It has been so damn long since I published anything here, but I have been working steadily on this story (and my others) for years. In saying that, it's time for some rewrites, some fresh starts and some new content. I'm publishing the rewrite for this, my first ever fic, under the title 'The Devil Beside You.' Enjoy this little teaser and please go and read, follow/fave, and comment on the new version if you have stumbled upon this one. Big love to you guys.

"Are you alright?" He sits in the seat across from me and leans forward, forearms resting on his knees. He has very blues eyes beneath his furrowed brow.

I can't think of how to even begin answering that question, so I bite my lip and wipe away a stray tear.

"Lily?"

"I just … can't move right now."

"Rick we ain't got time for this, got a prison full of new people," The other man, still loitering in the aisle and looking too big for the space, owns the angry, harsh voice from outside and I stare at him, his bearing suddenly familiar to me.

"Daryl." The man across from me, Rick, shoots him a pointed glare. "Go help them. We can make time for this."

"Daryl?" My voice is strained and unrecognisable as my own. "Daryl Dixon?"

I had seen him, up close and personal that night in Woodbury. Even in my fog of fear and anxiety, when I had pushed Philip's chest and screamed for him to let Merle go, I had still noticed Daryl and briefly locked eyes with him.

Daryl's nostrils flare and his arm flexes, alerting me to the weapon on his back; "What's it to you?"

"You're Merle's brother? Is he here?" I never thought I would be so eager to see that arsehole.

Daryl and Rick both tense, exchanging glances.

"I'm sorry, no. He was killed …"

"By your dad," Daryl spits that word like venom.