"There's a room where the light won't find you, holding hands while the walls come tumbling down. When they do, I'll be right behind you. So glad we've almost made it, so sad we had to fade it... everybody wants to rule the world." Everybody Wants To Rule the World, Lorde, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack, 2013
The ABC's of Perfect Mistakes
Chapter Twenty: T is for The Truth
Parker didn't go right to the Stadium like Ashelin requested, instead she drove past wall-less buildings and the blood chilling screams. She ignored the explosions behind her and the countless bloody hand-prints she saw on the ground or smeared on windows. If she wanted to help the city, she needed something from Erol. While the idea of reconnecting with Erol and his inner demons scared her to no end, the idea of saving the city pushed her forward and through his front door.
His apartment wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. She hoped that Erol would've lost his mind when she left, slashing his furniture to shreds and burning all her old clothes but instead she walked into a perfectly tidy house. Besides the rotting fruit and the smell of unwashed clothes, everything was in order. She sighed. She did she hope that Erol would've gone crazy without her but she knew better. He'd moved on or put his obsession somewhere else.
She didn't have time to look, she needed to find her weapons and her family's knife -if she was going to die today, she'd do it by her family's blade. Parker ran into Erol's bedroom and picked through the drawers, pulling each one out and searching through its contents. She tossed his clothes on the floor and tossed binders onto the bed. After searching all five drawers and only finding clothes, binders and racing status, Parker dropped on the floor beside his bed. She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her face on her knees, she listened to the sirens outside and eerie calm inside the apartment. She looked to the edge of the bed and noticed a brown box, wrapped with twine and fraying string. Her mind ran back to the night in the Bazaar, when she met that old woman in the booth. She remembered the box and the item being paid for, the old woman told her to open it when she needed help.
Parker ripped the paper and pulled the top off, on a wrinkled sheets of tissue paper was an envelope with her name written on it. She recognized the fancy loop of the 'p'. It was her mother's handwriting. With a shaking hand she picked up the letter and ripped it open. She unfolded the letter and began to read:
Dear my lovely Parker,
I want you to know that your father and I loved you dearly. You were the most beautiful baby I'd ever seen and you made your father proud when you took your first breath. We tried many times to have a baby but the two before you were still-borne, but I refused to give up. I wanted you so bad and I got you. After you were born we knew you'd be carrying the Drake Gift, just like your father did, and I knew you'd do great things. The years we got to spend together, running in the forest, reading in bed and endless hours of love that you gave me were the best of my life. When Praxis murdered your father, I couldn't take the grief that came with it. I knew I couldn't live in a world where his blood stained the steps of the palace. Tonight I am planning on killing myself, I'm jumping into the Port with three rocks in my pocket. One for your father, one for me and one for you, my beloved little girl. I won't leave you empty-handed, I know you'll be this city's leader one day so please where this when you accept the burden of your birthright. I love you to the moons and back. Love your mom, Rhiannon.
Parker pulled the tissue paper back and gasped, her mother's blue velvet dress. The dress of the night sky, she touched the fabric, it was soft like she remembered. She'd lost most of her family's things when her mother died but the thing she missed the most was the lady's dress. Instead of celebrating the fact she found her mother's dress, she cursed and kicked the box away.
Right now, she didn't need a pretty dress to wear. She needed something to help the city, to stop the Metal Heads and protect her friends. She crawled across the ground and looked under the bed. She grabbed a small trunk and yanked it out, she flipped the top open and grabbed the cases of bullets before running from the room.
Erol's apartment wasn't far from the Stadium, but it was still hard for her to get through the throngs of Metal Heads that were devouring the city. When she approached the steps she spotted the last of the guards that protected the entrance. Even though Parker could sense the small Eco Shield that surrounded the Stadium was cracking. If she squinted she could see the small cracks and fractures that spread with every hit. Some of the guards already fled inside, dropping their weapons and disappearing into the building.
She ran towards the sound of shouting. In the middle of what used to be the race track stood the guard, young and old, those who wore red scarves around their necks stood on one side talking amongst themselves, on the other were the current KG who glared at the traitors. Parker spotted Torn among the mess of the traitors, he stood with Amberly and Tess who watched a group of traitors yell at the current Krimzon Guards.
"What's going on?" Parker asked running up to Torn.
He scoffed. "Mostly a battle about pride." He waved a hand to the KG. "They believe the Metal Head attacks are our faults. While our men believe the opposite. We've argued for the last hour or so." He glanced to her. "Where's Jak?"
"He went to face Metal Kor," She said passing her weapons to Amberly. "We're on our own now. How long until that shield fades?"
"Lena said maybe 45 minutes, maybe less." Tess grumbled.
"What are you doing?" Torn demanded as she tossed her red scarf at Amberly.
"I'm going to convince them to fight."
"Ashelin already tried!" Torn shouted. "Not only did she get booed off stage, she got dragged off stage!"
"Her father almost destroyed the city, if they can't hate him, they'll hate her!" Parker shouted back. She walked through the men, pushing them out-of-the-way or shouting at them. "Listen!" She screamed. "You will listen to me!" She shouted again pushing past a group of traitors and retried KG fighting. "Listen!" She shouted again hoisting herself onto the stage. "All of you listen! Beyond that wall, beyond those doors is a city, our city! We must stand together and fight!"
"Why would we fight with you?" An older man shouted. Parker looked down to him, he wore a large coat of armour and even larger gun hung at his side. Behind him stood many other men, tattoos fading with their old age. She bent down to the men, searching her mind for their faces -she knew them from a long time ago. She remembered them in her family's living room, laughing and cheering as Ramsey told tales of glorious victory and bloody defeat. She'd sit among them, listening to the gory stories of her father's day in the fields. This man who questioned her was there that day Ramsey told her about the battle of the Midnight Sun.
Parker could hear her father's voice, telling her about their adventure to the Metal Head Nest. They were trying to power up Mar's gun, when they failed, Ramsey and his men headed back to the transporter to head home, only to find their transporter destroyed and the Metal Heads surrounding them. She remembered Ramsey telling her they fought until the midnight sun rose, when she questioned him about the midnight sun, Ramsey only laughed and said it was the beautiful Day Star shining through the darkness of midnight.
"You fought with my father in many battles, I remember one you called the Battle of the Midnight Sun." She paused. "What was it like?"
"It was Hell." He said bluntly. "I listened to the screams of men your age as they died in field of poppy red blood, and when it ended, and the sent the rescue men, your father limped home, put you to bed and then took a bullet to the head a day later."
"And did your loyalty die with him?"
"Aye," The men shouted. "How could we go on as Krimzon Guards when our own leader, our heart was dead!"
"That must've been very hard for you." Parker whispered.
"You've lived in the safety of your parent's shadow, even joining the Krimzon Guard when you were 15 and given a position that many would die for, then when it got too tough you gave up and ran away to join the traitors and that Dark Eco Creature!" He advanced on her. "You do not know hard until you've carried your comrades heads off the battle field and you've bathed in the blood of your enemies." He shouted, raising his voice above the others in the room. Parker glanced to Torn as he reached for his weapon, she gave him short shake of her head before standing tall.
"You are right, I was born into privilege and grace, and I've wasted those gifts on petty little things. I am have been given everything without begging or without crying but I have the heart of a Havener." Her voice got louder as she looked around the area. "Evil slipped into our walls and has betrayed us. The walls many have fallen and we many have lost hundreds of our brethren within the last three hours but those who has fallen fought for something. We will fight for the same thing. If you want Haven to be free again, to be Metal Head free and the beautiful place it once was then you'll stand up and fight!" She jumped off the stage and walked through the throngs of men and women. "I don't care if you're a traitor, murderer or a deserter we're all here to protect this city! I wash away all of your charges."
"You'd defy Baron Praxis and Commander Erol?" A man shouted.
"I would defy the Precursors themselves if they tried to destroy my city!" She shouted back. She walked back to the stage and pointed at the bleachers and motioned to the guards. "No one will take our city, our freedom away from us again! Will you stand with me?"
She breathed deeply as she looked around the Stadium, up on the bleachers sat the residents and citizens of the city. She took a deep breath as a man stood up, one of her father's men. He was missing his right arm and leaned on a crutch, in his one hand was a small pistol. Parker backed up just as he fired it into the air. "My lovely, Lady Drake," He said with a deep throaty voice. "Finally," He bowed as her father's men did the same going down to one knee holding out their weapons to her. "We've waited a long, long time for you to rise."
TBC...
Author's Note
It literally took me 40 minutes to find pants to wear home today. Whoever thought going home for Thanksgiving was so stressful? Anywho, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving with my family and got to finish this chapter while they were watching The Walking Dead, I don't really care for it -granted I've never given it a chance, so yah. Thank you to EcoSeeker for her review. See ya, sometime this week.