Take My Hand: Walking Dead Fanfic

Chapter 14-Gone

Chapter 14

•Carl•

Joslyn headed off into the kitchen as Michonne was just coming into the room. Joslyn flinched her shoulder, dodging Michonne as she walked past her to the kitchen.

"You wanna come eat?"

Michonne angled her head back, trying to motion to Joslyn.

"I don't like her."

I said stepping closer. I held Judith tight, not wanting to let her go. She was so small, so innocent. She smiled with her small, growing teeth as she looked at me. I dreaded the day she would be gone.

She reminded me of Joslyn. One day, she would be gone, wether I dreaded it or not. I dreaded it...for Judith. I couldn't control Joslyn's fait, but I could control Judith's. Joslyn didn't want my help, so I wouldn't give it to her. Judith could have it. I could protect her. I will protect her. Joslyn is just one less person to worry about.

"She's just a girl."

I walked past Michonne heading into the kitchen, Daryl and Maggie sitting at the table as my dad came in from the screen door.

His eyes scolded me, having no words to give. He pulled a chair out, eyeing Joslyn who was leaning on her elbows, standing at the counter, then eyed me. I walked over to the counter, setting Judith down on the one stool that was left, keeping my arm behind her back to make sure she didn't fall. Joslyn had half a granola bar and a dirty, plastic water bottle-with no water.

I felt the bones in Judith's back shift, looking to her, and she did the clap thing again. I looked up to Joslyn as she ripped the granola between her teeth. She shrugged her shoulders, not knowing why my eyes were sinking.

"You tricked her."
I whispered.

Michonne came over, grabbing Judith off the stool. She stood there for a moment, expecting to watch a scene, but ended up with Joslyn eating the last bight of her breakfast and me staring her down. She walked off and Joslyn looked up at me, licking her fingers and fanning her hands across the counter.

"If you're going to stare at me, at least try to seem like you're enjoying it."

She chewed, her jaw moving as she raised her eyebrow, tipping her nose down to me and I tensed my jaw, Maggie's mouth making an "o" shape. Joslyn grabbed her bag, moving down the long hallway. I stopped her at a door to the antique bathroom.

"Hey,"
I grabbed her arm, pulling her back and she was parallel to the wall, her back stiff and straight.
"You think you can come in here and change everything?!"

She looked confused. Her stomach sucked in and her heels held position against the wall. Her throat skinned into her, a hole like a bullet shot through her. She swallowed. She didn't look so tough while she was helpless, no where to go. She had to listen now.

"What?"
"Judith. She's taking after you with all this shit you call hope."
Her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"It's not my fault I'm a better example for her than you are."

My heart stopped for a second. Did she just say that? She has been here for barely 2 days.

"What? I'm not trying to be an example for her. She took after your dumb ways-your lies that are left to linger as fake truth."
"He is real. I know he is."
"Who? This Wish Granter? I don't think you understand that that isn't a real tittle. He's just another Tooth Fair-"
"SHUT UP!"

Her nose came under mine, she screamed as she stepped closer.

"He is real, my mom wouldn't lie to me like that."
"Oh, but she did. Yes, he might have been real in the real world, but that world is gone: so is he."

She squinted her eyes, her copper shined through, staring right into blue. I blinked rapidly for a moment, remembering what only happened a day ago. Her head started to shake back and forth.

"Remember this, Blue Eyes?"
"Yea..."
"It's when your knife suffocated my neck."

My lips closed together and I looked down at her, my teeth resting on my bottom lip. Her lips plump, and eyes dark, her face still lit brighter than the sun that soaked my face.

"Is this an example. A good example...for Judith?"

I swallowed. I looked down the hall, seeing nothing but dust floating in the light, sinking down in air.

I never said she had to take after me. I said I would protect her.

"Yea, I remember this moment,"
I trailed back to the old conversation.

"Remember the yard?"

Her lips hung open, almost in shock and unbelief. She looked pale, her face not glowing, but sinking. Like the dust in the light. She looked bright as it floated, her when she felt strong, and her in her defeated, weak moments when she fell to the shadows, unable to see her.

"We all have blood on our hands, wether it be ours or not."
"We can control it-"
"No, you can't. It's not a want it's an intention-watch it."

I warned her.

"I will watch it...

She fled the hall, leaving to the kitchen. She turned the corner again, her hand held the wall as the corner edge of the two combining walls creased in her palm.

"Blue Eyes."
She mocked me, not meaning what she had said before.

Her face tight, bones were all tense and she tilted her head down, looking up at me.

The first moment I saw her. That moment was a moment where I saw her beauty. Her face was so simple, yet complex. I invited her, wanting to know more about her, yet all I have figured out so far is that she had more secrets than me.