Renegade |Negan|

Chapter Eleven: F^ck, Marry, Kill

"It was me!"

A grin slowly grew across the wicked man's face in front of me as he uncocked the gun aimed at my forehead.

"Well," he breathed out, quiet enough that I was sure only I heard it, "Looks like somebody just saved your life," he said and we both turned to see the guy I'd recognized standing, his face pale as a ghost as he looked over the crowd at us.

"Please," I begged softly, the first time I'd ever begged Negan, or anyone, for anything in a long while, and would quite possibly be the last if he killed this innocent man over me, "Please, Negan. You don't have to do this," I said quietly, hoping to whatever God there was this prayer would be answered.

"I snuck past the guards and gave her the boom box," the man said. Now that I could properly see him outside of the cell, I could tell he was only slightly older than me and looked... Oddly... familiar.

"Come here, son. Let me get a look at you," Negan said, his voice dangerously low, but still held the airy carelessness he so often had. The man stepped forward in the crowd, slowly crossing to be face to face with us, "Kneel," Negan growled as soon as he approached, and the man did so with only slight hesitation, "So," he pocketed the gun, instead taking Lucille from one of his men who stood a few steps behind us, walking around the guilty man, "what came over you that you would break my rules and risk your damn life for her?" He asked before humming. The man looked at me, bright blue eyes shining into mine. I knew they felt familiar but I just couldn't get it through my brain where I may have seen him outside of the Sanctuary.

"I... I saw her dog tags. When she was being escorted. I recognized them," he said after a moment, "They're missing one," he said, to which I furrowed a brow.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Negan laughed. Slowly, the man reached for his shirt collar, reaching in and pulling out an almost identical necklace to mine, with a dog tag very similar to mine. I reached around my own neck, pulling my uncles dog tags out of my shirt.

"Luis Harris... He was your uncle, wasn't he?" He asked me and I opened my mouth to answer before seeing the growing fury in Negan's eyes.

"You talk to me, boy," he said, quickly moving from behind the man to grab a hold of him.

"She's my cousin!" He shouted and I finally recognized him, or at least why he looked so familiar. He looked almost identical to the photo's of my uncle from before he joined the military, "Her name's Lou Harris, she was named after my father right after he joined the U.S. military!" He said and I gripped my tags. I had living family?

"How the hell do you know that? Let me see this," Negan growled, ripping the tags off his neck and turning to me as he read them, then grabbed my own, only not tearing them off of me the same way. He held the tags up to each other, they were almost identical apart from the different scratches and wear-down.

HARRIS, LUIS R
062 79 1556
A POS
NO PREFERENCE

"How come you didn't tell me? I-I didn't even know you existed-" I said, looking at the man.

"I needed to be sure. My mother told me a lot about your family, but we-"

"Can you two both shut the fuck up?" Negan asked, letting go of both of us as he turned, as if trying to decide what his next move would be. I looked back at the man before at Negan.

"Can I at least ask his name?" I asked, doing everything in my power to please the Leader in front of us to keep my last known living relative alive.

"No, Goddammit!" Negan shouted, veins popping through his neck and forehead as he looked back at me, fury in his eyes. I instantly shut my mouth, afraid if I pissed him off anymore it'd be both our heads on a pike. He took a couple deep breaths, looking around at all his people gathered around us before back to my newfound cousin, "You disobeyed me. You broke the rules and you could've put everyone in danger in doing so. For that, I can't just let you slide. So what'll it be, sport?" Negan asked, terrifyingly calm as he did so.

"W-What are the options... Sir?" My cousin asked, a loud gulp following directly after.

"Well, the way I see it, you got three options," Negan said, a sick twisted grin following, "We can either... Throw you to the walkers, see if by some... Miraculous miracle you survive without any weapons or armor, or help," he gave me a side-eyed glare as he said "help", "Or you could stay, be a prisoner, no food, no water, do everything I tell you 'till you either die slow, or I decide your loyalty's returned, but you'd be out of the hands of the creepy crawlies outside," he offered, seemingly not getting better with his offers, "or, final option and this is my favorite option," he swung Lucille around carelessly, just as he usually did and had when I first met him, "I can take little Lucille here to the right side of your head and bash your brains out. It would be a swift, almost painless death, I promise," he suggested, but I highly doubted it would be "painless" or swift. I still hadn't seen him kill anyone, but I really didn't want to either.

My cousin looked at me, as if looking for help on what option he could choose and clearly not wanting to die during any one of them. Then he gulped and glanced back at Negan.

"I-I can prove my loyalty to you again. I know I can, just please give me the opportunity. Give me the chance. I'll do anything," the dark haired man begged. He was built enough that he'd probably be able to survive on his own for a while, but he was still young, and without anything to protect himself with, walkers would surely get to him at some point on the outside. Negan looked at me, to which I gave pleading eyes. I didn't want to talk out of turn, just on the off chance it swayed his mind out of our favor, but as someone who wanted to become an actor for a short amount of time before the apocalypse, I could push a lot of emotion with my eyes alone.

"And you, Lou? What do you say?" He asked, putting his thumb and finger on his chin in a thinking sort of stance.

"Please, Negan. You know I don't beg, but I'm begging you to let him live, whatever you do," I said, looking around and slowly lowering to my knees next to my cousin, which I noticed caught Negan by surprise. He looked at the two of us, side by side, begging for mercy, then to his stupid wire-ridden bat, before back at us, staring at the man next to me a little longer than before. Then, just as I started feeling hope bubbling up inside me.

"Nah, I like my idea better," he said before raising Lucille, ready to swing and murder the family member beside me in cold blood. Without thinking, I felt my mouth move before my mind could comprehend what I was about to forfeit.

"No! I'll marry you!"