drapetomonia - the overwhelming urge to run away.
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When Junia Beaumont, her brother and their classmates get a last assignment before the end of the school year, she doesn't know just how quickly things will change for her.
Who would have thought t...
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45. don't be a stranger
The next morning, Treech endures one more check-up. The doctor gives him the okay, and when the doctor comes into the room as they’re having breakfast, he presents him with a train ticket.
His cuts and bruises will heal; he gets one more shot of the antivenom, but by tomorrow, any traces of the snake’s venom inside of him should be gone. His physical injuries will eventually fade or turn into scars, but he knows that the trauma caused by the Games is a different story.
But for the time being, the knowledge that he’ll almost be on his way home around this time tomorrow is doing wonders for his mood.
Treech is set to leave the next day, on Monday, shortly before noon. The train will take him straight to Seven, and June has to fight back happy tears when she sees how much he beams for the rest of their meal. He’s finally receiving some good news after everything the Capitol has put him through.
Finally, he’ll be a free man.
However, the news also brings June the knowledge that her time in the Capitol is running out as well. In a little over twenty-four hours, she’ll leave the very place she grew up in. She’s anxious; of course she is. But how can she not be? She has never set foot outside the Capitol, and the only thing that brings her some comfort is the fact that she won’t be alone.
She’ll never see her parents again. And as far as the call with her brother shortly before noon goes, Cas won’t be joining them immediately. He has his reasons, claiming that this is better in case the Capitol or even their parents suddenly get the idea to follow them or make her come back. In that case, he’d at least like to be able to warn June so she can hide somewhere or leave Seven temporarily if necessary.
But she doesn’t want to just leave without leaving anything behind. She doesn’t want her friends to worry and wonder where she might have disappeared off to after the Games. So, while Treech is making use of the hospital bathroom to wash up after yesterday’s breakdown, she decides to write letters to the most important people that she’ll be leaving behind.
Sejanus, Lyssie, Clemmie, but also Cas and Max — her heart hurts just at the thought of leaving her little brother behind. But what choice does she have? She can’t take him with her, as much as she wants to.
For one, her mother and father would go absolutely ballistic. It’ll be one thing for them to have to live with the knowledge that their daughter chose a life with a district born over them, but their youngest, their baby, being taken away from them might actually push them over the edge. And secondly, she knows Max looks too young. He could pass as a twelve-year-old, or thirteen at most, but they’d still make him attend the reapings. She can’t do that to him.
