Sage ➸ Carl Grimes

31 ➸ ashes

TREES by TWENTY ØNE PILØTS

Sentimental time, apologies in advance;

I really want to thank you guys for 150,000 reads. Not just a 'I'm grateful' bullshit note, no — I really want you to understand how absolutely incredible that number is. I started this book with no intentions on it becoming such a big part in my life, but it has. It really has. Everyday I log on and write, even though it takes me ten million years to update, I have all of you waiting for it. You're so active and leave so many lovely comments and I couldn't be more content with where this book is at. I have built something great, but I couldn't have done it without the support. If anyone bothered to read all of this; I LOVE YOU. NEVER STOP.

This chapter is slower than the last one, but it included a Sage + Carl flashback, and so many Carge feels. Spam it up.

100 votes for an update.

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SAGE

"Honey, look at me."

"Leave her alone, Beth. She can't hear you. She's shutting down."

"I'm not just gonna leave her here like this, Maggie!"

"I know how this works—"

"Maggie. She's losing it."

I felt hands clutching my shoulders and gently shaking my body. These hands let go of my shoulders and coddled my cheeks in their palms. Their skin was soft; eliminating the numbness of my own and replacing it with their frail and delicate touch. These hands cradled my face, and a dainty voice only came to follow.

"Sage, it's Beth. Please don't go away, stay right here. Stay with me, Sage...don't go away," Beth begged, holding my face in the futile attempt to bring me back.

I was lost.

I was in my mind, my head, my thoughts and my dreams. My body was laying there on those hospital floors, my back pressed against a hospital door and my hands cloaked in the blood of my mother. I was trembling and I was present; but my mind was absent. I was traveling through realms I had never dreamt of and thoughts I had never grieved for.

My mind never reconciled a single thought: it was always a collection of my biggest fears.

It was a scattered array of the colors blue and red. Blue waters, red shoes. Blue plaid, red hands. Blue eyes, red blood.

And to think that I had maneuvered from the color blue to the color red with one uncautious action haunted my bones.

My mind was spinning and the gaze I had mustered was almost as absent as my empathy for the dead. My head was throbbing and my heart was aching and my mind was fading.

[She's pulling a Rick Grimes.]

"Sage, listen to the sound of my voice. Carl is gonna be alright, you hear me? He's gonna pull through, I know he will."

I blinked a few times, finally glancing up from my frozen position. My eyes were crystal with tears that had risen to the surface, but had no empathy to allow themselves to leak onto my skin. My vision was testing me with clouds of black and darkness; fading in and out of what was real and what was another sick dream beneath the skin of my head. I had continued to let my eyes scan the hospital hallways, until I landed on a body.