Chapter 3: King Is Crowned
Negan came back tomorrow but he didn't bring any of his men with him which Sam thought was odd. "Does he normally do this?" he asked Bela Talbot who had lost her British accent and was now Maggie.
"No, he doesn't," she replied. "But I can tell that he's up to no good." Negan gave Rick a charming smile and focused his gaze on his children.
"I wanna make things clear to you two," he said to them. "You work for me and I give you protection. If you fail to follow any orders I give you, Lucille here is going to give you a goodnight kiss." Sam was horrified. Negan was actually threatening to kill them if they didn't do what he said. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His own father would kill them for disobeying him. Hell, Sam knew that he was fucked up when he was a hunter, but this? This was beyond insane. "Do you both understand?"
"Yeah," the Winchester brothers replied.
"Awesome." Negan paced around them and began talking about following rules and the consequences of breaking them. To Sam it sounded like he was trying to make them seem like they were nothing compared to him. This was basically what Negan was saying in a nutshell: "I am everything and you are nothing so therefore, you must worship and adore me or else you die." Sam wanted to punch him in the face to shut him up but that'd just get him pissed. He looked at Dean who had the same expression and nodded at him in agreement. Negan snapped his fingers in front of Sam to get his attention. "Earth to Winchester! Are you listening?"
"Yes, you don't need to do that," Sam said and backed up a bit.
"Pay attention you little shit. This can save your fucking life," Negan replied and thumped his shoulder with Lucille as he continued talking. "As I was saying, I don't want to kill you two. I just want you to work for me. It's simple."
"It kinda isn't since you're threa-"
"Shut up Sam. As long as you follow the rules, you'll be fine." Sam and Dean exchanged uncertain glances with each other. Negan was forcing them to work for him or they'd be put to death. It was just like when he'd forced them to become hunters minus the death threat. They didn't have a choice back then since they were kids. He'd been so full of rage and revenge, looking at him now made Sam wonder what would happen if the sociopath were to somehow snap and go beast mode. He would probably go on a killing spree. Sam shuddered at the thought and focused his attention back on Negan. "Any questions?"
"Why are you here by yourself?" Dean asked. Coming here alone meant that Negan had something important to talk to them about.
"I want to finish my conversation with you two," Negan replied and looked at the others. "Alone."
"Why can't we hear what you have to say?" Rick asked.
"You wouldn't understand any of it," Dean said. "It's complicated to explain to you guys." Rosita seemed offended by his answer.
"What? So you're saying that we're stupid?" she asked.
"No, we're just...it's really difficult to explain..." Dean looked at Sam and Negan for help.
"It's personal stuff," Sam said. "Family issues."
"Why would Negan want to talk to you about that in private?" Bela- no, Maggie asked. Shit. How were they going to explain this without telling them their secret?
"You wouldn't want to hear about that boring crap," Negan replied. "Besides, it's not like there's gonna be a demon apocalypse anytime soon." He nudged his sons and rudely dismissed the Alexandrians. Once they'd left, Negan continued their conversation from yesterday. "I was hoping that your mother would be here."
"Was she here?" Sam asked. He was hoping that Negan would say yes, but instead he recieved a no.
"I had a wonderful wife back in the day when the world hadn't gone to shit. She was a sweet girl," Negan murmured.
"Lucille?" Dean guessed and his father nodded. So that's who she was. Negan had named his bat after his dead wife. If Sam had bothered to read the comics, he would've known how she'd died and what Negan's fate wluld be. But he didn't and Anonymous had instructed them not to change the timeline.
"You know, it wouldn't hurt if you'd join me. It's much better than this shit," Negan said. "All you have to do is-"
"That's great Dad but we can't. We don't want to betray Rick," Sam interrupted. "It'd be rude to just leave when we proved to him that we would stay."
"I was expecting you to say no. Oh well, we could always try another time," Negan said with a shrug. "For now you just have to-"
"Be your slaves?" Sam asked bitterly. Negan was silent for a moment before replying.
"When you put it that way, you're making it sound like I'm a monster which I'm not. It's called service."
"Yeah right. 'Service,'" Dean said and crossed his arms. "I can't believe you."
"What? I'm only doing this-"
"Because you love us?" Sam guessed. "Or because you want to protect us? Listen Negan. We didn't come here to join your group of assholes and let you boss us around. In fact, we didn't want to come here in the first place." Negan glared at him.
"I'm doing this because I want you to know who you're fucking dealing with. If you want to be a bitch about it Lucille is going to kiss you goodnight and you don't want that now do you?" he asked. Sam was getting irritated by his- what? Obsession? Was it an obsession he had with that bat? Sam didn't know, but it irritated him. Did he think that it was sentimental? That it was possessed by the spirit of his dead wife? If there was one thing the Winchester brothers learned about their father in this new world, it was that he was a crazy bastard. Honestly, Sam felt sorry for the shit Negan's parents and siblings (if he had any) had to go through because of this...this...
Devil spawn. That's what he was.
Negan was pure devil spawn in their eyes. He was not the father they had known. This right here, standing in front of them, was a son of Lucifer himself and had been condemned to walk this forsaken, cursed world. Perhaps he was the one responsible for the apocalypse. The devil spawn flicked his bat and paced around them. "I sacrificed myself for you Dean and you treat me like shit. That's not a way to treat your fucking father."
"You neglected us," Dean spat. "You missed our birthdays and Christmas because you were too busy hunting and now you're making us your slaves. Some father you are. Oh, and now you're trying to make it seem like you redeemed yourself by giving up your soul for mine."
"I..."
"Admit it! You're a horrible father who didn't even bother to show up for our birthdays or called to check up on us. Were you even thinking about us while you were on those week long hunts Dad?" Negan was silent and stopped pacing.
"What did you do when you were supposedly hunting for Yellow-Eyes?" Sam asked. "You took your bat with you before you left so I know that it has something to do with this world." Negan scoffed.
"You think that I can jump through dimensions whenever I want?" he asked. "Traveling through dimensions is much more complicated than you can imagine. You must've been pretty damn lucky to be alive after that transport because most people die if they do."
"Wait, so you didn't...?"
"No. I was on a hunt not killing people."
"Oh..." Negan sighed and propped Lucille on his shoulder.
"You fucking idiots. Haven't you learned not to jump to conclusions?" he asked. "That'll get ya killed one day. I mean, we all die anyways but you know. Anyways, how's your day so far?"
"Peachy," Dean said. "We found a body in the woods with a symbol on its neck. Did you do that?" Negan nodded. "Why?"
"It's fun to carve things into people's corpses," he said. "Probably more fun than burning faces with irons."
"You sick fuck!" Dean growled. Negan ignored him and looked at Sam.
"They're not as fun as beating the fuck out of people with Lucille though. Have you ever done that before?" Sam was disgusted at his father's sadism. "No, I don't think you would do that. That's too gorey-"
"DAD!" Negan was surprised by Dean's voice and he looked at bit frightened.
"Don't fucking scare me like that!" he scolded.
"Dad, you need to see a psychiatrist or go to an asylum because you are one crazy bitch." Negan was silent before replying.
"I'm not crazy," he said. "Besides, I wouldn't kill you."
"You need to leave," Sam said. Negan looked offended by this and he glared at them.
"I'm sorry, what did you just fucking say to me Bitch? Did you just tell me to fucking leave? Listen Samuel, I am not going to let you treat me like shit."
"You don't give a fuck about anyone. All you care about is killing people and making them your slaves." Suddenly, Sam felt a heavy spiked object smack his head.
Lucille. That son of a bitch hit me with Lucille!
Sam staggered back as the barbed wire got tangled in his hair. He could see the blood beginning to blur his vision and screamed as his father forcefully yanked the bat free from the hair. "You..."
He heard Dean scream something before there came another blow and everything went black.
Dwight pushed back a large branch and brushed off the dust from the old black car. He hadn't seen one of these cars in years. Seeing one now brought back nastolgia and he wished things hadn't ended up the way things were now. He smiled at the old wreck and peeked inside. Claw marks, bloodstains, old CDs, magazines, photos, ect. Dwight reached his arm through the window and opened the door from the inside. Even though it was a wreck, he wanted to test it out and see if the engine still worked. "Now were are the keys," he murmured to himself and searched the fromt seats. He pulled out two keys from under the passenger seat and tried to start the car. It's loud engine surprised him and he wondered if it had attracted any walkers nearby. He hoped not. "Negan's gonna love you."
It was true. Negan had a fondness for old things. Like old rock music and cars like this one. Dwight never understood why he liked them but he decided notnot to judge since he too enjoyed listening to old rock music once in a while even though it was rare to find music like that nowadays. But here was a jackpot of them in this old broken car. He was surprised that it actually worked despite it's injuries.
Dwight opened the trunk and gave a low whistle. "Damn," he said and picked up a crossbow. He hadn't used one of these in a long time. The trunk was full of weapons and Dwight wondered who this car belonged to and what all these weapons were for. Whatever the reason was, he was grateful that the owner hadn't taken the weapons in the trunk. The blond returned to the driver's seat and closed the door. Pulling on his seatbelt, he started up the car again and made his way back to Sanctuary.
Negan was definitely going to love this old '67 Chevy Impala.
