hesykhia • bellamy blake

xiii. i am become death

"Mᴜʀᴘʜʏ ғᴏᴜɴᴅ ʜɪs way back to camp.  He's in the dropship now, but he looks like hell," Octavia tells Bellamy as soon as the group comes into camp.  They hadn't made it back before dark so their faces were lit by the fire.  At the very mention of Murphy and his whereabouts, Skye takes off into the dropship.  Plenty of people are inside staring at someone on the floor and Skye has to maneuver around them.  The boy curled on the floor appears to look nothing like her best friend until his eyes open and she sees his familiar blue irises.  Her hands cover her mouth as tears spring to her eyes.  She drops to her knees and crawls toward him.

Murphy's entire face is coated in blood, blood clots splattered across his face.  An enormous gash marks his once clean cheek on one side of his face and his eye on the other side is swollen shut.  His bottom lip is busted and dripping with blood, much like the rest of his face.  Skye's hand shakes as she reaches to touch his face, but she thinks better of it and rests it on his shoulder.  The rest of his body wasn't any better than his face.  The other shoulder seems to have been burned and his arms are full of cuts and bruises.  Every inch of his body is devoid entirely of his naturally pale skin.

"Where is he?" Bellamy asks as he steps into the dropship.  People clear a path for him to see Skye and Murphy clearly.  His shoulders sink a bit at the way they're staring at each other.  "Everyone but Conner and Derek out.  Now!"

"He claims he was with the Grounders," Derek explains.

Conner adds, "We caught him trying to sneak back into camp."  Skye doesn't like the way he was pointing the gun at Murphy, especially since he's the one who put the rope around his neck.

"I wasn't sneaking," Murphy defends.  "I was running from the Grounders."

"Anyone see Grounders?" Bellamy inquires.  Skye turns to look at Bellamy as she sniffles the tears away.  The two boys shake their heads.  "Well, in that case–"  He aims his gun at Murphy, and Skye throws herself in front of him to protect him like she did the night he was banished—her back against him and arms on either side of his body while she faces Bellamy.  Finn pushes Bellamy's gun down.

"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"We were clear what would happen if he came back.  Skye, move."  She shakes her head as he aims his gun again.  The tears on her face are dry.  She's done crying about everything instead she's going to do what she should've done the night Charlotte died.  Protect her people, keep him alive.  Finn steps between her and Murphy and the gun.

"No.  If he was with the Grounders, then he knows something that can help us."

"Help us?  We hanged him.  We banished him, and now we're gonna kill him.  Get the hell out of my way."

"No.  Finn's right," Clarke says and steps around Bellamy to examine Murphy.  She and Skye stare at each other since Skye isn't sure she can trust Clarke with him.  She'd been the one to suggest banishing him in the first place.