Say Something, I'm Giving Up On You (Working Title)
"It takes ten times as long to put yourself together as it does to fall apart."
—
Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
1.
The wolves appeared as soon as she stepped up to the black outline that was once her house. They had already taken her father's burnt body out of the ashes. The other soldiers had already called her mother.
She was alone, other than the wolves that is, her father was dead and the rest of her family was hundreds of miles away.
This was their house, this new place was supposed to be their home, their permanent home. Now they would move again, only without their rock.
When her legs collapsed from under her, no one moved, and the wolves returned back to their hiding place.
2.
She stood in line with the other children, the ones that once lived on the streets, or houses like her's, or with parents that were lost to war. The volunteers at the end of the line were giving out food and clothing, trying to match children with nothing to clothes that would never fit them, trying to give them something.
The wolves howled long into the night, long after lights out, and even longer after she traded her granola bars for a blanket that was supposedly warmer than the others.
Her stomach growled, and for the first time since she left her home that morning to go to school, she cried.
As soon as she did this, the howling from the wolves, came to a stop.
3.
There would never be anything warmer than her mother's hugs, but even the one she was getting now wasn't warming her. With her mother and brothers home, she felt colder. Looking weak was something that they didn't do, her brothers never cried.
They returned to the black square that was once their home, and she wasn't surprised to see her parents, no parent's, friends and children milling around.
There was a funeral to arrange after all.
Garrett held onto their mother's hand and cried, she stood away and let tears silently slip from her eyes.
4.
Was she supposed to cry? Her mother, her brothers, everyone around them, even the speaker was crying. Except for the dark haired person standing by himself in the back corner, deep in the shadows –where she wanted to be-, wearing all black, but not funeral wear.
Everyone was dressed in their uniforms or in dark dresses or suits. She was wearing something that Calypso had brought from New York, it was old, and faded, and itchy, worn by all her daughters throughout the last few years.
The next time she looked at the back corner though, the dark haired person was gone, almost as if the shadows had swallowed him.
Instead, she left with the wolves once her mother was distracted.
5.
Stephan and Rosa were whispering angrily with one another, they looked important sitting in the principia, but seeing as they were praetors, it made sense. After a minute, Stephan stood up and left, glaring at her as he walked out, he had always been able to make her feel small, the almost six year age gap didn't help either.
Rosa stood up from her chair and quietly walked around the table. The hug that she pulled her into was a bit unexpected but nice, the last one she had gotten had been from her mother.
Rosa whispered apologizes, then sentence her to the fourth.
Her knees hit the ground so hard that they were bruised for the next week.
6.
There were gods in the stands, watching and cheering on their children. Stephan was flying around, using the winds, while Rosa flew on her Pegasus (Amos), they were acting as referees.
They didn't see her slip underground, she felt alongside her tunnel for openings and vibrations. Once the ground stilled above her, she pulled herself up out of her tunnel. The guards for the first and second were too surprise to even pick up their weapons, whether it was because the war games had only started a few minutes ago, or because it was her. She felt that this didn't matter, and strapped the two flags to her hips and walked out the door.
Once she was out of that hut, the real challenge began. Demigods from the two best cohorts attacked her from all sides; for once she was happy for being small and for having her brothers always out number her in fights.
She used whatever adrenalin she had left to knock her oldest brother down from his stance and drop down where her other team mates were.
She had single-handedly beaten the first and second cohorts in the war games, but no one would remember that fact because of the symbol that appeared over her.
Her claiming was Pluto; she felt herself shattering in front of everyone.
7.
The blade hurts her for the first time in a year, and before she can touch it to her other wrist, a figure appears in the doorway.
She drops her knife more in shock than from his charmspeak.
Stephan never mentions this moment again, but she knows that she'll always be in his debt.
Rosa at least comes to visit her in the infirmary.
8.
She reflects on the last year while lying in her bed. Her mother has actually come all the way to camp, the first time in a year. Her mother's hug wasn't warm, which is surprising as the last time she felt warm was in her mother's arms.
She wishes that she could say something to her, to her mother, or ask her about the powers that she had been exploring the last year.
Something inside though tells her not to say anything, her mother had finally given up all hope of him coming back.
And it was all her fault.
9.
The underworld is a cold dark place, but at least Nico and Malcolm are with her. They're not afraid of her, and they don't act weird around her, something that'll probably change, but she knows that all the unspeakable acts that have occurred in the last three years are about to change.
She's the first of the three of them to step off the boat, three living souls in a sea of the dead. Two claimed by the Greek big three, and one able to control fire. They have the three most helpful elements in their control while there in the underworld.
She's just hopes that they don't need them.
1.
For the first time in two years, she cries.
"Olivia, my Emma, I've missed you. I've missed you so much, little mouse."
"I've missed you too, dad."