BITE ME ➼ C. G. 〖 #wattys2016 〗

EPILOGUE (200k special!!!)

This isn't an epilogue.

It's finally here, fam.

An alternate ending.

I've heard your crying, and while I'm still having my teatime with satan, I think you guys deserve some redemption.

After granting me a doorway from my demons, giving me a reason to keep my head high, I think I've had enough time to thrive in my art. I think I want to give everybody some closure.

So, here's to closing one door and opening another.

Here's to thriving in our art.

• Ø • Ø •

SOTC 1: Hometown by twenty øne piløts
• Where we're from, we're no one •

SOTC 2: Another Love by Tom Odell
• I wanna cry, I wanna fall in love, but all my tears have been used up •

c a r l

Kee tore her hand from mine. I turned, eyes wide with scattered emotions. She pointed at Ron, spewing a string of curse words as he turned off the safety on his pistol.

He cocked it at me. My heart plummeted: I was frozen, trapped in a cage of hunched shadows.

In the moment before he pulled the trigger, I found his eyes. Narrowed in concentration, almost red. My stare fell down to the samurai sword erupting from his chest.

Then time sped up again, and Kee fell backwards into the arms of the earth, a flowering bloom of blood spattering her blue jeans.

She had taken the bullet meant for me.

I let out a resounding yell that whispered against the wind, as if somebody had hit the mute button on the world. I trailed my fingers across her starlit cheek, a gasp passing her lips. "They're coming! Run!" She screamed, and that only made my stomach cinch up.

My mouth was as dry as sandpaper. I hung it open, salty tears falling into my open maw. I shook my head, jerky breaths blocking the words I wanted to say. She was pushing me away, so I gripped the cold, wet flesh on her sheet. "I—I'm not l-l-leaving you!"

Michonne pulled me up. I grappled at Kee's stiff shoulders, but she weakly batted my hand off. "Go, Carl, you dumb fuck!"

I watched as the life winked out of her eyes, and her head hit the asphalt.

My face contorted into a desperate mess, tears and snot mingling on my cheeks. "Fuckfuckfuckfuck," I chanted under my breath, fingers quivering as I tried to pull her up, but all feeling seemed to escape my hands. My heart slammed against my ribcage with each waning moment.

Reality was slowly pooling around me. Walker fingers fringed my periphery. I felt my terrified breaths begin to stretch.

I hauled her into my arms, and a burst of adrenaline shot through my limbs. Her hair fell in a sheet from where her head rested against my forearm. Her expression: glazed, yet peaceful.

For a crucial, momental abyss, she reminded me of Beth.

Kee doesn't deserve an ending like that.

Michonne swung her sword through a line of walkers, and I achingly yearned to help, to draw my gun and take out these damn motherfucks. But my mind roiled and spun, and my body wanted nothing more than to wheeze to a stop like a rusted car. My bones felt as if they were toppling apart all at once, like a Jenga tower.