one of my favorite old charlie puth songs^
SOTC: The Unforgiven — Metallica
• never be, never see •
Her view was obstructed by a blooming flower of steam from her lips before it dissipated into the air. Sugar into water. She held her breath and looked forward, over the edge of the roof, at the writhing sea of bodies and walkers below.
The roof was a place nobody went anymore, save for a lookout during certain hours. April could rest here in silence, the swoops of cold breezes the only thing inhibiting her comfort.
She'd been good with her memories lately, keeping the ugly ones buried. Yet, here was an exception; she thought about the two people with which she'd shared every sunrise on this roof. Oliver would pull close, the warmth of his legs pressed against the sides of hers. They would look out over the lip of the building, a bloodletting into sky, red twisting into the fibers of blues and pinks, a tapestry, before a bright burning orb swept into the sky.
Here, where she was, her teeth were chattering, her eyes flickering open and closed against the battering of the wind. April stood. She paced until the feeling in her legs began to return.
What was she doing? Where was she going with this again, this blinders-on ruse against herself. She just wanted to go back. There were times when she was happier, both before and after the shifts in her life. Happy in different ways. Thrill-happy. Guilt-happy. Raw-happy.
Another stroke of wind ripped across her cheek. Part of her wanted to undo it all. Go back to before she knew better, strip away her self-awareness. Things were reckless...
April's face twisted into a snarl. Who the fuck was she kidding. These times, they weren't true happiness. They were luxury rugs pulled over floor stains. She let herself think—a brief second—about Carl. His eye, specifically. The whole one, the perfect glacier ring. She wanted to see the real thing instead of imagining it.
A swathe of warmth blew across her body as she remembered his touch, his fingers, a soft pulse, pulling her closer to him.
She staggered forward into a wall of cold. For a second, she was dazed, then reality set in again.
April breathed. A Grecian column, the bright white filagree at its ends, before evaporating into obscurity.
She could feel the concrete under her boots, the stacks upon stacks of floors and empty space between her feet and the ground. It was a living creature, the Sanctuary, the people moved within it like the bloodlines around a heart.
The floor of this roof was yellowed, discolored, the taut pored surface of a hand. The longer she stared, the more she could imagine flames licking up the sides, a climb to center stage, a towering sacrifice to a heavenly circle of deities, peering down through the years upon years of starstruck midmorning daylight.
♛ ♛ ♛ ♛ ♛
Carl sat in the pitch blackness. Didn't move.
That was the thing about a place with no light. There's nothing, absolutely nothing oneself can salvage from their surroundings other than touch.
It's staggering at first, the loss of senses. Carl learned to stay still. Play dead. It made things easier to breathe through, when he couldn't feel anything more in front of him than the palpable energy of darkness.
It didn't register at first. His vision filled with a pool of light, pupil shrinking into a pinprick to accommodate. He couldn't help but shield his eyes with a stiff, dirty hand, fingers still curled loosely to his palm.
There was a grating sound, of a stool being pulled into the room. Then the sound of feet—one pair of feet—strolling nearer to him. Carl blinked as his vision began to return, and he could just make out a shadowy form looming over him, puppet strings tied to knuckles.
"How're ya doing, kid?"
Negan's voice was deep. Haunting.
His voice was but a fractured rasp, playing on disjointed vocal chords. Carl dredged words from the bleary thickness in his throat. Parted his dry, cracked lips.
"...fuck...off..."
Negan just chuckled, like a content child.
He sat on the stool, leaned so his eyes aligned with Carl's. A sharp glint of light from the door was the only thing that separated features from skin.
Carl finally brought his hand from his vision, absorbing the full force of the throbbing light. He squinted, then relaxed. It was still stinging.
"I just wanted to pop in. I was in the area, y'see. And I heard your work ethic was incredible this week." He leaned closer, smile widening into his periphery. Carl could smell the stink of coffee lingering towards his nose. "You gotta work to be promoted. And you are working."
"When am I going home."
Not a question.
Negan leaned back, peeled back his lips to glittering jewels. The elegance was not lost on him.
He stood, retreated to the doorway with stool in tow. After placing it outside, he turned, stepped back into the cell.
His shadow stretched across Carl's face. The illusion of light radiating from the back of his head. A dull midnight halo.
"You will leave..." he chuckled. "When I need you to."
The light vanished.
Carl was left with a sort of sunspot, a multicolor bruise across the pitchness of his vision.
A vow surfaced within his core, an aching.
"I will leave," he whispered to himself. Never moved. "With or without his good graces."
x x x x x x x x x x
QOTD: what are you going to be for Halloween?
AOTD: a girl who is tired of the bullshit and ready for a nap
(Sidenote: I love all of you. Thank you for putting up with me. You're the real superstars)
x x x x x x x x x x
NEXT CHAPTER:
???Friday, November 3, 2017???
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x x x x x x x x x x
Word Count: 1005
Created 10-30-17
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DEVILS ♛ C. G. 〖 #wattys2018 〗
Fanfiction[ c o m p l e t e d ] "She looked like a goddess. The kind that sends cities to their knees in fear. The kind that is never in picture books. The kind that twists people." - - - - - April is a devil. A demon. And above all, she is a...
