Lia and I take turns carrying Aurora through the woods once she gets too tired to continue walking. It's night now and we both agree that we should settle down for the night and continue our journey to nowhere in the morning.
"I can't climb a tree." Aurora tells me fearfully after I suggest we spend the night up top, just like I did when I was lost with Sophia. "You don't know how to?" She shakes her head and I bite on my lip as I decide what to do next. "Alright, no biggie we'll sleep down here." She still looks panicked, "I'm scared Selene." I catch Aelia roll her eyes and I try not to focus on her right now, things had been strained between us again after Aurora had moved in with me and Daryl.
"It's alright Rory, I'm here aren't I? Lia and I will protect you." Lia shrugs and begins climbing the tree herself making me scoff to myself before I turn back to Aurora, "I'll protect you. Nothings gonna get us out here." She doesn't look convinced but she nods and clings to me anyways. I set up a small fire for us and the two of us sit huddled by it. I try and lull Aurora to sleep but it takes a while.
I decide to stay awake, as lookout for the night so that they can sleep easy. Rory is nestled up on my lap as I lean back on my arms and look up at the sky. I'd tried not to think of Daryl because I was scared and I knew I had to be strong right now. I'm sure Daryl was fine, I'm sure everyone got out fine. They had to have and we would find them again.
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We get through the night fine, the same cannot be said for the next day. Even though I had so graciously gone out and hunted us a rabbit, Aelia is in a rotten mood and she takes it out on both Aurora and I.
I keep myself calm because with it just being the three of us, we cannot afford to start fighting. Instead I grab Aurora and I march us ahead of our sister, I don't want to even look at her face right now.
"If I'm talking too much I can stop." Rory says in a quiet voice after Aelia had snapped at her and told her to shut up. "You're fine, talk as much as you want, just remember to stay quiet." I wanted to annoy Aelia but I also didn't mind Rory's mindless chatter, it was a nice distraction anyways.
"Do you think she'll forgive me soon?" I feel that pang of pain in my chest again, hearing the hurt in Aurora's voice it killed me. "There's nothing for her to forgive. You haven't done anything wrong Rory." I tell her adamantly whilst glancing back to see Aelia was glaring at us.
"What is your problem?" I ask suddenly, forgetting all about staying calm. She's surprised that I'm addressing her so directly, "what?" My eyes narrow, "what is your problem?" She shakes her head, "I don't have a problem." Her nonchalance about the whole thing is just pissing me off further. "You very clearly have a problem, you were just glaring at us."
She scoffs and so I drop Aurora's hand and match right up to her. "Get a grip Aelia, she's six and you're twenty two years old, grow the fuck up. I'm sick of the sulky preschooler act." Aelia scowls, drops her bag and then pushes me. "Leave me alone." She says as I stumble a few steps back. I don't even waste a second before I shove her back with just as much force, she falls on her ass and her glare deepens.
"I am so sick of you always being on my ass about everything." She says as she gets back up and lunges for me. "I don't even say anything to you." I huff as I dodge her but she whirls around just growing angrier by the second. "My life has sucked from the minute I found you. Everything was fine when we thought you were dead, I wish you were! Non of this would've happened if you just stayed dead." I falter for a second never having excepted her to just say she wished I was dead.
I recover seconds later and once I do, I punch her right in the mouth. "Stop blaming everything that goes wrong on other people! Your beloved governor was always a psycho and would've probably ended up losing it anyways." She just stares at me in shock as she slowly lifts her hand to her mouth.
"And you blaming Aurora for mom is sick. She is a child and you treat her like shit when all mom wanted was for us all to look after each other. She would be disgusted if she saw you right now. I know that I am." She doesn't even wait for me to finish speaking before she's throwing me to the ground. She lands on me and the two of us don't hold back as we begin fighting each other.
"Stop fighting! Please stop! Don't hurt each other!" Auroras words are muffled as we continue struggling on the ground. It's only once we hear Aurora scream that we both stop. I hadn't noticed how loud we'd been and as a result we'd attracted a bunch of walkers to us. There's around ten stumbling over, I drop Lia's hair and we both run into action.
Pulling Aurora behind me I pull out my knife and begin taking down as many of the walkers as I can. Aelia is by my side helping and although it's almost a struggle the two of us get it done.
Once it's done we just stand in silence, well we're panting like crazy but we don't speak. It's a bit awkward until I hear Aurora's sniffles from behind us. "You okay Rory?" I ask crouching down to her height. I quickly check her over as she nods, "it was so scary." I nod in understanding and brush her hair away from her face as they begin to cling to her tears.
"It's okay, we got rid of them, you're okay." She shakes her head, "not the creepers, you and Aelia fighting. Why were you trying to hurt each other? Mommy said we should never hurt each other. Are we not sisters anymore." I glance back to see Aelia's face soften for the first time.
"I'm so sorry Roo." She mumbles softly as she crouches down beside me. "I've been so so stupid lately, I'm so so sorry for being mean to you, I don't hate you, I don't blame what happened to mom on you." Auroras face begins to relax, "you don't." Lia shakes her head, "no, you haven't done anything wrong, I have. I've been a very bad sister. please forgive me," she says sincerely before turning to look at me too. "I didn't mean anything I said, I've just been so angry and I know it's no excuse but I promise I'll be better. Please both of you forgive me." Aurora nods instantly so glad to have her big sister back. She hugs Aelia excitedly and even though I don't want to forgive Aelia so quickly for her behaviour I nod.
"Aurora...sisters can fight sometimes and that's okay, no matter what happens though, we'll always be sisters." I explain once she lets go of Aelia. "I don't want to fight you guys though." I send her a soft smile, "nobody wants to fight silly, it'll probably never happen because you're the bestest sister ever." She giggles at my words and nods.
"You're gonna have to do a lot more to make up for how you've treated us, especially her." I say in a low tone once Aurora walks a few steps ahead of us. Aelia turns to me and nods, "I'll do anything." She tells me desperately, "I hope that's true." I mumble back before I catch up to Rory.
