A/N

I'm trialing this story. It's different. It's Bethyl as usual but set almost present day... S6/S7 of TWD (NOTE: not everything will be exactly as it is in the show)

Thanks for reading, following, reviewing and favoriting... they are all appreciated.

eReedus xxx

Out of The Darkness Came Her Light

Chapter One

Anna had spent the last two weeks locked away in Negan's private quarters. As one of Negan's three 'wives', it had been her turn to receive his sole attention. Anna knew she got to spend more time with him because she was his favorite, and even though she knew she could wrap him around her little finger if she wanted to, and even though she knew that he would do anything for her, it didn't go anywhere near to compensating her for the fact she had somehow ended up giving her life and freedom to an egotistical psychopath that made her skin crawl.

It didn't stop the feelings of hate and disgust she felt for herself every time she looked at his face and every time he touched her. Not that she had a choice about letting him touch her. Not anymore. She was trapped, a prisoner because of a stupid choice she'd made when she was vulnerable, when she was hurting, scared, and confused. When she'd trusted that there were still good people left in the world.

Anna, just like everyone else in Negan's compound, knew all too well what he did to people that crossed him. The fact he'd told her he loved her wouldn't stop him meting out his crazy vengeance if she tried to leave him. He'd told her over and over that he was never letting her go, that she was his 'best girl', his little 'bulletproof Barbie'. He'd given her that term of endearment on account of the small pink round scar that adorned her otherwise perfectly beautiful face.

When Negan had found her months ago, she was all alone; dirty, injured, hungry, tired and desperate. She was broken after losing her family, after being left for dead by them, after realising she was in love with a man that she would never get to see again. So, Anna had decided to head towards DC in the hope there might be some semblance of a normal community still flourishing in the old capital. A community she could contribute to and build a new life in.

Negan had found her almost collapsed by the roadside about fifty miles out from Virginia and had been taking care of her ever since. He was nice to her; kind, caring, funny and generous. Sweet even, and he always had that killer smile for her. He was ruggedly good looking and kind of charismatic in his own way, too. He was a completely normal guy, the whole package, and she knew he wanted to be with her. She thought perhaps he was someone she could maybe love one day... someone she could share and build that new life with.

He'd given her everything she'd needed to recover and thrive and he'd never asked for anything in return, nothing except her company, being allowed to sit and talk with her. Weeks later, after accepting all of his kindness and hospitality, after recovering and spending time with him and finding herself attracted to him in a way she never imagined she would be, not after she'd lost him, her first love, Anna suddenly felt guilty about lying to Negan about who she was.

Her name wasn't Anna. It was Beth. But Beth Greene had died the moment she'd been left behind by her family. So, when Negan and the saviors found her she gave them a different name. She was choosing a new identity to go with a new life... and that name was Anna Dixon.

She couldn't remember too much about the first time she'd slept with Negan, probably because she had drunk way too much wine. She did remember how gentle he'd been with her though; loving and attentive... and he'd said such nice things to her. She really thought he was a good guy, someone she could settle with. After all, the man she really wanted, the man she loved, was long gone... wherever he was now, she knew she'd never see Daryl Dixon ever again. That was why she'd taken his name. He'd saved her and given her a chance at life and she never wanted to forget him, or how much he'd meant to her. She could live with forgetting the rest of her old life, but not him. Never him.

Looking back Anna knew she shouldn't have encouraged Negan, he wasn't what she wanted, not really. She was attracted to him, sure, but mostly she'd felt obliged to give him what he wanted. She knew she owed him, but she also wanted to feel wanted and to no longer feel alone. It wasn't like he'd forced her into it. Anna needed and wanted to repay her debt somehow, and Negan had made it clear to her he'd wanted her that way since he first saw her. She'd naively thought that she could sleep with him once and then go on as normal. Assimilate into the group and find a useful position... see how things progressed.

Anna quickly started to realise that that wasn't going to happen, there was no normal where that man was concerned. Negan owned her now. What she'd done with him out of a misplaced sense of gratitude, alcohol burning hot in her veins, had unknowingly consummated their 'marriage'.

Now she was his, and Anna was about to learn that everything she thought she knew about this man was nothing but a lie. She was about to be introduced to the real Negan. The man that talked lovingly to a murdering baseball bat he'd named Lucille, had a penchant for collecting wives like they were dolls, and had just as many personalities... all of them sadistic, except for the one he kept for her when they were alone. The man was an animal, a tyrant, a dictator... and it was only after seeing life going on inside the compound; the slavery, the bullying, the torture... that she fully understood what she'd done. She'd given herself willingly to a lunatic... a wolf in sheep's clothing. Her life was over now, there was no hope of escape.

Right now though, Anna was just relieved she would get a few weeks respite from his insatiable attentions. When she wasn't required in Negan's quarters she had her own rooms, they were beautiful rooms and she was given anything and everything he had in his power to give her… which she'd learned was pretty much the entire world, but they were a prison. Anna wasn't allowed to work or leave the compound on supply runs, and she was barely allowed to socialize with the other Saviors. Anna had learned first-hand that Negan was an insanely jealous man and had already witnessed a man receive a branding because he'd gotten too friendly with Sarah, one of Negan's other two wives.

Despite his rules, Anna would still sometimes creep out to visit the prison cells. To take food and clothes to the inmates. The guard there, Samuel, was a huge brute of a man, but he was also simple minded and on the whole harmless, Anna only had to flash her smile to get him to let her in. Of course, Negan had gone bat shit crazy when he'd first found out about her little escapade, hell bent on punishing Samuel. But Anna had convinced him it wasn't Samuel's fault. She'd made him do it and she should be the one to be punished. Negan didn't punish her though, and she even succeeded in persuading him to allow her to continue to visit the cells a couple of times a week, the weeks she wasn't with him anyhow.

Anna knew more about Negan than she'd first realized. She might have been stupid and naïve and trusting to fall for him in the first place but she had since learned how to handle him. Basic psychology really. She just needed to feed his ego, tell him he was a strong and respected leader, but he needed to be seen as compassionate and generous towards those less fortunate, too, like all great world leaders of the past had been. That he should allow the poor wretches in the cells minimal privileges each week and show his importance by granting them mercy. Negan took the bait like she knew he would and so Anna got her way. She finally had an outlet, a way out of her rooms, even if it was only briefly and only twice a week.

This last week while she'd been holed up in Negan's rooms, she'd heard rumours from the staff that there was going to be a huge confrontation with a nearby community, that the group had killed almost fifty of Negan's men and they needed a lesson they wouldn't soon forget. Anna felt sick to her stomach knowing she was even associated with such a cruel sadistic man, let alone that she let him touch her.

A few days later Negan mentioned it to her himself, kissing and touching her as he pushed her against the wall of his bedroom, lifting her dress and sliding himself into her from behind, over and over, hitting that place deep inside her and rubbing her clit until she couldn't help but climax. She hated her body for responding to him like that, but whatever else he was, he was also an exceptionally skilled lover.

He whispered he loved her as he pulled himself out of her body and spilled himself onto the pale cheeks of her ass. That at least was a blessing, she knew she wouldn't end up pregnant by the monster, Negan was always careful that way, he told her from day one that under no circumstances did he want kids.

Negan told her he wouldn't be back until morning, that he was sorry he couldn't stay with her tonight but he really needed to sort this particular situation out himself. His voice turned menacing as he told her these people were going to regret crossing him and it was not cool that they were taking him away from his favorite girl.

Anna had tossed and turned all night, unable to stop imagining the horrors that her 'husband' was inflicting on some poor soul. She did fall asleep eventually, only to be woken hours later as he'd crashed into their room, almost fucking her through the mattress he was so pumped with adrenaline and excitement. He was crazy, mad, smug, and full of his self-importance once more. Apparently, he'd bludgeoned to death two men with Lucille, broken the other pitiful bastards, before bringing one 'scrappy little fucker' back as a prisoner. All after a long draining night in the cold and dark, dealing with insubordinate little shits not wanting to tow the line. Only tow it now they most certainly would he told her through a groan as he pulled himself out of her body, his cum splashing over the pale flesh of her stomach, before he fell to lay beside her as a shit eating grin erupted over his face and he pulled her close. Beth wanted to scream and run, to escape the airless glass cage she was now living in… but instead wrapped her arm over his waist and laid her head on his chest, just like she knew he wanted her to.

Negan would sometimes let plans or thoughts slip past his lips when they were together, but mostly Anna had to garner what she could in way of information through loose lipped staff. She'd quickly learned that no one in the compound wanted to risk paying her too much attention, or talk to her for too long, for fear of what Negan might do to them for interfering with his favorite girl.

It was frustrating and lonely. To be in such a huge flourishing community but have no one to talk to or spend time with. She knew there were children out there, women she might have gotten along with, but they treated her like she was a leper. Negan always shushed her when she told him how unhappy she was, flashing her that beautiful killer smile that had once made her belly flutter with hope, but now only made her stomach heave with disgust. He told her she could come to him anytime she wanted to talk or wanted company. He would kick out any of his other wives for her because she was his best girl and always would be. A few days later he visited her, presenting her with a little black kitten, telling her there was nothing she couldn't have in this world, nothing he wouldn't do to make her happy.

Except the one thing Anna really wanted was the one thing he'd never give her. Freedom. She yearned for the days she'd spent with Daryl. She missed him so bad, she wanted to go back and finish that conversation they'd started at the kitchen table. Maybe her life would be different if they had, if Daryl hadn't answered the door. If she hadn't been taken, or shot, or abandoned. Anna didn't blame him for what happened in Atlanta. She knew he must've been the one to search for her, to find her, and she knew he wouldn't have left her if he'd had a choice. That's what hurt most, that something bad must've happened to him and she would never know if he was alive or dead. Maybe if they'd just gotten more time together... her old life was gone now though. Just like Beth Greene. Anna was all alone, she'd gotten herself into this sorrowful situation and knew she would somehow have to deal with it on her own.

Whether she was Beth or Anna, it didn't matter anymore. This is what her life had come to; saved from the clutches of death so she could live in virtual solitary confinement for two weeks a month, before spending the next two weeks pretending she was in love with the deranged man she was fucking, despite the fact she was both repulsed by, and petrified of him. She despised him even more than she despised herself. And that was a lot.

Daryl thought he'd been incarcerated in this freezing dark cell for at least three days now, truthfully though his body and senses were so fucked up that he could have been here a goddamn year for all he knew. It felt like a year. It felt like a lifetime. He was in utter hell. He hadn't even believed in hell before now, but he knew that was where he was. He half expected to see his father or Merle any moment, taking punishment for their sins like he was taking punishment for his.

The song playing incessantly over and over was intolerable. To begin with he felt frustrated and powerless, he couldn't settle, then he couldn't even think straight through the cacophony of noise pounding away in his head. His thoughts were of anger, revenge, hatred and regret, but after days of being kept naked without rest or sleep or food he'd become so tired, so confused, that his mind wandered to the deep dark forgotten places of his psyche in search of any respite or any hiding place it could find from the horror whirling in his head.

His mind would replay the past, things he'd buried deep because they were too painful to remember. That's when his tears started to fall and his thoughts flooded with images of her. Visions of his beautiful blonde angel would come to him, and her faith and hope would fill the room around him with a blinding warming light. The voice and face of his girl would appear as he relivedtheir brief time together over and over; that night at that moonshine shack when she'd told him he'd miss her when she was gone, when she told him he'd be the last man standing, how he'd taught her to track, carrying her to the safety of that house when she was injured, how he'd listened to her sing, how she'd slid her tiny fingers through his and he'd realised that was where they belonged, that was where he belonged... with her.

As the music and beatings continued, her light stayed with him, but his thoughts turned dark; the unfinished conversation at that table and all the things he should have done and said, the heartbreak of carrying the bloodied and dead body of his girl in his arms, his regret and despair at losing her before he'd really even known her.

The last months he'd tried to let it go, tried to make a new start without her, but what would never leave him however hard he tried, was the vision of her smile and those huge blue eyes. Every time he closed his eyes, every time he slept they were there, haunting him. He could see them just as clearly now, even as his head spun and ached and nausea took hold of him. They were as clear as if she was right next to him. Knowing Beth was with him was the only thing to give him any peace or any break from the constant torture; from the guilt and the pain and the suffering he was going through. Suffering he knew he deserved.

Those images only lasted briefly though, then the music would be cranked up and he would be beaten and humiliated again, the physical pain morphing with the even greater mental pain of knowing he was to blame for Glenn's death, for Maggie losing her husband and for their baby never knowing its dad. He couldn't think on Beth while those images were in his head, he'd let her down and he was ashamed. He couldn't keep her safe and then he'd destroyed the rest of their family.

Daryl wondered how much longer he could go on, how much more he could take. He knew he'd only lasted this long because he was a stubborn son of a bitch, because he needed to get back to his family to seek forgiveness, to protect them, fight with them, to make amends to Beth and Glenn and Maggie and all the people he'd let down. And to take vengeance against that spineless piece of shit, Dwight, take back his vest and bike and put a bolt through the bastard's eye just like he'd done to Denise. One more he couldn't save.

He couldn't give in to this cycle of abuse, he wouldn't be broken, he wouldn't do Negan's bidding. He was no stranger to beatings, to abuse, he'd endured it his whole life, he just had to stay focused and believe the torture would end and he would get out. He needed to stay strong, stay who he was for her sake, to make his girl proud. Because although he would never be able to tell her, it was her that had turned his world upside down and changed his mind about everything.

Anna had gathered together a box of food, clothing and medical supplies and was already crossing the compound to the prison. She didn't fail to notice how everyone she passed either averted their eyes to avoid speaking, or barely nodded their acknowledgment of her.

As she approached the prison, the place Samuel should have been guarding, she could see two big burly looking men equipped with semi-automatic weapons pacing back and forth in front of its entrance. Who on earth did they think they were guarding? The compound was already locked down like Fort Knox and she knew most of the men inside these cells didn't have enough energy to even stand, much less escape.

"Uhm, hi. I'm Anna. I have..." Anna was cut off by the tall one with the moustache before she could finish explaining. Anna couldn't help randomly thinking that he would have made a great 1980's Tom Selleck tribute act.

"You have two hours, Miss. If you can stand two hours in there. It ain't too fragrant. Negan put us on watch. There's anything you need, you run into trouble, you call for us," he explained, proudly tapping his fingers against the weapon in his arms to reiterate the fact they were there to protect her.

Anna nodded her understanding and lowered her head, scurrying past them and heading straight down the steps for the kitchen. As soon as she entered the building the incessant sound of music hit her like a freight train. She ignored it for a moment, she needed a cold glass of water to calm herself, to quell the anger rising inside her. How could he? Have her watched and babysat like she was a child? Anna might have guessed Negan wouldn't let her do anything alone though... not even tend helpless caged and broken men for a couple of hours. What did he think would happen? She'd let them out and have a goddamn tea party with them? Or that she'd whore herself out to them, like she had done with him?

Anna was too busy trying to sort through her anger, balance the box onto the stool nearest her while ignoring the base pounding in her head to realize someone was already in the kitchen. When she finally looked up and saw a scrawny looking blonde guy sitting in the corner eating a fried egg sandwich she almost screamed out she jumped so high, her heart now banging in her ears along with the base of the song.

"Who are you? Where's Samuel?" Anna shouted over the din still filling the air.