STILL SANE ━ twd

prologue

THE FINAL TENDRILS of the glowing sun had since died out and gave way to a drape of darkness and cold wisps of air. The cold was a cruel and expansive entity in the night. It corroded muscles and burned from the inside, and still somehow invigorated a lacerating anger and a drawn out strength in Thorne's bones. The thing about surviving was that your desire to do so had to be stronger than anything else, a minor execution of greed. Greed was dangerous, but the dead and the living did not care about bargains or pleas. And they did not spare mercy. In the end, nothing changes the fact that knives and teeth tear into flesh just as equally brutal.

⠀⠀⠀ Thorne would not plea, and she would not bargain-not to anyone or anything. You couldn't be bred of clemency nor decency in the world of the dead. Clemency would be molded into intolerance, one with sharp edges, and decency would simply fail to remain.

⠀⠀⠀ It was like a pine tree in a storm. One by one, as the wind lashed at everything in its wake, the branches would grow weak. They would break from where they'd once been embedded, deep in the bark, until all that stood was the trunk of the tree and merely anything of the crown. The roots remained; they were what held the tree in place, but everything that'd once adorned it ruptured and became a part of the brutal storm.

⠀⠀⠀ Thorne's right boot toed at the glass door of a desolate drugstore. It creaked at the sudden push. She turned to Little June, whose hands trembled nervously at her mouth. She was only six, but sometimes she appeared even younger than that to Thorne. Especially when she held her hands to her lips in that jittery manner of hers. A brown leather, tattered jacket hung at her shoulders, weighing her down. She tried not to fuss about it, but Thorne noticed the way her steps sometimes faltered. However, winters in Georgia could be harsh, harsher even more so in the night-and they could not risk dropping the jacket in hopes of finding one that was perfectly suitable for June.

⠀⠀⠀ She took a step forward, but Thorne halted her gently with a hand on her chest. "Stay right here. I'm going to check inside. It'll take a minute. Don't go anywhere, June." ⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀ June nodded, scarcely perceptible but a nod all the same. Thorne unsheathed her dagger and seized her first footfall, engulfed by the darkness of the small store. She made a meager noise, something akin to a whistle. In response, there was a clatter that came from the back of the store. Before she proceeded, Thorne glanced back at June, who still held her hands to her lips, big eyes trying to see her sister through the darkness.