I'm just going to go ahead and add another warning for rape. Nothing too graphic happens, but Everly and the girl are still being attacked when Negan makes his grand entrance.
Chapter 42
"Negan?" A large, balding guy asked, giving me a skewed look.
The whistling of the man in question struck the air again, circling around the small area. The five men took a moment to assess the situation, their wary eyes wandering through the foliage, but the hum of the forest was the only sound as the air settled again.
"I ain't seein' nothin', Leigh," an older man said as he peered past the edge of the trees encompassing us.
"Then look more closely," Ben replied for him.
He hadn't lifted his weight from me, keeping my hands and body held to the ground, but his attention was faltering. He looked to the source of the singsong noise and then over to the black-haired man who had taunted me earlier. He was determinedly preoccupied with the crying girl.
"Leigh," Ben called to him, an edge to his voice.
"Shit," Leigh cursed, his dark hair falling into his irritated face as he glared at me. He pushed off the young girl and adjusted himself.
I quickly looked back to the large balding man and his older counterpart as they shuffled closer to where I was discovered, swallowing repeatedly as I fought the urge to vomit. The fifth man hung back; it was clear he was a bit more anxious than the others, and it looked like he was ready to run at a moment's breath.
"We should take the women and go back right now," Ben said as he sat up on my stomach, my arms still prisoner in his crushing grip.
"If we lead outsiders to our camp, Alpha will be furious. We take care of this here and now," Leigh replied, withdrawing a revolver from his back. He squatted down beside us. "Pull out your knife and hold it to her forehead."
Ben did as he was told, pressing the sharpened metal to my skin where it met my hairline.
"If you don't tell us who's out there and what they've got," Leigh threatened, his eyes depthless, black pools, "Ben will flay you from your head to your toes and he'll make sure you feel it all."
"You won't get the chance," I spat at him and matched Ben with the same eat-shit-and-die glare.
Leigh let out an angry scoff and gave Ben a single nod. I looked away then and took in a deep breath, holding it as I braced for impending pain. I centered my attention intently on the two ferreting men as they ventured farther away from us, searching for a hint of the whistling intruders. I felt the blazing sting of Ben's knife digging into my skin, and I screamed from the sheer agony when twin gunshots mingled with my voice, interrupting the fray.
Caught off guard, my eyes widened as the head of the large, balding man exploded and ripped in half. He fell to the forest floor with a loud thump, and I saw the second man fall back as well from the corner of my eye, the back of his head bursting open like an overripe watermelon.
"Oh, fuck this!" The fifth man yelled, and he took off in the woods in the opposite direction.
With Ben lost in panic, I took this as a chance to fight once more and kneed him in the back as hard as I could. He jolted forward, the knife he held to my forehead cutting me deeper, and I cried out again from the shocking pain it leeched out of me.
"Fucking whore," Ben seethed, suspending the knife over my head.
Another shot tore through the wind, and it was Ben's turn to scream in misery as blood covered the front of his shirt. He dropped the knife, the blade catching my cheek and slicing it as I vainly jerked my head away. Blood covered my face from both wounds, seeping across my cheek and forehead and into my hair.
Ben clutched the shoulder of the arm that had held the knife, and he doubled over as he rolled off of me, moaning in pain. I gasped from the released pressure and took in giant gulps of air, pushing myself back to get as far away from him and Leigh as possible. They were both seething, and Leigh's wild eyes were scanning the forest at a rapid rate as his gun followed their movements.
I spotted the girl crying, shivering, and curled up in a ball, her eyes squeezed tight in terror. I started to crawl over to her, blood beginning to blind me as it ran into my left eye, when I was grabbed again and pulled forcefully to my feet.
I was held against a chest again, a barrel of a gun nuzzling my opened cheek. I squinted at the affliction and took in another ragged breath, willing myself to stay focused as a series of the same chanting trill sounded again at every angle. I sighed in relief, relaxing slightly into Leigh's chest, as Laura, Simon, and the rest of Negan's men stepped into view, surrounding us and aiming their guns.
Leigh was openly apprehensive now. He turned in a circle, dragging me with him, as he pointed his gun at each new body. He stopped short when the man who ran was shoved to the ground face first. The Savior who had caught the fleeing man gave Leigh a smug look and lined him up with the sight on his gun.
A lone, windy whistle, a warning melody of who and what was to come, reverberated between the trees and through their limbs, whisking past swaying leaves. It hit me at my core, sending those razor-winged butterflies cleaving through my gut despite knowing the forewarning wasn't for me. My reaction was compulsive, ingrained, and somehow I felt more scared now than I did two minutes ago.
Negan kept whistling as he strolled from the trees. He walked behind Laura, then Simon, then Lydia, not once looking up to acknowledge anyone as he circled the backs of his Saviors. He sauntered around, Lucille sitting pretty on his right shoulder as he did, but she must've been growing restless because he took her in his hands and swung her through the air. She made the air sing as the wind glided through her barbed tresses, and with each note of her song, Leigh's grip on me tightened.
He watched Negan as he circumnavigated the tiny glade, the gun in his hand beginning to shake. Ben whined on the ground as he shifted uncomfortably, holding a white hand to his gouged shoulder. The last one whose name I never learned stayed on his stomach as his hands lifted above his head in surrender. He peered left and right, following the bat waving stranger as he passed.
"You must be Negan," Leigh spoke, his words stronger than his trembling hand.
His words caused Negan to pause, and a smirk grew on his face as he gave Leigh and me a sideways look. He started walking again, keeping his torching stare on us as he completed his loop. He walked behind a cheerful Simon once more and entered the clearing. He took a few steps in and stopped, guiding Lucille one last time through the air before landing her perfectly atop his right shoulder. He gave me an amused yet dangerous glance.
"That's who I must be," he smiled but it quickly vanished.
"Well, Negan, whatever the fuck kind of name that is," I could hear the disgust in Leigh's voice, "you and yours have trespassed onto our property. Usually we don't take too kindly to strangers, but I think we'd be willing to make an exception this one time if you tuck tail and go on home. You can have this one back," he gave a fast, constricting squeezing of the arm securing me, "and we'll be on our way, too. There's no need for any more violence. What do you say?"
Negan regarded Leigh and the two men who sat on the ground, one wounded and the other huddled anxiously. He examined the girl as she trembled amongst the dead leaves, terrified, naked, and confused. Then he gazed at me, running his eyes from my head to my toes. Behind the cool, stoic mask he wore, he was furious; I'd gotten to know that look to tell as much. The leather clad madman gave Leigh an indulgent smile and ran his tongue across his teeth as he unsuccessfully held back a snicker.
"I'm sorry," Negan began, furrowing his brows and held a hand to his chest, "you'll have to forgive me. I've forgotten my manners. You already know my name, but… Damn it if I didn't ask you yours. My momma taught me better than that, so I hope you'll accept my apology."
"Listen, asshole, I don't have time fo-"
Negan's piercing whistle interrupted Leigh, the anger he had been hiding so confidently finally showed its ugly face.
"There's no need for name-calling, now," Negan admonished. "I was just offering my simple amends to vindicate this shithole of a situation. You see, I take you as the leader here, am I correct…?"
Negan raised his brows and rolled his left hand. Leigh sighed in frustration, his breath fluttering my hair.
"It's Leigh," he finally revealed. "And yes, I tell what's left of my men what to do."
"Right," Negan nodded, smiling again. "Well, Leigh, I'm a leader, too. And as a leader, I know that it's important to set an example for the people who follow me. Now, I'm not one to judge 'cause I've done my fair share of fucked-up bullshit in my days, but I'd never be so base to do whatever it is I'm witnessing here and then follow it up by asking for no more violence. It just seems like a good way to pussy out after getting caught red-fucking-handed with your dick in the cookie jar."
The sound of Leigh swallowing stuck in my ears and I knew exactly what he was feeling in that moment. It almost made me feel sorry for him, but I was mostly feeling smug satisfaction.
"You can see it however you want," Leigh said, "but you've already killed two of my men and wounded another. You got all of yours, so I wouldn't exactly call it a fair fight if you want to bring it down to shots and swings. Unless you just prefer being the bully which in that case makes you the pussy bitch. Not me."
Over Negan's shoulder, Simon snorted and covered his mouth as he fought the laughter that was bubbling up in his chest. Negan calmly smiled as his best friend and right-hand man continued to lose it and a few other Saviors got caught in the riptide, snorting and laughing, too.
"What's so fucking funny!" Leigh yelled, and a high-pitched ringing swallowed the hearing in my right eardrum. He held the gun out, pointing it in multiple directions before shoving it under my chin again, pushing my head back so that I could only look up at the treetops.
"Alright, take it easy, Leigh," Negan responded. Leigh took a step back, and the gun dug sharply in the base of my chin as I stumbled after him. It made it difficult to breathe. "We don't mean to laugh at you, but come on, man. Really? Do I honestly need to spell out every damn dirty detail about what the fuck was happening here before we showed up? You wanna talk about fair goddamn fights? What about the two fucking women you and yours beat to hell and raped?" The outrage flooded his voice now, getting louder with each word. "And one of those women happens to be mine. No, I think you've got me all wrong, Leigh. I don't want my men to fucking gang up on your punk ass. I'll make this as fair and goddamn square as it can be, and whoever wins, wins. All I want is the chance to bash your head the fuck in until I'm covered in your fucking blood, but I can't do that when you're holding my girl at gunpoint."
Leigh inhaled sharply, pulling me once more as he walked backwards. I was gripping his arms, clawing my fingernails deeply into his skin, but it didn't seem to affect him at all. I gasped, trying to take in slow, steady breaths; to not panic. It didn't seem like he would let me go, and what if he pulled the trigger? I'd be dead and it wouldn't matter what happened after that; whether Negan killed Leigh or not. I'd be gone, and I didn't want to be.
"Listen, we'll make a deal," Negan compromised, his voice closer. He must have advanced on us, giving reason to why Leigh had moved back. "You let her go, and I'll let you have the first swing. And if you don't want to do that, then I'll be generous enough to give you cowardly sacks of shit a head start."
"No," Leigh shook his head. "I want you and every single one of your people to turn around and go back the way you came. When I can't see you anymore, then I'll let the girl go, and she can run after you if she's fast enough. None of you will wait for or follow us. If I see anyone else hanging around these woods after you leave, I'll shoot your girl and then I'll do the other one. That's the deal."
"Leigh," Negan sighed in annoyance, "I know it's in your nature to call the shots, and you probably think most of them are pretty good seeing as the word 'no' has very little meaning to you unless you're the one speaking it, but I'm gonna have to disappoint you. That is the shittiest fucking deal I've ever heard in my life. I outnumber you three to one, and sure, you've got a loaded gun cocked and ready to blow aimed at a head I care about, but what're you going to do after you pull that trigger? I'm giving you the fucking chance to get away. Don't let your pride make you any stupider than you already are, Leigh. Do you want to lead what's left of your group to their fucking graves?"
"Fine!" Leigh barked. He shoved me roughly to the ground and I fell flat on my stomach at Negan's boots.
I breathed in deeply, looking up at the man who had for so long been my tormentor but had now transformed into my savior. I felt tears sting my eyes as I crawled out of his way and blindly searched for my ripped shirt, pressing it to my bleeding forehead once I found it. I had felt idiotic before when Ben first spotted and captured me, but Negan's downcast eyes were so full of resentment that it filled me with more shame than when my clothes had been torn off. All of this was my fault, and I hadn't been able to help anybody; specifically not myself. I'd made more of a mess of things than anything else.
"You've got your girl. We'll take ours and go," Leigh spat. "Ben, Hank. Get the girl."
Ben and the man I now knew to be Hank, rose to their knees and stood up.
"No," the young girl cried, struggling away from Hank as he approached her.
"Ah-ah," Negan wagged a finger at the man and he stopped mid-step. Negan turned his attention back to Leigh. "She doesn't seem willing to go."
"I could give a fuck what she's willing to do. She's part of our group, she comes with us."
"Clearly," Negan replied sarcastically and strode towards Leigh, unleashing Lucille from his shoulder, a silent stalker.
"Stay the fuck back," Leigh warned, thrusting the gun at Negan.
"If you're gonna shoot me, shoot," he smiled and twirled Lucille at his side. "Just make sure you know who the actual pussy bitch is in this instance so you don't get muddled on the facts when you take your last, fighting breath."
"Go fuck yourself."
A gunshot rang out. It was a quick shot that was sent to the airy depths of the sky by a Savior. The young girl screamed as I fell back on my ass, my heart thumping laboriously in my chest. Leigh and his guys whipped their heads in the direction of the shot, and while they were distracted, Negan took his chance to curve Lucille down on Leigh's gun-brandishing hand.
"Fuck!" Leigh yelped, dropping the gun and clutching his torn and reddening fist.
"Don't fucking move," Lydia advised as Ben made a dodging move to grab the discarded revolver. She trained on him with her pistol.
"We had a fucking deal!" Leigh screamed at Negan, his features distorted with loathing.
Negan shrugged nonchalantly. "I told you to take the fucking shot."
He wound up Lucille for a second time and rounded her from behind his shoulder, leading her into the side of Leigh's head. He fell like a ton of bricks, his left cheek slightly concave and gaping. Negan let out long whistle and laughed as Hank's knees buckled from under him while Ben stood rigid and ghost white. Leigh hadn't lost consciousness from the hit, and he moaned and squirmed in the dirt, his features slack as he tried to get back up.
"You Hank or Ben?" Negan asked, pointing at Ben.
"Ben," he answered weakly as he hunched over. He still held his injured shoulder.
"Ben, are you familiar with Viking customs on torture? Specifically one called the Blood Eagle?"
"No," Ben shook his head sluggishly.
Negan pointed at Hank questioningly.
"No," Hank replied, his mannerism skittish.
"I'd ask Mr. Leigh down here, but it looks as though he's lost a bit of his wits, don't it?" Negan commented as he bent over to study the groaning man. "I'll give you boys a lesson in Nordic history. Or rather, Norse poetry, but I like to think this shit actually happened, so bar the semantics. The Blood Eagle was a form of execution. It involved making a sacrifice to the Norse god, Odin, by cutting open the back of the victim, separating the ribs from the spine, and ripping out the lungs to rest on the shoulders of the afflicted thus creating a pair of bloody, breathing wings. I don't know about y'all, but that shit sounds fucking badass as hell, and frankly, I've wanted to try it on someone for a long time."
"Oh god," Hank whimpered, his hands limp in his lap.
"Simmer down, Hank. You won't be my guinea pig today," Negan said as he caressed his chin. He smirked down at Leigh then his rose mischievous eyes to Ben. "I've got someone special lined up for this."
Ben's eyes widened once he realized he was the target. He stumbled back, holding pleading hands up at Negan.
"Please," he begged, "I didn't do anything. I was just doing as I was told. Like how your men follow you, I did the same."
"Goddamn, my mouth is starting to turn sour with all the bullshit you and Leigh have been trying to force feed me. I'm starting to feel a bit fucking sick to my stomach," Negan took a vicious swipe at Ben with Lucille, teasing him perilously as the studded bat barely missed him. "No man or woman is only following orders when their victim looks like that."
He pointed Lucille at me and Ben gazed after her. His throat bobbed with a gulp.
"You had a mind of your own when you ripped off her clothes and pawed at her with your filthy fucking hands. Then, when that wasn't enough, you dug your fucking knife into her!"
"I'm sorry, man. I was just doing…" Ben whimpered and closed his eyes. "Fuck."
"Hand it to me," Negan held out his hand.
Ben looked up at him with fearful eyes, his hand travelling to the hunting knife at his hip. He shook his head, his face wet and trembling. Negan wiggled his fingers and patiently repeated himself in a deep, brooking baritone.
My would-be rapist unsheathed the knife from his side with sticky, shaking fingers and offered it to Negan who took it from him gently.
"That's it. No need to be afraid," Negan soothed. Holding the hilt steadily in his hand, he gestured at Ben as he ordered two Saviors to grab him. "Pin him down on his stomach, arms out wide."
"No, please! I'll do anything!" Ben screamed as he was forced to the ground in front of me, his arms flung out and secured on each side.
Negan looked at me, his eyes oddly blank. "Is this how he did it?"
The words stung, causing a ripple of disgrace to heave over me like a black wave. I pressed my shirt into the gash on my forehead, letting the physical pain absorb me instead, and nodded.
"I'm assuming you used this knife to tear off her clothes, too. Am I right?" Negan asked the heaving man.
One of the restraining Saviors smacked him upside the head when he didn't answer.
"Y-yes," Ben let out, but he gained a sudden mass of bravado and cut his eyes at Negan over his shoulder. "I used it to cut her fucking shirt off like it was nothing. Then I shoved it in her mouth so she could choke on it while I fucked her."
Negan nodded. His upper lip twitched in disgust as he gazed down at the knife in his hand. He flipped it once, catching it by the hilt, and he held out Lucille. Simon stepped forward to take her.
Once his cherished bat was in safe hands, Negan rotated the blade so that it pointed to the ground. He dropped down on one knee, straddling Ben's back, and tore through the thin fabric of his shirt, exposing him. The cloth was hacked from his torso, and Negan forced the strips deep into Ben's mouth, causing him to gag.
"Take a deep breath," Negan mocked, knowing he couldn't. "I don't want you passing out to soon."
Without a second's hesitation, he pushed the knife into the base of Ben's neck and dragged it down his spine, leaving a slender, red trail which burst and flooded his light skin with crimson rivers. Ben screamed from under his makeshift gag, floundering violently to get away as Negan worked on him, but he was held firmly in place; his impulsive movements only causing further damage to himself.
I heard crying begin from over my left shoulder, and I looked back briefly to see the young girl holding her mouth, tears spilling down her pink cheeks as she watched the spectacle in front of her.
The sloughing noise of skin being removed made my stomach turn, and I held back a gag, trying not to picture the sight in my mind as I moved on my hands and knees to the girl. She looked at me sparingly, unable to tear her gray eyes away from the horror at my back. I saw a splatter of blood reflected in her eyes, and I grabbed her, pulling her to me.
"Don't look," I whispered to her, but she turned her head from me and continued to watch.
A hollowing crunch of bones was next; one excruciating snap after the other. Ben was actively howling, but they were growing fainter as Negan went on. When Ben became quiet, so did Negan and he waited until his victim woke up to resume.
"We're almost finished, Benny boy," Negan chimed, and flung his carving tool to the ground. It stuck blade-first in the dirt a few feet away, showing off a jiggling, bloody dance. "Here comes the best part. Stay awake for this."
The maniac stuck his hands in Ben's open back, grabbing one lung at a time through his hewn ribcage. The flayed man flung his head back, his throat spasming with the pure torture. One lung was placed gingerly on his shoulder, and Negan reached in his one last time to retrieve the other. When both organs were in place, the Saviors let him go, and Negan stood up and moved back to admire his work.
"Would you look at that," he breathed in awe, glancing at Hank and Leigh.
Leigh lay still on the ground, one eye swollen shut and the other open and taking in everything. Hank, on the other hand, was in the middle of vomiting.
"I've gotta say, I'm fucking beside myself," Negan laughed. "I just made an assumed fucking Viking myth real! And it's fucking invigorating! Ho-lee shit!"
"You can even see him breathing," Laura said, her face screwed up in disgust.
"Simon," Negan beckoned. "Please tell me you've got the camera."
"I've got it, sir," Theodore said, stepping out of the circle. He bent over Ben and snapped a shot, just as his lungs emptied and refused to inflate again.
"Shit," Negan sighed disappointedly. "I was hoping he'd last longer."
His hands and leather sleeves were coated in red, and as he turned to face the two leftovers, there was a wild, disconnected gleam in his eyes.
"Put these two on their knees."
The Saviors who had held Ben down went to comply with their leader's orders. Leigh groaned despairingly as he was sat up on his knees, swaying forward to which he had to be yanked upright. Hank was handled roughly, kicked and yelled at as he scrambled to kneel by his leader's side.
"This last act of mine will sum all this shit up," Negan started to monologue as he walked back and forth in front of the two. "You don't fuck with what's mine and not expect any retaliation! And I get it. We came onto your land and interrupted your special time for disparaging acts. Sad truth for you, I've got whole fucking bucket list of disparaging acts up my bloodied as hell sleeve, and I can be quite the territorial peacock as well. We just happened to meet at the wrong place and at the worst fucking time."
Negan laughed as he said the last part, holding his hands out in a friendly gesture. He pointed to the Leigh's revolver on the ground, and Theodore picked it up, giving it to him.
"I'll give you boys one last chance. One shot to make yourselves right." He opened the six cylinder chamber, and took out four random bullets, pocketing them. He snapped cylinder shut and spun it once, a sly smile on his face. "Fate has a sneaky way of putting us on her shit list. Ben knows firsthand," he chuckled and pointed a thumb at his sliced and ravaged corpse, "but I'll be generous and let you try your chance on calling for her good fortune."
He held the revolver out to Leigh. The now slack jawed man regarded him distrustfully, but Negan shook the gun at him, willing him to take it. Hesitantly, Leigh did.
"Put the gun in your mouth," he directed, and then added, "if you can."
With a glare, Leigh slid the barrel of his gun into his mouth.
"All the way back," Negan coaxed, nodding his head as Leigh followed his instructions. "Good. Now, when you're good and ready, pull the trigger. If you don't in, let's say, sixty seconds, I'll give you the same fate as your late friend, Ben."
Hank shook as he watched Leigh, and the dimples in Negan's cheeks deepened as he regarded him as well. Leigh took in several long gulps of air and squeezed his good eye shut. He pulled the trigger, but all that came was the click of the hammer and a single rotation of the cylinder.
"Fuck a duck! You're one lucky fucking bastard!" Negan exclaimed. He inclined his chin at Hank. "Pass him the gun. Let's see how this greasy fuck fares."
Leigh let the gun slip from his hand to the ground. Hank reluctantly reached for it as he began to snivel. He put it in his mouth, his motions tedious and tremoring, and Negan egged him on with half-assed encouragements.
"Get on with it, brother. You might be as fortunate as your half brain-dead leader next to you. Just one pull of the trigger. That's all it takes."
Hank rocked back and forth, his eyes closed as he hummed out his grief. Before he could squeeze his finger, Negan halted him, coming up to squat in front of him.
"You're holding it all wrong," Negan chastised. He placed a sanguine hand on Hank's, guiding the barrel deeper into his mouth until he gagged. "There. That's a guaranteed shot should fate decide to skull fuck you instead of lending a forgiving hand."
Hank sobbed at Negan words which caused him to beam. He stood back up, moving back to give Hank room. After a while, when all Hank did was sob uncontrollably into the void of the gun, Negan gave a small sigh and began to count down from thirty. Hank cried harder, spit dribbling out of the corners of his mouth and onto his chin. His saliva dripped down in stringy ropes as he spit and sputtered with each breath.
"I'm gettin' close to one, Hank," Negan warned as he reached ten.
Hank took in three desperate breaths.
"Five, four."
Hank let out a wail.
"Three, two."
BOOM!
The back of Hank's head ruptured with the force of the bullet; blood, bone, and brain matter splattering the earth behind him. His face relaxed as he slumped forward, and no one said anything for a moment as they watched his body fall and adjust to the hand fate dealt him.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Negan remarked.
"Can I go now?" Leigh slurred apathetically, his eyes boring into the ground in front of him.
Negan let out a soft chuckle. "Be my guest."
Leigh staggered to his feet in a daze. The left side of his face was coated in blood, probably much like mine, and he relinquished one final icy glare at me as he turned away.
"Leigh, one last thing," Negan called after his limping form. Leigh looked back apprehensively.
Negan nodded at an armed Savior to the left of him, and they let loose a small string of rounds, hitting Leigh in the groin and stomach. He fell in a heap to the ground, and Negan took his barbed bat from Simon, positioning himself over Leigh's head.
"You briefly met my dirty girl, Lucille," he said, holding her in front of Leigh's face. "But spank my ass, I never properly introduced you two. There I go again with bad manners. My momma would be so embarrassed of me. Leigh, this is Lucille. Lucille, meet Leigh."
And Lucille did meet Leigh. She met him over and over until there wasn't anything left of him but scattered meat and bone. The girl in my arms watched every detail in wonder while I turned away when it all became too much for me. I started to shake, recalling Abraham's and Glenn's faces; how they had crumbled under Lucille's introductory swings. The girl's arms tightened around me, and I realized she held me now as she stroked my hair.
"Don't be afraid," she whispered against my uncut cheek. "We're safe."
And in her eyes, we were. She was grateful to Negan for that. He'd rescued us and brought an end to our suffering. Our rapists were dead because of him. She was eternally free from their clutches, however long she'd been prisoner by them before. But she had no clue exactly whose hands she'd fallen into now.
Edited by lolasskicker.
Hopefully that was the justice you all were looking for. Negan's psycho side has come back out which has dredged up some unpleasant memories for E. The new girl seems pretty into it, though. *shrugs*
Thanks for reading and reviewing!