The sound of the wind

"I did warn him. If he goes back to get himself killed, there's nothing I can do." Neph watched Priest Jess walk into the church, shook her head, and turned away.

She entered the Green Lemon Restaurant, one of the main settings for tonight's events. Neph looked around. Donna's family from the story was actually rather hard to identify.

Neph soon gave up and turned her attention to the blood curd in front of her.

It's not raw blood after all. Sitting by a window on the restaurant's second floor, Neph put a bite into her mouth, unsure whether she felt disappointed or satisfied.

Scrape! A chair screeched across the floor. Neph turned to see a girl of fourteen or fifteen stagger to her feet in terror. Pointing outside the window, she stammered in a slightly shrill voice:

"A-a Zombie!

"A headless Zombie!"

A woman dressed as a bodyguard sprang up and reached the girl's side in two strides, looking out into the howling wind in puzzlement.

She studied the view carefully for several seconds.

"There's nothing there," she said truthfully.

"Donna?" Neph called.

The girl, still standing, instinctively turned toward her. The other members of the family looked over as well. Neph blinked and smiled at the girl.

"Zombies don't look like that."

"But, but..." Fear still lingered in Donna's eyes, and she kept glancing toward the window.

"Pretty frightening, wasn't it?" Neph sighed.

Donna nodded vigorously, momentarily forgetting to ask who Neph was.

The others assumed Neph and Donna knew each other. Donna's father, Uldi Blanch, spoke up:

"You're a friend of Donna's, aren't you? Where's your family?"

"I'm waiting for him." Neph blinked. "I think he should come looking for me soon."

Uldi nodded in understanding.

Just then, Cleves came up to the second floor and approached