Fighting for our Future {TWD Daryl Dixon}

107: It Does Matter

Daryl's POV:

I ended up leaving Mae in Glenn's arms after blowing up at her. After she told me that she was breaking up with me I had this hope that maybe I could get her back. I honestly thought that she would just need time to process what I had done and come back to me. But I never thought this would happen. 

I never thought that Mae would intentionally hurt herself because of me. She deserves the world and instead of giving it to her I crushed her. I knew she was upset with me, but I didn't understand just how badly I had actually broken her until a few hours ago.

Avalon recently asked me when Mae and I will get back together, and what I had told her was the truth. I'll never stop fighting for Mae. But now I know my chances are low of every having her again, because she loves Siddiq.

Siddiq is a good man. Even though I'm not happy about the fact that Mae chose him I must admit that she does seem happy around him. And at the end of the day I want her to be happy and safe. And it seems like with Siddiq, she is. 

I'll never stop protecting her though. She may not want me anymore, but I still want, need, and love her. She is the mother of my children and I will stop at nothing to make sure she lives.

I needed to get Mae and all of the scars on her arm out of my mind for a while, so I decided to focus on someone else's scars. The girl Lydia's scars. When I saw the scars on her arm earlier I was reminded of my own childhood and how my father used to beat me with anything that was lying around. The thing that doesn't make sense though is that a lot of the scars on her arm are fresh. How could her dad give her those if he died years ago. The answer: He didn't.

I made my way down into the cellar with a branch from a birch tree and started taking the leaves off of it when I made eye contact with the girl. When she saw the branch in my hands I could see the genuine fear running through her as she refused to move her eyes off of it.

"Ya know, some dads would come up with any excuse just to beat the shit out of their kids." I spoke to the girl as she hugged onto herself in a protective way. "Maybe they're drunk. Maybe they can't get drunk. Belts are good. But these assholes, they ain't picky. They'll use whatever's layin' around. But a good switch from a birch tree, that'll work. Yer dad sounds a lot like one of those dads. Except the part where he sang to ya when ya were scared." She now looked at me again instead of the branch in my hand. "Those dads, they like it when you're scared. Thing is, that's the only part of your story that didn't sound like bullshit." I then shook the branch in front of her. "Now, you knew exactly what this was when I walked down here. And those bruises on your arm, they come from a beatin'. So let me ask ya if your dad's dead, who gave 'em to ya?"

"My mom." She finally spoke up.

"Where is she?" I asked the girl.

"Be glad you don't know." She told me. 

"Where is she?" I asked again this time in a slightly rougher tone. "Where's your camp? Why are ya protectin' her? You're safer here."

"This place isn't real." She argued with me. "The world changed, and you're all acting like it's gonna change back. My mom walks cause that's what the dead do. It's their world and we have to live in it." She then lifted up her sleeve and showed me her scars again. "What my mom does, she does for a reason."

"Yer mom beats ya because she loves ya?" I scoffed. "That's bullshit."

"No, it isn't." She shook her head at me. "When you stay soft people die. That story I told you earlier.... The man my mom accidentally killed...." She stared me right in the eyes as she spoke. "I was stupid. I couldn't sleep so my brother took me for a walk through our shelter. We walked up to the man my mom had killed. He had a blanket over his head, and I picked it up wanting to see him. My brother put it back down and we started walking away, but when we did the dead man got up too. James, he ran away from me to protect himself. He was smart. But when I screamed for help, my dad rushed out to save me. He threw me at my mom and got himself bit in the process."