A lot had happened. Rick wouldn't let me, Carl and Sophia go kill the Saviours with them even though I've already taken out one community of people so I personally don't see the big deal. Mum and Maggie had been kidnapped; they fought their way out and were A okay. Oh, and Denise had died. The Saviours had attacked my dad, Denise, Rosita, Abraham and Eugene, but they were all dead now... The Saviours I mean, of course and Denise. Tara and Denise had been dating, Tara didn't even know about Denise yet, because she was doing a long lasting supply run with Heath. I was giving Abraham the cold shoulder, and he'd moved out of our house and into the other house which we call House 2. This is because he and Rosita had broke up. Abraham left Rosita to immediately start dating Sasha. Rosita didn't tell me what he said, but he wasn't nice about it, so on behalf of my cousin, I'd been ignoring him. My chickens were still running around in my garden, since I hadn't had a chance to build them a coop yet. The hen with fertile eggs did have somewhere to sit on them to incubate them though.

Everything with the Saviours happened two weeks ago, so other than the disastrous events, we'd been living in harmony. Oh, we were also worried about the other Saviours (since we apparently didn't kill them all) attacking us. Again, put all that aside? Harmony... Until, I slipped my hand under my pillow to keep my fingers warm, and I felt a paper envelope. 

I groaned, sitting up and pulling the envelope with me. In the mirror on the opposite side of our room, I could see Sophia sitting up in her bed. Her hand was over her mouth, her eyes wide, watery and distressed as she read her own letter. So, I opened mine.

Dear, Ellie

I'm so sorry to do this to you, especially after everything you went through growing up. You deserve a good mother, and in the time I was with you, I hope I was just that. However, I can't stick around. Please, please don't come after me. Take care of your sister, she'll need you right now. I can't kill people anymore, it's not who I am. I can't stick around because I love you all so much, I'd kill for you, and I can't keep doing that to myself. I've been thinking about Jacob a lot recently, and how he'd be horrified at the monster I turned into. I hope you know how much I love you. You are my daughter. And I'm sorry. I know this will hurt you, but I need to do this. Stay safe. Protect yourself and our family.

All my love - mum xx

"No, no, no, no." I repeated to myself, running a hand through my hair.

"She's joking, right? She's got to be joking?" Sophia's voice came from the bottom bunk, it was clear she was trying not to cry her heart out. "Mum!" Sophia screamed, running out of the room, presumably to search all of Alexandria for our mother.

Cries escaped my mouth as I just lay back down in bed, scrupling up the letter and throwing it to the other side of the room. I held Teddy to my chest as the tears soaked my face and my pillow, my body shook with pain. "Ellie?" Rick's voice came, walking into the room.

"She's gone. Mum left." I told him.

"What?" Rick asked, panic in his tone.

"She wrote a letter." I weakly pointed to the crumpled up piece of paper on the other side of the room.

Rick went over and read it, his eyes scanning the paper before he put it down on the desk. "I'm going to get her back." He stated, strongly, before leaving the room. More cries of pain left my mouth as I squeezed Teddy. Slowly, I heard his footsteps re-enter the room. "Can you come down here, please?"

I put Teddy down and shuffled to sit at the top of my ladder. "What is it?" I sniffled.

"Come here." He told me quietly, reaching forward and grabbing my sides. He pulled me down and held me in his arms, before sitting down on Sophia's bed. He held me in his lap as he gently rocked me back and forth, his arms gripping me in a strong hug as he rested his chin on my head. "We'll get her back."

"Who cares? She doesn't love us enough to stay anyways." I said through sobs.

"Is that why you're crying?" Rick questioned.

I nodded. "I'm used to people leaving, Mama Rick, it's what they do, that's old news. But, I thought I'd done enough for her to stay."

"Ellie, that's not what the letter says. She left because she loves you, Sophia and the rest of us so much." Rick replied. "She should've come talk to me instead of leaving, but we'll get her back. I promise." When Rick finished, I held out my pinkie, prompting him to ask me. "What are you doing?"

"Pinkie swear." I pointed out.

"No, I'm not-" Rick shook his head before noticing the look on my face. He sighed before linking his pinkie with mine. "Pinkie swear."

I was looking around for my dad when Aaron came over to me. "I've been looking for you everywhere."

"Well not everywhere if you're only now finding me." I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I... Well... Yea, okay, uhm... It's your dad." Aaron stated.

"What about him?" I asked.

"He took off. I'm sure he's coming back, but uh... Michonne, Glenn and Rosita have gone after him. To bring him back. I just wanted you to know." Aaron replied.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Great. Both my parents have ditched. This is doing wonders to my childhood trauma. Really, I'm having a great day." I spoke sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, Ellie. I really am. I heard about Carol." Aaron sympathised with me.

"Yea, well, it is what it is as they say." I itched my neck.

"How about you build that chicken coop today? I'm sure your chickens would love it." Aaron smiled. "It would also help take your mind off of things.

"Yea, you're right. And, their names are Jim, Jacqui, T-dog and Lori. They're not just chickens." I reminded him.

"I'm so sorry." He responded, slight sarcasm lacing his tone. "Hey, why don't we go get Abraham to help build it?"

"No, thanks." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"You can't hate him just because Rosita and him had a... Disagreement." Aaron reminded me.

"Watch me." I shrugged.

"Come on, I can't hear him complain about it anymore. He misses his little one." Aaron tried.

"Fine, but only because he has the materials to build the chicken coop and I got no idea what to do." I agreed.

"Good." Aaron said as we started walking towards our houses where Abraham was probably resting after his shift. "So, why are those the names of your chickens?"

"I'm naming them after people that I know are dead. I can't wait to name one of the chicks Chris Evans." I grinned.

"You met Chris Evans?" Aaron looked down to me.

I scoffed. "Only in my dreams, pal."

He nodded, a grin on his lips. "Hey, when I die, can I have a chicken named after me?"

"There's a long cue of dead people but I'm sure I can bump you up the list. I need to name one Dale, but I made T-dog jump the cue simply because I wanted a chicken named T-dog." I admitted.

I had the materials to build the chicken coop where we were putting them, near most of the crops. Eugene had given them to me since he also lived in House 2 and I bullied him into helping me carry them over. I was sitting with them, trying to figure out how to put them together when someone slumped down next to me. "Hey, little one."

"Ginger prick." I retorted.

"I'll pretend like that didn't hurt." He muttered.

"You're a big boy, you can handle it." I responded, passing him the hammer.

"I need you to forgive me." Abraham tried.

"And I need Chris Evans to walk through the gates of Alexandria, but he's definitely dead." I passed him a plank of wood.

"I can handle Rosita being mad at me. I can, I deserve it from her... But, I haven't done anything to you." Abraham tried.

I turned to him. "I love Rosita. She's some of the only blood family I have left. And you hurt her, a lot. Why would you do that?"

"It's grown up stuff" Abraham muttered.

"So is killing seventy eight people but I've done that too." I reminded him.

He sighed. "I fell out of love, and instead of leading her on and hurting her more in the long run... I had to tell her. I admit that I handled it like a coward, and I will apologise to Rosita for that... But, can you forgive me, little one?"

I pursed my lips together. "For one afternoon? Yes. For the long run? I'll need to talk to Rosita whether I need to be mad at you or not."

Abraham grinned. "Thanks, little one."

I shrugged with a smile on my lips. "No problem... Big one." He smiled widely at me before tickling my sides. I laughed loudly scooting away from him and picking up the other hammer. "I'm not afraid to use it, ginger." 

He laughed at me, pulling his hands back. "So, what are the plans for the chicken coop?"

"Oh, I'm thinking multistore mansion. Hot tub, balcony, tennis court." I informed him, sarcasm lacing my tone.

He hummed. "Olympic sized swimming pool?"

"I expect nothing less." I nodded.

Well, me and Abraham spent four hours building the chicken coop. Since we were planning for more chickens in the future, we made it plenty big.

(If you think this is an unrealistic thing to build and have it look like this in one afternoon, nevertheless, in an apocalypse? It is! But it's my book so uhm... Slay)

We'd officially moved in Jim, Jacqui, T-dog and Lori. As well as the seven eggs that Jacqui was currently... Nesting? Incubating? Sitting on? You get my drift. "Looks good, little one."

"You did most the work, big one." I reminded him.

He hummed. "You did more than I thought you could."

"I used to be the handyman in my neighbourhood before the fall. Obviously my skills were limited, but I could fix up quite a few things. Which is why I know my way around a hammer and nails." I explained.

"Well, those skills came in handy." Abraham patted me on the back.

I grinned, nodding. "They sure did."