The Girl He Forgot (Book 2)

Chapter 21 - The Rules Of Consent

The man who'd slaughtered Glenn and Abraham, the man responsible for all this misery around us was staring directly at me now...

My body froze, not just in absolute fear, but rage too.

Carl's hand let go of the hunting knife immediately as if he'd been conditioned to already.

Negan was strolling over, a few others at his side. Just down the street a dark-skinned woman with blonde curly hair held Olivia at gun point. I guess they still hadn't found the guns yet...

"David, I swear to god, if you can't keep your ugly lipstick sized dick inside o' your pants, am gunna have to cut it off" said the man in the leather Jacket. "Now apologise to the lady, immediately" Negan demanded.

The man – David - suddenly seemed smaller than Judith – it was almost impressive to witness the effects Negan's presence had just about everyone.

"S-Sorry" David stuttered, begrudgingly.

There was an awkward silence as I glared into David's now terrified eyes, partly because I wanted to kill him for grabbing my cheeks, but mostly because it kept me from looking at Negan; he was staring at me, I could feel his gaze like a thousand needles all over my skin.

I swallowed and looked at the ground, realising that Negan was waiting for me to back down.

He grinned, smugly. "There!" Negan said, dragging the word out on his silvery tongue "Isn't it better when we all just get the hell along!?". His false grin vanished as he looked at David now, so suddenly it sent a chill through me. "Now get the fuck outta my sight" he said in a low voice to the other man.

Without a word David scurried off with one last dirty look at Carl and I; he was no longer the issue though, was he? David was just a tiny part of it. Because is front of me now, stood Negan and nobody was going to even tell him to go away, let alone make him.

Suddenly all his attention was on me and I wondered if I was next... he didn't have his bat with him, but I was pretty sure he wouldn't let a little thing like that stop him. 'Lessons had to be learnt', right? Was he about to teach me one?

Negan took a step closer to me and I felt Carl tense behind me. The man smelt of fine leather, car grease and aftershave; I didn't even know any of that stuff still existed anymore... his shining hazel eyes bore down on me; I felt as if I were being sized up by a starving lion.

"Are you ok, sweetheart?" he asked, in a caring voice that caught me completely off guard but sickened me nonetheless.

"Well..." I began, feeling the word vomit about to spew its way up my throat "I'd be a lot better if you all got the fuck out of my site to be perfectly honest, but otherwise, yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking" I said, calmly but sharply.

I wasn't sure what part of me had thought it a good idea to have been so rude and disrespectful to the man holding all the power, the man who had no problem bashing a person's skull in, but I just couldn't help it. He had a good-looking and handsome face and yet all I wanted to do was drive a blade through it. He was charming and charismatic and seemed to love the sound of his own deep and melodic voice and yet I only wanted to sever his vocal cords so that I never had to hear him speak again... and as my words hung in the air between Negan and I now, a deadly silence fell upon the small group that had come to surround us.

Even Carl was quiet.

And then, in an instant so sudden it made me flinch, Negan laughed. It was a terrifying sound – hollow and raspy and it sent shivers through me.

"Well, excuse my shit, princess, I had no idea that I was trespassing in your kingdom, oh fair lady of mine" he bellowed, mockingly. He bowed down to me as he spoke so that his head was level with my stomach but still managed to maintain eye contact, a devilish grin and a burning fire behind his eyes. He didn't seem angry, though; he actually seemed amused... if anything, I could have sworn that... no, surely not.