Ashamed
II of V. Aquata von Tessle (and her silent parents)
All Aqua wants to know is why they are hurting each other.
She is too young to understand the implications and all of the reasons, so her parents gently tell her to watch — please, honey, just watch. It's just the way it is, they say, just the way it is. They say these words as if nothing can be done, as if they've just all got to die. Why? Why must they bleed so much? When Aqua cries, for she just cannot understand why nobody goes to fix them, her parents share knowing looks and coo her to sleep. They are not strong enough to do anything about it, but they let her sleep, let their lovely child escape for a few hours. She will have plenty of time to watch the killing when she awakens, a lifetime to watch it. And when they hold their dreaming child, it is as if she weights more than a safe of gold, better yet, more than the entire world. The weight of her innocence is so, so heavy as they watch the violence, the slaughtering, the inevitability. And they keep on watching, for it is the way things must be if they want to keep safe.
Today, a little girl dies. She was small and dark and fast, but vastly out leagued. There are others who are both strong and quick; she is speared and dies with small flowers in her hair. Aqua likes to weave tiny flowers from their garden into her own hair, and so her parents draw eerie parallels with lumps in their throats. Thankfully Aqua sleeps over this, and they all wait for the next child to be speared or axed or stung or poisoned. It will happen, it will. And the next year, the same thing will happen. They'll shudder at the bloodbath, the murders, the mocking glory of the Victory Tour, praying that Aqua will forgive them. When she is older and understands and can no longer sleep, they pray to God that she will not look back at them with disgust in her eyes, wondering why they watch silently. Why they do nothing. Why they hate themselves and their quiet. Perhaps she will find it in herself to forgive them, someday.
It is all they dare wish for.
Sorry it's short, but that's all that needed to be said. This was supposed to be the third chapter, but I'm already at almost three thousand words with the next chapter of this and am having trouble finishing this up. And I have been meaning to update it. So: in this part of the collection, I wanted to take a look at some parents who love their child more than anything else. I think it would be hard to love your child this much and not be bothered by the Hunger Games. But, at the same time, it's that love that keeps them quiet. I suspect that some people in the Capitol had some inkling of their governments treachery, and I imagine Aqua's parents as maybe some sort of government officials. They would know some of the things that happen behind-the-curtains, you know, like killing off of Hunger Game stylists or the selling of Victors. Not everyone could possibly be blind.
So they're in a position to know that Aqua is both their treasure and their target. They keep quiet to keep her safe, but secretly hate the Hunger Games. To be this kind of person, I think, would be very hard.
— L.