#fuck off shauna

[eff4freddie]

lol your reblogs and comments have me CACKLING. I’m sorry and I hope you got some sleep but thank you for your support of this story.

I hope to get the final chapter up in the next week. Xx

After She Left | Fourteen

Words: 5.3k

Joel and Tommy search the town for Ellie just as you are facing down the clickers that threaten you and her both. With Shauna having taken off with your rifle you watch in horror as Ellie screams for their attention.

Chapter warnings: Canon-typical violence, Shauna gets her own warning, weapons, a pretty solid attempt at gaslighting.

A/N: Sorry it took me a hot minute to update, but an old injury is playing up a little and I needed to rest my wrist. But nevermind that, penultimate chapter here we goooooo.....Will Ellie and Teach's lives hanging in the balance finally give Joel the kick up the bum he deserves? Will Shauna get what's coming to her? Let me know what you think in the comments, I'm very keen to see what you make of this one! THANK YOU xx

Thirteen | Series Masterlist |

Walking beside his horse, Joel pulled on the reins only gently. He could feel that the horse was with him, didn’t intend on bolting now that they were in the town proper. Having doubled back to pick up the horses, they had turned and come back around to the main street, trying to find a house close enough that they could monitor movement without being seen.

It was growing steadily darker. Joel could feel the stone shifting heavy in his belly as the dusk slid over the mountain to his left. He couldn’t figure why it had been so quiet. It set his teeth on edge.

‘You should head back,’ he said to Tommy, ignoring the way his little brother shook his head. ‘Head on back to Robin and Maria. You got a family.’

‘So do you, Joel…’ he said, and Joel felt the little trickle of fear dripping along his ribcage. He had been trying not to think about it, of you and Ellie, out here in the cold.

‘Can’t risk anything happenin’ to ya. For your wife, for your kid…’ he said, and Tommy stopped short, pulling his horse up beside Joel and making him stop alongside. Joel stumbled a little, the soft ground slippery under foot.

‘You imagine it was me,’ Tommy spat out. ‘It was me out here trying to chase down Maria, trying to chase down Robin. You reckon you’d leave me out here on my own?’

Joel considered it for a moment. He would break Tommy’s legs if his younger brother tried to stop him riding by his side.

Tommy watched the realisation dawn over Joel’s face. ‘We can keep goin’ at first light,’ Tommy said, and Joel nodded.

‘It just doesn’t feel right…’ Joel said, and Tommy was about to protest before he cut him off. ‘Here, I mean. Something’s not right…here…’

Both men looked back to the butcher, almost expecting the self-sacrificed corpse to appear in the window, watching them pass.

Every time he stopped, the hooves of the horse settling into the mud, he could swear he could hear whispers on the wind. He couldn’t decide if they were real, if they were just his panic finally leaking out of his brain and seeping into the air around him. If he was hearing the ghosts, the decades of bodies lost to the fungus, lost to themselves.

‘Reckon we can hole up in one of these houses…’ Tommy was saying, but something was catching Joel’s attention, something shifting out of the corner of his eye.

‘Tommy?’ he asked, squinting to see several blocks down the main street, to where he could have sworn he saw movement. ‘You see anything? Up there…on the corner?’

He felt his brother still behind him. For a moment both men held their breaths.

Just at the end of the street, far enough that you could miss it if you weren’t paying close attention, something jerked. Swivelled. Shuffled a few steps back.

‘Jesus…’ Tommy muttered, dropping his voice under the wind. ‘Just out in the open like that…’

‘Means there’s likely no-one left,’ Joel whispered. ‘No-one out here left for them to pounce on.’

He gripped the reins in his hand harder. If he had turned his head, he would have seen his knuckles almost entirely white.

‘We gotta…’ Tommy started, but Joel was already pulling his rifle in front of him, was already inching forward. He didn’t even notice he was pulling is horse along with him too, so transfixed on the sight of the clicker two blocks up the street.

‘Stay back,’ he whispered, over his shoulder. Tommy faltered before stepping forward, his older brother shooting him a disapproving glare. If he hadn’t been so terrified, Tommy would have grinned at him.

Joel’s eyes started to stream from holding them wide open in the cold air. As they inched closer they watched as the clicker swivelled, reacting to something around the corner, cocking its head to the side to angle the bloom obliterating its eye towards the sound. It didn’t seem to have clocked them yet, approaching quietly from behind, but Joel still found himself having to remind himself to breathe.

Half a block forward another clicker emerged from across the street, wobbling its way towards the corner. This one was moving quicker, the blooms emerging from its skull smaller, less formed. It was possible that it still had some vision underneath, that it still had the benefit of both its senses, and that was why it was moving with slightly more purpose than its counterpart.

Joel felt his heart racing in his chest, wanting to stop to steady himself, feeling the urgent pull to push forward. Two clickers were as good as an army if you were a teenager out here on your own. He wasn’t sure if Ellie had taken any weapons with her, could only pray she’d had the presence of mind to take something other than her measly little flick knife. He could feel the bile rising in his throat and longed, ached, to clear it. He swallowed down the burn instead, felt the back of his tongue too thick and too dry in his mouth.

For the first time, Joel realised he was pulling a horse beside him. He cursed under his breath, hearing the thump of its hooves as it made its way through the muddy street. He looked around for a place to hitch it, hoping neither would spook if they had to shoot. Keeping an eye on the scene in front of him he studied the buildings to his left, to his right. The town wasn’t so old that it had hitching posts, and he wondered if he could tether his horse to a twenty-year old decaying parking meter instead.

And just as his gaze travelled the gutters of the shop fronts in front of him, as he lets his eyes traverse the lampposts, the rusted trash cans, something moved just up out of his eyeline. In a moment that would play on loop in his nightmares, he watched as Ellie’s head appeared from the roof of the doctor’s office, a rifle held awkward in her arms.

Joel stopped, panic gripping his throat. If she made even a single sound they would be on her, both of them able to corner her, trap her where she stood. He knew immediately that she had tried to seek higher ground, had followed his instructions as best she could, and he couldn’t be mad at her for that. But she hadn’t considered exit points. She’d been too eager or too scared, and he hoped it was the former, to properly plan. He wanted to scream, wanted to howl, wanted to sink his bare hands into the neck of that clicker and rip the bloom from its flesh as it dared to threaten his little girl.

This was intolerable. He felt the impotent terror grip him, the same that took him by the sternum the night a solider pointed his gun at his daughter and her twisted ankle, supposed to be kept safe in his arms.

He saw Ellie take aim. For a second the world stopped, the shuddering echo of the globe falling off its axis so clear that he was surprised he wasn’t knocked off his feet where he stood.

He’d stood still, waiting patiently for the soldier to collect himself before he shot and murdered his daughter. Had behaved, had obeyed, and had his whole universe ripped out from under him for it. Had let the panic grip his legs, tie his ankles and his tongue. He had stumbled, fucking dropped her in the dirt like a ragdoll, had ignored her pleas for comfort and let her slip away while he pointlessly fought it, let her last moments be his tear-stained, desperate face. Let his last words to her be lies. That he could save her, when even she could see that he couldn’t. That he could get her up, when she wanted only for his arms to hold her close.

Of all the times he had failed that night and since, that was the worst of it. That in her final moment he wasn’t with her, not really, railing instead against the inevitable pull of her death. He let her go scared. He let her go hurtin’. He let her go while he looked away.

Not again. Not now that he was moving, swinging up onto the back of the horse and counting on the sound of the hooves pounding the wet ground to draw the clickers to him, give him enough time to fire before they trapped Ellie. Joel was dimly aware that Tommy was behind him, riding up along his right side, as their two horses crossed the first block in what felt like moments. Joel rode with his eyes on Ellie, his rifle in his hands. He could shoot the first one, launch himself at the second. Distract it, give her enough time to get to Tommy, for him to pull her away.

He watched as she turned at the sound of them, watched the relief bloom on her face. She pointed, frantic, to something around the corner as Joel kicked his horse into a gallop, swearing an apology to it under his breath if it could just close out the last of the distance in time.

The clicker nearest to him was turning, its bloom angling towards the sound of his horse. He glared into its unseeing eyes. He wouldn’t look away this time.

‘HEY YOU FUCKERS, COME AND GET ME!’ Ellie screamed above him and Joel gasped, his heart in his throat as the clicker turned to her, immediately starting to lurch towards the clinic. But Joel was on it, aiming his rifle as he gripped the horse with his knees, slowing up enough to steady a shot that clipped the clicker on the shoulder and pivoted it, spinning it around to howl at him as he stared it down.

--

For a moment, all you could hear was the thundering of your heart in your chest, the sound so loud it obliterated any thought, any possible rational explanation. You swallowed, your head turning to Ellie where she stood on the roof of the clinic, her back turned to you now and her arms waving over her head.

You couldn’t feel your body, could barely account for the noises you made as you opened your throat and howled, screaming to try and win back Wren’s attention. You watched, horrified, as Wren pivoted, lurching at full speed towards the corner right underneath where Ellie stood. He was going to climb up the old rickety porch, was going to clamber up over rotted wood and peeling paint and rip her from her perch, tear her limb from limb as you stood, rooted to the ground in horror, the last part of the world to make it worth living in torn from you, like everything else.

‘No, no, no! Me, you fucker!’ you screamed after him, but there was other noise now, something that was getting his attention. Everything was happening all at once, the noise and the colour and the thumping of your heart in your ears so loud that it was impossible to think, your throat raw as your legs seized up underneath you, as you found yourself rooted to the spot, screaming and howling for Wren to come back to you, still desperate to give Ellie her time.

You had been trained to look. All that time on gate duty in the QZ, all that time on the wall in Jackson, your eyes trained on the perimeter, waiting for danger, trained to alert. Your eyes your greatest weapon, your wits your biggest shield. That was how you served your community, how you protected all that you still had to hold dear.

And all that time you had felt like you weren’t doing enough. That safely ensconced behind steel and concrete you were somehow safe, knowing that the real work was out beyond the wall. The real danger lurking well beneath your feet, you had always considered yourself a coward for never being amongst it, for never getting your hands dirty like you should have. Now, though, in this moment, you realised for the first time the quiet bravery in looking. In witnessing the terrors, even if you all you could do was stand between them and oblivion.

Because now. In your fury and your sadness and your horror, you did the only thing you could think of. You closed your eyes.

--

Joel was on the first clicker in moments, the horse barrelling into it with enough speed, with enough force, that it was knocked off its feet and under the hooves. Joel heard the crunch of the decaying fungus meeting metal horseshoe, knew instantly it was crushed without even having to look. That only left the smaller one, the one he saw now running from the middle of the street for the clinic.

He pulled his horse back, readying another shot, when he heard it. The voice he would recognise in an instant, the melodic tone now drenched in terror, in fury, in regret.

He turned his head, saw for the first time that you were stood in the middle of the street, saw from the tracks in the mud that the second clicker had been barrelling towards you before it doubled back.

‘No, no!’ you were howling, almost doubled over, your eyes shut tight like you didn’t want to see. ‘Not her, not her…’

He swivelled his head to Ellie, her eyes wild and on him even as she was climbing up higher, swinging herself up on loose roof shingles to get a better shot, and he knew, then that she had saved you, that she had called them off you knowing he would arrive, just in the moment that you had been trying to save his girl. 

‘Get her!’ Ellie screamed, but Joel was already turning his horse to you.

‘Tommy!’ he yelled over his shoulder, and his brother was right behind him, his rifle on his shoulder and his eye squinting into the sights as the second clicker paused a moment to survey the scene.

‘Got it,’ Tommy grunted but Joel was already on his way to you, already leaning over in the saddle, a hand reaching out to your trembling form.

--

The thudding of your heart grew louder, closer, enough to make you cower, to squeeze your eyes tight. You were dimly aware that you were moaning, pleading, for Ellie. Hoping that despite everything you could still call Wren to you, that he would choose you, instead.

You lifted your hands to your ears. The sound of your pounding heart grew only louder and you gasped at the sheer volume of it, listened as it raced up beside you even as you groaned to block it out. You thought of Rose on the day she died, of your parents and all the different ways you imagined they passed. You thought of Joel, knew that this would break him. Wept for him and the loss he was about to suffer, that had you so feeble you couldn’t bring yourself to even see, let alone stop.

And then you were lifting, momentum knocking you off your feet as you felt a strong grip around your torso, squeezing the air from you, forcing it out of your chest in a gasp. Your body being pulled in warm and hard, an arm wrapped tight around you as you were tucked, neat, into a thundering chest. Beneath you, the galloping of a horse you now realised had been the thudding you’d been hearing, that it had not in fact been your heart beating wild in your chest. You opened your mouth, flannel and warm skin between your teeth.

‘I got ya, baby, I got ya,’ Joel said above you, pressing you harder into his body as you whimpered, cold fingers reaching out to claw at his shirt. ‘I know, I know…’ he said again, his voice straining as the horse carried you both. ‘You’re OK. Ellie’s OK. Stay with me, baby,’ he muttered into the crown of your aching head.

--

You stayed, shivering and silent, tucked into his chest. He could feel the heat of your tears on his neck as he held you to him, his other hand on the reins as he watched Tommy stand guard at the base of the clinic, Ellie climbing gingerly down a drainpipe that didn’t have any business still being upright but nevertheless held her weight long enough for her to get down.

He cooed to you, told you everything he was seeing, commentating for you as you kept your eyes shut tight, your face tucked away under his jaw.

‘She’s down, baby, she’s on the ground,’ he whispered to you, his lips still pressed to your temple. Every once and a while he stopped to press a kiss there, the warmth of your skin on his lips reminding him you were alive. He felt the ache in his chest abate, just enough that he could finally breathe. He blinked away tears, willing away the tremors in his hands.

‘Tommy’s pulling her onto his horse now,’ he informed you as you sniffled. ‘They’re coming this way. Look, baby, look…’

He held you tight around the middle as he pulled your face from his neck, turned you to observe them on their way to you. Sat side-saddle as you were, your legs pressed to the side of the horse’s flank, it took you a second to wriggle free of him, nearly slipping from his grip as he lowered you, as you landed softly on unsteady feet. You were sobbing, them, running to Ellie as she slipped down from behind Tommy and let you pull her into you, let you collapse into her, the weight of your combined relief the only thing to keep you both up and out of the mud.

Joel felt the tickle of a tear tracking its way down his cheek and he brushed it away, his mouth turning down to try and beat back the sob that threatened to rip out of him. He caught Tommy’s eye, who was watching the both of you with a watery grin.  

‘Thank you…’ Joel whispered to his brother, who shrugged.

‘You woulda done the same for me,’ he replied, and Joel nodded. ‘But we gotta get out of here, there could be more of ‘em…’

Joel nodded, recognising that now the darkness had set in you were more exposed than ever, that the cold was starting to bite.

‘A house, and then we ride back to Jackson in the morning,’ Joel agreed. You pulled your head up, your eyes finally open to him, as you gripped Ellie.

‘Wait, Shauna’s out there still,’ you said.

‘Fuck her,’ Ellie grunted, wiping away her own tears. ‘She sent me out there, told me some bullshit…’

‘I know,’ you cut her off, glancing at Joel as though you thought if he heard any more, he would thoroughly lose his shit. He suspected you were right. ‘I know, she lied to you about this place.’

‘She took the rifle, and she ran! She saw Wren coming for you and she ran!’

Joel felt the burning cold of a knife slicing clear through his gut. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tommy turn to him, worry on his face.

‘Brother…’ he said, but Joel ignored him. He cleared his throat, ready to pronounce Shauna as good as dead.

‘She will have headed back to the horses,’ you said, gesturing over Joel’s shoulder. ‘We can’t leave her out here, she’ll hurt herself.’

Or someone else, Joel thought.

Tommy shifted, uncomfortably, in his saddle. ‘We could use the horses to get back,’ he said. ‘If she rides one, they can share the other.’

‘Knowing her she’ll take one and let the other go just to be extra fucking annoying,’ Ellie muttered, and you let out a little gasping giggle, the adrenaline suddenly making everything hilarious in an -end-of-the-world kind of way.

‘We tied them to the trees just off the road leading west,’ you gestured broadly. ‘I can take us back.’

‘No,’ Joel muttered, steadfast. ‘No, you two are gettin’ inside, gettin’ warm. I’ll go and get her, I’ll bring her back.’

‘Joel…’ Tommy started to protest, but Joel wasn’t having any of it, swinging himself off the horse and gesturing for you to get on top of it.

‘You look like shit,’ Ellie supplied, helpfully. ‘You sure you wanna be out there in the dark old man?’

Joel rolled his eyes, not letting on that he would take her sass for the rest of his life if it meant she was still living hers.

‘Up,’ he gestured to Ellie, as Tommy reached down and pulled her back up and behind him. ‘You…’ Joel said as he walked towards you, his mouth set in a frown but his eyes warm, betraying him. ‘You get safe, you’ve done enough for us today.’

‘I can come with you…’ you said, but he was pulling you to him again, easily overpowering you as you realised you were actually pretty cold, and that your body was starting to ache. ‘I can show you where she’ll be.’

‘No, baby, I’ll find it. Town ain’t big,’ he said, as he walked you over to his horse.

‘Joel…’ you whispered, but you weren’t sure what you wanted, weren’t sure what you would say other than to beg him to keep his arms around you, to let you rest on his chest.

‘Go on,’ he said, pushing you to slip your foot into the stirrup, hoisting you up into the saddle. He had so much to say to you, more than he had the words for, but it would have to wait.

‘We’ll be in that one,’ Tommy gestured to a house on the corner. The windows were dark, but Joel could see it didn’t look like it was going to fall over. Not tonight, at least. ‘I’ll take first watch, until you make it back,’ Tommy said.

Joel nodded at him as he watched you steady yourself in the saddle. He ran his hands down the horse’s neck, felt the muscles pulling hard and tight under its hide.

He stood back, watching carefully as his brother led his girls to safety, to some kind of warmth. He didn’t move until he saw the three of you disappear into the confines of the house, the horses stowed out of sight in the garage.

He’d been so preoccupied with his loss of Sarah that he’d almost lost everything all over again. He held the feeling of you in his arms close, tried to imprint it on his memory in case you recovered, came to your senses, rightfully never wanted to be near him again.

He cleared his throat, turning his gaze to the stars that seemed so bright now, so many of them up over head without the streetlights to blot them all out. He felt like he was seeing clearly for the first time. He would get to setting things right. Promised himself and the stars.

He swung his rifle around to grip it hard and cold in his hands, heading out on the road leading off to the west.

--

It wasn’t that he was trying to sneak up on her, even though he knew his feet were quiet now that he had come off the pavement and onto soft earth. It wasn’t that he wanted to scare her, although he thought about it. It was just that she wasn’t very observant, that a marching band and a full-scale parade could sneak up on her when she was so preoccupied with her own, and only her own, survival.

‘Come the fuck on, for fucks sake,’ she was muttering as she tried to loosen the knot tethering the horse to the tree. The other had backed away from her, was pushing at the ground each time she tried to get close. Joel reckoned it was a good judge of character.

‘Shauna,’ he said, and she jumped nearly three feet in the air, swivelling around to him and fixing him with a hollowed-out, terrified stare.

‘Joel!’ she gasped, dropping the reins and nearly running at him, collapsing into his chest where he held her loose, let her gasp and paw at him as he waited, his face grim, for her to collect herself. When she eventually realised he wasn’t holding her back, wasn’t tearfully thanking the Gods for reuniting them, she stopped, pulling herself back upright.

‘Are you OK?’ she asked, checking him over.

‘M’fine. Ellie’s fine, too. And Teach.’

Shauna nodded, but Joel could see no real relief there. In his mind he saw you, cowering in the street, your eyes shut tight, groaning for the clicker to turn on you instead. He swallowed, hard, blinked it away to stay focussed.

‘How did it come to be that they were one rifle down facing two clickers, Shauna?’ he asked, and she stilled. He could see the weapon leaning against the tree. It appeared to be in pristine condition. ‘How was it that my girl was up on the roof and Teach was in the middle of the street, unarmed with a clicker barrelling down at her, and you were…nowhere?’

Joel watched the cogs turn in Shauna’s head, could see her calculating. He held his hand up to her. ‘Don’t. Just tell me,’ he said, the adrenaline starting to give way, the fatigue and the cold settling into his bones.

‘There wasn’t anything I could do,’ Shauna said, her voice quiet but steady. She sniffled, gathering herself.

‘You left them to die,’ he said, simply.

‘I left them so that I could come and find you,’ she argued, and he shook his head.

‘Nah,’ he said. ‘You took the rifle, and you were damn near about to take one of the horses ‘cept Teach is too good at knots.’

She opened her mouth to protest, before she looked properly at his face in the moonlight. She could see the rolling tic of his jaw as he tremored slightly. She recalculated, settling in the end for truth.

‘I’m a survivor, Joel,’ she said, after a while.

He scoffed, feeling acid across his throat. ‘No, Shauna, you’re a fuckin’ leech. You take. You took the rifle, you were gonna take the horse. You damn near took the house out from under my girl and pushed her into the garage. You took Teach, her friend. You took my…’

‘Your what, Joel? What is she to you?’ Shauna hissed, actual fury on her face, but Joel wasn’t too vain to assume this was jealousy. Competition, maybe, but not borne out of actual want for him. In the face of it he felt a calm fall over his shoulders. He almost smiled. Shauna just didn’t like to lose.

‘And Sarah,’ he went on, ignoring the question. He watched as Shauna at least had the decency to let a look of remorse pass over her face. ‘You took her mother, you took her Christmas mornings, you took her Friday pizza and VHS nights. You took her little heart and you fuckin’ broke it, Shauna.’

He saw, even in the low light, that her eyes were shimmering a little. He ignored it. He went on. ‘I’ve been such a fool. All this time you’ve been in Jackson all acid and corrosion, all this time I let you.’ He looked again to the stars, watched them twinkle as he blinked away his tears. ‘That’s what gets me the most. All this time I let you.’

‘Oh, fuck you, Joel,’ Shauna said, trying anger to see if it could make him relent. ‘You needed someone to protect, just the same as when we were 22. You loved it when I come on all sad and weepy. Made you feel like a strong fucking man.’

‘That may be true, Shauna, but what’s it say about you that you decided to use it against me like ya did,’ he said, even. Calm.

He stepped around her, reaching for the rifle and she stumbled away from him, her hands in the air. ‘Hey, hey, wait…’ she said, but he was snapping the rifle open, clearing the bullets all except for one.

‘Sarah used to comfort me, when I was missin’ ya,’ he said, letting the metal land 1, 2, 3 in the palm of his hand. ‘Sarah used to say to me, “you gotta forgive her, Daddy, she was sad. She wanted what was best for us.” That girl knew, even then, Shauna, that what was best for us was for you not to be around.’

He slipped the bullets into his pocket, snapping the barrel back in place. One bullet still loaded.

‘But Sarahs’ gone, and you nearly took my girls tonight, Shauna, and I ain’t ever gonna forgive you for it.’

He turned his back to her, fixing the rifle to the saddle. He felt the certainty of what was going to happen next, down in the marrow of his bones. He wouldn’t pause, wouldn’t flinch.

‘You ain’t comin’ back,’ he stated. ‘Jackson ain’t safe with you in it.’ He stepped towards the horse, pulling on the left rein so that the simple bowline knot he knew you had tied for her shook loose. He handed her the reins.

‘You’re leaving me with one bullet and a horse?’ Shauna deadpanned, arching her brows at him. ‘Isn’t that a little…cliché?’

‘Don’t care what it is, it’s what you’re gettin’.’ Joel replied. He wanted to head back to the house, to wrap you and Ellie up in whatever blankets he could find, put her down safe on a twenty-year old couch so he could plant his lips on yours and not let up until dawn.

‘Tell me one thing…that Steven and Wren stuff, were they ever going to blow up the mess hall?’ He watched as her face shifted, trying to work out the most advantageous answer. He nodded. If he’d been honest with himself at the time things might have been different, he reasoned. Added it to the list of things he’d have to find a way to set right.

‘Joel, we could run that place…’ Shauna tried.

‘No, Shauna,’ he said. Reaching forward to grab her by the arm and pulling her, nowhere near as gently as he had you, to loop her foot into the stirrup. ‘You could never run that place, cuz there’s no way on this dead fuckin’ planet I would ever let ya.’

‘Joel…’ she said, and she looked down at him now, genuine fear in her eyes now that she had realised how serious he was, that he was actually doing it. ‘I don’t know where to go.’

‘You come within strikin’ distance of Jackson I’ll tell Billy to shoot ya on sight. Other than that, I don’t give a shit.’

She stared at him, her hands still shaking as he looked, impassive up at her.

‘You can’t…’

‘You’re a survivor, Shauna,’ Joel interrupted, parroting her. He reached out and slapped the horse once on the flank, enjoying it just a little as it whinnied and took off at a canter.

He wasn’t sure what he had expected to feel. Maybe angry, maybe a little vindicated. For one second he’d imagined himself getting down on his knees and kissing the ground beneath his feet. He didn’t expect to feel nothing, to feel a gentle kind of relief.

He watched as she disappeared into the darkness, waited until he couldn’t hear her gasping breaths. Turning back to the town he felt the warmth of you, washing up against his insides, even before he had you in his arms.

He knew it was a long path, but he would happily walk it. If you’d have him, he would come home to his girls.  

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[hauntsthenarrative]

funny how shauna's always jealous of someone else, always lusting for what others have, betraying and hurting everyone around her to be anything but herself. she wants to be recognized as someone independent, powerful, admirable, but that will never happen, because no matter what, she will never have an identity, and will always be cursed to wear someone else's skin.

[rotating-hyperfixations]

Do yall ever think Shauna talked about Jackie and Callie had the unfortunate realization that her mother was in love with her dead best friend, and worse doesn’t know it and thinks they were just normal besties. Or did she inherit her mothers’ obliviousness.

[shadowhaert]

TAISSA TURNER | Yellowjackets, 2x08

[xkzuka]

just finished yellowjackets and wow misty is the worst

[jackieshaunism]

NOT A SINGLE PERSON SEES THE CALLIE AND SHAUNA NEVER LOVE AN ANCHOR VISION !!! not gonna get into people using the song in a romantic context because that's a whole other can of worms but it is SOOOOOO shauna to callie . shauna WANTED to love calie , shauna LONGED to care for callie , but she never could . she could never love her like she loved wilderness baby . if she really loved callie , it would've suffocated her . shauna grew to learn that anything her love touched would be ruined , and she couldn't let callie meet the same fate . callie grew up on rumors of how bad of a person shauna was and yet shauna could never bring herself to disprove them . yes she was a monster , and she couldn't even keep her own daughter from seeing that . PLEASEEEE SOMEONE SEE THE VISION PLEASE

[jackietaylorgf]

i literally wont stand for the dawniefication of callie. the most annoying character in yellowjackets??? multiple people saying they wish she didnt exist and they hate her and she's just in the way and they want her to die. are you insane?? she is a Child living in the shadow of her mom's dead best friend that she never knew because her she froze to death in the wilderness years before callie was born. she is a little girl whose entire world got fucked up because she found out her mom is a murderer and her dad is a (bad) blackmailer and now they've all been backed into trying to cover up a murder. her whole life just got upended against her will. of course shes going to lash out on her parents and break up with her high school boyfriend and lie about staying at a friend's house and go to a bar she's not supposed to be at and date an older man she's not supposed to be seeing. even if it's destructive it's something she can control! the comfortable boring Safe life she thought she had was ripped away from her so yeah she's doing reckless shit without thinking about the consequences bc that's all she Can do.

it's dawn summers being voted the most annoying character on television ever all over again. you people just hate teenage girls when they act like teenage girls.

[ectopuppy]

its the boyyyyyyy (and shoko)

brain fell out so i drawed my sonic ocs uwu

[transxfiles]

so SO funny how the entire narrative is trying to push misty to get together with walter. like he is clearly at least kinda crushing on her and the directors are paralleling them and the writing is trying to push them together. meanwhile misty keeps going "i would like to see nat again please. stop talking to me." walter looks at misty with big eyes like PLEASE we only need ONE hotel room RIGHT and misty says, "two hotel rooms. i would like a separate one. yeah put it under a separate name. freak." and leaves him in the dust.

[everyurlithinkofistoolong]

Everyday I think about how Misty isn't the antler queen and how she was the first girl to be disproven right off the bat to not be her. You would think it would be her at first right? She's unhinged, she's unable to see the fault in some of the things she does, she murders and murders, and essentially everything that happened in the wilderness is indirectly her fault because she destroyed the box. But she was the first girl to be shown unmasked because Misty doesn't attempt to hide, or maybe she just can't. She's unmasked because we see her nature right of the bat, there's no pretense of normalcy or repression of who she is.

The antler queen is hidden, behind the scenes. She isn't the one who dragged pit girl's body out, prepared it, and served it. It was served to her. If the wilderness is the representation of trauma, then the antler queen is the source of it and the instigator. The center.

If Misty is a hammer used to beat someone to death, then the antler queen is a quiet poison that you don't even know is in your system until it kills you. Anyways here is why I believe with my whole heart that Shauna is the antler queen.

[ironhusband]

“Did you join a cult since we last saw you?” They ask, fully knowing the last time they were all together, they had their own cult.

[honeysuckle-flowers]

im going to be real here for a sec. i don't think adult misty cares much about the truth getting out. whatever happened, realistically the extenuating circumstances/survival situation/mental trauma/conflicting accounts/no concrete evidence/how long ago it was/geographical locations and jurisdictions mean that they'd never actually be put on trial no matter what they did. so all the kidnapping, murder, breaking and entering and miscellaneous felonies are really just to keep the other girls safe. no matter how much they hate her, she's willing to do anything to keep them safe. and she's crazy about it.

[plaqying]

how sdc feels after writing a song about how i grew up

[jondrettegirls]

NO ONE GETS ME IM TOO DEEP THIS PRIMMADONNA GENIUS

[dykecadence]

cant stop thinking about yellowjackets. those girls are buzz buzz buzzing around in my head

[inkyquince]

Yknow I'm liking yellow jackets, partly cuz it slaps but also Phillip graves actor is in it but fuck, I'm already sick of the older Shauna plot line