Cayden above.
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Bellamy POV:
I sat at the fire, staring into the embers.
I hit her. I hit her.
I hit my Angel.
I told her I would take the pain away, but I just ended up causing more. As I sit there I hear someone approach form behind. I turn to find Clarke sit down next to me.
"Hey," I say softly.
"Hey. You seen Liz around anywhere?" she asks. "Her dad wants to talk to her."
"I saw her a couple hours ago go to her clearing, but not since then. I think she needs some space after....what happened."
I hear her swear under her breath. She rubs at her eyes. "Can you please talk to him while I find her? He's getting impatient and I can only stall so long." I go to refuse but Clarke cuts me off, "Believe it or not you know her the best down here. She's not exactly the girl I used to know. You just need to tell him how she is, that's all." I look at Clarke for a moment before reluctantly nodding.
"Thank you," she breathes.
I give her a final nod before heading towards the communication tent. I take a deep breath and sit before Chancellor Kane.
"You are not my daughter," he says bluntly.
I chuckle at his statement. "No, I am not, but your daughter is...recovering," I say slowly.
"Recovering? From what? Is she injured?" he asks concerned.
"She's fine. Well as fine as you can be on the ground."
He nods at me. "How is she? Is she coping?"
"She's adapting. You have to do things down here you never thought you would have to, but she's strong. Stronger than most of us actually."
"She always was. Even after everything."
"Sir, can you tell me what happened? I just wanna help her and to do that I need to know what happened," I plead, looking at him desperately.
His face falls blank and he looks down at the ground. "I shouldn't be the one to tell you. If you are close with my daughter, she'll tell you when she's ready. But when you find out, don't run. Don't judge her, be there for her. Unlike I was."
Before I can respond, Clarke quickly enters the tent. "Bellamy, it's Liz," she pants.
My eyes snap to hers. "What is it?"
"She's gone. We can't find her. She's not in her clearing or in the dropship. She's gone."
"What do you mean gone?" Kane asks from the monitor.
"It means the grounders have her most likely. Fuck," I swear under my breath. "I'm going to look for her," I tell Clarke, leaving the tent. I hear Clarke say something to Kane and then follow me.
I walk quickly towards my tent and as I do I hear Clarke call my name. "Bellamy! Wait a minute!"
"What?" I growl spinning around to face her.
"I know you wanna find her, I do too. But we can't just go after her. We need to think. Plan."
"No, Clarke! We are finding her now. We just got her back and now she's gone. Again. This time on her own. We need her here."
"I know that. But-"
"There is no but! I need to find her!"
"Bellamy, just listen for a second! We need Liz, but we also need supplies for winter. Kane told me of a bunker where we might find supplies east from here. We go to the bunker from there we look for Liz. Okay? We go for the day, and if we don't find her, we come back and get more people to search. Okay?" she tells me softly placing her hand on my shoulder.
I tense as she places her hand. "If there is one scratch on her body, we're gonna have problems, Clarke." I walk away from her and towards the dropship. I climb up the ladder to the third level where the grounder is kept. As I enter the room I find Octavia standing in front of the Grounder.
"Hey!" I call out. "What are you doing in here?" I ask her.
"Nothing," she replies curtly.
"Whatever, I need to talk to him."
"He doesn't even understand you."
"I don't care, it's about Liz, not me. She's gone. I just wanna know if he might know where she was taken." At my words I see the grounder's eyes fill with concern. So he does understand us. "Look I'm not gonna hurt you," I say to him, raising my hands, "I just wanna know where my Angel is, please," I beg him.
He hesitates for a moment before nodding at me. He gestures towards the journal sitting in the corner. I rush over, pick up the journal and return to the grounder. "The map," he says simply. I flick through the journal until I find a drawn map inside. "Go east. You might find her there."
I study the map for a moment, memorising the details. I look up at him a final time. "Thank you," I breathe. He nods a final time. "Find her. Quickly. Before it's too late," he warns. I nod at him and Octavia before rushing down the ladder to find Clarke.
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Elizabeth POV:
I groan as I open my eyes, squinting away from the sunlight. I raise my hand to block the sunlight as I sit up. Pain surges through my head and I gently cradle my head in my hand. As I pull back my hand blood covers my fingers. Great.
I look around me to find I am inside a small cell with a chain attached to my ankle. I try to tug on the chain to break it, but it doesn't work. I can feel the panic rise in my throat and my breath become shallow. Not again. Not again.
I continue to pull on the chain in the hope of breaking it when I hear footsteps heading towards me. I push myself into the corner of the cell, trying to slow my breathing, but all I can concentrate on is the heavy chain attached to my ankle.
My head snaps up at the sound of the door opening and a large man enters the room. I push myself further into the wall, trying to get away from the man. Behind him I see two more grounders enter the room, another male and a women with dark eyes next to him.
"You are the one they call Liz, correct?" the woman asks. I jerk my head in response, confirming her assumption. "You are a leader of the sky people?"
"I'm not a leader," I stutter out. She looks at me quizzically.
"You are a leader, yet you do not think so," she says as she walks towards me. "You are strange, Liz."
She crouches in front of me, her stare never wavering. "I'm just Liz. That's it," I say, my breathing still shallow. One of the men with her, step forward and I flinch way from the movement. As I look up at him, he slowly transforms until Caleb is now before me. "No, no, Please! Not again!"
I see the woman gesture for the man to step back. "You are scared of him. Why?"
My eyes snap to hers. "Why do you care?" I growl. "It's my problem not yours."
The woman's eyes turn into slits and she glares down at me. "You will tell me what I want to know, when I want to know."
"You can go fuck yourself. I'd rather die than tell you anything," I spit at her.
"Oh you won't die, but you will tell me." She nods at the men beside her as she pulls out a knife. The men step forward and grab my arms pulling me away from the wall. I struggle in their grip as they pull me in front of the woman.
"Why did you come down?" she growls at me.
"Scared of heights," I reply with a smirk. Her eyes flash with anger and before I can say anything else she plunges the knife into my thigh. I grunt in pain, not giving her the satisfaction of hearing me scream.
"Why did you come down here?" she asks again.
"Needed a change of scenery," I snap at her. She growls in anger and quickly pulls the knife from my thigh and stabs me in the stomach. I let out a muffed cry of pain, biting on my lip hard enough for the coppery taste of blood to fill my mouth.
"Tell me and the pain ends," she tells me.
"Fuck. You."
She simply smirks at me before nodding at the men beside me. They quickly turn me around and rip the back of my shirt off. Before I can protest, I feel a whip crack against my back. I swallow my screams, refusing to show any pain. It feels like hours until whipping finally stops.
The men release me and I fall to the floor. The woman's feet come into my eye sight. "Why did you come down here?" she asks me a final time.
"The scenery," I mumble to her before succumbing to pain and falling unconscious.
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I awaken to the sound of my cell door opening. I raise my head to find one of the grounders from earlier slowly approaching me.
"Get away from me," I say weakly.
He raises his hands in a peaceful manner. "I want to help. I have medicine that will help." He shows me the pouch in his hands, which is filled with small vials and medical supplies.
"What after the beat the crap out of me, you want to fix me? Is that so you can hurt me later?"
"No, I want to help you get out of here."
"Why?" I ask him confused
"Because you are strong. Stronger than most. Can I help you?" he asks taking another step towards me. I nod warily in response. He slowly makes his way towards me before kneeling by my side. He begins to clean away the blood from my back before inspecting the cuts from the whip.
"This will hurt," he warns before pouring a liquid onto my back. Pain instantly rises in my back and I whimper in response. I hear the grounder chuckle.
"You find my pain funny?" I growl at him.
"No, I find the fact you survive through an entire interrogation session without a single sound, yet you whimper at the small pain of medicine."
I scoff in response. "Yeah well, shut up."
Silence fills the room whilst the grounder cleans and stitches my wounds. "What do I call you?" I ask him gently.
"I am Cayden," he replies as he finalises the last stitch. He gently sits me up removing his fur jacket before placing it around me.
"Thank you," I tell him softly. He looks at me for a moment before looking at the ground.
"Your scars. No grounder did that. They are too old. Years old," he says softly before looking back at me.
"Everyone has scars," I retort looking at the ground.
"Not like this. You have suffered. Yet you have overcome it. You survived," he tells me gently raising my chin so I look him in the eye. "Your scars do not make you weak, they make you strong. They show you are stronger than you know."
We sit there for a moment, simply looking at each other before I break eye contact with him. That breaks him out of the trance and he quickly stands.
"We must leave now, before Anya returns. I will take you to a clearing not far from your camp. Apparently some of your people are travelling there today," he tells me unlocking the chain from my ankle.
He gently helps me up before picking me up bridal style.
"Thank you for this. You didn't have to help me, but you did. So, thank you," I say to him.
"Thank me once we are out of this place," he tells me exiting the cell.
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We had been walking for an hour, well, Cayden had been walking, I was being carried. He refused to let me walk. In the time we had been travelling night had fallen.
"How long till the clearing?" I ask Cayden softly.
"Not long. Ten minutes," he replies, stepping over a log.
"What's it like? Being a grounder?" I ask him.
"Well for me it's normal," he tells me with a grin. I laugh at his response.
"I guess it would be. I hated the Ark. All the rules we had to follow. I wish I had never been born on the Ark," I admit to him.
"Being born on the Ark made you who you are today. A strong woman who can survive anything," he says to me. I look at him and give him soft smile.
"I guess so," I whisper to myself as me come to a large clearing.
"Your friends are here. Find them and return to your camp. I will come see you soon," Cayden tells me as he gently sets me down.
"Be careful," I tell him as he goes to leave. "Thank you again, for everything," I say as I pull him into a hug. He hesitates fro a moment before gently placing his hands on my back.
"Good luck," he says softly into my ear.
We break apart and go our separate ways, but not before I glance at him one last time. When I see him disappear in the trees I make my way towards the centre of the clearing. Every step I take a wave of pain makes its way through my body.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" I call out.
I am only met with silence until a familiar voice calls out. "Angel? Is that you?"
My head whips around trying to find him. "Bellamy? Where are you?"
"Angel! Here!" he calls out as he comes racing towards me. Before I can warn him, he wraps his arms around me. I let out a muffled scream of pain before Bellamy quickly releases me. "Shit, did I hurt you? What happened?" he asks rapidly.
"I'm fine, just had a little run in with some grounders. Hurt my back," I tell him.
"Let me have a look," he says.
"No, no, I'm fine. It's fine," I stutter out.
"Liz. Let me look," he tells me, gently placing his hand on my cheek. I nod reluctantly and he makes his way behind me. I help him remove Cayden's jacket and I hear a quick intake of breath. He gently places a hand on my back. "A little run in? They tortured you," he growls.
"Bell, I'm fine. Just a couple scratches that's it," I say pulling the jacket back on. "Comrade. I'm alive. That's what matters." I turn around to find Bellamy with a pained look on his face. "Hey, I'm right here." I reach down and grab his hand and place it on my chest allowing him to feel my heartbeat. "You feel that? I'm alive. I'm okay."
I gently cradle his face, leaning my forehead against his. "Please don't disappear like that again. You have no idea how scared I was."
"I wont make any plans with the grounders," I giggle.
"Let's get you back to camp. Clarke's waiting for us at the depot," he says as he lifts me up into his arms. "I think we're doing this too often."
"What?" I ask, raising my eyebrow.
"Me carrying you to camp," he responds with a chuckle. I roll my eyes at him. "Maybe you just really like being in my arms, Angel."
"Keep dreaming, Comrade," I say placing my head on his shoulder. "Let's go home."
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Hey guys,
Here's a late Christmas present, the next chapter.
Do you guys like Cayden? I don't really know what I'm gonna do with him yet but we'll see how it goes.
I hope you guys liked it, and I'll have the next chapter up soon.
Em x
PS: anyone have any idea what happened to Liz?