"Remember the first time you kissed me? It was on the cheek, outside of Hershel's quarantine zone. I remember feeling conflicted, because, I couldn't enjoy it. You were about to step into danger, and could've died. That's the first time I felt it, a...
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dear Rick,
I can't stop thinking about the night at the prison, when we first found it. We thought it was our future, that we were saved, yet when we gathered round the fire you trailed the fence three times in the darkness, alone. Nothing called you back to us, but when Beth started to sing, you slowly crept over. I remember wanting to be that. The innocence that people cling to amongst everything, the smile that brightens.
I think we both know how that turned out.
Well, what I really wanted to say was.....I don't think I knew what love really was until I met your family. You, Carl, Lori. You showed me what life could be, and for that I can't ever repay you. You deserved to have the family you fought so hard for.
But there is one promise I will keep: I will always protect your son. I'll keep him safe no matter what I do, no matter what he does. I'd like to think it was just to repay you, but you know how far I've gone in the past, to keep people away. To keep him alive. And so I won't break that.
I'll see you again, Grimes. I will.
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TIME IS A FUNNY thing, isn't it?
That was the thought that ran through Carol Peletier's head in the moment. It is in our nature to prolong, but think so far ahead. Last year, she had thought this time around was miles away. Yet, it was here, and it was now, already.
The girls's matching pink backpacks shone in the sunlight, the different shades of glittery plastic reflecting off of every surface possible. Really, it mirrored the two little ones, as they cast back their light onto anyone and anything - like string lights on a Christmas tree. Carol reached her hands up toward her face, feeling for the tears that never came anymore.
They were there, though, just faint enough to be mistaken as a small sweat on a blistering day. The two kids linked hands as they entered the building, turning to give only one last wave to their mother. She smiled back, and felt a pang of warm pain in her chest as they let go of her sight.
Sophia's first day of school. That had been about five years ago, by now. No one was exactly sure.
Nothing was really good, but then again, it never had been. Carol's childhood had once been cut short, and yet, Jane and Sophia's would be too. They were smart kids - observant, but quiet. Their mother would do anything to unlay the hands that had been placed upon them, but she couldn't even do so for herself.
