I am Bexley chap 23 “Different”

“Does this gem heal? Like really heal bad things?” Hudson asked the new Bloodletter. His name is Amory.

“It’s an Aurora crystal, and I have a clear quartz. I’m giving it to you. Take it or leave it,” Amory signed back, shrugging.

“Clear quartz heals like no one’s business, I heard,” Clara chimed in, signing to us briefly and then getting ready with Ax and Serena. It was morning and though so much had happened in a short twenty-four hours, we still had to move on. Stan was talking to the other Bloodletters with Emma and India, trying to get them caught up with our ideas to integration for all peoples.

Hudson grinned. This was really the first time I saw him smile in forever. “Awe, that is great! Thank you!”

Amory nodded. “I saw you seemed to care that a ‘Letter died. It made me think you can be one of us. You can keep it. The Aurora crystal has helped me in tough times. It takes your feelings and transfers it to the wearer.”

“My husband Asher is a Bloodletter and that Bloodletter that died was his uncle. I appreciate it.”

A tiny firework of a Bloodletter named Indigo runs in, signing, “Don’t listen to Amory. He’s a fool. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” She pushed him and he pushed her back, both of them growling at each other.

“You’re just mad that I gave that rainbow gem to the human!” Amory signed to her.

“You gave it to me first!” She growled, signing back.

“Oh well! It is what it is!” He signed back, annoyed.

Hudson chuckled. “Are ya’ll twins? You fight like brother and sister.”

I giggled signing, “From the look on their faces, I doubt it.” I pointed to them quietly and Hudson stifled his laughter as they both looked both horrified or disgusted by the notion.

“Or maybe y’all are in love!” Serena yelled over, making Amory walk off in a disgruntled huff. Serena cackled at the response and Clara told her to stop heckling.

Suddenly, Emma and India come up to me.

Emma looked at me with a devious smile. “Girl, we got more recruits for our mission. I don’t know how my India pulled it off,” Emma lightly kissed India’s cheek, making her smile. “But, she did!” Emma squeaked.

India nodded, signing, “We need to get to the original headquarters for the elites in this area. It’s not too far from St. Louis. Then, we’ll go back home to help Asher.”

“Well, I don’t know, I feel like Hudson is gonna wanna go back to his daughter and husband sooner than later. We already have crystals. We don’t need anything else,” I signed as I looked over at a renewed in faith Hudson. It made me happy to see him so hopeful now.

“I—-it’s….” I signed but started feeling like my chest was heaving. I covered my mouth. I felt something coming up, like a bladder or a random organ. It made my head dizzy and I couldn’t maintain my balance. I was about to fall but Emma caught me.

“Girl! What happened?? Are you ok?” Emma yelled and Stan ran over to help me.

“Were you… were you gagging? Like, nauseas?” Stan signed to me, concerned. I shrugged, still feeling dizzy and my stomach was gurgling badly.

“Emma, India, can you help her sit?” Stan signed as my friends went on each side of me to help me sit down.

Stan fixed my hair and we locked eyes. “Are you ok?” He signed.

I nodded. “I never felt like that.”

Everyone, minus the other Bloodletters, came over to me.

“What happened! Are you ok, Bex?” Hudson asked.

Clara, Ax and Serena came over as well as Emma explained, “I think Bexley is experiencing some womanly things…”

Stan looked at her in a confused way. “Womanly?”

Emma hummed a yes sound. “She’s looking mighty glowy. And really, she gets dizzy and almost throws up? Y'all been busy huh?” She said to me and I shook my head.

Stan suddenly looked flustered and nodded, making Emma and Serena crack up.

India and Clara looked confused. Ax looked at me and signed, “Zombies can’t have babies. Can they?”

Clara shook her head. “No. No. How can that be?”

India frowned, looking at me in a concerned heaviness I wasn’t comfortable with. Everyone seemed to understand this more than I. It wasn’t like I wasn’t accustomed to attention. My zombie nature had different atttibutes than others did. I laughed. I could talk sometimes. I could write and read. This time, however, it seemed this difference was more important and more divisive than anything.

Thinking about the death I just witnessed, poor uncle Jack’s horrible demise, I feel like being a zombie had renewed my sense of hope and meaning. I know that death is all around me. But this, this feels different. So raw and new. All of my friends and family kept talking excitedly around me as I felt a strange pulse in my lower body.

I hold onto my stomach, feeling waves of intense pulling. What was this feeling? It was overwhelming to say the least.

As comes over to me and sits down with a huge thud.

“I remember when we first met. I thought you were a little pebble that was irritating me. You stick up for humans. You try to help humans that are in our jail. You had human friends, and you bothered me a lot to help you,” Ax signed to me. I was stunned. Ax has been more quiet than ever during this trip, but now seems eager to talk about the past.

He continued to sign, “I didn’t think I cared. I saw you help a little human girl long ago. From a Bloodletter attack. It reminded me of my brother, Tank. He once helped a tiny human boy from falling off a cliff once. This was in South Dakota. We sluiced for gems out there since we were young zombie blood. After that, I met Clara. We dated, briefly. Didn’t work out. Glad she had Serena.”

“I was so shocked when I found out you and Clara dated first! I remember I saw you guarding that entrance to the mansion and I told myself you needed to be my friend,” I signed and Ax grunted in approval.

“You were the one what woke me up in my daze. I was doing what I supposed to, but I was dead inside. Seein’ you made me realize things can change. It made me remember Tank. Then I saw Tank again. In Saint Louis. We all reunited. Then, he got kilt in the battles before.”

I put my hand on his large arm. “I’m so sorry you lost him,” I signed.

“I’m sure you all have brushed with death so much, it isn’t fazing you anymore. I see that something in you has changed, and it’s better than different. You look like a glowing human. Almost,” he put his thumb and index finger slightly together with a bit of space in between.

“You be careful. You might be carting more than just yourself,” Ax signed, getting up suddenly, commenting, “That first awakening feels just like this second one. It’s just as vivid. Crazy, new. My little pebble, I call you. Cause you bothered me but changed my whole undead life.”

Ax walked off. I felt a strange sensation circling my chest as I let out what felt like a breath.

Emma was face to face with me suddenly, her black curls hitting my face. They felt scratchy and soft at the same time. “How the hell did you get Ax to finally talk?” Emma said loudly in my face.

Hudson laughed. “Get out of her face! She might puke on you!”

“I’ll kill ya twice if you do that!” Emma laughed.

Stan took my hand, “You do look like a new zombie. Almost like your skin had been refreshed. Bexley, do you think you might?” He signed, unable to finish his sentence.

“Might?” I signed.

Stan hugged me tightly, kissing me softly. I felt like a million tiny fires were building up inside of me. So warm, toasty. I kissed him back.

“That kiss looks like a first kiss! Wowza!” Serena whistled.

Hudson laughed. Stan nodded, “Somehow it felt like a first kiss yet different. Like we were sharing warmth even though we’re dead.”

Hudson grasped the crystals and said, “Maybe a crystal and true love’s kiss will wake up Asher!”

“Get rid of that stank breath first or Asher will end up throwing up too!” Emma joked. We all laughed.

We gathered up all our undead, living and otherwise to carry on. I keep thinking about kissing my husband. That wasn’t the first time I’d kissed Stan, or even saved the world — but it was the first time I believed something more could grow from the ashes. Something dangerous and sacred came rising up from deep inside of me. Or was that vomit?