Chapter Three
AO3 Link | Chapter 2 Link
Pairing: Abby Anderson x fem!reader
Fic Synopsis: Abby goes looking for Owen and ends up on the wrong end of your knife.
Tags/CWs: angst; slowburn; enemies to friends to lovers; talks of purity culture/ideals and “sin”; internalized homophobia and some comp-het feelings (they’re both so gay but so dumb about it); animosity between WLF and Seraphites; blood/gore; descriptions of being hanged; religious/cult-like ideas
Note: This is not at all how I thought this chapter would start. Alas, I am riddled with religious trauma, and Taylor Swift just released the song “Guilty as Sin?”
I mean…
“My boredom’s bone-deep
This cage was once just fine
Am I allowed to cry?
I dream of cracking locks,
Throwing my life to the WOLVES”
Are you kidding me? It’s perfect.
So this started out differently than I planned. But what was I to do? I am just a girl.
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There were many topics on which you had been educated in-depth but were never supposed to experience first-hand.
Sex was one of those topics.
You knew the mechanics of it. The anatomy that was involved. Its purposes and benefits. The dangers of it.
You had been told, vehemently, that it was something that should never be done outside of the safe and proper confines of marriage.
Which meant you could never do it because you could never marry.
The Prophet had to remain pure.
Set apart.
Free from romantic, familial, worldly ties.
You were taught to suppress any desire to do otherwise. A task that you had been mostly successful at upholding.
But there were times when your eyes lingered where they shouldn’t and your own thoughts made you shiver and blush.
It was the sin of lust.
The other major vices were usually easily circumvented. You could be disciplined and selfless, just and kind, modest and brave.
You always did what you were told, and you didn’t ask questions.
You told yourself that you weren’t weak; you just knew your place. You knew what was expected of you, and no other options had ever been made available.
So, like thrown clay, you had allowed yourself to be molded into the person you were today, each piece of you carefully and intentionally shaped by the hands of others.
The Elders created the perfect Seraphite specimen. Quietly devout. Enigmatic. Indelible. Untouchable. Obedient.
A mouthpiece disguised as a leader.
A Prophet.
They made you.
You were not a naturally occurring thing.
Sometimes you didn’t even feel human.
Lust was one sin you knew could be concealed, buried far below your surface, unseen by critical eyes.
It was a small act of rebellion. A hidden glimmer of defiance. Although, you weren’t doing it on purpose.
And it was made especially loathsome due to the regrettable fact that it only ever happened to you when you were looking at or thinking of a woman…
Now the Wolf stood in front of you, hammer held tightly in her right hand.
Demons were quickly descending upon you, and you had just witnessed (and neglected to intervene into) the death of three of your own people. The only person you helped was the Wolf, your enemy, who you were meant to kill.
You could guess what the Elders would say if they were here now. How disappointed they would look as they pointed out your many failings.
For once, you didn’t care.
Strangely, despite everything, you felt like a bird whose cage door was just thrown wide open.
Or a well-trained dog that had been mistakenly let off leash.
You could breathe. Unrestricted.
Your eyes remained glued to the Wolf.
Her back was to you, her soaked clothes clinging to her skin. Her shoulders rose with each of her deep, deliberate breaths.
Time seemed to slow as your eyes traced down the length of her arms, taking in her strong form…
See, you knew the sin of lust was bad, if only because it made you stupid.
Or distracted, at the very least.
Demons were coming, and you had just been moments away from gutting this girl.
You definitely couldn’t trust her.
But you didn’t have to trust her to look at her.
A series of snapping twigs and high-pitched shrieks from the surrounding forest instantly brought your attention back to the approaching threat.
Demons were another one of those things that they taught you about but never thought you’d actually encounter.
When you arrived on the mainland that morning, you had been led to the network of Seraphite-built bridges, above the city, concealed in the clouds.
Nearly your entire day had been spent in the sky.
If there were any Demons below, you didn’t see them.
Honestly, you hoped you’d never have to come across the cursed creatures.
The sounds they made were animalistic, but somehow still eerily human. Like a voice that was either enraged or overwhelmed with pain.
You had been told that they were unsavable. Completely consumed by the disease and irrevocably punished for their sins. No longer even human.
As a child, you heard stories of the first Prophet valiantly fighting off hordes in defense of her early followers.
In training, they taught you how to fight both Demons and human adversaries alike. Although the former was always theoretical.
You were shown sketches, detailing the different stages of it.
Foolishly, you thought you were ready.
But nothing could’ve prepared you for what came running out from the cover of the trees.
It moved faster than you would’ve thought possible, too quickly for you to take it all in, but the glimpses you captured were grotesque.
It went straight for the Wolf, swinging its arms wildly. She effortlessly dodged its attack before striking with the hammer. Hard. It was dead in just three blows.
Two more approached from behind you, closest to Lev, and it was past time for you to be useful.
Lev was a skilled archer, but he was still a kid. And Yara, also a kid, only had use of one of her arms.
Both of the Demons were focused on Lev. He fired an arrow, hitting one of them in the chest, but it didn’t take it down.
Its back was to you.
You couldn’t let yourself freeze again.
You closed the distance between you and the beast, lifting your dagger with both hands and bringing it back down swiftly, piercing deeply through its skull.
It let out one last pained shriek as it fell.
The Wolf had taken out the other Demon before Lev had to loose another arrow.
But there were two more where those came from. One swung at the Wolf, and the other came for you.
You were able to dodge, narrowly missing the impact of its savage attack. Stepping back, you continued to evade its blows.
You swung at it, but the thing was fast. Your blade cut into its shoulder instead of its head. Ripping your weapon out, you tried again. This time, you hit your target.
That was two for you.
“Prophet, look out!” Yara shouted. Before you could discern which direction the threat was coming from, you were brutally thrown to the ground, the wind knocked out of you entirely.
Death wore the grisly face of the Demon standing above you.
You had dropped your dagger, leaving you completely defenseless.
Lev’s arrows pierced its throat twice.
It kept coming.
You blinked and it was on the ground. The Wolf knelt over it, hammer crashing over its skull repeatedly, past when the thing was decidedly dead, until the hammer actually broke in her hand.
You just blinked again.
She saved you.
Why did she save you?
You scrambled to your feet, your breaths coming too quickly.
You tried not to panic.
You had only almost died.
You were fine.
The Wolf dropped the splintered remnants of the hammer and stood, shaking out her hand. You stared as she walked over to where your dagger lay on the ground and bent to pick it up.
She looked at you for—as far as you could tell—the first time since you’d cut her down from the rope.
She walked over, holding your gaze.
You realized that she could kill you now. That that was likely why she had saved you.
So she could end you herself.
Because you were the Prophet, and a Seraphite. Or because you had nearly killed her before.
She could even do it with your own weapon. The one that had been meant for her.
You imagined that would be satisfying for a brutish Wolf.
As she approached, you noticed that she towered over you, making you doubly aware of the fact that this was not a fight you would win if it came down to it. Especially when you were unarmed.
She stopped when she stood only a couple feet in front of you, turning the dagger over in her hand and simply offering it to you, handle-first.
Dumbly, you slowly reached out and took it.
Her hand fell back to her side.
There was a hint of a smug little smile on her face, like she knew what you had been thinking.
“Try not to drop that again, yeah?” she said, voice low. It was the first time she’d spoken directly to you, and you resented the way it made your cheeks warm.
Before you could come up with a competent response, Yara interrupted.
“Prophet, Wolf! Come on. We have to move!” She held a lit torch in her uninjured hand. Lev stood at her side, ready to run.
“Where are you going?” the Wolf asked, unsure if she would be following. You were already moving to join Yara and Lev.
“Out of these woods. We’ve gotta run! Now! The coast is this way.”
They took off into the trees with you close behind. The sound of footsteps falling behind you informed you of the Wolf’s apparent decision to tag along, at least for the time being.
You could also hear more Demons, closing in on either side, chasing the torch’s light. Which meant they were after Yara.
You ran faster, trying to close the distance between you just in case.
As she passed an abandoned vehicle, one of the Demons jumped out, tackling her to the ground.
Lev shot an arrow through its head as you ran to her, pushing the dead Demon off and helping her back to her feet.
The horrifying chorus of even more of them, just beyond your vision, made you startle with each screech.
“They’re all around us!” Yara cried, moving closer to her brother.
The Wolf, weaponless after breaking the hammer, quickly looked around, finding a glass bottle. She grabbed it and threw it at the next creature that emerged from the forest.
The Demon slowed, momentarily stunned, and the Wolf wasted no time knocking it over and bringing her foot down on its skull hard and fast.
Just one stomp and it was dead.
You flushed again, transfixed.
Stupid.
You should not find that attractive.
But she was undeniably incredible.
You shook your head in an attempt to refocus as you turned to watch Lev take down another with a couple well-aimed shots.
A shriek behind you revealed the presence of yet another. You turned to meet it, killing the thing easily enough.
It seemed your training in combat had been sufficient after all, at least where Demons were concerned.
“That was the last of them,” Yara said.
“You guys okay?” the Wolf asked, like she might actually care.
“Yeah,” Lev breathed out, bow and arrow still at the ready.
“We have to keep moving before more come,” Yara insisted, taking up the lead again as she pressed forward.
You all ran after her.
“Every direction looks the same,” said the Wolf. You were inclined to agree. “You sure you know where you’re going?”
“It has to be this way,” Yara said, quietly determined.
“What the hell am I doing?” the Wolf muttered to herself under her breath.
The four of you picked up your speed as the Demons grew closer.
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Abby seriously had no idea what the hell she was doing.
She was running through the woods, fighting off Infected with three Scars.
And one of them was the Prophet.
Who had been fully intending to disembowel her not too long ago…
Something had to be wrong with her. Maybe it was brain damage from nearly suffocating.
Because this wasn’t like her.
A couple hours ago, Abby was killing Scars. Happily.
Well maybe that wasn’t the best word for it. It didn’t make her happy. She just didn’t feel bad about it.
And now, she was prancing through the forest and going out of her way to protect Scars?
The kids were one thing. They seemed to be just as in danger with other Scars as they were with the Infected.
What had that one woman called them? Apostates?
Abby had done enough reading to know what the word meant. She guessed they must have broken some stupid, insane rule and run off.
Or been kicked out.
Either way, from what Abby had gathered, they had gone rogue and were being hunted by their own people.
Which meant they weren’t necessarily her enemy.
But the other girl. The Prophet…
Abby didn’t know what was going on with you.
Were you going rogue too, or were your friends just dead and you needed help getting past the Infected and out of the woods?
And yeah, you had been about to kill her before. But you’d stopped as soon as there was a distraction. Took the out the second it was offered.
And then you had been the one to cut her down.
So maybe you didn’t want to kill her.
That counted for something, right?
Abby didn’t let herself think too much about how pretty you were.
How stunning your eyes looked when they met hers.
How your fingers felt, lightly grazing her bare skin for just a second, then leaving all too soon.
And how you had definitely blushed when she spoke to you.
See? She totally wasn’t thinking about any of that at all.
And she was probably delusional.
And way too distracted, spending any amount of time or energy thinking about such crazy shit while you were all actively running for your lives.
Abby was bringing up the rear of the group, and she knew a horde of Stalkers was not far behind her.
She really hoped these Scars knew where they were going.
“It’s just up here!” the girl, Yara, shouted from up ahead, leading the way to a wall of hanging vines.
The boy, Lev, pulled the vines aside, revealing an opening behind. Yara carefully but quickly maneuvered through. You waited until both she and Lev were on the other side before looking up at Abby expectantly.
There wasn’t time to argue, so Abby went next. You followed closely behind, then let the vines fall back into place, hiding your path from the Infected that pursued.
On the other side, Abby was met with the sight of several dead bodies, clearly recently slaughtered.
She couldn’t tell from this distance what had killed them. Or if they were Scar or WLF.
“Those are fresh. There another way around?” she asked, maneuvering around the corpses.
Lev spoke up. “If there were, would we be going this way?”
Okay. Fair point.
Yara pointed to a chain link fence with the torch. “Come on, Lev. Get it open.”
The kid tried to bend the steel wires up to create an opening. It didn’t budge, despite his efforts.
“Move,” Abby said. He did.
She strained as the piece of fencing gave way beneath her hands.
“Get in there, Prophet,” she said, teeth clenched.
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You quickly slid through the opening and popped up on the other side.
Finally, you were free of the suffocating forest.
The clearing was illuminated with light of the full moon.
You wandered on ahead as Lev, Yara, and the Wolf came through the fence behind you.
“Prophet?” A new voice spoke out as you turned the corner. The reverence in the person’s tone alone told you that you were dealing with a Seraphite.
You turned toward the voice to see a woman you recognized but whose name you couldn’t recall. She was large and stood tall, the side of her face bloody and a pickaxe in her grip.
She had been part of a patrolling squad in the area. You’d seen her briefly earlier in the day, with Emily, after the Wolf had been captured.
The woman saw that you were, in fact, who she thought you were, and she bowed her head out of respect.
“Are you alright, Prophet? What are you doing out here? Where is Emily?”
You were at a loss for words.
Her voice was calm and concerned now, but you knew that she would kill Lev, Yara, and the Wolf if given the chance.
“I—”
Your two friends entered the clearing behind you, drawing her eyes toward them.
“Apostates,” she hissed, and instantly her demeanor changed.
She rushed past you, ruthlessly throwing Yara to the ground and lifting Lev up by his neck.
You moved without thinking, your dagger still tightly clutched in your fingers. Again, you raised your arms above your head, just as you had done when fighting the Demons. Using all of your strength, you brought the blade down above her head, piercing her skull. The weapon was long enough that it exited through her chin.
Her body slackened and slumped to the ground. Dead.
You stared down at her, feeling the weight of what you had just done.
This wasn’t a Demon. It wasn’t an animal.
She was a living person.
And a Seraphite. One of your own people.
You were supposed to be her Prophet. Her leader. Her new hope.
She hadn’t been watching her back because she never imagined that you could betray your people like that. That you would pose a threat to her.
You continued to stare, holding your breath. You couldn’t look away.
You didn’t deserve to look away.
You felt a sob rising in your throat. Your eyes began to water.
No. You would not cry.
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Abby was the last to enter the clearing.
By then, the Scar was already holding Lev in the air, and you were already approaching from behind, lifting your dagger.
Abby watched as you killed her.
Woah.
You were good with that knife, she’d give you that.
Yara and Lev got back to their feet and watched as you stared down at the dead Scar, unmoving. Like you were frozen.
You weren’t even breathing, and you looked like you might cry.
Abby had been wondering how many WLF soldiers you killed today before you got to her. If the three she’d seen hanging when she first came to were yours.
Now, she was sure they weren’t.
Because based on your reaction, that had to be your first time.
She wasn’t usually one to be especially sensitive to the emotions of others, but when she heard you sniffle, finally taking in a ragged breath, she couldn’t help but move towards you.
Abby thought of her own first kill. How easy it was to do in the heat of the moment, but how torn up she’d been in the aftermath.
She understood that it was necessary, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t hard as hell.
She fought the urge to put a hand on your shoulder, or even rub your back soothingly. Reminded herself of who you were and who she was and all the reasons why she shouldn’t even be here right now.
Instead, she bent to retrieve your dagger from the body. She tried to hand it back to you, but you were still stuck, staring down.
“Hey. You did a good job.” She took your hand in hers, placing the handle into your palm and closing your fingers around it. She didn’t let go, allowing her hands to fully encompass yours.
Abby waited until you met her eyes. “You saved them,” she said, nodding towards Lev and Yara, who were both silently watching this unfold. “You did what you had to do.”
You drew your eyebrows together at that, like you wanted to argue. But you seemed to change your mind, ultimately just nodding your head lightly.
She let her hands drop and glanced back down at the slumped body again, her eyes catching on something.
“Wait. Is that my backpack?” Abby asked, looking more closely.
Beside her, you lifted your shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.
“Probably. Emily gave it to her earlier,” you said numbly.
Abby didn’t need to ask who Emily was. She could guess.
She reclaimed her belongings while you pulled yourself together.
“Are you two alright?” you asked the siblings.
“Yes, Prophet,” Lev answered, watching you closely. Abby noticed that you seemed to bristle ever so slightly at his use of your title. You didn’t say anything though.
She held her rifle in her hands again, happy to have her stuff back.
Especially the guns.
Wordlessly, the Scar kids led the way into the nearest building.
Out of habit, Abby began gathering supplies as you went along, taking ammo and medical supplies and anything else that seemed useful.
“How’s the arm?” she asked Yara, breaking the long stretch of silence.
“I have it under control,” the girl insisted defensively.
“Okay…” Abby took a box of ammo from a cabinet. “Grab any supplies you find.”
“We can’t touch this stuff. It’s Old World,” Lev said, like that should’ve been obvious.
“Are you fu---? You need supplies. We’re not out of the woods yet.” She opened and then shut a drawer. “Pun fucking intended.”
“What’s a pun?” Lev asked from another room.
Abby didn’t have the energy to answer that question.
Instead she said, “I’ve never seen Scars go after Scars like that before.”
“Seraphites,” you and Lev corrected in unison as you explored different rooms of the building.
Again, she ignored. “So what the hell did you do?”
“I shaved my head,” Lev answered simply.
Abby scoffed. “Fine. Don’t tell me.”
The group passed through building after dilapidated building, heading towards the coast. At least in theory.
“We’re almost there,” Yara said. “Just a little farther.”
She led the way down a steep drop-off into another run-down building. One where you wouldn’t be able to get back out the same way you went in.
“Now what?” Abby threw out, tired and frustrated.
“I’m quite confident it’s this way.”
“Quite confident?” Abby repeated incredulously.
“You don’t have to follow us,” Lev pointed out.
“You want me to leave you three out here alone?” Abby shot back.
Your response was an immediate and insistent, almost panicked, “No!”
Everyone else turned to you, surprised.
“Let’s just get out of here,” Lev offered.
Abby found the front doors, but they were held firmly closed by a metal gate on the outside.
Above the door was a large opening, too high for Abby to pull herself out of, but not too high for someone to climb through with a boost.
“If you get us through there, we’ll open the gate,” Lev said.
Abby remembered again that these were Scars she was dealing with. And like hell was she going to boost you all up to safety just so you could leave her stranded here.
“Get them out,” you said, as if you could read her mind. “I’ll stay with you.”
Lev started to protest but stopped after one shake of your head.
Abby nodded. “Okay. Come on.”
He gave you one last look before walking over to her, stepping into her open hands and pulling himself through the opening.
“Your turn.” Abby looked at Yara. “Watch that arm.” She carefully helped the injured girl maneuver up and out.
The all too familiar shriek of Infected sounded off behind you, coming from deeper in the building.
On the other side of the doors, Lev pushed at the gate. It wouldn’t budge.
“The gate’s stuck!”
“Fuck! Hurry up!” Abby looked back and forth between the door and the direction the Infected were coming from.
“We’ll look for another way!” Yara said, and the two of them disappeared from view.
Abby tried to stay calm and prepared herself for the inevitable fight.
“They’re not going to leave me,” you said, drawing her attention. You held your knife at the ready, rolling your shoulders back.
She didn’t respond, not sure if she believed you.
“They won’t,” you reiterated.
“I hope you’re right, Prophet.” She offered one of the weapons from her stash. “You ever shot a gun before?”
You shook your head but accepted the firearm anyway.
“Come here. I’ll show you.”
What Abby hoped would only be a few Infected turned out to be an entire horde. Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, and even a couple Shamblers.
You were fighting them off like a champ.
Seriously. She was impressed.
You’d kept the gun, watched her rushed demonstration on how to operate it, but ultimately chose to primarily stick with the dagger.
Both of you had been fighting for several minutes as you moved through the building. No sign of the other two Scars. Abby had pretty much resigned herself to needing to find her own way out.
She cleared the room she was in, lowering her weapon to take a breather.
You were in the next room, and it sounded like you had cleared that one out too.
The only warning Abby had before she felt the blow was you urgently shouting, “Wolf!”
A Stalker that she failed to notice had her pinned to the ground, knocking her rifle from her grip in the process.
It reared its head back as Abby struggled, fighting to get it off her.
A gunshot rang out, and the Infected slumped, lifeless.
She shoved it off her and sat up to see you standing there, borrowed gun still aimed and ready.
“Good girl!” Abby exclaimed, beaming up at you from where she sat on the floor.
Wait.
What the fuck?
She meant to say “good job”…
Actually, she hadn’t meant to say anything.
You lowered the weapon. Based on the look on your face, you were just as taken aback by her use of those words as Abby was. Although, she managed to keep it from showing on her face. Mostly.
She stood quickly and fumbled through a recovery. “Good shot. That was—I mean—It was a good… A good shot. Good job.”
You smiled softly at Abby’s obvious display of nerves, walking over to where her rifle had fallen when she was attacked.
You picked it up and returned it to her.
“Try not to drop that again, yeah?” you said, mimicking the teasing tone Abby had used when she said those same words to you earlier that night.
She made a face. Something that was equal parts embarrassment and amusement.
“Prophet! Over here!” came Lev’s quiet voice from the next room.
You shot Abby an I told you so look before the two of you ran after the sound.
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When Yara collapsed, the Wolf picked her up and carried her.
You listened as she quietly comforted your dear friend, encouraging her to keep breathing and promising to find somewhere to rest soon.
Your heart felt soft for her in that moment.
Or maybe you were just exhausted.
Lev led the group with you in the back, gun drawn and alert to the best of your current abilities.
You entered a clearing, full of enormous metal boxes and small, raised buildings. All things from the Old World that you had never seen before and didn’t have words for.
The Wolf instructed Lev to start checking the doors of all the small buildings. It took a few tries before he found one that was open.
The inside was in noticeably better shape than any other structure you’d seen on the mainland, with a few simple, fully intact pieces of furniture.
You watched as the Wolf moved through the first small room and into the second, carefully setting Yara down on the couch. She went over to the windows, checking again to make sure the four of you hadn’t been followed.
When Yara began to slowly remove her overshirt, you were quick to help, being especially careful with her injured arm.
It was swollen and bright red from her elbow down to her fingertips, visibly mangled. You had to bite back a gasp.
Lev stood on the other side of the room, a horribly worried expression on his face.
It wouldn’t be helpful for you to panic now.
“Hey,” you said to him, light and encouraging, drawing his gaze to you and away from his hurt older sister. “It just needs to be set. Okay?”
You turned your eyes to the Wolf who was still hovering by the window. “You know how to do that?”
The face she made confirmed what you already knew. Yara needed much more than just for the arm to be set.
Still, the Wolf walked over, instructing Lev to cut the discarded overshirt into strips and telling Yara to lean back.
You helped her, kneeling on the floor by the side of the couch where her head lay, ready to assist in any way you could.
“I’m gonna move it, okay?” said the Wolf.
“Okay.”
They were both speaking so softly.
“You ready?” she asked.
Yara nodded, reaching her uninjured hand out for one of yours. You held it, letting her squeeze as tightly as she needed to.
The crunching noise the arm made as it was set nearly made you sick.
Yara let out a series of pained noises, panting and grunting. You used your free hand to gently brush the loose strands of her hair from her face, tucking them behind her ears.
You whispered that the worst was over, and that she would be okay now.
You didn’t know if that was true, but you hoped it comforted her a little.
The Wolf broke a leg off a wooden chair, took the newly cut strips of fabric that Lev offered, and went to work bracing the newly-set arm, using the chair leg as a splint.
Yara watched the Wolf’s face.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
The Wolf secured the last piece of cloth before she answered, meeting Yara’s gaze.
“Abby,” she said.
She stood, looking to Lev and then to you.
“I should go,” the Wolf—Abby—said.
You stood too, to walk her out.
Lev quickly filled in the space that you left, kneeling the same spot and taking Yara’s waiting hand in his.
Abby grabbed her backpack and followed you into the first room, toward the door.
You paused, turning to face her.
“Are you—” You wanted to ask where she was going. What she would do next. Really, if you were being honest, you didn’t want her to go at all.
But you didn’t have the right to ask for any of those things, so instead you went with, “Are you okay?”
You gestured to your neck, meaning to indicate the dark, noose-shaped bruises that circled her own throat.
It felt like so long ago that she’d been hanging in front of you, unfortunate to find herself on the wrong end of your dagger. But, realistically, only a couple of hours had gone by.
She cleared her throat, her own fingers instinctively ghosting over the marks.
“Oh umm… Yeah. It’ll be fine.” She waited a beat before adding, “Thanks for cutting me down.”
You didn’t know what to say to that, considering it was technically your fault she needed to be cut down in the first place.
You settled on a nod and a tight smile.
She turned to go, twisting the doorhandle and stepping back out into the rain.
Before you could close the door behind her, she looked back and said, “This area gets a lot of traffic. Whatever shape she’s in…” Abby leaned closer, hand on the door frame, “You need to get out of here by tomorrow.”
Again, you nodded. “We’ll be fine.”
She held your gaze for a moment longer before she turned and walked down the steps.
You shut and locked the door.
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As Abby walked away from the office trailer, she couldn’t help the images that came to mind.
She kept envisioning you and Lev and Yara, dead.
Hanged and gutted by the Scars.
Or shot by the WLF.
Or ripped to shreds by Infected.
She had real responsibilities. A friend to look for. A whole community counting on her.
She had a war to get back to.
But if she left now, would she always wonder about what happened to you?
The urge to stay near you—to protect you—was so overwhelming. She didn’t know where it was coming from or what she should do with it.
You were not safe, but she knew you were much safer with her.
Isaac had warned her that the first Scar Prophet had been able to make even the most dedicated soldiers turn on a dime. He said that with just a few carefully chosen words, she could make a person question where their loyalties lied.
It had seemed so ridiculous just that morning, but now you were doing the same thing to Abby.
You were in her head.
But this didn’t feel like manipulation.
She didn’t know what it was that drew her to you, but it felt real. Natural. And entirely unintentional.
Or maybe she was reading you all wrong, and you really were a master manipulator.
Abby needed to make a decision. Because she was currently standing still in the pouring rain with the trailer still in view.
She chose to trust her gut.
And her gut was telling her to turn around. To stay with you.
Owen would have to wait.
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Note: Thank you to anyone who’s read all three chapters of this! The fact that literally anyone has is absolutely bonkers to me.
I’ve already learned so much about myself as a writer since I started writing fics a couple weeks ago. For example, this week I learned that I DO NOT enjoy writing fight scenes…
Unfortunately it was thoroughly unavoidable for this chapter.
Regardless, I really hope it was interesting to read, and I’m looking forward to fleshing out the relationship between Abby and my reader more and more!
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