crooked heart → the walking dead ⁵

[ 031 ] dearest love.

CROOKED HEART.

chapter thirty-one, dearest love.
[ season ten, original episode ]

IT WAS UNDENIABLE BEFORE but now there is no way they can stop the war. Not with the vicious murderers of two Whisperers. Not with Dante's head given to Alpha. Not with Siddiq buried beside Carl.

When Odessa and Theo return to Alexandria that morning, Gabriel is waiting for them at the gates. Odessa doesn't bother to stand around to her him bitch, she leaves Theo for that. She can hear him faintly as she walks away. But what sticks out the most is. "What did she do?"

It hurts.

Despite the pang of hurt in her chest, and despite the chilly morning Spring air, Odessa finds her way to the cemetery. To the place where her baby brother rests. When she reaches the grave that holds her brother, she stops. Her eyes find it. She stares down his grave, the moss covered rocks that make out the letter 'C'.

Carl.

The other half of her.

She allows herself to sit down on the dewy grass, not caring if she'll get wet.

She brings her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "Hey, Carl." She starts, her voice quiet. For a moment, she's eighteen again, talking to her brother when he was right in front of her, still alive and still breathing.

"It's been a really long time." Odessa says. "Sometimes I wonder what it's like up there in Heaven. Are you with Mom, Sophia, Glenn? Even Enid, maybe? If she's there with you, I hope she found you. She still loved you even all this time later, Carl. It was beautiful."

Odessa smiles faintly. But then her eyebrows pull in, a frown forms on her lips. "I miss you, little brother. So much." Tears form in her eyes. She tries to blink them away but when she does, they roll down her face. "It's so hard. Every single day, I miss you. I thought that maybe it would get better but who I am kidding. We both know how I get. But I think it's maybe gotten better? I don't know. I guess I just haven't had the time to mourn Flynn, Henry, Enid, Tara and the others. And now Siddiq is dead, too. Is he with you? I really hope so. He was so good, Carl. Just like you. You were both good."

"Good morning," says the voice of her daughter. Odessa sniffes, bringing her hand to her face to wipe away her tears. She looks over her shoulder. Brielle stands behind her, her arm slung across her chest. She looks exhausted.

"You're awake early, Ellie." Odessa notes.

"I didn't get much sleep. Alden was worried about you, so I worried about you and him. He stayed up all night, I stayed up most of it." Brielle informs her as she sits beside her mother. She pauses, brown eyes darting over to her mother. Her eyes scan her. The dried blood on her hands and clothes, her tear stained face, the specks of blood that rest on her cheeks, even a small speck on her lip. "What did you do?"

Odessa looks back at Carl's grave. Her eyes then drift to Siddiq's, who is buried beside him. Odessa blinks. She could lie. She could fabricate a lie. But why should she? Brielle will find out the truth and it'll bite Odessa in the ass.

"Theo and I, we took Dante to the border." Odessa tells her. Brielle nods. "I took his head in front of Alpha and. . . and Negan."