At last

Chapter Thrity Two

Clarke's point of view

And so, we set off into the woods to calm ourselves down.
Well, it was mostly Bellamy that needed to let off some steam. I was just tagging along.
Bellamy was the most carefree that I had ever seen him. His chattiness reminded me of an energetic child.
"So," Bellamy started after a rare few seconds of silence, "if you were outside in the first few years after Praimfaya, how did you not grow, like, an extra nose?"
I snorted in amusement. "A nose?"
He huffed, "It was an example!"
I laughed at his flustered tone, only for him to prompt me again, "Stop laughing and answer my question!"
"I have nightblood, Bellamy. It was made to withstand certain levels of radiation." I elbowed his arm playfully, "You know this!"
"I was just wondering!" He noticed me beginning to slow down and sobered for a moment, concerned, "Hey, are you okay?"
My leg had been beginning to hurt, and I didn't want to push myself too far just in case the wound opened again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just rest for a moment, okay?"
We sat at the base of a nearby tree. I watched as Bellamy - who was currently seated in front of me with his legs sprawled in front of him - plucked a piece of grass from the ground and began to fidget with it, weaving it in between his fingers as he launched into another story.
"Back in the dropship days, I was out on a hunting mission with the guys one time, right? I remember I was in a tree," he paused at this, furrowing his brows, "... for some reason. Anyways I was in this tree and I just happened to glance down and what do I see? A giant goddamned spider heading straight for my hand! It was pure black and it had hair all over it, these giant fangs, and like ten beady little eyes..." he shivered at the memory.
I cut in, laughing, "Afraid of spiders?"
He glared at me, "No! It's just that this one was huge and it was heading straight for me!"
I raised an eyebrow, smiling in amusement.
He sighed in defeat, "Alright, fine. I'm scared of spiders." He was quick to launch into an explanation, "But only the big ones! I'm not scared of the small spiders."
Clearing his throat, he continued, "So this demon spider was coming at me, yeah? I swear to God I almost had a heart attack and my first instinct was to get the hell out of that tree. And so, I jumped."
I frowned.
He raised his hands in mock-surrender, "Hey, it was stupid, but I was genuinely terrified and I panicked. I wasn't even high up."
"Excuses, excuses. Go on."
Bellamy shot me a look, but he obeyed anyways, "So when I jumped out of that tree and landed looking like I had just seen a ghost, my guys were obviously wondering what the hell happened. Being the testosterone-controlled 23 year old that I was in those days, I played it cool and told them that the branch I was on had broke. Somehow, they believed me, and that was the end of it. Except, that night, I had this crazy dream that I was the spider. I was running around camp and biting people until someone - I think it was you, actually - stepped on me. I woke up at the crack of dawn feeling weirded out and itchy."
I burst out laughing at his ridiculous memory, and he joined in. Once we had calmed down, I looked up at the night sky. "We should get heading back to camp. We don't want any spiders attacking us out here," I teased.
Bellamy rolled his eyes, smiling, "Fine. But you'd better not tell anyone about my fear of spiders."
I gave him a challenging grin, "Or else?"
He leaned in, "Or else I'll get your mom to tell me some of your embarrassing childhood stories and I won't fail to remind you and anyone else of them whenever I can." He gave me a wink and jumped to his feet, darting out of my reach as I tried to give his shoulder a slap.
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On our way back to camp, we were halted by the sound of footsteps and scuffling to our right. Quieting down and peering through the bushes, we caught sight of a feminine figure illuminated by the moonlight, her back to us. She was seemingly... burying something.
Bellamy and I watched, exchanging confused glances until the woman finally covered the hole and patted it down, gathering a few fallen leaves and twigs to hide the upturned dirt.
As she turned to cast a few glances around her, the moonlight caught her features and I immediately recognized her.
Echo.
I heard Bellamy's sharp intake of breath beside me.
We waited until Echo had headed towards camp to hurry into the clearing. Bellamy got on his knees to uncover whatever Echo had buried.
The glint of the light hitting a metallic object was unmistakable. Bellamy's hands shook as he slowly lifted the object out of the  hole.
It was a knife. My hunting knife, specifically. Still stained with my black blood.
Bellamy ran his trembling fingers over my initials that I had carved into the handle, and then dropped the knife to the ground as if it had burned him.
We sat in silence for short while, staring at my knife. The solid evidence of my stabbing.
"I knew it," Bellamy stated, beginning to nod at the knife without looking at me. His tone held an ominous edge. "The way she refused to even look at you, the way she went out of her way to avoid you. And then, earlier today, I told her I had to help you out of the rover because you're hurt and she actually had the nerve to say that you weren't injured enough. Yet, I was still stupid enough to have my doubts."
I listened to his rambling silently. I could sense the anger boiling within him, and I knew that he was going to burst at any moment.
"You know, I thought that she had actually changed. Damn it, I seriously thought that I was in love with her, Clarke." He forcefully swallowed, "I was wrong. She never changed, after all of this time." I watched as he balled his hands into fists, still speaking calmly, "She lied to all of us. Tried to kill you, the person that she knows that I can't properly function without, all because she was jealous."
His teeth clenched, muttering, "She tried to kill you," over and over again.
I could tell that he was losing it, and I moved closer to him, my hand comfortingly rubbing his back. "Bellamy-"
I was cut off by him pulling away from me, grabbing the knife as he stood and ran off in the direction that Echo had disappeared in.
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