Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 253: Secrets and Popcorn

Luca pulled Max away and out of hearing as Chang Xuefeng continued to walk around with the crowds, taking in all the sights.

The smile on Hattie’s face was enough to tell all the men that they needed to play this up as much as possible. However, even without Hattie’s clear excitement, it was like they were experiencing everything for the first time through her eyes.

And it was an absolutely magical experience.

"You need to shut your mouth," snarled Luca when he felt he was far enough away. "If you don’t like what is going on, that is fine, but keep your lips sealed. Do you hear me?"

"Seriously, Luca?" asked Max, his brows furrowing in confusion. "Can’t you feel every way this place is wrong? I mean, that’s a fucking zombie family on the bumper cars! Fucking zombies! And you think everything is hunky dory? That’s insane! Why aren’t you supporting me on this?!?"

Max was practically gasping at the end of his tirade, but he wasn’t wrong. There were zombies, both the mutated kind and the stupid ones milling around with the humans. But even the humans didn’t really seem normal.

Their feet didn’t make a single sound, no matter how much they were stampeding around... almost like they were already dead before they even entered the carnival.

"I told you two that this was the place for the damned," chuckled the ticket seller as he popped up behind the two men. "But I figured that if a human was hanging out with the Sins and the Angel of Death, then he must be cool. But we don’t allow humans inside our carnival. They don’t seem to understand."

Luca let out a harsh breath as he stepped away from the kid. "You know who we are," he replied, ignoring the fact that Max was looking even more pale than he was before.

"This carnival has been around since the beginning... in all the realms," shrugged the kid as he looked at Max again. "This is the first time we have allowed someone who smelt so human into our midst. If he can’t hack it..."

"We’ll kill him ourselves," shrugged Luca like they were talking about the weather and not one of his oldest friends. "Thank you for letting us in. Hattie is really excited."

The kid gave him a sly smile before opening his mouth, "Since I told you our big secret... why don’t you tell me yours? It’s not fair to have an imbalance in the world."

"You already know our secret," replied Luca, his face going blank. "We are the Seven Deadly Sins."

"And the big guy is the Angel of Death," shuddered the kid. "I was hoping to have kept my winning streak of never seeing him in my life. Who’s the dude in black?"

"Hellhound," replied Luca. It wasn’t like he needed the kid to clarify which dude in black. There was only one with them that hadn’t been accounted for.

"And the chick?"

Luca’s entire body froze, and all the men turned to face the kid. It didn’t matter how far away from them they had wandered, the moment Hattie was brought up in any context, they were all ears.

Chang Xuefeng waved his hand in the air and continued forward as Dante, Tank, and the others returned to Luca’s side.

"What about the chick?" demanded Dante, his eyes flashing bright black before he forced himself to calm down.

"What is she?" pressed the kid, the easy-going smile on his face completely disappearing as the Sins surrounded him. "You don’t want to start a fight that you can’t win," continued the kid, rising to his full height. He might have been significantly shorter than the other guys, but that didn’t make him any less impressive. ƒreewebɳovel.com

"You demand a secret for a secret?" purred Luca, the ruins on his skin glowing brightly as he tried to suppress the Sin under his skin. "Then here is a secret for you. There isn’t a single fight that we can’t win. Be smart here, kid. Turn around and walk away. When our woman gets bored, we’ll leave."

"I already told you. We are shifting to a different realm at midnight tonight. If you are still inside, you will be going with us. And after that... you’ll never be able to leave the Carnival of the Damned again."

"Oh?" asked a small voice in front of the kid. "And which realm will you be trying to go to?"

The ticket seller looked down to see the little girl looking back up at him, her big eye blinking as they continued to stare at each other.

"It’s not so much of a realm as we will be traveling through a rip between the realms to an alien planet, Thuzirus," explained the kid, the words being ripped out of his mouth.

The girl cocked her head to the side. "That doesn’t seem like fun," she sighed after a second, and all the men around her seemed to relax at her words. "But I am not going to give up my fun for nothing. What are you willing to do for me to make me want to leave?"

"Excuse me?" sputtered the kid, looking around for a more ’adult’ to come over and handle this problem. "If you are still here when we shift, then we’ll put you in a cage and make you one of our spectacles."

"Kinky, but no. No one will be leaving here unless I allow it," the girl shrugged. "Now, let’s go play... and Max?" she hummed, turning her attention to the only human in their group. "I suggest you keep up. I wouldn’t want you falling behind and being stuck here for the rest of your life."

Humming along with the music in the background, the tiny girl skipped away, with the Hellhound following closely behind.

"She can’t do that," hissed the kid as he turned his attention back to Lucas. "The Carnival Master won’t accept that. We are on a tight schedule, and no one is allowed to fuck with that."

Luca shrugged his shoulders and pulled Max away from where they were standing. "Then I guess we need to hurry up and get on with the fun. If you are really feeling the strain, she could probably be bribed with lollypops."

"Lollypops aren’t fucking food!" snarled the Angel of Death as he glared down at the kid. "But Greed isn’t wrong."

"Besides," murmured Beau as he looked down at his bag of popcorn. "Corn might have ears, but these kernels have eyes."

Ronan, who was closest to Beau, looked down inside the bag labeled ’Buttery Popcorn’ and saw nothing but eyeballs staring back at him. "We can’t tell her. She’ll insist on bringing back a bag with her."

"She’s already eyeing the cotton candy; they can’t fuck that up, right?" asked Beau as he handed the bag of popcorn to the kid.

"The cotton candy is made from the webs and eggs of the voragyvis," sputtered the kid as he took the bag of eyes. "They are considered a delicacy in the outer planets."