Good

Everywhere he takes her, people drop to their knees. She eyes them from her under the curtain of her hair, none of them glance up. All down on one knee their eyes fixed to the floor, like he is a king, god among men. She tries to catch their faces, but they are all tilted downwards no one dares meet her gaze. No one notices her either, she assumed she may be more of a spectacle. The crazy screaming former gold medal winner. They don't seem to care though, maybe they don't even see her with how fast they drop to their knees.

The surrounding walls are a slate grey color. Light is scarce, and the sun struggles to light the darkened halls through windows. This place has the appearance of a factory, with all the darkened halls and steel.

He takes her down a flight of steps. She tries to map out where they are going but they move too fast, and Pandora is still on the edge of hysteria unable to full process where they are going.

She doesn't ask where they are going instead spends all the energy she has trying to control her shaking. The tremors run deep shaking her bones. The tears have stops, but Pandora struggles to calm her breathing. Negan said he wouldn't hurt her, she doesn't believe him. Fear of the dark room keeps her silent beside him.

Only when she is sure they have stopped moving does she take the chance to look up. They stand in front of a large steel door. They are on the ground level now, walls lined with bright windows. The rays are bright and warm, they cut through through the painted windows to kiss her cold skin. The man standing in front of it turns the lock with one of the many keys on his ring. They step through the opening.

The first thing she feels is the sun on her face, a breath escaped her, but it sounds more like a sob. Her heads moves of its own vilitional, face tilted to the sky drinking in its rays. She can tell the season, spring, or summer perhaps. The air smells fresh the sun seems like at any moment it could burn brighter. It's almost too good to be true. Almost enough to make her forgot why she is being brought out here.

"Now Princess you didn't cause this remember," Negan voice cuts through her perfect moment in the sun. "But I need you to see it if you ever think of pulling a stunt like the last one."

He holds her tight against him as they hide in a door alcove. It makes little sense, they are hiding from nothing. The parking lot as she calls it is empty. In front of them there are two cars, a truck, and rows of motorcycles. It seems like it's only the two of them standing there, with her holding her breath. Then it isn't, from the far side a door opens.

Pandora sees him, and there is a second where her brain stops and starts struggles to make sense of the scene in front of her. Time seem to slow down as she watches Daryl rush from the door, his movements wild, frantic. He runs for the bikes looking them over. Negan's hand presses against her mouth keeping her quiet. She can't even make a sound when she watches all the men come out of hiding to meet him. Negan whistled and pulled her forward with him, he dropped his hand from her mouth and puts them around her waist instead. The shock zips through her, shutting down whatever thoughts she might be having. She can do nothing but move with him, allow Negan to pull her along.

He stops her in front of Daryl who stands frozen, eyes gazing up at her. Pandora is crying now, but she isn't making a sound tears streaming down her cheeks. She blinks trying her clear her vision. Her free hand clasps herself over her mouth, dread curls in her gut. Dread grows a creature threatening to send the food she had just eaten spilling from her mouth to make room for itself.

"Are we pissing our pants yet?" Negan laughs at his own joke, Lucille resting on his shoulder. "Who are you?" He asks the man behind him pointing with Lucille.

"Negan."

"Who are you?" He points again to someone else. She isn't fast enough to follow where he swings the bat, a whoos displaced air to her left cheek.

"Negan."

"Who are you?" His voice is right in her ear finger dragging across her chin. She shivers against him and almost loses herself in the panic. She remembers the little black room, and the darkness she never wants to go back too. She forces her eyes open not realizing she had snapped them shut. Daryl is still staring at her face blank, but he stares at her. And she doesn't need words to speak to him, she can see everything he means to tell her.

'I love you,' his eyes say. 'It's ok.'

"Negan." She whispers it, trying to breathe through the shattering in her chest.

"You see that? I am everywhere." Negan puts his arm around her hip again, pressing her body closer to him. "And that was your shot to prove to me to that the fundamental fact was sinking in and you failed. Which sucks because your life was about to get so much cooler. Am I right?"

"Damn right." Fat Joey answers with a shake of his head.

Negan leans away from her putting his bat near Daryl's feet. "Now Dwight gave you some options. I don't think you get it yet, so I'm gonna break it down for you. One you wind up on the spike and you work for me as a dead man. Two you get out of your cell you work for point you going to wish you were dead. Or Three you work for me, you get yourself a brand-new pair of shoes, and you live like a king or a queen." He glances at her for a second reaches up to touch her cheek delicitaly. "The choice is pretty obvious, there is no door number four. This is it, this is the only way."

Her heart in her chest is the only sound, and Pandora wants to speak wants to tell him she loves him. But her mouth is to dry and her tongue is too thick. "Screw it." Negan pulls his arm back getting ready to swing Lucille. Daryl doesn't move when he swings, she lunges forward only to have someone pulled her back by her top. She sobs fingers hooked and reaching for him.

"Wow, you don't scare easy. I love that. But Lucille well kinda pisses her off, she finds it disrespectful. Lucky for you she's not feeling too thirsty today. But I am, so I'm gonna go get me a drink with the Princess." Negan pulls her by the elbow now, turning her away from him.

Pandora struggles against him, but Negan only grips her tighter. He's drifting, and she hears flesh hitting flesh behind her. The sounds vibrates through her, eching in her bones. Straining she tries to see him, twisting her neck around to catch even the smallest glimpse. He's hidden in the mass of bodies around him.

"Please!" her head turns back to Negan a free hand reaching for his arm. "that's enough please."

Negan pulls her back inside the door shuts and locks behind them.

"Oh Princess it's enough when I say it's enough," Negan looks down at her and smiles. "You were good though Princess gave me right answer. Who are you?"

Bile rises in her throat, "Negan." She chokes it back enough to answer. That's what he wants to hear, that's the answer of a good girl.

Part of her rages at how easily Negan broke her, but was she ever whole to begin with.

"That's my girl." Negan laughs. "I'll send you back to your room Princess. Maybe I'll come by later."

Negan's touch is replaced by someone else, grip lighter than Negan's. Pandora glances at her, lightly tan skin, tight coiled curls framing her face. Their eye contact doesn't last long, the women is turning away. A hand between her shoulder blades directs her down the halls. The halls look the same, and she doesn't care to remember the path back, it doesn't matter.

Alone in her room the shock sets in. The sobs rise up like the tide, drowing her. The sound of Daryl being beaten haunts her the most. The sound of fists on flesh echoing through the empty space of her mind. She keeps her eyes shut tight, refusing to open them.

Negan doesn't come back when the door to her room opens it's Sherry. There is a bolt of clarity in her head in, a light brightening the darkness of her memory. Sherry had been with Dwight in the burnt forest. Sherry took their weapons, stole Daryl's bike. She had been so focused on Dwight after Denise was gone that she hadn't remembered Sherry.

Here her head has been a mess, too messy to remember really. Too busy trying to keep moving forward to think about looking back.

"This is your fault." Pandora mutters as Sherry sets down her food on the small table.

The other women doesn't turn, but Pandora watches her body pull itself into a tight line. Silence blankets the room, pinpointed with their breathing. Pandora's long deep breaths, and Sherry's quite panicked ones.

"This is all your fault, you started it in the woods that day. Everything else came from that." Everything came after that. They found the Hilltop agreed to take a Saviours out. They wouldn't have known Alexandria existed if Pandora and Daryl hadn't met them in the burnt woods. "I went out looking for Dwight for you, that's how they found us."

The memories of that night still haunted her, how she floated in and out of darkness coming up to find her friends dead. Her face is warm in some spots skin wet, she can almost see the bit of brain running down her face.

"I didn't know, how could I know you would end up here?" Sherry's voice cuts through the memories threatening to take over.

"Get. out."Rage makes her voice tremble when she speaks.

Sherry whips her head around to Pandora, but Pandora doesn't look up eyes fixed on her hands.

"Pandora I, I want to help you, I want to help him."

The roar that come from inside her chest is more animal than human. "Get out!" She screams it now room shaking with the sound. Tense seconds of silence pass then she can hear Sherry's footsteps retreating from the room. She is so stupid for not remembering her, for allowing her into the room exchanging words like this wasn't the women who ruined everything. It's not all her fault thought on the best of days Pandora can seldom keep her thoughts straight. She didn't remember her, Sherry all clean and pretty she almost isn't the same person Pandora met in the woods.

When she hears the door click shut the rage fizzles out and turns into despair. Pandora sobs curling back down under the blankets, she cries until she slips into darkness.

The sound of her own screaming is what wakes her up, a harsh shrill sound. Curled on her side Pandora sobs, too panicked to cover her mouth. For a heartbeat she forgets where she is, she holds her breath and waits for Daryl to put his arms around her whisper she's safe. But as the shadows in the room come into focus so does reality, and she faces the knowledge he isn't here. Her heart breaks all over again.

Losing him this time is different it hurts more, Pandora thinks trying to pull her body tighter into itself. Outside is still dark, small flickers of light shine down on the ground outside her window. The half light cast long shadows in her room, allowing her to see only the outline of objects.

To the right of the bed a lamp sits on the nightstand, she can only assume it works why else would it be there. It's more work than she imagined to uncurl herself. Her body protests any movement even the smallest ones.

When she clicks on the light, it cast a dim glow around the room. Pandora is facing the window. Outside stars light the sky, the night clear, and cloud free. It almost painful how beautiful the world is in these moments it will be so much uglier in the daylight. Hauling herself from the bed, is hard too. Her feet hit the ground and she is almost certain her legs cannot bear her weight. She moves anyway, ease step she takes to the window easier.

The chair placed there reminds her of the matching ones she had in her room. They are even pulled in front of the window, just like they had been at home. Below her window there are people moving around, fewer than she sees in the day. But these days someone always has to be awake, to keep watch, to keep everyone safe. Safe, it's a funny word. Something she had such little experience with. She felt safe for a while behind the walls, with Daryl. He made her feel safe as safe as she could ever be.

The growling of her stomach brings her out of her own head. She never touched the food Sherry brought her. Last time she didn't eat she ended up in the box. That gets her moving to the small kitchen.

It's cold now, a mushy pile of veggies and rice. She eats it though; frightened Negan will come at that exact moment and see she hasn't eaten anything. He would send her to the box then, she was sure. Not eating wasn't how she stayed a good girl.

Pandora doesn't imagine she will get anymore sleep, the sky is already lightening in the distance better just to be awake. She heads for the bathroom it was always her favorite place back home.

This bathroom is cold. Two gym style showers, nothing more than a concrete base and metal bars for a blue shower curtain to hang . There is a chest of drawers inside though, and when she opens them she finds everything she might need. The top of the dresser is lined with tightly rolled towels, it reminds her of hotel. Filled with everything one might need. Running her fingers over the soft towels she wonders why anyone would even bother. Negan didn't seem like someone to care if she was comfortable. He was using her, keeping her alive to keep Rick in control. But the room is nice and that makes her wonder.

Undressed she leaves her clothes in a puddle on the floor, than turns the water on. Pandora's once beautiful body is . The shower is nothing like the one she had. The water doesn't get warm. It doesn't matter though, she can't relax here. Instead she finishes as fast as she can. Washing layers of grim from her hair and skin.

The clothes she finds in the room are terrible. The closet is filled with dresses, shirts, and skin-tight leggings. It takes forever to find enough pieces of clothing to cover herself. Pandora ends up with a cropped T-shirt under a longer spaghetti strapped shirt s, both shirts are black. It leaves her arms barer than she likes, showing off the stitches and the muscle clinging to bone. The pants are just as hard. She finds a black pair of tights to slip under a dark red shirt. Despite the amount of clothes she is wear, she feels exposed.

She does another pass of the closet. More careful this time, separating each piece to clothes to look at them. Nothing will be better, whatever she was able to get is as good as it gets.

She finds herself back in the high-backed chair watching the sun come up over the sky. It's almost peaceful, she can almost forget where she is. Almost. It's odd here, Negan is confusing. She remembers hearing his rage when he finds her in the box. Remembers soft whispered words somewhere in her head. Pandora dozes off to sleep again in the chair only to wake up to the door opening.

"Good morning Princess." Negan's voice is booming and cheerful. It fills all the spaces where there used to be silence.

Her eyes snap open, frame going stiff curled in the chair. She turns her head watching him enter, doing a sweep of the room. The room is clean, the plate she had used in the small sink, not washed but away. Pandora wants to be sure everything is perfect, no reason for her to go back in the box. He always triggers thoughts of the box, the sound of his voice sends her back to the moment when he tossed her in the darkness.

"Up and ready I like that." Negan comes around her chair, two plates of food balanced in each hand. "Come here let's eat."

Fear makes her stall only for a second, but that same fear had her moving towards him. He sits at the small table, she joins him pushing her chair as far away as she can.

The food looks good breakfast sandwiches. She doesn't wait for him to say anything just eats. That's what you do if you want to be good, and she wanted to be good. In her chest her heart beats pounds, banging incessantly against her rib cage. He must be able to hear it because Negan is staring at her as she wraps shaking fingers around the sandwich.

He doesn't speak until they are half way through the meal. Pandora is thankful using the time to calm herself down. She watches him though through heavy strains of hair she keeps an eye on him. He's too dangerous not to watch, and she couldn't look away even if she wanted to.

Negan sighs leaning back he crosses his arms over his chest and stares. "It occurred to me Princess you live under my room eat my food, and I know almost nothing about you. I don't even know how you got so fucking crazy." He laughs at the last part, like her mental state is nothing but the punch line of a joke. "Now I know you and Dwighte boy go way back, back before he understood the way of the new world. He said you were already crazy then, and already with our boy Daryl. So tell me how did you meet him?"

The question shocks her back into the present moment. She didn't think he would care why does anything about her matter if he is only waiting for the moment to kill her. She cocks her head to the side to stare at him. He stares back eyes darkening the longer she is silent for.

"I think I asked you a question Princess."

A lump rises in her throat almost choking her. An old water bottle sits to her right, but she drinks forcing the lump down. Negan frightens her, not just the threat of the box but everything about him puts her on edge. There is a touch of madness to him as well, it comes in flashes. a dim burning light in his eyes that she can sometimes feel in herself.

Maybe that is the connection between them, she wonders absently. They both have the same deep madness that struggles to surface sometimes. Sometimes her madness is her greatest weapon, how many times had it truly saved her? She lost count. She thinks Negan might feel the same about his, he must count madness as his strength.

Pandora knows the story of how Daryl meet her. Daryl had told her the story many times, it was part of the facts she use to calm herself down. But it only a story she remembers little from the first few days she spent in Alexandria. Everything from the first few days is nothing but jumbled memories, sounds and sights she can't place.

"Daryl found me, in the woods." Daryl found her tied to a tree begging sobbing as one of them raped her. He killed the man, cut her loose and brought her back with him. "He saved me." She whispers it memories flooding up inside her like water. Her hand tightened into a fist, and the pain of her nails biting into flesh keeps her grounded.

"From those dead fuckers?"

When Pandora looks up Negan is watching her general interest playing on his face. Again, she isn't sure what to make of him. Unease rolls in her gut at the sight of his face. There is a second or two of lag in her response time as she pieces together his question. He thinks Daryl saved her from the dead. It's funny sort of, she fears the dead yes, but the living they were the real monsters.

"No, he saved me from the living." Something changes then a burning urge to tell him, to make Negan understand. Her eyes find her hands instead of his face, she twists her finger around each other nails occasionally scraping skin. "They called themselves the wolves, they killed everyone I loved, then they took me and all the other pretty girls. They always liked them pretty."

Pandora remembers the girls with her, none of them lasted long. They liked the fight, liked to have to use force to take what they wanted, broken girls didn't fight. Broken girls got left tied to trees as food for the dead. Silence fills the room she only notices now after it has already stretched into minutes. Her head jerks up sharply fearing she gotten lost in her head. Negan is still there though, studying her. She can't help but notice his hands curling and uncurling against his legs.

"I kill men like that Princess." His tone is dark, it has an edge that's different from before.

Pandora believes him though, believes he would kill anyone who did that or tried to. She finds an odd comfort in this new knowledge, to know he understands. "I do too." She whispers watching him. Another moment passes where neither of them move, then he nods once before turning to fish something from in his pocket.

"Brought you these, doc says you gonna need em." From his pocket he pulls out a small zip-lock bag. Inside is a round white pill, the other half a circle.

She knows what they are and doesn't ask questions just takes the little bag and empties the pills. There is still water in the bottle, it helps them go down. Her heart still pounds though, he wouldn't drug her for nothing. Wouldn't waste these if she was staying in this room.

"We are going out today Princess. I've been so damn busy these days I'm late visiting your little settlement there." Negan is standing now, Pandora's eyes follow him. "Let's go pay Rick a visit shall we?"