Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 271: Dance With The Devil

Harper walked through the inner courtyard of the Blackguard Compound with new eyes. He had never really thought about what was going on around him, seeing most of the people scurrying around as nothing more than flies trying to survive the storm, but they never really got his attention.

Now that they were looking at him terrified, he couldn’t help but smile.

"What is the plan?" asked Matthieu as he strolled beside Harper, as laid back as ever. However, Harper knew his friend better than to think he was unaffected by what had happened.

"Mama used to tell me that you don’t fight with the Devil," murmured Harper, not really answering the question. "She insisted that you dance with her and hope that she didn’t step on your toes."

"Your mama was a smart woman," hummed Matthieu with a slight nod of his head.

"She was the best woman I have ever met," agreed Harper as Gideon rushed forward to catch up to them. "And she always insisted the Devil was a woman."

"Really? I always thought the bastard was a man," mused his friend, his eyes still scanning the area around them for threats.

"Same. I used to tell her that the Devil was a man, that everyone knew the Devil was a man, and that she was just going crazy thinking otherwise," continued Harper as he thought back on the memories of his youth. Jesus, he thought he knew everything back then.

Or at least so much more than his mother. Even if she was a Traiteur or a witch. Mama could read the bones like it was nobody’s business. In fact, he distinctly remembered when he was 13 she came to him one day after school and sat him down at the kitchen table.

----

"Drink your tea, boy," Mama said, putting down a glass of sweet tea in front of him.

"But I hate tea," replied Harper, wrinkling his nose even as he obeyed his mama.

"There will be a time that you’ll want nothing more than to sit down at a table and have a cup of tea with the most important woman in your world. Might as well acquire a taste for it now."

"That don’t make sense, Mama. You de most important woman in my world," said Harper even as he quickly finished off the glass.

"You’re a sweet boy," murmured his Mama, looking a bit sad. "But you’re going to get tougher. You can’t stay sweet forever, not with what is to come."

Harper sat up straighter, his eyes fixed on his Mama. He knew she could read the bones. She was so good that people came from all over the Region to get her to tell them their future. But she turned most of them away.

"Did you see something?" he asked cautiously, not ever flinching when his Mama poured him another cup of the tea. "Something about me?"

Mama sighed and sat down beside him at the table, pulling the ashtray closer to her as she lit her cigarette. "One day," she started, looking out the window at the bayou just beyond their backyard. "You are going to find yourself at a crossroads."

"Dat don’t seem too bad," interrupted Harper, cocking his head to the side.

"Don’t interrupt, boy," snapped Mama. "You will be dying. And not for the first time. But this time is much more important. You will be looking at the eye of the storm, and if you aren’t smart, this storm will sweep you away."

Harper shifted in his seat, wanting to ask questions, but he knew Mama would stop talking if he did. She normally wouldn’t tell anyone the details, saying that it wasn’t good to know what was going to happen next, so the fact that she was talking to him meant that was she saw was bad.

Taking a drag from her cigarette, Mama shook her head as if to dispel the vision. "On that day, you are going to meet a girl who isn’t a girl with a smile that isn’t a smile. Her laughter will promise both eternity and death, and you must choose eternity. When you see her, don’t flinch, and whatever you do, don’t run. You will be hers, but she isn’t yours. You must never make that mistake. You cannot try to chain what cannot be chained, and there is no way that you can chain a storm."

Taking in a shuddering breath, Mama slowly let out the puff of smoke. "If you want to live, boy, then you must listen when the Devil whispers to you. And if you ever make a wish, make sure that it is to be invincible."

"I don’t understand, Mama," murmured Harper when his mother closed her eyes and let her head drop back.

"I know you don’t," she smiled at him softly. "But I won’t be around when this happens, so I need you to remember. Even if you don’t understand, make sure that you never, ever forget what I have said."

"But Papa said that there is no such thing as the Devil," huffed Harper, trying to sort out his thoughts. frёewebηovel.cѳm

"Of course, the Devil exists," scoffed Mama. "If there is order, there is chaos. If there is calm, there is a storm. If there is light, there is darkness. And make no mistake, the Devil isn’t the evil thing everyone seems to think she is. She is nothing more than a child of chaos, the storm, and a safe place to sleep at night. Your Papa doesn’t know everything."

"He doesn’t know nearly as much as you do, Mama," smirked Harper, his smile bright as he tried to cheer up his Mama.

"And don’t you forget it. Now, go play. I’ll have dinner ready in an hour."

----

"You good, man?" asked Matthieu, wrenching Harper out of his thoughts. He didn’t know how it happened, but they were now standing in front of Raines’ office door.

"Just thinking about something Mama had said," smiled Harper. "It’s nice to know that I finally understand something after 21 years. I was beginning to worry that I would never understand her final vision for me."

"And now?"

"Now I am going to dance with the Devil, and hope that she doesn’t step on my toes."