87th Games: The Aftermath

The Plan

“Are you serious?” I screamed to no one in particular.

He had a knife struck in his chest and his eyes were still wide open. I had seen way too much of death to be thrown back by his harrowing appearance. For a spilt second as I looked deep into his blue eyes it reminded me of Zane, how he looked so peaceful, almost as if he was sleeping.

I clutched Snow’s throat and checked again for a pulse.

He was gone.

 “Lumen, in here!” I yelled out to her, frantic at the consequences and possibilities of finding President Snow’s dead body.

She sprawled around the corner, screamed, vomited and then left the bathroom within the space of 10 seconds. I could hear her crying in the next room.

“Lumen, I understand he is your grandpa but we need to get out of here! And quick!” I looked at my hands and saw stained blood all over them. My dress was covered in a few red blotches and I had somehow gotten his blood on my face too.

I rushed past Snow’s body and started scrubbing myself in the basin.

“Lumen if you have ANY of his blood on you, you need to wash it off now” I ordered, mentally trying to orchestrate some sort of get away plan.

She was still crying but followed my orders. She was scrubbing her hands beside me in no time.

“S-s-scarlett, my grandpa is dead” she whispered.

“Shhhh…” I tried to calm her down. “I know. It will be alright” I had no idea how to act in this situation, let alone how to calm someone I barely even knew. I use to experience death all the time in the 87th Hunger Games but I never had to actually console someone who just experienced a death in the family.

I petted her shoulder and nodded a little, trying to agree with her as she cried. I hated Snow and I was glad he was dead, but I also hated seeing anyone upset, let alone my new friend.

“What are we going to do?” she asked me quickly, clutching onto my arms and crying even harder.

“What do you mean?” I had just finished drying my hands and I started to dry Lumen’s for her while she cried uncontrollably.

“What the hell are we going to do Scar?” she repeated, sobbing a little. I pulled her back into the main room.

“We need clothes. We need to leave the Victory Ball but we can’t make a scene. We need to get the out of the capitol and we need to find district 13” I paused for a second and picked up the papers Lumen had been holding. “And no matter what, we cannot afford to lose these papers or each other”

She stood there frozen still.

“Are you coming with me?” I felt wrong for assuming she was going to come with me.

She nodded slightly as tears continued to slide down her cheek.

“Then we need to go” I said quickly.

“I have old clothes in the basement; they will probably still fit me”. She whispered. I sized her up for a second and realised we were the same size give or take a few kilos. I wasn’t as skinny as I once was during the Hunger Games but I would still consider myself small.

Lumen waited at the door and I pulled it open. I would have scoffed at anybody else for being so prude and waiting for a door to open but I remembered she was from the Capitol, and she was practically royalty. I bet she had never even heard of a manually opening a door before.

We raced down the corridors again and down an old spiral stair case. It seemed outdated and rarely used, though the stone marble was incredibly beautiful. The ceiling was plated with gold and an old chandelier that was dimly lit.