No Way Out ➵ John Murphy

13 //

THIRTEEN.
❝it's hard for me to communicate
the thoughts that i hold.❞

Layla stood outside the throne room as Jaha entered, ready to accuse the new commander, Ontari, of being untrue. For some reason, Jaha had asked her to stay behind—an unusual request from him, who usually wanted her at his beck and call.

It had something to do with her personally, she knew that. "Her will is not as strong as Raven's," he said to A.L.I.E while she had been pretending to sleep. "But it is there. It's hidden down deep inside—but I'm afraid he might trigger it."

Layla had kept her eyes shut, feeling uncomfortable hearing them discuss her while they thought she was unconscious, but too awkward to speak up in any way. Who was this ominous he and why didn't they trust her? These questions would never be answered, hardly any of her curiosities ever were; she had started not to ask anymore.

She tugged on her Grounder attire, her skin chafing against the rough fabric. It did not hurt, only irritated, but she had nothing else to focus on as she had been abandoned in the empty hallway.

The double doors to the throne room opened, creaking on their hinges, and three figures exited. Layla stood up straighter, expecting the companions she had arrived with.

It wasn't them. It was two of the Commander's
guards and in the middle a smaller man, who was caught in their iron grip. The man turned to her, giving her a peculiar look.

Layla mirrored his expression, cocking her head to the side to inspect him better—he was strikingly familiar yet no name would form in her mind.

"Layla? You got to be fucking with me," the man chuckled darkly, shaking his shaggy hair out of his eyes. "You're still following that psycho around?"

"Do I know you?" She asked, hoping he could clarify the familiarity she felt between them.

"Don't play with me," he said, but his lips pursed into a thin line and he took a long pause. "You're not playing with me, are you?"

She shook her head. "No. Why would I be?"

"You ate the chip? You really took the chip?" His voice was raspy and it held a certain tenderness in it that Layla couldn't understand being aimed at her—he sounded as if he was concerned and maybe even upset about the words he had just uttered.

"I did," she said slowly, nodding. "But who are you exactly?"

All his tenderness was gone when he spoke again. "No one. Forget it—I thought you were someone else."

The guards pushed him foreword and he stumbled for split second before regaining his balance. "Enough talking," they barked at him.

They guided the man down the hall, Layla watched his retreating figure closely until he was out of sight completely. His words had left her flustered—if he had thought she was someone else, why would he have called her Layla? She had heard him say her name, clearly, as it seemed to effortlessly roll off his tongue, like he had said it many times before.

She debated following him, sneaking through the corridors, and trailing the guards just to press him further on what he had said. But her legs wouldn't move, it was as if they were cemented in the floor below; half of her seemed to be arguing with the other half, one part of her overly intrigued by the mystery man and the other part that commanded she stay put that told her he meant absolutely nothing no matter what he had to say.

Soon the guards were too far that Layla couldn't even hear their footfalls hit the stone, and it seemed her decision had been made for her, no credit could be placed on her fickle mind.

A.L.I.E returned to her before Jaha. Her calm, emotionless eyes bore into Layla's. The sight of the familiar woman cleared Layla's heads, all conflicting thoughts dissipating into nothing.

"Is something bothering you, Layla?" Her smile dripped with false affection—the few times Layla had caught a glimpse of her own reflection, her expressions were the same: void of real warmth. "You have a longer adjustment process than most—you still harbour negative feelings inside. They'll pass eventually."

Layla nodded, not remembering what had bothered her in the first place. The moments prior to A.L.I.E's return had all vanished, only existing now as a vague blur.

The woman laid a reassuring hand on the younger girl's shoulder. Gentely, Layla shook off the woman's embrace, feeling uncomfortable being touched by her suddenly.

Layla stared straight ahead, admiring each groove in the wall before her. In her peripheral vision she could see A.L.I.E's displeased expression but Layla remained unfazed—for the moment at least.

Something had shaken her after seeing the nameless man, held in the rough hands of Polis's guards—for a moment, she had forgotten their brief meeting, but as she stepped away from A.L.I.E, the incident flashed into her mind once again. A simple question ate at her—who was he? Her brain moved a mile a minute, trying to tag a memory to his face she was somehow acquainted with or just his name, if nothing else.

It was not a coincidence that he was incredibly dismayed at the mere sight of her, and by his modernized attire the man was of Skikru. She thought for a moment maybe they had just known each other in passing, just two delinquents thrown to the ground, but that train of thought didn't last long. His reaction to her was strong, emotional—not a reaction of an almost stranger. Yet, he was static in her mind. Fuzzy. Nothingness.

Her brain nagged at her, not allowing her to let their meeting go. It urged her to investigate further, to hunt down the answers. But A.L.I.E watched her with narrowed eyes, as if reading Layla's mind and not liking what she found. Such a look made Layla second guess her brains initial response, not wanting to anger her companion who had led her into a painless, stress-free life.

Though, it seemed Layla's curiosity could not be simmered as she stared down the empty hall the familiar man had just been dragged down and had disappeared into nothing—just like he was nothing in her brain.

QUESTION: Should I do Murphy's POV? I was going to do all Part 2 in his POV but I just couldn't find his voice.

Also, this might be slightly AU because I did not take to Season 4 of The 100, it actually really disappointed me from the beginning so I'm not sure if I'll stop this story before season 4 stops or do my own spin on things, so you've been warned.

Thanks for all the response to this story, I LOVE U ALL.