In denial//clexa-lexarke an

Meltdowns and pillows

Time was passing rather slowly in the mansion. It was getting difficult to stay tied down to a place dealing with the same people repeatedly without any other human contact. It was not like living with your family, it was more like being trapped with them in a cage. Though they had all gotten pretty used to each other, the occasional fights arose, sometimes over important things and sometimes over insignificant ones.

Because Strand's mansion was isolated, it took long drives to go anywhere aside from the hardware store and some other useless places nearby. Alicia would only leave when something essential required it, and sought to get out more, but of course her mother would not allow it. Alicia made any pretext to exit the premises like getting more supplies or needing new clothes etc. and Elyza, so long as it was safe from walkers of course, would take her anywhere she liked since every place was abandoned but all things inside stores were largely left untouched.

On the rare days when they actually managed to make it past the front gate due to some barely credible justification, they would drive around for as long as they could without raising suspicion about wasting time outside and endangering their lives before they returned to the mansion. Sometimes they ran into a few walkers and Elyza made it a learning opportunity for Alicia; they practiced shooting them with the gun and Alicia's aim was improving. Sometimes they practiced with the bat and knife but Elyza didn't like risking Alicia getting too close to one.

Of late, Elyza had noticed the tension between everyone in the mansion was raising and the fights between them increasing, Alicia's too. She was clearly frustrated by being confined in a mansion and like the rest of them, she was taking it out on everyone, except for her. She did not blame her. It was not easy getting used to what was happening, and it was almost like the grownups used the mansion to escape reality for a while, to pretend that what was happening outside those walls wasn't happening at all. In contrast, the younger ones were attempting to learn to accept it, but being locked-in made that challenging when they were told to stay inside and trapped by the same routine every day. Who knew an apocalypse could get so boring and daunting? thought Elyza. Had it not been for Alicia, she would have left. She was not one to stay in the same place for too long.

Elyza knew that adjusting to this new way of life was affecting Alicia, and she knew the brunette needed to vent. She helped her to do so by channeling her energy into training and killing the occasional zombie, but more than physical, she needed emotional release. She didn't talk often about much and she needed to do that. Elyza wasn't sure what Alicia had left behind before she had met her but she was sure that she needed to talk about it. She had caught her staring at some pictures on her phone a few times and she could feel her getting nostalgic, but she needed to come to terms with the fact that she was not going to get it back. It was harsh, but it had to be done. Elyza had gone through a similar thing when her parents had died so she understood what Alicia was going through even if she didn't exactly know.

----

"What's going on?" Elyza asked as she went into the kitchen to find Alicia and Chris altercating one day.

"Nothing." answered Chris sternly. 

"Chris is mad that we get to leave the mansion sometimes," said Alicia.

"Sometimes? You leave all the time, and we all stay stuck here while you take bike rides with Elyza." He said, already evidently agitated from before.