It took them less than five minutes to make it up to, what Blake presumed, was the second floor, and back to the long corridor where her cell was.
"Please…" she uttered, glancing at Dwight over her shoulder. "I can't be in that cell anymore."
But Dwight shot her back a grimace.
"Sweetheart, people have been in that cell a lot longer than you have," he said in a steely voice, as Blake peered back at him.
"Your face…." she said giving a gulp as he shoved her forwards. "What happened?"
But Dwight didn't answer, instead giving her another sharp shove forwards, his jaw tensed.
But Blake looked around.
They had passed her cell and were now headed in a different direction, down another hallway she hadn't been through yet.
She looked back at Dwight questioningly.
"Where are we going?" she said a little uneasily, her heart banging a drum beat.
But Dwight didn't answer her, instead staying eerily silent and giving her another small shove.
Soon, they rounded a corner, and were met with an identical hallway to the one in the basement, with doorways that lined the walls to the right.
But these seemed to be much more spaced out than the ones downstairs.
But she and Dwight weren't even three doors down the corridor, before the looming figure of Negan sudden stepped out from behind the fourth door, causing Blake to jump out of her skin in fright.
There he was, grinning from ear-to-ear fiendishly, with Lucille slung over his shoulder haphazardly.
Oh god, what was this….?
Was this it for her? Was there going to be some sort of bloodbath in there….one swing from Lucille and that would be the end of everything she had ever known….?
Dwight manoeuvred her forwards, until she was just a foot away from Negan, and side-on to the open door on his right.
The dark-haired man pulled at his bottom lip with his teeth before showing his line of straight white teeth in a smile, and throwing out his hand.
"Surprise!" he said in a sing-song voice, far removed from the low growl she usually expected from him.
Blake turned a little apprehensively, but suddenly blinked, as she caught sight of what was inside the door…
Here was a large room, a lot larger than David's downstairs that was for certain…with a king size bed, a bookshelf, a closet, a compact table and chairs- big enough to fit at least four people around it, and a small flowery couch tucked neatly underneath a huge window.
It was that window, in fact, that intrigued her most, shining the most lovely amount of sunshine through into the room, causing it to sit in a sort of warm, inviting haze…
Blake looked up at Negan a little uncertainly.
Why was he showing her this?
But the tall dark-haired man merely placed a free hand to her lower back and leaned in towards her.
"For you, doll-face," he uttered in a low voice, causing Blake to shiver slightly.
She took a step into the room, giving the slightest of frowns and gazing around, before staring immediately back at Negan.
"What's is this?" she said in a quiet tone of disbelief, shaking her head and staring into his dark eyes.
He gave a chuckle, shrugging his shoulders and strolling easily past her, into the large room, as Dwight stood guard at the door.
"Well I think it was time the Beast gave Beauty a nicer room, don' you?" Negan murmured, picking up an empty green vase that sat in the centre of the table and admiring it, before putting it back down again and glancing over at Blake.
The caramel-blonde woman gave a frown.
Was this another game? What the hell was his MO here?
"So I'm going from a fucking prison cell, to a luxury apartment?" she said, narrowing her eyes at him and shaking her head. "Why would you even give me all this?"
But Negan lifted his chin, keeping his chocolate eyes on her the whole time.
"Well, see, thing is…" he said shaking his head, a wide grin dancing its way back over his lips. "…it seems like I have quite the soft spot for you. And I think you'd do a lot better up here, than you would in that dark old cell back there. A flower like you, needs some sunlight, don't you think?"
Blake gave a gulp, looking worriedly up at the man before her. The man who had brutally killed people from her camp. The man who had revelled in slicing someone's stomach open….
"I'm not up for being one of your wives, if that what you want," said she a little defensively, shooting him a dark look. "T-That was never part of the deal."
But Negan gave a small laugh, as Blake saw Dwight at the door, glance around at them momentarily.
"Hold your horses there, buttercup," uttered Negan eyeing her fondly. "I'm giving you a room, not an ultimatum, here. You might wanna try and sound a bit more fucking grateful."
Blake calmed herself a little, giving a gulp and tearing her eyes away from his.
She took a couple of steps further into the room and gazed about, her fingertips dancing lightly over the back of the moth-eaten couch.
It had been a while since she'd had this much space to herself. Even in the large houses at Alexandria, she still shared a three bedroomed house with six other people.
"Is this all just to get me to tell you what I know about Rick?" she said, not looking at Negan. Instead her eyes flitted over towards the window, wondering if she'd be able to escape through it at some point…
"Well you know how the old saying goes." said Negan from a little way behind her. She could hear him pacing. "You catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar."
Blake smirked, glancing back at him over her shoulder, where he stood bouncing on his heels.
She doubted he had ever used 'honey' for anything in his life.
"Aha!" he announced loudly, pointing at her with his baseball bat. "You do smile."
At this, Blake rolled her eyes, moving over to the large bed.
"I think you're imagining things," she tutted in an airy voice, causing Negan to chuckle. "Perhaps all that lemonade has gone to your head."
"Well I've got the feelin' that that soft spot I'm harbouring for you, might be mutual, doll-face," he said, approaching her slowly.
Blake looked back at him, cocking an eyebrow is his direction.
"You wish," she muttered, her lips twitching upwards into a smirk once again, but she turned her head away, hiding it from him, and moving over to admire the dusty handback books that sat on the shelf to her left, instead.
Negan gave a laugh, coming to perch against the table, dropping Lucille to his side.
Blake could feel his brown eyes boring into the back of her head as he did so.
The room fell silent for a moment or two, as she ran her fingertips over the grimy-looking book-spines, but she wasn't reading the titles. No. Blake was instead, still pondering why Negan had given her this room, when just a few hours ago she had been locked in a cell.
She didn't trust him….not one little bit.
After a brief moment or two, she turned back towards him.
He was, to her surprise, closer to her than she had first thought, and from here, she could make out each and every laughter-line that littered his long, tanned face. Though she was well aware what kind of things Negan was likely to laugh at….and that worried her immensely.
Blake stared over at him, tugging at her lip with her teeth for the slightest of seconds before speaking.
"Why not just put me downstairs….with David?" she asked in a quiet voice.
Even now she could still feel the ache of a bruise beneath her shirt-sleeve where David had grabbed her just a mere ten minutes ago. Part of her wanted to be close to him…wanted to be back where she belonged…at his side…But another part of her wanted to be as far away from him as humanly possible….
But Negan didn't answer her, he just sucked at his teeth and glanced away, gripping his bat lightly in his hand and pushing himself from the table.
It looked as though for the smallest of moments he was going to say something, but the words just never came….
Instead he turned away from her, heading towards the door.
"Dinner's at six, downstairs," he said waving a hand over his shoulder at her almost dismissively. "But in the meantime, make yourself at home."
Blake watched him go, the smallest of frown lines appearing between her brows.
What was with him?
But Negan stopped beside Dwight, turning back to her and shooting her a knowing look.
"Oh and don't even think of trying to escape through that window, Doll," he said finally, with a nod towards the paned glass. "Your friend Daryl had to scrape the last guy up off that asphalt outside, and let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight."
And with that, before Blake could utter another word, Negan had turned away and slunk off out of sight, as Dwight closed the door behind them.
Leaving Blake all alone…
….her eyes drifting towards the large window…knowing that there was indeed, no way out…
Thank you so much to Shan1994 and JudithMosalii for reviewing the last chapter! :)
I'm not sure whether to carry on. Are you liking it so far? I hope the interactions between Blake and Negan are ok? What do you think?
Also, sorry if I'm updating too often. I hope it's ok.
Please review