2. The Fall-Bellarke Fanfiction

{8} Wounds Only You Can Mend

OCTAVIA:

It was around midday, the sun was at its highest point and was beating down furiously leaving the whole village lazy and humid. Since Hollis and I had kissed and shared that incredibly intimate moment, it had been hard to wipe the memory from my mind and the salty tang from my lips; we both went on like it had never happened, it was easier that way. Lincoln was none the wiser either... I couldn't lose him, not after everything that we had been through to survive.

Lincoln and I were sat on the beach, the most care free either of us had been since we had arrived at the sea. My body was pressed against the warm sand as I rested my head on his lap, squinting into the endless blue horizon ahead of us.

"What do you think is out there?" I asked him as he played with a strand of my hair, twiddling it around his fingers over and over. When he didn't respond, I pointed out onto the open ocean. "Out there." I felt his gaze follow my hand to look in the same place.

"There were stories. When I was a boy, there were folk tales passed on from the Sea People about what lay beyond the water. Some say there is a vast city where the streets are paved with gold and the sky glitters like a thousand sapphires, The City of Light they call it, lying just beyond the Dead Zone. Others say there lies a land full of fire where creatures beyond our darkest nightmares roam."

I glanced up at his serious expression, trying to work out what it meant. "And what do you believe?"

He paused for a moment. "No-one has ever been there, anyone who was brave enough to go has never returned..." He paused again, closing his eyes and drawing a sharp breath. "My father left me to cross The Sea, the last time I saw him was my 10th year, he left me saying he'd come back the happiest man alive... and that was it. From then on, I was in the care of Indra."

"Indra, the one who was leader of your village?"

He nodded, but we both snapped our heads round to the tree line that was beyond the beach, watching as people who acted as lookouts ran from the trees shouting in Trigedasleng as they did so. I was able to pick up the words 'TreeKru, War, Now". I knew that whatever was coming, no one was prepared for.

JASPER:

"Dude, she's doing it again..." Monty whispered as he shovelled cake into his mouth, trying his best to not let it all fall out as he spoke.

I turned around on my chair to see a girl with deep brown eyes and busy hair pulling her eyes away from me and onto her food whilst she spoke with her father. It must've been around the seventh time I had caught her looking.

"Maybe she's curious... people from the ground and the sky isn't something you see every day..." Which was true, it would be the same if we had had people from Mt Weather on The Ark.

But the people inside the mountain treated us with caution and avoided us at all costs as if they knew something about us that we didn't even have the knowledge of ourselves. There was a menacing atmosphere underlying the happy and warm one we were welcomed into, but once I noticed it, it got harder and harder to ignore.

"Well, I think she's totally into you... Dammit Jasp she's looking again, I can't eat my cake now..."

"Why?"

"Because I feel as though she'd judge me."

"Give over, it's me she's looking at..." Monty grabbed my plate and pulled it across the table towards himself, his fork hovering over the creamy, chocolatey icing. He threatened to eat it all if I didn't go and speak to the girl who was now alone with her head buried in a book.

I got out of my seat and tentively walked towards her, as if she were a beautiful doe in the woods, something I was desperate not to scare off.

"Hi..." I said awkwardly, my hands stuffed into my pants' pockets and watching as she put the book down.