when: june 30th, morning where: the mall who: @mattyalston
i’m not supposed to be here are the words that repeat in her head. ophelia usually works in the hotel infirmary, but today she is working at the mall- a favor for a friend. the medics are a fairly close knit bunch, when one is in need they tend to try and help each other out. she took the early morning trek to mall, it’s a much longer walk than the quick trip down the stairs, but she took this chance to get a bit of fresh air. walking is good for the third trimester, her mother has told her.
but now she’s here. screams of terror echo around her but in this small corner of the mall it is silent. admittedly, she had selfishly ran to this nook quickly after the outbreak ravaged the infirmary. she could have stayed to fight, she could have sought out the injured, but she fled. as it turns out, the alcove wasn’t empty. she had stumbled into a scene she instantly knew she shouldn’t be apart of. i’m not supposed to be here.
the knife is still in his hand, slick with red. “eddie,” she says breathlessly. maybe she shouldn’t have spoken his name out loud, but he’s already seen her. they are cemented now in this moment and there’s no going back. he stands up, his eyes locked on hers. they don’t waver for a second.
“ophelia,” he responds. it’s quiet, dejected, afraid. his voice shakes with adrenaline. opie quickly steps forward and kneels next to mike. eddie steps back, looking down at her with a glaze over his eyes. out of nothing but instinct she places two fingers against his neck, feeling for a pulse. there is a weak slow beat and every muscle tells her to put pressure on the bleeding- but she hesitates. her father’s words ring in her ears, first do no harm. she looks back up at eddie and sees another father. a father with pain and anger on his face.
“he’ll be dead in a minute,” she tells him. in that moment she knows there is nothing she can do. perhaps she could yell, bind his wounds and press reps of compressions into his chest that is already weakened from his last run in with revenge. she remembers another lesson her father once taught her, when someone’s loved one dies, you tell him that you did everything you could to save them. when you say those words, you should mean it. but she realizes in this moment that trying to save mike means condemning eddie. “you should go,” her voice shakes as she looks up. “go!” it comes out as a raw, croaky yell, and eddie doesn’t hesitate any longer. he escapes down the hallway and opie slowly pushes herself back on her feet.
i’m not supposed to be here. her hands tremble with emotion- fear, adrenaline, heartbreak, horror. she backs up from the scene in front of her. mike’s now lifeless body drains blood onto the tile floor of the mall. it’s on her scrubs, it’s on the bottom of her shoes. she can’t save him, she can’t save eddie. the only thing she can do is run.