Consumed | 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐱𝐨𝐧

seven.

"I took it from Daryl's motorbike. Don't tell him I took it, he'd kill me." He shakes his head at the gun. Sneaky little shit. If this was Daryl's precious crossbow he would actually kill Carl but gladly it was just a gun.

"You're lucky you didn't take his crossbow or he would hunt you down for it. But thankfully it's just his gun." I smile trying to make him feel better about the situation. "But why take it?" I ask as Carl looks down at his feet shaking his head. It seemed like he didn't even know.

"It's my fault Dale died." He mutters. Huh? Turning my head to the side in confusion, what did he mean?

"Carl, it wasn't your fault. It was the walker's." I rub my hand on his shoulders, looking at him. He doesn't meet my eyes, instead he leaves his eyes fixated on the floor. "Hey, it isn't your fault." I try to comfort him.

"I saw that walker." He looked at me, "I was going to shoot it." He tried to avoid eye contact with me as I stared at him. This still wasn't his fault. "It- it was stuck in the mud. I was- I was throwing rocks at him and stuff." Carl looks down again, fiddling with his fingers. I lift his hat up and he looks at me again for a moment.

"Walker's aren't friends. You can't just try to play catch with them." I scolded him, "But this isn't your fault. The farm hasn't been walker proofed yet. That could've been any walker that killed him just because it was one you saw doesn't mean it's your fault." Carl nods at me and tries to smile.

"I was gonna do it. Shoot it in the head." He exclaimed, "Then it got free, came after me and I ran away. If I killed it Dale would still be here." Sitting next to Carl, I pull him to my side.

"I don't want you going out there on your own." I tell him, "If you want to go out there come and ask me, I won't tell your Mom or Dad. But I want to be there in case anything happens, alright?" Carl nods at me before wrapping his arms around me. "And I want you to stop blaming yourself. Now, pinky promise me to seal the deal." I stick my pinky finger out to him and wiggle it.

He unwraps an arm from around me before wrapping his pinky around mine. "I promise." He smiles, "You're the best." I already knew that kid didn't need to tell me. "You're like my big sister." Carl leans into me as I stroke his hair. Big sister? My breathing hitches and I stiffen in place.

"You're the best big sister." He smiles. His bright blue eyes staring up at me as we walk through the woods. I smile back at him as he grips onto his bear. Ruffling his hair, I dropped my backpack on the floor before retrieving the tent which was attached to it. "You think it will be safe here." He asks.

"Just for the night." I reply, "I'll keep watch while you sleep. I won't let anything hurt you." He smiles and hugs me for a moment before helping me with the tent.

"You need to sleep as well, K." He tells me as he unravels the tent from its bag.

"Don't worry about me. All I need is to know you're safe." I tell him, "Plus vampires don't sleep anyway." He laughs at me as we begin to finish putting the tent up. Thank god it was just a pop up tent. I begin to set up our safety trip wire around the tent as he goes inside to set his sleeping bag up.

"Kaia, are you alright." Carl waves his hand in front of me, "Hey. Earth to Kaia." He clicks his fingers in front of my face as I snap out of it. "Are you okay?" Carl seemed worried.

"Uh, yeah fine." I force a smile, "Urm... How about you go get some food? You must be starving." Carl furrows his brows at me questioningly. "Go on. I'll be in soon." I usher him away. He begrudgingly gets up before giving me a final weird look and walking towards the house. I sit there for a few moments to recollect myself before having to help move stuff into the house. All of my stuff was stored in a spare room already so I didn't have anything to move.