HERE THERE BE MONSTERS

MINERVA

Never hesitate. That was one of the lessons Lee taught me.

Without even thinking about it, I picked up the knife that fell between Minerva and me. The next thing I knew, my knees were pinning her arms down and I was ready to put the blade straight through her neck.

"Clementine!" Violet shouted right behind me.

I didn't take my eyes off Minerva. She was too dangerous. "She murdered her own twin sister in cold blood, Vi."

Violet's hand fell on my shoulder. "I know! I—oh fuck! This is so fucked up!"

After a moment, during which she was probably trying to compose herself, she walked in front of me and dropped to her knees.

"Clem, look at me."

"No. She's too dangerous." I stared down into Minerva's scared eyes. Then, I adjusted my grip on the knife so it wouldn't slip when I put my weight on it.

"She's wounded. You have her pinned down. What can she do?"

A little derisive snort escaped me. "Are you really willing to risk our lives to find out?"

"I… No. No, of course not."

"She killed her own sister," I reiterated.

"They brainwashed her. She must've been so scared. Didn't you hear what that bitch, Lilly, said? They warped her into—into this!"

I shook my head. "No. You're wrong."

"And how do you know?!"

"Because I've seen it before. People can only change so much. Most of it is already inside them."

"You didn't know her before. This is bullshit!"

"Don't be so fucking stupid, Vi! Do you really think she never pretended around other people? Come on!" My voice came out way more angry and derisive than I intended.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. I knew that I had hurt Violet, but I still wasn't willing to take my eyes off the bitch under me. She was bigger and stronger than me, not to mention fucking crazy and capable of murdering her own sister in cold blood.

The very idea made my blood boil. You didn't do that to family. If they fucked up horribly, betrayed you or turned, then and only then were you justified. Murdering them in cold blood, though? Never.

I wanted to be done with this already. I was ready to put the knife through Minerva's neck all the way to the spine and let her turn into a crippled walker. Violet wasn't done pleading the bitch's case, though.

"Clem, please. She was my girlfriend. I loved her. I can't let you do this. I can't let you kill her." Her voice was cracking now. "We can take her back with us and reform her or something."

That made me snort again. "Oh, Vi." I put a little pressure on the knife. "Tell her, Minnie." I said her nickname with disgust. "Tell her what you're going to do to me the first chance you get."

"I—I won't do anything. I swear!" She looked believable enough, scared as she was. Everyone made promises under a knife, though.

"Don't lie, bitch!" I raised the knife.

Violet's hands appeared in my field of vision. "Stop! Stop!"

"She blames me for everything, Vi," I said, trying to stay calm. "She's going to off me the first chance she gets. I can't help being a fighter, and she hates me for that."

Minerva looked pleadingly toward Violet. "I won't, Vi. I promise. You know I wouldn't lie to you."

I grabbed the arrow and tilted it to one side. The girl beneath me thrashed and howled in pain.

"You fucking bitch!" she screamed. "I'll kill you. I swear I'll fucking kill you!"

That made me smile. "See, Vi? Told you."

"You're hurting her! What did you expect?"

Despite myself, I rolled my eyes. "Oh, Vi. Most people would just beg you to stop."

Losing my patience, I grabbed the shaft of the arrow again. "Tell her," I said through clenched teeth to Minerva. "But be honest this time."

There was a moment of silence. Then, she looked squarely at me, her eyes hard and menacing. "It's all her fault, Vi. No one would be dead if it wasn't for her."

"Minnie! What the fuck?!"

"If you hadn't resisted, no one would've died! No one had to die, Vi!"

"We'd be fucking slave soldiers to the fucking Delta!"

Minerva looked up toward Violet. "But everyone would be alive. We would all be together. We'd be happy!"

Violet practically sobbed. "How can you say that? Clementine helped us fight for ourselves."

"What's the difference? Fighting for the school, fighting for the Delta, it's all the same."

"What?! No, Minnie, no… How can you say that?! We'd be dying for some fucking child snatchers, not for ourselves, for our freedom. We'd be forced to die for someone else's cause. How is that the same?"

It seemed like Violet was already understanding. We couldn't keep wasting time in this. I raised the knife above my head.

"Clem!" Violet shouted. "Stop! Just—just stop, okay?"

I shook my head. "It has to be done, Vi. She's a danger to all of us."

"Fuck!" She stood up and began pacing. "Fuck!"

"You don't have to watch," I said. "Go free the others and I'll take care of it."

"Oh, shit! The others." She ran toward the other cell. "Don't even think about it, Clementine!" She shouted from over there.

Minerva and I glared at each other.

"Okay, they're gone," Violet said once she returned. "We need to go too."

"As soon as I'm done here," I replied calmly.

"We don't have time for this, Clem!"

"No, we don't."

"I won't let you."

"You can't stop me."

"If you do this, we're through. I won't talk to you ever again."

To say that it didn't hurt because I was justified, because I was in the right, would be a lie. However, when lives were at stake, hard choices had to be made.

"It's fine," I murmured. "But you'll be alive."

In that instant, a look of recognition appeared on Minerva's face. "No! Wait!"

Then, the knife was inside her neck all the way to the hilt. She didn't deserve the mercy of an instant death, but Violet did.

"No!" I got shoved hard enough that I landed flat on the wooden boards. "What the fuck have you done!"

I recovered my footing immediately and went to pull Violet away from Minerva's corpse before it turned.

"She's going to turn, we need to go." I grabbed her forearm and pulled up.

Violet didn't offer much resistance, but once she was standing, she forcibly yanked her arm away from me. When she turned her face toward me, her cheeks were streaked with tears and her eyes held a fury I had never seen before.

Despite feeling justified in my actions, I was unable to hold her gaze, so I began walking. "We need to go."

After a couple steps, I noticed she hadn't moved. I stopped. "We need to go," I repeated.

"You're a heartless bitch, Clementine. Do you even have any idea what I'm feeling right now? It's like you made me kill her myself. Of course you don't know."

That made righteous anger raise inside me. "I do," I replied instantly, turning to look her in the eye.

"It's not the same," she said defiantly. "Lee was turning."

"I said I know, Violet. More times than I care to remember."

Kenny had been the first. When he tried to kill Jane, I knew it had to be done. And I did it. He wasn't the last. Of course he wasn't, not in this fucked up world we live in now.

Violet must have seen something on my face because she didn't say anything else. She wiped her face with the sleeves of her hoodie and began walking toward me.

"Let's go," she said as she passed me.

I trailed behind her, only one thing on my mind as I looked at her small back: Find AJ. There would be time after this to see if Violet and I could still have a future together. Even if right now it seemed like she was a million miles away from me, I knew there was a chance that she could see reason.

FIN