Man with the Bat || a Negan novel

Chapter 10: Sunrises & Promises

Carl's Chapter

It had been three days now since Negans last visit. The day he took our guns, the day he left us with no beds to sleep on, the day he kidnapped Mia from us. It was such a wretched day, I was highly dreading the next visit from him. I knew it would be soon, but I prayed it wouldn't be as bad as the first time. 

My father had been out searching for things to provide Negan with every day now, he was absolutely set on finding something Negan would love. He claimed it was to just show Negan how 'serious' we were about providing for him, but I knew it was of my dads own hopes. 

He was desperately hoping that if he found just the right thing, Negan would allow Daryl and Mia to come home. Taking Daryl from us ruined my dad, left him stressed and senile towards Negan, but taking Mia was the last straw.

As soon as Spencer closed the gate behind Negan that, everyone left to go back to their own business. To mourn the loss of their stolen belongings. But, my dad just stood there. Staring at the gate, a lost look to his eyes.

"Dad" I called to him from where I stood, hoping to gain his attention.

He kept silent, just starring at the gate, his chest heaving from the heavy breaths he withdrew. This had to be killing him, Mia was one of his best friends, to take her like that without evening allowing them a goodbye - it had to hurt. At least I was lucky enough to get one last hug before Negan took her.

I stepped towards my dad now, placing a hand on his shoulder. His gaze broke away from the gate, diverting his attention towards me now. 

"We'll get her back dad, her and Daryl, I promise" I assure him with a soft smile, knowing that I had no actual plan in mind but I had faith that we would.

He ran a hand across his brow to wipe off the sweat, his breaths still heavy as he came back to reality. He didn't say anything, he just nodded. Then he turned and stalked off. 

 Perhaps him out searching these past three days was his way of coping with everything, kept his mind off of what was going on. We were in a situation where no one knew what to do or how to handle things, we had our hands tied. It was tragic really, what was even more tragic was the fact I didn't have my best friend to help me get through it.

I was currently sat in a tree, watching the sunrise over the brink of a grassy field. Just a few days ago Mia was sat here next to me, we were splitting a granola bar and ranting to each other about the oddest things. Like, were there anymore giraffes living and if so where would we find them. Then we discussed all the exciting ways we could live with a giraffe, like ride it on raids and stuff. Now I sat in silence, listening to the birds chirping as they awoke and watching a couple deer prance through the field. 

I missed her. A lot. Felt like she had been gone for weeks, but nope, just three days. If I closed my eyes, I could still imagine her sitting on this branch with me. Silently admiring the morning beauty of the sky. The pinks, oranges, reds all morphing into something inexplicably beautiful. Sometimes I would pretend to sleep and peek out just to watch her naturally admiring it. There was times where she would scribble things down in a journal as she viewed it, I never knew what she wrote but I was sure it was lovely. One time I told my dad about our times in the tree as she admired the sunrise and I couldn't help but notice the way he smiled when I spoke of her like that.

I never confirmed it, but I always thought my dad had some sort of feelings for Mia. Just the way he acted around her, he tended to let his guard down. When my mom died, Mia helped out as much as she could with Judith and I. Especially when my dad had that little mental breakdown, she was always there. My dad and her started to become good friends once he got his mind back together at the prison, ever since then they had always been rather close. Just recently I started noticing small things of him towards her though.