crooked heart → the walking dead ⁵

[ 035 ] they fight.

CROOKED HEART.

chapter thirty-five, they fight.
[ season ten, episode twelve ]

THE FIRE TAKES OVER the Hilltop. Barrington House is aflame. Odessa knows that Jax, the children, and dogs are gone. Brielle and Jax would have gotten them out as soon as they saw the flames below.

Odessa fights. Despite the burning flames that take over her home, she fights. Her knives have never been covered in so much blood. She's never been covered in so much blood. It's human and walker alike. It coats her entire body, all of her clothes. It's on her face, under her nails.

Still, she fights.

Her breathing comes out in wheezes, her throat aching from the amount of smoke she inhales. She doesn't let it slow her down.

She cuts through the dead and the living.

A Whisperer races at her. Odessa ducks under her outstretched arm, she stands to her full height. She grits her teeth as she stabs both knives into his spine. He gasps, his arms falling to his sides. She yanks the blades from his back, letting him drop to the ground.

Odessa glares down at the man. His eyes are not yet glazed over but they stare out at the burning community he helped destroy. Odessa wants to cause him pain. So, instead of giving him mercy, she brings her boot-covered foot down on his head. He cries out. She stomps his head over and over until there is nothing left but brain and blood. She spits on his corpse.

And then—

A bark.

Odessa's head snaps up, she knows that bark. It's her girl, her Koda. Why is she still here?

Odessa whirls around. In front of her is her baby, her precious Koda Girl. Her one eyes stares at Odessa, terrified yet brave.

A walker moves behind her.

"No!" Odessa's scream is so incredibly loud. She runs faster than she ever has. Koda moves to the side as Odessa kicks the walker to the ground and stabs one of her knives into its brain.

More walkers come towards them. Odessa looks around, there is no way out. "Koda, run."

Koda doesn't.

Odessa would rather save her dog than herself.

She turns to Koda, her eyes wide and full of tears. "Koda, run!" She shouts. Koda takes a step back away from Odessa. She's never yelled at her before, not ever. Odessa throws a rock at her, "run! Run, Koda!"

Koda turns, her eye sad. She takes off.

Odessa turns back to the walkers. She kills then all, one-by-one until she's standing alone among the dead. She breathes heavily. She's covered in blood. And then—

She lands on the ground, a heavy weight on top of her. Her knives land on the ground. The Whisperer straddles her, his dirty hands grabbing hold of her throat. He squeezes.

Odessa gasps, her eyes wide. She looks at the man and for a moment. . . all she can see is Killian. Oh, God, not again.

He doesn't plan to.

He plans to kill her. Right here and right now. In the middle of her burning home. He lifts her up, slamming her head into the ground. Odessa cries out at the pain that shoots through her skull.

The man screams.

Odessa gasps as he releases her. She scrambles up, grabbing her knives. When she turns back around, she sees something that causes her eyes to widen even more.