AN: Here we go, another little chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Sophia could be a good girl just like the man that she fully knew was crazy wanted her to be. She could be quiet when he wanted her to be quiet, sitting near him on the footstool that he'd designated as her "chair" and rocking and cuddling the doll that he'd given her because it pleased him to see her "happy" with her present.
She could speak when spoken to like he wanted. She could say "Yes, Daddy" until her tongue was tired from the repetition of the words. She could say "I love you, Daddy" when he signaled that it was the proper response.
And she could say it when he didn't signal it because the words calmed him down. The words soothed him. The words made a change in him, even if it was temporary.
Because the man that she fully knew was crazy told her that, if she wanted her mama to be safe, and if she wanted to see her alive, she'd be a good girl and she'd do exactly as she was told.
So that's what Sophia was going to do. At least as much as she possibly could.
Because he promised her that if she did that, and if she was patient and didn't cause him any problem, that he'd give her whatever it took to make her happy. He would make sure that she had everything she wanted. He would make sure that her life was everything she might want it to be. She could have anything she wanted, so long as she was a good girl.
And the only thing she wanted was her mama.
The man might have frightened her, but he didn't. She might have been afraid of his shifting moods and the fact that when he left the room that he'd commanded she stay in, he was always different than when he returned. Except Sophia knew that men were typically that way. She knew, at least, that's how her Daddy had always been. It had always been almost impossible to expect how he would be.
When he came home from work, would he kiss her mama "hello" after his day? Or would he come home and offer her another bruise to go with the ones that were trying to heal on her face from the other bad days?
And Sophia had learned, just as surely as she'd learned anything else, how to be a good girl for her mama's sake.
Because if she wasn't good? If she made too much noise when noise wasn't desired or if she spoke out of turn on a day when it wasn't allowed? Then she could be the one to cause her mama to cry…and she knew she cried, no matter how hard she tried to hide it from her. Her mama had never realized that sending Sophia to her room might have hid the sight of things, but it didn't hide the sound.
So if being a good girl now was all that Sophia had to do to make the man happy and to get her mama back, then she could be a good girl. She could do anything that he wanted.
Except she wasn't sure that it was all she had to do.
Because she didn't know how long it had been since she'd seen her mama, but it had been too long. It had been longer than the man promised when he first started promising that he'd bring her back. It had been long enough that Sophia was beginning to fear that he was lying to her…and that he wasn't keeping her mama safe somewhere until things that had to be done, things that hadn't been explained to her, were finished, and they were allowed to be together again.
Sophia had begged him, time and time again, just to let her see her mama. She had promised to be good. She'd promised not to cry. She'd promised not to even ask for more than that. And he hadn't given her even that.
So Sophia was beginning to think that maybe it was all a lie. And if it was? Then she'd decided that her mama might need her.
But if she was going to go after her mama? If she was going to do what would probably constitute being a very bad girl in the eyes of the man that she knew was fully crazy?
Then she was going to have to do it without getting caught. Because she'd been the cause of her mama getting hurt before, but she wasn't going to be the cause of it this time.
Tonight they were all down at the show. Tonight the man had left her alone because the show would be too much for her. And tonight she had plans of her own.
Sophia slipped out of the room, careful not to close the door because it locked from the outside, she didn't have a key, and she didn't know if she might have to re-enter it quickly, and she found her way out of the apartment that the man called home.
She didn't know where her mama was, but she knew from her Daddy, her real Daddy at least, that there was a prison there. It was a place she'd heard him mention in discussions with other men. It was a place that was tucked up under the buildings of the town. It was where they held everyone that was dangerous, or at least might be dangerous, until they'd been to trial and knew what to do with them.
She didn't know where her mama was, but she figured with the way the man acted, that was as good a place to start as any.
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The whole world had gone to hell in a hand basket. That's what they said, right? That everything was going to hell in a hand basket?
Well if that was the case, they were pretty much there.
Daryl had always been a person who appreciated time to think about what he was doing. These days? These days it seemed there wasn't much time to think about anything, and their lack of planning seemed to be getting them all fucked at every turn.
The smell of smoke was strong enough to choke him and it was so dark that he could barely see his brother with barely enough distance between them to keep him from running right into Merle's broad back. He didn't even know, anymore, where the hell they were. They were running like rats in a maze…rats in a burning maze even…and the only thing he could do was try not to think and to just keep running, hoping that Merle knew where the hell they were, where the hell they were going, and how the hell to get them out. There had to be an end to the tunnel.
The world had gone to hell in a hand basket and it was all downhill from there. Daryl was living in a prison right now. Ironic since that's where most people had figured him and his brother both would end up. Except things were different now. Now instead of hoping to get out, he was hoping to stay there…he was hoping that they eventually got out of this tight, dark, smoky space and found their way safely inside the prison walls.
Life could be pretty damn ironic.
The only good thing that had come out of this was that he'd found his brother. That in itself was something that Daryl hadn't even had time to comprehend. He'd never expected it to happen, but there he was. Merle was alive. Daryl had become almost convinced that he was dead…or that even if he wasn't dead, he was just gone.
And Daryl had experience with people simply being gone.
He didn't even pretend that he didn't know why the smell of smoke and fire bothered him. He didn't pretend that he wasn't fully aware of why it choked him far more than it should, especially given that the fires probably weren't as close to them as his mind might make him believe they were.
He hadn't even come to this place looking for his brother. He'd come following a crazy, brooding samurai that showed up at the prison with a basket of baby formula…because that's what the hell happened in a world gone to shit, angry samurais with baby formula tried to break into prisons…on a mission to save two of their group that had gotten, or so she said, kidnapped by the guy that ran this place.
And they had no other option than to believe her, given that she had the formula that the two people had been sent after.
So they'd come half-cocked, or at least Daryl knew now that they really weren't prepared for what they were stepping into, because they hadn't taken the time to really think things through. They hadn't taken the time figure out what they were going to do.
But that's how it worked these days. Nobody had time to think anymore.
They'd found the group members, and actually Daryl had a feeling that the place they'd ended up now was where he'd been before except for the fact that everything that had happened afterwards…everything that had sent the whole place into chaos and had started the fires and raised the noise levels outside to that of a mob…had knocked out the power that had made bare light bulbs flicker and burn above his head when he'd been in here before.
Yes, they'd found the group members, and he imagined that they'd gotten out, but he'd managed to get himself captured.
Of course, if he hadn't, he wouldn't have known his brother was there, so it was hard to say if he thought it was as bad as it could have been. Mostly he was trying not to think.
When Merle stopped jogging through the twisting and turning corridors that he seemed to have memorized enough to follow in the almost pitch black, Daryl ran into him for having not anticipated the abrupt halt in their forward movement.
Then he saw what his brother saw.
Just ahead of them, at the end of the hallway, there was a dancing light coming from what was very likely a flashlight.
"We don't want no trouble," Merle said, his voice just barely above a whisper. "Just wanna get the hell outta this place…but if you want trouble, I ain't gonna hesitate to kill ya ass."
Daryl was aware that he'd been stripped of his weapons. He assumed that Merle was in the same boat as he was. In the fight on the way in here he'd managed to take a knife off of a man, and he was pretty sure that Merle had done the same, but if they were facing someone with a gun, they might very well be at the wrong end of that threat.
Still, if they were going to die either way, they were going to die fighting. That's just how the hell they both operated.
He didn't expect what he heard, though, as the dancing beam drew closer to them.
"Please…I just wanna get out of here too," the voice said, barely even as loud as Merle's voice had been. "I just need help. Please…my mama…please…she needs help."
Daryl's heart did a strange lurch in his chest. The voice clearly belonged to a child. It belonged to a little girl that was hiding in the darkness just outside of her flashlight beam in the tunnels they were in.
And she wanted to leave, just like them, but she was concerned about her mother.
"Who the hell are ya?" Merle asked, stepping closer. Daryl followed, now not feeling threatened by the presence that was in the darkness with them.
"Sophia," the girl said softly.
Merle hummed.
"Sophia? Ed's young'un?" Merle asked.
Daryl didn't know what was happening, but apparently the two were acquainted in some way. The girl hummed back in agreement and Merle answered her, both of them sounding more like animals communicating at the moment than humans.
"He said you was dead," Merle mused. "Said you was both dead…said they found ya dead after they killed Ed…"
Daryl reached up out of instinct and grabbed his brother's shoulder, barely visible to him now given their growing proximity to the light. The girl might not know that they'd killed her father…it might not be the best way to tell her that news.
She didn't seem to react to that part of the story at all, though, and it struck Daryl.
"I'm not dead," Sophia said. "And my mama…she's not dead…not unless you let her die. Please…you've gotta help her. You've gotta help us!"
"Merle," Daryl said.
"We get outta here," Merle said to anyone that was listening. "We can't get no damn where with a half-dead woman and a kid."
"What you gonna do?" Daryl asked. "Leave 'em?"
"Please don't!" Sophia protested. "Please! I'll do whatever you want! We can cook…wash clothes…please!"
"Can't leave 'em," Daryl commented.
"Can't take care of our own damn selves!" Merle protested. "We don't get caught goin' out the back way and we're gonna be out there…you know what the hell's out there, brother! I ain't gonna be responsible for them too!"
Daryl felt like his brother was right. Taking on the responsibility of a child and a woman who might be too far gone for them to even help was really more than they could do. It was dangerous for everyone involved. They might not even make it back to the prison with the extra strain.
If he'd been thinking at all, he might have agreed with Merle and said to leave their asses behind, right there in the dark.
But that was the thing about the world these days. Decisions had to be made so quickly that rarely did anyone have any time to think.
Daryl reached around Merle and took the flashlight out of the girl's hand, shining its beam quickly over and, for the first time, seeing her face.
"You ain't gotta be," Daryl said. "My decision, my responsibility."
