Something To Fear | Glenn Rhee

[하나] The Day Will Come When You Won't Be

"Don't worry about what's gone wrong. Figure out how to make this go right."

~Glenn Rhee

"Eeny. Meeny. Miney. Moe."

Four words that would signal the beginning of the end.

How could such a simple child's nursery rhyme turn into a horrid game that meant life or death? A nursery rhyme Glenn planned to teach his future child was somehow now the harbinger of tragedy? Is this what the world had succumbed to?

"Catch. A. Tiger. By. His. Toe."

Glenn looked at the wooden monstrosity of Lucille as it was displayed before him. The barbed wire practically grazed his cheek as it moved past him.

"If. He. Hollers. Let. Him. Go."

Glenn wanted to run to his wife when he saw her shudder at the bat. She looked like she was nearly going to pass out. Her pale skin was dripping with sweat; her body shaking uncontrollably. If by some God forbidden chance she were to end up as the victim of this, he would not hesitate in jumping in and taking the hit himself. That wasn't even a choice.

"My. Mother. Said. To. Pick. The. Very. Best. One."

As the rhyme continued, his gaze focused on Rick. Seeing Rick this broken and terrified, sent chills down Glenn's spine. He had never once seen Rick like this, in spite of everything they had encountered. Their situation was truly hopeless.

"And. You... Are... It."

He couldn't even bring his eyes to look up to see if the barbed end of Lucille was in front of him. He was afraid he would meet Maggie's horrified eyes in the process. But then he heard Negan speak away from him and he finally looked to see who had fallen prey to this sadistic predator.

Daryl.

He would not beg, sob, or scream. No way in hell was he going to allow Negan this victory. He accepted his face with a hardened gaze, appearing as if Negan was at Daryl's mercy. Negan merely grinned at Daryl as he said:

"Anybody moves or says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father. Then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, they're all going to do that."

Glenn could hear everyone around him crying out, but he remained silent. He couldn't bring himself to yell; his throat was clenched in Fear's cold hand.

Rick stared in disbelief and choked, "Please... don't."

Negan answered Rick with a sickening blow to Daryl's skull. Not even Glenn could hold back his scream with the rest of the group.

"Whoa! Taking it like a champ!" Negan praised.

Daryl, with blood streaming down his face, pulled himself off the dirt and managed to say, "You hit me again...You best pray I'm dead."

Maggie, who was besides Daryl, could only breathe heavily and clutch her stomach in disgust as Negan continued to bludgeon her friend. She started to vomit up a mixture of blood and digested food onto the ground, which Glenn immediately took notice of.

"Maggie! Maggie!" Glenn jumped to his feet, but was instantly pinned down by Dwight.

Maggie lifted her head towards her husband's direction, and some of Daryl's blood splattered below her eye. All the stress and fear sent her already weak body into shock. Her heart started to beat irregularly; it started to quiver and contract strongly. The pain, the adrenaline, and the sudden drop in blood pressure meant she could no longer support herself upright and collapsed next to Rick. No one except Glenn watched as her eyes rolled to the back of her head as they were all focused on Negan and Lucille. Negan didn't even bother to pause his murderous actions as Maggie's breathing slowed to a halt.

Glenn's futile cries went unnoticed with the much louder swings of the bat. He desperately tried to free himself from Dwight to no avail. His eyes could only gape in despair and terror as his longtime friend and wife died in front of him.

Just like that everything that had given him hope in this apocalyptic world had vanished in an instant. His wife, their child, were gone.

Daryl, a man who had started out rough around the edges and eventually became a treasured friend, was gone.

The remaining members, who were already weeping, wept even harder once they saw Maggie's body lying motionless on the ground. Rick tried shaking her awake, crying out her name over and over as if she would hear and the whites in her eyes would disappear.

Negan shifted his gaze from Daryl's body to Maggie's and his expression softened a little.

"Well, isn't that a damn shame. I just wanted one of you to die." He swiftly turned to Glenn, who was still struggling to get to his wife. "I'm doing you a favor by the way," he addressed him as he raised his bat. Too buried in grief and horror, Glenn didn't even realize what was about to occur. But at this point, what did it matter if he did or not. He would have a clear view of the brutality Negan was about to bring forth.

Negan looked down at the female body below him again, his face unreadable. One could argue it almost panged him to do this. But he intended to finish what he started.

With a mighty swing, Lucille was brought down once more.

A/N: Since there has been confusion and claims of Maggie's death being illogical, she (ironically) died from fright. This is actually medically possible even for someone who is perfectly healthy. But Maggie was already under intense stress and severely weakened from her pregnancy, and Daryl's beating only worsened her condition.