VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴31

Things were never in Ellie's favor.

The farm and everyone they lost there.

The prison amd everyone lost there.

On the road. Grady. The church.

Ellie knew Alexandria was a ticking time bomb. And yet, she was beginning to let herself get wrapped in the smiles and music of it all.

"It was his," Glenn explains with a grave voice.

Ellie leans out of Maggie's arms enough to grab the notebook. Glenn still had blood on his hands and some leaves a residue on the paper as she takes it.

Ellie blinks through her tears. Noah's notebook only containing a few words. 'This is the beginning'.

Something went wrong on the run. Noah was dead.

Aiden was also dead and Tara was injured- barely alive herself.

Ellie sniffles as she looks up at Glenn. He was disheveled and broken. He'd watched Noah get torn to pieces by walkers right in front of him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Ellie hugs the notebook to her chest with one arm and stands. Her free arm wraps around Glenn as she burrows into his side and cries. Glenn's chin trembles and he weakly hugs her back as he tried his best to remain some semblance of strong in front of her.

Ellie was sure all her screaming cries and sobs were gone. She didn't have the capability or capacity to cry that hard. She felt defeated. Broken.

Noah was family. And now he was gone.

--

Glenn wouldn't tell Ellie exactly how Noah died. He just said the walkers got him.

When she asked how Aiden died, he acted like he didn't hear her.

Ellie couldn't sleep that night. Not that she wanted to, of course. She feared the nightmares would return.

Instead, she laid in bed hugging Noah's notebook and thought about all the things that made her love him.

How accepting he was. How strong he was. How he treated her like an adult. How he had bigger dreams and ambitions. How he held on to hope. How he laughed. How he joked. How he limped but fought through the pain.

Every little piece of Noah that made him.. him. And the things that made him who he was made him Ellie's family.

Ellie had Noah's notebook. It made her think about the scissors that Daryl gave her.

She rolls over in bed, turning the small lamp on. She sets Noah's notebook on the nightstand and opens the drawer. Maggie had given her a music box that Carl gave her. When they moved into their own houses, Ellie didn't like being alone so Maggie set the music box to play and give her comfort.

Inside the music box was the scissors. Ellie plucks it out, criss crossing her legs as she stares at it.

Beth risked her life to get Noah out of Grady. Beth understood that people were always looking for something to hold above you and get the upper hand. Noah had hope that things like that would change. Both wanted to build and plan into the future.

Other people killed Hershel. Other people killed Beth.

Ellie was observant.

Josh and Anna's story about their father lined up a little too similarly to Noah's death.

Aiden or Nicholas.. maybe both killed Noah.

Other people killed Noah.

Ellie grips the scissors toghtly.

Never again.

Other people were too dangerous. Ellie needes to remember that anyone outside of her group and her family were threats.

Maybe not at first. Some may coexist for a little.. But, eventually it all comes down to a fight. Ellie could never let her guard down.

She stands from her bed and tiptoes downstairs. Glenn and Maggie were still up, talking at the kitchen table. Maggie was attempting to console Glenn after what he witnessed.

Ellie sneaks to the storage closet and quietly digs around until she finds some rope- twine more like.

She hurries back upstairs before she could be seen by Glenn or Maggie.

She sits back on her bed, setting to work.

She had to have a reminnder that other people were threats. If she could, she'd get it tattooed or maybe even branded on her skin. That wasn't very convenient, though.

Ellie weaves the finger holes of the scissors onto the rope. Then, she loops the twine into a circle, big enough to slip over her head. She ties it in a few knots so it wouldn't break. Satisfied, she drops the homemade necklace and the scissors plop against her chest, the weight keeping them shut.

She stares at the necklace for a few minutes.

Never again.

Other people could never hurt her friends and family ever again.

--

Maggie checked in on Ellie by afternoon. Ellie was laying in bed scribbling in a blank notebook, Noah's still on her nightstand.

Maggie didn't push her to talk. She was just making sure she was holding up okay.

The only thing Maggie did want was for Ellie to not shut down.

"Why don't you hang out with Carl? Matbe Josh and Anna?"

Ellie doesn't know how to tell Maggie she saw Carl sneak over the wall after Enid through the window.

Josh and Anna.. other people.

Ellie's chest clenches as she shakes her head.

"Do you want something to eat?"

Ellie was going to say no.. But, the desperate look on Maggie's face made her nod.

"I'll be back in a few."

Ellie waited on Maggie's return. She was drawing something that looked like an abstract garden of flowers when she heard screaming.

Her guard flies hogher than it already was and she tosses the book aside, jumoing off the bed. Maggie was heading out the front door when Ellie ran down the stairs.

"What's that?" Ellie asks, running faster to catch up with her.

"I don't know.."

Maggie pauses to allow Ellie the chance to catch up as they rush up and down streets. The screaming stopped after a couple minutes.

By time they found the source of the chaos, Michonne had already knocked Rick unconscious.