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

Nightmares and revenge

It was late, maybe 2am, and all was quiet at the Sanctuary, everyone, but a few Saviours standing guard, was asleep, tucked up safely in bed, barely making a sound, save from a few snuffles and peaceful snores.

But one person had been tossing and turning for the past half hour, growling incoherent ramblings under their breath....a slick sheen coating their body...and a tormented frown between their brows...

He would have looked to anyone watching, like he was battling invisible demons....but this time he had no Lucille to help him, looking anguished and pained, as a gulp trailed down his bearded throat.

But it was barely a second later, that Negan suddenly shot straight up in bed, his brow covered in sweat, breathing hard.

He took a huge gulp of air, sucking it into his lungs as though he had been starved of oxygen for years.

The dark-haired man looked hurriedly down to his right, eyes searching for the two of them in the darkness of his room, his chocolate eyes finally finding both Blake and Mia sleeping peacefully beside him.

Where they were supposed to be...

It was just a nightmare.

Just a fucking nightmare, he consoled himself with thinking.

But yet again, for the second night now, it had felt so real.

He had the same dream two nights in a row now, since getting back from Alexandria.

And both times it had been the same...

....exactly the same...

For instead of finding Mia in those woods...alive, soaking wet, missing a sock, in this anxiety-inducing dream, Negan had found her stumbling out of those bushes growling and snarling at him....a living dead creature...

With grey eyes staring blankly at him...

And Negan had been forced to do it with one foul swing of Lucille....

Sending the child who had once been Mia collapsing to the ground with a thud.

But that had not been the end of Negan's nightmare...

The next part filling him with anguish even to think about now in these waking seconds.

For it was Negan's turn then...to stumble across that muddy pit...

...and being too late to save her...

Blake...

For all he could see were walkers.....tearing at her flesh, the only thing distinguishable being her bloodied caramel-blonde hair, and her screams...

...those screams that turned his blood cold and caused his heart to break and shatter.

But Negan always woke up before the end. Before he could put the walkers down.

And so for the second night, Negan had awoken in a fearful a panic, his heart still hammering inside his chest....

...slowly slowing now, as he let out a deep breath before putting his arms around his girls and pulling them closer to him, spooning Blake.

At the movement, the blonde woman stirred slightly.

"What is it?" she murmured in a warm voice, perhaps sensing that there was something wrong...or perhaps just wondering what he wanted in the darkness of this late hour.

But Negan pressed a kiss to the space between her neck and shoulder now comfortingly.

"Nothin', go back to sleep," he growled out gently, not wanting to wake the kid too.

But Blake seemed satisfied with his reassuring lie, placing her hand to his and pulling his strong arm tighter around her. "Mmmmm, ok, I love you," she breathed out, sounding as though she had already fallen back to sleep.

But Negan answered her gesture of adoration anyway.

"Love you too, Peaches," he hummed, pressing a kiss into her tangled hair, before closing his eyes and drifting back off to sleep....

...but not before making sure his hand was still locked tightly around the pair of them...

....never fucking wanting to let them go again.

It was a dark and still night, and over at Alexandria, only one house had its lights still on....

....even Aaron noticed this as he surveyed the small community behind him as he paced the perimeter walls on his shift, rubbing his hand together for warmth.

But he didn't dwell long on why exactly Rosita would be up this late...merely turning back to the road ahead of him and letting out a puff of air that turned into mist right before his eyes....

Rosita was on her third glass of whiskey, or was it her fourth, she had already lost count, pulling the glass from her lips and wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand, spilling a little of the brown alcohol onto her beige living-room carpet as she did so.

She was angry....full of hatred...burning up inside still, at the thought of what had happened yesterday.

The way that bitch Blake and that prick Negan had just strolled in here and Rick had rolled over for them like a puppy wanting his belly rubbed.

Well she was done with pussy-footing around now.

Done with their games.

She had tried to send Steve out to infiltrate them, but that had been weeks ago....and so any hope of him actually returning was now lost.

She had waited in the woods the day before yesterday in the place they had planned, but Steve had not turned up.

So Rosita could only assume the worst, after there had been no sight of him amongst the other Saviour men who had arrived here yesterday.

Not that it was a great loss to her now.

Rosita had lost Abraham....Spencer.....and now Steve was just one in a long list of people she was determined to get revenge for.

For there had always been one person responsible for all this....

...one person who Rosita was determined to see pay for what he had done.

But after that screw up with the bullet....seeing Eugene torn away from them like that...well, Rosita was not going to make that mistake again...

She wouldn't miss twice.

She knew that now, as she brought the whiskey glass up to her lips once more, draining it, before bending down and feeling underneath her smart white couch for the object she had hidden there...

...the object she had found whilst out scavenging miles and miles outside these walls...

...the object she had not yet told anyone about....

....pulling the long thin item in question out, taking a seat and pulling it onto her lap.

It was a large black rifle with a periscope attached to the top.

A thing of beauty...

Helped of course by the fact that it still had a full magazine of bullets still attached.

And so this time, Rosita was almost positive she would not be able to miss....

...for now, there wasn't just Negan she could choose to aim for....

....for now, she had Blake too....

And either way, both of their hearts would stop that day....one way or another....