Hello everyone, this is a new and my first fanfic of The Walking dead. The story...well it does not begin as a clear beginning, but it is more like a mixed story that may go back and forth (sorta like those weird chapters of "Lost"). The story(ies) develop around the group (aka Rick and the fellows) finding a big house called "Silvershell Estate". It is the first place they have found in months that has the perfect balance of security and peace for everyone. As I explained above, it does not have a stated beginning, so that means it may not a concrete end. It is more, like a compilation of prompts and short fics of a couple of chapters that have a setting around this lovely place that you will know a bit more in every chapter and story I update.
At first I wanted it to be totally Bethyl, and the most of the stories wil be, but I may include a few others about the group and how they are developing through their new lifestyle.
As a fic writer I will appreciate possitive and constructive reviews and comments, as well as if you feel in the need to collaborate to the file of "Silvershell estate" please feel free to ask or suggest any idea (details may change by editor).
Here I give you a first chapter, a small story and I hope you enjoy it.
I am also announcing the creation of a second fanfic, and this is TOTALLY BETHYL. So spread the word and I hope your comments, doubts, questions, or suggestions in my tumblr addres
Hope to see you 'round very often, dears!
;D
CHAPTER 1:
~Pure soul~
The sun was rising over the white and beautiful Silvershell. It used to be a big house full of people walking around the many rooms it had, and before the outbreak, even before modern era it used to be a cotton plantation. The grounds were big, not as big as the prison but broad enough to have a peaceful walk over the trees and the green gardens that were once white lines filled with workers picking cotton, remained untouched with twiggs and thorns but still alive. It was the safest zone they had in months, peaceful and relaxing like Greene's farm, but steady and secure just as much as the prison. The perimeter was secured by Abraham, Rosita and Eugene, with wired fence and trapps in exchange of what Rick and the group have made to keep them safe throughout breaking Terminus and helping them to keep going their way to DC.
Life was taking its natural course once again, after all they went through. Walkers appeared once or twice per week, and the night watches were more relax and even fun, around the fire, telling stories or having activities. Their sleeping habits were totally messed up, so whenever a few were sleeping at 7:00 p.m. the others were fully awake until sunrise.
It was the fifth night in a row Daryl couldn't sleep. The reason was Beth. Her deep blue eyes and the golden hay hair pulled in a messy ponytail kept him fully awake and concerned about tons of issues. Nobody knew his feelings for her as well he didn't know her feelings for him, if those were the same as his. He didn't want to admit it, but he was comletely in love with her. He remembered that night at the funeral home, his body resting on a coffin while she sang to him. Her voice so heavenly, so melodic. Addictive. It was a shame she wasn't the same since the day Rick and Michonne found her in the middle of the road. Even after two months he couldn't forget how she looked. Her raged clothes covered in dirt and blood, an empty look in her eyes, her lips cracked and her limbs covered in scratches and cuts from bushes, trees and sharp branches. She had run from danger. A herd of walkers, an animal or maybe something else…or someone else. Whatever the case was, it was useless to ask. She refused to talk to anyone about how she managed to survive alone. Even with Maggie. He couldn't stand to hear her screaming in the middle of the night, see her without that light in her eyes, that light that changed his mind that night when she was taken.
He couldn't stand to keep quiet about the matter between them and how she refused to live again. She was like a walker, the only difference was that she was infected with sorrow, pain, and other tormentuous things Daryl didn't want to, but only imagined and listen in her nightmares that happened almost every night. "Morning, Daryl! are you hungry? breakfast is ready." called Carol from the kitchen while she saw him climbing dow the stairs. She and Maggie were heating what they had last night, stirring something in the stone oven.
"No, ain't hungry… am…I'm looking for Beth, have you seen her?"
"I think I saw her under the willow. But if I were you, I would keep my distance. I tried to take her in for breakfast and she didn't answer back." Maggie said with a serious look, like if Beth was an untamed beast ready to tear a paw over somebody.
"She is not in the right mood to talk, I think." answered Carol in her sweet and comprehensive tone. She gave him a smile and Daryl nodded leaving the house in silence.
The outdoors were blooming along with the first days of summer. The grass growing long enough to tickle the knees, the air filled with the scent of fresh flowers and herbs; Rick and Carl playing near the tomato plants with Judith who was now giving her first steps and small runs; Tyreese helping Sasha to chop wood for the stove; Glenn teaching Tara how to shoot and clean a gun.
The willow was near a small pond at the end of the grounds, a few yards away from the fence that divided the estate from the other properties. There, below the long pendant branches, was Beth, tugging her right knee under her chin and the other leg crossed under her. No expression in her eyes. An there it was Daryl, walking towards Beth, his chest bumping and the sound of his heartbeat thumbing inside his ears. Old memories were coming to the surface, back at when he was a kid who liked a girl from school and turned him down after he opened his heart. However there was something different this time. He was sure that Beth felt the same as he, yet he perceived she wouldn't take things in a normal way. After all she still was acting strange, avoided to socialize, to smile, even to speak.
Setting aside what Maggie said to him, he sat right next to her, leaning his back against the bark of the willow, his elbow touching hers. It took less than a second for her to flinch at the sensation.
"Hey" Daryl said almost as a hum, timidly looking towards the lake. Her expression didn't change. There was no response but a long and paused blink of her eyes. Beth, I wanted to tell you something." His heart raced. He was expecting a spark of surprise or intrigue from her, but it was like talking to a statue. "I was thinking of what you asked me…that day, at the funeral home," his words came to her ears, and this time she reacted to the comment. She slowly turned her head to him and her frown was one of fear and pain. She remembered every moment of it. No need to say "yes". He knew she did. She had been trying to forget it since the day she appeared from the woods to the road and saw Rick and Michonne in the middle of the road. It was like seeing heaven's gates.
"You asked me something that night, that thing that changed my mind." He grabbed eough air into his lungs "Beth, that thing is you. You are the girl….you are the woman that changed me." He paused to breathe in. "I…I love you."
Her eyes were forming tears, accumulated since several months of living nightmares. She turned her head to the opposite direction to cover her face. She hated Daryl to see her in her weakest moments. He had taught her to be strong and never give up, and after all the stuff she went through the time she was missing, it was a shame for her to be in a state of numbness like that. She felt weak and she didn't want to be, more even in front of the man she loved.
Daryl began to feel awkward. Her reaction was definitely not what he expected, and somehow he feared Beth didn't feel the same has he. He set bad thoughts away from his mind and kept going. "I know you don't wanna talk about what happened out I understand if you dont wanna do it now. I…shit …I just wanted you to know it." He placed his hand on her knee, and she immediately jerked it away. That did surprise him. Beth could not hold herself any longer. A heartbreaking sob emerged from her lungs and broke in a painful and deep cry. All her demons were escaping in every sigh, in every silver and salad tear rolling down her cheeks. Daryl reached her to give her a hug but she slapped his arms just as if those were poisonous.
"Please don't…" Beth said with a trembling tone. Her eyes round in terror and surprise. "I can't…Daryl I can't be with you." She darted it directly, feeling his heart being smashed and delivered in her tiny hands. "it wouldn't be the right thing for you."
"right 'thing'? why wouldn't it be right, Beth" his tone higher enough to be heard by someone else. "is it that I am older? or that I am not charming enough for you?" He pushed himself and stood up, hot headed, this time he sounded angry, in fact desperate. "or…or that Maggie don't like me as a new brother? or the group talking about us…"
Beth stood up in front of him and barked at his face, fire in her eyes "NO, IT'S NOTHING OF THAT!" She was drifting from anger to pain until finnaly gave up and fell on her knees giving completely into shame. She bowed her head, tears rolled down over her pale skin and fell them to the green grass. "I…I was…they did…they forced me to. And now…I…" She embraced herself with one arm and her other hand gripped in the ground, nails diggin into the soil. "…they raped me, Daryl." She finnaly confessed. "Those fuckers held me as their doll. And I...I haven't...done anything like that before" She was struggling to explain her point "I love you too, Daryl, and I wanted to be yours. Completely. But now I am ruined. That is why you can't be with me. You can't be with a stained soul."
All of her, every single part of her being was broken. Her body, her mind, her feelings. Daryl couldn't stand it. Frustration only made things worse. Anger, wrath rushed throughout his veins. He wanted to track those bastards and beat them to death. It was the least they deserved for what they had done to Beth. He punched the bark of the willow instead. "fucking assholes!" He knelt in front of her, cupped her face in her rough hands in the most tender manner and kissed her deeply. Beth accepted his proximity, opening her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. His warmth was something relieving, like balm on a burn. His scent, his touch was relaxing, a strong contrast bewteen the disgusting smell of smoke and smelly breath of those men who held her against her will and used her as a toy.
"You are the purest soul this damned world has ever had, Beth." Her cry intesified. "you don't have to worry anymore, sunshine. I swear, " he said lifting her face towards his, "Nothing and no one's gonna hurt you anymore. I won't permit it." Daryl buried his nose into her hair. Boths hand clutching her fragile frame against his chest wishing he could lock her inside it and protect her against the world.
A few minutes after, her sobbings ceased once for all. A sweet and comforting warmth invaded her body. Her nostrils expanded and detected the scent of the flowers, and the summer breeze caressed her skin like silk. Humidity streamed into her lungs inviting them to take a long and revitalizing sigh. The Infection was over. She was alive back again.
"You don't have to do this, Daryl"
"I want to. Now you are the most important thing in this shitty world, and I promise you 'll be safe." He planted a kiss in her temple. His hand caressing the line of her jaw.
"Always."
