Chapter 8

Ellie didn't know how long she sat there on her knees staring dumbly at Riley's name on the bottom end of the bed. Tears cascaded down her cheeks and she felt her brain freeze up. It was like she couldn't process what she was seeing. The only reason Riley had lived was because Marlene had saved her. And she didn't even know it. Or had she? Had at least a part of her remembered it? The taller girl had always idolised Marlene and the Fireflies. Was this the reason?

She didn't know how much time passed, but she eventually fell asleep like that. She dreamed of Riley and what might have been in a time when there was no apocalypse. Samuel and the rest of the Abel family were there, along with Anna. It was a family gathering and Samuel was turning burgers over on the grill while Anna and Sara joked about Ellie and Riley's relationship as the two teens stared at the floor in embarrassment. Occasionally they stole glances at each other as their hands remained firmly clasped together the entire time. It was so idyllic that part of her actually wondered if she was dead. If the exhaustion had overcome her to the point that her body had shut down, this was heaven and now her loved ones and the people she'd done right by were there to greet her.

Soon enough though, that illusion was shattered. She could feel a hand on her shoulder, shaking heavily. She could feel the strength and borderline desperation behind it. As the vision- despite her attempts to cling desperately to it and spend those last few precious seconds gazing at Riley's face- began to fade, she heard a voice she knew so well calling to her.

"Ellie! Ellie!" Her eyes opened slowly to the sun streaming in through the window. She'd slept through the entire night. At some point, she'd slumped forward and her head now rested against the end of the bed. Her kneecaps were beyond numb and she was forced to flop sideways to let the blood run back into her lower legs.

"Ah, fuck!" She frantically gripped her knees to try and check she hadn't broken them and tried to stop the tears that were streaming down her face once again. Joel was instantly by her side and leaning down to her, trying to make sure she was okay.

"You alright, kiddo?" he asked cautiously. "What happened? Have you been like that all night?" Ellie was in too much pain to speak. Wordlessly, she could only point to the bed. Joel stared at it for a few seconds until he evidently remembered what Ellie had told him about Riley. As he did, his face visibly paled. "You mean this...?" Ellie nodded mutely in response. "Damn." His voice was barely more than a mutter. "Okay, I'm gonna pack up and get ready to leave. You get some feeling back in your legs and join me when you're ready." Ellie nodded again, gritting her teeth against the mixture of pain and numbness as she heard Joel leave the room. There was nothing else she could do. She just had to lie there and let it subside in its own time. She should have laid herself down properly. It was the bare minimum she could have done. She'd neglected the simple shit and now she was paying for it. Now she had no choice but to lie there and pay the price that was due.

It took a very long time before Ellie was able to stand again. When she did, she had to stretch her legs out slowly so as to not risk tearing any tendons or ligaments. The last thing she needed was to go through all that she had and then be rendered permanently immobile. Because of that, it took a while before she was able to gradually rise to her feet and slowly start walking around to get used to using her legs again. Once she had, she went over to where her bag lay discarded on the floor. She had no idea how it had ended up there. Her best guess was that it had happened when she was asleep but she couldn't fathom how.

Reaching inside, she rummaged through the bag until her fingers closed around a delicate metal chain. She pulled it out to reveal a firefly pendant. 'Riley Abel 000129'. With a heavy heart, strung it over the top of one of the bedposts to dangle freely but securely in place. This was Riley's home. It seemed only right that this last fragment of her should reside here in death as she would have in life. As she did so, she seemed to find some degree of peace for herself. It was like she'd borrowed something for a really long time and was finally giving it back. It was long overdue, but she was doing it and in doing so was relieving herself of a tremendous weight she didn't even know she was carrying. Bending down to the pendant, she gently touched it to her lips. It was the closest she'd ever get to kissing Riley again in this life and it was the kind of kiss she'd been dreading. It was a kiss goodbye.

"I love you." Her voice was barely any more than a whisper. Yet somehow, she knew that Riley could hear her. "I miss you. I'll see you again someday." With that, she turned and headed for the door. The tears flowed freely down her face again and she made no move to stop them. As they fell away, so did the self-loathing and pain she'd felt ever since Riley's death. This needed to happen. She'd been carrying this burden for too long. That ended now.

When she was ready, she went to join Joel. After waiting for so long, he'd decided to head outside for some fresh air. The snowfall in the night had been considerable, but the day was beautiful and now it glittered like a white carpet of icy diamond dust that stretched as far as the eye could see. Because of that, his tracks weren't hard to follow. He'd headed around to the back of the house and was leaning against an old disused fountain in the centre garden. She walked over, marvelling at the scope of the grounds as she neared him.

"Impressive, isn't it?" His voice carried easily on the air and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand erect. Part of her was still paranoid of infected, but she knew that in the snow and with such a quiet atmosphere they would hear any threat long before it reached them. She wasn't too worried overall.

"It's insane." She reached him and took note of how much better he was looking. Whatever he said, she knew coming here was definitely the right call. "I'd never have guessed Riley or Marlene came from a family that owned a mansion in the middle of nowhere."

"Well, this is more of a manor than a mansion." Joel shrugged. "A mansion is in a neighbourhood with a load of other houses so that the real estates could charge more. It was seen as a sign of class to live near a mansion so they often charged more for a house near one even though you didn't actually get to live in the mansion. By the time people figured that out, it was too late. They'd bought the house."

"Wait, so the only reason is because 'fuck you give me money'? How the fuck did people fall for it?" Ellie asked.

"Well, I guess they had more money than brains." Joel told her. "I don't know. Where I lived it was a quiet neighbourhood just outside of the city. Not much vehicle traffic unless you lived in the area. People very rarely passed through in our direction. No one had any need of a mansion. We were simple folk living a simple life. Or trying to, anyway. Then the Cordycepts hit."

"And a lot of the people in mansions seemed to suffer the worst." Ellie added. "From what I've seen, Samuel- that dead clicker in the doorway- thought that his house alone would be enough against a horde migration. It wasn't. He thought that just because they had a big house they were immune to the problems of the world. Only Marlene saw sense."

"Well, Marlene always had a sharp brain and a wise head on her shoulders." Joel nodded. Ellie could see that same haunted look in his eyes again. This wasn't the time, though. Whatever he wasn't letting on, there must be a reason for it. But it could wait. "Anyway-" he continued, "I bet you've seen enough of this place. You ready to leave?" Ellie thought about it for a second. She hadn't explored the whole house. Then again, she didn't want to. She'd already kicked up ten years worth of dust and found secrets that never should have seen the light of day. She'd also faced up to enough skeletons in both her own closet and those of other people for one day. She wasn't in the right frame of mind to go turfing up any more. With that thought, she gave a heavy nod.

"Yeah. I'm ready to put some demons to rest." As she spoke, a gentle, fatherly grin ghosted across Joel's lips. She had no doubt that it was the same grin he'd used on Sarah way back before the world fell apart. He'd said a few times that he was fairly certain they'd have got along had they met. Maybe, just maybe, she'd get that chance one day. Hopefully that would be in the distant future, though. For now, she couldn't help but feel herself grin back in response. In that moment she knew everything was alright. She and Joel were okay. At the end of the day, that was what mattered to her the most.

End!

Author's Note: So that's it. This story is now complete. Writing about Ellie's dream gave me the idea to expand upon that in a separate story so I may or may not do that sometime in 2022. If you'd like to see that then by all means let me know. If enough people want to see read that story then I'll do it. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great Christmas. If you don't follow me on other fandoms then this is most likely the last thing I'll post this year. For everyone who reads my Life is Strange stories, there's some big stuff coming very soon so if you read my stories over there or like Life is Strange then feel free to check that out.