ORCHID¹ | TWD FANFIC.

01 | mom, where are you?

Mabel preferred her father's silence and negligence over her mother's ear-piercing screams that made her ears ring. His lack of words was anything but welcoming, but Mabel stayed near him anyway, much to his dismay. She hoped that somewhere, deep in his heart he had some sort of love for her. She couldn't have cared less about her mother loving her, from violent threats to constant criticism, she had nothing but feelings of hatred for her mother.

Jolene Beckett stepped into the room, causing Mabel to tense up. She was smoking a cigarette, like always, but Mabel liked the smell of cigarettes so she didn't mind. It always seemed to linger around her presence, no matter how much perfume her mother sprayed, the scent never went away. Jolene always whined and complained about the smell, as if it wasn't coming from her.

Jolene looked at Joseph with a look of bitterness on her face and with a raspy voice she began to speak. "Gonna go on a run, what do we need?" She asked.

Two decades of smoking and yelling at people had done damage to her throat. Mabel's friend, Grace, always said her mother sounded more soothing than her own, Mabel just shook her head and told her it was exactly the opposite.

"Food, water, basic shit," Joe answered, then he looked down at his daughter, who was sat down by his chair. "Why don't you take her with you?"

"Hell no," Jolene laughed, not taking him seriously.

But it was very serious to Mabel, he wanted her gone. How could he say that, he knows how awful mom is to her, he even agreed himself. This isn't fair, not at all.

"I'm being serious, take her," Joe insisted as he grabbed Mabel by the collar to make her stand up. "She ain't gonna survive if she doesn't know how to scavenge."

"Fine," Jolene groaned. She grabbed her daughter's arm and dragged her out to the truck, which always smelled like beer and some weird stench that Mabel thought came from a skunk. The outside was always far more peaceful than inside the house, her mother couldn't scream and yell at her outside.

"You better not cause me any trouble, alright?" Jolene said in a tone that made sure Mabel understood she was demanding, not asking.

"Alright," Mabel replied in a very feeble tone. "I'll be good." She looked down at the ground feeling inferior, and useless. It filled her with this feeling of hatred towards her mother, towards everything.

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"We made it," Jo said as she stopped the car. "This place reminds me of when you were first born, I always used to come down here and get a pack of cigarettes every single day cause of you." She laughed, finding her story to be so hilarious, when it only brought Mabel great amounts of pain. Had she ever been wanted? Was she always just a nuisance to her mother, a stain on her reputation, a stain on her life. No matter how hard she tried, she would never be good enough for her mother.

"I know I can be an asshole," Jo sighed. "But you know how to push my buttons, little lady."

"Yeah," Mabel nodded despite not believing what her mother was saying. She was a child, she could be annoying, but all she wanted was a friend. Someone to talk to about bugs and animals she liked, or flowers, she loved flowers.

The wind was strong when Mabel opened the door. It was so quiet, you could've heard a pin drop. It was beautiful. Just the way Mabel liked it when they went out. The only good thing the apocalypse did was prevent obnoxious people from continuing to spew their nonsense. The empty houses made Mabel upset though, they had left behind their entire lives, their pets, friends, memories, just like that. It made her wanna vomit.

"Come on now, don't make me wait." Jo smiled and held the door open for her daughter. In the time Mabel had been staring at the abandoned houses on the other side of the road, Jolene had gotten out of the car.