Survival Instinct » John Murphy

Promise

Chapter 6

Moments later, I finally headed off to check on Thea. I needed to know how she was. Thea was like a sister to me. Someone I could always trust no matter what. She was family to me.

Once I entered her room, I saw she was laying in her bed. She was asleep. I slowly walked over to her before sitting down by her side. I put my hand over her's and waited for her to wake up. I noticed her wound that had been bandaged up to stop the bleeding, causing me to feel rage to remember Zachary. His stupid face was stuck in my brain as I couldn't believe how blind I was to not see he was going to betray us. I knew something was off about him from the moment I met him but I always shrugged it off, pretending it was just the fact that I didn't like him. Perhaps I knew all along that he was going to betray us. Perhaps I saw the betrayal in his face the whole time and I just looked away. Either way, it was my fault.

A few minutes had past before she suddenly awoke. She smiled as she saw me and I smiled back, glad to see she was okay.

"Hey," Thea said.

"Hey. Glad to see you're okay," I said.

"What can I say? I'm a survivor," Thea said.

"Indeed you are," I said.

She continued to smile at me before tears began to form in my eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Thea. It should have been me. I should have been the one shot by an arrow. Zachary was annoyed at me. He didn't like my rules. You had nothing to do with it," I explained.

Thea suddenly sat up.

"Hey, hey. Its fine. I'm okay. I swear it. You have nothing to be sorry for," Thea said.

I nodded before smiling and brushing my tears away.

"So glad you're okay," I said.

"Me too," Thea said.

"How's Oriana and Ace?" I asked.

"They're good. After we arrived, they stayed with me in surgery before heading out to hunt. They told Lexa about the ambush and about Murphy," Thea said.

"Yeah, they locked John up until Lexa can figure out what to do with him," I said.

"Can I ask you something?" Thea asked.

"Sure," I answered.

"Do you have feelings for Murphy?" Thea asked.

"I care about him. That's all. I hate the fact that he's been locked up. I tried my best to convince Lexa that he was no threat but, she didn't listen. I'm going to keep trying but at the moment, I'm powerless. Lexa doesn't want this to be like what happened with Roan but, its not like that. I loved Roan but that was a mistake. Love is weakness," I explained.

"Or is it strength. Maybe Lexa was wrong. Maybe love isn't weakness. Maybe it can save us all," Thea suggested.

"Maybe that's true but, I won't make that mistake again. I will not love again. I can't," I said.

Thea nodded, understanding why before I finally left her to get some rest. She understood why I couldn't love again. Roan had broken my heart. I loved him and he betrayed me. Lexa lost her girlfriend because of me. She loved her so much and she lost her, simply because of the man I loved. She suffered because of me, causing me to suffer. I hated the pain I caused Lexa, which was why I couldn't love again. Never again.

Some hours later, I finally found an excuse to go see John. An excuse that even Lexa couldn't fight me on. Food. And so I headed down to the cells with his tray of food in hand. I wasn't allowed in the cell and so I had to slide the tray under the bars to hand it to him. There wasn't a lot of food, just a piece of bread and some meat. Barely enough to feed dogs but John took it with a smile and accepted some water I handed to him.

"Sorry there isn't a lot there," I said as I sat down on the ground in front of him.

"That's okay. Its more than I expected," John stated.

"I should've helped more. I should've done something," I said.

"What more could you've done? You did everything you could," John said.

"I'll get you out of here, John. I promise you that," I said.

"I know you will," John said.

I then put my hand to the gate and he did the same, letting our hands touch only slightly through the bars. I smiled at him and he smiled back before I suddenly heard the guard, Ansel, call my name.

"Time's up Freya," Ansel said from the top of the stairs.

I looked at the stairs for a moment before back at John.

"I have to go," I said.

"You'll come back, right?" John asked.

"Of course I will. In the meantime, I'm going to try and get you out of here. Stay strong, I'll be back soon," I said.

"See you then," John said.

I smiled before finally removing my hand and getting up to leave the cells. Taking one look back at John and smiled before heading back up the stairs, leaving John alone in his cell...