18.
Negan made no response, no sign of showing that he heard her. The only thing he did was tighten his hold on Ana and rest his head against hers. Then, he sighed heavily. Seconds later, without any words, he let go of Ana and put the car into drive.
The rest of the ride was quiet. Ana had silenced her sobs and instead stared at the window at the walkers they passed by, regretting telling Negan even more with every second that passed. Her hands were twisted together in her lap as they pulled up to Alexandria's gate, her stomach doing flips every time she thought she was closer to seeing Rick.
But Rick wasn't at the gate. It was a couple of people that Ana had seen around Alexandria when she lived there; no one she knew the names of. However, they vehemently remembered Negan and so the gate was opened in a matter of seconds.
Negan parked the car outside the compound and exited, Ana followed his actions. She trudged behind him past the gate along with everyone from the truck that had been trailing behind them. Carl came to Ana's side, gripping her hand as if to say things were going to be alright. It was as if he knew what he had just confessed.
"Get your hands off of her, she's my cougar. Got enough men touching her already," Negan said with venom in his voice and pointed his bat at Carl. Carl reluctantly let go of Ana's hand, stepping a couple feet away from her. When they were inside Alexandria, Negan turned to Ana and placed a hand on her back.
"Go get a shower," he smiled.
Ana scurried away, looking past the faces of Alexandria and searching for Rick amongst the crowd. She needed him, needed him to tell her things were going to be okay. To tell her that Negan wasn't going to kill her because Simon raped her, because as far as Ana knew, that's exactly what Negan was going to do. And so, because of this fear, she hurried past Negan and his followers, around the familiar block to Rick's house, where she figured Rick might be, and swung the door open. A very surprised Olivia stood staring at her, a piece of bread in her hands.
"Ana!" she shouted, running from her place in the kitchen to the thin girl and tightly wrapping her arms around her. "How did you get away?"
"I didn't get away," Ana whispered, glancing out the door behind her before shutting it, "Negan's here."
"Oh," Olivia looked at the piece of bread in her hand a quietly took a piece of it with her teeth. "Are we safe?"
"I don't know, I'd say you are with me, but I can't promise that now. Look, I need to get a shower. Can you grab some clothes from my hou-my old house and put them outside the upstairs bathroom?"
Olivia nodded.
"Be safe, and don't get on his nerves," Ana warned, before taking the steps two at a time to the upstairs bathroom. Once there, she flipped on the shower and watched as warm water began to fall from the head, pooling at the drain cautiously.
She soon peeled off her clothes and stared at herself in the mirror. Her body was a mess-bones jutted out at every opportunity and bruises lingered every so often. This was it. This was her. Before she started crying, Ana hopped into the shower, almost yelping when she realized how hot the water was. So, she turned the temperature down and searched for shampoo.
Telling Negan was a mistake, that was for sure. Thinking about it now, Ana wanted to slap herself. Why would Negan do anything about this? Simon was Negan's righthand man-there was no way he was less important than Ana at this point. The old Negan would have never laid his hands on her skin menacingly, but after what happened with Rick, Ana was positive he would hurt her and blame her for Simon's actions. This was the third time her body would be violated by someone in the past couple of weeks. Her legs felt weak at the thought. The shampoo bottle in the corner of the shower suddenly seemed so far away. She didn't want any more pain. She didn't want to be a ragdoll for everyone to touch and hurt as they pleased. The idea that she was made her knees give out, forcing her to the floor of the shower with a sickening bang. Her knees throbbed as tears forced their way through her quiet veneer and she found herself breaking down again, as she had in the car with Negan.
She heard footsteps outside the door and then sudden banging.
"Ana, what the hell was that?"
It was Negan.
She cursed under her sobs as she remembered that she had forgotten to lock the door behind her, and as she found herself regretting every single decision she had made that day, Negan forced his way through the door. He saw Ana sitting on the floor of the shower, blood coming from under her kneecaps, her head in her hands. He forced open the shower door and grabbed the wet girl, gathering her into his arms as the water poured down on them. Ana didn't fight against him, she knew that any attempt to get him off of her would be futile; he was holding her with a vice-like grip. Instead, she leaned against him, crying into his white shirt and pulling at his neck to comfort her further.
They sat there, Ana crying against Negan, for a good fifteen minutes, after which Negan quickly left to grab a robe from one of the bedrooms. He helped Ana into it, and then helped her to her feet, taking notice of the scrapes on her knees. He would have a doctor look at those later. Ana, still crying, walked alongside Negan to the nearest bedroom they could find. She found herself collapsing on the bed and curling into a ball, wiping tears from her eyes in a furious fashion. Negan lay down beside her, wrapping an arm around her torso and holding her close. And he held her like this until she fell asleep.
It had been an hour or so since Ana fell asleep, and she woke to a fuzzy feeling and a strange taste in her mouth. She sat up instantly, noticing a pile of clothes at the far end of her bed. Despite her knees hurting, she dressed quickly and walked downstairs. No one was inside the house, but she heard yelling from outside. So, she walked to the front door to see what was going on.
Ana's head had barely exited the door when she saw movement on the ground beneath the porch. Negan stood above Spencer, whose guts were sprawled on the floor like some sort of twisted Pollock painting. Ana's stomach made a leap for her mouth as she tried to avert her eyes. Her head jerked towards the current item of interest, Rosita. She was on her back, helpless as a Savior stood over her with a gun pointed at her head. Ana, confused, stepped forward until she stood just behind Olivia, Carl, and Judith. Carl peered over his shoulder, a look of horror on his face as his eyes connected with Ana's. She wasn't sure how to respond, merely placed a hand on his back and rubbed it softly, hoping it would comfort him in some sense.
"You are such a bad ass!"
Ana's head jerked towards her husband with surprise as Rosita ousted herself, instead of the real culprit. Silently praying, Ana brought her hands from Carl in front of her, and took a small step forward. Olivia sidestepped a centimeter, allowing Ana to watch something she wasn't even sure she could stomach. Sure, Negan had been down and dirty in front of her, but this was a whole new level. She wasn't sure she could handle him hurting her friends, or prior companions. She shot a worried look at her feet, then towards Negan. Was he angry because of Simon? Or did something more happen while she had been sleeping?
"Fine," he said, "have it your way."
"No," she heard Olivia whisper, and quickly realized what Negan was about to do.
"Stand behind me," Ana ordered quietly. Olivia and Carl stood their ground and Ana worriedly tapped on the shoulders. "He won't hurt me."
Realizing she was probably right, the two stepped slightly behind her, though not enough to seem obvious.
"Arat, kill somebody."
Ana clenched her teeth and looked down the road, seeing Rick hobbling along with Aaron as Negan swung around in circles, trying to figure out who Arat would kill. Negan's eyes landed on Ana in sudden worry, realizing she wasn't supposed to be outside, she was supposed to be sleeping. However, he had no time to intervene before he heard the loud shot of a bullet, and saw a gun pointed in Ana's direction. She fell almost instantly.
Negan stood still for a second, looking for signs of movement as his face contorted into a monster of anger and anguish. He turned towards Arat with defying eyes, marching towards her and bringing Lucille over his head and down against hers in a sickening crack. She collapsed to the floor, still alive. Negan left her there to suffer, dropping Lucille on the ground and rushing to the porch.
Rick, noticing what happened, screamed at the top of his lungs and hurled himself towards the porch, only to be stopped by Savior arms holding him back. He struggled against them for a bit, watching in fury as Negan held Ana in his arms. Tears streamed down Rick's face as he prepared to say goodbye to yet another love.
When Ana collapsed, she fell on top of something soft, she recognized that. Other than that, nothing registered except the searing pain and loud ringing present in her ear. Bright lights swam in front of her face as she blinked in puzzlement, unsure of where she was or how she got there. The first thing she noticed was a swarm of brown hair as Carl bent over her, gently turning her head to the side before he was pushed away by a larger person.
The person said her name, albeit in a very muffled voice, and lifted her into his arms. Her head lolled towards him, as she was unable to support it for very long.
"Stay awake baby," Negan stroked her face, pulling at her jacket and forcing it against her ear. This was when things turned to black.
A/N: AA! I'm sure this was a chapter a lot of you were waiting for and yet I left so much up in the air, how awful of me! I hope you guys enjoy it nonetheless and welcome to the new followers, I hope you all are loving this journey as much as I am. And now for the much-needed replies:
Replies:
General reply: I'm so glad all of you are enjoying this story, it continues to amaze me how many of you take time to leave a review for me. It means so much.
I'm a Nerd and Proud: I think that would make a perfect scene but first we have to see- will Ana make it back to the compound? The answer, of course, is hopefully, right?
VampWolf92: Thanks man! I try my best to make these quality chapters for you guys to read. I'm hoping to get the next chapter up soon.
StTudnoBright: Thank you so much for your well wishes :). Let's hope that Negan does something awful to Simon when he gets back to the compound, huh?
sreid045: HERE YOU HAVE IT! even though it is not his total reaction, it's part of it.
Guest: Thank you, I hope things are going okay for you too, considering you still stopped by to read this story after all this time has passed. Logan is an amazing person for Ana! They are friend-mates (instead of soulmates).
diverge-ent: The first episode was so great! I can't wait for tonight's episode to air. I wanted to update this before it did air, in case anyone wanted to read it before seeing the episode.