𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓 | bellamy blake¹

↬ | chapter twelve

012. 

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

   Everyone in camp had been working hard, preparing everything for the cold weather that was beginning to show nuances of its presence. Maggie really could've used a jacket, considering how hers was torn to shreds, but it wasn't a priority. 

   Apparently, Raven had gotten a camera to work somehow (Maggie wouldn't be able to even fathom how she did it), and all of the teenagers were finally getting chances to talk to their parents. Naturally, Maggie was excited for them all; it was a sign of hope. 

   "Maggie, you're up," Harper suddenly tapped the girl on the shoulder, and the words didn't even register. For the record, Maggie believed she was speaking to someone else entirely. 

   "Huh?" Magnolia questioned— was there some kind of mistake? It had to be. 

   "Your mother wants to talk to you. Ella Gray, right?" Harper smiled in return, walking away to busy herself with her tasks.

   It was her mother. 

   Nonetheless, Magnolia trudged into the tent where the face-to-face meetings were being held, and her eyes widened to be double in size when she saw her mother's face illuminating the small screen. 

   They looked pretty identical; that was, considering Maggie had cuts, scars, dirt, sweat, and grime coating her face. But their dark brown eyes were copy-and-paste; it was blatantly obvious the two were related. 

   "Magnolia," Mrs. Gray spoke, her daughter unable to decipher the tone that she was talking in. They hadn't seen each other in years. For some reason, Maggie wasn't scared. Perhaps it was the fact she didn't have to fear of being punched or thrown against the wall— they were just looking at one another through a screen. One was in the sky, one was on the ground. "You've been put to work I see. You look terrible."

   This woman, the one she was speaking to, was not the mom that she lived with growing up, prior to being locked up. The rings under her eyes had vanished, and her shoulder-length hair was brushed— just a little bit. "Mom, what's happened in the past three years? You're different. And where's my father?"

   "Yeah, that's what happens when I don't have a child to worry about" Mrs. Gray revealed with a nasty chuckle, almost as if she did anything for Maggie when she was a small child. "As for your dad— he's a janitor. We need to get our moonshine somewhere."

   "As if you did anything for me," Maggie's expression seemed careless; completely unamused by all of the nonsense. "You're playing the nice act, mom. And I can see right through it. You two beat me whenever I couldn't steal something. I shouldn't have had to do that for your sorry asses!"

   "It was entertaining, Magnolia. For your father and I. But just wait until we make it to the ground. We'll go right back to where we started." The eighteen-year-old surprisingly wasn't bothered— still. Her mom was just pixels— up in space. It wasn't sinking in in the moment. 

   "And what makes you think you're going to run into me, may I ask?" Maggie mused. 

   "Well, to answer your smart-ass question—we got ourselves a spot on the first ship coming down. You don't think I forgot about your little prank, do you?"

   "It wasn't a prank. I wanted to kill you two that day. That— was my intention," the girl answered wholeheartedly with a throw of her arms, ignoring the fact that her mother said she was going to be of the first group that made it to the ground. She could talk all the shit she wanted to— as long as she didn't have to actually face either of her parents.