damnation → the walking dead ⁴

[ 017 ] dig two graves.

— CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
dig two graves.

IN THE FOLLOWING DAYS Odessa spends the majority of her time with a pair of brothers. Benjamin and Henry take up a lot of her time and she doesn't complain. She likes the brothers. Benjamin comforts her. Henry comforts her.

Maybe it's because they both remind her of people she once knew, people that have died. Or maybe it's because she needs someone. Maybe it's both.

Benjamin has Beth in his eyes. Odessa doesn't understand it but Beth has always found her way back to Odessa. She's done it again. Beth has found Odessa through Benjamin. But she knows Beth isn't truly in Benjamin. It's just the eyes, the heart. He is good just as Beth once was.

And Henry... it's Sophia Peletier Odessa sees in his young eyes. Their eyes are even the same color. Sophia was a little girl Odessa couldn't protect. So she promises herself to protect Henry.

Odessa doesn't talk Daryl. Well, he doesn't talk to her. She catches a glimpse or two of him here and there. But he doesn't speak to her. He doesn't even look at her. It hurts. It hurts her so bad. She loves Daryl Dixon. More than a lot of people. He's her savior, the reason she's alive.

Odessa has been called the "luckiest person alive" by many people. But her luck ran out a long, long time ago. Daryl is the sole reason she is alive. He saved her in Atlanta, he saved her when she went missing, he saved her from the walker that killed Dale, he saved her from the Savior that was going to kill her.

And for Daryl... Odessa has saved him without knowing. When Beth died, Daryl looked at his gun and questioned everything. He wondered what it would be like to shoot himself, to stop his seemingly endless pain. But then he thought of Odessa Grimes. The girl who's become his own. The girl he's saved and saved and saved. The girl he can't bring himself to think of life without.

Odessa saved Daryl that day.

She sees Morgan walking around like he belongs in this place. So on her fourth day at the Kingdom, Odessa walks up to Morgan, stopping him in his tracks. "Odessa," he says as if he wasn't expecting her to approach him.

"What are you doin'?" She asks. Her question catches him off guard. She looks at him expectingly. "What are you doing here, Morgan?"

"Well, uh— I was going to visit the King." Morgan says, motioning to the theater that stands tall behind Odessa.

"You know what I mean." Odessa snaps. "You're going out with them with they go see the Saviors, aren't you?"

Morgan's dark brows furrow. Odessa has always been a smart girl. Perhaps too smart for her own good. She's always been so good at figuring things out. Things she truly doesn't want or need to know the answer to.

Morgan closes his eyes. And he nods. Odessa's body goes rigid at the confirmation. When Morgan's eyes open, Odessa fist flies across his face. He grunts and stumbles back. He holds his jaw, staring at her in shock.

She doesn't move to hit him again. She just shakes her head at him. "You know what they did. Why would you willingly go out there and give them stuff that they're stealing from this place?"

"They're not stealing." Morgan says.

"Yes, they are!" She exclaims. "They take and they kill! Why can't you realize that?"

Morgan, of course, redirects the conversation.
"'Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.' Confucius said that." Morgan tells her. Her eyes narrow cautiously, silently warning him that his next words could put him in his grave. "You're going down a path you won't come back from, Odessa."