The Mockingjay's Melody

Chapter 15: Autumn SilverSnow

I awoke to the sounds of someone screaming and I bolted upright, only to find Rowan laying trembling in the sand. I didn't ask what happened. I just sat, on my knees, beside him in the sand. I stroked his hair. "Are you alright?" I murmured, stroking his head while he trembled. He closed his eyes, trembled for a few moments more, then whispered, "The M.U.T.T. took Jasmine." My eyes widened.

"What happened?" He stifled a sob then choked out,

"She turned on us. I think the Capitol was using her against us. They sent her back in to kill me, for the trouble I've caused them." He sobbed at my knees and I murmured comforting words.

They sat in silence through the rain, allowing their grief and sorrow to choke the air around them. I sat debating whether to go inside and leave him be, or whether to stay at his side. Rowan solved the problem for me. "Go inside. I'll be fine." I nodded and headed up the beach.

Something came up behind me and, too slowly, I turned....only to be clubbed against the back of the head.

And I sunk into a peaceful darkness.

I awoke in a burlap sack with my ankles and wrists bound and a gag in my mouth. I struggled against the bindings. I felt the ground swaying beneath me and realized I was being carried through the forest.

"Hurry up!" A voice hissed. "She'll wake up any minute!"

"I'm trying! She's heavy!" A second voice complained, which I assumed was the one that was carrying me.

"Y'all shut your traps and get on with it!" Came a deeper, third voice.

They went on in silence through the forest for a few minutes before I reared back in the sack. The back of my skull collided with something and I heard a muffled SNAP! A scream followed the break and dropped my sack to the ground. I grunted at impact and hastily tried to undo the knots binding my wrists and ankles. "She's awake! What do we do boss?" Says the first voice.

The boss grumbled something under his breath. "Knock her out again, Cabel! Hurry up!"

I rolled sideways in the burlap sack, trying to escape my captors. The man who was carrying me, or Cabel, hurried after me, his loud, heavy footsteps clomping down the pathway after the rolling sack.

The ground suddenly gave way beneath the sack and I rolled off a cliff as the sack came undone around me. Cabel grabbed the edge of the sack and I tumbled face first through the air into a gorge as deep as the Grand Canyon.

I screamed as one of the others grasped the back of my shirt collar. I screamed and hollered at him through my gag, sobbing. Cabel cringed, as if someone had hit him, then straightened himself. Did he feel guilty? Or had he WANTED to do it?

I shook myself. That wasn't the problem nor the question. I screamed and thrashed in my bonds. "No! Stop-" Cabel's voice entered my thoughts and I felt something at the base of my collarbone pinch the skin tight around it. I almost immediately felt my hands drop to my sides, my skin tingling with a numbness I could never forget. I tried to ask what was happening, but my voice wouldn't work. My legs felt like Jell-o. I felt my thoughts begin to swirl in a fuzzy mess. "Why'd you do that? I told you we wouldn't NEED the sea snake venom!" Cabel complained.

"So what? It'll be easier to transport her this way." The leader grunted. "Zedo! Come and help me stuff her in the chest!"

I gave Cabel a look of wide-eyed panic. I was TERRIFIED of small spaces. I couldn't be in the chest! It was hard enough being in the burlap sack.

My fingertips tingle. I was getting feeling back into my body. I gurgled into my gag, an attempt at a scream, but the sea snake venom made it harder to do ANYTHING. Cabel saw my distress and stopped the other two. "Morrel- I mean- BOSS, we shouldn't NEED the chest! I can carry her. Don't worry."

That was the first time I realized the blood trickling from his nostrils. Sorry Cabel. I think. I broke his nose when I snapped my head backwards. I squinted at Cabel. There was something so...FAMILIAR about him. Maybe it was the deep blue eyes that made me feel like I was drowning in pools? Or maybe it was the shiny black hair that licked his forehead? Was it the freckles that dotted his nose like clovers in a field? Anyway, I was squinting at him as the other dude, Zedo, lumbered over to me with a chest. I screamed in my gag, (which worked this time), and thrashed, trying desperately to stay out of the small, cramped space. I screamed and sobbed and pleaded, but it was no use. I would be stuck in there unless Cabel could come up with a good reason not to put me in there. Zedo grabbed my right forearm, but by then I had gotten the gag out of my mouth by working my jaw up and down. I sunk my teeth into his wrist and he screamed, flinging me away. I rolled from Zedo as Morrel screamed for Cabel to catch me.

I glanced at Zedo, then something glinting in the sunlight caught my eye- a dagger at his thigh. I rolled back towards Zedo and grabbed his knife, the spring up, surprising him enough to send him flying backwards. I hastily began to cut through the rope...then someone rips the knife from my grip. I glance up to see Cabel, holding the knife in front of me, and snorting in disbelief. "You REALLY thought you could escape us?" He looked at me and winked. I questioned the look but before I could ask what it meant, he brought his hand down in my direction. I let loose a scream of terror.....then the ropes around my wrists fell away. I opened my eyes and looked up at Cabel.

He was smiling.

That smile...

I knew where I recognized him from. I knew it deep within my heart. My big brother Apratis had finally returned home.

My heart ached. "Apratis...?" He smiled at me, my ankle bonds snapping as he brought the knife down on the rope. "Hey, baby sis." He rustled my hair. My eyes widened as Morrel walked up behind him. "APRATIS! LOOK OUT-" He had just begun to turn when Morrel stabbed the knife through my brother's gut.

My brother gasped, clawing the knife in his stomach, then doubled over and fell to the ground, still clutching the knife in his gut. His breaths became shallow and laboured.

I glared hard at Morrel, who was smirking triumphantly. I stood, free from my bonds, and punched Morrel square in the jaw. He staggered sideways and groaned. He glared at me with eyes ablaze. A bruise had already begun to form on his left cheek. I smirked at him and kicked him in the gut. As he doubled over in pain, I hurried over to Zedo, snagging the dropped knife on my way. Zedo squeaked indignantly and scrambled backwards, away from me and my knife. I raised the knife and plunged it into his thigh. I couldn't kill him. I couldn't kill ANYONE. As Zedo rolled away squealing in pain, I ran back over to Apratis, who was clutching his gut. I knelt beside him, my heart racing. He sat up, with my help, and rolled upright onto his knees. At my count, I pulled the dagger from his gut. He gasped and dropped onto his side. Blood trickled steadily from the wound, his eyes already adapting an eerie glaze. "Autumn...stay strong..." He gasped, then fell back, limp. I screamed at him, sobbing. I shook his lifeless form, slamming it against the ground in order to wake him. His glazed eyes began to close as the muscles relaxed. I threw my head onto his chest, sobbing at his side until dusk.

A loud CRASH drew me from my frantic state. I scrambled backwards as I watched the M.U.T.T.  barrel through trees towards me and my brother. I screamed in horror and looked around for something of use. Morrel and Zedo were trying to limp away, my knife- sorry, ROWAN'S knife- still lodged in Zedo's calf. I rolled forward and caught up to them, ripping the knife from a screaming Zedo. Zedo rolled away from me and I slid under the M.U.T.T. as it approached, ripping the knife through its stomach. The M.U.T.T. shrieked. A loud, horrible sound that made my skin crawl and my blood freeze. I covered my ears, dropping the knife. The M.U.T.T. stopped screaming and took the knife....then swallowed it.

I started gaping at the M.U.T.T.

How was I supposed to be at it now?

I rolled away from the M.U.T.T., gasping as it hooked its long, shadowy fingers around my torso. I screamed and thrashed in its grip. From the corner of my eye, I saw Rowan approach us. I turned my head to glance at him but it was too late for him to reach me.

In one deft movement, the M.U.T.T. put me in its mouth and everything was lost.