A Valley of Shattered Hearts

Chapter 27

Chapter song - Rule #13 - Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths

April Wren and Ruby Jones were both disappointed. Neither one of them wanted this life. Perhaps that's what they had in common and what kept them connected for so long.

Now Ruby would do anything to get away, run down to April's house and chat away. She'd always answer any question Ruby wished to, but the only one she didn't know was her most important question of all. Who am I?

The very question she didn't know herself yet kept asking as a tradition.

"What are you doing?"

Rhye raised his hands. "The one thing I ask, I don't see why you can't follow instructions."

She had to feed into his mind if she was going to in fact win by play.

"The President could be here any second," Rhye hissed. Ruby stared at the ground, waiting in silence for his next words.

"You know, if you want to ask so many questions, maybe you should go find the answers yourself."

Before Ruby can respond, Rhye turns on his heels but not without his last words to haunt Ruby's mind, "Oh, hush."

"It's not like you have anywhere to go."

And that was the line that kept Ruby wondering, Do I have anywhere to go?

*

"And that's all he said?"

"It's not like you have anywhere to go?"

"April it's not about what he said, it's about how he said it," she said, "plus he wouldn't have said that if he knew I had a place to go."

April tilted her head, lounging on the doorframe, holding a cup of hot tea, "Even if you did have a place to go, would you want to?"

"Would I want to what?"

"Would you want to leave, Ruby?"

"The world is not completely full of shit yet," she said before sitting back down. "I get it, I ran away too."

"And?" Ruby questions as she crosses her arms.

"And I regret it."

"It didn't change anything."

She cocked her head, fumbling with her thumb and the ring on her finger. April sighed.

"I'll leave when the time comes," she says then retorts, "there's got to be more in this world."

"Hopefully one day I'll be lucky enough to see it."

She didn't know what she was looking for, exactly. Her brows rose at the sight of running away. Leaving this life was nothing but a dream for her. She leaned back in the chair, propping her feet on the desk.

Even when her turn to sleep came, Ruby lay awake. In the hours she spent watching the clock chime it's twelfth strike, one thought had become increasingly problematic.

Running away.

Perhaps she would leave in the night- maybe she was destined for this life. Maybe she was never going to know who she was, maybe it was for her own safety. But to survive off of pickpocketing and scraps wasn't really an ideal life. So she had to ask herself the question if it was worth it or not. Was she better off here? Instead of dooming her fate with a life of crime and injustice, should she endure the abuse and Greys cruelty? She knew they only didn't want her to expose their family lies...

It wasn't fair. But fair wasn't in the question. If her family had been alive, well she'd be with them, wouldn't she? Despite Rhye' manipulative tendencies, he was the strongest person she knew. But his lack of a family left a vacancy that she didn't think could ever be filled.

She cried so much that her sheets became damp and slept so little that when dawn came, she felt like everything was slowly going downhill.

Deciding to let that take the tone for the day, Delphi got out of bed and promptly pulled her shirt over her head, looking at the tattoo in Greek on her left shoulder.

Δελφίνι

Rhye could keep her in the prison she calls home for a little while longer. But she wasn't going to run away, not without knowing who she was first.

That meant she had time to overthrow the Capitol and find out who she was.

And find a way to come out of it alive.

She slung her cloak over her shoulders, she was quite good at disappearing into broad daylight. Today is the day. She thought. Today is the day I kill President Grey.

*

The halls were silent and the only noticeable sound was the shuffling of their shoes against the glass. All there was left to do was wait. For the first word spoken most likely but possibly something else entirely.
But when the first word was in fact spoken, her stomach started to tie itself into knots, attacking every molecule in her body.

"Hello, Ruby Jones." President Grey said softly, leaning back in her lounge chair.

"Hello, Aunt Grey." Ruby said quietly, matching her tone, waiting for the next events to unfold.

"I have a proposition."

"A proposition," she repeats, looking away into the wall.

"And what does this proposition entail?"

"We leave now. The Capitol will starve and save itself if it so pleases."

She scoffs. "You think I can leave?"

"Well comparing this to the latter, I'd say it's the best course of action."

"Is that what your friend says- April Wren?"

"Well- that's what her friends said- Jade Simone- Evans Golding- Rhye Lacey- and even Jordan Smallflower."

"Perhaps."

A pause silences them. "Get to it already, will you? I haven't got all day."

I slowly take my knife out from its pocket. I walk over, not too fast and it's now when I notice she had been waiting. This whole time. For me to kill her.

She wouldn't let April do it because she didn't deem fit.
She was waiting for me.

It made perfect sense. April was the detective in this story and she killed the Council and I was the victim so by events I had to kill the perpetrator.

She pauses, cracking a slight smile. "What has she asked of you?"

"Who?"

She rolls her eyes before responding, "April Wren, of course."

"Nothing out of reason."

"Right. Because he's so reasonable," she replies, sarcastically.

"The Capitol isn't as corrupt as it may seem."

"And I think you'll find we're all the same color on the inside."

"We are. But that doesn't give you the right to survive on these ideals and deceive your town."

"Perhaps."

"I am going to expose your lies and show Greyspire who you really are."

"Yes." She replies through gritted teeth.

"Do it." She says as she closes her eyes waiting for the pain to come.

Ruby remains unsure, but complies as when she is determined, she always gets the job done.

"Welcome home, Ruby Jones." President Grey spoke before a sharp gasp erupted across her body, writhing in the chair which she would be found in by morning. It was nothing to mourn over.

But in all seriousness it was the end of the beginning. But this story was far from over. Today, though, she simply watched her burn.