Negan's Daughter

| Chapter 33 | Casey

Five weeks. That's all it took for Casey's stomach to inflate to the size of a small soccer ball. As I tugged at her clothes to try to conceal the bump she stared at the door with anxious eyes.

"They can't hurt me now. Can they?" Her voice was dead, she already knew the answer. Willow pulled the hair out of her face and leaned her head down.

"They can't." Willow lied. I yanked my hands away from Casey and ran them into my wild hair. Once they got stuck I pulled them out and placed them on my thin knees. Casey placed her hand on her stomach and closed her eyes.

"I know a name for him." She whispered.

"Him?" I questioned weakly. Casey nodded slightly.

"I know it's a boy." She swallowed. "My family has lasted for generations without having born one son." Casey opened her cold dead eyes and focused on me. "Now that they're dead I know it's time things change." I tilted my head down and focused on the ground below me.

"What are you going to name him?" I asked using only my throat.

"Petyr," she answered. My eyes raised from the ground and met her. For the first time they were far off and had a sliver of hope behind them. The sliver faded as she focused back on the door. "They should be coming soon." She pulled her arms around herself and pressed against the wall. Just as I moved to return to my usual spot, Casey gripped my arm tightly.

"Wha-" my voice was cut off as she eyed me with seriousness.

"If anything happens to me." She closed her lips. It wasn't too long ago she had tried to take her own life. She blinked back the memory, the urge to end her suffering still present. "Make sure Petyr makes it out of here." A sudden smile broke out from her face. My breath caught in my throat. For the first time she believed. She believed there was something better than this. She released my arm and placed it on her stomach. She believed for Petyr. I smiled back with the pain behind my expression hidden well.

"I will."

Without another word we prepared. I pressed my fingers against the sore spots in my arm and exhaled a slow breath. In a few minutes life would shift again, like it had for the past two and a half months. The doorknob turned and I closed my eyes.

Carl gazed up at me with a different expression than his usual indifference. I held out my hand and he placed the letter back in my grasp. I folded the letter and put it in my bag. "So do you trust that I'm not somebody from Woodbury trying to infiltrate your group to help kill you all?" I gazed at Carl with a joking smile.

"I didn't think you were. I know you're not a bad person." Carl's voice was soft and it caused my mouth to gape open and allow the silence to sneak in. I swallowed a lump in my throat and smiled lightly

"Thank you." Carl nodded.

My eyes shot open at the sound of labored breathing. With a new injection in my arm I turned my gaze to the source and felt my stomach drop. Casey was in the floor, stomach exposed and tears streaming down her red puffy cheeks. Blood dripped down her mutilated flesh and into the pavement below her. I rushed to my wobbly arms and blinked rapidly as if the scene were an illusion. They were gone, the only evidence of their presence being the weeping passing through the room. I pulled myself towards Casey and felt a pressure build up behind my eyes. My eyes searched for Willow and I noticed her sitting a few feet off with her eyes trained on Casey in shock. I turned back to Casey and shook her. Blood dripped from her mouth, nose and ears. Fresh bruises covered her skin and contorted her face. She cried as I tried to stop the bleeding emitting from her stomach. She had been stabbed, two or three times.

"Casey- look at me- you'll be okay," my shaky voice died off as she gripped my wrist with one of her cold hands.

"Please," She begged. Her head slammed against the ground below her. "He- he's dead!" Her cries were unrestrained. I struggled to keep myself from hunching over and joining in on her sobs. I pulled the ripped fabric of her shirt and tried to keep pressure on the wound but failed. The fabric was as thin as cobweb.

"Petyr is dead." She whispered. I snapped my eyes up towards hers and squeezed against her stomach harder. This wasn't real. This was a nightmare. She closed her eyes for a moment.

"You're going- be fine-"

"No," she whispered abruptly. She opened her eyes again. "Please. Kill me." The words caused an icy substance to enter my veins. I froze and focused down on her like she was the only person in the world.

"I- can't," my voice cracked. She clenched her eyes shut in pain. I examined her stomach. The blood puddled around us, too much to survive without. Her death would take hours. My breathing slowed as I pulled my gaze up the her. She blinked slowly.

"I can't survive this," she whispered. A drop of blood slipped from the corner of her lips and ran down to the floor. "Not anymore." I stared through watery eyes until finally I pulled myself on top of her. Her eyes didn't leave the ceiling as I straddled her and slowly moved my hands to her neck. I pressed lightly at first, then felt her vocal cords fight back against my force as I clenched tighter. With shaky hands I pushed hard enough to make a struggled sound escape her mouth. She didn't fight back. I didn't think. I pressed harder and harder. That all I had to do. In a few minutes it would be over. I held on tight enough to feel my fingers meeting each other around her thin neck. Her eyes watered, face red until finally her body slowly began to relax. She stopped moving. I slowly pulled my hands away and stared in shock at what I had done. Deep red gashes surrounded her neck as she stared blankly up at the ceiling. I fell off of her and scooter away. I killed her. Casey was dead. I held my hands in front of me unsure of what to do.

I sat in shock until the light went out from underneath the door. She would turn. I had to stop her from tuning. She was dead. Why did he kill her? I had to finish the job. I killed someone. I had to do it. My eyes closed and I couldn't breath. Without thinking, I wandered.

The walker was on the ground as Carl fired his rifle at it over and over. Rick stumbled over towards him and called out his name in a sob as he wrapped his arms around him and Carl hunched forward. Sobs escaped his mouth as he mourned the loss of his baby sister. I felt tears exit my eyes as I limped closer. Rick helped Carl up, trying to get him to stop crying. Their attention snapped in my direction as I got closer.

"E-Everyone's gone." I forced out in disbelief. Everything was gone.

The soft groans of a new walker broke me free from my thoughts. I opened my eyes weakly and felt numb. Without processing what I was doing, I pushed myself up and snuck towards the wall. Clenching my fist, I began to bang on the door three slow knocks at a time. After a moment I heard footsteps. I stepped to the side and waited. Just as the door opened the new walker darted towards the man who had opened it, tearing into the flesh of his throat hungrily. I slipped out of the door and stepped back. From the outside I stared in and suddenly felt everything that had happened play through my mind. Fight or flight kicked in, and by instinct, I ran as fast as I could in two scrawny weak legs. The hall were long and dark, I swayed on feet that hadn't run in months. I slammed against a wall, out of breath and feeling the right of all the drugs put in my system weigh me down. I remembered my first night, what they did to Casey then and ran. I kept running until a white light in the distance made itself apparent. I ran and ran and ran. The light got closer, the tunnel narrowed. Just as I reached the light I felt hands yank me around the stomach and throw me to the floor. I cried out, ready to put up a fight. Frank stared down at me with wide amused eyes. I scooted back and felt two more hands wrap my arms and lift me like a 20 pound doll. I fought until I was out of breath but my attempts were nothing to them. They carried me back, the light disappearing slowly. When the finally stopped for a moment I heard a door open and suddenly felt myself flying back. I hit the familiar cold ground of the room and jumped to sit up. It was empty. My eyes widened as Frank stared at me from the door with a grin.

"If you wanted a room change, you should've just asked." Just as I opened my mouth he slammed the door shut and clicked the lock in place. Complete and utter darkness surrounded me. I screamed. I screamed and kicked and punched and banged my body against the door until I couldn't stand anymore and my body crumpled into a useless pile on the floor.