Collection of Stories for Demented Children Read Online Free

a
hurried step back so she wouldn’t accidentally fall over the
edge.
    “Don’t startle me like that!” She whipped
around to see who had the nerve to disturb her dramatic musings.
Standing there hand in hand was a zombie and a young boy. She
stared at the zombie with her jaw open in stunned silence.
    “Brainsss?” the zombie asked.
    Anise screamed a perfectly pitched scream of
terror that echoed up and down the coast. Then she turned and ran
away as fast as possible.
    It took her a moment to remember that she
had been standing at the edge of a cliff. Anise let out a fresh
scream.
     
    ***
     
    Zachary and Tobias looked over the edge as
the screaming girl fell and went splat against a rock. “Well, that
was stupid,” Tobias observed.
    “Yeshh. Shtupid,” Zachary agreed.
    “Let’s go to the village and I’ll tell
daddy. He’ll know what to do,” Tobias suggested.
    “Villagshe, home.” Zachary nodded and the
two of them turned back to the cliff road that headed to the
village.
    A short while later they were walking along
the fence of the graveyard, which bordered the cliff road. Zachary
heard the music from the nightly party that all the dead and undead
attended. “Is that music?” Tobias asked.
    “Yeshh. Dead party in graveyard,” Zachary
said slowly. He was good at getting words out if he had time.
    “Can we see it before you take me home?”
Tobias asked eagerly. “I always wanted to see real dead
people.”
    Zachary thought about it for a minute. It
took that long for the thoughts to make it through the mush in his
head. He really couldn’t think of any reason why not. “Shhure.”
They were at the open front gate leading in. The zombies made sure
it was always open, even breaking the hinges whenever the daytime
caretakers fixed them. No one living ever came around at night
because it was too dangerous.
    The bottoms of the clouds still glowed pink
and purple even though the sun had sunk into the ocean at the edge
of the world. Torches had recently been lit along the paths.
Zachary led Tobias, still holding onto his hand. He liked it. Not
many people ever wanted to hold Zachary’s hand anymore or even
touch him . . . or get anywhere near him.
    The music came from xylophones made of real
bones and fiddles strung with strings made from tendons. It was an
exciting party. Skeletons spun their bones in wild clattering
dances, while zombies did the shuffle. Ghosts floated to and fro,
talking about the good old days when they were alive. Vampires
acted batty and Werewolf Jack led the entertainment.
    “This is so neat!” Tobias exclaimed in
wide-eyed wonder.
    “Yeshh,” Zachary agreed. He couldn’t help
but shuffle along, moving his shoulders up and down with the beat.
Alive, dead or undead, everyone enjoyed a good party. They joined a
group of zombies that were doing a line dance. Zombie line dances
were never a good thing. It was certain that a body part or two
would go flying. Most of the time, the parts would get back to the
correct owner, but mix-ups were known to happen.
    An arm flew off and hit Zachary in the
shoulder. The owner grabbed it quickly. “Shorry,” he told
Zachary.
    “Shalright,” Zachary assured him. A part of
him remembered that he was supposed to be collecting newts for Gert
the Wicked Witch, but with a quick shake he moved maggots to that
part of his brain and the thought went away.
    An exquisitely dressed vampire with slick
black hair and a long elegant cloak walked up in front of Tobias.
“What have we here? Is it an innocent little boy?” he asked in a
heavy accent. “How delicious.” Then he smiled a toothy smile.
    Tobias grabbed onto Zachary’s leg and looked
at the vampire fearfully. Luckily, zombies were immune to all
vampire powers, so Zachary wasn’t the slightest bit afraid. “Bite
yourshhelf,” he told the vamp.
    “Give him to me now, zombie! I hunger for
innocent blood.” With that, the vampire lunged forward.
    Zachary head-butted the vampire,