.oOo.
"She's not downstairs either," Alice told her brother as her silent footfalls climbed up the stairs to meet him. It wasn't the first time they'd woken up to a Diana-less room, but she usually didn't stray far from their side.
In fact, the last three days she had always woken them up with her noise, coughing and wheezing into the morning due to the damn dust in that place. Alice had had half the mind to wipe the room down herself, just to be able to sleep in peace.
That morning, nothing.
It hadn't seemed suspicious to begin with. Alice and Felix had taken the opportunity to laze around like it was a regular Sunday morning after a late movie night. For a second, they had felt like two typical teens. To Alice, the obvious following event would have been mom and dad bursting through the door to order them to get up and do something of their day.
That thought had been a rose with thorns, beautiful to contemplate but fucking painful to hold.
She had jumped off the bed and put on her shoes disdainfully. Then, to a questioning Felix, she told she would go find their idiot asthmatic sister. He had joined her.
"We have to tell the others," Felix replied, his foot tapping on the patterned rug as he began to bite his nails. "Someone must've seen her."
"Duh." Alice grabbed his arm and prompted him down the stairs with her. This time each foot was purposefully stomped to alert their presence. Her loud voice called for attention. "Listen up. Has any of you seen our sister this morning? For those who don't know her: tall, brown skin, a bit of a superiority complex." Her out-of-place humor wasn't well met. Bunch of sticks in the mud. Alice almost expected Diana to materialize from behind someone and give out a sardonic laugh.
"She hasn't come down for breakfast yet," Carol answered as she set down a plate of sliced homemade bread on the sparse dining table.
"I haven't seen her," Dale responded, "I was awake before everyone else in the common area. I saw every coming and going, your sister hasn't set foot downstairs."
"You never went for a piss or something?" Alice asked in earnest. "Any chance she could've slipped past your all-seeing eye?"
"Is she missing?" T-Dog asked, standing from the sofa with a furrowed brow.
Alice's patience was running thin as the tension in her body began to rise. "Nah, I just forgot to check if she was taking a shit for the last hour."
The front door opened, giving her a sliver of hope, which was crushed at the sight of Rick and Daryl strolling in like everything was fine in the world. Everything was not fine. Her sister was gone, and no one seemed to care. Before they could get a word in, Alice shook off Felix's hand from her shoulder and asked them if they'd seen Diana outside.
They read the tension in the room and the fire in her eyes. Rick questioned her and Felix about Diana's last known whereabouts, where they'd searched already, and what she usually did after waking up. As the situation escalated, more people became involved as Rick divided tasks and search groups.
Alice felt the relief of being taken seriously, awkwardly thanking Rick.
"What's this fuss all about?" Louise entered from the back door with a basket full of jars with homemade preserves.
"One of ours is missing," Rick relayed.
He needn't say another word before Louise smiled that sharp smile that made Alice want to punch her face. "The black darlin'? She asked if she could take one of our horses for a ride. She was so keen on it, I had to say yes." She set the basket down on the table and began unloading it. "I hope that settles your worries."
That did the exact fucking opposite as Alice and Felix shared a knowing look. The tumble Diana had taken off their cousin's horse twelve years ago told them this much.
"Diana's afraid of horses," Felix said pointedly, fixing the woman with an accusatory stare.
Louise stopped her motions, jar in hand, staring at it as if time had stopped.
Daryl's crosshairs found her as he stalked quietly past Alice. "Put that down, lady."
"Where are your husband and brother?" Rick asked, removing his gun from his holster but keeping it lowered. He gestured for his family, Carol, and the Greene sisters, to get away from the table.
They were clearing away when Louise hurled a pickle jar at Daryl, enough to throw him and the others off. Shards of glass and splashes of vinegar littered the floor, but perhaps more urgently, Louise had been able to snatch Lori by the back of her shirt. She used her to shield herself, an arm around her neck and a hunting knife to her ribcage.
"Put your weapons down, all of you," she demanded with a sharp voice, backing into the kitchen, towards the back door. Then, to Lori, she said, "I'm sorry it had to be you, sweetheart, but y'all leave me no choice."
Rick didn't hesitate to put his sidearm on the dirty floor and raise his hands in surrender. "Don't do something you might regret."
"Where's our sister?" Alice asked, not straying from the main topic despite the development in the situation.
"She had to go away," Louise answered, tightening her grip around Lori, who winced and gasped and tugged fruitlessly at the woman's arm.
Carl had begun to cry in Carol's embrace. Although Alice liked the boy, she found his wailing annoying as her brain hyperfocused on Diana's absence and the involvement of their hosts.
"What are you talking about?" Glenn asked.
"Louise, I want you to let go of my pregnant wife, and then we'll talk about why you think Diana had to go away. Can you do that?"
"Don't patronize me. I'm not crazy."
Alice found that hard to believe.
"She's evil, that one. Pure poison. Larry, Tim, and I, we saw it clear as day. Sweet as a peach on the outside but rotten on the inside. She fooled you all."
"The fuck did you do to her?" Daryl grew restless, and his crossbow didn't falter despite Lori as a shield.
Alice felt Felix's hand wrap around her wrist. She looked up at him and saw the fear hiding poorly in the lines of his tense face. The anger in her chest burned hotter.
Another attempt at negotiation from Rick went unheard by Louise as she deemed him condescending. "I won't say another word." She seemed to stall until the other two came back, probably knowing she was screwed without backup.
She was screwed either way, Alice thought. Unfortunately for her, there was no easy and happy way out for her or her goons.
A window shutter slammed against the outside of the house, which startled Louise. She flinched for a single second, which was enough for Daryl to shoot a bolt through her shoulder.
Chaos ensued.
Lori ran to her family. Louise stumbled back until she hit the kitchen sink. The rug tripped her, and her knife clattered away from her. She held her bloody shoulder and cried out loud for Larry and Tim, over and over. Wailing like a banshee.
Being the closest, Daryl stalked over and hit the butt of his crossbow across the howling woman's temple, knocking her unconscious.
.oOo.
A horse had returned alone.
Louise had been tied to a chair, her shoulder wrapped to stem the bleeding but the bolt still poking out of it. She was questioned but refused to speak.
Groups had already set out to search for Diana.
Larry and Tim's return had been anticipated by an armed watch. They had been stripped of weapons and tied up next to the matriarch.
Alice roamed behind them, pacing the kitchen, listening to Rick's useless demands and how much they didn't do shit. T-Dog played the part of the bad cop in this scenario that she would've thought comedic in another reality. His threats were mere words, and if it were up to Alice, she would be delivering on them.
After an hour of back and forth in that tiresome routine, desperation clawed in the back of Alice's head, gnawing nonstop. She looked at Felix sitting next to Beth on the sofa as the blonde held his hand in silence. His face was grief-stricken.
They couldn't lose Diana.
Alice could feel her tether to sanity ready to snap at the thought of losing her sister.
That idiot was all they had left.
She saw red and red and red with each step she took, and then the knife she had picked up early found itself tip to belly with either Larry or Tim; she didn't care to distinguish.
She shook off the hand that tried to pull at her arm, telling the person to let go with a pain in her voice that she hadn't been able to disguise.
"I will gut you like a fucking fish if you don't tell me where and why you took my sister," Alice whispered, so close to the man's face she could smell his disgusting breath. With every millimeter she leaned closer, the deeper the knife sank into the man's skin, poking a hole through his once-white shirt.
The grimace of pain was like a renaissance painting to Alice's eyes.
The front door flew open, hitting the wall as Glenn ran inside, sweat on his face and fear in his wide eyes. "We found her. She needs help. It doesn't look good."
Felix's eyes found hers, glossy with unshed tears and his face looking paler than ever. Alice worried he might faint. Beth's white savior syndrome kicked in in that moment, and she held Felix close to her, whispering comfort. Alice wanted to gag at her attitude.
Rick left T-Dog in charge of their hosts turned hostages and told Lori to go with Carl upstairs so both wouldn't be upset. So nice to be able to opt out of that kind of thing, no?
Carol asked Alice where her sister kept her medical kit and went to get it after receiving the instructions.
With T-Dog's barely kept wrathful gaze over her shoulder, Alice took a bit more liberty in her questioning. Would he stop her? She didn't think so.
"Why?" was the pressing question as Alice pressed the knife against the weasel's navel. Blood began to soak the man's shirt as he squirmed and shut his eyes.
A glance in Louise's direction showed the woman's defiant face. Seemed like hurting her family didn't do much to loosen her lips. Alice felt disgusted.
"Don't say a word, Tim. Those who follow the path of the righteous will sit at the right side of the Lord."
"The wicked have been punished," said Larry, as defiant as his wife, Alice assumed.
"What wicked? My sister? You don't fucking know her." The knife began to travel to the left, carving a path of flesh and blood, and Alice made sure her actions were hidden from T-Dog by her body.
"She-devil," Tim sniveled as his pale and sweaty face contorted, "You're just like her. Those who consort with evil must be punished."
"Tim, shut your mouth!"
"No, Tim, keep talking." Another twist of the knife. "Just keep talking."
"Lou, it hurts, I can't-" His eyes pleaded for forgiveness from his sister who continued hissing at him to not speak. Those pale watery eyes turned to Alice. "Don't hurt me no more, I will tell you everything. Please."
"Tim, you coward! The Lord will desert you. You will be left to rot with the others!"
Alice relieved the pressure on the knife against her will and saw T-Dog stand beside her from the corner of her eye. Both listened to the sniveling fucker confess to them having stolen Diana off in the middle of the night, leaving through a hidden door that led to their cellar.
He swore up and down that they were doing it for everyone's sake. That they had been harboring a messiah for the devil, a sheep who had strayed from the Lord's sight and given herself to Lucifer. That the Morning Star had seduced another soul and gifted her a present to show his claim on her. It had been clear; it had been very clear from the moment they saw her. The bow. The golden impossible bow.
"Everything would be better now that she was gone."
Alice was speechless. What had they done to her sister? She voiced the question.
"She needed to be cleansed. We thought of slitting her throat in the middle of the night and painting our doorframe with her blood. But that wouldn't have been enough to rid us of the Devil's presence. She needed to be cleansed. We-we crucified her… like our Lord Jesus Christ. The ultimate sacrifice. That is the only way to save her soul and have her join our Father. We saved her soul. We saved everyone. Now that she's gone, the rotten will leave the Earth. They will fall at our feet. We are all saved."
T-Dog's fist flew at the man's face, knocking him out of his chair and into unconsciousness. Simultaneously, a racket of voices and loud footsteps entered the house.
Diana.
Alice couldn't face it yet. She heard the fuss, the commands Hershel gave, but she couldn't make herself turn around. It became a buzz of indistinguishable noises, all of it. She stood in front of Louise, with her façade of bravery and impaled shoulder.
Her face came down close to the woman's. "Why?" She wanted to hear her say it.
"I won't say a word." Louise jutted her double chin.
Alice leaned back and shook her head - "Then die silent." - and the knife sunk into the bastard's neck, cutting through fat and a large artery.
There was a deep satisfaction in seeing the woman's eyes widen in surprise and panic. Her husband called out and tried to kick himself free, but his binds were tight. It only resulted in his chair tipping over and him hitting his head on the counter on the way down, knocking himself silent.
Someone must have heard him because she was pulled away by someone strong. Her grip didn't falter around the knife, instead, Alice twisted it as she was pulled away, resulting in spurts of warm blood showering the floor. Alice stared as Louise paled and gasped, her clothes stained by the fountain, and as she was taken away upstairs by force, she saw Louise's eyes glaze over as her body became limp on the chair. Only then, did she drop the knife.
What do you think of the turn things are taking? Our girl Alice just stone-cold killed somebody, god knows what happened to Diana, shit is going down. Please let me know what you think.
