Josh looked over to the girl after she cleared her throat. She had a whole new look to her. It wasn't fear, it was more like shock. Like you've seen a ghost that you met once before.

Did she know him?

He nodded, hesitantly, to what she said. He was gonna live here? That's awful nice of her, but...why?

"So...I am dead. Well- was. That makes a lot of sense, actually. "

Jesus christ, he's a literal zombie. He dug out of his own grave and everything. He frowned at the fact that no one had made a gravestone for himself, but he understood. Nobody really cared enough to give a murderous psychopath a proper tribute.

"Uh, yeah i guess i am. "

He shrugged, twisting the wedding ring around his finger anxiously. He wasn't really focused on his hunger, the adrenaline pumping through him from the panic of being buried alive kinda overrided everything else. He was still kind of panicked now, too. He was around all this foreign technology, with a woman he didn't know threating to beat him with a bat, in a house he's never been in, and he just found out he's not even supposed to be breathing right now. So it was prime conditions for an existential crisis.

"How do you know who i am?"

He was cautious about bombarding her with questions, but he needed something to jog his memory, something to stimulate his decayed brain.

She couldn't believe it. Did he not know? Of course not he's been dead for fifty years, much longer than she's ever been around. The twenty one year old knew about the guy since she was seven. You could say she admired the guy a little bit. Not a lot, but she did. Ken absolutely didn't have any respect for him though. Who would have respect for such a person?

Kennedi cracked her neck a few times before scoffing. She went to the top of the refridgerator to get some cereal for him, but she couldn't reach it. She grabbed a stool and took the cereal down, placing the stool back into it's original place. "Everyone knows who you are, silly. You blew up on tv as soon as you died. Everyone's been making documentaries on your life and everything, pretty interesting, my guy." She chuckled and poured him a bowl.

Handing the bowl to him, she walked over to her seat but stopped. The floor. Her god dang floor. THERE WAS WATER EVERYWHERE. "Hey, uh, please- please get in the shower. You smell like death," Ken sounded a little frantic but kept her cool. "Once you get done with that, I'll give you a towel and show you how the shower works." She said and figeted with her baggy pajamas.

She couldn't believe she was giving a zombie serial killer god damn hospitality. She just wondered why he hasn't killed her yet.

Josh narrowed his eyes in confusion. People made documentaries on him?

Why?

He knew he was nationally known, but he didn't think what he did was that special. His life was just trainwreck after trainwreck. He didn't have much of his memories intact, but there was still a lot that would probably never leave him. Even just thinking about that minority of memories makes him want to die again.

Wait, how long has he even been dead?

Josh took the bowl, saying a quiet 'thank you' and staring down at it blankly. She was gonna let him take a shower here? Why was she being so nice to him?

He nodded nonetheless, and picked up the spoon and started eating. It was weird. He could literally feel the food hit his stomach, that's how empty he'd been. Was cereal always this sweet?

"Um- what...what's the date today?"

He looked up to the girl as he took another bite of cereal, practically inhaling it. Man, guess he was hungry.

***

Ken couldn't help but smile when he was scarfing down the cereal. Guess he was really hungry, huh? She'll probably have to cook tomorrow, but she didn't really have anything. She'll have to go to the store tomorrow. But what about him? She couldn't leave him alone by himself? Her smile disappeared just as soon as it came.

"May twenty ninth, twenty twenty."

She put her plate in the sink and stretched for a little bit. The whole situation was starting to take a toll on her joints, which was never good. She swore she was getting older and older as the days go by. She was only in her twenties anyway.

Ken went into her linen closet and brought out towels for him. She held onto them for a while before waiting for him to finish, which wasn't very long. She motioned for him to follow her and she cleared her throat. The bathroom itself was very complicated, so she could understand if he'd have a breakdown just trying to piece everything together. Hey, this shower was good for having breakdowns, huh?

"Ight so technically the shower head has multiple modes. There's this knob right below it, and you move it to whichever direction you'd like. It's also detachable so you can wash all angles of yourself. Now, the knobs to turn the hot and cold water on don't have the symbols on them, so you gotta turn it left to right. Which is normally hot to cold, if you're lucky- And if you break my diamond knobs or glass shower door, I'll break your spine."

She glared at him before going back to an unsettling smile. "Any questions?" She crossed her arms and glanced up at him.

Josh choked on the cereal he was finishing. 2020? Jesus christ, he's been dead for t h a t long? And he's still relevant to people? It would explain how foreign most of the technology was in this house.

His brain will probably never wrap around this, at least for now. He's been practically frozen in time for decades, and now he's just suddenly thrown into an entirely different decade. The mental breakdown and realization will probably hit him later on.

Josh just set the bowl down on the nearest surface to him when he was finished, unsure of what to do with it. He hesitantly followed after the girl motioned for him to, still looking around curiously, now with the knowledge that this is what 2020 looks like. It's not exactly what he expected, maybe people in the 70s were too hopeful in the advancements humans would make in that time. But who knows, maybe they invested their technology in something else.

The bathroom itself wasn't very foreign to him, it was just everything else that was in it.

He listened and tried to take in as much as he could as she explained how everything worked, eyebrows furrowed in thought as the rusty cogs in his head tried to turn.

Josh turned to her, and shook his head kind of uncertainly. He was pretty sure he got most of that down, and even if he did have questions, he probably wouldn't be exactly sure how to ask it.

Ken hesitated for a moment,  before containing that feeling. That feeling you'd normally get when you know someone is shy about something or wants to say something but they don't the right words for it. Guess she just had intuition like that. "Well, if you do have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Cause you probably won't get that chance again." Ken chuckles and sits his towels down.

As she was about to walk away, she forgot to say something. She totally forgot about that. "Oh yeah, I don't really have any clothes you can wear, so for now you can wear my boyfriend's clothes until I buy some," Ken pauses before gesturing to the room down the hall. "That will be your room from now on. The clothes should be on the bed. See you in the morning I guess." She exited the bathroom and made her way upstairs to her own bedroom, flopping on her back.

Ken stared up at the ceiling, thinking over what just happened tonight. A dead man is in her house. Not the first time that's ever happened, but it'll probably be the last.

Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment before snapping open. Her darn cat was laying on her chest. Great. Now she has to worry about  black cat hair all over her clothes. Finally, her eyes started to get heavy, almost as if a weight had been set on them. The blinds were finally closing, and lights out for this one. The rain taps at her window softly, lulling her to sleep. The thunderstorm outside helped too.

Josh nodded at what she said before she left, watching her as she walked out the door. She has a boyfriend. Will he be as calm about this as she is or will he be the one to call the cops on him?

She, why does he just keep calling that woman she? He should've asked for her name. She knows more about josh than even he knows about himself, and he doesn't even know her name.

He sighs softly, and looks back to the shower. He figures out how to get the water going pretty easily and fidgets with the knobs until he gets the temperature right.

He strips of the thin dirty linens he was buried in and washes himself until he couldn't feel dirt in his hair anymore and the water running into the drain was clear.

As josh stepped out of the shower and dried himself off, he looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was still the black color he had dyed it before he got caught, but he could see that some small chunks were turning grey. Is that normal?

He stared at his eyes too. More specifically the one he couldn't see out of. He ran his fingers over the scar that ran down the left half of his face, accross his eye, scar tissue and nerve damage rendering it useless.

It provoked a certain anxiety in him that ran so deep and felt so familiar it felt like an instinct. No matter how much his brain rots away, the damage she left with him still stays.

Josh stood up straight and walked down the hall to the spare bedroom, seeing that there were indeed clothes on the bed. Hopefully they'd fit.

He carefully put everything that she laid out on, not wanting to stretch or ruin anything. Surprisingly, they fit pretty okay. He's never seen or felt some of these materials though, it was weird. He'd probably have to get used to it though.

Josh folded up his towel with his clothes and laid down on the bed, covering his face with his palms and sighed. He closed his eyes and tried to not let his mind wander to worrying topics so he could get some sleep.

Sweet dreams, ken and josh.