The Ruins

Chapter 67

Mal opens her eyes and everything was too bright and clear it blinded her. She sits up from the couch and looks around her surrounds of a apartment, a familiar place that recognizes. The old quarantine place she lived before. The room is different; bright and clean, the window door open for a small breeze bringing into the room, a fireplace with the different herbs and spices.

Then she saw a shadowy figure coming through the brightly lit light. She saw a person when it came closer, and the moment she face the face her body gasped out her soul. The face of a Bounty Hunter who took care of her, her only person she ever loved.

"Tom?"

Tom stood halfway down a long hallway that vanished into soft white light. Tom was dressed with a brown flannel shirt, the Colt Python he gave to her is on his holster.

He looked younger than Mal remembered. There were fewer shadows in Tom's crystallising blue eyes and his hair still has the curls at the tips of his brown hair.

"Hey, baby girl," said Tom.

He touched Mal's face. His palm was warm. She hugs Tom, feeling the warmth in him. "I miss so much."

"I know. Me too." Tom sits down the couch and gives a seat for Mal and she sits down next to him.

"I should of killed Lucius. None of this would of happened Tom. If I killed him and didn't leave you behind, I would of never done the things I regret, to the pain that deformed me."

"Deformed you? Mal, I wish I could tell you that the world was a better place than it is," Tom said quietly. "Or that it's all going to be easier. But you know it isn't, and I think you knew that before you walked through the fence back at the quarantine zone. It wasn't your fault, things happen for some reason, the good and bad."

"Yet I wouldn't be what I am."

Tom smiled. "Yes there are people doing bad things and wished you were still with me. But not all of them. You found some goodness and mercy. If whatever happened with you and wasn't the way it was you would of never met your friends, the children you taken care of from me teaching you. You would of never met the Negan."

She huffs a chuckle. "Why would I think Negan is a better man?"

"Because he gave you peace." He cocked his head. "He gave your a life where you don't have to stress and look behind your back every day. He's your Savior."

Mal thought about it.

"I guess so." She looked up at Tom as he turns. "Tom? Are we dead?"

"You see my sister Melody here?"

"No, sorry. Does this mean you're not really here and that this is some kind of coma thing? Like a dream?"

Tom gave an elaborate shrug before standing up. "How would I know? I might be alive somewhere in the Ruins and your dreaming. Of course you're dreaming and I'm your ghost who giving advice to the hero."

"I'm no hero. I'm a survivor."

They stood there, grinning at each other.

"I love you, Mal."

"Love you too, Tom."

Tom turned. "Tom?"

He turns. "Yeah?"

"Will I ever see you?"

"If I'm alive. But yeah, I believe so." He gives a generously warming smile and walks towards the light where it consumes him.

"Tom, where you going?"

"Tom?" And he walked away, and Mal called for him.

"Tom?"

"Tom, where you going? Tom? Tom?"

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(A/N If you don't remember who Tom is he was in the beginning of the story, in the prologue part and I didn't put that prologue for just a small scene. He is important, especially for Mal's character and what her past was.