Shane and Lori go away a lot, off into the woods, merle says lots of gross things about what they're doing.
I think I'm 9 now, but I stopped counting the days a while ago. If i'm nine it means that Dani must be almost 19.
Dani says it was an accident.
And that's why dad left
Dani says that dad isn't my dad.
I don't know what that means.
Shane is kinda weird, he's not Carl's dad but he acts like it sometimes, he's always telling him what to do. I don't like being told what to do, but Shane is a cop, and Mama said we always had to listen to cops.
Sometimes Carl looks sad. Dani says it's because his dad is dead.
I guess I look sad too when I think about Mama.
Or max.
I like Amy the best, everyone says we look like sisters. I wish Amy was my sister.
"Do you want to paint your nails?" she asks, walking over to me, holding a few bottles of polish in her hands.
"Do you think Dani will be mad?" I ask, looking up at her, hands bloodied from the squirrel I was skinning, it was my job. Dani says if it wasn't the end times I would be in the kitchen anyway, so I was to do the cooking and the laundry.
"It's a woman's job to look pretty" she reasoned with me, curling her nose at my bloodied appearance.
"I guess so" I nod, wiping my hands on my pants.
She smiled, toothy and wide, as if hardship could not touch her, she was one of the prettiest girls I had ever seen. She looked as though she had been kissed by an angel before being sent down to earth like her halo and wings were neatly folded and waiting for her at the gates of heaven whenever she decided to return home.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Amy applied even coats of light pink polish to my fingernails, she scrubbed the dirt out from under them, filed them, and then began painting. The expert hands of a woman.
"Have you ever had a boyfriend Amy?" I ask her
"Yeah I have, his name was Alec, and he was the worst." she snorted as if recounting a memory
"Are Lori and Shane boyfriend and girlfriend?" I ask her, and she stares at me shocked.
"No they aren't..." she pauses, then her face is real close to my ear "But I think Shane has a crush on her" she giggles, and I can't help but laugh too.
I hear loud boot steps approaching and I glance back quickly, dani and Merle stand next to each other, guns on their hip, Daryl stands a foot or two away, carrying his crossbow and three dead squirrels.
"The fuck you doin' Ember!" Dani shouts upon seeing me, my squirrel half-skinned and left covered in a burlap cloth. "You get over here" he just about growls, I give Amy a sad look and stand carefully.
He drops his gun into the holster and pushes me by the shoulder into the woods, I know what happens next.
Dani has always liked hurting things, when we were living in the white house with the blue door it was small, birds and bunnies.
Mama always thought it was max, but I knew. And Dani knew that I knew.
That's the first time Dani ever hurt me.
He hit me real hard in the stomach and made me promise never to tell mama.
When we lived in the apartment dani got in fights, he started hitting kids at school, started fighting with teachers.
YOU ARE READING
Embers - C.G.
Fanfiction"I don't quite remember the day the outbreak started. I remember my mother loading us into the van, I remember being upset because she left Max; the family dog, at home. I remember my brother sitting next to me, listening to his music just a lit...
