Solitary {2} : The Walking Dead

Chapter Twenty-four.

 Pills.

Iris sits in a chair next to Carol's bed, leaning back with her arms crossed as she waits for the woman to wake up, Carol's eyes shoot open, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out the empty pill bottle. "I tried pills too" Iris says, Carol sits up and looks over at the redhead, "for the nightmares, right? They worked for a while... until they didn't and then they almost killed me" Iris explains, sitting up.

"I don't need you to tell me you know how i'm feeling" Carol snaps, Iris stares at her friend, her heart breaking from the words that came from her mouth, "if you keep going down this road you're gonna end up dead! And I can't take another funeral!" Iris says, standing up and walking out of the room, she walks down the stairs and ignores the others as she walks out of the house.

Iris walks into her house, making her way into her room, she sits on the end of her bed, laying her head in her hands and closing her eyes, a knock sounds from the door, Iris stands up and opens the door. "Hey kid, what's up?" Iris asks, looking down at Lydia, "I was wondering if you were hungry?" Lydia asks.

Iris takes a deep breath and offers the girl a small smile, "yeah, let's go grab some food" Iris says walking out of her room and following Lydia to the hall. They grab some food and sit at a table at the back of the room, "what happened?" Lydia asks nervously, Iris doesn't speak, she just stares down at her food, "you seemed upset when you got home" Lydia asks.

Iris fiddles with her bracelet, "I was just upset about something. Dont worry about it" Iris says, going back to eating, "how's school goin'?" Iris questions, changing the subject, she looks up at the girl and notices something, "hey" she whispers, Lydia looks at her nervously, "you'll get there" she says.

The two go silent again, eating their food, Iris looks around and notices someone glaring at lydia, "they been doin' that alot?" Iris asks, Lydia looks back to see the person watching her, "yeah... it's fine" Lydia mumbles, looking back at her food, "no it's not" Iris says.

Lydia watches as the woman stands and walks over to the man, Iris sits on the table, the man stares at her nervously, "you got a problem Tom?" she questions, the man nervously shakes his head no, "good... you look at her like that again i'm gonna cut your eyes out" "Iris!" Michonne shouts.

Iris glares at the man as she stands up from the table, she walks out of the building with Michonne following, "what the hell was that!?" Michonne asks "he needed to know it's not okay to make Lydia feel unwelcome" Iris says, "so you threaten to cut his eyes out?" Michonne asks, Iris lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of her nose, "I'm sorry" Iris mumbles.

"What's going on? Why are you acting like this?" Michonne asks, "because when I look at Lydia I see who I used to be. Before Rick found me, I was like her but she doesn't have Rick to help her" Iris explains, tears threatening to fill her eyes, Michonne doesn't say anything, instead she wraps her arms around Iris and pulls her into a hug.

Iris pulls away when she hears the door open, she looks back and sees Lydia walking out, "hey kid" Iris says "hey" Lydia mumbles walking over to them, Iris looks back at Michonne "i'll see you later" she says before turning back to the girl.

"Come with me" Iris says, Lydia follows closely behind the woman , Lydia looks around confused as they stand in the cemetery, "is that your kid?" Lydia asks, looking down at the 'C' on top of a grave, "Daryl told me you lost your kid" the girl adds, "yeah... his name is Carl. he's the only reason this place is still standing after the war" Iris explains.

"When he was younger he told me he was getting bullied, so I sat him down and we talked. I told him he needs to show them he's not scared of them, bullies don't make you weak, they make you stronger... you need to stand up for yourself" Iris says, looking at the girl "show them that you're not going anywhere, that they don't scare you" Iris says.