Future Ghosts • TWD

54. Pretending.

TW: implied SA
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There are no descriptions of it happening or anything like that, but it is implied that it happened.

I know and completely understand that this topic can be triggering for some readers, but I wanted to include it because I think it's an important aspect of the story. In an earlier chapter, someone commented saying that it was important to tell kids about the bad intentions that people might have, in order to keep them safe, and I replied by saying YES, that is an important thing and it WILL be coming back. This is where it comes back. It's an important topic for me and I haven't always liked how TWD has dealt with SA in their show, so I hope to do better.

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If you are someone who might not want to read this chapter- or any chapter with a TW at the top- there will be a summary at the bottom of the chapter in case you want to know what happened to continue reading. ****

However, if you choose not to continue reading, I completely understand and do not blame you at all.

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Rosie hated the Claimers. That is all she had learned since she woke up on that bed. She hated them and she wanted to go home. She didn't know where home would be anymore, but she wanted Daryl.

The Claimers said they would take care of her. Joe sat her down at the counter in the house they were staying in and placed a can of corn on the surface in front of her. Rosie ate it, appreciative. She was then given water, too. But they still wouldn't give her her knife back and they told her that she would not be leaving. Rosie wanted to leave very badly. Especially after learning that these men were, in fact, bad men.

"He touch you?" Rosie remembered Daryl asking her when he wanted to talk about what the Governor did.

"Well, he grabbed me and brought me ta Glenn and Maggie. He was touchin' me then," Rosie had said, shrugging a little as if it didn't matter.

"No, that's not..." Daryl had stopped and sighed before continuing. "He touch you anywhere I ain't ever touched you?" he had asked with an uncomfortable sounding quality to his voice.

Rosie had taken a moment to remember each detail before answering his question. "No," she had said quietly, feeling confused. Daryl had let out a somewhat relieved breath upon hearing her words, but Rosie didn't understand why back then. She did now. She understood what he was afraid of.

She felt wrong. Something was gone now. Part of her was missing. There was an empty feeling in her stomach that didn't used to be empty. It used to be there, but now it was gone. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that she wanted it back. Whatever piece of her that was taken, she wanted it back. But she knew there was no way of getting it back. Not even if she did manage to escape this house would she be able to get it back. It was gone.

Of course, Rosie had tried getting away. That night, in that house, after the longest day she had ever lived through, she had tried to run away. She waited until they stopped making noise- until she was confident that they were asleep- and then she pried open the window and climbed out. She had no weapon, and she knew that she had a very little chance of surviving on her own without a weapon, but she didn't care. She didn't want to be there anymore. She couldn't be there anymore.

What she hadn't accounted for was the person who was on watch. Of course they'd have someone on watch. Rosie couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of that. So she was stopped. And she was forced back into that house, back into that room. She hated that room. She didn't care if it had cool posters on the walls or LEGOs on the shelves, she hated it. Every square inch of it.