Author Games: Memoranda Of Terror

Task Five - The Danger Inside - Males

 District One - Apollo Leier

Vixen and I sat huddled under our two umbrellas as the woman in the sky spoke, I half payed attention to what she said, and instead was fumbling with my bracelet, the rain had weakened the leather, not enough for it to break, but soft enough I could leave marks in it. After a moment I picked up Vixen's knife from where it lay between us, and beside the sun already in the leather, engraved a small apple, I may never have known why Elias called me that, but I already missed the funny nickname.

Vixen nugged me as a fog began to grow seemingly out of the ground, I put my arm around his shoulder and we huddled together as it slowly made its way towards us. It enveloped us and soon all sound was lost in the Capitol perfume smelling clouds. Turning to look around, I made a quick sweep, seeing nothing, when I turned back, my arm dropped to the ground in shock; Vixen was gone.

I leapt to my feet and spun in a circle, panic welling within me, if someone hurt the other, would we still be hurt? Could everything we had gone through be lost in one thing.

Opening my mouth, I felt words form in my head, but not a sound came out, causing my mind to spin instantly around to think that something in the fog had caused me to loose my ability to hear. A figure appeared in front of me and I stumbled forward, hoping they would notice my condition. Instead, they turned their back as others appeared, mimicking the first figure.

A loud whine entered my head, and I dropped to my knees, trying to cover my ears in a vain attempt to stop the sound. After a moment, I was met by a dead silence, I opened my eyes and looked around, ghostly figures glided by me, everyone ignoring my very presence. I felt a stabbing pain in my gut as fear seeped into my every pore. It was my greatest fear.  

I was utterly alone, even in a crowded room.

I fell back to the ground, close to a nervous breakdown, the silence thickened to an almost unbearable level, and I was almost certain tears were leaking from my eyes, but I couldn't be sure for my entire body and mind had gone numb. I couldn't think about anything other then the pain of being alone.

The stabbing, numbing pain continued, and I felt like screaming, I was going to die, there was nothing else for me but silence. Silence wasn't what I wanted, I wanted to spend time with my friends.. I did have friends didn't I? Or had I simply imagined them in my loneliness.

I rolled my head to my bracelet and stared as my fingers traced the outlines on it. It seemed the more I thought about what I had come to have imagined as people who cared, the greater my pain became. However, I couldn't stop the dreams I could have told without a backwards glance, and groaned as once again I saw the figures dancing around me.

Closing my eyes, the agony I felt rose, and I could almost hear myself crack as a sob escaped me, and then, as quickly as it had come, it vanished, and I became aware of someone calling my name.

Opening my eyes I had to shield them from the dim sun the sky realised, moving my hand away as it found it covered in tears. I looked over at Vixen who sat beside me, a confused, and concerned look on his face. Looking past him, I saw the honey blond hair of one of my former allies.

"When did you join us?" I asked, my voice hoarse as if it hadn't been used for weeks.

She shrugged, "My whole alliance was gone, and since you lost a member, I suppose they put me here."  

I nodded, and swallowed, trying to get some moister back into my throat, after a moment a thought occurred to me, and I voiced my concerns, "Shouldn't we have been killing someone? Or someone trying to kill us?"

Looking between Vixen and me, Coral seemed to be contemplating my question, and I had just placed my hand on my bracelet, when she spoke, her voice showing for the first time since I met her, the fear she felt, "After your little breakdown, lets see how long the peace lasts, shall we?"