𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍, coriolanus snow ¹

iv. cage fights

THE SMELL IN THE TRUCK WAS WORSE THAN REIGN HAD EVER SMELT. Even in her district days when they were at their worst, only washing in water they collected from a lake once a week, the smell was better than this.

She was right about her assumption of the truck being an old, and incredibly rough, circus cage for the animals. The scent was the first thing that gave it away, but with every time Reign's head hit the metal bars of the cage she was reminded of the fact more and more.

She had spent most of her days recently feeling bad for the way that the Capitol treats these tributes. Reign knew how unpleasant, unhygienic, and outright inhumane it was. So, why, when she was given the opportunity, did she agree to experience their world?

A quiet groan of pain came from beside her as the truck went over what felt like an entire building at it's top speed.

Oh, right. She agreed to it because Coriolanus was here too.

"You okay?" Reign turned to whisper her question to the Snow boy. His eyes were still screwed shut from the pain, but as he heard her question he started to open them slowly. Reign's stomach turned when he opened his eyes, and it wasn't from the wreck less driving of the Peacekeeper, it was from the pained look in his eye that he couldn't quite hide.

"Yeah," He slowly sat back up in the least uncomfortable position he could find within the cage. 

His hands brought themselves up to his head to hold the pained part of his skull as Reign turned her head to look at the rest of the tributes. 

Lucy Gray was in the corner at the opposite end of the cage to them, her eyes hadn't shut the entire ride but at least she wasn't staring us down like the others had been. She had collected a new scrape on her head somewhere between getting off the train and now, it looked a few moments away from being infected, but that seemed like a futile point to bring up considering the circumstances.

Next to her was Jessup, Lucy Gray's district's male tribute. He had been asleep for the majority of the ride, curling into himself to find some sort of warmth in the cold air of the cage.

The other two at the opposite end of the cage were Mizzen and Coral. Mizzen was peacefully sleeping on Coral's shoulder, but Coral herself couldn't seem to let go of her stare on Reign. Her eyes had tried to fall closed throughout the ride, but every time it happened, they sprung open again with more and more anger thrown in Reign's direction. Like she was the reason she couldn't let himself relax. Like she was the reason she was in the Hunger Games. Like she was the reason that she had been left in poverty after she got up and left district six.

Reign tried her best to look elsewhere in the cage, but she didn't exactly have plenty of options. She couldn't look at any of the tributes because they were either asleep or glaring back at her. Looking up the whole way didn't seem like an option either considering every time she tried she was overwhelmed with a sense of sickness either from the haphazard driving or the pungent smell of the cage. Plus, exposing her neck to the tributes that were still awake seemed like a one way ticket to a gruesome and bloody murder.

So, she decided that the gaps that she could find in between each of the tributes would suffice. All of the streets that they were being driven through were streets that she had walked down with her friends on their way to school, or roamed with her parents on a day out, or even just wondered on a boring day off school. She could spot familiar houses every other minute but she had never been more thankful to not see a single person from those houses.

Reign imagined seeing any of her friends, their parents, their teachers -  anyone that knew her - out in the streets while she was being paraded around with the tributes in a dirty animal cage. She couldn't stand the thought of being seen like that. It would be completely embarrassing for both her and Coriolanus.