Please don't kill me for what is about to happen in this chapter. Because if you do, then I can't continue on with the other chapters.
Chapter 12: To Fall In Love Again
Colt Henley: District 6 Mentor
The tributes were supposed to stay on their designated floor during downtime, but mentors were pretty much allowed to do whatever they wanted. And since he was a mentor now, he would do whatever the hell he wanted. Especially since the Capitol had already murdered Shyla, forced Delaney into the games and attached Tilly Vaneguard to his side. Seriously, that girl hardly ever left him alone.
Luckily her parents made her stay at their house during the night. Tilly had thrown several fits, she could be so childish.
Colten padded down the hallway on the sixth floor, stopping in front of Delaney's door, he rapped on it and she let him in.
"You okay?" He asked her. Her eyes were just a tad puffy, and her hair was ruffled, she looked like she had just woken up from a nightmare. A nightmare that would continue on while they were awake.
"I should be asking you the same question," she replied as she stepped back for him to squeeze in.
"I'm fine," he replied roughly. They both knew it was a lie.
"You don't seem fine Colt, you haven't been yourself in awhile," Delaney had always been able to pick up on everyone else's feelings. She was a very intuitive girl.
He sat down on her bed and buried his face in his hands. She knew him pretty well. The bed shifted as if took in her weight as well. She had always been the skinniest of the Henley's, so the mattress didn't move that much.
"It's that girl from eleven, huh?" She asked him, yup, she knew him too well. "She looked pretty tonight on the chariot, a lot like her sister."
"You look a lot like Nat, she'd be proud of you."
"Both Casey and Nat would be proud of you too Colt."
"I better go, you need to get some sleep, training starts tomorrow."
"Good night bro."
Colt left her room, gently closing the door behind him, separating the two of them. He went back to pacing the hallway, trying to figure out what to do. He didn't want to go back into his own room, he didn't want to be alone. But then Tilly's face filled his mind and he knew that sometimes it was okay to be alone. Because the alternative was to be with Tilly.
He wasn't sure what made him get in the elevator, and he sure as hell didn't know why he pushed the button to the eleventh floor. The Capitol probably should have made sure that he couldn't get to other floors.
It was a short ride to the eleventh floor.
He stood in the elevator as the doors opened and he pondered what he should do. He should just press the button with the big six, but he couldn't do it. And he couldn't step out of the big metal box either. But he had to do something. It wouldn't be good if he was found standing in the elevator on a floor he wasn't supposed to be on.
He took a deep breath and then took a step forward. One foot in front of the other. Left, right, left, right. The ants go marching in. And the smallest one was left behind. He grinned to himself as childhood memories came back with a vengeance. Watching his sisters play dress up while he squirted them with the hose just to hear them squeal and watch them try to run in their mother's high heels. Planning a picnic and making sandwiches to eat on a red checkered blanket. They had walked up a hill and found a perfect spot. Shyla and Delaney had carefully put down the blanket and made sure that there were no wrinkles. Within minutes they had been surrounded by ants. Delaney had ran home screaming her head off. Her worst fear was ants. She hated those things. He probably never should have let her watch that show about that man getting eaten alive by ants.
Colten cleared his head of the old memories. It was time to make new ones.
The hallway looked the exact same as the one he had just came from. Doors lined each side. He wondered which one belonged to her.
His heart sped up as he passed the second door on the left. Something told him that she was behind that oak door, her golden hair sprawled out on the white fluffy Capitol pillows.
He had to resist the urge to turn the knob and see if it was unlocked. It probably wasn't, last year when he had been a tribute they had locked him in his room to keep him from doing exactly what he was doing now. Big Brother needed to take a step back. Ha.
After a battle between himself, he forced himself to turn around and walk away.
"Don't go," a voice said from behind, "please."
His heart raced at her small, innocent voice. So unlike her sister's.
"I don't want to be alone," she said.
"Casey," he whispered even though he knew that she wasn't Casey, but her big unblinking eyes reminded him of the girl he still mourned.
"She's dead," she whispered, more to herself then to him, as if the news still hadn't sunk in.
"Rosylin, right?"
"Rose," she murmured and the red flower with it's thorns floated into his head. His father used to bring home long stem roses for his mother and had told his son to always give roses to the girl he fancied.
He didn't need roses now, he had found a real live Rose. He wished his parents were still alive so they could meet her.
Love was something that he thought he would never feel again. When he had first seen Casey, his heart had pounded and his throat went dry. It had been love at first sight, something that was a rare occurrence in the first place. For it to happen twice to the same person was as rare as assassinating the president. Something that everyone wanted to do, but no one had managed to accomplish yet.
"Rose," he said, trying out her name for the first time, seeing how it felt on his tongue. Wonderful, like watching the fireworks on Panem's anniversary.
He wasn't thinking when he held out his arms and she fell into his chest. His brain abandoned him when he stroked her hair and murmured her name over and over again. And his common sense when ka-boom when he tilted her chin and pressed his lips on hers. She responded in less than a heartbeat.
Casey was the farthest thing from both of their minds. Rose was the only Ellison that he was thinking about.
A sound in the hallway broke them apart. Rose was blushing the color of her name, he wanted to kiss her cheeks and chase the embarrassment away. Rose gave him one last glance before she scurried back to her room.
He wanted to hurry after her, he wanted her to come back. She had felt so right in his arms.
A wave of guilt washed over him as he realized what he had just done.
Colten got back in the elevator and hit the door close button. He leaned into the wall and slumped to the floor.
He was always being torn in half by two woman. An endless game of tug-of-war which no one was winning. First Casey against Nat now Delaney vs. Rose. Why was it always one of his sisters against the love of his life.
He wondered what Casey thought about him kissing Rose. He wished that he could take it back, he hadn't meant to kiss her, but the moment had felt so right. There was just something so amazing about the two Ellison sisters, something that he would never be able to put into words.
And then he snapped. There was no way he was going to let anything happen to Delaney and Rose. He had watched Nat and Casey die last year, it was not going to happen again this year. He had to do something to save them. He had to think of something. There had to be a way.
Nat always used to say, where there's a will, there's a way. Well he had a will, he would find a way. Nat had always been the smartest Henley sibling, but for once, he had to do it without her help.
He would figure it out, and he knew exactly who was going to help him make sure that Rose and Delaney were safe.
He pressed the six button and headed back to his floor. There was no one there to stop him as he headed to his room.
His sister's door was still closed, he hoped that she was sleeping, that she was having good dreams. An almost impossible feat. Because why would she have good dreams when he had nightmares last year when he had been in her position.
He had half a mind to barge into her room, grab her and run. He wanted to hide Delaney where no one could find her. Although, the President probably knew every single hiding spot out there. Colt hadn't heard of anyone who had been able to escape their clutches, but the President probably didn't want to news like that spread out.
To hide one person was hard, to hide two people was difficult, but to hide three people, now that was almost impossible.
If he could only hide one, if he could only save Rose or Delaney, who would he chose. If he couldn't save them, if they had to both go into the arena, who would he be rooting for more, who would he want to win.
These were tough dilemmas, ones that he couldn't solve.
The logical choice would be Delaney, his only remaining sister. And he loved her so much, and didn't want anything to happen to her. He had already lost so much. He couldn't lose her too.
But there was something about Rose. He wanted to get to know her better, he wanted her.
Always having to choose. He didn't want to choose anymore. He wanted both. He needed both. He would have both.
An idea was starting to formulate in his head. An idea that Nat would have been proud of.
But to put the idea in action, he needed help, and he knew exactly who he was going to get to help him.
Oh the President would be so mad if he knew what Colt was up to. That alone made Colt smile for the first time in a long time.
To fall in love again he had to save Casey's sister.
I know, I know. I'm the meanest author ever! But this has to happen for a reason. I have big things planned for this story.
Trivia Question: Who said "But you told me to never lie."
The answer to the previous trivia is: Caesar said "wow, that's huge." He said it in chapter 11.
Review Please
~*Misty*~