A/N: I have decided to rewrite this story. It just didn't turn out to be what I wanted it to be the first time. So I'm hoping for a second chance to make Charlotte the evolving character she should have been the first time around.

Disclaimer: I don't own the walking dead or any of its characters. Just my own. I'm not getting paid yadda yadda yadda you guys know the drill.

Change is the Only Constant

She was so young with such innocent eyes

She always dreamt of a fairytale life

And all the things that your money can't buy

She thought that he was a wonderful guy

Then suddenly, things seemed to change

It was the moment she took on his name

He took his anger out on her face

She kept all of her pain locked away

-Christina Aguilera "Oh, Mother"

Prologue:

Change…it's always happening. My life was one big change after another, losing my parents at a young age, moving in with my grandfather, going to college, getting kicked out of college, moving in with a wanna be rock star and then…the turn. The turn of the world, of people, of everything. Everything in the world took a sharp turn for the worse when the dead started walking. In the mix of all that I somehow found my sister who I was once close with, but she married an overprotective city guy and moved into the city. We only saw each other on rare occasions. But once we found each other after the turn our bond grew stronger. We had each other to lean on and that only fueled her husband's hatred of me and eventually…he killed me. The change into an undead freak was the last change I would ever encounter, but this story isn't about me. It's about my sister, Charlotte, the woman who was once so strong, but changed when she married an overpowering, hateful man from the city. Over the years I watched him suck the life out of my vibrant, happy sister until she was just a shell of the woman she used to be.

Chapter one

Life before the turn was barely tolerable for Charlotte, but now? Now it's insufferable. The only family she has left is her husband Richard and me. Before the turn she was living with Richard in Hawkinsville in a fancy home that, to her, felt more like a prison. When it all started, Atlanta was supposed to be some kind of safe haven. So that's where my boyfriend, Markus and I headed, but it was just a pipe dream. By the time we got there it was in the midst of its downfall.

We thought we were the only ones to make it out of that death trap of a city, but we were wrong. We were on our way out, looking for a car, when we ran into Charlotte and Richard. Charlotte and I were so happy to have found each other, but the happiness didn't last long. The lurkers that followed us out of the city eventually caught up with us and raided the small camp we had set up on the outskirts of Atlanta. The monsters took Markus leaving Char and I alone with Richard. Ever since then life has been an even bigger hell than before.

We were looking for a place to bunker down for the night when we found a trailer park enclosed by a wooden privacy fence. As we started looking for a way in we were greeted by people. Living people who invited us to stay with them, but they had rules. You fend for yourself, sharing wasn't allowed. Because if one person shared more with one than the other it would start a fight within the group. So if food or supplies was passed from one person to another it had to be paid for in one fashion or another. This is how I ended up in the bed of a man, just to get two cans of soup for my sister and me. Richard didn't know, if he did Charlotte and I would have both gotten beatings. He would say that we made him look like he couldn't provide for us, but really he couldn't. The soup that I risked a beating for, didn't last long and now I sat in the camper we had been given when we became a part of this group with a growling stomach. "I'm starving." I knew I sounded like a whiny little kid, but we had been here for a week and I could count on one hand the times that we had actually eaten something. "Maybe I could-"

"No." Charlotte cut me off, and put down the rag that she had been using to wipe blood splatters off of the cabinet doors. She slid into the small café style booth across from me, and grabbed my hand. "Not again. I love you. You're all I've got and I can't let you do that to yourself." She kept her voice low and soft before she glanced down at the bird tattooed on her wrist. I twisted my wrist around putting my matching tattoo next to hers like a flipped mirror image. "It would be easy for whoever you go to, to rat you out or simply kill you, Abby. I can't lose you." she whispered as she ran her fingers over our tattoos. "Richard will get us food. He's out hunting with the other men right now."

I just scoffed at my sister as I pulled my hand away. "That piece of shit can't hunt to save his life." I reached down and picked up the pink studded bra that had fallen out of my bag. "I can get us food. I've done it before, I can do it again."

"We'll find another way." Charlotte said, letting her exhaustion fill her voice as she took the bra from me and shoved it into the bag.

"I can sleep with Jeff again. He's not that bad, and I know he'll pay me with something good." I said keeping my eyes on the ground so that Charlotte couldn't see the shame in them. Sleeping with a stranger wasn't great, but it was the only thing we had to barter with.

"Abby you can't. Just because you're 18 doesn't mean that it's okay to sell yourself for food. If Richard finds out…" she trailed off, not having to finish the sentence for me to know that things wouldn't be a bed of roses for us if he found the food stashed away for the two of us, or if Jeff popped off his mouth about sleeping with me. "Just don't, please."

"We would be the fattest people here if that bastard would just let you hunt with them." My whispered words felt like a slap in the face to Charlotte, but I couldn't help it. When we lived with our grandfather he taught us how to live off the land. It never really stuck with me, I didn't like getting dirt under my nails, but Charlotte was like a duck in water with him.

"Would you stop talking about him like that? He's kept us alive for this long hasn't he?" Charlotte turned her back on her me and continued wiping at the cabinets.

"Yeah, barely." I couldn't stand Richard and it was with reasonable cause. He was a vile man, and Charlotte just couldn't see it. "He treats you like shit, now's your chance to leave him." I had given my older sister the same speech many times, but she would just let it go in one ear and out the other. "Have you not looked at yourself in the mirror? Do you not see what he does to you? He-"

I was cut off when Richard opened the door and glared at me. I ducked my head knowing he had heard what I said through the thin walls of the camper trailer. "Get out." Her snapped and I didn't want to leave, but I knew that if I didn't leave I would have to watch him beat my sister. So I ducked my head and left Richard alone with his wife, wishing there was more I could do. I simply stood outside the camper and listened to him walk over to where Charlotte was on her hands and knees scrubbing at a spot of blood on the floor. I heard her gasp. "Did I not tell you to have this place clean when I got back?" His words were cold and I could only imagine how he was looking at her. When he didn't get an answer from Charlotte he hissed, "I asked you a question." He still didn't get an answer. "Look at me when I talk to you damn it! Now, did I or did it not tell you to clean this place up?"

"You did." my sisters answer wasn't meek or scared, just…flat and quiet.. The voice of the empty shell he had turned her into.

"Then why isn't it done?" he asked and I could tell it was through gritted teeth.

"There was a lot of blood. I'm only one person and you won't let Abby help me." She pointlessly tried to defend herself.

"Then you should stop talking and start working." He hissed. "Why do you make me do this?" he yelled and I flinched when the sharp smack of skin on skin hit my ears, followed by the banging of her being thrown around the small space of the camper. Tears slipped down my cheeks as the fight continued. I'd tried interrupting once and caught a beating in the process. After that I promised Charlotte that I wouldn't get in the middle of their fights again. She didn't want me getting hurt.

When things settled down in the camper I walked in to see her sitting on the counter top wearing clean clothes, but that's the only part of her that looked clean. One of her hazel eyes was red, circled with a fresh developing bruise and he was dabbing at an L shaped cut on her forehead. "I'm sorry. You know I am." Richard told her sweetly making my stomach churn.

I scoffed making him cut his eyes over at me. "You always say that, but it doesn't keep you from hitting her again though does it?" I asked with my arms crossed over my chest.

"You keep your whore mouth shut." he warned, but I wasn't having it anymore. I was sick and tired of his crap.

"No. Ya beat the shit out of her then tell her ya love her? You're sick. Ya think she loves ya back?" I asked and he turned his evil gaze onto Charlotte.

"You do love me back, don't you?" he cooed to her making me sick to my stomach and even sicker when she nodded back. "That's my girl."

"Char, look at me." I told her and she couldn't even make herself look at me. "Look at me." I hissed as I walked over to her and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look me in the eyes. "Come with me." I told her as I grabbed her limp hand and pulled her down off the counter and toward the door. We had just gotten outside when Richard grabbed Charlotte and pulled her from my grasp.

"Where do you think you're going?" he growled at me as he turned Charlotte and held her back to his chest, his arms wrapped around her shoulder and chest.

"I am sick of watching you treat my sister like a punching bag." I practically growled at him. "We're leaving, her and me." Charlotte just stood there, her mouth agape as tears slid down her cheeks. "Char look at me. I know you want to get away from him. I see it in your eyes. Just come with me." I told her then over exaggeratedly looked at the knife on Richard's hip and gave her a nod. I knew she got what I was trying to tell her when she swallowed hard, squinted at me and shook her head no. "Ya can. You're strong. You're the strongest person I know. Ya can be strong again." I gave her another nod making Richard scoff at us. I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised that Char slipped the knife out of the sheath on his hip and spun around in his loose grip, slicing him across the chest in the process. I hoped she would have gone for his throat, but she didn't. He yelped in pain and let her to long enough for me to grab her hand and start running to the nearest exit.

But my heart fell when we got close to the exit and saw a horde of walkers making their way inside the fence. "Shit, shit, shit." I cursed as we made a u turn and headed for the other exit. We were almost there when I heard Char yelp as she was ripped from my grip. When I turned around I saw that Richard had grabbed her by the hair and pulled her toward the closed gate.

"You really think you can survive with her?" I heard him hiss at her.

"Abby! Abby!" Charlotte screamed out when her eyes landed on me where I was frozen in place. Her screams thawed my muscles and I ran toward them, glancing back to see the walkers closing in on us. For a split second I forgot about getting away with Charlotte and thought only of getting us out of this park alive with or without Richard. I watched him try to break the lock on the gate and fail. So he hefted Char over the fence then he jumped and tried to haul himself up and over, but he fell when Char shoved him. "Abby! Help Abby." She screamed.

When he turned to me and grabbed my waist I expected him to help me over the fence, but instead he picked me up and hurled me into the horde that eagerly grabbed me and pulled me down. I screamed as their fingernails dug into my skin then their teeth sunk into my arms and legs. I watched Richard look down at me and smirk before he jumped over the fence and my world went dark.