Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 493: A House Is Not A Home

493

With purposeful strides, I went into hunting mode. There were things in my house that I didn’t approve of, and there was only one answer for that.

Turning a corner, I found what I was looking for. It stood in the middle of the hallway, hunched and twitching, the creature from the grey realm. Even being pulled into mine, it wasn’t doing so hot. One leg was still dragging, and its arms were still limp at its sides.

However, it wore the shape of the boy again, and I could hear the mother, still in Papa Khaos’ arms, whimper.

However, there was no mistaking exactly what this thing was.

It was an abomination of nature, even by my standards. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Its body flickered like static. The glass button eyes reflected the chandelier light like coins dropped in a well.

"You brought me home," it purred, moving its head like it was looking around its new kingdom. The house, in response, pulsed in agreement, and I could feel the satisfaction come from within the wall.

I guess the house wasn’t kidding when it decided to keep the creature, no matter what.

"I am the wish," it hummed, its vocal cords becoming stronger and stronger the more it spoke.

"No," I replied, not letting the house get a word in. Stepping closer, I stared the creature down. "You’re the disease that got in when my sanctuary stopped asking permission and started doing whatever the fuck it wanted."

It hissed, its response, the skin on its neck split open into a gaping grin. "You don’t get to undo me," it hummed as if it had all the power in the world.

I really hated to break it to him, but when it came to what was mine, I was the final say.

And this entire side of the world was now mine.

"I don’t?" I purred, cocking my head to the side. Taking out a lollypop from my space, I unwrapped it and started to suck on it. "You sure about that?"

The vines around my arms twisted tighter, thorned and angry, like it could sense my displeasure. Everything inside this house was mine, even if the house believed otherwise. For a moment, I wondered what I would keep and what I would toss.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Behind me, ten men, ten gods, stood, their heads held high as they stared the creature down. Human weapons might not work on it, but that didn’t mean they were powerless.

They would make sure that this creature never survived another sunrise.

Papa Khaos snapped his fingers, sending the mother to a place only he knew. "Now that she’s gone," he started, conjuring fire with his fingers like he was stirring tea. "We can really have some fun."

As if knowing that it was its last chance to live, the creature lunged faster than it had before. Its arms split midair, joints snapping apart, limbs doubling as it tried to wrap itself around me.

Tank was already moving, intercepting with a fist like a freight train, slamming the thing into the wall hard enough to splinter the wood beneath it. But instead of crumpling, it melted—bones popping, reshaping—and flowed like tar along the floor, slipping around us.

The house groaned, and doors slammed open. A wind rushed through the hallway, whispering in a thousand voices. "Stop," the house begged. "I demand you stop!"

"You stopped protecting me," I shrugged in response. "So now you get to burn."

With those final words, I slammed my palm against the nearest wall, and the house screamed.

Fire burst through the wallpaper in jagged veins. The chandelier above us shattered. The vines that had once obeyed the house’s will now tore through the walls, twisting, binding, purging.

The creature shrieked—high and chittering. It tried to scuttle up the wall, but Tank pinned it with a dagger of pure shadows, driving the blade through its wrist into the floor.

"You were never welcome," he said calmly. "You weren’t even tolerated."

Beau stepped forward next, dragging a silver line of earth along the ground in a circle around the creature. "Wishes don’t take root here without her permission," he muttered. "And you never had it."

The ground obeyed him, rising up and wrapping around the creature like a crown of thorns.

The house tried to fight back, but it was useless.

"No one leaves," the house sobbed, desperately trying to take control again.

"Wrong again," I sneered, my voice flat. "

I reached into the core of the house—into the floor beneath my feet, the ceiling above my head, the bones of the place I once built with comfort in mind—and I cut it out of me.

The connection shattered.

The lights flickered wildly. Furniture flew from rooms we hadn’t entered. A staircase collapsed two halls over. And then, from the very foundation—

Cracks.

Deep and violent. Crawling through the floor like fractures in my ribs.

Papa Khaos watched with delight. "See?! That’s how you declare independence."

The creature screamed again. Its body spasmed. It tried to change shape—boy, beast, faceless thing, grief incarnate—but it couldn’t stabilize. The fire burned through every form.

"No," it wailed. "You made me. I’m your wish!"

"You’re a wish that never should have been granted," Chang Xuefeng said coldly. "And we don’t keep those around."

The vines grabbed the creature by its throat, and it screamed one final time before it completely unraveled.

In a flash, there was nothing more than a pile of ash and memory left behind, already crumbling to nothing.

I turned to the house, my face impassive. "I built you," I whispered. "I trusted you. And you betrayed me."

Flames burst through the cracks in the floor, the ceiling lit with veins of white fire. Rooms began folding in on themselves like dying lungs.

"Nothing outside of my family is irreplaceable. You were my home, my sanctuary, but now you are nothing."

I raised both hands to the ceiling, and the house collapsed.

Room by room.

Brick by brick.

It burned from the inside, slow and hot and merciless. The walls didn’t scream anymore. They just faded—devoured by the fire until the only thing left standing was me and mine.

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Outside, the world was still. Morning light crept across the scorched grass like it didn’t quite know what to do without the house casting its long shadow.

Behind us, nothing remained but the moat and the bridge to nowhere.

Papa Khaos let out a long, theatrical sigh. "Well. That was satisfying."

Chang Xuefeng nodded. "It needed to happen."

Luca didn’t speak. He just reached for my hand and held it tightly, while the others stood in a loose semicircle, their eyes fixed on the empty space where our home once stood.

"I’ll build another one," I said quietly, my chin raised. "Only this time, just for me."