:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"we heard a scream, are you okay-" loud footsteps rushed to the scene, as louis searched around the area frantically, before his gaze fell onto the figure standing in front of violet - his stomach dropping in response. "y-y/n..?" aasim soon joined in, his eyes wide.

dirt and dried blood covered your face, as a rather visible scar was slowly fading on the left corner of your mouth. "hey, guys..." slowly rubbing the back of your neck with the palm of your hand, you awkwardly greeted the group, holding yourself from biting the inside of your cheek out of nervousness. a lump formed inside your throat, attempting to crawl its way out, when you felt the trio's shocked and confused looks locked onto you, as they were trying to take in the fact their old friend is suddenly back, standing in front of 'em, but most importantly - alive. after all, with you being gone for such a long time, most of them thought you were gone forever, only the simple memories of you remaining in their minds.

"holy shit, you're alive!" louis rather loudly announced, before quickly making his way at you and wasting no time, before tightly embracing you, joy filling his body, as he couldn't stop grinning. you immediately wrapped your arms around the brunette's frame, face hiding in the crook of his neck. still in louis' embrace, you raised your head, taking in how violet was the only one still keeping her distance, staring at you with an unreadable expression. snapped out of your thoughts by aasim harshly dragging you away from louis, so he could hug you himself, you let out a raspy chuckle at the rather childish action.

pulling away, aasim opened his mouth to speak : "where the hell have you been? you just left without-" at his question, you let out a sigh and averted your eyes in embarrassment. "i've been... places." you simply explained. glancing at the familiar blonde standing a few feet away, the corners of your lips curled up into a gentle, toothless smile, as you walked towards her, before throwing your arms around her neck. but she didn't embrace you back. you could feel your heart sting at the gesture, but you attempted to ignore it. "you're hurt." placing both of her hands on each of your shoulders, violet slightly pushed you away, looking down at your poorly bandaged lower abdomen. "oh, it's nothing. no need to worry about me." you tried to reassure her, yet violet's gaze continued to linger over all your visible injuries, furrowing her eyebrows in thought.

you couldn't help the strange feeling forming up inside you. it felt like you just met your old friends from high school, that you haven't seen since graduation, except with more tension in the air. "they've changed so much." you pondered to yourself, as many other thoughts ran through your mind all at once. after all, you never thought you'd see any of your friends ever again. it was your plan. leave and never come back. but it appears the universe has different plans for you.

"so... how's everyone back at school?" raising an eyebrow in curiosity, you swiftly turned around to look at the two boys, who shared a concerned look, while you tried to ease the tension. "you should see for yourself." louis let out a dry chuckle, causing you to realise something must have been wrong. it's not like you did expect everything and everyone to stay the same, but at the same time, you couldn't imagine it any other way. "you're coming back with us, right?" noticing your change of expression, aasim asked, as he took a step closer. "i- i don't know, aasim. i left with the idea of not returning." you sadly glanced down at the ground, rubbing the side of your arm up and down in a poor attempt to comfort yourself. "so you left, because you wanted to?" crossing her arms over her chest, violet took a few steps closer, so she'd be closer and made direct eye contact with you, waiting for a response.

"i did..." you proclaimed under your breath, causing the blonde to scoff and turn around, as she begun to walk away, muttering : "i'm going back to school. i can't deal with this shit." violet's strange attitude stunned you. staring at both louis and aasim, you glanced at violet's back for a second, silently wondering what's wrong, but their only answer were raised shoulders, as neither of them knew what has gotten into the blonde. the two boys started to follow violet on the way back to the school, but you continued to stall behind. "y/n? are you coming?" looking over his shoulder, louis curiously raised an eyebrow at you, praying you'd join them.

you couldn't help, but feel awfully nervous and guilty at the same time. a few years ago, you left all your friends without an explanation, yet some of them seem more than happy to take you back home. this wasn't anything like your original plan. the truth was, you never stopped missing the place you used to call home or anybody there and now it was way too late to turn around, so you hesitantly joined the trio. violet walked in front of the three of you, as you were between louis and aasim, all of you glancing around once in a while, watching out for any walkers or possible danger.

"couldn't help, but notice your amazing choice of a weapon. where did you find a katana?" the taller brunette broke the tense silence with a curious question. "i think it was some kind of an old museum or something like that." looking down and inspecting the blood-stained katana in your hand, you replied. "you would think all the stuff like that would be gone after so many years." joining the conversation, aasim added, causing you to nod in agreement. "so what about your little diary, aasim? still writing?" a small smirk appeared on your face, as aasim rolled his eyes at your teasing words. "i wouldn't call it a diary, but yeah." aasim explained, after throwing an almost offended glance at you.

out of nowhere, you threw your arms around the shoulders' of the two boys, bringing them closer. "i missed you guys so much it's unbelievable." with a grin smeared across your face, you let out a happy sigh. "all of you." you added, shamelessly staring at violet's back. but before the conversation could go on, you noticed the big, front gate appearing in front of you.

the anxiety came rushing back, as you felt your chest tighten and racing heart. you lowered your arms off your friends and unknowingly, the grip on your sharp weapon tightened, as you slowed down your pace, making you once again behind the trio. "they're back!" an oddly familiar, male voice loudly called out, as you pushed the bandanna up to cover the bottom half of your face out of nervousness. a habit you picked up ever since finding the black piece of fabric you grew rather fond of. the gate loudly opened and everyone gathered around. "got anything?" a tall male with mullet walked up towards the trio, as you couldn't believe your eyes. "marlon..?" you quietly muttered under your breath and furrowed your eyebrows, but no one seemed to notice you just yet.

"not really, but we found something else!" excitedly announcing, louis stepped aside, causing everyone's gaze to fall on the person standing right behind him. you. surprised gasps filled your ears, as your hand slowly reached towards the bandanna and carefully pulled it down. you looked around the group, taking in how much has everyone changed. "you're... alive?" looking like he just saw a ghost, marlon stared at you wide-eyed. "from what it seems, i am." softly chuckling, you tried to ease the already tense situation. your small smile turned upside down, as you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion, before asking : "where's the rest?"

at your question, everyone either shared sad glances or looked down at the ground of the front yard, causing the realisation to hit you. "no..." slightly shaking your head from side to side, you glanced towards the ground and took a small step back away from the group. hugging yourself to stop the trembling, you noticed the sudden shortness of your breath, causing the panic to set in. "shit... y/n? hey, you need take a deep breath, before-" carefully stepping closer, louis slowly reached out his hand to you, but just as he was about to place it in your shoulder in a comforting matter, you slapped his hand away.

"i'm fine!" burying your face in your hands, you tried to focus on taking deep breaths, not being too far from having a panic attack. "i'm fine..." you muttered reassuringly once again, but not as loud as before. "this is exactly why i shouldn't have come back." gripping your stomach with the hope of stopping the uncomfortable feeling, you announced, earning concerned looks from the group. "let's talk about this later." hesitantly placing a hand on your shoulder, marlon explained, earning a slow, unassured nod from you.

opening your mouth to speak, you never got the chance, as you were cut off by someone throwing themselves at you, squeezing your waist tightly. out of shock, you were ready to push them away, until you realised who it was. tenn, the younger brother of minnie and sophie. your breathing slowly calmed down. "tenn? oh my god, you grew up so much!" you sadly smiled at the little boy, after kneeling down and facing him, causing him to shyly look away. at the sudden movement, you quietly winced, as a wave of pain in your abandon hit you.

everyone around you noticed your painful expression, before they also took in how rough you looked. keeping yourself in a good form with the world being the way it is now, is not the easiest task to do. dark bags hung underneath your tired eyes like curtains, countless bruises and scratches lingered over your exposed skin and on top of that, a dirty bandage wrapped around your lower abdomen. "oh my, what happened to you?" stepping forward, ruby furrowed her brows in worry. "oh, it's just a small cut." you raised your hand to rub the back of your neck, letting out a sheepish and rather quiet laugh.

not believing your simple answer, ruby crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at you. after a few seconds of intense staring and a silent argument, you let out a defeated sigh and carefully lifted up your clothes. biting your bottom lip, you grabbed the edge of the bandage in-between your thumb and index finger, lifting it up. "i think that might be more than just a small cut, dear." using your own words against you, ruby looked at you with a slight disappointment, when she realised how you didn't worry much about your own injuries. "i'm sure ruby will take good care of you." placing a hand on your shoulder once more, marlon assured, earning a nod from ruby herself, as marlon continued speaking : "the rest of you get back to your work!" biting your tongue, you hesitantly followed the short ginger inside the familiar school, not noticing the blonde's harsh stare following you.

two hours have passed and you were already feeling slightly better, after your injuries were taken care of. the sun was slowly, yet surely setting, creating a majestic sunset, with a few pink-ish clouds here and there. just a quick glance at the sky could create a somewhat comforting feeling inside a person and make them forget about everything disastrous happening in the world. the fresh wind swiftly moved around your messy hair, as you walked out in the front yard of the school, getting lost in your own thoughts.

"dinner's ready!" omar called out to everyone, snapping you out of your trance. you slowly walked towards the benches, where almost everyone was already enjoying the warm food, as you lowered your head down, not being quite sure if you were welcomed, but louis' actions stated otherwise. when he noticed you approaching, the corners of his lips twitched into an assuring smile, as he scooted aside, making a spot for you to sit down. returning the toothless smile, you sat down next to the brunette, just as omar handed you a bowl of food. "thank you." you nodded towards the younger boy, before hungrily diving into the food.

with marlon and brody sitting across you and louis at your side, the rest eating their dinner on some of the other benches, you all enjoyed the meal in silence, but not for too long. "so, y/n..." marlon begun, catching your attention. at the sudden call of your name, you couldn't help, but loudly gulp down, before raising your head to look at the blonde male in front of you. "what... happened?" slightly furrowing his eyebrows, marlon awaited for an answer. "you need to be more specific." you let out an awkward laugh, causing all of your three friends share quick glances between each other.

"did somebody attack you?!" brody asked with panicked expression, motioning to your injuries. "well, no-" looking down, you didn't know how to explain to your friends, that your injuries were caused by your own, stupid clumsiness. letting out a defeated sigh, you finally explained it, after a short while of silence : "i sort of rolled down a hill and fell into a river, trying to run away from a bunch of monsters." both bordy and marlon looked at you wide-eyed, while louis giggled like a small child, before quickly placing the palm of his hand over his mouth, holding back his laugh.

looking to your side, you gave the brunette a glare and rolled your eyes. "it's fine, you can laugh." at your assuring words, louis let out a long laugh, earning more glares from the rest of his friends. "it must have been rough out there, y/n." brody looked at you with a small, soft smile, as she carefully placed her on top of yours in a comforting manner. you could feel your heart tug at such small act. "to be honest, it's way worse than i've ever expected out there." sighing, you looked down at the ground once again, all the memories of the world outside the walls filling your mind.

"are there any empty rooms i can stay in?" changing the subject, you raised your brows in curiosity. "didn't you used to share a room with violet?" marlon answered your own question with another question. "i don't think she wants to see me right now..." you admitted quietly, before pursing your lips into a thin line. "shit happened while you were gone, y/n. violet has been through a lot. we all have." a sigh escaped louis' lips, as he placed a comforting hand on your shoulder, while you sharply exhaled, before announcing : "i get that, but so have i."..

( AUTHOR'S NOTE : just a quick reminder that there will be some chapters/parts about yn and violet's friendship before the outbreak and maybe even about yn's life outside the walls just so you understand their relationship more and all that..)

©anm3mi