The Day the World Ended

Chapter 16

Daryl came in twenty minutes later, breathing heavily and red. I pretended to ignore his presence, and continued reading with Lila laying beside me. He walked straight over to me, and grabbed my book. I looked up at him and saw the true anger. He was scary.

He put my book down on the floor beside him and grabbed my hands, pulling me towards him. "I am listening, Ash. I am. Now, you need to listen."

I yanked my hands out of his and stared at him angrily, "You're crazy! I dont know who you are anymore! You're going to pick me over the walker!"

He sighed and looked down at the floor, supposably trying to keep his anger down. "No. I'm not. I've made a decision not to get rid of the walker."

I grew red, "You need to..."

"Stop," he said, cutting me off, "Let me finish. I've decided to tie him up outside instead. But we aren't letting him go."

I growled to myself, what was with him and keeping this walker? I know it could help, but he could just go out and get another one!

He grabbed my hands again, the blood from his knuckles getting my hands bloody as well, "Is that good enough for you? Because that's the best I have."

I sighed, "Yea, whatever Cole."

"Call me Daryl, babe."

The way he said that actually scared me. I've never seen or heard him so mad before, then again, I did meet him not too long ago. "A... alright, Daryl."

He let go of my hands and his eyes softened, "Now what's wrong?"

I swallowed, "You're kind've scaring me. You're being so different."

He nodded, "Yea, I can feel that as well. But you getting pissed off at me and calling me Cole all the time doesn't help."

"But, you don't understand..."

"No, you don't understand. It doesn't have a jaw or arms, so they can't hurt anyone."

"But..."

"No buts. Just stop," he sat on the couch beside me and threw an arm around me, "I love you."

"I love you too."

We sat there for a long time, just staring at the wall in silence. The blood had dried on my hands but Daryl's knuckles were still bleeding. I looked at them and then back at him. He looked at me and then at his knuckles. I stood up and grabbed a bottle of water from my bag, and told Daryl to stand up. He groaned and tried to get out of it but I made him by pulling on his hands. He stood and walked over to the garbage can, and I gently poured cold water on the cuts, and used a paper towel to wipe off the blood. He gasped and bit his lip, and his knuckles tensed.

I stopped and looked at him, "Stop, baby. I need to clean these."

"It fucking hurts!"

I put a hand on his cheek and kissed him, "It'll be worse for longer if you don't let me clean it now."

He grunted, defeated by a landslide. He was really a good guy, he was very sweet until you got him pissed off. And I had to give him credit, he didn't punch me, instead, the wall got it. But then again, there was that shove in the cafeteria.

I started again and slowly asked, "So, why did you push me earlier? My hand got crushed by feet. And you didn't come help me until you took care of the walker."

He looked up at me, "Because he was going to fall on you. Didn't you see it? Someone had pushed him and I didn't want him falling on you. I'm sorry I pushed you, and I'm sorry your hand got hurt. And the reason I didn't come to you right away is because I didn't want him to get out of the Annex and into the halls where we'd lose him."