↳ it's who we are now...
oc x carl grimes
season 4-7
TW: Mentions of death, gory depictions, suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, language, smoking, violence, depression, and other mature topics.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own or claim to own any of The Walk...
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I find a box of checkers in the spare room. I used to love this game when I was little. I remember playing it on the road the night the world ended. Carol had given us a box to use while we waited for traffic to move. It never did. I also had a set in an old, creased, cardboard box under my bed at the prison. I never really played it, but I had kept it out of nostalgia - yearning and hoping for moments and times that no longer exist. Every once in a while, I'd con Mika into playing with me. She didn't mind. In fact, she enjoyed it. Sometimes, I think she enjoyed having another girl around that was nearly her age, besides her sister. As much as she loved Lizzie, they had their differences, and clear ones at that. I always found her to be much more docile, almost too much for my liking, but also sweet and caring. In the end, I always knew she always meant well.
I can't help but wonder if that's what got her killed.
I drop the box on the floor in front of Carl. It slaps the wooden boards, echoes dully around the room, and causes him to look up. "Do you want to play?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"I haven't in a while," he replies as I sit down. "The last time I did was that night on the highway." For some off reason, I knew that about him. Even if I didn't, I wouldn't be particularly surprised. There was no gradual loss of his childhood because it crumbled down all at once, like the intricately built walls of a castle.
I shrug. "Well, you have to play now." He laughs a little. I take the lid off of the box and remove the board that has that old, papery smell to it. I set it out in front of us and begin placing the checkers on the correct spaces. "You can pick your color."
"Red," he says. I spin the board so the red checkers are on his side.
"Since you picked which color you wanted, I get to go first," I declare. Carl's jaw drops sarcastically, but he is still smiling as a grin grows across my own face.
"Not fair!" he cries. I laugh.
"Those are the rules. I guess it's your fault that you're going second because you had to pick your checker color." Carl jokingly roles his eyes. I pick up one of my checkers and slide it across the shiny surface of the game board.
Carl moves a piece. I move my first one again, getting it closer to one of his pieces without getting close enough to be jumped.
When my heart feels level in my chest and my mind doesn't feel on the brink of exploding, I realize that it's moments like this that I wish I could keep to myself and tuck into my pocket so that they could last forever. In a way, I'm nervous to even slightly enjoy something like this because I know that it will be gone far too soon. The happiness inside me quickly dissolves when I remember that Mika, the same person who had brought a memory to me earlier through this old checkers game, is gone. Lizzie is, too.
