𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. carl grimes

11 - WOULDN'T

I lean my butt onto the hood of the car, as Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Maggie talk. Michonne is close to me and Merle is leaning against a tree, waiting for Daryl.

"How old are you?" I turn my head to Michonne, before I shrug. I haven't really thought about how old I am now, or if my birthday just passed by. We don't have any bloody calendar to keep track of the days. "Thirteen, I think."

She nods. "Daryl's your dad or relative or something?"

I shook my head, preventing an amused smile from coming out. Now, that's the first time I heard someone say or think, that Daryl's my father. "No. He's not a relative. But he's kind of a father figure to me."

I sighed. "My family's dead."

She nods again, understanding. My attention drifts back to Daryl and the others. The latter walks away from the circle and Rick chases him, my senses are telling me that there's something wrong so I got off the car, and started walking towards them.

"Something wrong?" I asked the two men.

Daryl looks at me before he looks away. "Your mom's alive, kid. Take care of her and yourself."

My heart stops and Daryl passes by me. My mom's alive? How? They told me she's dead, how is she alive now? I walked towards Glenn and Maggie and immediately asked them if the statement was true. They confirm it and my heart starts racing in happiness.

"Daryl's leaving with Merle," and that happiness dies down.

"What?" I turned around and ran towards Daryl, who talking to Rick and started walking towards his brother. "Daryl!"

He looks back when he heard my voice, eyes meeting mine but he didn't stop walking. Merle happily greets his brother with a smile, and I saw some hesitance in Daryl, before he walks away with his brother.

A void in my heart gets filled up when I got told that my mom's alive.

But another void replaces it when Daryl left with his brother.

— later

I anxiously sit in the car as we got closer and closer to the prison. I can see my mom's figure and Carl's too, and I can't help but feel all sorts of feelings inside my chest. It's overwhelming, but I don't care. My mom's alive and that's all I care about right now.

Once Carl opens the gate and the car is in, I immediately got out and my mom starts crying when she saw me. I ran towards her, not holding back this time, and wrapped my arms around her tightly as she does the same.

"You're alive..." I breathe out as I hug my mom, tears threathening to fall down. "They told me you were dead. Everyone thought you were—"

"Shh, shh, it's okay baby." My mom whispers, hugging me tighter. "I'm okay. I'm glad you're okay."

I hug my mom tighter again. All the regrets in my head are coming to me, and I'm not letting that happen again. I'm not gonna take my mom for granted, ever again.

Minutes later, we pull away from our hug and I noticed that my cheeks are wet from crying. A hand was placed on my shoulder and I turn around, seeing Carl. I immediately envelop him with a hug; I can tell he was surprised by my actions but he hugged back seconds later.

"You scared me." He mutters onto my neck. I chuckled humorlessly but he tightens our hug. "When that woman came and told us you got kidnapped, I didn't know what to do."

Carl's voice breaks and so does my heart. "I made my dad promise that he'll bring you back. I-I wanted to come, but he told me to stay. I wanted to save you, Farren—"