Ms. Anna Johnson had been found by a student outside the university campus center. There were no signs of assault aside from the two puncture wounds on the left side of her neck. Police were investigating, but since Anna’s business had plagued the department for five years, they weren’t overly concerned by her demise.

It was a shame, really, Karen thought. Such a pretty young thing, make a couple bad choices, and you wind up with no one really caring what happens to you except for a few customers and a mortician’s assistant.

Karen was sifting through her makeup bag when she felt it. She wasn’t alone. After twenty years, the bodies never had that affect on her. It was after 11:00pm; Oscar had left an hour earlier. Normally Karen would have been gone, too, except with her appointment the next day, she wouldn’t be able to make the girl up before her viewing.

She shrugged it off. Just a long day. In all likelihood, she should have taken the day off, but she had felt fine, so why lose the pay?

While she had been driving to work, Karen’s vision had started to get blurry. She was safely in the parking lot of Farnsworth Funeral Home before it got too bad. The last thing she needed was to get a migraine. In taking her glasses off, she realized that while she couldn’t see perfectly without the glasses, she could see better with them off than on. Karen had worn glasses since the age of eight. By eighteen she could maybe see up to six inches without them. And now, well, she could almost make out the license plate twenty feet away. Whatever the cause, it was cheaper than getting Lasiks. As the day went on, her sight only improved.

Grabbing the colors she wanted, Karen turned around to see Ms. Anna Johnson sitting up and looking around. In twenty years, Karen had only seen one body sit up, but that body hadn’t been looking around. Only rigor mortis setting in. But Anna had been dead for a little over two days and she was now looking right at Karen with what could only be described as hunger.

“Who knew he cared enough?” the woman stood up.

“W-who?” She was talking to the now walking corpse? Why was she talking to it? And not running or waking herself up?

“Ronald, my pimp. Didn’t think he would have mourned more than the loss of income,” Anna stalked closer. “And aren’t you a sweet one, making me look all pretty. All alone, just us girls. Kind of nice not having to work for my food.”

And at that the woman’s face contorted into pronounced ridges. Her smile, at one time teasing, now turned feral with sharpened canines. Dreaming. She was dreaming. But when the woman lunged, knocking Karen to the floor, she knew she wasn’t dreaming.

Without thinking, Karen flipped the woman off of her and sprang to her feet. Anna lunged again, but Karen ducked and knocked the other woman off her feet. Then Karen did the one thing she should have done all along. She ran.

Karen was at the door when she realized that she needed the keys to get out, and the keys were back in the workroom with Anna. A small tingling told Karen that Anna was nearby again. She ducked into the draperied cry room just in time to avoid being spotted.

“You can run,” Anna called out, pausing to sniff, “but you really can’t hide.”

Picking up a chair, Karen edged into the corner. As if the day hadn’t been strange and eventful enough. More had happened in the last twelve hours than in the past two decades. Heart attack, improved vision, now she was being attacked by . . . by . . . a demonic prostitute? Why was she really not that surprised?

“Come out, come out wherever you are?” Anna sing-songed.

Karen felt the tingling increase as the woman stalked closer.

Anna ducked her head in and was greeted by a wooden folding chair. Stunned, she fell to the ground. Karen waited, poking the girl with her toe; she didn’t get any movement. So, taking the chance, she began to make her way around the body. A moment later, she was facedown on the shag carpeting.

“You’re a smart one, I’ll give you that. But we knew I’d win this one in the end. Beauty over age and all,” Anna hissed. She rolled Karen to face her. “Think of it as a privilege. You’re my first meal.”

Just as Anna was about to bite down, Karen’s hand found one of the chair legs and swung into Anna’s back. A second later, Karen was alone in a pile of dust. Then she did the only thing she could do. She fainted.