Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 277: Can I Help You?

Chang Xuefeng’s head snapped up just as the house deposited the gargoyle in the moat as per Hattie’s words. Each of the Sins and the hound stood still, every nerve ending on alert as if they were surrounded by a danger that they just couldn’t see.

"Get Hattie inside," grunted Chang Xuefeng, looking over his shoulder at the hellhound. "Make sure she doesn’t come out until we know it’s safe."

Tank nodded his head and went to take Hattie from the Grim Reaper’s arms. However, she refused to move. "What’s going on?" she asked, her head tilted to the side as if confused.

Couldn’t she feel the difference in the very air around them? Usually, she was the first one to tell when something wasn’t right, and yet, now, she was acting like it was nothing.

Something old, ancient was walking the Earth, and whatever, whoever it was, it was bringing death and destruction with them.

"You can’t feel it? Just now? The promise of death?" murmured Luca, his eyes scanning the scenery in front of them. The house was now firmly planted in the Earth realm, but luckily, they could move it if they needed to.

"No," replied Hattie with a shrug. "In fact, what I feel is completely different."

"Different?" muttered Dimitri, a knife in both of his hands. "How?"

"Safe," she answered, her brows furrowing in confusion as she tried to identify the feeling. "Loved, protected, accepted. Everything that I feel when you guys are around... but not the same."

"Well, now, Cher," purred Ronan, taking Hattie away from Tank and into his arms. "Dat’s about as clear as mud."

"Well, I don’t know how to describe it. But whatever you are feeling, you don’t need to worry. Whoever is now in my backyard just wants to have fun. Leave them alone, and everything will be fine."

"And just want ’appens when de creature don’t want ta leave us alone?" asked Désiré, the smile on his face completely gone as he stood beside Luca, staring out into the world. It was almost as if, if they stared hard enough, the ancient would just appear in front of them.

"Then we’ll kill it," said Hattie. "You are the most important people in the world. Everyone else is expendable."

And just like that, Hattie rolled her eyes and looked up at Ronan. "I’m ready for that nap now, if you are."

"Cher," purred Ronan, turning around and walking away from the front entrance and the dangers lurking in the outside world. "Imma always ready for a nap."

-----

Lilith looked up from where she was sitting. This world was nothing but shit, and she hated it more than anything else. However, ever since Hell was destroyed, there was no other place for her to go.

She had been kicked out of the garden, rejected by Adam and by the Creator. She, herself, helped to destroy Hell, and all that left was Earth.

Luckily for her, she had a male body that she could slip into whenever the need arose. And the look of anguish on the Devil’s face every time she saw that body was nothing short of a thing of beauty.

Looking at the body of Père, Lilith smiled, completely forgetting about what had startled her out of her thoughts in the first place. She needed to pay Lucifer a little visit, and since Lilith didn’t terrify her, she would become Père.

That way she could taste the sweet fear of someone who was fear itself.

----

It took the man only a matter of steps before he crossed the vast distance from where he started to the source of the chaos calling him.

He tilted his head to the side as he studied the house in front of him. It looked like it belonged here, and yet, he could feel the tethers it had to other realms. It was like it was both here and not here at the same time.

Organized chaos... and it was perfection.

The moment he stepped on the bridge connecting the road to the house, he could feel a pair of eyes on him as if they were trying to figure out his purpose for coming.

"I mean no harm," announced the man, his voice hoarse from disuse. "I just need to find something that belongs to me."

There was no sound coming from the surroundings, but the man could no longer feel the eyes on him. That must have meant that he passed the first test.

Interesting. How interesting.

Only a few more steps and he was standing in front of a bright red door. The contrast of the door to the rest of the house was startling, but, like everything else he had seen so far, he was absolutely enamored by it.

"Perfection," he sighed just as he raised his hand to knock on the door. This house called to him even more than the Void had. It gave him peace and yet excitement all at the same time, and the man was practically vibrating as he thought about what he might find on the other side.

Was his chaos confined into an object? Did the owner of the house understand what they were holding, or did they not have a clue? Just how was he going to get that piece of himself back? Killing the owner?

That was always a possibility, but no matter what happened next, his chaos was coming home with him. The owner of the house would just have to live with it.

Or not.

He was nothing if not adaptable.

Raising his hands, he let his knuckles hit the wooden door a few times, completely ignoring the knocker in the center.

Even just touching the house calmed the restless energy inside of him.

It seemed to take forever, but was probably a matter of seconds before the door opened and the man was looking down at the most beautiful child he had ever seen.

"Can I help you?" asked the little girl. "Are you here to make a wish?"