comfortably alone ○ ellie williams

winter sluggishly sits up in bed. the window barely lights the room from the dawn's light. she rubs her eye, then slouches and sighs. it was less cold in her room, but she had to use the bathroom, meaning she has to go through the cold living room to reach it. she sighed again when she gets to her door, remembering why there's furniture in front of it. she pushes it back from the door as quietly as she could, although the scraping sound was still echoing. she stills, listening for any movement on the other side of the door.

slowly opening the door, she peeks out. the windows illuminate the cabin just enough, making ellie's body shape visible. winter lightly walks out into the living room, her door creaking some. she walks closer to ellie, turning her head and leaning to her side to try and see ellie's face. ellie had drawn to blanket up over her nose, shaking while she was asleep. from her curled up position, winter assumed it got too cold but ellie hadn't asked for anything.

winter scans the parts of the room she can see, her eyes landing on two jackets slumped on the side of the blanket rack. she glances back at ellie before walking over and grabbing them, laying one on ellie's feet and the other on her lap. she was careful enough to ease them down on her, trying her hardest to not wake the other. she then tip toed over to the bathroom, shutting the door and being as quick as possible. after she washed her hands she waited to open the bathroom door, again listening for any movement.

once back in her room she got into her bed as quickly as possible, huddling in the slightly warm blankets. she tries listening for outside noises, but didn't manage to stay up too long.

loud banging woke winter up, slight deja vu from the night before. like before, her heart started racing, eyes flickering over her room.

"oh.. no no." panic rose in winter's chest when she realizes she left her bat in the kitchen last night. she tip toes to her dresser, grabbing the small pocket knife and flipping it out. she felt like crying as she notices how small it actually was, doubting it'd help her much.

"e-ellie?.. ellie?" she shouts, not very loud, but loud enough to be heard in the living room. there was no answer, just some scraping noises and a few more bumps. winter's breath picked up, chest heaving as she tries to think about any defense moves her dad taught her. she was partly worried if ellie was ok, partly wanting ellie to be there as she seems to be better at self defense, but also partly hoped she'd already left.

"ellie?!" she shouts, her voice shaking. she holds the knife in her fist as her whole body shakes with anxiety. then she heard a door open and shut and quick footsteps coming toward her room. she lets out a whimper as the door slams open, but it wasn't a random person or infected. ellie's worried eyes meet winter's wide ones. ellie looks at the knife that winter was holding, putting one hand out to motion winter to put it down.

"are you ok? are you hurt?" ellie's voice was worried, matching her facial expressions. she looks around the room and looks over winter's body as she waits for the others response. winter shakes her head, breathing slowing as she realizes ellie made the sounds.

"you didn't answer when i called out to you, i thought something bad was happening.." winter still hadn't moved her knife down from pointing at ellie. ellie glances at the knife again, relaxing her shoulders and slowly walking toward winter. she uses her stretched out arm to lightly touch winter's hand, flinching when winter did. she stares at winter, who seemed to still be unsure. again she lightly presses onto winter's hand, taking another step forward.

"i'm sorry. i thought i could fix the window before i leave, i finished right as i heard you. i'm sorry, okay? nothings wrong." ellie nods to her, a somewhat nervous glance back down at the knife in the others hand. winter's eyes flicker in between ellie's eyes, her face relaxing from her scared expression. she nods slightly, lowering her hand. she continued breathing fast though, her non-sleepy brain angry at herself for letting someone stay with her. she wanted to groan at how stupid she'd been last night.