these violent delights
ellie williams x fem!oc
© WANDARYEN ──── 2024

"So," Dina picked up a handful of snow and began meshing it between her gloves to create a ball. "Are you ready to talk about what happened last night?"

"Nope." I piled another snowball on top of the stack I had already created. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Oh really?"

I Ignored Dina and carefully peaked over our snow fort to catch a glimpse at the group of kids across the park. We agreed to have one snowball match with them and give each other five minutes to build our weapons.

Dina passed me some more snowballs and I carefully dropped them into the pile. "I'm not talking about it because — we're just — "

"Completely head over heels for each other?" She laughed.

"No!" I scolded her out the corner of my eyes. "Ellie and I — it's just different. We came into each other's lives at a valuable moment so we've grown dependent on each other." I started meshing and rolling together some more snow for a big ball. "Plus, we were intoxicated. I'm sure the kiss meant nothing—"

"You kissed?!" Dina squealed.

I winced at her reaction just as one of the little boys shouted out. "Ding ding! Let the match begin!"

Immediately snowballs were being thrown in our direction. "Crap!" I flinched when a snowball hit me in the shoulder. Dina started throwing them one by one fiercely and I could hear several of the kids curse and grown from getting hit.

"We're discussing this later!" Dina demanded after grabbing a handful of snowballs and running out from behind our fort.

I gathered a few in my own arms and grumbled. "Can't wait."

We started chasing each other around and snow was being thrown by every corner of the playground. At one point I knocked a kid straight on his face with one of the large snowballs I managed to create.

I hopped over him and stuck my tongue out before getting a snowball thrown at my head. "Ow, you little shit!"

The girl laughed hard and tossed another one but I managed to dodge it. The snowball went past my shoulder and the reaction gave me the perfect time to throw a snowball at her chest.

"Yo, Dina—Pyper, assignments!"

"Just give us a minute!" Dina shouted somewhere in the park.

I quickly hid back behind our fort and started making more snowballs until someone appeared behind me. "Hey, Pyper! Can I talk to you?"

A unsettling feeling formed in my gut as I glanced over my shoulder to see Ellie waiting for me on the other side of the fence.

I nodded my head and stood up, raising my hands in defense as I shouted. "Hey, guys! I'm tapping out!"

"Come on! For how long?" A little boy groaned.

I grinned wide and laughed. "Just give me a minute." I walked away from my fort and towards Ellie while wiggling my shoulders excitedly. "Like my fort? Gotta know the secret password to get in."

She lowered her head and let out a breathless laugh. "Thanks, I'll think about it. But uhm — " she raised her head and met my curious stare. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for yesterday."

"Yesterday." I tried my best to sound dumb — the small pang of guilt running deep in my chest. I didn't realize Ellie felt sorry for the kiss — which meant she regretted it. "Oh! Yeah, psst." I waved my hand around like it meant nothing to me. "Same here, no hard feelings at all. We were both pretty wasted."

"Yeah no, i'm not reading into it or anything." She scratched the back of her neck.

I pressed my lips into a thin line then playfully nudged her arm with my shoulder. I didn't want things to be awkward between us — especially with how close we were with each other.

Maybe the kiss shouldn't have happened and we could pretend like it was nothing — or that it didn't happen at all. I wouldn't want to jeopardize our friendship and what we shared. Ellie deserved someone better anyways — not someone that slept around and got labeled as a slut behind her back.

No — Ellie deserved the world and I couldn't give her that. I had no place in her universe because her life was already complicated and I didn't want to make things worse.

Suddenly one of the kids threw a snowball at Ellie and it made contact with her shoulder. I gasped with a choked laugh, covering my mouth with my hand.

"Ow!" She shouted, throwing her hands up. "I'm not even playing!"

I turned just as the little boy threw another one and it hit me right in the back. "Cause you're a chicken? Ha ha! You're a chicken!"

"Hey! Get off my dick!" I scolded him.

"Pyper," Ellie laughed while slapping my arm. "You can't say that to him."

I narrowed my eyes at her and let a moment of silence pass until nodding towards the group of kids. "Should we fuck them up?"

A wide grin slowly stretched across her face. "Yeah, we should." She hopped the face and immediately started gathering snow to create snowballs.

Dina jumped back into the game just as I collected snowballs for myself. The three of us beginning to run rampant around the playground to knock all the kids on their asses.

"You better run, you little shits!" Ellie shouted.

"You asked for it!" Dina followed.

The game must've went on for another five minutes — I completely lost count but my cheeks were beginning to grow numb just like my fingers from the cold. I could no longer make ammo as fast as I could earlier with the way Ellie and Dina were shooting them off.

"Boom, eat snow you little shit! We're winning!"

I laughed at Dina's comment. "Thought we weren't supposed to use foul language around the babies!"

"Hey! We're not babies!"

"Yeah if we're babies then you're grandmas!"

"Oh yeah?" Ellie challenged, chasing a few across from me. "Let's see about that!" She got the last kid with a snowball on the back of his head, sending him face down into the snow.

I broke out into a fit of laughter while holding my stomach. "Take that!" I pointed at the group of kids. "We win!"

The kids suddenly charged at me and tackled me to the ground. I let out a scream of fear they might actually eat me while they piled on top of me.

"Get off, you rats!" I started shoving at them and used my strength try and push them off of me.

"Get off of her, you monsters!" Ellie shouted.

Finally they gave me room to breathe just as Dina grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. I exhaled heavily and flattened my hair down with my gloves. "We got work to do, see you guys later!"

"Awww," a little girl groaned with a pout. "But we were having fun."

"Sorry squirt," I ruffled her brown hair and smiled. "Next time."

The three of us exit the playground and started trudging through the snow towards the stables. I could already see Lilith waiting for beside the others horses and Jesse.

"Jesse wants us to do the creek trails." Ellie nodded towards me then pointed at our other half. "He's gonna relieve Joel and Tommy with you Dina."

Dina looked at me and flashed a quick grin. "It's nice he assigned you guys together, you're gonna like that route."

I rolled my eyes in her direction. "He just wants some alone time with his girlfriend."

"You could say that," she laughed.

When we reached the stables, I jogged up to my horse Lilith and immediately greeted her with a kiss on the nose. "How's my big girl doing, huh?"

"She's ready as ever to get out there," the stable boy commented. "Been eager to see you all morning."

"That's my good girl," I mused with a big smile. She nodded her head in my direction like she was agreeing to my statement. I let out a soft laugh and patted her side. "Come on, girl."

I met up with Ellie, Dina, Jesse, and the others in a big group near the gates. He handed me a rifle and I swung the strap over my arm with ease.

"All right. You all know the drill." He clasped his hands together and started giving off the usual instructions for runs. "Run your routes. Mark your logbooks. Clear any infected you see, You run into anything you can't handle, you come back. Be smart about it. All right, get goin."

I saddle up on Lilith, guiding her towards Shimmer and Ellie. "Ready to go?"

"Yup," Ellie nodded then gave Shimmer a small kick. "Hyah!"