Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 47: A Million Dollars

Chapter 47: A Million Dollars

I fell asleep that night to Jennifer muttering to herself about how the electric garbage disposal worked if there was no electricity in the house. Her incessant mumblings were starting to make me cranky.

The garbage disposal worked not because it was powered by electricity but because it was powered by magic. It really was that simple. She needed to pay a pound of flesh for the mansion, and she had. Now, nothing anyone did would make that garbage disposal work again.

In contrast, the price that Fleur had to pay was simply choking on her food every few bites. But unlike Jennifer, she didn’t bitch and complain about it; she just continued eating. It wasn’t like she had asked for a crap ton of food, either. Just enough to take the edge of hunger off.

She wasn’t Greedy, so her price wasn’t steep.

"Could someone shut her up?" grunted one of the other women as she rolled over under the blanket. All of the women were lined up on the floor, side by side, with only a single blanket covering all of us.

It wasn’t that bad if you were in the center; no matter what, you were guaranteed to be covered, but the women on the ends needed to fight for every last bit of cloth.

"Fuck off," hissed Jennifer. I guess she was on her road to recovery if she could afford the energy to curse people out. "I lost my fucking hand."

"Clearly, God was watching over you," sneered yet another woman. "I kind of wish he took your tongue instead. That might be the only way to get you to shut up."

There was a snort of laughter as Jennifer screeched under the blanket. Yeah, she really wasn’t making any friends.

’Deal accepted,’ chuckled the voice in my head as if she was able to hear everything going on around us.

Huh... I wonder just how she will lose her tongue.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day.

-----

The next morning, I woke up on my own with the ’bed’ to myself. Taking my time, I stretched my aching muscles as I thought about Teddy.

The second he appeared in my arms, I hugged him as tightly as I could. "It won’t be for long," I promised him, missing him just as much as he was missing me. "As soon as I leave here, I keep you outside. I’m just scared that something will happen to you."

Reaching inside of him, I grabbed a couple of cookies that were in my space and started munching on them, making sure that I didn’t drop a single crumb.

For all the mess I had grown up around, the one thing I couldn’t stand was crumbs in my bed. It was enough to set me off in a rage. I would swear I could feel every last one as if it were a razor blade cutting into me every time I moved.

When breakfast was over, I climbed off the floor and slowly made my way downstairs, following the same route Elizabeth had taken to bring me to bed.

"So nice of the Princess to finally get out of bed," sneered Jennifer as I was counting my way down the stairs. I had reached the 15th step out of 22 before I was forced to stop.

"I guess the wish hasn’t been granted yet," I replied, smirking in her general direction.

Jennifer scoffed. "You are just like Elizabeth... thinking that you are better than the rest of us."

"I don’t think that," I assured her, taking the next six steps down until I was standing right in front of her. The height difference didn’t bother me as I tilted my head back to look blankly at her. "I know that I am better than you. But you and I both know that no one is better than Elizabeth."

There was a pregnant silence as I pictured Jennifer’s eyes narrowing as she glared at me. "Elizabeth came from money up North. Her parents brought her on vacation here when she was 15 years old, and she hasn’t been in this household since. Isaac saw her outside of the hotel, and he snatched her right off the streets. She has been used and abused every day for the past 15 years. Do you really think she is still better than me?"

"Without a doubt," I shrugged. "At least she isn’t a bitter hag whose only source of entertainment is bringing everyone else down to your level."

"There is no point in arguing with you. You’ll learn just like all of us had to learn. There is no escape from Isaac and his brothers. And Elizabeth won’t always be around to save you."

Nodding my head, I walked around the roadblock (Jennifer) in front of me. "Thanks for the advice. Good luck keeping your tongue. I might actually miss it when it’s gone."

Retracing my steps back to the kitchen, I found the table and sat down in one of the chairs. "How was your sleep?" asked Elizabeth, stroking my head before placing a glass of sweet tea on the table in front of me.

"Good," I smiled, carefully taking the cup of tea in my hands before bringing it to my lips. Taking a sip, I placed it back down on the table. "Where is everyone?"

"Isaac and his brothers found a door in the kitchen leading downstairs," answered Elizabeth and I heard her walking around the kitchen, scraping plates and washing them. "They are going to explore what is down there, and the rest of the girls are somewhere around the house."

"Ah," I replied, nodding my head. Suddenly, there was a loud bellow of delight and the sound of feet stomping upstairs.

"We be rich!" shouted the third brother as the sound of a door hitting a wall echoed around me.

"You are going to want to see this," murmured Greed as he held my shoulder, sharing his eyesight with me.

Standing in front of the stove, practically trembling in delight, was the third brother, his arms so full of money he couldn’t hold it all.

"Dere must be a million dollars down dere if not more!"