...Into nothing. Mal blinked once then twice and she realised her mind was playing tricks of her being the one. She wasn't it.
However, the 'it' was Phillip.
Negan pointed the bat at Phillip, and she took a long raspy breath as Phillip stood his ground, not even shaking at the dangerous sight of Negan and Ellie.
Ryes already cries, Magnus looking at him with an incredulous look, his head shaking in disbelief. Skin, eye-patch, and Kaito, all of them staying as strong as they could while holding back their tears, probably out of respect for him. Slit-throat, looking like he was about to break down. If he hadn't already.
Her hearing was like if she became deaf for some reason, hearing the deep voice of Negan in a fuzzy echo. "If anybody moves, anybody says anything, I'll cut the boy's other eye out and feed him to Kaito here, and then we'll start. You can breath. You can blink. You can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that."
And then the bat crashed on his skull, and Phillip plumbed on the ground, bitting back a scream of agony, and she hears everything again loud and clear. He slowly gets up, Mal couldn't believe how he's doing it, the agony he's in just to stand up.
"Oh, would you look at that! Taking it like a champ!"
Blood spewed his mouth, the front of his head has scraps, the tiny muscles in his scalp and blood pour down to his nose.
"Ssss-suck...my.....nuts-"
Negan once again clubbed the bat at his head again, this time Phillip stand down. Negan laughed, holding his chest in laughter.
"Holy shit! He just said 'SUCK MY NUTS!'. Well, guess what boy. You're wrong. You are sucking my nuts." And he hits him again, more brute than ever, and didn't stop.
Mal kept staring at the sight, red sprinkling the grey rocks, a matter of flesh begin impacted and sometimes stuck between the chains and the mending, the noise of the squelching cringed her nose up. The most sickening of this was flashing images of herself in Phillip's position. Her body laying on the ground, her fingers reflexing, her hair spread all over. She quickly turned away, reminding herself she wasn't the one. The one being punished.
"Look at this. Look at my dirty girl." He made a dry laugh.
Something sharp splashed across her face. With a dawning sense of horror she realised Negan had just swung his bat allowing the blood to drip down her right cheek.
As Mal looked around she noticed how tired the group was, a weary Kaito tilted to the side, Slit-throat was shaking, Skin looked sick and clammy, Ryes had a terrified and sobbing look on his face. She gazes all these boys who were so reckless, all become absolutely scared to death.
Apart from his body, there was nothing left of Phillip's head, the stream of red, brain matter and broken bones, and when the Calvary Boys wanted to turn their eyes away from the sight, they knew they couldn't.
It couldn't get easier as Ryes became a mess. His cries were sloppy, snot drooping on his mouth. Negan saunters over to him, leering the bat close to his face.
"This is what you did boys. Being all tough lookin', having your own badass group, and what's to make the top of the fucking list? Killing my people. Now, look at where you are. Fatty here, he just took one or six or seven for the team! So take.. a damn look." Ryes started to hyperventilate.
"Take a damn look at what you've done!" And that's when Mal's fear came back again. Kaito pounced and attack like a wild beast. He landed a punch at Negan's face, just enough to throw him back but not fall. He tried to grab him, but a Savior grabbed him first, pressing him into the ground, punching and twisting him to get him down.
"No. Oh no!" He pointed the bat at his face, his nose grazed the blood on the tip. "That? Oh, my! That is a no-no."
Negan crouched next to Kaito. "The whole thing - not one bit of that shit flies here."
Mal realized this might be it, this might be the end. This is where the boys will try to fight back and all of them will be dead. They killed his people, killing this whole entire group is enough to sweeten Negan's revenge.
Kaito was dragged back in line, wriggling around as Negan sighed. "That's not how it works. I'm guessing what Charlie Pink-Eye said to you is be a snotty bunch."
He moves around, Mal never stopped looking at Ellie the bat. "Now, I already told you people. First one's free. Then what'd I say? I said I would shut that shit down! No exceptions."
Negans moved within the circle, everyone followed him. "Now, I don't know what Charlie told you and made you do this..." Negan stood directly in front of the right of the Calvary Boys, to Skin.
Negan threw a smile that's seemed so sincere it was terrifying.
"But I'm a man of my word. First impressions are important. I need you to know me." He shot another smile at the group. "So.." Negan took a firmer grip on the bat, "back to it!" He turned and swung.
THWAK!
Skin fell down, his blood splattering around. Mal couldn't breathe. The cries, Ryes desperate shriek, the anger of the boys yelling at Negan.
Oh, no. If the boys keep on resisting and use their rage, Mal will be getting close to dying. The happy memories came back but were faint from the horrendous sounds and images of her in Skin's position.
The sounds Skin made, was sounds no human being should ever make. Negan, bending down to look at his face, as he spluttered.
"Buddy, are you still there? I just don't know. It seems like you're trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit. I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out - and it is gross as shit!" Negan gave a laugh, while the crying and screaming intensified as they saw Skin's face.
Another blow to the skull came and as Negan was about to finish more, another boy came up, screaming his throat out as Negan swung at the side of his face while Skin's body twitched, his eyeball out in the brain matter. It wasn't a very powerful blow, but it doesn't require to break a nose and jaw. His head rocked back as his nose flattened and blood flew from his nostrils and teeth shattered in his mouth. And that's when Negan hit him down to the ground, and continuous the blows.
Slightly out of breath, in between hits, Negan said; "You bunch of pussies. I'm just getting started."
And the two boys weren't enough for Negan's wrath.
The hits were continuous as each time Negan went around the circle, hitting one after the other. Three boys were actually not bitting off Negan's head and Mal finally knew Negan will kill them all when he swung their delicate heads and squished them as melons. The swings of the bat hitting bone and flesh; she can see herself every moment, different every time. Mal was almost going to cry out, her lips whispered for love and despair. For her friends she which she told the truth.
TWAK!
For the RK's. Her own family.
TWAK!
For the kids she trained to survive and cherish forever.
TWAK!
For AJ to grow up strong and brave. To let him remember so well of Mal, to never forget her.
"Ellie is thirsty! She is a vampire bat!" Negan half-shouted gleefully. A big flap of skin, or meat, or chuck of hair, flapped from the tip of the bat.
"I'm done, think you kids learned your lesson." He made a long sigh. "Man, that was a workout. I feel like I had an gang-bang orgy or something."
He's finished? Mal thought.
Mal finally took a large unsteady breath and looked at the outcome. Seven bodies of splatter red on white paint, smashed muddled somewhat heads laid in the dirt pool blood. Only three; Magnus, Kaito, and Ryes, including Mal have lived.
It's outrageous. She'd lived. She is not gonna die today. All the fear building inside her relished away. And for a moment in a split second, a smile crooked her lips. A smile of rejoice. The reason she'd smiled was the irony of this. How Charlie thought of lying to them, to send his boys to kill innocents for the Tradepost and have no harm done to them, Charlie was lying the whole way. The boys should have learned of Charlie corrupted lies and they deserved it. Mal never deserved any of this
"Holy shit." Mal's smile disappeared.
Negan stopped in front of Mal and squatted down to slightly above eye level. Their faces were uncomfortably close, Mal could see every minuscule speck on the man's dark eyes. "Were you smiling?" he chuckles. "Did you actually enjoy this fucking show? Did it make your pussy wet or what?"
Mal hated how Negan powered her, wanting to see a hint if weakness. Not now or ever. Whatever her mind took was relentless yet she didn't care anymore. She's not going to make the same mistake again, not like with Charlie.
Mal, in her state of shock and rage, answered. "I'm gonna kill you."
"What? I didn't quite catch that, you're gonna have to speak up." He speaks softly, in a dramatical whisper. Mal fidgets a little before looking Negan square in the eyes.
"That's why I smiled. Not today, not tomorrow. Maybe some time. Some day. I will kill you." Mal's hoarse voice continued.
Negan measured Mal, meeting her gaze, and he sucks his teeth. "Jesus..." Negan half-whispered out loud. He kept the eye contact with her for a what seemed like a very long time, although it was probably only a few seconds.
"Travis," he said, looking at the man behind Mal. "What'd she have, a knife?"
Travis answered, quietly, "She had a machete." Negan's expression turned into that amused grin and it grew more, and he gave that dry laugh again.
"Having one of those is important. I mean, what do you have left without 'em? A whole lotta work." Negan smiled, and continued. "Especially a gun. Your python. It's nice to have that too. You fancy for them, do ya?"
Mal looked away. Negan feigned sadness again. "Oh..did I.." Negan clicked his tongue, mimicking with the bloody bat. His smile came back as Mal stared him up defiantly. Negan sighed. "Sure", he seemed to say to himself, before he continued, "Yeah, gimme her machete."
Negan maintained eye contact with Mal, but there was a change in his expression. She saw him grow cold, the feigned sincere smile fading.
Negan kept staring into her face, looking for some sort of answer to an equation. Mal tried to imagine what he could be thinking, some way to stop him, but her heart raced. Finally, Negan stood up, and placed her machete in her holster around his belt.
He grabbed Mal by the collar and dragged her along to the RV with Mal flailing and kicking like an unruly dog. "Be right back, maybe she'll obey. If not, well, we can just turn these people inside out, won't we. I mean, the ones that are left." Negan threw Mal into the RV and slammed the door.
-:-:-:-:-
The throw caused her to jump on the carpet ground, Negan swung the machete on the table, and she stayed there as he walks over her and sits on the driver seat. She slowly gets up, one leg on her knees and the other up, ready to pounce if he does anything, glancing at the machete.
"Let's go for a ride." He starts the engine, it sputters. Negan wasn't looking directly at her, but in the back mirror his brown eyes stared deeply into her glaring deep baby blues.
" 'I'm gonna kill you.' " He chuckles to himself. "Are you kiddn' me? You just-" he sighs then scoffs. "Your best chance is to stand up, grab that machete, and drive it through the back of my head." She lowered her eyes and back up to his brown eyes.
"See how you do. Keep actin' tough. Go ahead."
She thought about it, to take the weapon and do it. It's reckless with his men but worth a try to escape although, he's insisting her. Driving her to take the chance. She's hesitate about this.
"Grab the damn machete."
And she thrust her hands out and is ready to take the swing.
But then Negan pulls a gun at her so quick she couldn't believe how fast and unexpected it was. He was planning this, she thought. He chuckles again, a dead serious look in his eyes as he still quirks a smile. "Drop it."
Mal obeys his orders, the machete lands on the carpet floor. Negan butts the gun at her stomach, she grunts, crouching down, gasping as she clutches her stomach.
He picks the machete up and it clangs on the table, Mal shrieked quietly, her heart jumped a mile away.
"Don't make me get up again." He said. He looks at the window. "Well, look at that. Dawn is breakin'." A cheery face lit up and Mal's face darkened. "It's a brand-new day...um...I'll figure out your name some time serial killer." He gave out a deep dry chuckle, heading up to take the seat.
"I want you to think about what could have happened, think about what happened, and think about what can still happen."
The engine starts and revs, shaking as it goes into the dusky forest, foreign to Mal as she thinks on what happened back in the circle and what's her stake of surviving. All she knows is absolute nothing on what he'll do to her.
As they drive somewhere in the fog, Mal sat in the seat across the little counter table. The memories of memorable times came back again, only like a picture frame you see in nice homes of family and friends. Pictures of moments of meeting and being happy with the RK's.
The memories stop when the engine shuts off, keys jingling, and the leather boots stomping over to her.
Negan sits beside her, closing in so close to her she felt frozen at the seat, nail digging into her palms, not looking directly at him.
"You are mine. The Calvary Boys back there- they are mine." He shows the machete. "This-" he point the sharp end of the machete at her chin. "This is mine."
Getting up he opens the door and throws the machete away, the metal clatters somewhere.
"Hey, serial killer, go get my machete."
My machete! She wanted to growl at him for taking her belonging, but instead turned her eyes at him leaning against the wooden cabinet, the Ellie bat in his left hand. "Let's be friends." She considers it, unable to comprehend the fact of Negan letting her go out in the open to get the machete. Is he going to shoot her down her. Leave her into another trap. She rather stay in the vehicle.
Negan sighs impatiently. He had an angry face that Mal actually felt scared for a bit. He draws the bat at her and growls. "Get my fucking machete."
She then gets up and Negan roughly pushes her out the window to the fog, slamming the down behind her.