-e-
The word 'nigger' came out that man's mouth more times than Eden cared to remember. He had thrown the word at her in rabid snarls of rage. Endless waves of hate and violence poured out of him whenever he saw fit and Eden hated herself for the way it was chipping at her walls. Still, the man was alive and for now that was enough. At least for a little while longer.
In truth she had never really seen someone so angry before and the vibe he gave off felt like bees were living under her skin. Feeding him had only ended in him throwing a fit and various liquids ended up on the both of them. He never wasted a pill though. Eden knew a druggie when she saw one and as much as she wanted to be the bigger person, she couldn't. Every moment she looked at him she wanted nothing more than to tell him all the ways he was a disappointment, how she should leave his weak ass there and never look back; the thought of being alone though was scarier than the man currently glaring at her. Merle fucking Dixon was a piece of work and she couldn't help but feel a little short handed.
Pun completely intended.
"What you got there, nigger bitch?" Eden wondered how much meth he had to smoke to get his voice to growl like that. "Better be something for me to piss in."
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to wipe your chicken shit ass...again." She smiled at the purple look Merle got. "Are you mad that I called you chicken shit or that I wiped your ass?" The man had refused the wheelchair and the walker she had found. Instead relied on her to help him to and from the bathroom. Something she hated but he seemed to enjoy, if only for the sheer fact that she was so unhappy about it.
In the three days they had known each other, Eden could honestly say that she had never met anyone more irritating. He seemed to act out to get attention but when she gave it to him he lashed out. She absolutely could not understand him and as she put down the digital camera to help him pee, Eden realised she might never fully understand him...
"Any fucking time now!"
...and that was okay with her.
-e-
Eden wasn't a fool enough to admit it outloud to the rambling man after they had been together for a little over a week, but having another living person around had done wonders. She had fallen so far into herself that it was almost difficult to recognise fiction from reality. Was that a real memory of her family or was it a made up scenario? Even now as she sat on the roof, taking a much needed break from the bull downstairs, her mind plays tricks on her. She had been staring at the tree line for hours but she couldn't make out what she was seeing.
At first she thought it was a walker, no big deal, but it never moved. Then she thought it was just darkness and trees, but it was manly shaped and her mind wouldn't let it go. When that didn't work she had closed her strained eyes against a forming headache and when she opened them it was gone. Something in the back of her head went off, a panic that had her hands shaking before she could logically catch up. The number of possibilities of what that figure could have been was endless and as she forced herself to take a slow breath, it appeared again. Logic told her it was a bush against a tree. That this was just like the times a shadow in her room would scare her but when the light turned on it was only a jacket on a chair. Huffing at herself in annoyance, she stood and gave the dark figure a sarcastic wave and went back inside to her 'friend'. Eden though, always one to over think, couldn't help but wonder if she had waited a while longer, would the thing in the woods have waved back?
What Eden wanted more than anything in that moment was to have a real friend. Someone she could survive with, that would hear her worries about a dark figure and not think she was seeing ghosts. Instead of a companion, instead of a friend...she had Merle. Once again she felt she was getting the short end of the deal.
"Don't you have anything better to do than to bother me?" The man asked in a huff as she sat down on her bedding on the other side of their small shared space. He had started walking small distances a few days ago, Eden watched him sometimes. The concentration on his face, the sheer will that shone through. If she was quiet long enough for him to forget she was there she could almost see the man he was under all the bad. Then there were times like today when he just got on her damn nerves.
"It's the end of the fucking world Merle, what could I possibly be doing?" Merle gave her a sideways glance and she thought for a moment she seen a hint of a smile, but just like the dark shape outside it disappeared before she could know for sure.
"Leaving me the fuck alone is one." Eden could almost take what they were doing as witty banter if the man in front of her wasn't so damn hateful 99.99% of the time. "Finding more peaches like I asked is another."
-m-
He hated to admit it, really fucking hated to admit it but he was tired of acting like an asshole. Eden rarely ever took his bait and when she did he wished she hadn't. It was in quiet ways she shot him down that had begun to turn into sharp looks. It was like chipping at a brick wall with a paper spoon.
Her mouth was another thing that got on his fucking nerves. Everytime she opened it, there were knives. She didn't pull her punches and watched him like a wolf until one of them backed down. Her hazel eyes turned almost green as she bawled her fists, ready to rip him apart at any moment. He wanted her to let loose, to throw her rage at him like everyone else. Then the storm in her eyes would pass and she'd verbally punch him in the face.
He had been suspicious at first. It didn't make any sense as to why she didn't leave him on the road. HE would have left her on the side of the street the moment he seen her. Yet, even after everything he's said to her, eaten all her favorite foods on purpose, she was still here. Now though, he wasn't sure the woman wasn't just insane.
Merle had been trying to find his footing, walking as much as he could every day for the past month and finally he was able to reach the door that kept him from whatever was outside the room. Part of him wished he hadn't opened it. The light was harsher than he expected, blinding him as he took his first steps into the unknown. His arms raised instinctively and Merle had to take a moment to look at his hand and his stump. The difference was once again stomach turning. Eden had said she had to cut some of the skin when the infection took place. For a woman whose only experience was watching TV dramas she had done a decent job stretching the skin around.
"You're awake." Edens voice was muffled as she tapped on the other side of the glass causing Merle to give a sharp jump. "Merle?" Merle really wished he hadn't opened the door. Behind the small pharmacy window Eden stood with a paint mask over her face, in a room full of hanging corpses. She was covered to her elbows in various organs, her hands resting on her hips; he could see her face in his mind eye clearly. Merle had somehow landed himself in the den of a psychopath.
It took him all of five seconds to start running towards the door in front of him. Ignoring Eden calling his name. Merle beat his shoulder against the door desperate to get it open. Something was lodging it from the other side, but with each hit the splinter of light got wider and wider. Suddenly, Merle could hear the scraping of gravel on the roof and for a terrifying moment he thought that the woman was going to pounce on his head. Merle looked to his left in a ditch effort to calm his mind but when he looked for the woman she was no longer in her torture chamber.
Merle staggered back away from the door when light flooded in from above him. A hatch he hadn't noticed before opened up and two small feet dangled in. Edens voice followed after them, words Merle couldn't hear above the pounding in his heart. Rushing back to the only place he did know, Merle franticly locked the door.
It all made sense to him now. Why she would save him, nurse him back to health. All so that she could torture him and hang him in her weird trophy room. Merle was not the type of man to go down without a fight. He cut his own fucking hand off for god's sake. Merle momentarily kicked himself for never really giving a shit about what was going on around him. He had spent weeks in this small room and now when it counted he couldn't find one thing that could help him out. He needed an escape and a weapon and all he had was a mess he had made and her camera. Merle quickly picked up the camera, it was bigger than any he had ever seen. He flipped through the photos jumping from the door when she gave it a sharp knock.
"What the fuck is wrong with you Merle? Open the door." Her knocking got louder as she hit the bottom of the door with her foot. "I know you can fucking hear me, Merle."
"You want me to let your crazy fucking ass in here to what? Kill me? Hang me in that fucking room? Tough shit, Dorothy." Merle flipped through pictures of burned houses and forgotten lawns. There were way too many pictures of lone walkers in fields. Merle stopped at a morbid picture of a bloody wall.
"Father, I am afraid of what i'm becoming."
"...all day and you come out here, finally, and this is what you do?" Merle hadn't been listening to anything she was saying. Too caught up in the strange feelings the photos were building up in him.
"Did you kill all those people out there?" Merle asked staring at a picture of himself. His beard had grown out some and stuck at odd angles, his eyes were hard as he looked down at his missing hand. He didn't look like the man he felt, this person in the picture was hunched and broken. Was this what he looked like to her?
"Those weren't people Merle." Her tone had gone from angry to mild confusion. "The world...ended months ago. You've had to have put them down before."
"Of course I have." He growled turning her camera off and tossing it towards her pile of bedding. "Why are you hanging them up like that?" The woman was a fucking psycho, there was no good reason to hang geeks up the way she had.
"They're camouflage. The dead wont smell us and the living think were crazy. I use to play this video game where a faction of humans hung their kills around their base. If you seen a bunch of dead bodies strung up like linen would you be ready to try and steal their shit?" Merle could see the logic behind it, if he had seen something like that while on the road he would immediately turn the other way. "Of course, I could just be fucking crazy. Either way you're gonna have to open this door sooner or later. If it ain't sooner i'm gonna get real fucking pissed."
Merle stopped talking just to piss her off then. Gone was the crazed notion that she was going to string him alive and in its place was the twinge of annoyance she always sent through him. She threatened him with her anger like it was supposed to mean something to him, talked back as if he was her friend. Pushed him when he was supposed to have the upper hand.
"I have all the food and water in here." He called back after a couple minutes of listening to her grumble on the other side of the door.
"If you think I kept all the food near your pig ass than you're a fucking idiot." Eden laughed, pissing Merle off further. "I also have all the medication out here." Merle looked around the room and sure enough the side bag she also pulled his pills out of was missing.
"You're a fucking useless nigger." He growled punching the door hard enough for it to bounce on its hinges. "Needing a big man to protect you! Well, fuck you! I ain't taking care of your coon ass." Spit was flying out his mouth as he scream the words, waiting in satisfaction when she didn't say anything.
"Who!" There was a loud crack as the door as the middle of the door split. "Are! You!" Two more blasting hits against the door and it swung open, the trimming around the lock splintered. "Calling a useless nigger!" Edens boot clad foot was still poised mid air, momentarily as surprised as Merle was that she actually kicked the door down. That moment was gone though as her green eyes landed on him.
"For one thing, fucker, you're living off me. I take care of you! I feed you, medicate you, protect your ungrateful ass. There isn't a single fucking thing you've ever done for me." Merle would never admit it but he was genuinely scared of the smaller woman. She was slowly stalking towards him, her eyes never leaving his own. "I saved your worthless life and you couldn't even say thank you." She wasn't yelling at him anymore, her voice going into a stern calmness. She looked like she was physically holding herself back and Merle had no doubt that what she wanted to say was a million times worse than any of the pathetic insults he was thinking about.
"Call me a nigger one more fucking time, Merle Dixon and i'll leave your ass right here to rot." Eden looked around the room for a moment and scoffed, giving Merle one more look she turned out the door. Merle could hear her boots hitting heavy against the metal ladder.
Merle wasn't exactly sure how he went from holding their supplies hostage to feeling like a shamed child but he didn't fucking like it. Anger swelled in his chest as he started throwing his bedding around the room and kicking the overfilled trash can across the room. Cans and empty bottles of water flew around the room giving Merle a momentary sense of accomplishment. Once the high and mighty bitch got back she'd have to clean the mess up.