The Girl He Forgot (Book 2)

Chapter 20 - This Is Negan

My heartbeat picked up pace, my grip on Judith become unsteady as I started to shake. The voice I can hear is unfamiliar; it's like honey over tree bark, smooth and rough all at the same time.

Judith began to fidget at my waist, my grip on her tightening by the second. I saw four pairs of boots at the trunks of the conifers lining the other side of the yard; they were fast approaching the entrance.

Oh god, they're going see me. Shit, shit shit.

I dived behind the bushes and nestled my back against their encompassing greenery just as the three people enter the graveyard. Through the dense branches and leaves I caught glimpses of a tall and well-built man in a leather jacket. The honeyed voice belonged to him. Rick was with him, holding a bloodied baseball bat for some reason. Surely that wasn't The Bat, was it? The bat Negan had used on Abraham, on... on Glenn... If so, then why does Rick have it? Father Gabriel stood with the two men along with an almost unrecognisable man. Through the grime and the filth, the sweat and the fear I just about make out Daryl underneath it all. He stood next the man in leather, his head bent like a dog terrified of his master. He wore a plain, almost prison-like, sweatshirt and pants with a giant 'A' spray painted across the front. My heart sank for him – what had happened to him?

They all seemed to be looking down upon the graves. I slowly and carefully adjusted my head to see three freshly dug mounds of earth at their feet.

"Damn tragedy, that's what this is" the tall man in the leather jacket was saying. No body responded but that didn't seem to faze him, and he carried on. "Boy, this must really suck for you guys... number one? That was on me, no choice there, lessons had to be learnt. But number two? Well, that didn't need to happen – Daryl there, he forced my hand, probably put her right on her back, huh?" he said shaking his head in pity.

Still, nobody spoke.

What the hell was this guy talking about?

"Dayum... I was gunna ask her to come back with me" said the man. 

Rick, I saw, shot him a measured but distasteful look. 

The man grinned wickedly in response. "Oh, I know what you're thinking – how could I have a shot, guy who just bashed her husband's head in?" he laughed.

Was he... was he talking about Maggie and Glenn?

So, this is him... this is Negan.

This was the man who'd bashed Glenn and Abraham's skulls in. The man who'd forced Carl and everyone to watch. The man whose group was currently raiding our home as he stood over our dead and spoke about Maggie in the most horrid of ways. The manner in which he talked made me sick and I could feel my own rage bubble like a pot left on the hob for too long.

My fingers itched for a knife, a gun, anything that I could drive into him right now. How was nobody saying anything, doing anything? At least shoving something in his gob to just shut him up.

"You'd be surprised, boy, people they-"

Bang!

The distant gunshot cleared the red haze that had clouded my vision almost instantly and I was left shaking with rage. The four men were silent, even Negan ironically enough.

He was glaring at Rick now, as if he were the one responsible for the gun shot.

They left suddenly, each following Negan as he strode out of the cemetery and off towards the noise.

I took a breath; It was shaky and ragged but not from fear. I didn't know it was possible to hate a person you'd never met this much. In fact, I don't think I'd ever felt this much hate for anyone in my whole life. It had taken me by surprise, the overwhelming urge to spring from the bushes and launch myself at him had been difficult to stifle.