VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴123

Leah was dressed in the same all-black outfit that the Commonwealth soldiers had on under their protective gear.

"You seem to be healing fine," Leah notes my injury.

I hated that the injury was from Brandon. I hated that the injury was my own doing- making him do that to me. Because, despite the war, Brandon would've never hurt me that way in his own power.

"I took you in when you were dying, literally on my front porch," Leah reminisces. "And I loved you.. like a daughter, even. And you.."

Tears build in my eyes. I told Mom, Anna, and others that I wasn't ready to talk about the Reapers. I wasn't ready to talk about what I did. The fact I betrayed the family that accepted me when I needed it.

"Brandon loved you. Pope loved you-"

"Pope drugged me!" I cut her off. "He tried to kill me."

"Because you were plotting to kill him!" Leah snaps back.

I turn my head at the reminder. The Commonwealth soldiers and Lance had already left to do whatever they were planning next. It was just Leah and me now. Somehow, that made it worse.

"I'm not Matt," I say in regard to her adopted son. "And you're not my father. We had something in common and then it was ruined because-"

"Because of you," Leah cuts me off.

"Because you threatened the people I love most."

"We were supposed to be the people you loved most. We attacked that community under your lead, Ellie!"

The sting of that reminder was so overwhelming that a tear slid down my cheek.

"Because we wanted to help you cope with the pain you had! Because we loved you!" she screams.

I sniffle and bow my head in shame. Leah stands and begins pacing.

"You wanted that Rick and Michonne dead. We followed you because we trusted you. It turns out to not be them and instead of owning up to that mistake, you betray us and make a war break out!" she continues.

"I never claimed to be the fucking good guy in the story!" I scream.

"Yeah, 'cause you aren't. You're bad, Ellie. You're the villain," Leah says. "The villainess in all of our stories."

With how much tape and rope was around me, all I could do was barely stomp my foot in anger.

"And this Hornsby guy? He tries to help rebuild your home and you betray him, too?"

"So, what? You buddies with him now?"

"The enemy of my enemy," she remarks. "It's all business with Hornsby and I. But, me and you? Ellie, it's personal between me and you."

I try to breathe but my chest felt like it was collapsing under the weight of my own actions.

"And you don't even have the guts to betray us and kill us. You had to chicken out and make Brandon do that so your mother could kill us," Leah scoffs in disbelief.

"It was them or you. I had to make a choice. It's not something I took lightly, Leah!" I cry out.

"What made you choose them, then? They abandoned you! They kept that man alive that killed your stepdad! They-"

"Shut up! Just fucking shut up!" I scream.

Negan. He enters my brain like a disease- though it was hard to tell if he ever truly left.

He killed Glenn. He tortured us. He's the reason Sasha died. He saved Hershel. He's married. He's happy. He's dangerous. 

"He's the reason you wanted to attack that place! Why you wanted revenge to begin with!"

"He's alive!" I shout, slumping in the chair. "God, he's.. He's alive."

"He was there that day," Leah recalls. "He was helping your mom."

I throw my head back and stare at the dusty ceiling that could cave in at any second.

"You betrayed us. You killed Pope. You killed Brandon.. and yet you still haven't gotten the guts to kill Negan?"

I exhale a breath with puffed cheeks. "I couldn't do it. I.. I couldn't."

"Why?"

The shift in the air was barely noticeable. It was still tense. If anything, me not killing only angered Leah more.

"He has a wife. She's pregnant. It's just like we were back then," I admit, ashamed of it all.

"You never hesitated before. Not when you were with us."

"It was different."

"Because now you have your brother? Girlfriend? Mom? Are you afraid of the way they'd look at you if they knew all the things you did?"

Leah sits back down.

"Do you want to know what I think?" she asks.

I shrug, though the motion is limited.

"I think you went soft. This world either breaks or shapes people. You let it build and build until it broke you. And now, everything you built.. the family. The love. The Reapers. It's all gone because you were too weak to finish what you started."

I raise my head back up to meet her eyes once more.

"You can't even build your old home back up because you're too weak. Negan didn't make you strong. He didn't shape you out to be a better fighter. He just made you into a scared, weak child."

Cursed thoughts of Carl enter my brain. The way he swore that he was weak for lashing out the way he did. That he was weak for sneaking onto that Savior truck.

"Pope died for you. Brandon died for you. All of our friends. Your father died for you. Your friend 'Sasha' died for you," Leah runs down- both things we lived together and memories that I'd told her.

I shake my head, mentally pleading with her not to go down this road.

"Look at you now, Ellie. You're weak. Broken. You're nothing.. That means that Brandon, the Reapers, your father, and everyone else that put their lives on the line for you.. they all died for nothing."

My jaw locks and Leah goes blurry from the tears.

"Now.. Now Anna is dying for nothing. Josh. Your mother. All your friends back at that Hilltop place.."

"What do you mean?" I ask, voice coming out cracked and defeated.

Leah stands up again. She straps a gun around her back and steps behind me.

"Leah, what the hell does that mean?" I beg.

A woven bag is placed over my head and I can't see much.

"I'm not like you, Ellie. I'm stronger. And I will finish what you started," she says, sounding more distant.

"Leah!" I cry out. "Leah, wait!"

The door shuts behind Leah as she leaves- on a mission. With a vendetta.

 𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈--

okay but did leah lie,,