The Return of the Hunger Games [FALLEN ASHES] Book II

(23)

"Where are we?" I ask, to anybody really.

"Where are my babies?" Rayla asks Manara.

I look at Manara, who looks to me with a worried facial expression. My vision has slightly returned, but I feel so light headed.

"Do you have them?" Rayla asks me.

I look around, white walls, a window protected behind metal bars, a bed, a room with a toilet, Rayla in that white outfit.

"I think I miss placed them." Rayla continues, speaking to herself.

It all makes sense, Rayla has gone crazy.

I look down, and see how I'm wearing an identical outfit and I look up at Manara, panicked. She quickly kneels beside me to calm me down. "No no, dont worry you're not going to be here. I worked things out with the doctors and you're cleared to go back home to District 12."

Home? There is no home for me. "Manara, what happened to her? To me? I feel like I'm going crazy." I choke the words out, I'm crying, feeling like I really am going crazy.

Manara bites her lip, feeling worried. Worried that maybe going back home isn't the right thing to do.

I look over to Rayla, who has gathered her bed sheets and placed it in each of hed arms, craddling it as if it were her twins. "Shhhhhhhhhhh." She says to them. "Don't cry."

I somehow begin to picture a face on them, and I want to hold one. "Can I carry one?" I ask, wanting to hold out my arms, but I remember how I'm restrained. Soon enough, I remember, there really are no baby in Rayla's hand. There are no babies anywhere.

Rayla only looks up to me, I guess figuring out what to do or say.

"Elissa, do you want to leave?" Manara asks me.

"Elissa?" Rayla looks up to me. "My friend?" She asks, dropping the babies. I mean, the two sheets in her hand.

"What happened? What happened to my babies!?" She begins standing up. "You know what happened to my babies!" She's crying, being held back by Manara. Manara presses a button on the wall, as Rayla grows worse. About 3 men and 2 women step into the room and take care of Rayla, as Manara begins wheeling me out of the room. Rayla is still screaming for me. "You told me! You said things were going to be okay!"

"But Rayla," I whisper as we begin to go down the hall. "I need Rayla." I whisper to Manara.

"Right now what you need Elissa, is a doctor." She says to me.

I realize everything now. There must have been something in that tea, there had to be. I feel so crazy, just like Rayla. Tears dont subside, I lower my voice to a whisper again.

"Whats happening to me?"

Manara is quiet as we go down the hallway and make a few turns again.

She stops me in a corner, and kneels down infront of me. She looks me deep in my eyes.

"Elissa, right now you're not mentally stable. If it wasnt already obvious, Rayla definitely does not have her head on straight. For now, you're going to be supervised and under surveillance until....."

"Until what? They know for sure that I'm crazy and end up locked up in one of those rooms like Rayla!?" I exclaim.

Manara's facial expression shows how she feels sorry for me. How she feels sorry for Rayla, and her children.

"Somebody put a toxin in that tea. One gulp was all it took for us to fight to keep you alive, twice. With Rayla, it was so much more difficult. When she bled out she lost most of that toxin in her blood stream, but there was still a dangerous amount. We believe there still is. This, unknown toxin, it causes your body and mind to react different."