Blake opened the door and stepped out into the silent and, now, dark corridor.
She had a towel and a change of clothes tucked beneath her arm, intending to shower, peel herself out of her damp and dirty clothes, and get herself dry and clean once more.
It had been a long day, and all she wanted now was sleep...
But a shower first would do her good.....push all of her thoughts and worries from her mind.
She pulled her door shut behind her and padded down the corridor over towards the communal showers quietly.
Negan had helped her today....she knew that was the truth.
And as much as part of him still terrified her.....never sure of what he was capable of, or what he was going to do next....he seemed to have this charm about him...this ability to take the heavy weight from her shoulders and pick her up like no one had in a long, long time.
But he was still Negan.....head of the Saviours and she knew she needed to remember that.
People from Alexandria were still dead because of him. And that couldn't be forgotten.
But Blake's thoughts drifted to what Negan had said earlier, back in the truck, as the rain fell all around them...
He had offered to take her home...just like that. Back to Alexandria....to the people she had started out with.
But was that her home? Had that ever been her home?
David was here now....that was a fact....but even despite that....she had felt no better back there than she did here...
Still struck with worry, that she wasn't doing right by her fiancé. By the man who had stuck by her all this time.
Perhaps she had made the wrong decision not taking Negan up on his offer...but perhaps someday he would ask her again....when she was less confused, less torn...
For right now Blake didn't know how she felt about things with David....pondering this as she walked down the long shadowy hallway toward the bathrooms...
Maybe she could stand on her own two feet without him....and maybe she didn't need him anymore....
But before the tall, caramel-blonde haired woman could dwell on this any further....she jumped in fright as a sudden hand gripped her upper arm tightly....
Blake gave a sudden gasp of fright....praying that it was not another of Negan's men...as it had been just a couple of day ago...
But her heart thudded, as she turned at once, to see a familiar face step out of the shadows.
Her eyes widened.
"D-David?" she stuttered, her blood suddenly running cold.
For there was her fiancé, a grim look lining his features.
When she had first met David he had been carefree, with shaggy blonde hair and the bluest eyes imaginable...
...but now his face was lined with disgust.....his once handsome features dripping with resentment as he stared back at her with hollow eyes.
He emerged from the darkness of the gloomy corridor, looming over her looking angry.
Blake had seen him like this before. She knew exactly what was coming.
"What...no smile for me?" he uttered in a cold poisonous voice, his grip tightening on her upper arm. "Blakey, I'm disappointed."
His voice was full of poisonous mocking, his mouth twisted into a vile smirk.
Blake could only gulp, backing up slightly as her breath caught in her throat.
"I-I-" she stuttered out, desperately searching for an excuse to get away. She did not want to see him. Not after today. "I-I just need to use the bathroom."
But David gave a cruel-sounding laugh, not letting go of her, even when she attempted to desperately pull away.
"Are you kidding me?!" he said in an incredulous voice, high pitched and taunting. "You've been away all day, while I've been here working my fuckin ass off for ten measly fucking points, and when you do finally turn up, looking like fucking shit I might add, you're too busy to talk to me?!"
"I didn't say that," uttered Blake staring up at David worriedly, shaking her head.
Right now, she had nothing but Negan's words dancing about in her thoughts...
She was stronger than this.
She didn't need him.
She didn't need this.
Blake suddenly snatched her arm away from him, before David could readjust his grip on her.
"I just need to shower," she murmured shaking her head and tearing her eyes away from her fiancé.
Blake just needed time to breathe...to think.....to sleep on it, if anything....
Hurriedly she stalked away down the long gloomy hallway away from him, her towel and her change of clothes huddled in her arms.
She was so tired....so anxious.....she just needed a break from everything.....from David...for five minutes...
For so long she had been tormented by his words....by his bruises...feeling guilty for what he did to her.....but maybe Negan was right. Maybe she was a queen.
Maybe she could survive without her fiancé....without anyone in fact.
She had lived for so long in his shadow...living through his choices....doing what he wanted....keeping up appearances because that's what he had made her do.
She felt so confused, pain coursing through her....
So all she knew right at this moment was that she need to get away from him.
Even if only for a while...
Blake bowed her head, hurrying over towards the bathrooms, tucked away near to the stairwell...avoiding anything further to do with David.
But this had been the first time in a long, long time that Blake had defied him....
And before she could do a thing to stop it, she heard rushed footsteps behind her and within an instant she was grabbed roughly around the throat.
Blake dropped the items in her hand, staggering suddenly backwards....letting out a strangled cry.
"Please..." she cried, trying desperately to push David away from her but he was just too strong...his fingers digging into the smooth skin at her throat.
But David did not relent.
"Move," he spat into her ear, giving her a hard shove forwards around the corner and into the shadows of the looming stairwell.
Blake choked, stumbling slightly as she went...praying someone anyone would appear and stop him....
For she knew David so well....she could read his moods easily...and yet never in her life had she seen him this angry...this enraged...this willing to use such menacing violence against her.
Her mouth was dry and her heart pounding a drumbeat inside her ears as he shoved her towards the top of the staircase, out of earshot of anyone in the rooms along Blake's hallway.
She gagged slightly, giving a shallow whimper, as David turned her around to face him roughly...never loosening the grip against her throat.
She could feel his fingernails digging into her.....all breath being choked from her body.
But all she could focus on in this moment was her fiancé's eyes. The piercing blue eyes she had fallen in love with...that now were staring back at her, glinting almost gleefully, with a vile look of contempt...
"You fucking disgust me," he uttered into her face, his teeth bared. "All these fucking years I've put up with you and your constant whingeing...all the time...the same old thing.....it was the same when we were back in our apartment in the city, it was the same at Alexandria, and it's the same now. The lies and the useless fucking garbage that comes out of your mouth...just constantly. I mean you're lucky I put up with you for so long, because believe me, no one else would have..."
David's eyes travelled down her body as he edged her backwards, towards the large steel staircase.
Blake's eyes were wide and terrified as she stared back at the man she loved...
But the look in her fiancé's eyes was far from one of love....as he choked the life from her, his fingers and thumbs cutting into her flesh.
She couldn't breathe...couldn't speak...couldn't even find the strength or the ability to push him off of her.
Never in her life had she ever expected anyone to spill some much pent-up hatred for her from their lips.
"I mean look at you," sneered David, scoffing and holding her throat tightly. "You're nothing to look at, are you? Not anymore. Oh you used to be...maybe......when you could fit into a size 4, and knew when to shut your mouth and only open it when I wanted to shove my dick in there."
Blake felt tears prick at her eyes as they darted this way and that, oh-so desperate for a way out...a way of escape...
But there wasn't one. David as always had control of her....dangling her high above the fifteen or-so metal steps, that led down to the lower levels of the Sanctuary.
He literally had her life hanging in the balance, as Blake could do nothing but give a strangled sob.
Terrified of what was about to come next.
This was not the man she had loved.
This was a man capable of god knows what...and that scared her more than anything else in this world right now.
And Blake could do nothing as this larger than life, blonde man suddenly pressed his face to hers. His lips curved up viciously.
"Because if you're not good for that, what are you good for? Huh?" he said a poisonous voice. "Because I know for a fact I'd do far better here without you around...without Negan pussy-footing round you treating you like you're a somebody. Because Blakey...I hope you know that you will never, ever be anybody...anybody....."
He pushed this word out from his hissing lips.
"...because you never have been......" he continued, his voice suddenly becoming flat. "....and now....all you've ever going to be, my sweet Blakey, is yet...another.....fucking.....walker."
And with that, David just stared at Blake blankly...
....as he suddenly let go of her throat...giving her a hard shove backwards....
And Blake could do nothing, but gape and flounder in mid-air for what felt like an eternity, as she lost her footing....unable to grasp a hold of anything in time...
......falling backwards, into the darkness below...
--------------------
Eugene brushed crumbs from the front of his black button-down shirt as he left the canteen, stuffing a bite from a third and final cookie, into his already full mouth, as he went.
He was, at this precise moment, pondering the exact way he could manufacture his own type of cool whip from the supplies available to him down at the marketplace, his eyes staring lazily ahead as he walked.
But it took Eugene a long moment or two to truly realise what he was staring at, as he rounded to corner towards the long staircase that led up towards his living quarters.
He stopped in his tracks, the cookie falling unceremoniously from his hand..... as his eyes suddenly widened.
-----------------------
Negan, still slightly damp and dusty from this evening's events, strolled along the long corridor, swinging Lucille from his hand easily.
It was late and the dark-haired Saviour knew for a fact that it was likely Frankie would be waiting for him back in his large plush bedroom when he got there....it was her turn after all...
But as Negan dragged a hand down his long bearded face, his thoughts couldn't help but flicker to someone who was not one of his wives. Someone he would much prefer to be there waiting for him instead.
Fucking Peaches.
All fluffy and gorgeous on the outside, and sweet and ripe and oh-so-fucking delicious on the inside. Negan could already tell that about her.
He had a hard time refusing her anything, which was not how he had got to be in his position of such power amongst his people. But Negan was very much enjoying not being in the driving seat for this one...
He knew for a fact he had been well and truly fucked over, and in just a matter of days, Blake's status had been elevated above most of his men in this place. But that was hisdoing....and he knew full fucking well how much he was well and truly wrapped around her little finger.
She sort of fucking delighted him...which was rarity for him nowadays....so he would make the most of it while he could....and give her what she wanted...
Negan let out a long tired breath, lifting his stubbly chin, as he made to turn left, heading through the large double doors that led up towards his quarters at the top of the factory.
But before could do so, he heard a loud, carrying, strangled cry suddenly echo through the silent hallways.
"...h-help," came the weak-sounding male voice. "...s-somebody..."
Negan stopped suddenly, a grin curving its way up onto his lips.
He loved trouble.
Wandering the hallways terrorising people was practically a fucking hobby of his, after all.
So without a backwards glance, or concern for Frankie waiting in his room for him, Negan turned on his booted heel and stalked intimidatingly back down the corridor, towards the source of the noise.
Lucille gripped tightly in his hand as he went.....excited for just what he would find....