Part 2 of Found Dead

My hands shook

How was I dead?

I couldn’t be!

I was here!

Reading the newspaper!

But it said it right there in big bold letters

With a picture of my burned body.

“Mom?”

I said,

My voice a hushed whisper.

My mom made her way over to me.

She wrapped her arms around me and sobbed.

I cried with her.

At school everyone stayed away from me.

Even my friends.

It was like I was contagious.

It was like being undead was contagious.

Zombie Boy.

Ghost Kid.

Back from the dead.

Skeleton Man.

All these names were given to me.

Everyone asked me what had happened.

How was I alive,

They asked.

I would shrug.

I had no idea.

I think there were side effects from coming back.

My skin became leathery and thin.

My cheeks became sunken.

My eyes were empty of emotion.

I was freakishly thin.

Yet I didn’t die again.

My new appearance encouraged the teasing.

Zombie Boy.

Ghost Kid.

Back from the dead.

Skeleton Man.

All these names.

They were accurate.