The start

It's their world, and we have to live in it

I tried asking Lydia a few more questions but she wasn't budging. Giving her mom and people up was just not an option for her. She already told me her name that was enough for me. I sat in the chair across from the cell doors as the cellar doors open. Daryl comes down with a branch. The leaves still attached to them started falling off hitting the floor. I could her the girl scatter and stumble to her feet backing up in the corner of her cell. She was scared. Terrified at the sight of that branch.

"You know, some dads would come up with any excuse, just to beat the shit out of their kids. Maybe they're drunk. Maybe they can't get drunk. Belts are good. But these assholes, they ain't picky. They'll use whatever's layin' around. But a good switch from a birch tree. That'll work. Your dad sounds a lot like one of those dads. Except the part where he sang to you when you were scared. Those dads, they like it when you're scared. Thing is, that's the only part of your story that didn't sound like bullshit. Now, you knew exactly what this was when I walked down here. And those bruises on your arm, they come from a beating. So let me ask you, if your dad's dead, who gave 'em to you?" Daryl asked a he riped most of the leaves off to show her. I stood up and watched her reaction.

"My mom." She answered.

"Where is she?" Daryl asked.

"Be glad you don't know." She shakes her head.

"Where is she? Where's your camp? Why are you protectin' her? Huh? You're safer here." Daryl asked as he placed a hand on the cage doors to lean on.

"This place isn't real. The world changed, and you're all acting like it's gonna change back. My mom walks 'cause that's what the dead do. It's their world, and we have to live in it. And what my mom does, she does for a reason." The girl pulls her sleeve up showing us her bruised scarred arm.

"Your mom beats you because she loves you? That's bullshit." Daryl scoffed.

"No, it isn't. When you stay soft, people die." She trails off looking in the distance.

"Explain it to me then because I don't understand." I watched her as she looked back up at me.

"Mama told everyone that we needed to get the man out before he smelled. Everyone voted not too until its safe. Daddy checked up on me and told me everything was going to be ok. That night I went to look at the man. I wanted to see. The man came back as the dead. Tried to get me but my daddy got bit instead for being stupid." She told us.

"You were just a little girl. It wasn't your fault." Daryl studied her.

"It wasn't." I shook my head. I would have done the same for Jay if she was still here.

"I was stupid. I deserved to die. But my dad was soft, and now he's the one that's dead." Lydia spat back angrily. She was mad for living that story over.

"What was he supposed to do? Just watch his little girl get bit?" Daryl asked.

"When you can't bend, you break. He broke." Lydia said bsck. It was as if she was reciting it from somewhere. Like a book or person. 

"That's not true. We're making it better. We're building it back up again, changing it back." Daryl tries to tell her but she didn't believe it. She didn't want to.

"Yeah? You don't belong with these people. Maybe you used to, but not anymore. You're hard, they're soft." She told us.

"You don't know shit about me." Daryl said taken back. She was taking information this whole time about us.

"So tell me. Hey, I told you what happened to me. Tell me what happened to you. Hey! Tell me!" The girl yells as Daryl grabs my arm and pulls me up to the ground out of the cellar. We resurfaced back up as he shuts the doors. Daryl goes to storm off as Henry stands up from the window.

"You could've just asked me to help." He says to us.  Daryl continues to walk off ignoring Henry as Henry runs to chase him down.

"Hey! Daryl! Where are you going?" Henry calls after Daryl as he turns around aggressively. 

"Girl's too messed up. She's a waste of time. She's Tara's problem." Daryl jolted back as he looked Henry in the eyes.

"What's gonna happen to her? Did someone used to beat you up, too?" Henry asked as my eyes widened at his outspoken way. Henry did not fear daryl. I never spoke to Daryl much about his abuse he went through. It was a mutual thing we silently agreed to never ask each other about unless we out right talk about it on our own terms.

"Once, I heard my dad ask my mom why she kept her hair so short. She said when it was long, her first husband would grab it when she tried to get away. He would pull it and slam her against the wall. So, one day she just cut it all off so he couldn't. And I guess it took her this long to feel safe again." I never knew that about Carol. I'm sure Daryl did but Carol and I weren't that close before for us to swap abuse stories. If we did, I would think we would be closer than we were now. I guess thats why she and Daryl are such good friends. They understood each other.

"Sometimes... you act like the type of guy who slams people against walls, but I don't think that's it." Henry says as his eyes wandered to me and then back at Daryl. He would never lay a hand on me.

"You shouldn't listen to people talk." Daryl mumbles.

"Look, I know Lydia's people are bad, but that doesn't mean she's bad at all. She's just scared. You can show her there's nothing to be afraid of. You can do that. And only you." Henry says. Daryl takes a moment to think of what to say. He seemed lost of words but then looks back up at Henry.

"No. Not just me." Daryl shakes his head and walks into the house.

"He needs time to think. Figure out what to do next. Let's get you to bed." I usher Henry into the house to the room Jesus had assigned him too before.

"Hes not giving up on her, right?" Henry asked as I open the door.

"No, I don't think he's even close to giving up. Neither am I." I tell him as we walk in the house and get him settled.