When The Canary Sings

The Tour

First Person Point of View: Becca Blue:

TW: Mention of an Eating Disorder

*

"Will!" I shriek as we ride a wood-rotted sled down the frozen-over slag heap. My hands clench around his stomach as we fly down the hill. This was a yearly tradition in Twelve. As soon as the first snow hits and everything is frozen over, all the kids take to the huge slag heaps by the mines.

Sure, it's completely stupid and incredibly dangerous considering the slope that most of the kids ride down butts up directly to the train tracks. Thankfully, none of the trains are running today since it's a Thursday. This means that today is a perfect day for fun. The sky is gray and snow and ice pave all the grounds. The slope of the slag heap is slick and when you ride down it, you move so fast you'd think you could just keep going and going forever. You'd never stop!

Other kids zoomed past us on wooden planks and broken down boxes, screaming as they rode down the icy hill. Will and I trudged back up the heap, all the way to the top, ready to go again.    

"You wanna go in front this time?" He asks, out of breath from the hard walk up the hill.

"Hell no!" I yell, "I wanna be in the back because if we hit a tree, you'll break my fall." I tease, and he feigns offense, slamming his hands over his heart.

"How dare you!" He yells, pushing me into the snow. "You have to protect the beauty!"

"The beauty? Hunny, I'm obviously the beauty here." I tease back, pushing myself off the ground and kicking snow at him. "Not that coal smeared face."

"Hey!" He shrieks, tackling me right back to the ground. He pins me to the ground and piles snow onto my patchy coat. I shriek at the freezing snow on me, and grab a handful to shove down his shirt. He yelps again and rolls over, I take the opportunity to pin him to the ground and sit down on his stomach.

"I think that's karma." I laugh cupping his bright red cheeks. The bitter chill made both of us shiver. He just huffs and props himself up.

"Not fair." He shivers, a fake pout forming on his lips. I press a kiss to his cheek and stand up.

"Now," I breathe, picking up the old wooden sled I took from Haymitch's basement. "You ready or not?" I ask with a smirk on my face as I readjust the ropes on the end of the sled. They were supposed to be used to steer, but they don't work at all. Will just used them for something to hang on to while I hang onto him.

Will nods eagerly and hobs onto the front. I climb on the back, wrap my arms around his waist and I get some kids that used to be in my class before they dropped out to push us down the large hill. The hill is huge, and as we speed down it, the speed of our sled only accelerates.

Suddenly, I hear a loud scream. I pick my head up from its spot where it was buried in Will's neck and look up to see a mother holding a small child and darting up the hill.

I look to the side to see a train bellowing in.

Now usually, this wouldn't be a problem, but we're sledding at about maybe thirty miles per hour, down a hill that leads directly to the train tracks. Plus, the breaks don't work.

"Holy shit!" We both scream at the same time, feeling the sled move faster under us, the ice and snow betraying us.

"Stop it!" I scream to Will who pulls desperately on the ropes, but his efforts are futile.

"I can't!" He screams back, right as we approach the train which is showing no signs of stopping. I close my eyes and brace for impact, but instead all I feel is the sled slipping from under me and Will and I tumbling in the snow. I picked my head up for a second to see the old sled be smashed into tiny bits as the train hit it. The horn blew, and the vehicle zoomed past us towards the station about two miles down. Will cradles my head gently, but pushes it into the crook of his neck to avoid any of the flying debris of what was once our sled.