heda | clexa

five

Lexa lets herself be calmed as she reads. This at least she knows how to do.

The word of God is her second home. These words are engraved in her mind, they easily roll off her tongue, she knows them by heart.

Clarke falls asleep at some point. Lexa is neither offended nor surprised.

The journey to TonDC couldn't have been pleasant and Lexa has no idea what Clarke went through before that. If she spent only a night in the cells below the tower, she surely couldn't have gotten any sleep.

Lexa's voice grows quieter until she stops reading aloud. The quiet pitter-patter of rain replaces the sound of her voice soon and Lexa lets herself relax just a little more.

The air begins smelling like fresh spring rain. Lexa dares to close her eyes for a moment and take a deep breath.

When she opens her eyes again, she's looking into sharp, dark eyes. Her mouth opens but the same moment, a hand closes over her lips with a soft shh coming from whoever is standing behind her.

A blade presses again her neck as someone ties her wrists together. "What did you do to her?" a woman asks, the one with the dark eyes, equally dark hair hanging down her face in wet curtains. A scar adorns the side of her face and her expression is murderous.

The person behind her lifts their hand for her to speak. Lexa swallows.

"Nothing," she says. "She's sleeping."

Someone barks out a sharp laugh. "Right."

The dark-eyed woman now grins devilishly and Lexa can't be so sure about the demons anymore. Perhaps these are hellish creatures. "That was the worst lie you could've chosen."

"It's not-"

But she doesn't get to finish. A palm connects with her cheek.

In the end, Lexa doesn't know how she makes it through a beating without bleeding enough that someone notices the blackness of her blood even in the dim light.

They're not consistent though, they never hit her hard enough to break a bone, they never use a weapon, they don't stay long enough to kill her.

Instead, they tie her to the wooden staircase in the middle of the room that leads up to the bedroom and leave her there.

Lexa gasps and swallows the taste of iron. She manages to wipe her bleeding lip, letting the dark blue of her robes soak up the black of her blood before anyone sees.

Punishment, a voice in her head reminds her.

Had Lexa let herself go too far? Relaxed too much, felt too much peace? The air doesn't smell like rain back here.

Do not fear, for I am with you.

The words feel hollow as Lexa recites them. For a moment, she's afraid they have no effect, but then she realizes she's not scared in the first place.

This feels good. It feels like someone finally saw through her crap, saw her true worth, and put her in her place. She feels belonging.

She watches the two women that had broken into their house approach Clarke. One of them reaches out to touch her, voice a lot softer as she calls out Clarke's name, but as soon as her fingers are on Clarke, Clarke is awake and has her hands around the woman's throat.

For God's sake, do all these people greet each other with beatings?

No, wait, Clarke lets go of the woman. "Octavia?" she asks. "What the fuck?"