Peaches - Part 2

Part 200 -When I close my eyes

Continued from 'I think I like you better when you didn't have a knife in your hand, Peaches'. You can find that fic and the first 200 chapters of this story on my page.

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Blake stared in horror at the man before her, the man from a life she had thought was long gone.

He was now a mere ghost from her past, a speck of memory, familiar and yet so foreign.

Brandon was stood before her, blue eyes searching her face, oh-so hopefully awaiting an answer to the question of his brother's whereabouts.

But Blake right now was floundering like a fish, mouth hanging slightly agape, still in shock.

For although Brandon had always been tall and blonde with piercing blue eyes just like his brother, he had always been slightly stockier than David, and was always seen with a large amount of facial hair.

But now, looking like he had lost a significant amount of weight in the last few years since the world had gone to shit, and now clean shaven too, Brandon bore a frightening resemblance to his abusive younger brother.

"B-Brandon," Blake managed to stutter out, as Brandon lifted his hand to the blonde's upper arm.

"I am so glad to see that you made it, Blakey," he said, the corners of his eyes wrinkling slightly as he smiled down at her, in that moment looking so very much like her deceased fiancé. The man Blake had murdered.

Blake felt her heart begin to race inside her chest, as flashes on those horrible moments where David had hit her, yelled at her, inflicted bruises upon her skin, appeared in her mind eye.

"A-And David, is he-"

But before Brandon could finish, Blake had shaken her head and taken a sudden step backwards, flinching away from his touch.

"I-I'm so sorry, I-I-I've got to go..." she just about managed to squeak out, hands trembling, looking like the epitome of a rabbit trapped in the headlights.

And as quick as a flash, knowing that everyone in the room was staring at her, Blake fled, with Brandon calling after her as she went.

The sound of his voice calling her name echoed after her in her ears as she hurried back across the Sanctuary back up the expansive staircases, finally reaching her and Negan's room just a few short minutes later.

Bursting through the door and shutting it closed quickly behind her, finally here, hidden away from Brandon and the ghost of her ex, Blake was able to breathe again.

She let out a shuddering breath of air, hanging her head for a second before sudden voice spoke behind her.

"Everythin' alright, Darlin'?"

Blake almost jumped out of her skin, turning and blinking several times, shaking herself, to see Negan sat there, a look of concern etched over his dark and handsome features.

He was lounging there now, on the bed beside a sleeping Mia, his back propped up against the headboard, t-shirt back on and large bare feet crossed one over the other. Obviously having somehow, by some miracle, managed to get the antsy toddler back into bed and to sleep.

It was then that Blake finally remembered what she had gone downstairs to fetch in the first place.

"I uh...I forgot Mia's milk..." uttered Blake in a distant sounding voice.

Negan pushed himself from the bed and got to his feet, strolling over towards her. And in a second Blake felt his fingers on her chin, tilting her face so that her gaze finally met with his.