“You are many people and many souls. You are bound by the bodies that have been assembled for you. There is no changing this. You must accept what you are . . . as I have.”

Randy stuttered and stammered before finally collecting himself enough to speak. “You . . . you’re like us?”

The ghoul nodded. “In a sense. I too used to be mortal, but then I died. Though my soul departed, I remained. Now I am undead. What happened to all of you was brought on by the magic of a conjurer, and now you too are undead. Trust me when I tell you . . . being dead is not at all a bad thing to be.”

He spoke in such a confident manner, oddly poetic in a scary sort of way. His voice was soothing, gently guiding the zombie youth to the realization that although they were created from evil they did not have to follow its twisted course. That was the great lie to which too many monsters, past and present, had fallen prey.

They were quickly convinced, maybe because they were made that way, maybe because we offered them an alternative future. I wasn’t about to question it, though. I’d expected much worse.

I was still uneasy, but Mo’Lock assured me they were okay now, so I reluctantly loosened their bindings. Sure enough, they’d been defanged.

Randy introduced the others. Blondie was Scott, and the girl was Miriam. I shook each of their hands as they apologized for trying to kill me.

“Don’t sweat it,” I said. This whole situation was fucking surreal. I grabbed the bottle from my desk and took several large mouthfuls until it was empty. I hadn’t eaten, so I felt instantly buzzed.

Twenty minutes passed without anyone saying a word. Mo’Lock and I realized the poor kids had spent so long tracking me down that they had no other experience whatsoever. The three of them sat there, free of the ropes, but with no reason to stand and nowhere to go.

“What do we do now?” Randy said.

Maybe it was only a drunken brainstorm, but I had an idea. I weaved out of the room and came back a minute later with the Yellow Pages. I tore a page out and handed it to Randy. He was confused at first, but a smile soon grew across his lips.

“What do you think?” I asked.

He showed Scott and Miriam the page. They all smiled.

Miriam looked at me. “That would be fun. Do you think we can?”

“I think you’d be perfect.”

The beautiful voodoo teens were absolutely giddy. Mo’Lock was confused.

“Mo’Lock, how much cash do you have?”

He shrugged. “Couple hundred.”

“Can you get these guys set up someplace? One of your ghoul flophouses or something?”

Everybody was happy. Mo’Lock agreed to leave with the trio and find them a place to crash, but after ushering the group out the door he popped his head back inside as I was taking a seat at the desk.