The Trials of Neo City [WINWIN • YUTA]

🖤 26. To Be Alone 🖤

Sicheng couldn't move, didn't know what to do. He'd never seen someone hang themself before, it was a jarring sight. Horrifying, the way Mark stared forwards into eternity, eyes dull.

In his District, there were occasional suicides. Neighbors who strung themselves up in their yards, unable to take hunger and poverty or parenting and stress anymore. But his mother always told him and his brother to look away while the Peacemakers took away the bodies.

The first thing Sicheng did was close Mark's dead, glassy eyes before taking his body off of the tree. He gently untied the knotted jacket, throwing it to the side and leaning a limp Mark against the tree, as if he were simply sleeping.

Throughout the day, Sicheng would talk to Mark and laugh to himself when he remembered that the boy next to him had been deceased for hours and wouldn't talk back. He felt like he was crazy, even though he knew good and well that Mark was coming back.

The viewers must have thought Sicheng to be maniacal, they must have. No one in their good mind converses with a corpse.

And then there were... the incidents. It's like the Gamemakers didn't want Sicheng to be near the body. All throughout the day, they distracted him from the body, most likely to take it away before it started to decompose. It was hot and ashy outside and more likely then not Mark would start decaying if they didn't remove him.

A part of Sicheng didn't want them to remove Mark, though. If they did, he'd be all alone.

There was a scream outside of the building that startled Sicheng, but he didn't leave. There were rats occasionally, bigger and more threatening than Sicheng had ever seen -but he didn't leave. Finally, at one point the building had begun to rumble earlier in the day and Sicheng had decided to leave in case of a collapse, leaving Mark's body alone.

He hobbled to another building, farther away from the center Cornucopia. That was just fine with him; he didn't want another run-in with the Careers. Sicheng clutched his backpack and stared into the smoky sky, watching as ashes rained down onto his hands and hair. He wondered how the Gamemakers kept so much ash in the air, but figured there was no point in wondering about it.

He snagged his leg on a wire at one point later, tripping and cutting his thigh open. All day after that he'd been hobbling around with and closed leg, simply tying a rag over it and hoping the bleeding would stop.

He watched his old building as it began to shake debris from its exterior.

Yet, it didn't fall.

Sicheng didn't want to go back. He knew Mark would be gone and he had grabbed his backpack already, so really there wasn't a reason. It would be pointless, and the farther from the Careers he was, the better.

It had only been three days, but it felt like a constant nightmare that dragged on for months. Hard to believe that he and Mark were only allies for less than three days.

So, why was he so apathetic about Mark's death? Should he have cried? Crying wouldn't really change anything.

Night fell after several hours and Sicheng tried his hardest to stay awake. He was by himself, there was no one able to stand guard now. Either he sleep now and risk being murdered while he dreams, or stay awake and watch his own back.

At some point when the moon was high in the sky again, he heard an orchestral sound; the Panem anthem always startled him.

He looked into the sky as the anthem played, staring sadly into the night at what he saw.

The portrait of Mark looked back innocently at Sicheng and his stomach twisted into a sickening knot. Gone forever, the innocent and sweet boy who befriended Sicheng -as unlikely as that may have seemed.

A boy from District Five apparently died earlier in the day and Sicheng doesn't even remember meeting him. His eyes were large, though, and he looked too kind for the Games.

What suddenly made his blood run cold, though, was his own brother's scowling face filled the night sky with his name and district below him.

Renjun, with his long two-toned hair and piercing, furious amber eyes.

Renjun, scowling in his portrait despite being told to smile when they'd taken it days ago.

Renjun, who Sicheng won't ever, ever see again.

And then in a matter of seconds, he was gone. His portrait disappeared and Sicheng's breathing stopped. He looked down into his hands and shut his eyes tight. He wished none of this was real, wished that the Games had never happened at all, wished that he'd see Renjun alive again.

There was one more portrait in the sky, but Sicheng couldn't even focus past the world spinning around him. Dizzy and nauseous, he held his head in his hands as the anthem ended.

Mark Lee, District 3
Lee Taeyong, District
Huang Renjun, District 7
Na Jaemin, District 11

Every cell in his body was screaming at him to cry, scream, mourn, anything. But the tears just weren't coming, which frustrated him even more.

He felt sick, he felt numb, he felt lonely, he felt scared, he felt... confused? He couldn't differentiate the millions of emotions he was facing and feeling. It was something he'd never felt before, not even when Mark died or his mother died.

Sicheng really was all alone now.