Haunted | Daryl Dixon

25. Loneliness

*Two Weeks Later*

It's funny how fast being alone gets to someone.

How quickly it takes them to the cliff that represents their breaking point and they're just teetering along the edge, capable of doing nothing but wait for that one last gust of wind that will knock them to their deaths.

Evelyn hadn't been alone since the first month of the end of the world.

From then on, she had been with multiple groups- all ending in disaster- but through it all, she at least had one person. One piece of normalcy in this messed up world.

And now he was gone too.

Daniel. Maggie. Glenn. Beth. Carol. Carl. Rick. Michonne. Daryl.

Their names were playing on a constant loop through Evelyn's head, an endless droning of all the people she most likely had lost during the fall of the prison. Even if they were alive, there was no chance she would ever see them again.

They were all gone, and she couldn't help but feel responsible.

If only she hadn't froze. If only she hadn't blacked out completely after what happened to Hershel. Had he known what she had done- what she hadn't been able to prevent- he would be disappointed in her.

That knowledge was just another dagger to her heart that seemed to endlessly get stabbed.

She had just started to get to know most of them, and dare she say, even trust a few of them.

But that was her mistake. She never should have let her guard down. That only ever lead to more pain and suffering.

And Daryl.

She had just gotten him back, after all these years away, after the countless sleepless nights thinking about what went wrong, she had just gotten him back.

But not only that, he had explained. He had explained and apologized for that day. Everything she had known to be true- to be oh, so excruciatingly painful- was a lie.

He had loved her then and he had loved her now.

Loved.

Evelyn couldn't even give herself the smallest spark of hope that he was still out there- that any of them would- because the longer she went without them, the more hurt she would get.

She refused to let herself get hurt anymore. She refused to let herself feel anything.

The woman barely even stirred at the sound of a low, strangled growl, and some twigs snapping from the side.

Slowly, almost lazily, Evelyn came to a stop in her tracks and turned to face the walker stumbling its way towards her.

Without a flicker of change in her expression, she pulled her knife from her belt- having long since run out of bullets- and just stood there, waiting.

She waited and stared unblinkingly as the walker made its way over to her. She didn't once even twitch a muscle. It almost looked like she wasn't even breathing.

Evelyn stood there and waited and waited until the dead corpse was so close that she could feel it's disgusting breath on her face, and that was when she struck.

At an alarmingly fast rate, she reeled her arm back and stabbed the walker straight in the eye, in the very center.

Even as its body immediately went limp and hit the ground, the woman just went down with it.

Sitting on top of its chest and straddling it before winding up and stabbing it over and over again in the head.

She didn't stop. Not when blood splattered everywhere. Not when her knife became so stained it would be hard to get out. Not until it's head was nothing but a pile of mush.

Barely even breaking a sweat, Evelyn calmly stood up and wiped at her upper lip, staring emotionlessly down at the walker for another moment before simply lifting her head and striding away, not sparing it a single glance.

The woman had gauze tightly wrapped around her side, though, within the two weeks- even with her constant movement- her wound had mostly healed up.

There was no doubt that the wrapping was crooked in some places, though. Evelyn had never done it herself. Daniel had always helped her. But now, he wasn't here. Her best friend wasn't here anymore.

The man would often joke that she needed to be less hostile because she came off to others as off putting.

That was nothing compared to what she was like now, though. Now, she did everything in her power to not let a single bit of emotion touch her shattered heart.

She shook her thoughts clear of the man. There was no use dwelling on the past that only got you hurt.

As Evelyn continued on her way, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye, and she slowly turned to face it.

SANCTUARY FOR ALL, COMMUNITY FOR ALL. THOSE WHO ARRIVE SURVIVE

Evelyn read it once. Twice. Three times.

There was a community. There was advertising for a community that would take anyone in.

Though she tried not to let herself feel anything, there was one emotion that was able to shine through no matter what.

Loneliness.

Without her friends- her family- by her side, Evelyn Wright was utterly and completely alone.

She pursed her lips, looking down to where the train track was by her feet. She must have to follow it to get there.

In the end, she decided she had nothing to lose, and could weigh her options on the way.

Evelyn began walking down the train track, in search for this new community.

A/N: Sorry that this was a pretty boring chapter