17. monsters

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I pushed down the wave of nausea that washed over me as the dark blood coated my hands with each swipe of the cloth. 

Clarke, Luna and I stood in silence as the three of us wiped down the chamber, cleansing it of Baylis' blood, of his death.

"How's the weather, Reyes?" Murphy questioned, he and Emori rejoining the rest of us after doing who knows what. "Still calling for death?"

I glanced up, shooting him a glare from across the room as Raven ignored him, too focused on the screen in front of her which was giving updates of the current status outside. 

"Stones of his ancestors." Luna whispered, drawing my attention back to the task at hand. She was holding onto a string of beads that had belonged to Baylis.

"Abby, look at this." Jackson called from where he and Abby were working, trying to figure out where everything had gone wrong.

"Of course." Abby breathed upon looking into the microscope. 

Clarke and I both turned from the chamber, focusing on the two of them instead. "What is it?" Clarke questioned. 

"Sodium Polyethanol sulfonate." Jackson answered. "It's an additive meant to prevent clotting. Looks like the radiation broke it down and caused a chain reaction."

I set the blood covered cloth down in the chamber, making my way toward them with curiosity written on my face. "What happens if we remove it?"

"We could save everyone." Abby explained. 

"You could?" Murphy wondered. "So you're saying this can still work."

"Not without testing." 

"The last guy just died, screaming in agony and you want to try it again?" Raven snapped, disbelief written on her face. 

"Give us a better idea, Raven. Please." Clarke challenged, but I could tell she was begging for Raven to actually give her one. 

 "So what, we just go out there and hunt for someone else?" Murphy demanded. 

"No one's going anywhere in this storm." Miller argued, pointing out the obvious roadblock. 

"Besides," I began, shaking my head. "We're just supposed to pick a random innocent person and potentially kill them the same way we just did Baylis?"

Murphy glanced over at me. "We wait for the storm to pass." he argued. "And then yes, we find someone else to sacrifice in order to save us all."

I let out a frustrated sigh, dropping my head slightly as the realization that I would not win this argument set in. 

"By the time it passes, there might not be anyone else to hunt for." Roan declared. 

Luna, who still held Baylis' beads in her hand, spoke for the first time in this conversation. "Hunting for someone else to kill. What's the matter with you people?" she spat. "Even Baylis honoured the dead. He wore the stone of his rock line ancestors." she announced, holding up the stones. "Who will honour him?"

"Wait." Clarke muttered, confusion clouding her expression. "Baylis was Sangedakru."

"He was." Emori interjected eagerly. "He was also a thief. He probably stole those stones."

Slowly, recognition crept onto Roan's face. "A thief who didn't bear the mark of Sangedakru."

Emori tore her eyes away from the group, slowly inching behind Murphy making it obvious to us all that she had lied.

"That wasn't Baylis, was it?" Clarke demanded. 

"Of course it was." Murphy defended. "Come on, Clarke, that's crazy--"

𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍─𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞²Where stories live. Discover now