Claire fiddled with a rusted spoon in her jacket pocket. Even without any heroin here Claire still had the cravings for it. She hated herself in these moments, when her body ached and her skin twitched with anticipation at the thought of a needle or the smell of something roasting over a fire-it brought her back to her days of addiction and how amazing it felt to feel the prick of syringe in her arm and to smell the acidic twinge of vinegar as she prepared to inject.
Claire watched as Teresa and Alexander came out from a bunker below a falling apart building. Seeing Alexander confused her, he looked so much like someone else she used to know...Thomas. The name is usually spat around here and yet there he seemed to be, unharmed.
She hopped down from her hiding place on a rusted fire escape threatening to unhinge itself from an old building. The creaking brought their attention on her and Teresa raised her box, an arrow already nocked.
"Claire, what do you want?" she demanded, arrow locked and drawn to her cheek.
Teresa was never a fan of her, or Thomas. But for a while Claire and Thomas were a necessary team, taking down organized scavengers known as the Prowler clan notorious for raping, stealing and killing. Claire and Thomas made a good team and they had gotten to a point where their makeshift town was becoming safer and more united. Until Claire did something foolish resulting in Thomas eventually being taken by the Prowlers. But seeing him there now, it killed her to not ask.
"Thomas?" Claire called hesitantly . He looked too familiar she had to ask. The dark hair and angular face. The man looked right at her, his brow furrowed in confusion. Her heart sank and her gut dropped to her feet. No, it wasn't him. The more she saw him the more she thought of how stupid she was for getting the brothers confused. Thomas used to hold himself with more strength and confidence than the man before her now. "You must be Alex then," she added.
Teresa released a frustrated breath. "Don't pay her any mind," she muttered.
But Alex was intrigued. "How did you know my brother?" he shouted.
Claire thought about Thomas, the cocky overconfident thief that had a tendency to be an asshole but compassionate. When she first met him she had just arrived, achy and still cruising off the heroin she had used to kill herself. A scavenger gang called "Pickers" attacked her, set to either auction her off or rob her corpse if it came to that. "He protected me from a bunch of scumbags when I first got here, it's been a year since then."
Teresa rolled her eyes and put her arrow back in its quiver. "You aren't going to tell him the whole story?"
Claire jumped onto a dirty dumpster and slid to the ground. She was tired of her antagonizing her. "If you have something to say then say it."
Teresa gets in close to Claire's face. "You know exactly how I feel. The Priest may pity you too much to hurt your feelings but I don't. "
Claire groaned, she was so sick of Teresa and her perfect bow skills, beautiful, exotic accent and her attitude. "Oh get over yourself. I know I screwed up, I shouldn't have gone after that group of Prowlers myself but with the Torch issue I was only trying to protect us."
"No, the issue is you can't protect yourself properly. You get people killed."
Alex tried to but in."We probably shouldn't raise our voices because of the-" but he stops when Teresa looks at him.
"I only want to help," Claire said.
"The last time you helped we lost Thomas and he hurt us."
"Only because they forced him!"
"The Priest doesn't care if we get him back or not. I told him we were going to eradicate any Prowlers we see. Finish the job you couldn't do."
"What is this? What did my brother do?" Alex asked.
The two women both look at him then Claire replied. "I'm coming with you and if I get myself in trouble you can just kill me, okay?"
Teresa smirked."You aren't going to make me like you did him?"
Claire's hand trails her belt, lined with several small throwing knives. She contemplates just killing her, but she is the Priest's favorite. "Sounds like your jealousy is showing Teresa. You know Thomas did all of that even after I begged him not to. I didn't want him to go through with the trade."
Teresa sucked in her cheeks, irritated. "Fine, you can come." She leaned in so only Claire could hear. "I know you wanted to die that day we lost him, and about that stupid spoon to remember your dead sister. You may have ruined their lives but you won't with me. I'll kill you."
She pulled away and smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. Claire swallowed hard, and she nodded even forced a smile.
She really needed to kill a Prowler right now.