"if i'm a ghost
then so are you"
Emerald Colter hasn't known peace at any time in her life; and with her reaping comes a chance for her to finally make her mother proud of her. Only, when she returns home, everything remains the same and...
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There are very few people in this world that Emerald cares about and Phoenix is number one. He's only been in her life for a few short years but the man has been a constant since he walked in, yet to leave or abandon her like so many others. In many ways, she thinks of him as her parents because her own is so unloving and cold that she seeks out the comfort in a man who helped keep her alive.
So it's no shock to her when her body seems to move on it's own accord, the brunette sprinting in the direction of his screams. The idea of losing him, of him being in pain, messes with her mind in ways she cannot even explain. It's never easy to lose people, but those you love well it's a whole different ball game.
"Phoenix!" Emerald yells, desperate to find where exactly he might be. It's a large arena but due to the fact she can hear him, he must be somewhere close enough. His voice intertwines with the cracks of the foliage beneath her feet, a somewhat cruel mix. "Phoenix!"
She can just hear the faint sound of Silas calling out to her, telling her to stop. Katniss' screams are still happening ahead of her, the girl screeching her sister's name over and over as if it'll stop Prim's pained yells. The sound of Katniss, Prim and Phoenix rolling together is enough to top any of the pain or torture she's endured over her lifetime, her heart is cracking more and more with each passing second.
Spinning around in a circle, Emerald is so lost as to where his voice is actually coming from, tears now freely sliding down her cheeks. The Capitol have always been ruthless, she cannot even explain the amount of suffering they make Districts endure, but to her this is next level. Why must they hurt those who are already having to fight to the death? Why make them suffer so much more before they inevitably die in a stupid game the Capitol had made up to begin with?
"Emerald! It's not real!"
Katniss is rushing over with Finnick following closely behind her, breathless and trauma filled, reaching Emerald before she can take off again. "They're jabberjays, it's not really him,"
"But they mimic, Katniss, Jabberjays mimic," Emerald cries out, shuddering at the thought of Phoenix being in inexplicable pain. If they've hurt him, have they also hurt Esme? Have they killed two innocent people just to get to a girl who is already so shattered beyond compare?
The birds fly around them, one loudly relaying Phoenix's scream right into her left ear. She puts her hands over her ears, trying to block out the noise but failing miserably, if anything it's as if the birds get even louder to compensate. As more begin to circle, the trio take off towards where they'd come from just before. Emerald, in her emotional state, doesn't even notice the way Katniss seems to hit some invisible barrier — instead she just sinks to the ground and curls up into a protective position.
Sobs fall from her lips as freely as words, hands pressing against her ears so harshly that she may break a few of her fingers. Time passes so agonizingly slow that Emerald thinks she may have been here for hours, when in reality it had been mere minutes. A second feels like a minute, a minute like an hour, and when the sound of the birds eventually fades away into the distance, Emerald can still hear them squawking.
