Chapter 18
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
Asked her mother in terrifying realization. Her reaction made Sophia cringe inside.
Why do I have to be the one to tell her about that night?. She complained in her head.
"Relax mom, I'm just keeping him like that so he doesn't die before I'm able to save him. He doesn't feel anything or even knows what's going on." She tried to explain in order to disarm her mother, but if anything, it looked like it possibly did the opposite of calming her down.
"What happened to him!?" Demanded to know her mother as she moved over to the glass, she saw her reach out to it with her hand but then doubt it, possibly in fear.
Sophia sighed and walked over to her mother then stood by her side in front of the frozen Glenn, she had yo try hard not to think of the charmed sheet covering Rapey that her mother thankfully could not see.
"When we introduce ourselves to a new community we kill one of them, you know, to make a point. Your friends were no different, it was some redhead buff guy this time, but then Daryl had to fuck up and get Glenn like this." She tried to explain to her mother and winced a little when she could see how the news hurt her. At the time it seemed like her mother wouldn't look at her but Sophia feared what she would see in her eyes when the woman did.
"They were your friend too." Her mother spat, finally looking back at her, there was a harmful amount of disappointment and accusation in her eyes and her voice. She couldn't help to feel a tug in her chest when she noticed but she wasn't going to back down that easy, she wouldn't be guilt-tripped by her mother, who had recently run away from everything. Not when the woman was looking at her with those accusing eyes.
Not when those eyes made her feel like that, not when she realized how afraid she was of the feeling.
"No, they were not. Back then I was hardly myself, just a fucked up abused little girl who was too afraid of her father to ever do anything about it, some pathetic victim waiting to happen. That time is so far behind me, mom, I don't feel anything for them." She answered. It was a half-lie but she felt too much on the defense, and even though she meant it, by the time the words came out her mouth she already regretted bringing up her father to the discussion. It felt like a low blow to her mother.
Carol visibly and forcibly gasped, like her words had struck her hard enough to take the air out of her lungs. Her mother turned to her fully and when Sophia saw her, she had a wounded face she never saw in her and came with a look filled with deep hurt in her eyes.
"I'll never regret anything in my life as much as I regret all that time I had us live with that monster. What I put you through because of my weakness." Carol said with tears in her eyes, her voice loaded with feelings.
The statement threatened to break Sophia's composure and she wished she had her mask on at the moment. When she heard her mother's voice break and her eyes tear up, she had to swallow hard to loosen her throat. Then she tried to summon her anger for the man and use it to regain control of herself, something she knew worked for her.
"Who cares now, he's fucking dead. If he wasn't I would kill him myself." She spat with acid anger and made her mother take a step back in shock.
"He was still your father." Her mother said.
Again that accusing tone that only served to get her more fired up but this time it was her turn to look at her mother in shock.
Why? Why would she ever defend that worm? She thought in her head, the words from her mother shaking her core, tainting her whole image of her mother.
"Fuck no, you are not going to get like that with me. Do you want me to remind you of the kind of fucked up shit he did to us? To me !?" She shouted in anger, her hate for the man flaring up and lashing at her mother for defending her father.
No, that piece of shit was never my father.
"You think I don't torture myself enough about that!? You'll never even remotely know how I feel about it until you are a mother. Until you live what I lived… you'll never understand what it feels to have failed someone you care for like that." Carol cried, placing her hand over her heart.
"But no matter what he did, no matter what I did or failed to do, it doesn't give you any right to treat people like that. You think it's alright to rule over people with fear, don't you see how you are doing the same kind of shit that man did to us!?" Her mother continued.
WHAT?!
"Don't you fucking compare me to that piece of shit!." Sophia threatened, her anger getting the better of her, filling her veins and flushing her face. She could feel her mood in the air now, dry and hot, threatening to burn everything.
But the menacing effect did nothing to make her mother back down, she continued without fear.
"Who else got hurt or died because of your take over!?" Carol asked her accusingly pointing at her and pressing her finger on her chest. Seeing her like that made her falter for a second, and she suddenly felt in the spotlight like she hadn't felt since she was a child.
"I don't know some fucking religious creep, oh, and that manchild Spencer." Sophia answered, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away, reluctantly. Luckily her mood mellowing out a little bit.
"What the fuck are you doing Sophia?" Questioned her mother.
"What? And the plus thirty of my men, who were killed by you and your friends are nothing?" She accused. "What the fuck were you doing, mom?"
"No, don't try to turn this on me. Your people were extorting the Hilltop, killing them for not giving them what you wanted, it was clear they were no innocent people. They were not exactly growing tomatoes on that outpost, Sophia!" Carol retorted harshly.
"You don't know what you are talking about. You know what we do, mom? We keep this territory safe, that means that when a gun-crazy group of psychos come and start killing dozens of people, we step in." Sophia defended herself, her hands gesticulating in anger. They were in full fight now and she felt like it was getting out of her control, but luckily, it looked like her mother was more controlled than her.
Carol walked away from the remains of her friend, left hanging as an adorn in the home of her long lost daughter, and sat down on the couch again with her face in her hands.
"Stop! Stop." Carol said tiredly. "I'm not going to fight with you like this when I just got you again."
Sophia sighed and came up to her mom, kneeling in front of her.
"Mom, I read your letter to Toby. I know you have been hurting for the things you have been doing with them. I get it, it was to survive, to save your friends...You can stay here with me now, you won't ever need to fight anymore." Sophia offered to her tired mother.
She took her hands from her face and held them in hers. "I promise, I don't want to hurt them. I want to save them, I do." She explained. "You can help me do it or if you'd like you can live out your life here, growing vegetables on our farming compound, I'm with you now." She said feeling bad for the recent discussion but her mother remained silent.
"I wanted to give you a place to live in peace, to rest and live out your days better than we ever did in our life, but...maybe if you are that worried about it, you should take Negan's offer and handle Alexandria for us. Isn't it in your interest to protect them?" She asked.
Her mother looked at her, her eyes looking for something on her own face. "What does handling even mean? I'm not going to kill any of them." She assured her after a while.
"You have to make it so they don't do anything stupid that would get them killed, and even if it gets to it, you can leave it to us...All you should have to do is pick up their offerings, make sure they stay busy, productive and away from any dangerous ideas." She explained, honestly, to Sophia it would be perfect if her mom handled Alexandria.
"I can't decide that. This is too much, why can't we just enjoy that we are both alive?" Her mother said tiredly.
"Sure, but you see how it would work out for everyone if you did, right?" Sophia asked her with a hopeful smile.
"Frankly, I don't see how it would. I don't think I can look at my friends in the face while I force them to give me their stuff for you."
"Rick is doing it, why can't you?" She asked. "It's not like you would be betraying them, I told you it would help them." She argued, but her mother didn't look like she was buying it.
"Because you are forcing him!" Her mother answered with exasperation.
"Fine! Whatever, it's not like we don't have the people for it. It was just an offer, no need to get mad again." She said, putting her hands up and giving up.
The tension in the room remained for a few seconds while Sophia sat again next to her mother and reclined against the back of the sofa, then after a few seconds her mother did the same and she was able to rest her head on her shoulder. The way she did when she was younger and wanted to console the woman while she cried.
"But you will stay with us, right?" She asked her mother tentatively.
Carol took her time to answer, she looked tired.
"I'm not sure...no, I have a house near the Kingdom. You can come with me today if you want." Her mom said. She sounded sad and Sophia was afraid she had disappointed her, it was one thing to admit her mom wouldn't like what she was doing. But the disappointment was shockingly heavy on Sophia's chest.
There was something else there, her knowledge of the Kingdom was noteworthy, but she filed that for later.
"Do you want me to give you a tour of the Sanctuary?" Sophia offered, trying to change the mood between the two.
Thankfully her mother accepted.
The sudden short discussion had caught her by surprise, but she thought now that it was foolish to think it was going to go smoothly.
Her home was composed of the main compound that was the Sanctuary which used to be the main building of a factory and was now used as the main hub for the workers and enforcers to trade and mingle, then the rest was divided into three compounds which were used for different purposes, ranging from growing food or storing materials to living quarters and working spaces for those who offered services.
In total there were almost two hundred workers living in the Sanctuary, which was presently patrolled by about twenty Savior enforcers, the others being spread between the other outposts.
As Sophia showed her mother everything, she felt a little bit guilty for never telling her any real numbers, she realized her mom knew that she was purposefully avoiding that and secretly thanked her for not pressing on.
Sometimes, while they were walking the premises, some workers greeted her happily and thanked her and Negan for their protection to which Sophia would thank them for their support and their hard work. Some workers and even some Savior enforcers acted with clear deference toward her, bowing their heads or kneeling as she walked by, their arms locked.
"It's a bit embarrassing." She tried to explain in a low voice. "They always do it for Negan, he requested it, just a show of his shitty sense of humor. But at some point they started to do it for me too."
" Do you enjoy it? Did you tell them not to?" Carol asked her, she was giving her a look of skepticism.
"At first, but I don't want them to feel like they annoy me." She excused herself, but deep inside she liked it, she loved it even. They recognized her as their protector, their benefactor, and it made her feel warm.
"I try to always walk the grounds and help wherever I can, I like to watch them work and see how they are doing. When they are new, sometimes they have trouble adjusting." She went on, trying to help her mom understand, she wanted her mother to see her place among them.
They ended the walk around at the Sanctuary's main compound, where she showed her and told her about the worker's number designations and explained to her about the point system.
"So…" Started Carol, thoughtfully. "They work for points and they can exchange points for food and commodities, different jobs pay more and the fighters are the best paid job?" She tried to resume.
"Enforcers, and yes more or less. People that offer services can get good pay too, or if you make something others want you can make a good living too. You get it? Like there's this guy, Alex, he was a tailor and he is doing so great he got himself some paid help." She explained.
"And who controls that everyone follows the rules?" Her mother asked her.
"The rules keep us alive. Everyone understands that and respects that, they want order and safety too, mom. We enforce them without fail, some people when they are new they have a hard time adjusting to that, but if they manage to adapt and learn to play they can integrate well enough." Sophia explained to her, they were walking slowly and she was hanging on her arm like they used to do when she was little.
"And if they don't?" Her mother asked.
"We don't always kill them unless they really fuck up, but they are punished hard if they break the rules. Which in turn makes it harder to bounce back." She explained.
"What about you? How do you fit in the rules?" Carol asked her.
"I'm kind of an implicit exception. I would be like a lieutenant, they are exempt from the point system and also have a bit of power over the workers, but in truth, I'm more independent than that." She tried to explain, but felt like she was making it more confused.
"Think of me like...mmm...Negan's independent partner. We have the same goals and philosophies, I always like to work in some way to help around, but I never ask for anything. I don't know...what do you think?" She asked her mom
"So you are not Negan's right hand...woman?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope, he never expects anything from me or demands anything of me. I just do what I do and since we share the same objectives, he never complains." Sophia explained, it was an arrangement that she loved and valued a lot. It meant that Negan had full confidence and respect for her, far different than the relationship he had with Simon, his actual right-hand man.
Her mother looked at her for a time after she said that, then asked her in a low voice.
"Are you her… successor?" She asked with disguised shock.
"Oh, yeah definitely...I'll never leave this territory, it's my home, everything within it is mine." She said slowly, locking eyes with her mom. Lost in thought about what she could do with those lands in her long lifespan, it was a usual daydream of hers. "We are just...laying the groundwork."
Just thinking about it brought back the warm feeling she got when she thought of how her people saw her.
She felt her mom shiver a little through her arm and it took her out of her thoughts. "Are you cold? I can warm you up in a second if you want." She offered.
"No no...I'm fine." Carol answered her.
Sophia smiled in content behind her mask. "Oh mom, I'm so happy we are-" But before she could finish, a loud sound of someone crashing against something metallic, called their attention.
"We don't look kindly on thievery here, bum!" A man exclaimed. "Give him a lesson boys." He finished and watched as three other armed men walked up to a large black man on the floor and started pummeling and kicking him on the ground.
Sophia grabbed her mother's hand and pulled her towards the small crowd that had formed around the three enforcers dealing the man a rough beating.
"Please! We only arrived yesterday, he didn't know!" Pleaded a woman with the enforcer leader, at which point the man lifted his eyes from her and caught sight of the Harpy, he looked at her and then motioned to the man on the floor as if asking.
Sophia nodded after a second and the man called off his subordinates at once, they picked up the big man.
"You are getting off easy thanks to the Harpy's mercy, next time you try to cut corners here no one will save you." Warned the man and walked off with his Saviors in tow. The woman who had been pleading with them went straight to her big friend and shouldered one of his arms to help him stay on his foot.
She was a pretty brunette with hardened features and a slightly scarred face, what looked to be a gash across the cheek, Sophia guesses she was in her thirties.
"Show's over assholes!" She shouted at the little crowd that had been gathered, then the couple faced her and looked at her with some recognition and mistrust.
"We take our rules very seriously." Sophia told them, half warning, half explaining. "What are your names?" She asked them cordially.
"My name is Sandra, designation 198 and this mess here is John, designation 197." Said the woman, she was trying to sound like she was talking to some military official or something.
"No need to be so formal…" She said, then noticed the bent arm that the man was nursing. "I can help you with that arm, do you know who I am?" She asked the man, he was visibly having a hard time recovering from the beating.
"You are the Harpy." Simply answered the big black man, he was bold or shaven and one of his eyes had been damaged long ago, leaving it with a milky shade and possibly blind. "They said you are some kind of Wiccan or something." He said tiredly.
"Don't listen to him, all we know is you are one of the leaders here." Tried to mend the woman.
Sophia smiled at the new description and took out her long wand, which made the couple tense, then with a flourish she intoned. "Brackium emendo" and finished it with a quick flick at the bent arm of the man, and with a sickly wet sound and a sudden grunt from John, the arm fixed itself.
John moved around in surprise and tried his grip, a shocked smile on his face.
"It's still bruised, but damn, the bone is fine now." He explained in amazement, looking at the woman with him. Sophia smiled from behind her face and looked back at her mother, she didn't know what she expected to see in her but her mother was busy watching the group of Saviors walk away with concern, so Sophia turned back to the two new workers with mild disappointment in her heart.
"Thank you, boss, I never saw anyone do something like that. We honestly thought it was some kind of cult or something." Explained the woman.
"Harpy or Ms. Harpy is fine. You should still go see the doctor, tell him the Harpy sent you and he won't charge you, just this time ok? We expect people to work hard here and not to cut corners, if you feel like you need more points, think about changing jobs, we always take more enforcers." She told them, it wasn't her first time lecturing some new folk after all.
When she finished she turned back to her mother, who was looking at her as if lost in thought and Sophia didn't know what to say. She guessed her mother had some things to say about her and her home.
"You want me to take you home?" She asked her mother trying to hide the bitterness in her voice.
Carol smiled and placed a warm hand on her shoulder. "I have a car nearby. And I'm not doing that teleportation thing again in my life." She said. "Come with me, stay some time at least, just the two of us. Like it should have been long before all of this happened." Her mom asked her, with a heavy heart.
Sophia smiled from behind her mask and nodded. "Sure, but I won't stay. I have a place here mom, they need me, you can have a place here too if you want." She said sadly and her mom just nodded, without saying anything.
They walked out of the Sanctuary and Carol took her nearby where she had hidden her car.
"Can we get there before night?" She asked her mom, as she sat on the passenger seat.
"Yeah, sure." Her mom reassured her, and just like that Sophia found herself in a car with her mom behind the wheel, an immense nostalgic feeling inundated her mind.
The afternoon sun and the warm leather of the seat, just the two of them in the car going home after her mom had picked her up from school. One of those peaceful moments of privacy between the mother and daughter that they treasured before going back to the home where that man lived, sometimes her mom used to take her out if she felt that Ed wouldn't notice their long absence.
They drove in silence for a while, Carol's car had been stripped from the radio sometime before she took ownership of it, Sophia noticed.
"Hey, mom?" She asked silently, gathering some strength.
"Yeah?" Answered her mother, her eyes focused on the road.
"How did you find where I was?" She asked her, trying to pass it as casual.
Of course, Carol had a sharp mind for those acts, she always had. "Really? Negan spoke highly of you, and he claims he was able to deduct it days before I came." She argued.
"He told you he knew? Bullshit." Sophia said at once, but Carol gave her a glance as if waiting, so she thought it out longer.
"You found out I was here and came to check it out, right?" She asked, and her mother nodded.
"You must have learned from someone where the Sanctuary was for you to find it I guess. You haven't been looking for me for long right?" She asked.
"I found out yesterday." Her mother answered helpfully.
"You mentioned the Kingdom, so you must know Ezekiel…" She followed. "Yesterday I told Ezekiel I was looking for you, but he couldn't have known you were my mother…could he?" She said thoughtfully and not missing the fact that her mother chose not to answer.
I wonder what happened to that guy Morgan, could he know about me if he were alive? She thought, Sophia kept thinking about it in silence as they drove, the answer was right on the tip of her tongue...then it hit her.
"Oh fuck me." She exclaimed and gained a slap on her arm by her mother. "Daryl found you before I found you...that's just aces." She exclaimed terribly annoyed with herself.
"Of course, I can conjure fire demons and turn things into nothing but yeah, the redneck beat me to tracking you…I knew I should have tried divination." She complained annoyed, which made her mother laugh.
"Don't laugh so much." She warned her. "I try to be as observant as Negan is, and let me tell you, this means there is a lot of shit brewing in my cauldron." She commented, pissed off.
"Like what?" Asked Carol, suddenly interested.
"Why? You said you didn't want to be involved…" She said. It was a jab at her reluctance to work with her and the fact that she knew her mother had not said explicitly that she wouldn't help her friends.
She didn't know if she wanted to tell her mother, shitty as it made her feel, because her mother would certainly tell them. If Carol was near the Kingdom and knew Ezekiel, who by the way had lied to her the day before, then Daryl knew about the Kingdom and that was a direct line between all the communities. It was all but certain that they all knew each other now, something they always meant to avoid, to keep them separated and weak. And that was not even considering the whereabouts of that man Morgan.
"Mom, I don't really want to talk about all this business with you, but...If you see Daryl, you better tell him to come back, tell him to come back before people start dying because of him." She warned her annoyed and tried to avoid the look of indignation that she saw her mother wear.
"Why would people die?" Asked her mother, but Sophia knew she understood, which pissed her off more yet.
"Because of his selfishness and arrogance, that's why mom!" She shouted, her mood getting the better of her. "Anyone who helps him will be killed and you know it, he will only aggravate the conflict." Sophia spat in anger at the man, he had escaped their prison and was now gallivanting across the lands passing on information.
"Or you could just let it be, what did you want him for anyway. To work for you? it doesn't seem to me like he would have worked out." Her mother argued.
"It's not about that. If he had gone through the process and still refused we might have found a way, but now he escaped, killed one of our guys on his way out and I'm supposed to just let it slide?"
"It's clear to me now that he is not leaving the area, he is around, Rick will surely help him out. And if not Rick, then Maggie because you all are so fucking close, then what are we supposed to do? Eh, mom? What do you think will happen if one of the other lieutenants find out?" She asked in anger.
"You are supposed to let people live their lives free." Her mother countered in a serious tone. The living free argument was something Sophia had been so tired of by those people, she couldn't help but huff and grind her teeth when she heard it from her mother.
"If they want to live free , mom." She started, using air quotes on the word free. "They can go west and live with the cannibal tribes or the psycho squads. If they want to live here they answer to us." She said angrily.
Carol sighed tiredly as she drove, slowing down a tad to calm herself, then looked at her with this look in her eyes. "I'm going to be honest with you now." She started.
"I think I understand exactly what's going on and where you stand. But go on if you want to…" Sophia retorted, the air inside the car was heavy with tension.
"I just got my daughter back this day...I lived for years thinking of my dead little girl, and I'm glad that you are alive, I can see my little girl in you." She started, Sophia allowed her to continue.
"But I've seen today that she doesn't exist anymore, not entirely. You are a grown woman now, I want to make very clear that I respect the kind of person you have become. But Sophia…" She said. While she paused, Carol slowed the car to a stop then turned to look directly at her.
"This…mission you are on. I can tell, it's somehow about control. I'm sorry we weren't together to face all that we had to live through." She continued with teary eyes. "I realize now that you had to grow up a lot and that you had to do it alone, you lived through a lot and probably had very little control over your life for the longest time."
Carol reached for her hand and grabbed it, absentmindedly checking the state of her bandage. Sophia turned towards her, Carol's words caught her attention.
"Now that you survived all of that and flourished as a woman, and I guess as a witch too... Sweetie you are trying to grasp all the control you can, but you can't control people, not really. This dream you have with Negan of controlling everything around you, it's unhealthy, it will get you killed and many people too." Her mom tried to explain.
She couldn't deny that there was a... thing ...with her and being in control, knowing things were in her hands, that she could drop everything at a moment's notice and still be on top and safe. That she could grasp it and never let go unless she wanted to.
But the rest was just her mother trying to make her side with them, and what would that achieve? Nothing, she had the power and the time, they just had to see it eventually.
"You don't get it mom...you never will, not really." She answered sadly, her eyes burning and feeling the same old loneliness she felt when she thought of how they had never even heard of another witch or wizard alive.
"What is to understand? Honey, I can stay away from this, I can hide at the Sanctuary and never come out or go to them and manage them for you and Negan. But I promise you, they will fight you, and I can say this with certainty without talking about it with any of the leaders from any community. There's nothing that you or I can do that will stop that." Her mother assured her.
"It doesn't matter, they can fight all they want. We'll manage them." She stubbornly declared, of course, she didn't believe her mother was wrong but if they just managed to keep the peace long enough they would understand. "It's just a matter of them getting it before too many have to die." Sophia finished.
"Then it will never end." Her mother declared and turned on the car again so they could continue the trip.
The night had fallen over the Hilltop and everyone was already resting from a day of hard work, as usual, three big bonfires illuminated the inner yard with their red and orange light.
Sasha knelt before one of the only two graves within the community since their custom was burning their deceased, but in reality, she knew that it was just the one grave. Abraham laid alone underground and she sometimes felt that she was the only one keeping him company.
It had been new, their growing love, but it was built over the closeness of surviving together all kinds of hells. It was born tainted in hurt, since their love meant the pain of a dear friend of them, but it was undeniable and that also pained her.
There was a smoldering red stone inside her chest, it sizzled and turned, like a living thing. Every day the pressure built up and her vision became more and more narrow, she knew that it would continue, until she could only see one thing.
The head of Negan on her sights, the feeling of the discharge pushing her shoulder, the way his head would flick with the force of the round, and then it would be over.
Then everything will be over. She thought to herself, feeling nothing but the burning conviction.
She heard it only because of the close proximity and the silence of her surroundings, wood scraping, a hinge churning, and a couple of footsteps.
Jesus. She thought. He was coming in through the secret emergency exit, as he had been doing since they came back from the kingdom. They all have noticed his change, his unkempt beard and his eyes sagged with bags under them, he had been going out all night and most of the days even before the meeting with the King and Sasha knew he was tailing the Harpy.
The man had become obsessed about the witch since the night she killed Gregory, she didn't think they were close but others from Hilltop agreed that the experience had changed the man. If Sasha wasn't planning to do it herself, she would have chastised Jesus about his evident intentions of doing something stupid.
Sasha stood up from Abraham's resting place and quietly walked in the dark, paying attention to the very quiet sound of footsteps that Jesus managed to make until they were both just around the corner of one of the trailers when she suddenly stepped out of the corner and faced the man, giving him a surprise.
"OH, jeez Sasha, you are going to give me a heart attack." He whispered in irritation.
"Late night again Jesus?" She asked her friend.
"Not here!" He said looking around hysterically, he was surely looking for any sign of an invisible Harpy, which was a tell on how paranoid he was.
"You are not going to see her like this anyway." Sasha told him, bothered. They walked inside the mansion and to Maggie's office, the same one that once belonged to Gregory.
Jesus locked every door and shut every window and curtain, then turned off every candle except one, before facing her again.
"The Harpy found her mother, I saw Carol walk into the Sanctuary and then the two of them went out in a vehicle." He told her like it was some kind of amazing news, they all agreed that it was a matter of time before they reunited, sure Carol walking herself to the Sanctuary was unexpected but still.
"You are going to get caught if you keep snooping so close to their HQ." She warned him, worried about the man, but Sasha knew she was the only one worrying about him in that room.
"It's fine, besides I have something that I know you will want to see." He countered, disregarding her warning, he pulled something from his jacket and Sasha saw that it was a piece of paper folded into squares.
She took it from his hands fast when she guessed what he was about to show her.
"How did you get this!?" She asked in shock, trying to control the level of her voice, they were almost whispering the whole time.
" Snooping around." He simply answered.
"How accurate do you think it is?" She asked him.
"It doesn't have his specific quarters, but you shouldn't need it, you just have to watch the first-floor exits and it will give you a clear line of sight. I marked you the ones I've seen him come out of the most." He explained to her, Sasha wanted to jump on him and hug the man for his assistance.
"Why?" She asked bewildered, she had not told anyone of what she planned to do.
"I know that look, you'll do it someday. Might as well help out." He said offhandedly and Sasha couldn't help herself at that moment, they hugged tightly, sharing their struggle.
"I know what you are going to do too, Jesus, it's suicide." She warned him with concern, as she patted his back.
"They'll be fine, they have Maggie, and you if you are smart." He whispered back, she couldn't see his face while hugging, but she felt the shivers and heard the raspy voice.
Sasha sniffed and tightened the hug, trying to reign on her emotions and whispered.
"You smarten up too, you hear me? We can't rush this. Once it's done, no matter what happens to us, Maggie will take care of Hilltop."
The two friends hugged for a moment in the silence of the night and the dark of the ancient mansion, while everyone slept, Maggie stood outside the office door as she heard her friends talk about desperate actions.
Notes:
I like this chapter, but it also feels a little short or uneventful. I might upload the next chapter during the week to speed things up.