A SNAKE HIDDEN UNDER THE SKIN OF A MASTERMIND
She reads people as if they're books.
She used people as if they're objects.
She manipulated their minds as if they're games to her.
She had the whole Panem in the palms of her very hands.
So when she...
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——ONCE UPON A TIME,THE lab was caught on fire. The same one they kept Irene chained in after they discharged her. The white lab once belonged to someone, Irene figured. When she asked Egeria about its previous owner, the woman had no idea about it. Though she did mention that Snow had never let anyone enter the space, disclosing it as forbidden and those who trespassed will be punished.
During the days she was in the lab, Irene would recall the waryness on his face as he walked around. As if he'd expected for someone to jump out and kill him.
He'd stayed for hours, busying himself with old documents and files, at least the ones that were safe from the fire.
"Almost everything in this room was destroyed because of the fire. They barely made it out alive." Snow had told her. Then he left as if he had remembered a bitter memory.
She had never seen this side of Snow. So humane, yet nothing will redempted him from the blood on his hands. The sins he had made as he rose to glory. From the darkness that had gripped his heart.
It had been days since her father made his point, that she would never escape from their last name. She spent endless days and nights in the lab, barely leaving to her room — not that she wanted to return there where there were once memories of her and Finnick spending their time together in secrecy, now turned into a vault of haunted memories and nightmares.
Dark circles were now evident in her eyes, but she turned sleep away because she was afraid. What was supposed to bring her comfort and peace became trauma and terror.
The door was opened, two peacekeepers walked in, dragging a certain axe wielding woman in. Looking exactly like Peeta, frail and fragile, and her hair was completely shaved. "Johanna?" Irene breathed out in surprise.
"President Snow ordered the new venom to be injected in her." One of the peacemakers told her.
Irene's brows furrowed. "But it's not finished yet."
"He said, do it." Or else face the consequences.
Even the peacekeepers didn't dare to utter those words to her face. It's an understatement that no one would want to go against the President. They left the room leaving the two women. Irene stood up from her stool and walked toward her as much as the length of the chain would allow her. "Come on." She said. Placing her hands on Johanna's arms and carefully placed her on the treatment chair.
"Nice room you got here." Johanna commented sarcastically despite feeling drained of any energy left in her body. "Looks cozy."
Irene gave her a shrug. "I'd rather spend my time here than in that forsaken bedroom."
