Heartless ➳ TWD² [COMPLETED]

Chapter XXIX ➳ Instinct

➳ "HENRY! Henry, come on."

Enid, Addy, and I ran up, finding Henry alive and well, and standing outside of an old cabin.

Immediately, Addy started to apologize, to my surprise. "I didn't want to tell her, but I—"

"Just... Just go," Henry quickly cut her off. "Tell then we weren't here. Please?"

"Henry," came my warning tone, stepping forward. "What is going on?"

He avoided eye contact with me until he looked up and answered, "She doesn't want to go back. Her mother... Her mother hurts her."

"Henry, if there was something that I could do to help her, I would," Enid tried to convince him, stepping up next to me. "No one wants this. But, Lydia, she — she doesn't belong to us. Okay? Alden, Brie, and Luke do. Her mother has them. She'll kill them if we don't give her back."

Henry seemed to be in denial, shaking his head and stuttering out: "No, th-there's got to be another way..."

Enid quickly shook her head and claimed, "There isn't. I'm sorry."

As much as I wanted to defend Henry and the girl, Lydia, I couldn't because I knew what was true, deep down. He didn't love me anymore.

"No," he breathed out, still clearly in denial. "It's not fair. It's not right."

"No, I know it isn't," Enid reassured, taking another brave step forward. "But, it's something that we're just gonna have to live with."

"How?"

Enid took a deep breath before explaining: "When I was about your age, I... I saw my parents die. It changed me. Became... all about surviving somehow." She paused to take a breath. "And, then, someone else close to me died. Someone special, with a big heart. He left me a letter, reminding me that just surviving, it isn't living. And, it took me way too long to get what he really meant."

I already knew who she meant by mentioning the letter the person left behind. My mom keeps this memory box of some sorts around. She keeps it up in her closet, stuffed behind some things. I found it once and, inside, still in the envelope was a letter from someone named Carl. The envelope and letter were just a little rusty, but still readable.

Another step forward, Enid concluded: "You love with it by staying who you are. By not letting the bad things change you."

Henry's bottom lip quivered for a moment when I finally stepped forward and asked, "Do you love her now?" My own lip was starting to quiver with tears in my eyes. "Do you, Henry?"

He avoided eye contact with me until he finally said, "We were never truly together, though, Mollie. You and me."

I closed my eyes for a second as the tears fell down my cheeks, as I felt someone come up behind me and grab my shoulders. I assumed that it was Addy trying to comfort me, surprisingly enough.