Wake Up Dead - an Undead Anthology Read Online Free PDF Page B

but he would keep his promise.
     
    *
     
    Dana waited until she heard them start the movie before she left. Grabbing both bouquets of flowers she got into the car and headed to Pleasant Valley Cemetery.
    Sitting in front of the gravestone, Dana felt the hole in her heart. Looking down she read what Clare requested be put on her gravestone, “ I’m still a breast woman.” , and she let out a half laugh half cry.
    Kneeling she put the flowers on top of the gravestone and traced Clare’s name with her fingers.
    “Frank says hi, and wants you to know he’s keeping his promise. He’s even starting to enjoy life again, though he’ll never admit it.” Dana cleared a bit of dirt away. “Sydney’s five now, and stop grinning, you knew I was going to give in.” Dana let the tears fall freely.
    “I used to be mad at you. This date is the best and worst day of my life. Sydney was born, but you died. I know you were protecting us, but it still hurts.”
    Dana looked around at other mourners. Many people came here on this day; thousands of lives lost to the virus.
    “I miss you, and think of you all the time.”
    Standing up Dana cleared up some debris from the top of the gravestone, leaving her hand on it for a moment longer. With the tears at a minimum, she spoke one last time.
    “Love you, see you next year.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    EUTHANASIA
    Chantal Boudreau
     
     
    When Skye stepped out of her front door early that morning, she was met by the irritated gaze of her next-door neighbour. Skye knew what that was all about. She had confronted Mrs. Blanchford’s eldest son the night before when she had caught him taking pot-shots at raccoons with his BB gun in the backyard, and the older woman was not happy about that.
    That was one of the problems with living in a subdivision – shared backyards. Skye often found herself at odds with her neighbours over the presence of her own animals. They objected to the fact that she kept as many as she did; four cats, two dogs, a rabbit and a snake, not to mention the occasional creature that she would foster for Strays to Stay, the no-kill shelter where she worked. Well, “worked” was an understatement. Skye was obsessed with the shelter’s cause and she was prone to go much farther than the regular demands of her job. She nurtured their charges in every way and championed their cause, but it was all done out of love. She could not bear to see an animal homeless or suffering. That was why she had lit into the neighbour’s son, concerned that he would do real harm to the raccoons.
    “He was just trying to scare them off, Ms. Henshaw. Those nasty things were into the garbage and spreading their filth. It’s not safe to have them scavenging in the backyard. Some of them carry rabies you know. Besides, it wasn’t as if Shaun were shooting at them with real bullets,” the shrewish woman said, somewhat shrilly.
    Skye shook her head and sighed.
    “Those creatures have as much of a right to exist here and attempt to survive as we do. The pellets may not kill the raccoons the way that a bullet would, but it’s still cruel. He could have put one of their eyes out, or embedded a pellet under their skin, causing infection and slow death. If he wanted to chase them off, all he needed to do was make a lot of noise and shine some light wherever they were. They would’ve scattered.”
    Mrs. Blanchford scowled.
    “I somehow doubt a little light would’ve done any good. Those little monsters don’t scare easy; they’re brazen. And as for noise, it was after eleven and the Schusters would have already put their little ones to bed. I swear, Ms. Henshaw, that you care more about those wretched animals than the people who live around you,” she sniped, and with that, she turned on her heel and stomped back into her house.
    “Maybe that’s because the wretched animals deserve it,” Skye mumbled, pushing her frizzy strawberry blond hair out of her face.
    None of