The Girl With No Name // the 100 Wattys 2018!!

Twenty-Five

She didn't know when the voice started. But it always came in times of great stress. Back on the Ark, the voice took on the face of her grandfather. Now on Earth, it was like she saw her father every time she closed her eyes.

She walked through the woods, heading back to the lake she had visited the day before. There were bags under her eyes due to the fact that she hadn't been able to fall asleep last night. Her father walked beside her, looking over at her. Theresa kept looking ahead, ignoring the ghost of a man who wouldn't stop whistling.

No matter what she did, he always managed to come back. Slamming her hands over her ears, shutting her eyes, screaming, shaking her head -- none of it worked. The voice was always louder, always made sure that it wasn't ignored.

The voice refused to let itself be ignored.

"What do you think would have happened if you had left the observation deck earlier, Theresa?" her father asked.

Theresa kept walking. She wasn't going to let the voice win.

"Maybe you would've stopped me from hanging myself. Maybe you would've let me take the more excruciating way out -- you know, suffocating when the Ark ran out of oxygen?" he continued.

She said nothing.

"Maybe Jasper and Monty wouldn't have ended up in confinement if you had broken out of confinement sooner. We both know the real reason you're too scared to show your face at the campground."

"And why is that?" she asked, caving in.

"Because they blame you. They would be on the Ark still -- all of you would. But...no...poor little Theresa needed to risk their innocence to get Paw's medication."

"They didn't get locked up because of me," she countered.

"Yes, but if you hadn't gotten locked up, neither would they have. We both know that they got locked up because they were trying to get to you."

She rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, waving her hand in her father's direction.

"Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady," he scolded her.

She flashed him a look. "You realize you're dead, right?"

He made a surprised face, gasping. "Really?! I had no idea!" he exclaimed.

She scoffed. "Smart ass," she muttered under her breath.

Her father chuckled, snorting loudly, but it wasn't like anyone could hear him. Theresa was the only one that could. That voice, however, was far too loud because if it weren't for her father, she would have heard the footsteps behind her.

If she had heard those footsteps, she wouldn't have been thrown up against a tree with a blade pressed against her throat. Theresa saw the Grounder that was ready to kill her, but all she could hear was her father's laughter ringing in her ears.

---

Theresa was walking through the woods with Jaha and Murphy, standing next to Murphy because she could tolerate being around Murphy more than the latter.

"It's extraordinary, isn't it?" Jaha said, breaking the silence between them.

"Oh, just give it a few days," Murphy replied.