The Phoenix Games // Minecraft Diaries

c h a p 3

c h a p 3
Aphmau POV
                                 ~
             "I'll win for us," I tell my mother as she starts to leave the room. "For us." Who was I kidding? We both knew I was as good as dead.
             "I love you, Aphmau."
             "I love you, too." I start to cry. Cry hard. Harder. Harder than I ever have.
            "Time to go, Ms. St. Irene." Genevieve says as two Peacekeepers show up to escort me to the train. I find myself walking next to Laurance.
           "You're stupid," I tell him.
           "I know."
          "And you're okay with that?"
           "Yes."
          "You're stupid."
          "You already said that."
          "No fighting, you two," Genevieve says. "We need to look good for the Capitol. Pretend to like each other if it comes to it," She smiles.
          "Shut up, Janice." Laurance says as we walk aboard the train. I notice that one of our mentors, Mayor Barlow, is ignoring me in what seems like on purpose. Refusing to look at me.
When we're eating dinner, he doesn't want to talk to me when we're having a conversation about Hunger Games strategies.
"Water is your best friend," He says.
"What if you can't find drinking water?" I ask. And Barlow flat out ignores me. He puts his fork down and keeps a blank face.
                                ~
            "Barlow!" I call as everyone is dispersing from the table.
            "Yes, Aphmau?" He doesn't look back at me, and you couldn't possibly ignore his voice crack in the middle of my name.
           Laurance's voice cracks a lot.
           "Why aren't you talking to me? Or even just acknowledging me?" I ask genuinely.
           "Because."
           "Because isn't an answer," I say.
           "Look, sweetie, I'm not going to stand here and be confronted by a little girl."
           "I'm 16, and answer my question. Now."
           "Because," He dramatically pauses. "Because you're my daughter."
Did he really just say that? He's my father?! He's been mayor forever, and Mother knows he's my father, so I can only imagine how hard it must be for her to go around everyday knowing that he's my dad and she can't tell me for whatever reason. "Is that why she refused to tell me who my father is? Because you're the mayor?" I ask with surprised tones in my voice.
"I guess so," He replies. He turns around to face me. "I guess I should explain."
I nod and sit down on the couch. He sits in the purple chair right across from me.
"When your mother was 18, she got pregnant. I didn't take it too well, and left her and completely dropped out of her life. It was very irresponsible of me and I regret it. That same year, she got reaped. Now here it gets kind of tricky. I was standing on the edge of the boys' section so I was right next to a girl who I paid and promised to take care of her family if she volunteered for your mother. Next thing you know, she was in the Games and-"
"Can I take a wild guess and say that girl was your wife, Matilda?" I suggest.
"How did you know?"
"I inferred that she won so that you could pay her and she's our district's only female victor," -Then I have an epiphany- "Does that mean that your children are my half siblings?"
"Yes it does, and they have no idea either. Now, I'm so sad to see you go, I mean, let's be honest, you're gonna die." He says bluntly.
"Way to put it softly," I retort. "Anyway, I wanna talk about your children? Are they anything like me? Could you tell that we're related?"
"Well, all 7 of them show maybe a little resemblance, but Carrie is just like you, she couldn't hurt a fly. And Alessia is just the opposite,"
After that, we start talking deep into the night until we both fall asleep fully clothed on the couches.