Future Ghosts • TWD

Epilogue.

Rosie was buried in Alexandria, her place marked by a wooden grave and surrounded by flowers- particularly roses, but some others thrown in as well. She was buried in Fraser's jacket, but Daryl had taken her jewelry before she was laid to rest.

Around his wrist, he wore the bracelet Carl had once given Rosie. The one she went out looking for before being shot in the shoulder by one of the Saviors.

Lydia was devastated when their group returned to Alexandria with both Rosie and Negan missing. Negan had left the group. He couldn't make the journey back, knowing that Rosie was dead in the back of the wagon. So he left. He couldn't see a point in staying anymore, anyway.

Despite his hatred for Negan, Daryl understood that Rosie meant a lot to Negan, too. And so did Fraser. So, before Negan had split off from the group to go on his own, Daryl had taken the lapis necklace off of Rosie and silently passed it to Negan. Negan remembered Rosie wearing the necklace at Fraser's funeral, and it struck a hole through his heart to be wearing it himself. He had failed both of those kids. He could have done more, but he didn't. And that thought- that guilt- was what drove him to leave the group. He couldn't be with them and wake up every morning, knowing that Rosie wouldn't be there anymore.

Along with Negan, Lydia was torn apart on the inside. Rosie had helped her before she even realized she was helping her. She helped her figure out who she was and she helped her deal with the traumas that came with growing up under the guardianship of an abusive parent. Rosie had done so much for her, and now, like Henry, she was gone. But Lydia would keep her in heart every day, from that point on. She would water the flowers around Rosie's grave whenever the rain didn't give them enough. She would take care of her, even though she wasn't there anymore. She was given the velociraptor tooth fossil necklace that Daryl had brought back from the museum for Rosie all those years ago, and she held it dearly to her heart.

When Ian returned to Alexandria, he got to have Rosie's small velociraptor toy that she had always kept in her pocket. After searching a craft store, he was able to find little hooks and some string. He stuck the hook into the back of the dinosaur toy and threaded the string through it, turning it into a necklace to wear. That way, he wouldn't lose it.

However, he was only able to do all that after he returned from his trip to the woods to search for Liam. None of them had ever seen him so angry. They tried to get him to stop and to stay back home where it was safe, but he wouldn't listen. He had his mind set on finding and killing Liam. He searched for him for weeks. He thought about Rosie, tracking a rabbit or a deer in the woods. Except he wasn't tracking for food. He was tracking to kill.

After weeks of searching, Ian still wasn't able to find Liam. He was set on it, though, so when everyone else moved on, he kept searching. He would search for Liam until he found him, and there was no changing his mind on that, no matter how hard anyone tried.

Daryl didn't know how he was supposed to move on, either. Every day, he would wake up and remember that his baby girl was dead. He wouldn't see her downstairs, sitting at the kitchen table, eating her breakfast. She would never again tell him some random fact about dinosaurs that he didn't ask for. He would never hug her or kiss her again. She was gone. And it hurt. But it couldn't be changed.

On the days when he missed her so badly it tore through his chest, ripping his heart to shreds, he would go through her sketchbooks and look at all of her drawings. There were pieces of her in those drawings and he could hear her voice in his head when he looked at them, remembering her telling him about them after drawing them. Her sweet, little southern accent would echo around in his head all day, like a constant, neverending soundtrack to his life.

He would look up at the stars at night and hear Rosie telling him the names of the ones she knew. He could hear her asking him about Orion, back in their camp.

"He can hunt any animal, no matter what."

"He is like you. Maybe it's s'posed to be a shield, but it should be a crossbow instead. You're prob'ly a better hunter, anyway. 'Cause you got a crossbow, and ya never miss."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. They shoulda' called it Daryl."

God, he just wanted to hold her again.

Dog missed her, too. He'd go sniffing around her bedroom some days, wondering where she went. Sometimes Daryl would just sit in her bedroom, too. He'd take some of her little dinosaur figurines off of her dresser and keep them in his pockets. He'd try to remember what Rosie had said about them. He'd smile, thinking about how she would always use him as a metric for how big dinosaurs were. She would tell him how many Daryl's tall the parasaurolophus was and how many Daryl's were as heavy as the parasaurolophus.

She was just the sweetest girl that had ever walked the Earth and all he wanted was to be with her again. He wanted her to tease him about liking Connie and to complain when he told her to watch her mouth. He just wanted her again, but she was gone.

He wished on every last star that she forgave him for what he did. Deep in his heart, he knew she forgave him, though, just by how tightly she squeezed him when she hugged him again. And how afraid she was to go. All she wanted for a little while was to join Fraser in the afterlife, but in the end, she had healed enough to want to stay. If only she could have.

But he helped Daryl to know that she was with her brother now, safe and happy in the afterlife.

Daryl got another tattoo. On his wrist was her scratchy, messy signature, which she left at the bottom left of each of her drawings. ROSIE DIXON.

Even if she was gone, Daryl could still feel her in the beat of his heart and in the air he breathed.

Rosie was in the beats of Daryl and Ian's hearts when they left their community to go searching for the people they were set on finding. One searching for his brother, and the other searching for his best friend's killer.

🦖🦕🦖🦕

Hey guys...

I know you're all mad at me, but this is how Future Ghosts was always going to end. My whole point in introducing Fraser was for Rosie to get back to him in the end.

I'm sure you all hate Liam's guts at this point, but this unfortunately won't be the last you hear of him (Liam apologists < Liam understanders). If you want to see where these characters go after Rosie's death, read my Daryl Dixon Spinoff book "The Pure and the Damned"! You'll see/hear more of Daryl, Ian, and Liam in that book. More chapters of it will be posted soon!

I'm sorry if you're unsatisfied with this ending, but it's how I want it to be. Rosie is at peace with Fraser on the beach.

Some people have told me they feel like this ending was meaningless, but I don't think it is. Liam was forced to deal with his trauma by himself, leading him down the wrong path, while Rosie was able to find people to help her deal with her trauma. Liam was hurting and he didn't have any help, and he was so focused on getting revenge that he destroyed things he never intended to. What I'm getting at is that leaving people to deal with things on their own can make them behave in a way they wouldn't have otherwise. Help others whenever you can and treat people with kindness.

Ok that's enough yappin thanks for reading :)