Not All Fun and Games

Chapter 61

I squeeze my eyes shut as the sound of his footsteps grows louder and louder.
Finally, the footsteps stop. He's in front of me.
"Clarke, oh my God. Are you okay?"
I open my eyes to see Bellamy crouched in front of me. He brings his right hand up to my cheek and leans in to kiss the top of my head. "I'm gonna get you out of here," he promises. I stare back at him, utterly confused. What the hell is going on?
"What a turn of events." Bellamy spins around at the sound of the sarcastic voice. Murphy is standing a few feet away from us, holding a gun. It's pointed straight at me.
"Murphy, what are you doing?"
The side of his lips twitch up into a smirk.
"Come on, Clarke. You still haven't put it together yet? Bellamy was never trying to kill you."
Bellamy's eyebrows crease for a moment, before a look of pure hurt covers his face.
"And I was never trying to kill myself. Well, actually, that's not true." His smirk grows into a wide grin. "When I heard about acidflower, I thought it'd me the perfect opportunity. I would die instantly and painlessly. Well it turns out I'm immune to the stuff. But I didn't know if you would be. So I started to formulate this plan. It all started this morning." He's referring to the incident that occurred after breakfast, when Bellamy and I stopped him from jumping. Well, that's what we thought we were doing. "I just wanted to get your attention. I knew that when you saw me, standing in the window on the tenth floor, you were gonna try to be a hero. As always. So when you hugged me after my 'near death experience'," he says, making air-quotes with his fingers, "I crushed the acidflower seeds on your jacket. Unfortunately, you happened to be immune, too." He rolls his eyes, giving an exaggerated sigh. "But I think things actually turned out better. This way, Bellamy gets to watch your blood soak the ground as you take your last breaths, just like I had to watch Kaytee's."
Bellamy squeezes his eyes shut, shaking his head. Like me, he must be too shocked to say anything.
Still sitting on the ground, I force my brain to put everything together. Murphy made up the story about Bellamy knocking him out. That's why he was so quick to free himself: his ankles weren't even bound.
"How did you find me?" I ask Bellamy.
He looks at me, his eyes still filled with pain. "When I was leaving the tower, Tuscany stopped to talk to me. She told me what she had told you, about someone trying to poison you. I was on my way back to our house to look for you when I saw a splatter of blood. There was a trail of it. It lead me here."
So Murphy left a trail of my blood for Bellamy to follow. When he got here, he found Murphy. He didn't know Murphy was behind all this, but he must have suspected something, because he threatened to kill him.
And now, Murphy plans to kill me while Bellamy watches.
"Murphy, please listen to me," I try to reason. "We all miss Kaytee. Her death was tragic, but it wasn't Bellamy's fault."
"Yeah, whatever Clarke. You're not gonna reason your way out of this one." He flicks his hand holding the gun to he right, as if telling Bellamy to move. "Now get out of the way."
"No," Bellamy refuses, his voice firm.
"Move, or I'll make her death slow."
Bellamy looks at me, his expression fearful and conflicted. Finally, he does as Murphy says.
"Please don't do this," Bellamy begs, but Murphy ignores him. "Please don't hurt her. If I'm the one who got Kaytee killed, why don't you kill me?"
Murphy rolls his eyes. "Because I know you'd rather die than live without her. I want to make you feel what I feel."
I know you'd rather die than live without her. Could that be true? Would Bellamy rather not live at all than live without me?
"Please Murphy, she's never done anything wrong. You can do whatever you want with me, just please leave her alone."
Murphy's arm moves and within a split second, the gun is pointed at Bellamy. My heart skips a beat and I cry out, "stop!"
And I realize that the same applies to me. I'd rather die than be forced to live without Bellamy Blake.
"That's right," Bellamy says. "Let her go, and you can do whatever you want to me.
Murphy seems to think for a moment, and everything is quiet.
He looks at me, and with a shake of his head, says: "No." With that word, the gun is pointed back at me.
Everything turns slow motion as Murphy's finger moves to the trigger. I watch as he holds the gun up to my head. I'm frozen in place.
Some say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. Well I'm about to die, and all I see is Bellamy. I hear his voice, I see his smile. Maybe he is my life.
I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the sound of the gunshot, but I don't hear it. Instead, I hear a loud shout and a thud. I open my eyes to see Bellamy on top of Murphy, and the gun skidding across the ground, in the direction opposite of me. Bellamy must have tackled Murphy and knocked the gun out of his hands.
As the two of them wrestle on the ground, I run to grab the gun.
I turn just on time to see Murphy throw a punch, hitting Bellamy in the jaw. Murphy takes this opportunity to climb on top of him and pin Bellamy's arms down. He punches him again, this time hitting him in the stomach. Bellamy grunts in pain as Murphy raises his fist to strike him again.
"Get off him, Murphy," I order, pointing the gun at him. "Don't make me shoot you."
Murphy freezes. When he raises his head to meet my eyes, I see tears on his face. "Do it."
Those two words turn my blood to ice.
"Just kill me," Murphy urges, his thick tears running down his cheeks. With lightning speed, he picks up a sharp rock from the ground next to him and brings it to Bellamy's throat. "Kill me or I'll kill him." He keeps his eyes on me as he the rock begins to dig into Bellamy's neck, drawing blood.
"I'm sorry." My words are but a whisper, overpowered by the gunshot.

A/N
Did any of you guys see this coming?
Was it like super predictable, or was it actually a surprise?
I'm sorry to all the Murphy lovers out there. If it's any consolation, I don't actually see him as a bad guy. Deep down, he was always a good person. Kaytee's death just really affected him.
So my book is slowly drawing to an end. I think there will be maybe 1 or 2 more chapters until the end.
I plan to start a new book after this, so stay tuned!
-Haley💕