Here we go. My newest multi-chapter story. I hope you like the first chapter!
…
One.
"Beth!"
He calls after her, but she keeps on walking without sparing a look back in his direction. She knows he won't follow after her. He's not the type. He's not the type to run after her and beg her to stay. He's the type to watch his girlfriend storm out into the unknown and not do anything to stop her besides shouting her name; as if that will do anything.
"You're being stupid!"
And that definitely won't do anything either.
Beth Greene hikes the strap of her gym bag further up onto her shoulder and continues storming; so angry at the moment, she hardly actually sees anything around her.
"Beth, seriously? Fine!"
She hears the door to their cabin slam shut and then it's quiet again. Well, he certainly tried to convince her to come back inside.
What a jerk. Jimmy Beauford-Butler is such a jerk. No. More than a jerk. Beth needs to channel her older sister, Maggie, in this moment. Jimmy Beauford-Butler is an ass. Yes, that's much better.
Beth exhales a deep breath. Her heart is pounding in her chest and is actually beginning to hurt a little and Beth stops walking so she can try to catch it and calm down. She blinks quickly once she feels the stinging of tears in her eyes because there are a list of things she refuses to do tonight and crying is definitely on the list.
She doesn't know why she's so upset or so disappointed. What had she been expecting? Deep down, she knows the answer though she's not ready to admit it. Honestly, she had been expecting Jimmy to propose to her this weekend. What her answer would be, she still doesn't know, but she had honestly thought that that was why Jimmy had planned this weekend getaway for them. He had seemed to go all out. Renting them an impressive – yet still cozy – cabin for the weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountain chain in Northern Georgia because he knew that she had always wanted to do something like that. And the cabin had even had a hot tub on the back deck.
There had been champagne and candles and flowers and… well, what girl wouldn't expect their boyfriend of almost two years to propose with a setting like that?
The further she walks down the dark road, heading only God knows where, the angrier she gets and surprisingly, her blind rage isn't directed at Jimmy. At least, not all of it. Mostly, she's angry at herself. She should have known better. She had known better. She and Jimmy might have been together for almost two years now, but for the past six or so of those months, they've been edging apart.
Beth supposes that's what happens in relationships when the two people have been together for so long and they both know it's not going anywhere else even if they don't talk about it.
Slowly, spending Friday and Saturday nights together just didn't become as important. Texting each other throughout the day had stopped, too. When the theater that shows old movies in their neighborhood showed the Rodgers and Hammerstein's State Fair, Beth hadn't even thought to waste her breath asking Jimmy, knowing that he hates musicals and would never go with her – and that should have been a big enough red flag for her to end the relationship because who, in their right mind, hates musicals – so she had dragged her best friend, Rosita, with her instead.
She has far more fun with Rosita than Jimmy anyway. Another red flag.
Looking back on it all – the entire two years – she and Jimmy just liked being in a relationship and they got comfortable with one another. She certainly didn't believe that they loved each other – not anymore. So what if he actually taken her up here to propose marriage to her tonight? If she doesn't even love him, surely she wouldn't have been stupid enough to become his wife.
She doesn't even know though and that's a bit terrifying to her; that she doesn't know how she would have answered if he had proposed. Obviously, she would have said no. But why isn't her brain seeming more emphatic about that?
Not that she has anything to worry about. Not anymore. Because Jimmy hadn't planned this weekend to propose to her. Oh, no. That level of romance is giving Jimmy Beauford-Butler far too much credit. Instead, her ex-boyfriend has gone through all of this trouble, planning this weekend away, for one reason and one reason only. After two years, he thinks that she owes him something; something she has never felt fully ready to do. She knows she's considered "weird" by today's womanly standards, but she doesn't care. She's twenty-five, she's a virgin and she is in absolutely no hurry to have sex anytime soon.
When they began dating, Jimmy had understood that. She's religious, yes. She goes to church every Sunday and sings in the choir and she believes in God and Heaven and Hell, but that's not why she's been holding off on sex.
She's waiting for love. It's as simple as that. She's waiting for someone to love and for herself to love that person in return more than anything in the world.
Maggie and Rosita have both told her – more than once – that she reads too many romance novels and watches too many romance movies. Life just isn't like that and best just get her first time over and done with. Beth absolutely hates when they say that. Just because they did that, doesn't mean that just having sex is something that Beth should do, too.
She doesn't see anything wrong with wanting to wait for the absolutely perfect person and the absolutely perfect time.
"Perfect doesn't exist, Bethy," Maggie tells her.
Beth is always sure to promptly ignore her older sister when she says that.
She knows nothing is perfect, but things can be close.
... Can't they be?
Storming away on some dark mountain road obviously isn't the smartest thing she could have done. Especially since it now has begun to snow. And not just snowing flurries either. These are heavy, wet snowflakes – the perfect sort to build snowmen with; the worst sort to shovel.
Beth stops right in her tracks and for the first time, takes a look around at where she is. Or, rather, where she isn't. And right now, she doesn't seem to be a round any kind of civilization. The road Jimmy had driven them up to the cabin, just a few hours earlier, had been definitely the road less traveled and she doubted that it saw much use at all. They are in the mountains, after all, and except for the pockets of cabins and little tourist towns, there doesn't seem to be much else.
Beth feels her entire body go cold then and it has absolutely nothing to do with the snow or the rapidly dropping temperature that she can feel through her puffy goose-down winter coat.
A wolf.
Somewhere, sounding too close for comfort, there is a wolf howling.
Beth spins back in the direction of where she had just stomped. She could go back to the cabin. She couldn't have walked more than two miles. She can go back to the cabin where it's safe and warm and she can just ignore Jimmy… as they proceed to get completely snowed in.
No. She'd much rather take her changes with the wolf, if she's being honest, then being stuck in a cabin with Jimmy Beauford-Butler for any extended amount of time. Especially after tonight.
She can't be that far from the bottom of the road anyway. She's walked so long already. How much further can it possibly be? Jimmy had said that he had rented this particular cabin because of the seclusion and he wanted to be completely alone with her this weekend with no one else around – which had sounded romantic at the time, but now, thinking back, Beth thinks it sounds a little too Lifetime movie for her.
Beth releases a heavy sigh.
Honestly, Beth. Just what were you thinking? What kind of girl wants to come to a completely secluded cabin with their boyfriend for the weekend?
She sighs again.
The kind of girl who's completely in love with her boyfriend and when it's just the two of them, who needs the world because just being with him, it feels like the entire world already?
Maybe Maggie and Rosita are right after all. Maybe Beth does read too many romance novels.
The wolf howls again and Beth begins walking down the mountain road again. The snow is falling steady and fast and is already packing itself onto the ground. She is wearing her boots and has to start lifting her foot with each step. This is not good, she's points out the obvious to herself, but she keeps walking downwards. She can't possibly be that far away from the bottom. She'll see the lights of a house or store or even the headlights of a passing car soon enough.
Please, God, she speaks to herself. Please make it soon enough.
She squints her eyes in front of her as if that will help with anything she's trying to do. With the snow falling, she can't really make out the road anymore. Not that there really had been a road. More like a gravel access road, but with the snow, she can't determine which is road and which the woods that surround her are.
No. This definitely is not good.
Hi, God, me again, Beth speaks once more to herself. Please keep me alive and safe. I really don't want to go back to Jimmy… even if I was able to find my way back to him and the cabin right now.
Beth takes a deep breath and forces her heart to stay steady. This is bad, yes, but it could be worse. How, she's not exactly sure, but she knows that it could be. It can always be worse.
As if hearing her and deciding to give her an answer, the wolf howls again.
…
Daryl Dixon lets out a whistle and within seconds, his dog has obediently come bounding back towards him through the trees, abandoning the scent of whatever animal he was trailing after.
He smiles down at the beast and rubs one of his gloved hands behind the massive grey-furred beast's ears.
When he had found the pup out here, following its pained cries, Daryl had no idea what he would find. It sounded like a wolf, but if it was, where was the rest of the pack? Daryl got his answer soon enough when he came to the wolf pup, finding that somehow, it had gotten it's paw good and stuck between two of the boulders at the creek's bedside. He was whining and crying out miserably and it was obvious to Daryl that the others had abandoned him, to starve and die. Daryl was surprised that another bigger predator hadn't made a feast of him already.
The pup had growled and nipped at his fingers as he tried to get him free.
"Would you knock it off?" Daryl growled right back. "I'm tryin' to save you and you'd see that if you weren't so stupid."
And to this day, Daryl swears. The wolf pup stopped and actually stared at him; incredulous as if this person dared to call him stupid.
"There," Daryl said and the pup got himself away from the creek as fast as he could on three legs. Once he was a safe distance away, he plopped down again and began licking at his now-free paw.
Daryl watched for a moment and then approached the pup again.
"Alrigh'. Le's take a look at it," he said, crouching down. This time, the pup remained quiet and still as Daryl gingerly looked him completely over. "Might take you to the vet. Jus' to make sure you're good to go."
And as if the pup understood that Daryl was still just trying to help him, he allowed himself to be scooped up into Daryl's arms and Daryl carried him through the trees, back to his cabin and to where his truck was parked so he could be taken to the vet in town.
The vet had given the pup a clean bill of health and then felt the need to tell Daryl what he already knew. The wolf was a wild animal and he would run off to find his pack again once Daryl got back home. Daryl knew it and he couldn't explain the heaviness in his chest he felt from that. How could he possibly be attached to this animal after just an hour?
But it seemed like the wolf pup had gotten attached to Daryl in just that time, too, because when they got back home, Daryl set the pup down on the ground.
"Well, go on then," Daryl urged him, but the pup just sat there, looking up at Daryl. "You're a lil' useless thing, huh?"
The pup snorted at that.
When Daryl turned to go into his cabin, the pup followed him up the steps and went inside, too. Daryl expected him to want to be gone by the next day, but he stayed and after three days, Daryl went to the Costco and bought the pup a fifty pound bag of food and named him Bullseye. And Bullseye's been with him since.
"What were you at sniffin', huh?" Daryl now asks his wolf. "I didn't see any animal tracks."
Bullseye nudges his hand and then his thigh, taking a step back and looking at him, the great wolf's gray tail swaying back and forth. He then leans in and nudges Daryl's hand one more; this time, accompanying it with a little whine.
"What'd you find?" Daryl asks, swinging his crossbow from his shoulder into his hands. "We gotta get back home. Snow's comin' fast."
Bullseye just whines again and then turns himself in a circle before his eyes fall back on Daryl.
"Alrigh'," Daryl resigns. "Go on and show me."
With that, Bullseye turns and runs through the trees, Daryl trying to keep up despite the snow. There's already a few inches on the ground and with the way it's falling, it wouldn't surprise him if come tomorrow morning, he's completely snowed in up here.
Not that he minds. His cabin is good and stocked for however long he's stuck up here. And he doesn't have to worry about work, not having a normal nine-to-five job anyway. Someone's rented his second cabin from him for the weekend and the next season of shooting for Georgia Bare doesn't start for another month. He has all the time in the world to be snowed in.
Bullseye has come to a stop at a shape on the ground that Daryl can't make out. It's technically still daytime, bordering on dusk, but with the heavy gray snow clouds, it's darker than it should be usually at this time and it takes Daryl a second or two for his eyes to adjust.
It's not an animal, but if it's not an animal, what the hell else would it be?
Daryl slowly approaches it and then crouches down beside it. Bullseye is nudging the shape with his snout and whining. Daryl puts his hand out and touches the still shape. It's a person. Slowly, he rolls them over onto their back so he can get a look at them. Not just a person, but it's a girl. A girl with a cut on her forehead. He instantly looks around, but even if there is blood, the snow has long covered it up already.
Daryl goes back to looking at the girl. She's wearing a knit cap on her head, but her hair is in two braids and Daryl can see that it's a light shade. When there's actually light, Daryl will bet it's blonde. But that's the last thing on his mind right now. How did she get hurt and get knocked out. Is there someone else out here? Did someone else hurt her? Was she trying to get away from them? Where he lives, it's not exactly a high foot-traffic area. Hell, he usually doesn't see people until he wants to see them and takes his truck down to the town at the base of the mountain.
Where the hell did she come from?
Daryl lifts his eyes and looks to Bullseye and Bullseye stands there, staring at him in return.
"Where the hell did you come from?" Daryl asks the girl even though she won't answer him.
Daryl doesn't think about it. Not that there's anything to think about.
There is a gym bag next to her, the strap still around her shoulder, slowly being covered by the snow, and Daryl takes it, flinging it over his head and then he does the same with his crossbow. He then slips his hands beneath the girl's frame and easily lifts her up in his arms. She's bundled up tight, that's for sure. That's good. Less likely that she's going to freeze to death. But still, he needs to get her into his warm cabin, get her out of these cold clothes and take a look at the cut on her head.
He turns and with Bullseye happily trotting at his side, continuously looking to the girl in Daryl's arms and wagging his tail at the sight of her, Daryl heads back for his cabin.
The snow seems to be falling heavier now and Daryl is going to be giving Bullseye a hell of a treat when they get back home for having sniffed this girl out and leading Daryl to her. Daryl might not know who she is, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't care and would want her freezing to death in the woods and her frozen body not being found until the spring thaw.
"Ah, shit," Daryl suddenly swears when he sees his cabin through the trees, straight ahead, a lamp glowing warmly in the front window, beckoning him home.
How in the hell is he going to get this girl's clothes off?
…
Yes, in my mind, Daryl is definitely a dog person.
Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!