The squish was going to stay. That much was obvious. Benji was so attached to her, and he probably didn't have much to smile at. But both he and Lilith were grinning like fools and holding hands. The squish said she was hearing voices, and that was not good, for sure. But we all have our problems.

We finally got to the lab. I didn't get lost once, not at all. Nuh-uh... But anyway, Jared knocked Megan the Zombie out- forcibly, I might add. Lilith and Benji looked pretty indignant at Jared's showing violence in the presence of the squish, but she said "It's okay, I've seen worse than that."

"If you say so, kid," I muttered while we duct taped the zombie to the wall. Benji took Lydia out into the hall. Lilith quickly followed as I grumbled "Screw it" and got a scalpel to get a blood sample. That is, if the zombie even had blood left.

I hummed as I worked, not really any song but a mixture of many. Jared looked at me. "What's that on your neck?"

"What?"
"On your neck. It looks like bruises."

Apparently, my band tee and jacket had slipped, revealing my neck and shoulder. Nobody had ever seen that before.

"It's not bruises. I have ink." I pulled down my neckline even more, allowing a flock of birds to flutter up my collarbone.

"Whoa. Is it real?" Jared asked, lightly touching one of the ravens.

"Yeah. I wanted to be really different from everyone in my family. They were really prim and proper. I was a disgrace. So I made bad grades every now and then, pulled some pranks. That was no reason to pretty much discard me entirely. My parents got used to me and even accepted it, but it was too late. The damage was done. There's one bird for each of my close family members. I know, it was a bad decision, but I had to conquer some fears. Being alone, rejection, needles, to name a few. But they are gone. This is all that's left of them. YO, LILITH! I NEED YOU IN HERE!"

Jared stepped back suddenly at my harsh, raspy yell. Lilith hurried in, with red puffy eyes. She wiped them dry. "Yeah?"

"We got the blood-- venom-- whatever. Now do your science."

She did science. I can't exactly say what she did, but there was a microscope involved, and a lot of bottles of different liquids. One smelled like the bleach I used on my hair.

After a long while, Lilith looked up. "Three things. One, I can hear your music from here, KC. Turn it down. Two, Benji said that Lydia was hungry, so could you please, please giver her a snack? And three, I figured out what's wrong with the zombies."