Chapter 8
Their fun messing with Rick was interrupted when Arat came out of the armory pulling a very scared woman, who looked like she had not exercised in a decade and a notebook that she handed to Negan when he questioned her rough handling of the woman.
"We got a problem." Arat stated in her no-bullshit way of working. Negan opened the book and checked a few pages, looking for a clue.
"What am I looking at here? Is not all of it here?"
"We just went through the inventory, guns on the walls and the guns in the armory." She said giving the big woman a look. "We are short. Glock 9 and a 22 bobcat." She informed them.
Rick got visibly more tense at the news and at the sight of Negan's mood changing from good-humored banter to dead serious in a second.
"Is that true?" He just asked Rick, who conjured some courage seemingly to look confident. She felt that Rick had no idea where they could be, judging by the way he had reacted to the news.
"We had some people leave town, those guns probably went with-" He tried to assert, but she knew for a fact that Dwight had been all over those people as soon as they had entered Alexandria, and no other people would be allowed to leave while they were there.
"Nope, I bet Dwight took their stuff before they left." She injected, as much as she didn't like Dwight, he was a diligent worker.
"So Olivia here sucks at her job." Questioned Negan getting more and more impatient with the situation.
"No, that's not wha-" Began Rick.
"There should be a full accounting here, right Olivia?" Negan asked her, cutting off Rick. Olivia was not taking the tense situation in strides.
"No… I mean, yes. The inventory is correct!" She tried to assure.
"So why are you two handguns short? Do you know where they are?" He asked her, Sophia understood that this could end up with someone dying. She preferred if the day went without a hitch, but that stuff can't be taken lightly.
"No, I-" She started.
"I don't enjoy killing women, darling, but this was your job." He was getting more pissed about the deal and Olivia was already crying with fear, it made Sophia feel bad for the woman. "Keeping track of guns, that shit?. It's life and death."
"Listen, we don't know where they are, but can't you do something about it? Can't you do some of your… abilities? We'll cooperate in anything." Rick asked her desperately, pleading with his eyes.
Sophia sighed tiredly. "I'm sorry Rick, but this is a mess that I think you'll have to put in order yourself. If you can't I'll step up, but it will be worse by then, for now, I think it's your job. You gotta talk to your people about it." She understood that this was either Rick doing something stupid or someone under Rick acting behind his knowledge, and either way they normally punished any of that kind of shit.
"That's exactly right!" Exclaimed Negan loudly. "I thought that we had an understanding, Rick, but clearly someone here is not on board. I can't have that, so you are going to talk to your people right now and get the handguns or I'm gonna have to kill Olivia here." He shouted angrily, making poor terrified Olivia tremble and sob.
Alexandria has a fucking chapel. Sophia thought, leaning against a wall as she waited.
After their cajoling, Rick had manned up and had called on his people to gather at the chapel, where they were having a meeting about the guns at that very moment.
So now she found herself arms crossed and waiting, inside a little garden, in the company of Negan and the soft-looking Olivia.
The woman was terrified, sitting in place with a forgotten glass of lemonade in her hands, all the while Negan laughed and talked her ears off.
"You should have seen her! Trembling like a sheet of paper, I kept telling her, you will fucking love it. Just go for it!" He continued.
Sophia was not too amused by the story, it was his exaggerated account of her first time flying a broom.
"Of course, I already knew, the girl is stubborn as a mule. So as soon as I changed my tune, as soon as I started talking about how she shouldn't do it, how she couldn't do it." He continued then stopped for dramatic effect. Sophia knew the routine and made a point to silently mimic the next part just as he was doing.
"Boom! She was rocketing up in the air, laughing like a maniac." Negan finished the story only to realize she was mocking him, but he waved her off like it didn't bother him.
"You always tell the same story." She said accusingly. "It's kind of embarrassing, for you I mean." Sophia said from her place on the wall.
"What? I love that story, and you love flying!"
"It's not even that funny."
The familial comfort of the back and forth had apparently taken Olivia out of her paralyzing fear, and kept her looking from Negan to her as they bantered.
"It's not always about being funny, I'm not trying to be a clown here" He continued, a smile on his face showing that he loved the banter too.
"You could be, you would at least have an excuse to act like one."
"Ouch! Are we all pissy about the one-eyed boy that rejected you? Would you like me to talk to his daddy?" He asked in a mocking tone.
Sophia chuckled at the jab he dealt her, he always heard more than one expected, he always noticed more than one would think.
"Asshole." She finished unfurling her crossed arms and giving him the finger.
"Ar…" Olivia started suddenly, her hesitation increasing when their attention was directed at her. "Are you two…?" She asked, pointing at both of them.
"Don't. Don't finish that question, Olivia." Sophia warned her, knowing what she was about to ask. "I hate when people think that."
"Well, you know Olivia darling… I personally like to think that I-" Negan continued, unconcerned by her dislike on the subject.
But Sophia was not about to let him finish. "That's it! Alright, I'll be going to check on Rick now. Have fun on your date." She said annoyed, then walked off towards the chapel.
Rick called a meeting with all of the Alexandrian's present and led them over the chapel where they all sat down on the benches and waited patiently for Rick to come out of his head and address them. He was looming over one of the windows of the building, contemplating Lucille laying on the window sill, he had been made to carry her since they had arrived at the community.
"I thought about hiding some of the guns before…" He started and turned to the people so he could face them. "I've done it before…" Rick admitted looking at his feet.
"But what if the Saviors find those guns? What if they find one of us with guns." He continued. "One of us dies, maybe more than that...It doesn't matter how many guns and bullets we have, we can't beat them. They have numbers, they have...that girl…" He said walking up and down between the bench rows, looking at his people, then he went back to the front to face them.
"We lose, they win. It's that black and white. Hiding a couple of guns it's not gonna change that, it's only gonna cost someone's life. We don't have to like it, but this is how it is now. A Glock 9 and a .22 Who has it?" He finished, waiting for someone to come out but no one answered back.
"Listen...I don't care if any of you have it, or if you know who has it. If we don't find it, they are going to kill Olivia, and I don't think it will stop the Harpy from finding them anyway."
A broad man among the people stood up and calmly looked at Rick. "Why do they care? It's nothing to them, but we can protect ourselves from whatever's out there if we have them." He asked Rick and sat down.
"That's not the deal we made with them, the deal is they look over us. If we cooperate with them, maybe we can live in peace." Rick told the people, there was not an ounce of conviction in those words.
Then it was Eric who stood up after sharing some tense whispers with his partner.
"Say we find those guns...How are we going to get out of this, Rick? What are we going to do?" He asked with a bit of sadness.
Rick sighed and took a second to compose himself. "This is the way, we work with them. Let me put this as clear as possible. I'm not in charge anymore, Negan and the Harpy are, we answer to them." He finished.
Clap Clap Clap Clap. Sophia applauded as she got off from the wall she had been leaning.
"Well said Rick, well fucking said." She cheered from the back of the chapel as she waved the disillusionment off with her wand, making everyone turn their heads towards her some of them gasping in shock, some pushing away from her on their benches.
She ignored them and walked over to Rick, who after an initial surprise had recovered his composure, maybe to look strong for his people. When she got there she saw that Eric was still standing but completely paralyzed in fear, while his lover pulled on his arm to sit down. It seemed that he was afraid she was going to punish him for being caught red-handed questioning Rick about betraying them.
"It's fine Eric, it was an honest question. I get it." She said trying to calm the man down, and the other people too as she motioned him to sit down. "You are all getting used to the new situation, it's entirely normal to have doubts. But what Rick just said is right and all of you will see it in time." She said trying to sound calm and friendly.
"I assure you all that you can have a peaceful and safe life working for us, producing for us. We'll look over you and your community, all these lands are protected by us. All we ask is regular offerings and your full cooperation."
A chubby man with a mullet and a scared mouse expression lifted his hand to speak like he was in some classroom, the whole thing got a smile from her.
"Say we hypothetically eff up and are subsequently unable to achieve the quota...What would be the penalty for failing to complete the mission? Are we to expect the quote, Hilltop treatment, unquote?" He asked, catching Sophia by surprise with the way he talked.
"Hilltop treatment?" She asked Rick, a bit confused, but it was Carl who answered the question. He had been sitting on one of the backbenches with a pretty girl on his side.
"We know you people tried to kill their leader for coming short with the offering." He said reproachfully.
Aah, they must be talking about what Simon did before everything went to hell. She thought.
"It's pretty simple guys. Gregory was not being honest with us, he was selling short his production and stock so that we wouldn't raise their quota. The Hilltop people are big producers and they often have to spare even after paying their tax, Gregory was being dishonest and trying to cut us short." She tried to explain.
"Let me tell you, as long as you are open and honest with us, as long as you are not trying to get greedy and back stabby, we can be very understanding. We are not trying to starve you." She assured them
"But know too, that we don't tolerate negligence or laziness. And our punishments are always harsh. There's just no room for any of that in the new world. Hence, Olivia's situation." She finished, everyone remained quiet after that, but still, the room was pretty tense.
"So there it is." Said Rick, taking back the reins of the meeting. "You can help save Olivia if we find the guns now… So whoever has it, please come out." He finished.
She saw the people look around themselves and fidget nervously, she was beginning to think that no one there knew where they were.
"Not all of us are here." The mullet man said, after looking between all the faces.
"Who's missing, those two at the gate?" She asked Rick, she could see that it was beginning to dawn on him the possible location of the guns.
Now we are getting somewhere...
"Rosita and Spencer, we should search their houses." He offered, giving her a look. "Would you help me? I'm betting on spencer."
"That would be man-child I guess. Sure, I'll help you." She told him and started walking towards the exit. "Don't forget to pick up Lucille." She reminded him before exiting the chapel.
Rick walked her to Spencer's residence, it had to be one of the better ones in Alexandria. He started flipping everything he could grab searching desperately for the gun.
"Stop, stop. You just stay there and be quiet." She ordered him. "It was a Glock and a 22 bobcat, that's the tiny one right?" She asked him and he nodded silently, with curiosity in his eyes.
Sophia grabbed her wand and focused on the guns she wanted to find.
"Accio." She said with strength in her voice, focusing the intent on what she wanted.
There was a distinct sound of knocking on wood and a metallic clack soon after. From under the floor near the window, a cloth pouch flew over towards her and she snatched it with her right hand. She heard his sigh of relief, so she handed the pouch to Rick, who grabbed it and quickly opened it, taking the contents out.
It was the Glock and the 22. He let out another exaggerated sigh and then walked over to the grate on the floor to check the hiding place. To her mild amusement, the man had been hiding booze, food and some expensive cigars along with the guns.
"What a tool" She commented, letting out a chuckle. Rick merely managed a pissed off nod.
"Thanks." Rick offered to her with a lot more gratitude than earlier in the day and walked out of the house.
She calmly followed him from behind, thinking of how much the visit had stretched but thankful that it had not escalated in a bad way. She briefly thought about the happy little girl she had met and about the fact that she still had her pointy hat, but the line of thought was interrupted when she realized Rick had stopped walking and was silently watching something with a very tense Carl and other Alexandrians nearby, all watching ahead of them. Their mood was suddenly very dark and she saw that Rick was trying to hold Carl back.
She followed their eyes and saw it.
It was a man, one of her people, he was standing very close to a young girl that she recognized from the chapel while others watched and laughed. He was holding something in his hand and the young girl was looking beyond uncomfortable.
"Please." She said, sounding very defeated, there was nothing she could do among those men. "Let me keep them"
"Say please again little girl." The man said, combing his big fat finger over her cheek, and coming disgustingly close to her face. She saw the Alexandrian girl shiver, she saw how she visibly tried to hold back her tears from falling, surely trying not to show weakness but unable to fight back. Sophia saw the way her body was paralyzed in place from fear from the monster looming over her, a hundred parallels to her childhood flashed in her mind.
The man's hand moved as in slow motion, like unstoppable flowing water over the figure of the girl and disappeared on her back, the rest of his arm still moving down.
The scene playing in front of Sophia made her skin crawl and she felt herself swelling with burning and killing intent. Sophia felt her chest rumble and her eyes saw red.
"Crucio!" She yelled from behind the onlooking Alexandrians group, making them jump away in shock as a red bolt akin to a lightning bolt shot from her wand and connected with the man, whose whole body immediately spasmed and had him screaming in terrible torturous pain. The young girl cried in fear and bolted from the scene towards the shelter of one of the houses, while the other saviors retreated, leaving their friend a broken mess on the floor alone.
"Crucio!" She cursed him with searing hate again as she walked over to the man thrashing on the ground while, unknown to her, everyone gathered nearby to watch.
"AAAAAHGR-AAH!" He cried in monstrous pain from the ground, his demeanor that of a suffering beast.
"You like to creep on girls!?" She roared at the man and proceeded to stomp on his face with her boot.
Bam!
"Aaah! Nooo!" The man managed to say before another stomp exploded his mouth in a mess of blood and saliva.
Bam!
"Phwee! Aaah! Help!" He pitifully cried as he writhed on the floor trying to crawl away.
"Where are you going!? Fucking shit worm, look at yourself dragging on the floor! Crucio!" She cursed him again and the red lightning fell on the man with malice, she reveled in the pleasure of his painful agony, the man's pain soothing her anger, she wanted more.
"AAAHAERG AAAH!" The man wailed and bent in hard to look at, spastic ways that seemed to be beyond his control. "Noo! Nooo! Ooooo! oooOh!" The man continued crying even after she cut off the curse, his sanity on the verge.
"Oh no, I'm not done with you! There is no getting out of this one." She snarled at the man with utter disgust and with a wave of her wand the ground beneath the man turned into a sort of dirt-colored paste that stuck to him and held him in place.
Suddenly the man was left paralyzed face-up and not being able to move more than his fingers, eyes, and mouth. He was crying and screaming incoherent pleas, but no one came to his help, no one dared to interrupt her.
Sophia dropped to the ground looming over the man's face, and using her wand like a pen, she began writing on his face with deep gashes that appear wherever the tip of her wand came in contact. Slowly, line by line, letter by letter she patiently wrote on his forehead as he screeched in desperation until it read clearly in big bold letters
Rapey
...By the time she was done with the last letter of the word, the man had passed out and her excitement was starting to simmer down, leaving her with the strong conscious realization that she was in the middle of a crowd of people watching as she tortured the man. She stood up from her kneeling position, her breathing was heavy and she felt her blood hot all over her face and neck, she looked around the people and saw some of them with shock and fear on their faces. Hands over open mouths, eyes wide open, she was suddenly caught with a feeling of Déjà vu.
She tried to ignore it and started to studiously clean herself with her wand, her hands and clothes stained in blood, as she tried to recover her cool composure.
She heard footsteps coming from her back and turned fast ready to attack or defend herself but it turned out to be Negan, so she quickly lowered her wand and stood there looking at him.
Negan was back in his cool and comfortable self, looking at her with a face that said to her that he knew she had lost it but it was fine, he placed a big hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly.
"You done?" He just asked her.
She looked down at the passed out or maybe dead man on the floor and ended the sticking charm with a flick of her wand. "Yeah." She just said, she felt like she ought to say she was sorry, but she wasn't and she wouldn't admit it if she was either way.
"Is he dead?" He asked her, Sophia didn't know nor cared.
"I don't know...Rick found the guns, by the way…" She commented, trying to change the subject.
Negan barely nodded at her comment and he motioned some saviors to pick up the unlucky man on the floor. They watched in silence as they took him to the trucks.
"That's a big fucking trigger you have, you know?" He just said to her trying to keep it low.
She chose not to comment.
That was were the guilt was coming from, she recognized it now, the feeling that she should apologize to him. That kind of scummy men made her lose it and it was not the first time either, she had no patience for them and would easily unload on them at the first sign of provocation, not all of them but some. The ones that reminded her in any way to aspects she remembered from her father, or her master.
Weak, sick little men with no strength of will or responsibility for their failures. Perverted, immature grown-ups who had little sense of control over their obsessions and base instincts, who lashed out on others to make themselves feel better and were used to getting away with it scot-free. Addicts, bums, perverts, etc.
She would just easily lose it as she had just done, and Negan thought that was not smart of her. But she couldn't ever apologize for it.
"You are right… so the next one I'll just kill them where they stand." She finished and walked off towards Rick and the others onlookers, Negan just chuckled and walked up to her side.
"Now that the show is over, did you find them?" He asked Rick, who was looking at her with different eyes now. He handed Negan the pouch with the guns which made Negan smile in satisfaction.
"Funny how a little real consequence lights a fire under everyone's ass. Tell me Rick, Who's the one that almost got dear Olivia killed? " He asked him
"It doesn't matter, I'll deal with it." Started Rick trying to reassure him.
"It was man-child." She interjected sharing her knowledge, too spent to care at that point. "His name is Spencer."
"Is he around?" Asked her Negan, disregarding Rick.
"No. he left when we arrived." She reminded him.
"I promise I'll get him on board." Rick tried to reassure them again.
"Either way, I would keep an eye on him, Rick. He will give you trouble, I'm sure of it." Negan offered the man.
"Alright, everyone! Let's get going!" He ordered his men with a gesture of his arm.
And with that, every Savior began moving over to the gate where they had arrived.
"Oh." She said as she suddenly remembered. "I gave my hat to a little girl to hold for me." She commented looking around in search of Judith.
"Judith?" Carl, who had been there and witnessed her scene, said surprised and a little indignation.
"Yeah, Judith. She's cute." She said and noticed the way the two men reacted to the news.
"Oh, Rick, you busy dog!" Joked Negan and she caught it immediately. "Where is that little rascal! Bring her here!" He demanded happily. But Rick was not willing to budge on that.
"I think I have shown you that I can work with you, so...can we keep her out of this?" He started, and she saw that it was about to become a thing with them so she decided to interject.
"Oh my god, what a drama queen. I'll go find her myself, I bet she's at Aaron's." She said and walked off.
"Wait! At least clean yourself!" Asked her Rick, holding a handkerchief in his hand. She looked at it in confusion, since she had just cleaned herself.
"Your mask, Sweet pea." Helped her Negan pointing at his face. She realized then that she must have had blood on her mask that whole time.
"Oh fuck me." She said with exasperation and took the handkerchief from the man. She looked at it after blindly cleaning her mask and it was now covered in dark red blood, of course, she could have used her wand but she was too pissed at the situation to give a fuck.
"Thanks." She said and tossed it back at Rick. "You get going with the others, I'll catch up on my broom."
"I'll go with you." Decided Carl, and caught up to her as she walked off, but maintained distance.
"So that's it? I lose it on a pervert and now you can't get enough of me?" She teased him, partly trying to get a conversation out of him and partly trying to get her mind over of the scene she just did in front of everyone, but he seemed to be unwilling to give in.
"I don't get it… Why are you like this? You can't just explode like that and then try to be friendly, we can't be friends. You and Negan are extorting us under threat, what you are doing is wrong." Carl finally managed to get out, he seemed a little conflicted.
"It's not extorting, that's just a small part of it. But I get how you could see it that way."
"I think you are crazy, you must have lost it a long time ago if you think that what you are doing is justified. That treating people like this is ok and that people will just sit down and take it."
"Fuck off, Carl. I can't give a single fuck about justified, this is not the old world. This is just the way things are, we rule this territory and the people that live within it. It's not like we want to kill you all, you are resources." She said as they turned on the corner to Aaron's house.
"We are people, not resources. People want to be free, they'll give anything for it." He argued with her.
"You are free Carl, you can keep being free if you submit to us and give us tribute. It's pretty simple. This is my home and I'll be here long after you're gone. I don't know about you but I like my home in order, under my control." She finished already tired with the conversation and in front of Aaron's, it was worrying that he thought people would fight them eventually.
Maybe we have a lot to work on them before they accept it.
She thought as she climbed the steps up to the house and was greeted by Eric, who opened the door as soon as she walked up to it and basically threw the pointy hat at her face, though she caught it easily.
"Oh cool, I just came for this. Where's Judith?" She asked the man, stretching to gaze behind him.
"Judith is upstairs, Carl." He said to the boy, ignoring her. Carl read the message in his tone and walked inside without saying goodbye. They remained in silence for a bit while she waited for him to say whatever he wanted to say.
"Judith saw you out there, she doesn't want to see you. You scare her." He said plainly and held his eyes on hers, without a drop of fear. Ballsy for the usually fidgety man.
Well….shit. She thought with a sigh.
Being honest with herself, she would have to admit that the news made her feel worse than she was willing to show.
"Whatever." She said after a few seconds of silence in which she pushed it all down and turned around, then held her hand up and silently called her broom which was still waiting for her above where she had left it earlier.
After a few more seconds, the broom hovered towards her and placed itself on the palm of her hand, then she climbed on the foot stands and started to absentmindedly ascend.
"Thanks, for standing up for Enid!" Said someone else loudly so she could hear it. She looked back to the source of the voice and saw Carl back outside with Eric and waving her off and as he became progressively smaller.
Sophia took off in an explosive burst of acceleration.
After their visit to Alexandria, she decided to get away for a bit and spend some time in the open fields where she would sometimes go to practice her spellwork or swing her sword for practice. A raised stone platform with some tables, a few disconnected stone walls, and open space, the late sun strong over her head and skin made her feel almost like she was being cleansed. Add to that training until exhaustion and it was the best she could do when she felt like that, how it sometimes felt like her lungs were heavy and her breathing was just short of enough, or her stomach rested uneasily whether she had eaten or not.
For the most part, her magical education had always been in her hands alone since she found out about her heritage after both the no-maj society and the magical society fell, leaving her kind on the brink of extinction. The only wizard she ever met was her old master, and he was less like a teacher and more like an angry librarian that forced her to do chores and other shit, sometimes he would fight her mercilessly until she needed healing so that he could gauge her progress.
He always made sure to remind her of how weak she was, how useless she was and how it was because of her no-maj parentage. She believed now that he had at one point decided to teach her the minimum so she would always be under him because she was sure that early on he had some type of ideal about her as a servant and student, but in reality, she wouldn't know how she really compared to other peers.
So she kept studying and training by herself ever since discovering her powers but, frustratingly, her improvement had been stalling for some time now. She had a good haul of books and material, she practiced potion-making often and took time to cast until she felt drained, but it had been some time now since she had last searched for more of the lost knowledge of her society. She was sure that going to New York would yield her all the books, knowledge, materials or artifacts that she could need since it used to be the seat of the Magical Congress and the biggest population of Wizards and Witches. But until then she would have to keep her skills sharp and try to learn more from what she already had.
She was very comfortable with charms and definitely had an affinity with fire of any kind, even conjured, despite her conjuration skills not being great, in general transfiguration and its subsets were hard for her. Her best grasp of it was switching and vanishing but regarding other branches and subjects she had almost no knowledge, not in divination, not in mind arts or arithmancy and it was mainly because she had few sources to go by.
And she couldn't just up and leave the Sanctuary alone, all of that would have to come later.
She wished she knew others like her, of her age preferably, she would sometimes dream or daydream about befriending another witch and exploring magic together. Or the people she read about in books, their achievements, and biographies, stories of heroes and dark lords, influential political figures in her lost world that she never got to experience.
It was sad to think about all that she had missed from the magical world, going to school and meeting people like her, learning from decent teachers and dedicating herself to some branch of academics. They had lived in a society with thousands of years of cumulative knowledge and history but now they were gone, so much that she had never found another like her in all those years. It was lonely in a different way than most knew.
Yet she had come to find that there were aspects of the new world that she liked. Sophia often considered herself someone who had never really lived in the old world, so a lot of what other people missed and had trouble living without, felt alien to her. Her past self was a shell of who she was now, her social life, her family life, all of it felt so out of her control back then that she was barely someone who lived and more someone who… just reacted.
"Just reacted, eh?". She said to herself as she sat on the stone resting, in the company of the warm evening breeze and the sound of the trees singing their blank noise.
