I had a chapter all ready to post, as today marks the first year with Weight, but my computer has deleted the story entirely. I have to begin all over again. I'm sorry for the delay in posting, but things have been hectic, obviously. Here is the rewritten chapter, and happy one year Weight anniversary! (Yes, I'm a dork. A currently sad dork.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
– – –
Glenn. That was all that ran through Maggie's mind. Glenn, Glenn, Glenn. Was he all right? Was he safe? Were they readying him for their sadistic ritual? Was he being brutalized? These questions and more swam through her head as she rested again Eric. She was so exhausted. But her mind was so awake, coursing with thoughts and situations she didn't want to witness or become a reality, but feared they had or were. Her mind and heart and soul wanted to know where Glenn was, where Enid was, how they were, and they all wanted to know how in fuck were they going to get out of this.
She was positive days had passed since their home was infiltrated, but she couldn't be sure. Her body told her days had passed but there were no windows nearby, so she had no idea. She had gotten a sense of her captors. Miller who was always with them or with the group upstairs, was a bit of a hardass. She wasn't fond of anybody. She always made bitter remarks and glared at everyone. She reminded Maggie of a less crude Merle. She had short curls with a scar along her jaw, and she carried an ax on her belt. She didn't have a gun, or if she did it was hidden. It wouldn't be surprising. Concealing a gun was easy. If they hadn't searched them all, Maggie might have gotten them free hours—or perhaps days—ago.
There was another one that sometimes occompanied Miller. His name was Roy. He was a lanky prick with short blonde hair and washed out brown eyes. He was a total creep. Miller often smacked him out of the room when he had his eye on her. Miller didn't approve of anyone eyeing anyone without Pentaghast's approval, and Roy didn't fit the bill anyway. It wasn't surprising. The creep didn't even know how to halster his gun properly, and it was probably empty. Maggie wouldn't trust him with the knife he carried, let alone a loaded gun.
A woman had come by possibly yesterday with a basket of food. She was small and squirrelly, offering them some type of bread. No one accepted, naturally, but she still presisted. She even left the basket of rolls on the floor where they still sat. Roy had taken a few of them when he swooped through before Miller cast him out of the room. He winked at Maggie on his way out, and she wanted to peel her flesh off. Or his.
"Was it really necessary?" Miller folded her arms over her chest. "It made a mess."
Reyes shrugged. "She was always ranting and raving about this or that. She wasn't stable. I couldn't put up with anymore. Pentaghast will just have to deal with it. We cleaned up the mess, and the loud mouth is safe. No harm, no foul. We're plenty strong in numbers, and we'll have more soon."
"Yes, because Ellie can wield a blade so well at two," she ground out.
"That religious bitch needed to go out anyway." Roy leaned against the wall, uninvited as always, as nobody liked him or wanted him around. "Me? I personally love a good lesbian, with the romantic lighting and music, you know?" He waggled his eyebrows.
"And yet talking to Ellie is more enlightening," Reyes told Miller. "I have to get back to my rounds. Neva's gonna try again with the others."
"Whatever. Soft hearts don't last long. She'll harden, or she'll fade. I don't care what happens just as long as I don't get paried with the mess. Or have to break the news to Jo."
She gave an understanding nod and headed back to the others.
Miller's eyes sliced over to Roy, who was running his eyes over the short-haired one again. "Is there not anything else you have to do?"
"No, I just got off the wall." He glanced at her. "It's my free period. I thought I'd come and—"
"Get the hell away from me," she cut him off. "And if you can't keep your eye to yourself, I'll remove them."
"You're so lovely."
"You know the rules, and you will never be worthy. If you try it again, she'll have you killed."
"Ooh, so scary. The little girl will have me killed. Oh, no!" He scoffed. "She's a fucking child, and I'm not afraid of her."
"Tell that to someone who might believe you." She took her seat, pulling her ax from her belt and sharpening it. "Go on."
"Fine, but only because we need to gather food. They're short on supplies."
"I know, Roy. I'm the one who made the plans to gather and to hunt."
He pushed off the wall and send a wink to Maggie.
Miller paused his sharpening her ax, he held his hands up and departed from the room, and Miller set her jaw. "He won't touch you, not while I'm here."
"How kind," Maggie dryly replied.
"It is kind. He likes to play with knives. He'd slice you to pieces." She looked at the woman. "I think he has a thing for biters. There have been...incidents...and trust me, what's left is less human than a biter."
Maggie turned away from the woman and rested her head on Eric's shoulder, closing her eyes and sighing.
Eric bumped his head on top of hers, and she smiled softly inside. He would have grasped her hand, but they were chained behind his back. He didn't have the strength to pull his legs through. He was fatigued and weak. He needed food and water and Aaron. He had none of those things, and hope was dimming.
––
Neva stood before more of the other group, seeing them all weakened and leaning against each other. She gripped the basket tightly and hoped they would just eat. It was packed with protein and would keep them strong. It would keep them from starving. She understood why no one would take it, but it was just food. They had to see that. Eventually, perhaps, they would, but she couldn't say. Pigheadedness ran deep in this group if the boys she was tending were any example. Again, though, she could understand.
She approached the woman with dreads and lowered herself down, extending a roll to her. She was met with only a foul look that told her of all the ways she was going to kill her and these people. She could see she would get nowhere, but she had to try, so she moved to the next.
"You're wasting your time." Reyes sat with her back against the wall on the far back wall, her new partner by the door, silently observing the room. "They won't take it. Let them starve like the animals they are."
"We're all animals," was what Neva muttered under her breath.
"Just go back to the boys and fatten them up."
"They have plenty of food."
"And the girl?"
"Her too." Her eyes moved to a blonde with glasses and a dark-haired woman with who were pretty much crushing the women between them to hold hands. It made her smile inside. Love. What a beautiful thing.
"What good does feeding us do you?" Michonne inquired. "You'll just kill us, so why waste the supplies?"
Neva blinked and lowered her eyes. "If I'll just kill you...why make you suffer through hunger too?"
Michonne narrowed her eyes. Compassion? Hmmm...
"Besides it's old bread." Lies. "None of ours will eat it. I figured better to give it to you than to waste it."
"And they're ungrateful assholes. Big shock." Reyes rested her arms over her upraised knees.
"Shut it, Jayne," her partner said. "And just go, Nevaeh. They won't take it. You have more important duties than trying to feed them. Don't waste your breathe. We have a lot to get done before nightfall. Go."
She sighed and set the basket down, leaving the room.
"And you have better things to do than insult her kindness. Don't act as though you weren't kind too, once."
"Once," Reyes spat, "and never again."
She scoffed. "Sure."
––
Pentaghast paced her room, her boots loudly clomping with each movement, and she wore the more absurd outfit for the middle of winter. She'd cut from under her breasts down and also cut the left part away of what used to be a grey sleeveless dress, leaving it as a crop top with the right side running down to her knees and paired it with black jeans. She was playing with some tool with such fascination, and it reminded Carol of just how young she was.
"Hmm." She turned to Carol then. "Do you want an update?"
"On what?" Carol didn't even look at her. She held a sleeping Judith and stared at the wall, one brow arched, lips pursed, drained.
"Your man." She smirked. "I went to see them this morning. Jo should be sending a report on how it's coming, but do you want my version?"
"No, just your head."
She chuckled. "I like you."
"It isn't mutual."
"Pentaghast?" Jo knocked on the door frame then, drawing her attention. "He's fighting."
"Of course he is." She hummed softly and spun around to face Jo. "Sedate him then bathe him, cut his hair and fingernails. We'll deal with the teeth later."
Jo frowned somewhat. "Teeth?"
"Oral hygiene is important."
"Right." She nodded and departed to tell the others what to do.
Pentaghast giggled. "How precious was that? Oral hygiene? Ooh, that was a good one. We're actually just going to pluck his teeth out."
Carol flinched.
"Don't worry. He's on a fluid diet anyway." She sat on the bed and crossed her legs. "I think I'll keep them around until after my child with the boy is here. I'll take the Korean one then. He looks like a warrior—strong, enduring, fierce—and he has gentle eyes. He's compassionate and soft. It'll blended well. He must be a fine leader."
"You won't touch him or Carl. I assure you."
"Who's going to stop me? You?
"Maybe."
"Huh." She stood up and walked over to the cage, rattling the bars. "How? You're all locked up."
"Don't get cocky. I've been in plenty of cages before."
"But you've never met anyone like me." She lowered herself down to be at eye-level with Carol. "I know exactly how much of a threat I pose and how much power I wield. It isn't arrogance, Carol. It's knowledge. You give them what they need to survive, and you have a following. You give them hope and a chance to cleanse this world? You have an army. A loyal, fierce army."
"You have a group of fuck ups and twisted assholes. That's no army."
She shook her head. "You wouldn't understand. Of course a perfect little housewife like you wouldn't understand."
"Perfect? Oh, little girl, you have no idea what you're talking about."
"I am not a little girl."
Carol's icy eyes sliced into Pentaghast's. "You are a child, and believe me when I say that won't make me hestiate."
A crude smirk. She rose and walked over to the door. "If you hear screaming, it's your boy."
"Leave him out of this."
"Why should I?"
"Because this is between me and you."
She smiled sweetly. "Soon, I'll be busy being between someone else. I'll let you know how it goes." She closed the door on her way out.
Carol turned her eyes back to the wall, a tear falling free, and she stroked Judith's hair, kissing the top of her head. She shut her eyes to forget the world, if only for a moment, if only for some clarity. If only for if only.
––
Jo tiptoed into Pentaghast's room that late afternoon, when the lady herself was currently positioning the men and handling the children of this group. Ellie was fast asleep on the makeshift bed Jo had made for her, and now that only left Carol to tend to. She had been planning this for days now, since they arrived here, and she was glad to finally have the chance. It'd been a long time coming.
Jo saw the woman was asleep with the infant Judith in her arms, and she edged over to her, lowering herself soundlessly down onto her knees and peering over her, her eyes landing on her belly that the little girl Judy was mostly covering. She reached out a hand to touch it but halted. It wasn't her place. Habit, perhaps. She would...have to refrain from doing that.
She dropped her hand to her lap. "Carol?"
Her eyes snapped open, finding Jo's face instantly in the dimly lit room. "Come to kill me now?"
She frowned. "No, no of course not. I—I just came to check on you."
"Check on me? What for? Is the head nut finally ready for her ceremony?"
"I brought you some food." She stood up and moved over to the nightstand, taking a plate and small jar from its surface and returning to the cell door. "It's deer meat in gravy with butter peas. I mashed some into the apple sauce for the girl. I don't know if she has teeth or not yet, but Ellie loves it. She has about five teeth. She's working on a sixth."
"You'll kill me with poison then?" she muttered softly, her throat dry from lack of water. "You'll kill my baby that way?"
"Kill your baby?" Her eyes widened in shock. "No! No, I would never harm an infant. That's the exact opposite reason why I brought you this food. It's been days since you've eaten anything of substance, and that's not healthy. I know Pentaghast lets you have water and a few bites of fruit here and there, but you don't eat them. I've noticed that you give them to the girl. She needs to eat, but so does your son."
Carol scoffed softly. "My son?"
She nodded. "I overheard Pentaghast talking about him."
"What about him?" She moistened her lips. "How she'll rip him out of me? How she'll make me watch him die? All the terrible things she intends to do to him?"
"I don't know what she intends to do with him or you," Jo confessed. "I don't get to be informed of plans. I'm just here for Ellie."
"You think that absolves you of their crimes?"
"My hands are clean. At the end of the day, I—"
"Don't defend yourself to me. I don't care what you think you didn't do. I know the facts. Your group is...vile, brutal and twisted. Your group."
"How many others have said that about your group?"
"I don't know. They're all dead."
She averted her eyes.
"What's the matter? You're scared of the word dead?"
"There are plenty of things I'm scared of, but I know...Pentaghast will protect me. My mother will protect me. I just have to protect Ellie"
"How can you protect her if you can't protect yourself?"
"I didn't say I couldn't, just that others tend to do it for me."
"You know there's no turning back, right? However this plays out...there's no turning back."
"I brought you food." She blinked hard. "You need the protein, and Judith needs her strength. She's a growing girl. Like your son, so here." She began to stab chunks of gravy soaked meat with the fork.
"How do I know Pentaghast didn't have whoever made that poison it? If not to kill me then to kill my child?"
"I made it." She met her eyes. "Me and my mother."
"Your mother?"
"The doctor. She's tending to a few of your people."
"Is that what you're calling it? "Tending" to them? I'd say it was preparing them for a hellish nightmare."
She lifted the fork up. "It's safe to eat. The entire camp had this for lunch. It's tasty, too."
"Do you know what your mother is tending to them for?"
"They're wounded?" She reached in through the bars. "Eat more, talk less. I don't have a lot of time. I don't think Pentaghast would approve of me doing this. I didn't ask for permission."
"Wounded?"
"Eat."
Carol seized her wrist, Jo cried out and dropped the fork with a clutter to the floor inside the cage, and Judith stirred. Carol twisted her wrist slightly, Jo whimpered, and Carol inhaled. "Are you really so naive?"
"You're hurting me."
"I should do more than just this."
"Please." She whimpered again. "Please, let go."
"Please?"
"Yes, please let go." She winced.
She scoffed. "I barely have the strength to stand up, and you're begging me to let you go, because this hurts?"
"That's why you should eat, dear heart."
Carol released Jo who fell back onto her butt, her eyes moving to Pentaghast who in the door with a plate in her arms.
"We need you to be strong." She set it on the bed above where her daughter was resting, and Carol took that moment to snatch the fork from the floor and move it out of sight. "And as much as I'd prefer you not to bruise my people, if it helps you to eat then by all means."
"Why feed me now?"
"Because I have plans for you, and everything starts soon. I want you to be there." She helped Jo to her feet and bent down in front of the cage, collecting the plate Jo had brought in and sliding it under the small space between the floor and the door. "When Flissa mounts Daryl, I want you to be there to witness it."
Jo held her wrist tenderly in her other hand, listening to what Pentaghast was saying. "When she..."
"Take Ellie to her room. I'd like a moment with Carol. Alone." She didn't turn to look back at Jo once. "Now, Josphine. Your mom wants you too."
Jo swallowed but obeyed. She carefully picked Ellie up and carried her from the room, pulling the door shut with a final peek at Carol's face. It revealed nothing, and yet that nothing revealed everything. She hurried to find her mother.
"We've trimmed his mane, bound his hands, washed his skin—every scarred inch of it—and soon we'll be yanking out his teeth." She studied Carol. "Would you like to keep one? He has such pretty teeth. I'd understand."
"Then you'll understand that I am going to kill you," Carol replied. "Me and me alone."
Her eyes darkened. "I could bust his back and leave him to writhe in agony when his seed is taken. I could remove his limbs and hold his child just out of reach. I could let him witness the death of your spawn. I could force him to watch as one of my men do to you what was done to me years ago. They would be rough, might even kill that spawn for me." Her eyes were hollow and pulsing orbs. "There would be blood, and he would scream. You would scream. It would burn and ache and sting. The agony of each thrust...tearing you apart...tearing your baby from his safe haven... There's so much blood involved..."
Carol went from panicked to wildly disturbed to guarded over the course her words. She gripped the fork and wished that there wasn't meat on it. If it wasn't there, she'd stab it through her throat. With the meat stacked onto the end, she wouldn't get very far. It also wasn't very sharp.
Pentaghast abruptly stood up, grasping her knees and turning on her heels in a bent and awkward position away from Carol, the dim lighting casting shadows over her face. "So much blood..." But those were words Carol couldn't make out yet Carol saw her touch her own stomach, and when she moved her hand, it was shaking. Her eyes widened as if she saw something Carol didn't. She staggered from the room without another audible word to Carol.
Carol saw the shine of the poor lighting reflecting on the of baby food with Ellie's name doodled onto it. She reached out and grasped it, adjusting the girl in her arms. She gently bounced her knees to get some life into the girl who had been far too silent for...days, apparently.
"Hey, sweetie." Carol unscrewed the top and used her fingers to feed Judith. "I don't have a spoon, sorry."
Judith didn't seem to care as she gnawed on Carol's fingers for more. Carol smiled at the sweet girl and continued to feed her, her own stomach growling and pleading for her to eat the floor Jo had brought her. She knew the child meant no harm to her and truly as blind to the plots of Pentaghast and the others. But that didn't mean she trusted her "mother" to not try and harm her baby. Her baby.
Her baby wasn't the move active, but it had been moving here lately, quite a bit. It loved when Daryl touched her belly, or when Maggie did. She was pleased with all its movement and growth, but the last couple of days she felt nothing. She didn't feel a wriggle or a hiccup or anything. The baby was silent. Her heart was aching from so many things and that was topping at number one.
After feeding Judith, Carol removed her sock to make a weapon out of the heavy glass jar. She stuck the jar inside and could use it fight at a slight distance. She had long socks on, but it only stretched so far. If she put enough force into it and with the fork...
Her eyes fell onto the plate once more, and saliva pooled into her mouth, her lips parting in a soft, primative growl, like a cub hunting for food for the first time, and she couldn't resist. She picked a piece of tender meat off the plate and inspected it with sight and smell before engulfing it. It didn't taste odd, just like seasonings and like...well, deer. She was sure it was fine. Or hoped to hell it was as she polished off yet another handful of meat and peas.
– – –
Maggie felt a shift in the room as she curled up against Eric, sleeping due to the fact that she'd blacked out from sleep deprivation, and she felt someone handling her chains. She heard it too, but she couldn't will her eyes to open. They felt glued shut, and she was out of it. She wasn't entirely positive if it was reality or not. She was...drained on every thinkable level.
When she was suddenly jerked to her feet with hands on her hips, she knew it wasn't a dream and she had to wake up. And she was woken up by the lovely asshole who'd taken her. She was shoved face first into a wall, the hands on her hips now moving to grope her ass and then back up and around to fondle her breasts. Her body reacted instantly, and she grasped what she assumed were his balls and squeezed as hard as she could, and he stumbled back.
"I knew you'd fight." It was Roy.
She turned, feeling blood on her brow, her eye already beginning to swell from impact, and she glowered at him.
"But it's always worth it." He closed the space between them and ran his arms down her sides. "I've had my eye on you for weeks now. God, surveillance was the worst—watching you and not being able to have you." He grasped her short hairs, burying his face in them and breathing in her ear. "I've been waiting too long for you."
Maggie cringed.
"Well, it's not all about you. It's about you and your little...what? Sister?" He caught her chin, and those green jades were burning back at him. "When I catch up to the truck, after Flissa leaves it, she's next."
He tried to kiss her then, but Maggie bit his lip open. He chuckled and wiped the blood off, clamping his hand down hard on her throat. She gasped in and sputtered. He undid the button of her jeans and pulled them down but not far enough for to do anything to her. Yet. He took out a knife then and slice her from hip to hip, and she clenched her teeth to keep from crying out. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction, not even as the blood slid down her skin and seeped into the black cotton of her panties.
"What's her name, Maggie? Your little sister? The little cute brunette?" He brought the knife up to her cheek and smeared her blood there, moving it down to her mouth. "I'd like to not say the wrong name when I take her. That'd just be rude."
Maggie felt the tip of the blade scrape against her front teeth as he painted her lips red, and he kissed her once more, all tongue and wet, and she pursed her lips, the metallic tang of blood a step up from his breath.
"I think I'll pop that cherry of hers before I carve into her. I am a gentlemen." He tightened his grip on her throat. "Will she yell out for you? 'Maggie, Maggie, please help me! He's hurting me, Maggie, please. It hurts, please'." He chortled laughter. "Or will she just cry?"
And in her mind all that was playing was Enid in the woods, all alone, out of breathe, trying to run from this fuck. She had nothing, no weapons, no tools, no backpack. He would pin her down, she would fight, fight just like Maggie was right now, but she was small. She was starved, and he was a grown ass man who worked out and was well fed. He would hurt her. He would destroy her. She could see her now, leaves tangled in her beautiful, long hair, tears streaming down her small face, fists pounding onto his chest as he had his way with her...
"You're...the...only...one...who's...gonna...be...cryin'," Maggie strained.
That earned a triumph smirk. "Maybe she won't cry. Maybe she just come and come and—"
Maggie snapped and kneed him in the balls, the knife sliced her lip and her gum, but he stumbled back. She headbutted him and slammed her boot into his gut, he dropped the knife and hit the wall behind him. She roared as she bashed the heel of her boot into his head, and he collapsed backwards. She straddled him and pressed her bindings—a pair of handcuffs—into his throat. He struggled, his face shifting from white to red to purple as he tried to push her off, but she had such rage inside of her from his comments, from the unwanted images in her head.
The dark part of herself that took over when she lost Beth returned, and she couldn't stop pressing the small chain of the cuffs into his throat, almost feeling his hyoid being crushed from the impact. She wondered if Beth cried for her. When she was with Daryl, when she was in that hospital all alone at night. She wondered if Beth had begged for her to be okay, for her to be with their family, to be on their way to break her out. Beth was tough, but Beth could only take so much. They could all only take so much.
Roy had stopped struggling minutes ago, those washed out eyes were cast skyward, hollow and glazing over, and Maggie was still strangling, still raging. And in the back of her mind, a voice told her to run, to get moving. This was her chance. She had to make it count.
She pushed herself up, taking the knife that had skid across the floor in her hand, and she turned to Roy, spitting blood onto his body and crushing his skull in. She wouldn't let that fuck come back to haunt her.
She whirled around to hurry back to the others when she heard a familiar voice from the other entrance. It was Miller. She cursed and turned towards the door beside her. She pulled it open without a moment's hesitation and fled into the glaring light of day.
She groaned and stumbled off the porch, tripping on the steps as the sun blinded her. She crashed onto the grass and nearly lost her weapon, but she collected it and herself and moved back behind the bushes to adjust her eyes. She heard Miller from where she rested to gather herself. She was running on adrenaline and ready for whatever Miller threw at her.
Miller actually laughed. "'Bout time karma got your ass. Karma being a little brunette but hey, can't argue with that." She moved onto the porch and inhaled. "Hey, girlie, I appreciate the work, but you have no real chance here. Come back inside. I won't even tell the boss it was you."
Maggie scoffed soundlessly and readied herself for Miller to round the corner, pushing herself onto the balls of her feet.
"If you want to do this the hard way, I'll just kill you now and save myself the trouble. It'll even the score. Mostly."
Maggie was about to pounce when a crashing sound came from the house behind her, like the window had been knocked out, and Miller went to investigate. Maggie frowned and was about to go after her when she felt something hit her boot. It was a rock, and she looked up to find Morgan at the top of the wall, motioning for her to come. She'd never been so happy to see him, honestly.
She hurried over, he lowered a rope and helped her over, though it was just like gym class and she had little trouble. He jumped down first then helped her down. He pulled the rope free and tossed it aside, hiding the evidence of her escape.
"Are you all right?" He touched her cheek, seeing her lip, her brow and even her hips.
"I'll be okay." She held her wrists out. "Can you get me out of these?"
"Yeah." He'd taken a key from Rick ages ago, and he swiftly did the cuffs.
"Thanks." She rubbed her wrists then fixed her pants, wincing at the pain and knowing it'd be infected before the day was up. She squinted up at Morgan, blood dripping down onto her collarbone. "How'd you get out?"
He handed her a handkerchief to wipe the blood and stop its flow. "I need you to come with me," was what he said instead.
"What?" She'd accepted the handkerchief and gaped at him.
"I'll explain on the way. I need your help." His body wasn't facing towards home but away. He intended to lead her away from Alexandria.
"Do you know what's happenin' inside those walls?" Maggie demanded, thrusting a hand backwards towards the wall. "What's happenin' to our family?"
"I know. I've been keepin' watch."
"Just keepin' watch?! You didn't think to take action?"
"And do what? It's one on forty or more." He made a calm down gesture with his hands. "We need numbers, which is why you need to follow me. We don't have a lot of time. If you want to save your family, save Glenn, then follow me. We have to move."
She glanced back at the wall then at Morgan and closed her eyes. He began to walk off, picking up his staff on the way, and Maggie exhaled before turning to chase after him. Turning away from her family, away from her husband, in hopes that he had a plan to somehow get the weapons and numbers they needed to overthrow Pentaghast and her people.
Forgive me, Glenn, she thought to herself as she fell into step with Morgan, interrogating him on his plan, it looks like I'll be a little late.
