The Rift [Daryl Dixon]

When The Levee Breaks

I grabbed the coke from the fridge and brought it to the table, Merle's eyes following every move I made, with this look of disbelief drawn on his face.

"What? Soda? Where's the beer, woman?" He exclaimed, his hands dropping on his lap.

"No drinking in this house. No drinking in front of Jack. No drinking, period."

"Party pooper." Jack laughed at the immature comment while I just rolled my eyes so hard, it hurt.

"No smoking either." I added.

"It's a good thing you can cook, girl. Or I'd be on my way out."

I heard the shower turn off from the hallway leading to the bedrooms and the bathroom, meaning Daryl was finally done and hopefully, had sobered up a bit.

Once the door opened, I saw him wearing the sweatpants he had left here a couple months back, and a t-shirt I couldn't be bothered to return to him.

He looked around, a bit surprised to find Merle sitting in my living room couch, with his feet propped up in the coffee table, while Jack and I set the table.

"I made some Macaroni & Cheese with hot dogs cut up. I hope it is okay. I'm not cooking anything fancy, I'm too tired and we still have work to do." I said, my eyes moving between the two brothers, trying to ignore how good Daryl looked with his wet locks and relaxed posture. "It's Jack's favorite actual dinner. If it were up to him, we'd be eating lucky charms for dinner on the daily." Daryl glared at the kid and just grinned. I could tell he missed spending time with my son. They had really hit it off, and had somehow become partners in crime.

"Sounds good to me." Daryl declared.

We all sat down on the table not long after that and started digging into our plates, the pure silence almost making me cringe.

"So, did Papazian believe you when you told him about the homicidal phantom clown?" Jack questioned, resuming the conversation he and Merle were having about this old blind man at the carnival, who was nosey enough to eavesdrop on the phone call we had earlier. Which, turned out to be the reason I waited fifteen minutes for him to show up at the funhouse.

"I still can't believe you told him that." Daryl whispered under his breath.

"Well, I told him an urban legend about a homicidal phantom clown." Merle corrected, before he proceeded to pull out his gun "I never said it was real."

"Put that down." This time, Daryl's words were loud and clear. "There's a kid on your right, the hell are you thinking, man?" The younger brother seemed pretty upset at Merle's actions, and completely snapped at him.

The older sibling shook his head in annoyance but did as he was told, before looking up at Jack again. "Oh, and get this. I mentioned the Bunker Brother's Circus in '81 and their, huh, evil clown apocalypse, and guess what?"

"What?" We all asked at the same time in unison.

"Before Mr. Cooper owned Cooper Carnival, he worked for Bunker Brothers. He was just their lot manager." He explained.

"So you think whatever the spirit's attached to, Cooper just brought it with him? I questioned.

"Something like that." Merle said, before focusing all of his attention back to the plate.

Daryl just shook his head. "I can't believe we keep talking about clowns."

🔯

I felt a bit bad for not coming along, but I had to stay behind with Jack. Letting him stay at school until five was all the trust I was willing to put on Chuck to keep him safe and sound when I wasn't around, but I'd be damned if I ever let him spend the night alone.