Here's Negan!

Chapter 1: The Damn Bat

by Jonathan "KnightMysterio" Spires

All characters copyrighted to their original owners. If you like what you see, please support me on or with a one-time donation! Every little bit helps me pay the bills and keeps me writing!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The afterlife…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Negan was not a good man. He was well aware of that by this point. During the zombie apocalypse, he had led a group of tyrannical raiders who kept survivor camps enslaved, and committed many blatant acts of murder to keep his authority. And many times just for fun.

It took a determined man named Rick Grimes to show him the error of his ways. He had done his best to make restitution for his crimes, killing the leader of a cult of what Negan could only think of as lunatics, and on occasion defending the settlements outright, he had been rewarded with his own homestead, far away from everyone else. Cursed to live alone.

He had died alone. Not from a zombie attack, but from a bleeding foot wound that he didn't bind properly that had went septic. The infection killed him. As he watched, he saw his body get up, becoming a walker, and shuffle towards the nearest settlement. He wondered, briefly, if Carl would be the one to destroy his corpse. Good kid, that Carl. Had a helluva father. Didn't deserve to die that way, killed by some prissy bitch boy who was upset that he couldn't do what he wanted anymore…

As Negan felt himself drifting off, he thought about all the problems in his life. But mostly, he thought about the damn bat. A wooden bat wrapped in barbed wire, named after his wife Lucille, who had died of cancer. He had pussed out in mercy-killing her after she reanimated, and when he found the damn bat, which became his trademark weapon, he began to treat it as a way of keeping her with him. To the point where he got furious if someone damaged her.

But it was just a damn bat. He knew that. Hell, he had been in the process of making a new Lucille when Maggie, wife of a man he had beaten to death, came in looking for vengeance. He even offered to let her kill him with the bat.

But she let him live.

Said that letting him live alone would be enough torture.

"She was right," Negan said. He'd always been a people person. Amiable and friendly even when running his little kingdom and terrorizing people into obeying him. To have nothing but his own voice to talk to was maddening…

He looked down, and saw that his walker had stumbled off of a cliff, its head smashing open on a rock, leaving nothing recognizable. Negan shook his head. "That's just sad..." he said. "Guess it fits, though..."

The damn bat. Why could he not stop thinking about the damn bat? Lucille was dead. It was just an object. And with everything he had done, he rather doubted he'd be seeing that wonderful woman he cheated on ever again… so why was that stupid fucking bat on his mind?

"Because of guilt," said a voice in Negan's head. Negan blinked, looking around the ether. Eventually, he spotted the source, yelping in surprise. Standing right next to him the cloudy, soundless void was a tall, kirin-like creature with a golden ring around its white-furred body. Four emerald eyes glistened in its black face, which had no visible mouth. And yet Negan somehow knew that this creature, whatever it was, was a diving being.

"Are you God?" Negan asked. "Because if you are, you are abso-fuckin'-lutely not what I expected. You look like something out of a kids game."

The being chuckled. "In some worlds, I am something out a children's game," he said in a voice that thundered through the realm, his mouth never opening. "I am Arceus, the Creator. And you cannot stop thinking about the bat, because it is connected to so many of the acts which damn you."

Negan frowned. "...Guess that confirms it, then," he muttered. "Off to the eternal hotbox for me." He shook his head. "Can't say I don't deserve it..."

Arceus quirked his head to the side. "What if I told you there was a way to avoid damnation? And achieve redemption?" he asked.

"I'd say you have my attention," Negan said, the scruffy, stubbled man staring at the creature before him. Negan himself was wearing blue jeans, boots, a white-tishirt, and his trademark leather jacket and red scarf, a knife in a holster on his belt. "But I'm not sure I deserve it..."

"Everyone deserves a second chance, Mr. Negan," Arceus said. "I am offering you that chance. To redeem yourself, and become a better person."

"I don't have to cut back on the swears, do I?" Negan asked. "I tried, but its fuckin' impossible for me at this point."

"I care not for your language, even if others might," Arceus said. "I am offering you a chance to start over in my world. You will be given a body free of the walker infection, and in prime condition. You will face a challenge almost immediately, but from that is how you will grow."

Negan stared for a moment, wondering if he even deserved the chance to live again, clutching at the slash scar on his throat. He closed his eyes, thinking about his fate… and grimaced. Pussing out again, Negan… he muttered. "I'm in. Whatever it is, I'm in."

Arceus nodded, fading away. And in his place was the last thing Negan wanted to see again.

A wooden bat wrapped in barbed wire.

"God fucking damn it," Negan muttered.

"To learn from your sin, you must first face it," Arceus said, his eyes appearing in the mists surrounding them. "Take the bat, Mr. Negan. And you will be brought to my world..."

That damn bat… "I ain't never gonna escape you, am I?" he said, glaring at the bat. Finally, though, he threw up his hands in defeat. "...Fuck it. In for a penny, in for a pound. Let's go, Lu-" He caught himself, shaking his head. "No. Ain't gonna name you Lucille. Its disrespectful." He put the bat over his shoulder as a portal appeared, leading into a forest. "I'll think of a new name later..."

Negan walked through the portal, feeling his heart starting up again. He took a breath, sighing. "Well..." he said. "Damned if this don't feel MIGHTY fine!" He looked in a nearby pool, smiling as he saw his face. He was at least twelve years younger, looking as good as he did during the peak of the Saviors era. And he felt it, too. Strong and vital, his lungs clean, and GOODNESS was he handsome. He nodded, looking around the forest.

"All right, world," Negan said, grinning as he sauntered off into the woods. "Here's Negan. Let's see what you got for me..."

TO BE CONTINUED...