❝I'd rather die kind and forgotten than be remembered for being brutal.❞
( *undergoing slight formatting tweaks & adjustments -- the story itself will otherwise remain readable and unchanged! )
⠀⠀⠀⠀ Had Bellamy not volunteered, he wouldn't be sent o...
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( ミ☆ ) ELEVEN ties that bind
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⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀❝That's a lot of blood.❞
⠀⠀⠀⠀Ferric grunts, looking stricken. Another spot of red blooms into the wad of tissues he has pressed up against his nose. ❝Thank you, Pria, for stating the obvious. Bellamy, you suddenly have two faces. Is the room spinning? The room is spinning.❞
⠀⠀⠀⠀❝You'll be fine,❞ says Bellamy, who most certainly does not have two faces.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❝I am concussed.❞
⠀⠀⠀⠀❝Yes, that's what the nurse said.❞
⠀⠀⠀⠀❝Concussed,❞ Ferric says again.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❝Please stop moving.❞
⠀⠀⠀⠀But Ferric either ignores, or doesn't hear this, because he shifts and learns the hard way why he was advised against it. He winces something fierce and tilts his head back, mumbling curses at the ceiling. His district partner, Pria, is standing beside him, bitting her bottom lip and pretending not to be concerned as Bellamy guides Ferric's head back into a forward position when the latter forgets to keep it down.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❝Try to keep still,❞ Bellamy urges. ❝And don't look straight up. If you don't choke on your own blood first, the lights in this place oughta accelerate your nausea.❞ He's taking about the fluorescence of the gymnasium lights above them, which are disorienting all on their own. Not only are they bright, but with no windows here below ground to give-way to natural light, it makes it impossible to tell if it's still day or night or an entirely new dawn.
⠀⠀⠀⠀Ferric blinks hard at the floor and gives Bellamy an enthusiastic thumbs up. ❝Thank you for your insight, mother.❞
⠀⠀⠀⠀❝Pff. Smart-ass.❞
⠀⠀⠀⠀Bellamy has seen more than enough blood in his lifetime, and yet, the sight of it never ceases to make him cringe. Ferric's nose bleeds sporadically, and it hasn't given up since he practised hand-to-hand combat against a particularly brutish trainer some five minutes ago. First there came the final punch, then a collective groan of empathy pain from a few tributes gathered around the mat to watch. After that, blood came fast like water from a faucet, and before he could catch himself, Ferric Mandrell from District Ten was out like a light.
