Outcast (A TWD Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: Wildcat

"Way deep down, we're all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them." Jim Davis

(After being taken away from his group, Daryl is thrown into a cell after refusing Negan's offer to work for him. Dwight takes him to see Dr Carson for his shoulder injury.)

(PRESENT)

On the way down the hall, back towards Daryl's cell, they hear Negan's distinct voice yelling at somebody from within another cell.

A few men stand guard at the door, one of them stopping Dwight as he passed, saying Negan wanted to talk to him.

Through the open door, and just behind the guards watching the cell, Ellen was in her bra, strung up by her arms and bound in chains. Blood dripped onto the floor, a pool collecting below her feet. Bruises and scratches from her previous encounter with Lucille painted her skin.

"You know how good you look tied up?" Negan asked, circling her. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Only asshole parents name their kid Negan, fuckwad."

"I thought you'd say something like that," Negan said with a chuckle. "So I had my boys make something special, just for you. A little something to remind you every fucking day who you belong to."

"You're never gonna change," Ellen spat. "Nobody likes you. You'll die bitter and lonely."

"Ouch, killer." Negan smirked at the woman, leaning in. He reached out, one of his fingers delicately moving a strand of the woman's matted, blood-crusted hair behind her ear. "But you sure we're still talking about me here?"

As Daryl looked on, Dwight noticed his visible anger and stiffened posture.

"Let her go," Dwight quietly warned the man.

Inside the cell, another man handed Negan a heated fire iron, the tip of it glowing a bright red.

"Darlin' have I missed you!"

Negan presented it to Ellen with an evil grin, delighted as she squirmed away from him.

"Negan, don't—"

"You could always apologize. This isn't on me," Negan said with a torturous tut-tut sound.

Ellen looked back at him weakly, and his eyes connected with hers for a lingering moment. For a second, the hostility was gone and there was a silent understanding.

"You know I can't," she finally said defeatedly, her voice a strained croak.

For the briefest of moments, Negan wavered. He looked down, before leaning in closer to the woman again. "Kiss me," he said simply.

Ellen recoiled, turning her head away from the man, his warm breath on her neck. She grit her teeth. "No."

Negan let out an audible growl, a visible anger suddenly plastered on his face at the rejection.

He chuckled before pressing the scorching iron into her back. Ellen let out a blood-curdling scream that carried down the hall as she was branded, a flaming hot letter N now permanently engraved on her skin.

Daryl watched in horror as the woman went unconscious, her head falling limp and sinking forward.

Negan called to the Savior who'd handed him the iron, removing his glove and handing it back to the man.

"Go get Carson. Tell him I want her kept alive, but just barely."

Negan stepped out from the cell and appeared to talk to Dwight, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow.