Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 371: He Was Enough

Chapter 371: He Was Enough

Beau stalked away from the house, pissed that he wasn’t inside sleeping next to Hattie. If he wasn’t there, who would hear her soft snores, the cute sounds that she made in her sleep? He loved every last one of her movements, the way her eyes moved under their lids when she dreamed.

If he wasn’t there, who would watch over her from a distance, taking in everything about her?

He knew the small tells of when she was bored, or happy, or confused, or upset, or disappointed. None of the other guys seemed to see it, the hearts in their eyes for her blinding them.

He saw them. How could he not? It was almost like an insatiable need.

And now that he was walking away from her, it was like there were sharp blades in his veins, cutting him into a million pieces the further away he got.

He thought that he was just loving her in his own special way. After all, who wouldn’t choose the attentive husband over one who just constantly indulged her? But he hadn’t realized just how much of her that he had been consuming.

Beau let out a long sigh as the jungle parted for him, almost as if it was scared. Thorns appeared, venom dropped from the needle-sharp points, but it seemed to tremble under his gaze.

Shaking his head, Beau let his thought drift back to the woman who consumed him as much as he consumed her. His demon whispered that it was love, but the human knew better. It was possession. It was hunger and the desire to be her one and only.

To the human, it seemed so wrong, like a stalker in the darkness, but the demon didn’t see anything wrong with it. He was hers just as much as she was his.

The hunger he felt for her was pure and primal, gnawing at his soul and demanding one more sigh, one more breath, one more expression from the most divine creature on the planet.

He loved it... and he loved her. But that didn’t take away from the fact that he was starving. As much as he knew he was hers, everything inside of him demanded more.

"Have you made a decision?" asked Gluttony, his tone dismissive as if he didn’t really care about Beau at all. The human understood that. He was just a means to an end. A body for the demon. If he didn’t fall in line, the demon would simply find another to take his place.

After all, wasn’t that how Beau managed to get Hattie in the first place? The old human wasn’t worthy of her, so Gluttony chose again.

"Was there ever any choice?" mused Beau, dragging his fingers over the flowers around them. Terrified of him, the blossoms quickly closed, not wanting to be eaten by the creature in front of them.

"There is always a choice. You can turn around and walk away. No one would blame you," shrugged Gluttony like it wasn’t that big of a deal.

"And turn my back on Hattie? You might as well just kill me now," replied Beau, a soft smile on his face.

"Then there is only one path forward," said Gluttony, even as the path in front of him opened up into a clearing. "We can no longer be separated. You can no longer fight me when it comes to what we want and need."

"We need to offer her our soul," nodded Beau as he walked up to the stagnant pool. It was the only thing in the clearing; even the vines and moss that grew everywhere else were gone. "I was waiting for the perfect time, but I guess there is no such thing."

"She is perfect," hissed Gluttony, the demon becoming excited at finally being able to merge with Hattie. It was the ultimate form of possession. She would have his soul, and he would have hers.

It was something to die for... it was something to kill for.

"Then it’s decided. Tomorrow, we’ll offer her everything," agreed Beau. Crouching down, he saw the surface slick with blood, oil, and bones. Something had died here recently, and if the stains were to be believed, it was something big.

"Perfect," sighed the man and demon together as one. Rolling up his sleeves, Beau’s fingers played in the water.

It didn’t take more than a few seconds for the water to stir and a creature to rise from the depths of the pool.

It seemed to be all mouth. Teeth upon teeth glinted off the full moonlight while the eyes that seemed to cover the body blinked in all directions. Its breath stunk like rotted meat and black fungus.

Coming to his feet, Beau walked backward, not turning his back on the creature coming out of the swamp. It was massive, towering over the human on all four feet. But Beau didn’t flinch.

He knew what the house had said; he knew what he had to do to become worthy of Hattie. He had to become stronger; he had to embrace both the human and the demon to create something entirely new.

With a grin on his face, Beau opened his arms wide, letting the power of the earth flare out in waves. It was vibrant and alive, a contrast to the creature that was nothing short of death. But more than that, it was intoxicating and heavy.

The creature stopped for a second, feeling a sense of danger, but quickly shook its head. He was the most dangerous thing in this place. Not the small thing in front of him.

Still hungry, the creature charged forward, its mouth opened to what promised to be an easy meal.

The fight didn’t last long at all. It was over in almost no time, and it was bloody.

Beau didn’t aim to kill or even offer a quick way out. His purpose was to feed the demon inside of him.

Every bite the creature tried to take from him, he gave back tenfold. Every wound was repaid with interest. Pain wasn’t pain to Beau, it was simply seasoning. It caused the world around him to become sharper. It let him be more in control.

The creature died twitching, wrapped in vines that curled around it like a boa, constricting more and more with every breath the creature struggled to take.

Sitting down beside it, Beau couldn’t help but smile as blood flowed down his chest. Taking in a breath of air, he felt like he could finally breathe.

"We are one," grunted Gluttony, finally full after so long. Hattie fed him every day, and he loved it, but until their souls were one, he was scared of taking too much. But now, now he was finally in complete control again.

Gluttony wasn’t about food. It never was.

It was about consuming the world to make room for the one true Queen. It was his job to devour any obstacles that she encountered. It was his job to consume gods and monsters alike if they stood in her way.

The world was no longer divided into good and evil like in a child’s fairy tale. It was divided into those who belonged to Hattie and those who didn’t.

If Hattie was the Devil, then he would be her plague, her hunger. The sweet voice offered desperate survivors a warm meal before swallowing them whole.

Coming to his feet, Beau brushed the mud off his clothes as best he could before returning to the path he was on. Now, it was time to return to his Queen and pledge himself body, mind, and soul to her.

He would remind her just who he was.

And that he was enough.