Forever Broken // Carl Grimes

Chapter 46

It was cold when she opened the window. It seemed almost like a pathetic fallacy. Dawn was breaking, the darkness of night melting away as that bright orb of light rose in the horizon. It always did, no matter how bleak and desolate the world had become, she could count on the rising sun. A suspense seemed to hang in the crisp morning air, a foreboading for what was before them. It was the day; The day they would finally fight for their freedom.

Carl hadn't rose, and Lauren had taken those precious moments to remind herself of how far they had come. Negan had never been able to take that from her. She could never forget what they had gone through together. He was the most solid thing she ever had in her life, and she loved him. The word always seemed to lose its weight as time went on, but it hadn't for her. She couldn't remember the exact moment that she fell in love with him, but that didn't matter. She hadn't stopped loving him through all the years of pain and torment. He was her rock, her strength.

Perhaps she was awash with all of those feelings because part of her thought that she might die before the next dawn.

Lauren gazed into the mirror. She ran slender fingers through her shoulder-length hair. The girl before her wasn't unrecognisable anymore. She knew exactly who she was. She was a fighter. Her eyes, the colour of a stormy sea, were still her eyes. She felt stronger now than she ever had been before. She wasn't afraid.

She slid open the drawer below the mirror and picked out a thin notepad and a black pen.

For what she hoped would be the final time, she wrote a letter.

~•~

Georgina had pretended to be asleep when Negan left the room that morning. He had brushed the hair from her face before he left, and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. She felt guilty, because she knew she had made a mistake. She couldn't stay in Sanctuary for the rest of her days with Negan.

Mrs. Lucille.

She felt a bit ill. What would Lauren think of her? She felt like a prostitute. She had intended to seduce him, but she had got caught up in the attention and the feeling. She had felt something for the enemy, but she knew that it could never be. Georgina had to kill him. She looked down to the beautiful diamond ring on her finger. She wondered had he pried it off the finger of a Walker on the outskirts of Sanctuary.

Georgina forced herself to see the battered and bleeding image of Lauren in the cell in Sanctuary not long ago. How she couldn't even remember her own name. He was responsible for it. He needed to pay, and for the sake of everyone, Georgina would land the blow. She let her head fall into her hands, a desperate pang of hopelessness settled in her heart. She heard a knock on the door and she jumped up from the bed. She was clothed, thankfully. Matt burst through the door, closing it quietly behind himself.

"What are you doing here?" Georgina hissed, stepping away from the bed and towards Matt, "If anyone catches you in here you'll be killed!"

"I'm getting you out of here, Gina," He said desperatly, his beautiful blue eyes locked with hers, "I'm dragging you out of here whether you want to leave or not."

"I can't go, Matt!" She exclaimed in a hushed tone.

"You may not see it now, Gina," Matt protested, grabbing hold of Georgina's wrist, "But being here with him will get you killed. He's a psychopath! He'll get bored of you and throw you in a cell with the rest of his wives!"

Georgina ignored the jolt of hurt at his words, and wrenched her wrist from his hold.

"I'm not going anywhere, Matt," Georgina said, a lot calmer, "I need to fix this mess I've made for myself, and do right by Lauren. I'm going to finish this. I'm going to kill him."