Light | TWD | Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

010

Darkness came quickly. Cicadas and nocturnal bugs called through the dark. It was funny to think that not too long ago, a lot of the sounds they could hear now, they couldn't hear before. Every flutter of a leaf that fell to the ground, a twig snapping somewhere in the woods, the wind whistling through the canopy; it was all so much louder now.

They had moved to the house that sat in front of the trailer, settling themselves in the screened in porch. Beth was sitting with her back up against a support beam next to the door. Daryl and Juliana sat next to each other across from Beth, with the moon illuminating each of them so they were still able to see each other.

"I get why my dad stopped drinking," Beth mused out loud, looking over at the two of them. Juliana was sitting cross-legged, picking at the frayed ends of her boot laces.

"You feel sick?" Juliana asked, glancing up for a moment.

"Nope," she paused, "I wish I could feel like this all the time. That's bad."

Juliana huffed at her comment, lowering her eyes from Beth to continue picking at her laces, "You're lucky you're a happy drunk," she mumbled.

"Yeah I'm lucky..some people can be real jerks when they drink," she teased, trying to lighten the mood between the three of them.

"Yeah, I'm a dick when I'm drunk," Daryl admitted. He had been holding his knife, and was now carving random lines into a beam in front of him lazily. It only lasted a few moments before he lowered it to his side. "Merle had this dealer," he began. Juliana lifted her head to look over at Beth. Merle had been Daryl's brother until The Governor killed him and he turned. Both she and Beth knew Merle and Daryl had a rocky relationship, but it didn't change the fact that he had lost his brother.

He continued on, "..This janky little white guy. A tweaker. One day we were over at his house, watching TV..wasn't even noon yet and we were all wasted. Merle was high. We were watchin' this show, and Merle was talkin' all this dumb stuff about it; and he wouldn't let up..Merle never could," he exhaled, "Turns out it was the tweaker's kid's favorite show, and he never sees his kids, so he felt guilty about it or somethin'. So he punches Merle in the face," Daryl made a single punching motion with a balled up fist, "So I started hittin' the tweaker, like, hard..as hard as I can. Then he pulls a gun, and sticks it right here," with his opposite hand he lifted up two fingers to the side of his head and then dropped his hand to his side, "He says, "I'm gonna kill you, bitch." So Merle pulls his gun on him. Everyone's yellin'..I'm yellin'. I thought I was dead. Over a dumb cartoon about a talkin' dog," his voice trailed off finally.

"How'd you get out of it?" Beth asked.

"The tweaker punched me in the gut..I puked. They both started laughin' and forgot all about it." He paused, picking at slivers of the boards of wood that made up the floor, "You wanna know what I was before all this?" he looked at Beth, then to Juliana and back to Beth, "I was just driftin' around with Merle...doin' whatever he said we were gonna be doin' that day." He drifted off into his own thoughts, rolling his head back to Juliana's direction again.

"I was nobody," he said, peering at her through the dark, "Nothin'. Some redneck asshole, and an even bigger asshole for a brother."

"You miss him?" Juliana asked softly. Daryl just stared back at her.

"I miss Maggie," Beth said, "I miss her bossing me around," she giggled a little at the memory, having the attention of both Daryl and Juliana by now, "I miss my big brother, Shawn. He was so annoying and overprotective." Another small laugh escaped her, but the memories were quickly washed away soon after.

"And my dad," she added, "Who do you miss?" she asked Juliana.

Shrugging, she drew her legs up to her chest, "My dog," her answer received a small smile from Beth.