Malevolent. The Walking Dead

[ 008 ] the heart is slow to learn

008: the heart is slow to learn
tw: attempted sexual assault, torture

She awoke on the floor. It was cold, which was the first thing she noticed ━ she wasn't even able to open her eyes just yet. But, when she tried to lift her head off of the ground, a surge of pain wrapped it like a bandage. She could taste copper in her mouth, and when she opened her eyes, she saw that her leg had been bandaged. Her hands were bound with thick rope, and she was in a small prison cell. It was desolate and empty ━ the rest of the room was dingy, with a machete sticking out of a table on the other side. She didn't question it. However, her whole body ached ━ clothes still in tact. She crawled over to the bars of the door, pulling haphazardly and stupidly on them as they clattered. How could she let them get into this scenario? Was Finn dead? This was all her fault. Now, Bill would die too because of her. How could she have been so utterly stupid?

She checked her pockets, and her pant leg. All of her items had been taken ━ her bow, her knife, her gun. Everything. She hit the floor with her hands in anger. Her eyes scanned her environment for a moment, looking for any possible route out. There was nothing that came to mind other than to wait. The machete was too far out of her reach, and with her hands bound, it was impossible to try and maneuver her hands through the bars to try and pick the lock from the outside.

She pulled on the door even more, trying to see if she could even get it close to open, but when the same man that knocked her out walked into the room, she fell backwards and backed up into the wall. He smirked and crouched down to her level.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, almost as if she was just some sickly little girl. It made her queasy, and the eerie smile on his face made her want to spit in it.

"Super," she breathed, pulling her knees up to her chest. He opened the door, and she immediately sprang to run, but the window was too small, and he pulled up his pistol to point it at her. She backed away slowly. "Not so fast, honey, we haven't properly introduced ourselves," he kept it pointed at her as she backed into the wall again, sliding down to sit. He crouched down to her height again. "I'm Mason. What's your name?"

She scoffed, retracting slowly as if to protect herself. "Why in hell would I tell you that?"

He ran his hand over his face, stroking his beard. She watched him intently, side eyes kept on the gun in his hand that seemed to be all too happy to be pointed directly at her. He barely bats an eye. "Because your boyfriend, you know, blondie, is next on the chopping block,"

Finn. He was still alive. Hopefully he could get out of here ━ she wasn't able to see the state of security this place had, but she was praying it was just some hobos with 47's that they didn't know how to work. "Where is he?" she questioned, voice small. Even if he was dead, it wouldn't be too hard to move on ━ they had only known each other for a day. Joey didn't like to say goodbye anymore, anyways. "Don't worry about sweetie," his smile made her want to retch all over him, but she held back. "But you gotta answer a few questions first. What's your name?"

She cleared her throat, shifting in her seat, knees still hugged up to her chest. Mason continued to stare at her with a devilish look in his eyes that could only be classified as sadistic. Her heart beat so hard against her ribcage it was almost concerning, and she thought it was going to pry its way out of her chest. "J ━ Josephine," she cringed at saying her full name. It was almost a foreign word to her, as if she had never spoken something of that nature before. She never told people her full name, and just referred to herself as Joey. But something about giving him the ability to call her by her nickname didn't feel right.