Angel (Daryl Dixion x Reader)

~84~

You had already woken up multiple times already. The night filled with dreams of places you felt like you knew, but couldn't remember. Of faces, and voices of people you couldn't quite place. Twice because Daryl had woken up with a jolt as he gasped for breath. Both times he'd immediately grabbed ahold of you, mumbling your name while he pulled you so impossibly close to himself that it was heart breaking. Both times he'd been crying midst his sleep hazed state, but he wouldn't let you go so you could actually see. But you knew he had been by the quickened breath he drew, and the slight trembling of his body as he tried to stop it. He was so exhausted that he was back to sleep within minutes after, and because he was so tired, you doubted he'd remember any of it come day break. Once again, you knew you were sleeping, or rather had been trying too. Once again caught between that state of so drowsy it was almost insufferable, but unable to actually let yourself slide back into it. So you found yourself just staring up at the ceiling.

Trying to figure out why you could smell cigar smoke like one was left burning on your bedside nightstand. Your eyes slide over to the night stand yet again. Just to check once again to make sure there wasn't an orange glow from a lit cigar. There wasn't. Why would there be? Neither you nor Daryl smoked cigars, just cigarettes and the occasional joint or blunt when you could find the wild grown marijuana. All you found was the alarm clock's numbers glowing a bright red as they mockingly stare back at you. Three o'clock in the morning. You take a deep breath only to sigh it back out in utter exhaustion. Then your brows furrow when you remembered why that smokey scent was so... hauntingly familiar. It was because it smelled like the brand of finer cigars that your old friend Aberham Ford used to smoke religiously. And like his name ringing in your head for the first time in years had somehow summoned him forth, you heard his voice clear as day.

"Major." His thick Texan voice drawls out as if he'd said it, rather loudly, directly in your right ear. Your whole body jumps as you lurch to sit up. Your eyes snapping to your right and scanning for that big burly red head in the darkness of your room. You didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Nor did you hear anything else. You didn't hear anything at all actually. Only your slightly startled breathing over the slight ringing of the loud silence. Your brows furrow suddenly when you realized that your own breath was the only thing you heard. Your head snaps to the left, searching for Daryl beside you in bed like you knew he should be. As soon as your head turns to look for him in the dark, your stomach bottoms out your ass and you gasp at the overwhelming sense of falling. You tried to grab ahold of something, anything to stop the downfall tumbling. Only to feel ice cold wind ripping through your fingers and all around your body. Worst of all, you can't make a sound come from your mouth to even be able to scream out. Feeling like the unwilling plunge into darkness had stolen the voice straight from your throat. Only for your gasp to be able to scream, getting forced back out of your lungs as your body collides with solid ground. A low growl of fear mixed anger comes from your throat from the impact, but it's overshadowed by the confusion that strikes through your body and mind next. Because beneath your bare arms was literal solid ground. Grass was now held tightly between your fingers as if you were subconsciously anticipating hanging onto solid earth to avoid another fall.

Your eyes snap down, finding yourself fully clothed now, unlike you were seconds ago in bed. Your bows furrow even more in confusion in finding the standard beige shirt and camo pants the military issued you now clinging on your body. The cloths feeling almost oily, like you'd worn them for weeks without being able to wash them properly. Feeling like you'd been on the road for weeks without rest. Instinctively, your eyes snap up to the sky. Your mind immediately thinking you'd somehow slept walked outside, only to have tripped and fell over some invisible thing and awoken from your sleeping adventure. Your eyes search for the moon to be able to determine what time it was at night, considering it was still so dark out. The sky you were met with was, simply... black. No stars glittering about, and definitely no moon shining to accompany them in the void sky. No clouds at all to warrant the unsettling darkness above. Or the incredibly thick, misty fog starting to surround your body in the wake of your abrupt slamming into the ground. Slowly, your eyes fall, and you push past the eerie feeling of confusion and utter dread that entangles within your gut like heavy lead. Your eyes instead scan the foggy ass subdivision you found yourself in as you cautiously pick yourself up to stand. Your ears straining for any sounds at all within the fog. No crickets or insects singing. No nocturnal animals speaking within this darkness. No nothing. Just mind numbing silence. The kind of silence that's so loud it rings your ears as they strain for any sign of life at all. It genuinely took you a second to roughly recognize the place you were currently standing in as Alexandria.