Tina finally returned from her great expedition to find her latest master piece.

Boy, that took a while. At least it worked as another distraction.

Noah properly “Oooed” and “Awed”.

“Wow, Tina, this is so pretty!”

Tina giggled and bounced around, very pleased with herself.

And then the moment I’d been dreading came, Jiro let us know dinner was served.

It’s not that I didn’t love Jiro’s cooking, I totally did. It’s just that tonight, I really didn’t want to have this conversation.

Gods I hope I don’t start crying.

(sigh)

I guess there was no avoiding it now.

Tina bolted over to the counter that we used as a dining table. With a little tugging, Noah pealed himself off of the sticky couch and followed her.

And I followed behind much, much slower.

By the time I finally shuffled over to the counter, Angie had already set out the plates, Tina was already dancing around impatiently to be helped onto the high stools we used for chairs, and Jiro was already placing dish after dish on the counter for everyone to enjoy.

Shit, I really wasn’t ready for this.

Would it be super rude if I just skipped dinner?

Looking at the spread of food Jiro had worked hard to make, yeah it would be super rude.

Damn it.

Noah tugged on my sleeve and whispered in my ear.

“Uh Kari, where do I sit?”

Jiro answered for me, pointing his knife at a seat right next to his, at the end of the counter.

“You sit here.”

Yeah, Jiro was clearly still trying to keep an eye on invader Noah.

To give poor Noah a little protection, I took up the seat right next to him.

As everyone was climbing onto the tall stools lining the counter, the twins finally walked in the door.

Reno (Ree-noh) and Vegas (Vay-gus) MonteRico

Eternal Age: 17 (Identical twins)

Height: 6 ft.

Build: Skinny

Hair: very light brown/gold, short and combed to the side

Eyes: Brown

Skin: standard white

Nationality: Welsh/Mexican

Looks: Teen shabby cute

Job: Students/part timers at board game shop

Everyone seemed to think that the twins were so identical, that it was impossible to tell them apart, but to me they’ve always felt like completely different people. Maybe it’s because when I first laid eyes on them they were just floating balls of spirits. The light of Reno’s spirit had been warm and energetic, like an orangy red, while Vegas’s light was a cool and gentle turquoise. Ever since then, the twins had seemed distinctly different from each other.

Reno and Vegas might look like teens now, but they’re actually my age. And in case you were wondering, yes, they were named after their parents honeymoon vacation. When I was seventeen I had been called in one night to clean up a mess at a local high school. And by mess, I mean a lot of trauma, death, and more trauma. It was a night that will be branded into my memory for the rest of my life. And I’m not the only one. Vegas and Reno’s backstory isn’t weird, or dramatic, or spiteful, it was just sad.

Vegas had been bullied at his school, I mean really bullied. He couldn’t handle it any more, so he killed himself. Reno, found Vegas’s body. He lasted three days without his twin brother. He couldn’t handle it, so he also killed himself. Their friends at school couldn’t handle them both being dead, so they researched some mage runes and cobbled together some crazy spell to try to bring them back. Mage runes are not something an amateur can just use, and definitely not runes to bring back the dead, so they botched the spell. The thing is, runes don’t usually do things like bring people back to life, so the spell needed something special to power it. That something special was the spiritual energy of their six friends.

It was a frick’n disaster when I showed up on scene. I managed to pull Vagas and Reno’s spirits out of the spell and put them back into their bodies. But, their six friends, they were too far gone. The spell had used up too much of their spirit energy and there just wasn’t anything left to put back into their bodies. I tried everything. It’s just that their spirits were in shreds. There just wasn’t enough there to grab a hold of.

Seriously, how messed up was their school that had so many students that would choose death?

And so we all got to go to therapy after that fun little night at the high school.

Jiro looked up from slicing crusty bread into chunks and scowled a little.

“You’re late. I sent you a text hours ago.”

Reno looked confused as he dumped his backpack on the floor next to the door.

“This is when we always come home.”

Vegas dumped his bag and coat along with his brother’s in the growing heap of their stuff on the floor.

“Yeah, we’re not late.”

Jiro tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at them.

“Well, you are today.”

Reno, was grumbling.

“What’s so special about today?”

Jiro looked grim.

“We need to have a family discussion.”

Vegas froze in his tracks as he walked towards the counter.

“Family discussion, about what?”

I’d like to say that I handled the situation like a street hardened, getto girl. But, nope, I’m a total chicken and I absolutely bailed.

Before Jiro could say anything more, I blurted out.

“Noah!”

“Yeah, we’re welcoming our new zombie Noah to the family tonight.”

I pointed to Noah with both hands.

“Yeah, so, this is Noah.”

Reno gave me a confused look as he took one of the stools at the end of the counter near Angie.

“Uh, okay.”

Vegas looked a little suspicious as he sat next to his brother, and greeted the new fam in a slow voice.

“Hey, Noah.”

What can I say, I’m shitty at acting calm when I’m freaking out. Yeah, everyone at the table knew that something was up, but at least we weren’t talking about it.

I turned to Noah.

“So, anyhow, these are my cousins, Reno and Vegas.”

Noah leaned over the table to wave at them.

“Oh, hi! Nice to meet you.”

Wanting to keep the conversation rolling in the right direction, I started point out the other people gathered around the bar.

“You already met my little sister, Tina.”

I pointed to the Teeny Sissy sitting on my other side.

“But, the gentleman sitting next to you is my Uncle Jiro.”

Jiro nodded when he heard his name, but didn’t look at Noah with anymore warmth than before.

Noah looked around the table.

“Wow, I can really see the similarities in all of your family!”

Really? Because none of us were actually related at all.

“And the lady at the end is Angie . . . she’s my, ummmm. She’s my. . .”

What the hell should I call her? She hated my guts, in fact she only thought she liked me for one day, so she wasn’t really my friend. She never thought she was related to me. Literally the only reason she was living with us, was because in her mind I owed her big time so the least I could do was give her a place to stay. Mostly because prejudice landlords wouldn’t rent to a dead person, so she couldn’t get an apartment of her own.

Angie finally filled in the blanks for me.

“We used to be friends.”

“Ah.”

Noah nodded, but was clearly confused why ex-friends would be living together.

Yeah, I’d be confused too.

“So, who are you, Noah?”

Reno asked between shoveling pasta into his mouth.

Vegas long reached down the length of the counter to grab some bread, and jumped into the conversation.

“Yeah, Kari only seems to ever raise family members or friends as zombies, so what, are you a distant cousin? A work friend?”

Vegas looked Noah up and down.

“A little brother?”

Uh oh, them is fight’n words for Noah!

Noah puffed up his cute little elf cheeks.

“I’m older than Kari is!”

Noah was just about to go into a rant, which would probably include a bunch of lies about how tall he was, but Angie cut him off with a nasty smile.

“Oh, haven’t you heard? He’s Kari’s new boyfriend.”

Reno instantly choked on his pasta.

Vegas was practically shrieking, his eyes bugging out.

“What?! When did this happen?”

Reno managed to gasp, once he was done coughing.

“Oh, hell no.”

Oh crap.

Thanks Angie, this was not the distraction I was looking for.

I waved at the twins to calm down.

“No, no, we’re really just friends.”

Noah joined in, nodding a little too fast.

“Y-yeah, it was just a slip of the tongue.”

Reno glared down the counter at Noah.

“Yeah, well that better be the only place your tongue is slipping.”

Jiro cleared his throat loudly and glared at Angie. She at least looked a little sheepish at the trouble she caused. I guess she had already forgotten that she wasn’t supposed to treat me like trash today.