Written for Caesar's Palace Summer Olympics Challenge (Artistic Gymnastics)
917 words of actual story
Hunger Games
Pairing(s): Wiress and Beetee
Freeverse
Enjoy!
she is
b-r-o-k-e-n
she is
l
o
s
t
in her dreamworld
[where he makes it all better]
and her dreamworld
is her realworld
[sometimes they can be one in the same]
when his b-r-o-k-e-n lips
[the only broken thing about him]
touch her b-r-o-k-e-n lips
[dream and real intermingle]
she is b-r-o-k-e-n into
and when the straight jacket
[white as snow]
hugs her b-r-o-k-e-n
body
[the realworld]
she imagines it is his
whole body
[the dreamworld most of the time]
entwined with hers
and then her fingers
turn to knives
[scissor scissor scissor]
and the straight jacket
falls away
falling like snow
from her body
[the dreamworld, they never let her loose]
snow must always fall
he tells her that
snow will fall
she doesn't know why
but she agrees
maybe it's because he kisses her when she says
yes
[he doesn't kiss her a lot]
He is whole.
He is not broken.
He is whole.
He is not a mortal.
He is everlasting.
He is not pliable.
He is manipulative.
He is not inferior.
He is SUPERIOR.
He opens the door.
He stares at the white envelope with a smile.
He picks it up,
feels the coins jangling inside. He chuckles.
He pours them into his hand. Disks of gold.
Disks of silver.
A disk of pyrite.
And he thought Coin was smarter than that.
It isn't easy to buy his services, after all.
empty, b-r-o-k-e-n laughter
echoing
bouncing
reverberating
[she likes synonyms]
[synonyms are realworld]
guns
blazing
SPITTING
fire
[into their painted, bloated faces]
insects
crushed, b-r-o-k-e-n, underfoot
their little screams
their little b-r-o-k-e-n bodies
b-r-o-k-e-n lives
never as b-r-o-k-e-n as her
[now that is truly realworld]
His reputation is whole.
It is whole even as he stares into the indignant eyes
of Woof.
He is not dumb, this Woof,
this barkbark, as she calls him in her b-r-o-k-e-n language.
He is whole,
just like him.
He finds that threatening.
"You will die in the opening minutes," he hisses, his usually whole
face
his usually whole
mind
b-r-e-a-k-i-n-g
before his eyes.
Woof will not comply.
They will make him comply.
By the end of the night, there are three b-r-o-k-e-n Victors.
pieces
she counts them
1
2
3
4
5
her b-r-o-k-e-n minds stops
counting
she tries again
1
2
3
4
5
too b-r-o-k-e-n
he tries to
mend her
but cannot
[the dreamworld, because how can he fail?]
because who can mend something
shattered so much
b-r-o-k-e-n so much
that it is dust?
Whole.
He is WHOLE!
He screams it over and over
as she cackles
begging for his lips
his lips on hers
he's breaking
not b-r-e-a-k-i-n-g
it's not that bad
but he's losing his edges
losing himself
he takes the gun
and shoots their Avox
that feels better.
broken more, eh?
well there won't be need for more deals
after they get out.
They are separated
taken from the hovercraft
he is in a tube
[his mind is racing]
he feels the heat of the jungle as he rises
clockwork
he spots the girl on fire
his pawn
everyone's pawn
he stifles a chuckle
she thinks she's so special
[with her stupid berries]
there's been dozens before her
dozens just like her
[dozens with fire to overpower out hers]
she's special?
he thinks not
broken
broken
broken
broken
b-r-o-k-e-n
broken but disguised
tick tock
she has the job
of being unstable
[she's more than unstable]
to trick the mockingjay
[poor little bird]
she just wants to break the birdy's wings
watch her flap aimlessly as she dies
but he says no no no no no
no
he whispers it in her ear as they run through the red rain
she likes its taste
she likes as blight chokes
yes blight
choking
it's quite a sight
[she's always hated him. she desperately hopes its realworld]
johanna is disgusted
as she chuckles
b-r-o-k-e-n chuckles
no
b-r-o-k-e-n chuckles
because she's gone for good
and there's no going back
she's always liked red
she licks it from her skin
delicious
they find the broken bird soon enough
with her loaf, with the sugarcube
but no old seawitch
[she always hated the seawitch]
she says tick tock
she tricks the mockingjay
clipping wings she cannot
but she can tick tock
He has regained his whole.
He is healing.
At least he hopes so.
Gears fill his mind.
He feels sane.
She is b-r-o-k-e-n.
So much so that he knows kissing won't help.
[kissing quiets her demons for a bit]
When the Cornucopia island whirls around,
when the knife digs into her chest,
when she grins as she dies,
nothing hurts.
Nothing breaks.
He feels nothing.
He never loved Wiress.
He is clinical.
He is a commodity.
He is a genius.
He is a whole.
People like him never love.
They especially never love b-r-o-k-e-n people like her.