When Luck Runs Out

Capital Slaughterhouse #2

    "So, who wants breakfast?" Mrs. Hudson asked, not waiting for an answer as she walked over to the table and sat down at the head. John and I sat in our usual places; I was leaning heavily on my arm so that the top of my head was right in his line of vision, but so far he didn't seem too bothered by it. Of course I just wanted attention, maybe to hold hands or something, but I was bored and wasn't planning on eating much. Molly was eating a large stack of French toast, coated in powdered sugar, and Mrs. Hudson was quietly buttering a pancake. John was just focused on pushing my head away, which, in the end, I agreed to, so that he could get a nice helping of the mixed fruit on the table.
"So, District Ten, any different from us?" John asked.
"It's morbid over there." I decided. "And it stinks."
"Now Sherlock, it has it's good points as well." Molly insisted.
"It's cattle right, meat and livestock?" John asked.
"Yes, and they provide all the meat on this table." Mrs. Hudson said happily, gesturing to the bacon and sausage.
"It smells like cow poop and if you listen closely you can hear the animals getting killed, it's horrible. One visit there and I was seriously considering becoming a vegetarian." I pointed out, scowling at the bacon as if it had personally offended me.
"It's what has to be done Sherlock, but then again, I'm not against vegetarians at all." Molly assured.
"They kind of scare me." John decided.
"Why?" I laughed.
"Because, you know, they don't eat...meat. It's just a bit intimidating I guess, I feel like if I eat a burger in front of them they'll hulk out or something." John admitted.
"Thank god you're pretty." I laughed, poking at a couple of eggs on my plate without any intention of eating them.
"We'll be there in about an hour, so we can have a little time to ourselves and then we have to get all prettied up." Mrs. Hudson planned.
"I still don't think it's necessary for me to get dressed up, no one cares." I defended.
"As we get lower into the Districts they'll care a lot more, and in the low five they'll simply die to see you two together." Molly assured.
"I hate to think what will happen in the Capital." John shuttered.
"We should set up a kissing booth, a dollar a kiss." I decided. "With like, each other... not with other people... because that's really gross."
"That's a way to make money." John shrugged after a very awkward silence.
"I don't think Snow's all that keen though, I haven't heard much about his reaction, but I know he's a bit of an old fashioned man, and I've never heard of such a...unique, relationship anywhere in the Capital. At least not this public." Mrs. Hudson decided.
"Well I don't care what Snow thinks, he can't hurt us anymore, at least not legally, and we've got an army of teenage girls on our side." John decided, raising his knife in defense as if Snow was going to come bursting through the window and attack us.
"Those might come in handy." I shrugged.
"Well, you're lucky their not selling you." Molly pointed out. John just stared, as if trying to comprehend what she meant. That was a fun little thing Snow did to make a little bit more cash, and to make the Victor's lives worse, he'd sell them to the highest bidder for a night, it was horrible. Thankfully, even though Molly insisted that plenty of girls were quite into me, Snow probably thought I was too much of a scowling antisocial loser for anyone to actually want to invest in something like that. It was horrid really, worse than District Eleven's slaughter house.
"They'd never do that to me, even if I didn't have this lovely man by my side." John insisted.
"Oh, I beg to differ. I heard a lot of talk around the Capital, some girls really like you John." Mrs. Hudson pointed out.
"If Snow even tries I'll personally push him into oncoming traffic." I decided, cracking my knuckles threateningly but feeling like I just broke my fingers.
"We all would." Molly agreed.
"Honestly is there anyone in all of the Districts that doesn't hate Snow?" I asked, looking around at the table, as if challenging anyone to speak up.
"Well, One and Two have better connections with the Capital, but I wouldn't say they like him." Mrs. Hudson decided.
"Then why don't we just rebel?" I asked. It was as if I had dropped a bomb, Mrs. Hudson covered her mouth in shock and Molly squealed, looking around the train to make sure there were no cameras that just caught that. John and I just glanced at each other in confusion, not really sure what was so wrong. I was sure everyone else had considered overthrowing this pathetic dictator years ago, so I don't see what was so bad.
"Sherlock you can't say that, he might hear you." Mrs. Hudson hissed.
"Oh come on, like he doesn't know everyone thinks that." I defended.
"He'll kill you." Molly said in a terrified whisper. I just slouched over in my chair with a scowl, like my life was the only thing that mattered. He's taken my sanity, my peace, my innocence, taking my life wouldn't actually be the worst thing he could do. Now if he killed these three, then I'd definitely suffer a lot more than any torture anyone could concoct. We at the rest of our meal, or, they ate, I just sat there, in silence. Every couple of seconds at least one would look up at me with worry, as if I'd jump of the train and try to go shoot Snow myself. I could only imagine that we were coming up close on District 10, they said it wasn't that long of a train ride away. So I left the dining car and sat on my bed, thinking about what life would be like without Snow. For one thing we wouldn't be here; I'd still be in my house, without a care in the world. My real house mind you, not the stupid shell of a home the Capital tried to provide. But who knows, maybe I'd be richer, maybe all of District Twelve would be able to afford food. Maybe District Eleven wouldn't be such a Tyranny, maybe that man would still be alive, able to provide his family with the proper food they needed. Maybe there would no Districts at all, and we could pick what we want to do when we grow up, we could all share the same wealth and be one happy family. There was a knock on the door, and frankly I didn't care who came in, but was happy when I saw it was John, who was looking a bit timid as he walked over and sat next to me.
"You're not serious about rebelling right?" he asked.
"How could I be serious?" I groaned. "Even if I wanted to, it's not like I'd be able to, no District would follow me into battle."
"I'd follow you." John insisted.
"I know." I agreed with a small smile. John took my hand, cuddling into my chest and breathing deeply.
"So is District Ten all that you say it is?" he asked.
"I think it's morbid, but it's your decision to make I guess." I shrugged.
"I don't like killing animals, I mean, I'd love to chuck a rock at that bloody goat, but I wish meat came from something else." John decided.
"I've actually gotten used to that goat now." I shrugged.
"It's been around ten years and I still haven't gotten used to that thing." John groaned.
"Maybe I'm just used to not sleeping quickly then, and the goat actually does bother me." I guessed.
"I don't know what it is, but I'm jealous." John decided.
"Does your mom not like me?" I asked.
"Where did that question come from?" John asked.
"I don't know, but every time she sees us together she scowls, as if I'm just a horrible influence on you." I decided.
"Well, I honestly think she's wanted me to be with that Mary Morstan." John guessed.
"You said she was your crush?" I asked.
"Crushes never work out, but apparently my mom somehow found out and wanted me and her to get together." John groaned.
"My crush worked out." I pointed out.
"Well good for you." John snapped sarcastically.
"Good for you too." I agreed. John just laughed, as if that were some stupid joke.
"You're the worst boyfriend ever." he defended.
"I know, I'm horrible, I never pay attention to you." I agreed.
"And you never talk to me." John sighed.
"And I've been seeing girls behind your back." I groaned.
"Wait, really?" John said, the joking stopping instantly. He took on his defensive boyfriend stance, sitting up straight and puffing his chest out the best he could, as if totally prepared to take on any girl that wanted to stand in the way of him.
"Really John? You think I'd do that? First of all I've got no interest in girls, and second of all I don't have any interest in anyone other than you. I swear." I assured.
"Well, I swear to the same terms." He agreed.
"You're such a jealous person." I laughed.
"Got to love me." he shrugged.
"I do." I agreed, kissing his nose playfully and smiling as he giggled like a little kid. Our moment was ruined though, by Molly knocking on the door and telling us the stylists were ready. Apparently the train was running later than anticipated, so we were to get ready while still in motion and walk out the door as soon as we stopped. So John, Molly and I put on our little suits (black and white patterns, hopefully not trying to look like cows because we might get butchered as well) and let the stylists do our hair and makeup. Since District Twelve I think the excitement of the whole Victor's tour had worn off, now everyone seemed tired and stressed, and we still had ten more Districts plus the capital to get through. I was tired myself, after the whole night adventure I was lacking on the beautiful sleep that I had been able to get. I forgot just how miserable it is to not sleep. John was obviously done with the tour when it started, but Molly was still going, practicing her cards and fake smiling in the mirrors. Mrs. Hudson was as chipper as ever, I've never seen her without a smile and a positive attitude, probably because I'm never around when all the bad stuff happens, but that's beside the point. Usually if someone dies or something happens I'm already hiding away in my room, all by myself, holding my feelings in. That all changed when John came. So, when the train finally stopped at District Ten and we were allowed to get off, it was a breath of relief just to be off that horrible train. Not like the outside was any better. Although District Ten was much wealthier and better off than both Eleven and our home sweet home, it was pretty poor. The houses were structurally sound; build with cement blocks or bricks, with tin roves and makeshift gutters for when the rain came. But it wasn't the houses I was noticing, it was more the barns. There were miles and miles of barns, filled to the max with every edible animal you could raise. Hundreds of cows wandered around the green pastures, pigs wallowed around in the mud, chickens hopped around the hay, pecking stray bugs and corn off of the ground, goats all bleated up their own little melody. It would have been perfectly cheerful and happy, like the classic kindergarten barn yard if there weren't the factories and slaughter houses. For the sake of the younger children, vegetarians, and my own lunch, I wasn't going to go into details, but you could hear the ungodlike whirl of machines and see dark smoke rising from multiple smoke houses. Let's just say before Dora can go around naming the animals and making their stereotypical noises, the animals would be tagged, bagged, and shipped off to the Capital to be served on a silver platter. I hated it here. There were people lined up though, on the streets, unlike District Eleven. Some of them were waving little District twelve flags, others had large cut outs of John's face (which I had to get from them, that's just hilarious) and they were all cheering for us. It wasn't just John that they wanted to see, they were calling for John, me, even for Molly, who seemed secretly pleased to be in the spotlight once again. They looked a lot happier than any other district I've ever seen, which actually cheered me up just a tiny bit. The three of us went around on the corners of the streets to say hi, take pictures and even sign autographs. I laughed a lot when John had to sign one of those card board cut outs of his own face. Unfortunately though, I had to sign stuff too, like napkins, flags, one poor girl only seemed to have realized something was going on and grabbed a pen, making me sign her arm and looking a bit swoony when I did, as if she had some sort of crush on me. I just nodded and slipped away; much too happy with my life now to go fraternizing with some stupid fan, so I moved John and Molly along. We slowly made our way the central building, where John would be making the speech. Something told me I'd have to go up as well, but until that I was perfectly okay with sulking in the back of the dank building and wait for him to get ready. I expected to open a closet and see some animal corpse hanging from the hangar rack, or see a large pool of blood in the middle of the floor and people carrying some decapitated chicken. This entire place gave me the creeps, so much death, every day; I could never live here without having breakdowns every day. Now John was talking to the mayor, who was a very talkative lady who took selfies with all three of us and made us sign some autograph paper displaying the District Twelve logo. Obviously she was a pretty dedicated fan. After a while I was just about done with their conversation, so I slipped out of the building once again. Now the streets were bare, but I could hear large amounts of conversation coming from the building, obviously they were all rallying in the square. I had no interest in talking to people or wandering around exploring, for fear I'd walk into a slaughterhouse, so I simply walked over to the nearest pasture I could find. There were goats in this one, about three hundred to this little stall, which was morbid, but obviously they didn't lack trust because they came right up to the fence when I peered over. The first to come was a little butterscotch one with little horns poking out of its fur, not even fully grown yet. It broke my heart. I picked a clump of grass from the ground beneath me and slotted it through the fence, letting the little goat eat it out of my hands. He bleated, sounding satisfied, and jumped up on the lowest beam like a dog trying to jump on its owner. Its little head just barely hung over the fence, but I laughed, patting it on its coarse head and feeding it a bit more grass. That poor goat. I would try to adopt it, but we already had one annoying goat in our Victor's Village, any more would just be miserable. This place was not unlike the arena, I suppose. All of these young animals all put in a cage and lined up one by one to be butchered. In the end I got too emotional to say hi to any of the other animals, but I fed my goat friend some more grass and was off, back to the stage in case they wanted me to go on.