The light in the darkness (Octavia Blake)

Chapter 5

Ashley woke up in the forest the next morning, feeling like shit. Immediately, the memories of what went down the day before, flooded her brain. The light peeking through the trees blinded her for a moment, when she opened her eyes, causing her to cover her face with her arm. She looked around and after assuring herself that she was, in fact, alive, she tried to get up.

That turned out to not be as easy as she thought.

Her back and neck hurt so much, that she fell back into her place, before she could even get up. With a lot of hissing and cursing, she finally managed to get on her feet.

No matter what happened the previous evening, she decided that spending the night in the forest was fucking stupid.

She wandered back to camp and as soon as she stepped through the gate, she was engulfed in a hug by Jasper and Monty.

"Ashley, where have you been? We were freaking out" Monty said as he pulled away.

"Yeah, Octavia came back and even she was surprised that you weren't there. She just said that you two kinda fought and she had to cool off, so she left, but was sure that you're gonna go back. What the heck happened? Bellamy was just organising a search party" Jasper rambled.

"Wait, what?" Ashley asked, being kinda overwhelmed by everything.

"We went to see you this morning and you weren't in your tent. So, everyone started to get worried" Monty explained. "Octavia was freaked out...I think she feels bad for leaving you there" he added quietly.

Ashley looked around the camp and noticed Octavia leaving the dropship. When they made an eye contact, brunette froze in her spot and stared at her, like she didn't know what to do with herself. Just as Ashley was going to rush in her direction, Octavia turned around and disappeared in Bellamy's tent.

Yeah, for sure she was worried.

"Ashley! What the hell happened? Where have you been? Are you hurt?" Clarke appeared by blonde's side and put both of her hands on Ashley's shoulders to get a closer look at her.

Okay, that was just weird. Since when everybody cared so much? Ashley liked Clarke, of course, but they didn't spend too much time together, since their trip to Mount Weather.

"I'm-...I'm fine, Clarke, really. I think Octavia told you what happened. I just...wanted to be alone. But that was stupid, I'm sorry. I won't disappear like that again" Ashley explained. "I'm kinda tired now, I think I'll go rest. Sorry that I scared you guys" she said quietly and before anyone could say anything, she walked off in her tent's direction.

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Since their fight, Ashley and Octavia stopped talking with each other. Before Ashley came back to camp, Octavia took her things from their tent and moved out.

Yeah, it wasn't the best situation ever. Especially for Ashley. She started to distance herself from everyone, haunted by feeling of guilt and...she was just scared. Scared that she just lost someone she trusted with a big part of herself.

She spent more time in her tent, than outside and her friends started to get worried. Everytime they tried to talk to her about it, she changed the subject or ended the conversation. The truth was, even Ashley thought her behaviour was pathetic and that shame made her afraid of even trying to explain herself to anyone.

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Ashley was sitting in her tent and just basically doing nothing. As she did everyday for the last few days.

She heard someone’s footsteps outside her tent.

"Ashley, are you there?" Clarke asked.

Stupid question.