Eeny, meeny, miney, mo, catch a tiger by his toe..
There's a change in the air. The kind of change that cannot be physically felt, not seen, not heard - only sensed. The kind of change that's forced, acknowledged in the way the hair stands up on the back of their necks. Something not right.
It's in the air around her, in the icy chill, in the burning blood that spatters her cold fingers. It's everywhere.
Then she hears the footsteps. Confident and hard, punishing the gravel under his boots. She bows her head and shuts her eyes, steeling herself for another blow, another wave of acid blood showering her freezing skin - but it doesn't come. She's met with deafening silence and the blood pounding in her veins. Everything they'd overcome, the life they had built for each other, with each other is over; ground into the gravel and coating the silver barbs of his bat.
"Sweetheart. Lay your eyes on this."
She hears the voice, feels the ripple of shock so hard that it shoots straight to the centre of her body, but she's doesn't move. She doesn't dare, doesn't turn to check to see if Maggie is still alive, if he's still breathing because it's here. The dark shadow. The leather clad conductor of this hell they have found themselves in. He demands to be heard.
"Take a damn, look."
It happens in a split second, there's a roar; gravel pings against her knees and dust flies. Beth can't help but whimper as he's tackled in an instant and when the dust finally settles he's coming face to face with Lucille. The shadow waves it back and forth like a deadly pendulum and for a second the world stops.
He's going to die. He's going to die here in the dirt, he's going to die believing he's the one thing he was always terrified he would be; nothing. Here at the very end he knows his father was right. Those words twist his empty stomach with shame, burn the back of his throat with self-disgust. He forces them down, back into that small part of his soul he kept hidden from everyone but her for so long, and swallows thickly.
"Oh, no. That, oh my that is a no no. The whole thing, not one bit of that shit flies here!"
He's running out of time.
"You want me to do it. Right here!"
Beth's heart is hammering now, so wildly she can barely hear anything else, it batters her ribcage like a jackhammer against concrete.
"Please, no..no." She pleads, her cry muffled and distant. She knows it's dangerous, bating the bear but Daryl's face is paling despite the scowl and red blood pools at the roots of his hair as the shadow pulls tighter with each never ending second.
"No?! Did you, just fucking tell me no?" Ice fills her stomach, numbing her from the inside out. Her knees, her shoulders, her arms. She can't feel her fingers.
She can almost feel her family tense up beside her and she doesn't think she imagines Maggie's panicked crying. Then her hands are engulfed in blackness, something grabs her shoulder and chin tilting her heavy head up insistently and her eyes fly open before she can stop herself. Deep dark orbs bright with sadistic glee are the first thing she sees. Slicked raven hair. His merciless grin. Her lungs are seizing up and she can't breathe, can't, can't -
"Did you witness what just happened sweetheart? That's not how it works." The shadow looks at her and the numbness fades with a faint tingling sensation, and as he raises a hand to gently touch her cheek she's painfully aware of three things: that the rocks under her legs have pierced the skin. That the shadow's gloveless fingertips are soft. That they are warm.
She speaks then, roughly and slowly. Each word a weak, colossal effort. For all she knows - they might be her last.
"Don't hurt him, please.."
It's unimaginable and electric; the shock of fear that slices through her at the look on his face as he stares intently at her and back at him. A few seconds of silence pass between them, nausea wretches at her stomach and she tries desperately not to panic. She knew it was dangerous, speaking out of turn but this she never saw coming. The deadly leather clad shadow threw his head back, cackling; the barbed extension of his being jolted back and forward as he rocked manically through belly laughter.
"Fuckidy fuck! You two? Together..oh fucking my!"
"Just for that I'm gonna let him live.."
A short sharp breath exits her lungs in a rush, it hurts but the relief that floods her body warms the part of herself that had been frighteningly still all day.
"I said I wouldn't kill him, but I didn't say I wasn't going to try doll.."
She doesn't get time to entertain what that might mean, he's strutting up and down the line demanding and deadly.
"Ah, I already told you! First one's free. Then what did I say? I said I'd shut that shit down - no exceptions."
Firstonesfreefirstonesfree.. No.
"So, back to it!"
There's no time. For a long, long second they don't move. Can't move.
Glenn.
She lurches forward, stones stab under her fingernails as she grips the ground yelling helplessly as her family is massacred right before her eyes.
Bone is crushed, blood gushes and teeth fly in every direction. There's gurgling, breathing, pain.
Maggie I'll find you.
That's when she loses it. Maggie crumples, collapsing in on herself - there's no lashing out, no half hearted attack just screams of anguish, contorted almost beyond recognition around her sobs.
There's jokes, crying, screaming, pain
Then it's over.
The shadow is no longer just that, in the cold light of dawn he's man. It's unfathomable how much devastation one person can bring. And he's smiling - strutting to and fro swinging the bloodied bat like a trophy.
"Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you, that's over now.."
He's still talking but it falls on deaf ears; Rick their leader is now a mere shell of a man rocking imperceptibly in front of them all. Sasha trembles beside her. Eugene cries pitifully into his hands that cage his bloodied face -their friend and lover decimated a few feet away and Beth isn't sure that Aaron is even in his own body anymore. They're broken, their pain witnessed by strangers and handed to them by just one.
They were happy this morning. Maggie had strolled down the stairs of their home showing off her new hair cut. Rick and Carl had joined them all for a celebratory breakfast and they'd been happy. Now they were broken, fractured beyond repair. This morning she was complete, now she's barely anything at all.
"Dwight!"
The command tears Beth away from her thoughts and when she looks up she finds her line of sight filled by a straggly dirty soldier. He has the crossbow. The one Daryl had only let her handle, the day she'd joked about not needing him but ever since then Beth had found herself never wanting anything else but Daryl Dixon.
Negan. He turned sharply staring her directly in the eyes as he did it - ripped her world to shreds with a simple flick of the wrist.
"Load him up!"
I said I wouldn't kill him, but I didn't say I wasn't going to try doll...
Everyone looks on, worried but helpless as the love of her life is dragged like an animal to the slaughter. It hits her then, realisation crashing down on her brain like a tidal wave.
It's unintelligible, her whimpering scream as he's shoved into the truck. Even Maggie cries and tries to reach out but she beats her to it. She dives forward, despite the nausea and pain she screams scrambling through the rocks and dirt to reach him.
"No! P-please.."
Rick can't stop her in time but someone does. She fights against a bruising grip but it doesn't come from the chuckling man in front of her it comes from behind and it hurts.
A cold pair of hands grasp her arms but the pain and white hot rage pushes her forward. Quickly the weight from behind her slides against her leg and knocks them out from underneath her sending her tumbling forward into the razor sharp gravel.
She screams, Maggie screams and so does the Man.
Beth yells out as the stones tug at the fragile skin of her stomach as she's dragged backwards against the stones. Hot blood dribbles down her chin, her front teeth taste of metal and pain jolts through her head when she opens her mouth to take a breath. She can't concentrate on the pain for long because something's happening.
The shadow had yelled so loud and for so long she could barely focus but he was angry. Not with her; the girl who spoke out or turn not once but twice. No, he was screaming at the man who'd caused her teeth to puncture her bottom lip, who'd forced her down so hard that specks of blood seeped from her stomach into her shirt. Oh god. No..no.
It was like a light had been switched on then. She couldn't breathe, couldn't focus on anything but the panic that had taken over her entire body.
"Beth.." The voice was hoarse and broken but familiar. Maggie was looking at her, sunken green eyes rimmed with red locked with her own in a gaze that held no promise of hope, no reassurance that it'd be okay. It was a look of reality. It said Be Prepared.
She felt pain, but not that pain. Beth knew then that she was going to take that for what it was. Hope.
It didn't stop her from crying though, clutching at her clothes and curling in on herself in despair.
"Hey. I know it's hard on you doll."
This time, the voice is different it's like a chainsaw threatening to tear her limb from limb the closer it gets. This time, the gloveless fingertips are ice cold and purposeful in their hold of her chin
"He's got guts. Your guy. Not a little bitch like someone I know. He hurt you, I'm sorry.." She would have believed it - the man Negan his words of empathy nearly convinced her that he was truly sorry;
"Your guy, I like him. He's mine now. You still wanna try something? Trust me sweetheart, I'll cut pieces off of..." It goes silent, his soft grip on her chin loosens and he looks around at his men in question.
"The hell's his name?"
He looks into her eyes and the blood turns to ice in her veins. His stubble covered chin and dark eyes begin to blur as tears flood her face.
"What's his name sweetheart?"
She chokes, she's probably lost the only thing that's keeping her alive and the anger has gone; faded away, resignation filling it's place.
"What's. His. Name." His grip tightens just slightly.
"Daryl.."
"I'll cut pieces off of Daryl and put them on your doorstep or better yet! I'll bring him to you and have you do it for me.."
Satisfied with her response, his grip disappears and she can breathe again. It's barely even a pulse of her lungs if that.
"I'll be back for my first offering in one week. Until then. Ta, ta!"
This morning they were happy, it was a brand new beginning.
But everything changed.
The kind of change that's forced.