decisions (n.)
a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration.
CHECKMATE #4
"world-changing decisions are hard to make, but learning you have to sacrifice is even harder."
Life has gone back to normal in the Adelaide Woods five years after t...
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track #02 in eunice raina seyfield
twice // when we were kids
I HURL my phone onto my fluffy bed after seeing Cadence's message, putting my head in my arms and attempting to clear my thoughts of everything that's been happening lately. I ignore the dings and new notifications lighting up my screen – most likely Gwyneth's response.
The funny thing is, it's already been eight years since life had last been 'normal'. You could say we slowly made life after James had been exiled the 'new normal', but for me, I had never been able to get used to it. Life was always better in the old days before I was ten.
Maybe it's just the way we've all been growing up – to me, even after the New Regime left the Adelaide Woods, everything was still really tense and not as carefree as it used to be. We could no longer giggle without knowing what was going on in the world; act irresponsibly; or shake that reservedness off and playfully run on the streets and crosswalks.
James' rule left a torturous shadow on all of us. It made us feel that someone was watching us at all times. The old execution stands, the soldiers standing on guard at every corner; parents telling us to control our little mouths not to say what we weren't supposed to; school being nothing but lectures and more lectures; and last came the Hunger Games. That only came into question in that one last year, but it's enough to form our entire impression of Rochbok and who the people there came to be.
The younger version of myself once held hope that everything would be better after the period of dark days passed, but the light that I once cupped in my tiny arms has been diminishing day by day, even more so as I know for sure that Byrok's coming back – this time for war.
If we don't find a way to surrender or make them leave, the entire population of the Adelaide Woods will be at risk at their disposal once again – and that includes my only family. This is no longer deja vu of the Hunger Games five years ago like I had thought at first. It's no longer merely fun and games, no longer just Rochbok wanting to keep the Adelaide Woods under their control just a little bit longer. Byrok's intentions are not pitting us against each other; but going against them as a team. It's not a game anymore.
They're here for war. Again. But this time, I'm no longer ten; I'm not hopeless and carefree and only fun-knowing. I'm eighteen – I'm of legal age. And as a citizen of the Adelaide Woods, I'm obligated to help – although it may be against the people we fear and despise most in the entire world.
***
I pick my phone up and stuff it into a tote bag along with a water bottle, changing into warm, fuzzy clothes and putting a heavy white padded jacket over my shoulders. I walk down the stairs, almost bumping straight into Aiden and Zoey talking right in the middle of the hallway.
