Better? Better.

Better? Better.

Carl Grimes, son of Lori and Rick Grimes, future soulmate of Aphrodite Hart, and friend of many was at a friend's house. They were playing video games, as usual, when he kept feeling his soul mark in different ways. First it hurt as a bruise quickly developed on his skin, then pleasure as his soulmate stroked their mark and he did it back. Then nothing, but the bruise remained. He stayed for a bit longer then went home after a few hours later. He saw his father wasn't home and that he was missing a flannel. Odd...

Carl shrugs and plops in his bed to read some comics, Michonne found him some new ones that he was excited to read. He pauses hearing the front door open, he goes down stairs, comic in hand, and sees Michonne. He greets her,

"Hi"

"Hello Carl" she smiles softly at the boy she calls her son and he asks her

"Have you seen one of my flannels? It's missing"

"No I haven't, this is the first time I've been back all day" Carl nods as a thanks and goes back upstairs.

Rick watches as Maggie and Glenn help Aphrodite to their house, the girls bag on Glenn's shoulder. Rick decides to head to his own, he's greeted by Michonne at the door. The share a small kiss,

"Guess who we found while on a run?"

"Who?"

"Carl's soulmate"

"Really?"

"Yup"

"Is she here?"

"She's with Glenn and Maggie, her name is Aphrodite and she's Glenn's niece" Michonne looks shocked

"Really?"

"Yup, also she got attacked by another human" he pauses and gives her a look which made her face drop

"So we told her that she can meet Carl when she's back to full health" Michonne nods.

"Carl was asking about his flannel"

"Oh yeah, I grabbed it for Aphrodite. What she was wearing was ruined so we gave her one of Maggie's sports bra, a shirt of Glenn's, and his flannel." Michonne nods again.

Aphrodite was helped into the bathroom by Glenn and Maggie. They were going to try and wash her hair since it felt heavy with blood and it was matted. She sat her down on the floor and laid her head on the side of the tub. Glenn undid the braid and took the bow out. He gave it to Dite to play with again, as he and Maggie worked on her hair. They unmated it and washed it the best that they can, the young girl has to wait a few days before taking an actual shower so this was the best that could be done for now. After an hour her hair was fully cleaned and brushed. They sat her up slowly and Maggie redid her hair to a braid. Her hair, now fluffy and curly, created a fluffy braid that Glenn put the bow back in at the top of the braid and the two adults help the teen up. They go to the living room and Maggie speaks to Glenn

"I'm gonna make us something, any requests?" Glenn shakes his head and Maggie looks at Dite, who does the same as her uncle. Maggie smiles at the two before going into the kitchen.

Glenn sits next to Dite, his arm around her. Dite leans on him as she grows tired again, this is the first time she's felt safe in a long time. Every since the day she had to shoot her parents. Dite curls up the best she can and snuggles against her uncle. Glenn grabs a nearby blanket and puts it over his niece. He holds her close as she slowly falls asleep. Glenn stays awake until Maggie reenters the room.

Maggie comes back after an hour with 2 bowls in her hand, she made some pasta since it was simple and in case Dite was picky she knew she would eat it. Maggie puts the bowls down then goes back for the 3rd bowl and sits on the other side of Dite. She notices the two's position and looks at Dite, noticing she was asleep. She looks at Glenn almost melting at how relaxed the two look and Glenn smiles at his wife. He opens his arms inviting her into the snuggle session. Maggie goes onto the other side of Glenn and leans against his arm happily. She helps Glenn eat while his two girls hold his arms hostage.

Rick decides to go to the Rhee house after a while to check on Aphrodite, he knows the young girl will bring his old son back. The less stoic and more carefree kind, he knocks gently on the door and hears a soft,

"Come in" before opening the door. He enters and closes the door behind him before looking towards the little family on the couch. He sees Dite sleeping on Glenn and Maggie feeding Glenn with a motherly smile on her face. He goes over and notices that Dite's hair looks more clean.

"Hey guys, how is she?" Rick sits on a separate chair facing the family

"We washed her hair" Maggie tells him but is cut off by Glenn

"She was raised to always look perfect. After what happened to her I thought it would help her feel better to have one thing look perfect" The two listening nod at him and take note. Rick sees the girls bag on the floor by the door,

"We found some dresses in her bag, maybe that would help as well and maybe knowing she's wearing Carl's flannel." The couple nods and both look at Dite. The girl was awake, she woke up while Rick was speaking and is staring at Rick.

"This is his?" She picks up a bit of the flannel and smiles softly at it. Her smile only grows when Rick nods. Aphrodite curls up in it and stuffs her face into the soft fabric making Rick smile at the young girl.

"When should they meet?" Maggie asks Rick

"I was thinking of telling Carl about her first, he was asking about his precious flannel apparently, and I'll see his reaction first then we'll go from there." The small family nods at the words.

Carl Grimes

Key

🌶️ ~ Spice/Smut

💢 ~ Angst

🩷 ~ Fluff

What's a Soulmate?

Out 💢

Found 💢

Niece?! 💢🩷

Better? Better. 🩷

Carl<3 🩷

Before 🩷

Finally 🩷

TW:

-SA

-zombies

-aNgSt

-simpy Carl<3

One shots

Teddy🩷

Sign💢🩷

Out

Aphrodite Hart was a girl known for her style. Before the world ended, she was always in dresses and bows since her parents taught her to always look put together. In this world, soulmates are a thing, only a few a year that are born get one. Aphrodite was one that was blessed to have one, she's been searching for them since she found out. But the search was put to a halt when the world ended.

Aphrodite Hart tries to keep the things she grew up with, but stopped that mentality when her parents were bitten and she had to kill them. With no siblings or friends by her side she had to take on the world by herself.

Aphrodite walked around, blood soaked and rusty knife in hand, and her favorite dress on caked in blood. The dress was to small seeing as she's grown, it's been a few years since the end so she's grown from 12 to 16. Her chest presses against the fabric tightly so tight she can barely breath, she looks around in the city she's wondered into and found a store free of walkers. She goes inside and sees no one, she holds her breath while walking around. What she doesn't notice is the person in the corner, a young man who looked at Aphrodite with hunger.

Hunger that could only be fed sexually, the man stood and slowly went to the oblivious girl. She looks around the small building and sees clothing, she goes over and picks up another dress. She shoves it into her large black bag and keeps walking around, not knowing of the strange man. She steps on glass, which hurt her bare feet, and she takes a step back to look at what she stepped on. The display case nearby was shattered and glass was strown everywhere, she looks at the bottom of her foot and sees a cut, she ignores it for the time being and straightens up.

As soon as she straightens up, she's taken to the ground and flipped onto her back. She lets out a scream, a scream that almost deafens the man on top of her. He looked crazy, bloodshot eyes and dark eye bags. He has some cuts on his face and his arm was bloody, he had been bit...

"Please no..."

"Please yes" he moves her hair out of her face and sees that she's missing an eye, no bandage, just an empty cavity. Almost like someone dug out her eye... The man ignores it and looks down at her body. The man tried to rip off her dress to have some fun...

After those excruciating 20 minutes, Aphrodite is left on the floor in pain. From the glass in her back, and from in between her legs, where blood stained her skin. She curls up onto herself, feeling disgusted. This isn't the first time an event like that has happened to her but she still felt gross. Her skin crawled, and itched like bugs were all over her body. The girl stares up at the ceiling as tears slowly fall down her cheek. She sniffles once then sits up and tries to cover herself. Dite looks around and sees a cardigan, she gets up quickly, regretting it, and grabs the cardigan. It's very big on her so she hopes it'll provide some comfort and warmth. She hugs herself and finally leaves the building with her knife in hand. She sees her reflection: long black hair with slight waves, a deep blue hue under her almond shaped eyes, some hair pulled back into a white blood stained bow hair clip, her hair was messy and her eyes were puffy.

"Gotta look good for my soulmate, no matter what" she fixes her hair and keeps walking, everything is bare, to bare, it's ominous how quiet everything is. She can hear as wind goes by and the ground beneath her feet. Her, already growing, anxiety spikes as her mind runs and she decides to leave the city. She runs out and goes into the woods, a sanctuary and has been for a while.

Aphrodite has been alone since the beginning, especially after finding out that she's immune to zombie bites. She met a doctor very early on and she explained that all those who have soulmates are immune. Speaking of soulmates, the girl looked down at her wrist, the outline of a sheriff star staring at her. She touches it gently slowing her walk creating a shiver down her spine, a pleasant one, she does this every few days since soulmates can contact each other using the mark they were born with. She does it so her soulmate knows she's alive, after a few minutes of waiting she gets the same shiver again and smiles. She continues her walking as she ventures deeper into the woods. She smiles a bit to herself and looks around, she starts to hum softly, so softly it's just above a whisper to try and not signal to anyone or anything where she is.

But, Aphrodite starts to feel light headed. She pauses her walk for a moment as the world begins to spin, her head gets heavy and her eyes feel weird. Her body feels cold as she leans and her eyes roll back as she slams against a tree. Her side stays against the tree as her head goes forward, the bark keeping her up as she passes out from blood loss.

...same

girls are like "I miss my boyfriend" but actually they're talking about carl grimes

Found

   Rick Grimes, father of Carl and Judith grimes, and boyfriend of Michonne walks through the heavy woods with his gun in hand staying silent. He and Daryl were out together but separated to cover more ground, they were doing a run for Alexandria. Rick can't help but use the time to think, he almost lost his son a bit ago, thankfully he's immune since he has a soulmate. That was news to find out, the immune part not the soulmate part, and Rick almost relaxes at the thought that his son will never meet the fate of his mother or friends. By the hands of walkers, he won't boil from the inside out and have hallucinating, he won't turn into one of the creatures he sees daily.

   The man adjusts his grip on his gun as he looks around attentively, his eyes scanning around and locking on any single noise. He hears soft humming and pauses, he looks around quickly trying to see anything and even looks up into the trees but sees nothing. He decides to follow the humming to try and find the person, the humming stops and a thud is heard. He walks a bit faster towards the stopped sound and sees a girl's head fall forward. It was Aphrodite, not that he knew, he goes over and puts his gun beside her.

   Rick lifts her head up and sees that she's passed out. He moves her body so her back is against the tree as he searches for her pulse point on her neck. He feels it and feels a soft heart beat, he sees some blood peaking from outside her cardigan that was tightly wrapped around her body. The man gently moved her arms and opened her cardigan before closing it quickly. The girls dress was ripped in many places, most of her body showing. He moves and looks at her shoulder, there were some glass pieces. He moves back to his original spot and looks her over again. Rick sees blood on her legs, he hoped what happened didn't happen. He looks at her arms again, her wrists were red and slightly bruised from the tight grip of the man from before. He sees her soul mark, the familiar look of it but with a deep bruise around it. Soulmarks bruise very easy and it would show up on the other as well. He gently takes off her bag and puts it over himself and puts his gun into the bag, the bag feeling like nothing, and he picks up the girl. He tries to keep her covered as best as he can.

   He starts to run back to Alexandria running into Daryl. Daryl looks at him confused seeing a girl in his arms,

   "Wha' a-" he's cut off

   "Look at her wrist" Daryl looks at her wrist that's dangling and sees the mark. He also sees the cardigan begin to slip

   "...She's kind of naked underneath so can you fix that..." Rick mumbles and Daryl quickly fixes the article of clothing and looks away

   "Wha' happen to her?"

   "I think r*pe... Her legs are stained red, inner legs" Daryl looks angry for a moment before nodding

   "Let's get her back to Alexandria." Rick nods and the two get back quickly. They make it to Alexandria after a mile of running and get Deanna to open the gates. They're greeted by a pregnant Maggie. Her hand on her stomach as her eyes widen seeing the state of the girl in Rick's arms. She thought the girl looked familiar but brushed it off as she rushed over

   "What happened?" Her southern accent gets looks from Daryl and Rick as Daryl explained what happened and Rick rushes the girl to the medic. He greeted Denise and he explains what happened. Denise gets to work immediately, Rick leaves the girl's bag besides his gun, which he took out, and left after being rushed out by Denise.

Rick steps outside and sees Daryl and Maggie waiting,

   "Who is that?" Maggie couldn't get the fact that the girl looked familiar out of her head

   "I don't know her name. All I know is what I think happened to her and the fact that she's Carl's soulmate" Maggie looks shocked and excited at the same time. Daryl nods and the three wait for a while before Denise comes out. She takes off her gloves and puts them into her pocket,

   "Definite signs of r*pe. She had some glass shards in her feet and back. She's been barefoot for a while and I cleaned the cuts. One of the cuts needed stitches, I'm guessing from being pushed into it while the attack was happening." The three look down as she speaks, they hate hearing that kind of news.

   "She's still out?" Maggie asks, Denise nods.

   "Rick brought her bag in as well, we should probably go through it" the three nod and the four go back inside. Rick goes to her bag and picks it up then goes to a table with Daryl, Maggie, and Denise forming around him. He opens the bag and starts to pull out things, a few dresses that were folded, a book, a dirty teddy bear and a small photo album. Rick opens the photo album and the first photo he sees is a baby with Glenn. He looked shocked and looks at Maggie showing her the photo.

   "That's Glenn with his niece, Aphrodite Hart. He keeps the photo on him at all times hoping to find her" Rick nods and keeps flipping through the photos,

   "I think we found his niece" Maggie nods and points to a photo

   "He has that one as well but it's in his old wallet" Rick nods

   "Glenn's niece and Carl's soulmate" Daryl speaks softly and everyone nods with him.

   "Let's leave her here to relax. Go get Glenn, leave Carl out of this" Denise speaks, the trio nods and they all leave the room.

After

After the painful silence for the first 10 minutes of the ride with the camera rolling Lyre finally speaks,

"You saw what happened..."

"I didn't see what caused you to scream or what you saw in the hallway"

"All the doors in the hallway were closed as I went down the hall first. As I was walking back to you and in the hallway all the doors slammed open like the person inside wanted to scare me and used as much strength as possible. When I was in the morgue room with all of the cabinets I saw someone in the hallway. A whole ass person in the hallway. As you saw I ducked and hid." Belen nods and takes a hand off the wheel and rests it on the center console. Lyre reaches out and picks up the camera and turns it off putting it into her bag. The rest of the car ride was silent until Belen pulled into the driveway as the clock hit 3:28 am. They leave the jeep and go into the house not noticing anything out of the ordinary. They sit at the dining room table in silence while Lyre unpacks the bag she had. She holds the teddy bear close to her and sits in her seat. As soon as she sits in her seat all the cabinets in the kitchen slam open. All papers around the two seem to be thrown around. Loud thuds start to happen making Lyre curl up in her seat while Belen goes to her and moves the two to be under the table both not sure what was happening. He looks at the clock and sees 3:33 am..

"fuck.." he whispers under his breath. Lyre looks at him

"look at the clock sis." She looks at the clock and sees the time. As the clock hits 3:34 am all the sounds and papers flying stops. But one thing doesn't stop, the small thuds. It was footsteps...as the sound gets closer nothing is seen by the two. Lyre looks around and quickly gets the camera out as the thuds continue. She hits record and shows in front of the two as the thuds soon stop. Everything is silent until a door opens, they couldn't see what door though..The same door closes again and everything seems to stop.

"should we go see what door just opened then closed?" Lyre whispers to Belen a small tremble in her voice. Belen nods silently and leaves the safety of being under the table first and checks if the coast was clear. He puts his hand out to Lyre who takes it and she stands, now beside him. Belen takes the lead and slowly walks around the corner to their bedrooms.

"Which room do you think it's in?" he asks him softly.

"I hope it isn't in either room..." was her answer in a whisper tone. She focuses the camera in front of her to see right beside Belen. He goes to his room and opens it as Lyre looks at her door, she sees nothing wrong with it and looks at Belen's door seeing the same. Belen opens his door first and sees nothing wrong, everything was as it was from a few nights ago when all of this started. He keeps his door open and slowly turns to face his sister as she turns to her door. Belen reaches and opens her door slowly. He lets go of the nob and pushes it open lightly as the door creaks softly. Everything in her room was in its place...