TESSA HAWTHORNE expected that on her eighteenth birthday the only gift she would receive was the lethal injection that would kill her before she was floated into the abyss of empty space for her crimes. What she didn't expect, however, was to join 9...
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Jasper was on the brink of survival and he hadn't stopped his incessant moaning all throughout the night. Between his constant cries of pain and the death threats being shouted at him, Tessa was barely able to get an hours worth of sleep. With heavy eyelids, she lifted her head from the cold ground and took a sip from her almost empty water canteen.
She could see Eden's flaming red hair in the distance, spread across the abdomen of another random boy that she had developed a new infatuation with ever since Atom had been publicly reprimanded by Bellamy for kissing Octavia while he was away.
A sigh passed between Tessa's lips as she tried to run her fingers through her tangled hair. Oh, what she would do to properly wash it. The faint memory of her mother's strawberry shampoo drifted around in her mind.
The scent had faded from her memory over time, but she still remembered that it smelt wonderful. Her thick tresses felt heavy and fell onto her shoulders uncomfortably. Deciding to get it out of her face, Tessa began to braid it.
Her mother had taught her when she was young, and Tessa carefully copied the hand movements that she had shown her. Starting at her hairline she separated three little pieces of her blonde hair and started to braid. Over, under, grab, over under, grab.
As she was tying the small elastic at the bottom of the newly tied braid, a scream erupted from the far side of the camp. Tessa immediately whipped her head around to find the source of the noise just as Cam sat up groggily.
"What the hell?" He murmured. "Would you stop screaming, I'm trying to sleep." He re-positioned himself on the grass and shut his eyes with a huff of dissatisfaction.
Less apt to return to sleep, Tessa moved from her spot on the grass and ventured over to the source of the horrible noise. It came in the form of a girl named Charlotte whom Tessa had only seen once when they dragged the little girl kicking and screaming into the cell across from her own in the sky box.
Charlotte was nestled between two fallen trees, thrashing about with her eyes closed. Aware that the girl was asleep, Tessa carefully placed a soft hand onto her arm. The young girl's eyes opened with a terrified jolt.
"It's okay." Tessa said softly as Charlotte sat up with a shaky demeanor. "You're okay. It was just a nightmare. My name's Tessa."
The younger girl took in a deep breath and nodded her head slowly. "It's my parents. They were floated and they-- I see it in my dreams all the time and I just..."
Tessa placed a hand on each of the younger girl's shoulders with a light smile. "It's okay. I know how you feel. My parents were floated too." She said, her mind wandering to how young Charlotte was. She herself wasn't much younger when she was arrested. "How did you end up here?" Tessa asked.
Charlotte sighed, nervously running her fingers over the two dutch braids that fell just a bit past her shoulders. "They were taking my parents things to the redistribution center and -- I kind of lost it. They said I assaulted a guard."
