(Trigger warning: as you all know from last chapter, Trisha is going to be executed, it's not explicit- it's a bit like TBOSAS and The Hanging Tree- it mentions some actions which some readers may find upsetting. Skip to the end of this chapter, if you don't feel comfortable).
With my heart thumping in my throat, I pull on my peacekeeper helmet, or my mask, and watch the scene unfold in front of me.
The peacekeepers order the lumberjacks to step away from the trees and stop working. They place down their equipment and do so without question. It's clear that they are terrified but they don't dare to make a noise. They don't want to be next. Then, they form short orderly lines where they are escorted, in a grid formation out of the forest, out of sight.
The last peacekeeper drags Trisha's unconscious body by her ankle. I watch as her head juts painfully against rocks and branches which I'm sure that peacekeeper didn't make avoiding obstacles the top of his list of priorities. Already, her hair is coated in mud and leaves and bugs and a thin trail of red is running from her forehead. He wants to shed all her dignity before she dies.
I duck out from behind the bush, into the workplace and follow him out of the forest, mustering up a false sense of authority so no one suspects the intruder. He's too preoccupied with injuring Trisha to notice me or hear my footsteps.
Quickly, I hear the buzz and chatter emerging from the District. The smell of vehicles hits me as I step out of the forest, along with the sound of trucks and people yelling. People here all seem to have a purpose- the truck drivers load up their vehicles and drive off to their next destination, Peacekeepers look over the District, children learn and each worker helps to maintain society. I've forgotten what a District about ground is like.
"The public hanging will take place at noon!" a peacekeeper shouts.
Trisha is still dragged on the concrete and now, blood flows from various places from her scalp, painting the road red.
The District looks at me with loathing. It's clear that they want to hang me.
I have to remind myself that they don't know I'm high up in the hierarchy, they think I'm a heartless Peacekeeper, willing to torture their friends.
I follow the crowd through the square. I pretend I know where I'm going and what's going on and I'm marching them to a destination.
As I walk through town, I take in District 7. No matter how far I am from the forest, the smell of pine needles never leaves us. The houses, closely packed together are all tiny and but it's clear that they've been cared for. I'm quick to notice that each one has a wood furnishing. Whether it's a wooden windowsill or a doorframe, it's there. I bet they were made from wood too poor to go to the Capitol.
As we approach the town centre, the number of shops increases too, with giant lorries parked outside them, covered in a shower of wood shavings and filled with lengths and lengths and lengths of timber, as tall as tower, dwarfing the already tiny shops.
The square, when we get there after an hour or so walk, is already full of people. Over looking the crowd is District 7's Justice Building, adorned with the Capitol seal. It's the only part of 7 that really shines. And there, with a circle formed around it like a sacrifice, right in the middle of the square, menacingly lie the gallows.
I take one look at Trisha, slumped on the ground and I know that she's already dead. She's lost too much blood. Congealed blood covers her face and neck, fresh blood leaks from her body
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The Ballad of Lucy Gray
Fanfiction"Was she alive, dead, a ghost who haunted the wilderness? Perhaps no one would ever really know." ~Suzanne Collins. After Lucy Gray Baird leaves the safety of District 12 behind to live the rest of her remaining days out in the wilderness, the vict...
