Starlight

vii

I watched Murphy run off in a direction we had not come from. My lips parted. I half wanted to follow him. I half didn't really care. But it all came down to I was alone in a forest and I didn't know how to get home.

Home.

What was home? Where was home? For a short minute I thought home was wherever Murphy was. But for the last three months it's been with Bellamy. I closed my eyes tightly and tried not to freak out. All I had to do was retrace my steps. Go back the way we came.

Only thing was, I was paying too much attention to Murphy's backside to notice where we were going. I open my eyes and screamed out. I was hella angry. How dare he leave me alone! How dare he! When, if, I get back to camp I'm so going to make him pay for this.

A snap of a twig from my left made me forget about my anger. About my plans of returning to camp and beating Murphy to a pulp. With wide eyes I looked to my left. There was no one there. My heart rate accelerated faster than it ever had when I was with Murphy. But this was a different feeling that came with it. Fear. Pure fear.

If I had more than four sips of water in my system I would have peed my pants. I looked all around me and saw nothing. Nobody lurking in the shadows. Nobody in the trees. Another snap, closer this time, made me fall to the ground.

I was scared. All my senses were fuzzy. I couldn't see straight, hear, smell, fell, taste. The air itself tasted dangerous.

A hand wound itself wound my mouth. I screamed as loud as I could, as hard as I could. Another arm was wrapped around my hips and I kicked. My arms went wild. My legs were all over the place. I couldn't bite the hand on my mouth. I tried screaming again. It was muffled.

My heart rate was through the roof. The person who'd wrapped themselves around me grunted as I banged my head back and made contact with their nose. I heard a successful crunch of bone and was dropped to the floor.

Now that my mouth was free I yelled and run. I yelled louder than I ever had before. "Murphy! Murphy help! Bellamy!" I screamed. I started to cry as the arms found themselves back in the same position. The stanch of blood over my mouth made me feel faint.

Now was not a time to pass out, Lilith. I scolded myself. I willed my nose to stop working and screamed again. I was being dragged backwards. Deeper into the woods. Farther away from camp. Father away from Murphy and Bellamy.

All the while the person who'd attacked me never made any noises. Other than the grunt from my head-to-nose contact. I tried that again, but failed. They'd obviously learned their lesson. Hot tears were spilling out of my eyes onto my cheeks.

And then I remembered what Clarke had said just the other day 'We were attacked. Grounders.' I shook my head no. This couldn't be real. This had to be a dream. I would wake up in the Drop Ship and see Bellamy taking to Octavia, and Murphy bugging people about their bracelets.

But that didn't happen. No matter what I did, what I thought about, I never woke up. This was real. This was reality. I was going to die.