She was born with riches in her blood and a scattering of money, but the lesson has always been told. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. And Augusta Snow was never destined to live.
if i should tumble,
if i should fall,
would anyone hear me screaming
behind these castle walls?
xx
Life is a simple thing. You are born, you live, and then you die. Some are poor and scrounge for food in meager amounts. Others bask in the luxury of a diamond family and go to sleep in a room with velvet curtains.
(Augusta Snow was one of those people)
From the moment she was born, her life had been set out for her. Be cradled in adult arms while she young, grow up into a beautiful and respectable young woman, marry another man that was suitable for her, perhaps even have children. And then, an old lady in age, but a young woman in face, she would be layed in a coffin while thousands of people placed flowers over her.
(It all changed when she turned sixteen)
The seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games would end today, even she could tell that. It was the final four and by the end of the night, if she knew her grandfather, only one would emerge as victor.
(But she watched in awe as two victors were crowned)
The Capitol was ecstatic. Grand parties were held and she attended them at her parents wishes. She stood beside every other young person as they watched recaps of every moment of those games. But, as if no one in the room had a single watchful eye, the President's granddaughter seemed to be the only one to notice the spark in the girl from District 12's eyes.
(Barely there, but bright enough to start a fire)
xx
The victory tour came and went. Winter grew more vicious for the Districts and she stayed curled in at home, watching as reporters burst with excitement for the seventy-fifth games. A Quarter Quell. Something to be remembered.
(Something that Augusta Snow would remember for the rest of her life)
xx
She was seventeen and present when her grandfather read the card for the Games. Barely paying attention, the girl was shocked when beside her, her mother burst into tears. And then she heard it.
(Nothing else was more audible)
Their victors were going in. The victors that they adored and cheered on and watched endlessly, were going back into the arena.
(They couldn't do this)
It was as if she didn't need any clarification. How could this not be rigged? That spark in Katniss Everdeen's eyes had been noticed by one other, her own grandfather. And he would do anything to destroy her before an inferno consumed Panem.
(Panem was always going to be under his control)
xx
When the boom of the gong first sounded, she closed her eyes and pressed her hands over her ears to block out the screaming. A brief glimpse had caught her attention, ripples of water flowing over feet, white sand beaches, a rainforest with droplets of water cascading from their branches, and Katniss Everdeen's wide gray eyes, filled with what she recognized as terror.
(The odds were not in her favor)
The bloodbath was over and the arena was just too small. Tributes met each other quickly, and being victors, every fight ended with one dead, or both crawling away trying to hold their intestines in. Blood and flesh trailed along the ground after them, mixing in with the tangled vines and leaves of the forest floor.
(Worse than any other Games she had ever witnessed)
Augusta Snow could not tear her eyes away from the screen. It seemed as if that she turned her eyes away, only for a brief moment, she would miss something. A death, a mutt screaming through the forest, a rod of lightning illuminating the night sky before striking only one tree.
(Like clockwork)
She had never been the smartest in school, though even the most vapid could figure it out. The arena changed and manipulated itself and everything, everything came right on time. And it was only when the numbers trickled down and Wiress started chanting, that she realized that this couldn't end well.
(Tick tock, this is a clock)
When Katniss Everdeen stood alone on a slope, aiming her golden bow strung with a single arrow, at the forcefield, it did not surprise Augusta Snow in the slightest. It seemed as if she could feel the explosion in her own house. The forcefield burst into light and the screen went white before she could even react. Static burst into her vision and the racing black and white mess on the television screen didn't seem real.
xx
(They went into hiding)
It was her grandfather's fault. Uprising's had begun long ago and the failure to control them had led towards this moment. The cellar in the Snow household basement barely fit her parents and herself, and they couldn't afford to go outside in the daylight. Each day the gunfire and explosions seemed to grow closer, and when they heard the shattering of one of their own windows, they pressed so tightly together they could feel one another's heartbeats.
(The cellar door burst open three days later)
Her parents were dragged out without a second thought, their daughter following close behind. It didn't take very long to realize who they were. The bundles of roses adorning the house and that scent, that overwhelming scent of blood was in every nook and cranny of that damned house.
(She watched as both her parents were killed before her eyes)
They didn't kill her. She was dragged through the house and kept prisoner, forced among the rebels. People whispered around her as being something they could use against her grandfather, though they would take him down anyways. They mocked her tear stained eyes as memories of her parents flitted briefly through her mind.
(No mercy was shown)
Her first glimpse of the Capitol was after almost a week of being held prisoner. Being transported from one truck to the next, she captured a picture in her eyes.
(Though it wasn't a good one)
The street was in ruins. Almost no buildings stood, light poles were knocked over and criss-crossing the street, and bodies lay draped over one another as if they had been dumped there and left to rot.
(Crying did nothing, so she blinked back her tears and waited for the end)
It didn't come as quickly as she expected. Before she was to die, there was something else in wait.
(The day they placed her in front of a TV, she believed her eyes were betraying her)
Her grandfather, the very President of Panem, had been placed in front of Katniss Everdeen. The girl's eyes were dark, her hair falling in her face, and in her hands she held a bow, only one arrow accompanying it.
(She knew the girl didn't miss when the arrow flew in the wrong direction)
As the rebel President Coin collapsed over the edge of the balcony, dead, the uproar began. The men in the room she was in started yelling, hands grasping at air as they tried to understand what had happened. In the square, the crowd ran in all directions, and she watched as her grandfather disappeared beneath the mass of stampeding feet.
(He wouldn't rise back up; she understood that much)
The days after that were worse. Every rebel she encountered spit in her face and told her that her grandfather deserved a more gruesome death. They hit her and pulled at her arms and legs, yet she didn't fight them. The ambition to fight had left her long ago.
(There was no point)
xx
But when she heard the announcement, the announcement of the very last Hunger Games to occur, would be filled with Capitol children, she knew her fate was sealed.
(She wouldn't die at the hands of these men, but in an arena)
Herded to the square like cattle with many other Capitol children, she recognized faces. Seneca Crane's daughter. The son of her grandfather's advisor. People who she realized attended her very school.
(When her name was called, the trilling "Augusta Snow," it was no accident)
It was like any other games. Interviews were harsher, everyone in the audience screamed at her, screamed for revenge. No other child had any words that could make it better, and she took it in silence.
(Death should have come sooner, after all, the light in her eyes had left long ago)
She was prepared for her launch, let a jacket be drawn around her shoulders and her blonde hair pulled back, though her eyes had no emotion in them.
(She was eighteen that very day)
Before the gong could sound, she stepped off her plate.