Maisie hadn't seen Carl in days, and she knew it was Negan's doing.

He gave her work to do, something he had never done. Apparently his precious little Maisie had suddenly stopped being made of glass.

She stood out on the cement balcony overlooking the fenced biters with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed. Their state looked better than hers. Taking her knife from her hip, she descended the stairs quickly and crossed the lot. Wrenching open the gate, she let herself in and walked among the biters before angrily embedding her knife into their skulls. The rotten fuckers were dead, they couldn't feel anything.

Lucky bastards.

What she wouldn't give to be numb to every bitter thing that happened.

She knew Negan would be mad about his biters, but it didn't matter to her anymore. She was just a dead man walking amongst the one that put the gun to her head.

When footsteps crossed the gravel behind her, she unsheathed her bloody knife and whipped around, coming face to face with the stuttering Savior. At the wide eyed look on his face, she put her knife away and wiped the splatters of blood from her face.

"What does he want?"

"Who?"

"Negan."

"N-Nothing. You l-looked angry."

"It's nothing. How old are you..." she narrowed her eyes, struggling to recall his name.

"— Trevor," he answered for her.

"Trevor."

"Sev-seventeen."

Hm, she had been wrong. "Aren't you a little young to be a Savior?"

"Wh-what choice di-did I have? He killed m-m-my dad."

〄

Maisie found herself walking down the dark hallway, feeling as though it was some sort of unhappy memory lane. Her heart rate increased when she neared the door her angel had been caged behind.

She worried about him a lot. Was he coping? Was he rebuilding the parts of him Negan had torn down? Was he struggling? Was he thinking of her?

Feeling a sudden wave of nausea, Maisie leaned her forehead against the cool metal door. When the alarm sounded for a Saviors meeting sounded, she ignored it. Maisie wasn't a goddamn Savior, after all.

She was an Alexandrian, and she would be until the day she died.

Maisie lifted her head from the door when something popped into her mind. Abandoning the dim hallway, she sprinted through the Sanctuary, sidestepping Saviors that got in her way and taking the stairs two at a time until she reached the floor she wanted to be on. She wasn't even out of breath.

Striding towards one of the red doors, Maisie raised her fist and pounded on the painted wood, stepping back as the door swung open.

"M—"

"Who are you?" Maisie demanded, cutting him off before he could address her.

"What?"

"Answer the question."

"I am Negan."

Maisie turned away from him, took a deep breath, and looked at the floor for a second before she whipped around and punched him in the face.

"What the hell was that for?" Eugene whimpered, as blood covered his teeth and pooled on his bottom lip.

"Are you fucking kidding me? You were there when that man who you call yourself bashed their brains in, weren't you?!"

"Yes, but —"

"I'm not done. Abraham saved you, didn't he? He saved you, and you repaid him by lying to him. He was your friend, and this is what you do to him. Would you be in Negan's lap if Abraham was still alive? You're a coward, Eugene. A fucking coward."

"Whoa, are we having a motherfucking problem here?" Negan mused, swaggering up to Maisie's side with Carl trailing behind.

"No problem," Maisie snarled.

"You know what, if that fucking fire under your pretty little ass doesn't go out soon, I'm gonna have to invite you to my bed and light another fucking one!"

"In your wet dreams," Maisie spat.

"Goddamn right you are," Negan growled, licking his lips as his eyes traveled up and down her body.

Saying nothing, Maisie spun on her heel and stalked away. Carl's eyebrows furrowed as he watched her go but he too remained silent as Negan guided him back the way they came with an arm across his shoulders.

"I gotta know, did you ever get a chance to hit that back in pansy land?" Negan asked suddenly, looking down at the teen with an eyebrow raised.

Carl's stomach sank when he realized the man was talking about Maisie. "No."

"Shit, kid, I might just have to show you the reins."

"No, thanks."

"Why not?" Negan demanded, stopping his stride and turning to Carl.

"Cause I'm only fifteen—"

"Who gives a flying fuck how old you are? You want her. Saw it the day I Lucilled your buddies," Negan declared, carrying on as if he hadn't just said the most insensitive thing.

"I don't! She was distressed and I comforted her! There's more to a woman than just something to have sex with!" Carl shouted before he could stop himself

"You think I don't know that? I'll tell ya, a man once told me I could rape every woman in his camp, so I killed him. First kill Lucille ever made," Negan said, almost proudly, swinging the bat off his shoulder and holding it to the light.

As he carried on ahead of Carl, the boy pounced, pulling the gun from Negan's holster and pointing it at him.

"Lemme tell you another thing. You're in a world of trouble for that move, kid."

Maisie avoided everyone later that day, until she was sought out by another one of Negan's messengers. When she refused to comply to Negan's calling, the large man took it upon himself to throw her over his shoulder and carry her to Negan, kicking and hitting.

After what felt like an hour of walking and the blood rushing to her head, she was finally set down on a set of stairs. The man blocked the bottom of the stairs until she begrudgingly went up.

As she climbed the steps, she realized she was climbing up to the catwalk, and when she got to the top, her heart seemed to plummet fifty stories as she saw the scene below her; Carl sat on his knees on the dusty floor while Negan paced behind him, swinging Lucille.

"I'll try and do it in one swing, cause I really like you, kid, but you fucked up," Negan said loudly, preparing to swing.

"Stop! Don't kill him and I'll marry you!" Maisie shouted desperately, leaning against the railing. The cold metal dug into her stomach but she hardly noticed it as Negan's face slowly split into an evil grin and he lowered Lucille.

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