To Walk

A Past Unknown

Ayyyy! I'm back...found this half-written chaPter and I decided to finish it!!

Vote and comment if you please...the mysteries are alllll comin' together real smooth!!

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RECAP

HIS POV

          I scowled at the name on the ceiling, still weak and trapped on my back. I shouldn't even be having these feelings of obligation, and yet...I could not stop them. They were so unfamiliar and frustrating, and yet, they belonged inside me, filling up a hollow I didn't know was there, that I had tried to fill by forcing myself to enjoy my kills.

          I finally sighed, "Ava...I...thank you."

          Silence.

          And then a numb voice.

          "Oh...you're welcome."

          She didn't speak to me again that night.

END RECAP

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A Past Unknown

AVA WOODS' POV

          He'd thanked me.

          I sighed, digging up one last potato from the now-dwindling little crop in the broken-down house and hobbling over to stick it in the furnace. It had been two days since he'd said anything, and I hadn't attempted to make any conversation with him. I just changed his 'bandages' in silence, and then helped him sit up and lean against the far corner to make him a little more comfortable.

          He was asleep when I'd left...and had been for a good while, at least since yesterday afternoon. As I didn't want to wake him even as I began to grow hungry as the day waned, I left to just eat some of the potatoes I'd found when he first stumbled into the fortress, bleeding and broken.

          I sat next to the furnaces, inspecting an old bloodstain on my knee as I waited for the potatoes to bake. I still couldn't wrap my head around it. Of course, every time I found the strength to manage to speak to him was amazing in and of itself, but him thanking me?

          It just...seemed impossible. The gratitude...I didn't want it...it almost seemed to make me sick. What would my family think of me? I had just saved their killer's life. He wasn't going to change...why would this act of kindness drive him to do anything differently? As soon as he healed enough, the next time I walked back into that fortress could be my death. He would always remain cruel and heartless and I had just doomed more people to their deaths...

          I bowed my head over my knees, hiding my face in my arms, "Notch what have I done..."

          I remained that way until the potatoes were done baking. I ate numbly, went to get a drink at a spring, and then left to go check my traps as the sun began its descent. I was not afraid of the dark, as this place was completely empty. Two traps had been broken, and the rest remained untouched. I didn't bother fixing them, as I guessed I would rarely be down here from now on, and began making my way back to the fortress as night began to fall, darkening streets and lowering the temperature. As I was nearing the fortress, I was deeply focused on my own thoughts, the moon was barely a sliver, and the silvery light wasn't enough to light up the missing bricks in the road in my path-