.

‘Speak up, Barry,’ Jack grumbled, ‘I don’t think the people in burglary quite heard you!’

‘What am I supposed to do?’ the Inspector continued, now in a harsh whisper. ‘I can’t explain any of this to my superiors...’

‘Just hold up old whatshisname for the brass!’ Jack insisted. ‘A crazed man attacking a young girl has got to be better than a young girl avoiding police officers.’

Richards looked helplessly to Mia. She smiled at him and he turned, scowling at Jack.

‘Listen, Bull...’ Jack began.

‘Don’t call me that... It’s not my name, it’s been a long time, and I ain’t no kid anymore!’

Jack held up his hands defensively. ‘Alright, alright... Barry, just write her up on something small if you have to... cutting through traffic or something... I’ll post bond or whatever you want, and you can be sure this won’t ever happen again!’ Jack looked to Mia with an expression of sternness she had never seen him wear. She wasn’t quite sure if she was afraid of it... or amused by it.

Inspector Richards sighed, then looked to Mia, ‘You’ve got to promise me that you’re going to stay out of trouble,’ he said. His face was stern. The expression the Inspector held, left no room for amusement.

Mia’s eyes darted from Jack to the Inspector. Silently she crossed her fingers, smiled, and nodded. ‘You don’t have to worry about me, Inspector Richards... I’ve learned my lesson.’

The man looked unconvinced and nodded, grumbling.

Fifteen minutes later, Mia was sitting comfortably in the passenger seat of a red Ferrari 456M GT. It raced along narrow roads that wound their way towards the ocean. Mia knew the road, though she had only been this way a few times. The drive was silent; the silence was tense. Mia could tell, by the little light that flooded in the car from the bright moonlit night, that Jack was angry. His jaw, if you could call it that, was clenched tight, and he said little to nothing on the drive.

Before long, the car was slowing down, pulling onto side roads and manoeuvring its way through narrow streets, until at last, it rolled to a stop in a small parking lot. To the left the ground rose into hills, to the right, it sunk into a sandy beach that faded into the ocean.

Just in front of them, a very old, very dirty looking mobile home sat on thick cement blocks. It looked hopelessly out at the ocean, as if it were trying to reach it, but was too marred by time to go any further.

Jack got out, still silent, Mia following closely behind. The door to the dwelling stood about a meter off the ground, and Jack stepped up a pair of horrible looking homemade stairs and unlocked the door. He walked in, without looking to her, and left the door open. A light flicked on, and a wedge of orange luminance flooded out of the door, settling on her.

She felt hesitant to follow. She felt horrible. She could just picture how Jack would react. Maybe his eyes would spit fire, and maybe he would yell a lot. She really didn’t know. She had never really seen him mad before. Not mad at her, anyway. She supposed there should be something of a difference between the way he acted to an attacking zombie and to her doing something completely daft.

Finally, she put the thoughts to one side, and walked into the small house. She closed the door behind her, taking a look around the cramped trailer as she did. It was just as small as she remembered it. A narrow expanse of living area, split into three parts. A sofa sat almost immediately to her right as the living area folded into a kitchen in the centre which flowed into the single bedroom, beyond the only other door in the whole building.

Mia thought of the house Jack had used to live in. Grand, regal... Bigger.

Compared to this... Mia winced as the image of the house in flames came back to her. She brushed this aside too, as Jack walked out of the small kitchen, his hands on his hips.

‘Sit,’ he said simply, pointing to the sofa.

Mia sat.

There was a desk crammed into the front of the mobile home as well, just in front of the sofa. Jack moved to the desk, sitting on its edge.

‘I really don’t like getting a call from the police in the middle of the night, Mia...’ His voice was low, stern, but not angry like she had expected. She chided herself for thinking that Jack would have yelled at her. She knew him better than that. ‘I like those calls even less,’ Jack continued, ‘when they are about friends... About people I care about.’

Mia nodded, her heart sinking into her shoes. She was suddenly, and unexpectedly, hit with a realisation of her actions. She knew Jack was speaking the truth. She knew that the adrenaline that had been flowing through her blood, even in the confines of the police station, had now ebbed away, fading back to normal levels. Maybe that was why she could think clearly, at last.

‘Jack... I know, it was stupid.’

Jack nodded. ‘It was very stupid!’ Jack agreed. ‘Which is why I don’t understand. Why would you do something like this? Did you need to remember what it’s like to have someone trying to kill you?’

Mia shook her head, trying not to let the memories of the previous year slip into her thoughts. She didn’t want to remember the twisted smile of the disembodied head, Baron von Reich, or the monstrous form of the red skinned demon, Slimethorn. She rubbed at her eyes, partly to push away the images, and partly to dry the moisture that had gathered.

‘Jack, I know... I don’t know what I was thinking...’

‘What about your parents?’ Jack pressed. ‘They’ve given up so much just to find you... Even moving to Ireland... It was for you. I know I didn’t go through the horror show of last year, just to have you put yourself in that kind of danger again... And I know your family didn’t give up everything, trying to get you back... just to lose you again!’

Mia nodded silently, trying her best to keep her composure. She could see her parents, their disappointment, their fear. It made her feel sick inside. She felt selfish, and stupid.

‘I’m not trying to make you feel bad, Mia,’ Jack said, ‘but I want you to understand that there are people who don’t want to see you get hurt. And when you do get hurt, you’re not the only one who ends up feeling the pain.’

There was a long silence in which Mia did nothing but look at her shoes. She had never felt this low in all of her life. At least, what she could remember of her life. After a while, Jack sighed and stood. ‘So what happened?’ he asked. ‘Why were you fighting Glympse?’

Mia looked up, meeting Jack’s eyes. She wondered silently if she should tell him everything. About how her powers were fading, and how danger awakened them again. Finally, she decided she had to. She hated lying, and who knew, maybe Jack could help her. She had never asked him, seeing as how she hadn’t really seen him that much in the past few months.

‘I’ve been going out at night...’ she began, ‘looking for chances to use my power, but it’s more than just that...’

Jack shrugged. ‘So what is it, then?’

Mia took a deep breath. ‘...It’s been the only way I’ve been able to-’

There was a sudden, loud knock on the door. It made Mia start, and she looked to Jack, her thoughts scattering from the sudden interruption.

Jack gave her a quizzical look as he moved to the door. He opened it as Mia moved from the sofa to his side. Their eyes fell onto an aged man in a smart looking suit. His face was twisted in concern as he looked up at the pair of them. He had little hair left on his head, what did remain was sparse and white.

‘Jack Lantern?’ he asked, his voice had a distinct British tonality to it.

‘That’s me,’ Jack nodded.

The man looked about with concern. ‘My name is Curtis Sorrow...’ he paused, taking another look around, as if he were fearful someone would overhear them. ‘I wonder,’ he continued, ‘could we discuss this inside?’

‘Mister Sorrow, do you think you could come back in the morning?’ Jack asked with a sigh. ‘I’ve had a very long night, and I’m afraid I need to get some rest.’

Jack made to close the door, but the man was already moving, placing his hand firmly against it.

‘Please, wait!’ he pleaded. ‘I think my nephew has been kidnapped...’ Mia could see a horrible pain in the man’s eyes. She wondered if it was the same haunting look that would have filled her own parents.

Jack cleared his throat and canted his head to one side. ‘That… That sounds like something the police should be handling, Mister Sorrow.’

‘No, I don’t think you understand, Mister Lantern...’ he was shaking as he looked to Jack, anger and fear and pain all vying for a place in him.

‘I have reason to believe,’ he explained, ‘that a group called the Sons of Coffins Croft have taken him...’

Mia felt her stomach lurch, her heart skipped a beat. Horrifying images of zombies and that disembodied head came flooding back to her again. She looked to Jack who held the same hollow look of fear on his face.

‘Maybe you should step in for a minute, Mister Sorrow,’ Jack grimaced.

Chapter Two

The Client

‘Tim is his name,’ Curtis sighed, taking the cup of tea that Mia handed him. She moved to the far side of the sofa and sat, looking across at the man. His hands shook as he brought the cup to his lips and drank. He nodded, as if satisfied, and looked back to Jack. ‘I don’t know exactly how they came onto him,’ he admitted, ‘but I was there... when they took him.’

‘You saw the Sons of Coffins Croft?’ Jack interjected.

Curtis nodded fervently. ‘Oh, yes. Couldn’t quite mistake them, could I?’

Mia subdued a shiver of disgust, thinking of the look and the smell of rotten flesh, of the pale green forms of zombies taking this man’s nephew. She wondered how he took it all in so well.

‘All dressed in black, they were. Laughing as they hit him in the head, knocked him to the ground.’

‘Laughing?’ Mia asked, confused. She didn’t like the fact, but she had quite a bit of experience with zombies, and she had never heard one as much as giggle.

‘Oh yeah,’ Curtis nodded, ‘but that wasn’t the worst part of it... The worst part was their eyes,’ he pointed at his own eyes absently, a look of aversion washing over his face, ‘I’ve seen bad men in my life, you’ll understand...’ he trailed off, shaking his head.

‘What was wrong with their eyes?’ Mia asked, unable to stand the silence that had fallen.

Curtis looked to her with a start, as if he had forgotten anyone else was there. He shook his head, ‘They didn’t have any eyes, that’s what!’

Mia looked to Jack in confusion and fear. For his part, Jack betrayed no emotion one way or the other, he simply sat on the edge of the desk, his slight pumpkin chin in his hand.

‘Mister Sorrow, how exactly did you know they were the Sons of Coffins Croft? Couldn’t they have just been some local gang, some kids who stepped over the line?’