"We all go a little mad sometimes."
↠
The world wasn't like it was before.
If you wanted to live, if you wanted to survive, you had to fight for it. And that's exactly what Blaire intended to do.
But things weren't so easy anymore.
The real enemy...
CHAPTER TWO » HYMN FOR THE WICKED "What are you gonna burn for?"
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A small white church with a bell tower stood in the middle of the clearing. It looked almost pristine, like a shining beacon of hope in the middle of the destruction around it.
Gabriel headed to the large front doors and reached into his pockets, pulling out a set of keys. But before he could go any further, Rick took a step in front of him.
"Hold up," he said, a stern look crossing over his face. "We'd like to have a look around."
Gabriel hesitated for a moment, his beady brown eyes flickering from Rick to the rest of us, before finally handing them over.
The doors whined as Rick pushed them open. He stepped into the church cautiously, Michonne and Daryl either side of him. I drew my gun as I followed after them, the floorboards heavily creaking underneath the weight of my feet.
The church was what you'd typically expect, but the sunlight pouring through the patterned windows created a beautiful glistening effect around the room, which made me stop and stare in awe.
"Blaire."
I jumped back in surprise, my breath catching in my throat. "Jesus–"
I turned to see my mother stood behind me, her eyebrows raised at my ironic exclamation. Stood just behind my mom, I noticed a smirk tug on Glenn's lips, who seemed amused to have witnessed the whole scenario too.
"Sorry," she apologised flatly. "I didn't mean to scare you."
I moved away from the windows, pacing in front of her slightly. "What's up?"
"We haven't had chance to talk."
I met Glenn's eyes again, widening my own to convey my annoyance at my mom's comment. He smiled sheepishly, quickly resuming what he was doing, so not to get involved.
I turned back to look at her. "Mom, I don't think now is a good time." My words were a little harsher than I'd meant, but I was feeling a little stressed, and couldn't help but bite back at her.
The whole ordeal last night of feeling watched had set me on edge, and I'd hardly slept at all, which in itself had already aggravated me. Most of all, Gabriel was majorly giving me the creeps, and I was fully preparing myself to get ambushed at the church. Not to mention I was absolutely starving. If I had to even so much as look at another pecan again I was probably going to cry.
"You're right," she told me, nodding simply. "We'll talk later."
I exhaled heavily as I watched her walk away, not wanting to push my mom away like I feared I had been doing ever since we reunited.
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Glenn headed over to me. "You look a little..." he trailed off as I shot him a disapproving look.
"Choose your words carefully."
He stopped in front of me, smiling weakly. "On edge?"
"Your observation is noted."
The left corner of his mouth rugged into a hint of a smirk, as he spared a glance behind him, jerking his head over in the direction of the church bathroom.
"Wanna help me check out the bathroom?"
I arched an eyebrow, not entirely clear about his suggestion, but I had a pretty good idea – it was Glenn after all. "Glenn's we're in a church."
"So what?" He asked. "We're probably going to hell anyway."
"Blaire! Glenn!"
I whipped around at the sound of Rick's voice.
Glenn cursed under his breath before calling back to him. "Hey, what's up?"
A look of confusion passed Rick's face, probably because of how shifty and awkward Glenn had just sounded, but he didn't comment on it. "Thinking of a supply run, you two up for it?"
The two of us moved closer towards him, whilst he headed over to us, the three of us meeting in the middle. "Are we staying here?" I questioned, gesturing around me with a slight frown. I lowered my voice. "Like, with the creepy priest?"
"This is the first safe place in a while," Rick replied. He wasn't wrong, it was, but I didn't want us getting ahead of ourselves and making a huge and costly mistake. "I don't know how everyone feels yet, but even if this is temporary, we need supplies."
I shared a look with Glenn, both of us simultaneously turning to answer Rick with a nod. "Okay," I agreed. "But I wanna scout this place out some more," I glanced behind me, eyes Gabriel suspiciously in the distance. "Something just doesn't feel right."
~
I didn't like being wrong – and, in all fairness, I wasn't usually wrong.
In this case – though I couldn't work out whether I was pleased about it or secretly not – it appeared I had been wrong about Father Gabriel and his church. We'd searched the building for what felt like hours, scavenging a few supplies whilst simultaneously scouting the place out. And it seemed safe. Even Gabriel was growing on me ever so slightly. Slightly.
But I still just couldn't find it within myself to trust him completely.
Glenn and I had been out most of the evening on a supply run with Maggie, Jade and Olivia, the five of us having split into two groups to search through the nearest shops. We all headed back as night began to fall, to find candles spilled out everywhere, literally everywhere, around the church.
The atmosphere was lighter than before, and stepping inside almost felt warm and inviting. Any previous tension and hostility I'd felt seemed to have melted away upon seeing the group in such high spirits.
After tucking into a well deserved, if I didn't say so myself, meal, I sat down on the pews beside Carl, with Judith bouncing lightly on my lap as her tiny hands occasionally reached out grasp her brother's finger, big blue eyes wide with fascination.
"I'm honestly thinking that I might have to steal her from you one day," I told him, smiling down at Judith in response to her wide and curious eyes staring up at me.
"What if you have one of your own?" Carl glanced up at me with an innocent grin.
Beside me, Glenn seemed to splutter on his drink, coughing for a moment until he regained his composure. When I glanced over at him, he continued to drink from his cup, as if nothing had happened.