MADISON'S POV.
"MADS!"
I jump up in the bed so fast my head spins.
Kara is still snuggled up in her bed beside me.
I look at Carl who stands in the doorway, already ushering Judith out the door.
"School!" He bellows.
"Oh shit!"
I begin to feel nauseous and I clamp on my mouth to stop myself from getting sick. I hold one finger up, motioning him to wait as I focus on breathing. The room is suddenly really hot.
"You go with Judith. I'll look after Kara." I say through raspy breaths.
He says nothing more, just closes the door and leaves.
I don't move until the walls stop spinning around me. When they finally do I sigh with relief. I look down to see Kara peaking up through one semi opened eye.
I look to the clock on the small table between her and Judiths bed.
8:47am
"You were awake the whole time." I accuse her through a yawn.
She just shrugs. "I was hoping you'd out sleep the alarm."
I raise a brow.
"You're alarm goes off at 8:30am. You turned it off."
He groans. "I don't wanna go to school."
I grab the blanket and pull it back over us, lying back down and pulling her close.
"Okay."
"What?"
"I said okay. Just...don't tell your dad. He has work straight after dropping Judith off so he won't be home."
"You're not making me go to school?"
"I don't feel like getting up either." I close my eyes.
"Now shut up and go back to sleep."
*********
"Mom?"
I feel Kara poking at my face.
"Mom!"
"Mom!"
"JESUS! What?" I finally snap.
"Kai is downstairs and it's 10:30am." She explains.
I groan. "Fine."
I open my eyes and use my feet to kick the blanket off us. I grab my shoes and tie them on me while Kara throws on a jumper, leaves her pajama bottoms on and grabs two odd socks and slips them on.
"Would it kill you to put them in the wash when you're finished instead of tossing them on the stairs."
She rolls her eyes as she struggles to tie her hair up.
"C'mere." I usher her over and she hands me the hair tie.
She turns and sits on the edge of the bed, allowing me to pull her hair into a somewhat tidy ponytail.
"I don't toss them. I just take them off when I'm going upstairs." She explains.
"Washing basket is less than a foot away." I note.
Once I'm done I stand up and make her bed for her. We walk downstairs together.
"Sometimes I try to throw them into the basket from halfway up the stairs but I never get them in." She chuckles.
"Well, there goes your career as a professional basketball player." I laugh.
"Darn."
She skips ahead of me into the kitchen and I catch the door behind her before it closes.
"Hey Kai." Kara beams.
"Hey Kar. What are you doing home from school? You sick?"
"Nope." She smiles devilishly.
He turns to me when I walk inside.
"A moment of weakness." I explain to him as I wrap my arms around him.
Kai bites into a slice of toast and fangs sits next to him watching his every move, probably hoping he lets it fall.
"More like an hour and a half of weakness because that's how long I haven't been in school today and if you really want to feel bad about yourself you could add the time that we woke up which was fifteen minutes before school starts when she could've sent me to school. So that makes an hour and.... I dunno, almost two hours."
"Thanks Kara." I roll my eyes.
"Maybe you should send her now. Her maths seems a little slow." Kai teases.
She elbows Kai and he laughs loudly. I say nothing, instead I reach up into the cupboard and grab a bowl and cereal.
I quickly create the concoction with milk, toss a spoon inside and slide it towards Kara.
"Bon appetit!"
Kara, who is practically fluent in Spanish thanks to Kai, looks to him in confusion.
"I've never heard that one before."
"That's because it's not Spanish. It's French."
She grabs the spoon and shovels cereal into her mouth.
"Oh, that's the place with the big confusing tower and all the fancy bread."
"If you mean the Eiffel Tower, then yes."
"Have you ever been mom?" She asks me.
I shake my head. "No, but I seen pictures of it."
"Hm, what have you seen?"
I think about that question. In the time that I had with my family before, when things were normal, we didn't do very much traveling. My dad brought home the money for us to put food on the table and my mother was a stay at home mom with a newborn. They had no intentions of bringing us anywhere.
I shrug. "We have a pretty cool windmill outside, beside the church."
Kara groans. "Thats not what I meant. Did you see anything Kai?" She asks with her mouth full of food.
"Well, I'm from Panama so we lived on the beach. There was ocean as far as the eye could see. Does that count?"
She nods.
"Maybe some day we could all go to Oceanside and stay on the beach."
"That's a great idea." Kai agrees.
Kai slides his plate of toast towards me.
"Eat. You haven't eaten in... I can't remember how long."
I pick up a slice and bite into it. It tastes stale but I say nothing.
"I think you may have a new recruit on the way." I tell Kai.
"Yeah? Who?"
"Henry. Carol and Ezekiels kid."
"Oh yeah. Why does he want to leave home?"
"Something about using his talents where they're needed." I mumble.
"Don't get any ideas." I ruffle Karas hair.
"Look, I don't mean to keep running off. I'd love to stay and spend time with you but-"
"But you want to know what happened last night." Kai finishes for me. The sudden change of tone in his voice already alerts me to how serious of a situation this is and for some odd reason I find myself eager to know more.
I nod.
"Rick and some others are at the church. I'm sure if you hurry, you'll catch them before they leave. Kara can stay with me."
"Thank you." I lean in to kiss him on the cheek but he turns swiftly and catches my lips. I chuckle and hurry for the door.
"Mads!" He calls after me, following me to the door.
"Yeah?"
"I think, maybe you should go see Siddiq."
"I know, I missed so many shifts with the newbies."
"No, I mean, I think you should see him and get checked or something."
"Checked?" I almost laugh. "For what?"
He shrugs. "You're not sleeping, you're not eating. I know you've been getting sick. Somethings not right."
Memories of throwing up in the bathroom and constant migraines spring to mind.
"I'm not sick Kai."
"Look, I know you're gonna want to argue about it because you're so damn stubborn but I'd really rather you skip to the part where you cave and just go through with it."
I'm shocked by both his bluntness and this sudden urgency.
"I don't cave." I emphasis the word cave.
"No, you just feel guilty after a fight and do whatever it is you're rebelling against as a form of apology."
I roll my eyes.
"Why are you so worried?"
"I always worry about you." He shrugs.
I wait silently for the real answer.
"I don't know. You, ... you have bags under your eyes because you're not sleeping enough. You're so pale. Kara told me you were getting sick only a few days ago and I just seen you ram the first thing you've eaten in probably days down you're mouth so you didn't have to taste it...the list is endless."
"I'm not hungry." I explain honestly.
"That's the problem."
It couldn't hurt. I mean, I have to speak with Siddiq anyways.
"Fine." I promise.
He opens the front door for me.
"Thank you." He kisses me again and then steps aside to let me leave. I hurry to the church.
It's not long until I reach the church doors. They open with a squeak and I sigh with relief when I see that everyone is still here.
Michonne, Rick, Daryl and Tara.
I close the door behind me and walk down the aisle towards them. My footsteps echo so I quicken the pace until I'm next to them.
"What happened while I was gone....?"
My own question answered itself when my eyes land on a girl, sitting awkwardly at the side of the alter. A mask at her feet.
"What the hell is this?" I step towards her but Daryl puts a firm hand on my shoulder, stopping me.
"Leverage." He explains to me.
I keep my eyes on the girl. She looks younger than me, maybe sixteen or seventeen. If you look past her long brown hair that sticks to her face with sweat, you can still see the childish features, a round face, full cheeks but the harsh frown and unwavering glare informs me that she's not really a child.
Although her hands and feet are tied tightly with rope, she holds herself strangely, with her back curved outwards and her elbows tucked into her stomach, like she's literally holding herself together.
"She's one of them." I note.
"Yes." Michonne murmurs.
I quickly glance to Rick who is rubbing the back of his head, one of his many traits he shows when stressed.
"We came across a few walkers on the way home last night. Tried to take them out only to find that they were all these whisper people. This one surrendered." He explains.
"Ouch! Left your buddies for dead, huh?" I speak directly to her now.
Her lips pinch together.
"What's her name?" I ask them.
"Don't know. She won't speak." Tara sighs.
"Why don't you just beat it out of her?" I ask.
"Mads!" Rick groans.
"What? I'm being serious." I argue.
"We're not hitting her." Tara rolls her eyes.
"Why not?"
"She's a girl." Daryl states.
"So?"
"She's a child."
"Yeahhh, that wouldn't stop me."
"Charming." Rick scoffs.
"What? You think she's gonna show you mercy? What about when she killed Jesus? Had the two of you-" I point to Daryl and Tara "-running around the woods for hours and Eugene, Jayden and I cramped in a smelly fucking trap door."
"She has a point." Tara notes.
"Honestly, we should just kill her." I sigh, getting bored.
"I mean, what good can she be? She's a coward. She just left her friends for dead."
"They were already dead when I surrendered, bitch!" Her voice catches me off guard.
"Oh my god! She speaks!" I mock sourly.
"Name?" Rick asks.
She turns quiet again.
I sigh and slide a pocket knife out of my back pocket, handing it to Daryl.
I march towards the girl who's eyes have gone wide with shock and she struggles against the ropes as I pry her jaw open and pinch her cheeks inwards so her tongue sticks out.
"Cut her tongue out." I look at Daryl.
He doesn't look shocked, he just raises a brow. The girl begins to thrash under my hold and screams so loud I feel my ears start to ring.
"If you're not going to use your tongue, why should you keep it?" I threaten.
Daryl opens the pocket knife.
She screams a non-coherent word and when Daryl steps forward she screams it again, like a chant.
I release her cheeks but keep my hand firm on her jaw.
"Lydia, my name is Lydia."
"Good. There you go. Wasn't so hard, was it?" I encourage.
"Where is your group staying? Do they have a camp?" Rick asks.
Again, she doesn't respond.
I pick her cheeks again and this time Daryl kneels so he's eye level with her and brings the knife to her lips.
"AHHHHH! OKAHH OKAHH!" She tries to speak.
I let her speak.
"I, I don't know. They move around a lot. They're probably gone." She stutters.
"Ooooh, that's not a good enough answer." Daryl shakes his head. He points to Rick.
"See him? Does he look happy with that answer? Look at his face."
Lydia shakes her head no.
"Nah. Do you think he'd want me to cut out your tongue?"
"I'm telling the truth. I swear it. They don't stay in one place very long."
"What about you? Won't they want you back?"
She shakes her head.
"They don't care. For all they know I'm dead."
"Won't they look for you?" Michonne asks.
"It's the circle of life. If you die, you die. Why bother looking for someone? We don't get attached. We don't care about people. We just keep moving, keep surviving. In their eyes, I'm collateral damage. They're not coming for me. So you can let me go."
I chuckle dryly but release her, she tumbles onto the ground and Daryl hands me back my pocket knife.
"For a person who wants to live you're not giving us a lot of reasons to not off you. I mean, you're no fun, poor conversationalist, you offer no leverage... I say we revert back to plan A and just kill her." I propose.
Rick scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Shut it Mads."
I sigh and take a seat on the nearest bench. This is a problem that's gonna come back to bite us in the ass later. I know it.
"She can give us information about the group. We'll keep her here." Michonne settles.
"No offense but I'd just like to point out the fact that it took at least fifteen minutes and we had to threaten her to get just her name."
They ignore my comment and start whispering about where to keep her.
"We can't keep her here. People come here on an hourly basis." Tara mutters in the small group.
"Windmill?"
"Not secure enough."
They bicker back and forth for a few minutes until I finally speak up again.
"What about the cell?" I suggest, the echo of the church makes my voice travel right around the room.
"You're forgetting we have someone down there." Rick dismisses.
"Actually. I haven't."
All four heads turn to look at me.
"What are you suggesting?" Rick asks.
"Maybe, he could come outside. You know, under supervision. He could do work around the community. Pitch in."
"Absolutely not, Madison."
They turn back into their small group and I glare at Lydia.
"What do you call yourselves?"
She doesn't answer so I take out my knife again and wave it back and forth.
"Go ahead, do it." She spits.
"Don't tempt me."
Her jaw sets firmly and even from head I think I hear her teeth grind together.
"The whisperers." She mumbles.
"You don't have family in that... herd?"
She hesitates but shakes her head.
"No. Our leaders are our family. We protect them, we follow them."
I roll my eyes. This whole thing seems stupid and I have a weird feeling about the way she answers me. It seems almost scripted.
"And who might they be?" I snap.
"Alpha and Beta."
I'm about to ask the next question but I can tell by the look in her eyes that she knows she gave away too much already.
Maybe she wants to look like that on purpose, to throw us off. Her innocent face is deceiving. There's something else going on hear but I can't quite put my finger on it, which annoys me even further.
"I'm tired." She blurts.
I stand back up again and grab my things. Honestly, I've enough on my plate, I'll leave the questions to Rick. I find myself suddenly exhausted.
"Sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone who actually gives a shit." I purposely hit off of her as I walk past her. I exit from the back door without a word. The others don't seem to notice.
As I step outside, I find myself thinking about that girl. She obviously has no morals if she betrayed her group by surrendering, answering questions about them. Even if I was threatened I wouldn't tell anyone about this place. It's clear that her group has no morals either. I wonder if we seen the group, the whole group, would it be noticeable who Alpha and Beta are.
Before I know what I'm doing, I find that my feet were thinking for me. Instead of heading to Siddiq's my feet have lead me the long way home, passing by Negan's cell. I pause at his door, pondering if I should go in or not. The silence from the cell throws me off guard. Usually he whistles loudly to himself or repeatedly throws the ball against the wall, making the most annoying sound.
When I look around me I decide against it. There's too many people around. They'd see me go inside. Maybe he's just asleep. I continue onwards, watching everyone I pass and what they're up too. It seems no different than a normal day. From here I can hear the kids playing at the school. It must be their lunch time.
While I pass my house I decide to peak inside again just for a minute or two before going to see Siddiq. I open the door and walk to the kitchen.
"Hey." I greet Kai who is chatting with Jenna at the kitchen table.
"Hey Mads." She smiles up at me.
"That was quick." Kai notes.
"Yeah. Turns out I don't want another problem on my hands. I'll just try to sort out the ones I already have." I smile while leaning against the kitchen counter.
From upstairs I can hear an annoying thudding sound.
"What's going on up there?"
Jenna rolls her eyes. "Kara is playing some game."
I haven't seen Jenna in a while, not since her and Carl broke up.
"How are you doing?" I ask her.
"Fine. Skipped the sad stage of the breakup and went straight to angry."
"Nice." I comment, trying to ignore the constant thudding upstairs. It's setting my teeth on edge.
"Ugh, I'd just love to hit him with something." He groans.
"Yeah, me and you both." I mutter under my breath.
"What?" She asks. I freeze before I see her expression, which thankfully shows me that she genuinely just didn't hear me and I'm grateful for that. Last thing I want to do is explain why Carl and I are fighting. That could get ugly.
I change the subject.
"So, what the hell is Kara playing." I say, looking up at the roof, as if I can see through it.
Kai just shrugs. "Don't know. She left shortly after you did and then came back. Said she got some toy from a friend."
I frown in confusion, yet a smirk playing at my lips.
"Kai, all her friends are at school."
I suddenly feel the smile on my face drop as I recognize the annoying sound. My feet launch forward and before I know it I find myself racing up the stairs and bursting into her room. Her smile drops just as quickly as mine did. I find her bouncing a familiar green tennis ball off the wall before catching it in her hands.
My vision spots and my blood boils with pure anger.
If I get my hands on him...
"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT BALL?!!" I roar, already knowing the answer.