Dark Intentions│Daryl Dixon✔️

S I X

There was a service for the fallen from the barn. I didn't attend Otis's because I'd known him. I'd played with him as a little girl and I chose not to believe he was gone. In my mind, he was out hunting.

We bowed our heads but no one chose to speak. My mother grabbed my hand, "For god's sake. Please don't ruin this." She said as my hands roamed over my scars. My thumbnail tracing one just under my sleeve. Her grip was hard. I tried to pull away gently but her grip hardened to the point of a bruise, "It's ugly." She hissed. Rage filled my veins. I roughly snatched my arm away and left while Hershel was in the middle of saying a prayer. Momma looked away and sighed.

I walked to the pond where I'd been fucked not two days ago and sat in the wooden swing. I rocked it back and forth, gently. I closed my eyes as a memory pushed to the synapses of my brain.

"Am I going to die, Callie?"

"No."

"What if I do?"

"Then you'll become an angel."

"I don't want to be an angel."

"Why not?"

"Because Angels are good. We're bad."

"Why do you say that?"

Her hands wrapped around my own, "Momma doesn't like us."

"She loves you, she hates me."

"She hates me too. In a different sort of way."

"Go to sleep."

"Don't sneak me back into my room tonight, Callie."  She let out a wet cough and her sweat dripped from her forehead.

"Momma will y'all if I don't."

"Let her yell. You can take it. You always do."

My eyes snapped open and I swung forward ever so slightly. I looked down at the tiny ring on a chain around my neck and sighed. Sofia was about her age when she died.

⌥⌥⌥⌥⌥

I walked inside of the Rv and found Carol leaning against the window, "How'd the funeral go?" She asked me, her voice muffled by the flesh of her hand.

"I...didn't stay that long." I told her.

"Is somethin' the matter?" She asked, not lookin' at me. I was quiet and my skin grew hot again. Was I really about to share this?

"My little sister died when I was 12." I told her, "She was sick all the time. Ended up dying one night in her sleep. I'm the one that found her." I twirled the ring within my hand.

Carol's head turned to me. Her face was hard, "This was my daughter that died.." she turned her head away, "Hell, I don't know when she died.."

"I'm not comparing death's." I slid my sister's ring onto the Rv's table, "But I am comparing age."

Carol stared at the small ring, "I remembered the night she died, she asked me if she was going to. We weren't allowed to sleep in the same bedroom as each other but she'd sneak over anyway. I'd sneak her back when she was asleep. That night she told me not to sneak her back. She knew she was going to die. I told her she wasn't but..." I swallowed, "She knew she was and some part of me knew she would too. I woke up. Her hand was limp. Her eyes were open. Her sweat and body had gone cold. I didn't yell for Momma right away. I remember....kissing her cheek. I didn't cry or sob or scream..because...I knew. I told her that night that if she did die, she would become an angel. She would get to fly and...I know the same goes for Sophia."