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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
T H I R T Y S E V E N
Althea only came out of her tent when she heard the crowd of people shouting and cheering. Walking over to the crowd, her steps get a lot quicker when she sees Bellamy stood there, standing over a pile of guns with his usual smirk.
The crowd was dispersing now. She must have missed their speech, of sorts, but she was glad she did. That wasn't what she'd come out here for. A part of her came out here to see if what she'd dreamt came true, but there he was, stood there unharmed.
Althea pushes through the thin crowd, stepping into the space and towards him. When he sees her, he's unsure of what to say, but the smile on her lips means he doesn't have to. She'd settled, like he knew she would.
Without a word, Althea wraps her arms around him. Instinctively, he holds her into him just hoping that this meant he was forgiven.
"I'm glad you're ok," She breathes, resting her head against his chest. Her fingers press into his back as she hugs him, but it was something he never knew he would treasure. It meant he was cared about. That was irreplaceable.
"What?"
"I saw it," She whispers, pulling back from the embrace, but her hands stay on his sides. "I saw him trying to kill you." Bellamy frowns at her, but she carries on talking. "It doesn't matter, I'm just glad you didn't die."
She was unnerving when she talked like that. Like what she was saying didn't matter because it wasn't the true outcome. It was terrifying to know that she could be keeping the potential to save someone's life a secret, if she was telling the truth. If she really could see potential death, then why hadn't she saved anyone yet?
That was a question only she could answer, but was not willing to. She didn't think she owed anyone the answers why because she herself found it difficult to come to those answers on her own. She couldn't imagine having to say them out loud. That was something that truly stuck her immobile.
She didn't want to think about it, so she never did. Whether or not that was a valid tactic, only time would tell.
-
It was late and everyone Althea was comfortable enough to talk to was gone, leaving her to sit with her drink looking up at the stars. They were comforting, to an extent, just knowing that they were up there looking down on the world with their shining eyes and hopeful hearts, ignorant to the reality of the brutality of the Earth and its people.
They were awful creatures, but the stars still shone upon them with all they had. Whether it was ignorance or because it was what they simply had to do was another argument, but Althea still sat and appreciated their beauty because she could and so she did.
In her stargazing solitude, she found herself thinking of Murphy once more. She wondered is he was alive and looking at the stars just like she was, but why would he look at the stars when he was in danger? Althea presses her lips together. That wasn't what she wanted to think about when she thought of him. She wanted to think about the good times they'd spent together that the stars would be proud to illuminate.
Sometimes, she wished that she'd gone with him, but that was a reckless thought. If she'd gone with him, she might have died. It was foolish to think such a thing, but when you care too much you blame yourself and remind yourself of all the things you could've done to help. The possibilities were endless and she couldn't help but hate herself for not trying harder.
A distraction came in the form of the Exodus ship from the Ark. It ran through the sky, past the stars who reached out to touch it as it passed by, and ran too fast. It had no parachute, it was not slowing down.
It hit the ground, exploding and killing everyone on board. Althea felt a wave of horror as the smoke of the explosion curled into the night sky, choking the stars to death.
END OF PART TWO
-
712 words that's the end of part two! part three marks murphy coming back so that's going to be fun/sad to write because of althea's reaction which I have planned. hopefully everyone stuck around for part two because I know there was no murphy in it and this is a murphy fic, but it's a key part of althea's character development.
there will be a q&a for this part, the chapter to leave questions on will follow this part, thank you!
