Heterochromia Iridum
Oh my god, that premiere, right? No spoilers, but holy shit. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I thought they handled an iconic scene nicely.
Boop boop boop, I don't really have anything else to say other than thanks to everyone new that has added this to any of your alerts, and a special thanks to everyone that reviewed since last chapter; Guest, Kaiya's Watergarden, .2016, Natalie, Biasoul, jomoisbae81, sillygabby, norcalpc, addicted2memories, sweetlilac, Jean, JenTen, GawkyTC, suzzie, KuteKati1989, I'm a Nerd and Proud, and Bactrian Camel.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of the characters associated with the franchise. I own the plot to this story and any original characters you may see, like Katty or Calum.
Chapter 18: Nightmares
She always knew when she was dreaming.
Time didn't matter in the apocalypse. Only the amount of daylight you had left was relevant anymore. But in a room, that stole that, that took that sense away from you, Katty had found herself wondering what time it was often enough to consider whether the soft ticking that she heard had been a fabrication of her own mind.
She always knew she was dreaming when she heard the tick tock.
The room mocked her, in a way. There were trivial things like vinyl record players and fake potted flowers; Katty supposed that his guilty conscience was seeping through and the misguided man wanted to make it appear like she was a guest, rather than a prisoner. She snorted to herself. As long as it made him feel better.
It was dark, and dull, and hopeless, with shitty knickknacks that glared at her, taunted that even though they were the only tangible items in the room, Katty would never be able to reach them. She was always trapped, locked down into a chair, her arms bound tightly to either side.
Other aspects were never the same. Sometimes there were faceless people in the room, murmuring to each other. Katty wondered if these were real conversations that she had heard at some point, but was too mindless to properly retain. Sometimes she was alone, and the nightmare would just be echoes of nothing, over and over again, with the only accompanying melody was the sound of her own breathing, her own blinking.
More often than naught, there were Biters. Hissing, snapping, growling in the dark, just out of sight, but not out of mind. Chains clinked, and Katty always fucking hated that they matched her own. Her legs would sting, and when she looked down, there would be small sections of skin gouged out of her, blood freely flowing down her legs and settling on the ground.
Katty's nightmares were never action packed. The physiological response she felt didn't match the content of the dream, really. There was nothing chasing her ever, no one shooting at her or screaming at her, no one dying. But she would wake up, sweating, sobbing, shaking.
It was the sensory memory; Katty knew she wasn't inside the room again but, then again, she didn't really know. The fear and panic came from the sensory memory, the muscle memory, the one that told her the cramping in her limbs and the numb feeling in her wrists could be real, even if it wasn't. But, no matter what was around her, when Katty heard that damned ticking, she knew she was dreaming.
And the foot steps.
After a while, whether it was faceless people, Biters, or absolutely nothing, the foot steps would come. Each like a clap of thunder, reverberating through her chest and spiking her heartrate.
Through all the inconsistencies in her nights, it always ended with a short, polite knock on the door.
"You are so valuable to this community."
Katty swore under her breath as she tripped over a fallen branch, more than just a bit distracted this morning. She had taken up running again as soon as the nightmares returned. Katty would now often wake up with an overabundance of adrenaline coursing through her veins, and no outlet for it.
She tried not to feel bad that Calum was often there when she woke up. He was never angry when she would wake him up with her whimpering, forcing him to walk to her room and prod her into consciousness. Katty refused to tell him that the nightmares didn't come back until Calum had re-entered her life. He already felt guilty enough without her adding to it. Calum was also the one to suggest she start running again. He reasoned that if she was tired, she'd sleep better.
Okay, that was a lie; he had tried to lighten the mood by reminding her a perfect way to 'blow off steam' would be to fuck Daryl. And when she had tried to smother Calum with a pillow, he had coincidentally thought of an alternative.
Using Daryl to 'blow off steam' was not a viable option in the slightest. The man had been purposefully avoiding her for a few days now, and Katty was tired enough that she didn't quite care to pull him by the hair and force him to stop moping – pouting – whatever he was doing. She'd deal with it later. Katty could handle Daryl's moods; that didn't bother her. But on the other hand, dealing with the possibility that he simply didn't want anything to do with her anymore, that was something that Katty didn't think she could stomach currently.
She may have fucked everything up. Looking back on the last two nights, she had been the one to throw herself at him. He hadn't initiated anything between them, just gone along with it. Katty frowned to herself and rubbed at her temples. She was too tired for this shit.
Katty tripped over something else on the forest floor, and swore again, louder this time. She was walking back, cooling down after her run around the perimeter of Alexandria, basically just killing time until she had to go back and interact with people.
Her breath caught in her throat when a Biter ambled lazily from behind a tree, a groan sounding through the air as it moved. It was shirtless and appeared to be made entirely of ribcage; the emaciated form twisting towards her at her surprised noise.
The undead was within ten feet of her, and Katty started to move her hand towards the machete at her hip, waiting for it to stumble towards her some more. The wideset, unseeing eyes seemed to look through Katty, and it sniffed the air briefly before it turned away, disinterested by her appearance in front of him.
She didn't move as she watched it leave, her throat dry and her lower lip pinched between her teeth. Katty never understood why they normally didn't bother her. Surely she smelt entirely human and alive, compared to other Biters. Calum and her had tried to theorize the answer to that question, but that's all it ever was; theory. Guessing. Maybe her scent changed when she got bit, and it helped mask her. Maybe they never truly noticed her to begin with; after all, the time that she had gotten bitten with Tyler, she had been clinging to him. Calum guessed that it had confused her scent for his. She knew it was important, but Katty tried not to think about it.
She knew her luck would run out one day.
"What the hell was that?"
Katty whipped around at the demanding, feminine voice, to find Enid. The teenager was staring at her, and Katty's heartrate sped up at the accusing look on her face. She wasn't entirely sure how long the girl had been standing there, but Katty couldn't trick herself into believing that Enid hadn't seen the Biter ignore her.
Katty tried to keep a passive look on her face, and arched an eyebrow at her in return. "What was what?" she hoped that if she didn't react to the question, Enid would drop it.
"It – I dunno," Enid's brow creased as she frowned at Katty. "It left," she concluded, sounding confused.
Katty forced her lips to twitch into a smile. "Well, they aren't the smartest, are they?"
Enid didn't look convinced. "No, that's not it," she said with a shake of her head. "It heard you, but it was like it didn't see you."
Katty switched her expression to a serious one. It wasn't comforting that Enid was as stubborn as she was. "I'll tell you a secret, Enid." She waited until the girl came a few steps closer, her own expression mirroring Katty's.
"I'm a ghost."
She snorted unattractively at the immediate switch in expression on Enid's face. The drastic change from intensely focussed to exasperated was funny to her, though Enid didn't seem like she agreed.
"I know something's weird about you, even if you won't tell me," she snapped at her, crossing her arms across her chest. Katty rolled her eyes, and was about to reply with a sarcastic retort, when movement caught her eye once more.
"Are you two alright?" Carl's face popped out from behind another tree, his concerned eyes flickering between the two females. The sheriff's hat was in place on his head, and he quickly reached up to swipe some hair out of his eyes. Katty didn't miss how his eyes lingered on Enid a moment too long.
Her lip curled, amused. Ah, young love. "We're alright, Carl," she said sweetly, and then looked back towards Enid. "Drop it, or I'll tell Rick you two are eloping together in the forest." She joked.
The two other faces burst with color, Enid frowning at her and Carl smiling.
"How about, you don't tell dad we're out here and I won't tell him that I saw you and Daryl making out," Carl replied, a grin breaking across his face when Katty's jaw dropped.
"You cheeky bugger," she spluttered, feeling her own face fill with color. "That's not – " Katty cut herself off to blow air harshly through her nose. There was no use denying it. "Deal," she agreed gruffly.
It felt like a short standoff, the two teenagers smirking at Katty, and her squirming. She decided that it was time to take her leave. "I'm going back. You two are a bad influence on me," Katty shook her finger at them both at she walked by, smiling when she heard them both snort with laughter.
When she had gotten a good distance away from them both, Katty rubbed at her still red cheeks somewhat roughly. Damn kids.
Over the past few days, Katty had volunteered to take the late watch in the lookout tower. There was often a woman named Sasha there, who was someone that had intimidated Katty. She had come across as intense and disinterested in any interaction with anyone past Rick's group. Katty had never been properly introduced to Sasha, though she knew her name, and assumed that Sasha had known hers. It was an uncomfortable situation, at the point where introductions were pointless, but it was rude to assume Sasha knew her name, wasn't it?
Lately, though, Sasha had a different energy around her. The woman was still tense and hypervigilant of her surrounds, but she seemed more approachable, and Katty was surprised to see Sasha cast a small, whisper of a smile her way when Katty appeared in the doorway of the tower. Katty had come with the intent to relieve Sasha of her watch shift, but hesitated at the sight of her.
"Hi, you're Sasha, right?" she tried to ask kindly. The woman's eyebrows rose briefly in recognition.
"Yeah, and you're Katty," she nodded to her as she collected her jacket from the ground. It wasn't a question, merely an observation.
"Yeah, I just don't think we've been properly introduced, so I thought I'd do that," Katty said, and inwardly cringed at the forced nature of her introduction. She wasn't good with people or talking or most social things. Katty never understood how she had made a living as a server before this.
"So what made you want the late watch?" Sasha asked bluntly, stretching her limbs as she stood up straight. "Everyone usually complains about this one."
Katty paused, and considered how to word her response. The last thing that she wanted was to whine and complain about nightmares, to appear weak to someone that she wasn't comfortable with. She considered that if she explained it lightly, Sasha would probably just brush it off. "I don't really like sleep that much nowadays," she said simply, ending with a dismissive shrug. Katty's eyes glued to the floor, trying to appear casual as she studied it. "Bit of a night owl lately, so I reckon I might as well make use of it. Stop staring at my ceiling."
When she looked back up at Sasha, Katty immediately took note of the level expression that the other woman had. It was understanding, empathic, but lacked any pity, luckily. "I've been there," she said softly with a nod. Katty wondered if that had anything to do with how unapproachable the woman had appeared to Katty.
Everyone had a story, she reminded herself. Katty could admit it to herself; she was often self absorbed and in her own head, worried about her own problems, her own secrets. The majority of people here, and definitely everyone in Rick's group, had been through tragedy in the short life of the apocalypse; it was ignorant to assume that she had it worse than anyone else.
"Can I give you some advice?" Sasha asked when Katty remained silent. The expression on her face depicted that the advice was not likely about the night watch.
"Shoot."
"Don't use this," Sasha gestured to the tower around them, "to avoid it for too long. It doesn't go away. You work through it or it eats you."
Katty didn't smile or thank her for the advice. It unnerved her that Sasha hammered a nail through her head without much contemplation. Her neck suddenly felt stiff, and she merely nodded at the other woman before moving to the window and effectively switching places with her. Sasha bid her a short goodnight before Katty heard footsteps leading away. She scrunched her eyes shut tightly and tried not to think of the similarities between those footsteps and the ones in her dream.
Katty didn't want to work through it. She knew that they meant one of two options. Talking through and coming clean about everything, or leaving. Katty couldn't think of any other option.
She was reminded of the reason why she had avoided people for so long, avoided Alexandria and everything that it represented. When she was on her own, she didn't have enough time to properly sleep or think about anything other than her own survival. There was no room for contemplating her immunity, room to develop sleeping disorders or a conscience that led her to experience nightmares.
On her own, she didn't have to watch her back to make sure that no one noticed how Biters reacted to her, make sure no one noticed her scars. Katty shouldn't be alive and she knew that. She had too many encounters with Biters, should have died many times. And she definitely didn't have to worry about protecting anyone, worry about losing anyone.
Katty hadn't been in Alexandria that long, and had already lost people. She hoped that that wasn't a sign that all her other worries would come true. Enid was already suspicious. Surely other people were as well. Carol, who had asked her about the bandage on her arm after she had been scratched. Glenn, who had been there when she had actually been scratched. It was just a matter of time before someone figured it out.
Katty reconsidered whether she should leave, slip out at night when no one would notice. Her heart panged when she thought of Noah, and what she had promised him. Even if she never fulfilled that promise, Katty would surely owe it to him to work to keep his family safe. And Calum. She couldn't ask him to leave Alexandria, and Katty wasn't self assured that she could leave her friend, so soon after she had just gotten him back.
Katty tried not to add her crush on Daryl to the list of reasons she couldn't leave Alexandria.
Once again, she scrunched her eyes tightly together. She was supposed to be doing a job, Katty scolded herself. She situated herself in the chair facing outside the Alexandria walls, placing the rifle and the walkie talkie on the chair that was behind her, pointed the other way, without turning around.
She sighed to herself. How the hell was she every going to work through it?
Daryl frowned as her watched Kat from the doorway of the tower. He felt like a fuckin' creep, staring at her, trying not to make a sound as he contemplated what to do.
He had been avoiding her. Ignoring her. Daryl knew that Kat knew as well. He had been able to slip away whenever she came by the house, he hung around Aaron and Eric's house when he knew that Kat would be around for dinner or hanging around Maggie and Glenn. Daryl had been prepared to ignore her if he ever heard her call his name from afar, but luckily, over the past few days, he hadn't been in that situation yet.
He was pissed off. Mostly at himself, but also at Kat. Or that's how he tried to reason it so that he didn't feel like a complete pussy.
Kat shouldn't have ever kissed him. Either time. It complicated things, things that Daryl didn't want to deal with. She didn't like him. It was impossible. When he thought about who he was before everything and who she was, it made him snort. Kat was a goddamn model for Christ's sake. He rolled his eyes to himself.
At the end of the world, suddenly everyone respected rednecks.
She obviously just wanted him around to protect her. The woman had stupidly confused that with an actual yearning for his company. Daryl knew what women like Kat were. Manipulative bitches, like Merle would have said. His brow furrowed, immediately feeling guilty that he had thought about Kat like that.
Fuck. He scowled at Kat's back. He could even think anything mean about her without pussying out.
Daryl wasn't entirely sure why he had followed her up after Sasha had disappeared. Half of him considered telling her off once and for all, and being a fuckin' jackass to her 'til she never wanted to talk to him again.
He still kept tabs on Kat, even though he avoided her like the plague. Kat didn't seem to be sleeping. Sometimes she would go outside and sit on the porch of her house, staring at absolutely nothing. Once, he was walking around Alexandria in the middle of the night, not sleeping much himself, and heard her crying through the open window to her room. He had hovered around the area until he heard Calum come in, flicking on the light and waking Kat up.
Through the concern that Daryl had tried to bury, he had been sickly comforted by the fact that Kat wasn't sleeping in the same room as Calum.
Merle was probably rolling in his fuckin' grave, so to speak, at Daryl's thoughts lately. He'd have sucker punched him if he could.
Coming up had been a mistake, he shouldn't have followed her. Daryl had done a fine job of avoiding Kat, and she was bound to grow tired of him soon, if she hadn't already. Daryl took a small step back, and cringed when the floorboard of the watch tower creaked lightly.
He didn't have time to pray that Kat hadn't heard him, before she jumped and whirled around in her chair.
She didn't say anything at first, just blinked and stared at him, a mixture of confused and surprised that Daryl couldn't admit to himself how endearing he found.
"What're ya doin' out here?" he gruffed at her, desperate to end the silence and his impending embarrassment.
Kat blinked a few more times at him, and in the dim light that the lantern beside her provided, Daryl could see the discolored bags under her eyes. It confirmed his previous thought that she hadn't been sleeping well.
"I'm on watch, Daryl," Kat answered, sounding as tired as she looked. Daryl didn't like that there wasn't an amused sparkle in her mismatched eyes. A little voice in the back of his head wondered if him ignoring her had contributed to the cause. Surely he couldn't mean that much to her?
"Ain't what I mean," Daryl countered, narrowing his gaze on her eyes levelly. He often had trouble meeting her eyes, but didn't like Kat deflecting his question.
She studied him for another moment, before her eyes found the ground. Daryl frowned as he watched Kat take a breath and then turn back around in her seat so she was facing away from him again.
"Don't worry about it, Daryl," she said dully, her voice light and delivering an uncaring tone. Daryl could see through the farce immediately. "You're right."
He was reminded of another time when she said those words to him, a few days ago when he had her pressed against the siding of the house. The contrast in tone was unnerving.
"'Bout what?" Daryl found himself asking.
"It's not a good idea for us to continue – whatever this is," Kat haphazardly motioned with a finger between herself and Daryl, still without turning around.
Daryl considered her words. He considered not saying anything, just walking away, agreeing with her. He did agree with her. It wasn't a good idea, and it was about time that Kat admitted it as well.
But it pissed him off that the girl had the balls to act like they were breaking up when they weren't even together.
Daryl hated how conflicted she made him feel.
So he didn't let himself falter as he snorted out loud and crossed the room, moving the walkie talkie and the rifle off the chair facing away from Kat and sitting down.
"Please, join me," she drawled sarcastically from behind him. "It won't be awkward at all."
Daryl's lips turned up into a smirk at her words. The girl didn't have a filter sometimes.
"That why yer out here?" he asked instead of acknowledging her sarcasm.
Daryl immediately stiffened when Kat's head leaned back and rested on Daryl's upper back. When she spoke, it felt like it travelled through him and Daryl felt himself involuntarily gulp. Why did she have to touch him so often?
"Have you ever had to put anyone down before?"
Daryl couldn't tell if she was just trying to deflect again, or if she was telling him the reason why she had been taking the night watch. He immediately thought of Merle at the prompt, but wasn't entirely sure he wanted to share that with her.
"Th'hell kinda question is that?" he asked with a scoff, and wanted to move away from her, but found he couldn't.
Kat didn't seem to hear him, or was just use to his snark at this point and ignored it. "I killed my boyfriend."
Daryl resisted groaning, not liking where this conversation was headed. He didn't want Kat crying on his shoulder in the middle of the night, when he didn't have an escape route. He didn't do crying women.
Daryl pulled the battered pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and cupped his hand around it from the window in front of him as he lit it. He shrugged her with his shoulder and reached to hand it to her after he had taken a much-needed drag.
He felt her turn sideways in the chair as she took the smoke from him, her head still leant on his back.
"He got bit and I agreed to shoot him," she elaborated, though he hadn't asked. "I was going to shoot myself after, but then Calum showed up."
Daryl's muscles contracted once again, and his temper flared at the information. So that was what she meant before when she said the guy had saved her life countless times. He didn't like the mental image of Kat putting a gun to her head, even less of how close she had probably been to splattering the ground with fragments of skull.
He scoffed once more. "Didn't realize ya were that stupid," He didn't ask why she was going to kill herself; he didn't need to. Girl had probably thought she couldn't live without her boyfriend, wanted to end it. The question still itched in the back of his mind, why she would shoot herself over that when Kat had told him explicitly that she hadn't loved the poor sumbitch.
"Guess I'm full of surprises," she murmured in response. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the exhale of her breath drifting away from them. He took the cigarette back when she held it out to him, and pondered whether to further the conversation or not.
"Merle," he stated simply after a quiet pause between them as he sucked on the cigarette. He felt Kat freeze from behind him, and his eyes immediately glued themselves to the glowing end of the cigarette as he tried a failed not to remember the sight of his older brother as a Walker.
"What happened?" she asked quietly, the words coming out as a mumble as she turned her head towards him more.
Daryl expected the question, and paused to think of the shortest amount of words to explain what had happened. He remembered that Kat had known Merle, had mentioned that he had helped Kat before. She wasn't asking to be polite, her tone conveyed that she genuinely wanted to know.
"Guy named tha Governor killed 'im. I just got rid of a Walker," the Walker that day hadn't been his brother, or that's what he had told himself to get through it.
Daryl couldn't stop himself from flinching when he felt Kat shift in her seat and wrapped an arm around his neck in a crude hug.
"Damnit, why ya always touchin' me?" he snapped irritably at her, annoyed both at Kat and that his heart jumped in his chest.
Kat was speaking into the back of his neck now, her breath making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, "Neither Merle or you deserved that. He wasn't a bad guy."
Daryl shoved her arm away from around his neck. First, the girl was agreeing that they shouldn't keep sucking face whenever they saw each other, now she was hanging all over him. It was dizzying to try and figure out what was going on.
It also irritated him that Kat seemed to have such a high opinion of Merle. He couldn't see his brother like that, the group couldn't, so why the fuck could she? Kat just seemed ignorant to what Merle was truly like.
"Ya don't know shit," he brushed her off easily, swatting his hand at her as Kat moved away from him, leaning back in her chair.
"I know no one deserves that," she snapped back at him, but Daryl refused to turn to meet her eyes. He just shrugged and shook his head. He didn't like that she had opinions on his brother, one that he couldn't even see. Daryl felt entirely petty, but he wanted to ruin her crystal image of Merle.
"Had a kid – girl, yer age," he found himself saying, crushing the dead, glowing end of the cigarette into an old ash tray on the floor and pulling out another one. Daryl had never met the kid, Merle had just mentioned it one night when he was on a bender. Daryl had to do the math himself to figure out the kid's age. Needless to say, Merle hadn't supported the woman or the child. Too busy supporting his drug addiction.
"When all the shit went down, we left town pretty fast. Merle told me later that the kid 'nd her mom came ta him. The mom was scratched, and Merle basically told 'em ta fuck off. Laughed 'bout it ta me. Left his kid ta die."
Katty was silent for a stretch of time, and Daryl waited, twirling the second cigarette in between his fingers as he waited for Kat to say something. Complain, call Merle a piece of shit, take back her statement from before.
"I kind of figured as much," she said instead with a sigh, making Daryl turn in his seat to look at her.
"That he had a kid, at least," Kat clarified. "Mumbled some shit at me when he was drunk, called me something. Christie or something?" she quirked her head as she tried to recall the name.
"Wouldn't know," he muttered in response. Merle had never talked about either of them much past referring to the both of them collectively as a 'dumb fuckin mistake'.
"Yeah, well, he was always a bit more forgiving of me when I would piss him off. Looked at me sometimes like I wasn't me, you know?" Daryl didn't know, he hadn't seen Merle be forgiving of anyone ever. Maybe Merle had grown a guilty conscience when he was forced to get clean, after they had lost each other.
They passed the second cigarette back and forth for a while, looking out their respective sides in a comfortable silence for a while. Daryl still felt conflicted about Katty, but liked that she didn't feel the need to incessantly run her mouth all the time.
"I don't want to go to sleep," Kat broke the silence, her head back to resting on his back. Daryl couldn't say he was alright with her hugging him, but he was starting to get use to her lack of boundaries between them.
Daryl snorted. "Didn't realize ya had a bedtime," he cheeked at her.
She elbowed him lightly, a breath of a laugh escaping her at the same time. "Nah, you muppet," Kat grabbed the cigarette from him gingerly once more. "That's why I'm out here; I don't want to sleep. Tired of nightmares," she said the last part in a smaller voice, twanged with embarrassment.
Daryl didn't know what to say. "Oh," he replied lamely. He never had nightmares. Didn't sleep soundly enough to dream at all, really. He knew that Michonne and Sasha often had nightmares, and that Glenn had mentioned once that Maggie still cried about Beth in her sleep sometimes. That explained why Kat looked so tired at least.
"Did you bury him?" she asked suddenly. Daryl realized that it was her way of changing the subject, probably uncomfortable with admitting that she had problems sleeping.
Daryl decided to humor Kat, and answered. "Nah. Ain't buryin' a Walker."
"Your lot buried the other people you lost, though?" she prodded further.
Blonde hair flashed through his mind, and Daryl scrunched his eyes shut to wipe the image from his brain. "Yeah, mostly," Daryl wasn't prepared to explain about Beth and how he couldn't save her, how close he had been. It wasn't Kat's business.
"Can you promise me something?" Kat was firing off questions faster than she had before, and Daryl wondered what had initiated the change.
His eyebrows raised. "Ain't promisin' anythin' 'til ya say what it is, Kat."
"If I get bit, or scratched, or anything," she paused, and Daryl braced himself. For her to ask to end it for her. Considering how she had ended it for her boyfriend when he had gotten bit, Daryl wasn't surprised that she was about to ask him.
"Just let me leave, forget about me."
The end to her request confused Daryl, not understanding why she would willingly stop other people from becoming Walkers, but not want it for herself.
"Ya went from wantin' ta kill yerself to wantin' ta be left alone?" he asked incredulously as Daryl tried to figure out her train of thought. The woman didn't make sense to him.
"Promise me," she reaffirmed, disregarding his clarification.
Daryl shrugged, "Sure," he replied, already deciding to himself that he would do everything he could to make sure she never got bit, scratched, hurt again in any way. Daryl had complained earlier that Kat was probably just using him for protection, but a sick part of him didn't mind being used by her.
They talked on and off most of the night, none of their topics carrying the somber note that their earlier conversation held. Daryl left in the early hours of the morning, before the next person came by to relieve Kat of her watch shift. He stretched the sore muscles of his back as he walked back to the house, intent to sleep a few hours before getting up for the day.
Daryl tried to wipe the picture of Kat as a Walker, of blonde, bloodied hair, and the undead face of his brother snapping at him from his mind as he practically fell into bed.
The last thing he needed was a nightmare.
A/N: Hey, you! Shorter chapter, I know. I think you guys might like the next one, though. Hopefully I'll be able to get it out pretty quickly. I have a couple days off, so I'll at least be able to start it right away.
If Daryl seems kinda flip-floppy and inconsistent, know that that's on purpose ahha. At this point, I imagine he feels conflicted. I also realize I'm introducing Sasha pretty late in the game, I just couldn't really figure out a way to put her in that didn't seem forced and like I was just trying to name all the characters haha. There's a lot of people to keep track of, I don't know how the writers do it.
Don't forget to leave a review!
-Submechanophobia
Next Time: The game of 'just friends' was old the moment she said it, and Katty wondered how long the lie would last.