Chapter One-Hundred-and-Thirty-Two; Darkness
Stephanie crushed Frenkin to her so forcefully for a moment she feared she might actually snap the slight boy in her arms in two.
Frenkin's expression was filled with gentle concern as she pulled back from him with troubled eyes.
Stephanie offered him a wan smile that didn't fool the thirteen-year old boy at all.
But how could she possibly begin to explain anything when she barely understood it herself.
She had just needed to hold Frenkin for a few moments; to feel his small hands clutching at the fabric of her dress and feel his honey hair brush her cheek.
She needed to look into Frenkin's blue eyes, knowing he would be the only one that could anchor her at that moment.
At that moment Frenkin was the only possible thing about her life she was certain about.
If someone had of asked her, her name right then Stephanie would have honestly replied she no longer knew.
But Frenkin she was sure about.
She knew for a fact that Frenkin was innocent. She knew for a fact that he didn't deserve to be here. She knew for a fact that the blue-eyed bespeckled boy in front of her loved her as she loved him; unconditionally and unwaveringly.
And that was a great deal more than what she could say about the two men who claimed to love her in her life.
Stephanie dropped heavily onto the sofa in the main room, kicking off the irksome heels. She also could have sworn she heard something tear as she settled herself more comfortably on the sofa, but she didn't really care enough to look. She only hoped it was nothing substantial that would mean her dress would fall to the floor when she stood, for Frenkin's sake at least. The last thing she needed was to traumatise and scare off Frenkin; the only person she could bear to be around at that moment.
Stephanie couldn't help her gaze scanning the penthouse searchingly though, even as she strained her ears for the clinking of bottles in the kitchen perhaps.
Frenkin's gaze rested on her knowingly as he pushed his glasses up on his nose.
"I thought he was with you," Frenkin confessed in a small voice.
Stephanie closed her eyes breathing deeply. She didn't need Frenkin to say his name to know who he meant.
Haymitch.
So Haymitch hadn't returned to penthouse since he had stormed off? Stephanie swallowed painfully as a swarm of questions assaulted her head; all of them impossible to answer.
Where was he? When would he be back? Was he safe?
Stephanie glanced to the darkening sky outside worriedly. She frowned slightly when she noticed the colourful beams of light that were sweeping across the sky also.
Do these Capitolites do anything remotely productive other than party? Stephanie thought irritated, before she discarded the irrelevant thought.
She didn't care about the Capitolite people possibly out there tonight drinking themselves silly, she only cared about one person out there tonight.
Haymitch.
Stephanie desperately hoped Haymitch hadn't gone off to drink himself into a comatose state somewhere. She rubbed a weary hand across her throbbing temples; all too acutely familiarised with the revolving wheel of gut-wrenching guilt she was stuck on.
"Where's Isa or Bright or Lashes…or any of them?" Stephanie inquired then as she waved a hand dismissively.
Frenkin grinned impishly as he always did when Stephanie referred to her stylists by their pet names.
"They were waiting for you to come back from your date with Dan. Isa was very proud that you still managed to go after…" Frenkin trailed off as he glanced nervously at the dark bruises splotched across Stephanie's pale throat.
In truth Stephanie had forgotten all about them but as if by remembering them her neck began to ache dully.
Stephanie frowned as she pushed the pain away, instead refocusing her attention on Frenkin.
"Isa got a call though," Frenkin said, "and they all left."
Stephanie's brow furrowed deeper at that as she tried not to find Frenkin's words too ominous.
If I frown anymore I will have the frown lines of seventy year old before I'm twenty Stephanie thought distractedly as she watched the coloured lights sweep across the sky again.
"Do you know if there is a Capitolite party or something on?" Stephanie asked absently, not really expecting Frenkin to have an answer for her.
Frenkin swallowed a little nervously as Stephanie's gaze slid to him, "Frenkin?"
"Erm…I'm n-not sure," he began uncertainly, immediately setting Stephanie on high alert. "But I overheard Isa on the phone," Frenkin elaborated.
Stephanie allowed herself a fleeting smile; it was impossible not to overhear Isa on the phone when she spoke.
"Uhuh," Stephanie prompted Frenkin.
Her old familiar friend 'dread' was back and settling uncomfortably in her gut as she waited on Frenkin's answer.
Frenkin looked to the bright lights outside and swallowed again.
"It's Slena's trial."
Stephanie blinked as she stared at Frenkin blankly.
She briefly considered feeling shocked and then discarded the idea. She seriously doubted if anything could ever shock her again.
Stephanie couldn't imagine what the Capitolites found so interesting about the District people that they wanted to know everything about them before they killed them in the Games. As far as Stephanie was concerned, Capitolites' lives were infinitely more complicated, exciting in the most frightening sense, and utterly unpredictable. The Districts were completely and perfectly boring by comparison.
"Slena's trial?" Stephanie repeated in an eerily even tone.
Frenkin nodded, his blue eyes wide behind his glasses.
"They decided that Slena's trial would be public, not like Vir's. There was a report earlier on as well," Frenkin gestured feebly to the blank television screen.
"What did it say?" Stephanie asked.
"To show the tributes what would happen if they disobeyed the rules and to reassure the Capitolites that justice would be done…Slena's trial would be public," Frenkin rhymed off from the earlier report.
Stephanie dropped her head into her hands, "what the hell are they even trying her for?!" she suddenly cried.
Frenkin jumped as Stephanie continued on, leaping to her feet to stride across to the window.
"It was damn well me she attacked! So what the hell are they trying her for?!"
Stephanie squinted into the distant as she practically pressed her nose against the glass, trying to discern if she could see anything.
The coloured lights flickered wildly in the sky and Stephanie gritted her teeth angrily. It looked more like a friggin party than a trial.
This was a joke! This 'trial' could determine Slena's chances for survival and it was been treated like a showcase event. To Slena it meant life and death, and how did the Capitolites capture that? By treating the thing like a huge flippant party.
"Is it being shown live?" Stephanie asked, already lunging for the television remote before Frenkin could stammer out an answer.
"Er…erm, I'm not sure," Frenkin said, watching Stephanie as her gaze was fixed intently on the television screen.
The luminous lights flickered across Stephanie's face, reflected in the irises of her eyes and Frenkin's glasses.
However after flicking through at least fifty channels Stephanie tossed the remote aside scoffing, the screen smoothing to blankness once more.
There were countless channels and Stephanie felt sure she would have smashed the screen before she made it far enough to check them all.
A huge muted cheer suddenly sounded and Stephanie and Frenkin looked to the window, dreading.
The Capitol insignia was flashed up on the sky in bright lights and Stephanie swallowed.
Her throat twitched with pain for a moment with the movement but Stephanie didn't care and barely noticed.
Wherever Slena Clearwater was in that melee out there, Stephanie truly wished her luck. Just like Slena's cousin Fas Clearwater had wished Stephanie luck sincerely in the car outside Sterlin's apartment, even though he knew it went against Slena's odds.
"What do you think they will do to her?" Frenkin asked timorously.
Stephanie went to the sofa to sit down slowly. She didn't think she could stand anymore. A new sluggish feeling was weighing down her limbs that Stephanie associated with the serum having completely left her body.
Frenkin scooted closer to her across the cushions and Stephanie innately lifted her arm invitingly to him. Frenkin moved closer to her immediately, burrowing into her side as Stephanie wrapped her arms around his small form.
Stephanie felt the dull pressure of Frenkin's glasses digging into her shoulder as she dropped a kiss on the fair hair that tickled her chin.
"Well…Vir, he got banned from any further events," Stephanie mused hopefully as she looked to the windows again.
The Capitol insignia had disappeared from the dark sky now replaced by the luminous glow of countless spotlights.
"Maybe Slena will get banned too then," Frenkin added, looking up to Stephanie for confirmation.
Stephanie swallowed thickly as she nodded jerkily.
But they both knew; Stephanie and Frenkin, that neither of them believed that.
If the Capitol people were putting on such a public trial for their entertainment then Slena would not be let off so easily.
Stephanie felt faintly guilty, knowing that Slena was facing this now because of what Slena had done to her. But Stephanie pushed it away; it wasn't her fault.
She wasn't the one who had told Slena that Stephanie was responsible for Fas' death; that had been Ficen. And Stephanie most certainly hadn't killed Fas. She had Seneca's word for that.
That left the worrying unanswered question of who had killed Fas? But Stephanie was in no fit state to even contemplate trying to consider that question tonight.
Frenkin's fingers were clutching at the blue material scrunched up at her waist, listening in the encroaching darkness to the cheers that would decide Slena's fate.
"Have you eaten yet Frenkin?" Stephanie asked, as she combed her fingers through Frenkin's honey hair. The soothing habit was as comforting to her as it was to him.
Frenkin shook his head, "I didn't want to eat supper by myself," he confessed in a small voice.
Stephanie squeezed him tighter for a moment. Time was ticking by, precious time that Frenkin would never see again and yet Stephanie seemed to be seeing less and less of her surrogate brother.
He had been sitting in this penthouse alone, for who knows how long, waiting for someone, anyone to come back.
"Do you want to see if there are any cupcakes in the fridge? We can eat as many as we like," Stephanie murmured in Frenkin's ear.
A small tremulous smile grew on Frenkin's lips as he gazed up at Stephanie misty-eyed. He sniffled, nodding, "yes please."
Stephanie hugged him tighter, unwilling to let him go for even a moment to go into the kitchen.
But eventually they did, Stephanie's hands resting firmly on Frenkin's shoulders as she directed him over to the fridge.
The cold white light spilled across the kitchen floor as they opened the fridge that was stocked with everything imaginable.
By some innate agreement they had been trundling about the penthouse in darkness. The sky outside was well and truly black now yet they hadn't turned on any lights in the rooms.
Stephanie didn't know about Frenkin, but personally she couldn't bear even looking at the fridge's light that bathed them both as they stood before it.
She couldn't help but imagine the spotlights outside in the Capitol, scouring the skies hungrily. Although she knew it was silly to think it; it was as though the spotlights were searching for them, for more tributes to put on a showcase trial like Slena was suffering through at that moment.
Stephanie had the innate feeling that the tributes on the floors above and even the Careers on the floors below would be gazing out their penthouse windows with the same feeling of dread as she, watching the bright lights sweeping the night sky.
Their only defence was in the darkness where the Capitol lights couldn't find them. She knew it was an impractical thing to think but at that moment the blanket of shadows and dark that the night brought, had never been so comforting.
Slena was currently facing a trial where she would have no fair representation at all. They would call her an animal, a filthy district dweller, she would be shouted down and given a punishment to showcase the Capitol's cruelty.
It was a stark reminder that against the Capitol, they as tributes, as district dwellers were defenceless.
And to survive this one night they had to pretend that the darkness could protect them, because nothing or no one else could.
Thanks to girlworthfightingfor for the review and I promise smug Seneca won't be gone for too long! :P