The room was dark and cold where Marisol laid. She could see stairs leading to the exit as peaks of light shined down. She already she couldn't escape that easily, Miguel was too smart for that. As she tried to get up she grunted at the throbbing pain that was on her head.

He did knock her out when she first arrived in this godforsaken place. She heard the sound of chains when she moved her leg. She glanced over to her ankle and saw that she was chained to a metal pole. She cursed to herself knowing that she wasn't gonna get out of here anytime soon.

Her head shot up when she saw the door open to a bulky figure with a more petite one standing beside it. As they walked down getting closer she squinted her eyes at the silhouettes that turned out to be Miguel and Sabrina. When he got up close to her, she could see him smile malevolently at her while she just glared back.

"Hey there, sunshine," his ragged deep voice sounding like old doors creaking, "'bout time you 'woke up."

"What do you want from me?" Marisol blurted, scared on what he might do to her.

He chuckled, "Don't be scared, Mary, I'm not gonna hurt you, I just wanna have a conversation."

She narrowed her eyes into angry slits, "You're bullshitting me."

"Nope," he shook his head kneeling down to her level.

He turned to Sabrina who had more of an aura of jealousy and hatred as she kept staring at the two. He got up and smiled at her as she then smiled back at him.

"Sabrina," he said lovingly stroking her hair, "I need to speak with Marisol, alone."

She cleared her throat straightening herself up, "I can stay in here, can't I? I mean all you two are gonna talk about is the boy and-"

She was interrupted by Miguel tightly grabbing her wrist stepping closer with his nostrils flared and his soft demeanor now turned into something more sinister.

"That wasn't a question," he growled lowly, "leave, now!"

As he roared the last part she quickly scrambled up to the stairs and out of the room shutting the door behind her. Miguel soon calmed down taking a deep breath before turning back to Marisol who has backed away to the pole wanting to stay a long distance from him.

His smile returned, "Now that we have no more interruptions, we can finally talk."

Marisol breathed heavily as he walked up closer, "About what?"

He clicked his tongue, "Well, for starters, why do you think you're here."

"Um, because I'm the leader of Charlottesville and that makes me a great bargaining chip in exchange for Matthew?"

"Smart girl," he laughed getting low to her level, "but that's not all."

She raised a brow, "Then what is it?"

"There's a real reason why I wanted you here, Mary. I didn't intend for your sister to get hurt, sometimes my men can go a little... overboard."

"Just spit it out!!" she cried, "I know you want to get rid of me, you don't have to keep taunting me!"

"Oh Mary," he sighed, "Mary, Mary, Mary, I even kicked Sabrina out so we can have some alone time."

"I don't wanna be alone with you," she spat.

"But Mary, I didn't get to tell you how special you are."

"What are you talking about?"

He got closer, "You see, there's something about you that I just can't turn away from. You have a spark that can start a whole wildfire. And I like that."

He pulled down the corners of her coat slowly taking it off. She tried to push him off but he was too strong over her.

"That's why I chose not to kill you when we killed Augustus. Out of all the women I've been with, you intrigue me the most."

He then pulled off her layers of shirts leaving her in a very revealing green tank top. As she began to quickly cover herself she was stopped by Miguel gripping her forearms staring at her hungrily.

"I don't want Tori or Sabrina, I want you."

As he leaned in for a kiss he was stopped by Marisol spitting in his face backing away from him. To her surprise, he just wiped it off chuckling lightly.

"You're a fighter, aren't you?" he kept laughing, "but don't worry, I always have my way, sunshine."

She narrowed her eyes, "You sick bastard, what the hell are you talking about?"

He began to pace around her, "You see, whenever you don't do what I say, there'll be consequences."

"If you're gonna torture me then do it! I don't fucking care, I bet you were planning on doing it anyway!"

"Nah, what I mean is that every time you disobey me, I'll take something away from you."

She started breathing heavily hoping he wasn't saying she think he was saying.

"I have spies, Mary," he hissed, "and they're pretty damn good on what they do. So any time you say no to me, I will order them to take out someone you love leading up to your little girl."

She widened her eyes, "No... no, you can't do that!"

"But I will!" he roared back, "So behave like a good girl and no one gets hurt."

Marisol fell to the ground sobbing heavily to what might happen to her family if she didn't comply with Miguel's orders. He shook his head and sighed heading up the stairs.

"You're right, it's too soon," he decided heading out the door, "I'll have Nicóle bring you dinner tonight, but don't forget I'll be back soon for our little... date."

He closed the door behind him leaving a sobbing Marisol curled up on the ground. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. But she couldn't let them hurt her family, no. She needed to be strong, she wouldn't let Miguel break her.

She had to endure the pain in order to keep everyone safe from Miguel's wrath.

A couple of days have passed since Moo and Violet talked again. Moo felt a lot better with him and her hanging out like the old days. But it was difficult to ignore the reason why she didn't feel the way he felt about her. Though it devastated him, it didn't stop him from still being best friends with her.

But just because he didn't mind staying friends doesn't mean it still hurts.

Violet and Moo sat at the table alone together eating lunch while Moo had Blossom in his lap. She kept grabbing some of his dreads giggling as she shoved some in her mouth. Moo just laughed while Violet sighed with embarrassment.

"Moo, I'm so sorry," she apologized, "she just has a bad habit of putting things in her mouth for some reason."

"It's fine, really," he smiled pinching on her chubby cheeks, "she's too cute to get mad at anyway."

"Well, you're right about that one."

He touched Blossom's dark hair furrowing his brows, "She doesn't get lice in her hair, does she."

Violet shook her head, "Not any I know of, why?"

"I dunno, it's just the environment she's in."

She shrugged, "Maybe, you know when I first had her, I tried running away with her to find a new environment."

"Why?"

"See, Clem didn't think I was very... unstable at the time; and she wasn't wrong."

Violet, unstable? Who would even put those two words together?

"I just got so... angry and upset," she went on, "the only good thing that came out of my accident was gonna be taken away from me."

He kept wondering about this "accident". But he chose not to ask for her sake.

"It was just a few days after I gave birth, Ruby had to patch me up some to stop the bleeding and told me I should at stay in bed for about two and a half weeks. One night I heard Clem talking to Ruby about how it would be best if Blossom was with someone else besides me because of my... mentality.

"That was the moment I needed to leave because nobody still trusted me, not even with my own daughter. After that night, I got up without thinking taking Blossom with me," Violet chuckled, "she was so tiny, Ruby thought she wasn't gonna make it. Anyway, I made it out the gates and into the woods despite me being in a shit ton of pain.

"About like half an hour of walking to where? I didn't even know. My wound reopened and almost bled out to death. I passed out by a tree waiting for my suffering to end and just kept apologizing repeatedly to Blossom for even taking her out there with my dumbass. I could finally see why Clem wanted Blossom in good hands because of shit like that. Luckily, Clem and Louis found me before any walkers could get to Blossom. When I was patched back up, Clem was on my ass that night and even told me I'm not fit to a mom. Through my cries, I knew deep down that she was right. It was so irresponsible of me to even pull shit like that."

"What convinced her that you should keep her?"

"That I should learn, promised her that I'll take of her as always, and protect her with my life."

He looked down, "Vi... I'm so sorry."

She smiled, "Don't worry, Moo, it's fine now, she's fine now."

He pulled some of Blossom's dark hair from her face as she kept knawing on his hair, "I'm pretty sure you're a good mother to her."

Violet nodded, "She's my everything."

He looked to his side noticing Smokey wasn't by his side anymore. Violet raised a brow wondering what he was looking for.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Smokey, he was just right here."

Violet looked over his shoulder and grinned, "I think he found a friend."

"Who?" Moo whipped his head around to find Snowy laying beside Rosie.

"Rumor has it that they... ya know," Violet winked as Moo widened his eyes.

"What?!" he then groaned while Violet burst out laughing, "Sometimes that mutt can't control himself."

"Even dogs can't keep it in their pants."

He rolled his eyes, "Whatever, now I need to keep his horny ass inside from now on."

As they began to continue eating Violet clicked her tongue grabbing his hand squeezing it gently. He started to blush trying not to, but the way she looked at him, he couldn't resist.

What's wrong with me?! he scolded himself, Sophie told me she wasn't she's not into guys, God, I'm so fucking stupid.

"Thanks for these days I've been with you," she smiled, "I almost feel like to where we were kids again."

He smiled back putting his hand over hers, "Me too, you're still my best friend."

"I don't see how this even works with you."

Moo rolled his eyes, "You can see, can't you?"

"Yeah, I can," replied back looking at the target, "but do we have to do this at night?"

"If wanna aim at your target, you gotta start with something hard so it'll make things a lot easier."

Louis raised a brow, "What?"

"Just give it to me!" Moo grabbed the bow and arrows from him then aimed it to the target.

"You see, your enemies are gonna want to hunt you at night because they think you're not capable of seeing in the dark."

Louis shrugged, "Makes sense."

"In their eyes, you're the prey," he kept explaining, "the dark is your weakness, but you don't want the dark to your weakness, you want it to be your strength."

He shot the arrow point blank right in the middle of the target while he still explained.

"By learning to fight in the dark, it'll make you a hell of a threat in the light."

"Oh... I see what you're saying," Louis started to get Moo's logic, "you must barely have any problems when you're in battle."

"Just because there's obstacles doesn't mean they're easy for me to overcome."

"Ah, you're a fortune cookie too, might I say a tough one at that."

"Anyway, don't let your enemies be your hunters," he shot right through the arrow that shot on the eye, "let them know that they are the hunted and you are the hunter."

He gave the bow back to Louis, went over and got the arrows that he shot handing the unbroken one to him. As he began to aim, Moo sighed.

"What?" Louis asked annoyed.

"Everything!" he shot back.

Moo went over to position his arms a little kicking his legs more apart from each. When he got him ready to properly shoot Louis began to feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"This is stupid."

"It won't be stupid when you have a raider on your ass, now shoot!"

When Louis released it, it ended being a few inches away from the eye. Louis looked back at Moo with a wide grin making Moo smirk.

"Hey, that's the best I've ever done," he chirped happily.

Moo shrugged, "Yeah, it was good, for a rookie."

"What?! I'll say that was a grade-A shot."

"Meh, whatever you say."

He went ahead and let Louis practice some more while he went over to sit with Violet and Clem with their kids around the fire. He sat beside Violet while Blossom was trying to reach out to him.

Clem say across them holding both Hope and Luke in her arms as she smiled towards him.

"Wow, you're a better trainer than I am," Clem chuckled, "It only you an hour just for him to make it near the bull's eye."

Moo shrugged, "He'll get better after a while."

"Now he can start helping Aasim shoot those rabbits."

Violet laughed, "Ha! You think that'll stop him from still goofing off?"

Clem sighed, "No..."

Violet looked up at sky, "No clouds tonight."

"I know, it's so pretty when it's like this."

Moo turned away sighing heavily. Violet noticed this already knowing why he was upset, but chose not to say anything. His head shot up when he heard Luke whimpering while Clem groaned.

"Uugh... why do you always do this when I'm talking to someone?" Clem complained, "Alright Vi and Moo, I guess I'll see you in the morning, I gotta go feed them and put them to bed."

She then called Louis to come along with as he quickly followed before saying his goodbyes to the two.

Violet and Moo looked at each other before Violet started to blush chuckling nervously.

"I better feed her too," she spoke getting up, "I'm a little tired myself."

"Oh," Moo frowned feeling a bit upset after that, "you don't wanna stay and talk for a little while longer?"

She smiled, "Look, we can get up early tomorrow to hang out, okay?"

"I guess," he sighed.

"Goodnight, Moo."

Moo tossed and turned trying to go to sleep but couldn't over Storm's loud snoring. He kept digging his head under his pillow but that still doesn't help. He groaned out of frustration and just stuck staring at the ceiling until he fell asleep. One the many things his mamá told him to do when he couldn't go to sleep when he was a lot younger.

After minutes of just looking at the broken rotted ceiling, the room door started to creak open. Smokey jumped up growling at it while Moo got up to go investigate. As he, he backed away as the door slowly begun to open.

He sighed in relief when he it was Violet as Smokey almost knocked her down by happily pouncing on her but quickly to him leading her out the room.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed quietly, "you know we can't meet after dark."

"I know," Violet replied, "but I came to see if wanna go on lookout duty with me."

"What happened to meeting early in the morning?"

"I just said that just in case anyone was listening."

"Oh..." Moo said feeling stupid.

She tugged at his hand leading him out the door, "Now come on before my brother wakes up."

He shrugged closing the door behind him, "Alright, lead the way."

Moo saw that Violet led them to an old bell tower. He furrowed his brows in confusion and a bit of fear when he started to think the inevitable.

"Here we are," she announced, "come on, I'll show you where to go."

He shrugged then followed her behind as she opened the old wooden door that was the entrance. When he walked in he saw that the bell had fall down along with some old debris revealing the nightsky from above. The one thing that stood out the most was that there wasn't any stairs.

He was caught off guard when Violet started climbing on the wall leading to the top clinging on to old wooden planks. She looked down at him and smiled as her friend hesitated.

"Hey, slowpoke, are you coming?" she called out as she kept climbing.

"Are you sure this is safe?"

"Are you sure that running into walkers was safe?"

He thought about it, "Huh, you gotta point."

He soon started following behind her as she began talking.

"You remember we used to do this a lot younger, right?"

"I guess, but my treehouse wasn't stories high."

"Well you just gotta get used to this, besides it's not that bad when you get the hang of it."

"Guess I'm just gonna have to learn from the best."

When Violet made up, she helped Moo make up pulling him up to the balcony with her. She leaned forward looking over the school as Moo stood beside her not knowing what to say.

"Um, hey, thanks for coming out here with me tonight," she breathed, "it's been a while since I've hung out like this before."

He smiled, "I'm glad I did too, it was either being with you or dealing with Storm's loud ass snoring."

She laughed, "Well I'm happy you chose this instead."

As the two looked upon the school for a while, Violet started to walk away from the balcony.

"Do you wanna... hang out a bit more?" she asked nervously not looking his way.

"Um... sure, I'd like that."

She left him over to a ledge as she sat down while Moo hesitated slowly sitting beside her.

She giggled, "Don't worry, you won't fall down to your death."

She started to look up to the sky sighing heavily as she squinted trying to get a better view. Before Moo could ask her if she was alright she turned to him with a reassuring grin.

"Let's do this," she suggested, "find that sign that represents your personality, old rules don't matter anyway."

"Like astrology?"

She shrugged, "Yeah, whatever it's called, but could you if you can find some signs for us? Then describe it and see which one fits our bill."

He nodded, "I can roll with that."

Moo looked up seeing nothing but a dark grayish sky, but he could clearly still make out the stars. He squinted putting some together getting a few results. He smiled at one of them he was about to tell.

"I see... a fox."

She raised a brow, "A fox?"

"Mhm, this fox is cunning, smart, and resourceful with a fierce spirit that no one wants to mess with. But on the inside, she truly has a heart of gold and would do anything for her family and friends."

Violet smiled thoughtfully, "Hmm... I think that one fits Clem perfectly, don't you think?"

He shrugged not expecting that answer, "I guess."

He looked up finding another good one.

"Now this time, I see a wolf. This wolf is strong and devoted to his friends and would do anything to protect them. But he's been through many battles of suffering and heartaches having many scars. His heart was full of hate until he found his best friend again after all these years..."

Violet looked over to him with a sorry expression, "It sounds you've been through a lot Matt. I still feel like some of it was still my fault."

He sighed, "It's not, Vi, none of it was. You don't ever have to think any of it was your fault."

He looked up again at least finding one more.

"These lions live in a society that keeps them from being apart. One wishes to roam free and one wishes to love freely. They stick together through thick and thin never leaving each other's side. They both have old demons that still haunt them but at the end of the day they have no fear as long as they're together."

He looked over to Violet who's head was hung down as if she knew who that sign represents. Moo knows it too but chose not to answer for her sake. As he kept looking at her he noticed how beautiful she looked in the bright moonlight. It really brought out her emerald eye as she looked up to the sky. He just wanted to hold her just once, keep her safe in his arms.

If only she would let him...

He noticed she started to get closer to him with her knee brushed up against his. He shuddered at her touch breathing heavily as she looked up at him gazing into each other's eyes.

"Ya know, I never really got to tell you how much I really appreciate you being here with me," she chuckled a little, "I dunno, I might sound weird when I say this but... when I'm with you... I really feel like I can breathe again. And now... I can't imagine if I ever lost you again."

He looked away trying not to give in to his urges. He was so afraid to tell her how he felt it made him sick to his stomach. Mostly because he was too scared to say the wrong thing.

But this was the right time to tell her; the only time. He didn't care if she got mad or hated him after this. He was finally going to do it.

Moo took a deep breath, "I don't know if it's just me feeling this way or I'm just crazy. I know you said you wanted to be just friends but ever since we've been together again I tried so hard not to think otherwise so I wouldn't hurt you. We've been childhood best friends for so long and I still can't believe we've come this far. But with you, I could finally feel true happiness instead of putting up this façade like everything's fine."

He shook his head, "What I'm trying to say is that... that..."

He slowly put his hand over her cheek as he leaned in pressing his lips gently over hers. He started to feel this sense of great panic overwhelming him afraid of how she'll feel after this. But at the same time he was relieved and happy he could finally tell her how he really felt for her instead of just keeping it in like he's been doing for the past couple of weeks.

He finally pulled away seeing that her expression was surprised and dumbfounded instead of angry and upset. They both turned away from each other blushing brightly as she began to spoke.

"Holy shit," she breathed heavily, "Moo, I..."

He chuckled weakly then looked down waiting for her to reject, "You don't have to, I understand."

She shook her head profusely not meaning what he thought she meant.

"No, no... I mean... holy shit," she looked back at him with a soft smile.

She leaned on the side of his arm putting her hand over his hand squeezing if gently. He wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her closer continuing to look up to the stars with Moo never wanting this to end.

If this is a dream, I never want to wake up.