Blake let out a long sigh, coming to lean against the metal railing that ran around the outside balcony, overlooking the Sanctuary lot.
It had been an hour since Blake had been marched back down the main marketplace hall by Gavin.
Various men and women, dressed in dark clothes, all carrying guns and weapons of varying sizes, had filed past her as she went, obviously making their way out to the trucks. Leaving for what Blake supposed was Alexandria.
She hoped Rick and the rest of her friends back there would be safe. Her mind flitting to baby Judith and the kids of Alexandria, innocent in all this.
Blake hadn't see Negan again, but had mooched around the marketplace stalls, watching as people stood in line to exchange their wares for points. It had been quieter that it was when she had walked through with Negan. And so after a couple of laps around the place, Blake had wandered the corridors.
Her mind had, of course, flitted immediately to David…heading for the staircase leading down the basement floor where she knew his room was.
She hadn't seen him since their run in in the canteen yesterday and as much as he had frightened and hurt her she knew that all of it…it was for him. She loved him….right?
But as Blake had reached the staircase, she found a broad shouldered black man standing there in front of it, blocking the way, with a gun held steadily in his hands.
Blake had pursed her lips, ,meaning to push past him, but he took a step to the side, blocking her path.
"I'm sorry," he uttered in a soft voice. "I can't let you go down there."
Blake had given a frown.
"Everyone? Or just me," she asked a little confused, stepping back and staring up at the man, but he just shook his head.
"Uh, just you I'm afraid," he said insistently. "Negan's orders."
Blake scowled, giving a huff, and had been about to protest, but had thought better of it at the last moment.
What good would it do?
Arguing with this guy wasn't going to solve anything.
So Blake had huffed and headed back down the corridor, finally finding herself out here, back on the balcony….in the same place Negan had offered her lemonade, just a day ago.
She still could not believe that was yesterday.
It all felt like a lifetime ago now.
Blake leant across the railing, folding her arms and staring out across the gloomy, grey lot.
The fence today, was covered with the living dead, or walkers at Rick had used to call them, and not just the ones that had been tied up and impaled there.
There had obviously been a mass build-up overnight, and today, several men in baggy grey jumpers were out there, trying to wrangle the walkers into position as best they could, as several Saviours drove knives and posts through their skulls.
It seemed like a slow process and by the looks of it they could do with a few more hands.
Hands that Blake certainly could offer them. Especially if it meant that she could carry a weapon again.
Blake looked around, noticing a tall, armed saviour with a black goatee and cropped hair, standing by the stairs leading down to the lot.
Brushing down the back of her navy pants a little apprehensively, she approached him.
"Hey, you think I could go down there and help out," she said raising her eyebrows and looking up at him. "I mean, I know my way around a knife-"
But before Blake could even finish her sentence, the man gave a scoff, cutting across her.
"Pfft, sweetheart, do you really think I'd let you do that?" he raised giving an amused chuckle and staring at her incredulously. "Negan would kill me….no worse than that…..he'd probably make sure I suffered real bad THEN he'd kill me. So beat it, ok?"
Blake gritted her teeth, irritated, and turned on her heel marching back over to the railings.
Why the hell was she being treated like a child here? Surely Negan realised he couldn't keep her wrapped in cotton wool and cooped up here forever!?
She let out a long breath of air and watched the men and the walkers for a good twenty minutes or so….her mind flitting back to a time before Alexandria….when they had fought tooth and nail for survival…loosing so many people along the way.
Blake had forgotten what it felt like to have a real home….have a family.
She had always had David of course…and the people at Alexandria had always made her feel welcome….but it wasn't the same as it once was back in the real world.
Back then, Blake had worn pencil skirts and high heels to work, grabbed lattes from the coffee shops around the corner, and talked for hours on her cell phone to her girlfriends about their weekend plans.
She had got blow dries and spent lots of money on make-up…more than she probably cared to reveal to David back then.
She had watched re-runs of her favourite TV shows in the evenings, and checked in with friends online….staring at their holiday photos and making herself jealous.
Because all that…it had been important to her back then.
That world…that life….it had all been so loud….so busy….
She had been young…mid to late twenties….having the time of her life…
Blake thought about David.
They had been happy once….ok, he had never been the biggest earner…hoping to get his own art studio one day…but Blake had funded him….kept him going on the lifestyle he liked. Even if it meant her working a lot of overtime. But she had done it because she loved him.
Then the day came….that awful, awful day…when they had packed whatever they could carry, leaving Blake's high heels and pencil skirts there in the city…and driven out of there…sitting in long queues of traffic and then walking for hours….and hours…and hours….
Within a day her cell phone was dead….another day they had been ambushed by a horde of the dead….seeing a family that had followed them along the back-road trail, killed before their very eyes….
A day after that….they were alone, and the world was silent…
...it was all so silent….
And that had been when Blake had known that it was gone. It was truly all gone. Life as she knew it…
Her home…and her family…
All she had left now was David.
And she knew she couldn't lose him. Even when beatings came….she held on tight to him….telling herself that he was her family. He was her home.
And he still was.
Blake blinked, as she heard the door suddenly open behind her and a group of three or four female voices were heard.
She looked around back over her shoulder as the nearby Saviour with the gun did the same, just as four women appeared through the large swing doors, walking out onto the balcony.
One had red hair, Blake immediately recognised as Frankie, the woman from David's room the previous day. And at her side was Tanya, another she recognised from last night. The woman who had appeared in Negan's quarters who had walked Blake back to her room. Behind them were two more women, one young with long white-blonde hair, another with tan features and dark brown eyes, her hair tied up in a bun.
They were all wearing the same style of short black dress and all immediately stopped talking as their eyes landed on Blake.
At this Blake gave an inward gulp, not expecting this reaction.
These were obviously Negan's wives…perhaps this was all of them…although she wouldn't put it past him to already have a different wife for each day of the week.
Blake turned to face the group of women fully, who had stopped in their tracks, as though not expecting to see her out here, and stared at them, parting her lips.
"Uhhh…hi," she murmured, trying to force a smile in their direction.
But the women didn't not reply…
In fact, they did not even smile.
After a long second or two, she saw Tanya, merely give Frankie a poignant shove forwards and the women all hurried away down the steps, past the armed Saviour, heading down to the left of the yard.
Blake gave a despondent sigh, turning back to the railing and placing both hands on it, giving it a frustrated squeeze.
Had Negan really warned everyone away from her?
Right now she felt so frustrated.
So trapped.
Firsts she hadn't been allowed to go see her own husband and now other women were blanking her. But why?
Was she really that bad?!
Suddenly pushing herself from the railing she decided to follow the women….hoping that the Saviour with the gun would not stop her. She hadn't seen around this entire place with Negan, so she would try and explore as much of it as she was allowed. Although she expected that wouldn't stretch too far.
She pushed her long caramel blonde hair back across her shoulders and lifted her chin, strutting past the man defiantly…and to her a surprise, he didn't make a move to stop her.
She chanced a second glance at him and she headed down the steps , but he was already staring away uninterestedly.
Reaching the bottom, Blake found that the four wives were long gone, but the walkway wrapped around the building, splitting off into two paths through a couple of smaller units. Blake took the left one and began to walk.
It was hot and humid out and even under the gloomy grey sky of this day in late fall, Blake could feel beads of sweat collecting at her collarbone.
She was tall and with a medium build, having dropped a well-needed pound or two around her waist and hips since all this had started….but she knew that was likely mainly due to all the walking she had done over the past few years. But even now…on days like this she longed for air-con and a temperate shower.
Blake walked down a small pathway that led through the buildings, hearing voices murmuring a little way ahead of her…
Perhaps it was the wives…..perhaps she could catch up with them and confront them.
But she turned the corner, furrowing her brow …finally stepping out into a small courtyard that had been turned into a sort of makeshift communal back-yard.
There was full lines of laundry hanging from wall-to-wall around the yard…with pots of various sizes, growing what looked like small lemon trees as well as others. There was a couple of small plastic-covered greenhouses and a large gas barbecue in the centre of the courtyard, but it was the vast amount of people that were stood around talking, laughing with one another that surprised Blake the most.
There were a small group of children all running around the potted plants ducking and diving away from each other, paying tag. There were a couple of women sowing what looked like pairs of socks on the far side of the area, as well as men and women of various ages moving about going about their work happily and contently.
If Blake had not known any better, she would have guessed they were back in Alexandria or at any of the other camps she had been at before now.
But almost as soon as Blake had walked forwards around the corner, entering the courtyard, a sudden hush seemed to fall over the small crowd, as heads began to turn towards her.
A woman with ashy blonde hair, pulled a small boy aside hurriedly, stepping back, looking nervous.
Blake took a step forward, noticing suddenly that the people all around her had bowed their heads, avoiding her eye.
Just like they normally did with Negan…
Immediately Blake felt embarrassed, her cheeks reddening, as she walked further out into the courtyard looking this way and that.
This was a proper community and as oppressed as these people did seem on the outside, Blake had to be grateful for the fact that they were safe…inside these walls. Just as the people back in Alexandria were.
Blake remembered back to when all that had been new to her…and David….and the rest of her small group. When they had arrived in Alexandria after so, so long spent out there. When they had finally found somewhere where one person did not have to stay up all night on watch...or go in pairs to the bathroom together.
A safe place.
Is that what these people had here?
Blake looked around, passing a young couple with glasses as both of them immediately stared down the ground as she moved by them. They only looked about Blake's age, and perhaps long ago she would have been friends with them….gone out to bars or for coffee with them…and yet now…these people almost looked fearful of her.
Blake gulped yet again, dragging her eyes away from them and coming to a stop just in front of a long line of washing….
….just as a small girl with brown hair appeared in front of her….
….wearing a large, oversized sweater.
Blake gave a blink staring down at the girl as she spoke with a tiny lisp.
"Thank you for my sweater. It was my birthday yesterday," she uttered in shy sort of voice.
Suddenly realization dawned on Blake as she gazed up at a figure, standing just a little way behind the tiny girl.
It was the woman from this morning…whom she had given the sweater to at the marketplace.
The woman mouthed a 'Thank you' just as the little girl before her, lifted something to Blake's face.
Bake looked down, her breath catching in her throat.
It was a flower. Beautiful and white with a long stem.
"My name's Lydia," she said giving Blake a smile. "What's yours?"
Blake instantly felt tears welling in her eyes as she gently took the flower from Lydia's grasp.
"I…um…I'm Blake," she uttered in just a whisper.
But all this. It was far too much for her to cope with.
This little girl…this gesture from someone who already had nothing….
It was too much to bear.
Blake suddenly murmured a hurried 'excuse me' before turning on her heel and hastily marching out of there as fast as she could.
She knew that all eyes were on her, but right now she didn't care…
She hurried through a large set of doors, and down into a darkened hallway, before suddenly and before she could stop herself bursting into tears….
…the small white flower still clutched tightly within her hand.
Blake flipped over a page in her book letting out a sigh.
It was late evening now…maybe 9pm, and Blake was in her room, sat across her bed reading…as she been for the past few hours.
The flower she had earlier been given was now sat neatly in a green vase on her table in the centre of the room.
Blake had of course been overwhelmed by the gesture…she had cried in silence, unable to stop the tears from falling.
She had felt oh-so overwhelmed by the gesture. All she had done was give the girls' mother a sweater, and yet they had treated her as if she were some sort of princess to them….a Queen. So grateful...when Blake knew she didn't deserve it.
She had only done it to defy Negan…hadn't she?
And yet from both sides…Negan and his people…. they had both given her so much in return…so much that she certainly wasn't worthy of.
The afternoon, of course, had dragged by.
Swiping away her tears, Blake had made her way down the corrido, finally fining herself back in the large canteen….where a tiny queue had formed for late lunch, down at the end of the large room.
The food had smelled so good, and Blake had realised she hadn't eaten since yesterday, and so had walked over to tentatively join the end of the group of awaiting people.
But she had barely made it to the end of the line, when the seven or so people ahead of her, suddenly stepped aside, allowing her to skip in front of them.
Blake hadn't quite believed what an impact Negan's words would indeed have, until this point.
They way these people looked at her with fear and apprehension in their eyes.
She of course declined their offer, urging for the people to take their place back in the line, but they just bowed their heads, refusing to move, and so Blake had eventually stepped up, taking plate filled with meat and potatoes and a large portion of vegetables. (She noticed later that she was the only person who had been given these vegetables…which made her feel even more guilty.)
She had eaten alone on a long table to herself, before quickly heading back up to her room, feeling lonelier than she had in a long time.
She had hoped to see David around…but he had been nowhere to be seen. Her mind trying not the think of the fact that perhaps he was with Frankie again.
Blake worried at her lips slightly as she turned the page of her novel.
She had made it most of the way through Moby Dick now, but had a lot of titles on her shelf still to get to.
Blake had mastered being bored by now. For a long time she had whiled away hours spent in darkened buildings afraid to turn on a light to read, in case the dead found them. But it was not having anyone to talk to that pained her the most. Made her feel bored and alone…and trapped.
She knew that she could go down to the canteen but even there she would be eating alone yet again… And so despite how much her stomach was rumbling and protesting, she would stay here and read a little more before going straight to bed.
But as the minutes ticked by, the only sound being the pages of her book being turned every minute or so, it wasn't a surprise that Blake jumped out of her skin at the sound of loud knocking on the outside of her door.
She gave a frown, staring suddenly up, before slowly placing down her book and getting to her feet.
She brushed down the back of her navy pants, before padding carefully to the door and hurling it open…
But Blake could only purse her lips and frown, staring suddenly at the figure of the other side.
"You miss me?"
It was of course Negan…standing in his battered, old leather jacket, shucked over a, now, bloodstained t-shirt. He had Lucille, as always, flung over his left shoulder, holding the wire-covered baseball bat, loosely in his grip.
Blake gave a frown, wanting to question him on his current bloody state and the outcome of the folks back at Alexandria.
"Whose bloo-," she began. But as her eyes travelled down to his other hand, she stopped suddenly, her frown become one of bemused confusion. "Wait…...is that…..pizza?"
Sure enough, in Negan's other hand was a large round plate with an enormous pepperoni pizza sat on it.
She stared up into Negan's smirking face, just as two men Blake didn't recognise, filed past her into her room before she could stop them.
"Wait-uh-what?" she said almost spinning around on the spot in confusion, as one man moved past her carrying in a large black TV and the other a humungous, ancient-looking VCR and two video tapes.
But Negan just gave a chuckle.
"Well you said you wanted pizza and a movie," said Negan his lips curving up into a grin as he looked down at her. "So I thought I'd bring the queen exactly what she wanted. Courtesy of ol' Greg an' his gang of wet-fuckin'-blankets up at the Hilltop."
Blake looked over her shoulder at the two men setting up her TV, before gazing back at Negan, her breath hitching in her throat in confusion.
"So you didn't go to Alexandria?" she said, that frown still lingering between her brows, but her entire body flooding with relief. "B-But you said-"
Negan shifted his weight from foot to foot, smirking at her.
"I didn't say a fuckin' word, buttercup," he mused, giving a nod. "But there you fuckin' go, assuming the worst from me, as always."
He tutted, causing Blake to grit her teeth irritably.
"Do you really blame me?" she shot back snappily.
But Negan just smiled that annoying smile of his, lowering Lucille from his shoulder and placing her against his leg before picking up a slice of pizza and taking an obnoxiously large bite, as the two men filed back past the pair of them, heading out of the room once again.
"I mean, if you don' want it," he uttered talking through chews and pointing at her with his hand holding the pizza. "I am more than happy to take this stunningly cheesy hot, melt in your mouth pizza away and enjoy it myself."
But Blake shot him a scowling look, suddenly snatching the plate from his grasp.
"Fine," she said in a huffy tone. "I'll take it."
At her reaction, Negan grinned, tossing his half eaten slice back onto her plate and placing his arm to the doorframe, leaning up against it and looming over Blake slightly.
"Had a feeling you'd come around, Doll-face," he muttered in a husky voice, shooting her a knowing look through darkened lashes. "I think that soft spot you've got for me is comin' along nicely. Next you'll be asking me on a date and wanting to put your hand up my blouse.""
Blake rolled her eyes.
"Was there anything else?" she asked, raising her eyebrows and shooting him a fake smile, which only caused Negan to let out a loud laugh.
The dark haired Saviour bit his lip, poking his tongue out between his perfect teeth as he eyed her.
"An' there was me thinkin' you were gonna ask me in. I'm hurt," he uttered pressing a hand to his heart and scooping up Lucille from the floor.
For a long moment he looked at Blake with something in his eye, which Blake couldn't help but smirk back at.
Had she imagined three days ago when she had woken up in that cell, that she would now be standing here, hot pizza in her hand and a movie playing on the TV behind her. And in her own room too…..she wouldn't have believed it could be true.
And it was all down to one person…
But was that person David…..or was it Negan…
Blake's green eyes lingered on his for second or two…both of them seemingly unable to look away….but Blake knew she was playing with fire here.
She let out a quiet chuckle…and stared down at the pizza in her hand….just as Negan pushed himself off of the doorframe, grinning.
"Night, Peaches," he uttered with a warm growl, turning on his heel and heading back of down the corridor, his boots chinking as he went.
And with that, Blake just stood there for a long moment, watching him go. Before slowly smiling to herself, shaking her head and closing the door with a snap, behind her.
Thanks to elljayde, Keward2592, JudithMosalii, bhanna, PercyJacksonlovesme, Xmidniteangel15X, Guest, Vany and whereshadowplays for reviewing.
Sorry that chapter didn't contain much Negan. And sorry if it was a bit boring. But don't worry hopefully the next chapter will be a bit more exciting for you all. I'll hopefully update soon.
Please review! :)