A Case of the Blues: Chapter 9
** 19 YEARS EARLIER **
Daryl had awoken that morning in the same old clothes after a rather rough sleep on his ripped couch. He sat up and stretched his back and it cracked in delight. He yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes; a smile creeping onto his face when he thought about Beth.
He left the cabin to check the snares he had set the night before. Only one had caught a rabbit. He sighed, kneeling to the ground to remove the dead animal from the noose. He carried it back to the cabin, dangling it by its ears as he waded through the forest.
He set a fire and placed a makeshift grill atop it before he went about skinning and gutting the animal.
Once the gruesome task was complete, he put the rabbit onto the grill and waited for it to cook. He walked to the stream behind the cabin to rinse off his bloody hands. 'She will be here soon,' he thought to himself, growing slightly concerned that she hadn't arrived yet.
He went about his day: eat the rabbit, sit indoors, draw, read, set more snares, wash in the stream, go to sleep.
Four days passed and he still hadn't seen Beth.
He barely slept.
He knew he'd miss her, but he never wanted to picture the day when Beth abandoned him. But here it was. She wasn't coming back, and he was alone. Over time, he learned to live with the truth. Not to accept it, but to live with it. She was gone.
And, he thought, if he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life with Beth by his side, he would live alone.
A/N: Just a quick background snippet to keep you going. Thanks for sticking with the story!