SPARK ✩ CORIOLANUS SNOW.¹

𝐬𝐢𝐱.

          First he saw white, and then he saw red. Hot, oozing red like blood pouring in front of his eyes, his rage becoming something physical and blinding. Coriolanus Snow does not move like he expected the line of tributes to either move to him or bow to him, and either way, Jude was not fucking doing it. 

One of the spare Peacekeepers hanging by the awaiting vehicle stepped away from it, approaching him. They started speaking in a hushed conversation that, even with the dead silence of the train station, Jude couldn't pick up on. Still, he didn't look away, not even when everything curdled inside of him when Coriolanus glanced over at him and the Peacekeeper turned to stare. 

And stare. 

After a lifetime of silence, the Peacekeepers started nudging the tributes closest to the vehicle in the spine with the butt of their guns, urging them toward it. Their mentors began to back away, some with notes jotted down, others attempting fruitlessly at conversation before their tribute was loaded away, and then Jude, frozen in place with no one. No one, and now it was about to be cemented into stone. If they put him on that truck without a mentor, that was it; he was being sent to be killed. 

"We can share," Ruby said from behind him, nodding toward his girl who was sashaying away with a cluster of the others. "If you'd like." 

Jude couldn't stop his hands from trembling, or the words from stumbling free of his mouth. "Fuck off." 

But he took no offense from it, only barked out a laugh. "Alright, my darling. I've gotten the hint." 

The line started to shuffle in front of Jude, and Jude's heart hammered against his chest as he took that first step forward. Then the second. He was going to die. It was the first time that he could think it with confidence. Before, he could almost convince himself he had a fighting chance, but this was panning out to be a death sentence. 

By the fourth step, a rough hand seized his elbow and yanked him back. He made an attempt to rear back again, fed up with Ruby and his teasing antics by this point, until he saw the white gloved fingers on his skin. Immediately, his entire body loosened, unwilling to be pummeled for aggression just like his father had been. The Peacekeeper started to pull him backward to the back of the line, and Jude glanced around his surroundings for any indication on why. 

There was only one truck, and everyone of the tributes was being loaded into the covered bed of it. Majority of the Peacekeepers were focused on keeping them in line, but some were clustered around the secluded area of the train station where he was being led. It was around the corner just on the outside of the waiting room's entrance, sitting on the bench, that he was stopped. 

And where Coriolanus Snow stepped out of. 

Jude's jaw ticked. His teeth ground together in barely restraint anger. "What's all this about, Snow?" He asked, nodding around toward the semi-circle of Peacekeepers gathered around them. 

Coriolanus's mouth twitched in the hints of a smile, but didn't fully commit. His bright blue eyes stayed focused on Jude's face when he said, "There was an accident. With your mentor." 

"Yeah. No shit. I kind of picked up on that." 

The twitch again. "There are no eligible replacements for you." 

Jude laughed, almost maniacally. "So, what? You brought me to this secluded little corner to tell me that I'm fucked? I'm fucked for a game that you decided I should be in, even though the odds are already very clearly not in my fucking fa--" 

Behind him, boots shuffled until two rough hands yanked his chains backwards and into the body of the Peacekeeper holding him. The feral smile stayed on Jude's face though. "Right. Can't be mad at the Games," he corrected, clearing his throat, "or you, for that matter, apparently."