Aurora Grace loves flowers more than anything. They are tiny sparks of joy in a hard cold world. When she is chosen for the Hunger Games, Coriolanus Snow becomes her mentor. Through her eyes, he starts to see the world in a brighter light.
Coriolanu...
"By dawn the bombers were long gone, the fires dying, the final stragglers rounded up." - Katniss Everdeen
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AFTER THE BOMBING STOPPED, Aurora and Josie remained huddled under the table, anxiously awaiting their parents' return. The bombing had gone on for hours, a cycle of explosions followed by eerie silences, then starting again. Now, it had been quiet for over an hour.
"When are they coming back?" Aurora asked, her voice barely a whisper as if afraid that speaking too loudly might bring another round of bombing.
"I don't know," Josie said. She was staring at the door that her mother had gone through an hour ago. Their father was supposed to be back with all the other miners hours ago. Their mother left to go look for him when the bombing stop. The sisters knew that there were two possibilities: either he and the miners had found a safe place to protect themselves from the bombing, or they hadn't.
Josie's gaze turned to her sister. Aurora was hugging her knees close to her chest, sweat beading on her forehead, her curly hair sticking to her skin.
"Remember last summer?" Josie suddenly said, breaking the silence. "When the storm knocked out the power for days? Mama taught us how to make shadow puppets using candlelight. We were scared then too, but it turned out fine."
Aurora nodded, a faint smile breaking through her worried expression. "Mama made that silly rabbit, and it looked like it had three ears," she recalled.
"Yeah," Josie laughed softly. "And Papa came back with those glow worms from the woods, and we put them in jars around our room."
The laughter was short-lived as another distant boom shook the windowpane. Aurora's smile faded, and she buried her face in her knees. "But what if they don't come back this time?" her voice was muffled from her action.
Josie wrapped her arm around her younger sister, pulling her close. "They will. We just have to wait," she said, her voice steady but her eyes betraying her fear.
And they did wait. But when more time passed, the fear and hope that had initially gripped them slowly gave way to a deepening sense of dread.
Now, back in the zoo enclosure, Aurora found herself in a familiar state of uncertainty, waiting and wondering about Coriolanus's safety.
Almost two days had passed since the bombing, and the aftermath was grim. The Peacekeepers had rounded up all the surviving tributes and confined them back in the zoo enclosure.
The usual crowd of Capitol visitors was absent, as were the camera crews and mentors. Aurora knew not to expect them anytime soon. She did waited around four hours after being locked up again, hoping they would send a doctor. But her expectations of the Capitol were too high; no one came.
