in which a girl with a heavy burden tries to find her way through the trials and torments of the earth they've come home to.
OR
in which she must rebuild.
EMBERS
JOHN MURPHY
DEATHLIES 2016
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN T...
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T H I R T Y F I V E
In the aftermath of Althea's snap, she sat herself down back at the side of the room with her knees pulled to her chest and her eyes glazed, staring forwards as if she was in another world beyond existence.
In truth, she was. She was recoiling from everything in her own space. Taking the time to concentrate on her breathing. In, out, in out. But the crows carried on circling. They were back and this time there was more of them. Now they were not so friendly. Now they were out for blood.
The crows freeze at the sound of disturbance in reality. Althea blinks several times before scrambling to her feet at the sight of Clarke holding a knife up to the male grounder.
"Clarke?" Althea frowns, walking forward. What had she just walked into?
"What's on this?" She exclaims at the grounder, her knuckles going icy white where she was holding the knife too tightly.
"What are you talking about?" Bellamy asks, just as confused as everyone else. He didn't like being in the dark. It felt like he didn't have control. Especially when Clarke knew what was happening and he didn't, it made him seem inferior to her when really all he wanted was for himself to seem like he was above all. Pride overcoming sense.
Althea wasn't dull, she could see him trying to work it all out in his head, but he couldn't.
"He poisoned the blade! All this time he knew Finn was going to die no matter what we did! What is it? Is there an antidote?" Clarke cries, desperate.
Octavia speaks up now. Althea didn't even know she was in the room. "Clarke he doesn't understand you," She explains, her voice calmer than Althea thought it would have been, but she was proud of her for that.
"You'd have to stupid to have a poison around this long with an antidote. Which one?" Clarke tries, ignoring Octavia.
Althea does not pay much attention as they try to pry the information from him. Instead, her attention is drawn in by the other grounder, the female, who was bound on the other side of the room. Her jaw was clenched and her hands curled into fists. She had war paint on her cheeks, but it was mixed with blood and didn't look so striking anymore.
Now Althea noticed her eyes. They were dark and reminded her of the forest itself, as ridiculous as that may have sounded. But in those eyes there was worry and fear. She was just as scared of them as they were of her.
"No!" She suddenly cries out, lurching against the restraints with wild eyes. Althea whirls around to see what was happening and she was horrified.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" She cries out, wincing as Bellamy beats the grounder again. Behind her, a small whimper could be heard. "Clarke? You're letting him do this?"
"It's the only way," Clarke replies gently and Althea has to restrain herself.
She inhales through her nose. "The only way?" She laughs airily, her head rocking back for a moment. "You act as if you have the right to decide, Clarke, when actually you have no right at all. How do you think Finn is going to feel knowing that in order to save his life, you tortured someone?" She exclaims, her eyes locking onto Clarke with a fury she had never seen before. It was unnerving to say the least.
Clarke doesn't reply. She collects the vials into her hands and spreads them out in front of the grounder, kneeling before him. "Please," She tries. "Which one's the antidote?"
"Clarke," Bellamy says, placing a hand on her shoulder. She whips her nose with her sleeve, standing up and moving out of the way. Bellamy whips him again, tearing into his skin. The blood coated him now. It was a sickly red against his skin, sticky and vile and unnecessary.
"The crown is slipping," Althea whispers softly to herself, a slight smile slipping onto her lips at the thought. She couldn't wait to see it shatter. In fact, she was counting down the days until she could see its pieces scattering the floor like the stars of the sky they never should have vacated.
-
"We're running out of time! Which one? Which one is it? If you tell us they'll stop! Please, tell us which is the antidote and they'll stop this!" Clarke reasoned, trying her hardest to get through to him, but it wasn't working at all.
It's not until Bellamy steps up again with a blade in his hand that Althea begins to worry more. Her ribs contract at the sight.
"Last chance," Bellamy tells him, but when the grounder says nothing even Althea sees the hesitation in his expression and stature. Then, with a sudden burst of determination, he stabs it through the grounder's hand. In one side, out the other.
"Oh my God," Althea breathes, stepping backwards. Of all the extremes she thought Bellamy Blake would go to, she did not ever imagine this as one of the possibilities. Now she felt ashamed to have underestimated him because maybe, just maybe, she could have stopped this, or had nothing to do with him in the first place.
There's barely time to recoil before Raven emerges from the ladder with a face of worry. "He stopped breathing."
"What?" Clarke moves to hurry down the ladder, but Raven stops her.
"He started again, but next time he might not."
Raven's determination and willingness to do anything seemed, in that moment, to outweigh Bellamy's. At the telling of no information from the grounder, she takes the violent challenge into her own hands, pulling wires from the side of the ship and sparking them.
The grounder tries his hardest to get away from the new, deadly experience. He knew danger when he saw it. He was smart, but there was no escape as Raven shocks him with the exposed wires. She shouts at him, begging for the cure, but there is no answer. He takes the torture.
She shocks him again, but enough is enough for Octavia. She'd seen too much already and, as much as Althea had a distaste for what she did, she respected her for it.
"No!" She shouts, grabbing the poisoned knife from the side and drawing it along her arm, cutting herself open and infecting herself with the poison that was killing Finn. A brave attempt that paid off greatly because the grounder would not let her die. Octavia was the only one he cared about here. He did not care about Finn, or Clarke, or Raven, or anyone. It was Octavia, and she knew that as clear as day and Althea suspected she cared about him too.
After he nodded to confirm the antidote, it was given to Clarke to take to Finn. He would live another day. Althea was glad of that, but the method used to get to that point was not to be approved of. They should be ashamed.
At the sight of Octavia flinching away from Bellamy, Althea couldn't help but feel glad for that. Bellamy deserved it.
As he moved away, Althea walked over to her. She sunk down beside Octavia, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You saved him, don't let anyone take that away from you because I know Raven will try to."
"What they were doing to him, it was horrific. That's not who we are, Al," Octavia mumbles, shaking her head as she wrapped cloth around her bleeding arm.
"It's not who we are and it's not who we need to become, no matter what Bellamy and Clarke say."
