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𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞-𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐢𝐬
𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚖𝚎
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H E R
When I was younger, one of my favorite pastimes was sitting on the vanity of the upstairs bathroom with my nose pressed against mirror and flip the light one and off, watching the pupils of my eyes expand and shrink. Over and over.
Then came the day when I crawled onto that sink and brought my face close to the smooth, reflective surface, but when my fingers went to the switch: nothing.
I felt my stomach drop. The power was out. Which meant everything being said on the television and on the radio was real. Before that, I had felt so unaffected by the outbreak that covered every headline. The only difference was my mother was overburdened with more hours of work at the Veteran's Clinic.
But the day the power went out, my mother never came home.
They told us to evacuate later that week. Dad wanted to stay and wait for Mom but figured if she were anywhere then she would have gone to see her brother, my uncle, in a town called Woodbury. He had called and told us weeks before they were constructing walls around it, to make it a safe haven. My dad had rolled his eyes at the time, saying they were being 'doomsday preppers' over some odd sickness but then things got real and we went to those people for help though he had disregarded them earlier.
We traveled across the state line to Georgia, making our way to the town of Woodbury. My uncle was not there. Neither was my mother. And my gut sank even further.
Since then, it's become a constant thing. That feeling of unresolved tension weighing my body down. With how many stomach dropping moments I've had, I'm sure it was far beneath ground by now. The heavy pull keeping my feet flat and trudging against the earth.
And now, I was stuck in another one of those instances. Almost in slow motion. Holding Judith's squirmy body close to mine as I hid ourselves behind her crib while I listened as Carl was forced to give a tour to Negan himself, who stood just on the other side of the door.
