Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter forty-six | the vulnerable
LAUREL COUGHED AS Merle delivered another blow to her stomach as she curled up in a ball on the cold, hard cement. She pulled her arms to cover her head as he winded his leg back again, his boot meeting her elbow this time.
"I can do this all day baby!" Merle yelled, before winding his leg back and sending another kick towards her. Laurel's tried not to cry every time his boot came into contact with her body. "Tell me— where— my brother— is!"
Kick after kick, Laurel said nothing. She couldn't taste anything but a bitter metallic, her vision blurred of red and white. Merle might be the brother of Daryl's, but she knew blood was the only thing similar between the two. Daryl was harsh on the edges, cutting anybody who would get too close however, what Laurel learned was that those edges were only formed because of all the hurt from his past. Behind all of his tough-guy acts and his dirty looks, he was as human as her. She would gladly sacrifice herself if it meant he was okay because she knew he would do the same, for her and for their family.
Merle, on the other hand, was a low-life before the pandemic, and after, that much was clear to her by the way he spoke towards her and others. He was an asshole inside and out. Laurel couldn't see the resemblance between the two Dixon brothers.
Laurel could hear Glenn yelling from the other side of the wall, pleading with Merle to stop. Merle started with Laurel in the first place because he thought she was easy and soft. But now, he was angry with her for a few reasons when he realized firsthand she was the opposite of those words.
The moment he threw her in this room and the guns were gone, she took her chance to give him a piece of her mind. It went along the lines of a swift kick to the balls and "the only thing soft in here is your crooked dick."
Now, there was a chair that was thrown across the room she was supposed to be tied to, but Martinez backed off when she elbowed him in the nose before he or Merle could duck tape her to the wood. Causing Laurel to now have her knees pulled to her chest as Merle had no mercy in interrogating her. Martinez was frowning at the door with a tissue in his nose, glaring at Laurel's body on the floor.
"You stupid fucking cunt! Where is my brother?!" Merle yelled, frustrated which was shown from how hard he kicked her so many times, "huh? You thought you were so tough now look at ya!"
Merle sent a much harder kick than the ones before, causing her to choke on her blood. She didn't realize that she moved her legs down slightly. He took the chance at the opening, and Laurel saw his boot connecting with her ribcage in what seemed like slow-mo before she could do anything. A loud crack echoed against the metal sheet walls.
Glenn squeezed his eyes shut at Laurel's blood-curling scream, his heartbreaking at the sound of her in pain. Maggie held her head in her hands, crying softly in her skin as she begged God for some sign, for some type of help to get out of this hell.
