I think I liked you better when you didn't have a knife in your hand, Peaches

The Staircase

Blake opened the door and stepped out into the silent and, now, dark corridor.

She had a towel and a change of clothes tucked beneath her arm, intending to shower, peel herself out of her damp and dirty clothes, and get herself dry and clean once more.

It had been a long day, and all she wanted now was sleep...

But a shower first would do her good.....push all of her thoughts and worries from her mind.

She pulled her door shut behind her and padded down the corridor over towards the communal showers quietly.

Negan had helped her today....she knew that was the truth.

And as much as part of him still terrified her.....never sure of what he was capable of, or what he was going to do next....he seemed to have this charm about him...this ability to take the heavy weight from her shoulders and pick her up like no one had in a long, long time.

But he was still Negan.....head of the Saviours and she knew she needed to remember that.

People from Alexandria were still dead because of him. And that couldn't be forgotten.

But Blake's thoughts drifted to what Negan had said earlier, back in the truck, as the rain fell all around them...

He had offered to take her home...just like that. Back to Alexandria....to the people she had started out with.

But was that her home? Had that ever been her home?

David was here now....that was a fact....but even despite that....she had felt no better back there than she did here...

Still struck with worry, that she wasn't doing right by her fiancé. By the man who had stuck by her all this time.

Perhaps she had made the wrong decision not taking Negan up on his offer...but perhaps someday he would ask her again....when she was less confused, less torn...

For right now Blake didn't know how she felt about things with David....pondering this as she walked down the long shadowy hallway toward the bathrooms...

Maybe she could stand on her own two feet without him....and maybe she didn't need him anymore....

But before the tall, caramel-blonde haired woman could dwell on this any further....she jumped in fright as a sudden hand gripped her upper arm tightly....

Blake gave a sudden gasp of fright....praying that it was not another of Negan's men...as it had been just a couple of day ago...

But her heart thudded, as she turned at once, to see a familiar face step out of the shadows.

Her eyes widened.

"D-David?" she stuttered, her blood suddenly running cold.

For there was her fiancé, a grim look lining his features.

When she had first met David he had been carefree, with shaggy blonde hair and the bluest eyes imaginable...

...but now his face was lined with disgust.....his once handsome features dripping with resentment as he stared back at her with hollow eyes.

He emerged from the darkness of the gloomy corridor, looming over her looking angry.

Blake had seen him like this before. She knew exactly what was coming.

"What...no smile for me?" he uttered in a cold poisonous voice, his grip tightening on her upper arm. "Blakey, I'm disappointed."

His voice was full of poisonous mocking, his mouth twisted into a vile smirk.