Only Hope Left

Sera rose from her bed quickly, Sweat beaded down her forehead and her neck. She had a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach, but was quickly forgotten once pain shot up her side from stretching her stitches. She let out a groan and quickly tried to correct herself, pulling pillows that Hershel had left at the foot of the bed behind her so she could lay back down.

Once released from her pain Sera grabbed her gun off of the bed side table, her fingers outlining the scrapes that were made from its previous owner. Sera herself had never owned a gun; she thought it looked pretty badass but she had never gotten enough money to purchase one and not only that, with a daughter that was prone to get into things she wasn’t supposed to, Hope was destined to get her head blown off if she ever brought one in the house.

Sera pulled out the clip, and pushed her fingers against the bullets, she hummed lowly; slowly pulling out each one of the bullets from the clip then placing them back in carefully. She hadn’t noticed any one walk in until the floor boards creaked under the shifted wait.

Sera didn’t think, she hoisted the clip up into the gun and shifted the safety off as she pointed the gun at the shadowy figure in front of her. She did not shoot, and as her vision cleared she was thankful she didn’t.

“I’m sorry.” She murmured, the brunette woman who had hugged Jason the moment they arrived at the farm, held her hands up in surrender. Sera lowered the gun and flicked the safety back off before tossing it back on the bed.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” the woman said, she moved to sit at the edge of the bed, positioning herself between her and the gun. “I got up early, thought I’d check up on ya.”

Sera could hear her country twang in the words that she spoke, Sera smirked and looked up at the woman was looking down at her belongs, all of which was shoved in a single duffle bag.

“This is kind of embarrassing to ask, but would you help me up, I kinda want to take a shower.” The woman nodded quickly, then shifted herself off of the bed and hoisted Sera up onto her feet. She grabbed her bag and placed it on the bed, grabbing a clean shirt, a clean pair of pants and underwear.

The woman disappeared for a moment before appearing with a towel and facecloth. She led her down the hall, staying close enough to Sera so that she could catch her at any moment she lost her balance.

The woman opened the bathroom door, and pulled out a match from the medicine cabinet and lit the gas light just inside of the door. She then turned back to Sera and exited the room as Sera entered.
Just before she could disappear down the hall, Sera turned to her.

“I didn’t exactly catch your name.” her voice was low, as if only suggesting her to listen.

The woman turned with a coy smile, “I didn’t exactly throw it. It’s Maggie.”

Sera smile and laughed lightly, “I can tell I’ll get along with you.”

Maggie let out a little chuckle before leaving Sera to clean up.

Sera locked the door behind her, her smile was now gone. She set the towel and her clothing down on the closed toilet seat. She then began to run the water trying not to waste hot water she quickly jumped in.

The grime that had built up from the past few weeks quickly washed off, leaving Sera standing there, allowing the water to rain down on her as her eyes began to sting and a lump formed in her throat.

These weren’t tears of pain, and yet they were. Everything that had weighted it’s self on top of her shoulders seemed to weight her down even more in the shower, she wish it would all just wash off that for once something would work in her favor. That someone would take pity and get rid of her problems, and take care of her.

Sera mentally kicked her self. How dare she even think that? Work in her favor? She should be hoping that things are working in her baby’s favor. She cursed herself for being so selfish.

I will find my daughter, she thought as she shut off the water and dried herself, and she will be just fine.