𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. LVI pt. II

.oOo.

"She's not downstairs either," Alice told her brother as her silent footfalls climbed up the stairs to meet him. It wasn't the first time they'd woken up to a Diana-less room, but she usually didn't stray far from their side.

In fact, the last three days she had always woken them up with her noise, coughing and wheezing into the morning due to the damn dust in that place. Alice had had half the mind to wipe the room down herself, just to be able to sleep in peace.

That morning, nothing.

It hadn't seemed suspicious to begin with. Alice and Felix had taken the opportunity to laze around like it was a regular Sunday morning after a late movie night. For a second, they had felt like two typical teens. To Alice, the obvious following event would have been mom and dad bursting through the door to order them to get up and do something of their day.

That thought had been a rose with thorns, beautiful to contemplate but fucking painful to hold.

She had jumped off the bed and put on her shoes disdainfully. Then, to a questioning Felix, she told she would go find their idiot asthmatic sister. He had joined her.

"We have to tell the others," Felix replied, his foot tapping on the patterned rug as he began to bite his nails. "Someone must've seen her."

"Duh." Alice grabbed his arm and prompted him down the stairs with her. This time each foot was purposefully stomped to alert their presence. Her loud voice called for attention. "Listen up. Has any of you seen our sister this morning? For those who don't know her: tall, brown skin, a bit of a superiority complex." Her out-of-place humor wasn't well met. Bunch of sticks in the mud. Alice almost expected Diana to materialize from behind someone and give out a sardonic laugh.

"She hasn't come down for breakfast yet," Carol answered as she set down a plate of sliced homemade bread on the sparse dining table.

"I haven't seen her," Dale responded, "I was awake before everyone else in the common area. I saw every coming and going, your sister hasn't set foot downstairs."

"You never went for a piss or something?" Alice asked in earnest. "Any chance she could've slipped past your all-seeing eye?"

"Is she missing?" T-Dog asked, standing from the sofa with a furrowed brow.

Alice's patience was running thin as the tension in her body began to rise. "Nah, I just forgot to check if she was taking a shit for the last hour."

The front door opened, giving her a sliver of hope, which was crushed at the sight of Rick and Daryl strolling in like everything was fine in the world. Everything was not fine. Her sister was gone, and no one seemed to care. Before they could get a word in, Alice shook off Felix's hand from her shoulder and asked them if they'd seen Diana outside.

They read the tension in the room and the fire in her eyes. Rick questioned her and Felix about Diana's last known whereabouts, where they'd searched already, and what she usually did after waking up. As the situation escalated, more people became involved as Rick divided tasks and search groups.

Alice felt the relief of being taken seriously, awkwardly thanking Rick.

"What's this fuss all about?" Louise entered from the back door with a basket full of jars with homemade preserves.

"One of ours is missing," Rick relayed.

He needn't say another word before Louise smiled that sharp smile that made Alice want to punch her face. "The black darlin'? She asked if she could take one of our horses for a ride. She was so keen on it, I had to say yes." She set the basket down on the table and began unloading it. "I hope that settles your worries."