'there is happiness
past the blood and bruise
past the cursed and cries
beyond the terror in the nightfall'
• where olwyn laurier
will do anything to protect
...
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chapter three
SILENCE.
DISCONCERTING, AWKWARD, cruel, suffocating. It enveloped the inhabitants of district twelve as Effie Trinkett, finished forcing a hug on the sixteen year old victor, pranced to the microphone at the centre of the stage. The escort's lively mood was outweighed by the sheer fear and deep-rooted hatred stemming from everyone there. Olwyn Laurier felt like she was in the middle of it all; the one sitting with barbed wire in no-man's land.
The girl hated the Capitol, sharing the same desire of her people to watch it burn to ashes and for it's people choke on the smoke; much like her father. But the consequences of her rebelling were far greater than fbud simple desire. Snow would personally see to the execution of the people she loved, not an ounce of mercy residing in the cruel tyrant. Her knee shook with unsettling anticipation, the rest of her body rigid as calculated eyes watched her every move; from both her district and the Capitol.
Effie tapped the microphone with a gloved hand, smiling brightly with pale magenta hair. Her teeth were almost like spotlights, brighter than the sun as she beamed down on the crowd. "Welcome! Welcome, welcome", the escort greeted, in her shrill, high-pitched tone. Olwyn internally grimaced, already feeling a headache forming in the centre of her skull.
The escort wasn't fazed by the practically dead audience, addressing them proudly, despite their displeased, terrified faces. "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!", she announced as she did every year. Olwyn could probably recite half of this speech herself from the amount of times she had heard it. The crowd of children held no emotions; either too scared of what's to come or fed up with Effie Trinkett. Olwyn remembered herself standing with the other fourteen year old girls, willing her name to stay in the glass jar and yet desperately despised Effie Trinkett. Now the girl had learned to be annoyed in silence, finding a lot of things worse than the Capitol woman who was somewhat of a friend to her.
"Now, before we begin. We have a very special guest", Effie began, her smile still as radiating as ever. "I would like to welcome, the victor of the seventy-second hunger games, district twelve's own, Olwyn Laurier." She elegantly gestured, clapping her hands at the stoic girl sitting in a chair, who had gone into a state of fear-induced shock.
Olwyn's face dropped, her eyes widened. She was caught off guard, anyone could see that. The public barricade she had been forming for years was being suddenly broken down by Effie, leaving her vulnerable. The crowd could see that, the girl exposed in front of all of them. Their staring failed to cease, even after Olwyn hid her crimson red face with her blonde hair and a scarred hand on her forehead. People were noisy, Olwyn knew that, but if they looked at her for a second longer she thought she would choke.... or choke them, whatever ended the ordeal first.
