An Open Letter To Fans Of "The Walking Dead"

Disclaimer: SPOILERS.

It is 4 a.m. on October 24, 2016. It has been seven hours since the first episode of the seventh season of The Walking Dead premiered. And the world is not okay.

We're all in shock. Traumatized, even. I was shaking the whole time I was watching the episode – just incessantly shaking for an hour straight. (I guess that was what AMC was going for – making us feel all the emotions the characters felt, or whatever.) The worst part is, we just can’t get the images of Glenn and Abraham’s smashed in heads out of our minds.

As of right now on Twitter, there are more than 3 million people tweeting about the horrific things that happened tonight. We feel like we have lost two family members = Glenn and Abraham have meant so much to us throughout the years, and we’ve watched their stories unfold on screen. To say we're upset is an understatement. But for many of us, or at least me, it wasn’t so much the deaths themselves as it was the horrific brutality with which they were shown. It was something I wouldn't even expect to see on the battlefield, much less on TV. They were killed with a baseball bat covered in barbed wire, for Pete's sake.

You may be shocked AMC would let something like that be aired, or maybe you're just too shaken up to even think of such things right now. As soon as I saw Abraham and then Glenn lying on the ground with their heads smashed into pieces, I knew this was something that would unnerve many of us. (Not to mention Glenn's dying words to Maggie, or the dream sequence of the feast at the end. Haven't we already suffered enough, Scott Gimple?!) I couldn't help but think this was too far, even for a show about the various post-apocalyptic horrors. I even had a crazy thought pass through my mind – “How can I keep watching the show after this?” If all it does is keep me awake at night, string me along with characters I grow to know and love, and then brutally kill them off in a way that makes me question if it was even acceptable to show on TV – why would I do that to myself? Of course, about five seconds later, I knew I would never be able to actually just stop watching altogether, and I accepted my fate to be eternally mortified and eternally sobbing.

If this has sounded like word vomit, it’s because it is. I still can’t wrap my head around what I’ve seen, and the funny thing is (if such a thing is possible) - it’s not even real. No matter what you’re thinking, I want you to know that the horror you feel right now…well, sorry, but it won’t be gone by next week. I’m guessing this kind of stuff will continue throughout the whole season, and it’s up to you to decide if you’re down for that. You’ll have to deal with being sick to your stomach, emotionally scarred, and downright disgusted for weeks on end. But, you always have to remember that this is only fiction – even though the characters feel like real people that you’ve known for years, they’re not. And, since they're not real, that means nothing bad has ever happened to them, or will. That has to be some comfort…right…?

But, really, I want you to know that millions of other people are mourning the loss of these beloved characters with you, and we’ll all be okay. Gone, but never forgotten. RIP Glenn and Abraham - you deserved so much better.

Also, screw you, Negan.