Song Suggestion: Call me Karizma- "Monster (Under My Bed)"
Thank You: Rachel, Mistress-Cinder, Sariko-chan723, FAN-atic-ionary, Cat Beats, Alexxis T. Swan, Figsy, and Meg24!
The Pit
Prim heard voices when she woke, but they warbled and she couldn't place them, except on the edges of her memories. When she gained awareness, she kept her eyes closed, attempting to figure out what went on around her.
"I don't like this," a woman said. "What if she chooses him?"
"She won't." The voice slithered down her spine, reminding her of nightmares and roses. "She'll make the right decision."
Silence came next, and it left no choice but for Prim to remember the horror of Hannibal's head shattered, cradled in his brother's arms. How would she ever heal from such a scene? It would haunt her every breath, every step. The cracks in her soul widened, and she knew that she'd do anything to prevent it from happening again. Truly horrible fucking things that would make Jace's skin crawl.
Prim might have pretended to sleep forever, but the woman noticed her quick intake of breath, the tightening of her body.
"She's awake."
Prim gave up the act and opened her eyes. Two feet from her stood Persephone, her red hair bundled in a high pony tail and an outfit that looked like the ones worn for training, green eyes examining her. They threatened her with something she didn't understand. On her back, the bitch had her backpack. She adjusted it and glowered at Prim. A quick pat of her pockets, and the bulges in Peresphone's shirt pocket, told her that she also had her Timestopper and the ring Lux gave her. Without weapons, she felt naked.
Snow stood beside his daughter with hands clasped behind his back. A white beard hid his mouth. His face was neutral, but his eyes flashed in acknowledgment.
I choose brimstone and fire! Her words echoed in her head, faraway, as if she had said them in a separate life.
"I have to admit. You've exceeded expectations, Mockingjay." He straightened his shoulders. "So fearful when we first met, you hardly met my eyes. I believed you were a docile creature, easily trained. But I've come to realize you share the same blood as your sister, filtered with foolish resistance."
"Will the God finally manage to kill the mortal?" Maybe it was the head injury, the darkness still eating the edges of conscious thought, but she wasn't afraid, not like she should be. "My death will do nothing. I'll become a true martyr for the districts. It would be sort of poetic, since it's what people accuse me of being anyway."
"Death would be mercy." Snow's lips thinned, eyes turning to daggers. "It's something you won't taste for a long while yet."
Prim shivered. Ah, there was the fear. It was late to the party, but it could always be relied upon to show up eventually if Snow made an appearance.
"Let the games begin then." Prim raised herself to a sitting position, giving a groan despite trying to swallow the sound. Her temple throbbed, increasing the headache that started in the tunnels. Prim placed a hand to the wound, touching it gingerly. Her fingers came back sticky with congealed blood. She closed her eyes against the glaring lights. "Go ahead, give me your first trial. What will it be this time… Heights? Fire? Water? Monsters? I've faced them all, and I've beaten them all. I'm no longer afraid of you."
"Ah, but you haven't beaten them all," Snow said. "I thought it would be fitting to begin where we were interrupted."
A horrible feeling crashed into Prim, understanding what his next move would be even without understanding all the stakes.
She forced herself to open her eyes again and look at her surroundings. When she finally took it all in, she wished to close them again and sleep. She'd sleep until the mountains crumbled around her, until the sun expanded and exploded. She'd sleep until the time that nothing mattered anymore.
The room was blinding white, with smooth walls and marble floor. On the far edge were two glass tubes from floor to ceiling. Encased in one was Cato, his hair gleaming golden, his eyes wide and blue. A gag cut between his teeth. The second tube held a little girl with her father's blue eyes and vibrant red curls. She had no gag, and tears streamed down her cheeks. She looked older than the last time she saw her, her face and hands less pudgy. A front tooth missing.
Memories slammed into her: playing hand shadows on the walls, slurring the alphabet together, curling into her side while she slept. The hole in her heart where Coral belonged ached, causing an almost painful instinct to race forward and grab her, yank her back to safety.
The last time she felt such a rush of fierce protectiveness, two Capitol soldiers stood over her sons' cribs. In that instant, Prim understood that Coral was her daughter. She did not carry her or birth her but cradled her in her heart.
Prim stood up. In front of her was a small podium with two buttons attached. It didn't take a genius to figure out that one was for each of the glass tubes, for Cato and Coral.
"A choice," Snow said. "And this time there is no escape. The ceiling won't crumble, and the stakes are higher. Here's the rules: choose either Cato or little Coral."
"And what happens to the person I don't choose?" Prim asked the question, even while dreading the answer.
Snow's tense frame loosened, as if in familiar territory, with him the true Gamemaker. The game was finally going the way he wished.
"The rejected individual will plummet into The Pit."
"What happens if I refuse to play your game?"
His face twitched at the insurrection.
"I'll send them both to their deaths."
Prim tried to remember everything she knew about the Pit, but she only saw Jace's empty eye socket with claw marks. A punishment so severe even trained victors trembled at the mention of it.
"You'd sacrifice your own granddaughter to teach a slum rat a lesson?"
Persephone shifted at the corner of her eyesight. It wasn't hard to see that she was furious at her father.
Prim remembered the words she heard upon awakening. She'll make the right decision. Both believed she would choose Coral. And honestly, their instinct was right. If anyone could survive the pit, Cato could. Coral wouldn't stand a chance, torn to shreds by whatever nightmare Snow conjured up down there.
It should be easy. I choose Coral, lingered on her lips, almost tipping off them before she stopped herself to think.
Would he really sacrifice Coral? His own granddaughter? The daughter of his supposed favorite child.
She glanced at Cato. Choose me, his eyes begged. He stood still and somehow calm, and his eyes kept jumping from Prim to Coral. Did he know what Prim would sacrifice if she said his name, how it would infect her mind? She didn't know if she could survive it.
"What will happen after?" Prim asked to elongate the moments.
"We'll use you at first." Snow gave a half-smile. "Nothing will quell the rebellion like the Mockingjay groveling at the feet of her master. A lost cause. I'll give immunity to anyone who lays down their arms and goes back to their districts like good little ants. The leaders and those foolish enough to keep fighting will be caught and executed."
A shot of lead went through her. Gale. Lux. Madge. Cato's parents. They would all die.
"And my sons?"
Snow's eyes twinkled.
"They won't be harmed as long as you do as I say." He stopped, as if a brilliant idea came to him. "Though I give no promises when it comes time for them to enter the games. What a show they'd put on. The sons of the Mockingjay and Cato Carthage. They'd be favorites for sure."
He painted a nightmare, dark with blood and black hate, until all the pure, untouched parts of the canvas were smeared over with vile actions.
No, she wouldn't allow it to happen. Not to her children.
Do something unexpected.
She walked forward and placed her hand over Cato's button, thinking.
She'd play his game of chicken and not flinch. She'd flip over his cards and show he played a weak hand. She'd call his bluff.
"I choose Cato."
Her hand slammed against Coral's button, fully expecting nothing to happen.
Snow's face broke into one of horror, mouth slack, eyes wide. It was then she knew she made a mistake. He hadn't been bluffing. The glass cage gave away around the little girl and a hole opened underneath her feet, sucking her down. Her vibrant curls flew in the air and then disappeared.
The world stopped, heavy with regret. Cato writhed in his cage, his scream muffled by the gag.
"I didn't think you'd actually—" Prim began to rationalize but was cut off by Persephone lunging and striking her cheek.
"You bitch!" She turned back to her father, pointing a finger in his face. "I don't care what terrible game you want to continue. If she dies, I'll do what the rat set out to do and stab you in the chest."
Persephone didn't wait for her father's response. She twisted and ran to the hole, glancing one last time back at her father before jumping and disappearing.
Before Snow could stop her, Prim scrambled up on shaky legs, head still throbbing, chest tight with anxiety. She followed Persephone and sprinted to the wide, gaping hole. It started closing on the edges, the mechanics creaking as it began to shut, almost cutting off her ability to correct her mistakes.
She twisted like Persephone did and glared at Snow. He was white as the rose on his lapels, almost sick looking, as if this game cost him too much and he just now realized it. He did not try to stop her as she stepped off the edge and sank into the abyss.
Moments Later
Prim's feet smacked into a dim-lit room that smelled of formaldehyde. She did not fall far, only a room's length. It stung her ankles, but she popped up just fine. As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was in an empty circular room, surrounded by tunnels.
A fist landed on her cheek, knocking her whole face to the side with it. Prim fought back, flinging her own hands, but she had always been terrible at hand to hand combat and most of Persephone's blows hit their mark. She only stopped when a soft cry sounded from the dark.
"Mommy?"
Persephone leaped off her. She held a flashlight in one hand and raced to one of the tunnels. Prim got up next, slower. If possible, her head throbbed even harder. Prim was worried that some of the blows she received tonight would give her real, permanent damage. She shook off the flashes and cobwebs and stood, propelled by her love for Coral. In the process, she stepped over a metal object.
It must have fallen off Persephone in the scuffle. She recognized it, since there were only three that she knew of. One for Hannibal, one for Brutus, and one for Lorcan. Persephone got it off one of her friends, though Prim doubted she knew what it was or how to use it. A coldness seeped through her chest, and instinct prompted Prim to pick it up and slip it into her pocket. It rested warm and heavy in the interior as a slow plan formed, despite the risk involved.
"I thought there would be monsters," Prim said, walking forward, hands out as if to protect from the dark.
"There is." She flashed her light forward to find Coral shivering in the inside of a tunnel beside metal bars. And behind the metal bars sat something that looked human at first, the shape and outline, but it was covered in black hair and twice the size of a normal person. If Prim wasn't mistaken it looked like a gorilla. But wrong. Clumps of hair were missing, with giant rotting wounds across its body.
"Step away from the cage, sweets." Persephone said, low and soothing. Coral stood too close. She tried to lure her to safety, but Coral was terrified, eyes flicking back and forth from Persephone to Prim.
Prim stepped forward to pick up Coral, but Persephone stopped her. It was odd to be working for the same objective, when they were usually pit against each other.
"She might scream, if we get closer." Persephone explained, and Prim agreed, but it was too late.
The beast in the cage cracked an eye, the other was an empty pit. It unfurled its massive hairy body. The gleam in his remaining eye looked familiar, grey with freckles of deep blue. As the beast stood in his cage, the top of his head touched the ceiling, and Prim recognized those eyes. A deep rumble coming from the beast's chest vibrated the air around them.
"Grab her," Persephone cried. Prim was closer and dove. She tugged Coral's leg and yanked her screaming body out of the way just as the beast's arm swiped out the cage, missing the tiny girl by inches.
Persephone pulled out a hand gun and shot the creature several times. The thing collapsed to the floor, but then stood up again, as if nothing hurt it. Bullet holes riddled its chest, adding to the gouges in the body, but no blood leaked out and it did not look to be in pain. It roared in frustration.
Prim tugged Coral until she was safely out of way and then grabbed her up in a fierce hug, feeling her body shiver under her own, her head on her heart.
"It's okay, mommy has you," Prim soothed in her ear. "I'll never let you go, I promise."
"Mommy? You're not my mommy." Coral wiggled out of her hold and ran to Persephone who gave a glorious smirk, and Prim attempted to cauterize the sudden cutting wound in her heart. They were separated too long. Coral forgot her. She tried to convince herself that it was okay.
The greedy section of her soul stared at the scene with a visceral growl. She's mine.
"What was that thing?"
Persephone gave her a sideways look as she stood, letting the girl's legs wrap around her waist.
"I think you know," she said. "It's the newest addition."
They both glanced back at the cage that enclosed Jacen Hartline, mutated into a gorilla, mouth with daggers as teeth. The creature roared and slammed the meaty fists so hard against the bars, it trembled, and Prim feared it would break. It startled Persephone as well.
"We should get going," she said. "There's a way out, but we need to go through the maze to get to it. Luckily, I know the way. The creatures won't be released yet." She eyed Jacen again. "But the sooner we're gone, the better."
Everything in Prim trembled, seeing the beast of her nightmares, turned into something more horrifying. She had an ominous feeling that whatever was in the maze would fuck her up. Despite feeling wobbly with fear, Prim stood up and followed Persephone still clutching Coral like a little doll. Her feet dangled off the sides of her mother as she walked into the darkness.
Five Minutes Later
Prim attempted to not look in the cages as they passed, but it was impossible. A sea monster lunged and snapped at her face with webbed fingers and gills on the neck, its skin green and mottled. It reminded her of Finnick Odair, the beloved tribute from District 4 Cato killed in his second games. Prim didn't study it long enough to find out.
"These are all the fallen tributes," Prim said.
"My father doesn't like to waste things, even the corpses of district scum."
"These are the real…" Prim couldn't finish. Her stomach wanted to heave up the little food she ate before the mission. The horror gnawed on her, whispering that something terrible approached.
The next cage she passed, Prim looked closer. She did not recognize the person it had been, but she saw that Persephone was right. Its eyes were filmed over, skin grey despite being dyed pink. The flesh on its face looked loose and fluid, as if only held together by magic. Somehow Snow created technology to reanimate a preserved corpse, but it did not give real life back. The creature looked at her with a dumb hunger, just following whatever program they downloaded into her brain.
This wasn't like the doppelgangers, a fake monster under a loved one's skin. These monsters had been real people once, with thoughts, hopes, and emotions.
"But why?" As she passed each cage, Prim examined the creatures, searching for something she did not want to find.
Persephone stopped and looked around. Coral whimpered at the sight of the monster near them and buried her curly head into her mother's shoulder.
"Would you rather my father experiment on living beings?" Persephone looked at her as if she was stupid. "He only takes the best tributes."
She was right, in the end. A corpse was better than a person, but it did not loosen the tightness in her chest. It wasn't until she stopped at a cage and crumpled down that she could work out what she felt.
It was a second death. The sword slashing her throat. Blood spilling out, staining the metal around her. Death should be peace, Prim thought, staring at the reanimated corpse of Katniss.
Her sister's body growled in a corner, standing with completely grey skin. Her once beautiful dark hair, patchy and matted, clumps falling out as if they didn't stop the sting of decay in time. Her teeth stuck out like razor blades, fingertips mutated into long talons.
"My father took his time on your sister," Persephone said at Prim's shoulder, voice lacking empathy. "He stumbled upon the idea of a vampire in some ancient book and thought it fitting. She lives on blood now, searches it out. When he releases her into the pit with some unfortunate soul, she devours them. No one has survived her. If Cato had fallen, he would have freed her. He found it poetic."
Prim went cold, leaning over and clutching her stomach as if someone had stabbed her in the gut with a sword. Prim often wondered what happened to her sister's corpse. It never returned to the district like some of the others in the past had. She had imagined terrible scenario: an unmarked grave, thrown in the sea. Nothing she could have imagined was more terrible than the truth. Prim thought she knew the depths of Snow's depravity but realized he gave no peace, neither to the living or the dead.
Prim wished to reach out and touch the bar but held herself back, knowing her sister's claws would slice into her. There was nothing of the sister she loved left, just her decayed flesh and the color of her eyes.
"We can't waste any more time," Persephone said. "So unless you want to be left behind, you need to get up."
"I'm going to free you from this torment," Prim whispered to her mutated sister. "If it's the last thing I do."
Persephone snorted in amusement at her proclamation.
Prim stood up, still clutching her stomach. The cold replaced the pain until her heart turned into an iceberg, her lungs icicles. Her resolve hardened, and her mind plotted, because Prim understood Persephone would not allow her to exit alive.
Ten Minutes Later
The cages of mutated tributes continued along a long hallway until she reached empty ones—whole stretches of hallways ready to be filled. The barren cells mocked her, reminding Prim he meant to fill them up. No more, Prim thought. She would be the last monster he created. No more lambs to the slaughter, no more lions trained to kill children.
"Right here." Persephone motioned to a small glass tube. It was only big enough to fit one person.
The escape out of the Pit.
"Let's send Coral first," Prim said. The sooner she was out of direct danger, the sooner she could breathe. The mutated monsters were still caged, but she heard the rumbled growls in the air, the claws scraping the cement ground, the absence of breathing. It reminded Prim the only thing stopping them from breaking free was Snow's fickle good will.
"Of course," Persephone said. She went to the key pad and typed. Prim made sure to memorize the movements of her fingers. 576935, 576935, 576935. Prim reached into the folds of her clothes and took out the object Prim hoped Persephone forgot about and wrapped it around her wrist, placing it behind her back.
The tube slid open, and Persephone placed Coral inside. Persephone leaned down and soothed her, kissing the top of the girls' head before reaching over and closing the glass door before Coral could try and exit.
"I love you sweetie," she said. "I'll be right up, I promise."
It made the monster in her chest flicker out for a fraction of a second.
Coral banged her little fists against the glass until the tube started its upward ascent until the little girl with bright red curls vanished from sight.
Persephone did not turn around at first. The Pit air was stale, still smelling of formaldehyde. She breathed it in as she waited for Persephone's first move.
"I met Cato at a dinner function soon after his first win." She pulled something out of her pocket. "He wasn't so jaded then, still high off his first win, living the life of a newly crowned victor. Don't let him fool you, he didn't regret winning at the beginning. Our first time was wild, and I thought I was in love."
She turned around. In her right hand she held what looked like a remote control, in her left she held a gun. She pointed the barrel at Prim.
"I'm not sure when he changed. I only put up with the rejection because he hated everyone else too… until you. My hate for you is very personal. You stole everything from me. And you just won't die." She looked me up and down and gave a clicking sound with her tongue. "Oh, you think everything that happened is because of my father?" She gave a little laugh. "Who do you think whispers the ideas into his ear. Without me, he would have killed Cato a long time ago and left you alone, thinking you unimportant."
Prim muzzled her emotions. Persephone steady hand aimed at her head.
"It's actually a good thing it worked out this way," Persephone continued. "My father would've killed him this time, despite my pleading. He wanted to play his games, you see. But now… After you die, I'll be sure to comfort Cato. He'll hate me at first, but it won't take long to fall into my arms again. We'll be a happy family. Coral's already forgotten you, and it won't take long before Cato does too. I'll even raise those two brats you left as a show of good will. They'll call me mama, knowing nothing about you except for being a pathetic traitor."
Prim let out a growl and took one step forward before stopping herself. She couldn't lose her cool now, not when she still aimed a gun at her head. Besides, the future she presented was a delusional one. Snow wouldn't keep Cato alive.
Persephone held up her left hand, holding the clicker. By this point, Prim guessed what it did.
"That releases the mutants, right?"
Now Persephone smiled, finally regaining her control.
"My father doesn't control the mutants. He never did. It was always me." She paused, letting the information sink in. "It will be a joy to see you torn apart. It's my favorite thing to do, you see, giving the click of death. It's amusing to see the victims running around to find an escape. I try and cater the experience to the person. For instance, for you I would give your sister… or maybe Jacen Hartline. I'm not sure which one would be better."
"Either. It wouldn't matter. Dead is dead." Prim lied. It would matter. One would give heartbreak, the other terror. Neither would be a pleasant death.
"No, Primrose Everdeen, you're a special case. For you I'll give them all." Her finger pressed down on a green button. The empty cage closest to them rattled as the cell door slid open. The next opened even faster. She heard the noise continuing down the hall. It hadn't reached the real beasts yet, but it would soon. "It's a shame I can't stick around to watch you scream. But Coral needs me. I'll watch the videos of it later. It'll be my bedtime story."
"Leaving so soon?" Prim asked. "It's just getting interesting."
Prim pressed the button on the side of the bracelet. The metal expanded and reformed in seconds into a barrel, trigger, muzzle. She recited the parts in her head, recognizing the special type of gun she held.
Prim ran on adrenaline and instinct as she picked up the barrel and aimed it at Persephone. The girl's mouth opened but she didn't have time to scream as Prim pulled the trigger. This time it didn't jam, like it did for Katla.
A dart exited the gun. It flew true, impaling Persephone to the wall by her shoulder. Persephone cried out, her mouth and eyes still opened wide as if unable to comprehend what just happened. Prim recognized her look of shock, how it made the mind trudge through waist-high mud, sucking down like quick sand. The gun in Persephone's hand clattered against concrete floors.
The growling of beasts down the hallway mixed with Persephone's panicked cries. Maybe it was Prim's innate weakness, maybe it was Persephone's likeness to Coral, but something in Prim wanted to help her, pull the stake out of her shoulder.
Prim stamped down the emotions as she walked to Persephone. The woman's green eyes flared in hope but died when Prim reached into Persephone's pocket and withdrew her Timestopper and ring Lux gave her.
Prim did not meet her eyes as she walked back to the glass tube that had come back down empty when they were talking. She typed in the key pad the numbers 576935. The door opened with a small hiss.
Prim turned back one more time. Persephone hand went up to the stake and tugged, but there was no loosening it, unless Prim did it for her.
"Help me," she said, blood on her lips. "Please. I lied. I was just scared."
"We're all scared. Your father made sure of that. You too, if what you said was true." Prim walked into the tunnel chute. "Thank you for taking care of Coral in my absence. I'm actually glad you could be there for her, given her isolation."
Persephone's eyes widened, knowing she echoed the same words she said to Prim before stealing Coral.
"Mercy," Persephone screamed, frantically struggling to no avail. "Please… don't let me die like this. You aren't this cruel."
Prim's hand went to the button that would close it.
"You're right, I'm not so cruel. In the backpack you stole from me there are two grenades, if you can manage to reach them. Hold them close before detonating. It's the only mercy you deserve." Prim pushed the button. "And don't worry about Coral. I'll be sure she calls me mama again soon. She'll forget all about you." The glass doors began to close and Prim managed to smirk, allowing the monster to play. Then she felt her face grown hard as Persephone's fear grew. "Enjoy your monsters."
The doors click shut. The last image she had of Persephone was her frantically searching the backpack at an odd angle, fumbling and in pain. The monsters she conjured burst through the doors. Her sister was in the lead, howling and clawing at the beasts around her to be first to taste flesh and blood.
Prim kissed three fingers and held it to the glass as her sister disappeared for the last time.
Thirty Seconds Later
When she reached the white room above, Cato and Snow were gone, but several Capitol soldiers had their guns aimed at her head. Coral trembled in the arms of a white-uniform officer.
"You will come this way, Ms. Everdeen, with no resistance."
"One moment." Prim waited just two seconds before the floor beneath her rocked, causing most of the people in the room to tumble. Persephone managed to set off her bombs.
"What was that?" One guard asked.
"Karma." Prim held up her hands and walked forward, giving no resistance.