The Bitterest Taste: Chapter Four
TWD
It wasn't until she smiled that his stomach sank and eyes brimmed with fury. The hell was she doing?
Ed stood with his back to Daryl, but he knew from Ed's expression walking in that he was smiling down on her too. And it wasn't any comforting or reassuring in the slightest. It made his skin crawl, the way he looked at Carol.
Distantly he heard the man who let Ed in lock up the hallway door and walk away, leaving the three of them there alone.
"Hey!" he yelled, pacing back and forth, knuckles knocking against the metal. "Hey! The hell you think yer doin'? Hey! I'm talkin' to you!"
Daryl banged his fists loudly against the bars, the hollow metallic sound droning through the Ed didn't look up and Carol didn't pay any attention to him at all.
His stomach dropped lower. What was going to happen- whatever she was thinking of doing- he couldn't do a damn thing to help or stop it. Ed could string her from the ceiling and all Daryl would be able to do was watch.
"Shoulda come with me, avoided all this trouble." he said. It was clear in his expression and tone he wasn't sorry at all.
"I know it now. You were right." she said softly, looking up at him eyes wide with a hint of apology in them. "I shoulda gone with you. I was wrong, Ed."
"You ain't been right once your entire life." he said cruelly. "You've always been a useless piece 'a-"
"You shut yer god damn mouth, you son'v'bitch!" Daryl yelled over him. Daryl saw the hilt of a knife at the small of his back and wanted nothing more than to plunge it right through Ed's head. Ed thought she was dirt and just for that Daryl would gladly put him down with no more thought than he did a Walker.
Being ignored and completely helpless to do anything drove Daryl furiously crazy, and Ed knew it. His frustration was coming off in such thick waves that only the dead wouldn't have noticed. So again he was ignored.
"The man in charge here'd have my hide if he knew I was down here. Lucky you're guard there owed me one. I figured I just had to come down. I just knew you'd be missin' me, ain't you?" he leered.
For the first time, Carol cast her eyes down, almost like she was shy. Ed picked up in it too. And the fact that she didn't answer the question.
"But you came down to see me anyways," Carol said. "Even if they didn't want you too... So you'll stay? At least for a bit?"
His head tilted, analyzing the wife he hadn't seen in months. He walked down to the end of the table, leaning over her and putting his hands on either side of her knees, forcing her feet apart to make room for him.
"What you playin' at?" he asked.
Her response came after a few moments. She lay there staring at him as she found the courage to speak.
"Please don't go." she whispered. "I'm... I'm alone and scared, Ed. You're all I ever got and I just don't want you to leave. Please."
She moved her feet to hook around him, biting her lip with pleading eyes. The whole thing made Daryl sick.
Ed straightened up. "I ain't got no use for you no more." But his eyes lingered, roaming up her body.
"Please," she said quietly. Her body almost reacted to his stare, moving and shifting as his gaze moved. Her legs pulled him closer, handcuffs clattering against the metal as she moved down.
The weight of what was going to happen hit him like bricks. Suddenly his fury and body went into high gear, slamming and kicking and throwing his body against the metal bars to get to her. Pain erupted as his body made contact again and again, practically steaming against his rage-burnt skin.
Daryl could see even from where he standing that Ed's eyes flashed hungry. He could have been the last man on earth and no woman would've given the brutal man a second thought, unless it was to get rid of him. And here was Carol offering herself up to him, for what? Sex in exchange for trust? Maybe giving her freedom enough to slip out of there? Whatever the hell she wanted wasn't worth having to degrade and whore herself out to god damn Ed Peletier.
"No!" he screamed, strained as he threw himself against the metal. He punched and kicked and screamed, blinded by panic.
"We'll let the redneck pervert watch than." Ed said with a sick smile. "I got you now. He ain't. I'll show him that."
He took her by the ankles and pulled her down, a slice of red appearing at her bound wrist as the cuffs held her fast against his pull. But her expression didn't change, just the pace of her chest as her breath increased. His hands moved rough and tight up her legs, digging into her skin harshly.
"I'll rip your damn throat out!" he screamed, his words furious, pained and useless. "Get yer damn hands off her ya son'v'bitch!"
Daryl stopped fighting the bars, his hands cut and bruised, looking and pacing around the cell desperate to find something that he had missed before. Something that could get him out to save her from having to do this.
He heard a sharp intake of breathed and his eyes snapped to the woman in the next cell. Ed's large frame was overtop of hers, crushing the small woman underneath with his weight. He was completely uncaring as his hands roamed and dug into places that made Daryl feel more murderous and more heartbroken than he had ever in his life felt before.
He couldn't watch, couldn't look away, couldn't just let this happen.
A desperate powerlessness went from taking full control of his entire body, to suddenly vanishing, being replaced by a numbing shock in a split second.
A small hand appeared at the small of Ed's back, his body grinding up impatiently against her as he worked to get his pants off. That slender hand reached for the hilt of the knife, pulling it free from its sheath. Daryl watched as that hand moved faster than Ed could react, the blade plunging through the back of the mans' head.
His body convulse for a moment, then slowly it shifted to the side, slipping off the table and hitting the ground with a definitive thud.
As Ed's dead body moved off of her Carol moved away to the farthest point from him.
For the first time in a while, everything was absolutely silent. Carol's back was to him, her body braced and hunched as she sat motionless on the table. Daryl stood motionless as well, feeling even more helpless than before. This was something he never wanted. He would have killed a hundred people if it meant saving her the pain of having to kill someone herself. He had wanted so much to protect her, and today he had done anything but. The gravity of what she had done slowly began to creep in.
Apologies, fury, shock and worry were stuck in his throat as they both stood frozen.
"Carol," he said, blocking out as much conflicting emotions as he could manage. "Carol, you still with me?"
But she didn't reply, didn't give a hint that she had even heard him.
A few moments later she turned, eyes never making contact and her head down. She didn't say a word, just swung her legs over the table and crouched down on the floor with a bloody and dripping knife still in her hand. Her cuffs rattled as they slid down the table leg and as fast as she could she got to work.
Taking the tip of the knife Carol used it as a screwdriver, trying to unbolt the table leg and get herself free. He cringed, unconsciously stepping forward as the drenched knife slipped from her hands, clanging loudly and splattering tiny drops of blood to the cement. It was several moments before a slow and deliberate hand reached out and took up the handle again.
Daryl had begun pacing by the time she had gotten the leg free.
"Throw me the knife," he said to her. "I'll get us unlocked and outta here. Carol? Carol!"
But she didn't reply. Instead she braced her back against the underside of the table, trying to force it up just enough to get space for her to slip the handcuff under. He could see the pain creep onto her face as her small frame threatened to buckle under the table's weight.
After several attempts she managed to shuffle the cuffs under the leg. He stood at attention, expecting her to walk to him or to the door, but instead she went to the far side of the room.
"Damn it Carol, you can't fit." he said, slamming his hand on the bars. The bars on the far side of the room were farther apart, but as she walked up to them and tried to force her body through the poles, he doubted she would make it. Just end up crushing herself.
Daryl could only watch and cringe as Carol screamed, forcing her body through the small opening.
"Shit." he muttered, the first in a string of curses as he look at her. She had made it through, curling up on the floor in the next cell. Her arms were folded up across her ribs, head hunched over and breath ragged. He could see the sweat roll down her skin and it was the only kind of movement she made for a few minutes.
Agonizingly he braced himself as she got up, going to the wall of bars that led out to the hall. He didn't look at her, but couldn't help but hear as it happened again. It felt like an hour before there was silence again, the only sound being the soft and quick sound of her breathing.
It was many minutes before he heard muffled shuffling.
A close and high pitched creak echoed, and Daryl moved to the door. His anxiety and impatience increased with every slow squeak. If only the god damn hinges had been on the inside of the door that would've cut her pain down in half and Daryl could've actually done a damn thing to help her. He continued to turn every hurt and fraught emotion in anger, knowing how to deal with that one.
The metallic creaking stopped and was followed by a light tap on the door. Daryl took that as his cue and braced himself against the door, pushing to pry it loose. After several attempts the door began to give way, the bottom of the frame screeching along the concrete floor as it opened up into the hall.
As Daryl slide through the small opening, he spotted Carol, sitting curled up on the floor against the wall. Breaking free from the cell, he immediately went to her and crouched down. Her frame was huddled in a tired fetal position, head bent low and arms clinging to her chest.
He reached out his hand towards her face, desperate to see her. He wanted to say something, anything that would make all of this disappear or better or easier for her. He wanted her to look at him, give him that small reassuring smile Carol did when she knew he needed it. Wanted her to stand up, unscarred and able to carry on being the enduring woman this world had made her into. Ed had spent years beating her down, and even if she had wanted to kill him at points, doing it must have been something beyond what Daryl could grasp. And he selfishly didn't want Ed to take her away from him like the guilt of Ed's death would.
But he swallowed his emotions down, kicking himself in self-loathing as he scanned the hallway. It was time for him to suck it up and stop being such a gutless pansy. She had gotten them free, now it was time for him to get them out.
Despite what a moment ago he had wanted to say, he settled with something he could put into words. "Don't care if this is hell itself, I'm gettin' us outta here right now."
Carefully he put one arm around her and one under her knees, lifting her up. He thought he heard her breath catch, but she made no protest so he settled her gently against his chest.
He had no weapons, no idea where they were or where the others in their group were or how many they were up against, but hell or high water he was getting them out of there.
"You did all the hard part; from here it'll be easy. You just relax." he whispered.
And she gave no reply.
A/N:
Hey hey. Firstly, next chapter will be in Carol's POV, so you can see what's going on with her. I switched to Daryl's POV for this chapter because of reasons.
Secondly I haven't forgotten about Begin Again. These chapters are only half the length of BA and I am really busy with moving and being sick (STILL) so I'd rather get something out than keep ya'll waiting forever for an update. I do plan on working on BA tomorrow though!
This chapter was pretty terrible to write, for many reasons and I'm sure you can guess some. If you read, please review and tell me what you think of it! I'd really appreciate hearing your feedback.
- J