Hey guys! I'm sorry that this is a little late and I honestly don't have an excuse except for the fact I have had a bit of a writers block as you can probably tell from this chapter. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
-Stacey xxx
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We arrived at a small coastal town late last night and decided to sleep in the cars and wait until morning before we went looking around.
Beth, Cassie and I were stood outside the hotel that the rest of the group were checking out, each of us keeping watch in case anything crept up on us but by looking around, the place seemed deserted.
"We should be doing something." Beth said quietly, "We should be in there too. We're just tough as them."
I shrugged, "You can go in all you want but I'm not. What with my hightened sense of smell." Honestly it was terrible. As soon as I got a whiff of the decomposing bodies of the walkers, it had me dry heaving and don't even get me started on the smell of squirrel.
"Can we go round the back and see if there's anything there?" Cassie asked quietly, looking up at me.
"I don't see why not," I answered, picking up my knife, "Let's go."
The three of us made our way around the building, coming up against a large brown fence and Beth managed to find a latch to a gate, allowing us to keep going.
As we reached the end of the building, it opened up into a large pool area and right at the edge of the cliff, there was a lighthouse and if I looked up at it, I felt dizzy There were deck chairs scattered around along with tons of debris; chairs, desks and even a couple of couches.
There was a tiny playpark in the corner that Cassie made a beeline for whereas Beth stayed with me.
"It's really pretty here," she said quietly, "We could make this work."
I nodded, looking over at Cassie who was now playing on one of the swings, "At least someone's having fun."
I sat down on the dry grass, looking around.
The area as a whole was very pretty and at the end of the grounds of the hotel, there was a sheer drop to the ocean.
"How high do you think the drop is?" Beth asked, standing back up.
"I dunno," I replied, watching as she headed towards the drop. "Beth, please be careful!" I called as she got closer and closer to the unbarricaded edge.
"I will!"
I played with a few blades of grass, listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs. I then lay down, letting the warm sun warm my exposed skin.
"Lily!" Cassie yelled suddenly, "Lily!"
"What?" I asked, shooting up, "What is it?"
"The swing!" she exclaimed as she fell down onto the grass beside me, "It cut me!"
Relaxing slightly, I gently took a hold of her arm and looked for any sign of a scratch. Of course, Cassie was a little bit over dramatic and had the tendency to blow things way out of proportion. There was barely anything there and to be honest, it was more a nick than a scratch.
"Cass," I laughed, "There's barely anything there!"
Looking up at her, I saw her face was turning a light shade of red.
"It's okay," I smiled, gripping her hands, "I won't tell anybody."
She nodded and suddenly snapped her head up, looking at someone behind us, "Hi."
I craned my neck back as a shadow towered over us, Daryl watching the two of us carefully.
"What's goin' on?" he asked, glancing at Cassie, "Heard her yelling."
"It's nothing." I replied as Beth came back over.
"It's pretty steep." she mumbled, referring to the drop, "Maybe we could use it somehow. Lure the walkers over the edge or something?"
Soon, Beth and Cassie went inside to find Hershel and Carl, leaving Daryl and I alone.
He sat down beside me as I lay back down, "We're gonna stay in there tonigh'. Then tomorrow, I wanna check out that lighthouse. If we're gonna be stayin' here, I want ye' to be somewhere safe."
"Safe?" I questioned, standing up to wipe the dirt off my jeans, "Where's safe anymore?"
He ignored me as he led me back inside, clearly not having an answer for my question.
Everyone was milling around on doing their own thing. Carl and Cassie were in what looked like the hotel reception area, playing with what looked like a pack of cards while the adults were all raking about in the kitchen.
"You want to go upstairs and look for anything that might be useful? We've got a lot of rooms we can go through." Rick asked, looking at the two of us.
"Yeah," Daryl murmured, nudging my arm, "C'mon Lily."
******************
"This bed is so comfortable." I murmured, turning my head so I could see Daryl rummaging through one of the drawers in the room.
He didn't answer, he just kept pulling out clothes and dumping them onto the bed by my feet.
Rolling my eyes, I got up again and went to the double doors leading to the balcony, opening them so the room was filled with the smell of the sea air.
"The view is amazing..." I said quietly, smiling when I felt Daryl's chest against my back and his arms soon appeared around me to rest on the railing in front of me.
I slowly turned around and looked up at him. "This could be a good place," I whispered, my hands resting on his arms, "We could make this work."
"It's exposed at the front." he muttered, keeping his eyes on mine, "I can't risk ye gettin' hurt."
I spun around again to look out at the sea, "I don't want to be like Lori, Daryl. I don't want to be on the road at nine months. The stress of not knowing if I'm going to give birth in a car."
"Yer only three months. We have a little more time." he mumbled, resting his head on my shoulder, "I'm goin' to find you a place."
I nodded, "Yeah, you're right. There's no use in pani-what are you doing?"
He had moved my shirt off of my shoulder, his lips pressing against the skin softly then he suddenly pulled away.
"I got ye' something." he muttered and I turned to see him digging into the pocket of his jacket.
"What is it?" I asked, moving closer to him.
He pulled a gold chain out and on the end, there was a small gold heart pendant. It was gorgeous.
He moved behind me, whispering for me to lift my hair which I did, biting my lip as he lowered the necklace over my head, securing it around my neck.
"There." he muttered as I went over to the closest mirror to look at the necklace properly.
"I love it!" I exclaimed, wrapping my arms around his neck tightly.
He released me shortly after, "C'mon, let's keep looking in the rooms."
