My Crossbow

Chapter 14

"Ye' want te' know what I was before all this? I was jus' driftin 'round with Merle doibn' whatever he said we were gonna be doin' tha' day. I was nobody. Nuthin'. Some redneck asshole with an even bigger asshole fer a brother." Daryl says, I give him a sympathetic look. I could tell that he misses Merle, he's not the only one either. Merle could eb an ass but he was always there for me.

"You miss him, don't you? I miss Maggie, I miss her bossing me around. I miss my big bro, Shawn. He was so annoying and over protective. And my dad, I thought I hoped he'd just live the rest of his life, you know? I thought Maggie and Glenn would have a baby and he'd get to be a grandpa. And we'd have birthdays, holidays and summer picnics. And he'd get really old. And it'd happen but it'd be quiet, it'd be okay, he'd be surrounded by people he loved." Beth laughs lightly before crying. "That's how unbelievably stupid I am." She drinks more.

"You're not stupid." I tell her. 

"That's how it was supposed te' be." Daryl tells us. 

"I wish I could just change." Beth agian.

"Ye' did."

"Not enough, not like you. It's like you were made for how things are now, same with you Megan."

"I'm jus' used te' this. Things bein' ugly, growin' up in a place like this."

"But you got away from it."

"I didn't."

"Hey!" I complain, what was the time with me then?

"You did." Beth says agin.

"Maybe ye' got te' keep on remindin' me sometimes."

"No. You can't depends on anybody for anything right. I'll be gone someday and so will Megan."

"Stop."

"I will. You're gonna be the last man standing, with Megan and your kids." Daryl gives her a look, obviously not believing her. "You are gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone Daryl Dixon." She jokes, I can't help but laugh at her.

"Hey Crossbow." I say, he looks at me. "You did escape it, I know the real you. You had me."

"Until I lost ye'. I treated ye' like shit." He reminds me, I roll my eyes.

"Not when we were together. When we broke up all you did was ignore me." 

"I shouldn't have."

"She loves you, you just didn't understand back then." Beth tells him, she's not wrong.

"Ye' ain't a happy drunk at all." He tells her.

"I'm happy, I'm just not blind. You gotta stay who you are, not who you were. Places like this, you have to put it away."

"What if ye' can't?"

"You have to or it kills you." Daryl lets go off my hand and places both of his hands onto his knees with his knife in a spare hand. "Here." She points at her heart.

"We should go inside."

"We should burn it down." She grins.

"I like her." I comment, Daryl and I stand up.

"We're gonna need more booze." Daryl tells us, we follow him back inside. We grab the alcohol and begin to pour it everywhere we could making sure we lead it all the way outside. "Ye' wanna?" Daryl offers some matches to Beth.

"Hell yeah." She sets the money that Daryl was holding on fire, he chucks it on to the trail we left. We watch as the place gets set a light, Beth sticks up her middle finger.