Solitary Souls

Chapter 1

The shot.
Then the scared and shocked faces of the other kids.
Marlon and the blood.
Clementine repeating to see these images in her mind.
That night she doesn't close her eyes at all. She tries with patience to calm down Aj that was panicking after he realized what was happening.
Everything is surreal and everyone could feel the tension.
But no one gets too angry with him.
He is just a child.
A child in the apocalypse, scared and traumatized by events.
The following days, Aj seems to calm down helped by Clementine and the other kids. They supports him and even with a lot of pain for the loss of their friend, they forgive him.
Louis seems to be ok, just a little bit quiet.
Clementine and Aj stays at the school and after a week everything seems to be back to normal.That morning Clementine wakes up really early. Aj is sleeping heavily, so she gets up to her bed and goes out very quiet to their room.
She goes down the stairs. Everything is silent and peaceful, there's not a sound.
A beam of light go through the windows, the first light of the morning.
Then, a gentle whisper in the shadow comes to her ears.
《Already awake, my darling?》
Clem gasped a bit, but she recognized that voice. She turns her head and sees Louis, leaning against the wall, smirking at her. She notices his eyes are a little tired.
《Yeah, i lost my sleep, that happens really often these days.》 Clem says and gets closer to him, smiling back.
《You haven't slept that much too, right?.》 She asks.
Louis shrug his shoulders.
《I'm just an early person.》 Clem shakes her head and crosses her arms.
《Whatever you say.》
She answers back and stares at him. This time he's the one that looks away. But then he looks up again, deep into her hazel eyes. She seems to understand his mood of the moment.
《I know how you feel, Louis. You don't need to hide it. Whenever you want to talk, you know that i'm here.》
Louis seems amazed, than mentions a smile.
《Uhm, so... alright, Clementine. This moment i would really enjoy if you let me teach you how to play the piano. Isn't that a good idea?》
Suddendly his eyes light up.

Clem finds herself really glad to see him already feels better.
《I would really enjoy it too. But the others are sleeping...》
Clem esitated a moment. 《They are sleeping like rocks, don't worry!》 Louis says, so they steps inside his room.
《Welcome again in my dimore.》 She looks around, than already sits at the piano. 《You are so ready to learn.》 He exclaimed, reaching her and standing near to her. Clem smiles and nods her head.
《This fascinating me. It's awesome that in a such cruel world, there's already something beautiful to experience.》
Louis listens to her, then he leans on the piano and a smirk appears on his lips.
《You bet.》
He says, Clem smiles and suddendly she becomes really serious. 《I love your face when you are so concentrated.》
Louis says, smiling like an idiot.
Clem rolls her eyes.
《Can we start or what?》
She claims.
《Umm... someone is taking it a little serious.》
Clem press a random key and then looks at him.
《Alright, that's a good start.》 He laughs, then starts teaching her the basics.
After a while, Clementine is feeling something really unusual for her. Something warm in her soul, everytime she meets his eyes and her hand touches his palm.
They spend like an hour or more doing this.
Louis is joking around with Clementine, laughs with her. He even sits near her and starts singing again for her, a really beautiful song that she never heard.
Clem puts slowly her head on his shoulder while he's playing the piano.
She feels protected from everything and everyone. 《You can rest on me as long as you like.》 He softly whispers to her.

Clementine keeps her eyes closed, relaxing herself.
Time passes, Louis keeps singing softly.
Then he stops, puts his arm around her hips and gets even closer and starts cuddling her, caressing her with his fingers running down her spine.
《I couldn't resist.》 He admits, smirking and stops after some seconds.
Clem seems not bothered about his attentions.
《Can you do it...again?》
She whispers looking down, a little shy.
《What's that face?》 Louis seems amused about her facial expression and surprised about what she said. Maybe he's not expected that.
He's used to see a very resolute expression on her.
So, Lou keeps moving his fingers on her back, slowly.
Clementine turns her head a bit and looks deeply in his eyes.
She feels the heat on her cheeks, so accidentally shakes her head.
《I'm ok, i'm...just enjoying this moment.》
Clem admits and pressed her cheek on his shoulder again.
《Well, WE are really enjoying it.》
Louis says smiling like an idiot.
Then something draws their attention.
They heard voices that are speaking loud and a scream from the outside.
Louis and Clementine gets up really quick, worried about their group.
They runs out the door and...
there are Aj, Tenn, Mitch and Willy playing with Rosie.
The kids are screaming and running, throwing to her a stick that she's keeps catching. They're loud but not that much to attract walkers.
《They scared the hell out of me!》 Clem says, looking at Aj.
Louis touches her hand and grabs it, trying to calm her down.
《I know right. That scared me too. Now take a rest, come here.》 He leads her to sit down a little bit far from the kids, at the picnic table, on his legs.

Clem sits on his legs, trying to calm down.
Life's too short to be a stress ball all the time, like Louis said to her.
《Are you okay?》 He asks, looking at her with love.
《Yeah, don't worry.》 She answers, relaxing on him.
Then she tries to get up but Louis grabs her hips.
《Come on, relax a bit. Let your kid play with his friends now. Leave him to have fun.》
Clem thinks about it a moment, then nods and stays on him a little embarassed.
Louis seems a little anxious too, just for a moment then takes the courage and get his lips closer to her cheek, kissed it softly.
She's not expecting that. Well, maybe she wished for it, but not in that exactly moment. 《I really like you, Clem.》
He confessed, then keeps kissing her cheek with his warm and soft lips.
Clem can't say a word, she's feeling so timid and vulnerable.
But she feels so good too and don't want it to stop.
Louis smirks while his kisses repeatedly touches her skin.
《Clementine.》
He says a little more decided.
She looks at him one second and whispers something but then another thing draws her attention.
This time the danger seems real.
《Hey, i thought you're enjoying it... maybe i'm not your type or wh...》
Louis keeps talking to her, then he noticed where Clem is looking at.
Someone is staring at them behind the grate of the school.
The stranger don't move at all and seems amused.
Clem changes her expression to relaxed in terrified in one moment.
She stands up and takes her knife out.
Louis take his "Chairles" and becomes really serious.
《Who the hell are you?》
He loudly asks.
The guy is not that far away from them, he leans against a tree with crossed arms. He isn't hiding at all.
They could clearly see that he's really tall.
Black hair and light eyes.
He appears from nowhere.
He rises his hands up, smirking at them.
《Hey! Sorry for interrupted you. Wasn't my intention...》 He says, giggling a bit.
《First answer to us!》 Clem screams, really angry at him.
Those cold eyes don't shows any emotions.

The stranger guy stares at them, smirks and gets closer to the grate.
《My name is Damian.》
He says really calm. But on his arm they can clearly see a really bad injury.
《I'm alone and i don't want to hurt you. I just need some medication.》
He says changing his voice that shaking a bit.
《How did you get it?》 Louis asks resoluted.
Clem looks at him one second, she never saw him in that mood before.
《I fell on a rock while i was trying to escape by a walker...with my friend. He didn't make it...》
His face became really sad.
《You know, that pretty hurts... i feel so bad.》
Damian starts complaining.
Clem seems confused, she's not totally sure if she could trust that guy. But she can feel his pain for the lost of his friend.
《Please guys...that hurts so bad.》
Damian looks really in pain in that moment and he's clearly getting worse while time passed by. Well, that injury is similar to the one that Clementine gets by a dog.
Clem stop thinking, that guy needed help in that right moment.
Louis looks worried but he wanted to know which are Clem's intentions.
The stranger stumble a bit, his light eyes closed and he holds his head in his hands.
《Come on, he need us.》 They runs out the school with their weapons out for precaution.
Louis checked fast if the guy is armed, but he don't even own a single weapon.
《Ok calm down, now. We're going to help you.》
Clem says to him. Damian tries a smile, looking at her with his cold eyes.
Louis and Clem holds him by the arms and entered the door of the the school and reached Louis's room.
The other kids are playing in the other side of the school so no one noticed it.
Only Violet and Aasim inside the school noticed them, and comes to help.
They give him the medication that he needed. But Clem is the one that will help him to heal the wound.
《I will do it, i 've done it more than one time.》
She says, helping the guy sits down the bed.
《Clem, are you sure you don't need help?》
Louis doesn't leave the room, stays near to her, staring with suspicious the stranger.