Abide » Alden

15. Free

"Stop. Please..." I yell.

I watch the life drain from Alden's eyes. It's so horrifying to watch myself strangle him. It hurts me just to keep my eyes open.

As if a switch is flipped, I release him. Alden struggles to regain his breath.

I move to hold him before I discover my feet remain planted in their spots. I fight to move them, but it doesn't work.

I look back up to see myself, once an evil living being, now a cold, dead creature.

Creature-me stumbles forward for Alden, her teeth bared with a haunting growl. She gets closer and closer and all I can do is watch.

I scream, but no sound is made.

As the creature reaches for Alden, Michonne comes to the rescue. Of course, in a nightmare, there is no happy ending.

The creature eats her alive in front of me. In an instant, Michonne joins the ranks of the walking dead.

With every blink, more and more of my friends and acquaintances appear snarling with dead eyes. It's a herd.

They catch up to Alden and I watch with horror as they bite away chunks of his flesh. I unfortunately hear his screaming, his pain.

I hold my hands over my ears. There's so much red. I look at my hands. They're distorted by the dream, but they are covered in red. His blood is on my hands.

I let out another silent scream and I look down to see myself at the edge of a cliff. At the bottom lays everyone I care about. They're all dead.

Automatically, I step off the ledge. For a split second, I watch myself fall before jolting awake.

I blink rapidly as I look around the dark room. I turn to see if Alden was woken up by me, luckily he still sleeps peacefully.

For a second, I irrationally suspected that he was dead. But I was comforted by the rise and fall of his chest.

I pull the blanket off of my body and I shiver. I was without my jacket, my thin t-shirt being the only thing covering my torso.

Despite having jeans on, my legs are cold. I know it's from me sweating in my sleep.

I carefully slide out of the bed. I ignore the loss of heat from having my legs tangled with Alden's.

Tiptoeing to the other room where I left my jacket, I pass by a mirror on the wall.

For a brief and careless second, I glance in it. I frown at the tear streaks staining my face. My hair was messy and tangled. This is perhaps the longest time I've looked in a mirror for a long time. And I hated it.

With a quiet grunt, I walk over to my jacket. I shrug it on with a quick glance through the doorframe to Alden's room.

I wipe away any evidence of crying from my face before I sneak out of the trailer.

The night air is cooler than before, the only evidence that summer is almost over. I march to my truck to grab a machete, a flashlight, water, and a lighter.

I don't plan on being back until the sun is high in the sky. I have some walkers to hunt.

I make my way to the gate and give a curt nod to the guard. I've left late at night enough for them to let me through without question.

I keep walking through the dark woods until I feel I'm far enough away.

With a deep breath, I holler, "Come and get me, you pieces of shit!"