FLARES ━ BELLAMY BLAKE ( 1 )

chapter sixteen

     "Taylor?" she questioned. Taylor waved her off and the next time she blinked, Octavia was gone. Everything around her seemed to swirl together and she couldn't quite place where she was. Her eyes widened and she stumbled over to a tree.

     She was truly convinced that she was going crazy when she realized it was dark out, even though she could have sworn that it was only morning a few moments ago. What had she been doing the whole day? There was barely any light around her, the only warm illumination coming from the camp. Why wasn't she in camp? She blinked a few times and concluded that what she was experiencing could not possibly be a dream.

     The tree's bark scraped against her hand when she slipped up against it, her heart nearly stopping when she saw who was in front of her. Her back hit the tree and she closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. He was still there. His jet black hair and piercing blue eyes jumped out against the night and the glow of the nearby torches.

     "I'm real, if that's what you're wondering," he smirked, his hands dug into his pockets while he glanced at the ground almost shyly. There was so much that she was thinking, so much that wouldn't come out of her mouth. She had lost all ability to form any sort of word, much less a coherent sentence. "It's okay."

     He took another step closer and she shook her head in utter denial. "Stop," she coughed out, holding out her hand as if that would repel his presence. "This is impossible. You aren't possible."

     "You killed me. Just like you killed that man in the woods," he told her casually as if he were talking about the weather and not life and death. "It's all your fault."

     "Stop," Taylor spat out hoarsely, tears prickling at her eyes. "It's not — I didn't — you aren't real!"

     "I was. But you've forgotten all about me. I can feel it." His voice was suddenly saddened as if he felt utterly betrayed and heartbroken by her. She stopped responding to him; she didn't want to make what was happening any more vivid by humoring the image in front of her.

He continued to take yet another step closer and she backed as far into the tree as she could possibly manage. "Yeah, I can see you forgetting me all the time. Especially with him. It's obvious," he went on, looking less sad and more irritated as he got out the words.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and shook her head violently, hoping that she could simply shake him away and that would be all there was to it. But when she opened them again, he was still standing there. Only this time, his eyes were completely black and hollow looking while his entire body was drenched in blood.

She blinked over and over, trying to make him disappear; that was all that she wanted, for him to just be gone. The tears in her eyes had blurred her vision and she could barely see a thing as she blinked. When she finally stopped, it had worked.

His ghostly form had all but vanished and she was standing alone in the woods, breathing heavily and shaking slightly as she leaned against the tree for all support. Nothing about what had just transpired had made any sense at all to her. For a few minutes, she simply stood there and breathed, the sounds of the camp being the only ones that filled the air.

Finally, she pushed away from the tree and took a few labored steps and felt the shock fading slightly. Only slightly. When she entered camp once again, she was not prepared for the mess that she walked into. For a moment she thought that she was still going crazy, but then she had no idea how she could possibly imagine some of the things she was seeing.

"Taylor! Finally!" Raven exclaimed from her right, drawing her absent attention to the frazzled girl. Finn was just behind her, calming a girl who was crying hysterically and screaming about oranges.