Thank you so much icaniwillendofstory for the review! 3
I watch as everyone kneels before their leader, I take note and die the same, I find it a bit weird, though I've never been in a group as large as this one, perhaps it was the new normal.
I listen as Negan makes some kind of speech about how he saved another person, claiming that's what the saviors do. Though, something feels a bit fishy about his production of it, somehow. He then gestures to me, and I stand up and wave to everyone, then kneel again, unsure if that's what he expected of me.
"At ease, everyone! Back to work!" He tells them and everyone scrambles to their feet, not sure if they're eager to go back to what they were doing, or if they feared what he would do to them if they didn't. The tension between him and his people were so thick I could cut it with a knife and serve it up for dinner. Something weird was going on here for sure.
Negan turns back to me with a grin. "So, how you like the place?" He asks me, as though he just showed me Disneyland or something, but I feel like I had just walked into a cult.
I give him my best fake smile in approval. "I think It's nice. You have your own little community here. And there's so many people! Fifty at least!" I say with a smile. That was genuine. I was happy to see other survivors for sure. Negan grins at me "Fifty? I have a little more than fifty people here." He says, leading me to the factory doors. He opens them to show even more people at work.
"Whoa. I didn't even know there was this many people still alive!" I explained. I knew there were a few survivors here and there, but certainly not enough to make a whole community and then some. He laughs at my surprise.
"Hell yeah. Humanity always finds a way." He explains. Then adds that there are a few other communities in the area, and I look at him and raise my eyebrows.
"No kidding?" I ask astonished. He signals for me to follow him, and I do.
"So, what is it you're good at? We have plenty of jobs here. But like I said, a pretty face like yours could buy you your way in." He says, and I furrow my eyebrows at him.
"What do you mean?" I ask, and he turns slowly to look back at me.
"I mean you become my wife, you don't have to work the point system- now I know you already rejected me." He holds up two fingers. "Twice." He says with a laugh. "I must be nuts for putting myself out there a third time, but here it is, you change your mind about working for points, come find me. Offer still stands." He pats me on the shoulder harshly as he takes me to, what I can gather is some kind of place people sell things for points, or something. He grins at the woman with a binder. "Well hello there. How's the bis today?" He asks and the woman looks up at him.
"Good, Sir!" She says enthusiastically with a grin. When she smiles the crows feet on the corner of her eyes show faintly.
"Good to hear! Add, uh what was it again?" He asks looking at me before snapping his fingers "Roxy!" He remembers. This man has asked me to marry him twice- three times now, all in the first day we met. You'd think he'd have remembered my name.
"Add Roxy here, to the point system. Start her off with thirty points, the rest she's gotta earn herself, find her a job." He smacks his hand on the table and it causes the woman to jump, he grins at her then to me. "Welp. I'll leave you to it!" He says then turns to me, his face close to mine, and I can feel my face flush again.
"As I said before, test this out a bit, you decide you don't like it…" he brushes a lock of my hair behind my shoulder. I feel so small and short in comparison to him. Him so close in my personal space, the low rumble of his voice makes me feel more like his possession than a person.
"You come find me, and I'll take real good care of ya." He looks in my eyes with intensity, before he walks away and barks some orders at some of the other saviors. My cheeks are still flushed when I turn back to the woman at the table before me.
"He offer you to be a wife?" She asks me and I snap out of it.
"Uh. Yeah, actually...how did you know? Does he...throw marriage offers to everyone?" I ask with a laugh and she just looks at me.
"Well, since you're new and all, I guess you wouldn't know about the wives." she says, as she flips through that binder of yours. I realize she's writing down my name with the others.
"Uh, actually it's Roxanne, not Roxy." I tell her and she flips her pencil around to erase the Y in Roxy, and adds a-n-n-e to the end of Rox. "Thanks." I smile at her, she gestures for me to sit across from her. "I didn't catch your name." I say and she looks up at me.
"It's Sal." She says and I smile.
"Nice to meet you-" the wives things surfaces back up in my mind.
"Hey, what did you mean when you said wives before?" I ask and she looks me over.
"He has wives. Quite a few, actually. Like- four or five I believe. They don't work for points. They get whatever they want from the supply room, in exchange for…" she trails off.
"Tending to Negan's needs." she says then goes back to the binder writing down 30 next to my name on the graph.
"I wouldn't take him up on his offer, not an honest living. Plus, I hear most of his wives are hard to deal with. I wouldn't be one dog his wives for all the points in the world if it meant I had to hangout with desperate housewives all damn day long." she comments.
I let that sink in. The weird vibe everyone gets when their leader enters a room. He's got multiple wives...yep this is definitely a cult. I gotta get the hell outta here.
Ooooh what's gonna happen next? Please review, let me know you're reading! :)