It was a full forty-two minutes before I could hear the twins howling down the hall towards my room. 
    “Cousiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!”
    Good thing they were shrieking that through the whole hospital, just in case anyone was wondering what our relationship was.
    I could hear the pounding of their feet down the hall, long before I could see them.
    The twins came jogging into the room, one with food in their hands and the other with a teeny sissy riding on their back.
    “Kari! Kari! Kari! Kari!”
    They were all but bouncing off the walls.
    Gee, I wonder if they are happy to see me?
    Vegas swooped in and wrapped me up in a hug, squeezing me tight and wagging me from side to side, sob-howling.
    “Kaaarrrriiiiiii! Thank gods you’re alive!”
    Umm, I’m pretty sure I was never dead.
    Reno carrying Tina on his back, swung her around and set her down on her feet. Once she landed, she just kind of stood there for a moment. She didn’t blitz over to my bedside, like she would normally do, instead she shyly shuffled up to my bed and gave me a little wave. 
    “Hello, Big Sister. Are you not sick anymore?”
    Big sister, not Big Sissy. No running up to give me hugs, no yanking on the blankets insisting that she had to climb up in bed with me, no excited chatter telling me all about her day.     
    Right, it’s been four months.
    Tina doesn’t remember me any more. 
    That’s why Jiro and Noah were nervous about bringing Tina here.
    Tina remembers that she has a big sister, and she knows that the big sister is supposed to be me, because of the weird side effect of my necromancy tells her so. 
    All of my zombies believe that they know me in some way. They either believe that I’m their relative or that we’ve been friends forever. The truth is that I’ve never met any of them before I turned them into zombies. 
    Tina is special. She was my first, and by far, she is one of the youngest zombies I’ve ever seen. There just isn’t a whole lot of kindergartner zombies. Maybe I screwed up something with my necromancy spell, maybe baby brains are just not supposed to be zombified, but for whatever reason, Tina couldn’t remember new things for longer than about three or four months. She can remember everything that happened before she died, no problem, but ever since then the memories just kind of fade away until they don’t exist at all. 
    So, with me out of the picture for months, all the memories of me, of us together, of our life. Those are all gone now.
    Was there a time while I was out, when she missed me? Does she still remember missing me?
    No, I would have just faded away. Week by week, month by month I would have slipped from her mind silently, until there wasn’t any of me there anymore.
    If I never woke up, she would have never noticed a difference.
    My eyes stung a little and my nose got a bit snuffly.
    Had it always been so hard to breath?
    Noah shifted nervously by my side.
    “Kari, are you okay?”
    I sniffled one last time, blinked my eyes dry, and gave a nod.
    “Yup, totally fine.”
    I gave a little wave back to my baby sister that didn’t know me any more.
    “Hey Tina, I’m feeling much better now, thanks.”
    My head was throbbing by the time Jiro started opening up my special order from Sergio’s. 
    Damn, I must be even more starving than I thought.
    Jiro had pulled out my meal from it’s protective bag and set it up on the crappy little tray table that swung over the bed so I could eat. I was just digging in when the last of the clan showed up. Then again, I doubt she had been in much of a hurry to get here in the first place.
    Angie was a little out of breath as she charged into the room. The moment she spotted me, she kind of tripped over her own feet and stumbled into the doorway. 
    Huh, that wasn’t like Angie.
    And then she just kind of stood there staring at me awkwardly.
    That wasn’t like Angie either.
    I nodded at her still loitering in the doorway.
    “Sup.”
    She gave me a shy little wave.
    “H-hey, you.”
    What, was Angie taking social cues from Tina or somethin’? That was not the standard Angie greeting at all. Shouldn’t she be telling me I looked like shit?
    Angie stumbled a few more steps into the room.
    “How-how is she doing?”
    Angie’s eyes flickered around the room to the faces of everyone else there.
    I shrugged.
    “I’m fine.”
    Jiro nodded and gave his hand on my shoulder a squeeze.
    “Kari’s awake and doing well. She’s much better now.”
    Again, she looked at the faces around the room, rather than at me.
    “Okay, okay. That’s good, right?”
    She shuffled to the foot of my bed, and gave me a nervous smile.
    My headache ratcheted up a few notches and really started squeezing my poor noggin.
    “Glad to see you awake, Kari.”
    I doubt that. 
    If there was anyone that would have been happy to see me out of the picture, it was Angie. 
    Angie wasn’t a bad person, she just didn’t hold back for anyone or thing. If she liked you, she was the best friend you could ever hope for, if she was pissed at you, you knew it! 
    For one glorious day after I raised Angie as a zombie, she had thought that I was her best friend. And having Angie as a best friend was amazing. But then the party was over and Angie’s life imploded once everyone found out that she was dead. And who did she blame for that life style Armageddon? 
    That’s right, little ol’ me.
    After all, everything went to shit in her life after I raised her as a zombie, so I must have screwed up somehow and ruined her life.
    And she’s hated me ever since.
    Not having to see my face every day must have been like a vacation for her.
    Angie eyes were wide, and she looked kind of worried.
    “What? What did I do? Why are you glaring at me like that?”
    My head gave me another sharp jab just above the ear.
    I was glaring? Oops. 
    Seriously, what was up with me? Why was I having such grouchy thoughts? Angie wasn’t a bad person, she would have never been celebrating someone being in a coma for months. Even if she hated them. She wasn’t evil like that . . . . 
    That was more like something I would do.
    I shook my head and shrugged at her.
    “Sorry, I was thinking of something else. It’s good to see you too Angie.”