the damned → the 100 ¹

[ 028 ] one thing leads to another.

— CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT,
one thing leads to another.

THEY'RE BACK WHERE THEY WERE BEFORE. Lincoln is restrained where has been once before. Only this time his torture isn't physical but mental.

His eyes see straight through the two girls that sit against the wall farthest away from him.

He's an animal acting on pure instinct. Changed and tainted by a drug made by monsters. Oh, how the drug had much more to play.

Ruby and Octavia wait for Bellamy's return with the two people he'd left to fetch from the camp. Amara and Clarke. Ruby worries about Amara's reaction to seeing the man in this state. She knows how much Lincoln means to her.

It's only fifteen more minutes until they arrive. The sound of people climbing up the latter catches their attention. Ruby turns her head to see blonde hair appearing at the ladder. Clarke's head appears. Her eyes land on Lincoln. She keeps her stunned eyes locked on him as she finishes the climb.

When Lincoln sees the new-comer he lets out an enraged roar.

Amara appears next. Her whole world slows when she sees Lincoln, the man who's becomes her brother. Her brown eyes threaten to fill with tears but she doesn't allow herself to show weakness in front of him. This is not the man she loves. This isn't her Lincoln. No. This is the monster their parents told them about. This is the monster Amara's mother told her would take her from her bed if she misbehaved.

It wasn't something that hadn't happened before.

Bellamy rejoins them and immediately sees the looks on Clarke and Amara's faces. "It's okay, it's okay. He's restrained." He informs them.

"I can't believe we're back here again." Clarke mumbles to herself.

"Can you help him?" Octavia asks the question she so desperately wants to know the answer to. The room is silenced as Lincoln lets out a horrible scream.

Amara's eyes turn to Clarke in hope for an answer. Clarke only shakes her head and says, "I don't know."

Clarke takes a step forward. Ruby keeps a cautious eye on her and Lincoln, knowing if Clarke got too close something terrible could happen. "I knew Mount Weather controlled the Reapers. I had no idea they were creating them."

"If they can do that to Lincoln, what are they doing to our friends?" Bellamy questions.

Terrible things.

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Ryland Daniels sits on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed he shares with Miller. His cocoa eyes are puffy and red rimmed. Deep purple bags rest under them from the lack of sleep. His knuckles are bruised and cut up from where he'd taken his anger out on a nearby wall.

His eyes are empty.

So is his heart.

He lost his best friends, his sisters, his girls. His other halves are gone, dead. He'll never hear them laugh again and he'll never see their smiles. He'll never get to grow old with them and name them the godmothers of his children. Every plan they ever had is gone now. Just like them.

The only people he speaks to is Monty, Jasper, Harper, and Miller.

And when Jasper came to Ryland about Mount Weather having Grounders locked in cages the boy didn't hesitate to agree to Jasper's plan because he knew that's what Ruby would have done.