Red Lighter ✧ John Murphy

XLI - Leave The Shore

June 13th 2016

This is a long Author's note, but I would like for you all to read it.

So anyone that is reading my Elijah Mikaelson fanfic will know what I'm about to tell you, but I felt I should let you guys know exactly why I haven't been updating in these past few weeks. 

My friend Jay was in a fairly severe accident. He was on his fourwheeler and ended up flipping it so that it pinned him down. His phone broke due to the accident, and he was alone and in pain for four hours before anyone found him. He broke four of his ribs, his left arm, ended up with a severe concussion, and he nearly punctured his left lung. He was also under severe exhaustion because he somehow contracted mono while out there. He is still in the hospital and I have spent nearly every day with him. I've even missed a bit of school. I haven't even told me other friends who go to my school (he goes to one the next town over).

He's okay, so that is definitely a boost to my mood. However, a lot has happened this weekend that I feel I must talk about. 

Christina Grimmie, an wonderful 22 year old girl with one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard, was shot on Friday night and died early Saturday morning. She was signing autographs and a man came up to her and shot her I believe three times in the chest. I have been following this girl since I was ten years old, watching cover after cover. I remember feeling an enormous sense of pride when I saw that the teen I had watched making videos in her room had finally made it big. And now, she's gone. I don't know how I feel about it.

Right after that, I believe less than 24 hours after her death, a gunman went into an Orlando nightclub called Pulse. He shot and killed 49 people, if the numbers I've seen are correct. I do not consider this an act of terrorism. I do not consider this an act of passion. I consider this to be a hate crime against people that love in a different way than you do. I consider this to be one of the worst possible things that a person can do to another human being: hurting them for being exactly who they are.

If any of you are feeling sad or upset about this, I can tell you now that you are not alone and that I feel the same way. I feel angry and mournful. I feel upset that both of these things could have easily been avoided with tighter gun control laws. We lost a total of 50 amazing people in this past weekend. That is NOT okay. The youngest person at that nightclub was 18 years old. That is only two years older than me, and I bet about the same age as some of you.

This weekend has been a disaster, in all honestly. But as the amazing Frank Langella said during the Tony Awards, "When something bad happens we have three choices: we let it define us, we let it destroy us, or we let it strengthen us."

You have a choice. Make the right one.

I love you all. I hope you know that.

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Chapter Fourty-One

We would be leaving soon. Clarke had decided she was going to leave as well, which surprised me. I thought she would have stayed with Lexa.

I had left my room, deciding to explore a little. I was Lexa's guest, after all. She had told me I could move freely, and so I would.

I went to the hallway, admiring the decorations that lined it. There were paintings and drawings with an amount of detail I had never experienced. Candles and torches lined the walls, and some people were actually lighting them now. I even saw a few tables with flowers sitting on them, and when I saw a vase, I had to stop and look at them. I had read about these flowers in the books that Bellamy had brought me. They were called Amaranths. I had never seen them before, and from what I knew, they weren't supposed to be grown here in the this part of Earth. I didn't question the fact that they were here because I was so happy to see such a beautiful flower.