Forever Broken // Carl Grimes

Chapter 26

Fighting flames of fire
Hang onto burning wires
We don't care anymore
Are we fading lovers?
We keep wasting colors
Maybe we should let this go
We're falling apart, still we hold together
We've passed the end, so we chase forever
'Cause this is all we know
This feeling's all we know

The Chainsmokers - All We Know

~•~

"Find the girl!" She heard their loud obnoxious voices as she sat, swallowed by a pit of her own confusion. She prayed that somehow those two people had found their way out, and away from Negan forever. She knew that they only wanted to save her, to save Lauren; But that person didn't exist anymore. There was no Lauren. There was just a hollow shell of a person that once was.

Georgina.

The name echoed throughout her head. She'd felt something when she saw that girl, saw that dark hair and those hazel blue eyes. She tried so hard to remember who she was, but she had fallen short of redemption. She couldn't have gone with them even if she wanted to, she was no longer the person they were looking for.

"Georgina.." She whispered, her head resting in her callused hands. She shook her head. She didn't know this person. It could have been a trick, to test her loyalty to Negan. She would be good. Georgina wasn't her friend. The Saviors were.

She squinted at the harsh light that shone into her cell.

"She's still here!"

She was roughly grabbed and dragged out of the pit of darkness. She didn't fight back, she had no need to. Little by little, she was forgetting the details she had grasped. She couldn't forget the blue eyes of a boy but she had yet to find him. She doubted that her memory of the boy with blue eyes was even real. He could have hurt her, she didn't know. She let her feet drag against the floor, fingers digging into her bruises but the pain, she needed to feel it.

"She was still in the cell," The Savior informed, once they had reached their destination. He sneered his words, hatred she didn't know she deserved burning into her.

"Lift her up," Negan's heart-stopping roar tore through the room, she didn't flinch, "She is not a prisoner here."

She heard him move to her, but her head was hung low and her eyes were transfixed on the floor. Gently, he lifted her chin to meet his eyes, as he scanned her broken and beaten body. He feigned shock at the sight of her.

"Did you do this to her?" His vicious words sent a flicker of fear into her heart, and she was unable to comprehend his kindness.

"But you-"

"Get him out of here," Negan barked and Lauren flinched, "Put him in one of the cells."

The Savior protested as he was dragged from the room. Lauren felt a sliver of.. relief? She had been beaten by that man for days on end, at what she assumed was Negan's word. But, Negan had told her he wouldn't hurt her as long as she remained good. She frowned through the confusion, but revelled in the slightest sense of safety she felt in that moment. Negan took her in his arms, and gestured for the other Saviors to leave. She felt strange from the contact, like part of her was repulsed by him.

"You're safe now," He said with such gentleness she felt herself fall deeper into a sense of safety, "You did good today. They were going to take you away from me, to hurt me, they wanted to take away my prized possession. They didn't want to help you they wanted to hurt you."