CHAPTER FOURTEEN,
struggles.

Aiden laid in the same bed from before. Her eyes wide open as she stared at the ceiling. The only light was from the moon outside the window.

Sleep wasn't coming very easy.

Aiden sat up with slight struggle and threw her legs over the side of the bed. Her feet carried her outside the room and outside of the house.

She stopped on the porch and leaned against the railing. She closed her eyes tightly when she heard a voice in the back of her head.

You're nothing but a waste of space.

"Shut up." Aiden muttered.

You don't deserve to be alive.

"I know." Aiden gripped the roots of her hair as the voice continued to speak to her.

I should've killed you when I had the chance. You should be dead, Aiden. I promised I would kill you.

"Shut up!"

The scream woke everyone in the house, excluding Carl. It woke everyone in the tents.

Everyone rushed towards Aiden when they saw her sitting on the porch, her hands nearly pulling her hair out and crying like a newborn.

Shane moved as fast as he could with his ankle and Hershel crouched down in front of her. "Aiden?" He spoke her name softly.

She didn't move nor respond. The only thing she could hear was her erratic heartbeat, sobs, and that whispering voice in the darkest part of her brain.

Daryl jumped up the stairs and stared at the girl. She was so vulnerable in those moments and he just stared at her. He had never seen her like this before. He didn't want to see her like this.

Shane followed soon after Daryl along with Lori and Rick.

Shane moved Hershel aside and took his spot in front of his baby sister. "Aiden? Aiden, look at me." Shane begged her. He gently tried to pull her hands from her hair and he succeeded. He saw that her nails had dug into her palms and blood coated both of her hands.

"Aiden, you gotta look at me." Shane said to her. Her bloodshot eyes glanced up at him. He saw a glimpse of her past self hidden behind her cocoa eyes. "You're okay." He told her.

"What's happening to me?"

»

Everyone was still slightly shocked about Aiden's episode the night before but everyone did their jobs.

Aiden stood between Rick and T-Dog as they talked about finding Sophia. She wasn't allowed to go out and help but she would listen to everything Rick said.

"Alright, everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have give further east than we've been so far." Rick said to them.

"I'd like to help." Aiden looked up from the map to a young man named Jimmy. "I know the area pretty well and stuff."

"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick questioned him.

"Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you." Jimmy replied.

"Alright then. Thanks." Rick said to him.

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse." Shane said from his spot.

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea asked him.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high." Daryl motioned to a certain height. "It's a good lead."

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." Rick told him.

"No maybe 'bout it. I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her." Daryl informed them. Aiden looked over at him, she still didn't know what his statement from before meant.

"Good idea. Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there, too." T-Dog said to Daryl. Aiden rolled her eyes, thinking back to their first night in Atlanta.

"Chupacabra?" Rick asked with raised eyebrows.

"You never heard this?" Dale asked him. "Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra." Dale told him the story.

Jimmy laughed. "What are you braying at, jackass?" Daryl asked him harshly.

"You believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Jimmy asked him.

Daryl didn't miss a beat as he asked. "You believe in dead people walking around?"

Aiden smirked at his retort.

Jimmy didn't reply as he reached for a gun bud Rick stopped him. "Hey, hey. Ever fire one before?"

"Well, if I'm going out, I want one." Jimmy said to him. Aiden raised an eyebrow at his comment.

"Yeah, and people in hell want slurpees." Daryl said. Aiden smirked once again at his comment.

"Hey, why don't you come to training tomorrow?" Shane asked Jimmy. "If you're serious, I'm a certified instructor."

"For now he can come with us." Andrea said to Shane.

"He's yours to babysit then." Shane told her.

Aiden knew the conversation was done so she turned on her heel and moved away from the group.

»

Aiden had enough of just sitting around doing nothing. She was tired of feeling useless.

She had managed to sneak her gun from Dale's bag and sneak off into the woods in search of Sophia.

She didn't know that Shane and Rick were a total of twenty feet away from her. She stepped on a branch, startling the two men.

The started to walk her way with their guns raised and saw Aiden.

"I'm gonna kick your ass." Shane snarled when he saw her. Her eyes widened as she whipped around quickly. Shane snatched her arm up. "What the hell are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to help look for Sophia." Aiden told him.

"You could've gotten killed!"

"I can take care of myself, Shane!"

"Oh, really? Isn't that what you told me when he was torturing you?" Shane asked her, anger wrote all over her face.

Aiden's tough girl facade dropped in a heart beat as hurt filled her eyes.

Rick's eyes moved from Shane and Aiden, knowing the two siblings can get physical when they argue like this. He'd seen it before, he'd broke up many fights between the two. He'd seen Aiden bust Shane's nose and Shane give Aiden a black eye.

"You don't- you have no right to mention him." Aiden said quietly.

"I don't?" Shane asked her.

"Let me go." She muttered to him and tried to pull her arm away from his iron right grip but he only tightened his hand around her upper arm. "Shane, let me go!"

"Shane, listen to her." Rick said sternly. Shane glared down her with a look of craziness in his eyes. Shane threw her away from him and she stumbled into a tree.

Rick stared at the two, worry etched into his features. This would've been a lot worse if he wasn't out here. Rick knew the siblings loved each other more than anything in the world but he also knew both siblings had taken anger management classes before.

He just didn't know who was worse.

"Asshole." She mumbled. She began to walk back into the woods.

"Where the hell do you fucking think you're going!?" Shane yelled at her. She whipped around.

"To look for a lost girl!" She screamed back. "Don't follow me!"

»

Daryl vision started to come back to him when he saw his older brother. "Why don't you pull that arrow out, dummy?" Merle Dixon said to him. "You could bind your wound together."

Daryl smiled a tiny smile. "Merle."

"What's going on here? You taking a siesta or something?" Merle questioned him.

"Having a shitty day, bro." Daryl told him.

"Like me to get your pillow? Maybe rub your feet?" Merle suggested sarcastically.

"Screw you."

"Huh-uh. You're the one screwed from the looks of it. All them years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at you. Lying in the dirt like used rubber. You're gonna die out here, brother. And for what?" Merle asked him.

"A girl. They lost a little girl." Daryl informed him.

"So you got a thing for little girls now?"

"Shut up."

"'Cause I noticed you ain't out looking for ol' Merle no more." Merle said to him.

"Tried like hell to find you, bro." Daryl said.

"Like hell you did. You spilt, man. Lit out first chance you got." Merle accused.

"You lit out. All you had to do was wait." Daryl said in return. "We went back for you, Rick and I, we did right by you."

"This the same Rick who cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand? This him we're talking about?" Merle asked him. Daryl's vision started to fade before he regained it back. "You his bitch, now?"

"I ain't nobody's bitch." Daryl hissed.

"What about Aiden, huh? You seem to be up her ass. You're a joke is what you are, playing errand boy to a bunch of pansy-asses, blacks, and Democrats. You're nothing but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's all you are. They're laughing at you behind you back. You know that, don't you? I got a little news for you, son. One day they gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dog shit." Merle snarled.

Daryl started to drift off before Merle hit his chest. "Hey. They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours, you'd go back there and shoot you pal Rick in the face for me. Now you listen to me." Merle grabbed his brother's face. "Ain't nobody ever gonna care bout you expect me, little brother. Ain't nobody ever will."

"Now, that's a damn lie." A feminine voice stated from behind Merle. Daryl's misty eyes glanced to the right of Merle and saw Aiden Walsh walking towards him. 

"I care about you, Daryl. I always will. Now, you ignore this dickwad and get up. You come back to this farm and you come back to me." She told him. Merle glared at her.

"Come on. Get up on your feet before I have to kick your teeth in. Let's go."

Daryl finally came to his senses when he saw a walker trying to bite through this boot. He kicked it quickly and tried to reach his crossbow but the walker got onto of him.

"You come back to this farm and you come back to me."

Aiden's words fueled him to kill the walker. He stabbed a branch through his head before glancing up at the other walkers making its way towards him.

Daryl grabbed the bolt before pulling it out. He grunted as the bolt exited his body.

He quickly loaded the bolt as the walker got closer and fired it into its head. The walker fell to the ground beside him.

Daryl panted before getting up and making a tourniquet out of his shirt. He tied it around his stomach.

He began to climb the ridge. He struggled.

He looked up at the birds above him. "Please, don't feed the birds." He heard his brother's voice again.

"You can do it, Daryl." Aiden said. The two appeared over the edge. Daryl looked up at the two.

"What's the matter, Darylina? That all you got in you? Throw away that purse and climb." Merle said to him.

"I liked it better when you was missing." Daryl said. His heart jumped when he heard Aiden's smooth, angelic laugh. He hadn't ever heard her laugh like that before. But Merle's raspy laugh ruined it.

"Come on, don't be like that. I'm on your side."

"Yeah? Since when?" Daryl questions him.

"Hell, since the day you were born, baby brother." Merle told him. "Somebody had to look after your worthless ass."

"You never took care of me." Daryl said to him. "You talk big game but you was never there. Hell, you ain't here now. Guess some things never change."

"Well, I'll tell you what- I'm as real as your chupacabra. So is Aiden here." Merle snarled.

"Don't be an asshole, Merle." Aiden hit him in the arm.

Daryl was so close to getting up the ridge. He was so close to being with Aiden.

"I know what I saw." Daryl said to him.

"And I'm sure them shrooms you ate had nothing to do with it, right?

"You best shut the hell up." Daryl snapped.

"Or what!? You're gonna come up here and shut my mouth for me? Well, come on and do it then, if you think you're man enough. Hey, kick off them damn high heels and climb, son." Merle laughed. "You know what? If I were you I'd take a pause for the cause, brother. 'Cause I just don't think you're gonna make it to the top. Come on. Come on, little brother. Grab your friend Rick's hand."

"You can do it, Daryl. You're so close." Aiden encouraged him. His hand finally clutches the Earth above the creek as he pulled himself up.

He stood up and looked around for Merle and Aiden. "Yeah, you'd better run!" He yelled, mostly at Merle.

_____________________________

word count: 2,196
episode: chupacabra

and a fourth edited chapter. i'm just blessing you guys today, huh. i'm probably gonna edit more later today.

and we finally got some insight on aiden's past. we know if happened before she was a cop and we know he was a terrible person. we learn more about him in later characters.

shane and aiden arguing broke my heart but i evil laughed whole writing it. rick's has to break up fights from the two before. both have received bruises from the other siblings in the past but both moved past that after shane joined the police force.

but daryl climbed the ridge just to be with aiden. i love them so much and they aren't even together.

daryl really does care about aiden. but he's scared of his feelings because the last woman he loved died. (his mom) and he doesn't want that to happen to aiden.

but aiden is clearly confused about the whole situation. she's scared of a replay of her past. but we all know daryl would never ever hit aiden