Trigger Warning - this is where the story starts to earn its rating. Rape/Sexual Assault/Violence, etc. The next chapter contains the aftermath so skip to Chapter 24 if you need to, and I'll put a very brief summary of what happened.

Rick was a mess, hearing things and seeing things that weren't there so the baby's care fell to everyone else for the next couple of days. Rick was fixated on his hallucinations so Daryl and Oscar worked on cleaning out more areas of the prison while Herschel tried to reason with Rick, but eventually, we were getting low enough on formula that we had to make another run. I went with Glenn and Maggie to the nearest town to find a grocery store.

They were loading our haul into the car and I was checking the rest of the shelves when I heard shouting. I approached the door cautiously and peeked outside. Merle, sporting a knife in place of his missing hand, had a gun pressed to Maggie's head, his knife hand across her throat, and was shouting at Glenn. I could hardly wrap my head around the fact that he was alive, but I realized he would still be harboring resentment toward the people who had left him on the roof, so I slipped outside onto the sidewalk.

"Merle," I called, and he turned his head, never taking the gun off of Glenn. "Ana?" he exclaimed incredulously as a big grin spread across his face. "Well waddaya know, the Princess survived." I rolled my eyes. "Merle, let Maggie go," I instructed. "She didn't do anything to you, and Daryl wouldn't want to see them get hurt." Merle didn't lower the gun, but his knife hand moved slightly further away from Maggie's throat. "I don't know about that Princess. I asked them to take me to Daryl and they refused."

"I'll bring Daryl to you, Merle," I promised. "You can't blame them for thinking you might be looking for revenge." Merle grinned, "You ain't a dummy, Princess. I'll tell you what - I'll take these two with me and you run back and get my baby brother. Then we can work somethin' out."

"Absolutely not," I said. "I'll stay with you if you want, but Glenn and Maggie get to leave." Merle considered this for a moment, then lowered his knife hand, keeping a tight grip on Maggie's arm. He opened his mouth, probably to make an inappropriate comment, but his eyes suddenly widened as he saw something behind me. I turned my head and caught a glimpse of a dark figure before I heard Merle yell, "Martinez, no!" and everything went black.

I woke up in a room with no windows. I was seated in a chair, bound and gagged, head throbbing. Maggie sat across the table from me, similarly restrained. We looked at each other with wide eyes but before I could try and talk to her around the gag, the door opened and a man walked in. He was dressed nicely, like a businessman from the old world, with neatly trimmed hair and a clean-shaven face. He smiled at me and I glared back at him, which made him laugh.

"Got some feisty ones here. Your little friend gave me a piece of her mind while you were still out cold, before I gagged her." He grabbed a chair and sat at the table, between Maggie and me, turning his head to regard us individually. "Well now, this is a treat. It's not every day that my men bring me back two lovely women." I didn't take my eyes off Maggie, trying to tune out everything but her face to remind me of what was important.

I was so focused on her that I didn't hear what he was saying, until he slammed his hand down on the table and yelled, "Look at me!" I jerked my head in surprise but refused to turn it toward him. He got up and walked to the door and called for whoever was on the other side. "Take this one," he gestured to Maggie, "next door. Maybe they'll cooperate better when I have their undivided attention." His henchman grabbed Maggie by her bound hands and dragged her from the room while I screamed her name around my gag.

The well-dressed man grabbed my chin and jerked it toward him. His eyes were cold, and I began to feel the fear that I'd been holding off seep into my skin. "I haven't introduced myself yet," he said smoothly. "I'm Philip, but everyone here calls me The Governor. I usually welcome folks to Woodbury with open arms, but Martinez tells me that your friend who got away left Merle for dead back in Atlanta, and that there are more of you holed up somewhere, so I'm going to need some more information before I can be Mr. Nice Guy. Now, I'm going to have a little chat with your friend next door and see what she can tell me, and then I'll be back for you."

He left the room and my thoughts raced. Glenn had gotten away? How? How much time had passed? Was he going to try and rescue us alone, or go back for the others? I hoped it would be the latter since this Governor guy clearly had plenty of armed help, but I was terrified they'd be heading into a situation they couldn't control. If Maggie and I could escape, we could avoid a major conflict in this guy's territory.

I heard the Governor's voice in the next room but couldn't make out what he was saying. He must have taken out Maggie's gag because I heard her reply and then a loud crack! that sounded like a slap. I closed my eyes, praying he wouldn't hurt her too much, as the voices continued. Eventually, I heard the other door close and more talking in the hall. I thought I could make out Merle's gravelly tones, but they faded quickly and I was left listening to Maggie's muffled sobs.

I sat alone for what must have been hours, trying in vain to loosen the ropes around my wrists. Maggie's crying had stopped, and I'd heard laughter and music coming from somewhere outside. It must be dark by now, and my stomach twisted with hunger, but when I heard footsteps in the hallway again, fear swept away all other thoughts. The Governor opened the door and stepped in, speaking quietly to whoever was outside.

"Now," he said. "Let's see what's so special about you." Confusion must have shown on my face because he laughed and said, "Merle seems to think we should let you go. Says you always treated him nicely. But somethin' seems off about that. Merle's one of my best fighters, but this little Asian guy got away from him? See, I think maybe you've got something on Merle and I need to know what it is. Any thoughts?"

With that, he removed my gag and tossed it in the corner. I stared at him silently, trying to keep my face blank and he rolled his eyes. "I see. Let's try this again. Why does Merle want me to let you go?" There was no way I was going to tell him anything about Daryl. Merle, for all his faults, clearly cared about Daryl and didn't want this guy to know about him, which meant he must be a significant danger to the group.

I rasped, "Can I have some water?" and the Governor smiled benevolently. "Where are my manners?" He pulled a bottle of water from a cupboard and untied my hands so I could grasp it. I gulped greedily and downed almost the whole thing before he asked again. "Now that I've been hospitable, answer the question. What do you have over Merle?" I met his eyes and leaned forward slightly as if I was going to answer, before spitting the mouthful of water in his face.

He shoved his chair back and stood quickly, sputtering and wiping his face with his shirt sleeve. "Bitch! If that's how you want to play it, fine. Either I'll make you talk or your friend will talk when she hears you scream. Either way, I win."

He yanked me to my feet, pushing me toward the table until I felt it hit my lower back. I tried to fight him off but he called for his guard, who came in and wrapped his hands in a vice grip around my upper arms, pulling them back until I cried out in pain. The Governor stepped back and smiled at me, taking a knife off of the nearby desk. "I'm going to have fun with this." He stepped closer to me, then pulled my shirt out so it was taut and used the knife to rip it right down the front. It hung there in tatters as he surveyed his handiwork, before slipping the tip of the knife under the front of my bra and slicing through it.

The guard's hands held me even tighter and his breathing picked up slightly with excitement. I wanted to vomit or scream, but I couldn't breathe deeply enough for either. The Governor put the tip of the knife under the button on my jeans and popped it off, and then cut them off of me along with my underwear, so they lay in strips on the floor, kicking off my boots at the same time. He cut the rest of my shirt and bra off and then stepped back and looked at me, shivering and humiliated in my nakedness.

"Now," he began. "Would you like to start talking, or should I continue?" I blinked back tears and thought of my loved ones back at the prison. I wasn't sure when it had happened, but at some point, they had become a family to me, as close as the one I had left in Oregon. I couldn't betray them just because some asshole was going to hurt me, so I tried to stop shaking and find my voice. "You can do whatever you want," I said finally, "but I'll never tell you anything."

He clucked his tongue and shook his head. "That's a shame because I'm pretty sure your little friend next door will, as soon as she hears your screams." My eyes flicked toward the wall, hoping that Maggie would stay strong on the other side. She must not have told him anything, or he wouldn't have bothered with me.

The Governor pushed me back so I was laying on the low table. He dug the tip of his knife into the soft flesh of the top of my left breast, drawing blood, and then dragged down, carving a line down toward my breastbone. I started to scream but clamped my mouth shut so Maggie wouldn't hear. Blood trickled from the deep cut, making its way across the swell of my breast and down onto the table.

I breathed through my nose and kept my teeth clenched against the pain, which didn't please him. He dug the tip of the knife into the thin skin of my temple and down toward my cheekbone so that blood ran into my right eye, but I refused to make any noise.

"Not enough for you?" the Governor asked. "You don't break easily, I'll give you that much." He pushed my legs apart and shoved two fingers inside me. "Hmm. You don't seem to be very into this. I guess we're going to need a little lubrication." He held up the knife, then lowered it slowly, giving me plenty of time to realize what he was going to do. I braced myself for the pain, but as he slipped the knife inside me, I couldn't help screaming. It was like fire, searing deeply into me, as he shoved it in and drew it out, red with my blood. He set the knife carefully on the table, then looked down between my legs.

"Yes, I think this is wet enough, don't you?" He unbuckled his belt and pants, while I writhed in pain against the grip of his guard. "Lay her back on the table," he barked, and I was shoved down until I was flat on my back. I could feel the blood running down my legs onto the floor, and I closed my eyes and willed myself to think about anything but that. I thought about the cool quiet woods, walking along in silence except for Daryl's quiet breathing next to me. I thought about lying under the stars and hearing him laugh softly. I thought about curling up against him on cold nights and being wrapped in a tight embrace while I cried for my children.