❝I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? No point wishing you could change it.❞
Elissa Bardot-Gray was never the one to be classified as a "rule breaker". She had a high-rankin...
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STARING AT THE scene in front of her, Elissa took a shaky breath, shock rushing through her. The hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end; her stomach twisting around itself and knotting up, the unpleasant feeling reminiscent of taking a punch to the gut—chest aching, breath frozen in her lungs
Who...How could anyone do this?
Jasper was strung up in a tree, skin sickly and ashen, covered in a shimmering sheen of sweat. His hands had been bound tightly above his head with rough looking rope, his head sagging lifelessly against the crook of his elbow. His body was held up by nothing but the rope fastened around his hips, keeping his body from falling away. Chest bare, his thin, wiry torso was on full display, the shirt and jacket he'd been wearing when he left the dropship were nowhere in sight.
Her eyes were drawn to the center of his chest, just to the right of his sternum, where a green paste of...something was smeared; the area surrounding it was red, either from residual blood or inflammation, she wasn't sure and she wasn't the only one in shock. She heard the sharp intakes of breath from Clarke, Finn, and Wells as they came up behind her. Murphy and Blake stood tense beside her, their shoulders rigid as they stared up at Jasper; clearly just as troubled about what they'd found as everyone else.
A shaky breath escaped Elissa when Jasper gave a low, pained moan, head shifting slightly and his eyelids flittered a moment before he stilled once again. His chest moved, and she frowned when she took note of how labored each breath was, each lungful seeming to take great effort.
Shock slowly faded into slight relief. They'd found him. They'd found Jasper, and as of right now, he was alive.
He's alive...and that's something we can work with.
But with the feeling of relief came the awareness that finding Jasper had been too simple, too easy. He'd pretty much been strung up and handed to them...all after someone had gone to the effort of putting a spear through his chest in the first place. This entire thing could be a trap, a cynical voice whispered in the back of her mind. Hurt one of us, let us know that he's alive, and we all followed back like a faithful bunch of lemmings to the slaughter.
The thought set her on edge. Almost unwillingly, her eyes flickered away from Jasper's body, and she studied the rest of the clearing, looking for any sign of a trap, or of whoever had left Jasper there for them to find.
The large tree he was tied to was set at the far side of the small clearing, the area between littered with leaves, dead grass and foliage. Everything else was covered in chest heigh grass, the tips swaying slightly as a gentle breeze moved through the trees.
Nothing. No movement, no signs of anyone else in the area. In fact, there was no indication that anyone had been in the area at all. Ever.
Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned slightly to find Blake scanning the area as well, brows furrowed warily as his dark eyes flickered around the clearing. She was glad that she wasn't the only one who found the whole thing suspicious.
