Somewhere Only We Know || Daryl Dixon AU

Family Departures

"The most beautiful part is, I wasn't even looking when I found you."

— Autumn, I Wasn't Even Looking When I Found You

Elizabeth Mayors couldn't stop staring at what was to be her new home. The blue trailer was in terrible shape— windows broke, bottles strewn about on the yard, weeds took over the garden. It was so different from her home in Longville. There she felt at home.

This... this felt like hell.

Hell. Her daddy used that word a lot.

Elizabeth turned away from the trailer and pulled her bag out of the beat up truck, tossing it over her shoulders completely unsure of what she was supposed to do. Her daddy, Joe, still sat in the driver seat, a foggy look in his brown eyes. She knew he had to be drunk.

He was beginning to do that more often, Elizabeth realized. Ever since her momma died a few months ago, he had lost himself.

Cancer destroys everything, he had told Elizabeth the night her momma passed. She believed it. God, she knew the moment her momma lost her blond hair and the light in her eyes that cancer would ruin everything.

Damn you cancer.

Another word she heard daddy use often.

While she took after her daddy's words and actions, Elizabeth was just a little girl. She didn't understand that cancer wasn't some monster under the bed just yet, or that her momma wasn't coming back–

Elizabeth glanced back at the trailer, a frown taking over her features. What she did know was that there wasn't an ounce of her momma in this home.

Deciding to leave her dad in the truck and explore by herself, Elizabeth nervously walked towards the front porch.

Here, there were no lively flowers momma liked to grow, or their handprints painted on the wood of the porch. No, those handprints no longer existed in this world. Daddy painted over those when he decided to sell the house.

Elizabeth begged him not to (even at eight years old she knew that was one of the few things she thought she could save from his wrath) but Joe wasn't known for listening.

For some reason, actually stepping inside the house was hard. Elizabeth frowned even more, her lip quivering just slightly as she pushed herself further not wanting her daddy to see her scared.

He was never like momma. Instead of holding her and comforting her like momma did... he took a much different approach.

And while Elizabeth didn't know it, the kid across the street knew exactly how she felt.

Speaking of which, Daryl Dixon couldn't understand who in their right mind would move to this shitshow of a town. Honestly, it was awful here— just the neighborhood by itself was full of no-good rednecks with nothing better to do but cause trouble. The rest of the town was like that too– unless they were rich and could afford a nice life, but there wasn't very many people like that in this town.

He would know after all. When you spend a lot of time outside, studying what's around you, you pick up on these things. And while Daryl just turned nine today, he knew exactly what to look for.

Like right now. Here he sat, on the creaky porch swing at his home, watching the new people move into their home. A man and a girl. The man he had seen before—actually his dad was already buddies with him— but the girl was new.

She was tiny, maybe around the same size as him, and she had long gold locks that ran down her back, ruffled like they hadn't been brushed in a couple days. Daryl realized the girl must be the same age as him.