It's my Birthday! I'm updating on my birthday. It made sense to put Murphy's Law out on my birthday. Why, you may ask. My great grandfather's name was John R. Murphy.
This chapter was depressing to write. I hope I got it across that this event was extremely scarring, not just for Murphy, but for Riley.
Thank you so much to Keliza153 and apaperheart for reviewing. Those meant the world, and you can thank them for me updating on my birthday.
I'm not even going to lie, Murphy was a territorial asshole most of the time. He wrote his initials on everything, and if it wasn't for the fact that carving his initials into my skin would be immensely painful, I'm sure he would've done it. Instead, he settled on roughly pushing me into a tree right in front of the guard post, and forcing his lips onto mine. Although to be honest it wasn't so much of a forcing, more of just a surprising turn of events in my mind.
I never had thought that wearing his shirt, and letting him kiss me, (and to be fair, kissing him back.) would have landed me in as much trouble as it did. But, I guess when a society is run by delinquents, you can't expect democracy.
The next day had started as they had been for a few days, with me waking up to Reed nearly pushing me down the dropship's stairs to wake me up. Jasper was still sound asleep, and as we made our way to the fire, she mentioned to me how today Jasper would finally be walking outside of the dropship, and hopefully even outside of the wall.
We ate breakfast as I watched the fire, and Reed prattled on about trivial things she would try to get done today. Our aloe stash was running low, and Reed had also read about other plants we could use for similar uses. She had wanted to go with Monty, but because he was too busy with trying to communicate with the ark, she was forced to settle for Sterling. Whom, she considered her, 'Sterling silver choice.'
Reed and Sterling had left about an hour after breakfast, but not before she waggled her brows at me and gave Murphy a weird side glance. She also hastily threw down a few aloe plants at me, hoping I could work on tearing them apart while I tended the fire.
Engrossed in my work tearing off the thick layer of skin off the aloe, I didn't even notice when Octavia started cheering behind me. I set down the knife I was using, (courtesy of Murphy, which was evident from the initials inside) when I felt cold hands wrap around my head, covering my eyes.
I let out a small squeak, and carefully put down the jar of aloe onto the log beside me before my hands flew up to my eyes, trying to pry off the hands. He let go quickly, and I took no time to jump up and turn around.
In the flesh for the first time, Jasper was outside of the dropship post injury. I couldn't contain my joy for him, and I jumped over the log swiftly hugged him. Finally, he began to laugh as he wrapped his arms around me, this time lifting me up and twirling me around. Unable to contain myself, I shrieked before I started to laugh, and he carefully planted me on the ground again.
Without any further words spoken, Octavia grabbed him by the hand and started leading him to our main exit (that in all actuality was really just a big separation between logs).
No longer in the mood to sit down, I decided to throw another log into the fire and gave myself the excuse of walking about twenty feet, to grab more wood from the larger pile we had. I was off in my own world, enjoying the sun and trying to block the rest of the world out from around me, when suddenly I heard someone yelling.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Murphy?" The voice wasn't too familiar to me, so when I looked over I immediately regretted it. Murphy was lazily zipping up his trousers, and on the ground beside him was Connor, who appeared to be wet. Why, you may ask? Because Murphy peed on him, apparently. Clearly, I choose my friends/romantic interests wisely.
Murphy shot me a lopsided smirk before diverting his attention back to Connor. "Look at you, you wanted a water break. Get back to work." Oh, I stood to be corrected. Not only did he pee on someone, he peed on them because they were thirsty. Just lovely.
I couldn't help but stop and gape at him. He continued to stare back, the smirk only slightly receding. I continued to stare at him, and I know at this point I was glaring as I continued to make my way to grab a log. Finally, he sighed and yelled, "No water until this section is up!" He turned around to look at everyone before he looked back to me. "What are you staring at, huh?" He teased, and I wanted to smack the smirk off of his face.
Punching people I understand. Don't ask me why, violent childhood probably. But peeing on people? That's just weird. And gross, and unsanitary, and childish, and a bunch of other adverbs I couldn't think of off the top of my head.
Blonde hair pushed me, and suddenly I was nearly on the ground. And by blonde hair, I mean Clarke. She was storming to Murphy, hellbent written all over her face. I didn't blame her at that moment, I had assumed she was against people peeing on each other. I could agree with that sentiment.
"You son of a bitch!" Clarke screeched, storming up to Murphy and getting right into his face. I was a little taken aback, I had thought it was my job to get into his face. Clearly, I was wrong.
"What's your problem?" Murphy hissed, taking a step back from her. Apparently he didn't think it was her job to get into his face. I agree.
"Recognize this?" Clarke lifted up her hand, practically shoving a knife in Murphy's face.
"It's my knife" Murphy replied, taking yet another step back away from Clarke. Finally I decided to move closer, to get a better view. As clear as day, his initials were on the inside of the metal. "Where'd you find it?" Murphy asked, and although he sounded annoyed, I could hear a tinge of timidness.
"Where you dropped it after you killed Wells." I could see the tears forming in her eyes again, and I had to look away for a moment at the mention of Wells. Once again his dead face came back to haunt me.
"Where I what?" He sputtered, giving Clarke a disgusted look. "The grounders killed Wells, not me."
"I know what you did, you're going to pay for it." She once again took another step to him, and finally I decided to intervene.
"Murphy couldn't have killed him, I saw him enter his tent early in the night." I said, walking up to the two of them. Slowly other people started to gather, and a bad feeling grew in the pit of my stomach.
"He threatened to kill him." Clarke said as her head whipped in my direction, making me mentally recoil before she turned her attention back to Murphy. "We all heard you. You hated Wells."
In all honesty, she wasn't wrong. Murphy did hate Wells. But as Murphy finally pointed out, "Plenty of people hated Wells. His father is the chancellor that got us all locked up."
"Yeah, but you're the only one of them who got into a knife fight with him." She pointed out, making me frown. Once again, she wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, I didn't kill him then, either." He clinging at straws for his defense, and I grew more nervous as the crowd around us grew. Pretty much the whole camp was now watching.
"Tried to kill Jasper, too." Octavia decided to bud in, pointing out yet another cringely true detail. I flinched as she spoke, and was near screaming as the crowd nodded in agreement.
"Oh come on. This is ridiculous. I don't have to answer to you. I don't have to answer to anyone." He spat, and at this point my nerves were in the crapper.
He was saying all the wrong things, and I blanked out for a moment as I tried to fumble for ideas as to what to say. Finally, Connor's voice shook me back to reality.
"I say we float him!" Connor yelled, rallying all the delinquents into agreement.
"I just said it couldn't have been him!" I yelled back, silencing the stirring crowd. They all stared at me blankly as I said, "He never left his tent. Only some little girl did."
The crowd remained silent until Connor spoke again.
"We all saw you two leave yesterday, and come back all smitten. I bet you were his accomplice in killing Wells! It's justice. Float them both!" Connor shouted, and at this point I was near fainting. Perhaps if I fainted, they would've just let me be.
"Revenge isn't justice!" Clarke said, but it wasn't heard as everyone started closing in, and roughly grabbed Murphy. Within seconds, he was gagged.
My screams went unheard as they started beating him up, and I tried to pry through the crowd and get to Murphy. From behind me, rough hands grabbed my hips. I wanted to throw up my breakfast as my head whipped around to see who was touching me.
For the record, only a small list of people are on my 'okay to touch me' list. And diggs was definitely not on it.
Diggs was yet another one of Bellamy's Army, and a close friend of Connor. Without saying a word Diggs smirked and pulled my hips in further to his body. My mind was near nuclear meltdown as I felt a bulge touch my bum. Diggs was genuinely getting a rise out of my squirming, and his smile grew bigger as he wrapped his arms further around me and lifted me up. I went to kick his knees, or really any part of him, when Murphy's shouted grabbed my attention. Murphy was now being kicked down a freaking hill.
Myles tossed a noose to Connor, and Connor didn't even wait for some of the other of Bellamy's twisted gang to lift Murphy off the ground. He just freaking wrapped it around his neck while he was on the ground and they used that to lift him up. Then, Connor sauntered over to where I was, and Diggs pretty much all but threw me at Connor. Connor turned me around so I was looking at Murphy, being careful of course to only grab me in inappropriate places. I was about to kick the daylights out of Connor, when he managed to put a knife at my throat and kept it close. I could feel the blade cutting into my skin slightly.
Within a few minutes, we had gone from a loud dispute, to Murphy with a noose around his neck, and Connor holding onto me, a knife at my own throat. My only hope was that Bellamy would end this madness.
But instead, Bellamy glared at Clarke as he made his way over to Murphy. He didn't even try to look at either of us as he kicked the crate out from Murphy's feet. I wished at that moment to have been hanging as well, or for my body to go numb to all feelings, so I wouldn't have had to feel Connor's hand on my waist, lifting the hem of my shirt up. I had already been manhandled enough, I didn't need to be manhandled while watching Murphy's life slowly draining from his face.
I heard a young girl crying, and for a moment I had thought it was me, until Connor loosened his grip and I could feel his body turn slightly away from mine.
"Stop it!" She screeched, and I turned my head slightly to see that little blonde girl from a few night earlier. Suddenly, the dots connected, and I didn't even need to hear what she said next. "Murphy didn't kill Wells! I did!"
I didn't take this distraction lightly, and finally all the things Murphy had shouted at me yesterday came back. I elbowed Connor in the ribs, bit his hand so he let go of the knife, grabbed the knife from him and swung my leg out behind me to kick him in a very unfortunate place.
Finn was also thinking on his feet, and he grabbed the machete someone near him was holding and slung it at the tree, cutting the knot and letting Murphy fall to the ground. I slid down, lifting Murphy's head up onto my legs and helping him take the noose and gag off. Bellamy tried to come closer, to help us, but instead I screamed and swung the knife around, glaring. He recoiled, and walked away to Clarke.
I didn't want Bellamy's help. I didn't want anyones. Because, just moments before, I was going to be the next person that Bellamy Blake let die.