his hands worry around an old silver chain, the feeling cool to callous. he feels weird and out of place, sitting in clean clothes and a well conditioned house. it's like something pulled straight from a decor magazine his mother would always look at while waiting a turn in the check out. she'd never actually buy them, but he sits with that picture of her, how nice she'd always dress just to go to the store or how she'd say buying a magazine is a waste of hard earned money ─ like the candy that was purposely displayed at his eye level that he only asked for once. when he can't sit with the ache of that picture for long, he watches through the blinds alongside @sedulae as if the quiet will get them, but the houses of alexandria sit quiet and magazine perfect.
the house floor is littered with make shift beds, fresh linens and couch pillows. not the old and torn up sleeping bags they've patched over with duct tape. this quiet is different, sitting peaceful and pretty like life once had. “ could be a nice place, you know? ” his voice is careful, a hum like the air kicking back on. he feels it at the back of his neckline, tickles him like bad feeling that he turns around again. he counts the bodies and recites their names like a prayer. the chain tightening around his forefingers, he unwraps it to repeat again just in the opposite direction. he pauses to linger at the familiar curve of her, how she's the closest to him at the end of the rug before it breaks to hardwood. beside that is judith, carl and michonne. rick's too worried to settle, checking in other houses just given to them as if they have teeth. even he half expects it too. “ don't think we would of made it much longer out there. ”
