Yes i know what happened, let's not talk about it
SOTC: Crossfire — Stephen
• He'd trade his guns for love / but he's caught in the crossfire •
Negan would mangle him. That's the only certainty she knew. If her father ever found out... she could imagine it in visceral detail. Imagine Negan digging his finger into the edge of the remaining eye, prying it out with a slick pop. April could conjure the screams. She'd heard them before.
"I can't see," his voice whimpered.
He wrenched his hand away. His breaths quickened. "I CAN'T FUCKING SEE—"
April's illusion of peace exploded apart like a thousand bits of glass.
Pause.
She let herself hang, for a moment. The rank odor of coffee clinging to her skin. The only source of light, a lamp on her nightstand. Her keys and last night's dinner lay stagnant, the steady release of rot into the air.
Inhale.
The note was small, scrawled on a yellow page. It would probably be illegible without the guidance of lines.
She found that kind of funny. Typical boy chickenscratch.
The first word was her name. It was so strange seeing it written in his handwriting—or seeing his handwriting at all. She entertained the possibility of this being a scam, then decided against it. She knew Dwight's anger against Negan. How he would smoke cigarettes in the stairwell and plead for his wife.
It was all a massive performance.
April ran her finger over her name, envisioned Carl's hand. She liked this delusion, holding it there for a moment, the fantasy warmth of his skin right there where hers was now.
She unfolded the letter.
As her eyes scrolled farther through the sentences, she felt stranger and stranger. Relief, of course, was the strongest emotion entering her body. Carl was alive. But he was suffering. But he was caught in a loop, like some prison cult.
But as she reached the end of the note, she began to understand.
The puzzle pieces collided, fell into place. The stratagem formed like a bolt of lightning.
She was floored.
Tucked the note into her jacket pocket, and swiped her keys off the nightstand.
She wasn't sure if she was crazy, but she was damn sure about one thing. This was what Carl needed her to do.
♛ ♛ ♛ ♛ ♛
The light came sifting through clouds, dusting gently on the ground as new winter snow. Amid this fog, the city seemed a massive fortress; the spires of an ancient, well-worn kingdom rather than cheap slatted roofs.
A plume of smoke wreathed into the air from a pair of lips.
Rick studied the cigarette, caught between index and middle, watching the small burr of orange fire vanish back into ash.
He took another drag, tilting back in the rocking chair like some elderly man. Stared up into the blank white sky.
The echo of bleach met him like a memory.
"'Ey!"
Rick turned around blearily, and was met with the distant figure of Tobin, running madly towards him.
"Rick!"
"What," the rasp hardly exited his mouth.
"We have a visitor."
A pause.
Rick sat up in the rocking chair. "Who."
"It's... well..." Tobin struggled to construct words, tussing his hair with nervous fingers. "It's Negan's girl. From—"
"Yes." Rick's lip twitched at the mention of the bitch. He drew from his reservoir of fury. This fucker. Some sick part of him imagined putting a bullet in her brain.
"Why is she here."
"We don't know."
"Is she alone?"
"Yes."
Rick walked down from the porch. Released and ground his cigarette into the sidewalk. "There's no way."
"We would have seen. I already have some people searching, just in case."
There was a moment.
Rick sighed into his palm.
"This seems too coincidental. Sasha and Rosita still haven't turned up yet."
Tobin looked back towards the gate. "We have to talk to her either way."
The wind picked up a bit. Tree branches clicked against walls like skeletal fingers.
Rick took a glance upwards, murmured a quiet prayer to himself, then gave a nod of affirmation.
"If she moves," he rasps, his voice taking on a threatening undertone. "If she twitches. Riddle her with bullets."
Anything to get him back. Anything.
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A/N: wowie that was a shit chapter i'm sorry
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NEXT CHAPTER:
maybe December 22
maybe earlier?
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Word Count: 764
Created 12-11-17
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DEVILS ♛ C. G. 〖 #wattys2018 〗
Fanfiction[ c o m p l e t e d ] "She looked like a goddess. The kind that sends cities to their knees in fear. The kind that is never in picture books. The kind that twists people." - - - - - April is a devil. A demon. And above all, she is a...
