drapetomonia - the overwhelming urge to run away.
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When Junia Beaumont, her brother and their classmates get a last assignment before the end of the school year, she doesn't know just how quickly things will change for her.
Who would have thought t...
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02. rigged
She hasn’t dreaded anything this much in a long time, that much she knows.
Finally, after a few more seconds, the commotion finally quietens down. Junia notices her mother sitting on the side among a few familiar faces, her father and brother must be sitting somewhere further in the back.
A part of her is grateful because Max being out of sight means she doesn’t need to see him pulling faces behind everyone else’s backs but another part of her is almost a bit disappointed. As unfitting as these faces are, she finds them amusing and she would probably take about anything to cheer her up right about now.
Despite the fact that her mother works for – or with, however you want to look at it – Dr. Gaul, Junia finds it hard to feel at ease around the woman. There’s something deeply unsettling about her that unnerves her and she sees her as one of the biggest reasons to avoid aiming for a career in the War Department. If anything, she wants to get as far away from her as possible.
She has something of a mad scientist about her and she wonders how in the world her mother manages not to get chills around her. Just seeing the way the older woman’s heterochromic eyes gaze upon the students and staff makes her try to avoid her gaze at all cost. There’s something sinister in her gaze. Looking into her eyes always makes Junia feel like she’s a rabbit and Dr. Gaul is a wolf.
And with today being the day of the reaping, it must be the best day of the entire year for her. Her smile is wide and yet there’s something sinister beneath it as she steps up to the podium and begins to speak into the microphone, “How tantalizing it is to see all of your shining, young faces on this auspicious day!”
Junia can almost hear Cas rolling his eyes in front of her. Or maybe not – surely he doesn’t want a scolding from their parents after this.
“I am Dr. Volumnia Gaul, your humble head gamemaker in charge of the War Department and its affiliated conserves,” Dr. Gaul speaks. “I’ve broken free of my laboratory today to examine you, the leaders of the next generation.” She laughs and her eyes wander across the students again.
She leans closer to the microphone as if telling the audience a secret. “I won’t be around forever, after all.”
Now, Junia would never wish ill upon anyone. However, if Dr. Gaul were to step back all of a sudden due to “unforeseeable circumstances”, she doesn’t imagine she’d be too upset about it. She’s not saying she wants her dead but if one of her experiments were to get out of control and render her unable to continue being the head gamemaker, it would at least get rid of one of her headaches.
“And now, to that end, I am honored to introduce to you the creator of the Hunger Games themselves: Dean Casca Highbottom.”
A silence falls upon Heavensbee Hall, only to be broken by the sound of someone coughing. Junia doesn’t need to turn around too much to see the man at the other end, his back turned towards everyone else. As always, he sticks out like a sore thumb among the students in those black clothes of his. It looks like he’s downing something in a vial and everyone present doesn’t need to take an educated guess to know it’s morphling.
