(A/N: Hey guys! CR, reporting with a brand new chapter! And boy, was this one a real hoot to write! I just adored writing this chapter so I hope you guys have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!

Dearest reviewers...

enchantmentanjel: Hi and welcome to the story! It's great to have you reading! Negan is a fun guy, when he's not talking to his baseball bat and forcing young girls into unwanted marriages! xP Seriously, he's an awesome character! Robert Kirkman did a great job coming up with him. We actually get our first glimpse of ol' Merle in the next chapter! And don't we all love ourselves the Dixon boys! I can't wait for them to show up either! :D

umbrella0326: Haha, Negan is really very intelligent! I haven't read much about him besides his Wiki page and a few pages from the comic, but he came off as a realistic sort of guy. He DOES make a lot of sense, in a way! Ooh, I love that description you used for him, too! Describes him to a brilliant "T", my dear! I decided to censor the profanity in this story because in the comic, Negan cusses. A LOT. I normally don't swear and I just don't feel comfortable putting that amount of profanity into the chapter without some sort of censor. :( Hehe, I giggled while writing that part too! Little known fact: Negan was the Surgeon General in a previous life. And here comes the next part you've been waiting for! As always, thank you for commenting! :)

Savannah's Angels: The wait is ovah! :D

An Amber Pen: LOL! Yeah, she should have stayed hidden in the bushes... OMG, a dramatic rescue from Merle would be awesome! He could come swingin' in on a vine or something! :P A fight between Negan and Merle... Who would win? ;)

A marriage proposal, a scandal upstairs, and a very confused Bree Evans... Will she become part of Negan's harem or is it time to move on?

Ch. 7: Bree – Sanctuary Fallen

I can't move.

I can't move, I can't talk, and I can barely breathe.

Did Negan really just ask me to marry him? Not only that, but did he kiss me and then threaten to basically turn me into a prostitute if I said no to marrying him?

My head is reeling and not in the good way. Never in a million years would I have expected something like this to happen. I always knew Negan was a little off his rocker but what just happened proved to me that he might just be insane. There's no way I'm going to marry some middle-aged looney. Sure, he seemed like a nice guy, maybe even a friend, but that was before he tossed that ultimatum my way.

I release a low growl and push my fingers through my bangs, determined to get the lingering scent of Negan away from me. The way that he threatened me just makes my blood boil. My body is still shivering with fear from that unhinged look he had in his eyes when he grabbed me so suddenly.

I take a deep, shuddering breath to try and calm my frazzled nerves. I realize then that I'm the only person simply standing in the middle of a makeshift dancefloor packed with dancers. I'm drawing unnecessary attention to myself so I quietly withdraw from the dancefloor and head towards the boombox that Harry and I situated in a chair at the back of the room. I sit on the floor beside it and rest my aching head on the wall behind me so I can ponder what I should do next.

It's taking absolutely everything in me not to chase Negan down so that I can tell him exactly how I feel. But that would be stupid of me. He's right about one thing—without him, I'll be stranded. I have absolutely nothing to my name to trade with. The things I've gotten from the people can't be traded because I need them. If I ever wanted food again, I would have to find something to give them in return.

I shudder at the thought and look down at my twiddling thumbs. They roll, one over the other, like slender logs caught in a whirlpool. Even though part of me (the larger part) is angry at Negan, there's a small, tiny part of me that feels kind of… disappointed. I was beginning to think that Negan was going to be one of my best friends here. After almost a month of living in Sanctuary, hanging out with him formed some of the best memories I've made here. He's just so unlike me: carefree, funny, outgoing. It was hard not to smile when I was around him. He took me hunting with him and his men a few times, we went on walks through the forest together, and he would tell me these crazy, hilarious stories…. He was like the best guy friend I never had. Well, let's be honest-the only friend I've ever had.

Now he's forcing me to make a choice. I know I'm not going to marry him, there's no changing that. But becoming a harlot is out of the question.

Is the only option left to leave the place that's slowly become my home?

"Darn it, Negan…. What is wrong with you?" I mutter to the ceiling's cold, uncaring ears.

"Talking to yourself, petals?"

I look down and see Harry standing over me. The tall, skinny man with short-cropped yellow hair has a smile on his face for once.

I return his smile, even if it's only a small tilt of my lips. "Would you think I was crazier if I said I was actually talking to the ceiling?"

Harry snorts. "I'd say you're more sane than a lot of the folks 'round here." He squats down beside me, turning his back to the wall. We watch the party for a while in a companionable silence. People are actually smiling, actually dancing out there. It's nice.

I notice a group of women standing clustered together on the far end of the room, seeming afraid to join in the festivities. None of the people go up to them, either. The women are like a group of timid animals too afraid to cross the street to get to a better part of the land.

"Negan's harem."

I look over at Harry. He's picking at a sore on his face like a dog scratching at a flea, but his eyes are fixated on the women.

"Harem?" I repeat, just to clarify.

Harry nods. "Guy's as twisted as barbed wire. He goes around, picking up other men's girlfriends or girls that are all on their own and promises them all kinds of stuff if they agree to 'marry' him. It's like a deal with the devil. The poor guys can't even look at their girlfriends anymore, if they know what's good for them, and the girls are pretty much slaves."

My eyes go back to the women. A few of the men, maybe their past husbands, keep glancing their ways with forlorn eyes, begging them to look their way. They never do.

Realization finally hits me like a hammer driving a nail home: I might become one of them.

"Oh my gosh," I gasp, my hand on my forehead.

Harry doesn't even sound shocked when he speaks. "He wants you to be his next wife."

I nod and move my hand to my heaving chest. "Yes. How'd you know?" I ask.

"Hell, he's been leading you around with a leash since you came here. It was only a matter of time. We all knew. I tried to warn you."

I push my bangs away from my sweaty forehead and mutter a curse word. "I mean, what can I do? I don't want to marry him and become part of his harem but it seems like that's the only option I have left." Just thinking of "belonging" to Negan is enough to make my stomach swim with nausea. If I marry him, what then? What will he expect me to do? And would I have any choice in the matter?

"You need to get out of here," Harry urges. He turns his gaze on me and I immediately know that he's being serious. He grabs my wrist tightly and leans closer, close enough that I can smell his scent: a strange mixture of cough medicine and cologne. His eyes, aqua blue behind their constant glaze, narrow into thin slits.

"Just go out in the forest and run," he instructs. "Don't look back, not even once."

I stare back at him and let his words sink in. Living out there had been a nightmare. I don't want to go through that ever again but do I really have a choice?

"Yo, Electronics Dude."

Harry and I both look up at the same time when we hear the husky voice speaking in our direction. Butch is towering over us, wearing his usual smarmy grin that sends chills down my spine.

Harry immediately reverts into being that cold, shifty man I first met a few weeks ago. The laidback, kind of nice guy vanishes like he was all part of a magician's trick. Old Harry shoves my hand away, swipes at his nose, glares at the floor, then up at Butch.

"Yeah? What can I do for ya?" he grumbles.

Butch's grin grows. "Oh, we just need to have a little talk, you and I. You wouldn't mind following me, would you?"

Harry shrugs. He and I exchange a look before he climbs to his feet and dusts off the back of his jeans. In that split second, I can see that he's scared, even despite his put-on tough demeanor. Going anywhere with Butch is the last thing he wants to do. I can't blame him. Butch is nothing but a huge bully known for pushing himself on women and being a jerk to everyone else.

Butch points Harry in the direction of the stairs that lead out of the basement and Harry shuffles forward, posture slouched, hands shoved into his jeans' pockets.

Butch's onyx eyes fall down on me. His mouth shifts into a wicked grin. "Ya don't mind if I borrow your boyfriend, do you, Shorty?"

I fold my arms over my knees, lean forward, and give Butch a smile that I know will irritate him. "I don't mind at all," I assure him.

Butch snorts at me and then saunters after Harry. Eventually, they both disappear into the crowd of dancers. I look down at the floor and resume worrying about what's ahead.

Become part of a harem that belongs to a guy I barely know and be his slave or head back into the wilderness which is sure to be littered with the undead and uncertainty. I just don't know what to do.

Suddenly, I'm jerked back to the real world when a shrill scream breaks through the music like a window being shattered.

I snatch my MP3 out of the boombox, shove it into my pocket, grab my bag, and stand up. The dancing has stopped as if time itself has frozen. Everyone has formed a circle around something and terrified screams ring up from a few of the individuals. I try to break through the crowd and get to the center, but the people are too closely knit. But I don't have to be that close to understand the horror that is happening.

Lucille, Negan's precious barbed-wire wrapped baseball bat, is held high in the air above the heads of the people in the crowd that's formed. Blood drips down the wooden bat, running like red rivers down the powerful hands that grip her handle. Lucille is slammed down and a sickening crunching noise is heard. More screams from the crowd. Lucille is raised again, this time bearing pieces of pale, bloody flesh in her wires. She goes down again.

THUNK.

Again and again, Lucille falls and rises, coming up bloodier each time. My stomach protests when I recognize a piece of human ear on her wire. Burning bile climbs up my throat and it takes everything in me to fight it back down. I want to move forward but fear, like a huge fist, keeps me held right where I am. I hold a hand over my mouth, gag, but my eyes refuse to leave the horrible scene in front of them.

Lucille could only be touched by one person and that person was Negan. Even if I can't see him right now, I know that he's the one holding her, that he's the one murdering someone while everyone else, including myself, stands by and watches.

When I hear a gurgled scream come from the center of the crowd, from the person being beaten to death, I realize then that I can't stand by any longer, no matter how scared I feel. I break away from my fear, tear down the mental walls holding me back, and rush forward.

"Stop it!" I screech. I shove through the crowd of stunned onlookers and fall to my hands and knees at the center of the circle. Immediately, I feel something wet against my hands. I sit up on my knees and hold my hands up in front of my face.

They're painted red.

I look down and scream when I see what's lying on the ground beside me, surrounded by a sea of blood.

Harry's cracked, splintered skull is bathed in red. Brain and blood gush out of the cracks and coat the floor in their gory mess. The gadget guru's mangled body, which is swathed in clothing made bright red by blood, twitches involuntarily. His one visible blue eye locks onto me and all I can see in their teary depths is Breanna, his baby sister.

A sudden gurgle sounds from his split lips, as though he's trying to talk to me. His hand twitches in my direction and he gurgles again. Red bubbles blow up from his tattered lips.

I utter out a half-sob/half-scream and reach for him. I know that there's nothing I can do for him, that he's as good as dead, but my body reacts without regarding my mind.

Before my hands can make contact with Harry's bloodied fingers, a rough hand grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me back, away from Harry, and upwards. I scream out in pain as I'm lifted off of the ground with my feet kicking below me. Needles seem to dive in and out of my skull as excruciating pain explodes like fireworks throughout my scalp.

When I open my eyes, which were squeezed shut with pain, I come face to face with the blood-drenched visage of Negan. Red drips off of his distraught face and lands on mine in thick, wet splashes. We're both breathing heavily, one from fear, the other from…exhilaration, according to the wide smile he's wearing. Never in my three weeks of living here have I ever seen Negan look so evil. The built man, with his heavy, striking jaw, crinkled, blue eyes and charismatic grin always struck me as a gentle giant with a temperamental attitude. Now all I see is a killer.

"You killed him!" I shout.

Negan's bloodied face twists into a menacing grin. "Well, well, Baby! It seems all the women in my life are turning into lying skanks, aren't they?" Suddenly, his eyes become dark. He swings out his bat in the direction of Harry's dying form. "You two planned to be Amber's distraction, didn't you? You threw this freakin' party so that she could find the time to freakin' cheat on me, right?"

"Let go of me!" I screech. When kicking wildly doesn't get him to release my hair, I look to the crowd for help. "Please, someone help!"

No one moves a muscle. The people of Sanctuary are petrified. Even the people I recognize don't come forward. They stare at me with blank slates for faces.

I notice Butch grinning at me from the crowd. He waves the bystanders towards the door, ordering for them to get out. Everyone obeys, leaving me alone in the dark, cement room with Negan, Lucille, and Harry's body.

For a moment, we simply regard each other in silence broken only by spots of heavy breathing and Negan's maniacal snickers. The pain in my scalp is horrible. I can feel strands of my hair pop, pop, popping out of place, breaking loose of the flesh, one after the other. I wince but refuse to break eye contact with Negan.

Remembering Harry's corpse and the brutal beating he went through just minutes ago makes rage course through my veins like fire. I grunt at Negan and scream at his face and kick at his legs with all of my might but this only makes him laugh at me. Eventually, I give up and simply glare at him. Tears blur my vision, twisting Negan's normal face into exactly what he is behind all of that charm and charisma: a monster.

"Now, don't go screaming, little college girl," Negan warns in a whimsical voice that doesn't fit with the bright blood running down his face. "I'm trying to have a civilized conversation with you. If you can't talk nicely to me, maybe you'd like to talk to Lucille instead?"

His fist suddenly releases my hair and I fall to the ground. Sobbing, I push myself up on my hands and knees and stare down at Harry's now lifeless body. Blood dribbles from the corner of his mouth and leaks towards the floor. His twitching has finally ceased.

"Harry…I'm sorry!" I sob hoarsely to ears turned deaf. I barely have time to register my despair at Harry's death because when I lift my eyes, I see Negan raising his bat above his head.

I scream and cover my head with my hands. I wait for the pain, for the blood, and the screaming, but it doesn't come. After a few more seconds of waiting, I dare to uncover my head and look up. I'm surprised to find Negan staring at me with his bat lowered.

He's crying.

"Amber," he bawls, one hand pressed to his forehead. "Why are you making me do this? Baby doesn't deserve to die, does she? But it's your fault!"

Suddenly, he's roaring and the bat is raised again. "Your fault, Amber! Your freakin' fault!"

I scream as the bat slams down on the cement, missing my body by only a few centimeters. I scurry backwards, away from Negan and bloody Lucille.

Negan wags a finger at Lucille. "Look, Lucille! You scared Baby! You've got to work on your manners, young lady," he scolds the bat.

I shake my head in disbelief as the weeping man continues to carry on a conversation with his bat. I use his moment of distraction to grab for the pocket knife that I keep in my duffel bag. I snatch it out and point it at Negan right as his attention comes back to me. His eyebrows shoot up and a smile crawls from one corner of his mouth to the next.

"Oh," he laughs once. "Oh, no, Bree. You do not want to point that thing at me. Lucille gets really testy when you threaten her daddy like that." He goes to take a step towards me.

I quickly raise my knife, stopping him in his tracks. "Don't come near me," I hiss between gritted teeth. My hair is a mess and my hands are shaking uncontrollably. I probably look as insane as this man truly is.

Negan laughs again. "Oooh, look who's trying to be tough! First, you make a distraction for Amber to be with that freakin' scumbag of hers, and now you're threatening the person who saved your life a-l-l those weeks ago."

My knife lowers just a bit as his words sink in. I swallow and narrow my eyes at him.

Negan clucks his tongue at me and gives me a devilish smirk. "Now that's not how you should treat your future husband, Baby. Maybe I'll have to let Lucille teach you some manners after all."

Before Negan can take more than three steps towards me, a scream sounds from somewhere above us. Negan's head snaps up.

He screams, "Amber!" before taking off upstairs.

I stare after him. It only takes a few seconds for my body to get into action. There's no more time for thinking. My mind is made up.

I've got to get out of here.

I pocket my knife and gather up my duffel bag. Before leaving the room, I pause and say a quick prayer over Harry's body. His one undamaged eye has fallen shut now; he's at peace.

"You're with Breanna now," I murmur as a tear rolls down the bridge of my nose and falls against his face.

I want to stay a little longer, maybe try to get a few of Harry's belongings to keep his memory alive, but I know there's no time. Once I've finished praying, I stand up and run up the stairs and out of the factory.

It's chaos outside. People are still in a panic over Harry's murder. They are pouring over one another in a mad clash of limbs and bedlam in an attempt to either get to their rooms or get outside of the walls. I dive into the part of the crowd that's headed outside of the camp. We bustle together, pushing past Negan's men as they try to keep us from leaving.

Duffel bag clutched to my side and flowery headband slightly askew on my head, I struggle to keep up with the group. I have to get out of this place. Harry was right; Negan is a lunatic, a murderous madman, and none of us are truly safe here.

Suddenly, a gunshot rings out. Everyone freezes. All heads turn to see Butch standing in front of the open gate with his smoking gun raised.

The former marine lowers his gun and smirks at us. Sweat glistens on the dark hair above his upper lip. "Alright, everyone!" he shouts. "That's enough of that. Get back in your rooms until we get everything back in order."

When no one moves, he points the gun in the crowd and fires. An old, white-haired man falls to the ground, a scarlet rose in the center of his pale forehead.

The movement begins quickly after that. People scream and push as they fight their ways back towards the factory. But I'm not giving up. If I go back in that factory, I'm as good as dead. Negan's going to find me and kill me for whatever mad reasons he was spewing at me earlier. As much as I don't want to go back into the wilderness, I have no other option.

I fight towards the gate, urging others to go with me.

"Come on!" I yell at random people that I can grab onto. "It's right over there! It's not safe in here!"

No one listens. They continue backwards to the factory like sheep, back to the crazed man and his bloody baseball bat. I watch the crowd thin and ebb away until only I and a few stragglers remain.

Even though I'm terrified, even though my hands are shaking and I can barely breathe, I swallow my fear and decide to keep heading for the gate.

Butch's deft eyes find me in the waning crowd. A sinister grin snakes over his features as he raises his gun in my direction. His lips mouth the words, "Bye-Bye, Shorty" as his finger goes over the trigger.

Before he can fire, a group of terrified people accidentally knock him over. The bullet flies upwards with a loud boom, scaring a few birds out of their trees, while Butch curses and screams from his new position on the ground.

Acting fast, I leap over his squirming form and race right out of the gates. As soon as I've passed through them, I feel like I've broken out of a dozen chains that were keeping me prisoner. A weight lifts away from my pounding head and my sobs transform into cries of joy.

"Yeah, keep running, college girl!" I hear Butch yell. "The Meat Puppets will have your bony a## for dinner!"

I shiver at the thought but keep running. It's not until a new voice joins Butch's that my feet decide to stop where they are.

"Let her run, Butch! I love a good hunt!"

I tilt my head down, breathe towards the dark earth at my feet. Sweat pours from my forehead and dots the dirt black. I can't help it—I turn around.

There he is—Negan. He's a splash of black, white, and red against the iron gates of the Sanctuary, nothing more than a black biker jacket drenched in blood, a manic grin painted across a bold jaw, and two green eyes focused right at me.

Negan waves Lucille, still dripping with blood, at me. His other hand is wrapped around the shoulders of a beautiful woman. Or maybe I should say what's left of a once beautiful woman. The left side of her face looks like someone took an iron and placed it against her flesh for five minutes. Burnt skin surrounds a white eye that will never blink again because it lacks an eyelid.

The woman's body is slumped against Negan. For some reason, I know that this must be the Amber that Negan kept mentioning. Her good eye looks sullen and dead but it's trained on me. I can hear her even if she says no words.

Run.

I try to listen, try to turn and get away from this nightmare, but my eyes won't let me leave without getting one last look at the man I thought was my savior. He turned out to be worse than any monster I've encountered so far.

Negan gives me a mock salute and one last wink. A confident grin is plastered on the burly man's face. "The Puppets won't get her before I do," he promises. His eyes are dead serious.

I take a step back as Negan's roaring laughter begins. Another step back and then I turn around and run, trying to escape Negan's laughter that follows after me like the bloody, rotten fingers of the undead.

"Bye-bye, Baby! I'll see you again real soon! I've got quite the wedding reception planned for ya!"

I don't look back. Not even once.

CR: Sha-bam! There we have it! Bree has escaped "Sanctuary", Negan's promised to find her and...and... Harry is deaaad! :((( *bawling* Right when he was changing into a good guy!

Negan: It's gonna take a s-load of bleach to clean up that blood in the basement. That stuff doesn't come cheap, believe-

CR: GET OUT OF HERE! *pushes out of story* I'm sorry to any Harry-fans out there... But the story must go on! Next time, we journey with Bree as she heads back into the wilderness-the last place she wanted to end up. Can she survive on her own? And who is that mysterious stranger in the woods? ;) I'll see you guys in the next chapter! I'll try to update over the weekend, if possible!

And if you're curious and want to add to your visuals of the story, my song choice for this chapter is Civilian by Wye Oak (Acoustic Version). I just get swept up in the song when I imagine Bree wandering out in the woods, looking over her shoulder, wondering what she's going to do next... I hope it adds to the atmosphere of the chapter for you, too! Also, (and I should have mentioned this in the first chapter) Bree would ideally be played by Keke Palmer. She's just adorable to me and fits Bree really well.

See you guys next chappie! :)

Yes, Merle Dixon is on his way! :)