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Tatum can remember the counting the stress before going to bed. Or when she'd sneak out of her room the space walk and watch them when she couldn't sleep. She always lost count after 40. She never knew how long she sat there, she just sat there until she got tired. It became a routine. Her dad would go to sleep, she would stay up, sneak out, and go count the stars. She found herself doing it on the ground, too. There was something so beautiful about counting an endless amount of little bright dots in the sky. She knew she would never be able to count them all but she didn't care. She just wanted to see them.
She longed to be able to count them now.
Tatum was trapped in darkness. There was no concept of time. She laid on her side, curled in a ball, and she tapped her fingers on the ground. She whispered the numbers to herself. She always stopped at forty then started over. She didn't feel like a person. Her body was starved, beaten and weak; marked for life. It was like she was a ghost.
She lost of hope that her friends were still alive and that Octavia would come for her. That Bellamy was still out there. She was alone. That's how it was supposed to be.
She flinched when the door opened. She hid her eyes from the light. She didn't know how long she'd been stuck in the hut. When she saw that it was Indra, her eyes widened slightly and she sat up. Two grounder men stood on either side of her.
The women stared at one another. Indra glared blankly. Tatum was exhausted. She didn't have the enery to glare back. "Why haven't you killed me?" She spoke hoarsely.
"Yu laik valuable kom me, skai gada." She spoke in Trigedasleng. She watched the girl strain her face to try and understand her words. She huffed. "You are valuable to me, sky girl." She repeated in English.
""If I'm valuable then why am I trapped in here?" She questioned.
"You are rugged. You are also stupid. If I let you go, you will try and kill us." She spat.
"Why shouldn't I?" She spat back, feeling angry.
One of the grounders struck her in the face. The force was so strong that it broke her skin. Her black hair curtained her face. Metallic filled her mouth and her face burned like wildfire. Tatum lifted her head into the light, her blood face now on display.
"It would do you good to not speak that way, skai gada." Indra spoke monotonously. Sky girl
"Just kill me." She pleaded and finally broke. The blood from her mouth stained her teeth.
