Burn: The Walking Dead Clementine x Male Reader

Prologue: Storytime

My mother used to sing this song...

"Hands up in the fire, burn, burn, burn, burn."

"Hands up in the fire, burn, burn, burn, burn."

"I pray to god for some water..."

My mind always ran to those lyrics when I was in fear. I would constantly find myself humming the tune of such a melodic song.

It calmed me.

But the fact that those aspects that existed in the song were the same things that took my mom and my dad away from me, always slowly ate at me internally.

How could fire be such a creator of life, yet a destroyer?

We breathe oxygen, drink water, and live on an earth that's full of green.

But flames can take all of that away...

The oxygen becomes charred and chemically imbalanced, rendering it unbreathable.

It boils water to the point of evaporation, nearly dispersing it completely.

And lastly, too much of said flames take away all green and life on earth, transforming it into dark, hot, embers, twisting it into a place where life can no longer exist.

But yet, fire is known as a creator of life.

The womb, or, the embryo of a woman.

A campfire, where the flame holds many stories shared by your loved ones...

"Been cursed since birth..."

"Guess I'll never learn..."

I can't even remember the full song...

.

.

.

The darkness imposes itself. It was the first thing that I felt enclosing me.

Can you feel "darkness"?

Huh... Strange.

The last thing I remember was feeling intoxicated, ashes clouded my eyes as everything was blurred.

The dead were walking.

Fire was spread everywhere, and that same fire caused numerous things to burn.

I remember a pier.

A large boat.

People.

And a bridge.

I endured the drunken state my body forced me to be in, it was as if my body was a lifeless worm.

But I couldn't see anything.

Why is it so dark?

My being wrapped up in the blanket of this absence of light only made me question even more;

Was it even worth it?

"So..." A voice says.

I snap out of my dazed state.

My eyes adjusted to see a familiar face sitting across from me, light started to discern through to my eyes as I could finally see clearly.

I sat around a campfire with a person I once despised.

His name was Marlon.

Oh... I get it now.

"How'd you meet Clementine?" He asks me.

"...How'd I meet Clementine?" Marlon nods. "Well, that's a long story." Everyone soon started to emerge from the shadows, the only thing illuminating their faces was the campfire light.

Kenny, Carley, Pete, Luke...

And Lee.

"Oh, this oughta be good." Kenny asserts with interest, as he and everyone else joins you and Marlon, forming a halo.

"Plus Y/N," Luke starts. "It's not like anybody's waitin' for us. We've got time."

I nod.

Looking down, I notice I had a drink in my hand. It was almost like I'd been here for a while, conversing with everyone.

Though, some people were inevitably missing.

I sigh and relinquish my thoughts while staring at the campfire.

Was this it?

Carley puts her hand on my leg, once again releasing me from the dark chasms of my mind. "You've gotten so big!" She smiles widely.

I return a smile, as my gaze remains trained on the flames, and take a swig of my drink, to find out it's empty.

Kenny hands me another beverage. "Here, I'll 'pour one out' for ya." He says with a wink. I chuckle and take it from him.

While still looking at the fire, I smile brightly and laugh.

"What's so funny Y/N...? You can't be laughing at Kenny's joke, it wasn't all that." Lee announces with a smile.

"Nah it's just," I start. "...I think I'm 'in the family way.'"

Everyone looks at me with a big grin, and we all share a great laugh.

"Y/N, you're the only person who'd do that!" Pete yells through a rough chuckle. I try to control my laughter by taking another sip, but I smile through my puckered lips, instantly causing me to start snickering again, as I spill some of my drink.

This merits another wave of laughs from the group.

"Well," I put down my drink after gaining my composure. "The story... Damn, where do I even begin?"

Everyone's eyes were on me... Truly, they were interested, and they wanted to know every nominal detail.

"Just start from the very beginning..." Lee says.

Nodding, I clear my throat and begin to speak...