sin and sawdust

19

Eve stared at the ceiling as the early morning light broke through the small window in her room. She had been racking her brain for days and days on end trying to work out why Negan felt so familiar to her and the fact that she couldn't put her finger on it was messing with her head.

She huffed as she drew more blanks, pushing all the thoughts out of him out of her head and swung her legs off the bed, stifling a yawn as she pulled on her black biker style boots. It was early, really early, but she wanted to be ready for today, for her first venture outside of the fences in weeks. She also knew she needed to make a damn good impression with Negan regardless of anything else if she wanted to keep this job.

Rising to her feet, Eve shuffled her way to the small mirror above the sink and pulled her long hair back into a tight bun. As she smoothed back the stray hairs, a bang on the door made her jump.

"Ah, it's you," she sighed, as she opened the door to reveal Simon's grinning face.

"Gooood morning," Simon exclaimed, clapping his hands together, "You ready to get a shake on?"

Eve mentally rolled her eyes, wondering if she was to spend an entire run with Simon's leering grin flashing at her every ten seconds.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied with an outward enthusiasm she didn't feel on the inside.

Hoping for Negan, we're we?

Eve's subconscious had woken up with a bang and was clearly ready to cause havoc with her already fraying nerves. She swallowed the unwanted thought down and ignored her dancing inner voice taunting her from the back of her brain.

She pulled her door shut tight behind her with a satisfying click as the lock slid into place and followed Simon as he whistled his way cheerfully down the dingy corridors. Her footfalls fell into step with his, quietly reverberating in the silent passageways as they wound their way towards the main exit until Simon swerved a left instead of right, throwing Eve off.

"Just a little detour," he leant in conspiratorially towards Eve, "We've got a small detail to rectify first," he said in an exaggerated whisper.

Eve's heart thudded over. She didn't trust Simon, he made her extremely uncomfortable and being in the deserted halls in such close proximity to him, alone, had her on the back foot but ready.

He led her towards the marketplace, the buzz of voices starting to ease her worry and unease. Simon strode in, making an entrance with his usual grandeur, slamming the double doors open with a flourish and the buzz rapidly dipped to low hum as workers scrambled to look busy and by default, unimportant. Eve watched Simon as he watched the workers, a grin on his face that made Eve feel a little nauseous. He enjoyed the fear, she understood that, but the pleasure he took in that fear was beyond, quite sociopathic and that made him more dangerous than Eve had first thought.

"Hey, daydreamer," Simon clicked his fingers in front of Eve's face and wave of repulsion shot through her, she bit it down as she faced him,

"Sorry, little early," Eve forced out with a wry smile,

"Suck it up," he laughed and pointed in the direction of the soldiers exclusive weapons trader, " You need to pick your poison before we head out, can't let you face the dead without something to fight them off now, can we?"

A surge of joy leapt through Eve's entire body as she made her way to the huge table filled with all manner of weapons; knives, guns, even an honest to God military grade grenade launcher. Eve ran her fingers over it in awe, she'd only ever seen them in movies before the world went to shit.

"Do you not think that would be overkill?" Simon's amused voice snapped her back to reality and she quickly scanned the rows of knives, picking two decent sized blades with sturdy handles and razor sharp to the touch. Simon nodded at the vendor who quickly scribbled in his books and Eve looked at him quizzically,

"Just another addition to your mounting debt," he smirked,

Eve scowled in reply and tucked one of the knives into her boot and swiping a leather holster from the table for the other, throwing her cares about her debt to the wind. She was secretly grateful that she was being allowed to pick out weapons, not that she'd ever let Simon know it, but the feeling of being armed alleviated so much of the angst and feeling of vulnerability that had plagued her in the weeks since she'd arrived at Sanctuary. She slid the knife into place inside the leather and felt the weight lift, like a cloud parting to reveal the sun, the result was the same. Warmth and comfort. She rolled her shoulders and turned to face Simon,

"I'm ready," she couldn't stop the grin on her face from emerging as she stood finally back to being comfortable on her own two feet.

He grinned back at her, noddong his head towards the exit and the pair strode out of the hall, through the main exit and into the bright morning sun.

Eve squinted her eyes as the rays blindsided her, soaking up the early warmth on her skin, barely registering the growls and snarls from the dead ones that lined the perimeter fences. It had been so long since she had felt freedom and it was suddenly just within her grasp, however bound it was, it was so close she could almost taste it. She ran her fingers over the blade handle and stepped towards the van that Simon was waiting next to, talking to someone just out of sight.

"Hey!"

Eve jumped as a hand clapped her on the shoulder and she whirled round, looking straight into Laura's smiling face.

"Looks like we're running together today," she babbled excitedly, "Gotta hand it to ya, didn't think you had it in you to convince Negan to take you on in such a coveted position so quickly. How'd you do it? You suck some good dick?"

"WHAT?!" Eve threw her hands up, stopping Laura mid speech.

The young blonde grinned at her, wide enough that it looked like it would crack her face clean in half and she laughed,

"I'm just messing with you, girl, don't be such a stuffy bitch," she giggled and pulled Eve along with her towards to waiting truck.

Eve shook her head and smiled to herself, maybe this whole Sanctuary/Saviour deal wouldn't be as bad as she first thought.