Haunted | Daryl Dixon

16. Pretty

"Evelyn, we have to talk."

She knew that voice. It was the one that had once upon a time appeared in her dreams. Now, it only stalked through her nighnames.

Immediately, she flinched away from the hand that had reached out and rested on her shoulder, her body jerking back in one, stumbling motion.

Daryl's eyes widened momentarily, hurt flashing through them as his hand was left lying limply in the air where it had previously been resting.

What else would she have done, though? Lean into his touch? Welcome it like an old friend?

Daniel's eyes widened as he was pulled back a bit by Evelyn's sudden movement, though he didn't remove his arm from her waist.

Dixon's eyes flitted down to the arm that Daniel had wrapped around Evelyn and a muscle in his jaw ticked, before looking back up at Evelyn, an unreadable look resting in those blue eyes of his.

Back when they were teenagers, the woman could read every emotion that played on Daryl's face simply by glancing over at him. Now though, she could barely see past the surface.

Words were lost upon her tongue once more, leaving Daniel to be the one of the two of them to speak once more.

"Don't touch her," His voice was low, a clear warning in it and his hard gaze was trained on the man before them.

Daryl didn't even acknowledge the man, "Evelyn," He begged instead, eyes frantically searching her face.

She flinched again. She didn't like the sound of her name on his lips, she decided. It was almost all she had heard from him since arriving at the prison. It sent an uncomfortable prickle down her spine every time she heard it.

"I have nothing to say to you,"

The words came out so soft, barely even a whisper. And it appeared that all three of the people standing there hadn't expected them to be said at all, because even Evelyn blinked in surprise after having said it.

This time, it was Daryl that flinched back, eyes squeezing shut in a way that reminded her all too well of the day of high school graduation.

That was it. Those were the first words Evelyn Wright had spoken to Daryl Dixon since she said goodbye to him all those years ago. Since she had walked away for what she thought had been the first and last time.

But now, she wanted nothing more than to get away from this conversation. Away from him.

"Wait, I-" Daryl genuinely looked lost, even slightly panicked, as the words tumbled out of his mouth.

"You heard her." Daniel was still speaking in that deadly calm tone of his, it unnerved Evelyn that just seconds ago the man had been happily chatting her ear off about the prison, "She doesn't want to talk to you."

The glare that Daryl sent Daniel would've sent lesser men to their knees.

"Mind yer own fucking business," He snapped, clearly having reached his breaking point when it came to Hayes.

The sense of elder sister type protectiveness Evelyn felt over Daniel kicked in all at once, and she detached herself from his hold to step in front of him.

"Don't you dare talk to him like that." She snarled, staring straight into Daryl's eyes with pure hatred and disgust.

He blinked down at her once, almost as if he couldn't recognize the woman standing in front of him.

Good.

The girl he used to know was foolishly and hopelessly in love with him, ready to follow him to the ends of the earth if he desired.