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FOR THE FIRST TIME, OCTAVIA STEPPED FOOT IN ELEVEN WITHOUT IT BEING CONSIDERED HER HOME. It felt wrong to walk the streets knowing that she may not return for a long time. It was different than when she got reaped. At that time, she didn't think she would come home at all, but she believed that her brother would—and that was enough for her.
Now, the streets taunt her. They call her a selfish traitor. The voices sound just like Augustus and Consus's. She remembers the elders of Eleven telling her how they've forgotten the voices of those they'd lost.
It's been nearly a decade since Augustus, and she had yet to forget.
This time, she'd be the one to leave, and that scared her more than anything. She wasn't sure if her mother would ever forgive her.
Finnick had gone to Octavia's house in the Victor's Village to begin packing her things. He didn't want to go without her but was quickly convinced by her dissatisfied glare.
It's not a long walk from the train station to the Cirillo's home. She arrives at the end of the gravel, looking back and forth from her house to the Morrowson's, which was now vacant except for Thresh's mother.
Her stare sets on the house that once housed Thresh and Dimitri. It was painful to look at. She couldn't help but blame herself for Thresh's death. She was his mentor and she let her feelings get in the way of telling him to come home because she knows that he could have.
It doesn't matter now, though. It's much too late to dwell on past hope.
She walks up to her mother's home, gently pushing the door open.
"Mom?" She calls out into the quiet house. She can faintly hear rummaging coming from the bedroom.
"In here!" Rhea responds, slightly muffled by the separating walls. Octavia walks through the small house, finding her mother frantically sorting through her jewelry box.
There wasn't much jewelry to go around in Eleven, but Consus had gotten Rhea a beautiful pendant a few years before the siblings reaping. Between that and a hand-me-down ring from Rhea's side of the family, it was the extent of the Cirillo's jewelry.
"What's wrong?" Octavia asks, brows in their usual furrowed state. Rhea huffs.
"I can't find my necklace," she says, beginning to tear the bedsheets from the mattress. Octavia steps toward her.
"Hey, it's okay, just calm down, okay?" She comforts, placing a hand on her mother's shoulder. When Rhea turns to face her, Octavia catches a glimpse of shine beneath Rhea's shirt.
