Dancing with our hands tied || Snowbaird

Chapter Five

-Coriolanus-

The invitation arrived early one morning, soon after that weird ordeal at the train station. Clemensia had asked him about it repeatedly but he turned down any means to talk and brushed it off as 'something that could get them into trouble'. Deep down he knew there was something sketchy going on, and he also knew that he had something to do with it one way or another. In the post-dawn hours of the morning, the small cream envelope that had been thrown at his doorstop proved exactly his point.

It was a Friday and the last day of work before a weekend filled with running errands arrived. He could never catch a break. Someone knocked loudly on his front door and he rushed to open it as people in the Capitol were never patient enough to wait more than 20 seconds for someone to appear. "Who's that, Coryo?" Michel called out from their bedroom and didn't even bother to look for herself. No one was there when he had opened the door though, just the small envelope lying on the slab of marble. "Nothing,"he whispered and stuffed it into his pocket, "I need to go to work, and so should you."

With that Coriolanus took off down the street, and only until he knew he was out of sight he reached to his pocket to pull out the letter, or whatever it was. He opened it and sighed when he realised that it was about another mundane and boring event he would have to go to just to represent his legacy.

Dear Mr Snow,

You have been selected to attend the first annual masquerade ball being held in the Old Opera House on the 30th of  January.

You must dress in a formal black and gold suit, and bring along a masquerade mask for the occasion. If you do not so happen to have one there will be tolls selling them in front of the Posting Station on the 29th of January.

You may bring a plus one, and we expect to see you there soon.

All the best,
The Capitol

He balled the letter up in his fist and rolled his eyes. How much stupider could this place get? With this new information on his mind and what he saw yesterday whilst at the train station with Clemensia, he picked up his pace and entered the grey walls of his workplace. Normally, he's turn right to Dr Gauls office but it was too tempting not to investigate who that was that he heard shouting yesterday.

Carefully he swerved left into a long corridor that looked identical to all the other ones in the place. Its walls were a plain, hospital shade of white and even the light mounted on the high ceiling gave out a terrible ice cold tone. It felt like he was in an actual freezer. After a certain point Coriolanus realised that mindlessly walking around wasn't going to get him anywhere so he tried to follow signs but there were none. Why make a place that you can't even get around in?

Frustrated with the small amount of progress he made, he paced down the vast corridors until he met a large set of ash-coloured double doors. In all honesty he wasn't even sure if that person was being kept here. Had he just spent an hour chasing after nothing? Nonetheless he pushed the doors open, which surprisingly didn't have any lock on them. And for a good reason. Dr Gaul had a weird way of catching out her trespassers.

Momentarily he froze and touched the back of his neck, trying to find a little comfort in nothing. The two guards standing at either side of him weren't amused though, and they immediately grabbed him by the arms as if he was a piece of meat about to be thrown into a pool of piranhas. Who knew, maybe he was.
"What- where are you taking me?" He demanded an answer and writhed around in their strong grips. Stone faced, the guards nodded to each other through silent communication before turning their attention to Coriolanus.

"Just a holding cell,"one of them chuckled, "don't worry you'll have some company, they're holding some girl over there. Lucy something. Apparently she's a hit in the Capitol." Lucy something. His instincts had been right. He would see her, not in a month or year or week or day, not even tonight, but just in a couple of minutes at most. His Lucy Gray. His girl. His one true love. Would she be as happy to see him as he was to see her? Would her heart speed up when she realised that it was him in that same cell? His face burned with such adoration that he could've jumped up and hugged the guards that very moment.

"Lucy Gray," he mumbled softly under his breath, the name rolling off as effortlessly as it had done all those months also. As if nothing had ever changed between them and as if he had seen her just yesterday. Then again he wondered how long he was going to be kept in that cell and also wondered if there were going to be any other punishments that followed such as being fired or having to pay a fine for trespassing. Was it really trespassing if he worked there though?

About half a minute later they dragged him up to another set of huge double doors and they clicked open loudly as they pushed him through. It was a huge blank space with sectioned out cells, almost identical to an older prison. There was no colour, all objects had sharp corners and edges and even the floor was smoothed out and made of a vinyl like material. It looked like some sort of room they would have in an asylum that they'd throw psychopaths into. Surely they weren't keeping him in here.

Suddenly he was hoisted up onto a chair and his eyes covered with a piece of cloth, that in reality didn't make much of a difference as it was so thin. Around him the world had gone fuzzy and he could make out almost everything that was going on from the moment they brought him back up, to the part where they took him into a dark room and got him sit on the floor, his back pressed against something soft. "Just because you'll only be here for a day doesn't mean you're record is clean, so don't do anything stupid," the guard laughed to himself loudly before ripping off Coriolanus' blindfold to reveal a bright white room.

When his eyes adjusted to the light he realised that his hands were tied to whoever was pressed up against him, and that the room was mostly bare except for a bed in the corner. Useless as they couldn't use it. Quickly he remember the guards' words, he wouldn't be alone in the room, he was there with Lucy Gray and considering he couldn't see anyone else he guessed that she was the person against him. It caused a wave of relief to wash over him though anxiety still made it hard to breathe. Was he...nervous?

"Hey," he whispered, hoping he would get her attention. How was he meant to start? Should he ask how she was or introduce himself again and just pretend like he didn't completely try and shoot her a few months ago? "Lucy Gray," he mumbled quietly but she sat as still as a statue, the only response that could be heard echoing around the spacious room was her troubled breathing. They must've done something to her upon arriving in the Capitol. Their brutal ways, guns being shoved in abdomens or hit over heads. He'd kill them if they lay another finger on her.

Against him she let out a little sigh and even that caused him to take it as a sign that she was listening. "Lucy Gray," he said her name softly again, "I'm sorry for everything that happened last summer, I never wanted it to end like this."  It wasn't like him to apologise or admit that he was wrong. It was even less like him to mourn something that could've been but ended bitterly, and here he was doing just that next to this girl who made him feel emotions he had never felt before. What even was vulnerability before he met her?

He jingled the chains that they were tied to each other with and waited for her to say something. Maybe she was just ignoring him, if he was in her position he didn't think he'd ever want to see him again. For all she saw him as was just a cold blooded killer. "Please?" It was so desperate of him to keep prodding her like this. Surely she'd crack by now.

Then she shifted behind him. "Don't," she uttered quietly and wrapped her hand around a few of his fingers, the air thick with sadness.

-
A/N
I'm so sorry for taking so long, I've had loads of work at school this week!
Thank you so much for reading though, i hope y'all enjoyed 💗💗🌷🌷