Brother's Keeper ¹ || The walking dead

1.

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"..where are you heading off to this fine morning?" Riven lifted his head as he walked past the RV, seeing Dale, the only Adult in the camp that Riven seemed to tolerate out of everyone.

Riven paused near the front of the RV, turning to fully look at Dale, "..out."

Dale chuckles, "care to elaborate?"

Riven shook his head, "No."

Dale stares down at him for a minute, "Alright, then, be back before sundown or else I'll have to send out a search for you."

Riven stares at him for a second before turning around and walking away, away from the camp, passing by cars, tents, and a few people lurking around,

He headed towards the woods, he spends most of his time in the woods when his brothers weren't around, which was all the time.

His eldest brother, Merle, usually goes out with a group to the city, while Daryl, his older brother usually goes out hunting,

Riven was the one who got left behind since his brother's deemed him to young, too reckless, too much of a burden for them to keep an eye on.

It pissed off Riven that his brothers still thought he was a little kid who needed to be looked after, he didn't need to be looked after, he's been looking after himself for a very long time.

His mom wasn't in his life, she had simply given birth to him and practically tossed him to his father,

His father was around but Riven wished he wasn't, he was an abusive shit who used to beat the hell out of him and his brothers.

He wasn't close with Daryl and Merle growing up since Daryl and Merle were adults by the time he was born, and they were never around much, always out drinking, or in Merle's case, always high.

Riven didn't have any friends growing up, and it had to due with his family, and his extreme anger issues.

He once broke some kids nose for taking his coloring pencils, and to be fair, he brought those coloring pencils by himself since his father didn't bother buying him anything,

Sure, he stole the money from Merle when he was riding off his high, but Riven loved art, he loved drawing, and sketching,

His dad called him a wuss for liking art, practically made fun of him for it while beating him up for getting suspended from school, then preceed to break all his coloring pencils in front of him before forcing him to burn all his journals full of sketching.

Merle and Daryl didn't do much about it when they saw Riven burning his books as he held back tears, his face bruised and bloody.

Nobody has his back, he had to have his own back. It has always been like that and it will always be like that.

A twig snapping from behind made Riven sharply turn around, his hand flying towards his knife,

"..whoa, wait! It's just me." Riven narrowed his eyes as Carl Grimes walked out from behind a tree, frightened as his eyes went to Riven's knife,

Riven rolled his eyes, dropping his hand to his hand, "Go back to camp."

Riven turned around, his back facing Carl as he continued to walk,

Carl followed him, catching up to him, and walking beside him. "My mom said I can hang out with you if you said yes."

Riven glanced at him, "No."

Carl ignored him, "You always come out here, and I wanna know why."

Riven abruptly stopped, turning to face Carl, and Carl bumped into him, "I said No, do you understand that? N. O. I spelt it out for you, now do you wanna hear it in Spanish? No, fuck off and go back to your mommy."

"My mom said you're not supposed to curse around kids, and also I think that's the most I've heard you say." Carl replied, grinning up at him.

"Your mom is your mom, not mine, so, she can't tell me what to do but what she will do is go bitchin' to my brothers, and I can't have that, so Go back to camp." Riven told him, trying not to snap at Carl,

He's been at the end of Lori's scoldings way too many times for either cursing in front of the children, or simply just being a bad influence for her precious son.

Okay, so maybe he was envious of the relationship Carl had with his mom.

Carl got a nice mom, and Riven didn't, and Riven wondered what he did so wrong for him not to get a mom.

He asked about her once but that earned him a smack to the face, and a gash on the head. He never asked about his mom ever again, but he would like to think if his mom ever stuck around, she'll be like Lori.

"..but what am I supposed to do? I'm bored of doing homework and Sophia's dad won't let me hang out with her." Carl told him, frowning,

Sophia's dad, Ed was an asshole who deserved a beating for what he's doing to his wife and kid,

Riven hated him, Ed reminded him of his dad, and Riven wanted nothing more than to beat the hell out of him, but Daryl and Merle had told him countless of times to ignore him,

"Ain't our business." Is what Daryl told him but Riven couldn't just stand by and let Ed do what he pleases,

Everyone was ignoring it, yet they all talked quietly about it, it pissed him off, but he couldn't do much about it,

Everyone gangs up on him when he does try, but the only person he actually listened to was Carol, she pleaded for him to leave it be and he did, but that didn't mean he couldn't be a safe place for Sophia to hang around with.

Sophia was the only kid in the camp that Riven tolerated, Carl was just plain annoying that Riven wanted to push him in the river.

Sophia reminded Riven of himself, maybe that's why he cared so much, since nobody was ever around for him, he guess he could be around for Sophia.

Riven stares down at Carl before scoffing,

"..let's head back to camp."

⭐️

1049 words

First chapter!

Thoughts?