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Guilt was one of the strongest emotions Adeline Grimes had ever experienced. A suffocating feeling that drowned you in your own thoughts. A heavy pressure on your chest, pressing harder and harder until your lungs give out. Your mind repeatedly telling you that it's your fault and no one else's. That what had happened was all on you. An incessant throb in your heart, tears sliding numbly down your cheeks and claiming your body to be their home. Screams of pain cracking through the night sky - that insignificant feeling of walking away without any harm done upon you. Flashes of regret, flashes of gunshots, flashes of losing who you truly are.
Hot steam made its home on the mirror she stood in front of, hands covered with blood gripping the edge of the sink in attempts to stabilize herself. Adeline refused to meet eyes with her enemy. She refused to tilt her head up and wipe away the steam to see what damage she had caused. But as her eyes trailed down her chest, the deep scratch marks that littered her skin caused the memories of guilty blood flash around her mind. "No..." The whimper left her lips, fresh tears falling from her eyes and leaving a salty trail in their wake.
Lifting her head, the fog that curled up the mirrors frame blinded her from seeing herself. At first she felt thankful, but then the guilt came. There she stood - able to look at herself, being alive enough to have the opportunity when others couldn't. When he couldn't. Wiping away the steam, blood blended in her movement as she finally met her own eyes in the blurred mirror. The first thing she noticed was the fresh blood splattered across her face, the scratches across her collarbone burning marks that would never leave her skin. It was her fault. It was all her fault. Those were the only words she could hear as she brought the bloodied tips of her fingers and picked at the deep scratches, wincing in pain at the feeling.
"Those windows, what's on the other side?" The breathless question left Shanes lips, his hand wrapped tightly around his wife's. They stood atop a set of bleachers, the woman stuck between her husband and newfound friend. Otis looked to where the officer pointed his flashlight, "About a twenty foot drop with nothing to catch you, maybe some bushes, then the athletic field." He informed, the three of them moving against the wall.
The sound of walkers growling and snarling below them caused Adeline to peek over the ledge - heart beating harshly in her chest as Shane pulled her back. "We just need enough time." He asserted, glancing down at the walkers. "We gotta get up there, get 'em open and get out." He planned, shining his light onto the windows decorated with rain droplets.
"I can't do that." Adeline spoke up, the pain in her ankle only growing to be worse with the more weight she put on it. "I can't make the jump even if I wanted to. I can try to find another way but I can't do the jump." She whispered.
