𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. XXVI - 《defying gravity》

oOo

Diana was rudely awoken from her sleep by a kick to the shin. By good luck, too. Dream-girl was back and it seemed to Diana that her subconscious was trying to make her go absolutely crazy.

She'd dreamt of a night spent on top of a tree, evading walkers down below. Her heart had been racing and her hands had trembled with a tingle Diana recognized.

She had been mumbling something almost inaudible, over and over, like a mantra. Diana caught her faint whisper right before waking up. I'm real, Diana, I'm real.

Diana had no idea what to make of it. She'd already established that these were no normal dreams, but was she willing to toe across the line as to say that they were real? That 'dream-girl' was real? Out there somewhere, and somehow Diana was picking up on her memories?

It was the kind of absurd she relished to believe in. But what if instead of that she really was just going crazy?

Diana sat up groggily, hands to her pounding head, making the ache in her shin completely vanish. She glared up at the culprit of the kick, Alice, and offered her a pained sneer and a waved dismissal.

Alice scoffed at her sister. She crossed her arms and lifted one shoulder casually. "Okay, thought you'd wanna know that Daryl's back and shit's pretty much going down, but I guess you don't care about that, huh?"

All grogginess fell away. Diana wiped her face with her hands, rubbing away the stickiness of her eyes. She struggled to entangle her legs from her bedding and got up. She didn't waste time to change out of her sleeping clothes nor redo her messy droopy half-ponytail. She ran barefoot past a snickering Alice.

It was easy to follow the sounds of the scuffle and see where the most people had aggregated. Diana ran up to Dale's RV, a sharp rock that caused pain to shoot up her bare foot. She called out to the spectators, demanding them to step aside as she limped past them.

For some reason, they easily obeyed.

She saw Shane putting Daryl in a choke hold. Holding him down while the man struggled to free himself.

She saw red. Rage pooled in her lower belly and her legs propelled her forward. "Hey! Hey!" she called out and punched Shane on the side. "Let go of him, Officer Dum-Dum, you hear me?" He flinched away and glared up at her, but didn't lose his hold.

Her next instinct was to bite him, but Rick grabbed her before her snapping jaw could get anywhere near Shane's flesh. He lifted her away with some difficulty, as she kicked the air and embedded her fingernails into his forearms.

Diana contorted herself and elbowed him on the side of the head, freeing herself. Her stomach started turning at the almost lost memory of sweaty hands holding her and the terrible thought of what could've been. She turned to Rick and pointed a finger at him. "Don't ever touch me without my permission." It was out of place but she needed that to be established.

Rick lifted his hands in surrender and nodded his agreement.

Diana could see the red spot on the side of his temple that she'd hit. Soon, a bruise would take its place. She felt sorry underneath it all. It wasn't her job to do harm to the people under her care.

In that breath of a moment, she found clarity. She must've looked like a wild thing, feet bare and bloody, tousled hair, all that was left was baring her teeth.

She saw her mom and dad stalk up from the crowd, her dad seemingly on a warpath towards Rick. Diana raised her hand to him and shook her head fiercely. Irene held Sam back by the arm and said something to him that called him off but still had him at the edge of his figurative seat.