Bleeding Souls (Daryl Dixon)

15. A Story Worth Telling

           After Sophia and the others, we held a service. It was quiet. No one wanted to talk. There were no words. How could there be?

             Everyone had split up after the funeral. Daryl had become very distant. Wouldn't talk to anyone after Sophia. It was like he shut down. "June." I hears someone say behind me. I turn around and see Rick. "Glenn and I are going into town. Hershel took off. Maggie thinks to the bar." I nodded my head at him and walked away. It wasn't long until I heard him running back after me.

          I felt him grab my shoulder and turn me to face him. "I understand you are upset. Please don't be mad at me." he pleads with me. I look at him and shake my head. "Then kill Shane." I say to him. He looks at me with wide eyes. "You want me to no be upset... kill him." I say to him. He shakes his head and looks around to make sure no one was listening. "I can't kill him, June. I can't." I smile at him and nod my head. "So... if Daryl's dad was in front of you, you're telling me you wouldn't be able to kill him?" I ask him. When he doesn't answer, I nod my head and walk off.

           Night time had come and Rick and Glenn weren't back yet. I looked off into the distance and saw a flame. I squinted my eyes and I was confused. "Who the hell is out there?" I ask myself quietly. "Daryl." someone says to me. I look over and see Carol. "He blames himself for Sophia. Feels like he failed the group and her." she says to me before walking away. I look back out into the distance and take a deep breath. I get up off my log and start heading towards him.

           As I got closer, I couldn't see Daryl. Maybe he was off in the woods. Once I stepped into his camp, I looked around and chuckled at the sight of the walker ears hanging from a wire he had made. "You are definitely different, Dixon." I say to myself. I looked down at the ground and saw that his flame was getting weak. I looked around and grabbed a few little sticks. I bent down and started throwing some into the fire.

           "The hell you doing here?" I hear a rough voice say behind me. I turn around quickly and see that it was Daryl. I let out a sigh and put my heart against my chest. I could feel it going a thousand miles a second. "You really have to scare me like that? Can't just I don't know, not scare me?" I ask him. He throws some stick on the ground and looks at me. "Is there anyway I wouldn't have scared you?" he asks me. I look at him for a moment and nod my head. "Guess you got me on that one." I say to him.

          "I ask what the hell you doing here?" he asks me as he walks by me. I turn around to face the way he was and sighed. "Please don't do this... don't distance yourself from us. We're your family. We all are. Well... maybe not Shane, but the rest of us are." I say to him. He turns around and looks at me. I could see he was getting angry, so I decided to continue to talk to try and calm him down.

          "When I was a little girl, like eight or nine years old. I was out playing with the neighbor. She was around my age and we both loved animals. I can't remember her name, but I just remember we both loved animals. We both had dreams of becoming a veterinarian. Then when we heard that the vet sometimes had to kill the animals, we couldn't stomach it. So, one day, while we were out playing. We were in the woods and we came across a dog. She was hurt, her leg was caught in a trap. So we got her out and she was limping. We knew she recently had puppies, due to her appearance. This dog, this mother dog, that was hurt, made sure that me and the neighbor followed her." I said to Daryl. His face had calmed a bit, and he was looking at me. I can tell he was listening to me talk just by his eyes.

           "We walked for ten minutes or so, and we came across her den. We looked inside and saw five puppies. They were so adorable. When the mom came into the den, they were so happy and excited. They immediately wanted food, so she laid down and fed them. We sat there and watched for a bit, just admiring this mother dog. She was hurt and tired... and yet, making sure she got back to her babies was her priority." I said. I took at deep breath and looked into his eyes and smiled.