Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 81: Too Much Effort

Chapter 81: Too Much Effort

The moment dream Dante breathed his last breath, the dream restarted itself. Dante and I watched, completely invisible, as the dream him was dragged into the dark room.

There was an obvious lump on his head; the skin split so that blood was dripping down his face.

Since he was knocked out, he didn’t struggle at all as four men took his limp body and chained him up between two pillars so that he was spread out. His head bobbed with every movement, his longer bangs falling into his eyes as two of the men started using him as a punching bag.

"Welcome to my nightmare," sneered Dante, clearly not impressed to have me in his dream, watching it with him. "But don’t worry, I only die four times before I finally manage to wake myself up. This time will be the third time."

"If you died..." I trailed off, watching his wife being escorted into the room and led over to the wooden chair.

"I was reborn," admitted Dante with a shrug. "Like I said, the Devil was too scared of me to let me into his domain."

"Or this was a better punishment," I laughed back as one of the lackeys pulled off his shoes and socks and inserted needles between his toes.

"Punishment?" demanded Dante with his trademark sneer. "I got everything I wanted in this life. I got the power, the money, and the attention I deserved this time around. Now, all I have to do is find the bitch and the bastard to take my pound of flesh, and I will finally be at peace. What part of this looks like punishment?"

"Seriously?!?" I asked, surprised that he even had to ask. Letting out a sigh, I tried to explain the ingenious punishment to the man who didn’t even realize that he was being punished. "What are you going to do to them when you find them?"

"Torture them, make them beg and plead for mercy just like I did," snarled Dante, the whites of his eyes becoming more noticeable as his dream counterpart finally woke up.

"Have they had the chance to do this to you in this lifetime?" I asked. Man, as much as I hated the sound of the whip, I really wanted to learn how to do that. Staring at Antoine as dream Dante started to speak, I tried to memorize his movement.

"Of course not," replied Dante. "I am too powerful for that."

"So, you would be torturing and killing them unjustly for a reason they know nothing about. What do you think is going to happen?" I yawned. Leaning against the man behind me, I got myself comfortable.

I felt his hands gripping my shoulders, but he didn’t try to push me away. Moving me slightly so that I was more comfortable, he let out a long sigh. "They will finally receive punishment for what they did to me in our past life. I was innocent. They betrayed me, they killed me... I was just the sucker that gave up everything for the woman I thought loved me."

"And when they die, they are going to swear revenge for dying an unjust life... just like you did. And they will be reborn with all their memories still intact. In your last life, they took their pound of flesh. In this lifetime, you’ll take yours. In your third lifetime, they’ll get theirs... and so on and so forth until eternity. I couldn’t imagine any better punishment for the three of you if I tried. One lifetime, you love her; the next, you hate her. But either way, your lives and destinies are so intertwined that you’ll never get away from her."

I grunted in approval, wondering if this was how it worked for everyone. Did those who were reborn realize that they never actually got what they wanted when they died? The Devil definitely has a unique sense of humor.

I approved.

Dante was silent, his hand gripping me tighter for a second before lessening the pressure.

"What do you suggest? If this was you?" he finally asked after a moment. His dream self was screaming and crying at the injustice of it all after finding out about his wife’s betrayal. Personally, I thought it was Antoine’s betrayal that was the worst out of the two. But what did I know?

"If it was me?" I repeated, surprised that he was interested in my opinion. "Nothing."

"So you would let the cycle continue?" asked Dante, more than a little confused. "I thought you just said that it would be stupid to let that continue."

"It is. That woman is affecting you, and she isn’t even around. Your entire life is so focused on her in one way or another that I think you actually are obsessed with her. What I mean by nothing is that I wouldn’t do anything. I wouldn’t hunt them down; I wouldn’t focus my entire second chance at life on someone who hurt me so much."

Once again, Dante was quiet, as if he was absorbing my words. "My mother sold me to Père when I was five," I started. I didn’t know why I wanted him to understand what I was trying to say; he probably deserved to be tortured for all eternity.

But that didn’t stop me from trying. "I was abused in every way possible for 13 years. I never left the house, didn’t speak to anyone... I just existed. When the apocalypse came, I stuck a knife into Père’s heart and never looked back. Shit Stain One and Two, his sons were just as bad as he was, but I’m not going to go after them. I have the entire world in front of me; why would I trade that for two people who aren’t worth shit?"

I mean, if either one were dumb enough to cross my path, I’d probably take the chance to kill them fast, but I wasn’t going to focus all my time and attention on them. That seemed to be too much effort.

"You are a weird creature," muttered Dante after a moment. Pulling me even closer to him, he hunched over until he was resting his chin on my head. "But I will consider what you said."

I snorted my laughter as the two of us continued to watch him being tortured in his last life.

"At the end of the day, you’re going to do what you want, anyway. Don’t blame me for your decision. Just tell me in your third life how well revenge worked out for you."

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