Daryl bites his lip and lets out another sob. In the quiet of the forest under the fall of rain, no one can hear you cry.
In another lifetime, they might have been good together; might have been right for each other.
As it stands, Daryl is heartbroken and Beth currently rests six feet underground.
The tired man pauses, burning his cigarette against his hand before he tosses it aside. He likes the burn, relishes in it, because it helps him to forget the hurt, to forgo the pain, if only for a brief moment. It's a different pain, one he can control. He needs to be able to control something right now.
Beth sits under the sun, her pale flesh glistening with little droplets of sweat Daryl would like to lick off if he could. They're at the pool on a hot summers day, rays of sunlight coloring the sky, shaded light blue without a cloud to be seen.
Daryl traces his fingertip over the mark on his hand. There's no going back, no turning time on its heels. What's done is done and cannot be undone, no matter how much a person begs or wishes. And dammit if he hasn't prayed for her to come back, gotten down on his damn hands and knees and pleaded with a God he knows must not exist.
If God were real, he'd have given them their fair chance at a love story, not a broken heart and a bullet to the brain.
The blonde giggles, swiping her hand through her mussed hair. Daryl admires her as she lays on the beach towel, bottom side up, with her phone in her palm. She's laughing at something on the screen, something Daryl doesn't mind not being a part of, so long as he can hear that laughter, can swallow it whole and bottle it up within the confines of his heart forever.
He kicks at a fallen branch nearby, uncaring if the world hears. If the dead come walking, so be it. He's tired of fighting, worn out even. His heart lays heavy in his chest, making his breath feel like a thousand pounds, weighing him down.
Daryl is a sinking ship with no lifeboat in sight, destined to crash and burn like a fallen star. Though, he's no star. Beth was always his star, even if he didn't know it until this very moment. Beth Greene was his light, his sunshine, his chance at a better life, his chance to become a better man. She was everything he never deserved.
By the time Beth flips over onto her back, their little girl comes running towards them, wet and squealing with joy. Daryl smiles, admiring the way she drops to her knees before Beth, accepting the offered popsicle before sucking it into her little mouth. Blue stains around her lips.
Red stains Daryl's being. The blood shed from a beautiful soul gone too soon, gone without reason. He sighs deeply before closing both eyes. If he squints hard enough he can almost picture her, standing before him, hair as golden as ever, smile wide and brilliant.
No, he realizes soon after, she's but a figment of his imagination.
The only person in the woods right now is him. Alone.
Maybe the way it was always meant to be.