Honestly don't ever expect me this nice ever again because it's never going to happen. This chapter is literally the size of both previous chapters combined. I'm nearly at the point where I'll actually have to write in order to post, so that's going to be awkward for everyone. Don't ask how its going to be awkward for you. It's sure going to be weird for that guy I'm almost dating. You try explaining why you need to leave because you need to, "Write stuff."
When I woke up again the next time, I was lying down, someone holding my hand. Opening my eyes, I realized I was back in the dropship. A few feet away from me Jasper was laid down, and looked like fresh death. My eyes drifted to my hand, and I noticed Reed was sitting in between Jasper and myself, holding both our hands.
Super engrossed with staring at Jasper, she didn't even notice I had woken up until I attempted to get up. Reed jumped, giving me a startled smile. The hold on my hand tightened, and she used it to help pull me up.
Let me just tell you, moving sucked. The wounds may have been washed out and dressed properly, but they still stung like a bitch. On the ark, I was super active. I used to run the treadmills when I was bored. Which was a lot, considering there isn't much to do in jail. That being said, forcing myself to move was horrible. Worse than any pain I had experienced thus far in my life. Well, physical pain at least. Let's save my emotionally traumatizing childhood for another day, shall we?
"You are a hard sleeper, Riley. Didn't know you had it in you to sleep dead through screaming." She said as she finally let go of my hand, letting me slowly get up from the ground.
"Murph's dad was a major snorer. I learned to sleep through anything." I explained, but once I finished I realized that I never told her that. I never told her much about Murphy.
When I had become her roommate, I explained to her my past, but never the details. I tried to bury Murphy, to hope that pretending we weren't so close would somehow make us less close. When in all actuality, all my good memories come from him, or his father.
"Clarke left with Finn and Wells to go find some magical seaweed to save Jasper." Reed said as I finally was able to get up. She didn't bother getting up, probably assuming if I fell, I couldn't really get myself in any worse condition than I was now. It was partially true.
"This the top floor?" I asked, looking around. I hadn't seen the top of the dropship yet, and to be honest it wasn't very impressive. It was a lot more closed in than the bottom, with only a hatch about three feet away from me, presumably to get downstairs.
"I don't know why anyone would ever want to fuck with Murphy. He pretty much one-handedly carried you up the stairs, let alone from where we found you." Reed remarked, eyeing me cautiously. I looked back at her, trying to see if she was telling the truth or not. She smiled weakly, but her left brow was raised. It was her tell, that she was telling the truth.
Holy shit.
"I guess I should thank him, without him you guys might've just left me." I replied jokingly, and Reed finally cracked a genuine smile.
"Nah, I totally would've at least dragged back. You might not have gotten back in one piece, but more than 50% of you would've gotten back. Close enough, right?" Reed played, and we both laughed together. For a second we forgot that we were on the earth, that I was going to quite literally be scarred for life.
That was until party pooper Jasper began moaning. We both stopped laughing, our faces falling.
"He's been doing that non-stop. Most of the time it's a lot louder than that."
Memories of being back at the tree tied up flashed into my mind, and I knew it was time for me to get out of here.
"I need air." I muttered quickly, and Reed nodded without giving me a second glance. She knew I was going to be fine, now she needed to worry about Jasper.
The lower level of the dropship didn't have many people in it, just Octavia and Monty. They both looked eagerly at me as the went down the ladder. Octavia's face turned to disappointment when she realized it wasn't Jasper, and Monty only managed a half smile. Neither got up from there spot, and Monty looked back down and continued tinkering with whatever it was.
As I walked past him, I noticed it was a wrist band. I looked down at mine as I made my way toward the door. It has seriously gnawed my skin off, and simply turning my wrist made pain shoot up my arm.
It was growing darker outside, and a quick look around made me realize just how much these kids were both kids, and delinquents. Two teenagers were by a fire, doing just about anything they could do to each other while keeping their clothes on. I continued staring for a moment while walking, before realizing that I was being super creepy and instead made a sharp turn in the opposite direction of them.
Finally averting my eyes to infront of me, I realized I nearly ran straight into someone's back.
That someone being Murphy, of course. He turned around when he heard me, and although he was still frowning, I could see in his eyes he was relieved to see me alive. Hopefully.
"Should you be up and walking?" Murphy asked, his eyes moving down my body. I looked down, realizing I was wearing what was probably the most ill-covering shirt ever now. It looked like it had been turned into spaghetti, and the bandages around my stomach were well visible. I also apparently no longer had a jacket, which is just swell.
"The grounders owe me a new shirt holy shit." I muttered, picking up pieces of the shirt in my hands. Murphy shook his head, taking off his jacket and letting it drop to the ground next to us. Without a word he began taking off one of his shirts, and I couldn't help myself from sputtering.
"What are you-?" I asked, and I could see him smirk as he pulled off a his short sleeved shirt, leaving his longer sleeved one on.
"Calm down, I'm giving you a new shirt. You can't really walk around a bunch of delinquents wearing that thing, can you?" Murphy remarked as he lifted the short sleeved shirt for me to take.
"I can't take that." I mumbled, frowning at it before I looked back at his face. He rolled his eyes and sighed.
"It already has your blood on it." Murphy reminded me, making me quickly snatch it.
"Fair enough." I whispered, holding it and looking around. I noticed the eyes of some of the guys, more importantly some of the guys I had knew in a bad sense before I was jailed, staring at me. "I really need to go and put this on, They are looking at me like I'm dinner." I whispered, more to myself than Murphy, but of course he caught every word.
Without uttering anything to me, he quickly grabbed me, one arm around my back as he led me away from the creepers. The farther we moved away from the fire, the darker it became.
It wasn't super dark, but the sun was definitely setting. We got closer to a tree and Murphy quickly pushed me towards it. That ass hat apparently thought I should change behind a fucking tree. I was going to argue, until I saw the look on his face. He was just waiting for me to complain.
I groaned, but wordlessly I went behind the tree. Now it was really hard to get out of the stringy mess. My back pretty much screamed at me to stop, but once I got Murphy's warm shirt on, the warmth calmed it down slightly. There wasn't much else to do with my old shirt but just drop it on the ground. It was beyond savable. What else was I going to do, save it and look back at it fondly, thinking about the time I got captured and nearly killed?
When I got out from behind the tree, I noticed Murphy waiting for me. He nodded his head when he realized I was good to go back, and started to leave.
"Murphy, wait." I said, mentally reaching out for him. I would've physically, but I was already in too much pain. If he pulled away from me, I think my body would've broke. He stopped, but didn't look back at me. "Thanks. For the shirt, for carrying me back from the tree."
Now queue Murphy being a dick. He shook his head, and looked at me with a frown on his face. "You're so fucking dumb." Okay. Rude much?
"Okay, there's no need to be an asshole. You could've just let me die." I began, glaring back at him.
Instead he stopped focusing on me, and looked behind me.
"We need to move, now." Murphy mumbled, turning his back to me once again, about to leave.
"What the-" I began, looking around at the fog that was descending in from just about every direction.
"NOW!" Murphy yelled, grabbing my hand roughly and running back towards the dropship.
My whole body screamed as I ran, and I could feel the cuts opening up again. But what hurt even worse was the fog, when it got closer it burned my skin and lungs, which were already feeling burnt from running.
We made it into the dropship just as they started to close the doors. Without another word to Murphy, I ripped my hand from his and made my way up the stairs to the second floor. If he was going to be a pissy asshole, then I wasn't going to be around him.
When I got up the stairs, I was ready to sleep again. Without saying a word to Octavia, Monty, or Reed, I quickly just cuddled back into the spot I had woken up from. It wasn't the most comfortable spot or position, but considering my options, I decided to settle for it.
"You almost died, Riley." Reed said as I slowly felt myself drifting to sleep. "Don't scare me like that again."
What is really rude about Reed's and my relationship, is that she never finds it necessary to wake me up. I know it's hard to wake me up, but that's not an excuse. I mean, it is, but it's a shitty one.
During the night, I managed to sleep through Jasper's groaning. And, apparently Murphy trying to kill Jasper. Insane, am I right?
I do remember at one point asking what was going on, but everyone told me to shut up. And I mean everyone. From that one moment I remember, I can see Octavia's, Monty's, Reed's, even Murphy's mouths all saying 'Not now Riley.' I think even Jasper joined in, and he was literally on death's door.
So I did what anyone who was half asleep would do when everyone tells them to go back to sleep; I went back to sleep.
When I woke up finally in the morning, everyone was in a foul mood. Octavia and Monty were still upstairs, but Reed had finally gone downstairs. I could already tell they were angry with me for something that Murphy did last night.
Instead of begging for their forgiveness, or doing much of anything with them, I promptly crawled to the hatch door, and went down the stairs. The crawling definitely didn't make it my best exit ever, but you know. You win some, you lose some.
When I finally found Reed, she was being casually harassed by some guy next to a shoddy water trough. That wasn't going to fly with me, and I knew I had to do something. Not saying whatever I could do would be effective, but that's not the point.
I made my way over to them, and immediately his eyes flew up to me. I know I looked like a hot mess. They cleaned off a lot of the dirt on my body when they bandaged me, but my shirt was now five times too big for me, courtesy of Murphy, and covered in blood. At least I could take comfort in it being my blood, but from his point of view it could've been my last victim. I could play up the distressed look my pants now had from all the slashes, but I already knew everything about me looked distressed. Which is why when I started walking up and he started smirking at me, that I had to do a double take.
"I don't think she wants to talk to you." I tried to keep my voice even, but in all actuality, he gave me the creeps. Like, crawl in a hole and never see anyone again kind of creeps.
"Oh, but I'd love to talk to you instead." He cooed, making me take a step back when he began getting closer.
I clenched my hand without thinking, and once again a sharp pain went up my arm from the wristband. I flinched in pain, and looked down in surprise at the wrist band. He took this as a chance to get closer, which was a bad move on his part, really. Before he could even bring his hand up to touch me, he was roughly pushed to the ground.
Murphy had, in my opinion, appeared out of nowhere. Although to be honest, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings so he could've been next to us the whole time.
"She's with me, Connor. Don't even think about it." Murphy hissed as he backed up so he was standing next to me. The look on his face was one I had seen a few times; the same face before he got himself thrown in the skybox.
"Oh really?" Conner tested, looking directly at me for a reaction. And boy, did I react.
"Yes!" I all but screeched, quickly sliding behind Murphy so Conner could no longer look at me. There was something about Connor's eyes, they made me feel like I was in danger. I don't like feeling like I'm in danger. Reed, without having to be told to so, quickly jumped from her spot and hid behind me.
A second after she jumped behind me, she looked down at the cup of water in her hands. She looked up at me, mouthed 'Jasper' then darted into the dropship.
"Why does Jasper get water?" I mumbled as I watched her leave. Connor had crawled away a bit before getting up and slinking off, but I was too afraid to look and see where he went. I had a feeling it wasn't over between us and him yet. Without saying a word to me, Murphy grabbed a cup from the trough and scooped it full of water before handing it to me.
Everything had changed between us. We were no longer these two kids who were inseparable. Now, everything was just weird. He was still sticking up for me, but he was also trying to kill Jasper. (apparently, at least. Like I said, I was out like trout.)
Then the nightmare I had before earth came back to me. For the last few pre-earth months, I would see him get floated in my dreams. It was getting closer to his 18th birthday, and that had haunted my waking life in the skybox. Now, he was here. I got to see him alive, and instead of hugging him, and having a happily ever after, I got me nearly dying, and a consistent rain of being told to shut up.
I just, I had to.
I gave him an apologetic glance before I threw my hands around his neck, holding him close. I had to stand on my tip toes to do so, which hurt, but was worth it. The icing on this rad little cake was when he held me back. I was thrown back to the last time we had hugged, before he was sent to the skybox. He had held me close before he went to beat the shit out of some people. Romantic, am I right? No? Fair enough.
Keep in mind though, my back hurt like a mother fucker. My whole body hurt, actually. And once we slowly let go, my wrist hurt even more. And I still had a head injury, which, I seemed to continue to forget about.
"Holy shit." I whispered, pain shooting through my body. The cuts had sealed themselves onto the bandages, and were just ripped off from my movement.
"Clarke said you had intense brain swelling." Murphy said as one of his hands remained on me, slowly working its way from my back to my forehead. At least he hadn't forgotten about my head injury. That made one of us. "For a day there, we thought you were going to die." I'm not entirely sure if he was aware of himself as he pushed my hair away from my face, before his hand fell down to his side.
That revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. I almost died. The grounders nearly killed me.
"You should go back to sleep." It had felt nice to hear him say that to me. "Before you hurt yourself again." Okay, nevermind.
I went to drink my water, ignoring what he said, when once again the shitty ass wristband rubbed up against my skin. It sent electricity up my hand, and without meaning to, I dropped the glass of water.
Murphy watched it fall and then gave me a look that said, 'See? that's what I mean.' Which, if you think about it, is rude. It's not my fault my wristband was trying to ruin my life.
"I need this off of me first." I remarked, holding my wrist up limply. He looked slightly surprised, which I didn't understand until I realized that was the arm that hands' wore his father's ring.
Totally awkward.
He must've decided not to remark on that fact, and instead pointed in the direction of a tent.
"Oh, what?" I sputtered. At this point, it was safe to say I was confused. I asked to get my wristband off, not go to pound town. Tiny difference. I know all the kids were doing it, but mind you I spent my puberty years in a maximum security prison.
My face must be super easy to read though, because he sighed and muttered, "Just get in the damn tent, I'll take off the wristband in there."
"Well." I mumbled, "As long as we were on the same page." I started walking towards the tent, Murphy following me, shaking his head slightly and rolling his eyes.
The tent was home-like. It had a makeshift bed, which totally looked way more comfortable than the floor I've been living off of. Just looking at it reminded me of all the cricks in my neck from sleeping in a curled up ball, trying to find a way my bones wouldn't painfully press into the hard metal of the dropship floor. It even had not one, but two sleeping bags. Leave it to Murph to steal more than one. He doesn't even need two, which was obvious from how one was nearly heaped onto the ground. I looked back at him after I got fully inside. He stepped in the tent with as much ease as someone who needs to crouch to get in the hole could probably do. He pointed at the bed, and I took that to mean to sit on it. Thankfully for me, my brain was no longer confusing normal social queues for sexual innuendos.
I moved the sleeping bag that was nearly falling before I sat down, and immediately felt the downy warmth as I draped it around myself. I could approve of his choices, because damn they were nice. While his back was turned and he was looking through a wooden crate that was on a shitty navy folding chair, I quickly wrapped myself in both of the sleeping bags.
I feel like now that death had been on my doorstep, and was all around me, I had lost all my chill. Pre head injury Riley would never have done this. She would've wanted to, but worried too much about someone making a comment.
Not when I was a child, though. Maybe being around Murphy brought out my childhood self. Regardless, I approved. If chill-less Riley meant sleeping bags, and hugs, then I'm down.
He turned around with some horrible looking pliers. With one hand, he pushed the crate off the chair. It fell on the ground and other tools spilt over, but he didn't seem to mind. Instead he pulled the chair over, and sat on it.
Our knees touched, and he held his hand out ready to grab mine. I pulled my hand out of the sleeping bag, and he took it and rested it on his knee. Every part of him was super warm. I'm sure my hand felt like ice, but he didn't seem to notice or care. He took the pliers and put them in between the metal of the wristband, and my wrist. The cold metal felt good on my rubbed skin. He paused for a moment, looking up at me. I looked back into his eyes.
"This is going to hurt." He said, and before I could make a snide remark about how I was tortured and nearly dead as of a few days ago, the pliers snapped down on the metal, bending it at the end where the two pieces of metal touched.
Holy mother of god he was right. With one last jerk, the two pieces of metal snapped away from each other at the hinge. But not before it sent jolts of electricity up my body. I leaned over in pain, my head getting closer to my hand.
The electricity caused my head to start pounding again, and I was starting to notice that Murphy had 4 knees instead of two. Wait, that didn't make sense. Slowly, Murphy took his hand that was free of the pliers and pushed me back into the bed. Now, he had two faces. Which still didn't sound right. Both of his heads shook at me, cocking a knowing smile.
My head hit the pillows, which he also apparently had two of. Or, according to my eyesight as of then, four. Holy shit seeing doubles was weird. Murphy still held my hand as he pulled the wristband off, and gave my hand one last squeeze before he set it down next to me.
"I'll clean that out while you're asleep." He whispered, quickly petting my hair (which I wouldn't have recommended. Totally gross.) and leaving the tent.
When I closed my eyes, I took comfort in not seeing double, and I quickly fell back to sleep. Damn, head injuries make you sleep a shit ton.
By the time I woke up and felt refreshed, nightfall was coming again. It always sucks when you wake up and are ready for the day, but the day is actually gone. I was alone in the tent, which was to be expected.
I got out of the tent to nearly be ran into by Clarke. She stormed by with Finn, only to be stopped a few feet away by Octavia.
"It's about time, they are going to kill Jasper." Octavia whispered to Clarke. She needed to work on her whispering, though. I heard it as clear as day.
Also, I really needed to stop sleeping through the drama. I missed out on some class A shit, apparently. I had no clue who 'they' were that wanted going to kill Jasper, but I had a feeling it was Murphy's doings.
"Yeah, I got it. Come on, let's talk." Clarke replied, trying to usher Octavia back into the dropship. It was too late though, because Octavia's eyes had locked onto something. I followed her gaze and realized she was staring at a form on the ground near the fire, covered with a jacket.
Someone had fucking died.
Octavia ran towards the body, momentarily getting stopped by her brother Bellamy who was begging her to stay back. Instead, she shoved him away and continued to the body, kneeling down next to it.
I was too afraid to move, to see who it could possibly be. I didn't have to see though, because she said Atom's name, and I knew it had to be him. I didn't know Atom very well, but I could tell from the tone in her voice she had. June glared at Bellamy as she kneeled down with Octavia, obviously upset with his methods of trying to make his sister avoid the cold hard truth. June wrapped her arms around Octavia, and let Octavia crumble into her.