Butterfly Caught
Chapter 2: Obstacles
The trunk lurched to a stop as Daryl yanked the emergency break up as he parked the car before letting out a small sigh and falling back into his seat. He barely even had time to look up before Harper was storming out of the truck, the passenger door slamming shut behind her. He watched as she stormed her way up the small dirt path leading into their old family cabin. The bushes and trees around it were overgrown, vines creeping up the sides of the walls making the brown wood barely visible beneath it. Harper stopped briefly, picking up a random rock and turning it over in her hands to reveal their secret key. Daryl hopped out of the truck himself, moving to grab their bags from his truck bed as she finally opened the front door of the cabin and slammed it shut behind her.
"What the hell was that about?" Merle scoffed from next to him.
He had parked his motorcycle right in front of Daryl's truck. He reached over into the back to pull his own bag from the truck bed before flinging it over his shoulder.
"Hell if I know." Daryl grunted, strapping his crossbow behind his back.
"What did ya' say to her?" Merle asked, his dark blue eyes staring holes into the side of Daryl's face.
"Didn't say anythin'. She's been a brat the whole car ride." Daryl snapped, "Whining about this and that like I give a shit."
Merle rolled his eyes at him.
"Always did have a way with women, didn't ya;?" he barked out, sarcastically.
Daryl wasn't in the mood to entertain him, so he merely glared at him as he finished yanking their supply bags from the truck. The pair of brothers made their way after their sister. Just as they entered the cabin themselves, one of the doors down the hall was slammed shut.
Merle let out a groan as he heaved his bags onto the floor, "I'll go see what's up her ass."
Merle disappeared down the hall as Daryl shrugged his own bags onto the couch in the living area. He wasn't too concerned with Harper right now, they had bigger things to worry about. It had only been a few weeks since he had been out here to this cabin, so he knew there was bound to be supplies left over from his last hunting trip. He figured it was more important for him to start taking inventory of all the things they had so they were prepared for their trip to Atlanta. More important than trying to figure out why some teeny bopper was angry. He let out air from his nose as he stared down the hallway. He could barely make out Merle's voice behind the closed door leading into the small bedroom that had always belonged to Harper.
The cabin itself wasn't that big. Just the living area, small kitchen, master bedroom and a tiny storage closet that had been turned into Harper's bedroom when she was born. Merle had always said it was important for a lady to have her own space, away from the men. Daryl scoffed at that thought, as if Merle was concerned about any woman. Merle could give a rats ass about women in general besides using them for a quick fuck. Harper was different though, she was Dixon blood. That made her royalty in Merle and their father's eyes.
Daryl decided to preoccupy himself with going through the kitchen cabinets, pulling out any cans he found and setting them on the small table. Harper had been nagging at him the entire car ride and he was frankly tired of listening to her complain. He wasn't used to being around kids, much less moody teenage girls. Despite it all, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt gnawing at the back of his brain as he thought about her teary eyes as she had stormed from the truck.
Lily was curled up on the small, twin sized mattress inside her room. The ugly red plaid bedding was causing her head to throb as the black lines twisted and combined with each other because of the tears filling up her eyes. She was still in shock at the events that happened in less than 24 hours. One minute she was preparing for her first day of freshman year, eager and excited to finally be going to highschool and the next minute, her dad was dead, killed by her own brother and she was evacuating the small town she had known her whole life.
She held her head in her hands, pressing her palms against her eyes as if she were trying to push her thoughts from her mind. The scene of her father crawling after her, his eyes wide with hunger as he desperately tried to chomp down on her leg until a single bolt pierced him through his eye, causing him to fall limp to the ground, keep replaying over and over again in her head. And she was so confused. Her daddy was just sick. He had caught the flu that had been going around. She even remembered watching the news about it. If it was just a flu, then there was probably medicine for it or something. But now it was too late. Her dad was dead. Dead. Gone.
More tears rolled down her small face.
The door to the very small room opened and Merle hovered in the doorway for a second. Lily's cold blue eyes turned up to him.
"Get out." She snapped at her older brother.
Merle did the opposite by entering the room and closing the door behind him.
"I said, get out!" Lily yelled, now unraveling herself to sit up to fully turn in his direction.
"Don't ya' holler at me." Merle snarled, "I ain't like Daryl, alright, I'll pop ya' in the mouth if I have too."
Lily knew that was far from just a threat. She glared at him before turning her body away from her, staring holes into the poster hanging on the far left wall. It was a map of Georgia with tiny illustrations marking every major city. Her eyes glossed over the small drawing of the Georgia Capitol Museum that marked Atlanta.
She felt the bed dip down behind her, the weight of Merle causing the small bed to creak.
"What're ya' cryin' about?" Merle asked.
Lily scoffed, "Daddy's dead. You guys never gave a crap about him though, so I shouldn't be surprised that ya' don't seem to care."
She felt Merle's hand dig into her upper arm as he whirled her around to look at him.
"Ey, common' Lils, I know ya' aint dumb." Merle snapped, "Ya' know damn well why me and yer brother don't care one bit about that ole' man.
Lily softened at his words. She had always known somewhere in the back of her head that her dad had been different to her compared to her brothers. She had caught onto it at some point around the age of seven. Merle and Daryl made themselves scarce when it came to her father. In fact, she was pretty sure she had never even seen all three of them in the same room together…not that she could remember. Merle had always had his own trailer on the other side of town and by the time she had memories of her own, Daryl had always stayed with him. The only acknowledgement the two brothers had even given their dad had always revolved around her.
By the time she was ten, she had an idea of why things were the way they were with her family. She had accidently caught Daryl once without his shirt on one early morning. She had seen the scars. She knew better to ask him about them though. But that didn't stop her from asking Merle about it. It was probably the one and only time Merle had even gone quiet when prompted to speak. He just gave her this look…such a heavy expression in his eyes. And Merle was right, she wasn't stupid. She knew then what those scars meant. She never brought it up again.
"Tim might've been good to ya', but he wasn't no saint, alright." Merle said, "Now, we gotta big day tomorrow. No more pussy shit, ya' hear me? Time for ya' to grow up."
Merle ruffled up her hair before exiting the small room, grumbling under his breath on the way out. Finally alone, Lily laid back down on the small mattress and slowly cried herself to sleep.
The next morning, she awoke to Merle pounding on her door, yelling at her to wake up.
"Get up, Lils!" He shouted, "We got shit to do!"
She rolled her eyes at his voice, still mildly annoyed at both her brothers for how well they seemed to be handling the world falling apart. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes as she laid still for a moment, not eager to begin the day. She slowly removed herself from under the warm covers, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up to stretch and was surprised when there was another knock against her door.
"I'm up, Merle!" She grumbled.
"It's me." A softer voice answered her back.
She faltered when she heard Daryl's voice. She had said some pretty awful things to Daryl yesterday during the ride to the cabin. She had been so distraught by not only their dad's death, but watching her own brother be the one to murder him. And for the most part, Daryl had just sat there staring blankly out to the road, taking on her onslaught of verbal abuse. At the time, that had only made her angrier. But now after an exhausting night of crying in between periods of sleep, she couldn't help but think back on yesterday with a heart full of regret.
Lily slowly pushed the door open to see Daryl standing on the other side, a small bag in his hands and his eyes cast downward.
"I grabbed ya' some stuff from the house yesterday on our way out." He said, his quiet voice a stark difference from her other brother, "Figured ya' might need some things since we don't know how long this shits gonna' last."
In the chaos that had occured yesterday, Lily hadn't even realized that Daryl had stopped to grab her things for her before they had taken off. In fact, the events right after her dad's death were still fuzzy in her memory. The only image that she could recall was the arrow from Daryl's crossbow piercing her dad straight through his eye.
She took the bag from his hands and their eyes met for just a second. Merle's eyes were a light blue, his hair also a light blonde. But Daryl had always looked more a brother to Lily with his sandy blonde hair that matched hers and his dark blue eyes. Despite them only being half siblings, Merle had always told Lily that she looked exactly like Daryl when they were both babies. She had never been able to verify that information herself because there were no pictures of Daryl as a child.
"Thanks." She muttered as Daryl turned away from her, "Hey, Daryl, wait-"
He didn't even turn around, just disappeared around the corner of the hallway. Lily closed her door and sighed as she leaned against it. She wanted to apologize to Daryl for yesterday but just thinking about it caused all her words to jumble up in her throat.
The Dixon's had never been good at communicating their feelings.
It wasn't long before the three Dixon siblings were confined with each other in the small living room. Daryl and Lily both shared a look of confusion as Merle continued to mumble to himself under his breath before disappearing into the backyard. He reappeared in seconds, holding two shovels in his hands. He tossed one to both of the siblings.
"What the hell do we need a shovel for?" Lily asked, glaring at Merle as she fumbled to catch the shovel last minute.
"Watch yer mouth." Merle barked at her, "I left some guns buried out in the back awhile ago, ya' know, just in case. I jus' don't remember where I put 'em. So ya' guys are gonna help ole' Merle find them."
He grinned at them as if they were going to praise him for his preparedness.
"Well don't keep standing there like a bunch of idiots." He snapped when neither sibling moved from their spot, "We gots' a lot of work to do."
Daryl huffed but nonetheless followed his older brother outside. While he was annoyed that Merle couldn't remember where he buried these mysterious guns, he couldn't deny that having guns right now would benefit them. He only had one piece on him right now, same with Merle. It wouldn't hurt to have more, just in case.
Lily hesitantly followed them out as well, holding up her free hand to block the incoming sun.
"What if those...things are out here?" She asked, a hint of fear behind her voice.
"Ain't no one around for miles, girl." Merle said, "If those geeks made it up here, well, best start digging because we're gonna' need those guns."
Lily rolled her eyes at the back of her oldest brother but started digging anyways. She didn't need another lecture by Merle or a scolding.
"How do you forget where ya' buried guns, anyways?" Lily grumbled under her breath just loud enough for only Daryl to hear her.
He bit back a smirk at her annoyance but didn't dare to speak up in front of Merle.
And so it began. For the next two hours, the three siblings continued digging random holes in the yard, trying desperately to find Merle's cache. The heavy Georgia sun was beating down on them, sweat rolling down their faces. The air was slick and humid and the only noise filling the space was the occasional grunt from them heaving dirt up and over their shoulders.
Lily groaned as her arm started to ache for the millionth time. She paused her digging to lean against the shovel for a moment, brushing the sweat off her forehead. She let out a long breath as she watched both her brothers pound into the dirt with their shovels.
"We've been at this for hours, Merle." Lily complained, "Are ya' sure you even buried guns in the first place?"
"Quit yer yabbin'" Merle glared up at her from his shovel, "Ya' think I'm just out here diggin' holes for fun?"
"I don't know what goes on in your crazy mind." Lily snapped back, "I'm tired of this. I think if those guns were here, we would've found 'em by now!"
"Hey Harper, knock it off." Daryl snarled at her. He could see the familiar look clouding over Merle's face. One he often saw when he was on the ends of his older brother's fist. Lily had always been good at testing Merle's patience but now was not the time. They were all on edge and things had been tense since the dead started walking. It was only a matter of time before Merle snapped and Daryl didn't want to see Lily getting the brunt of it.
When Lily started to open her mouth again, her small face twisted in frustration, Daryl tossed some dirt at her from his shovel, causing her to step back and gasp as the dirt covered the bottom of her jeans.
"Shut up and dig." He growled at her, "The faster we find these guns, the sooner we can get the hell outta here."
Lily focused her glare at him but headed his veiled warning and began to dig again.
When Daryl heard the hollow sound of his shovel hitting something, he could feel a bit of relief in the back of his head. His arms were aching from all the digging and at this point of the day, the sun was high in the sky, making the air around them hotter than ever.
Both Merle and Lily's heads whipped around at the noise. The shovel fell from Merle's hand as he stalked over to the hole Daryl had been working on. Lily bounded over as well, kneeling down next them. Daryl used the back of his shovel to scratch the dirt off the surface, exposing a medium sized wooden box.
"Wowwee!" Merle cheered as he leaned forward to yank the box free, placing it on the leveled ground next to them. He wiped the remaining dirt off of it before picking it up and beginning to walk back towards the house.
"Hey!" Lily called out, jumping up to following him with Daryl trailing on her heels, "Aren't ya' gonna show us the guns?"
"Mind yer business, girl!" Merle yelled out, waving a hand at her as he disappeared from view, crossing into the house.
Lily quickened her pace to catch up to him and she busted into the living room.
"I want to see the guns." She breathed out as she caught her breath from her sprint.
"These guns are for me and yer brother, alright." Merle brushed her off again, "Ain't none of yer concern."
"Bullshit." Lily glared, "You guys always let me have a gun when we would go huntin'."
Daryl, who was finally catching up to the pair, looked between his two siblings. He reached out and grabbed Lily by her upper arm.
"Come on now, Harper." He said, "Ya' gotta trust us to take care of ya'."
Lily shrugged out of his grip, "No, I've been digging for hours with you guys! I deserve to have one of the guns too!"
"Since when did ya' become such an entitled brat?" Merle snapped at her, "Git on out of here! Go to yer room!"
Daryl could see the vein twitching in Merle's forehead and could tell things were heading in a bad direction.
"Lily, come on." Daryl tried again, but she ignored him.
Instead in a quick moment, the small girl had darted forward to try and yank the box from Merle's hands. The older man clinged onto it and a small scuffle began and ended quickly as the box fell to the floor and busted open. Two large baggies of crystal meth bounced onto the floor and a single pistol clattered loudly against the wood. For a brief second, the room went so quiet, Daryl was certain he could hear his own heart pounding in his chest.
"Are you serious?" Lily screamed.
Merle quickly bent down to scoop the baggies back into the box.
"You had us outside in the sun for hours digging for fucking drugs!" Lily continued to yell, "I can't believe you! You useless piece of shit!"
The crack of the back of Merle's hand meeting Lily's cheek startled Daryl. His little sister crumbled to the floor, hand reaching to cover the place Merle had just hit. She stared up at her oldest brother in a moment of shock, which was soon replaced by fear. Tears started to fill her cobalt eyes and she quickly hopped up from the floor and ran down the hall. The slam of a door snapped Daryl out of his own shock.
Merle continued to put the contents back in the box before slamming in shut.
"What the hell was that for?" Daryl snapped at his brother, "Why did you hit her?"
"Don't be testing my patience anymore, boy." Merle barked out, "That brat needs to learn when to keep her mouth shut. I warned her."
Daryl peered at his brother closely, their eyes meeting in a battle of dominance for a minute before Daryl looked away. This behavior wasn't out of the usual. Merle had been on and off drugs for as long as Daryl could remember. Hell, he was usually the one in Lily's spot. Only Merle would beat the shit out of him, not slap him around. Still though, Merle had never raised a hand to Lily before. Daryl let out a long sigh as Merle disappeared down the hallway as well.
Lily sat at the end of her bed, staring into the tiny mirror hanging from the wall. Her eyes were still a bit swollen and red from crying. She tilted her head slightly to look at the cheek Merle had struck. There was a faint pink mark from his hand. She touched it gingerly and winced at the sting of pain she felt.
Her stomach was still in knots. She had always known Merle had a hot temper. There were many times she had come to Daryl's aid after a few particularly nasty fights when he was so beat up, he could barely open his own eyes. But Merle had never touched a hair on her head. No, this time was different. Usually, she would just stay clear of Merle whenever he was in one of his moods. This time, she had pushed at his buttons until he had snapped.
She let out a sigh and fell back down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her mind was conflicted at the emotions coursing through her. On one hand, she was angry that they had spent all morning digging stupid holes just so Merle could get high. On the other hand, she felt guilty that she had yelled at her older brother when she should've just let things be.
A small quiet knock on her door startled her out of her thoughts. She sat up for a moment, contemplating if she even wanted to answer it. She was not in the mood to talk to either of her brothers.
"Harper." Daryl's quiet voice called out from the other side of the door.
Lily begrudgingly got up and opened the door.
Daryl stood in front of her, an indescribable emotion floating in his eyes. He held something out to her and she glanced down. A worn and faded forest green backpack dangled from his fingers by one of it's straps. She instantly recognized it.
"My old camping backpack." She muttered, "Where did ya' find that?"
"In the garage, under some junk." Daryl grunted as he pushed the backpack into her hands.
She clung onto it.
"Come on." Daryl said, jutting his chin down the hallway, "Need some help huntin'."
Lily raised an eyebrow at him. Daryl definitely didn't need help hunting. She glanced at him closely for a moment, but he failed to meet her gaze.
"Alright." She shrugged, following him down the hall and out the door.
She strapped her old backpack to herself as Daryl and her ventured outside and down a small dirt path leading into the woods behind their family's old cabin. Once enclosed in the trees, the canopy provided a nice shade that felt nice against her own burning skin. Daryl was as quiet as he usually was. Her own footsteps were louder than his as they trampled over the fallen leaves. Normally, he would already be barking at her to keep quiet. However, he kept his eyes trained forward, not even looking for animal tracks in the dirt.
Lily didn't question him though. It was nice to be out of the cabin for a minute and surrounded by the trees. The soft sounds of buzzing insects and birds chirping soothed her nerves. She had always cherished moments like this when her brothers would take her on some of their hunting trips. As she got older and Merle disappeared for a while, the trips happened less and less. Sometimes Daryl would take her, just the two of them. But that was a rare occurrence.
She wasn't sure how long they walked for. But it wasn't long before she realized they weren't going to be doing any hunting. Daryl didn't stop once to try and track anything. Instead he kept forward, following the small dirt trail. She didn't mind that he had lied to her. There was a reason he had brought her out here but Daryl wasn't the type of person to tell her that sort of thing. Instead he would just pretend to go about doing his business as per usual.
Finally, after a good hour of walking, Daryl suddenly diverged off the path.
"Come on." He muttered to her and she trailed after him.
They walked for another fifteen minutes before they stumbled upon a small creek. Daryl began to follow the creek downstream with Lily on his heels. The gentle babbling noise of the water tumbling over rocks down it's path filled the air. She could spot tiny tadpoles swimming about as she toed along the edge of the creek. A large frog croaked from its spot on a rock, sunbathing next to the water.
Suddenly Daryl came to a stop in front of her. The rushing of the water falling down the rocks told her they were standing at the edge of a small waterfall. Daryl yanked the strap of his crossbow over his head before placing it on the rock to the side of them. He then began his descent down the rocks. Once he was at the bottom, he reached up and grabbed the crossbow and gestured for Lily to climb down the rocks herself. She tightened her backpack around herself and then slowly made her way down to her brother.
"Figured we could take a break here." Daryl muttered.
Lily nodded at him and took a seat on one of the big rocks surrounding the small pool of water that came to a stop under the waterfall. She closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the peaceful sounds of the woods and creek. This was Daryl's way of comforting her after the events that had happened earlier, she was sure of it. She glanced over at her older brother for a moment. He was walking near the treeline, scooting dirt around with his shoes. She smiled at his back as a feeling of gratitude filled her. She watched him for a few moments before pulling her backpack in front of her.
She couldn't remember the last time she had used this backpack and was curious what was still inside of it. She unzipped it and dumped its contents onto the rock to take inventory.
The first thing that caught her eyes was a dark grey baseball cap with the large word, Tallulah, embroidered on it. She smiled as the memory of the time Merle and Daryl had taken her to Tallulah Gorge State Park for a camping trip flooded her mind. She brushed her hair with her hands before placing the cap on her head. It still fit, luckily. She must've been eight or nine when Daryl had bought this memento for her at the gift shop on their way back home. The next item that caught her eye was a silver compass. She fiddled with it for a second, pointing it in the direction Daryl was standing. When the dial pinged North, she casted it aside.
A pair of over the ear headphones was amongst the pile of stuff, as well as an old tube of chapstick. A bright red, first-aid kit was sitting next to an old pair of sunglasses and a half filled water bottle. She put those things back into the bag. Left on the rock was a narrow book. The cover was heavily faded, signifying its age.
She picked it up carefully and wiped a bit of dust from the cover as she read the words:
'Butterflies of Georgia: Field Guide' by Jaret C. Daniels
"Had that book since ya' were about this tall." Daryl's voice caught her attention. He was standing in front of her now, gesturing to a height that came to his midcalf, "Use to love chasing butterflies around. Merle got ya' that book when ya' started naming each one ya' saw."
"I remember." Lily said, softly.
"Use to be yer mission to find every single type of butterfly from that book." Daryl said, "Use to make us stop each time ya' saw a new one to make sure ya' marked it down in the book that ya' saw it."
Lily opened the book to a random page. There was a picture of a butterfly with long black wings that had tiny spots of yellow in a distinct pattern. The name of it listed above the picture, Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). A small, handwritten note was underneath. She recognized her own messy writing, 'Saw this one March 14th, Cloudland Canyon ~ Lily Harper Dixon'.
She continued to fumble through the pages, noting every time one had her signature next to it with the date and place she had seen the butterfly. There were only about ten entries. Most of the butterflies had gone unseen or maybe she had given up at some point and forgot about it. She closed the book shut and ran her fingers over the cover. There was a large blue butterfly on the front of the book, resting against some pretty white lily flowers. She glanced back up at Daryl only to find he had resumed his position walking along the treeline.
She sat still, basking in this moment. She had so many good memories thanks to her brothers. It was the only thing she had left to hold onto now that the world seemed to be ending. Just as she was about to put the book back into her backpack, movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She nearly let out a gasp as a butterfly slowly flew down and landed perfectly still on the book in her hands. It was big and brown, with tiger stripes close to the base of its wings and some eyelike spots on the outer edges of it. The top wing was half yellow with a blue oval imprinted on it. As soon as it came, it was gone. Lily watched as it flew right over Daryl's head and back into the woods.
She opened the book again, flipping through the pages until she saw a picture that looked just like the butterfly she just saw. Over the picture was the words, 'Common Wood-Nymph (Cercyonis pegala). She reached into the front pocket of the backpack and cheered internally as she found a small pen. She wrote right under the name of the butterfly, like her other entries, 'Saw this one October 22, Talking Rock ~ Lily Harper Dixon'. She was pleased to see her handwriting looked a lot nicer comparatively.
"Ready to head back?" Daryl asked from his place near the trees. Lily smiled softly as she closed the book and placed it back into the bag before zipping it shut. She stood up and brushed the dirt from the back of her pants before jumping off the rock. She nodded to answer Daryl's question and the pair took off, making their way back to the family cabin.
The air was serene around them.
Author's Note: Yay, next chapter! Hope you guys enjoy this one! I had a lot of fun writing it. Let me know your thoughts and opinions :) Also, do you guys want to see reference pictures for the story? So you can visualize Lily and stuff?
TheBlueNova: Thanks so much for your review! I don't want to give away too much since this story is basically all planned out from beginning to end but to answer your question, yes the story is going to diverge quite a bit from the canon material! I agree with you, I wish we had gotten to see more of Merle so yeah *hint hint*