-Not A Princess-

Family.

Strangers were people you hardly acknowledged,

people who's eyes you didn't dare meet.

People with emotions hidden under a mask and stories you couldn't even start to unravel.

These people were not strangers.

I knew that as soon as the little boy: Carl opened his eyes

And hope flashed in them.

I knew that as soon as an ethereal smile curled against

Andrea's lips when her eyes met mine,

I knew that when I saw Maggie and Glenn look at eachother.

Their gazes filled with unwavering warmth.

I had never seen such a gleam in Maggie's eyes.

They reflected the skies,

The contorted hues of light and dark.

The sweet brightness of the unknown.

And when I looked upon the little girl,

Her skin cracked and dead,

her eyes filled with inhuman hunger,

and her tee shirt,

with a cartoon on it hanging off her dead body,

I knew these people were anything but strangers.

Carol's expression still haunted my mind,

the grief shown on her face, made it seem as if Sophia was the last person she loved,

The only person she had ever cared about.

But Daryl Dixon cared for,

I could tell from the way he held her, as she sunk into the dirt,

Rick Grimes cared for her,

Lori did,

Glenn did,

Maggie did,

My father did,

And I realized that even I did.

These people all had a hundred thousand stories wrapped up inside of them,

Of different sounds and colors and qualities,

And they had trusted us enough to give us a few of them,

And we had trusted them enough to let them stay upon our farm,

What was once our serenity.

So now we walked together,

Our eyes misty and our gazes hard.

Our fingers bloodstained and clenched.

Our hearts swollen and cracking.

But we walked together, as one,

To the prison.

The building that held promise,

And we would move in like the oncoming storm,

And together we would conquer all in our path.