I did not get a fitful sleep that night.
Not that that was much of a surprise. There was a damn rogue faerie running about the prison, a deadly disease spreading through the populace, and I must have hit my nose or something because everything smelt burnt to me.
My makeshift bed for the night was an old mattress that had once belonged to Charlie, placed in the dark corner beneath the metal staircase in the cell-block common room. I could hear Rick softly breathing from his mattress where it rested a handful of feet from me, pushed up against the corner wall. Everything around me was seemingly plotting against my need for sleep.
Admittedly, I required less than the average mortal, but I still needed it. Especially after a day like today.
I slid off the mattress and climbed out from beneath the staircase, grabbing my leather jacket as I began to make my way outside.
“Where’re you goin’?” came a voice from the darkness behind me.
“Go back to sleep, Rick.”
There was a shuffling sound and then the slap of bare feet against concrete as he made a move to follow me. “I told you that I trusted you.”
That odd statement made me jerk my head to the side. I partially turned my body around to look at him with a cocked brow. “Past tense suggesting you no longer do?”
He let out a harsh breath through his throat, taking another step forward, the thin wedge of moonlight streaming in through the window striking his face, illuminating those crystal eyes of his. “Convince me that I should.”
“Because I’m remarkably charming?” I responded, turning fully to face him. My cheery grin diminished when I saw the taut line of his frown. I tried something more serious. “Because I’ve never lied to you.”
“What about that little book club of yours? Teaching the kids how to use weapons behind my back,” Rick stated simply in response. “You call that not lyin’?”
I felt the warmth drain from my face. His disappointed look struck me harder than I’d have believed. “Behind your back?” I asked incredulously, taking a step towards him with. “Rick, you made it very clear you wanted nothing to do with the council or its decisions.”
“It wasn’t a council decision, was it?” he spat, his voice rising in volume. He caught himself before he continued, realising he was growing too loud, and shook his head. When he spoke next, it was little more than a whisper. “You knew I wouldn’t like it.”
“The only thing I knew was that you wouldn’t like me teaching Carl,” I responded. “So, I didn’t.”
Rick snorted. “And what makes Carl different from the other kids and their parents?”
“You.” The answer came out too fast for my liking, so I scrambled to say something else. “I just – you don’t… No one should ever have to lose a kid, Rick. I wouldn’t even wish it on my worst enemy – and I’d wish a lot of heinous things on that fucker.” I felt the sudden emotion in my voice and swallowed back against the sharp sensation in my throat. “I had to do what I thought was… well, not the right thing, but… The thing I thought would be the smartest. To eliminate that risk.”
Rick’s face, though distorted in the dim light, seemed to soften slightly. There was a long moment before he spoke next, during which I could feel his eyes searching my expression for something. I don’t know what he found there as I’d lost control of the damn thing.
YOU ARE READING
The Monsters Among Us ➳ Daryl Dixon
Fanfiction𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘺𝘭 𝘋𝘪𝘹𝘰𝘯/𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 Not human. She was not human. They all knew it. Could almost feel it, but couldn't make sense of it. That was why they were afraid. Not because of what she used to be Before. But...
