"TAHLIA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" A panicked Octavia asked. "Everyone was going crazy when they realized you didn't come back."
"I was talking to Murphy for a minute or two after everything happened, and then on my way back, I went the way where you pass the lake and the Grounder took me," I didn't tell her that Lincoln spoke to me, or about his interest with my blood. In fact, I left out a lot of details. She would tell Bellamy and then Bellamy would go on a man hunt for Lincoln and never let me leave camp again.
Octavia took a moment to process everything. She looked down at her leg and put a hand to it. "He fixed it..." She muttered.
"You should have heard how loud you were screaming," I laughed in attempt to lighten the mood.
Octavia's eyes fell to my wrists which were still chained up. She grabbed them and tried pulling the chains off, with no luck, she huffed and hit her fist on the wall.
"Hey, it's okay. He didn't hurt me," I reassured her and gave her a hug - well, as best as you can give a hug when your hands are tied together. "You need to get out of here, okay?"
"We need to get out of here, T," She corrected. The thing is, I didn't really want to go. I wanted to know more. I needed to know more. I needed to know more about my blood, about why it's important and what it has to do with the Grounders.
I didn't object what she said, instead, I simply nodded. "So... he didn't hurt you?" Octavia asked. I shook my head 'no'. "And he fixed my leg?"
"I guess not all Grounders are bad," I shrugged. I noticed she had a wound on her head, it was hard to notice because she was covered in dirt. "O, your head," She put a hand to the wound and winced with an 'ow'.
I stood up and grabbed some kind of animal antler off of a shelf to use as protection. Octavia managed to stumble up and do the same. We creeped into another 'room' of the cave. Above us was some kind of hatch, Octavia reached up and pulled on the hatch in attempts to open it. It was locked.
I kicked a rock in anger. We were never going to escape. Not that I really wanted to escape, I just wanted Octavia to be able to. She didn't deserve to be here.
We started creeping back to the other room of the cave when Octavia suddenly came to a halt. It was hard to tell what she was doing in the moonlight but she was staring at wall of rocks and moss. "O, what is it?" I scrunched my eyebrows.
"Help me," She ordered and started digging through the dirty boulders and bits of moss. I wasn't too sure what she was doing, but I obeyed and started doing the same as she was.
We dug at bits of moss and dirt, Octavia had laser focus and didn't utter a word. Finally, two rocks fell from the wall, I had to stand on my tip toes to see it but there was some kind of hole inside the gap. Octavia ripped out some more moss and greenery.
"Okay, get in," She ordered.
"No." I said firmly. "You need to get out of here."
"I'll be right behind you. Go," She shot back firmly. I had this feeling in my gut she was lying.
"Then you get in first. O, you need to go. Before the Grounder gets back," I actually didn't mind Lincoln, I just couldn't let her think he spoke to me.
"Why?" Octavia argued.
"Because just because he didn't hurt me, doesn't mean he won't hurt you. I'm claustrophobic anyways, and I can't reach up there and you're too weak to lift me up," I reasoned. Octavia looked worried and scared as she contemplated what I had said. Eventually she sighed and gave in.
"I'll come back for you, I promise. Just be safe and..." She trailed off and glanced around her for a second, "here," She grabbed a small hunting knife off a shelf and handed it to me. It was a bit dirty and looked old, but it could do some serious damage. "Take this, if he tries to hurt you, use it to protect yourself."
I nodded and Octavia bent down, which must have been difficult due to her leg. She gave me a securing hug, as if she would never be able to hug me again. She stroked the back of my hair, her breaths trembled. "Be safe, T. I love you, okay?"
"I love you too, O." I let out an airy laugh. "You be safe too. Can you do something for me?" I pulled away from the hug. She gave me an understanding look, allowing me to continue. "Tell Bellamy I love him, and that I'm sorry," My eyes watered at the thought of Bellamy, and that I'll probably never see him again.
She looked hesitant. "You can tell him yourself, because we're coming back for you. I promise," I nodded reluctantly. Octavia gave me one last hug before getting in the hole, grunting in pain as she did.
I slipped back into the room we were in before and was a bit lost as to what I could do. I looked around at Lincoln's many trinkets and miscellaneous objects. There was weapons, art, books, scraps, rocks, instruments, it was all very interesting. I was surprised as to how similar a lot of the stuff was to what we had on the Ark, like the books and the pieces of metal.
I found a small satchel bag on one of the many shelves and for some reason, it intrigued me. I stood on the tips of my toes to reach it, but I couldn't quite grasp it. It was pretty hard with my hands still chained up. After a couple of tries, I managed to knock it off the shelf. The small satchel landed on the dirt floor, it's contents spilling out.
Inside the bag was a book, some charcoal, a knife, a little metal container, another book, more of that paint stuff Lincoln had put on his face earlier and a hatchet. Well, that was definitely not worth all that effort.
I sighed and sat on the ground among all of the stuff. I flicked through the first book, it was pretty thin and had a red, dirt-covered cover. It was actually a story I had read on the Ark, Little Red Riding Hood. It was pretty boring and dumb, I mean, how could someone mistake her own grandmother for a freaking wolf?
The knife was pretty ordinary, it had a brown handle and was bigger than the knife Octavia had given me. I pried open the metal container, inside were a collection of little vials. They were filled with all different substances, which I didn't know specifically. My guess was poisons or possibly medicines.
I finally got to the second book. It was much thicker and had a brown leather cover. The book looked worn out, as if it had been loved. I flicked through the pages, with much more care than I had with the other book. The book was filled with drawings, sketches, maps and lots more.
The drawings were just beautiful, whoever drew them was very talented. I got to one of the pages, a drawing of our camp was drawn. It was the drop ship on the left page, on the right page next to it, a hundred and two marks were drawn. One for each of us... but who was the hundred and second?
I flicked to another page and I was frozen in shock. On the right page, a drawing of Octavia. It looked like the way she looked on our first day. The detail was immaculate. But the page on the left was what shocked me the most.
A drawing of me.
The amount of detail was crazy. My eyes, my nose, my mouth, my cheeks, my hair, I mean, everything was just on point. It was exactly how I looked the night we landed, after the sea monster. Underneath the portrait, in big, bold letters was the word NATBLIDA. They had been watching us since we got here. I was creeped out, yet slightly amazed.
I packed everything back into the bag and placed the bag on a much lower shelf, trying to make it look untouched. I looked up at the hole at the top of the cave and noticed it started getting light outside, meaning the sun was probably starting to rise.
On the bright side, I can officially say that at seven years old, I have been sent to Earth, kidnapped, been an accomplice to an kidnapping escape, learned that my blood can get me killed, discovered Octavia and I had a stalker and met the stalker. Wow, Earth really is something.
I put my hand to my head, noticing that the pounding headache I had been ignoring was caused by the amount of times Lincoln knocked me out. I could feel some dried blood where my hand was, accompanied by a big bump. Ouch.
I heard the sound of a metal hatch opening, it was definitely the door of the cave. Lincoln was back. Except, I was wrong.
"Lincoln?" The voice called out. It was a man's voice, definitely not Lincoln. "Lincoln, it's Nyko," He announced.
The man stepped through the entrance of the cave, he had long black hair which was shaved at the sides and pulled back, accompanied by an equally impressive beard. Around one of his eyes was a tattoo. The man glanced around the cave before his eyes eventually dropped down, falling on me.
I was genuinely scared of the man. He looked intimidating. His head tilted to the side as he studied my small, thin, dirty figure. I watched the man's blue eyes stare at me cautiously. I glanced to his hand, luckily I did because I saw him slowly take a dagger from his belt, obviously trying to be secret.
"I... Uh..." I stammered fearfully but managed to correct myself quick enough to protect myself. Just in case things went south, I kept a grip on the knife Octavia gave me behind my back. "Ai laik Tahlia kom Skaikru. Ai laik nat..." Shoot, I can't tell him about my blood. "not a threat to you..." I corrected awkwardly, my voice quiet and shaking with fear.
The man gave a curiously cautious look before quickly throwing a small knife at me and darting out. I cried out and hunched over in pain, the knife had hit me in my stomach.
I drifted in and out of consciousness, occasionally whining in pain, black blood leaked from my wound. I knew I couldn't take the knife out, in case it hit anything important and to also stop the blood.
I don't know how long I was there for but I fell asleep, wondering when I would die.
nyko u betch.