Elysian // J. Murphy

-chapter two-

Victoria is sat on the grass, carving a shard of metal into a sort of blade. She takes a short break to listen to the conversation happening beside her.

"The wristbands are transmitting your vital signs to the Ark. They are using us to decide whether it's safe for them to come down. Once they do, are you guys going to have it good and be model citizens? Those bracelets are telling the council members, who locked you up, that it's safe to follow. If you take them off, they won't follow; You follow?" Bellamy gives a speech to Murphy, Vic, John, Atom, and Roma.

After barely any thought, John, Atom, and Murphy remove their wristbands with metal from the dropship. Bellamy moves closer to the women sitting and carving out their weapons. He takes a seat and smirks at them. When Victoria looks up, Roma's eyes are full of admiration to the dark-headed boy.

In her defense, Bellamy is a very good-looking guy.

"Well, ladies, how about we take off those bulky wristbands. They aren't very flattering for your gorgeousness." Roma blushes at the half compliment, but Victoria just furrows her eyebrows while looking at the guy's slicked back hair.

"Yeah, I'll take mine off." Roma manages to stand up and look Bellamy in the eyes. He smirks while motioning for one of his monkeys to take Roma's wristband off. He puts a metal shard between her skin and the silver band, pushing away from her arm, which causes the metal to dig into her epidermis. She winces right before the band snaps off, revealing a scratched up wrist. Victoria had walked off at this point; She went to find Murphy.

Upon seeing the boy, she walks up and stands in front of him. She extends her arm with a piece of metal.

"Take it off." He looks over at her with hesitation, but her eyes reveal nothing except for confidence. He takes the piece of metal in one hand and her arm in the other. He manages to pry the wristband off throughout many swear words from Victoria. She rubs the area with her opposite hand.

"Thanks, Murphy." Her eyes wander as she begins to walk away from the dark haired boy. His hand wraps around her wrist, which causes her to halt and turn to look at him.

"Let's go talk." He motions away from all the other delinquents, out in the forest. Victoria nods, brunette strands of hair falling in her face from where it was tucked behind her ear.

As they reach the edge of the woods, they both sit down on a fallen log. Victoria starts picking at the grass and Murphy twirls his new knife in his hand.

"What made you want to take your bracelet off?" The question doesn't surprise Victoria; She knew Murphy would ask about it eventually.

"It was getting on my nerves."

"Victoria. Be serious." His pale blue eyes watch as her thin fingers pull the grass up.

"I don't know. I guess I-" She sighs, "I don't want her to have control over me again. Right now, I am free. I don't have anyone telling me what to do. I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and no one can tell me otherwise. If the Ark knows we can survive down here, they'll follow and start bossing me around again." She looks up at Murphy. "Does that make any sense?"

He nods, "Yeah. I understand what you mean." Murphy takes a second to look at the girl. "We should probably get back to camp."

Victoria stands and follows promptly after John, careful not to get lost. No one knows what would happen if she did lose her way.

Once they enter camp, Victoria goes back to where she was carving her blade, which is now inhabited by Miller and Harper, a girl Vic met earlier that day. She squats down and eventually meets the ground.

"Hey, Harper." Victoria smiles and looks at Nathan. "Milly." Harper snorts upon hearing Miller's nickname.

Rolling his eyes, Miller retorts, "Y'know, Sunny, I think you might need to hurry up on that weapon there. Because I might kill you before you finish." He throws a wad of grass at the brunette, to which she throws something back. Harper backs up and watches the hilarious scene unfold before her.

Miller throws his hands up. "Alright! Alright. I surrender." He starts laughing lightly, along with Victoria.

An uproar of laughter is heard on the opposite side of camp. The trio jumps up and runs over to the commotion, just to see Bellamy removing some of the delinquent's wristbands.

"Who's next?" Blake shouts through the camp, his eyes meeting with Victoria's until he sees Wells walking over angrily.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jaha storms up to the sight, hands balled at his sides.

"We're liberating ourselves. What does it look like?" Bellamy answers and returns with a question.

"It looks like you're trying to get us all killed. The communication system is dead. These wristbands are all we got. Take them off, and the Ark will think we're dying, that it's not safe for them to follow." Wells attempts to have the same effect on the delinquents as Bellamy, but it just turns into an embarrassing situation for him.

"That's the point, Chancellor. We can take care of ourselves, can't we?" Delinquents, including Vic, answer Bellamy's question with a loud agreement.

"You think this is a game? Those aren't just our friends and our parents up there. They're our farmers, our doctors, our engineers. I don't care what he tells you. We won't survive here on our own, and besides, if it really is safe, how could you not want the rest of our people to come down?" Despite his continuing attempt at convincing everyone, he's basically unheard, apart from a few kids with parents up on the Ark.

"My people already are down. Those people locked my people up. Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child. Your father did that." Bellamy's sob story is told, depressing Victoria. Before she says anything stupid, she finds Murphy and moves closer to him. When she meets his side, he hangs an arm over her shoulder and lets it rest there.

Victoria missed the last few sentences spoken by the boys, but they don't seem important as Bellamy begins preaching.

"Here, we do whatever the hell we want whenever the hell we want. Now, you don't have to like it, Wells. You can even try to stop it or change it, kill me. You know why? Whatever the hell we want." Victoria recalls on what she said earlier and grows suspicious of Bellamy.

Was he listening in on my conversation?

Murphy's booming voice knocks her out of the thoughts as he begins chanting.

"Whatever the hell we want!" Everyone except a few join in with their fists pumping in the air.

Their short protest is cut off when water begins falling from the sky. A large droplet lands on Victoria's face. Looking up at the sky, more liquid lands on her tan face, causing a large smile to form on her face. She peers over at Murphy, who has his face up towards the sky as well.

"It's really raining!" Victoria grabs the boy by his shirt and pulls him away from the crowd. She takes his hands and begins spinning around in a dance-like motion with the boy. With her head faced towards the dark blue sky, Murphy watches as her features change. Surprise, Happiness, Excitement.

Her hazel eyes are hidden by her eyelids, but he can still see the crease beside them, showing her emotion about the new experience. Her teeth are displayed through a wide smile, which meets with every muscle on her face. Her slightly crooked nose covered in light brown speckles.

When she looks at the brown-headed boy, he pulls her under his arm, spinning her. She smiles even wider and giggles.

She's happy. Actually now.

A blush forms on John Murphy's face, as he realizes his friendship may have more meaning then he expected.