❪ 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗘𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 ❫

𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖿𝗂𝖿𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━
the severity. ╱ episode ten.

THERE WERE not many things that he kept from the others, when things are found it's usually divided up within the group. But he stuffs certain things into the bottom of his backpack until he's all alone. With the midnight moon hanging over the prison and the slumber echoing through the quiet prison, the boy couldn't help but make his escape.

He eyed the top bunk for a few moments, attempting to see his brother through the darkness. Once he could see his brother in a deep sleep, he shoved his lighter and carton of cigarettes into his back pocket as he made his way out of the cell.

Trying to slip through the entrances and exits of the cell block was difficult, but he eventually ended up walking into the courtyard with only three creaks of the doors on his conscience. The night air smacked him in the face the moment he stepped out of the cell block. He could hear distant biters growling as they slammed time and time again into the fences across the field.

This is the first time the boy has felt safe enough to do this in a long time. There's been a fear of being alone, he always worried that it would be the time he got cornered and had no one to help him out. But with the fences and walls around him, he thought he could take that chance. Plus, there was currently so much tension in the cell block, and Toby felt like he couldn't breathe.

Rick's outburst hours ago was something Toby just couldn't forget, from the man screaming his lungs out to the moments before when he shoved Toby into the wall. The boy hadn't been scared of someone for a long time, but when Rick stared at him with the ferocious intensity he had before, Toby's stomach dropped. He knew it was divided between loss of sleep and the loss of his wife and others from his group. Toby knew the man was more than what happened hours ago.

While the man had been not too fond of Toby since the moment they met, Rick also stopped him from killing Nick and helped him escape Woodbury. Toby knew all the animosity Rick held for Toby was due to them being strangers and Toby's listening skills. But at the same time, Toby just didn't like what Rick did, it was replaying over and over in his head.

Which led the boy to sit in the prison courtyard, the freezing metal of the bleachers, the coldness soaking into his bones as he lit a cigarette. All in attempts to forget about the ache in his shoulder, but no matter how many drags of nicotine he took, the pain never dulled.

He's not really a smoker, but sometimes when things become too much, the boy doesn't stop himself from inhaling the cancerous chemicals. With the way things went today, Toby knew this was exactly where he would find himself after everyone went to bed. He embraced the night air as he sat, his eyes looking up at the calmness of the night sky, wishing his life could be as serene as the sky made him feel. But he doubted that would ever happen.

"Uh, hey,"

Toby jumped at the unfamiliar voice, snapping to the source of the words, he found himself looking at the boy who stopped him from going after Rick when they first arrived at the prison. The blond was waiting for the boy's greeting, and as per usual Toby just gave him a dead-eyed stare, hoping it would make him go away. But as the seconds passed, and the boy wasn't leaving, Toby sighed as he took a drag from his cigarette, his head turning to look at the fences in the field in front of him. "Hi."

The blond ignored the flat tone, taking a seat next to Toby on the bleachers. There was a hesitance in his movements and Toby noticed it the moment he appeared. "Look, Rick told me that you were with Andrea. And I wanted to talk to you because she's my sister."

Toby snapped his head to the side, confusion resting on his features. The boy looked the muscular blond up and down, shocked that this was the boy Andrea talked about. "You're Danny?"

"Uh, yeah?" The boy in question looked at Toby with surprise. His next words more so to himself, "I mean I always thought we looked alike."

Toby couldn't help but let a small laugh escape his lips at Danny's words, the action felt so unfamiliar. "No, it's not that...I just...You're not what I pictured."

Danny quirked eyebrows at his words, "More strikingly handsome than you pictured? I get it, no one can ever fully explain my beau-"

"That's not what I meant." Toby deadpanned, finding very little amusement in Danny's teasing nature. The blond's eye contact was seemingly too intense for Toby, so much so that the boy had to break their connection to look at the field. "I was just expecting someone who looked like Broadway just threw up on them."

Danny leaned back sighing, nodding at the boy's words. He had a hint of a smile resting on his features, amused by Toby's explanation. "Ahh, I'm guessing she liked to talk about my theater days."

"Was all she talked about." Toby answered, bouncing his foot against the pavements out of slight nervousness due to Danny's eyes that never seemed to leave him. "Said your performance in Oklahoma was the best she's ever seen."

The blond smiled at Toby's words, a bitter-sweet feeling swirling in his chest as he sighed. "She never missed my performances. Practically hated me when I gave up theater for soccer."

The brunet rolled his eyes at the boy's choice of words, glancing back at the boy. "She could never hate you."

Danny straightened up in his seat with a serious tone now washing over him. He looked at Toby with apprehension. "How is she?"

Toby furrowed his eyebrows at the question, thinking about what he should say and not sound like a dick. "What's happening with the Governor is complicated. He's got her under this fucking spell that she can't see through. So much so that she decided to stay when we left."

"She stayed?"

Toby nodded, the boy finding this conversation strikingly hard when Danny's face was becoming more and more disappointed as he spoke. But he disliked stepping around his words and hiding what he truly wanted to say, even if it hurt someone else. "Can I be honest?"

The exasperated tone made Danny's eyes widen slightly as he agreed hesitantly, scared of what the boy was going to say. "Of course."

"You're sister...she doesn't think realistically. We spent eight months together and she just didn't get it. I thought she was blind before, but when she betrayed us for that place...for him. I finally understood the severity of it. She couldn't see through the Governor's bullshit, and if she doesn't soon, she's a lost cause."

Danny went silent, taking in his words, trying to find his footing with the new information. Toby's brutality would usually make someone curl away. There were parts of Danny that wanted to defend his sister, but the bigger part knew elements of what Toby said were true.

The blond looked down at his hands, "She just wants to be important, to save people. It makes her do stupid shit, makes her not see things for what they really are."

Toby looked at him, and an odd feeling of sympathy bloomed in his chest as he watched the blond. "She has to let go of the pride, sooner or later."

Danny nodded, looking towards the boy with a weak smile on his lips. The smile made Toby's heart slightly ache, there was part of both of them that knew that wasn't true. But they hated to admit that. It wasn't long before Danny cut through the silence that they began to get comfortable in, by getting up from his seat on the bench, readying himself to leave. "Night Toby."

The blond walked away without looking for a farewell response from the brunet. Toby was prepared to say nothing to him, but as the blond said his name, it caught his attention. "I never told you my name."

The blond stopped in his tracks as he turned to meet Toby's confused glance, which made a genuine yet teasing smile twitch onto his lips. "Guess we both have sisters that like to talk about their brothers. A lot...I might add."

Toby's stomach dropped at the words, hating that his sister might have said something that he wouldn't like. "Nothing embarrassing, I hope."

Danny shrugged with a teasing smile on his lips that Toby didn't enjoy, knowing there was something he was hiding from him. "Hmm, I don't know...we'll see."

With that the blond walked away, leaving the brunet to the lingering cigarette smoke that hung in the air. Toby instantly dropped the butt and smashed it into the pavement below him. The want to stare at the sky dissipated from his system as he focused on the retreating footsteps of Danny until the clang of the cellblock entrance echoed through the air. Toby knew it was time for him to go back inside and sleep, but he dreaded the thought of morning coming. He knew that tomorrow was going to be even worse than today. He didn't know how, but the pit in his stomach told him something was coming.

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FOR A LONG TIME Toby's been accustomed to the feeling of waking up in a cold sweat. While there should be some relief lingering in his bones from the walls around him, he couldn't help his memories coming and taking his chance of a peaceful sleep away. The boy's shoulder also was what attributed to his lack of sleep. Any little movement within the night left the boy hissing in pain as a throbbing sensation shot through his shoulder and arm.

He also couldn't stop thinking of the Governor's retaliation, he was scared it was going to be here. He was scared people would die and he would succumb to the Governor's plans for him. He never forgot what Nick said. It echoed in his brain when things got quiet, the Governor wanted him brought in alive, there was something he wanted from the boy. He knew Michonne and himself were important targets. The moment the people around him fall, he and Michonne are left to the Governor and his harmful intentions. He was just going to have to make sure these people never fall.

When the sunlight shined through the barred windows, the light directly hit Toby's opened eyes, making it even harder for him to lull himself back into sleep. For some time, he stared at the top of his bunk, his mind somewhere else. Then he tried to open his notebook and draw, but every time the pencil scratched along the page, he felt like it echoed throughout the prison. So with everyone in the cell block still in bed, and his notebook in hand, the boy made his way out into the courtyard, hoping to find a secluded place where he could release some tension in his mind with his art.

Just as the warm sunlight washed over his skin, he snapped his eyes to the bus that lay in the prison's field. With the door still closed, Toby knew Michonne was still in there sleeping. There was part of him that wanted to wake her up and talk to her. With everything that has happened in the past few days, there hasn't been a proper moment where they could talk and figure everything out.

He thinks that's also why he's so panicked about everything. With Michonne being his rock, it's hard when they don't talk. He feels pushed away, especially with how their futures might be sending them in an opposite direction. While his sister seems to have no plans of letting him out of her sight, he's worried that they won't accept Michonne and she'll be made to leave. With that hypothetical lingering in the air, he's worried that Michonne will push him away in a way to make her leave easier. But what she doesn't know is that if she goes he goes. That's how it's worked for a year and a half, and he doesn't plan on changing it now.

Just as the boy was about to make his way to the bus, his attention was caught by the call of his name.

"Toby,"

Turning to the person who called his name, his stomach dropped. Toby hesitated when he was met with Rick standing a few feet away. The boy felt a little nervous to interact with the man with what happened yesterday. But he pushed through it, knowing he didn't really have a choice to ignore him. "Morning."

Rick sent him a nod as a greeting as he picked up a wood pallet from a stack of them near him, gesturing it to Toby. "You mind helping me for a minute?"

Toby went to protest, with his eyes glued to the bus in the field. But he swallowed his protest, knowing it wouldn't take that long. "Uh, sure."

The boy left his journal and pencil on the bleachers before he made his way to pick up a wood pallet and help the man with whatever he was doing. "We're just gonna bring these up to the catwalk above us."

Toby nodded and began following the man up the stairs and to the catwalk where a few other pallets were lined up along the fence. As he leaned the one he was holding up against the fence, he paused when Rick began speaking.

"Listen, I wanted to apologize...for what happened yesterday." The boy instantly looked at him, surprised that the man would actually apologize. He pegged him to have too much pride that he would never feel guilty for what he did. Rick sent him a small glance as he stood a few feet away, facing the courtyard in front of them. "It wasn't okay what I did, I never meant to fly off like that. I shouldn't have taken out my problems on you."

The boy stood there for a second, taking in the older man's words. He could tell the man was being sincere. For the sake of solving the tension, he decided to let it go. "Listen, I'll forgive and forget or whatever, but if you do something like that again, I'm kicking you in the balls."

The older man lightly snorted at the boy's choice of words, "I'll hold you to it."

There was a silence that followed the man's humored words. Toby took the moment to take a deep breath, wondering when he would get his chance to escape. But the older man's words made his scheming thoughts stop.

"How'd you end up with Michonne?"

The boy's eyebrows curled in confusion, not understanding why the man was bothering to get his story. He hadn't really seemed that interested in his life, so why now? The man was still staring at the boy with an expecting glance, so Toby finally answered. "We were at the same refugee camp at the start."

"Was it just you and your brother?"

Toby shook his head, his heart getting heavy when the snapshots of his mother appeared in his mind. "No, it was me, Thomas, and my parents."

"What happened to them?" Rick questioned, his eyes examining the boy's every move.

The boy couldn't stop the confusion from washing over his face, why would he ask that? "Why do you wanna know?"

Rick paused for a moment, like the boy had figured out his entire plan. But Toby still felt like he was in the dark. The older man sighed, "Sabrina wants you to stay, she's made that very clear. I don't feel very comfortable letting strangers into my group."

"That's fair," Toby stated, his words baron of emotion. As he began talking, his eyes were glued to the desolate field in front of the prison. "But it's not my sister's place to ask you if I can stay, I don't even know if I trust you guys either."

"Trust doesn't come easily to you?" Rick questioned.

Toby sent him a knowing look, "Andrea trusts easily, look where she is. I don't want to be stupid. Stupid gets you killed."

"You're not stupid." Rick's words made Toby's gaze instantly flash to him. "It's very clear that you aren't."

"How do you know? You know nothing about me." The curly-haired boy muttered, more to himself, but Rick caught it.

"I'm trying to, aren't I? I asked you about how you got here." The man spoke with a bit of snappiness that made Toby tense. His mind raced back to the moment when he was pinned against the wall just yesterday.

Toby sighed to himself, knowing there was no way he could leave this conversation until he answered Rick's question. "Me and Michonne went on a run, while we were gone the camp got overrun. Luckily Thomas was alright, but my parents didn't make it out."

The older man stood there in silence, taking in the boy's words, examining them in his head. Toby felt an unfamiliar anxiety tug in his chest at the quiet that erupted between the two. The boy almost even opened his mouth to speak again, but luckily Rick's voice spilled into the air.

"I'm sorry."

Toby simply shrugged, eyes refusing to move from the field ahead. A slight anger fizzled in his stomach at the apology, but he didn't let it show. "It's alright, it was a long time ago. Got other things to dwell on now."

"No kid should have to lose his parents," Rick stated gruffly, his words making Toby's chest ache. Those words echoed in his brain, knowing that Rick's words rand true. He shouldn't have had to lose his parents. He shouldn't have had to lose his home to the undead. He shouldn't have had to take on the responsibility of parenting his eleven-year-old brother. But he had to, there was no other option. There's no time to reflect on the unfair things, there wasn't any time. It was life or death, and he didn't dare throw himself a self-pity party instead of surviving.

"That may be true...but life doesn't work out that way." Toby breathed, his tone distant and grim enough for Rick to catch on to his dismissal. The boy no longer felt like sticking around for more of a conversation, his chest getting tighter by the minute. "Hey, if we don't have to move any more pallets, I was planning on going to find Michonne, so I'll see you later."

Rick's face glazed over, but Toby could still see the lingering sympathy churning in the older man's eyes. But he said nothing, only giving the boy a nod of approval. Toby didn't hesitate to wait around for anything else to be said. His sneakers slammed against the metal stairs as he made his way down the catwalk, hoping to find Michonne and forget all about the lingering sadness that echoed in the back of his mind.

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✿❣︎ 𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀 ❣︎✿

Guess who's updating cause they miss Toby!!

I finally pushed through and finished a chapter for the sake of my baby boy and his interactions with Rick and Danny.

a DANNY INTERACTION finally happened!!!! UR WELCOME. i also love him already, he's just a silly goofy guy taking on the apocalypse. ALSO, NOT BOTH THEIR SISTERS TAKING ABT THEM TO THE OTHER it's giving invisible string. I'm really looking forward to writing them more now that they are actually introduced. and plus Danny is gonna insert himself in Toby's life whether he likes it or not.

The next chapter's gonna be lowkey crazy and i can not wait to let you guys see!!

ALSO‼️‼️‼️‼️
Check out my TikTok I've got some
fab Toby and Danny edits up
and I love them sm

TikTok: @gardensongsswp

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!!!