Author's Note:
Quite a short chapter, I know. Sorry for the wait, I know it's been some time. Thank you to everyone who has liked and followed this story. Please read and review, constructive criticism is always welcome. Well, enjoy the very short chapter 2 and do let me know what you think.
Released on:
Sunday 15th March 2020
The girl had not stopped crying once since she had been selected. Briony Snow, the granddaughter of President Snow, lay on the bed, crying. I watched her, feeling upset not for her, but for my daughter. The way she lay, cried and even looked reminded me of her so much. It remined me of her on her final days, when the disease gained the power to break me. A small tear rolled down my cheek, but I wiped it away before anyone saw. After that day where I lost my precious daughter, and a few hours later my loving husband suffered an identical fate, I made a pact to myself that I would never allow myself to break again.
A sympathetic hand rested itself on my shoulder.
"Alma, are you okay?" Plutarch said, concern embedded deeply across his face. Normally, I'd have been angry at him for calling me Alma in public and acting like my friend. But I knew that I was human. And that meant that I needed a friend.
"Yes, I'm fine thank you," I replied, in a whimper. The lump in my throat was determined to make itself known. Before I could stop myself, ugly, fat tears began to run down my pale face. Plutarch, shocked and unsure on what to do, pulled me into a hug.
"What's going on?" said Briony, who was standing five metres away. The little girl was shaking; her own tears were still coming out.
I cursed at myself for being caught at my weakest. Now this girl knew I was an emotional trainwreck, something her precious grandfather was not.
Through blurred eyes, I put a shutter over the one way window, so the girl wouldn't know I was spying on her. Giving myself moment to collect my emotions and put them back in a cage, I turned around to face the girl.
"I thought you were told to stay in your room," I snapped.
"No, I was told I could go whether I wanted except the rooms of the other contestants and the 13th floor," Briony said, confused.
I could feel them again. The tears. She wasn't her, she wasn't my daughter. "It's not her," I whispered softly. Even though it quiet, everyone seemed to hear it. They were coming now. They weren't being hidden.
Overrun with embarrassment and fear, I did all I could do. I ran to the lift and whacked some random buttons, making sure that one of them would lead me to the thirteenth floor.
After stopping at every other floor, I arrived at floor thirteen and slammed the door to my temporary apartment shut.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
"Alma?"
Plutarch. Just the person I didn't want to speak to.
"I know you're in there."
Why won't he just leave me alone?
"I'm not leaving till you open this door."
He'll get bored.
"I won't get bored."
He'll go soon.
"For all I care, we can do this all night. I don't need to sleep."
He's bluffing.
"I'll get someone else up here."
There's no one else in the building but us, the Avoxes, the girl and the victors.
"Why don't I bring the girl up here? Then you can talk to us both."
That's when I open the door. That's when I let him win.
"I don't care what just happened Alma, but we've got them." Plutarch said.
"We've got who?" I asked. I didn't remember asking for anyone.
"The Thresh Twins".