Reflections - TWD

13. Family.

About an hour had passed by, nobody had come into the room where Isabella was tied up. She had stopped screaming and calmed down a bit, but all of that panic came back once she heard crashing and Maggie calling for Glenn.

"Glenn! Glenn!" She heard Maggie yell, the fear evident in her voice.

"Maggie! Maggie, what's going on?!" Isabella shouted.

"I-I don't know!" Maggie shouted back, crying.

Suddenly, they heard an extremely loud scream coming from Glenn's room, and then total silence.

Isabella tried to get free but it was no use, the ties were on there good and she'd just hurt herself even more.

Merle suddenly opened the door to the room.

"Let me out, asshole!" Isabella shouted.

Merle chuckled and put the tip of his blade against her throat. "Nah ah, little girl. You're gonna tell me your name and where the hell my brother and your camp is."

"I'm not telling you anything." Isabella spoke firmly, making Merle press the blade even more.

"Tell me, other wise I'll feed the love birds to the walkers." Merle said through gritted teeth.

Isabella let out a breath and looked at him. "A farm." She lied.

Merle nodded for a moment, smiling and rubbing his chin, he turned around and Isabella closed her eyes from relief.

"Bullshit!" He yelled as he doubled back, swiping the tip of his knife over Isabella's right eye, making her cry out in pain. The swipe wasn't to her actual eye, just the skin around it, but it still hurt like hell.

He pointed his knife at Isabella's right eye, aiming for the pupil. "Now I'm gonna give you one more chance..."

Isabella's eyes widened at the sight of the point, blood already trickling into her right eye. "The prison!" She yelled out. "We're staying at the prison."

Merle took a step back, pulling his knife-hand away. "Good girl...right choice."

Once Merle left the room, she heard voices from Maggie's. A voice that sounded all too familiar, a voice that sounded just like her uncles. She could hear Maggie crying and sniffling, making Isabella hang her head hopelessly.

Isabella kept her head down, her chin tucked tightly to her chest as the door opened again. "Well, well, well, I must say, little miss, you've really done us a favour here." The man said before walking over to her, gripping her hair and pulling her head up.

That's when she saw him, her uncle Phillip actually alive. "Isabella..?" He said barely above a whisper.

Isabella's eyes filled with tears. "Why did you do this to me and my friends..my family." She said.

"Your family?" He said through a chuckle, crouching down in-front of her. "Honey, they're not your family, I am."

She shook her head. "No, no! You hurt them!"

Phillip grabbed her hair, he had the same look in his eyes that her father would get when he was about to beat her.

"Uncle Phillip..I-I'm sorry.." she said through tears, her voice quivering with terror.

"Oh no, that's not my name anymore. I'm the governor now, sweetie." He said menacingly.

Isabella didn't say anything, she just looked up at him with a petrified look in her eyes.

He let go of her hair started to untie the knots on her legs and arms. "C'mon, I'm gonna teach you what happens when you speak to family like that." He said, gripping under her arm and pulling her up.

He dragged her out of the room and began pulling her down the hall, Merle was cleaning his face and turned to look at them. "What? Where are you takin' her?!"

"Teaching my little niece here a lesson." He said, still pulling the girl along.

He took her around the back of a few buildings, gripping onto her arm so tightly she was sure it would leave bruises.

He pushed her into a building, where she could hear snarling and snapping just like a walker would. "Unc- what are you doing?" She asked frantically.

The Governor began pulling her towards a room where he opened the door and gripped the back of Isabella's neck, pushing her forward as she was faced with the walker version of her ten year old cousin, Penny.

"This is your family! Do you understand me, Isabella?!" He yelled at her.

"Yes! Yes! I understand! I understand!" She cried.

"Good." He snarled, before pushing her into the room beside her chained up cousin, she fell to the floor and grabbed another set of chains, cuffing Isabella's hands into them.

"Stop!" She screamed.

"No, you're not leaving. I'm rebuilding my family, I'm so glad we found each other again, sweetie." The Governor said while tracing a finger across Isabella's cheek, making her skin crawl.

The governor shut the door and Isabella curled up into a ball, getting as far away from her dead cousin as possible.

"Penny, im sorry this happened to you, you were a good friend to me, you were always so kind and nice...im so sorry your dad is like this, im sorry he's keeping you locked up like this, it isn't right, you deserve a burial, that's what you do with family, you give them a real, meaningful goodbye, not locking them in a cellar while their body rots away." Isabella said to Penny's dead body as she wiped her own tears.

Isabella thought about the fun times she would have with Penny. Penny was about two years older than Isabella, but they got along nevertheless. John didn't take her to visit very often, maybe about two or three times a year, but when he did, Penny would share all of her toys with Isabella and they would play happily together. Some of the only good memories she had from being that young were with Penny.

Isabella kept thinking about those memories for what felt like hours on end, all whilst her cousins corpse tried to take a bite out of her.

She wanted to be with Daryl, Maggie, Glenn, Beth and the baby, hell even Rick and Carl, even though she thought they hated her.

She wanted for Daryl to pick her up and whisper that it was all gonna be alright, she wanted Glenn to make her laugh, she wanted Maggie to protect her and tell her right from wrong, she wanted Beth to braid her hair and talk about stuffed animals.

She wanted to be with her real family, the ones who had taken care of her since the moment they meant met her. The ones who had killed for her. The ones who had put their own lives in danger for her.

She pulled on the chains, even though she knew it wasn't any use, she knew she had to get out. She didn't even know if Glenn or Maggie were even alive, she didn't know if they were hurt or what had happened to them.

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