LIGHT A FIRE
{Author's Note: In this chapter we get both Daryl and Tessa's experiences. Thank you for reviewing/adding to alerts/favourites and for reading. Enjoy! Please read & review if you have time :)}
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the character(s) you don't recognise.
Lyrics: Sacrifice by Theory Of A Deadman.
Everybody expects me to break,
But I'll never break down again,
Everybody expects me to give up,
But you'll never see me givin' in…
-+-
[TESSA'S EXPERIENCE]
I awoke to the feeling of a cold, wet sensation causing my cheek to tingle, as I slowly opened my eyes.
With my vision blurred momentarily, it took me a minute to remember exactly where I was and what had happened.
Flashes of memories hit me: of comforting Daryl, feeling a semblance of hope return, and looking for something, before…
My eyes then widened in horror because it became suddenly clear as the jumbled pieces of my memory came together.
An awkward tightness around my wrists only added to my anxiety at the fact that I was in deep trouble.
"You're finally awake, I have to admit, you must be a delicate little thing if you can't handle one of Harry's punches…"
I jumped before turning to look at the woman who the voice had belonged to.
Her hair was matted against her face in dirty clumps as her lip was bruised and swollen whilst her mud-stained clothes hung off her tiny frame.
Whatever they had done to her wasn't something that I wanted done to me.
"Who are you?" I coughed as my throat started to ache from lack of hydration and recovering from the flu.
The woman sighed softly as she reached behind me to pick up a flask, as she held it up to my lips, "You need to drink…"
"No offence, but the last time I was here, they drugged me." I looked at her suspiciously, my upper lip curling upwards in repressed anger.
My response seemed to shock her as she widened her eyes slightly, "You're Tessa? Why did you do it?! Why couldn't you just-"
"Just take their abuse?! It is abuse no matter what they claim!" I cut her off with an angry glare as I tried again to get my hands free from the ropes.
"If it wasn't, then they wouldn't feel the need to tie me up!"
She just shrugged, "You're dangerous. Harry is only trying to protect us from the man you were with!"
I kept struggling against the ropes, the rough textile digging into my sensitive skin and leaving it red raw.
Flinching inwardly at the pain, I retorted back to her angrily, "I'm dangerous?! Are you hearing yourself right now?! And the man that I was with wouldn't hurt anyone who doesn't pose a threat!"
Sighing, the woman shook her head slowly and patronisingly, as she pulled a sympathetic expression.
"Oh, honey. You really are brainwashed! He had a crossbow! Good men don't use them sort of weapons as they are forced to use whatever they can find to defend themselves."
Scoffing, I shook my head, "I can't believe that you'd actually think that-"
"She does because it's the truth Tessa."
My whole body stiffened as I turned to look over at Harry who was strolling over to me with a smirk.
"Screw you!"
He raised an eyebrow, "Huh, funny…" Pausing briefly to address the woman, he said, "Jodie, can you please go and get two bowls of Nina's delicious stew, please?"
"Of course!" She beamed at him before practically skipping off to run his errand as I turned my attention back to him.
"You're pathetic…" I glared at him darkly, my whole body shaking with rage.
"Am I?" He laughed as he knelt down in front of me, "That's rich comin' from a girl who stabbed my wife in the leg after she tried to save my life-"
"You tried to rape me! You got what was coming to you!"
I could see the anger and humiliation radiate from his body as I couldn't help but feel pleased with myself at knowing that I had caused him pain.
"I have been searchin' for you for a long time Princess! And then, when I was about to give up, who should we stumble upon, but your redneck friend!"
I stiffened but remained quiet.
"Daryl, I believe his name is? Well, I have to say that you really have him wrapped around your little finger Tessa-I can admire that! He'd do anything for the sweet, pretty little thing who spins a good story and tells him exactly what he wants to hear."
"It's not like that." I glared at him, "Daryl-"
"Then what is it like Tessa? Have you told him what actually happened here? Or did you only want to give him your recollection of events? Are you scared that he'd judge you?"
I turned my head away from his gaze as I replied quietly, "I didn't want him to take on all of my pain as well as his own…"
"Oh, how noble!"
He then grabbed onto my chin, pulling my face hard towards his as he muttered menacingly, "You killed my wife! Injured me-"
"You deserved it!" I replied back harshly as my eyes glared into his, "I'm not going to apologise for protecting myself! I only wish that I had also chopped off your-"
Harry didn't let me finish, as he had then brought his hand up and slapped me hard again across the face.
"You took everything from me!"
"YOU KILLED MY BROTHER! YOU TRIED TO RAPE ME! I WON'T LET YOU HURT DARYL! I'LL KILL YOU-"
He chuckled in sick amusement, "Yes…true on the first two counts. But, you can't do anything to save Daryl…anyway Tessa, what do you take me for?"
Narrowing his eyes, he then stood up to say, "I can't kill someone for tryin' to protect their loved ones…I'm not you."
My eyes were taking in how many people there were and how I'd never make it out alive if I tried to kill them all.
I was trapped, and even though I had thwarted Harry's sexual perversions, there were others who would gladly take on his role.
Yet, still I fought against the bonds that restricted me.
Warm blood was trickling steadily down my wrists and hands, but I didn't care; I needed to get free.
"Here's your food Harry!" Jodie had returned with two bowls of a stomach-churning stew, whose fumes were making me feel nauseous.
"Thank you Jodie…" Harry smirked as he winked at her before taking both of the bowls and placing one on the ground by his leg whilst bringing the other one over to me.
"You must be hungry Tessa?"
"Not hungry enough to eat that…"
He sighed, "And here I thought that we were getting somewhere?"
Waiting for me to answer, but getting nothing, he growled in frustration and picked up the spoon, filling it with the vile-smelling stew before bringing it to my lips, "Eat it!"
I pursed my lips together and moved my face away from his reach.
There was no way that I was going to be eating anything that he was offering.
"Dad!"
Both of us froze in place as Harry then forced a fake smile on his face in order to address his son, "Tobias-"
"Lucas is dead, the redneck killed him…"
Harry nodded once in understanding before standing up straight, "Lucas was expendable. We just need to keep him from tracking us to here. Let's move! This place is fallin' apart anyway!"
Tobias nodded as he ran off to give the orders to the rest of the group.
Turning towards me, Harry smirked as he said, "You won't eat the food, so now I have to bruise the merchandise…"
I watched him coming closer to me, as he had brought out the exact same knife I had stabbed into him years before.
The ropes that had fastened my hands together were now becoming looser, causing me to feel them slip painfully down my hands and onto the ground, as I kept my composure calm.
All the months spent learning different skills and techniques off different people at the prison were now coming into effect.
Calmly, I waited for the right moment.
I let him lean down.
I let him drag the tip of the knife sadistically across my neck lightly.
But when he had tried to raise the handle up to strike me, I brought my right boot up and pressed it hard into his face, hearing something crack, as I used that split second to wrestle the knife from his loose grip and run.
"BITCH!" I heard him roar out in fury as he stumbled after me.
My hair flew around my face as I sighed in annoyance, pushing the troublesome strands away from my eyes as I burst my way through what appeared to be an abandoned shipping warehouse for a parcel company.
'General Industries' signs still hung across the vast expanse of walls.
I tried to remember if we had scavenged near this area before, but I couldn't think of any instances off the top of my head.
Suddenly something hard and cold grazed my shoulder, as I gasped at the force of which it had just passed my skin.
Briefly pausing in shock, it was only when I had turned to look at the wound that I realised I had been shot at.
Shock and pain rippled through my body as I gasped, my legs still trying to push my body forwards as I knew that if I could just make it out of the building then I'd have a fighting chance.
-+-
[DARYL'S EXPERIENCE]
The look on Beth's face said it all.
She had had seen him mercilessly beat a man to death in a blind rage.
Maybe he should be feeling shocked or remorseful, but he no longer knew what to feel.
The only feeling that he could understand was loss; and it was tearing him in two.
Not wanting to answer any of the questions that she may ask, Daryl numbly took out his knife and brought it down into the man's head before slowly standing up and quietly picking his crossbow back up from where he had left it on the ground.
"Daryl…" Beth stood staring at him in shock as she then noticed the bandana that was still being clutched in his hand, "You gave that to Tess-"
"Just you?" He dodged her question by asking one of his own roughly.
She nodded solemnly, "Yes…I got separated from Maggie back at the prison…"
Daryl nodded as he scoffed before walking off, his face remaining blank as his guard went back up.
"Is it just you?"
The hesitation to ask him that question didn't escape Daryl's ears, but he could tell that she already knew what the answer was.
"Is now."
Beth watched him then tie the bandana onto his trousers as she could feel tension pushing down on them both.
"What happened?"
She wasn't sure if she expected him to answer her or not, but it was starting to upset her that he thought she didn't have a right to know if something bad had happened to her friend.
"She's my friend too! I won't ask about what had gone on with you and that man, but I want to know…"
Still, he remained quiet.
Sighing in frustration, Beth stomped over to him and stood in his way, "Daryl! I just saw you beat a man to death with your own bare hands! I know that you-"
"You know nothin'!" He had looked at her in anger then, his eyes narrowing as his lips thinned.
Beth widened her eyes at seeing the pain behind his eyes as it dawned on her what must of happened, "Did they hurt her?"
Daryl shoved roughly past her, trying to avoid the painful question and it's devastating answer.
"Daryl?" She looked over at him in empathetic understanding before watching him aim his crossbow at a walker who was stumbling towards them.
She expected him to fire an arrow into it's head quickly and move on, or to use his crossbow as a heavy object in order to cause a dent in it's skull.
Although he did go down the latter path, nothing prepared her for the level of aggression and force he had used when bludgeoning the walker with his crossbow.
Over and over again his arms had raised and then fallen so that he could bring the heavy object down onto it's head.
Brain matter and tissue flew from the trauma of the attack, as Beth couldn't take it anymore and quickly darted forward, wrapping her arms firmly around his waist and resting her head on his back in a comfortingly move.
She knew it had worked when she felt his arms go limp at his sides and heard the dull thud of the crossbow hitting the ground.
Then a heartbroken whimper sounded that alerted her to what he was going to let slip.
"She's dead…I failed her…like at the prison! I should of kept lookin'! They are all dead cause of me and she…"
He trailed off as strangled sobs tore through him.
Beth kept her arms around him, too afraid to move in case he fell apart and she couldn't help him.
It was a comforting gesture that would be lost on most people, but she knew that Daryl needed this.
"They hurt her…"
It was that sentence that made Beth widen her eyes and move away from him in shock and horror.
Double-meaning plagued the words as she found herself asking, "Did you find her?"
Daryl shook his head, getting embarrassed at losing his cool, "There were tracks, blood…then I found that asshole! He was with some walkers, actin' like he couldn't handle them. When he mentioned the bandana I knew that he'd taken her cause it wasn't there before. He…" Pausing to shake his head, he finished with, "He told me that Tessa's dead."
"He told you that but you didn't see it? She could still be alive! We should go back there and look!"
"Why?!" Daryl then now turned around to look at her as wariness and something else was showing on his features.
Beth realised that the other expression was fear, due to finding something that he may not want to discover.
Yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that they had to go back there and carry on searching.
Everyone at the prison knew there were something going on between Daryl and Tessa; even Merle had commented on it.
To her it was important that if Tessa was dead, that they at least find her body and give her a proper burial.
Then again, Beth's gut instincts told her that Tessa was alive, and that they needed to help her.
Her Father had taught her many things, but one of the more important pieces of advice were to: 'Always trust your instincts.'
For that reason alone, Beth knew that if she could get Daryl to help track the footprints, they'd find evidence that contradicts what the stranger had told him.
Standing her ground, she had lifted her chin up and faced him defiantly so that she could counter his question with, "Because she'd do it for you!".
As she started to walk on to go and retrace the steps they had made, she could feel Daryl pondering her words before seeing him follow her.
"Keep goin' east…"