1 + 2 | EMBERS TO FIRESTORM | THE 100 | JOHN MURPHY

TWENTY SEVEN

T W E N T Y   S E V E N

How a mind could be so heavy and dark, no one could ever know, but Althea had one of the most self-destructive minds imaginable and now it was proving itself as she slept.

Her body was locked into position; eyes refusing to open, forcing her to endure the agony as if it were punishment, but maybe it was because tonight she did not dream of the future, she dreamt of her own past.

Althea was not a violent person, but to say that there wasn't a violent bone in her body would be a lie. Although it was hard to trigger, it lay there beneath in its slumber just waiting to be awoken by just the right circumstance.

Tonight her mind reminded her of that violence; the one time it had overcome her like an unstoppable storm bursting through her veins and pumping her heart out of control, too fast, to the point where she thought it was going to explode out of her chest, forcing her to her messy end.

It happened a little while after she'd been locked away for a crime she did not commit. Loneliness is a powerful thing when there's no way to solve it, Althea found. It was like dying slowly to something you couldn't help. Like smoke filling the lungs as the fire burned all around you, flames licking at the walls as you cowered behind the door and smoke filled the room. There was no avoiding it, you had to breathe.

There was little she remembered about the instance of her over-boiled emotions other than feeling like her chest was caving in and, as she was being dragged off the body, seeing it bloody and prone on the floor. Distinctly she remembered the slow and laboured breathing of the body and how, as she screamed and pulled against the guards dragging her away, she'd known it was her who commit the deed of bringing pain to another human, another soul, and she'd hated herself for it.

What she'd hated even more was that it was Abby Griffin who came to her two days later with a grim look on her face and a clipboard in her hands. She told the guards she would be fine alone and they'd looked at one another and nodded, leaving her alone with the unstable girl huddled in the corner of the room.

Althea lowered her knees from her chest as Abby approached, her eyes analysing her every move. Abby sighed, kneeling down beside her and glancing down at her clipboard once more before speaking. "He passed away last night, Althea," She'd said softly and her hand reached out to comfort, but Althea jolted away with a look of shock on her face. Her eyes were wide and welled with tears.

She shook her head slightly, pressing her back painfully hard against the wall. "I killed him," She breathed shakily, her voice an earthquake that rattled her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut and leant her head back against the wall, exhaling heavily as her chest threatened to collapse.

She heard Abby leave, nothing more was said. Nothing needed to be said. Althea Barnes, formerly the sweetest girl to ever walk the Ark, had killed a man and stunned the entire station speechless.

The fall from grace had begun.

-

Finally, her eyes shot open as if a spell had been broken and she sat up. She was alone in the tent, clothes strewn across the room and the space beside her vacant.

Althea pulled the covers up to her neck, hiding herself from the bitter air, as she let the nightmare sink into her skin and dissolve into her blood, turning it toxic as it fed to her heart and her lungs, tainting the luscious forest that found its life there once more.

-

i'm 100% going to try and update this more because I miss my baby althea, even if she'd made a few mistakes in her time. this was a short chapter, but it's supposed to be more dramatic and show how althea doesn't want to think about it.

if you want more detail, idk why you would, but if you do head over to my 'meet my ocs' book called haunt because it explains this in more detail. thanks <3