VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴29

Now that the group had begun sleeping in their own houses, Ellie feared that it would be even easier for Maggie to track her down.

Ellie lived with Maggie, Glenn, Noah, and Tara.

As soon as she and Anna parted ways with the plans of meeting up the next day, Ellie rushed home. There, she saw Tara at the kitchen bar.

She was too stressed to give the older woman any attention and ran past her.

"Hey!" Tara calls, confused by the girl's panic. "Ellie?"

The two haven't talked since the church-carrot incident. But, Tara hated standing by and seeing someone in pain or worry. Especially when she still deeply cared for said person.

Ellie begins up the stairs and Tara chases after her. Tara is faster so she was able to hop up two stairs at a time and cut Ellie off halfway up the staircase.

"What? What do you want from me?" Ellie demands.

"I.." Tara struggles. She wanted to help Ellie through whatever she was going through. But, she also knew the situation was iffy. "I want to talk."

Ellie was sick of talking.

"You rolled up to our gates with two people I love held hostage. You demanded we abandon our own home so that you could move in and take it over. When we didn't, your people killed the one person in this world that meant the most to us and slaughtered dozens more. You ruined our home and scattered us. What else is there to talk about?"

Despite knowing everything so clearly, no one had been that blunt to Tara before.

It was always 'him', 'that day', 'the time', or other variations of dancing around the reality ad to not hurt feelings and open slow healing wounds.

"I.. I wanted to talk about the fact that I'm.. I'm so, so, so sorry, Ellie."

"You want me to say it's water under the bridge? That the past doesn't matter because you're here now? That your choices don't hurt me anymore because you're changed?"

Ellie takes another step up, still shorter than Tara.

"You didn't know us and you agreed to chasing us out of our home and taking it at any cost necessary. Just because I know you now, it doesn't change that."

"It doesn't. But, I want to make it up to you. Because I'm changed. Because it's different."

"How do I not kniw you'd do it again? Attack some other group in the name of 'safett'?"

Tara's hands shake as she places one on Ellie's shoulder. Ellie glares at the touch and Tara leans down to be eye level with the younger girl.

"I never want to do it again because I see what I did to you. And if it came down to it, I'd only ever do it to keep you and your family safe."

"Why?" Ellie demands.

"Glenn saw me there. I was just going to wait and die. He saw something in me and gave me a chance. Then, I told Maggie because I didn't want her to not know. And even when she knew the truth, she gave me a chance."

Ellie quirks an eyebrow. She wasn't Glenn or Maggie.

"I'm a piece of shit. But, you and your family made me feel like I wasn't so bad after all. I love you guys. I want to be better because of you and for you all."

Tara's eyes had tears building. Shr blinks and a single one rolls down her cheek. Ellie swallows a lump in her throat.

She didn't want to hate Tara. She couldn't hate Tara. Hershel taught her to not hate. But, that made it worse considering it was Hershel that was killed that day.