Malevolent. The Walking Dead

[ 034 ] future days

034: future days

Everyone held their breath as Negan went down the line—pointing at each person with his bloodied bat as everyone contemplated their potential demise. Joey thought about what it would feel like to have her head bashed in with a bat—would she even feel it? Would one blow kill her? How would everyone else react? What would happen to Bill, Finn and Carl?

Negan kept counting down the line, pushing Lucille in their faces like it was bait to catch. Joey tried not to listen to what he was saying, or pay attention to what he was doing and who he was pointing the bat at. Everytime his feet landed in front of her, she thought he might decide just to kill her. He would linger in front of her and Carl as if he was taunting them. Joey thought she could throw up on his stupid boots.

"You...are...it." Joey didn't look up. She couldn't—she didn't want to see who it was. It wasn't Finn, Bill, or Carl—but it was someone else. When she glanced in the corner of her eyes, she saw the bat pointing straight at Abraham. He stiffened up and pushed his chest out to look like a man, but Joey could see the fear in his eyes. He was the strongest out of all of them. Everyone stared in disbelief, and Joey let out a shaky sigh as tears started to drip down her face. She didn't even know they were coming out—they just were.

"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start. You can breathe. You can blink. You can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doin' that." He lifted the bat up without hesitation, and hit Abraham straight on the head. Everyone gasped, and Joey flinched, closing her eyes at the blood that immediately pooled from Abraham's head. Abraham stumbled a bit, but got back up on his knees. "Wow! Takin' it like a champ!" Abraham had blood dripping from his head, over his eyes, and down his neck. Joey stared at him with widened eyes, as if she couldn't look away.

"Suck...my...nuts." He breathed, stumbling over his words. Negan swung and nailed him in the head again, and again, and again. Every hit to the head, Joey flinched and closed her eyes, trying to turn away. He kept pounding on Abraham's head until he stopped moving, and his head was a clumpy, indecipherable mess. The blood from his head and some flesh was sticking to the bat that Negan carelessly swung around. Joey wanted to kill him. She could if she tried—her knife was practically vibrating against her calf.

"Did you hear him?" Negan laughed, turning to look at everyone. Joey could only stare at the bloody bat. "He said, suck my nuts." He chuckled, looking down at his bat, before taking it and kept hitting Abraham, as if there was anything left to hit. "Oh my goodness! Look at this!" he flung the bat, and the blood splattered across the line of them. He kept laughing like this was something to be proud of. He looked proudly at his bat. "You guys, look at my dirty girl!" He looked over at Rosita, who was shaking and crying. Negan was looking at her like she was a piece of meat. "Sweetheart...lay your eyes on this." He held the bat right up to her face, like he knew she had some sort of connection with Abraham—deeper than the rest of them.

Rosita stared at the bat in horror, and Joey looked away. "Oh damn...were you two...were you together?" He asked, but garnered no answer. No one wanted to speak to him. Joey wanted to stab him. "That sucks. But if you were, you should know, there was a reason for all of this," he pointed his bat toward Abraham's motionless, crushed body. "Red—and hell, he was, is, and will ever be red. He just took one or six or seven for the team!" He pushed the bat closer to Rosita's face. "So take a damn look." Rosita kept her eyes away from the bat. "Take a damn look!"

Daryl grunted before getting up and punching Negan straight in the jaw. He tried to get another punch, but three of Negan's came forward to pull him down. Joey knew that it wasn't going to turn out good—that Negan was going to retaliate. He said they only got one free pass that Glenn already used—but Joey was still grateful that Daryl punched him. He just killed Abraham and taunted Rosita. He was evil—he enjoyed all of this. He wanted to see them break.