Don't let go: Joel Miller x OC

Home: Pt1

It was a strange feeling, to take another's life. She had anticipated to be overcome with a debilitating sense of guilt, had expected her stomach to churn with sickening nausea but there was nothing of the sort. There was no remorse nor regret as she turned her back on Sophie's cadaver and ventured back out into the dimly lit corridor. The scalding tears rolling down her cheeks not from contrition but the sheer build up of adrenaline and suppressed anger that had pressurised and combusted into a need for vengeance. No, she did not feel shame nor penitence for the act she had just committed. What she did feel was a heavy weight being lifted from her chest, a sense of accomplishment for ridding the earth of another rotten parasite... One that in here eyes did not deserve the opportunity to reform herself as she had done herself. A life for a life... A duty accepted to honour her little family, to protect what was left of the life she had created for herself. A life that Sophie was to have no further part of.

A sharp composing breath sucked in as she shoved open the heavy duty internal door that lead back into the main room of the warehouse. Cold corpses littering the concrete as she inattentively stepped around them.

Tess glanced up, brows furrowed and her lips drawn into a tight line as she balanced the toddler on her hip. Her vision scanning the blondes crimson splattered skin and attire, a question straining from her tongue that she refused to ask. She didn't need to ask. Instead she swallowed the query thickly and provided a curt nod, passing the traumatised child back to her mother.

"Thank you..." Ava breathed quietly as she pressed her lips to the top of her daughters head. Her eyes glancing around the room, stumbling upon the realisation that it was just her and Tess conscious in the room. Neither Ellie or Tommy within sight.

Her expression knitting in confusion, "Where's Tommy? Is he okay?"

The other woman nodded, wiping a palm across her clammy forehead, "He's got a bit of a sore head. Fine otherwise. Him and Ellie are just scouting the area for a working truck so we can get you three out of here..."

The blonde chewed on her bottom lip as she glanced down to where Joel laid still, anxiously bouncing Lily on her hip whilst using the pad of her thumb to swipe the wetness from the toddlers cheeks, "Are we all going to fit?"

Tess's attention momentarily dropped to the floor before tilting back up with a shake of the head, "Tommy will drive you back. Me and Ellie will grab the horses... can't leave three of them here- they're needed back in Jackson..."

Ava gave an understanding yet curt nod before her expression softened at the woman in front of her, "I..."

Her unspoken sentence trailing off as Ellie exuberantly burst open the entrance to the building with Tommy stood taut behind, looking more than a little worse for wear.

The young woman reabsorbing the solemn scene below, her small frame radiating with anxiety as she blurted out their findings, "We've got a truck pulled up outside, we gotta be quick just in case they come back for it!"

The blonde glanced up as she watched Tommy lament past her, his usual charismatic charm vacant as he soberly edged toward his brother. He composed himself with a deep sniff before addressing the room, a despondency present in his eye, "Ave, go take Lily n' wait in the truck... Tess, Ells m'gonna need both your help movin' him..."

Her lips drew into a tight line. It wasn't quite a smile... there was nothing to smile about but it was enough to acknowledge his command as she allowed her brother in law to take charge of the situation. The pain visible within his soul was something that crumpled her on the inside. Her better nature wanting to console him and ensure that it was all going to be okay but how was she meant to pacify him when she wasn't even capable of soothing her own spiralling mind?