My name is Germain Simmons, and I am a zombie. Youâd never know, though; my hair never dried up or fell out, and has still maintained its luster and curls the shade of coal despite my death. My skin hasnât fallen away or rotted either, though I am a few shades lighter than the sun-kissed bronze I once was, I am now the color of cream, though not ashen. My biggest fear at becoming a zombie was losing my eyes. Madam Zumir had warned me that thirty percent of zombified mortals grow milky cataracts that cover their eyes, but mine have held their cobalt hue, and I have not lost any vision. I am new recruit to my mistressâs menagerie of undead whores, but my life as the living had been predestined for years.
I had been given to Madam Zumir at the age of fourteen because my mother could not pay a debt to the Madam. Something about a beauty ritual, and a youth sacrament that my mother took, without being able to pay, and I was the repossessed prize. I was basically an annexed granddaughter to the Madam, she treated me well, fed me, and sent me to school, after a short while I barely missed living with my mother. On my eighteenth birthday, just so I was legal, I was created anew as a zombie, and my grandmotherly Madam Zumir became my employer as I joined the ranks of her other âbrides of death,â my colleagues, among the zombie-prostitute brothel that she ran thirty miles south of town.
Do you wonder what it was like, becoming a zombie? Especially one as well kept and able minded as myself? It takes a master of necromancy and a mistress of voodoo in one vessel. Madam Zumir, grandmotherly as she may look, was brought up with the religion of vodoun and was instructed as a young adult in the mathematical magic of necromancy. Needless to say, as a voodoo priestess, she knew what she was doing, and was feared as much as she was admired, you didnât fuck with the Madam. So on my eighteenth birthday she bid me to dress in a gown she pulled from a dark oak chest from her living room. It wasnât really in style, a deep crimson, but it fit like it was tailored to my lithe form.
âThe dress has power,â the Madam explained to me as I dressed. âIt will ensure your beauty and the strength of your flesh so that you will not rot once you lay within the grave.â She pulled a seemingly ancient cameo choker from a polished wooden box. The cameo looked like ivory, or bone and had my likeness carved upon it, or at least it looked like me, like any girl with longish curly hair. It hung upon a black velvet cord and Madam Zumir tied it tight around my neck, to bind me to herself, she said.
Once I was dressed Zumir ordered me to lie in a coffin. Seriously, she had this coffin set up on cinderblock and she ordered me to lie inside. Not one to balk at directions I laid myself down, and folded my hands over my chest, my skin had contacted gooseflesh, and my nipples had tightened and perked from being placed in a casket. There was a mix of fear and thrill that aroused me slightly as I lay there pressed against the stiff satin of the coffin and watched as Madam Zumir lit candles around the room, murmuring in a whispers words that were not English. As she spoke the flames on the candles seemed to flare up and throw the room into almost day-bright color. Her skin, which before was merely a dull matte brown was highlighted by the candle light and showed patched of gold and of molasses, her eyes were bright with power, and for a moment I was afraid.
âYou will be fine, my dear.â Madam Zumir said, sensing my duress. âYou may close your eyes if you wish.â And I did. I could still see the brightness of the candles from behind my eyelids, and could hear the Madam bustling about, but for as far as I was concerned; I was just lying in bed. The heat of the dozens of candles seemed to be heating the room; my skin was feeling warm, nearly feverish, I was afraid I would perspire in the antique dress. The warmth spread through me, but gathered in my erogenous zones, my breasts felt hot against the cool dress, and the heat between my legs made me worry about staining the dress with liquids other than sweat. The smell of rosemary filled my nostrils, and I opened my eyes to see the Madam sprinkling the herb over my body. I watched her pick up three smooth stones, and weigh them in her hand before adding a fourth, and larger stone.
âOpen your mouth.â She ordered, and when I opened my mouth she placed the stones inside so that they bulged out my cheeks. I figured I looked like a squirrel with too many acorns stuffed in my mouth. Madam Zurin then took a pinch of beige powder and mixed it with another powder that was a brackish brown; I think it was dried blood. She held the palmâs worth of the powder clasped over my nose, to my credit I did try to fight her. I twisted in the coffin, and tried to expel the stones from my mouth in order to pull in non-polluted air, but her powder-filled hand was clamped over my face, and I was unable to breathe, save through my nostrils.
I tried to hold my breath, but my body betrayed me, and I inhaled the powder that Madam Zurin held for me.
The concoction had no taste, which surprised me, but it was strong, and made my eyes tear up. I had never done cocaine, but I figured the burning and tingling that suffused my nostrils and spread throughout my face and neck was akin to the sensation. It took a few moments for me to realize why my eyes were tearing up, because I could not blink; I had lost control over my body, and could not move my neck or face. The tingling was settling into a numb feeling, and I could feel it spreading over the rest of my body like an icy wave, and soon I could not move any part of my body, and even my chest stopped moving, stopped puling in oxygen. Panic filled me as I fought to breathe, my head raced and psychosomatically I felt I was choking, which was silly, since I didnât have the control over my body in able to choke.
âVery good, Germain. Good girl. Now, the worst part is coming up. Right now you are only paralyzed, you must spend time with the dead in order to attain your full capacity.â Madam Zumir said as she packed the coffin, my coffin with salt and the leaves of herbs that I could still smell. She pricked the skin of my arm with a long needle, and I tried to flinch, only that I could not move, only feel the silver prick of sensation. I could feel a drop of blood form on my arm and spill down the side of my arm towards the inside of my elbow, the blood made me itch. The Madam caught up a bit of my blood with a white rag and put the whole cloth into a jar that she set on a shelve next to other nondescript jars. I felt as if I was only one of many touched, pulled, and paralyzed by the Madamâs power. If I could have moved, I would have shook with fear, or perhaps I wouldnât have since my emotions were slowing falling into a blend of mild curiosity and apathy. And then the Madam closed the casket over me, shutting out light, shutting out day, shutting out my life as a mortal.