Rickyl | The Ghost Of You | The Walking Dead

{2}

Daryl sighed as he sat down, away from the group as the fire crackled in front of him. He wrapped his arms around himself, watching the fire as the flames stayed at a content height.

He looked around his group and saw everyone happy, everyone but him..

He felt this hole in his heart grow... The longing to be with his brother again aching, clawing, tearing at his heart...

Tears grew in his eyes and he looked away and back to the fire. Still the fire stayed at its content height and the crackling was rather soothing... He closed his eyes and continued to listen to it as memories flooded back...

Daryl giggled as he ran away from his big brother. He was only 7 now and his brother was 10. Merle playfully chased after him as daryl kept running, giggling happily.

"Boys! Dinner!" Their mother called.

"Aww.." Daryl frowned as he stopped running.

"Hey we can play after okay? We can go on a bike ride, yeah?" He said smiling.

"Yeah!" Daryl said happily. "Race you inside!" He said giggling and ran towards the house.

"Hey!" Merle laughed and chased after him.

Daryl smiled as he sat at the table happily beside his big brother. "Is papa gonna join us?" He asked.

Merle frowned and exchanged a glance with his mother. Daryl looked in between them confused...

"Not tonight, honey.." His mother said, sighing.

"Is he stuck at work again..?" He asked.

"..Yeah.." Merle answered. 'With other girls...' he mumbled under his breath but Daryl caught it. Though he didn't say anything...

He didn't understand what his brother said but looked down to the steak in front of him and smiled as he started to cut at it happily.

After dinner Merle had taken Daryl on a bike ride with some friends. He was peddling as fast as he could but couldn't catch up to the older boys. "Ah- Merle..! Wait up..!" He cried out but it seems his brother didn't hear him as he frowned and stopped his bike. He got off and let it fall, sitting on the side of the road with tears in his eyes as he hugged his knees to his chest. It was about 10 or 15 minutes before Merle came back.

"Baby brother..? What's wrong?" He got off and went to Daryl.

"I asked you to wait up and you didn't...." Daryl said and sniffled.

"Hey.. I'm sorry I didn't hear you.."'Merle said hugging his little brother. "I didn't mean to ignore you.."

"Its okay... can we go home...?" He said sniffling.

"Of course." Merle said smiling.

They got on their bikes and headed back home. When Daryl turned the corner onto his street bright lights hit his eyes and he gasped. His house was on fire... he got off his bike and ran towards the house.

"Baby brother-!" Merle ran after him, catching him before he could run past the fire fighters.

"No- MAMA!!!" He screamed trying to get our of Merels arms and save his mother..

"Baby brother stop..! We were too late..." he said frowning.

Daryl stared at the raging fire as fire fighters tried to put it out. He was breathing heavily as tears streamed down his face. The cracking of the fire, the sound of people yelling and gasping, the fire fighters trying to put it out..

Everything seemed like it was spinning...

Daryl turned and hugged onto Merle, crying into his chest. Merle frowned and rubbed his back. "I'm sorry Daryl..."

"Daryl...."

"Daryl..!"

"DARYL!"

Daryl gasped and jumped, looking around confused. Dale, Carl, and Rick were by his side.

"Daryl are you okay...?" Rick asked.

"You were staring at the fire for a good 30 minutes..." Dale added.

"Oh uh... yeah... yeah I'm fine... I guess I just zoned out.." he admitted.

"Well everyone's heading to bed.. we just wanted to tell you.." He said.

Daryl nodded and headed to the RV where he slept and climbed in, his flash back still in his head as he crawled onto the couch and curled up, laying his head down.

With a sigh, he closed his eyes and soon fell asleep...

*Sorry this is another short chapter guys aah.. :( I'm trying to make them long I promise! It's just kinda hard rn. The other Rickyl book I have up is more of a priority and that's why I'm doing longer chapters there and not here rn. But I'll try and do 600-1000+ words on these chapters too! I'm sorry again aah ;-;! -Dixon*