Ghost From The Past

B.S. 7yo (2)

By the time I woke up, I was laying in a tent on my stomach. In a small clearing in the woods.

My wounds were bandaged up and I had a large shirt covering my body.

I looked around and realized I was alone. Outside the flap of the tent there was a fire.

I slowly pushed myself up wincing in pain and crawled out of the tent.

The snow had stopped finally and the sun was about to go down.

I look around outside a saw the boys who helped coming closer to the campsite.

The younger boy noticed me and ran over.

"She's up!" He shouted causing the older boy to stop messing with the string of squirrels around him.

"It's bout' time you woke up lil' bird. How ya feelin'" He asked with a small smile as he moved towards the fire.

I nodded slightly to say I'm ok and the boy my age stopped in front of me trying to catch his breath.

"I'm Daryl Dixon. And that's my older brother Merle. Your Raven Haynes right?" He asked softly.

"Y-yeah.... H-how'd you... Know my name... " I asked hoarsly.

"Yer' old man called ya that, plus we live next door and ya go ta school with my baby brotha." Merle said then held out a bottle of water.

"Ere' drink. Ya sound like a dying cat." He said.

I look down and hold myself.

"Stop bein' an ass Merle. We both saw what happened earlier. I'm sorry Raven, Merle can be a real ass sometime. So don't take it to heart. It's he's way of pickin' 'round." Daryl says taking the bottle from Merle and holding it to me.

I slowly take it from him and nod drinking almost a forth of the bottle but end up coughing cause I choked on some of the water.

"Woah! Slow down lil'bird." Merle says with worry and jumps up to make sure I'm alright.

Daryl takes the bottle from me as I finally stop coughing.

"I'm ok... Thank you" I say with a better sounding voice but it's still horse from screaming.

"Good. I'm gonna get us supper started now." Merle says and goes back to the squirrels he was working on.

I sit down by the fire to keep warm and look at myself to see all my cuts where fixed and the shirt I was wearing was gone.

"We cleaned ya up and put one of Merle's old shirts on ya because yers was destroyed." Daryl said as he sat next to me with a few squirrels and started to skin them.

I watch him in slight disgust but don't show it.

"T-thank you. But where are we?" I ask softly and look around the camp.

"Where 'bout 2 miles in the woods. When things get bad at home or we don't want ta go home we stay out ere'. It's kinda like our secret base. We got clothes 'ere and a creek about 5 minutes that way." Merle says pointing behind him.

My eyes widen slightly in slight fear thinking they might not want me here since it's their 'safe place'.

"I-I should go then.... This is yalls place... " I mumble and stand up turning to leave.

"Wait!" Daryl says louder then he meant to and grabs my arm.

I flinch and the contact and his volume of voice.

"I'm sorry.... I'll leave.... Don't hurt me.... Please....." I whimper out as tears slip from my eyes.

Daryl and Merle eyes widen at my reaction and Daryl immediately let's go and backs up some.

"I'm sorry Raven. I'm not gonna hurt'cha. We're not gonna hurt'cha. I'm sorry." He says gently.

"Don't leave lil' bird. We're not gonna hurt'cha. I swear it. This is 'our' safe spot. And that includes you. Ok." Merle says gently and walks over slowly and crouches down so he's not towering over me.

I sniffle and face them. My long hair covering my faces and acting as a sheild.

Merle gently reaches up and brush my hair out of my face to look in my eyes.

"I swear to ya Raven. Yer safe with us." He says gently.

Daryl moves forward a little.

"We need to stick together. Like that saying. Birds of a feather, flock together. Right?" Daryl says.

I sniffle again and nod slightly.

"Good. Now come sit down lil' bird. Yer swayin' slightly." Merle chuckles softly and stands up taking my hand gently to help me.

After I sit down by the fire again, Merle goes back to his spot, while Daryl sits back down to work on his squirrels.

I watch him work and he notice but doesn't say anything at first.

"If ya don't want to see this I can move." He mumbles softly taking a glance over at me.

"No. It don't bother me. I'm just watching. I like learnin' new things." I mumble back.

"I can teach ya if ya want." He said looking at me.

"I learn by watchin' so if I keep watchin' I'll learn it soon." I say then mumble, "That's if you don't mind me watchin' you."

"I don't mind. Not at all." He smiles a little and goes back to working.

"Ok" I mumble but it was barely able to be heard.

I watch as he finishes the first squirrel and starts on the second one.

He explains what some of the stuff is and where not to cut to deep.

I watch and listen intently with my knees to my chest and biting my thumb nail.

I was so invested with what he was saying and doing that I didn't even see Merle smiling and watching us.

Merle's  p.o.v-

I watch as Daryl teaches Raven about skinning squirrels.

The poor girl is so small. Barely any meat on her bones.

Barely weighing 40 pounds. And even tho she's the same age as Daryl she's a lot smaller then him.

When I was cleaning her wounds I could she her ribs and spine clear as day, and all the scars that litter her tiny frame.

My old shirt was past her knees and the sleeve right at her elbows. Hell I had to tie the collar of the shirt so it wouldn't slip off her shoulders and stay on her.

The poor kid had been through a lot more hell then I have. And she had to go through it alone.

'Not anymore' I thought, 'I'll do everything I can to help her. Just like I do with Daryl.'

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