Fearless (Bellamy Blake - Book 1)

Chapter 59

I disregard the poisoned knife with fresh blood on its blade, throwing it to the metal floor behind us.

The Grounder stays silent, his body shaking with pain, whilst the others stay silent in what I assume to be shock.

"What's taking so long?" Raven emerges onto the level. "He stopped breathing."

My head whips around to face her as Clarke voices, "What?!"

"He started again but next time he might not." She stops Clarke from running down to him, and looks up at me, and then the Grounder.

"He won't tell us anything." Clarke says to her, my gaze shifting to Bellamy who sits on a nearby box, a remorseful look on his face.

Raven looks around, "Wanna bet?"

She moves past me and to the panel in the corner of the room, yanking out two wires that start to spark.

"What are you doing?" Bellamy jumps up to his feet, and I watch as the Grounder starts to squirm at the sight of the sparks.

"Showing him something new." Raven continues to spark the wires together near the Grounder, riling him up, and I realise she's right, he's probably never seen anything like this before.

He shuffles back on his feet as far as he can—which isn't far thanks to the chains—and cries out when Raven shocks him, the lights of the ship flickering.

"Which one is it!?"

Our prisoner breathes quickly and looks up around the room, pure fear on his face at the torture we're now putting him through.

"COME ON!"

Raven shocks him again, and I move forward a few steps, watching tears stream down Raven's face.

"Raven—"

"He's all I have!"

"NO MORE!" Octavia screams.

"He's letting Finn die!"

I turn and let my mouth hang agape and I watch Octavia hold the poisoned knife in the air. She reaches down and cuts her arm, dark blood covering her forearm.

"Octavia, no!" Bellamy yells at her, stepping forward.

"He won't let me die..." Her voice is quiet and knowing, as if she's willing to bet her life on the fact.

And she just did.

My forehead creases as I watch her move forward, dodging Bellamy.

"Octavia, what the hell did you do?" He asks.

She continues to ignore her brother and crouches down before the vials, and I watch with a hard face as the Grounder looks down at her, a new sort of pain in his eyes. She uses the knife to point to the vials, her breath coming out deep and shaky.

"Is it this one? Huh? Come on."

He stays silent, as do the rest of us.

We've done all we can. We've tortured him, sentenced him to death, and Octavia has now risked her own life.

Time suddenly seems to slow down, as the weight of this day, the weight of everything starts to bear down on me. I'm not even sure if I'm breathing, all I know is that my head feels like it's about it explode.

Finn is going to die, and so is Octavia. We won't ever recover from this...not me, not Bellamy or Raven or Clarke...none of us.

Then, clearly not wanting young, innocent Octavia Blake to die, the Grounder slowly, painfully, inclines his head to one of the vials.

"This one?" She holds the vial up to him and he nods.

I blink in surprise and release a breath. She did it. She actually did it.

This Grounder doesn't even care about his own life...but he does about Octavia's.

Octavia quickly hands the vial to Clarke, who rushes down the ladder with Raven following. She then uses the Grounder's disregarded shirt to wrap around her bleeding arm as Bellamy leans down to her.

"O..."

"Don't touch me!" She flinches away from him, causing Bellamy to take a step back in hurt.

I take a couple of steps forward to follow after Clarke as too many thoughts and hope suddenly race through my head, but when I look down the length of the ladder, a new kind of dizziness hits me.

The ladder spins from side to side and the noises of the other delinquents reach my ears, creating a nauseating ringing in my head.

I groan and clench my eyes closed tight as a sharp pain stabs at my brain, deep into my skull. I start grabbing onto my hair with so much force it feels like I might pull it out. I want to pull it out, just to make it stop.

Multiple voices surround me, but they sound hazy, they sound like blurs. I stumble backwards to avoid going head first down the ladder, and start to fall, never quite reaching the floor, but the action sends my mind into a deep sleep.