kill for your love - the hunger games

(003) you're thinking of a fantasy

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KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act one.

(chapter three, you're thinking of a fantasy)

the justice building / capitol train, 72 ADD.

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JUNIPER FELT HERSELF GO through denial as she sat down on the velvet couch in the small room she was thrusted into. She felt her body try to persuade her mind that this simply wasn't happening, that she and Justice weren't tributes. 

That they weren't going to die. 

And as she felt her brain try to wrap itself around this inevitability, she kept thinking of her father. Her poor, poor father. The old man had already lost their mother, but now, he was going to lose his twins. His precious baby girl and baby boy. But Juniper would have to watch her twin brother die. Or Justice would have to watch his twin sister die. She didn't know which was worse. Losing a child or losing a twin. 

But as she thought about it, she heard the door slowly creak open, making Juniper snap her head up to see a Peacekeeper hurrying her father into the room. His face was as white as a ghost and his eyes were wide with fear as they settled on his shaking daughter. 

"June..."

"I'm sorry," Juniper immediately said as she rushed into her father's arms, holding him tight as she began to sob into his chest. "I'm so sorry, I—"

"June, no," her father told her harshly, lifting up her head and grasping her cheeks with his big hands. "Don't you dare apologise... this is Snow's fault. This is my fault."

"But—"

Her father clenched his jaw as he looked into his daughter's eyes, telling her, "Find a way, June. Find a way to make it so you both come home."

"That's not possible." Juniper felt hot tears run down her cheeks. "Only one comes out, you know that."

"June—"

"I don't want to live in a world without Just," she told him. "If he goes, I go. If I die, he dies. That's the arrangement I know he'll agree to."

Her father blinked numbly for a couple minutes, his grasp on her cheeks slowly losing as he tried to process her words before saying, "Find a way, June. In a few weeks time, I except both of you to be right here in Ten."

"You're thinking of a fantasy by saying that," Juniper told him. 

"J—"

"Me and Justice are going to die." Juniper looked at him straight in the eye. She swore she could see him shudder. "We are going to die in there. You can't change the rules, Pa. Only one comes out and it won't be either of us."

When their father tried to say something, the door burst open and a Peacekeeper walked in, dragging the middle-aged man out. As he did, Juniper felt her father's last words echo in her mind. 

"Look after each other. Promise me, June. Promise!"

Words were on the tip of Juniper's tongue, a mix of promises and sorrow, but they died the minute the doors slammed shut. Perhaps it was for the best. It wouldn't bring any of them anything except grief.