Conflate | Bellamy Blake ¹ ✓

※ | chapter six

❝and i know that somewhere inside of that cold, lifeless exterior, there's an actual human soul.❞

-stiles stilinski, teen wolf

♛

I JOLT AWAKE THE instant the screams leave Charlotte's mouth, frightened by the sudden loudness replacing the silence. My head snaps up so quickly I crack my neck and rub it, wincing at the pain.

Charlotte is thrashing around, her feet almost kicking my face. "No!" she yells in a shrill voice, and the amount of pain in it breaks my heart.

Bellamy is awake now, too. He is the first to react, reaching across and shaking the girl awake. "Charlotte, wake up."

Her brown eyes snap open the instant he jostles her. Upon noticing she disturbed our sleep, she sighs guiltily and looks away from us, avoiding our questioning gazes.

"Hey, are you okay?" I ask gently, putting a hand on her arm. Her fingers are trembling.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes, voice shaking.

"Does it happen often?" Bellamy questions. He seems so much more human when he's dealing with her and it makes my heart swell to twice its size. Charlotte only sighs again in response. "What are you scared of?"

She doesn't respond.

"You know what?" Bellamy says after a pause. "It doesn't matter."

Confused by the route he's taking, I open my mouth and whisper, "Bellamy-"

He puts a hand on my shoulder, which immediately shuts me up. His action fills me with surprise and I feel the urge to laugh a bit when I notice his palm covers my entire shoulder bone. However, the action seems to have been something he didn't think twice about because he doesn't have a visible reaction to what he did.

"The only thing that matters is what you do about it," he continues in a voice soft as feathers.

"But...I'm asleep," Charlotte points out, just as puzzled as I am.

Bellamy shakes his head. "Fears are fears. Slay your demons when you're awake, they won't be there to get you when you sleep."

"How is she supposed to do that?" I ask. Charlotte nods at my question.

Bellamy's hand slips from my shoulder. "She can't afford to be weak. Down here, weakness is death. Fear is death."

I purse my lips and look away. What Bellamy is telling her...I don't agree. Fear doesn't mean death. Fear means you run the extra mile, you push yourself harder. It's what kept me going while the fog was chasing me. It makes us human.

There's a long lapse of silence until Bellamy speaks again. "Let me see that knife Fallon gave you." Charlotte takes it out of her pocket and hands it to him, who holds it up to her with the point up. "Now when you feel afraid, you hold tight to that knife and you say, 'Screw you, I'm not afraid.'"

I snort. Bellamy raises an eyebrow at me, silently asking me what my problem is. I shrug my shoulders indifferently. "Carry on. Sorry."

"Do you want to try?" he asks, thinking it's a challenge.

My eyes drift to Charlotte, who is watching me carefully, and I know I have to go against my morals this time. She needs this. It may be the only way she can sleep.

So I take the knife from Bellamy's hand and hold the handle like Atom taught me. I take a deep breath before narrowing my eyes, looking at him with a cold, hard stare. Directing the blade toward him, I put my guard up and sneer in a strong, level voice, "Screw you. I'm not afraid."