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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: REMEMBER THOSE WALLS I BUILT? (WELL BABY THEY'RE TUMBLING DOWN)
( tw! mentions of assault & suicidal thoughts )
🥀🖤
MELANIE HADN'T SPOKEN since they left the outpost. She was trapped inside her own mind. Her mind had built a home and inside it, she was trapped in one of the darkest rooms in the deep basement. It was a room that she tried to stay out of. It was a room she had boarded up. It was a room that she tried to keep locked but occasionally, the fear and the abuse would seep out from the cracks and drag her back in. The door had become unlocked while she was in the compound, tied up and abused, and it had grabbed Melanie and trapped her inside. She couldn't get out. She couldn't escape that basement. No matter how hard she tried, she was always there. She couldn't get out. Cold. Dark. Endless.
Maggie and Carol didn't talk much as well as everyone drove back to Alexandria but Melanie was worse and it was obvious to everyone around her. Nobody knew what Melanie Briar's backstory was but whatever it was, it was traumatizing. It was more traumatic than anyone could've ever guessed. Melanie had a numb look on her face like she wasn't even in touch with reality, and she wasn't. She was trapped inside her own mind. Margot had an arm around Melanie the entire ride back and Daryl kept staring at her, worried about the teenage girl he had saved months prior. Melanie didn't notice any of it, however, as she just kept picturing the basement. Every single second of every day spent in that basement replayed in her head.
Margot took Melanie directly to Denise when they arrived back in Alexandria. Not only had Denise become their doctor but she had also studied psychology, so Margot had hoped that Denise could not only help Melanie physically but mentally as well. Melanie's vision was blurred as she was brought in, Margot's arm around her the entire time. Denise had asked Melanie if she was okay but Melanie wouldn't answer. She just stared straight ahead, not saying a word. She had heard Denise but she couldn't speak. If she spoke or argued, she used to get hit until she obeyed.
Are you gonna be a good little girl?
Denise started to examine her for wounds. The physical ones were obvious. She had a black eye over her left eye, a large cut on her cheek that was in the center of a large bruise taking up most of the left side of her face along with a split lip. She looked like she had taken a beating, which she had. Melanie knew that it wasn't nearly as bad as the beatings she had taken before. She had taken beatings so hard that she went unconscious for hours or could barely open her eyes because they were so swollen from the amount of blows she had taken. This was nothing compared to the abuse she endured from the Claimers. Her abdomen and her back were covered a large purple and black bruise that traveled from her ribs all the way down her stomach and around to her back. As Denise pressed on her ribs, she felt a crack along one of her ribs just below her lungs. It wasn't bad enough to cause much damage but it wasn't good.
