Carl followed Negan into a large factory type room, watching silently as he clanged Lucille against the metal of the bars.
Everyone in the room began to kneel at his presence, even Daryl, and he saw a man tied to a chair, already beginning to sob. Negan came to a stop and handed him Lucille. "Hold that for me" he said, and Carl cautiously took it without a word.
He continued to follow him as he sauntered along the cat walk, oozing his usual swagger. "You know the deal" he said as he addressed the crowd. "What's about to happen is gonna be hard to watch. I don't wanna do it. I wish I could just ignore the rules and let it slide but I can't!" he told them. "Why?"
"Rules keep us alive!" the whole room chanted back to him.
"That is right!" he said as he began to descend the stairs with Carl following behind like an obedient puppy dog. Stopping on a platform he began to speak again. "We survive… we provide security to others, we bring civilisation back to this world!
We are… the saviours… But we can't do that without rules. Rules are what make it all work! I know it's not easy, but there is always work. There is always a cost! Here… if you try to skirt it, if you try to cut that corner!" he yelled before he chuckled lowly.
"Then it is the iron for you" he grinned. "On your feet" he said as he continued down the steps and wandered out in front of everyone, clapping Mark on the shoulder as he went.
"Simon" he said as he approached his man and put on a hefty looking glove. Simon handed him an iron, fresh out of the furnace, gleaming bright red. Eyeing the man destined for the punishment he spoke again.
"Mark… I'm sorry.
But it is what it is. You skipped out on your duties to be with a woman..." he said as he stepped closer. He pushed the red hot chunk of metal into Marks face as he screamed out in pain. Holding it there for a good ten seconds, so that all you could smell was burning flesh.
As the man passed out Negan peeled the iron from his face, lifting away some of the skin with it, chuckling with some sort of satisfaction. Of course it was all part of his bad ass leader persona that he had to keep up. He didn't actually enjoy it, not at all. But he needed everyone to think that he did.
"That wasn't so bad now was it" he smiled as he handed the iron back to his right hand man Simon. "Jesus… he pissed himself" Negan said in disgust. Looking to Daryl he said "Clean that up" as he got real close to the man and he silently obeyed.
"Doc… I'm all done, do your thing" he said to Chris who was waiting in the wings to treat Mark once Negan was done with him. He was glad that it hadn't been Sky. He didn't want her to witness the animal he had to be. He wanted to keep that side of her far from him. It wasn't that he tried to hide it, she was well aware of who he was, every part of him. He'd just rather she didn't have to see the horrible things he had to do sometimes.
"Well… pussy passed out" Negan said as he addressed the crow once more. "But it's settled, we're square, everything is cool. Let Marks face be a daily reminder to him, and everyone else that the rules matter! I hope that we all learned something today, because I don't ever wanna have to do that again" he said as he looked at Carl with a smile.
Walking over to the boy he leaned in and whispered "That's some crazy shit huh… you probably think I'm a lunatic" and grinned at him. "C'mon, let's go figure out what to do with you" he said as he placed a hand on his shoulder and led him from the room.
As Carl sat with Negan in hiss private quarters while he scribbled in a notebook Carl spoke up. "Can I wrap up my face now?" he asked.
"No" Negan replied. "You absolutely cannot" he smiled.
