Maya was like a deer in the headlights of an approaching car—although this was not a car. It was her old friend, the undead zombie warrior she so dreadfully missed. 

It groaned in greeting and shambled inside Maya’s clean apartment. Muddy and worn leather boots smudged loudly on the stone-tiled floor and closed the door behind it.

With another wild groan, the Draugr straightened its back and towered over Maya. The undead was tall. With its height, it scraped the ceiling with its iron helmet. Tangles over tangles of dry and frizzy black hair cascaded down from its helmet and over his shoulders.

Yellow teeth showed under his rotting beard, ridden with carious and other periodontal diseases. Any strong-willed person would have hurled out their breakfast already.

It trudged closer to Maya, cracking the floor underneath its heavy boots. Maya could barely move from the shock. The Draugr lifted its axe.

Maya screamed.

“Groooooaaaaar!” 

The Draugr hacked its axe at Maya. She dug her head out of the way. Panic gripped her and the mirror behind her shattered into a thousand pieces.

Thankfully, she wore house shoes. Otherwise, she would have gotten a shard lodged in her foot like she did as a child.

“What are you doing at my home!?” Maya exclaimed in outrage at having her apartment demolished. The Draugr turned its head at Maya. Just its freakish and fouling head.

What Maya didn’t expect next was hearing it talk.

“Where’s. The Armament. Of. Power?” The voice was deep, and strained, almost as if you put wood and glass pearls through the blender. But the voice was far more sinister than any exploding blender could manage.

Backed into a corner of her corridor, Maya had only two ways to run. 

First was the kitchen, which meant diving underneath the axe, which was not something she was looking forward to. 

And the second option: her bathroom. 

“Where?” Rumbled the undead. A rotten tooth fell from its mouth.

Maya chose the latter. She dove inside her bathroom and locked the frosted glass door behind her. She leaned against it for a breather, mentally steadying herself. 

Wait a sec. The gears in Maya’s brain turned. I have a glass door… and that thing has a—

Maya jumped out of the way right before the axe could split her head in half. The door shattered, sparkling her and the bathroom with shards. She scrubbed her hand and knee on the floor. 

“Cursed— argh! OH, that hurt!” Maya cried out and bit her lip. “I told my parents replacing the hardwood doors with glass doors was a horrible idea. Doesn’t matter how much natural light it provides.” 

Maya had seconds before the Draugr would burst through the door entirely. She hid in the second section of the bathroom and closed the second glass door she had in there—that one, on the other hand, was on her. 

She liked the extra light in her bathroom. 

“Think, Maya, think.” Maya tapped her forehead with her fist. “I'm stuck on the second floor with a rotting undead after me! No problem, nooooo.”

Her eyes darted to her window. She looked three stories down. “I could jump out of the window and hope I don’t break my leg… again—” 

Maya shrieked when she heard more glass shattering. The Draugr was almost through but tried to open the rest with the handle. Thank goodness its brains are as rotten as its body.

Backing away, Maya opened the window. She gulped. “There’s no way I can make it without breaking my leg… I wish Val were here.”

Maya paced around. The Draugr almost figured out how a door works. She then remembered the old, unwashed sheets she put away in the cabin beside her. 

Immediately, she raided the cabin and tied the sheets into an impromptu rope, almost dropping it when the Draugr’s startled her with its rumbling. 

She clutched onto the rope for dear life as she carefully roped herself down right before the Draugr barrelled through the second door. 

Thank you, brother, for dragging me into all our shenanigans. Maya reminisced fondly about the countless times they had snuck out of the house and taught her all the required skills. 

Until Maya noticed a tug.

The Draugr was pulling on the rope of bedsheets. 

Maya had only two viable options left, again. A) face the Draugr and die, or B) jump and maybe not die. 

Neither was great, but Maya was almost down anyway—and she doubtlessly didn’t want to face the Draugr’s noxious breath. 

“Not like I’ll break my leg like last time,” she muttered under her breath and let go.