Freedom -Negan-

Chapter 17

My mother. The doctor. Casey. My professor. The barn. Will. I had fallen asleep, but it wasn't restful. The images played through my head and were alive in my nightmares. Snippets of my past life weaseled their way into my present, making it hard for my brain to differentiate.

I sat up in the bed and whipped my head around, my heart racing. The room was dark, and, for a minute, my mind thought I was back in the dark room of the barn from that first night. I gripped my left hand and felt the comforter on the bed beneath my palm. Bed. It was a bed. I was in a bed, and I had just been sleeping. Sanctuary. I remembered. I swung my legs to the floor and pressed my left thumb into my right palm until I could feel the sting running up my arm. Pain was real and I had to make sure I was actually in this room.

I focused on my breathing to try and calm myself down, but the knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. I stood from the bed and carefully made my way to the lamp in the corner of the room, trying not to trip over anything in the dark. How long was I out for? Wasn't it morning when I got here? I shook my head to get rid of the last bits of sleep and felt for the pull string on the lamp.

Yellow light flooded the room. I wiped my face with my good hand and unlocked the deadbolt to the door. I slowly opened it to see Peter standing outside. I let out a breath and opened the door fully. The blonde-haired man was standing outside my door with a large smile on his face. I held my hand on the door and leaned my right shoulder into the door frame.

"Sleep good?" Peter asked, hands in his pockets.

"Yeah." I lied. "5-star place you guys got here." Peter laughed at my sarcasm.

"It's dinner time. I thought I would show you the mess hall and get you some food." I felt my stomach tighten at the word 'food'. I haven't eaten much in the past week; only whatever scraps those bastards decided to throw our way. I nodded and grabbed the key from the top of the dresser. I looked at the hoodie that was also on top of the dresser and I thought for a moment to grab it but decided against it. I pulled the string to the light and closed the door behind me as I walked out. I turned to face the door, making sure to lock it before shoving the key into the pocket of my joggers. I faced Peter and he started walking down the hall.

"Any idea where my stuff is?" I asked as I tried to keep speed with the taller man.

"Whatever was brought back was logged and Negan said he wanted to go through everything personally." We made a left into the hallway where others lived. Some people were mulling around and kept glancing over at me. I looked around and noticed a lot of people were staring. Peter's eyes flicked over to me looking around, but he stayed silent as we walked. He just didn't want to acknowledge that people were looking at me for the way my face and arms were so severely bruised.

"Well, let Negan know that I want my shit back. All of it." I glared at the side of Peter's head. Even though I had slept, I was still exhausted and notably irritable. "Those assholes of his stole it and I want it back."

Peter scoffed at my words, turning his head to look at me. "You can make that request yourself. I'm not risking my head." My brow furrowed and I glared at him, my brain not fully understanding what he meant. I opened my mouth to ask, but we passed another group of people in the hall and I was distracted by the fact that everyone was staring at me still. Staring wasn't the entire problem. If they had just seen my face, they could have assumed I was in a fight and got the shit kicked out of me. It was when their eyes traveled to my arms and then to my wrists when their expressions would change from shock to sympathy. No. Pity.

I crossed my arms and hid my wrists in the crooks of my elbows, wishing I was wearing my jacket. These people didn't even know a thing about me, but they were already having stories in their heads of what happened to me. I made my eyes hard and stared forward, trying to block out everyone staring as we walked past.