87th Games: The Aftermath

Original

I ran up the stairs and through a long corridor full of big wooden doors. I had no idea which door, nor if I was even heading in the right direction but I decided Snow’s office would be incredibly obvious with golden doorknobs and other expensive/pointless decorations.

Sure enough, his office was at the end of the corridor behind a stunningly beautiful door. As a district girl, I knew it would have taken a very long time to carve such animated drawings into a wooden entrance like that. I scoffed a little and huffed as I pulled the big and heavy door open. It creaked a little which made me think it was rarely used.

I stood there momentarily, taking in my surroundings. The walls were dark red and he had an impressive bookcase against the wall just behind an incredible desk made out of glass. He had a small lamp adorned on his desk as well as a few papers. His room had a few side doors; probably for his advisors because Snow is too lazy to get off his chair and open the front door for anyone.  

“Pwoah” was the only sound I could let out.

I heard some movement and scuffling from a different room and braced myself to hide.

“Oh, is that you Scar?” A women’s voice yelled out to me. She sounded surprised and maybe even a little flustered.

 “Umm… Yes” I decided. It was too late to pretend to be someone else, or to hide. I braced myself for what was coming next.

“Oh hey” Lumen popped her head out of the closet. She closed it quickly and motioned for me to sit down. She was holding a few papers in her hands but I decided they would probably just be some kind of pointless office papers. She had a beautiful red dress which was odd, because I could have sworn she was wearing a sparkling golden dress earlier. Maybe it was Capitol custom to change outfits at an hourly interval.

“I didn’t think you’d come” she admitted as she walked towards a chair and slumped down. She looked fatigued and tired but still as beautiful as ever with her long white hair and bright blue eyes.

I stood there awkwardly unsure as to where to sit.

“Sit over there, my Grandfather won’t mind” she pointed to his plush leather chair behind his desk.

I nodded and made myself comfortable.

We were quiet for a second. I looked around the room, wandering how to ask Lumen about Arrow. Magnus told me she was a district supporter but how could anyone be so sure? I didn’t know if I should be direct with her or if I should just come right out and ask her questions.

“I need answers” I finally said.

She curled her mouth a little and looked at me pointedly.

“What kind of answers? Yes, no, maybe…” she trailed off, smiling at her small joke.

“What happened to Arrow?” I was afraid to ask, not to mention afraid of her answer.

“First of all. You need to understand how it works in the Capitol. Everything revolves around the government and Snow is at the very head of it. Each person from the Capitol is expected to live a certain way and to act and do as Snow, or the government, says.”

“Okay…’’ I trailed. “But that doesn’t really help wha-” Lumen cut me off mid-sentence.

“If you don’t follow the Capitol, or if you sympathize with the poorer districts, like yours” she nodded towards me, unaware she needs a mental filter “then you are not considered to be ‘for the government’ as my grandfather says. So most people are taken away by peacekeepers and when they come back – they are different people yet exactly the same as they once were”.

“What are you saying Lumen? Are they brain washing people?” My face had gone white and I felt a little dizzy. I was in over my head and my mind was going into overdrive.

She laughed outright.

“No. The Capitol don’t brain wash people” she laughed again, this time keeling over to clutch her stomach.

“Then what are you saying?” I pressed, anxious to know what the hell was going on. I needed the real Arrow back in my life and I was prepared to do anything to get it.

“You ever heard of district 13?” she asked me suddenly.

“Myth” I answered quickly. I use to hear stories back in district 10 about a secret district but they were only stories. Those stories were only wives-tales and scary bed time stories, never anything legitimate.

“So if the Capitol take people away… Where is a place they can take them that nobody knows about? A place that is entirely secret from the districts as well as the people of the Capitol?” She waited for me to piece it together.

“District 13” I gasped.

“Why do they need to take the district supporters away? And what do they do to them?”

“They keep them there. They never leave district 13 again”

“What?” I was a little confused. How did she know this? And why didn’t her information make sense? I couldn’t piece it together.

“The government genetically engineer the people, they give them the same genes, so hair, eye colour, finger prints e cetera e cetera and even the same memories. But they aren’t original like you and me, they are duplicates”

“Duplicates?” I repeated in awe. I couldn’t believe the Capitol would do such a thing! It made me absolutely outraged at the thought of President Snow outside at the Victory Ball laughing and eating with his duplicates, while he knows exactly what is really going on and where the originals are really being held.

“Do they torture them? At district 13?” I asked quietly.

“I don’t know. But I know the only tell-tale way to know if a person is a duplicate is if they have two golden dots on their right wrist”

I remembered back to the make-up artist who had the dots on her arm. She was acting extremely strange and so was Arrow, who also had the two dots on his wrist. I thought it was some kind of capitol tattoo and it turns out I wasn’t completely wrong.

“Oh my god” I said.

“Yep” she said, like she was agreeing to the state of the current weather.

“Oh my god” I said again.

The real Arrow was out there. He was out there; trapped at some facility while a different Arrow was out here pretending to be him. I couldn’t believe it. What the hell has the Capitol done?

I stood up and started pacing around the room wandering what the hell I was going to do from here.

“Where is district 13?” I demanded, turning to face Lumen.

“I’m not sure, but I know someone who does” she said slowly, obviously deep in thought. She flashed me some of the papers in her hand and realised they must be directions of some sort.

I was starting to feel faint again. My knees started to feel weak and my head felt extremely heavy.

“I need to go to the bathroom” I said quickly, I opened one door and saw a storage closet. I slammed it closed, realising it was the same one Lumen appeared from. I opened the other door of what I assumed was a bathroom and stepped in. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, feeling like I was going to vomit.

I needed to save arrow, I needed to make sure he was okay. I needed to stop this from happening, to stop the duplicates from running the Capitol. I felt like there was a fire inside me and that it was burning very intensely. I needed to stop this from happening; I needed to save the originals and Arrow.   

I opened my eyes and nearly vomited. The bathroom tiles were strained red, with a large pile of thick red blood.

“Lumen!” I yelled as I rushed over to check the man.

I rolled him over to check his pulse realising it was President Snow’s body.

He was dead.

~

My, my, my! And the plot thickens! Tell me what you think, love to hear your opinions! Remember to vote and comment paa-lease :) shazrox x