crooked heart → the walking dead ⁵

[ 037 ] the tower.

CROOKED HEART.

chapter thirty-seven, the tower.
[ season ten, episode fifteen ]

THEY GO TO ALEXANDRIA. Everyone is waiting on them. Cori, Brielle, and Koda greet the them the gate. The four girls go to the infirmary, where there is no Siddiq. The weight is heavy without him.

Odessa's wife and daughter watch her as she looks at her shoulder in the mirror. She cleans the wound.

"Negan is such a dick." Cori says. "I mean, yeah, y'all had a plan but did he really have to get the Whisperer to stab you?"

"He's too pussy to do it himself," Odessa mumbles as she taps the wound with the wet washcloth. "Bastard."

Odessa then glances at her daughter. She looks down at her feet, her eyes locked on her black boots and the blood specks on the leather.

She frowns.

"Hey," comes the voice of Daryl Dixon. All of them look to the man. All four of them look at the man. "Time to go."

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They all leave. They are in the top floor of an abandoned hospital. It's a bet that Beta will take his walkers to Alexandria and it isn't a bet they're willing to take.

Alden and Aaron both stay behind, despite Odessa's argument to them both. God, she can't lose either of them. And if she lost Alden, one of the few men who have crawled his way into her heart and made it his home. He's her best friend, another piece of herself.

She can't lose him in the way she lost T-Dog or Glenn, not in the way she lost Benjamin or Noah.

Odessa and Brielle walk beside each other inside the woods. They walk the perimeter. Odessa hadn't wanted Brielle to walk outside with her. She hadn't wanted to put her at risk.

But she begged. And Odessa agreed.

So now, they walk in a silence.

"Mom," Brielle starts. Odessa looks down at her. "I'm sorry."

Odessa looks away from her, sucking in a breath. She doesn't say anything to her daughter. Her eyes just scan their surroundings, searching for anything out of place.

Brielle swallows, anxiety crawls up her throat. Talking to her mom has never made her anxious before, not like this.

"I just wanted her dead, Mom." Brielle whispers, her own eyes on the ground. She watches the way the leaves crunch beneath her boots with every step. It's what she focuses on to keep herself grounded as she continues, "I didn't understand what it was like for you. . . during the war. But then I did. I had to watch Flynn die in the same way you watched Glenn die. And all I could feel after was anger. All I wanted to do was get revenge for my brother, Mom. I didn't care about my own life, and for a minute, I didn't care about anyone else's either. Now Earl is dead. And so many other people are, too."

Brielle's jaw clenches. Her hand curls into a fist. "But at least Alpha is dead."

Odessa's brows furrow.