NIGHTMARES

"No-one likes a mad woman; you made her like that."

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CHAPTER FOUR

Nightmares

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"This is it." Ellie sighed, closing the door to her small home in Jackson. She moved out from Joel's house a while ago, but she still hadn't completely moved into her own house. A few boxes were still strewn around the living room, packed with space books and old music CDs. It was a small house- only one floor and bedroom- but it worked.

Willow looked around, the messy space seeming like heaven to her. She hadn't slept in a house for a long time, it was quite foreign to her. She took off her shoes, letting her sock-clad feet accept the warm, fuzzy carpet on the wooden flooring. "This is a nice house." She exclaimed, looking around. There was something on each wall, whether it was children's paintings, a polaroid, or proper art, there was always something covering the wallpaper.

Ellie shrugged. "It's enough for one person." She softly smiled, looking over to the living room. She still didn't have a couch, which would be an issue. "Are you okay with sleeping on the floor?" Ellie asked, turning back over to Willow.

The younger teenager nodded, scratching at the small stitches healing on her cheek. "I'm used to it, I'll be fine." She replied. Ellie smiled in reply, disappearing through one of the corridors in her house.

Willow took the time to explore around the small home. She started in the kitchen, scanning over all of the granite countertops. As with the other rooms, it was quite small. It had a tiny island in the middle, with the rest of the cabinets pressed up against the wall. A bit of afternoon light shone through the closed drapes, creating an almost foggy atmosphere.

There was a photo frame, tipped downwards on the counter. Curiously, Willow pulled it up, looking at the photo. It was an older man- maybe in his fifties- hugging Ellie. She looked quite a bit younger than she did, and Willow could only wonder why she had the photo facing downwards. A Firefly pendant was placed next to it, the words Anna Williams engraved on it.

Not wanting to dig too much, Willow placed the photo and pendant back down on the counter where it was before. Ellie hadn't come out of the hallway yet, so she walked over to the living room and looked at the photo frames littering the walls.

One was her and another boy, they were playing in the snow. Another was him and her again, but in a bigger group of people. They all seemed the same age. One girl had black hair, pulled into a ponytail and covered in the white dust. Ellie was there, and another girl with tattoos covering every inch of her skin.

Ellie finally emerged from the corridor, holding an old, run-down mattress in her arms. She put it down, pushing the coffee table to the side of the wall and replacing it with the mattress. "That'll work." She sighed, looking over to Willow. She had been looking over some of the vintage CDs that were lined up on her television console table.

"Woah, you have Four Pathways?" The girl asked, astounded as she pulled out one of their albums. She held onto it lightly, as if she were afraid to damage it.

The older teenager nodded, walking over to stand beside Willow. "Yeah, Jo-" She paused. "One of my friends gave it to me." Ellie replied, picking out a few more of the band's albums. With the amount of music she had, it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. "You like their music?"

"Well- I haven't listened to it in a while." Willow replied, looking longingly at the disc. "But they used to have a bunch at the old Firefly labs, and my dad would play them for me." It had been so long since she had seen anyone her age, words were flying out of her mouth.

Ellie, on the other hand, was entranced by the younger teenager. Butterflies and admiration were bubbling up in her stomach. Willow had been through so much. The feeling of Joel's argument with Ellie still lingered, but it felt completely pushed down by the other teen's presence.

"Shit, what time is it?" Ellie asked herself, looking out the window. Some sun was still pouring through the sheer drapes. She looked over to the clock hanging on the wall, it was almost four. "Do you want something to eat?" She asked Willow.

"That sounds amazing." She replied, breathing in relief at the sound of food.

"Is there in particular that you'd like?" Ellie inquired, walking over to the tiled kitchen floor and opening her fridge. Tommy and Maria had lost power a few times in the last week, so nothing was completely cold, but it was better than room temperature.

"Anything, really." Willow sighed, her mouth watering at the sight of an almost-full fridge. There were a few packs of beer, some Chinese food, and a roast chicken.

Ellie dug around her cupboards until she fished out a few packs of leftovers. A chicken sandwich would do just fine. Some of the townsfolk had gone to a big dinner party a few days back, and Tommy brought her back some of the chicken. It was a bit old, but it was better than eating nothing.

Willow seemed to agree as they sat down at the island and dug in. Ellie smiled as the younger teenager ate like she hadn't in years. Well, she probably hadn't eaten in a long time, it wasn't surprising. The Rattlers didn't seem like nice people by a long shot, why would they bother feeding their prisoners good food?

The two girls sat in a comfortable silence until the sun peeking through the drapes had disappeared, leaving Ellie and Willow in the light from the overhead lamp. It was quite dim, but they could still make out each other's faces.

Ellie looked up at Willow, frowning a bit. "We should sleep. A trip to Seattle isn't the easiest." She proposed, slipping off of the barstool and pushing it back against the cabinet.

"Yeah, that's a good plan." The younger teenager smiled, walking over to the living area. Ellie had already set up her mattress for the night. A mash of pillows and blankets were tossed over it, making it an alright place to sleep. Well, for Willow, it was amazing.

"I'll be down the hall if you need anything." Ellie offered, waving before walking down the corridor. The other teenager sat in the darkness, the only light coming from the alarm clock on the TV console. She hadn't slept properly in a long time, and it took its toll on her as her eyes stayed wide open.

She doubted she'd be sleeping that night.

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Ellie's eyes flickered open abruptly, her head still against the pillow as she felt her breathing levels elevate higher and higher. Just a nightmare. She sighed, rubbing her eyes and turning on her back. There had been a lot of those plaguing her mind lately. Maybe it was some kind of sign? No, she couldn't be ridiculous. She turned back on her side, looking at the clock hanging on the wall.

Just past one.

Fuck.

She sat up on her bed, still wearing a gray sweater and a pair of pajama pants. Ellie didn't want to wake Willow, so she opened the door to her bedroom as quietly as possible. But, when she got to the living room, she spotted the younger girl already awake. Her backpack was open beside her, and she was reading an old book with a flashlight.

"Can't sleep?" Ellie asked, rubbing her green eyes again.

Willow shook her head. "You'd think you'd sleep like a baby after sleeping on dirt for the last few weeks." She joked, folding the side of the page down and shutting the book. Bookmarks weren't very common anymore.

"God, when I got to Jackson, I couldn't sleep for weeks." Ellie replied, sighing. She didn't even realize the words that had come out of her mouth. Why was she opening up to this strange girl? She was leaving in a few weeks, anyway. There was no point. "Sorry- I don't wanna load my life story onto you." Ellie frowned, sitting down beside Willow.

"I've got all the time in the world." The younger teen smiled. "And besides, I'll most likely forget all of it in like- a day. I have the worst memory." She laughed a bit.

Ellie looked at her in confusion before shrugging, laying down on the floor face-up. Willow did the same, her head inches away from the other's. She was leaving soon, and they were going to be spending a whole week together. It didn't seem like she was working undercover for anyone, maybe it was time to let her guard down. Just a little.

"I used to live in a Q.Z." Ellie began.

"Really?"

"Yeah." She replied. "It's not exactly everything it's cracked up to be." Ellie picked her nails, still avoiding Willow's gaze by looking towards the ceiling. "What about you?"

"Well, of course, I grew up with the Fireflies, but most of my childhood was just running from FEDRA and their need to stop everyone." Willow answered, sighing and leaving her mouth open a bit. "It's crazy how fast the world was immediately taken over by corrupt governments."

Ellie nodded. "I can't imagine the WLF is any different."

"It's the only way I can think of, I need to find what's left of the Fireflies." Willow frowned.

Finally, the older teen turned to the younger one, her whole body shifting under the weight of her shoulder. "What happened?" Ellie asked. She knew what had gone on in the hospital to an extent, but of course, she was stubborn and never wished to know more from Joel himself. Plus, she was completely unconscious when it happened, there was no way she could've known.

"My dad was in the hospital when the cure was being made. I don't know what it was, but that guy really wanted to protect it." Willow sighed. "I found out around an hour later when one of the doctors came back to the secondary base with the news that Marlene was dead in the parking lot."

Ellie opened her mouth agape a bit, her eyes blinking slowly. "Do you- do you hold any hatred towards the smuggler?" She asked, internally wondering if Willow was truly a danger towards her and Joel.

The younger girl shrugged. "It's been so long, I don't think anyone can blame them anymore." She replied whole-heartedly. Ellie let out a small breath of relief. "If they truly needed what they were protecting, I think it must've come from some place of love."

"Yeah, yeah I guess you're right." Ellie turned on her back again, looking at the popcorn ceiling above her. She remembered all the times that Joel would get her birthday balloons, only for them to bust from the textured ceiling.

Both of them fell into a comfortable silence, still laying beside each other in deep thought. Neither of them could tell which one fell asleep first that night.

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