The Day the World Ended

Chapter 18

~Four Months Later~

October, a colorful time where leaves start to turn multicolored, and the sight of carved pumpkins dotted neighborhoods as far as the eye could see. Usually at this time of the year, you would be pouring bags after bags of candy in a bowl, and giving it to ghosts, mummies, witches, princesses, or anything you could possibly imagine. Where normally most people were out and about, putting up decorations, and going to parties.

We, on the other hand, were chopping off walker heads, cleaning them out, and putting a candle in them as Jack-o-Lanterns. Well, not exactly 'we' as in all of us, mostly Daryl was doing it, and enjoying it for that matter. It was kind've cute in a messed up way. Not saying that the chopping off of heads was cute, but the fact that he was actually enjoying hisself. Just him being happy made me happy.

My birthday was two months ago, and I didn't expect anything. But here came Daryl with a beautiful diamond necklace in the shape of two big hearts and one small one in the middle. I was so happy I cried, and I could tell he was happy too, because he was actually grinning a toothy grin.

I held my hand over the hearts on my chest as I walked down the road with Lila padding along beside me. Daryl's birthday was in a few days, and I wanted to get him something special. We had grown much closer and things were more serious in between us. I usually walked down the road with him on cool days like this, but I couldn't let him see his birthday present as soon as I found it.

Lila sniffed furiously on the ground and in bushes. She was a very curious dog. Her tail was up and wagging as she pulled towards the front door of a brick house.

"Lila!" I said as I stumbled to follow her, "Stop! You're hurting my arm. What's gotten into you?"

She whined and scratched on the door, then looked back at me expectingly. I sighed and kicked open the door, pausing to groan about my ankle. Lila barked and started pulling me around the house, sniffing like crazy. What was she smelling? She whined as I walked to her and unclipped her from the leash, and dashed off around the house. While she was occupied, I entered the TV room and started looking at the pictures hanging on the wall.

A group of them had elegant black frames, with gold painted designs around the edge of them. There was one with a picture of a woman. She had dark hair and green eyes. Her smile was obviously fake, because the worry lines and the bags under her eyes showed greatly even under all the makeup her face was caked in. She seemed to have a bruise on her cheek, but her smile made it seem like a lighting issue. Her hair was up in a tight bun and her pinup dress coat was a velvet red with golden buttons.

Next, above her picture, was a man. He had blonde hair that was short and swept to the side. He had blue eyes that were piercing through my gaze. His smile was forced, but his eyebrows were angled, showing the anger that he hid. His skin was pale, except for his cheeks, that were a dull red.

Beside that, a little girl's face in a frame. She wasn't smiling at all. Her cheeks were round and also covered with a lot of makeup, presumably covering her bruises too. Although, it wasn't enough to cover the dark ones like her mother's. She looked about nine or ten, and her hair was long and dark brown. The dress she was wearing was also red, but had nothing a little girl would want on it. No decorations or anything, she was wearing something a woman would for work. Her brown eyes had bags under them, with a hidden sadness.

I shook my head and looked at the last picture, beside the daughter, a boy at the age of ten or eleven, that was the worst of them all. He had makeup on also, but he had the darkest bruises, a black eye, and a busted lip that was in the process of healing. His eyes were grey, and I could only guess he was blind. He was smiling slightly, as if he had to do it or else.