Author Games Compilation [Cycle 1]

Task 8 ♢ The Hanging Tree (KE)

THE HANGING TREE GAMES: REVISITED - FINALS

Kassia had never minded the thought of getting to love another human, platonic or romantic, friendly or familial. It was a natural human thing - to love, that was, and to feel the elation and dip that sometimes came with the harboring of that emotion. She saw it in the pairs sneaking fingers against palms in the streets of One. She saw it in the reunion of friends after a long and dreadful work season. She saw it in the connection of mother and son when a Victor returned home, worn and beaten but smiling because there'd been a reason to return, after all. She saw it in her parents, too, with those looks parents often gave their children or each other.

She saw it in the sometimes cruel but sometimes wonderful world that they lived in, and she saw it in the light spilling from Aeneas's fingertips as he tied a new shred of undershirt over her now stitched wound; a makeshift bandage, thin and liable to tear, meant to hold just about everything together.

And, for now, it did.

"There." Aeneas drifted his fingers over the hasty wrapping on her forearm, testing for looseness. "You're all set, princess." Eyes of brown flicked from hand to chin to hair. Amusement crossed over those pointed features, and knuckles started ruffling at locks of blonde. "Now all you need's a crown."

"You're gonna make me look like a hobo before I can get my hands on one, dick." Kassia flinched away, batting his arms away and combing through the new knots. She expected to carry on quite a while with this - the strands went all the way to the middle of her back, after all - but the fingers fell through just beneath her chin, meeting nothing but choppy platinum fringe.

Oh. Her hand fell away, and she shook the hair out. She'd nearly forgotten the day before, where she'd handed Annie a knife and asked him to finally continue hacking away. With reluctance, he'd done it - and was obviously disappointed afterwards, though she couldn't fathom why - and now here she was. Nobody'll grab it now. That's what matters.

A gentle pattering drummed against the side of the house - Kassia jumped, naturally, hip cracking against the chipped kitchen counters. A groan of pain slipped between her lips, and an expulsion of "what's that?" but all Annie did was chuckle lightly. "Why are you laughing at me?"

The corners of his eyes squinted in the midst of a smile. "Have you never heard rain before, sweetheart?"

She pointed accusingly at him. "That- that was condescending." Listening, however, proved her silly. It was such a light dripping of liquid, and it hardly sounded threatening at all. That didn't make her any less tense, any less stiff. I don't want to leave.

Aeneas's brow furrowed. He leaned in a bit, and Kassia already knew he'd start testing around before words exited. She pursed her lips.

"We'll have to leave the house soon, Kass. We're running out of food. You've gotta get at least a little something in you, now."

Lip twitch, finger itch-

Nails drummed rapidly. "Can't we just stay here until the games end? Would that really be so hard?"

Nose scrunch, bone crunch-

Downturned lips swept over Aeneas's face, a little inkling of confusion, but then it seemed to taste clarity, and the eyes went soft again. "It's the rain, isn't it?" He glanced down, very briefly, at the still-healing red marks footprinting his hand, then back up, mouth curled into an 'o.' "It's not gonna hurt you this time, Kass. That trick's over. They wouldn't do it a second time."

Rather than retorting, she bit dirty teeth into the tongue, shifting her back uncomfortably. The pitter-patter of drip-drops used to serve peace, a hovering silence; now, when she heard it finding purchase outside, she expected a pitter-patter drip-drop of metal to pelt her skin with liquid heat, burning, scalding, marking. Why the hell would she go back out - voluntarily! - if there was a slight chance she might crisp again?