Torn Apart • TWD

Chapter 29 - the plan

Well, she did it. Over two hours of distracting Merle into staying put, she has stolen his attention and repeatedly pissed him off to the best of her abilities, though it wasn't without cost.

There are more than a few items smashed against the wall to contain his anger into not throwing them at her, the map they were writing on has been torn to shreds, and three glasses have been shattered from her attempts to get a drink. Multiple bottles and cans of beer are sprawling the floor, the man needed more than one to get through his hellish day.

It has set the perfect scene for the plan. It had turned four around twenty minutes ago, she had heard Cameron come up the stairs and enter his flat before turning on the shower to remove whatever blood and grime the outside had stained him with, Merle luckily didn't hear because of his booming voice, calling her every name in the book.

Cameron is sure to of heard those shouted words before he had entered the shower, she had caught the sound of him repeatedly dropping items in his haste to quickly finish and investigate what was going on.

Merle is currently pacing, silently stewing over their latest disagreement which is small in comparison to others they've had but he is mad that he lost. The girl was insulting and cursing him out in another language while he kept commanding her to shut up because he was trying to think, and when she didn't, he had threatened to throw her out with a bullet wound and watch the dead eat her, which is when she curtly reminded him how much his boss would love to hear what he has to say. It was a very fun conversation in Tessa's opinion.

The child is standing next to the sofa with crossed arms and staring at her knife, Merle's back is to her as he walks the length of the room. Her beloved blade is just sitting there and the urge to take it and plunge it into his stomach is strong, but her main focus is to just get her knife back in her hands, the girl has a feeling it will be needed for when she's out of the building.

She takes a few stealthy steps towards his figure once he gets close then turns again, but she hesitates after a moment, this is bringing a brief moment of deja vu when she had tried to steal fuck-face's crossbow a few days ago and then got scared shitless by how he had caught her, but Merle stole her knife from her so she is just taking what belongs to her which helps her continue her slow steps towards him.

Merle's head is hanging low and he's playing with the buckles on his prosthetic, unclasping it just to clip it back in right after, she's seen him do it over and over during his pacing, and since she highly doubts he wants her to see whatever fiddling distraction that he's doing, so she's guessing he doesn't know he's doing it.

She soundlessly creeps forward as Merle curses when he accidentally slots the prong into the wrong hole which causes the metal to loosely slide down his arm.

As he's correcting the mistake, Tessa keeps her body as far from his as she can while also still having her arm able to reach its target. The man is shaking his head and muttering words lost in his gruff voice, but still unaware of how her hand is inching closer behind him.

Without moving, blinking or even breathing, her two fingers gingerly pinch the tip of the blades hilt. Her entire body is as stiff as a board as she waits for Merle's fidgeting to continue after its brief pause, then is finally able to tensely start pulling the knife up from the slot it's been wedged into, starting by only shifting it an inch as a test.

The girl's eyes begin to sting with her unmoving lids, so she halts the movement to allow her to blink for a few seconds then resumes the stealthy movements. Her wrist curves to persuade the blade up and the light two fingers she used to hold the knife quickly became a fistful grip when Merle had caught her wrist.

Tessa stares up at the man with wide eyes, not expecting the sudden manoeuvre in which the arm he was using to play with the buckles shot out from under his handless arm to hold her in a bone-crushing hold.