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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F I F T Y -
One of Altheas earliest memories was a nightmare she had when she was young. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary for a child, but she remembered it well and sometimes it would come back and taunt her as she slept, but today that nightmare was meaningless.
Children don't, and should never, know fear like she felt that day as she crouched beside Octavia, dagger in hand and heart in her mouth. Red, bleeding black, impaled by feathers. They were children, and yet they knew fear. They knew it better than most. Earth Skills didn't teach them how to fight for their lives against the unknown residents of the ground. The ground needed a lot more than a class to survive it.
Althea felt fear coursing through her blood, intertwining with adrenaline, as it all became very real, very quickly. There was relief as Bellamy was saved by his baby sister, seconds away from his death. Althea mistakenly took a moment to take a breath, but it was cut short as the arrow plunged itself into Octavia.
It was as if everything slowed as Octavia's body jolted from the shock, from the pain. Althea barely registered what happened next, but Octavia was in the arms of her brother as he promised her she was going to be ok and that they were going to get her back to camp.
As brave as ever, she refused and told him she would find another way. She was a tough nut to crack and maybe she really was born to be a warrior. She certainly had the resolve of one. Althea noted that as she crouched down beside her, taking her shaking hand in both of hers.
"You're going to be ok, O, you're going to be perfect," Althea promised her, and she knew better than anyone what promises meant.
But sometimes they just made the other feel better about dying.
The sound of shouting flooded their ears. They didn't know what, or who, it was, but that didn't matter. It was a distraction and it was exactly what they needed to save Octavia.
Althea barely took her eyes off Octavia as she and Bellamy argued about making it back into camp, not even registering the emergence of Lincoln and Jaya.
"I can help you," He said, crouching down next to them. "But you have to come with me now." The offer, Althea could see, was tearing Bellamy up. But he wasn't selfish, nor was he a fool. He wanted her to live, no, he wanted her to thrive. And so he let her go.
"Go, let him help," Bellamy told her, his eyes already brimming with tears.
Silently, Althea put a hand on his arm. This wasn't her moment; she didn't intent to intrude. She stood, stepping away.
Visibly, Jaya tensed as Althea came to stand beside her. They shared a look, Althea holding her eyes for longer than the grounder would've liked. Althea found something... off about her. Not in a horrid way, but in a way that felt off balance, off centre. Like something was missing and the part that remained was weighing one side of her down.
Of course, Octavia protested. Giving up wasn't her strong point, but it wasn't hard for her brother to persuade her, with the added help from Lincoln.
"May we meet again," Bellamy told her, but it felt more like a promise.
"May we meet again," Octavia replied.
Bellamy looked to Althea. "Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid," He said, a slight smirk gracing his lips. She was going to miss that, as much as she hated to admit it.
Althea almost smiled too. "Of course," She promised, meaning every word she said to him as the battle raged on around them, crushing in fierce and fast. "May we meet again."
"May we meet again," He said, turning away and both hoping that this was not the final time they saw the other.
"She's coming too?" Jaya questioned with a sneer, gesturing her blade to Althea.
"I'm coming. Octavia is all I have left, so try to stop me from staying by her side when she's hurt," Althea told her, stepping forward slightly. Both women looked to Lincoln. He nodded and that was all that needed to be done. They didn't have the time to stand there and argue, not with the grounders out for their blood.
"We need to get moving," Lincoln said, and there was no question to that. They struck on through the forest, slipping between trees and bushes, away from the fight.
Althea could've sunk to the floor and sobbed in thankfulness for her survival, but the sound of an enormous explosion reached them as they were running. She stopped dead in her tracks, knowing it immediately.
"Ring of fire," She whispered, clutching her throat. "They did it." And she felt the tears streaming down her face as she toppled to the ground, streaming as she was yanked back to her feet by Jaya, who proceeded to bark in her face to keep running, and streaming as she ran once more.
She knew what it was now. What she'd dreamt about for years, and for once it was a prediction of death that benefitted her and those she knew, instead of shattering their reality into millions of tiny fragments.
And she hoped and prayed that as many of the hundred as possible made it out of that fight alive. Death was death, but it hurt so much more when it was someone you didn't know if you could live without.
That was why Althea opted out of the fight, choosing to stay with Octavia. She was the only one who stuck by her, not leaving her behind for romances, selfish desires, or broken promises. She was a stable factor, and Althea needed that in her life, if she was going to get anywhere at all in becoming someone who could stand against the storm, not crumple in its arms.
The options were fight or die, and Althea chose fight.
Fight until her limbs ached and her lungs screamed like the crows in the trees, tormenting and laughing as she fell into the ground, dead.
