An odd fellow stands at the door, very energetic and wearing a red bow-tie.
"Ha! I knew the 8 setting on the sonic screwdriver would do the trick." He turns to look at me. "Hello good chap, a bit of a mess here but dont worry all is right as rain." Looking at Eduardo, "My your friend looks a little worse for wear but that's what those nasty curses do. He should be all okay in a few days. And as for everyone else with a little timey whimy spacey wacy jiggery pokery they will think it all just an odd dream."

I think to myself what a strange fellow...

I close my eyes.
When i open them again the green light is still outside the window.
But the room has changed significantly.

Everything is coloured white. And there are two persons close to the window.
When my sight gets clearer i recognise the faces.

Its Eduaro and Jessica!

They are looking at me with worried faces. I can ´t belive it.
Now i realise that i am in a hospital room.
My head aches like back in that metrowagon....

My aching head starts to swim. With a shaking voice i ask them what had happend.

They tell me that the long painting session with them i wanted to finish my latest project. And as i had done the final brushstroke i stood up, grabbed the miniature and danced around the room with it cradled in my hands.
As i handed it over to Jessica to show it to her i stepped back and tripped over my miniature-box.
I hit the corner of Eduardo painting desk with the backside of my head. I spilled the brushwater all over the place.

I had hit my head so hard that i was knocked unconscious. Because there was lots of blood as well, Jessica called 911 for help.

I can´t belive it, it was all a bad, a really bad dream?
Then i remember about the things we talked while painting.
Eduardo talked about the zombiegame he had put on his christmaswishlist, and how eager he is to paint those models.
Jessica told that she bought the "die hard" collectors box for her dad. And we all had fun recollection the story of John McClane.

Then a Doc entered the room, he did some checks and told my that my friends haven´t been away the last day for a second.
Eduardo even canceled his flight to Italy to be with his family and Jessica called her mom that she wont come with them to the alps to spend christmas in the snow.
He said that i can feel proud to some friends like that.

Finally he said that everything is fine. They had sewn a big gash at the back of my head and that there is no further damage done.

He told me that i may go home tomorow. "So you can enjoy christmas eve" he added.

I wanted to spend it like in the last couple of years.
At home, eating wieners and bread, drink a few beers and watch a movie... alone.

But i changed my mind instantly, and invited Eduardo and Jessica to my place. To celebrate together.

They gladly accepted and promised to pick me up tomorow when i´am allowed to leave the hospital.

- A: for disenchanted people
- B: for happy-ever-after people

A)
…Everything fades to green and then two silhouettes appear in front of you. After adapting your eyes to the light, you recognize a big tall man and a woman, mighty bodies, sculpted in granite. They are dressed with opulence, sign of times forgotten long ago. They both look at you and start smiling, revealing two spiky canines that show between their lips. Suddenly the woman start speaking to you: “Thank you for completing the ritual dumb unaware puppet. Finally we live again!” The two figures started laughing loudly, mocking me.
The King opened his mouth and the most powerful and deep voice came out: “Now live, scum, and witness all the ravage you brought in your world”. The two figures turn and leave you on your knees, understanding your terrible mistake and a desperate cry come out of your mouth: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!”


B)
…Everything fades to green and then you pass out.
You wake up with a jump, shocked, looking around you. What??!! You find yourself in the metro. Every people around you look at you alarmed, probably you look quite freak out. You are exactly where the entire apocalypse started, but this time the metro is moving as usual and the coach is crowded as normal. Is it possible that you dreamed everything? Was it all just a bad joke of your sic mind? You can’t believe it. It was so real, so vivid. You are really confused and need to find prove that you are right or wrong.
Metro approaches to the station, you decide to get off and take the next one to reach Eduardo’s house. You need to see him, if he remembers something, to look at the magic book, to seek answers. On the way to Eduardo, the world is like every other day before the zombies appeared to. Even if this makes you happy, in some ways you have a wrong feeling. Are you going mad? That was insane, you can’t manage to act like if nothing happened.
Finally you reach Eduardo and ring the doorbell. Your friend appears at the door and invites you in, with a hand gesture. Good! This calms you a little. He is save and smiles at you. You rush in the house and, without loosing any second, you start telling him the entire story. Eduardo seems confused, and after a while he stops you: “Bro, wow, slovh dovhn! I can’t follovh you”. Eh? He is speaking strange, so you ask him what does his mouth have. He tells you that he hurt his tongue, probably he have bitten it during the sleep. That’s strange! Seems that you really tear off a piece of it, that wasn’t a dream…or can this be just a coincidence? No, you can’t believe it. If it was all real, why the world seems to remember nothing? You keep all this thinking for yourself; no one will believe such a crazy story. What about all the dead? The ruins? The survivors? What about the queen? You have to read the book again, maybe there is something written there.
You run in the living room and start searching for the book. It’s there, exactly where you remember. You start reading carefully the ritual, and you focus your attention especially in the “undo” part. Nothing strange, you did exactly as it was said but, wait a second…there’s a little note on the bottom of the page. You look hard and manage to read: “Be careful! Who perform the ritual, will carry the burden of the Queen of the Damned, becoming the sarcophagus of her soul”
Oh f**k! You rise your look and see your face reflected in the mirror…a green glow sparkling in your eyes.

I am still scarde the bright green light could blind me, but I am curious what happens outside.

I am going outside through the front door. Outside you hear a quit scream. You look around and there you see a green light in the shape of a woman, which is slowly rotating. I take a closer look and see that the green light woman is screaming with its mouth unnatural wide open. I can the some fangs in here mouth. The Zombies are walking slowly towards the green glowing shape. As they come closer to the shape they start glowing in the same green light and becoming slowly transparent and finaly vanish into thin air.

every time a zombie disapears you can hear one quit scream.

as you watching this spooky scenery some flying spots of green light start flying off the shaped light. the light spots flying in ramdom direktions. some fly into buildings and disapear with a green flash. suddenly one of the green light spots is flying direktly to me. it hits me and its explodes with a green flash. that sends me flying some meters back. I sit back up, and a person is lying where the light explodet. a real living person.

Then I begin to understand: The flying lightspots are the zombies that walking into the light. Somehow the light is turning them back into humans.

I am looking back to the rotating green light woman, this must be the queen of the underworld, the queen suddenly looks at me and I hear one more of those quiet screams and then a green flash hits me, and i fall back and its becomes black around me. The last thing I hear are the whispert words of a female voice: "I take you with me...." Then I loose consciousness.

Suddenly I wake up. I am lying on a sofa. I look slowly around, I recognize the room, its Eduardos living room. Sunlight is coming through the windows. I sit up on the sofa. I can hear voices from the room next door. I slowly stand up and walk towards the voices.

There I see Eduardo and Jessica talking to each other. They see me. They begin to smile.

"Haf 'uo ffinfy wakedff upff" Eduardo says. I have a hard time understanding him. Then I see: his tung is injured. Jessica hugs me and says "Good to see you awake."

Then she looks at me and asks: "Do you know what happend? We found you lying on the street. Something must have happend. But the last thing I and Eduardo remember is you leaving to go home"

They cant remember the zombies, I look at Eduardo. He has a wondering look at his face.

I grab a chair and say "Thats a long story...."

As I slowly open my eyes I catch the scent of dried pine needles and see a tiny green christmas light that flickers in logical fashion according to the programming some incredibly bright fellow coded into the chipset controller. My head is nestled between a shoebox sized bright blue foil package wrapped with a blood red bow and my hobby kitbox. I taste blood on my bottom lip and it feels as if I have bitten my own tongue. Slowly Eduardo comes into focus just a few feet away. He has a look of concern on his face, which mirrors Jessica's knowing smile as she wipes the blood off my lip with a damp paper towel. "You took quite a spill hon." she whispers. "Wa, what happened?" I manage to croak, my head spinning. "You turned your ankle on one of these", (she holds up a cracked rounded plinth that I seem to recall having received in the mail the previous day), "then you fell, and cracked your head on your hobby kit right here." Around the room are my other friends, all holding their gifts for our exchange. I start to sit up and feel a book slide off my chest, as it falls, it opens to a familiar page.