TWENTY NINE.   is this a memory or a dream?

      Tatum can remember the counting the stars before going to bed. Or when she'd sneak out of her room the space walk and watch them when she couldn't sleep. She always lost count after 40. She never knew how long she sat there, she just sat there until she got tired. It became a routine. Her dad would go to sleep, she would stay up, sneak out, and go count the stars. She found herself doing it on the ground, too. There was something so beautiful about counting an endless amount of little bright dots in the sky. She knew she would never be able to count them all but she didn't care. She just wanted to see them.

She longed to be able to count them now.

Tatum was trapped in darkness. There was no concept of time. She laid on her side, curled in a ball, and she tapped her fingers on the ground. She whispered the numbers to herself. She always stopped at forty then started over. She didn't feel like a person. Her body was starved, beaten and weak; marked for life. It was like she was a ghost.

She lost of hope that her friends were still alive and that Octavia would come for her. That Bellamy was still out there. She was alone. That's how it was supposed to be.

She flinched when the door opened. She hid her eyes from the light. She didn't know how long she'd been stuck in the hut. When she saw that it was Indra, her eyes widened slightly and she sat up. Two grounder men stood on either side of her.

The women stared at one another. Indra glared blankly. Tatum was exhausted. She didn't have the enery to glare back. "Why haven't you killed me?" She spoke hoarsely.

"Yu laik valuable kom me, skai gada." She spoke in Trigedasleng. She watched the girl strain her face to try and understand her words. She huffed. "You are valuable to me, sky girl." She repeated in English.

"If I'm valuable then why am I trapped in here?" She questioned.

"You are rugged. You are also stupid. If I let you go, you will try and kill us." She spat.

"Why shouldn't I?" She spat back, feeling angry.

One of the grounders struck her in the face. The force was so strong that it broke her skin. Her black hair curtained her face. Metallic filled her mouth and her face burned like wildfire. Tatum lifted her head into the light, her blood face now on display.

"It would do you good to not speak that way, skai gada." Indra spoke monotonously. Sky girl

"Just kill me." She pleaded and finally broke. The blood from her mouth stained her teeth.

"Like I said, you are of use to me."

"I'm nothing."

"Lincoln values you and your little friend,"

She looked at her again. "Octavia?" She said and her voice went up an octave. She looked at all of the other grounders. "Octav—I-Is she alive?"

"Barely." Indra responded flatly. "I have kept the two of you alive simply as bait for the reapers."

Her breath became shaky. "Wh–What? I don't understand. Why am I here?" Her voice grew louder.

Indra just stared at her with a stoic expression. She wanted to kill her right there and then. She was of the sky people. She was the enemy. But the woman had a motive and she was going to use the sky girls to get it.  She gave the grounder man next to her one look and they began to leave.

"Wait, wait, please don't go," Tatum begged. "Let me go, please!" She cried desperately.

Another slap came from the grounder that was in the corner of the room. The force caused her to fall back down and this time, she didn't get up. She curled into a ball and let out a heavy sob. She felt completely broken. She felt like every piece of had been taken away and shattered. She was a glass girl with brittle bones and the glass surrounded her, breaking apart her skin. 

Bellamy never felt more angry than he did at rhe moment. He held the torn leather jacket in his grip, afraid of letting it go, and his velvet eyes held fire in them. He paced around the underground bunker.  "We're gonna do this again. . . and this time, you're gonna stop screwing with us." He seethed at the grounder. He held up Tatum's jacket and Clarke's watch. "Where did you find these?"

The one eyed grounder glared at them. "I told you. I found the watch outside your camp." He explained again. 

"He's lying. She would never take it off voluntarily,"  Finn insisted.

"I know."

He took the watch and held it in front of the grounder's face. "Where is the girl who was wearing this watch?" He asked again in a rough tone.

"I never saw a girl."

"Another lie," Murphy spoke from the side of the room. "Maybe you should stop asking him nicely—"

"Shut up, Murphy," Bellamy snapped and sent him a glare. He looked back at the grounder suspiciously.  "You haven't answered one question about this—" he announced and held up the leather jacket. He took a step closer to him. "What does a big guy like you need a jacket like this? Where did you get it?"

"You took our friends. You know where they are," Finn added in the same tone of voice.

The grounder didn't respond to their questions. His head swayed with exhaustion and his one remaining eye closed. 

"Murphy's right. We're wasting time," the spacewalker said and took out his gun. He hit the grounder over the head. "Answer the question!"

Bellamy held him back. "Hey. Hey—"

"Where's the girls?"

"Hey. Finn, stop!" He shouted and pulled him away.  "You don't wanna do this. Trust me. There are some lines you can't uncross—"

Finn almost glared at him. "How are you so calm about this? He knows where Tatum is!" He yelled.

"You think I don't know that?" Bellamy raised his voice higher. "Killing him isn't going to help us find her or our friends! So cool it." He walked away to the other side of the room.

It went quiet. He ran his hand down his bloody face, feeling stressed to the max. He clutched the jacket again. He was holding on to the smallest sliver of hope that Tatum was still alive. She had to be. He wouldn't give up on her. She never once gave up on him.

The silence broke when Finn turned back to the grounder and hit him once more. "Where's Clarke?Where is she? Where is—"

Bellamy rushed back and tried to pull him away again.  "Finn!"

The spacewalker turned to him and raised the gun.  "Back off!" He shouted with a crazed look on his face.

He stood there and stared at him, his breathing heavy.  "Put the gun down, Finn." He ordered. 

But Finn didn't listen. He gripped the weapon in his hand and pointed it at the grounder. "Three seconds."  He seethed. "Two!"

The others stared intensely.

His glare darkened. "One."

"Okay! I'll tell you." The grounder finally broke. "Your friends are East of here. The village where we taken our prisoners of war."

"East where? How do we get there? How do we get to them?" Finn seethed again.

"I can draw you a map. . . but you should hurry, soon they'll outlive their usefulness." The grounder said with deep breaths.

He finally lowered the gun. "Get him something to draw a map." He ordered the others.

Bellamy stared at the boy in shock. Finn was the mediator of the group, essentially. The moral compass. He was never violent. He always tried to make peace.  But it was like a switch went off inside him. He was angry. But he was also in love and love can make you do crazy things.

The nausea kept her from sleeping. It stayed stuck in her throat like glue. She felt completely empty inside.  Her stomach rumbled from hunger and it only made her feel more sick. The sun was still up and she found herself staring at the slivers of blue she could see through the cracks of wood. Tatum desperately wished to count the stars. She imaged that it was night time and she was looking at the sky, the finite amount of dots lighting up the midnight black. It was the small things that she tried desperately to hang on to. She wanted to die but she was still alive. She was alone and trapped. 

This might be one death she couldn't cheat.

The door opened again and Tatum jumped again. She pressed her back to the wall of the hut and brought her knees to her chest. What she expected to be the grounder men was a boy. A young boy who looked no older than thirteen. His hair was dirty blonde and curly. But the fear in her didn't go away.

He quickly closed the door behind him. Tatum saw that he was wearing grounder clothes but he had green and brown leaves weaved into the material. He stared at her with curiosity. His skin was dirty like hers. He was also barefoot. "Hi." She spoke with a weak voice.

The boy didn't respond. He only stared at her. He slowly and cautiously crouched down to the ground.

Tatum watched with wary eyes. When he reached into the waistband of his pants, she panicked. "Wait, what are you—" she stopped when he held out a piece of meat like he was giving food to a dog. She should've been cautious. Suspicious. But she was so hungry that she couldn't think straight. Tatum snatched the meat and devoured it.

The young boy flinched and retracted his hand. She ate the meat like a starved animal. Her wrists and ankle were shackled and it made it hard for her to move. He saw the bruises and cuts that littered her exposed skin.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." She choked on her words. "W-What's your name?"

He didn't respond and he cowered back again.

"You don't have to be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. She held up her shackled wrist. "I can't do anything,  really." She joked. His eyes squinted and he titled his head like a confused dog. She dropped her wrist. "Sorry." She pointed to herself with her other hand. "My name is Tatum. Tatum kom Skaikru. What's your name?"

It took him a minute to answer. "Dominic." His Trigedasleng accent was light but noticeable.

"How old are you, Dominic?"

"Thirteen." He answered. "They're after your friend. Okteivia kom Skaikru." Octavia of the sky people.

Tatum felt as if all the air left her body at the statement. "They're going to kill us." She stated in a whisper. "I guess it wouldn't be the first time."

Dominic didn't respond to her. He was a curious boy, she could see that. He continued to look at her like she wasn't human. As if she were an alien.

"Dominic!" A grounder shouted his name.

His eyes widened and he quickly left the hut. "No,  wait—"  Tatum started to say but he was already gone. Her shoulders dropped.