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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: WHEN THE DEVIL COMES KNOCKING
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WITHIN THE LAST few days, the energy in Alexandria had turned dark and cold. Melanie had never felt energy like that since she had been locked up in that basement. Everyone had found out about what had happened after the group returned. Maggie and Sasha had taken Glenn and Abraham's bodies to the Hilltop. From what Melanie knew, Maggie was fine and alive along with the baby, which was the only good news. When Rick had told everyone about Negan and the Saviors, and how they work for them now, nobody was happy. Some people didn't understand why Rick had given in but those people also weren't there and didn't witness what everyone else had witnessed. Melanie had started having nightmares about it. She pictured Abraham and Glenn's lifeless, headless bodies in her head and heard the sickening laugh of Negan echo in her head. She woke up every morning exhausted and lifeless like she was just a shell. She hated feeling that way.
Margot was worse. Margot was depressed. She had grown extremely close to Glenn before his death, so it had affected her deeply. Despite that, Margot had to keep moving. She needed to help gather supplies for when Negan came to Alexandria in a few days to collect. The whole community had been rallying to try and find things. They had to go through everything they had and set aside half for the Saviors. They already didn't have a lot of food, so setting aside half was difficult. Thankfully, they had plenty of medicine after the run where Denise was killed. People had been going out every day to try and find more things, spending every free moment searching for items and supplies that they couldn't even keep themselves. Melanie hated it and she hated how it was exhausting Margot.
Due to everything that had been going on, Melanie hadn't had any time to think about her recent revelation about her feelings for Carl Grimes. Melanie wasn't even sure if it counted if it was during a life-or-death situation. She was placed in a situation where either of them could've died and Melanie cared deeply about him, so she possibly only thought about him in that way in that moment because she was terrified. Then again, the feelings hadn't gone away yet and it had been a few days. Melanie hadn't spoken much to Carl since they had returned. They had both gone quiet and angry since everything had happened. Melanie still climbed onto his roof to watch the stars with him but they didn't talk as much and if they did, it was only about what they had done that day and nothing else.
Melanie didn't know if she wanted to think about it too much. She did like Carl as more than a friend but was it love? And even if it was love, there was no way that he loved her back. Negan had said something to Carl about Carl having feelings for her but he was also trying to get under Carl's skin. But then again, that reason alone might be a reason that Carl might feel the same way about her. Melanie was too afraid to bring it up to Carl and there had been no good moment recently to even attempt to do that. So, Melanie kept it inside and tried not to think too much about it. It also scared her a little bit. If she did love Carl and he didn't love her back, she would potentially lose him. She didn't want to lose the person who had brought her back to life. She couldn't lose Carl.
