The Devils Eyes •Daryl Dixon•

T H I R T Y - E I G H T : D A D

            

"What is dad?

A Dad is someone who wants to catch you before you fall,

But instead picks up, brushes you off,

And lets your try again. A Dad is someone

Who wants to keep you from making mistakes,

But instead lets you find your own way

Even though his heart breaks in silence when you get hurt.

A dad is someone who holds you when you cry,

Scold you when you break the rules,

Shines with pride when you succeed,

And has faith in you even when you fail..."

-       Unknown

"My story isn't as good as yours," he shook his head.

I shrugged. "But tell me. How'd you end up at Woodbury?"

He nodded giving me a smile.

"I guess it is fair."

"It is," I smirked and leaned back on the frame.

"Well, the day I got separated from you, I went back the next day, hoping to find a trace of you. I even kept my eyes peeled for Kenny. But you weren't there, so I left and continued to do this for another week. But by then I realized that if you were alive, you'd be long gone from that area."

"I went back," I scrunched up my eyebrows. "I went back to try and find you."

"Well I was on my own for a while, until about three months later when I ran into another group and things got heated. They tied me up, tried to find out if I had a group, but I wasn't with anyone. They forced me to stay there, and they gave me this," he grimaced, pulling up his sleeve revealing the mark of a hot metal rod. "I tried to escape."

"Lee," I gasped, not wanting to imagine what my dad went through.

"It's fine," he pushed down his sleeve. "Anyways, not everything lasts, and after another month a herd came through and I managed to escape, barely escaping with my life. A walker almost got me. And then I was back to square one, on my own, searching for you and Kenny."

"Then, I met the Governor. He was alone, he wasn't with anyone at the time and we teamed up, we helped each other."

It bothered me, my favorite person with my worst enemy together?

"I was looking for you with his help, all he knew was that I was looking for my daughter, he was just looking for a place to stay. He was with this little girl," he scrunched up his eyebrows, trying to remember her name.

"Penny," I said. His head snapped up to me. "The Governor rubbed it in my face how he basically had a perfect life after I had run away."

"Ah," he nodded. "Well, we eventually came across Woodbury, it was barely beginning, the walls were still being built. We camped there, and some walkers broke in that night, killing Penny. Something inside him snapped that day, and he killed the previous leader in cold blood."

"It bothered me that he did that, but I stayed anyways, wanting to have a safe place for you for when I would find you. After a while, he slowly turned into a different person, killing innocent people on runs, or lying to them and running off to kill their group members. Then he turned on me, and tried to test me."