IN MY HEAD¹ ━━ Bellamy Blake

𝐈𝐕: Whatever the Hell We Want

     Tilting her head, Lyra watches as Murphy tosses Harper's wristband into the fire pit. It joins the steadily growing pile. None of them are melting, though. They just sit there.

     "It looks like you're trying to get us all killed," Wells retorts, limping towards the much taller Blake.

     He seems to realise dozens of eyes are on him and he addresses them the same way his father would.

     "The communication system is dead. The wristbands are all we've got. Take them off, and the Ark will think we're dying, that it's not safe for them to follow."

     "That's the point, Chancellor," Blake spits the title like it's poison in his mouth, but he doesn't seem uneasy. In fact, he only rolls his shoulders and smirks, confident in every little movement. "We can take care of ourselves, can't we?"

     Dozens of voices bleed into one as the crowd howls "Yeah!" in approval.

     Lyra's eyes rest on Blake. "Can we?" She asks curiously, her voice soft and lilting as usual.

     "Yeah," he says, and then he starts to smirk boldly. "Don't worry — if you can't take care of yourself, I can take care of you, too."

     "You think this is a game?" Wells questions in disbelief. "Those aren't just our friends and parents up there. They're our farmers, our doctors, our engineers. I don't care what he tells you. We won't survive here on our own!" He gazes around at the crowd incredulously. "And besides, if it really is safe, how could you not want the rest of our people to come down?"

     "We have her," Blake gestures lazily to Lyra. "She's crazy, but she isn't stupid. Seems to me like we've already got everything that we need." Lifting both his hands, he motions to the kids surrounding him. "My people are already down. Those people locked my people up. Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child. Your father did that."

     Wait. . . he has a sibling?

     Octavia. It must be. That would explain why she grew up under the floor and why she'd listened to him in the dropship. But that would mean Blake is his last name, wouldn't it?

     Wow. . . Actually, she feels pretty dumb for not figuring this out sooner. For being a super-genius, she really can't read context clues, can she?

     Mental note to self, Lyra thinks in her head. Figure out his first name.

     In real life, Wells finally looks uneasy. "My father didn't write the laws."

     "No, he enforced them." Shaking his head, Blake saunters towards him with a subtle edge to his step. "But not anymore. Not here. Here there are no laws. Here, we do whatever the hell we want whenever the hell we want!"

     A few kids echo his cry and his confidence only grows.

     "Now, you don't have to like it, Wells. You can even get to change it, stop it, kill me. You know why?"

     Blake doesn't give him the chance to answer. He only smirks that dark, serpentine smirk again.

     "Whatever the hell we want."