Taming Chaos // J.M // The 100

Chapter 82

Alessia is gone from his side because she's hitting the ground with a sudden thud.

"No!"

With impeccable aim, Seria picks up the knife and tosses it at Jeremy, spearing right through his hand. The weapon clatters to the ground. She dives, kicks it away and takes the man down to the ground.

Ethan scrambles towards Alessia, hands hovering above the wound at her chest. "Beja, beja, beja." He begs, chin trembling.

"Ethan -" Alessia gasps, hand desperately searching for his. "Can't breathe." She barely heaves her next breath, but twists her fingers between his.

His limbs don't cooperate. Ethan presses his hands against the red red red and cries when it simply seeps past his fingers.

Alessia screams when he presses down.

"What do I do?" He tugs his hand out of hers to grab her face, meeting glazed eyes. "What do I do? I don't know what to do."

"Ethan -"

"You can't die. Not after we finally made it out. You can't." He sobs, coating her cheeks with her own blood.

Alessia gasps, short and sharp, "Ai gon. . ." Her next breath comes through even thinner.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence." Ethan furiously wipes his eyes against his arm to clear his vision. "We did it. You did it, you got out."

Alessia nods, her head moving in jerky movements.

And she smiles.

For the first time.

"Ai gonplei ste odon." Is breathed out in a whisper. Her eyes look through him.

Ethan holds his breath. He searches desperately for movement. He shakes Alessia's shoulders.

"No, no,"

So long trying to prevent death, even after attempting his own, that this? This was his tipping point. Ethan breaks into gut-wrenching sobs that hurt his ribs and pulls the air from his lungs.

Ethan feels entirely alone.

No Murphy, no delinquents, no family. Only him and Seria.

Looking away from her target, Jeremy's face pressed into the ground, arms locked behind him, Seria glances over her shoulder.

She sees Ethan, sees the motionless body in his arms, and slams her jaw shut to stop the turmoil from escaping.

Taking the distraction as it comes, Jeremy thrusts up from the stone-cold floor and knocks Seria onto her back. He darts onto his feet to bolt out the exit where -

Where three grounders stand.

He stumbles back.

Seria breathes out, crawling onto her knees. 

Indra kom Trikru stands at the front of the group, a hand resting on her sword.

She gestures to one of her warriors, "Teik em."

The warrior nods, grabbing Jeremy and forcing him to his knees. There's real fear in his eyes now. It fills Seria with glee.

Indra takes her arm and helps her stand, and with a nod of respect, Seria tells her everything. The kidnapping, the torture, the slaughter - and their escape.

Her gaze falls, shoulders drooping. She gestures towards Ethan, hovering over Alessia's motionless body. 

He doesn't move, now. The trembling traded out for stillness.

Ethan feels the eyes on him. There isn't enough hair to block the murderous narrow of his own gaze when it flits up and locks solely onto Jeremy.

"He needs to die." He grits out, skin burning hot. 

Indra steps further inside.

Her furrowed brows rise an inch in recognition.

"Skaikru's reassurance."

Ethan's head snaps towards her. "Indra?"

The warrior nods, a palm around the hilt of her sword. She kneels down, eyes swinging over the body.

"Ethan kom Skaikru." Seria whispers, abruptly, connecting his face to a title, and only then does her familiarity click for Ethan.

The girl at Tond C, basket in hand, encouraging him to take his weapon. He had warriors at his back, waiting for his lead to take them to the Ark. That was Seria.

Ethan lowers his head. He sees Alessia again, and he clamps his jaw shut to stop it from shaking. Mourning twists into anger.

And he aims it at the guilty.

"Yu gonplei ste odon." He closes Alessia's unblinking eyes and stands.

It takes a second for his eyes to find the gun on the floor.

Indra follows, but she doesn't intercept. Seria lifts her chin, and nods at him.

Feeling the cold metal in his palm doesn't pull him from the debilitating anger. Only urges him to move across the stone.

Ethan stops, towering over Jeremy.

"You're gonna shoot me? Do you even know how to use a gun?" The man taunts from below him, trying desperately to take back the power he doesn't have.

Ethan grits his teeth and tightens his hold on the weapon.

"Do it, you coward -"

And so he does.

Firing one round into his chest, almost an exact picture of what got him arrested.

Ethan leans closer, breathing hard, and cups a hand tauntingly around his ear, "What'd you say?"

Still kneeling, Jeremy gasps like a fish out of water, desperately trying to put pressure on a wound that he can't prevent from gushing blood.

"Yeah," Ethan throws Jeremy's exact words back at him, "That's what I thought."

He watches with a sick satisfaction. Jeremy reaches out, trying to grab him, only to fall to the ground. He doesn't move.

Shoulders rising and falling in ragged breaths, Ethan tenses up, vision blurring. The anger was still there. His debilitating pain.

Killing Jeremy did nothing.

But Ethan fires the gun again. And again and again and again -

He's crying.

Seria grabs his arm and he finally breathes.

He looks at what he's done. Sees himself holding the one thing he said he'd never use again.

His eyes widen. His fingers tremble. The gun clatters to the ground and he scrambles back, knocking into Indra's shoulder.

What was Ethan turning into?

0o0

AH im so excited for the story to come back to the plot and back to Murphy! We don't have long to wait 👀