VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴88

For the first few months, Maggie was convinced she was being haunted.

Then, she thought she was being hunted.

It started when she and Hershel were on the road and they came across a crate of food.

Then, she was lost on the way to Georgie's base and found a map pinned to a traffic sign.

Maggie and Hershel found Josh and Anna. 

It was like a hand reached down and cot the groups on the same course and they stumbled into each other.

That's when Anna told Maggie that Ellie never came for her. Ellie never showed up at the meeting spot. All that was there was a letter to Rick that Gabriel found. He assured Anna that he would get the letter to Michonne since things were.. strange with Rick.

Maggie told Anna and Josh about the bridge.

Rick was so close to getting back to the group and he just.. went into the air. They never found the remains.

They all tried not to think about the fact that Rick Grimes died the same day Eleanor Greene went missing.

Surely it was a coincidence.

Once they regrouped and tried to figure out a plan, they realized that the 'hauntings' weren't a threat at all. Ellie was doing it. Ellie was following them. Or, maybe they were following her and she was leaving clues behind.

Maggie told Anna a story about how they used walker blood to map out a way for Glenn to follow. Anna then found some spray paint and wrote similar words for Ellie. 

The next morning, the group found a note tied to a deflated balloon that read 'don't find me. keep going.'

That only made the mother and girlfriend more anxious to find their beloved Ellie. Josh took over watching Hershel who was growing day by day while Maggie and Anna searched for signs from Ellie.

Things were quiet from Ellie for a few months after that. Maggie was making them go in circles. Georgie was getting fed up with chasing after someone that didn't want to be found. 

That winter, on the first snow-fall of the year, Maggie found a wooden box with Hershel's initials on it inside Herhsel's bag. She cried to herself for a multitude of reasons.

For starters.. it meant Ellie was back and see was alive. She never told anyone, but from the few months of silence, Maggie wondered if Ellie was even around anymore.

Second was because Ellie only came back to them because she wanted to give Hershel something. The older Hershel got and began talking more, Maggie made it a mission to tell him a story of Ellie every day. And when he would ask where his big sister is, Maggie would tell him that she's becoming stronger for him.

Maggie also cried because of what was inside the box. 

There was pictures. The entire Greene family at the farm. Pictures of Maggie and her father, Hershel. Hershel, Ellie, and Beth. Beth and Maggie. Matthew and Ellie. They broke Maggie's heart and healed it at the same time.

It'd been so long since she'd seen her father and sister's faces. Ellie made sure to give those to Hershel even though Maggie knew Ellie must miss them just as much.

There was a guitar pick that Maggie remembers Otis giving to Ellie. A necklace that their distant cousin sent Maggie for Christmas one year. A handmade bracelet made of leather that Maggie knew Ellie made for Hershel. 

But, at the very bottom of the bag, there was a notebook that made Maggie cry even more.

It was a plain notebook. She flipped through it and found a page that had been dog-earred. The letter was to Hershel, from Ellie. It was simple as well.