FROZEN STARS THREE ❝ we look up at the same stars and see such different things. ❞
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THE STARS were in the sky by the time Marley emerged from the dropship. Their cold white light twinkled harshly against the pitch black backdrop - a hauntingly beautiful ghost of something that once was alive and thriving within the vast expanse of the universe. The moon was full too. It peaked through the trees, its borrowed silvery light beaming down onto the ground from so far above.
A large fire had been lit close to a clearing in the trees; it was a little away from the dropship itself and the site in which the tents had been erected. Around it grouped the delinquents - aside from one or two - who were all cheering and dancing under the shimmering moonlight.
Marley had found her way back to the rock she'd been sat on earlier with Jasper and Monty. She'd been toying with the idea of joining the group over by the crackling fire - but, as she'd idly twirled a small straggly strand of her brown hair around her fingers, she'd decided against it. She still felt a little shaken up over the whole Tate situation. She was now watching from afar, watching as one by one the hundred teenagers stepped closer to the fire and to Bellamy Blake who was leading whatever meeting or celebration was occurring. He'd smirk at them before taking his knife to their wrist. It alarmed Marley at first before she'd heard the cracking of metal and realised that the group were prying off the tightly bound metal wristbands fixed around their arms.
"Who's next?" She heard him call out as a small black haired girl retreated back into the crowd, the cheers subsiding slightly as she did so.
Marley looked down at her own wristband - she hadn't realised, but the skin around it was still red and tender as she ran her finger along the exposed part of her wrist. It was sore to the touch and she winced as she brushed her thumb over the reddened skin.
"What are they doing?" A voice asked from behind her. Whoever it was sounded angry and his tone of voice made Marley jump a little; it set her on edge as a dark-skinned boy came into view. She recognised him - Chancellor Jaha's son, Wells, she was pretty sure of that.
"I, um, I think they're taking off their wristbands," she replied. The brunette eyed Wells' face as it twisted into one of anger; his eyes were fixed on the cheering crowd as another girl stepped up, offering out her wrist for the leader of the delinquents to pry off her bracelet.
"How could they be so stupid?" He grumbled, more to himself than to Marley before he stormed off towards the fire. She was a little scared as he went; she expected there to be a full-blown fight. After all, he and the boy who seemed to be Bellamy's right-hand man - the very same boy who'd been stood alongside Tate when he'd grabbed her earlier - had got into a fight a little earlier when they'd first landed on the ground. "What the hell are you doing?"
