Melting of a frozen heart

Chapter 16

The cameras don't follow the tributes into the hall, they instead focus on that damn water bottle. The girl from eleven, Dill starts walking towards it, coughing up a storm in the process. She drops to the ground, and picks up the bottle. When she uncaps it, and takes a drink something strange happens. She stops hacking, but a small trail of blood starts pooling form her mouth and she slowly lays down. And never gets up.

"What the fuck?" Festus whispers.

"Language!" Persephone whisper yells at him, while slapping his arm.

We all stare at the screen for a second, and nothing happens. I hear Snow chuckle from the other side of the viewing room, and I lean forward a little bit to see him looking prideful. I glare at him, and that odd feeling comes back. Part of me wonders if he has something to do with this. He notices my stare, and coughs to cover up the chuckle. But he was too late to cover it up.

"Whats with the face?" Festus asks me. I shift my gaze to him, and Persephone who are watching me with curiosity.

"Nothing. I just have the sense that Snow is up to something." I tell them slowly, as I try to calculate what Snow could have possibly done.

"That wouldn't surprise me." Persephone says. "There has always been something off about him. That's why I choose to avoid him."

"Yeah he is quite odd." I say. 

"Odd would be an understatement. He's weird as hell. No need to be subtle." Festus says, before we all go back to paying attention to the screen.

I see Reaper spot his district partner, and jog towards her. He is in for a nasty surprise. He seems to be one of the most powerful tributes, but also the most protective. He isn't going to be happy when he realize she's gone.

"Dill? Dill?" he asks, being dropping down to the ground. "Dill, wake up. Dill. No." He seems to panic before continuing trying to wake the poor girl up. "Dill? Dill? Hey. Dill, hey, wake up. Dill. Dill!" he fishes with shouts.

Once it sets in he starts yelling. Screaming out in pain to no one. He sits there and finds a camera and looks at it with tears slowly falling down his face. I hear the buzzer sound go off, and Dills screen no longer shows her face.

Once he collects himself he scoops her up, and carries her in his arms. I question where he is going, and why he has chosen to carry her body else where. Then he stops by that main beam where so much has happened, and gently lays her down next to where Marcus lays. He gets down on his knees, and takes off his hat out of respect. He looks at her with sorrow, and grief.

He then gets up, and walks over to Tanner. He picks up his body, and carries his body, where he lays it down gently next to Dusty. I slowly start to understand what he is doing once he gets to the tribute snow attacked, and picks him up as well. Then laying him on the ground along with the others. He does that with all of the remaining tributes. Laying them all together, in his own graveyard.

I feel a mass amount of respect towards Reaper, for taking the time to honor these tributes deaths. He goes and walks again, but with no the tributes to retrieve, I don't know where he is going. Until he walks towards a wall, draped in the Panem flag, and looks at it before tearing it down.

Gasps fill the room, along with whispers of judgement. I watch in awe, as he drags the flag behind him like some sort of cape, or veil. He brings it towards the tributes, and drapes it over all of there bodies in a protective fashion. Like he is finishing the making of their final resting place.

Once he is done he stares at his work, before turning around and facing a camera. Staring it dead in the eye and simply asking "Are you going to punish me now?" as he races his hands a bit. I feel goosebumps spread on my arms, in this act of defiance. He pauses, and the room remains silent. The camera zooms in on his face, and he yells "Are you going to punish me no-"