DISCORDIA

[ 20 ] high time

     "You killed us." The woman's face was no longer welcoming and gentle- but masked with a cold fury that twisted her once beautiful features.

     Jinny's breath hitched in her chest as a dozen more arms erupted from the ground. They groaned in agony, cadaverous hands stretching out towards her. Without a second thought, Jinny turned around and ran.

     The forest flashed painfully in front of her eyes and she was barely aware of the rain drops that was now dotting her skin. She continued to run away, like the coward that she was, refusing to meet her own wretched demise. The ghosts of her mistakes continued to chase her relentlessly, screaming and moaning, like a chorus of unquenchable malevolence seeking retribution.

     She collapsed to her knees on the wet ground- wet with crimson blood that ran like the River Styx beneath her. They were right; it was all her fault. Her mother's death, the lives of the people in the culling, and the hundreds more that would no doubt soon follow. She was the reason that they were sent to the earth, to suffer its uncharted dangers. They would be right to execute her when they came down, she was the catalyst for their destruction. She was chaos and strife, harbinger of death. Jinny's chest heaved with laboured breaths as she raised her gun, pointing the barrel at herself.

     "I only ever did what you told me to," she whispered shakily.

     "And now there's only one more thing left for you to do."

     Jinny looked up at the now clear sky, twilight already having descended over the earth and wrapping it in a desolate shroud. The stars twinkled brightly above her, millions of other galaxies locked away in their distant splendour. She closed her eyes, wondering if she could return to them. Her home. They were all made of stardust anyway, streaming through their blood and forging their very bones, remnants of a cosmic supernova. There would always be a part of her that would be alive, in the trees or the foundations of the earth, seeping into the open seas and dissipating back into space. She took a deep raspy breath, inhaling a rush of cold air.

     "We are infinite." Her fingers curled around the trigger, and there was a loud bang.

     She opened her eyes with a neural jolt, everything suddenly coming back with crisp clarity. There were no more shadows, no more sour notes of bygone songs. Another shot in the distance made her turn her head in its direction. The first thought that came to her mind was Bellamy and she pushed herself back onto her feet. Her body felt weighed down with lead as she made her way towards a nearby clearing. Bellamy was lying disoriented on the ground, a boy that she wasn't familiar with stood over him with a gun in his hands as he faced off with Clarke on the opposite fringe.

     "Jinny," Bellamy called to her hoarsely.

     "Good, it's you," the boy said. "You can help me finish this."

     "Finish this?" Jinny questioned thickly, her head still spinning from her previous episode. "What are you talking about?"

     "Dax, put down the gun!" Clarke ordered.

     "You should have stayed down there, Clarke," Dax told her. "I tried not to kill you but here you are... and Shumway said no witnesses."

     "Shumway?" the girl questioned, blue eyes flickering towards Jinny. "What is he talking about?"

     Bellamy looked over to her with a guilty expression. "I couldn't make you choose between your father and me."

     "My father," she scoffed with a tone of heavy disappointment. "He gave you the gun, and now he's cleaning house."

     "He said he'd get my mother on the first dropship," Dax said. "And that I'll get a choice assignment when he gets to the ground."

     "Don't be stupid," Jinny shook her head. "This isn't worth risking your life for."