wastelands → the walking dead ¹

[ 015 ] secret keeper.

— CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
secret keeper.

ODESSA SITS WITH DALE in the RV. Well, she actually lays sprawled out on the bed in the back whole Dale sits sitting at the table.

"Dale?" She calls out suddenly, eyes latched to the ceiling.

He responds with a simple, "hmm."

"Do you think Shane killed Otis?" She asks, her brows furrowing. "Because I was lookin' at his head during the funeral because you know it's shaved and stuff now but there's a spot that lighter than the other and had little red blotches."

"It looked like maybe someone had ripped his hair out?" Dale asks back, confusion creasing his bushy eyebrows.

"Yeah," she replies, "and that story he spewed at the funeral was a hundred percent bullshit."

"Yes, it was," Dale agrees.

"I think they were cornered and Shane sacrificed Otis. Shot him and left him for bait so he could escape," Odessa theorizes.

Dale and Odessa remain in a silence for a couple minutes until Dale finally speaks up, "Des, can I ask you a question? You don't have to answer, okay?"

She mods, "shoot."

"Back at the CDC. . . did Shane— did he hurt you?" Dale questions her.

When she doesn't reply for a moment, Dale looks back at her. "Dessa?" Concen takes over his expression like the speed of light.

"Yeah." She says, her face completely passive and her voice nearly numb. "Yeah, he did. In— in the rec room. He was drunk and he told me I looked like my mom."

"He didn't— didn't, you know?" Dale asks.

"No, no," she shakes her head. "He didn't get that far. I— I stopped him when I heard his belt unbuckle."

"I'm sorry for asking," Dale frowns, a sudden guilt tearing at him.

Odessa shoots up from where she lays. She shakes her head, "no. Don't apologize. Please don't apologize. You're the only one who noticed it. I mean, I think Daryl might've noticed something too but he was still partially drunk I believe."

"Are you okay?" Dale quizzes her.

"From that?" She asks. He nods. "I will be once I kill him."

"Kill Shane?" His brows furrow again. "How're you gonna kill Shane?"

"I'm gonna slit his throat," she tells matter-oh-factly, her eyebrows raising.

"You'll become a killer, Odessa. Do you really want that blood on your hands?" Dale interrogates.

"As long as it's Shane's. And no one else's." She informs him. The sad part is that she's telling the truth. She isn't cold-blooded, she doesn't want to kill for the fun of it. She only wants to kill one person in her entire life and that's Shane Walsh.

Shane lied about her father's death. He slept with her mother three weeks after her father died. He tried to become their father. He sexually assaulted her. He was being mean to Carl. He killed Otis.

Shane deserves nothing but death. Odessa Grimes will grant him that. She hates him. She's never hated a human being as much as she does Shane, her very own godfather.

He's ruined her. Mentally, he'a ruined her. She's a sixteen year old girl. She should not have had to deal with Shane's wandering hands or his fatherly orders.