"𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞„

three, struck

"Kid?" He asked, as she lifted her head up towards him with great effort.

"You alright?"
Her eyes were glossed with ice cold resentment, and fresh trauma. She shook her head slow, and steady.
"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up," he said, putting a hand behind her and guiding her out of the room. Carl wished he could come with her, to feel the cold temperature of her hands again. But she was gone, with Daryl, and wouldn't come out of her cell for about three days afterward.

When they had finally passed and she had emerged out of her blanket covered shell, Carl was the first person she spoke to. Because of her, everyone survived after the massacre she had been involved in. All of the patients had been able to hold out until Daryl got back with their medicine because of the herbs she had gathered.

She didn't quite know what had shaken her so greatly, as she'd encountered many dead before. Many. Surely, Sophia's incident had to be worse than this. But it all seemed to be catching up now - because being protected, and safe, had almost made her forget what the world was.

But she still hid. That's all she knew how to do.

A soft clicking sound arose near her head, and she got up - unveiling the curtain to reveal Glenn, Sasha and Hershel awaiting her.

"You guys are okay," she said with evident relief, and immediately pulled Sasha and Glenn into a hug. She let go, and gave Hershel a polite handshake. The old man smiled proudly at the girl, his moustache curling up into a smile.

"Thanks to you." Glenn said, smiling.
"Come on guys. Are you shitting me? Hershel made soup. You guys helped even though you were sick. I have nothing on that."

"Doesn't matter. You saved us. Thank you."
They all nodded as Hershel spoke, and for the first time since that day, Jane smiled truthfully. It was nice, having people around that really cared - after everything.

Though their moment was interrupted by Rick grimes, pushing through the three of them to get to her. When he finally found his way through to be standing over her, the look on his face would be one she would never forget. She stood up, irrevocably realising that her mother would be back from her run. She tried to get past him, but he stopped her with just one arm. The look was still evident on his face, etched onto it like charcoal on a white canvas.

he said only five words.

"Come walk with me, Jane."

"You and Carl seem to be getting closer," he said, after a long period of silence between the two. They had been walking the halls of the prison for what felt like decades, Jane running her fingers along the wall like she always did.

"Yeah."

"He likes you, I can tell. He's always talking about you. Sometimes I wish he'd shut up." He said, chuckling. The thought of Carl brought a small smile to her face, which was quickly washed away by the tide of calamity in her stomach. Rick watched her intently, as they unlocked the double doors and consumed the sun that soaked into their skin. The outside was somehow greener and brighter than it had been a week ago. Summer was likely in bloom, which soon would be deadly in a place like this.

That was when Rick stopped.

"Listen, Jane...Your mom," he took a breath, not knowing, and not wanting to continue, "she had to go."

She knit her brows together, looking at him with an intense glare. "What?"

She couldn't be gone. But the thing was, gone was such a large term. She could be dead gone, like everybody else was. She could be lost gone, or she could be bitten gone. Actually, as she dwelled more and more on it, she realised there were infinite ways she could be gone. But it just didn't make sense.

"Jane, she....she was the one that killed those three."

It had to be some sort of sick joke - it couldn't have been true. How could her own mother be capable? How could that frail, hurt woman kill anyone? It wasn't that she didn't believe it. It was the fact that what Rick was proposing was simply impossible.

She had sat and watched her two children suffer. She had listened as their skin came in contact with their father's, as his hand came down on them. It plagued her like a disease, and it consumed her every thought. She could not save them then. How could she save herself now? How could she conflict that horror on anyone else, after everything?

"I'm sorry." He said, breaking the silence growing between them. But she wasn't listening.

"Where did she go," she asked, her voice cracking a little. She refused to look up at Rick and his piercing eyes.

She couldn't stop the tears, though she desperately wanted to. She wanted to be strong, like everyone else before her. She tried. She thought of Carl, and his fortitude. She couldn't clear her mind of Daryl, either, who was resilient and quiet through everything. She wanted to be like them, and to stand with them, but her head, nor her past would let her forget.

She felt like her heart was sinking, without her body. It was like she had been ripped apart by a walker, only she was right here, standing still beside Rick grimes. The gravel still crackled beneath her feet and the wind still wisped her hair into her mouth inconveniently.

She could feel the air surrendering into her mouth as her lungs shrunk into her chest, yet, she wasn't breathing at all. This was the last straw. The last thing that she could muster before descending into complete insanity. Why was the world so cruel, and why did it take so much? At just fourteen, she had felt it's cold wrath in her very soul, and her aching bones.
It wasn't fair.

It had been awhile since she had reprised that quote, but now, it felt right. It felt completely correct.

Rick tried to comfort her, putting one hand in her shoulder, but she surprised herself, flinching away and turning to trudge back up to the prison doors. He didn't stop her, and she didn't look back.

Guysssss we getting into the main plot!!!! Exciting. 🫶