My Redneck Savior || D. D.

Anxiety Attack || 9

Alex's Point of View

It's been a while since Daryl and I have talked or interacted. Ever since I gave him my golden locket he's been more secluded. I'd thought that expressing my emotions would feel a lot better, releasing the tension that has built in my chest. That was easier said than done. I ended up ruining everything that both of us have built towards. A friendship.

Lazily and loudly, my feet drag against the loose dirt near the trailer I once shared with a redneck. Thud, thud, thud! My worn combat boots hit the metal stairs to the small mobile home. Then words I've waited to hear for a couple weeks finally get spoken.

"Hey," Daryl stands a few feet away, hand firmly dropped on his crossbow that is slung across his shoulder. Tears well up in my eyes as I realize just how much I've missed his low, growling voice. "Are ye' cryin'?"

"Uh..." My voice cracks under the pressure. This may be the only time I get to exchange words with him again and I can't believe all I can utter is a fragment of a sentence. Without my permission the dam holding back tears breaks and my eyes become waterfalls. Support beams within my legs crack and I shake uncontrollably. Don't fall. Do not fall! I tell myself to try to hide my emotions, to try to hide the anguish I'm feeling. It was too late.

In one quick motion I fell to the ground and shook. My breaths become forced and unusual. Too many thoughts flood the pieces of the brain that I've managed to maintain, too many to count. The main ones include fear, happiness, and sadness. Emotions are being stirred up that I thought I could no longer feel in a dead world. You'd think that after all the @$$& that's happened that we'd all become dull shells of the people we once were.

Daryl interrupts what I conclude is probably an anxiety attack, "Woah! Alex, are ye' okay?"

I try to speak between short, inconsistent gasps for air, "No... I... Can't... Breath!" I grip my hands around my neck in hopes of magically transferring air into my failing lungs. Helplessly, I lay in a fetal position on the cold dirt. A beautiful autumn is subsiding to a chilly winter. One of the last leaves from the bare trees falls onto my wavy brown hair. Just as the trees, I feel as if I too am losing my colors, that all the life in me is escaping. Slowly my hands fall back to my sides and I untangle the leaf from the knots in my hair. The crinkles in its brittle exterior exemplify just how soon things can come and go. Fall to winter. Birth to death. Everything has to deteriorate at sometime and fade into the dark abyss humans refer to as death. Somehow I know that this isn't the last day I will see, the final glimpse of my hero that has saved me numerous times. Barely mustering enough energy to smile, I reassure myself that this is not how I'll die. Not now. "I promise..." I whisper, my lips still trying to replenish myself with oxygen that seems to be nonexistent. I'm not sure of what I'm promising, but I just have this feeling that I need to. There has always been this thought in my mind that reminds me that there isn't a guarantee of tomorrow, so I have to promise myself today that I'll live life to the fullest. And in this moment of weakness I had a revelation.

Giving Daryl a piece of my heart wasn't a mistake. That little action helped me to live the fullest that day. With this in mind, my heavy eyelids close and my mind escapes to its dreaming state.

Then, in just the smallest whisper, I hear, "Alex..." The way the two syllables drift into the wind is soothing.

Hello! Welcome back to my story! I'm so excited to finally get back to writing. This isn't much, but it's something. So, to make up for it's short length I'll be posting another chapter soon. Stay tuned and don't forget to comment, vote, and share.

@ObsessedwithWalkers