Lavender Saccharin
District 9
11 years ago
Age 11
"Please, you can't keep this up." Lavender begs, slowly kneeling beside the young girl who casually stays seated, resting her back against the thin wall of their two-room apartment. Her short blonde hair curling to her shoulders, hugging her desperate features. Lilac just points to her lips and shakes her head, the same hand movements she's been showing her sister for the past week. Lavender sighs lightly, softly taking hold of her sister's hand and holding it gently on the palm of her own. "Please, they won't test you if you don't talk," Lavender whispers, eyes searching Lilac's as a small beeping starts to harshly evade her ears.
"What's that?" Miller asks, wandering into the section they've marked off as the kitchen, eyes pasted on his sisters.
"I don't know, it's probably nothing. Come on Liliac, please." Lavender pleads but Lilac just stares blankly at her.
"Fine, you're right, it's probably nothing," Miller says, looking back and forth between Lavender and Lilac. His light brown hair curl's gently around his ears, not unlike Lilac's. His nine-year-old innocence clinging tragically to his light, baby blue eyes. They shimmer and shine, reflecting the dim lamplight from across the room. Miller's soft, kind features dotted with a light dusting of freckles, his small smile warm as sunshine-
Lavender's reality comes crashing back on her as the first heat wave comes crashing down on her frame. The impact steals Lavender's breath away, catching her off guard. Miller looks to the left at his older sister, eyes wide as giant boulders. Lilac grabs her forearm, fear flooding her beautiful brown eyes.
"You can't tell me that was nothing." Miller gasps, turning slowly in a half-circle to survey the room around them. The blast hadn't done much to their home, just knocked the wind painfully from their chests.
"I don-" Lavender starts but she's interrupted by a fleeting round of bullet-shots piercing the air. Tearing apart their victims in a fit of screams. Lavender's eyes go wide as Liliac clings to her arm for dear life. Miller stays, running things in his head, trying to make it all make sense. But that's the thing, none of it ever makes sense. Not even when every piece to the broken puzzle is there.
"My gosh." Miller gasps and Lilac buries her face into Lavender's stomach.
"We have to get out, now," Lavender says calmly, quickly taking her sibling's arms. Miller starts to protest but shuts his mouth as another round of bullets light up the sky from somewhere behind them. Showering no mercy from the dark heavens.
Lavender and her siblings step outside. She holds tight to her siblings but can't help but let out an outraged cry at what sight meets her eyes. A burning inferno towering the once beautiful hills of District Nine. Away from most of the District, yet, still a burning orangish-reddish devil of a flame roared in the distance.
"Who are they shooting at?" Miller asks softly as Lavender lets go of his arm and hoists the young boy onto her hip. She holds him in place with her right forearm, Lilac clinging onto her other arm. Her long fingernails dig into Lavender's flesh but she takes little notice.
"Rebels are storming the streets, they've been putting posters up all week. I thought it was all a hoax." Lavender says, not exactly answering her brother's question for fear she might be wrong. She can't help but think about both the Capital and Rebel fleets ravage the District, tearing it to shreds in order to take each other down.
Flames roar from the upper half of the district, the entire hillside a burning pile of crimson. Screams litter the smoky air but Lavender tunes them out. The only thing she can hear is the pounding of Miller's heartbeat as it intertwines with her own. A dancing, terrified rhythm beating along to the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She knows if she could do anything right, it'd be to find a safe haven for her siblings. Get away from the savage flames, its rage seemingly never-ending.
A small group of dark green suited workers sprint past Lavender, short and handheld guns securely pressed in their grip. Rebels. Lavender inhales a short, stabbing wheeze of a breath. Being caught in the middle of a burning battlefield utterly overwhelmed Lavender's senses. She had, in no way, prepared herself for this mentally. What is worse is Lavender had just lost her older sister a week ago to the devilish horrors the Games had to offer. She knows she isn't ready for Sunna's older sister's responsibilities, but somehow, with very little warning, she's been throw into the spot.
Her heart fluttering like a thousand butterflies trapped desperately inside a wire cage. Raging around like an utterly terrible gale. Sunna had always said the root of all fears, the rotten root of mankind, is the "fear of need". Her words coming even more true as Lavender watches as the two fleets shoot desperately at each other. Pain surrounding the burning flames, the agonized tortured screams of District Nine's innocent citizens.
Suddenly another uproar of bullets scream in the distance and Lavender's hands fly to cover Miller's ears. Lilac does the same to her own, letting go of Lavender's arm. They stand in the middle of the almost burning district, the smell of burning flesh riding up the trio's noses, tearing apart their insides. Lavender let's go of Miller's ear with one hand, pressing the side of his face into her chest so she could hold onto her sister as well.
Lavender motions toward the distance, a safe side past the hills with fire dripping steadily from their lips. The flames picking up tremendous amounts of speed, flying toward the District. The safe spot on the other sector side of the district. Lavender has no idea if they'll be able to make it but she's going to have to try. The Lavender pulls her siblings and the trio turns into the crowd of screaming citizens fleeing the scene. Many left behind in the smoldering ash but Lavender couldn't take notice of them, no matter how much she wanted to. She'd made Sunna a promise, she'd sworn to protect Lilac and Miller at all costs.
Flames speed toward them, its lips sinking deep into the outer part of the District. Lavender starts to take off, the inferno getting close and closer.
Suddenly a dark blue peacekeeper truck roars past them, obviously running from the scene. Lavender lets out a scream when she realizes it isn't peacekeepers driving, the cars are being hijacked.
"Please, children and teenagers only." She hears a man say through the crowd, cutting at her thoughts like pure ice. For a second Lavender ponders the potential idea of following the sound of the man's voice, wondering if it could be good or bad.
"Fine, just take them to safety." A woman pleads and that's all Lavender needs to hear. She pivots on her heels and runs toward the voices. The man and woman standing outside of another hijacked truck. Three children, who couldn't be more than Lilac's age, climb into the back and the woman dries her tears collecting on her dainty eyelashes. The man hops back into the vehicle and blood rushes into her ears. Lavender sprints as fast as she could and throws herself in the truck's way.
"Please!" Lavender screams into the howling wind of the flames. "Stop the vehicle." Hot tears mix with the dark blood dripping steadily from the wound covering the width of her right temple. She'd hit something in the course of running the flames but what, she doesn't have the vaguest clue. If there is anything she has to do in her life, it's get her siblings in that truck. Lavender shifts Miller off her hip and sets him down onto the crackled and crumbled pavement. The girl grabs her sibling's arms and they cling to her forearms, both utterly terrified.
She screams again at the car and it stops, mid-drive.
"Please, you have to take them," Lavender screams, throwing her siblings forward.
"I'm sorry ma'am there's no more room." The man says, pulling forward a few feet.
"Please! They don't take up much room and they don't weigh much, please." Lavender half shrieks-half pleads, pounding on the vehicle's right driver side window. The man looks longingly at the trio, his dark skin shining fiery against the light of the flames behind her.
"Any medical conditions?" he asks swiftly, opening his door. "We can't take anyone who isn't healthy."
"No, nothing. Please." Lavender says, her mind fuzzy as she grabs Miller's arm. Her once calm stare utterly shattered. The man takes a hold of her brother, throwing him into the back of the car alongside at least fifteen other terrified children and teenagers. Very few younger than Miller and many in groups of two or three.
"No, Lav. I'm not leaving you." Lilac screams, the first words she's said since their older sister's death, as Miller rolls onto his back. Flying to find a squished seat next to a girl about eleven, maybe twelve.
"You have to." Lavender pleads, grabbing her sister's wrist. "Listen to me, you have to take care of him. I can't come with you, you're in charge now."
"Why can't you?" Lilac yells as the man grabs her waist, heaving her into the truck.
"I can't." Lavender sobs, turning away from the navy blue, hijacked peacekeeper truck. The whispers and pleads of the children escaping fill the air but that's when the dying, painful screams around her, hit her like an asteroid. Plummeting down on her, from all directions. She turns slowly in a circle, taking in the flames going up around her. Agony tearing apart the district. Smoke plumes into the sky, pillowing up forward. The smoke stings her lungs but just keeps turning, holding the fabric of her shirt tight to her mouth. Watching as ashes rain down from the sky like snow.
She wipes away the mixture of sweat, tears and blood settling on her cheeks and forehead. To her right, a woman runs out of a destroyed building holding a small baby, wrapped in a black blanket. Her dark curls roll and bounce as she flees from the scene unfolding before Lavender. The woman runs, yet, there is nowhere to escape, District Nine is going down. With her siblings hopefully safe, all she can do now is help others. Lavender doesn't know exactly what she can do to help but she knows she has to try.
"Someone! Please." a young boy shouts in the distance, as if reading Lavender's mind exactly. She whips around and starts to jog back toward the boy who sits behind a lonely dumpster. Blood dripping from two lifeless bodies that lay abandoned in a small pile of rubble, or at most, almost abandoned. The small boy- who can't be more than seven sits, holding what she presumes is his mother's hand to his chest. Lavender's insides twist as she rushes towards the boy, the smell of burning flesh evading her senses.
The man lying in the ash beholds a long, dark, midnight black burn that runs across the length of his torso. One of his legs lays in a shattered pile of foul broken bones. A sickness of emotions brings tears to Lavender's eyes again as her vision lands on the boy's mother. Her small features turned in a sweetly pleasant smile. Her right arm was completely burned to a crisp and lay at an awkward angle, oddly bent forward in a way that would cause any living human to shriek out in a mixture of pain and bewilderment. Her neck was covered in a pile of goopy dark crimson, a slit sliding through her trachea. The gore, the sick smell that coated itself deep into her lungs as a rancid tar, feels almost reminiscent of nightmares she's been so trapped within.
Time stops as she kneels beside the boy. He looks up at her, a broken expression lacing his adorable features. Lavender's heart shatters at the gaze the young boy gives her. A sorrowful hopeless one. She can't help but get to her feet, grinding her teeth together. She extends a hand to the boy and he just shakes his head.
"Please." Lavender whispers as another round of peacekeeper fleets charge past her. Rapidly firing bullets from their long, dark guns. The sound makes Lavender fly to her hands to cover the young boy's ears. Much as she did to her siblings when the whole thing started.
Lavender turns swiftly to the left to see what they are shooting at and can't help but gasp. Surprise and anger pour into her veins as she stares at the navy blue trucks lighting up in burning flames. The girl lets go of the young boy and lets out another scream. She throws herself forward at the flames, watching as one truck escapes. The other three withering away, children's screams etching themselves into the truck's paneling.
Lavender shrieks, rushing forward. She tries to advance toward the peacekeepers, not bothering to wipe the tears streaming down her cheeks like a waterfall. But, she stops in her tracks when the people in white suits turn their guns to the public crowd who'd gathered around to watch them.
Screams fill the bitterly cold air but Lavender ignores them. She drops to her stomach as bullets rip through the air. Gasps of surprise hit her ears before the sharp screams do. Around her bodies lay in bubbling pools of dark scarlet blood. A silver bullet sinks itself into the man beside her and Lavender can't help but flinch away. The man jerks back, falling to his knees. He stares, glassy-eyed at the girl and she can't bring herself to look away. His wound tearing at her thoughts. She gets lost in the man's memory, letting out more bloody tears as he lays face down on the cracked pavement.
"Saccharin?" someone asks, bringing Lavender back to her crushing reality. Flames roared up behind her, overtaking her once-beloved District. Rebel and Capital fleets alike run in the streets, firing shots back and forth. Whipping back to face the young woman, Lavender's eyes flare. "Saccharin." She repeats but even more sure of herself. A pang of guilt pounds in Lavender's stomach as she scans the woman's face. Her features utterly and unmistakably ordinary. Her stare plain, a blank emotionless slate.
"Yes?" Lavender asks, still on her stomach as bullets still launch themselves above her head.
"You're the girl's younger sister." She gasps and Lavender tears her eyes away from the woman. She shakes her head as images of her older sister trying to escape the arena filling her thoughts.
Lavender stares ahead, narrowing her eyes. With the peacekeeper fleets no longer shooting at the crowd and shooting at the rebel's hovercrafts she scrambles to her feet. She pours forward toward the navy trucks, flames towering over their stoic forms. Lavender knows she has to try and save her siblings, they mean the world to her and for them just to slip away, as Sunna had done, Lavender couldn't just sit around and watch.
Many people scream at her but she ignores them, running directly at the fire. Normally, Lavender wasn't so fearless but when it came to her siblings, she'd do anything for them. They were her world and she needed to protect them. Both were way too young to die-
Lavender's thoughts are muffled as another round of bullets fly toward her but she doesn't care. She ducks as if life is a game she's just now playing. Lavender lets out a scream as she throws herself at the first truck. Corpses of dead children make her breathing go short. There is one boy in the back, cowering as the flames tickle his legs. He keeps screaming and doesn't take any notice as Lavender dives into the truck. She grabs the boy's arm, ripping him out to safety.
He crumples to the ground but Lavender keeps on moving, she had pulled him from the flames. He's safe now. She quickly sprints to the next car yet all she meets are blackened bodies, none of them recognizable as her sister or brother. She ducks another few bullets and lets out a shout. She throws herself towards the last truck, silently praying her siblings weren't in there.
Lavender's eyes go wide and she wants to crumple with defeat as she throws open the last car's back. By now, others had joined her and the boy is being helped to his feet. She recognized the burning flesh of the small boy in the corner and the girl holding him close to her chest.
"Lilac get out! NOW!" Lavender screams and the young girl looks up from the blackened body of her little brother. Tears stain her young features. Two other kids are screaming in the back alongside her, only a few burns covering their visible skin. Suddenly a man takes up beside her and dives in, grabbing the pair's waists. Lavender follows suit, letting out a scream as she pulls her sister away from the flames. Lavender holds her eleven-year-old younger sister in her arms, thankful the bullets had stopped. The sound hadn't but they'd changed direction.
Lilac sports two big gashes of burns and looks like she's gonna puke. Lavender had instantly gotten used to the smell of burning flesh, Lilac had not.
"Hey, it's gonna be alright. Everything is going to be fine." Lavender whispers, comforting her little sister as the fire raged around them.
"Miller…"
"Don't think about him, you're safe now," Lavender says, trying to hide the sadness from creeping into her voice or features. She has to be strong for Lilac, just like she was when Sunna was reaped.
"You two come with us." Lavender hears a voice say and she whips around, still holding her sister in her arms.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Resa, please, I want to get you two to safety." The woman replies into the howling wind. Her green jumpsuit raging against her almost smaller frame. The woman's dark curl's fly over her features as Lavender hesitantly takes her outstretched hand. Lavender watchs, intrigued, as Resa whispers something into her radio and lets out a gasp as a small hovercraft starts to lower from its hiding spot in the clouds.
A/N: Annnnd we're back with another prologue! STABOOM. This was quite an interesting one to write and I had a lot of fun with the action. I really hope it's not too long/too short. What did y'all think of Lavender? Her intentions? Her brother's death?
Also, for those of you who haven't read ashes (know the world building with Nine), let me fill you in quickly. So, Sunna Saccharin (age 18) and Sydney Tasogare (age 13) were both reaped into the 300th Annual Hunger Games from District Nine. However, the reaping was rigged. Sydney was put in to punish his rebel father who'd been selling illegal maps and Sunna had been put in for a scene caused at the reaping. (Yes, they rigged it right before their names were called, the peacekeepers wanted to show they could control the district, but that didn't go over too well). You see, there were already quite a few rebels hiding in Nine and the reaping being rigged was a big part of them uprising. So, the rebels 'attacked' (I put that in quotes because it really wasn't an attack, it was a breech) during the 'Test Announcement' because they got word from a spy (guess who that was?) that all the tributes would be in the same place. They wanted to take the tributes to a safe place but failed. After that, uprisings started to crowd District Nine, the rebels wanting change. But then Sydney died in the Bloodbath, which just ended up fueling them more. There were marches, plans, attacks, all of it. But the final straw was Sunna Saccharin (Lav's older sister if you couldn't tell) when she died in eight place, trying desperately to escape the arena. This launched a panic that spread across the nation. Only a week later, both Capital and Rebel forces attacked each other in the district walls. There were very few survivors but enough to rebuild the District. Now, up from the ashes rises District 14 and for the first time in over a decade Panem's seeing all 12 districts again, just a little different than normal.
Phew, that was a mouthful and it's late so I probably missed something ngl but it's fine. After I post this, I'm going to finish up the last little part of the blog (it's currently out and there's a link on my profile but I'm revamping it a lot). That should be done tonight, complete with a world building section for each district. Please, refer to the wb section, just to check the typical, average of the district. This doesn't mean it amplies to the tribute or their backstory (I love against the grain tributes) but that's there as a gage (haaaaa lmao I find myself hilarious) what the 'normal' of each district is.
Oh my, that was really long. Sorry about that, yeah, that's all I got. As always- have a good day/night/afternoon.
Bye for now,
Marie