Daryl Dixon was like a spring lily in May; one day he was there. Fully bloomed and beautiful, then the next he was gone. The faint feels of warmth the beauty brought had vanished as if they were never there.
He didn't even bother to tell you himself; come back on his own and explain it to you. You knew even if he did that you would still be hurt and heartbroken. But you wonder if the only reason he didn't come back to tell you face to face, was because he couldn't risk you wanting to follow after him.
If that's what he feared; he would've been right to be so. You would go to the ends of the earth for that man, and nothing could change that. Not anger, not hurt, not pain.
"You okay?" You hear Beth's soft voice asks. Leaning into the cell you sit in.
Clearing your throat, you wipe the tear trickling down your face away. Hoping that she hadn't seen it, but you knew better.
"I'm fine." You croak, your throat causing your words to come out much more vulnerable than you had hoped for them to.
"He'll be back," Beth tells you, certainty lacing her words. "I know he will be."
Lifting your head, you look over at her. The way the light shinning in glosses over her pale blonde hair. Almost making it look as if her sense of hope, and faith glows off her.
"How can you be so sure?" You find yourself asking her.
Your mind had driven you insane all night; replaying the last things you said to him. What his last words to you were. The last moment you had, just the two of you.
"Because home is where the heart is," Beth smiles softly, beginning to back out of the cell. "and as long as he ain't with you... He ain't ever gonna be home."
Her words stuck as she went off to probably care for baby Judith, the way they sounded paired with her voice replaying over and over in your head.
The rest of the morning dragged on, every chore felt harder and more strenious than it had the day before. And every conversation; long or short, felt agonizing.
"Can't keep doin this to yourself." Maggie says to you, as you stand outside beside her. Shielding your eyes from the high burning afternoon Sun.
"Ain't doin nothin." You insist.
"That's bullshit," Maggie snaps making your head look quickly over at her. "you know it and I know it."
"Yeah? Then tell me what I'm doin, if I can't see it?" You say to get, ruder than you had intended.
Maggie simply shakes her head, "You think if you coulda seen him in that moment, when he made his choice, that you coulda made him stay."
"But you weren't there. You didn't see the determination and the sureness in things he said."
Taking a deep breath, you look down at your feet.
"I'm not sayin it was easy for him, I saw it in his eyes that it wasn't. Leavin you, but--"
"He did." You cut her off, looking at her again. Watching her shoulder length hair blow in the soft breeze, and her thumb play with the wedding ring on her left finger.
"He left Maggie, he just--"
You're cut off this time by the sound of the fences jingling together and the shouts of Rick in the fields.
Running over, starting to control the walkers breaking through with Maggie you can hear the shots of Rick's gun. And soon, the shots of more guns.
You don't know how long it all lasts, each stab to their skull repeating again with a different one. It isn't till Maggie stops that you look away from where you both stand.
