A/N: Quick thing that I forgot to explain before posting the fist chapter – I will not be following the main plot, but making one of my own. All of the characters that appear in my story will, for the most part, have the same personality as on the show with the exception of Murphy, who you will get to see a softer side to, and Harper, who is not a very popular character that - one that no one knows much about, so I am going to be making her out to be the mean girl. Just wanted to clear that up in order to prevent any future confusion. ;)


Chapter 2

Ella Pov

"So, I saw you talking to Miller earlier," said Murphy, looking down at Ella. "You're not ditching me for another guy are you?"

Ella blushed, not taking her eyes off of the path before her that had been cut threw the forest from weeks of hunting. They had been walking for over two hours and had yet to catch anything to bring back to camp.

"You don't care if I spend hours on end talking to Jasper and Monty."

"Please, Jasper and Monty are completely harmless, they couldn't get a girl to save their lives. Miller on the other hand," here he broke off, seeming unsure on how to finish his train of thought. "You should just be careful."

"I really don't think that you have anything to worry about when it comes to me and dating. I couldn't get a guy to save my life."

Murphy shook his head at this. "You have the lowest self esteem of any man, women or child alive, you really do. Can't you see how beautiful you are? Every time you walk threw camp, guys swarm around you, pining after you like lost puppies."

Ella stared at him, trying to figure out whether or not he was messing with her, but she only found honesty, and a little embarrassment in his expression. It caught her off guard for a moment but she soon recovered, eyes trained back on the path, her mouth turning up slightly.

"I'm just saying, I've just turned seventeen and I've never been in any kind of romantic relationship - I mean I must be doing something wrong."

Murphy regarded her with considerate eyes. "You don't put yourself out there enough, you're too shy."

Scrunching her nose, Ella scanned the trees, in search of squirrels.

"I just like being on my own," Ella said quietly. "-Or with you – I like being with you," she added quickly, snapping her head back to look at him, smiling.

"Thanks, I'm glad you said that as an after thought," he said sarcastically under his breath.

Ella giggled and looped an arm threw one of his.

"Don't worry, you're stuck with me."

He ruffled her hair, pulling her closer so that he could wrap his arm around her waist, the action effecting Ella more than she would like to admit.

The sudden rustle of leaves made both of them freeze in their tracks. Murphy nudged Ella's arm and they both started heading towards the sound, knives out and ready.

A squirrel suddenly burst from the underbrush, scurrying towards a tree. Once it made it up the trunk a little ways reaching eye level, Murphy let his knife loose, hurling it for the squirrel and burying itself deep in the trunk right under it.

Ella scoffed beside him as it ran up into the branches and out of site. Murphy walked over to the tree and yanked it back out, pivoting on his heels to face her.

"What?" he said with a smirk. "Think you can do better?"

"Oh no, of course not," she said, throwing her hands in the air as if she were trying to calm a savage dog.

A sly smile spread across his face as he walked towards her – a predator stalking its prey. Her stomach clenched at the feral glint in his eyes and she quickly spun around laughing as she dashed back threw the woods, hearing Murphy's heavy steps chancing her.


Raven Pov

Stepping out into the warm daylight brought much relief to Raven's strained eyes. She had been working on the bullets that Bellamy had brought back for her to inspect - hours of nothing but opening a bullet, checking the gun powder inside to see if they were still able to be used and then tossing it into the right container – a cycle that never seemed to end as her body went on auto pilot - one right after the other, after the other, after the other.

She breathed in the fresh air around her before heading right for the food table where two of the boys who were left behind while the others went hunting stood sorting berries and nuts.

"Hey Monty, stuck working the food table again I see," she said, turning around and hopping up to sit on the end of the table.

"Better than working the meat shack. I'll take a boring job any day over bleeding raw meat."

Raven smiled and popped a berry into her mouth, the juices exploding against her tongue. She very vividly remembered Monty's first experience with working in the meat shack. He had been completely white the entire time the blood was draining, with the last straw being having to dump the bucket of blood out in the bushes. He had puked all over the place, and was unable to eat anything the rest of the day and eventually having to go to bed before the sun even started to set.

Tilting her head up to the sun, she laughed as the images of a wrenching Monty came to her head.

"Although, I would much rather be helping you with the bullets," he said under his breath.

At that she rolled her head to the side to peer over at him, bringing a flush to his face.

"I mean, I know that you have a lot of work, and seem as if you could really use the help. Ever since Jasper got upgraded to the "big leagues", I've had to work on most of the technical projects on my own and I know how mentally strenuous it can be," he babbled, his cheeks burning bright red.

The corner of Raven's mouth twitched, knowing full well that Monty had a crush on her. Sure, she was still with Finn, and yeah, it was probably a bad idea to lead him on, but there was something very flattering in knowing that someone could get that worked up just by having a casual conversation with you.

"No, your absolutely right, I could use some help. Maybe I can talk to Bell and ask him if someone could take your place here."

Monty looked at her hopefully, some of the awkwardness leaving him as he returned to his work after getting yelled at by James – one of Bell's supervisors.

"Don't you have something better to do? Or did you come out here just so that you could distract my workers?" asked James, approaching Raven with determined steps, a snarl gracing his lips.

Raven rolled her eyes and hopped off the table, brushing her pants off.

"Spare me your hissy fight James," she said in a bored voice, skating around him.

He grabbed her arm and spun her back around to face him with dangerous eyes, the light green of his irises turning a shade or two darker. He whipped his long blond hair that almost reached past his shoulders out of his eyes with a flick of his head.

"Let go of me," she snarled, trying to yank her arm free.

A slow smile that didn't quite reach his eyes spread across his lips as he looked her up and down in a way that had her blood boiling.

"I don't think so sweet pea. You know what I think? I think that you need a little lesson on following authority," he whispered in her ear.

A shiver when down her spine at his words, but her eyes never left his, unwilling to let him see her fear. She was not the first girl to encounter this side of the boy and had heard many stories about how he had made it into the Skybox.

She had heard all about how he had been sent there for raping one of his sisters friends as well as beating a girl almost to death. Why Bellamy had put him in charge of supervising all activities in the camp when Miller was not there to do it was beyond her.

"Let her go James."

A momentary look of surprise came over the boys face at the sound of Monty's voice behind him - one that matched her own. Monty was never one for speaking up in even the worst of situations.

The look quickly past, replaced by one of boredom as he regarded the shorter boy.

"Stay out of this pipsqueak," said James, before drawing his attention back to Raven.

Raven immediately tried to fight her way out of his strong grasp again, which was starting to cut off her circulation. She was sure that she was going to have a bruise in the morning.

His grip was like a steel wall. He wasn't even bothering to make another move on her, but regarded her with a look of lazy amusement at her struggle. This only made her angrier, and she redoubled her efforts, striking out with her other fist, but to no avail as the other boy was a good head taller than her, a pure wall of muscle.

Monty made a move as if to help her, but was easily held back by James's other hand before he pushed him hard to the ground, taking that moment to spin her around, facing away from him to grab her other arm so that her back was held tight against his front.

"Trust me sweat pea – fighting is only going to make it worse."

Just as he finished that sentence, the gates opened and the team of hunters came funneling back into camp. Bellamy and Miller entered first, a string of squirrels and a rabbit in hand followed by a very dirty Jasper, with Murphy and Ella close behind, empty handed.

James quickly pushed Raven away from him upon seeing them, walking over to talk with Miller, but not before looking back to give her a charming smile and a wink that made her want to smack him.

Ella immediately headed for Raven whose face was red and body trembling.

"Raven," Ella whispered in a soothing voice. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Fine," she said a bit more cheerfully than she had intended to.

Ella's eyes narrowed in suspicion. No one could keep anything from her, she could always tell when something was wrong. But, what Raven loved most about her long time friend was that she always knew when to push a subject, when to sit and comfort someone without saying a word, and when to just let something go.

"Alright," was all she said.

"I see you and Murphy were unsuccessful in your hunt."

Ella blushed and looked at the ground.

Raven gave her a reluctant smile. "I swear, asking you two to be quite when you're together is like asking someone to move a mountain."

"I can't help it," she murmured, "he makes me laugh."

At that, Raven's expression became serious. "I'm glad. I'm glad he makes you happy."

Ella looked up at her with a crooked smile. She suspected that everyone in camp knew that she suffered from depression and anxiety, but only Raven and Murphy – her two closest friends - knew just how bad. Her and Raven had only been close friends for about five years, not nearly as long as her and Murphy, but she felt just as comfortable around her as she was with him.

They had met in an engineering class that was provided for younger students. Both of them were very quiet as young girls, something that Raven had grown out of over the years.

Whenever they had to slit up into teams of two to work on a project, the other kids scrambled around to find a partner while Ella and Raven just sat there, inevitably getting put together by default. Eventually, when those times came, they just looked at each other expectantly, with Raven coming to sit beside her to start their project. They didn't really speak, but it was a comfortable silence when they worked together.

Ella had always been seen as a easy target for being so quite, and when Murphy was not around to protect her, she had been both verbally and physically abused by the kids in her class, especially so by a girl named Harper.

But, once she had met Raven, something about Ella had triggered a sort of protectiveness inside of her, and she had stood up for her on countless occasions when Murphy wasn't there to save the day.

Ella had always seemed so small and helpless to both of them, looking as though she would burst into tears at any moment. So, when she had proven at being very handy with a knife it had been very surprising everyone in camp, though caused some worry for both Raven and Murphy, allowing her to have access to something sharp.

It wasn't until the ninth grade that Raven had noticed Ella having an unusual liking for wearing bracelets that took up the entire expanse of her wrists. Even on nights that Raven would sleep over she would never take them off, not even to sleep

One night of those nights that Raven was allowed to sleep over, she woke up with the urge to relieve herself and got up to use the bathroom. Upon finding the door unlocked, she let herself in, only to find Ella standing in front of the sink with a small razor in hand, making a small slit across the expanse of her wrist.

When she saw Raven she dropped the razor into the sink, looking through the mirror at her with the most pitiful eyes Raven had ever seen. Raven had cleaned and bandaged her wrist for her as silent tears slid down Ella's face, neither of them saying a single word. She didn't berate Ella for doing this to herself, but just let her cry.

The next day, she had contemplated on whether or not she should tell Murphy. She was never very close with him – the only thing they had in common was that they both loved and cared about Ella, and she knew that she needed both of them then more than ever.

Raven only had one class with him however, so hung back as the hall emptied, trying to get a peak of the brown haired boy before he entered the class room. But, as the hall cleared, she stopped in her tracks when she saw not only Murphy left in the hall, but Ella as well.

She watched as he slid her bracelets down her arm, revealing the many scares on the girls wrists, then bending down and kissing one, then the other as the girl once again started to cry.

He knew.

The action was so tender and so loving that Raven felt as though she were intruding on a private moment, and slipped into the class unnoticed by the pair.

She looked down at the girls bracelets now, knowing that she had not stopped hurting herself. But, she had gotten better. Maybe not much better, but it was a start, and Raven would be there for her as long as she needed her.

"Come on," said Ella, looking a bit uncomfortable, and Raven was almost certain that she knew just where her thoughts had taken her. "I just need to clean up a bit and then I'll help you out in there."

And with that, she gave her a small smile and turned to walk to her tent.