❝I'd rather die kind and forgotten than be remembered for being brutal.❞
( *undergoing slight formatting tweaks & adjustments -- the story itself will otherwise remain readable and unchanged! )
⠀⠀⠀⠀ Had Bellamy not volunteered, he wouldn't be sent o...
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( ミ☆ ) TWENTY ONE as above, so below
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⠀ ⠀ ⠀ days in the arena... ⠀⠀⠀ II ⠀ ⠀ ⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀Several things happen all at once.
⠀⠀⠀⠀The moment the grappling shapes of Demetria and Terra disappear from view above, a panic so fierce blooms within Bellamy's chest, he might as well be a man on fire. Ferric, Kip, Pria—none of them are visible to him now. He hardly has time to wonder if they're even still alive before he again registers the sound of the disoriented Gage shuffling on the ground behind him.
⠀⠀⠀⠀Screw this guy. Screw all of these damn Careers—Gage and Terra both, along with District One and Seven, if they're up there.
⠀⠀⠀⠀If any of Bellamy's allies are dead or in the process of dying on the surface above the crater—if any cannon fire is meant for them—Bellamy does not hear a thing.
⠀⠀⠀⠀Climbing out of this pit and getting to Demetria and his friends is his only priority now.
⠀⠀⠀⠀He spots Gage's discarded cutlass, out-of-reach and sticking half-out of a murky puddle of mud, the exact same moment his opponent does. Bellamy makes a dive for it, but unlike the District Five boy he'd encountered in the Bloodbath, Gage is not as predictable or stupid.
⠀⠀⠀⠀He charges Bellamy instead, and an explosion of pain erupts in Bellamy's gut as a boot is rammed into his stomach. He collapses again, grunting, and as he reveals his knife and blindly stabs for Gage's leg, he receives another hard kick to his elbow that shocks his nerves and sends that knife flying.
⠀⠀⠀⠀"You think you're better than me, do you?" Gage bellows down at him. Even still, Bellamy does not relent. He stretches his fingers out, out toward the cutlass... His fingertips manage to graze the handle just before Gage kicks that weapon away from him, too. "You won't be needing that."
⠀⠀⠀⠀Another hard kick, this time to his ribcage. With a whimper, Bellamy is sent toppling sideways, then suddenly Gage is lifting him up by the collar of his jumpsuit and standing him up. Jostling him; getting too close.
