Knew her from the start - Ellie Williams x Femoc

In Your Darkness I Will Always Be There

Ellies POV

It has been a month since what happened with Anastasia's mother. She's been acting different which of course makes sense, getting to see her mum for the first time in what had must of felt like forever then her just getting ripped away from her again. She doesn't talk as much anymore, no more snarky comments towards me, no more talking about how she's right all the time, nothing. I can't lie, I miss it.

We've been riding on the horses for a while now when Anastasia gets off of her horse. "We should stop here for the night," Anastasia says just tying up her horse, not making any kind of eye contact or acknowledgment towards either me or Joel.

"What do you think, Ravioli?" Joel asks perking up my interest. "By the look on your face, I'm gonna take that as a yes." Joel laughs to himself. I guess Anastasia was listening to the conversation even though it didn't look as such, because her head lifts to see the expression on my face Joel was talking about.

We had finished our dinner and gone to bed it seems to be about an hour after midnight give or take when I wake up to a noise in the woods. I notice Anastasia isn't asleep next to me and my heart drops. I rush to get my flashlight out of my pack and shine it around where we were. I almost give up and go to wake Joel when a shadow of a person sitting on a rock catches my eye. I shine the light where it is and I let out a relieved sigh when I see Anastasia's head turn toward me.

"Ana, What the fuck I thought you got taken or something, what are you doing out here?" I ask her while walking up to her. She doesn't reply at first though just looks at me with these sad, dead-looking eyes.

"Couldn't sleep, sorry if I woke you up." Anastasia eventually replies.

"Ahh don't worry, I have trouble sleeping through the night normally so I would have woken up soon anyway," I say while taking a seat next to her. I pause for a moment to think.
"How are you doing?" I ask softening my voice.

Anastasia's POV

"How are you doing?" Ellie asks me, it takes me by surprise. A question like that, in a tone so soft like that from Ellie has been unheard of for me at least.

I take a deep breath which comes out shaky. I drop my eyes looking away from the girl next to me while nervously tapping on the rock with my pointer finger, trying to fight back tears I can feel swelling up in my eyes. I try to take another breath in but I choke on it, letting the tears escape my eyes.

Suddenly I feel Ellies pinky finger link up with mine. I look at our hands then slowly, I look at Ellie. The gesture may be small to anyone else but because it's coming from Ellie I know this is her way of comforting me. It has more meaning to it than any words Ellie could say to me.

The other girl gives me a small smile which automatically makes me give the slightest one in return. I let out a shaky breath, calming myself down.

"We should probably go back to sleep." I say so softly the only person who could have heard it was Ellie as she was so close to me.

We head back to our sleeping bags and lay down. Ellie's laying down closer to me than she was before.

It's so quite now. I'm left alone with my thoughts. I haven't been able to stop them since it happened. The image of my mother laying on the end of those stairs is like it's burnt into my brain. No matter what I or anyone's says it never leaves my brain. Tears start streaming down my face with the occasional sound of my breath filling in the silence. I thought that everyone was asleep but movement beside me proves me wrong. I feel Ellies hand slowly take mine and our fingers interlock. She doesn't say anything but she doesn't need to, this is enough, the gesture it self says enough. I can feel myself calming down before drifting off into sleep.