In the early hours of the morning, time came to an abrupt and painful halt. Clarke woke me up right as the sun began to rise, sobs mixing with her words. I couldn't understand what was going on until she led me to the edge of camp. I sunk to my knees immediately when I saw the reason for Clarke's tears. 

Wells was dead. Someone had stabbed him in the neck, and he was lying on the ground lifelessly. Everything else faded away at that moment except for an awful ripping feeling in my heart as I stared at his dead eyes. It must have been the grounders. That was the only logical explanation. I couldn't help but let guilt rake my conscience. Maybe if I would have stayed with him longer last night... 

I just sat by him crying and shaking for a while with a hole eating at my chest. How was this real? How was Wells dead? Murdered? Right under our noses? He died alone; afraid, with no one to save him. He deserved better than this. 

It took a while for me to pull myself up from the ground. I didn't move until I felt someone's hand on my back. It was Bellamy. He was saying they needed to bury Wells, but his voice was distant. I watched as Miller and some others picked up his body and carried him towards the two other graves that had been dug for the kids that died from the landing. 

I stood with my arm wrapped around Archie's as we watched them bury Wells. Clarke was to my right with Monty and Finn across from us. I knew Jasper wanted to be there, but he wasn't strong enough to walk yet.

 So many kids in the camp didn't even care. I knew some people were glad he was dead because they couldn't see past the fact that he was Jaha's son. The reality was the exact opposite. Wells was nothing like his father, and I loved him for that; for being able to separate himself from people's expectations. 

I was the last one at the grave after Wells had been buried. I looked over the mound of dirt, still in shock that I wouldn't see his face when I went back into camp. I let out a shaky breath as I tried to think of a few words to say; there were too many. A single tear dropped onto my red cheeks. I couldn't remember the last time I had cried so much; for so long that my head hurt and my eyes were hard to keep open.  

"I'm so sorry, Wells," I finally said, barely above a whisper. "You always loved me with your entire heart, and I could never give that love back to you in the way you wanted," I shook my head as I took a deep breath. "You deserved so much better than this."

I clutched my black pearl necklace tightly. First my mom, then my dad, and now Wells? How many more people were going to be ripped away from me? 

The sound of leaves crunching under footsteps caused me to turn my head. I didn't even bother drying my tears as my eyes found the concerned face of the person approaching me. 

"Harley," Bellamy said carefully as he stood behind me. My eyes went back to the grave. "It's been hours. It's going to get dark soon."

I ignored his worries, "I just want to be alone right now, okay?"

I felt Bellamy's contemplation. He glanced back at the camp, and then at me, finally letting out a long sigh as he walked to stand right beside me. I saw him open to his mouth to say something, but then he decided against it. He knew no words could soothe me right now. Instead, he tentatively reached his hand over, placing it on my shoulder in a comforting way. 

I didn't even give my actions a second thought as I moved closer to him, right against his chest, letting my head rest against the sound of his steady heartbeat. I felt him tense at first, surprised by my touch, but then, he relaxed and wrapped his strong arms around my waist. I felt his chin rest against my head as I closed my eyes, and just stood in his embrace as the sun went down, feeling a trickle of relief from his warm comfort. 

― ― ― ― ―

The next week that passed was slow. Every day, when I woke up, I was reminded that Wells was gone, and I felt immediate numbness in my bones. I could tell Clarke and Archie were having a hard time too, especially Clarke. She confided in me one night, telling me Wells let her believe that he was the one who turned her father in when all long, it had been her mother. Wells let Clarke hate him so she wouldn't hate her mother. I wasn't surprised. That was totally something Wells would do. 

On a positive note, Jasper was getting stronger every day. His wound was healing nicely, and he was back to joking around with everyone. Seeing his chipper face; his recovery, was enough to take my mind off Wells for a while. Jasper was good at cheering people up. I appreciated him for that. 

Bellamy made sure to check on me every night. He would come to the tent I shared with Kate and Clarke, and he would ask how I was doing. While his constant checkups could be annoying, I also found them sweet. My heart was softening towards him more and more with every day that passed. Bellamy had proved to be a complete contradiction of himself. One minute, he was barking orders in a cruel and heartless manner, and the next he was looking after me in such a caring and genuine way. How could he just flip the switch like that? 

Currently, I was helping Miller and Kate put up a section of the wall that was getting built much quicker than before. Since the grounders murdered Wells, fear in the camp of teenagers had skyrocketed. They had so much more motivation to get the wall done, and there were fewer complaints about having to work. I had taken a step back from trying to compete with Bellamy for control. I didn't have the emotional energy for a power trip. The result of that was Bellamy gaining back the control, but that was the least of my worries at the moment.

I actually received surprising relief when I decided to let Bellamy run things. Being in charge was exhausting, and I realized I didn't want to be the person everyone depended on; not after losing Wells. I didn't want people's lives in my hands.

The air had gotten a cool whisp in it as the days passed. We were getting closer to winter, but at the moment, everyone's main priority seemed to be the grounders. As I lifted up a thick piece of metal to be added to the wall, I glanced to my left where Murphy stood next to Bellamy. I listened in to their conversation. 

"This section should be finished by tomorrow," Murphy said to him. I watched as Murphy's eyes went to a boy that was carrying the back end of a thick tree trunk. The boy, Conner, sunk to his knees and dropped his end of the tree. He looked tired and dehydrated. "Hey!" Murphy yelled as he walked up to him.

I heard Miller sigh from beside me, "Here we go again."

"You think the grounders are just gonna sit around and wait for us to finish the wall?" Murphy asked with rudeness and a false sense of authority. 

Kate looked over at me with confusion, "You're not going to do anything?"

I shrugged, "It's not my problem anymore. I told Bellamy I'm out. He can deal with Murphy."

I could tell Kate wanted to give me some of her famous advice, but she just nodded and we turned out attention back to Murphy. He motioned to the twelve-year-old girl working to the left. I recognized her as Charlotte, the youngest person that was on the dropship as he stood over Conner.

 "Maybe we should let the little girl do the lifting for you, huh?"

"I just need some water, okay?" Conner answered. "Then I'll be fine."

Bellamy walked over to them, moving his eyes to Murphy with irritation, "Murphy, get this guy some water," his gaze turned to Charlotte. "You got this?" He motioned to the tree. She glanced over it a few times, moving to pick it up, but Bellamy stepped forward with a grin. "Hey, I'm just kidding."

Bellamy picked up the back end of the tree, and then, he carried it away. Of course, Murphy just had to cause some more trouble. As long as Bellamy wasn't around though. I heard him unzip his pants, and then the dreaded sound of him peeing on Conners back filled my ears. I turned my nose up in disgust as Conner stood up angrily and shoved Murphy.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Murphy? I'll kill you!"

Two of Murphy's asshats held Conner back as Kate raised her eyebrows at me. I just shook my head as I continued to work, "Not my problem."

Murphy looked at Conner, "You wanted a water break," he raised his voice as he turned to everyone else. "Get back to work!"

Every nerve in my body wanted to beat Murphy up, but my internal fire for being in the middle of everything had been snuffed out slightly. I didn't really care about anything at the moment. It had only been a week since Wells had been murdered. The only thing I wanted was for people to give me space and let me grieve in peace. 

However, the universe didn't seem to care about what I wanted because a little while later, I saw Bellamy standing near his tent, motioning for me to come over with a solemn look on his face.

What now?

I let out a sigh as I glanced at Miller, "I'll be right back."

Walking up the tent, I could tell something was very wrong. Bellamy didn't tell me anything I went inside with him where Clarke, Octavia, and Jasper were standing around a makeshift metal table. Clarke's eyebrows were furrowed as she stared at the contents on the table: a knife that clearly belonged to someone from our camp, and two fingers that I knew were Wells's.

I stood beside Bellamy as I looked at the knife. Did this mean someone in the camp killed Wells? Clarke picked up the knife.

"This knife was made of metal from the dropship," she said as she thought out loud. " Her eyes met mine as Jasper's eyes widened. 

"What do you mean?"

I spoke up, "The grounders didn't kill Wells. It was one of us."

Anger was enflamed in my gut; the first real feelings I had all week. The numbness was gone; replaced with a determination to get justice for Wells. I could tell Clarke was thinking the same thing. 

Bellamy dismissed my words as he glanced at Octavia, "Who else knows about this?"

"No one," she answered. 'We brought it straight here."

Jasper was still thinking about my words, "So, there's a murderer in the camp?" he asked with worry in his voice.

"There's more than one murderer in this camp," Bellamy said. "This isn't news. We need to keep it quiet."

Clarke clearly had her own plan in mind as she tried to walk past Bellamy, but he stood in her way. She looked up at him with challenge, "Get out of my way, Bellamy."

"Clarke, be smart about this. Look at what we've achieved- the wall, the patrols- like it or not, thinking the grounders killed Wells is good for us," Okay, that pissed me off. Good for us? No, we needed justice.

Clarke was one step ahead of me, "Oh, good for you, you mean. What? Keep people afraid, and they'll work for you. Is that it?"

"Yeah, that's it," Their conversation was just noise to me as I tried to think of a plan. How were we going to find the real murderer?

"Yeah, that's it, but it's good for all of us. Fear of the grounders is building that wall," Who would have killed Wells? So many people hated him and had an agenda against him, but who could actually stab him in the neck? "And besides, what are you gonna do? Just walk out there, and ask the killer to step forward? You don't even know whose knife that is."

Clarke raised her eyebrows, "Oh really?" I looked up as she showed Bellamy initials on the knife. "J.M. Jonh Murphy. The people have a right to know."

Murphy? He definitely was a good suspect, and he definitely had a motive, but I didn't think Murphy would have actually killed Wells. Sure, he was a dick, but deep down, he was a coward. He didn't have it in him to actually kill someone. Plus, why now? And why leave his knife by Wells's body when it had his initials on it? He would have known that meant he would get caught. It was all very fishy. We needed to do some more investigating before we just confronted Murphy about it. I wanted justice, yes, but I wanted to make sure we had the right person without even a small hint of doubt, and my mind was raking over with doubts about Murphy. 

As Clarke shoved past Bellamy, I finally spoke up, "Clarke, wait. We need to think about this some more before we just go out there and accuse someone of murder."

Clarke ignored me, and I gave Bellamy a worried glance as we followed her outside. This wasn't going to end well. 

Archie saw us walking across camp, and he gave me a concerned look, "What's going on?"

"Clarke thinks Murphy killed Wells," I said as Archie joined us as we continued to follow behind Clarke.

I watched as she stormed up to Murphy and shoved him, "You son of a bitch!"

"Whoa! What's your problem?" A crowd began to gather around the two as Clarke let her anger cloud her judgment. 

Clarke held up the knife, "Recognize this?"

Murphy didn't seem phased, "That's my knife. Where'd you find it?"

He tried to grab it from her, but she moved her hand away, "Where you dropped it after you killed Wells!" 

Her accusation boomed over the crowd, lifting gasps of shock into the air as Murphy's eyes were covered in the same shock as everyone else.

"Where I what?" He asked as he glanced around at the people looking at him. "The grounders killed Wells, not me."

This was not a good idea. I knew something really bad was about to happen. 

Clarke shook her head at him, "I know what you did, and you're gonna pay for it."

"Really?" He asked. Murphy looked over Clarke's shoulders were Bellamy stood with his arms crossed beside me. "Bellamy, you really believe this crap?"

Bellamy stayed silent as Clarke continued her rant, "You threatened to kill him! We all heard you! You hated Wells."

"Plenty of people hated Wells," he pointed out. "His father was the Chancellor that locked us up!"

"Yeah, but you're the only one who got into a knife fight with him!"

Clarke was pleading a good case, convincing some people that were looking at Murphy with disdain. However, a small part of my mind still wasn't one hundred percent convinced. Something about the situation... it just wasn't right. It was too obvious.

"Yeah, I didn't kill him then either."

"He tried to kill Jasper too!" Octavia brought up from the other side of Bellamy. Yeah, I had a dark bump on the side of my head from that one. I wasn't saying that I didn't hate Murphy, I was just unsure that he was the real culprit. 

Murphy looked around at the crowd, "Come on, this is ridiculous. I don't have to answer to you," he glanced behind her as he tried to walk away. "I don't have to answer to anyone!"

"Come again?" Bellamy said in his deep voice that switched Murphy's facial expression from annoyed to desperate.

He walked up to us, glancing between me and Bellamy, "Bellamy, look, I'm telling you man, I didn't do this."

"I don't know, Murphy," I said, making him look at me, "but the evidence is stacked against you, so if you didn't do it, someone is really trying to make it seem like you did."

Bellamy nodded, "They found his fingers on the ground with your knife."

Clarke was kind of just doing her own thing. She wasn't listening to anybody as she spoke up, "Is this the kind of society that we want? You say there should be no rules. Does that mean that we can kill each other without... without punishment?"

"I already told you! I didn't kill anyone!" Murphy exclaimed.

A voice spoke up from the crowd, "I say we float him," It was Conner. I betted Murphy was really regretting pissing on him earlier.

Several voices agreed, "Yeah!" He shouldn't have been such a dick. Then maybe more people would have been on his side.

Clarke turned to Conner, "That's not what I'm saying."

"Why not? He deserves to float. It's justice," this was going downhill fast.

"Revenge isn't justice," Clarke insisted.

"It's justice!" Conner yelled, and then, of course, the chanting started, "Float him! Float him!"

"Float him! Float him!" Others joined in. 

Murphy realized he was fucked. 

He tried to run, but someone stuck out their leg and tripped him. I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed as everything descended into a blur of chaos, shaking my head and talking to myself because no one seemed to care what I had to say.

"None of these fuckers ever listen."

― ― ― ― ―
well, here it is!
this was sad :(
i wish wells would have
survived longer. 
#wellsdeservedbetter