THE LOVELY BONES, daryl dixon

xii. just heat

Rick froze in his stance, and stared down at the blonde as she allowed gentle tears to trail down her cheeks. He shook his head and sighed, "Luke is out there, Ellie. My old friend; your brother!"

"What part of everything's gone do you not understand?" Andrea cried as her nostrils flared, connecting her glistening eyes with Rick's.

"Listen to your friends... they get it," Jenner declared slowly, his tone almost slurred from the drunkenness of hopelessness.

An overwhelming silence fell over the group as the clock counted down above them — a memento mori for the inevitable. Carol finally disrupted the silence by booming, "This isn't right! You can't just keep us here."

"A tiny moment; a millisecond of no pain," Jenner announced softly to Carol, chancing to coerce her into believing his fantasised death was the right thing to do.

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this! And neither does yours, Ellie! I can't believe you'd want to stay here! It's cruel," Carol screamed at Ellie, shaking her head in disappointment as the thought of harming Coda troubled her mind.

Ellie scowled and her and shook her head, "Would you rather face the walkers outside instead of eternal bliss and peace? It's not even a painful death!"

Carol sneered at Ellie as she snapped her aching eyes shut and sat far away from the group in the quiescent by her lonesome. Heavy footsteps could be heard from above her, but her fatigued body could not muster the energy to glance up, although she guessed it would have been someone chancing to convince her not to stay. She knew it had to be Daryl Dixon.

"How could you want to stay here?" Daryl whispered to her, revealing himself as the stranger as be approached her with nothing but anger trailing after him.

Ellie leaned her head back against the wall she had sat against, feeling the cold hit the back of her neck as she weakly muttered, "When falsehood can look so like truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?"

"Uh..." Daryl muttered awkwardly, feeling his cheeks spark with a red tinge of humiliation at his lack of understanding. Quoting Frankenstein had been entirely ironic to Ellie, for even the novel had been far more inclusive with an undertone of hope. He cleared his throat, and gently trailed the softness of his thumb against Ellie's hand, "I think I get it. But, wouldn't you wanna fight to get to happiness, or whatever?"

"Why should we have to fight?" Ellie weakly whimpered, her eyes suddenly shifting to Coda in Lori's arms, though she had been sobbing.

Daryl sighed and sunk down next to her, "Don't you want us all to be together?" he cleared his throat once again, and ran his hand through his hair, "As a group — I mean."

Ellie chuckled sadly at his awkwardness and leaned her head against his shoulders, relieving the pain in her neck as she softly replied, "Don't you think it's cruel to send our daughter back out into the graveyard of the wasteland? It's nothing, Daryl. We're dying."

"We're not dyin'," Daryl asserted, taking a peek up at Jenner as he sat in silence, surrounded by grieving individuals he barely knew.

"You can't promise—"

Daryl gripped tightly onto her chin with his index finger and thumb, and hissed, "You're not dyin'. I—"
he awkwardly dropped her chin, and averted his gaze as his cheeks flushed, "I just got you."

Ellie peered deeply into Daryl's ocean eyes as she frantically searched for the slightest bit of evidence to prove to her that he was right. She desperately wanted to believe Daryl and his promises, but a part of her remained sceptical after their previous altercation. Sweetly, she slowly raised his hand to her softened lips, and planted the tiniest kiss on his toughened skin.