𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐀𝐖𝐍 | the 100

32 | For Them

"It will break him. You will break him."

‧ ✩ ｡ ✭ ° ☆ ･ _______ ･ ☆ ° ✭ ｡ ✩ ‧

An ache has sunken deep into Amber's bones, and it only worsens as she crawls her way to consciousness. Everything hurts. Her body is too heavy and thoughts too slow, as if she bears the weight of the world inside her head, but with a groan and a deep breath, she cracks her eyelids open.

"Sis! Em kamp stomba!"

The child's frantic voice cuts through her haze with foreign words, but when she tries to find him, the room swims before her in a mess of blurred shapes. Where am I?

Panic floods her veins. Jules. Where is Jules?

Slowly, her vision clears. Pelts and hides cover the fire smoke perfumed room, and from where she sits on the floor, Amber can glimpse bandages, jugs, and vials on a cramped three-legged table.

Her pulse spikes when she turns her aching neck and realizes that she's tied to the bedpost of one of two beds. She twists, only for the coarse fibers of the rope to bite further into her skin. If whoever brought her here tied her up, then they must have done the same to Jules, maybe in the adjacent room. She has to find her.

Footsteps echo from the other side of the door and before she can gather herself it opens.

The girl in the doorway can't be older than thirteen. Her firm stance suggests she's never let that hold her back. Raven hair snakes down her head in two taut braids and from the belt around her hip hangs a collection of blades. Apart from her soft face, there is nothing child-like about her.

"Who are you?" Amber's throat is raw from disuse, but she forces the words out anyway. "Where's Jules?"

The girl regards her in silence, sharp eyes scanning Amber like prey. Then she calmly looks once over her shoulder, as if checking for someone, before stepping into the room and closing the door securely behind her.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Amber demands. When her own breathing threatens to escape her control, spiraling into shallow pants, she bites the inside of her cheek and forces a clear lens of determination to settle over her panic. She can't appear weak.

"I am daughter," the girl states, surprising Amber with her clipped words, before stepping closer with deliberate, predatory grace. "You are killer."

Amber blinks, her still hazy mind struggling to untangle the meaning of the words. Then she shakes her head impatiently.

"Where is my friend?"

"Your friend," the girl repeats, tilting her head slightly as she tastes the words on her tongue. Then she strays closer until she stands over Amber, casting her in shadow. "Dead."

Amber's instincts rage in protest.

"You're lying!" If Amber is still alive then so is Jules, she's always been the strong one after all.

"Everyone is dead," the girl scoffs, the first trace of human emotion passing over her face in manic anger. "You killed them. You burned them."

"You're a daughter," Amber says slowly with the beginning of a triumphant smile when everything clicks into place. So Raven managed to burn the Grounder army in the end. "Who died? Your mother? Your father?" She watches the girl's face closely as she seeks for weakness, prodding at potential wounds. "Who did we burn?"