The night sky slowly starts to lighten as the sun rises on a new day. A new world, just like they said. As the fog rolls through, all of your tears have dried. Or our bodies just stopped producing water for us. Maggie, barely there next to me, rests with her head in one of her hands. I put a hand on her back, but I know there's nothing more I could do. Her husband, her love, the father of her unborn child is dead. As we sit there, the crackling of rocks being rolled around is heard and I know Negan has returned. As he parks in the same spot as before, almost perfectly, I pray Rick comes out alive, as he was before. The door swings open and Rick is thrown to the ground. Negan pushes him further to the middle of our broken circle, "here we are. Let me ask you something, Rick, do you even know what that little trip was about?" Rick doesn't answer, his eyes wide and his expression unreadable. Negan demands louder, "speak when you're spoken to."
"Okay." Rick mutters out through a breathe but shakes his head.
"Okay" Negan repeats, "that trip was about the way that you looked at me. I wanted to change that. I wanted you to understand. But you're still looking at me the same damn way, like I shit in your scrambled eggs, and that's not gonna work." He sits up from where he's crouching and looks around at us all, "so, do I give you another chance?"
Rock barely gets out, "yeah." Negan gives him a glare and rick clarifies, "yes."
"Yes." Negan smiles, "okay" he chuckles. "All right. And here it is, the grand-prize game. What you do next will decide whether your crap day becomes everyone's last crap day or just another crap day." Negan looks to his men to give direction, "get some guns to the back of their heads." I feel the cold end of an automatic weapon and chills run through my body, "good. Now, level with their noses, so if you have to fire,—" he imitates explosion noises and acts it out with his hand, "it'll be a real mess." He turns his head, waits a second then calls to Carl,
"kid. Right here. Kid, now." Carl stands, slowly walking closer to Negan, "you a southpaw?"
"Am I a what?" Carl asks, his voice level.
"You a lefty?" Negan clarifies.
"No." Carl answers.
"Good." He smiles. Negan starts to wrap a belt arm his arm, tightening it, "that hurt?"
"No." Carl tells him.
"Should. It's supposed to." He answers, tightening it once more, "all right. Get down on the ground, kid, next to Daddy. Spread them wings." He throws the hat off his head. As Carl starts to kneel next to his dad, Negan pushes him down flat onto the ground. Carl turns his head, looking at Negan and his dad from a side view, "Simon, you got a pen?"
The man answers, "yeah" I don't look back to see him but I spot the pen as Negan catches it.
He takes the lid off the black marker and kneels back down , "sorry, kid. This is gonna be as cold as a warlock's ballsack, just like he was hanging his ballsack above you and dragging it right across the forearm." He throws the pen to the side, "there you go. Gives you a little leverage."
It's low, but we can all hear Rick pleas, "please. Please. Please don't. Please don't."
Negan answers, "me?" He chuckles, "I ain't doing shit." He stands, "ahh. Rick, I want you to take your ax... cut your son's left arm off, right on that line. Now, I know -- I know. You're gonna have to process that for a second." I watch as I see the color drain from Ricks entire body as processes just what Negan said, "that makes sense. Still, though, I'm gonna need you to do it, or all these people are gonna die. Then Carl dies, then the people back home die... and then you, eventually. I'm gonna keep you breathing for a few years, just so you can stew on it."
Michonne speaks up, tears streaming and her voice shaking, "you-- you don't have to do this. We understand. We understand."
"You understand." He answers her back, "yeah. I'm not sure that Rick does. I'm gonna need a clean cut right there on that line. Now, I know this is a screwed-up thing to ask, but it's gonna have to be like a salami slice. Nothing messy, clean, 45 degrees, give us something to fold over. We got a great doctor. The kid'll be fine." He smiles wide, "probably." He doesn't give him more time to process as he says, "Rick, this needs to happen now -- chop, chop -- or I will crush the little fella's skull myself."
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Determined to Endure: The 4th Installment in my Daryl Dixon Love Story
FanfictionThey say there is a calm before the storm and that's exactly what Sadie-Mae is afraid of as she starts a new life with Daryl. Without knowing what threats linger outside the walls of Alexandria, the two of them try to start a kind of life together.
