Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 49: Dead Or Alive

"She got a house," sneered back Emma. I really wanted to slap her across the face from the way she was speaking to Elizabeth. As far as I was concerned, Elizabeth was the only smart person in the house. How dare someone speak to her like that?

"She lost her hand," corrected Elizabeth, tilting her head toward the sink that only yesterday ate Jennifer’s hand.

"She asked for a million dollars," said Lily softly. Her head was downcast as she stared at her ankle, which was still swollen. "And then she went crazy."

"And I wished that she lose her tongue; what bad thing has happened to me?" interjected Emma, raising her chin. "You just see conspiracies around every corner. Making wishes doesn’t lead to anything bad. Otherwise, Aladin wouldn’t be alive long enough to marry the princess."

"So, you think you are Aladin?" sneered Elizabeth. Honestly, I didn’t think she had it in her to be so confrontational, but I liked this side of her. "If you aren’t smart, you are going to end up like Jafar."

I had no idea who they were talking about, but I wasn’t really part of this whole conversation, so I didn’t mind it so much.

"I wish Isaac and his brothers to die the worst possible death ever possibly imagined," spoke a woman I had never heard from before. Turning my head in the direction the voice was coming from, I studied the woman using Greed’s sight.

She was small, like all the other women, just as malnourished as everyone else in the room, with black, straw-like hair that frizzled at the ends. Her light purple dress was ripped and covered in so much blood that it was hard to see the original color underneath the dirt.

"Sunny," sighed Elizabeth, closing her eyes as if this whole conversation was causing her pain. I didn’t like that idea, but a wish was a wish. And I wasn’t going to give up a wish.

Then again, I could help in a small way, to prove Elizabeth’s point. If the women still decided to continue to wish for things, then it was on them.

"What are you willing to exchange for the wish?" I asked, rising to my feet, my hand still resting on the table. "If you want a big wish, you have to give up something big."

Sunny lifted her head as she looked at me, her broken nose, split lip, and black eyes glaring against the paleness of her skin. "My life. I want to watch them be tortured to death before I die. But at the end of it all, I want to die."

"Then you aren’t really giving up anything, now are you?" I pointed out with a sigh. "If you already want to die, then it isn’t a sacrifice for you, now is it?"

"That’s bullshit. Wishes shouldn’t come with sacrifices," sneered Emma. "You are nothing more than a con artist."

Nodding my head, I never turned away from Sunny. "An opened ended wish means that the wish can take whatever it wants from you. Like Elizabeth said, there is nothing free in the world."

Straightening her back, Sunny made a decision. "Then I am willing to sacrifice my death. Since dying is something that I want, then I will deny myself that for my wish."

I took a second to think things over. It would work. The opposite of dying is to live, so she would be willing to give up dying to ensure that the men died a horrible death... all while she was watching it.

’Deal accepted,’ agreed the female voice in my head, clearly thinking along the same lines as I was.

"Deal accepted," I repeated out loud. "And you will not be able to die for three years, one year for each life. I hope that is acceptable to you."

Sunny dropped to her knees, the tears streaming out her eyes as she looked at me. "Thank you," she murmured, not bothering to wipe away her tears. "Thank you."

"Anyone else? Wishes happen quickly, and as soon as the men are gone, so am I," I informed the rest of the room. The women exchanged an uneasy glance, but none of them spoke up, not even Emma.

"Happy doing business with you," I nodded before turning around and gripping Elizabeth’s arm. "You and I need to talk."

-----

Elizabeth took me into a small den and helped me sit down on the couch. "I just realized that I don’t think I know your name," she started. Before I could answer her, she left the room and quickly returned with a cup of sweet tea.

I was beginning to understand that Elizabeth’s love language was sweet tea. I was the only one she ever offered it to.

Setting it down on the table in front of me, she sat down beside me.

"Hagatha Lucinda LaRue," I introduced myself for the first time since I was five years old. "My mother called me Lucy, but I prefer Hattie myself."

"Hattie, then," nodded Elizabeth, patting the top of my hand. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Your wish was very vague, and before my magic makes it come true, I want us to iron out the details. I was recently told that the devil is in the details, and I don’t want you to have any regrets."

Once again, I watched Elizabeth nodding her head at my words.

"Darling," purred Pride from the other side of the couch. Greed was sitting on the other side of me, his eyes still acting as my own, but I didn’t know why Pride decided to get involved with this. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

’I need to know. I won’t be able to move on if I don’t,’ I shrugged, answering him in my head. It would drive me even crazier if I walked out of this house, not knowing if Elizabeth was dead or alive.

And as long as she was alive, there was always a chance to see her again.