Bittersweet ━━ Bellamy Blake

𝟭𝟮. these violent delights

     Elliot shrugged. "You didn't look enough."

     Clarke looked surprised at her presence. She sent a confused look at the siblings. Then she asked the Grounder: "You're Elliot, right?"

     She merely stared at the blond girl.

     "We're going to Lincoln's village," Octavia informed.  "I figured you'd want to come."

     Night had come so fast and the small group decided to camp out for a while and rest. Elliot argued that they should keep going so they could arrive there earlier but Clarke insisted. Besides, Finn and Murphy were only there because she had been gone. Apparently, Clarke found her way back.

     The fire crackled in the darkness of the forest. Elliot sat on the ground opposite Bellamy while the two other girls slept soundlessly. Bellamy glanced at her and noticed how she kept shivering and clenching her fists from the cold. He contemplated for a minute. Yeah, a whole minute, before he shrugged his windbreaker off him and hesitantly held it out towards the Grounder.

     Her head snapped towards him. She had this unreadable expression on her face that Bellamy almost wanted to take back what he did. Her mask was still on her lower face, but the fire was bright enough that he could guess her expression underneath it.

     "Take it," Bellamy said gruffly, trying to sound nonchalant about it.

     "Keep it," Elliot muttered, ignoring his obvious attempt to try to get on her good side.

     His grip around the clothing tightened, and his jaw clenched ever so slightly. Then he retracted his arm and slid the jacket back on his body. They shared one last glance at each other before quickly looking away just as fast. Bellamy's eyes nervously flickered towards his sleeping sister and Clarke.

     The moment Elliot closed her eye, Bellamy found himself staring at her again. Just quietly studying every inch of her face that wasn't covered by that annoying mask. Personally, he thinks her scar just made her more... beautiful. He couldn't believe he was even thinking of her. It was annoying.

     Elliot felt it. She could feel his eyes on her, but the moment she opened hers━Bellamy instantly looked away and turned somewhere else. She decided to ignore him. He was a strange one. But the good kind of strange that made people want to know him better than he looked on the outside. 

    "First, we find Finn," Bellamy said to Clarke. "Then our people at Mount Weather."

    "And Lincoln," Octavia added.

     Elliot glanced at her brother's lover with a spaced-out look on her face. She looked back at her, a mutual understanding between the two of them. The Grounder pursed her lips and decided that she wouldn't give up just yet. Someone still had hope Lincoln was alive. She could at least add up to that.

     "I think we slept long enough," Octavia muttered and started to pack up, urging her brother and Clarke to do the same thing since Elliot never took off her things in the first place.

     Bellamy approached the female Grounder with an unrecognizable look on his face. Elliot wrinkled her nose. Bellamy still wasn't sure what it meant but he often took it as a taunt. They sent each other a small nod before they followed Clarke and Octavia in a tense silence. 

    The sun had come up when they neared the village. Octavia stopped near a statue━a statue where Lincoln got his name from, which made Elliot gulp uneasily as she looked up at it. They stared at the statue's back while Clarke and Bellamy stood behind them without having any clue what it meant to them.

     "This is it." Bellamy approached them. "Which way to the village?" 

     Upon noticing how quiet his sister became, he stopped and looked at her with a worried expression on his face. He shared a look with Clarke. Elliot remained silent by Octavia's side. Her grip on her sword was getting tighter the longer they stood there.

     "O?" Bellamy said carefully.

     "The Reapers came from there." Octavia pointed at the large statue of Abraham Lincoln and started to sob. "I couldn't save him, Bell."

     The man could only hug his little sister for comfort because he didn't know what to do or how to bring the Grounder back so she could feel better.

     "I couldn't save him," Octavia sobbed through her brother's shoulder. Her teary eyes fell on the quiet Grounder. "I'm so sorry, Elliot." 

     Elliot looked away. "We should go."

     She could almost see the sight of the village. But then something stopped her in her tracks━the sound of gunshots echoing throughout the forest. Her heart rate picked up, fearing that her brother's people might've been hurt. She didn't bother to wait for them as she bolted towards the noise.

     The gunshots never ceased. Not until Elliot found herself facing the one who was holding the weapon. The blood on her face drained. This village was the only reminder she had of Lincoln and the people living in it. But what of it if the sight in front of her was a sign that the people she once bonded with were now dead on the ground?

     Her body was frozen. She couldn't move. Or speak. Her eye were wide as she stared in horror at the massacre in front of her. These people had taken care of her once. When she was young, stupid, a child. They took her in as their own. Like she wasn't a stranger. Or a monster. They took care of her when nobody wanted to.

     Then she snapped out of it. She found herself on her knees as she tried to feel the heartbeat of the Grounders who suffered. Finn, who was in the middle of the bloodbath, seemed frozen, too. Maybe he would've pointed his rifle at her if he wasn't so entranced at seeing Clarke Griffin just a few feet away from him.

     But even his own friends were at a loss for words.

     Something inside of her snapped. Like a chain keeping a door closed. Realization struck her and at that moment, all she saw was red.

     Elliot wasn't even aware of what she was doing. But she stood up, dragging her feet towards the culprit. Bellamy was the one who noticed her. He hesitated at first, slowly inching towards her. But he was too late. Way too late.

    When Elliot reached Finn, she abruptly grabbed his shoulder and forcefully made him turn to her before forcefully headbutting his face. That made the boy stumble back, but as she was about to beat him up to death━Bellamy came up behind her, wrapping his strong arms around her waist. He tried to hold her back from Finn who merely continued to stare at Clarke like the pain didn't matter.

     Finn messed up big time.

     "Let me go, Bellamy!" Elliot snarled, scratching her way out of his grip.  "Let me go!"

     Bellamy merely shushed her and tightened his arms around her although not too tight that it could hurt her. Elliot continued to kick and thrash around his arms, reaching for the long-haired boy, wanting to taste some revenge and kill him because it was the only thing she knew in her life. 

     Jus drein jus daun. Blood must have blood.

     "Stop," Bellamy grunted, keeping her close. Elliot let out a strained scream. Her face cried but no tears came out of her eye. He gave her a pleading look. "Please, Elliot."

     For once in her life, she felt exhausted. There was no doubt, deep inside she craved vengeance. That's what the clans stood for. The families of the fallen Grounders' cries echoed through her ears like a somber lullaby. She felt their pain like an arrow to the chest. Her hands gripped the soil as she fell to her knees once more. 

     A damned tragedy. That's what her life had become the moment she was born into this world of death and suffering. It was only a matter of time before Elliot of Ice Nation, the failure of a warrior, snapped.