Brother's Keeper ¹ || The walking dead

117.

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Waking up with a sharp gasp, Melanie sat up, her eyes frantically glancing around. "..hey, hey, relax." A hand settled on her shoulder, and she flinched a little, her eyes snapping towards towards the hand before to who it belonged to. She relaxed when she realized it was only her brother.

She let out a deep, shaky breath, her eyes wandering behind Reagan and towards Riven, who had his eyes closed, still unconscious. Mercury was sleeping in the chair beside him, with a blanket draped over her, her small hand clenching Riven's. "..how long was I unconscious for?"

Reagan let out a small sigh, leaning back against the chair he was sitting on. "Half a day. Riven barely even moved an inch." Reagan threw a worried glance at Riven before his worried gaze settled on Melanie.

"What happened, Mel?" He questioned, Melanie took a deep breath, settling back into the comfortable pillows. "Who did that to your face?"

"She calls herself Alpha." Melanie started, clenching her hands into fists. "She did this to my face after we didn't give her any information that she wanted to know. We managed to escape them by mere luck."

"They were in the herd, Reagan. They were whispering among the dead, steering them, like controlling them. They chased us for a whole day." Melanie explained, shaking her head a little as a small scoff escaped her.

"We just kept running. We kept going until we reached the cemetery...he knew her." Melanie's gaze went back to Riven. "Or at least who she used to be."

"Whoever she was is not important. She'll be dead soon. That i can promise you." Reagan told her, wanting to hunt down Alpha and kill her for what she did to his family. "Siddiq said you'll have a permanent scar now."

Melanie reached her hand up, her fingers barely touching the side of her face when she felt the stitches of her scar. She clenched her hand, gritting her teeth in anger. "I'll give that bitch a matching scar when I see her again."

"..dad!" Shooting up from the chair, Reagan quickly grabbed ahold of Mercury who threw herself at him as Riven started to seize again. Reagan deeply frowned, wanting to be at Riven's side, but He had to comfort his daughter at the moment. She didn't like seeing Riven during his seizures.

"How many?" Melanie questioned, and Reagan sighed, picking up Mercury, who softly cried in his shoulder.

"This is his fourth seizure." Reagan replied, worried. Riven's arm shot out, accidentally knocking over the lamp on the table. The light blub shattered in pieces. "Mer, go with Aunt Lanie." Despite Mercury shaking her head, Reagan placed her next to Melanie, who grabbed ahold of her, watching as Reagan rushed over to Riven.

"He's okay, Mer." Melanie ressured her, holding her tightly, her eyes focused on her brother, who held Riven in his arms now that his seizure finished.

"He's okay.." Reagan held Riven closer to him, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. The only time Riven had this much amount of seizures was when they tried to be intimate.

Reagan never wanted Riven to be that afraid of him ever again. He knew Riven thought he probably wouldn't notice his small little flinches , but he did. He noticed everything about Riven.

He loosened his arms a little as Riven stirred, his eyes slowly opening. "Mer?" Mercury heard the small quiet voice of her dad, and she jumped off the bed her aunt was lying on, and ran over to her dad.

"Hey, careful." Reagan gently warned her when Mercury almost threw herself at Riven.

Riven couldn't keep his eyes open for much longer, resting his head against Reagan's shoulder before he fell back into deep slumber. It didn't take long for Mercury to fall asleep again, exhausting herself from crying.

Reagan let out a small sighed, resting his head on top of Riven's. "You okay?" Melanie questioned, and Reagan hummed.

"As long as they are."

⭐️

Later that night, Riven was fully awake yet still exhausted, barely even moving from the bed, but he couldn't sleep again. He kept himself busy cleaning his brace. It was difficult sometimes to clean all the blood off from his brace, especially dried blood.

Melanie was resting now, sleeping with Peanut near her head. "..I can do that." Riven lifted his head, watching as Reagan sat down next to him, placing a plate of food on his lap, taking the brace and the rag from him. "Eat."

"Are you okay?" Riven quietly asked, looking down at the food that didn't really interest him.

"Yeah, of course. Why?" Reagan questioned, raising a brow at him, furrowing his eyes a little. "Just a little bit. If Mer ate her vegetables, so can you."

Riven softly chuckled. "Did she really eat her vegetables, and did she give them all to Carl and forced him to eat it?"

"Unfortunately, Carl didn't suffer today." Reagan replied. "She was scared. She just didn't argue with me today. It was weird."

"I'm sorry for scaring you both. I didn't expect to be kidnapped by people wearing walker skin." Riven leaned his head on Reagan's shoulder.

"Mel said you know Alpha - whatever her name is." Reagan said, glancing down at Riven, frowning a little as he noticed that Riven wasn't bothering to touch the food at all.

"Alpha, yeah..used to." Riven muttered, "her name was Dee. She used to be my foster mom for half a year after my brother's got themselves arrested, and my dad was off somewhere. Nobody really cared."

"She was different then, less of a bitch," He chuckled to himself. "She said she's doing this to protect her daughters, but I don't think that's why she's doing what she's doing. Think, she just went crazy."

Riven placed the plate of food down on the table, laying down, resting his head on Reagan's lap. "By the way, Rea.."

Reagan hummed in acknowledgment, placing the clean brace on the side leaning against the wall.

"I love you."

⭐️
1016 words

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