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chapter fifty-seven | the endless nightmare
SHE WAS BACK in that room. The metal sheets lined the walls, rusty screws poking out. She was tempted to pull them out to use to defend herself, but she couldn't move.
He was on top of her, holding her wrists down on the floor above her head with one hand while the other pressed into her injuries. She tried to wrestle herself out of his tight grip, but her rib cage and his weight caused all air to escape her lungs as she gasped and cried in excruciating pain.
This was it, she thought. This was how she would finally die.
The Governor sat on her hips, groping her naked body and pressing his hands on her wounds to get her to talk. To get her to reveal her home, where her little sister and brother slept, where her family was safe. She knew he was going to kill her. There was no way out of it because there was no way in hell she was going to tell him anything.
At one point, Laurel couldn't feel anything. She fazed into a dissociative state, pretending she was back at the farm, walking next to Daryl through the tall grass as they left to look for Sophia. It was the first moment she could think of. She remembered that first day searching. They found a torn-down house, inside was a small cupboard that Daryl for sure thought Sophia camped out in. The Cherokee flowers right outside that Daryl tortured as he tried to pick flowers from it. Laurel had to help him. The story he told Carol when he brought back the flower. It helped all three of them have hope that Sophia was still alive, able to be found.
A blood-curdling scream escaped her throat when the Governor grabbed her tangled head of hair, almost picking her whole body up from the ground, and slammed her down against the concrete again, breaking her out of her peace. She tried to lift her arms to shield herself but she couldn't move. She was so weak and terrified as he continued her torture.
She can't do anything.
She can't do anything.
She can't do anything.
She can't do anything.
Laurel gasped, her eyes flying open as her hands flailed around her. She breathed heavily as she looked around her. It was dark and it took her a moment but she recognized her cell. She sat up on the bed, careful of the top bunk, and tore her blankets off herself. She ran her fingers through her hair, realizing how sweaty she was.
The snores from the floor below and above her let her know she didn't wake anybody up and she breathed out heavily. With her chest still heavy as she tried to calm her breathing and racing heart, slipping out of bed. She grabbed her boots from beside and tiptoed out of her cell carefully because Ethan was splayed out on his bed like a starfish.
