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BACK PRESSED AGAINST THE BRICK WALL, Marley fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket. She knew she shouldn't cry, and she wouldn't cry, she swore she wouldn't, but the tears burned at the back of her eyes. Marley heaved out a heavy sigh and pressed her head back against the wall.
The cool brick bit into her skin.
She didn't need to look up to know he was watching her.
When she did look up, brown eyes traced the line of her expression. Her own gaze felt watery as she locked eyes with Bellamy; his brow pinched at the sight of her, and she glanced away before he could see the fear that she felt thumping through her.
They were going to die here. They were all going to die, in this camp, surrounded by hatred and vitriol, and a thousand venomous tongues. They'd make it slow, the kind of slow they intended for Finn. Pain at the tip of a knife, a sword, a shiv, until they finally granted them mercy. Her mind stumbles over the details; maybe she'll have to hear them die, Bellamy and Elijah and Raven and Clarke and Octavia, or maybe they'll kill her first and sneer and laugh at her screams for mercy. Maybe they'll make them kill each other, a vicious battle to the death with no mercy, all for entertainment. Maybe they won't even touch them, just hang them out like laundry in a public spectacle, people watching and waiting for their ends, making sport of who will fall first.
She was going to die there. Somehow, at some point, inevitably. She was going to die for something she didn't do. She was innocent, innocent, innocent and her thoughts were racing, racing, racing and she'd never see the stars again and she'd never pray to the moon, and she'd never know what it was to fall in love, to be truly happy that the world seems enough, even despite it all. She was going to die, she was going to die, she was going to-
"Marley."
Bellamy's arms were around her. Strong arms, holding her so close, clutching her to the warmth of his chest. He murmured her name against her hair, his hand stroking patterns across her back. He'd seen her falling across the room. He'd seen her hands trembling before she tucked them away from sight, seen the worry welling in her eyes. He'd seen her and he'd known, and he'd come for her before the world crashed down around her.
"I've got you."
If this was how it had to end, she wanted to spend that end in his arms.
His lips brushed her temple, his mouth buried against her head, murmuring and whispering reassurance. His breath was warm against her skin. He smelt familiar; the trees and the stars, the wind and the rain. Like home and safety and everything. Marley's fingers knotted into the front of his shirt. She pressed her cheek against his chest, tucked herself into his side, and let the relief wash over her and soak her skin like a downpour. The world shrunk to him and only him. To the arms holding her close.
