Sovay knew, as soon as she woke that it was too early, the evidence stemming from the barest of light shining through the curtains. If one thing was certain, it was that Sovay Martin was not naturally a morning person, and she desperately wanted to fall back to sleep. But her bladder had other ideas.
She pulled herself out of bed and did her business, intent on crawling back into bed for the next few hours. This time it was her dry throat that changed her plans.
The sun was just starting to rise when Sovay made her way downstairs and into the kitchen for a glass of water, placing the glass in the sink when she was finished. She stood at the sink for a few moments afterward, finally giving herself time to feel how weary she really was. This town was seriously getting to her and only about 70% of that had to do with it's serial killer.
After a few minutes she forced herself to straighten and cracked her spine, feeling about 20 times better afterwards. She knew that despite the early hour, she wouldn't be falling back to sleep anytime soon. Sovay backtracked through the kitchen, switching off the lights behind her and made her way back up the stairs. Just as she was about to turn the corner to the hall that led to her room, a strong gust of wind blew outside, knocking a tree branch against the building. She startled at the sound and instinctively turned towards it.
Sovay was even more frightened as, instead of continuing forward down the hall, she ran straight into a wall, and would've fallen backwards if not for the pair of strong arms that held her upright. Arms that belonged, not to a wall, but to one Daryl Dixon who was exiting the room on the corner. She looked at him bewildered for a moment at why he was at the bed & breakfast so early in the morning, before she realized what door it was that he was coming from. Andrea's room? That's definitely…interesting.
She looked in his face raised her eyebrows with a smirk, the best I Know Exactly What You Were Doing look she had in her. She only got a glance at his reddening face before he tucked his chin and pushed past her down the stairs. Sovay huffed out a laugh and watched him walk away before sliding back into her own room.
It was nearly 9:30 by the time Sovay left her rented room again, having leisurely showered and dressed. She looked from one end of the hallway to the other, noticing that both Amy and Andrea's doors were still shut with no sounds of life drifting through from the other side. She didn't expect to see either of them until mid-afternoon at the earliest.
Venturing downstairs Sovay found herself chatting with Dale, who was cleaning off the dining room table, but immediately offered to "throw something together for breakfast". She declined the old man, saying that she wanted to grab a coffee at the diner while catching up on the night's gossip. Which was mostly true. She was really hoping she could accidentally overhear a few things about what was going on in this town, preferably from one of Senoia's finest. She wanted to know what exactly they do know, and what they thought they knew.
Sovay decided against starting up her old pile of rust and walked the few blocks into town. This really was a beautiful little town, accented now by the changing leaves and crisp air. She always did love a good fall. A few cars passed her on her way, whizzing by in this direction or that, and a man walked his dog on the other side of the street. Other than that, it would seem as if the tiny town was still sleeping off last night like the Harris sisters were.
She walked into the diner with a chime of a bell, just as sirens sounded behind her. Sovay turned around immediately and stepped back onto sidewalk. The sirens blared as they flew past her, the sheriff's SUV followed by a recognizable man on a motorcycle. A man, who kept his eyes on hers as they sped by.
The room raised a collective eyebrow when Daryl, spoke for Andrea, saying that they were at the bar with Amy last night before leaving around 11. The second eyebrow went up after Andrea threw in that Sovay was there with the sisters too. Normally, everyone in town knew that Andrea could be a bit…overzealous. But with the things going on in this town recently, they weren't going to take any chances.
Daryl could see the confusion and eventual realization across his bedmate's face when Rick started out by first asking questions about the stranger, rather than about the youngest Harris. A bitting, "Is she a suspect?!" from the blonde towards Daryl, changed the detective's line of questioning onto Amy.
Andrea told the cops that after she left the bar with Daryl, Amy stayed, saying she'd get a ride home with Sovay. That she hadn't seen her since then, and that she was positive her bed hadn't been slept in. Andrea then started asking some questions of her own, the lawyer in her coming out to play. Daryl noticed that a couple of them were directed at him, but he was wrapped up in his own mind, thinking about the night before. Martin left b'fore us, didn' she? 'Les she was in the bathroom. She coulda—it coulda been her. Right after I just got done tellin' her I didn' think it was. Goddamit Dixon.
He was pulled back to the conversation by Rick giving out orders. He and Daryl would accompany Andrea back to the Inn, so they could talk to Dale and hopefully Sovay. Ty would put out an APB on Amy, while Michonne went over to Red's to talk with Abe and the others.
They all got to it, the partners following Andrea outside and to her overpriced car, which she promptly started up and drove off to her grandpa's. Giving each other a slight nod, the men climbed into or onto there respective vehicles and followed after the sporty convertible.
Daryl spent most of the drive caught up in his own thoughts again, until he noticed someone stepping out of the diner just as they were passing by. Her. She didn't look like a killer, but Daryl was finally ready to admit to himself that maybe he couldn't trust his instincts when it came to Sovay Martin.
Andrea was already out of the car and talking to her grandfather on the front porch when the lawmen pulled up. Dale was not looking so great at the moment, understandably. He abstained from a formal greeting, instead asking the pair about what they thought happened. Rick, being the charismatic man that he was, simply said that they needed more information before they began to worry. But knowing his partner well, Daryl knew the man didn't believe his words. He was definitely worried that something foul had happened to the youngest Harris sister. In all honestly, he was too. Amy was a sweet kid, even if she did smile at him a bit too much.
Rick continued talking with Andrea and Dale while Daryl decided to take a quick look around. The front door didn't look like it had been damaged in any way, so he went back down the porch steps and followed the rocky path around the back, to where there was extra parking. Not only did he find Amy's little red Bug, but a blue hooptie with Kentucky plates. Apparently Sovay had walked into town that morning.
A fact that was confirmed a few seconds later when he heard Andrea yelling, and what sounded like the beginning of a bitch fight.
Sovay felt it in her gut, as soon as she watched the motorcycle turn down the street she'd come to know well, that something was wrong at the Inn. She left the diner behind her and walked at a quick pace back the way she came.
It took her about half the time to walk back than it did on her way there, and when she arrived Rick, Dale and Andrea were all standing outside talking. She slowed her pace when she noticed that Daryl and Amy were no where to be seen. Oh God, not Amy.
She wouldn't put it past him. Even though she'd only known Amy for a few days now, she knew that if he was here, if he knew she was here, which she didn't doubt at all, he would go after the people close to her. And one of the first people that she'd met in town was Amy. He would know that. Of course he would. Of course he would use Amy against her.
Anything sweet, anything good, anything or anyone pure he would use to play his game. It's the same as before, when they played the game the first time, and then the second. He takes all things good and wonderful and twists them into the ugly, the horrid. Things that were once beautiful are now morbid. The only real changes between the start and now was the progression. It keeps getting worse. He keeps getting worse. Coming after girls she's barely gotten to know, just to prove his point. I'm winning and you can't stop me.
Sovay had only taken a few more steps closer to the house when Andrea ran out towards her with her fists raised and fire in her eyes. One hit to the cheek, and another on her jaw before she could even recover from the first. Dale had barely even started yelling at his granddaughter to stop when a figure wrapped itself around Andrea, stopping her from making any more blows.
Sovay cupped her face and tried to keep her cool, feeling a small trickle of blood forming at the corner of her mouth. "What the HELL, Andrea?", she bit out over the shrieking woman.
The blonde woman wriggled against the figure, Sovay now knew to be Daryl, as she yelled at her counterpart. "Where the hell is my sister, you psycho bitch?! WHERE'S AMY?!"
"DARYL!" Rick barked from his spot next to Dale, who was looking another 50 years older than he already was. "Get her out of here and cool her off. You," he said to Sovay, "you come with me."