Louis POV

Neither one of us spoke on the way back to the school. And for once, I didn't try to fill the quiet with my noise; it just seemed wrong. Disrespectful, even. Violet and I just walked in silence, hearing nothing but our footsteps and the harmony of crickets chirping.

"Violet! Louis!" The sudden shouts made me jump, and I turned in the direction that they were coming from. We stopped walking, and Aasim ran to meet us, stumbling on a stone as he came. Once he made it, he put his hands on his knees while he caught his breath. "I must have ran about 10 miles looking for you guys!" He panted. "Why didn't you answer when I called?"

"We didn't hear you," replied Violet. "We were... busy." Aasim pulled back up into his normal standing position.

"By the looks of it, you guys haven't had any luck finding Clem, either." Violet and I exchanged a look. Aasim noticed this, asking, "What?"

"We did find her," Said Vi. "And?" He questioned.

I pulled out her hat, handing it to him. His eyes widened as he connected the dots, holding her trademark accessory in his hands. "Oh my God..."

Violet filled him in on everything, for the most part.

We all stood there for a moment, examining Clementine's hat. My throat began to tighten up, and my stomach twisted and turned.

"C'mon, let's go," Violet said finally. Aasim handed the hat back to me, and I replaced it where I had it before. Our trio turned and continued back to the school.

0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0

The moon was high in the sky by the time we finally arrived back home. Surprisingly, no one was there at the front gates keeping watch. Violet sighed, saying, "I guess I'll take first watch. You two head inside, see what everyone else is doing." I nodded, and Aasim did the same. We entered the gates, and Violet climbed up our little platform overlooking the woods.

I trudged back to the dorms, dreading the discussion I was about to have with AJ. I still had no earthly clue how I was going to break the news to him. Aasim jogged to catch up to me, asking, "Hey, man, how are you doing?"

"I'm holding it together the best I can."

"Look, I know you two sort of had a thing, and I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry. For your loss, I mean."

"Thanks." We continued to walk toward the dorms.

Before I knew it, we were standing at the doors to the our living quarters. I placed my hand on the handle, but hesitated as I was about to turn it, retracting my arm. I had yet to figure out how I was going to tell AJ. As if reading my mind, Aasim patted my back, saying, "Don't know how you're gonna tell him, huh?"

"Nope. I have no idea what I'm gonna say," I admitted, shaking my head.

"Well, if you need me to, I can help you," he offered. "Maybe calm him down or something."

"No, I think he needs to hear it from me," I replied. "I think I was the closest to him, after Clem and Tenn."

"Alright, if you say so," said Aasim. "Still, I'm willing to help if you need."

"Thanks, Aasim." I tried to smile, but at the moment it felt like the corners of my mouth had five pound weights dragging them down.

"Alright, then. I guess I'll go let everybody else know what happened." He started to walk off again toward the admin building, but then stopped and turned back to me. "Also, good luck."

"I'm gonna need it," I responded. And with that, he left, and I pushed open the doors.

The hallway was eerily quiet, sending chills down my spine as I headed toward Clementine's dorm. I could see the flickering glow of candle light underneath the crack of the door, so I knew someone was in there. I gently knocked on the door, but no one answered.

It wasn't locked, so I slowly pushed open the door. Inside, I found AJ passed out on one of the bunks, and Ruby asleep in the desk chair, her head on the desk.

I gingerly shook the red head's shoulder. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open. "Louis," she whispered. She sat up in the chair, stretching and yawning. "I expected it would be Clem wakin' me up." She must have seen me wince at the sound of her name, because then she said, "What's wrong? Is she hurt? Is that why you're wakin' me up, you need me to go help you patch her up?"

Ruby stood up, suddenly wide awake. I held my finger to my lips, gesturing toward AJ. I whispered, "She's hurt, really badly. But she's not in any pain."

"What do you mean?" Again, I pulled her hat out, letting Ruby make the realization herself. She put both of her hands over her mouth, and her blue eyes began to water. "How?"

"She was shot, by Lilly. Then the explosion blew her into the river. When I found her floating down it, she was still alive, but had already lost too much blood. I was- I was too late."

"Poor Clementine."

"You know, maybe if I had gone to help her, this would have never happened. If I just hadn't lost my head after shooting that woman, maybe she would still be here." I could feel the anger bubble up inside me as I continued to talk.

"Louis, calm down." She placed a hand on my shoulder, but I was too riled up to be mollified by her.

"No Ruby, you don't understand, this is all my fault! If I had just thought about someone else other than myself for a second, she wouldn't be lying dead in the woods!" My chest heaved in and out rapidly. I hadn't realized how much I blamed myself for her death until just now, talking to someone about it.

"She's dead because of me."

I looked for something to take my anger out on. My eyes darted around the room, finding nothing. When my gaze settled on her pillow, all it did was fuel the angry fire inside of me. So, being the genius I am, I turned around and threw my fist into the wall, right next to the bookcase. I let put a whimper on the impact, and Ruby gasped.

I pulled my hand out of the new hole I had created, my knuckles already a dark shade of purple. Ruby grabbed my hand, pulling it up close to her eyes to inspect it. "Sit down," she ordered. I walked over to the desk chair and took a seat.

I held my bruised knuckles with my good hand. Ruby crossed her arms, staring at me, saying nothing. I didn't like the intense glare she was sending me, so I said, "I know, that was dumb, I was just caught up in the moment." This time she shushed me, pointing to the little boy still asleep on the bed. Good thing he was a deep sleeper.

"You know what's even stupider than you punchin' a wall?" She asked. I shrugged. "You blamin' this on yourself, that's what. Louis, I don't know what went on inside that boat, or who you killed. But either way, this is NOT your fault, you hear me?" I started to object, but she held up her hand. "The real people to blame here are the delta. Right? They're the ones who took Minnie and Sophie. They're the ones who attacked the school. They're the people to blame for Clementine's death. Not you. But they're dead now, so it doesn't matter."

My hand throbbed, and so did my heart. I closed my eyes, attempting to stop the tears, but that didn't work. They flowed in steady streams down my cheeks.

Ruby patted my back. "I know this is hard. And I'm sorry that this had to happen." I opened my eyes to find her wiping away her own salty drops.

"We'll patch up that hand in the morning. Right now, just try and get some sleep, if you can."

"You, too." I said.

And with that, she left the room.

I got up and slowly walked over to Clem's bed. I layed down on it, taking in a deep breath when my head rested against her pillow. It still smelled like her hair; somehow, those poofy locks always managed to smell like strawberries.

I glanced over at AJ, who was still sleeping like a baby. He looked so peaceful.

I quietly blew out the candle, then closed my eyes, hoping my dreams would pull me out of this real life nightmare for a bit.

0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0

I woke up panting and covered in sweat. My dreams were not nice to me last night; they weren't really dreams, either. It was just the memory of Clementine's final moments, being played on repeat over and over again.

I sat up in bed, and looked over at where AJ had been sleeping. However, he wasn't there. Confused, I got out of bed, and asked, "AJ?"

I looked under the bunks only to find that he wasn't there, either. I checked in the closet, finding nothing but some old boxes and a t-shirt.

As I backed out of the closet, I caught a glimpse of AJ's drawing, the one where he was protecting Clem. It actually managed to bring a small smile to my face, and I felt for her hat in my back pocket, just to feel it, to feel her, sort of.

But it wasn't there. My smile instantly faded.

AJ must have found it, and he's a smart kid, meaning he knows... And I wasn't there to tell him. To help him through it. Last time someone even threatened Clementine's life, he put a bullet in their head. Now that she was actually dead, who knows what he would do. She had confided in me about the talk they had shared, the one where AJ said he couldn't live without her. What if he... NO.

I rushed out of the room, nearly slipping on the dusty tile. I zipped down the hall, and into the courtyard. I cupped my hands around my mouth, shouting, "AJ!" I didn't get a response, so I ran toward the admin building. I checked the headmasters office, the music room, even the attic, but I couldn't find him anywhere.

I ran back out into the courtyard, spotting Aasim, Omar, Willy, and Violet, with her meat cleaver in hand. "There he is!" Said Aasim, and they all ran over to me. Omar took a little longer to get there, still limping because of his injured leg. "We heard you yelling," Violet said, "What happened?"

"AJ knows, and I can't find him!" I blurted out. They all stared at me blankly, obviously not understanding what I was so worked up about. "Well, we could all split up and look for him," Violet said. "I'll take the dorms, Willy and Omar, you check everywhere out here-"

"HE MIGHT KILL HIMSELF!" I bellowed. "He once told Clementine he couldn't live without her, that if she got bit he would want her to bite him too!"

They all processed this, finally understanding why this was such a big deal. Without giving them time to respond, I took off toward the graveyard, the next place I planned on searching for him. "AJ!" I called, looking frantically for him. I heard the others start to yell for him, too. I glanced over my shoulder to see them all scattered, some going into the school and the others looking around the yard. I felt a little better knowing that the other kids where helping.

I was searching the burned down part of the school (it used to be a gym) when I ran into Violet. "Find anything?" I asked.

"No, you?"

"Nothing."

"Ughh, where could he be?"

"Don't worry, we'll find him."

I ran my fingers through my hair. "I don't like all of this seriousness I've had to do lately," I said.

She actually looked sympathetic. "I know you don't, Lou. Tell you what; after we find him, we can all play a card game, maybe lighten everything up a bit."

"Yeah, that sounds good," I agreed.

All of a sudden, I heard Willy shout, "What are you doing? Get down from there!"

He was in front of the bell tower, looking up. My gaze followed his, until I saw who he was yelling at.

AJ was standing on the edge of it, Clementine's hat in his hands. One wrong step and he would fall, right to his death.

The rest of us ran to where Willy stood, looking up at AJ in horror. "AJ, come down! We, uh, we have a surprise for you!" Omar tried.

"What, her body?" Retorted AJ. Omar didn't know how to respond to that. "I know that she's dead!" AJ continued. "You guys were gonna hide it from me. But you couldn't!"

"We weren't trying to keep it from you!" Violet called up. "We were going to tell you!"

"Well its too late for that!" Said AJ.

Aasim stepped in then, saying, "Come down, AJ, we can talk about this."

While AJ rebutted something back, I assessed the situation. I needed to get up there, but AJ couldn't know, otherwise he would just jump. I whispered to Violet, "I'm going up there. Keep him distracted long enough for me to get up there and grab him." She nodded, then walked to the opposite corner of the bell tower, talking to him while she did. I crept around the tower to the back door, then went inside.

I hadn't been up there since before the walkers. I was scared of heights, though, so there was really no need for me to be.

I looked up at the long flight of stairs that had crumbled, and at the wall I would have to climb up. Do it for AJ, I told myself, and for Clem.

As I climbed, I could here the muffled argument between AJ and the rest of the kids, but I couldn't actually make out what they were saying. I continued to work my way up, when my foot slipped. Luckily, I had a good grip with my hands, but the strain on my knuckles still caused me to let out a groan of pain. I didn't look down, though. I've learned the hard way that you never look down when climbing.

Soon enough, I made it to the top. AJ's back was towards me, so I had the upper hand. I furtively snuck up behind him, trying my best to avoid all of the dead, crunchy leaves.

The kids were still trying to convince him to come down, but he wasn't responding to them anymore. Instead he was staring at her hat, talking to himself. No, it sounded as if he was talking to someone. I moved in closer so I could hear.

"I wish you were here Clem, to tell me what to do."

He sniffed, then wiped his nose on his arm.

"You would want me to be with you, right?"

He played with the D on the hat, which was peeling off.

"I don't know. I just-" he took a deep, shuddering breath. "I just don't know what to do, Clem."

He wiped his eyes.

"I know you always tell me to be strong, but I just can't..."

Those weren't good words. I moved forward faster, picking up my pace.

But this made me louder. And I made the fatal mistake of stepping into a big pile of those damn leaves.

He spun around, asking, "Who's there?"

His eyes locked on mine, and I froze.

"Hey, buddy," I said nervously. "Whatcha doing up here?"

He didn't even say anything. He just turned and lept.

Violet screamed. Willy shouted, "NO!" Aasim yelped. Omar did the same.

I, however, made no verbal noise. Instead, I dove for him.

My hands reached out, and I started grabbing.

And I actually managed to get a hold on the back of his disco broccoli sweater. His falling came to an abrupt halt, and a "Hugh," sound escaped his lips.

I lay there on my stomach, my bruised hand the only thing keeping AJ alive. I hadn't slid completely off; My legs and most of my abdomen was still on the balcony. With my free hand, I grabbed on to a nearby pillar, pulling the rest of my body up, then AJ, too. However, when I got him up, I didn't let go of his wrist, not trusting him to not try and take another leap of faith.

"You guys alright?" Vi shouted. "Do I need to go up there?"

"We're good!" I replied. "Stay down there!"

AJ tried to squirm out of my grip, but it was too tight. "Let me go!" He ordered, but I refused.

After a while, he stopped struggling. He had worn himself out.

I leaned against the wall, then switched the hands I holding on to him with. I opened and closed my bruised hand in order to stretch it.

We sat in silence, still taking in everything that had just happened. The wind was blowing harshly, and AJ began to shiver. With no words, I let go of his wrist and wrapped my arm around him, trying to warm him up.

He didn't fight this time, and snuggled right up into my chest. He put her hat up to his nose, inhaling deeply.

"I always liked the way her hair smelt," He said.

"It smells like strawberries," I told him.

"What's that?"

"It's a fruit."

He smelled the hat again.

"When you found her, was she a monster?"

"No. She never had to become one."

He backed up enough to look me in the eye.

"So she was still alive when you found her?"

"For a couple minutes, yeah, she was."

He leaned back into me, his teeth chattering now.

"You wanna know what she wanted me to tell you?"

He didn't answer, but I told him anyway, "She wanted me to tell you that she loved you. Sooo much. And that she was sorry she couldn't say goodbye."

I blinked a couple times, trying to push back the tears that were threatening to spill over. I had to be strong right now.

"She would want us to keep going. She would want you to keep going, not just go off and die."

"But she was a-all I had!" He said, starting to sniffle.

"Hey," I said, placing my hands on his shoulders. "You still have me. And Tenn, and Violet. You have everybody here!"

He sighed, saying,"I just don't know what I'll do without her, L-Louis."

"Neither do I. But you know what?"

"W-what?"

"We'll figure it out together, you and me. We're a team, remember?"

"Oh, right. 'Team Fun'. Well, this is not fun."

"How about we change the name for right now? How about team-" I scratched my head. "I don't know, what do you think, AJ?"

"How about 'Team Strong'?" He suggested. I smiled.

"I like that idea."

"Can we stay up here a little longer?"

"Sure, if you want."

"Alright." He cozied up to me, sticking his cold hands inside my jacket. "I just want to think for a little bit."

I set my hand on top of his hair. "Sure thing, little man."

"By the way, Louis," he said, "thanks for saving me."

I smiled. "No problem, AJ."

AN: This one was super depressing too. I think I'll write two chapters from Clem's POV before writing another one of these. It just makes me sad writing these. Anyway, let me know what you thought of this one!