Heart Strings. [Bellamy Blake]

- F O U R T E E N. -

The bright orange light of dawn casted over the forest, allowing beams of light to penetrate the tree lines. The muscles of Lyra's body finally relaxed slightly after morning had finally come. She no longer felt like they were in the pit of hell. The feeling of watchful eyes never left her mind though.

They had been trekking through the forest for four hours now, and the only trace they had found was footprints. The footprints were no longer in sight, as if the person carrying Octavia had just disappeared. Both Octavia and her carrier just disappeared with no trace.

Finn crouched down on the ground, searching it for footprints or specks of blood. Anything to put them back on track.

"We've lost the trail," Finn muttered, standing straight again.

Lyra frowned at Finn. She could tell he was defeated and wasn't hopeful about finding Octavia. They had been at this for four hours and hadn't gotten very far in their search. Hell, she wasn't even sure where they were at. For all she knew, they could be wandering around in circles, especially after being in the dark.

"Keep looking," Bellamy grumbled.

His dark curls bounced as he shuffled through the flora of the forest floor, not looking back. Lyra and Finn looked at one another, exchanging an ambiguous look. They both were thinking the same thing - without prints, searching for Octavia would be nearly impossible.

"Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister," Finn argued. "We should back track-"

Instantly, the leader of the group turned around with an angered look. As if they were abandoning his sister. "I'm not going back."

Lyra took a step closer towards Bellamy with a look of sympathy clouding her face. She spoke to him softly, "We will find her Bellamy, but Finn is right. Tracking her is the best way to find her. That's the reason you brought Finn."

His shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath to regain his composure. He hated to admit it, but the two of them were right.

"Hey, where's John?" A girl, named Roma, in their group questioned with concern. The three of them turned around to examine the group, noticing they were missing one person. Roma's face was full of concern as she desperately looked around for her friend.

Once again, the muscles in Lyra's body tensed up and her blood ran cold. One of their teammates were gone. Vanished. In the woods riddled with Grounders.

"I just saw him a second ago," Jasper piped up, his face scrunched up in confusion.

"Spread out," Bellamy commanded. "He couldn't have gone far."

Their enclosed group started to loosen as every person began to search the area for John Mbege, another missing person of theirs.

From behind, a loud thump sounded. Everyone turned towards the odd sound and silence fell upon the group at the sight. There laid the body of John Mbege. His dark skin was splattered with blood from his neck and his throat was slashed. The dark brown eyes he had were now lifeless, and his jaws were slack after breathing his last breath.

Lyra slapped her hand over her gaping mouth to mute her gasp. The constant eerie feeling she had throughout their search proved true. Bellamy and Finn rushed over to the lifeless body before their heads tilted towards the trees.

"They use the trees..." Finn breathed out.

They were being watched the whole time. Even at this very moment, they were being watched. Their group was being preyed on.

"Now can we go back?" Roma begged. Her face had already gone pale after seeing the body of her friend, murdered in cold blood.

Everyone frantically looked at their surroundings to find any sign of predatory Grounders. Jasper and a boy named Diggs had spotted two Grounders far away from the group on the forest floor.