ᗯᕼEᑎ TᕼE ᗪEᗩᗪ ᑕOᗰE ᗩᒪIᐯE [ ᴅᴀʀʏʟ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ]

- 24 -

Wet . . .

My eyes felt wet . . . tears ?

I shot up from where I lay, quickly going to wipe my eyes. At the sudden movement, a figure in the room quickly turned around to face me.

It was Daryl.

He had a worried expression on his face as he sat down on the bed in front of where I was, making the bed dip. We were in our shared room as it seemed he had been waiting for me to wake up.

As I wiped away some stray tears, a few more fell in its place. I felt as Daryl carefully cupped my face in his hands, wiping some tears away with his thumb.

"Are you ok?" He asked softly, lifting my chin so I would be looking at him. I tried to nod but my eyes kept spilling tears uncontrollably. I went to wipe my tears once again when Daryl's rough hand quickly engulfed my own.

"Your shaking" he pointed out as he held my hands tightly. I hadn't noticed my shaking figure till now, but upon realizing it I began to feel how weak my body was. I was physically unstable at the moment if not mentally and emotionally as well.

That's when I remembered the run, how I slit a man's throat, shot someone, and then seconds later—fainted.

"Daryl. . ." I whispered between sniffles. He looked down at me, waiting for me to continue.

"Daryl, I-I haven't had to killed s-someone like t-hat. . . for a-a long time. . . a-and I don't know how I-m supposed to fe-el" I stuttered out, looking down at my hands. They were shaking violently as Daryl had let them go only to pull me into a tight embrace. I quickly hugged him back, wrapping my arms around his waist as he held my shoulders.

My tears had stopped by now, but my body continued to shake as the long lasting hug began to break. As we pulled apart from each other, I looked into Daryl's eyes. Now that my eyes weren't completely glossed over I could see how Daryl's eyes looked sad. Sad about loosing Denise, about the betrayal of someone he had helped in the past killing a woman he cared about.

I quickly hugged him again, rubbing his back gently. He wrapped his arms around me once again, bringing his head down to burry into my shoulder. He hugged me tightly—tighter that the first—and it was then that I could tell just how much he truly cared about Denise, and everyone else around him. He would do anything for them even if it meant he risked his life to save them, that was the kind of person he was.

When we pulled away for the second time, Daryl gently caressed my head as he spoke.

"You should get some rest" he stated as he gently laid me back down on the bed. He pulled the covers back over me. I watched as he seemed to hesitate, then leant down to place a soft kiss on my forehead before retreating back to a standing position.

"Get some sleep" he said as I nodded. He quickly went to grab a few things from the corner of the room before he finally made his way to the door.

He stopped in the entrance, door knob in his hand as he looked back at me "I'll be back later" he said before quietly closing the door behind him. With that, I didn't hesitate to fall back asleep as the exhaustion hit me once more.

.• *Time Skip* •.

A few hours had passed when I was awaken by shuffling outside the house. Sitting up in bed I quietly walked out of the room and peaked out the window. Just outside the house was the RV trailer we had taken to Hill Top. There I saw Rick and a few others packing up the vehicle as if they were in a rush to leave.

Not knowing what was happening but wanting to be apart of it, I quickly ran back to the room and threw on some new clothes. A black pair of ripped jeans and a loose, worn out, black graphic t-shirt. I threw on my boots, grabbed my pocket knife out of habit, and grabbed my prepacked bag before finally making my way out the front door.