Chapter Text
The snow fell, covering Jackson in a thick blanket of white. Children pelted snowballs at one another, a few teaming up to ambush unsuspecting adults walking around the corner of the dining hall. School was cancelled for the day and everyone was enjoying their snow day.
Everyone but Ellie.
It was one month after she had crushed his skull and left his worthless body to burn in that god-forsaken piece of hell she had found herself trapped in. She was still there. She was still stuck in that burning building. She was still covered in his blood. Only now it wasn’t only on her skin, it had seeped into her bones and into her soul. She could feel it constricting her heart, her lungs, her mind.
The snow mocked her. Every flake hit her like a brick, while landing on everyone else as gently as a sugar crystal. It made her sick.
She laid in her bed, feeling nothing but everything all at once. She wanted to scream, to cry, to do something. Something to get this feeling out of her body- to breathe again, but she couldn’t.
So, here she laid. Drowning in the loudest silence she had ever known.
Joel had walked up the stairs and into Ellie’s doorframe, undetected by her. She looked lifeless laying in that bed, and in a way, she was.
She hadn’t told Joel what that man had done to her, she couldn’t, but from the blood splattered on her face and her incoherent screams and yelps when he grabbed her on that day,
He knew.
“You alright?” He asked, not quite sure how to approach her.
His familiar voice snapped her back to reality.
“Mhm.” She nodded, clenching the covers closer to her chest as she adjusted her head to look at him.
As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he cared about her. To see her huddled up in her bed on a snow day, mind overtaken with things he doesn’t even want to imagine, broke his heart.
There was a moment of silence between them, broken by Joel clearing his throat.
“I have to go help Tommy repair his fence, wind knocked it over. He said Maria made hot cocoa if you want to come with me, maybe try some.”
Her eyes lit up a little at that statement.
“Okay.” A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she pulled herself out of bed and towards her closet, grabbing a coat.
Joel stifled a sigh of relief as he turned and walked down the stairs.
She put on her coat, staring out the window as she did. The snow fell, coming down just as steadily as it was an hour ago. She could do this. He was gone, the building was burned, and she was far, far away from that hell. Besides, Joel was here, and he would kill anyone who dared to even try to hurt her.
“Els, hurry up!” Joel shouted from downstairs, snapping her out of her head.
“Coming!” She yelled back, zipping up her coat as she walked down the stairs, meeting him at the front door.
He held the door open as she walked onto the wooden porch and stared at the snow before her.
He’s gone, I killed him, his body is burned and in hell where he deserves to be.
She endlessly repeated the words mentally as they walked silently through the icy mess, the chill biting her face. She just had to make it to Tommy and Maria’s and it would all be okay. She could do it.
As they approached the wooden stairs in front of Tommy and Maria’s house, she let out a quiet sigh of relief. Tommy was bent down in the snow before his fence, cursing, not so much under his breath, as Maria helped him do whatever he was trying to do.
“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” Joel said with a tone only an older brother could have said it with.
“Shut up and get down here.” Tommy replied, not even picking his head up to look Joel in the eyes.
Maria handed off the fence to Joel and turned to Ellie, meeting her eyes, “Well, I’m glad to see you out. Why aren’t you enjoying the snow day with the others?”
Joel looked over at them, giving Maria a look that could’ve killed her, had she seen it.
“I- uh, I don’t feel we-“
“HEY, ELLIE!!” Someone shouts from behind, as something crashes against her back.
She frantically whips her head around, as she locks eyes with the person who yelled for her.
It was him.
He was back.
She let out a terrified yelp as she ran as fast as her legs could take her, to God knows where, she didn’t even know where she was running to. She just knew she had to get away. Away before he caught her and finished what he had started.
Maria, Tommy, and Joel all shot their heads towards her, their eyes only catching the tail of her coat as she disappeared around the back of the house. Joel immediately stands up, fists clenched, as he whips his head around to see a frightened and confused Jesse holding snowballs next to his chest.
“Whats wrong with you throwing things at her like that?!” Joel yells at the boy, beginning to walk towards him, the two only broken up by Tommy throwing himself in between them.
“I- I’m sorry, Joel, I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I just thought it would be funny to-“
“Well, it’s not.” Joel shoots him down, sounding more violent than anyone had ever heard him before; it even scared Tommy a little bit.
He stares the boy down with a look strong enough to kill him. Tommy turns to face Jesse, a hand still outstretched towards Joel’s chest, unsure of whether or not he’ll have to retrain him.
“Jesse, I think it’s best if you go home.”
“Yes, sir.” Jesse says, frightened, as he drops the snowballs and runs in the opposite direction.
Joel stares him down as he runs until he’s no longer visible.
“Help me look for her.” Joel orders as he turns to follow Ellie’s nearly snow-covered tracks.
“Woah, woah, hang on just a minute. I need to know what just happened.” Tommy says, confusion in his voice.
“You don’t. Just help me look.” Joel turns, without another word.
Maria and Tommy shoot each other a quick glance before deciding to let it drop. Neither of them wanted to argue with Joel right now.
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Ellie trembled under the table in Joel’s tool shed, panic overtaking her whole body. She was drowning. Every breath she attempted to take was immediately forcefully pushed back down her throat by a wave crashing down over her. The waves gagged her and suffocated her, pushing her body down below their force. Her limbs weighed a thousand pounds, she couldn’t move them. Fighting it was senseless. She was going to die.
And she was okay with that.
“Ellie!”
She heard him.
He was calling her name.
He was using that same playful tone he used the first time.
Calling her name like it was a game.
It was happening all over again.
She couldn’t fight him off of her this time.
He came back to finish what he started
and he was going to succeed this time.
Tears streaked down her face and she gave up her fight, she lay exhausted under the table, accepting her fate.
The door burst open, the cold flooding in, as he came running to grab her.
She used what little strength she had left to kick herself further back against the wall, as the man grabbed her shoulders.
“NO!! GET OFF OF ME!! GET OFF!!”
Her words came out as mangled gasps and sobs as she tried to fight him off of her, her strength not even enough to lift a glass.
“Ellie, babygirl, it’s me!” Joel said calmly, but loud enough for his words to shatter whatever wall she was behind right now in her mind.
She slowly opened her bloodshot eyes as her fighting began to cease as she followed the familiar creases on her dad’s face.
She collapsed into his arms as sobs wracked her body.
He ran a hand up and down her back, embracing her just as he did on that god-forsaken day.
“It’s okay, babygirl.” He whispered as he ran a hand through her hair.
“I’m right here. I’ll always be right here.”