OUR FOREST OF THORNS | tbosas ✔️

008 || Unintentional Confession

CHAPTER EIGHT —    Unintentional Confession ..

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          The first and only time Daphne had tried to tell Coriolanus about this was two years ago. Perhaps because he remembered that winter night so clearly now, he felt especially burdened with guilt that he hadn't actually pieced together the full extent of what she meant — there was no defense to his ludicrous ignorance but the pitiful admission that he didn't think neither the president, nor her brother capable of such lack of humanity.

That night was now flashing before his eyes, the gentle snow falling over the entire Capitol in a curtain of white slowly being lowered and thus brining monochromatic duality to a city long lost to its slumbering hours. From the top of the bridge on which they had paused their walk, leant against its intricately disigned railing, they could see how far into the horizon the Capitol spread and how so much further, Panem continued into pitch black. Right below them, the streets were empty and it felt, for just a moment, that the whole world was gone and they were the last two people left.

Snow remembered he was freezing in as much of a silence as he could — winters have always been rough for his family, at the very least since the war broke out. Furs, coats, even as much as a winter hat, they've all turned from a common necessity into a luxury overnight. The best they could do anymore was a thin turned leather coat that he wore over four other layers, all more suitable for the warmer seasons than the cutting winds of winter.

"Did you love your parents, Coryo?"

The past tense hammered over his head and got him stammering — certainly, it wasn't the cold shaking his jaw outside of his control, "Every child is bound to respect their parents."

"You know that's not what I meant," Daphne had chuckled at his nervousness to give a honest answer, though she didn't notice it had taken him off guard to know she was aware he had been orphaned during the war. "Respect and love are very different things. For example, I respect my father, but I don't love him. Much as I respect his status of power, while not condoning or agreeing with most of his decisions."

It used to make him so anxious every time Daphne entrusted him with listening to her radical views, not because he would disagree and thus fear causing a rupture between them, but rather because he agreed and that frightened him terribly.

After a deep sigh, Daphne continued, her gaze watching her pale hands dig into the soft snow that has gathered on the top of the bridge's metal railing, "I can't even say that at least I have the love for my mother to keep me warm, because I can't help but hate her for dying during the war and leaving me here with them. Most of the time I wish I was capable of loving my father really, but sometimes... Sometimes I just wish they had killed him too."

"They?" The word shivered off of Coriolanus tongue.

"Don't make me say it, Coryo," Daphne shook her head, sadness clinging to her tone. "You know who."

That was the most egregious of things Coriolanus has ever heard Daphne insinuate, so before he could even properly think past the cold's grip on him, he hurried a puzzled inquiry, "Why would you want such a thing?"

"Purely selfish reasons really," she admitted with ease, her tone slowly descending even further into burdened guilt, of the sort that looked tragic hanging by the consonants of a teen. "I know how much he matters to Panem, I know how much worse things would have been for us if my wish came true, but sometimes I just hate him that much more that it seems like a fair trade."