Running From You I Negan x Maggie (ENGLISH VERSION)

Chapter 19: If I seem dangerous, would you be scared?

"I'm only a man with a candle to guide me

I'm taking a stand to escape what's inside me

A monster, a monster

I've turned into a monster

And it keeps getting stronger"

The forest was cloaked in an unsettling silence, the kind that only exists before a storm. Towering trees formed a dense canopy, blocking most of the sunlight, and the ground was blanketed in damp leaves that crunched softly under Negan's boots. He walked slowly, his left hand resting at his side while his right gripped the crowbar tightly, ready for anything that might appear.

There was something in the air—heavy, almost suffocating. The smell of wet earth mixed with the distant chirping of birds made each step feel slower, more labored. Yet he kept moving, as if pulled by something inevitable.

Negan stopped for a moment, leaning against a thick tree trunk. From his pocket, he pulled out a folded piece of paper, worn at the edges and nearly illegible, but he had memorized every word. It was a recipe, hastily scrawled by Eugene years ago. He had found it just days earlier, tucked away in the chaos of an old drawer at Rick's house, alongside Aaron.

The paper had been stuffed between old maps and scribbled strategies. Aaron had found it first, tossing it to Negan with a barely concealed look of disdain.

"Well, looks like it's yours now," Aaron had said dryly, returning to rummaging through the drawers without so much as a glance.

Negan caught the paper and immediately recognized Eugene's handwriting. He let out a dry chuckle that echoed in the empty room, though there was no humor in it. It was the laugh of someone who knew what was coming. The scar on the palm of his right hand, now partially hidden by calluses, seemed to burn with the memory of his failure back then.

"It'll be different this time," he had thought. But would it?

Back in the forest, Negan carefully folded the paper and tucked it back into his pocket. The weight of the memory felt heavier than the paper itself. He glanced around, as if expecting to find something among the trees, but all he found was emptiness.

The path led him to a clearing, where he paused for a moment to catch his breath. The faint sunlight filtered through the treetops, casting long shadows across the ground. He closed his eyes, and another fragment of the past surged forward.

Flashback: Two Weeks Earlier

The road to the Sanctuary felt longer than Negan remembered. The convoy moved in silence, the hum of engines breaking the stillness of the slumbering forest. Aaron drove the lead truck with Jerry beside him, while Negan sat in the bed of another truck with several men, watching the landscape fade behind them. The wind whipped against his face, but there was no freshness to it—only a heavy mix of nostalgia and unease.

When they arrived at the Sanctuary, the sight hit him like a punch to the gut. The massive factory, once synonymous with power and control, was now in ruins. Broken windows, rusted structures overgrown with weeds. The symbol of his old empire had become a silent graveyard for the man he once was.

"Let's get this over with," Aaron said, snapping Negan out of his trance. His voice carried the impatience of someone who didn't want to waste time.

The air inside was thick with the smell of rust and decay as they searched the building. Aaron, Jerry, and a few others scavenged for supplies, but Negan was drawn elsewhere, like a moth to a flame.