when night comes // greenie

[BELLAMY]

[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; font-size: 12px; font-family: times new roman; letter-spacing: .6px;"] tw. mentions of murder, abuse, animal abuse, and mental illness

the real world wasn’t like the fairytales told in books. the magical glimmer you could see in a child’s eyes with hopes and expectations of the world would remain visible well into their teenage years if they were lucky enough. however, that isn’t always the case. like a lot of other unfortunate children, that light grew dull in bellamy’s eyes at an early age when she had first been separated from her family. the pain she felt had been remedied slowly when kiley had came into life, especially the pain she felt from being away from her twin brother. no one would ever feel as close as the twin she had been born with, but kiley had become a twin in a different way and helped her connect to places she hadn’t found in herself since she had been with brooks.

bellamy had slowly began to grow that same childlike view again, envisioning the perfect life where she would group up and find someone to love and start a family with. when they found out they had been expecting a child with donovan and for the first time in a long time, they had a hopeful look towards the future and she was punished for it. she wasn't going to have a fairytale marriage - not with don.

they had just been cleaning up the house while donovan had been cooking dinner. she was in the back room of the house that had been turned a makeshift storage area. by a sliver of luck, whether it had been good or bad, she had knocked a box of nails off of the shelf and she found what her husband had been capable of. as she went to start picking up the nails, she reached further under the shelving unit and her hand brushed across a dusty box. out of curiosity for what they could have lost back there, she pulled the box out lifted the cover off before immediately shoving the top back on and covering her her mouth with her hand. panic began to wash over bellamy as they tried to figure out what to do, before her heart sank when don called out to her.

”honey, dinner is ready!”

"o-okay," their voice stuttered as they pushed the box back under and stood up. for a moment she debated about just running, but she had tried that before and it ended with being trapped with him once more. they couldn’t just run again, they had to be direct. they had to finally end this. they slowly walked towards the dining room, tensing up as donovan had entered a few seconds after and sat the last plate on the table.

"i found your box." bellamy spoke, their voice cracked and was barely above a whisper. when it came to donovan, they were a person of few words. it was easier to go along with him and just agree - it was safer, but when her estranged husband asked her to repeat herself, she found her voice. "i found your fucking box. the skulls and bones of cats - i knew you weren’t a good person, but this? you’re sick, donovan. you’re a monster." when they finally found the courage to meet his eye contact for the first time in years, it was a stranger looking back at her. his brown eyes were black with a terrifying look she had never seen anyone possess and it made her inside twist. there was no turning back. "you are going to let flynn and i go. we aren’t married anymore and you aren’t going to be in our lives. i don't want him growing up around someone like you. if you don’t, i’ll tell everyone what i found." the silence settled, before she noticed don twitch his head to the side.

”what about the other things?”

"what other things?" their response changed the dynamic of the situation and before they could comprehend what was happened, don had closed the distance between them and had his hands wrapped around her throat.

if only bella had known the monster he was - if she could see herself as she was now, running for her life with flynn pressed into her chest. she would have played things safer. as much as she loved flynn and knew she would die for him without a second thought, she wished she never would have met donovan. flynn wouldn't be here, but that meant he wasn't fathered by a murderer. he never would have been in danger when being around his own father, the father that she had once chosen for her child. a quiet voice in her head tried to soothe them, tell them it wasn't her fault, how was she to know? the rest, however, screamed at her that don was right. flynn didn't deserve a mother who would make as reckless decisions as that - a mother who didn't kill his father.

”so, you draw the line at stray cats, but not all of the people i had to kill?” bellamy’s heart skipped a beat at his words, unaware that alongside the stray cat remains there had also been those of his human victims. ”have you told anyone yet?” his grip on their throat tightened after he asked and didn’t let up even as they did their best to shake their head. a strained gasp left their mouth as donovan pushed them towards the table before held bellamy down onto it. they tried to claw at his hands and arms, starting to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen. ”you should’ve kept your damn mouth shut. what we had was perfect.” he spat down at them in delusional frustration. ”you’re selfish. flynn’s gonna be without a mother now and it’s your fault because you couldn’t mind your own damn business. he doesn’t deserve that - you're the one he shouldn't be around.”

about to slip into darkness, those words pulled enough strength for bellamy to put up one last fight for flynn. instead of continuing with trying to pry his hands off of her, her arm fell onto the table and they blindly reached for something - anything - that could help fight him off. finally, the tips of her fingers grazed over the steel edge of a kitchen knife set out for dinner. they didn’t have time to waste, so when they were able to inch the knife close enough to grasp, they didn’t look for the handle and instead wrapped their hand around the blade while trying to ignoring the pain as it dug into her palm. with a swing of her arm she went for don’s shoulder and slashed him with enough force that took him off guard so she could kick him off of her.

when she was finally able to gasp for air, it burned her throat as if she had breathed fire. it took a few moments for her vision to focus as she slide off of the table and looked down to the ground where don was getting back to his feet. ”you dumb fucking bitch! i’ll kill you!” there was nothing but pure rage in his eyes, sending bella into a haze as she tried to rush out of the room. by this time, she was holding the knife properly so when she felt donovan grab onto her wrist, she didn’t hesitate when she turned and stabbed at him blindly. it all seemed to move in slow motion. as she finally turned to see him, she had noticed that she had stabbed the knife right into his chest and his grip on her hand fell as he did to the floor. for the last time, bella’s eyes met donovan’s before she turned and ran up the stairs to flynn’s nursery.

"hi, sweetie." they cooed to the toddler softly as she reached to lightly wrap him in his blanket and pick him up. "shhh, it's alright. it's okay, i have you." when started down the stairs, she adjusted the blanket over his head so he wouldn’t have any chance as witnessing anymore blood than what was already on his mother now. she was glad she did, because when she reached the bottom of the stairs and had to cut through the livingroom to get to the door, donovan had managed to hold onto whatever energy he still had and was trying to drag himself across the floor.

the last time she would ever hear donovan clark’s voice would be when she ran out of the house and down the street with their son as he yelled after her.

it wasn't long before bellamy had found her target destination. even though it was already late, she ran through the dark allies behind the houses to avoid any instance of running into someone and finally reached the backdoor of green's house. they frantically began to knock on the door, nervously shifting her head back and forth to see if don had actually managed to follow her out of the house.

[GREENIE.]

[align=center][div style="width: 470px; text-align: justify; font-family: new times roman; font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: 2.5px; word-spacing: 1px; line-height: 14px;"]Vernon was hardwired to protect Bellamy.

It came so easily when it came to the people of the district, and even easier when it came to somebody that Green had felt a particular fondness towards. And, as soon as Donovan began to silence Bellamy's voice and turn her into the shell of who they used to be, Green was suspicious. Winifred and Amor had once dated Donovan and, as if it were history repeating itself, the both of them went missing one by one. Two women that Green had adored once, gone in a blink of an eye.

He was, without a doubt, wary of Donovan since then. His blasé attitude towards their disappearances was shocking, and his presence alone was enough to make Green shiver. And then came the disappearance of several stray cats that Green would take care of. When he had discovered the corpse of a cat so clearly mutilated by the hands of a sick person, Green was desperate to find any evidence to exile Donovan at once. He had seen Donovan feeding the cats, he had even confronted Donovan but it was to no avail when Donovan so firmly denied such thing. Was he poisoning them? Could a man really do such a wickedly immoral thing?

But, despite Green's evident concerns, Donovan had never outwardly given Green a reason to ever mistrust him. He had always played the role of an upstanding citizen too well, managing to convince everyone in the district that he was a simple man desperate to live a simple life. But Green had since learned to never take somebody at face value. Not everyone was a good person as he was once led to believe — in fact, there were a lot of sinister faces that lingered silently in the crowd. It was their means of survival; everything under the radar was the only way to go about things without alerting a single soul.

It would never qualm his suspicions about Donovan.

And so when Donovan proclaimed that he had finally been reunited with Bellamy and his son, Green knew that he ought to keep an eye on them. But, this was different. This was no short-lived relationship in the flurry of conceivable love but a marriage that appeared so binding. Bellamy was chained to Donovan through the young child that they had brought onto this earth together. Donovan appeared to love his son deeply, much like Green had treated Arlo, but never did Green anticipate that Donovan was merely mirroring Green's actions in order to appear like the saint of fatherhood. Green had learned after Winifred and Amor that Donovan was not one to be trusted but this time Green had no choice but to stand and look upon the carnage in making as a passive bystander. This time, Donovan and Bellamy went way back. They were married and who was Green to interfere with that?

But there came a day where Green would finally have to step in to protect the world from the likes of Donovan, even if it meant putting aside his morals to do what any noble Guardian would do.

A heavy day working tirelessly around the district had Green settling for an early night. Once Arlo was sound asleep in his own bedroom, Green ran his fingers through his hair with a yawn as he shut his own bedroom door behind him. Stripped down to his underwear, Green was truly ready for a restful night's sleep — if only he had known that this night would be anything but. Nestled beneath cool sheets, Green patted the bed to encourage Midas and Ginnie to make themselves comfortable before Green began to settle into a light sleep, Midas curled up in his arms.

And, just before he could doze off into a deep slumber, there was a frantic knocking at the door. He jolted awake, eyes springing open again as the dogs set off towards the closed bedroom door with alerted barks. ❝ Okay puppies, settle down now. ❞ Green murmured groggily, refusing to spend another moment to enjoy the comfort of his bed before rising to clumsily pull on a pair of sweatpants. It wasn't like someone from the district to be at his door this time in the evening. Most of them had found themselves in their respective homes, preparing their evening meals, relaxing after a long day or choosing to call it a night, so the thought of what could be on the other side of the door made Vernon feel sick.

Nothing could have prepared him for the next few moments. Opening the back door, Green was faced with a ghastly sight. The beautiful Bellamy, Flynn tiredly propped up in her arms, as she stared at Green with a panicked look in her eyes. It only took a moment of staring dumbfounded before he noticed the blood and tousled hair. Something had happened, and Green's first thought was that Donovan was up to no good again.

❝ Oh my days, Bella. Come in. ❞ Green urged as he ushered her into his home. He clicked the door shut behind before turning to face her worriedly. ❝ What happened to you? Are you okay? Oh God, your hand; it's bleeding. ❞ He pointed out, palms facing upwards as he wordlessly offered to take her hand to observe the severity of the laceration. ❝ And Flynn, is he okay? ❞ He soon enquired, glancing up to see the youngster disgruntled and stupefied but otherwise unharmed. That was a relief — it was one thing putting Bellamy in harm's way, but Flynn? Green would not have forgiven himself if he had kept quiet for long enough to see Donovan cause Flynn distress.

Green slowly lifted his gaze to look over towards Bellamy once more, just about managing to convince himself that this was not the right time to be led by the undeniable feelings that he had for them. This was more than simply being guided by emotion, and more about protecting the district from the monster that was Donovan. If he was the one to have put Bellamy in this position, then Green had to do all that it took to make sure Donovan left Northstar for good.

After all, he so badly wanted to protect Bellamy and Flynn from the world because he knew all too well how bad it could be.