Chapter 3

"You better getcher act together little girl! If you wanna see the light of another day!" I heard Alan screaming from next door. Poor Krista, I thought I had it bad when I was younger, my daddy always beatin' on me but at least I didn't have a mother to take care of like she did. "Why is this fucking place always a goddamn pigsty?" he kept shouting, I pulled my pillow down tighter around my ears. I felt helpless; I couldn't do anything for her. She started shouting back but I could hear what she was saying, then it got quiet. I held my breath, until I heard knocking on my door. I shot up in my bed and looked at my door.

"What?" I asked hoping to not get a reply.

"Daryl git out here, I'm gonna kill em'." It was Merle; I jumped out of my bed and flung the door open. He was standing in the hallway with his k-bar out. It was almost as long as my forearm and just as wide too. He kept it real sharp; he shaved his face with it daily. There was banging on the front door. Probably the cops' again lookin' fer Merle. I trotted down the stairs; Merle trailing behind. I could hear rain tapping the window and thunder rumbling outside.

I opened the door to find Krista standing there soaking wet, shaking, and crying with a bleeding forehead. I grabbed her hand and pulled her inside, closing the door with my foot. Her hand trembled in mine worse than a new born fawn born in the snow of January.

"Darlin' I love ya, but yer daddy's gonna get what's comin' to em'." Merle spat gripping his knife tighter. I pulled her close to me, wrapping my arms around her midsection. "Daryl take her upstairs and don't bring her back down until I get back." I said nothing; I just did what he said.

"W-what are you gonna do?" she asked meekly. We had been standing on the second stair leading to the second floor when she turned to ask Merle her question. He stepped forward and cupped her face with his left hand and wiped away a tear with his thumb.

"Don't you think bout that right now darlin', you just go on upstairs with Daryl and don't pay no attention to what you hear." We continued up the stairs. I stopped and looked into my room once I reached the top; she was a few steps down from me. I didn't turn to look at her. The room was dark and the only light emanating from it was that of the neighbor's porch light and the lightening that occasionally flickered.

"Go into the bathroom and I'll take a look at that cut." She didn't say a word or look at me at all. She didn't look like the girl I knew at all. All the life in her face was gone and she looked like her soul had been taken. "I'll be in there in a minute." She sulked up the last three stairs and walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

I looked through the window and could see Merle practically breaking down the door to Krista's house. He put up a bit of a struggle, but he got in. wouldn't be the first time neither. There was a lot of shouting and the sound of glass breaking. I closed the blinds and left the room. When I finally got to the bathroom the door was still pulled shut.

"Hey," I said knocking lightly on the wood, "I'm comin' in." I paused, waiting for a response. When I didn't get one I opened the creaky door slowly, then pushed it the whole way open. She was sitting in the bathtub with her knees pulled up to her chest, eyes closed and hands over her ears. There wasn't much I could do, so I just stood there; staring at her. I don't think she even knew I was there… I ran my fingers threw my hair and tried to think about what to do. What the hell do I do? I thought to myself. There was nothing I could do. I sat on the edge of the tub and just sat there with her; waiting for Merle to come back.

Those were the last memories I had of her. She was gone. My family, my friend, and my reason for existence… They were all gone; and at this point and time I've come to realize that there wasn't anything that I could ever do to get them back, or to make things right again.

Okay, I know this chapter was kind of confusing and hard to follow but this was the only way that I could think of to introduce Krista. I promise that the next chapter will be back to "normal". If you didn't quite follow it, it was basically a flash back memory from Daryl's past. More of this story line will tie in with the current story line, I'm sort of tying eberything to gether as I go so bare with me _