crooked heart → the walking dead ⁵

[ 017 ] scars from the past.

CROOKED HEART.

chapter seventeen, scars from the past.
[ season nine, fourteen ]

THEN.

ODESSA GRIMES KNOWS THAT one day she'll have to speak again. She hopes that the horrible day isn't soon. She isn't ready to talk about what happened. She doesn't know how she can. Will she just spill her heart to Siddiq? Will she sob in Michonne's arms?

She isn't going to do either.

She sits in the shower, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. She stares blankly at the stream of scorching hot water that comes from the shower head.

In the few times she's alone, all she can do is think to herself. It's been four months since her attempt. Her failed attempt.

As she leaves the bathroom, she shuts the door behind her.

"Des." A voice says.

The nineteen year old's shoulder jump at the suddenness of the approach. She turns to see Brielle standing in front of her. Brown eyes wide.

Odessa brow's furrow.

"There's new people." Brielle informs her. "A whole bunch of 'em. There's only one grown up and the rest of them are all kids! There's some my age! I can finally play with people who aren't babies or toddlers!"

She runs off excitedly. Odessa brow's furrow even deeper as she watches Brielle run off.

Odessa drops her dirty clothes and towel off in the washing machine. Then she makes her way down the stairs and onto the front porch.

As she does, her eyes dart down to the three blue handprints on the corner of the porch. A look flashes in her eyes as they land on Carl's handprint. Tears threaten to well but she doesn't allow them. She can't let herself seem weak in the face of new people.

When she looks up, she immediately takes notices to the children exploring the community. Children she's never seen before. And then there's the woman walking alongside Michonne. She has braids, and she looks as if she's been on the road for a long time.

Odessa watched carefully as Brielle bounces between each kid, introducing herself. But the Grimes girl takes notice to the way one of the teen boys eye her kid.

There's a hunger in his eyes. Not a hunger like Killian, but a hunger for death and chaos like Negan's once did.

Something's wrong with these people.

NOW.

Michonne stares down at the ragtag group at the gates of Alexandria. Her eyes are locked on one person in particular. Her eyes never stray from the young woman draped across Daryl's arms. Her arms hang limp at her sides, eyes screwed shut. Blood stains her skin and shirt.

"Odessa and Henry are hurt. She's hurt real bad. You were closest. I wouldn'ta come but we had no other choice." Daryl informs her.