Poker Face

Chapter 1 - Savior

Content warning: Completed sexual assault.

Aven's attacker beamed down at her with his yellow smile, a few drops of blood falling from his injured lip and splattering on her shoulder. She stared straight up at the sky defiantly, refusing to make eye contact with him, her mouth set in a line. He wasn't yet satisfied with the level of fear he'd instilled in her.

"I'll let you in on what's about to happen," the man said. "All of us, me and each one of my good men here, are going to have you any way we want. And then we'll do it again and again until we're done with you." Aven let off no sign of emotion, her eyes almost glazing over, and the crouching man lowered his mouth to her ear. "And then when we're done with you, we're gonna cut out your tongue. Then we'll cut you all over that little body of yours until you're begging to die."

The man shifted quickly, straddling Aven so that her tied hands were crushed between the ground and the small of her back. "Then we'll be square for the, uh, property," he paused with a wink that made Aven want to vomit again, "that you took from us." With that, he pulled a knife from his belt and cut down the center of her shirt, ripping it open completely. He took the tip of the knife and held it at the middle of her chest, digging into the material of her bra and then into her skin. Aven clenched her jaw as it punctured her skin, drawing a large drop of blood that pooled on her sternum. The man turned the knife, using the tip of it to pull the neckline of her bra away from her until the material gave and tore slightly, the elastic snapping back to her body.

At the same time, the man's other hand went straight to the button of her jeans, unfastening them quickly and shoving his hand down the front of them, groping at Aven over her underwear. Her body betraying her decision to show no fear, Aven let out a squeal of protest and tried to wriggle out of the man's grasp, to no avail. He leaned back long enough to pull her jeans down to her knees and then began undoing his belt. Some of the other men chuckled to themselves, while the others looked on with wild eyes, enjoying the show and waiting their turn.

The man stroked himself, preparing to attack, and when he was ready he pulled aside her underwear and positioned himself at her entrance. Aven shook uncontrollably, biting her tongue as she tried to push back her tears and remain stoic. But the fear was building up inside her and no matter how much she wanted to be able to accept her fate and get it over with, her body faught, even through her fever.

When she'd been locked in her captor's basement for God knows how long, she'd had similar trouble. She didn't want to show him fear and she got very good at it, but during the worst attacks she sometimes couldn't help but react, struggling to accept that there would be no help, screaming out in the hopes that someone would hear her.

Don't scream, don't scream, she repeated to herself in her head, but the words immediately left her mind when she felt the pain of the man pressing up against her unready entrance. She couldn't help it and yelped as he tried to push himself in.

"Shit, boys, she's tight!" he laughed. He moved his hips violently and Aven let out a long, ear-piercing shriek as she felt her body being torn open.

CRACK

Blood splattered across her face and into her mouth as the weight on top of her dropped to the side, rendering her body free from his intrusion.

CRACK

She heard it again and felt another splash of blood. The sound repeated over and over again and she allowed herself to come more into the moment, weakly turning her head to see her attacker's face being busted and torn away at again and again, bone chips and brain matter adding to the mess on her skin. Aven didn't have time to look all the way up at her savior before the figure swung around taking out two men running at him. She heard yelling and a few gunshots, but she was still stuck mostly in her own world.

She felt someone push her to her side and cut her hands free. She was shaking as she tried to pull her jeans up from her knees and push herself up. As she scrambled away from the spot she'd been lying, she looked up to see a tall man dressed in black coming into focus, wielding a bloodied baseball bat covered in barbed wire. His eyes were full of rage, and even though he'd saved her, her nerves were on edge and she flinched at every smash of his bat against her attackers.

She looked around to see the men that had surrounded her being surrounded themselves, guns held to their heads, "oh shit" expressions plastered on their faces. Aven finally focused in on the moment enough to hear the man with the bat finishing his last attack.

"-NOT...FUCKING...OKAY," he heaved each word with a swing of his bat into the bloody pulp of his opponent's head. He brought a bloody leather glove to his face, dramatically wiping away the sweat from his brow. "WELL," he took a deep breath, collecting himself, "I guess the rest of you asswipes get off easy for now. My girl needs a break and I'm saving y'all for a special place on my mantelpiece. See, now I don't like..."

As the man continued what seemed like a rehearsed speech, Aven warily crawled backwards, not ready to trust these people blindly. After all, this man had just beaten three people to death, and kept beating after they were dead until they were totally unrecognizable. It wasn't a comforting scene.

"...and I, for one, do not appreciate it," the man with the bat finished. He was about to start a new speech when he was interrupted.

"Ahem, Negan..." one of his men leaned in towards him without taking his gun off one of Aven's attackers.

"Simon, I know you have a good reason for interrupting me," Negan turned with fire in his eyes, disconnected from the toothy grin on his face.

"Pretty good reason," replied Simon dryly, nodding once to Aven. In his murderous frenzy, Negan had almost forgotten about the girl he was saving, who had now crawled a considerable distance away. Negan turned, staring through the trees at the girl and opening his arms wide, one hand still holding the dripping bat.

"Sweetheart, where ya goin'?" he bellowed with the same wide smile. Everyone's eyes turned to Aven and she panicked, scrambling backwards and trying to get to her feet to run. She managed to stay upright but it was clear she couldn't make it far, stumbling slowly along like a biter. "Jesus, go get her," Negan breathed, motioning for two soldiers who didn't have their guns at the mens' heads to go after her. But when they got close, Aven panicked and fell, still scrambling backwards to try and get away from them. Each soldier grabbed an arm and pulled her up, dragging her back to the scene.

She didn't struggle; she couldn't. Her entire being was drained of energy. The two soldiers tried to stand her in front of Negan but she fell to her knees, and then to her side, curling up and all at once losing herself in an unstoppable bout of sobs. Her mind wasn't there. All she felt was heat, cold, pain, trauma. I want to go home, she thought, an image of her family's smiling faces blooming fuzzily in her mind.

"Shit," Negan breathed, bending down next to her. "Come on, doll." He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder but with a quick reflex and more force than necessary, she swatted it away. "Whoaaa," he crooned, leaning back and grabbing her wrist, "I don't think so." He pulled her closer by the wrist, using his other arm to support her shoulder and help her sit up. His touch only made her shake more violently. He held her at arm's length to check her for bites and was hit by how sickly she looked. She was badly sunburned yet somehow her complexion looked pale, further discolored by the bruises forming on her face, neck, and chest.

"I'm here to help you, sweetheart. These fuckwads aren't going to hurt you anymore." Aven only continued to sob and, at the end of her rope, allowed Negan to pull her into his arms. She didn't cry against him, turning her head away from his leather-clad chest, but she didn't pull away when he began gently stroking her matted, auburn hair.

"Round 'em up," Negan muttered, turning his head to Simon before shooting another look at the mangled body of the man he'd found on top of the screaming woman. "No special treatment. Kill every one of the motherfuckers if any one of them opens their god damn mouths." Aven slowly stopped sobbing and went limp in his arms, causing him to hold her more tightly as he stood up, lifting her with him. He turned and headed back to the road where their trucks were waiting, Aven cradled in his arms. "These fucks aren't the kind of resources we need."