Lost Too Much 【REDONE】 ║ Daryl/OC or Shane/OC

Chapter 87: I'm finally free.

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(11-180 AV) She came home. I still can't believe it. Cory's actually home. She showed up the day of the fair, too, when everyone from the communities had gathered in one place.

Eddie's alive, and Conner's okay, too. They brought along a girl named Alana from the hospital, someone Cory knew in high school even though she doesn't remember. That doesn't matter, though. The point is, Cory's here. She's alive.

If there was any doubt in my mind that my feelings for her changed, that doubt is dead. The second I saw her, my entire body stopped. I genuinely couldn't believe it for a second. I thought I was hallucinating like she used to. Of course, I had Roselyn right next to me, holding my hand, and Cory saw it. She didn't look super pleased, and she was probably trying to hide it, but I could tell she was upset.

She left with a group to go defend Hilltop in case the Whisperers arrive. The Whisperers, which I never mentioned because they just became an issue less than two weeks ago, are a bunch of assholes wearing walker skin as masks and walking within them. They came to Hilltop to get the leader's daughter back, Lydia, but now things are tense and it's not looking good. We held a meeting to talk about what to do next and by the end of it, Michonne asked Cory to take her place as leader. Conner encouraged it so she gave in and now she's in-charge of Alexandria.

I'm sitting in the theater writing this while Roselyn gives me a few seconds to myself. Now that I know Cory's alive, I don't know what to do. It's hard to tell if Cory still has feelings for me, whether she seemed jealous or not. I need to talk to her but I don't know when I'll get the chance. I'm in-charge of Hilltop with Tara now that Jesus has died, which happened with the start of the Whisperer ordeal. If Cory's in-charge of Alexandria, she'll probably be busy there. And I saw her and Daryl reunite. He's lucky he came back when he did or Cory would've been pissed.

I'm going to have to give the journals back soon before she notices they're gone. She's going to read the entries I wrote and learn it all anyway, so it'll be up to her what she does with that information. I don't know if she'll ever be over Daryl enough to be with me. Even then, it might be a mistake to leave Roselyn after how hard she tried to fix me. She was there to help me. So was Cory, just at a different time and in a different way. They both tried to fix me, but only Cory was actually able to. I don't think she had even meant to do it intentionally. Just being her, she changed me into someone I can actually stand to be. I'm ashamed of who I was before I met her.

I don't know, but I have to put these journals back before she notices they're gone. I don't think she'd care I wrote them, considering she gave me permission, but I'd rather avoid her questions and prolong her realizing I had written in them.

- Shane Walsh
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I was grateful to be home alone after my anger overtook me. I had been pacing for what felt like hours, though it was realistically probably a couple of minutes. Stressed didn't even begin to describe how I felt recently. After everything Michelle told me with that list yesterday morning, I hadn't been able to look at her.

I hadn't been down to see Chad yet, either. I was so overwhelmed with anger toward him that I knew visiting him would be too much. I might kill him then and there if I did, and that wasn't what I wanted. I had questions I needed answers to before I could allow myself to get rid of him.