I'm living in a madhouse right now. That's the only word that I can use to describe it – a crazy, messed up, twisted house. Two of the people are pretty darn close to going off the deep end, and one of the people is a hostage who probably wants to murder us in our sleep.

Other than all of that, things are just great!

Don't get me wrong – Jane and Lilly are like family to me, and I'd do anything for them if they needed me to… but they're kind of losing it a little bit. It's all happened so recently, too. All within the span of like a week or so things have gone up and down and all around at Houston Hills, generally for the worse. Lilly's becoming increasingly on edge with each passing day, and I don't know what in the world's going on with Jane. It's almost as if she's preparing for the worst-case scenario all the time; batting down the hatches to last out the storm that's coming. But what storm is coming though?!

Oh, and don't even get me started on Kyle – the guy's growing increasingly bitter the longer we keep him in the cellar. The whole room smells disgusting now from the burnt bodies (courtesy of Lilly Caul) and he's refused three of the meals that I've offered him; either kicking them aside angrily or not even bothering to look at it. It's a real shame, since I think at one point we were actually making some progress with him.

Jane handed out an absolute verbal annihilation to Lilly last night, and needless to say the results were less than fantastic. I was told to stay downstairs and scope out for bad guys, but I could still hear the shouting match going on from outside on the porch. I ended up cringing every single time that an f-bomb was dropped, which was actually quite frequent, but the worst part was what they actually were meaning to say.

"We do these fucking things as a group, Lilly! You can't just go off burning shit for fun! What are you turning into, some kind of fucking arsonist?!"

"I was doing you a god damn favour! Use your fucking head, Jane! Leaving those fuckers in there would've come back to bite us right in the ass!"

"IT'S NOT YOUR CALL!"

"WELL SOMEBODY NEEDS TO STEP UP AND ACT LIKE A LEADER AROUND HERE, AND YOU SURE AS HELL AREN'T DOING A GOOD JOB OF THAT!"

This went on for at least ten minutes straight before it went silent. This really scared me to be honest, and I wanted to intervene so badly, but I'm pretty sure all that would do is cause more problems. I can't be the little kid wanting to stop the grown-ups from fighting, not anymore. They need to figure these things out for themselves. I might not always be around to look after them…

Oh who am I kidding? I couldn't look after Jane and Lilly if my life depended on it!

"Lilly?" I call out, knocking on her door as I see her sitting there reading the Bible of all things. "Can I come in?"

"Door isn't locked," she mumbles, not tearing her vision off the pages as I carefully stroll inside.

Closing the door behind me, I cautiously approach her and tilt my head to the side in curiosity.

"I didn't think you were much of a religious person," I remark, thinking that she would never be into that kind of stuff.

"I flip back and forth on occasion," she replies, shrugging as she turns a page over. "My parents kind of forced me to go to church on Sundays until I was into my early teens, but most of it never really stuck with me, you know? I mean, I find it hard to imagine that some god would allow all of this to happen if there actually was somebody watching over us."

Personally, my family was never really the religious sort – we didn't have time to go usually, since my parents were practically always busy with work or something. Mom would often be down at the hospital for emergency calls, and Dad was always too busy tinkering around with something in the garage to really go to any kind of church.

So, I don't really have an opinion on the matter.

"Hell, who knows, really? The only real way to find out if any religion is right is if you die – and it's not as if they can come back and tell you anything. All they can do is… is try to eat you…"

"I'm worried about you," I interrupt, wanting to get back to the reason that I came in here in the first place. Sighing, Lilly rubs her eyes and groans as I fold my hands into my lap. "We both are. I don't think you're okay, so don't lie to me and say that you are."

"You're a stubborn little bugger, you know that? Nothing gets past you," she jokes, giving me the faintest of smiles before returning to her usual frown. I'm pretty sure she's done this so many times that a frown is like her neutral face.

Lilly's a tough nut to crack, but she's sort of like a piñata – once you bust her open you get a lot more than you bargained for. Underneath that tough, bitter cold exterior is a sense of loyalty and trust that I had never seen before. Back when Lee was still around, I made a habit of not going near her unless it was absolutely necessary – especially after she lost her dad.

"Still wearing those, huh?" she cuts in, not really answering my question about what's bothering her but instead opting to point at my hair bands.

"There never was a point of taking them off," I comment, shrugging as if it's no big deal – which really, it isn't.

"Well, at least I managed to do something right back then," she reminisces, which brings me back to that day at the motor-inn.

Flashback…

I hope that Lee's okay… He was supposed to be back with Mark and Kenny ages ago! I was gonna show him one of my chalk drawings, and I need his help for some ideas to finish it.

Duck's over with Katjaa doing… well, I don't know, but it looks pretty boring! All he ever does is talk about super heroes – I don't see what the big deal is though. They're just people with blankets on their back and wearing really fancy underwear!

Let's see… Carley can't play with me, since she's on the RV looking out for bad guys. She's really nice – I like her a lot! I think Lee does too, but I don't think it's the same. He looks at her the same way that my parents do, so that must mean that he REALLY likes her!

I hope Mom and Dad are okay though… I haven't heard from them in a long while – not since they went to Savannah. I wish they took me with them…

Uh oh… Here comes Larry… He scares me sometimes, you know! Why does he have to be so big and mean and angry all the time?

"Umm… hi…" I wave meekly, watching as Larry frowns sorely and grunts before walking off. Sheesh! What did I ever do to him anyways?

With no other options, I sigh and decide to give up on drawing right now. There are only so many cats that I can make before wanting to throw something over the fence, which I actually almost did yesterday. Duck stole two of my crayons, and I got REALLY mad! I think it's his job to bug me or something, seriously!

Standing up and starting to walk back to the room that Lee and I share, I try to hurry along as I see Lilly wander out of her room. She gets really grumpy sometimes, so I don't feel like bugging her or pushing her buttons. There's got to be a soccer ball somewhere in the room…

Tiptoeing towards my room, I don't look over at her on purpose, and I almost make it all the way to the door.

At least, until I don't.

"Clem?" she asks me, raising a suspicious eyebrow as she notices me trying to sneak inside. So much for the ninja moves Duck tried to teach me! "What are you up to?"

"Oh, hi Lilly… I'm just looking for a ball to play with," I answer truthfully, twirling my foot around and smiling shyly towards her. Mom always told me that it's good to tell the truth, so maybe it'll make Lilly happy like it does for my Mom.

"Alright, just try not to make too much noise, okay? We don't need any… bad guys… to hear us," she tells me sternly, to which I quickly nod. You can't say "no" to Lilly, not with her in charge around here. Maybe that's why she's so crabby all the time.

Nodding again, I twist the doorknob open and step inside our room. Lee says that this place is a m…motel, whatever that means. Our room's pretty small, since there are only two beds and a broken TV sitting in front of them. I miss TV, and it doesn't help when I can't sleep at night. Lee snores super loudly, and the only way to get him to stop is for me to throw pillows at him!

Lowering myself to the floor, I dig around under the bed until I grab what I need – a black and white, spotted soccer ball, as I sneeze from all the dust down here. This'll be better than nothing, I guess.

Satisfied, I stand up with my prize and begin to walk outside… only to bump into Lilly again, who's standing there in the doorway.

"Oops! Sorry, Lilly!" I apologize, wondering why she's standing here in the first place. "Umm… did I do something bad?"

"No, no. I just forgot to give you something," she explains, holding out some small, stretchy-looking things in her hand. "They're hair bands; I found them in one of the drawers and figured you could use some."

"Oh… uh, thanks!" I tell her gratefully, but still looking at them with confusion. What are these for, anyways?

Seeing that I'm still standing there not knowing what to do, she picks one up between her fingers and shakes it around a little bit; as if I'm supposed to know what it is she's actually doing.

"You can tie your hair back with these before you go to sleep," she goes on, gripping the back of her hair to show me how. "It keeps your hair from getting too messy. Get it?"

"Ohhhh, okay! Yeah, that makes sense," I nod, taking the handful of them appreciatively. "I'll try them tonight! Thanks, Lilly – that's nice of you!"

"Huh…" she trails off, probably not used to people thanking her or calling her "nice". That's so sad though! I wish that there was something I could do to make her feel a bit better…

Hmm… maybe she'd like…

"Did you, umm… wanna play with me?" I suggest, frowning slightly as she immediately shakes her head. Why doesn't she want to do something fun?

"No, I can't afford to do that right now. You go ahead – just remember what I said about the noise," she nods, back to her old self in a second. Before she turns to leave me though, she tilts her head to the side and looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "Umm… don't you normally have that hat on, Clem?"

"I had it a couple of days ago, but I can't find it anywhere! Maybe it got lost or something! Or stolen by aliens!"

Lilly manages to chuckle a little bit, even though I don't think this is funny at all. What if they abducted my hat, and are gonna come back to take away my brain?!

I mean, they can't take away Duck's brain – he doesn't even have one!

"You should ask Lee when he gets back – maybe he can help you," Lilly suggests as I shrug and walk outside with her. "If you need anything… ask Carley. I'll be on watch."

With that, she strolls on over to the RV and shouts for Carley to get out of her seat – I'm pretty sure they don't like each other much. But as I hold the hair thingies in my hand, I smile at the back of the bossy lady's head before putting them in my pocket; making sure not to crush the ripped picture of Lee while doing so. Maybe Lilly's not so scary after all.

I wonder if Larry's the same way? I should go over and try to talk to him!

"Hi, Larry! Want to play with me?" I ask, rolling the soccer ball over to him as he glares at the thing as if it's a bomb or something. He picks the thing up and throws it across the motor-inn; hitting a garbage can as it rolls away near my chalk drawings. It might take a little while to be friends with him…

"Your dad was a scary dude," I comment, wincing once I realize that I just brought up a taboo topic. Luckily for my health (since I thought for sure that she might have lashed out or something), Lilly simply chuckles and nods her head.

"That he was," she agrees, glancing up at the ceiling as she sighs. "Dad made the whole group uncomfortable at times, but… he was my Dad, and I loved him, you know?"

Nodding and putting on a look of sympathy, I glance to the floor absentmindedly, not really knowing what I can say to cheer her up. Larry was the undisputed king of the assholes, but it was clear that Lilly was the one thing he cared about more than anything else in the world.

Lee must've known that, too.

"I still don't forgive him, and I don't think that I ever actually can forgive him, but… maybe Kenny was kind of right," she continues, which shocks me to the core. Seriously?! We all saw what happened in the dairy, and we were all convinced that there was no reason to kill Larry like that.

"Lilly… we saw him breathe, though!"

"He had a heart attack, Clem – it could've just been his body trying to fight it off. Dad's heart was always acting up, and I knew it was only going to be a matter of time," she admits sadly, still bitter over the whole experience – as she should be. "I knew it was going to come eventually… but the way it happened was just so fucking barbaric. If you and Lee weren't in there with me, I probably would've tried to kill Kenny. But it looks like you beat me to the punch."

"I hated doing it – it felt like Lee all over again," I tell her while shaking my head. Shooting Kenny a little while after having reunited with him… I'm pretty sure a part of me broke that day. He may have been a complete dick at times, but I still cared about him like family – he was the crazy, psycho, loveable uncle that'd get drunk at the gatherings. "But he… he just lost it. I tried to bring him back, but he was just…just…"

"Too far gone?"

"Yeah, that's it," I nod with regret. I wanted to connect with the guy so badly, but he was in no state to move on. Kenny wasn't stable in the head, and it just got worse after Howe's and Sarita dying. And regardless of Jane setting it up to make Kenny seem out of control (which really, he was), I knew that it'd be better this way.

Kenny should've been put out of his misery a long time ago.

"You still haven't told me what's wrong, by the way," I inform, suddenly remembering what it is that I came up here for in the first place. "Why didn't you wait for us to help get rid of the walkers?"

"Jane didn't want to, remember?"

"Lilly," I interrupt sternly as I fold my arms across my chest, "that doesn't cut it. What you did in the cellar… that wasn't normal. You looked like a crazy person."

Scoffing, Lilly slams a fist into the mattress as she glares intensely at the wall. Clearly that's not what she wants to hear.

Well, Lilly, too bad! There's no use in pretending that everything is fine around here!

"I'm not crazy…" she retorts bitterly, acting like a stubborn two year old. "I did what I had to – I made the hard choice that kept us going, like always!"

"You didn't have to set them on fire like that, Lilly! You scared me!" I argue, watching as her expression cools down a little bit. "We've already got enough problems right now… please don't turn bad. We need you here with us, Lilly. Jane and I both need you."

Shutting her eyes tightly, I can tell that Lilly's trying her best not to scream out loud. She's had to put up with so much shit, and is always expected to go the extra mile even after the worst of circumstances. Hopefully this doesn't come off as mean, but maybe this can fuel that fire that she's got going inside her.

"I'm gonna check on Kyle again," I tell her, standing up to leave her to her thoughts. Before exiting the room however, as my hand grasps the doorknob, I half-turn my head back towards her. "Please don't leave the group again, Lilly. You're not alone this time."

"…it seems like I've got a lot more reason to stay this time around," she mutters, reigniting my hope at least a little bit. "I won't let you down again – that's all I can say."

"Then it's good enough," I reply, before opening the door and heading out.

…..

"I don't know if you're hungry, but we've got some leftover meat from scavenging if you want," I tell the guy, wandering over awkwardly as Kyle sits there in the dark. Lilly must've scared the crap out of him as well.

There's something different about him this time around – before, I had actually gotten him to open up a little bit, and I dare say that we might've actually been close to being friends.

But now, Kyle's sitting in the dark corner and glowering at the floor with his hands in his lap. He doesn't say anything, but his body language gives me all the info that I need – he doesn't want to be here in the slightest. There's no way that I can just let him go though, since Jane and Lilly would probably strangle me. This guy's our only shot at making sure that the guys from his camp don't just waltz on over here and shoot us to pieces. Our luck can only go so far, even with how fortunate we've managed to be.

Luck won't block bullets from hitting the house, that's for sure.

"I'm sorry… you know, about Lilly," I say to him, turning around to pick up some of the garbage that's left on the opposite side of the room. I'm facing away from him; not being able to notice a damn thing. "We talked about it, and I don't think she's gonna try something like that any time soon. Well, I can't promise anything, but… you know."

Placing the various napkins, plastic wrappers and other garbage into a neat pile, I wrinkle up my nose and internally gag at the burned smell that still lingers in the air. Man… rotting corpses are one thing, but burned, rotting corpses are another smell entirely.

"Ugh… that's disgusting," I comment, still not hearing any sort of response from Kyle as I look around for something to scoop up this mess. "I wish we had one of those air fresheners around here. It might make it a bit more comfortable for you."

"Don't move."

Freezing, my blood runs cold as Kyle's voice looms right behind me; the cold, metal of my gun brandished around my left ear as he holds it threateningly at me. The stupid thing must've been sticking out of my pocket, which made it easy pickings for Kyle to just sneak over here and take it.

Stupid, careless and ignorant of my surroundings – these are three qualities that I promised myself that I'd fix, especially after Savannah. It was these three things that got Lee killed, in my opinion.

"Maybe we should've just shot you after all…"

"The gun's in my hands now, Clementine. You'd best shut your mouth and do exactly as I say," he warns, grabbing the back of my collar and slightly choking me with it as he drags me backwards. I'd try to struggle against him, but like Kyle said – he's got the gun now.

I just need to play this cool, and don't do anything stupid.

"You and I are gonna go for a little road trip," he tells me, making me shake in worry. No way in hell am I leaving Jane and Lilly! What does this jerk think he's doing?! "You people killed my friends and tied me up in a fucking rat hole, so I'm gonna return the favour. An eye for an eye, isn't that how it goes?"

"Just put the gun down, Kyle. We can talk about this," I try reasoning, but there's no changing his mind it seems. Kyle's set in his ways.

"It's too late to go back, Clem. You… you're not like them. You've got heart at least, but… that's what's gonna screw you over," he says, and I grunt as he forcefully shoves me over to the exit ladder. "It's not personal, Clementine, but you know how it is. If you had let me go like I asked you to, then maybe we wouldn't have been in this situation. This is just revenge, nothing more, nothing less. I'll either drive out, shoot you right in the legs and leave you for the walkers, or if I'm feeling generous, maybe I'll take you back with me to my camp. Maybe that'll give Lilly and Jane something to think about."

"You're a fucking monster…"

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Tsk-tsk," he shakes his head, smirking devilishly. Kyle has officially lost his mind, like so many others before him. Everyone's got their limit. "You first, up the ladder. I'll kill you if you scream or try to run away, so don't bother."

"You said that you're gonna kill me anyways!" I yell, but zipping my mouth closed as he holds the pistol warningly right between my eyes.

"Fuck up like that again, and you won't even make it out of the cellar. Lead me to the car, and only the car," he instructs coldly, interrupted by the sounds of the few remaining walkers that are left underneath the trap door.

Seeing no way out of this, I reluctantly do as he commands and grasp the first rung of the ladder…

…and my short-haired, female knight in shining armour picks the perfect time to come to the rescue.

"Clem?" she calls out as Kyle hides behind one of the walls of the cellar; still pointing the gun towards me and putting one finger up to his lips. If I spill the beans right now, I'm so dead. "You alright in there? I thought I heard some shouting."

"…everything's cool…" I reply quietly, trying to sound unconvincing while also wanting to make sure that Kyle doesn't realize what I'm doing. "Just, umm… giving Kyle some food…"

Jane pauses for a moment, narrowing her gaze slightly as she studies my face. Thank god that it's Jane over here and not anybody else, because she practically knows me inside and out at this point. She can tell when I'm under duress, and I can see in her eyes that she knows something's up.

After all, we sisters have to look out for each other, don't we?

"I'm coming down to check," she suddenly tells me, and for a moment I think that this is where it's going to end. One of us will die right here, since Kyle will most likely shoot Jane as soon as she makes her way down to the bottom, or me if he gets pissed off enough.

When neither of those things happen, and I hear the empty click of the pistol, I visibly relax a little bit. It seems that my carelessness about the bullets has paid off this time.

As soon as Jane jumps downwards, I glare fiercely towards Kyle as he quickly hides the pistol in his back pocket. But honestly, what's that going to do? We both know that Jane won't believe a word that this asshole says!

I open my mouth to speak as Kyle glares daggers back at me, but I'm interrupted by the sound of some voices outside.

"This the place?"

"Yeah, them fuckers have gotta be 'round here somewhere. Search high and low!"

As I try to remain silent while also fearing for who they might be (even though I've got a hunch that I already know), Jane clocks Kyle in the nose roughly. She then grabs his neck and pins him against the wall; brandishing her own pistol as she notices mine fall out of his pocket.

"I should fucking kill you right now…" she snarls venomously, turning the safety off as Kyle's face visibly whitens. "But I won't. Not yet."

"What… what the fuck are you gonna do, bitch?!" Kyle spits, even though Jane and I can both tell that he's shitting his pants.

Jane gets a wicked glint in her eye that I've seen before – the one she gets when she's either dangerous or totally angry, and sometimes a bit of both.

"Live bait," she replies, motioning for me to quickly go up the ladder while they fall in behind. Not needing to be told twice, I stealthily make my way upwards while trying to make as little noise as possible.

My heart races when I see at least three cars on the right side of the driveway alone.

"Holy shit!" I hear Kyle yelp as he races up the ladder, trying to escape but being tripped up by me. Jane quickly follows in behind, and when I nervously ask what she did, she simply shakes her head and tells me not to worry about it.

However, it doesn't take long for me to realize that she's opened up the trap door downstairs – what she plans on doing with that is anyone's guess.

"Into the house. Now," she forcefully tells Kyle, sticking the gun in his back as I see Lilly creeping from down the stairs; a rifle in her hands. As soon as she sees Jane with Kyle, Lilly seems to know exactly what's going down.

"Clem, make sure that door stays locked," Lilly whispers harshly, and I quickly nod while trying to move one of the chairs up against the door frame. "Grab a gun from the counter, and you shoot anyone who comes inside – no exceptions. Got it?"

The Clementine of three years ago would've immediately said no and shied away from using a gun, but now…

Nodding with determination, I pick up a pistol as well as some rounds; watching as Kyle fiercely scowls at me before getting forced upstairs. Lilly's leading in the front, while Jane monitors closely behind.

Nobody's getting in here – nobody.