The Dead Shall Rise

Chapter X

A/N: Did you guys like your Christmas present?

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WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS GRAPHIC. IT GOES INTO DETAILS ABOUT CELESTE'S PAST WHICH IS NOT PRETTY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Celeste's POV-

Guilt niggled at my conscience. Daryl should know what he's getting into. We had come up with plan that left out one important detail: we would be firing at Daryl's brother. We were going to attack the next night. That gave us time to prepare all of our weapons and scout for supplies in a nearby town. With Michonne back, we settled in to have our dinner. After that we all went to bed early to prepare for the next day and what was to follow.

I sighed as my head hit the pillow. I didn't immediately go to sleep. I listened to everyone else slowly fall asleep until the only thing I could hear was deep breathing. My eyes finally closed. The first thing I saw after the darkness was a beer bottle flying towards my face. I tried to duck but I was too late. After the stars flew away from my vision, I saw Mom sitting in the corner. She was pushing a needle into her arm and was laughing hysterically. "That'll teach 'er, honey!" She said that between giggles."

"Shut up, b****!"

She didn't say anything else but she didn't stop laughing. After pushing the plunger on the needle, she threw it at me. I fist was coming towards my gut when I was suddenly woken up. It had been one of the worst dreams. The others were just him beating and raping me. This one involved my mother too. This one was just too much. It pushed me over the edge.

Blue eyes. That's what I saw. Always those steady blue eyes. Daryl was standing by my bed. I pulled him down onto it. He wrapped me in arms and for the first time in years, I cried over what had happened to me. After what seemed like hours of snotting and crying, I pulled back. In the darkness, I could tell that his shirt was stained with tears. I wiped at the ones still on my cheeks.

I said, "I'm sorry. I haven't cried like that in years."

"You want to tell me what it is now?"

I shrugged. Why not? I just covered his arm in hot tears and snot. Who knows, telling it to somebody might make it easier to bare. I took a deep breath. Then I started with, "When I was a baby, my parents split up. My mom never got over it. She turned to drugs. Half the time she didn't even know who I was. Then she met a man. He'd... He seemed nice at first. I thought he'd do her good. We lived in a small town in West Virginia. Glenville. He convinced Mom to move. It wasn't hard. We moved to a little holler. Shock. Well, that's what everyone called it. It was actually one of the many Tanners.

“Anyway, once we moved there, he turned into a monster. It started out just as slaps but those eventually turned into full out beatings. His belt was his favorite. That or a beer bottle. Then it came to the point that he... he, um, he started to-to rape me. Mom would sit on the couch and shoot up and watch. She'd scream things like, 'That'll teach her! That'll show the little ****!' He'd call me all kinds of things while he did it.

“He was never gentle. Every single time he did it, I'd end up bleeding. He got me pregnant once. I would've had the baby. I was against abortion. I'd've given it up for adoption. When he found out, he beat me and the next day. I lost it. I almost bled to death but I never went to a hospital. He started raping me when I was fifteen. He did it every night until the epidemic. The walkers saved my life because I knew I was next.

“He killed my mother in front of me. He said, 'Look! Look at what you did!' That night was one of the most brutal. He went beyond average rape. I-It was horrible. The next morning, I woke up bleeding from all kinds of places. He was gone. He probably left that night to go be with his other family. That’s the worst thing, you know.”

I’d started to sound kind of loopy. “He had a whole other family, a nice wife and daughter. He was the nicest, average middle class guy to them. They had a little car, a little house in the suburbs, and the stupidest dog. What did he do when he came to visit us? He brought my mom drugs and beat her. Then he’d get drunk and beat and rape me. That’s not as bad as when he’d…”

I took another deep shuddering breath and realized I'd started crying again. He put his hand over mine. He said, “Take your time, sweetheart. We’ve got all night.”

“He’d bring his friends over. Sometimes one, sometimes more, sometimes they’d take turns, and sometimes they’d go all at once.”

That’s when my composure broke again. I’d been able to tell most of unemotionally, like telling a bad story, but the memories finally broke through again. He said, "I'm not very good at comforting people. My childhood wasn't all roses and daisies either but nobody should have to live through what you lived through. Nobody. If he turned, in my opinion, it was too easy a death."

"Thank you. Thank you for listening, for waking me every night, and from getting me away from my past. I didn't think telling someone would make it easier but it did. Do you know, when I was in high school, I’d always hear people of talking about how great it was. I’d think to myself ‘They’re the lucky ones. They’ve known the beauty of it.’  For me, it's always been brutal and forceful."

"I can fix that."

I can tell by the look on his face that he hadn't said that on purpose. It was kind of cute seeing that vulnerability on the big, bad, touch redneck. I searched his blue eyes. I only saw compassion and uncertainty. I didn’t see the pity that I’d come to hate.

 I whispered, "Okay."

~~~~~~~~~READ THIS~~~~~RIGHT NOW!~~~~~~~~~

So that was Celeste's story. I hated myself for writing this but it had to be written. Well this is dedicated to ladycielphantomhive for being such a dedicated reader.

This was kinda sorta a cliff hanger. Will she be able to go through with it without flashbacks creeping up on her? Do you think they should go through with it? Tell me what you think.

Most importantly, do you want a sex scene? If you do tell me. Let's see. TWENTY votes on this chapter will get you an upload. TWENTY-FIVE votes on this chapter will get her to go through with it. THIRTY votes on this chapter AND TWENTY comments will get you a good sex scene ;D

So think about what you really want because I'm not uploading until one or more of these demands are met.

Hope you don't hate me too much,

XOXO

Werewolfgirl13