Chapter 23
I left Clarke and Raven to stitch up Finn's wound and decided to check up on the situation with the Grounder upstairs. Climbing up, I saw that they had the Grounder held tight with no means of escape.
"How's Finn?" Bellamy asked as soon as I climbed up.
"Alive," I replied simply. I eyed the Grounder who was determined to stare blankly at the wall behind me. He, discreetly, tensed up as I walked closer, "Has he said anything?" I questioned fanning myself with my top, feeling a little hot in the small room.
"No, nothing yet," Bellamy grumbled.
"Well, have you checked over his stuff?" Bellamy shrugged and pointed behind us at Miller who was crouching over a pack.
"Miller's going through it,"
"And?"
It was Miller who responded this time. "Nothing; Just a bunch of weird stuff so far," Bellamy and I walked over to Miller who showed us a small metal container which has small vials of various colored liquids inside. "What is all this stuff?"
"Hell knows with these people," Bellamy wondered as he grabbed a notebook. The Grounder visibly tensed up. Bellamy immediately noticed the change. "It seemed that we found something that he doesn't want us to see, Miller," Bellamy skimmed through it. He stopped over a beautiful sketched drawing of Octavia. Bellay turned a glare towards the Grounder while I snatched the notebook off of his hand as a page full of lines grabbed my attention. Quickly counting them I showed it to Bellamy.
"Seems like it wasn't just Octavia that grabbed his attention; these lines add up to all our numbers that we came down with, including 10 lines which were crossed out for those we lost."
Bellamy stood and approached the grounder, staring him down, "They've been watching us ever since we got here."
Skimming over a few more pages, I stopped on a page which clearly shows the outside of the cave where my place is. I grabbed the notebook and walked towards the grounder, pulling up it so the sketch was on eye level with him. I hissed in a low voice where only the two of us can hear, "If I see you or any of your savage friends anywhere near this, Porterò l'inferno su di te e su tutti quelli a cui tieni (I will bring hell on you and everyone you care about). D' you know what that means?" He tensed as I came closer to whisper in his ear, "it means ai na frag op Yu en everyone Yu gifa in hashta Won by Won (I will kill you and everyone you care about one by one)" the grounder growled under his breath as he glared deeply into my eyes. I felt a smirk grow on my face, damn, if looks could kill!
Bellamy approached me, looking at the grounder in wonder. "That's the most reaction we got out of him so far?" he looked at me with wide eyes, "so, grounders speak Italian?"
"sei un cretino (you're a dumbass)," I deadpanned dragging my palm down my face, wiping off the sweat in the process.
He flipped through the pages until he stopped at a page which has a sketch of a creepy person covered in camouflage. He showed it to me while glaring at the grounder, "ask him about this," I looked at him blankly.
Wow, he really is stupid. I thought.
Thankfully, Clarke came up before I could retort. She looked at how they had the grounder strung like an animal before staring at me, sternly, "well if he didn't hate us before, he does now."
I raised my hands in surrender, "wasn't me," I pointed to Bellamy, "he's the one with the bondage kink,"
"Well what happens when his people come for him? And they will," she reasoned. Bellamy shot a glance towards the grounder before leading her away to talk quietly.
Knowing that Clarke won't be able to stop this mess, not to mention that the room was even hotter than before with the addition of Clarke and the insistence of closing the hatch door, I decided to make my way out.
The second I opened the hatch door, Raven's panicked voice reached us as she desperately called for Clarke shouting that Finn was having a seizure. Clarke immediately rushed out. The minute that she left Bellamy closed the hatch and kicked a tools box over it as an extra measure to lock it.
I raised my hands in a "what the fuck!" way.
Bellamy approached me, standing too close to talk quietly. "Stay. I need you here with me," I pushed him back a little; his closeness wasn't helping me cool down. He approached closer, voice cracking in desperation, "I can't do this without you! You're the only one who got through him. I need your help with this,"
"Oh come off it, Bell!" I scoffed, taking a step away and fanning myself with my hands, but was stopped as Bellamy grabbed a hold of my shoulder to make me face him head on.
"What happens if he gets loose and attacks our people?"
"Well then you better make sure he doesn't then," I replied, feeling my temper boiling hotter under my skin.
"I have seen you fight out there. You're the only one I can trust to have my back," he insisted. But I cut him off with a strong shove that showed a fraction of my anger.
"Trust?!" my voice hurting my ears as I shouted at him in this small place, "where was that trust when everyone turned against me? Where was that trust when you watched me dangle desperately gasping for my life? Huh? Where was it?" I pushed him a second and then a third time but by the forth I felt a heat wave rush through me, making me dizzy and nearly losing my footing.
Bellamy looked at me in concern as he stepped closer with arms reached out to grab me in case I fell, but I slapped them away and pointed at him in anger. "Don't touch me," I demanded. I wanted to say it loudly but it came out low and weak. I couldn't stay steady as the room started spinning before me. I stumbled backwards, hitting the wall. It was cool against my heated back. I sighed, sliding down until I was sitting with my legs spread out and leaned my head so that the side of my face was against the wall's cool surface. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing the dizzy feeling would vanish.
I could feel someone crouch down next to me as a hand reached out to touch the visible side of my face. The hand was too warm for my heated skin making me groan in discomfort and tried to raise my hand to slap it away, but unfortunately, my hand felt too heavy to move.
"Reaper, hey, what's wrong?" I heard Bellamy ask in concern.
I wanted to respond, to say anything. How annoying his voice was, how uncomfortable it was to feel his hand upon me, but my muscles weren't responding. My jaw felt heavy and locked tight. My heart's beating rapidly, I can feel it fighting to burst out of my chest. My whole body seized up and started twitching as the dizziness hit full force. Loud shouting was the last thing I heard before everything turned dark.
Monty was startled awake as the top floor hatch was slammed open before Miller sled down the ladder and jumped the final few steps. Monty was about to attempt to go back to sleep when he heard Miller shouting down to Clarke that something was wrong with Reaper and that she was seizing. There was no thinking as he jumped out of his seat and rushed up the ladder.
The sight that greeted him was something that would traumatize him for life. Reaper was lying on her back, whole body shaking, as Bellamy struggled to hold her down.
Monty's breath held as a tear sled down his cheek. Never in his life did he think to see Reaper being weak let alone dying. He was afraid to come closer, but refuses to leave. All he can do is wrap his arms around himself tightly and pray for his friend.
It took seconds before Clarke rushed up the ladder and over to his friend.
"Put her on her side," she demanded. Bellamy did that as white foam drizzled out of her mouth.
"Clarke, what's happening to her?" Bellamy demanded. Clarke's hands held tightly to her hair as she felt panic consuming her.
"I-I don't know," she admitted, eyes scanning over the seizing girl for any injuries, "Finn's the same way, but with him it was a stab wound, this doesn't make sense,"
"She did fall hard when the grounder attacked," Jasper, who just came up, said startling Monty at his silent approach. "Maybe she hit her head?"
"She was with Finn?" Clarke questioned as her brain started analyzing.
"Yeah, they both were crouching over the ground before he attacked. She tried to push Finn back but …" Jasper shrugged helplessly.
Clarke tried to picture the attack in her head as she stared at Reaper who finally stopped seizing. She told Bellamy to lay her on her back. As he did just that, she noticed a bloody spot on her tank top. Slowly she reached over and pulled it up to reveal a bloody gash on her stomach area. The skin around it was an angry red, a clear sign of infection, or in this case, poison.
Noticing the look on her face, Bellamy asked, "What is it?"
"It's poison," Clarke said, shakily. Monty felt his panic reaching new levels.
"It must have skimmed her before it stabbed into Finn," Bellamy voiced his thought. He immediately got to his feet and rushed towards the vials of liquids he found earlier. He showed them to Clarke. "We found these in his pack, 'you think any of them is an antidote?"
"We're about to find out," Clarke took them from him, looking over them before marching towards the Grounder, "which one?" The grounder was silent. Clarke breathed unsteadily, knowing that getting him to answer wasn't going to be easy. "You'd have to be stupid to carry poison without an antidote, so which one is it?"
Octavia rushed forward, "Clarke he doesn't understand," she demanded, but Bellamy was quick to intervene, pulling her back forcing her to leave, but she kept resisting and insisting that he doesn't understand.
"Finn and Reaper are dying, O, and he knows how to save them. And I will get him to answer," Bellamy pulled away from her, slowly walking towards the empty seats and used his knife to rip off a seatbelt.
Octavia's eyes widen and she rushed forward to put a stop to his plan, but Miller stepped over and prevented her from doing anything, "Bellamy, don't!" she cried, but was visibly ignored.
Bellamy wrapped the rope part around his hands, his eyes turned to stare at Clarke who was having second thoughts, "Do you want them to live or not?"
Clarke closed her eyes in resignation before opening them again and nodded firmly, "Do it!"
"Oh shit," Jasper breathed shakily, slowly backing out and leaving. Monty felt frozen. He didn't want to see the man be tortured, he wasn't tough enough to witness such things. He was just Monty from Agro Station. He was meant to be an engineer living a simple, boring, life. Not –freaking- be a witness to a torture session by his friends. Was this how their meant to survive now? kill or torture?
"Anyone wanna leave? Now is your chance." Bellamy's voice brought him back from his thoughts. He looked at him to find that Bellamy's eyes were looking between him and Octavia not too subtly. "Once that door closes, it won't open to anyone,"
Monty gulped visibly. Slowly he inched backwards and sat down. He closed his eyes shut tightly and took a deep breath. The hatch door closed and locked. He opened his eyes and locked down at his dying friend. Reaper was still heavily sweating and seemed to be in pain. He clutched her hand in his tightly, "Just hang in there, you'll be okay." Soon, the once quiet small room was filled with the sound of belt hitting skin.
Hello everyone,
I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read my stories and for leaving comments. It means so much to me that people actually like my work. Every second that I pour into my writing is for all of you to enjoy. Reading fanfiction has always been my great escape from reality and I am happy that my stories can help anyone even if it put a little smile or entertain you in any way even a little. I am always happy to read feedback from everyone or any thoughts or suggestions.
Additionally, I am sorry for being MIA for a long time. Lots of shit happened in my life which included two major surgeries and switching work places. It's been a roller-coaster ride that messed with me negatively, both physically and emotionally.
Little by little, I've been trying to put my life back together. It's a struggle but I've been taking things one step at a time.
I am going to do my best to post new chapters as much as I can. Maybe once or twice a week or hopefully more- depending on how satisfied I am with the flow of the chapter because I tend to write then rewrite and rewrite again a single chapter numerous times. Also trying to read over any spelling or grammar mistakes, which isn't easy because English isn't my mother language and also I have bad eye vision so I tend to skim over things.
Thank you all so much
Love,
Hannah 3