𝑨 𝑯𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑴𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒅𝒚. (𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏)

{38} The Aftermath

"stop pretending you feel bad, it's fucking stupid"

•••

Everything hurt.

Her cheeks were damp, stained with the wetness of her tears. She sniffled, manoeuvring uncomfortably in the splintered chair with her hands shoved carelessly in her lap.

"Brooklyn-" the girl ignored the voice, just like she had ignored the click of the door swinging open. She kept her sunken eyes darted towards the stone floor and huffed in a solemn manor.

"We need to talk."

At last, Brooklyn lifted her head, meeting two familiar faces. Michonne and Rick. She bitterly smiled and unraveled the scarf that was surprisingly still hung around her neck, "what-" she swallowed hard and stared sorrowfully at the silk material, "what are you going to do to him?" The couple glanced at each other and sat down opposite without a word.

Brooklyn was currently at Hilltop, she'd been separated from Negan after what had happened and taken back there for reasons she didn't quite know yet. They'd locked her in a trailer before she could protest and had kept her there for at least a day or two up until now.

"He's not dead, is he?" She nervously asked.

"No," Rick told her, his dreary eyes boring in to her puffy bloodshot ones, "he's still out from the stitching. Probably gonna be a while before he wakes up."

Meeting Negan was the best thing that had ever happened to Brooklyn, and now all of her happiness had been taken away because of one foul mistake. "You never answered my first question," she hissed.

Unlike Rick, Michonne felt a soft spot for the young girl, in fact, she always had and didn't understand why. "This is all about what he did to people Brooklyn, how he punished people, forced people to live under his boot-"

Though she had said it in a fairly calm state, Brooklyn refused to see past that, "he fucking saved people!" The girl tugged frustratedly on her hair, once again wanting to weep until her broken heart was content, "he never wanted any of this!" She yelled, "we never did! All that man wanted, was to help people. It was never his intention to cause world war three!"

Rick sighed and shook his head, "Well it doesn't matter now anyway-" the Alexandrian bit the inside of his cheek. He needed to choose his words very carefully unless he wanted the grieving girl to have some sort of rampaged killing spree. "Negan is going to be locked in a cell, for the rest of his life. He's going to be the prime example of a thriving community, that we don't have to kill people anymore."

Just as Brooklyn thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. Her subconscious screamed, and she felt the need to scream as well. "W-What?" She gazed at the pair through glassy, pleading eyes, "a cell? Where?"

"Alexandria," Michonne said, "we've had some of our people rebuilding it whilst all this was going on, and we should be able to leave by tomorrow- with Negan of course."

No. This couldn't happen. Brooklyn refused to allow it. She practically started sobbing again, "please- you can't do that! I know Alexandria and the saviours have had their differences, but-"

Rick scoffed, "differences?" He looked at the girl, shocked at how naive and disbelieving she was, "you're lucky he's not dead."

This is where everything in Brooklyn's head started to make no sense. Normally, after witnessing the Alexandrian leader slit the man she loved most's neck, she would want nothing more than to happily rip his heart out from his chest. But strangely, she still wanted peace, despite what had happened in the past twenty-four hours- Brooklyn would be happy living in Rick's community as long as Negan was there with her- alive of course.