Your knees ached as the gravel dug into your skin, but your gaze never faltered from the man who's shadow loomed over you like a black cloud. The round head of his baseball barbed wire wrapped bat stared straight back at you, as he continued to tease you all one by one with his weapon.
"My mother told me," His voice booms as it's made louder with the heavy thumping of your anxious heart.
"To pick the very best one,"
It was like listening to a ticking clock. Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock... Your heart emphasizing every second that ticked by in nothing but fear. You knew that the second that clock ran out of time, that one of you would do the same.
This man that had taunted you all for weeks, was before you now. Tall, deadly, and everything nightmares are made up. But worst of all, he was real. There was no escaping this. There was no way out or solution to make this better. This was no nightmare that you could soon wake from. This was real.
All dressed up in black leather swinging a bat around as if it was nothing. His sadistic smile stretched wide across his lips as he gazed down upon every single one of you, as a bug about to be squashed.
"And you," His boots crunched against the gravel, as he continued down the line.
"Are..."
You had prayed with all your might that this wouldn't be the end, but when you saw Daryl pushed out from the van, his shoulder bleeding you knew that you all were out of your depths. Neither Rick nor Daryl could save you now.
They had shot him. Your beautiful redneck, shot and pushed him down just the same as you, down the line away from you. And your love, who was always a pillar of strength and bravery, was pale and pained. He was fading before your eyes and it felt as though they had shot the bullet straight through you instead of him. His pain would forever be yours, and your pain would forever be his.
"It." Negan's voice comes to a hault, and looking forward that wooden bat is staring back at you once more. Claiming it's victim and sealing your fate.
Your mouth feels dry, and your chest constricts making your last full breaths feel ragid and hard. Your heart beats with a rhythm that worries you, but looking up at the monster before you, you don't back down. If it is truly your time, you will go down strong. For you have to be strong... For Daryl.
"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start." Still he grins, his eyes connecting with yours and you know that it's over. This is the end of the line for you in this world.
"You can breathe," Negan says, and although your head beats painfully with the rhythm of your pulsing heart, your thoughts float away from the man before you to the man down the line. The man you love. The man you would and will give your life for. Daryl Dixon. "You can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that."
The initial pain is indescribable. There are no words to describe what the searing, burning, throbbing, aching, horror your body feels. You can register the feel of hot liquid running down the side of your face, and you know what the sticky warm substance is.
Your head and your body feels as though it is swaying to and fro, and your ears listen to the alternating sound of complete and utter silence, and the screams of the man whose voice you will forever recognize.
Swallowing a shakey breath, your eyes that flutter to stay open stray to gaze at the people around you. And it's the pain of seeing their shocked faces and their horrified gasps, with silent tears falling from their eyes that overtakes your body. Even though your vision feels foggy and as if you stood behind a sheet of glass, their expressions are crystal clear. Their mournful gazes cutting into your heart and burning against your skin.
As the second blow hits you, the dim light and the grey gravel around you suddenly fades, and everything is black and white. You stand in the middle of a memory. Standing amongst tall lush trees that tower above you. The sun shining through the grey branches, and even in the colorless forest, shadows are casted against the ground.
Daryl is there, looking to you with that small shy proud smile playing at his lips like the time he taught you to hunt in the woods with his crossbow.
The trees blend into prison bars and he's there again, a low rumble escaping past his lips. The few times you got him to laugh, those rarities were beautiful to you. His laughter and small ounce of happiness was beautiful.
The silver sparkling bars fade into a shimmering sun falling upon the horizon as you stand in the fields of Hershel's farmhouse. And although you are able to remember all the wonderful colors of his farm, it all falls grey.
Watching the man you had grown to love from a far. The times he didn't know you were watching him were some of your favorites. Seeing him on his own, dressed in those stitched on angel wings as he roamed the stretch of land, you were able to study him. Falling for him day and day gone by.
The falling sun turns to the bright moon, the night shadowing over you as you stand in his tent put up away from everyone else on the farm. And this moment, you will forever remember. The moment that the two of you found each other. Putting away the fear of accepting what you both felt, and embracing it instead.
The fabric of the tent turns to pale white, and you are in the bedroom of the house back in Alexandria. His arms holding you close and turning in his embrace, his beautiful and strong blue eyes look to you. The first beauty you saw everyday when you woke, and the last bright thing you saw before sleep found you.
There is no pain, not anymore. There is only love and comfort, only contentment and serenity. Your body feels lighter as the visions of Daryl somehow takes the pain from you, and you are left calm and at peace.
And as those flashbacks of your love faded back to reality, it were those blue eyes that were still the last bright and beautiful thing you saw before your eyes shut.
A/N: I really like this one, and I had been wanting to do another one shot revolving around this scene! ❤
