A SNAKE HIDDEN UNDER THE SKIN OF A MASTERMIND
She reads people as if they're books.
She used people as if they're objects.
She manipulated their minds as if they're games to her.
She had the whole Panem in the palms of her very hands.
So when she...
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——Sitting in the dim lit room, the blonde haired girl flipped through the pages of her mother's diary. Stormy gray eyes absorbed every single word written on the pages as images formed in her head. She reached forward and grabbed the picture of her mother and Sejanus Plinth. The one who she'd described as the boy with the heart of gold and turned it around.
'May you find peace in the afterlife, S.P'
Anger surged through her from what had been revealed inside the diary. To see the execution through her mother's eyes, especially when it was her friend she grew up with. His death affected her the most, and she was afraid of what the next nine diaries will contain.
It was already night time, Cordelia and Neo were already asleep, and she had tucked in their youngest; Astrea, before she returned to her reading. Behind her, she could hear the heavy footsteps climbing down the steps to the study beneath their cottage home. Warm hands placed on her shoulders and rubbed them soothingly.
"You've been spending down here more than our bedroom." Finnick bent down and placed a kiss on the crown of her head. "Might as well move the bed down here too."
Irene looked up and smiled. "Honey, you and I both know we'd be doing more than reading." She snickered.
The man let out a chuckle. He moved to sit next to her on the couch and pulled her into his arms as her back rested against his chest. Finnick glanced down at the book in her hands. "What are you reading?" He asked her.
"My mother's diary." Irene answered. "Tigris sent them over after she discovered them. Everything that I needed had been documented in this very book that led up to changes within the upcoming hunger games." She turned to him. "Do you know anything about the 10th Hunger Games?"
Finnick shook his head.
"That was when everything changed. Snow was not the same person as we knew him, in fact, the day he met a girl named Lucy Gray Baird. She was his tribute from district 12 and he was her mentor. He really did fall in love with her but..."
"His loyalty to the Capitol was much more important." Her husband finished for her.
Irene nodded. "He cheated in order for her to win and as punishment he was sent away to become a peacekeeper. He killed the mayor's daughter, Mayfair Lipp to protect Lucy. Yet the turning point that changed him was when he lost three people he had grown to care for."
"Snow turned his back against them by taking the things they loved the most. Brotherhood, trust, friendship. He broke them. Sejanus, Lucy Gray and my mother," She listed
"He thought what he had done was for the best." The woman grumbled. "I wonder if he hadn't done it, the Hunger Games would probably have ended after 10th."
"There's no point in dwelling on the past." Finnick sighed. "Even though it took 66 years to end it, it's over. We won. Nothing will ever happen to you. To us. And to the kids."
The couple stared at each other with a smile on their lips. Irene turned to face him until she was straddling on his lap, and her thumbs went over the stubble on his face. "You're right." She said. "What we have now, is what matters the most."
"To our family." Finnick leaned close. "Forever and eternity."
"Forever and eternity."
The two shared a kiss and pulled apart, resting their foreheads on top of each other as they basked in the moment.
However, it was short lived when a loud wail was heard from upstairs and light footsteps came running down stairs into the study.
"Mommy, daddy, Star's crying again!" Cordelia ran up to them. Irene stood up and took her daughter's outstretched hand, letting the little girl pull her.
"Where's Neo, princess?" Finnick questioned.
"He's trying to calm her down."
When they reached Astrae's room, they were greeted with the sight of Neo sitting inside the crib, hovering above the baby as he attempted to comfort her. Finnick went to step in to help, only to be stopped by Irene.
"Shh... watch."
He looked down at her in confusion but listened nonetheless as they stood in the doorway.
"Don't cry, baby Star." They listened to Neo as he began talking to his little sister. "The bad guys won't come to hurt you because mommy and daddy, and their friends had stopped them. Mommy and daddy and helped save the world so we can be happy as a family."
Neo went to lay down next to her, and patted her hand. Something his mother would always do when he is sad.
"When me and Delia are scared, mommy would always sing to us while daddy and her put us to sleep." He began to hum a familiar tune, patting Astrea's hand rhythmically as he did so. "We are coming home." Neo softly sang. Astrae's cries slowly subsided and she sneezed. The boy continued on to sing her the lullaby. Her brown eyes looked up at her brother and yawned, then soon she fell asleep.
Cordelia let go of her mother's hand and went up to the crib to help Neo climbed out of the crib.
"There's a potential charmer in him." Finnick smiled.
"I wonder where he gets it from." Irene winked at him.
They smiled at each other before joining the twins. Irene picked her son up while Finnick held Cordelia and placed a peck on his cheek. "Thank you, baby." She said.
"I'm just doing what you always do, mommy." Neo giddily smiled at her. His cheeks turned red in the process.
Irene laughed softly. "Let's get you two back to bed."
