Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 483: Mother’s Daughter

The next time I woke up, it was to my bladder screaming for mercy, and my stomach making demands my mouth didn’t mind filling.

Sliding out from under Luca, I quickly raced to the bathroom before finally making my way downstairs. The quiet was something new. With so many people in a single house, it was almost guaranteed to be loud. However, there didn’t seem to be anyone around at the moment, and I couldn’t figure out if I was happy about that or upset.

Walking into the kitchen, I stopped suddenly as Papa Khoas turned around and looked at me.

He was humming as he wiped down the bloodied counter with a bar towel, like it was any other morning. His black shirt was rolled to the elbows, streaked with something that looked suspiciously fresh. And on the table, sitting front and center next to the fruit bowl, was a face that I wasn’t expecting.

Given the fact that it was still dripping, I was going to assume that this was a fresh offering.

"Is that...?"

"Your stepbrother?" Papa offered without turning. "Yes. Still warm, too. The soul hasn’t slipped out yet."

I blinked. "That... happens?"

"Oh yes," he said cheerfully, drying his hands. "It usually tries to cling to the meat if it doesn’t know where to go. Confused little things when they die...especially when they don’t see it coming. I saved it for Xuefeng. Thought he might like a snack."

"A snack," I repeated, deadpan as I stared into the fear filled eyes of Shit Stain Number Two. Seeing it, my mind immediately slipped back to the pocket realm I had created for his brother.

"I mean, he is Death. Let him eat what the living can’t," shrugged Papa Khaos like it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I stared at him for a long moment, then sat in one of the chairs across from the head. The eyes moved as they focused on me. The mouth opened and closed like he was trying to form a sentence, but I ignored him.

Even the skin around the neck had been torn, not cut. I could only imagine what Papa Khaos had done to the Shit Stain to warrant that much fear, even when dead.

I didn’t feel anything.

Not guilt. Not sadness. Just a dull flicker of finished. Like a checkmark on a list I’d carried too long.

"Thank you," I said, smiling at the man on the other side of the island. "That was... sweet of you."

Papa Khaos beamed. "I’m trying this whole ’involved father’ thing. Isn’t it delightful? I might not have known about you before, but I am bound and determined to make up for lost time."

He slid a coffee toward me—black, sweet, and milky, just how I liked it. The mug said World’s Okayest Dad in gold script, which made me blink twice. I took a sip, ignoring the Shit Stain’s silent stare. Maybe I should’ve burned the head. But if Daddy needed the soul inside, who was I to argue?

The house creaked, shifting around us.

The head didn’t blink.

"I need to get out of the house," I said finally, standing up. "Just for a walk. I’m hoping it would help clear my head."

"I’ll walk with you," Papa said instantly. "You shouldn’t be alone with this much power in your chest. You shine, little one. The kind of shine that calls predators from across timelines."

"Comforting," I muttered, looking down at my chest. I expected to see what Papa saw, but all I noticed was my black and white dress.

Holding out his hand, Papa looked at me with a soft smile. "Sometimes, a change of scenery is needed to be able to see things that we normally wouldn’t be able to."

Nodding my head, I took his hand and together, we stepped out the front door. Expecting to see the moat, the bridge, and Tink, I stumbled to a halt as I saw the world in front of us.

Instead of the well-worn path or the moat, or even the familiar warped landscape of the Devil’s Playground, there was... something else.

Ruins.

Blinking, it took me much longer than it should have to realize exactly where we were.

The once-luxurious beach resort we’d visited—crystal waters, lazy zombie waiters, towering palms—was gone. In its place stood a shell of crumbled stone and skeletal lounge chairs half-swallowed by vines. The pool was cracked open like a broken jaw, moss spilling out of its edges. Jungle birds shrieked overhead. Everything smelled too green.

The air was too thick. Wet. Alive.

"Did you wish us here?" Papa asked curiously, sniffing the air like he was catching up on old gossip. frёewebηovel.cѳm

"I," I started, looking around. I needed a break, so the vacation resort might have been an unknown wish, but this was not what I remembered. "I thought I did."

Something had twisted my resort. Change what was familiar to me, leaving me with nothing.

What surrounded us wasn’t a resort. It was a jungle. A dense, wild tangle that hadn’t just grown here, but taken root in the bones of something else. The kind of green that felt older than time. Hungrier than hunger.

As I stepped forward, I could hear insects chirping from the shadows, deeper and louder than normal. The trees loomed above us like ancient watchers, bark slick with moisture, vines winding like veins around long-dead statues of pleasure and peace.

And then... a roar.

Low. Distant. And definitely not a lion.

The ground shuddered once beneath our feet.

"I hate when wishes mutate," I muttered.

Papa Khaos grinned. "This place remembers your scent. I think it missed you."

Of course it did.

I turned slowly as the brush behind us trembled. Not violently. Just a soft rustling—like breath through a predator’s teeth. The trees were too still in the sudden hush. The kind of stillness that meant something was listening.

Something big.

Not yet attacking.

Just... waiting for me to make the first move.

My skin crawled.

"Change of plans," I said, backing up. "We’re walking the other way."

Papa laughed, looping his arm through mine like this was a Sunday stroll. "Oh, Sweetie. You truly are your mother’s daughter."