I think I liked you better when you didn't have a knife in your hand, Peaches

Please

Blake remained alone for the long two days that followed.

She had managed to get herself up and out of bed to use the bathroom....but that was far as she felt able to go by herself....exhausted by even that.

The bandages around her broken and bruised ribs and around her sprained wrist were checked and changed by Doctor Carson, formally of the Hilltop people...who looked slightly stressed and frazzled.

And apart from that, a meek-looking Saviour, who only looked about fourteen, brought her three meals a day without fail.

But this pair were the only people she had seen. Even the hallway outside her room had been empty each time she had passed through it.

Since Blake had awoken, she had had no contact with Negan or any of his close lieutenants. No Dwight, no Eugene, no Simon and no Arat. Even the few she didn't know by their names hadn't come near her either...and Blake knew that this had to have been on Negan's orders.

She had heard the anger in his voice when he had spoken to her....felt the disappointment in his glare...

He had of course expected her to betray David...but Blake couldn't do that. For she knew what would happen if she did.

She had to remain loyal.....to the man she loved....

Or at least the man she used to love.

Blake's brain since having woken, had been going a mile a minute.

She was in pain. But this had nothing to do with her bruises or her broken bones.

Instead, this had everything to do with what David had done to her...not just three days ago...but over the last six months.

Even when she had been in Alexandria she had felt like a prisoner. Afraid to put a foot wrong. But back then she loved him. She doted on him. He was her fiancé after all.

But since getting here, to the Sanctuary, things had changed....David had changed.....he was not the man she had met and fallen for all those years ago.

The tears had barely stopped falling these last couple of days....her eyes red and sore....and dried up...

She had nothing left to give. No energy left to spend.

Blake had just taken a long shower. It was late afternoon and today had been the first day she had felt strong enough to stand in the shower....letting the water wash the dried blood from her hair....washing carefully her three large stitches that remained on the very back of her head...as well as the dirt and grime from the rest of her body.

Blake hadn't showered or changed her clothes since before she had left for the run...

But now standing here, in just a fresh pair of plain black matching underwear...looking into the long mirror that hung on the back of her closet...did Blake realise just how terrible she looked.

Her skin all over was bruised....and the bruises that were no longer bright purple like the ones across her ribs and her neck, were now green and ghastly-looking.

Her eyes were red, as predicted...with deep purple bags beneath them.

Her hair was damp and wavy, and even despite running a hairbrush through it, it looked limper and more lifeless than before.

Blake took in a half-sob before she could stop herself, clutching suddenly at her mouth, the pain of the sharp intake of breath shooting through her sore ribs.

This is what she had become. A mere shell of herself.

And she knew who all this was down to.

Blake hung her head, staring down at her feet.